Windjammers but with Axes - Log Jammers

So Mega Cat Studios is at it again and made another Retro-Renaissance game.  Log Jammers.  It's not really out yet. Or it is??? Anyway there's a Kickstarter for it.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/megacatstudios/log-jammers-axe-throwing-action

After sending me a REVIEW COPY. I played it for a bit and here's what I got to say for it. (I have to say I got it as a Review Copy or For Free or else I could get in trouble or they could get in trouble. Sucks but rules are rules.). I should also note I'm playing the Steam Version.

Log Jammers is basically Windjammers but with Axes. If you remember Windjammers, it's an old arcade game that recently got remastered/ported for modern consoles. The goal of that game is to score points by tossing the frisbee into the goal. Depending on where it lands gives you different points. First to 3 games wins. Like Tennis...sorta...

Pretty much how I remember Windjammers Minus the Zombies and Axes

Well take Windjammers formula and replace Frisbees with axes. And the athletes with some rather unique characters.  

A Lumber Jack, A Zombie Bear, a pro heavy lifter?

So the first thing I note is the characters. Yeah these are some unique characters each with there own backstory.  A Zombie Bear out for revenge. A Lumberjack who survived a zombie apocalypse. A Surfer bum, a strongman looking to sell his patented exercise equipment line, A zombie who got screwed over by the mayor of his own town. etc.

Mega Cat Studios is kinda weird with there characters. But they at least they're not generic. I look at there stats though...and there's no typical set of characters in that department.  You have Speed, Swole, and Tech stats. I honestly don't think these matter. At least when I play the game the stats only feel like a placebo. 

So the game is simple. I mean it's Windjammers. But with Axes. Half the time I don't know what I'm doing. The other half I'm too busy being happy I won. 

I will admit I have trouble seeing the Axe fly across the stage. I generally pray that I'm catching it and throw it. Most of the time my losses are due to the fact that I collected a power-up.  The AI see's I'm distracted and scores.

Scary...It's not Halloween Yet

The music is pretty nice. Nothing really stands out but it is nice. It makes me wonder how would it sound on an NES. But I don't have one so. I can't really describe it. Most of the time I can't even focus on the music cause I'm playing the game. That's a good thing cause then I don't have to cringe at bad music.

Probably the 2 or 3 things that make me angry is that I have no idea what the power-ups do aside from the obvious special attack. And the AI seems to cheat. Or maybe they're not cheating but have more knowledge about the game than I do. There's times where I'll see the AI run across the median into my side of the field and score. Is this allowed??? 

He crossed in my area?! IS THIS ALLOWED?!!!

The other bit that kinda makes me angry but I'm okay with it is when I play tournament if I lose any match it's game over. No continues. I would like to think that Retro Games allowed some form of continue but then I'd just be lying to myself. The old games would sometimes do this. Basically it's how you got replay value. By getting better at the game. There's no continue from where you left off. You start back at the beginning. 

I'm mad now...

Anyway there's not much else to say about this game. I overall like it. I wonder how the online will be when it comes out. It seems to have some sort of twitch integration as well. Wonder what that's about?

I also have to give it props for a game having zombies in it and not making me cringe hard. I hate Zombies. At least the annoying ones like Resident Evil ones. Or any that are just tenacious and have unreasonably huge numbers like in Final Fantasy. I at least want to play this again just to win at the tournament. 

Demo is Uh Broken??? - Stay Safe Demo

Video Won't Be Available Till 9AM 9/25/2018

So uh was kinda looking forward to this game. I wanted something to fill my Wipeout/F-Zero needs without playing said games (Those games are full of Copyrights).  Anyway I downloaded the demo and well. Found it's not exactly a good demo. 

To explain this game it's basically a purposely made rage-inducing game to where you have to use your skills which are gained through trial and error of repeating the same level over and over again until you get it right. The most recent example I can think of this is "Getting Over It With Bennet Foddey".  Well those games aren't so bad I generally find it for comedy purposes. Where the viewers are filled with hopes that the person playing it will beat it. But at the same time they want the player to fail just for the reaction. I'm not too big on these games. I mean there's games that do that already unintentionally. 



