Loading
Apr 27, 2019
Melbits World Pocket, created by Melbot, an indie studio in Spain, is all about multitasking, coordination, and solving puzzles by guiding the most adorable creatures called Melbits to the end of a mini-level. You can even customize these virtual pets with many options of accessories. The demo version is available now for free in English and in Spanish on iOS or Android mobile devices for the following regions: UK, Canada, Spain, and Malaysia. A particular member of the Potato family is Canadian so see below for gameplay footage and more information.
Melbits are the embodiment of the “good vibes” we get from the internet or virtual world. The enemy characters that need to be avoided in the game are the opposite of that; viruses. As mentioned on the developer’s website: “Their vision was to blend the digital and physical worlds to create transmedia products and franchises that use technology in a magic way, with the noble intention of just making people have a good time.” The vibrant and colorful levels and Melbits do just that!
When I first opened the app I was immediately greeted by bright and adorable creatures roaming around my screen. Creatures that I could engage with by customizing them with backpacks, hats, sunglasses, etc. You can even select one of four dance moves to give them, complete with different music playing in the background. They will cheerfully perform you dance selection for you at the end of a victorious level. Furthermore, you can take a selfie with them through Augmented Reality with your camera phone! This feature is indeed reminiscent of Tamagotchi and I can’t get enough of my cutest littlest pets. I’m hoping in the full version I will be able to collect more of them and obtain more accessories.
There are goodies to be collected in every level of Melbits World Pocket but I am uncertain of exactly what they do. If you have successfully guided the required amount of Melbits to the end of a level, your performance is rated with a score. Items gathered, Melbits saved, and time left from your timer (you can pick up hourglasses for more time), are all taken into consideration and added up. It is addictive to try and best your highest score and receive a “perfect” rating for every level. Perhaps it would be easier if the “tally” at the end stayed until you pressed a button and had an explanation that accompanied it.
In the demo you will have access to one world: Hobby Island. There are six levels to play through and one bonus level if you subscribe to their Melbits Club. You will see blue buttons and pink buttons that you can touch or slide. These will affect their corresponding colors of blocks or springs that are found in a level. Some will need to be used as platforms so as not to fall, others will propel your Melbits to greater heights.
Your Melbits will start appearing chaotically and walk toward the path they are facing until they either hit a dead end or each other, and turn around. If you have played the game Lemmings, you will know exactly what I mean. I have lead them straight to enemies and off the edges of cliffs on numerous occasions. Thankfully, they always return to me the next time I retry the level.
Each level was unique with different sets of challenges, and boy were they challenging! Trying to keep on eye on so many things at once and getting the timing just right can be quite difficult to do. However, each level is short and easy to replay as there are no “lives” and major setbacks. My favorite level was Level 5 as I could rotate a block in several directions. That offered different options to arrive to the same goal. I can’t wait to see what different designs the creators come up with for different worlds. I hope they stay just as bright and as charming! The soundtrack is cute, upbeat, and catchy which suits the game perfectly. See below for a video of gameplay including Level 5.
Stay tuned with myPotatoGames for more on this game. Hopefully we find out soon the release date of the full version. There also seems to be some physical toys coming our way in 2019. A Melbits Pod toy is in the works as the app mentions the following: “Soon you will be able to breed your own Melbits in the real world using light, temperature and movement with Melbits Pod, the new Melbits toy!”
Melbits World is also a PlayStation PlayLink game that you can purchase right now! PlayStation has their Golden Week sale on from now until May 7th, 2019. Get your PS4 copy of Melbits World for almost half-price off their regular price ($8.99 US)! This PS4 game is a multiplayer game where you use your phones as the controllers.
If you enjoyed seeing us play a demo, you can check out gameplay for Alchemy Story here.
Apr 18, 2019
Pile Up is a 1 to 4 player co-op 3D platformer for friends and families. Jump on your friends, pile together and start exploring colorful cardboard worlds! Coordination and creativity are the key to success in progressing through the joyful levels and meeting the most friendly bosses.
Pile Up is developed by Seed by Seed, an indie studio based in France. The game has won numerous awards such as “Best Indie Game” in L-Games 2019 and “Official competition at Stunfest” in Rennes 2019. Pile Up will be releasing on PC and a potential for consoles which has yet to be announced. As of now, there is no official release date but you can go to their website here for more information.
The developers latest update this April on their Twitter account is that of a very serene environment for our Boxlings to hang out in.
Who knew that boxes could look so adorable? Want more relaxing puzzle-based games with boxes? Check out our most recent news on Box Boy! + Box Girl! here and Unpacking here.
