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Option C

Remember Me
This was one that I liked the look of when it was shown at E3, but wound up being one that I figured I’d wait for a price drop on. While it has largely eluded Steam sales for some reason, Green Man Gaming had it for 75% off, so I finally snagged it.

Remember Me’s basic concept of remixing memories to control people has a lot of potential for a game. For some reason, however, Dontnod manages to almost entirely waste the idea, mostly turning it into a surrogate for simply grabbing a keycard or having a conversation. Even the handful of memory remix sections could have served as branching paths or a morality system, but only have one “right” end result to progress (there are trophies for achieving other outcomes though).

Visual Design is a high point for the game. Much like the concept, it doesn’t exactly feel particularly fresh or original, but is executed nicely. Good soundtrack to boot. On the other hand, character models and animations struck me as dated, and many environmental elements are reused often.

With the basic idea of the game, a brawler wouldn’t really be the first thing to pop to mind. Yet, that’s what most of the gameplay is. The combo system is basic, but serviceable, and enemy encounters are designed to get you to use most of what you have available. I found a few sections really annoying and cheap, nearly all of which were a result of being overwhelmed by trash enemies. Otherwise, solid, but not stand out.
Between encounters, the exploration/traveling is very basic. For all the effort that went into the city design, practically any corner you can turn that isn’t exactly where you need to go is just there for a collectible item. Puzzles and stealth/avoidance (you die instantly if seen) are fairly basic as well.

My general impression while playing it was that the developers must have thought they were making a game in 2003, not 2013. This would have stood out more as a PS2 title, and the character models and such almost make it feel like an HD update of a game from that era. The story, characters, dialogue, and so on would have fit better in that time too. I think they could have made a handful of changes and gotten a T rating these days.
One aspect I think they did very well with regardless is how they handled the main character. Nilin is a (half) black woman, and the game makes nothing of it. The character isn’t defined by race or gender. For as often as the “could just as well be…” statement is true, relatively few games actually make good on it.

As it stands, I felt like it was a fine bargain bin purchase, but I wish they could have done more with the concept.

Mirror’s Edge
Long has it sat there in my Steam list. I’ve tried it before, briefly, but I don’t think I got much past the tutorial.

The story is contrived, predictable, anti-authority BS, but, itdoes have the task of explaining why SWAT teams are being tasked to take down free runners. Personally, this wasn’t a game I was holding out much hope for a story from, which is probably for the best. It does do a good job of setting up the gameplay.

The visual design is great. It stands out aesthetically, but also proves functional while playing. The soundtrack is excellent as well.

First person platforming has obvious issues – namely that precise positioning can be difficult to discern. I felt like Mirror’s Edge could stand to be more forgiving due to that. I missed many, many, many attempts due very slight positioning or timing issues that didn’t feel fairly indicated. Not to mention the slow landings due to missed rolls, early slides, and that kind of thing. My general pattern playing certain portions of Mirror’s Edge was like playing Super Meat Boy. I’d make a run over and over until I succeeded. Unlike that game, however, it just didn’t always feel like it was my fault. I’d clip through something I was trying to grab, or fall just short, despite feeling like I should have nailed it.

Sections with combat (or avoidance of the same) were even worse. Simply put, the combat is terrible, and the handful of times it can’t be avoided prove to be aggravating. It’s an unforgiving game in general – about all the help you get is in the tutorial at the start. Forgot about L jumping by the time it’s actually needed? Don’t look for a reminder.

Thankfully, for both purely running, and avoiding/fighting “blues”, checkpoints were frequent enough that it was a matter of figuring out a path that worked and trying to execute it. Sometimes frustrating, but also ultimately satisfying when I finally pulled it off. I might have been cursing at the computer, a controller was thrown at least once…but I turning around to retry as many times as it took.

Overall, I liked it, but I do hope that the sequel can manage to feel just that little bit more spot on with regard to control (at least).

Jumping Flash!
Way back when the PS1 first came out, my dad bought one for me for my birthday. It was completely out of the blue. At the time, we lived on Yokota AFB in Japan, but he’d bought an US model from AAFES. Incidentally, they had no games for it when I went to go get something to play. So, I spent a lot of time with the demo disc. One of those demos was for Jumping Flash.

Other than that, I hadn’t spent much time with the game, but I did buy it on PSN a while back, and had it downloaded on my Vita.

I played through the “normal” game, I guess. It does kick you back to the menu and offer the Extra levels, and I didn’t finish those because my interest had worn out.

For the most part, Jumping Flash feels like a tech demo. It’s interesting for the time, but is veeeery primitive compared to where the genre would go just a year or two later (and yet, still far better than Bubsy 3D ). Precise movement can be difficult; aiming up and down is painfully slow, and finding the items to collect is annoying with the limited view/radar.
Probably would have been better left as fond memories of the demo, but I can’t say I hated it. I liked the music, and it’s almost charming in its simplicity.

Run Saber
My brothers and I rented this multiple times back in the day, and eventually purchased it. It’s one of my favorite SNES games, and I hadn’t played it in a while.

Usually I’ve played it coop, but since I have yet to teach my dog to use a controller, I had to get Sheena through it solo. While I often opt for female characters now, Run Saber is the first game I recall doing so (or having the choice to).