Operation Backlog Completion 2025
Mar 302022
 

We’ve talked a few times about Red Candle Games, as they developed the excellent horror game Detention, as well as Devotion, which I finally got to play last year.

But their next game, Nine Sols, is something significantly different.

Nine Sols was first announced last December after being teased earlier in the year, and Red Candle Games recently started a crowdfunding campaign for it.

(They’re handling the campaign personally, which I wonder if is a response to the disaster that was Devotion’s delisting. I’ve seen a few sites say it’s being funded through Kickstarter, but either those writers are using “Kickstarter” in a generic sense or I missed something.)

While Detention was a 2D side-scrolling horror game and Devotion was a first-person horror game, Nine Sols is a 2D action platformer set in a “Taopunk” world, with gameplay inspired by Sekiro, Hollow Knight, and Katana Zero.

You’ll play as Yi, a forgotten hero on a quest for revenge against the 9 Sols that rule over the land. It features an interconnected world made up of multiple regions, a leveling system with skills and upgrades to unlock, and deflection-based combat, among other details explained on the crowdfunding page.

It looks pretty good, and normally I would have said I’d absolutely back their next game, but I’m a little unsure since it’s so different from their previous games, especially since I haven’t played any of the listed inspirations (yet). However, GamesRadar reported that a demo is coming next week, so if so, I’ll be sure to check that out.

Anyway, the crowdfunding campaign is doing quite well, as they already made it well past their initial goal and are working toward the first stretch goal.

If you’re interested in Nine Sols, be sure to check out the crowdfunding page. How do you think this intriguing departure will compare to their past games?

Mar 282022
 

There’s a good chance you thought the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy was the same across all its various releases, but that’s not quite true.

The mobile version in particular had several problems and was considered the worst of the available versions.

(The mobile port of the first game alone, which is actually what got me into the series and was much better, was taken down in favor of that, too.)

Anyway, Capcom announced that the mobile version of the Phoenix Wright Trilogy is being discontinued on June 9.

However, it will be replaced by a port of the Phoenix Wright Trilogy that has been released on everything else.

Save data won’t carry over, but in short, soon the mobile trilogy will match the better version available on other systems. Considering the problems the mobile version had, I’m surprised it took them this long.

The announcement has only been made for Japan so far, but I assume the same will happen globally.

Okay, so this isn’t quite the exciting Ace Attorney news we’ve been hoping to see, but anything that makes it easier for people to play the games is a good thing! I’m still holding out hope for something to come of that mysterious Apollo Justice trademark.

Mar 252022
 

Another game that caught my eye when I picked it up in a bundle is Toree 3D, a colorful 3D platformer with a low poly aesthetic.

You play as a duck trying to get back his stolen ice cream, but that’s not especially important. It’s just an excuse to get you platforming through 9 stages.

It’s a short, basic 3D platformer. You can walk, run, and jump (and double jump). Each level has a number of stars for you to collect on your way to the goal.

I was a little disappointed to see it didn’t have much exploration, since exploration-based 3D platformers are my favorite, but it’s fun enough for what it is. Each level is very short, roughly 5 minutes or less depending on how well you do. It times you, and gives you a rank at the end.

So all in all, it ends up being a short game, although there are two additional characters you can unlock. Its biggest appeal is probably to people who want to replay levels for faster times.

But there’s another odd layer to Toree 3D, and that’s its horror elements. Occasionally, the sound glitches out, the music gets distorted, the happy faces in the background turn creepy… it becomes a twisted version of itself, for no clear reason, before reverting back to its bright, colorful style.

I was hoping the horror elements were building up to something, but they weren’t, as far as I can tell. They’re just there.

It feels like the creepypasta version of a 3D platformer. You know, like somewhere out there would be normal copies of Toree 3D, but you got the one where weird stuff starts happening.

That’s an interesting style to intentionally emulate, although I still wish the game did more with it. While reading about it afterwards to see if I had missed something, I also came across the Super Mario 64 Iceberg and the personalization meme, which was so entertaining to read through, I wonder if any game has tried to more closely mimic that yet.

(Reading about that made me realize that something in Super Mario 64 scared me as a kid, and I feel as though I might have had a Super Mario 64 related nightmare within the past few years, which is… strange. This has also made me nostalgically want to revisit Super Mario 64.)

Anyway, Toree 3D was cute and short. I wish it had done more with its creepy elements, but it was fun to spend a little time with.