Apr 5, 2019
EGX Rezzed 2019 is a gaming event in London taking place at the Tobacco Dock Thursday, April 4th, 2019 to Saturday, April 6th, 2019 from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm every day. There’s still time to check it out if you live in the area!
The event will consist of playable pre-release games on both PC and consoles (with a strong focus on indie titles), developer sessions by well known game designers and the opportunity to chat with developers on the show floor.
Xbox has just announced that their booth will have 30 indie games to play during the entirety of the show! If you can’t make it to this event, we here at myPotatoGames have highlighted a couple of games below that stood out to us that you may be interested in as well.
Atomicrops is an action rogue-like farming simulator, developed by Danny Wynne, Toby Dixon, and Joonas Turner, and published by Raw Fury. It has a release window for 2019 on PC and consoles.
Etherborn is a relaxing environmental puzzle and platformer built on exploring and understanding gravity-shifting structures, developed by Altered Matter. The game will be releasing in spring of 2019 for PC (Steam and Humble Bundle Store), Switch, PS4, and Xbox One.
Regarding other gaming events across the world, we’ll have you covered for the PAX East 2019 with highlights of the Animal Crossing panel coming here soon.
Apr 5, 2019
Platypus Studios, a newly-formed indie developer, is comprised of Jean Francois Poulin (lead programmer), Khris Finley (music and sound design), Joel Boucher (level design, programmer – during the competitions) and Paul Ungar (art and animation). The idea to officially become their own game studio came after they’ve competed in 2 game challenges and won awards. Rock Bottom, their latest game, is currently being expanded upon.
The group entered into the 2nd annual Sudbury Game Design Challenge, now known as the Northern Game Design Challenge, in 2017. The contestants of the challenge were given a theme and 48 hours to create a complete and playable game. They also had to have no more than 4 team members. They presented Frozen Dungeon Saga, an asymmetrical puzzle game. You play as 2 mages simultaneously, each with their own unique abilities. You need the abilities of both mages to escape the dungeon. This game, created by then Platypus Paradox, took home the first prize. The team decided to enter in the same challenge in their local hometown of Sudbury, Ontario, the following year.
The 2018 challenge was to create a 2D Platformer and Platypus Paradox (original name) won the “High Concept Art” award for their game Rock Bottom. We’ve all had difficult times in our lives that seem impossible to overcome. Rock Bottom starts you off in a pit where you have to climb up and go through the stages of grief. You have to collect letters and read through someone describing their emotions. Players will hopefully have a better understanding of how these struggles can take form.
My Potato Games decided to interview this up-and-coming indie developer and to further discuss their passion project, Rock Bottom. The focus now for them will be to create a longer, more fleshed-out game. They would also like to deliver an experience that will teach people about mental illnesses such as Depression.
Q: It sounds like the Northern Game Challenge would have been a grueling experience, how did you manage to stay sane during that ordeal?
A: I won’t lie it does help that I’m a new father to a rather rambunctious 3 year old, so I’m used to running on little to no sleep. However, my team (Jean Francois Poulin, Khris Finley, and Joel Boucher) developed a great schedule for keeping ourselves on track so we knew what milestones we had to hit at different points in the competition.
For example, once the theme for the competition was announced and kicked off at 5:00 pm, we gave ourselves 2 hours to lock in the direction we wanted to take and rough out the game we wanted to make. Then we set up and got to work. A few times each day we had a group meeting to make sure things were on track and we were all happy with what the others were doing. Feedback and criticism was encouraged. By 6 hours into the competition we were pretty well organized and had our game mapped out. We finished with only 30 minutes to spare. Also, there was unlimited coffee at the event. The coffee helped.
Q: After creating a short game about the stages of grief, what made you decide to expand that game to instead tackle mental illnesses?
A: While the character in the Northern Game Design version goes through the stages of grief it was always with the thought of someone coming to terms with their own mental illness, eventually reaching acceptance. Unfortunately when you’re writing the story after a day or so of little sleep it doesn’t come across so clearly. It was a really important issue for the team to do it justice. Therefore, we wanted to emphasize the mental illness aspect in the full release of the game. We’ve really been digging deep into the research and talking with others to make sure that we do it right.
Q: What are some of the differences we will be seeing in the bigger and better version of Rock Bottom?
A: The team has a lot more planned for the full release of Rock Bottom. While I still love the 48 hr version of the game, it is not without flaws. Lots of flaws. When we started making the new version of the game we had to toss out almost all of the code and assets and rebuild the game from the ground up.
