Developer: Infinite State Games Publisher: Infinite State Games Year: 2024 Genre: Arcade
3D Don’t Die Mr Robotis an arcade game where you avoid all the enemies flying through the level and pick up fruit to cause chains of explosions. The longer you play a round, the more enemies you’ll see popping into the screen. There’s some really interesting strategies you develop as you become more familiar with how the game and setting up combos works and I thought it was a unique mechanic for an arcade game. It’s a sequel to their game from 10 years ago, Don’t Die Mr. Robot, which seems to be essentially the same thing other than it’s 2D instead of 3D and they’ve iterated on the design. I never played that one and it’s not a requirement before playing this. There’s no Mr. Robot lore that comes up in the game as far as I know.
It reminds me a lot of 80s British arcade computer games. Maybe because I’ve played a lot of Llamasoft stuff and both developers have lots of nice, bright colors, explosions, and fun character designs. The soundtrack even has bits that remind me of that era. Which I suppose all makes sence because it turns out that the developer is British when I looked them up.
The gameplay modes in this game include your standard arcade mode, where you try to survive as long as possible and get the highest score you can. There’s a level based mode called Remix Mode where each level uses a different board for you to run around on and different gimmicks like giant enemies. The Lime Attack mode replaces everything with limes. Time attack mode has you trying to get as many points as you can within a specific time limit and you can respawn if you die. There’s also a relaxing mode where there are slowing moving enemies and you are running around on a grassy field instead. With the exception of the level based Remix Mode, all of them have online leaderboards too, which has been a lot of fun to play on as I competed with a friend on the leaderboard on the Arcade Mode.
It’s just a very polished arcade game that I got a lot out of from trying to get the highest score on the leaderboards and trying to get platinum trophies on each level of the Remix mode. I’d highly recommend checking it out if you’re looking for an arcade game. It was one of my favorites of last year and there’s a demo featuring the arcade mode if you want to give it a try.
Developer: Actual Entertainment Publisher: Actual Entertainment Year: 1997 Genre: Arcade
If you follow me on social media, you’ve probably seen me making plenty of goofy posts about the 1997[1] puzzle game Gubble. It would be easy to assume that someone posting about an obscure and goofy looking computer game character is making fun of the game and either never played it or didn’t enjoy it very much. Folks, I am here to tell you that Gubble is good.
Screenshot taken from Steam
In Gubble you play as Gubble D. Gleep, a purple alien who finds that space pirates have invaded your planet Rennigar, fastened zymbots (the game’s levels) to the planet’s surface, and now you must remove them. Each level has you running through a maze, removing all the screws put in the floor of the maze while avoiding the level’s enemies. The screws come in different shapes, requiring you to switch between the tools that have been placed in the level. This gives Gubble a puzzle game-like element and helps add variety to all the mazes you’ll be going through.
In the original Gubble, the only way to heal was to find a health powerup or to save, and saves were consumables. There were typically 3-4 located in a world and they would disappear after you saved. In the 2020 release on Steam they are no longer consumable and you can repeatedly use the save points anytime you want. In my opinion this is a drastic improvement over the original game. There’s an argument people have made in some Steam reviews that this makes the game too easy but give me a break. No one is forcing you to save. If you want to only save a few times in each area, knock yourself out. I think it’s great when a game allows you to save anytime you want and either save yourself the time from not having to play the same parts repeatedly, and just letting me leave a game anytime I want since I have three kids and sometimes have to drop everything to go do something. Gubble 2020 gets it.
Some levels also feature hidden mini levels in them too, where you run around on the board and try to grab as many objects as possible for points. I suppose this is maybe interesting if you’re trying to get the highest score possible but most people won’t care.
Gubble was designed by Franz Lanzinger, who is probably more famous for the 1983 arcade game Crystal Castles. Crystal Castles plays very similar to this and it’s interesting to me that he’s been iterating this design for decades though Crystal Castles and the Gubble franchise. Gubble must have done well because it was followed by a Gubble 2 (Wikipedia says 1998, MobyGames says 1999), where the new feature was that Gubble could walk. Gubble walking is an affront to God but I’ll save that for another post. But the world must have agreed because in 2000 we got Gubble Buggy Racer (MobyGames says 2001), a kart racing spinoff, which I guess is an interesting direction to take a puzzle game franchise. Gubble HD came out in 2007 on PC and later for iPad. This version is very similar to the one on Steam.
There were a few attempts to make new games in the franchise after this. In 2012 there was a Kickstarter to fund a Gubble 3D but this only hit $1,249 of the $80,000 goal. In 2014 there was an attempt to make an endless runner for Android and iOS called Gubble Vacation Rush. This one looks like it came very close to release, because you can pull up videos on YouTube of the game being played at conventions and the designer saying that it should come out in a few months, which never happened. In 2020 there was a remaster of Gubble 2 announced, but it presumably never happened because God does not want Gubble to walk and struck it down.
