Mine has to be Dragon Quest: Rocket Slime, a DS spin off of the Dragon Quest series that sees you playing as a slime operating a tank and rescuing the people from your town. You run around the overworld, collecting items to use as ammunition and saving money to upgrade your tank. The art and music are just as great as you’d expect from the Dragon Quest series. It made fantastic use of the DS’s dual screens. It’s also written for a younger audience, so a lot of it is just really silly and fun! Try it out for sure, I’m so sad there’s no sequel :(
American McGee’s Alice and the much later sequel which is my favourite game of all time - Alice: Madness Returns.
The aesthetic, the puzzles, the sound design, the voice acting, the political statements underlying the narrative, Alice’s outfits, the collectibles hidden in obscure places, the different art styles for each world level. I just love it! I mean sure, the combat mechanics are not as complex as some games but they fit nicely into Alice in Wonderland lore and if you up the difficulty settings it can be more challenging.
I’m also really enjoying Inscryption at the moment. A puzzle/card game interweaved with an escape the room horror story.
I cannot believe these games aren’t talked about, madness returns was so dark and good. Loved both these games.
Sooooo dark. Especially the reveal for the final boss. Agh, gonna have to do a replay now 😂
Both are great games! Inscryption was the only game I’ve ever bought on launch after seeing gameplay videos and I had no regrets. Hope you enjoy it too!
I keep trying to upload an image but I think lemmy.world is having a bit of a brain fart atm.
I’ll try linking it instead 😂
https://tenor.com/bKm49.gif
Deeper cut—the same dev has a game called a the Hex and I can never get anyone to play it, but it’s fucking brilliant. I rate it higher than Inscryption. People see preview and nope out because of the graphics. I went in blind and the graphics are explained after like 30 minutes. It’s genius and amazing and the least appreciated game I’ve rated higher than an 8/10.
I was definitely a bit put off by the graphics from the Hex, and didn’t really get the references to it in Inscryption. I might give it a try since you’re recommending it.
Pony Island was a hell of a game, though. I remember watching the gameplay videos and being impressed at how innovative Daniel Mullins games were.
Pleeeeeeease try the hex, and go in blind. I ended up liking it MORE than Inscryption, and I LOVE Inscryption. The Hex is a fucking masterpiece and I think the “graphics” you see in previews really held back lots of people (including me) from playing it.
But Yahtzee mentioned it as one of the best games he’s played in a review and refused to elaborate, and usually when he does that it means I should just pick it up and go in blind (see: The forgotten city)
Incredible experience, if you even kinda enjoyed Pony Island… oh man, PLEASE get The Hex and if you do, please come back here and let me know how you felt at certain points. It would make me so happy, it’s soooo difficult to get anyone to experience that amazing game. And it’s like NO MONEY hahaha
Oh man Alice! I actually never played it, but I have great memories of the game. One of the first graphics cards I ever got had an Alice graphic printed super big on the box for Madness Returns release. Think it was around the GTX 500 series.
Please go play it and experience the epicness! :D