The plan is to create a more engaging story with NPCs, focusing on exploration, puzzle solving and improving the platforming elements. We’re also working with mental health professionals locally in Sudbury to include education about it as well as tools for coping with depression and anxiety. We’ll also be changing the art design from pixel style to a much nicer animated style. Someone with much more artistic skill than is currently working on it.
Q: You all seem to be working so hard to get this game released, when can we expect the full version. Do you intend to make it available on Steam or consoles?
A: Platypus Studios will be looking at a full release of Rock Bottom on consoles and Steam (and any other platform that will have us) sometime in 2020.
Q: Can you tell us what other future projects you may have in mind for your studio?
A: We have a lot of ideas that we’ve been kicking around we would like to flesh out our first game jam entry, Frozen Dungeon Saga. We want to develop games that focus on storytelling, puzzles, and teaching players about a wide range of different topics. We’ll keep you updated when we have a more solid idea of what’s coming down the pipeline.
See the video in this article for a full playthrough of the original Rock Bottom by Joel Boucher. You can also go here to try it out for yourself! For more information you can also follow them on Twitter. Click here on our review of Celeste, a game that also deals with similar issues.
Apr 2, 2019
The start of a brand new month means multiple free games for those subscribed to various online services. Amazon and Twitch Prime Members have a great lineup for April 2019, including two fun games: Joggernauts and Inner Space!
In this 1-4 player cooperative game, you coordinate a team of adorable cartoon characters who are stuck on auto-run. Discover various platforming puzzles and help the Joggernauts find all of C.O.A.C.H.’s missing trophies!
For more information about Joggernauts, check out one of our other articles featuring the game and other family-friendly favorites:
http://www.mypotatogames.com/5-family-friendly-games-recently-released-on-steam/
Inner Space is a relaxing, beautiful exploration game. Soar through skies and dive into deep oceans in search of the ancient gods of the Inverse.
For the month of April, all Amazon and Twitch Prime members can grab their free copies: Here!
Don’t have Twitch or Amazon Prime? No problem, both of these games are available for purchase on PC and console. Happy Gaming!
Apr 2, 2019
Yoshi’s Crafted World is a side-scrolling platform game developed by Good-Feel and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. The theme of the game is that everything looks like cardboard. It looks like a child made an arts and crafts project and it’s visually stunning. This is like how the previous title, Yoshi’s Woolly World, was made to look like a world of wool. The adorable Yoshis are now back with their “ho-hum” and oh-so-cute licking sound effects and all.
The last game I can remember that had Yoshi as the main playable character was Yoshi’s Story for the Nintendo 64 back in 1998. Many enemies from then make a comeback, such as Ravens and Burt. That was a nice dose of nostalgia for me. Yoshi’s Story was an excellent game that also let you choose between different colors of Yoshi. It also had a very similar plot to what we see in Yoshi’s Crafted World. Those Yoshis had a Super Happy Tree, a fruit-bearing tree that gives joy. This made Baby Bowser jealous, so he steals their tree and transforms their island to a storybook.
Yoshi’s Crafted World is about a Sundream Stone that can make anyone’s dream come true. Kamek and Baby Bowser see that this stone is in the possession of the Yoshis and begin to fight them for it. This causes all five of the Dream Gems inside to scatter across several different islands. Yoshi games have never had elaborate stories so this is fine as the gameplay is where the focus of the game lies.
You travel across 45 levels collecting 254 total Smiley Flowers in order to advance. However, not all of those Flowers are needed to access all the islands. You can do all the levels over again on the Flip Side – more on that later – in 40 Poochy Pups Courses (minus the bosses) to get 160 Smiley Flowers total (4 in each level). You can pick two Yoshis to go with you, if one of them will be your Player Two in a local cooperative mode.
Most levels are exactly what you’d expect when you compare this game to others from the series. There’s a lot of jumping around from platform to platform and avoiding falling to your death. You can stomp on the heads of most enemies, eat them to make eggs, hit them with those eggs, or ignore them all together. Eggs are very much needed in this game to not only kill certain enemies, but to also grab certain items.
You can walk toward the background in specific areas but not everything you see is reachable with your character. You’ll have to keep an eye out in the distance and aim your eggs at fishy cardboard objects for extra coins. This may also yield important red coins or Smiley Flowers. It feels almost like a shooter with how important this element is in the game. You can get more eggs from certain blocks but you still need to use those eggs sparingly.
Before you enter a level, you’ll be able to see just how many Smiley Flowers there are to collect which will increase in number as the game becomes more difficult. Three other Smiley Flowers will be awarded at the end of the level if you managed to get 100 or more coins, full 20/20 health (hearts) and all 20 red coins. Having these goals to accomplish in every level makes it a lot more fun and engaging. Everything is hidden so you have to fully explore every nook and cranny before exiting the level. Sometimes there will even be little puzzles to solve and other missing items to gather to assemble larger objects.