Overall Gubble is just a solid little arcade game. It’s kind of a meme game at this point because of the creature’s design and the Game Grumps folks angrily yelling “It’s fucking Gubble!” in one of their videos. Let me just say this, fuck Game Grumps. What, you’re going to listen to adult men who will forever be trapped acting like they’re teenagers, because that’s what their fan base expects? It’s fucking Gubble? Yeah, that’s what I yell with joy whenever I see this guy.
[1]: MobyGames and the Steam page of the rerelease lists the release as 1996 but Wikipedia points to this press release and I found this interview which points to 1997. Both happened close to release so I’m going with those. Gubble.com also states it is 1997. The Playstation 1 release seems to be 1998. As you noticed earlier in the post, MobyGames and Wikipedia also disagree on later entries in the series so I’m not sure what’s going on.
How is your week? Hope you’re doing well despite everything going on. I saw Weird Al this last Wednesday with my kids and it was a fantastic time. It was my first time seeing him even though I’ve been a fan of his for 30 years and I don’t know why I waited so long. I still mostly only really feel comfortable seeing live music outdoors but when I get the chance to, it’s the best.
If you’ve seen me post on social media, you’re probably aware that I’ve been participating in the Ann Arbor District Library’s Summer Game. I’ve posted about it here before too. My wife was working and my kids were with my mother in law all weekend so I went to two of the library’s branches to get codes for points and had a great time. I even saw a couple get engaged at one of the branches. I think I just really like visiting libraries even when I can’t check out books because I do this in other cities when I travel and always like it. If you live near me and your library sells shirts, let me know. I’ve been collecting more library shirts and merch lately. I suppose this also applies to folks that have a library that sells merch online.
Anyway, this is what I’ve enjoyed reading lately:
The BlogLinks
I learned a bit of history about that classic microscope puzzle from The 7th Guest on The Good Old Days.
Andrew Plotkin writes about a Discord bot that lets you play Interactive Fiction in a channel. I need to get this setup.
Michael Coorlim has been writing Godot tutorials on his blog.
The Explorateur is a fantastic roundup of tabletop rpg writing.
Yaffle writes about the soundtrack for the various versions of the video game Uncharted Waters
CD-ROM Journal wrote about enhanced music cds that come with extra multimedia, which is obviously something I would lose my mind over.
Void Breach is a point-and-click adventure where you play as a scientist who must save his daughter after a science experiment goes wrong and sends her to another world. The game is strongly inspired by old Sierra adventure games. While it’s a point-and-click game and you can’t die, the game design and art style are based on those games. The game’s art is very similar to the style you would see in Sierra’s very early AGI games like King’s Quest and Leisure Suit Larry. For the most part it’s very good and nails the look, but unfortunately I’ve spent much more time than I’d like to admit looking at old games and there’s the odd bit here and there that looks off, like pixels being too small in some parts.
I think that the gameplay design and plot is very similar to those old games. Like I said before, you can’t die, but the basic structure where you are given a quest (rescue your daughter) and then are plopped into an open world where you walk around, seeing what other characters need, and grabbing items to help them out or overcome obstacles is very similar to the classic Sierra game structure. I realize it sounds like most adventure games do that, but to me it feels like a very Sierra thing to just plop you into a world and let you have at it. The writing is very similar to those early Sierra games too. The characters aren’t too developed, sometimes they’re just fantasy creatures like mermaids, and mostly exist to give you a quest. This sounds like a criticism but it’s not. It fits for the type of game that Void Breach is emulating and I think they do a good job of that.
Overall I think it’s a nice adventure game and would recommend it if you’re looking for something in this style and want something that you can play in two hours. It’s very affordable too. The game is only $2 and at the time of writing this review, it’s on sale for $0.50. My only real caveat is that while I like this game, Cosmic Void has made so many games and they keep getting better with each game so I guess if you’ve never played a Cosmic Void adventure game before then maybe consider checking out one of those on Itch.io or Steam. But it’s still good! What are you supposed to do when someone makes a lot of games you like? Tell people to play them all? Maybe.
It’s USA’s birthday. Hope its empire ends soon. Have some indie games.
I already wrote about it yesterday but Atuel (Steam/Itch.io/Android) is great and worth a look. It’s a surreal documentary about the Atuel River Valley in Argentina and how climate change has impacted it.
I already shared his blog post about it before but Terry Cavanagh really loved this mod on Itch.io for his game VVVVVV.
The Neo-Twiny Jam just wrapped up. It’s a jam where people make Twine games with 500 words or less and it’s a great opportunity for games to have experimental mechanics. I noticed it when I saw the game Glory by Grim Baccaris pop up in my Itch feed but you should dig around and see what else folks are doing with Twine.
