Masks, Mazes, and Marksmen - Scarlet's February of gaming
February has been a busy gaming month for me, in no small part due to me actually picking up a few to review for the first time since November. It’s been pretty refreshing to get back into it and you should definitely keep an eye on the review section the coming days if you happen to have an interest in roguelike games in particular. Having said that, the games I’ve been playing for review were all towards the second half of the month, so there’s still a good bit to talk about!
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D Randomiser (3DS)
At the centre stage of my February was the realisation that a brand new randomiser for one of my favourite games had recently released. Based on the extraordinary work of the Ocarina of Time 3D randomiser, it really is a stellar showing right out of the gate, even if it did come with a few quirks and bugs. If you’ve not seen the Ocarina of Time 3D randomiser before, I’ll briefly walk you through how it works. The randomiser itself is released as both a 3dsx and cia file that can either be loaded in Citra or installed directly to your 3DS. In this app you get a fairly considerable list of settings to pick from to customise the experience to your liking, and when you’re done, the files for the randomiser will automatically be placed in the correct directory for Luma to detect it, and you can play right out of the gate. If you’re on Citra you’ll have to move files from the SD card directory to the game’s mod folder but that’s pretty simple too, and makes it really easy to start new sessions even away from a PC if you happen to be emulating on Android. All of this is retained in the Majora’s Mask 3D release.
It's easy to forget just how nice this game can look via emulation.
So it’s easy to use, but what does it actually do? At its core, it takes all the items in Termina (or at least the ones based on your settings) and shuffles them around. The silver rupee chest in Clock Town might now have a Bow, the Mask Salesman might give you a Bottle. Anything is possible, and it completely changes how you tackle the game. You suddenly find yourself moving back and forth around the map as you find one niche item that happens to make another area accessible, and with logic to ensure the game is beatable without glitches, it’s a remarkably fun test of your knowledge. If like me you happen to be a little weak on your Majora’s Mask trivia, you’ll be happy to know there are plenty of trackers online that’ll tell you what becomes available to look at when you possess each item, so it’s ultimately more manageable than you might expect if this is something you’ve not attempted before.
The game tracks any items you've found; particularly useful for rediscovering those items that disappear when you travel back in time!
This randomiser is almost certainly only going to get better over time, and randomisers as a whole are something I’ll only continue to recommend to people who want fresh ways to re-experience some of their favourite games. This is one to check out.
MM3D Randomiser GitHub20 Small Mazes (PC)
There’s not all that much I really want to say when it comes to 20 Small Mazes, and that’s mostly because it’s a free game you can go play for yourself on pretty much any PC. It’s an absolutely charming collection of, as you might have guessed, 20 small mazes. Each one is unique and creative, with the end product being around two hours of genuinely engrossing puzzles. I saw this doing numbers on the Steam storefront and gave it a shot, and when it costs nothing I can see no reason for any enjoyer of puzzles to turn it down. I want more, and frankly I’d be happy to pay for more. Bring on 50 Small Mazes, take it all the way to 100 for all I care! If and when we get more mazes, I’ll be there lined up and ready to play them.
I don't want to spoil much, you should play them for yourself!
20 Small Mazes (Steam)Windowkill (PC)
I had no plans to play Windowkill this month. I also had no idea it was coming to Steam though. Having seen it itch.io a while back it had completely fallen off my radar, and words cannot express just how criminal that is. Windowkill is a twin-stick shooter set on your desktop. With the game’s window constantly closing in on you, you have to juggle gunning down the ever-increasing hordes of enemies with shooting the sides of your window to keep expanding it, and with it your field of view. On top of this you have a shop system to upgrade your lone fighter and more boss encounters than I’ve been able to beat (which is to say more than two… the game is hard!).
Though I do struggle with them, the bosses really push this theme to the max, appearing in their own windows separate to yours. Being able to hit you across the map, but being invulnerable to you until you’ve blasted your window closer to theirs, you get a really fantastic fight that will only challenge you further the longer you leave it. Of course there are rewards for beating these bosses, with you taking home incredibly powerful bonuses that allow you to place down additional windows of your own. Some of these will just give you a constant area that will be visible, while others might damage any enemies that happen to stumble into them. The stakes are constantly increasing as you progress and upgrade, and it all culminates to an experience I feel any twin-stick shooter fan would be insane to pass up on.
Taking screenshots is a challenge with so much going on...