Unfortunately, a lot of levels felt repetitive with just new scenery (i.e. forest, beach, sweets) even when they tried to break things up by adding different mini-games. I will say that there was one level in particular that threw me for a loop and frankly did not belong in a Yoshi game. That was the level where the information block gave you this message: “If he sees you, run away…” Then you promptly get bombarded with creepy axe-murdering clowns that chase you around.
Some levels have Poochy who you could ride on to traverse lava or rivers, or just to bulldoze enemies and reach higher platforms. Then there were levels that let you ride vehicles. You could ride planes and trains and shoot fast-moving targets from them. There was even a level where you had to race to the finish line and one where you could ride a pirate ship and shoot cannonballs. There were interesting levels that let you use extra objects like the Go-Go Yoshi; a giant Yoshi machine that let each player control a boxing-type arm to punch obstacles out of the way. Also, a level where you used a skeletal dinosaur head to break boulders.
There were levels that were once unique but in the end I found repetitive. Those where the ones where you are being chased by something (i.e. skeletal dinosaur, lava monster). It just felt like a recycled idea when the developers could have thought of something else to do in the level.
Instead of just adding more levels or content, they also created the Flip Side to every single level. These levels were the exact same but everything was backward. You were seeing everything from behind with the duct tape on cardboard to keep it together. It was cute at first until you realized you were just doing the same thing over again but with less beautiful things to look at. They did add three Poochy Pups to find in these levels however with a time limit if you wanted to attempt that challenge for an extra Smiley Flower.
You could repeat every level because a character in the hub world wants you to find a hidden cardboard item and hit it with an egg (i.e. 5 cardboard seagulls). That would have been a lot more fun if I could do it the first time around but the game waits until you finished each level before you can do this.
A feature in the game that I quite enjoyed was the fact that there were costumes that you could collect. You had to purchase them with coins from a vintage gumball vending machine except there were Yoshi eggs in them. Inside each egg was a randomized selection of the costumes. Costumes not only looked incredibly adorable and hilarious but also gave you added protection against enemies.
Green eggs are Normal costumes with three health bars, red eggs were Rare costumes with four health bars, and golden eggs were Super Rare with five health bars. Once you depleted all of the health bars by taking damage, you would lose the costume only for the rest of that level. This gave you a great reason to collect coins in every level beyond the 100 that give you a Smiley Flower.
Normally, I absolutely love playing local co-op but there was one element in this game that soured my experience; the ability to jump on your partner’s back to then be carried around until you jump off. The reason for my hatred of this is because it happened by accident all of the time which can ruin the current move you or your partner where performing. When you are on each other backs, only the person on top can shoot eggs and the person on the bottom can lick or jump.
Aside from performing a stronger ground-pound, there wasn’t much benefit to this action. All the developers had to do was make this a button choice rather then something that could just happen by jumping. I also hated the fact that you can accidentally swallow your partner, when your intention was to swallow the enemy. This not only interrupts them but causes them to lose all of their eggs. My partner and I spent so much time yelling at each other out of pure frustration that we made sure that our Yoshis were separated as far as the screen would allow.
The game offers two modes; Mellow and Classic. Mellow gives you the addition of wings on your Yoshi which makes the game very easy – maybe a little too easy. With the wings, you can jump and then stay hovering in the air or continue to float up even higher until you reach the top of the screen. It can give you a huge advantage to overcoming certain difficult bosses but if you use it the whole time during levels, you miss all of the puzzles that were designed to make you figure out how to get to new heights.
It honestly felt like cheating the game although this may be more fun for children. You also get more health, enemies hit less hard, and enemies give you two eggs instead of one. Something that’s very handy is an alert for when Smiley Flowers are nearby and the fact that the amount you have to find is visible. It shows you which Flower you collected in which order.
Other than the few issues I personally had with the game, the overall experience was a good one. Next time however I hope we get something a little more creative or innovative with the Yoshi series. Like what Nintendo did for the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Mario Odyssey. The graphics, music, and costumes were all part of what made this game great as well as certain levels that stood out from the rest.
For more reviews on cooperative games go here for Chocobo’s Mysetry Dungeon Every Buddy and here for Unravel Two. To purchase Yoshi’s Crafted World, go here.
Jan 11, 2019
New Super Mario Bros U was one of the most popular games to be released by Nintendo on their sadly not-so-popular WiiU console. The game is a 2D side-scrolling platform video game, and is the fourth title in the New Super Mario Bros. sub-series. The 2012 game was very well received, and obtained mostly 8/10 and 9/10 ratings.