Curse Match (Itch.io) is a puzzle game made in PICO-8 where every level results in you choosing a curse that will make the gameplay more difficult. It’s free to play in the browser but you can also buy a download and it looks like it’s already raised enough money to fund a soundtrack. I just think it’s fun to see PICO-8 games doing well.
Super Brick Maker 9000 (Itch.io) is a browser game that plays like a reverse Breakout. Hitting blocks causes more to appear. It’s for The Bad Game Jam but I think it’s good.
SUPER TAKE A SHOWER WHILE AUTISTIC AND LIVING IN A CRAPPY APARTMENT WITH BAD WATER HEATING PRO 2000!! (Glorious Trainwrecks/Itch.io) is an autobiographical game about….well
Hellkind (Steam) is a free short top-down horror game where you investigate a cult and ritual. I enjoyed the grainy black and white visuals and how it managed to be creepy without resorting to any jump scares. The game only takes 15-20 minutes to complete but there’s optional details you can discover if you want to investigate further. I wrote a little more about it here.
That’s it for this week. As usual, feel free to let me know about other neat stuff that has recently come out in the comments. Or even just what you’ve enjoyed playing lately. It doesn’t have to be new!
Hellkind is a free, short top-down horror game where you investigate a cult and ritual inside of a church. Apparently the game is inspired by Galician folklore, which I have no knowledge of but want to read more about after playing this game. I really enjoyed the grainy black and white aesthetic the game has. It’s not quite the 80s Macintosh look or what Return of the Obra Dinn did, but it feels similar. Usually I’m not a big horror person but I saw one or two reviews about how creepy the game was even though it doesn’t have any jump scares and I would say it succeeds on that front.
It’s definitely an adventure game. You aren’t being chased by any monsters or asked to fight anything. You are just slowly walking around this church trying to figure out what happened and picking up items to add to your inventory so you can use them elsewhere. The game only took me about 20 minutes to complete but there’s optional details you can discover if you want to investigate further and do the optional puzzles. I didn’t because I couldn’t really figure it out and was starting to get antsy about the player character’s slow walking speed (if I did have any gripes about the game, it’s this), but I think it’s fun that there’s optional stuff to pursue if you want. This is the first game by this “studio” (it’s one person that is very open about how they’re not solo because they buy assets) but I’m definitely interested in playing more games by them in the future. I recommend playing this game but think you should be aware that the game has flashing lights, the game warns you about this when you start it up.
Atuel is a short and free documentary game about the Atuel River Valley in Argentina. The game uses surreal imagery and audio from interviews to explain how the changes people have made to the river, like building dams, impacted the river and everything living around it. The gameplay is a linear walking sim-like experience, which I do not mean in a derogatory way, and has you shapeshifting into different animals and elements, usually downstream, to see the impact of climate change. I was impressed by the variety of environments and art, which changes each time you shapeshift into something new, and how it uses these changes and narration to explain how rivers are like living beings. I thought this was a new game but I guess it actually came out a few years ago on Itch, it’s only just now that it has received a big update and a release on other platforms. I’d highly recommend checking it out. It’s free and only 30 minutes long.
In case you missed it, the Commodore computer brand has been bought again, this time by a YouTuber. You can watch the whole bizarre thing here if you want. I saw some people on social media being excited about this I’m not even sure what you can do with what he bought. He got a bunch of trademarks and some people from the original run of Commodore as advisors, with the argument that if you get all this stuff, it does become the original company again and does it? Unless you can jump back in time and start manufacturing computers in a world where most people don’t have them, I still don’t see the point of what any of this is other than the opportunity to be an IP landlord. They spent all their money buying the brand so there isn’t really anything left to actually do something with it. But I guess this is the kind of thing the retro gaming community loves to get excited about, the tiniest possibility that a brand will continue to have its name on things. It doesn’t matter that it won’t be anything people actually want, it will still be alive. I guess this is why a lot of adventure game folks were willing to cheer on the acquisition of Activision by Microsoft. Didn’t matter how much of a disaster it would be, maybe Microsoft would be more willing to do something with old Sierra and Infocom properties (they aren’t).
It’s also just hard to get excited about that announcement when it’s filled with AI generated slop and the inclusion of disgraced actor and repeated sexual harasser Thomas Middleditch as an investor and member of the board. I would simply not include an incredibly problematic in my announcement video or let them have anything to do with my company!
My dream scenario that will probably never happen is that the retro gaming community buys the rights to obscure things that aren’t available today and have very little financial value, and makes them public domain instead of being IP landlords. Why aren’t we pooling our money together to buy the rights to Dot Gobbler and Pyst? They belong to the people.
Microsoft just announced that they’re laying off up to 9,000 people. I don’t know, I think that if your company has to lay off 9,000 people, maybe some people in leadership positions fucked up and should be losing their jobs instead? Maybe finally kick Phil Spencer to the curb?