So whenever you die and you die about as easily as a Sierra game. You get a Bruce Lee quote that's supposed to encourage you to try again. You're also presented with the option to Retry or Rage Quit. I like how they call it Rage Quit as if they're expecting me to be pissed off cause I can't get through a level. In terms of this game and many others like it. You're trying way too hard and failing to piss me off. You want to piss me off I can provide you with perfect examples of things in games that piss me off.



Everything was going well with the demo. Until I made it to stage 3. Judging from stage 3's design I'm supposed to fly off this ramp and make it to the other side. But instead of flying off the ramp. I fall and go boom. Okay??? I tried many times while Bruce Lee quotes eventually start repeating themselves. It's at this point I just say screw it and as the game calls it "Rage Quits". I question if there was a button I'm supposed to hit or some sort of method. But at the same time I remember that this is a demo and just stop thinking about it.



I'd honestly be more excited for the game if this game...well worked. I don't think. My interest for the game pretty much died there. I could play that other actual Wipeout clone that works.



Maybe the developer will see this video and fix there demo. But it's been out for awhile and the full game is out on steam. I hope the full game doesn't have these issues. Anyway like I said my interest for this game is pretty much gone. Moving on to another game.





Sidenote: Things in games that legitimately make me rage quit.

• Guilty Gear on PSX
• Anthem Mode on Azure Striker Gunvolt (Steam version)
• Luna in Yugioh Tag Force 6
• SvC Chaos SNK Vs Capcom's Survival Mode
• A lot of Mobile Games

You wanna make a legitimate Rage Inducing game. Try looking at those first.

RIP Emuparadise - Where to go for ROMs and ISOs now?

https://www.nintendoenthusiast.com/2018/08/08/emuparadise-has-removed-its-entire-library-of-roms-and-isos/

According to Nintendo Enthusiast. (Link above) Emuparadise. One of the biggest (and IMO best places to get your ROMs and ISOs) is making plans on shutting down.

https://www.emuparadise.me/emuparadise-changing.php

This could likely be due to the fact that other sites like LoveROMs and LoveRetro's owner was slapped with a 100 million dollar lawsuit from Nintendo. Emuparadise took notice and while they comply with takedown request and other things. According to them. Nothing is guaranteed. Meaning they feel they might be next.

So in turn they're taking off all of there ROMs and ISOs.  Meaning no more retro games from them soon. While they have have stated to find other ways to get emulation to you. We're on our own in terms of finding ROMs and ISOs.

This is somewhat a problem. As I remember Emuparadise was one of the few if not the only place to get your Roms from without crappy ads, viruses, or having to jump through hoops to get what you want. Definitely a major blow to people who love using roms to play there retro games.

While you can still view Emuparadise and see a list of games for each system. As of right now the download links are gone.

Sad to see a place go down but at least it went down on it's own terms.

The Ratchet & Clank Reboot - Hmmmm....

Well since I have some access to a PS4 (Some being I can only play in the living room as the family uses it) I figure I buy this game for myself in the time that maybe one day I'll buy a PS4 for myself. Why not play one of the Ratchet & Clank games I've yet to play? The Reboot.

Having saw the movie some time ago I felt like I knew how this game was going to go down. It's not as bad as some people make it out to be. But the game does feel like a tribute to the previous Ratchet & Clank games.

Just FYI there will be spoilers.

Story

Generally throw everything you've learned from the previous games out the window in terms of story. Since it's based on the movie. While it does have the same plot as the first game. Chairman Drek intends to destroy planets and take the best parts of each to create his own planet for him and his people. The rest is based on the movie.

I would like to say if you've seen the movie then you played the game. But that's not the case. This is definitely a reboot and uses the movie as a base to tell the story. It doesn't exactly use all the story elements of the movie just the important stuff. You end up missing out on certain parts of the movie. Like Clank pretty much being forgotten by Ratchet as he's filled with stardom that he's now a Galatic Ranger.