Like Mario Kart 8, the popular WiiU title underwent the deluxe treatment as it was optimized for Nintendo Switch.
Switch console owners will be pleased to know that New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe is available to play both digitally and physically for $59.99 as from today, 11/01/19. You can grab your copy of Super Mario Bros U Deluxe right here.
The game naturally allows you to play as classic characters such as Mario, Luigi, and Toad. However, you can also play as Nabbit (who doesn’t take damage from enemies), Toadette, and even as Peachette (by powering up Toadette with a Super Crown).
The ‘New Super Luigi U’ WiiU game expansion comes included in the Switch’s deluxe version.
Players can enjoy the game in single-player mode, or play with up to three other people in multiplayer mode.
Dec 15, 2018
Hunter’s Legacy: Purrfect Edition is yet another feline-themed Switch title. The game, which is described by its developer (Lienzo) as a Metroidvania adventure, is set in an exciting fantasy world filled with fierce foes. The game was released on the Switch eShop on 13th December for just $6.99.
Play and control Ikki, a heroic huntress cat with twin swords (are claws not enough?!), a bow, and magical abilities, in an attempt to save the Kingdom of Iripur from the evil Morodir in this action-filled 2D Platformer.
The original Hunter’s Legacy game was released on xBox, PlayStation, and Steam, where it received mixed reviews. Common complaints with the original included:
Hunter’s Legacy: Purrfect Edition is a definitive, improved version of the original game, exclusive to Nintndo Switch.
Despite these added and improved features, the game levels still lack variety and there are still inconsistent difficulty spikes.
Ikki, who is also known as the Heroic Huntress of Un’Amak, embarks on a quest in aid of the Iripur, a race of anthropomorphised cat people who have had their Fang of Alliance stolen by the evil Morodir. In order to restore peace, Ikki must locate three sacred orbs to unlock Morodir’s barrier and then retrieve the Fang of Alliance. As you encounter glowing rocks throughout the game, you will be given insight into the game’s backstory
The introduction to the game is kept very brief, with just a few cutscenes (which are shown below) that don’t provide a lot of context. Additionally, I found the narrative to be quite cliche.
The controls of the game are pretty simple. The arrow keys on your right joy-con will trigger Ikki’s moves, which include bow and arrow, sword, dodge-roll, plus more as you progress through the game, which is approximately 5 hours in length. As moves are triggered by the press of a single button, and that most of those buttons were attack moves, I appreciated that I didn’t have to fumble to fight foes.
The inventory in the game is great, as it’s de-cluttered and allows you to look at the entire world map. This map shows your current location, your destination, possible fast travel locations and where any chests in Ikki’s vicinity are located.
There are some tricky boss fights and challenging situations to face, which is something that a few critics say can be a rage-quitting factor. However, I really enjoyed it and very much felt like it was the sort of game where you could come home at the end of the day and play a game that doesn’t require too much thought. Additionally, players get a sense of fulfilment from unlocking new abilities, surely making the frustration worth it. Ultimately, it’s important to remember that despite certain parts being difficult, the game is not impossible to complete, and that save points are pretty frequent.
I really enjoyed the cute Metroidvania art style used in the game. Although subtle, there are design changes such as new animations for some characters. Additionally the game’s levels have been designed to be more fluid.
Owing to my weird sense of humour, I also liked Ikki’s variety of facial expressions, of which I may have made memes out of (sorry not sorry)
I found that the Switch version of the game ran very smoothly, and was a definite improvement to the PC version, which has been criticised for its framerate.
Additionally, in my opinion, there were no obvious visual differences between playing in handheld mode and playing in console mode.
I found the game’s soundtrack rather soothing and well-matched to the game’s environment. Initially, I really enjoyed Ikki’s cat noises (during combat, when attacked etc). However, as painful as it is for me say due to being a cat lover, these noises become darn annoying after a while. This is a sentiment shared by many who have played the original game.
Confession: I do still find the hissing amusing though.
To conclude, Hunter’s Legacy: Purrfect Edition is an affordable cat-themed Metroidvania game will alluring graphics and music. I’d definitely reccommend it to feline fans and those who like platformer games. However, whilst I do feel that the game is pretty and worth its retail price, it is let down by its limited context and narrative, and can be unfairly difficult at times. I feel inclined to agree with reviewers who have said that it doesn’t really offer anything new to the already quite saturated adventure-platformer gaming industry. However, it’s a pretty aesthetic game, and how can you not like a game with cats?