“We’re doing better than ever and here’s why we have to let people go.” WELL OK! But please, keep piling money into the AI furnace and forcing us to use garbage no one wants. If only there were people that said the Activision acquisition was a bad idea! I had already pulled away from their products because they’re participating in a genocide, but maybe this is when I finally become a Linux Desktop person as well.
Maybe we should have all listened to the developers of Pyst
The Steam Sale started a few days ago and people have been doing their recommendations. The Adventure Games Podcast has a nice page with their recommendations, Miri Teixeiri has a good recommendation thread on bluesky, but now I want to do one because that’s what blogs are for. As usual, I also think you should consider buying games on Itch.io but they’re not doing a sale right now. I’m also missing a ton of stuff because I can only write so much, so if you enjoy these then keep looking around. Despite the occasional discourse about it being dead, there’s constantly new games coming out and I even wrote a post a few weeks ago about all the releases this year. So in no order really, here’s a list of recommendations that are more focused on recent releases.
Of course I have to start off by recommending Cyan’s remakes of Myst and Riven. I already loved those games and I think the remakes are an improvement on both. Riven was already a masterclass in world building in video games but I think the remake does a lot to make the game easier to get into. Just make sure the FMV option for the first game is turned on.
Wadjet Eye Games is one of the best modern point-and-click adventure game developers and they keep getting better with each game. I strongly recommend their two most recent games. Old Skies is a time travel story and Unavowed is an urban fantasy thriller that feels a lot like a Bioware game minus the combat, where you build a party before going on missions.
Speaking of Wadjet Eye Games, The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow is a horror adventure set in rural Victorian England and developed by Cloak and Dagger Games, another adventure game developer I’m a fan of.
Grundislav Games is another adventure game developer that I think should come up when people talk about folks doing great stuff and keeping the genre alive. Lamplight City is a steampunk detective adventure and Rosewater is a western set in an alternate 19th century world. Both games are in the same world but you do not need to play them in a specific order.
Perfect Tides is a point-and-click adventure about being a teen in the year 2000 by Meredith Gran, creator of the comic Octopus Pie.
The Crimson Diamond is a mystery adventure game inspired by Sierra’s Laura Bow series with an EGA color palette.
If you’re looking for something that will challenge you, Lucy Dreaming and Will of Arthur Flabbington are both nice choices and remind me of 90s adventure games from a difficulty level standpoint.
Don’t Escape: 4 Days to Survive is interesting because it should be something I hate. You can softlock yourself into a bad ending and you constantly have to make tough choices to survive but it works! Unlike a lot of old adventures where I put an asterisk next to the recommendation because it’s good despite those things, it’s an intentional part of the game’s design and that’s actually a good thing.
NORCO has some of the best writing in a video game in recent years and was my favorite game overall in 2022. It’s a sci-fi mystery set in an alternate southern Louisiana.
Return to Monkey Island is the most recent game in the Monkey Island series and I think it’s some of that crew’s best work. The game does some really interesting stuff mechanically to update the genre that I hope we keep seeing in other games, and I think the writing (yes, even the ending) are top notch too.
Thaumistry: In Charm’s Way is a great fantasy comedy text adventure made by an Infocom alumni. I’d recommend this one if you’ve never played a text adventure before because it’s very friendly to new players.
Kentucky Route Zero is one of my favorite games ever. It’s described as “a magical realist adventure game about a secret highway running through the caves beneath Kentucky” and the vibes and writing are perfect. If you do play this one, I really recommend playing it slowly over a sequence of nights for maximum vibes.
Cosmic Void is another adventure game dev I’m a fan of. I recommend their sci-fi space opera Blood Nova and horror adventure Devil’s Hideout.
Beyond The Edge Of Owlsgard reminds me so much of 90s adventure games but is very much doing its own thing too and features some great animation and pixel art.
Midnight Scenes is another series with great pixel art. The games are self contained horror adventures that can be played in a single sitting.
The Shapeshifting Detective is a murder mystery where you are able to shapeshift into various characters to get clues from people who will react to you differently based on who you are. It is a game packed with FMV, which has always been cool.
Immortality also uses FMV to have you investigate what happened to a missing actress through viewing clips of three unreleased films.
Hypnospace Outlaw is another favorite. You explore a 90s alternate internet and enforce moderation rules.
The Forgotten City is a mystery adventure where you find yourself in an ancient city and try to find out what’s going on through a timeloop and repeating the day.
Case of the Golden Idol has you solving deaths through a really unique interface where you gather clues and build a theory to what happened.
Phoenix Springs is an adventure I’ve praised a lot on social media. It’s a very surreal mystery adventure and I think the game mechanically does some really interesting stuff by using memories and thoughts as inventory items.
Darkside Detective is a series of very goofy supernatural point-and-click adventures.