I would say the game's story is between someone that loved the movie a lot and someone that just wanted to make a True HD Remaster version of the first game. It's almost a movie game which I actually would prefer this to be "Ratchet & Clank: The Movie, The Game" rather than Ratchet and Clank Reboot.  The issue I have with the story of this reboot (You probably read this and/or heard this 1000 times), this game rather eliminates many of the other Ratchet & Clank games in the series. There's still the bit that has to be explained about the Future Series.

The other things (Which are minor) I miss is that they removed my favorite line from Chairman Drek from the original game. And that you don't get to end the game on the planet you started on, Veldin. It is in danger sure. But having that final boss fight against Drek was great.  Also you don't even get to fight Drek in the game. He gets screwed over by Dr.Nefarious.  I think it would've been nice to include Drek as a boss fight somewhere down the line.

This line, If not for this scene I probably wouldn't be interested in this series.

Aside from that the story works out. It plays to the movie very well. Even with Captain Quark narrating it. It actually adds charm to the game with him telling the story in the background.

Gameplay

Well the gameplay remains intact. In fact I remember I made a complaint of going from the newer games to the older ones. Well I can't really make that complaint anymore. It's more or less like you're playing the first game but with the polished controls of the later titles.

If I was to bring up issues. It would be that this game was spending maybe too much time paying homage to the older games. Either with changing the weapons you acquire in comparison to the first game. Or with adding certain things from other games that I honestly feel should not be there. Such as the Jetpack and hunting for certain collectables. I remember the Jetpack from "Into the Nexus" and the hunting bits from the older games I didn't really like. It was a good Money (Bolts) maker as well as leveling up my weapons but those sections were just long and boring to deal with.

A minor issue is dealing with the main objectives of the game. No it's not hard or anything like that. It's when you decide to make a side trip. The game likes to nag you to go complete objectives. But you see a stack of crates, or you see a Gold Bolt, etc. The game will quickly remind you to get back to main objective constantly.

The game does make the hoverboard sections A LOT easier. It's far less punishing than the original game. I also felt like I had much better control of the board. Including space ship battle sections was great as well. I wish it wasn't a 1 time only thing. But they're fun while they last.

One of the things the game also has a tendency of doing is keeping most of the enemies you killed dead. Aside from just revisiting areas. If you die the enemies you killed on the way seem to stay dead. They don't reset. I have a bit of a love hate for this. I love it cause that's less for me to deal with and I can pick up where I left off with full health. I hate it cause that means it's harder to level up my weapons.

Small But Needed Changes

There's obviously no more infinite bolts glitch. You can't glitch your way to the races and mess with the infinite spawning boxes.

And even if you did somehow get infinite bolts to buy stuff with. You can't buy the RYNO. Instead you have to collect the RYNO cards to unlock it. Which pretty much mean you're playing through the entire game to get said cards.

Crates stay busted as well. Aside from weapons. And this has been a thing for awhile. But no more busting up crates to farm for bolts. Honestly you get more than enough to buy each weapon as they appear in the game so it's no big deal.

Overall the gameplay is solid. No real complaints that could end up being a dealbreaker for me.

Graphics

While my videos won't show it due to PS3's handling of graphics with it's recording function. The game looks great. Sometimes too great. I learn that I can't stare at the TV for too long without taking a break or my eyes start to hurt. Everyone looks well defined even the infamous Pool Sharks.

It is a bit of a sad note to mention that the Pool Sharks don't really eat you anymore. Instead they chomp and you do a drowning animation. At certain camera angles it looks like they're eating you. But in reality that animation is gone.

I also like the fact that the armor Ratchet wears doesn't always cover his head. He only wears the helmet if necessary (meaning where it makes sense). I was honestly bothered by that in various games cause you couldn't see Ratchet's face unless you used cheats. So this bit here actually pleases me.

Sound

Everyone's voice is still here running strong. Hearing characters comment about what weapon you're using brings a smile to my face.