Windowkill is one of the most creative games I’ve ever played, and I would love to see the developer take this multiple-windowed game concept and try it in other genres. A roguelike dungeon crawler could be a good fit, with rooms appearing as you explore, or even a puzzle game where moving the windows will put you closer to a solution. Regardless though, as it is now Windowkill is a game I can only recommend trying out for yourself. It’s magnificent.
Windowkill (Itch.io) Windowkill (Steam)Hitman 3 (PC)
Just because I’ve had my fix of roguelikes towards the end of the month, it doesn’t mean I let the first half go to waste! There’s just something about Hitman 3’s Freelancer Mode that keeps me coming back. To give a basic rundown for those not familiar with the franchise, Hitman sees you control the hairless hired killer Agent 47 as he skillfully (or not, depending on how you want to play) assassinates target after target around the world. The game gives you an incredible degree of freedom, whether you want to go in guns blazing, take a stealthy approach, or trip your target off a cliff using a banana peel. The world is yours to engage with as you see fit.
At launch the game followed the same structure as those before it. You have a storyline to follow with set targets, each with a bit of back story as to why they should soon be suffering from a sudden stoppage of breath. These missions are incredibly fun for the thought that’s clearly gone into them. For each target you have clear paths laid out. Some are hidden behind specific obstacles, or are posted with protection you have to overcome. Nothing is impossible and you get a great sense of satisfaction for systematically solving these environmental puzzles. While they are great however, there’s only so many set maps available to you. What do you do when you’ve already played them to death?
The answer came in January of last year when IO Interactive added Freelancer Mode to the game. This mode changed everything, and lead to me playing the game relentlessly for weeks at a time. It’s a comfort game like no other for me, and I just keep coming back for more. Where Freelancer Mode succeeds is in capturing the spirit of the campaign. You play on the same maps you’re likely already familiar with, but your targets are completely random for every new contract. Gone are the intricately-crafted targets and puzzles; in their place lay an entirely different beast of a challenge.
Collectable guns and... ducks?
Now you might think having random targets is easier at a glance, and to some extent it often is. Some maps you’ll find you spawn right next to a target, and boom, you might be done in seconds. Other times you’re less lucky and you have to slowly work your way to a part of the map you never knew existed. In isolation I find each map interesting, but it’s the grander image that makes this mode what it is, and so different to what came before it. You see one full run isn’t just made up of a single contract. It’s made up of 18, these broken down into segments of three, four, five, and six contracts, with each of these segments ending in a confrontation that’s different still in requiring you to find the target for yourself out of a list of suspects. The stakes are raised with a loss meaning you lose all the weapons you brought with you, and potentially killing your entire run depending on the circumstances. It’s tense, but the focus is entirely different to the base game. You no longer need to sneak around, and you don’t really need to care if a body is found. What you do need to care about is whether you’re seen doing the killings; if you do happen to be seen, you suddenly need to care about getting the heck out of there.
Targets sighted...
To be completely honest, prior to this free update releasing last year, I had a cursory interest in Hitman 3. I found it fun to play for how open the game felt, and how every map was some kind of puzzle to solve. What I didn’t like was the stress that came from feeling like I had to play a certain way to do “well”, which is to say get a good score. Here I feel free to really explore everything the game’s engine has to provide, and I think this is something the game really needed to thrive. Between Xbox and PC I’ve put just under 200 hours into Hitman 3, and I’ve got no plans of stopping any time soon. It’s a fantastic purchase, especially if you can grab it on sale.
Hitman 3 (Steam)Games For the Backlog
As always the march of time is never-ending, and there are still just too many games coming out for me to be keeping up with. Compared to last month I’m sure some will be happy to see me playing some actually-recent games, but obviously some slipped through the cracks. At the top of my list for February is the Mario vs Donkey Kong remake. I’ve really not seen much about it online, and I’ve tried to keep myself in the dark. I have fond memories of the March of the Mini games on the DS, and while this GBA remake is something of a different beast, I just can’t see myself not enjoying a bit of puzzling Mario action.
The other two games for this month are games I have no doubt will be on my to-play list for a while: Persona 3 Reload and the latest release of the modern Final Fantasy 7 remake. As a working adult they’re games that terrify me for the time that I would need to actually get through them. Does anybody have the 50+ hours these titles demand nowadays!? I can see myself setting some time aside perhaps over Christmas to really give a JRPG the time it deserves, but with so many great ones coming out, who knows which one will be picked up.
See You Next Month!
And that’s that for my February of gaming! As always I'm eager to hear what everybody else has had on the docket, and see just how many people are about to lose their March to the behemoth that is the second part of the Final Fantasy 7 remake. Until next month!
