What are you playing? c'mon, tell me punk!

[Garamonde]

Just recently played The Neverhood; now playing Skullmonkeys, the sequel, and MediEvil.

The Neverhood was a pretty fun point and click and I love the claymation style and the cutscenes, although the puzzles felt really abstract and tedious and I would have never beaten the game if I hadn't read a guide (I almost didn't because I couldn't get that damn symbol puzzle to work). Also because I didn't know what to do, I had to do a lot of backtracking and it's a little tricky/annoying getting back to some areas so those two things hurt the experience a bit for me. Still worth playing.

I'm not sure how much more I like Skullmonkeys either. I'm at what, world three (there are 17 apparently, and I've played a LOT of levels up to now)? And so far even with the occasional boss battle it's almost the exact same platforming formula through lots of non-linear levels where you don't know where you should go, eventually reaching one of several goalpoints. It is fun and again the artstyle is topnotch, the cutscenes are even better this time around however far and few in-between they may be. And normally I don't have a problem with repetition in games, but I feel like Skullmonkeys doesn't really mix it up enough for having so many levels. Since I've put it down I've found it difficult to get motivated to play it again even though I do enjoy it.

Now MediEvil, on the other hand... That's the goldmine of this post. I just started playing it today, at the Scarecrow Fields and I'm already in love with it. My friend had told me a lot about it a while back which got me interested long before I even downloaded the game (don't have a PlayStation, whoops). I did expect to be able to move freely with the analog stick, but not realizing that PS1 controllers didn't have those, I'm stuck with the directional pad controls on my Xbox 360 controller which makes moving around in a 3D space a little bit of work. As is customary with 3D games too, finagling with the camera can get to be a challenge as well. Aside from that, it feels like the right amount of challenge, the dialogue is fun, the weapons are fun to use and exploring is rewarding because you always need health and gold and stuff. I'm really looking forward to the second game, this is definitely holding my attention.