The music fits the mood. When there's enemies about (Or really when you reach an area full of enemies you must defeat) the music ramps up. There can be sometimes a bit too much talking but I still love all the conversations.

Overall

I wish this was more Ratchet & Clank The Movie, The Game. But this game does a great job. Taking various elements from the previous games and basically bringing them back here into this game. It can be seen as a problem as Ratchet isn't doing anything new. But at the same time it works. If other mascots can do it then so can Ratchet and Clank.

Sidenote: Considering that we're lowkey in this age of Create a Character games. Maybe they should make a Create a Character thing for Ratchet and Clank.

Took me at least 8 tries to write this out without scrapping it.

I'm not exactly sure how to say this. But this is more of an update video than any kind of ultimatum or big decision like that. But I am considering it heavily. It's also the first time in a very long time I express myself.

Recent string of events have made me consider other options than Youtube. A lot of things have went down that made me look at my life as a whole. In the grand scheme of things I'm pretty much unhappy and struggling to get through each day.

I can't pinpoint one thing specifically that made me consider this. More like a bunch of things and being able to handle it all has become an exhausting chore that never seems to get done.

-My mom went back to the hospital again. I say again cause this chain of events happened earlier this year where she really wasn't feeling well. Took her to the emergency room. The doctors couldn't find out what was wrong. Today as of the day I'm recording this. The same situation is repeating itself. Right now my mom is at the emergency room waiting to be seen. I don't have an update cause my sister is with her. And she obviously can't contact me cause she has no signal up there.

This is just one of the factors. Is taking care of mom worries me leaving me not in the right mindset to do much of anything.

-Another is Youtube itself. The algorhythms change so much that I'm pretty much barely scraping by in terms of how much I get. The only videos I have that get constant views are my old Sonic videos and I have no idea how long that will last since I've had various companies and people try to claim them as there own. The rest of my videos average around less than 30 views.

I can't ask the community why this happens cause anytime I do they see how many subscribers I have and think I cheated. But those subs are all legit. They're likely just having lives of there own. Or don't really care for what I upload. Or like most people say. Youtube is hiding my videos from there cause I'm going through what's called Subscriber Burn. Which as they explain it. Basically because I uploaded something many people don't care to see or they haven't viewed my videos for awhile. I'm taken out of there lineup in place of other people's videos. If I complain about this on generally any site somehow associated with Youtube then it usually takes the response of My videos are no longer attractive and no one's clicking on them. Short of that My videos suck and I need to play more popular games.

I'll get more into this in another post.

There's just too many things I've heard about how Youtube screws people over it's hard know which ones are true and which are false. That's how I see it.


-The lack of support or really I should say negative support, offers a big factor to this. So my family and a good number of friends in real life basically have been telling me to quit. Give up Youtube, you're not making any money, get a real job, Only kids play video games. So many things like that were said to me. It honestly hurts when a child says that to you. My cousins kid literally came up to me and said I should grow up and stop playing videogames.  Someone else's kid at church pokes fun at me cause I'm not making a 6 figure salary like his family.

I generally ignore these statements but I still hear them. And even if you can manage to ignore something that doesn't stop things from being said.

-Depression is generally a big part of all of this. FYI I've been off my medication for a good 2 years now. Mainly cause I can't afford it. But I question if it helped at all anyway. I feel like it did more harm to me than good. At the time the doctor I've seen to get those meds didn't care about my well-being just write the prescription and get out. The short 15 minute sessions once every 3 months showed that. I never bothered to change doctors cause it was already a hassle. None of the ones at that hospital at least in the mental health department seemed to care. 

Once I changed Insurance. I noticed how tough things got in terms of prices. Not fun.

-There are other factors but I'm afraid to talk about them since something might happen to ruin everything.


That's really it. I can't really think of much else that's a factor. It mainly falls on me to change things. I thought about what I could do to change it. Reopen Patreon, Merchandise Selling, etc. I don't know right now. And I'm rather scared to do so. I just know something's gotta change and hopefully before something else forces me to make a change. I mean I enjoy doing Youtube videos. I don't like how things get in the way or how something changes.