Some Wii U "Hidden Gems" To Play Whilst You're Stuck At Home!

2020 has been a wild year hasn't it? Anyway.... One of the surprise benefits of the various lockdowns and quarantines happening all over the world is the increased amount of game time we have!

 

This got me thinking about my dreaded backlog and some of the underappreciated games i have within it. And as the Wii U is my favourite console I've thrown together a few games to try whilst you're stuck at home.

New Super Luigi U

So this first entry is perhaps abit of a cheat. Yes - This was DLC and Yes - This is now on Switch but it really doesn't matter how you're able to play.... you just should! Luigi's 2D adventure is essentially a retooled version of 2012's New Super Mario Bros. U but with a few twists. First of all our green bro handles VERY different to Mario, He's slippery, floaty and can jump abit higher. This can make the game alot harder as it requires precision and skill beyond what a normal Mario game asks of the player.

This is coupled with overall more difficult level design and a 99 second clock to make NSLU a speed runners dream. The levels are difficult but quick which is really perfect for the "Breaks at home" that alot of us are now trying to fill!

The Steamworld Collection

For our next entry we look toward the intriguing "Indie Selects" Label. Near the end of the WII U's life Nintendo decided to put out a few indie titles as physical releases. The one I've chosen for this list is the excellent Steamworld Collection. This collection is 2 games - The Randomly generated Metroidvania Steamworld Dig and The 2D turn based Strategy RPG Steamworld Heist.

First of all the Games share the same cartoon steampunk aesthetic which looks fantastic on the Wii U gamepad as well as the TV. As i mentioned Dig is a metroidvania that encourages players to...um... dig... deeper and deeper to discover more secrets, power-ups and resources to return to the hub, upgrade and refuel and then try and go deeper and deeper. This is a truly addictive gameplay loop that will keep you thoroughly engaged for the games 8-10 hour runtime. 

Heist is a very different game. It's a slower paced Strategy RPG with the unique combat ability of bouncing bullets off different surfaces to defeat enemies. Heist's delivers a much more linear and story driven experience compared to Dig with its emphasis on characters with specific strengths and weakness as well as weapons and armour that needs to be regularly managed if you are to stand a chance. The game is kind of hard in places, but if you take your time, level your characters and weapons up, you should be fine. This version of the game also includes the Outsider dlc on the disc which is even more added value.

Both games look great, play great, and overall provides this package with a ton of value.

Batman Arkham: Origins

The last game on this little list is arguably the most left field. The Often forgotten black sheep of the Arkham games Origins is sorely underrated. Origins plays very similarly to Akrham City (Also playable on Wii U) but with a much bigger focus on the early days of Batman. Gordon and the GCDP are not your allies and this is really more of a vigilante at this point. One of my favourite aspects of Origins is its Holiday setting, It feels like Die Hard or something! 

Gameplay wise there are a couple cool additions. Detective mode has had a major overhaul with a much more unique visual style, everyone of these is indeed a treat! The other big focus of this game is Boss fights and man are there some great ones in here. I won't get too deep with this because you need to experience it for  yourself but the Deathstroke boss fight is arguably the best in the entire series!

Overall Origins deserves alot more love than it gets, It's a fantastic Arkham game that really stands toe to toe with City in my humble opinion. Despite the cut multiplayer mode i would recommend the Wii U version of this purely for the added feature of the gamepad, there's nothing that can replicate this set up right now!

So there was abit of a ramble about a few games i recommend trying out on Wii U if you're stuck at home, i honestly could've listed 20+ games for this so i may do another one at a later date!

Stay home, Stay Safe and Play some Wii U! 

<3

My Half Year Review of Google Stadia (2020)

For the last 8 or so months I've had access to Google's Brand New Stadia cloud gaming platform. Whilst the echo chamber of twitter has seemingly already written off of this new platform as dead before it's even a year old Stadia has actually been quietly and steadily growing, improving and becoming a small but very tight knit community to the gamers that have given it a fair chance.

So with that being said i am going to give my own personal thoughts on a few key areas at this yearly half way point, is it good? is it bad? is it somewhere in the middle? lets begin...

How does it feel to play?

The first thing an internet troll will say about Stadia is "Theres too much lag, it will never work" and on the whole i massively disagree with this statement. I have a modest internet set up in my city centre apartment, nothing special, and i have still encountered zero lag or performance issues on the chromecast ultra set up. The games are silky smooth, the UI is fast and the resolution is incredibly stable. TICK right? well, no, sadly. Performance on browser is still spotty at best for me on any of the 3 laptops/towers i have available to me and that's a real shame. I understand the need to use a chrome browser for ease of use but perhaps a more streamlined extension or maybe even a separate downloadable .Exe might serve to iron out a few of the low latency issues that i have encountered so far.

As for the mobile app, its great! Even on low quality internet at the local Cafe's and bars i am able to play fairly consistently stable games with little issue. I still think google would be wise to make something along the line of a controller dock (A controller for your phone to sit in not just the claw!) to make on the go gaming even better but right now the on screen touch controller works fine for most slower games.

Overall, i think Stadia from a tech side has come on leaps and bounds over the last year. Achievements are in, mobile gaming is in, crowd play is very soon, so yeah great stuff!

THE GAMES

This is the hardest section for me to review because it's been good...but also bad. Pro continues to be an excellent value for money with tons of games and deals being drip fed out at a fairly commendable rate. The quality of those games is top notch too, GRID, ESO and Rise of the Tomb Raider are all great additions to any library and the smattering of smaller titles such as the Steamworld Collection, Serious Sam and Spitlings rounds out the service nicely.

So where's the bad?.... Well.... There still isn't that 1 game that you HAVE to play on Stadia. Xbox had Halo, Playstation had MGS/FFVII, Nintendo had Mario and Sega had Sonic. Spitlings and Gylt are fun games but they are not going to persuade hardcore gamers to give up there consoles and buy full priced titles on a cloud service. Google is so close though, if they are able to produce a must play title from Jade Raymond's talented teams then i think the library stands up nicely to its competitors, especially in the cloud gaming sector.

My favourites!

I've played about 20 different titles so far on Stadia and my favourites are mostly the pick up and play titles on offer. Trials Rising was a big surprise for me, I've not played the previous games and thought very little of them but for £8 in a sale i took a gamble and my what a joy. It's simple try, fail, try again gameplay loop suits Stadia's play anywhere tag line perfectly and i think encapsulates the Stadias biggest strengths.

Another standout is the hugely addictive Spitlings. A simple and colourful puzzle game that starts easy and then gets brutal quick. Through its hilarious multiplayer and being a Pro game and you've got arguably Stadia's most fun exclusive game.

Overall i go into the second half of 2020 fairly positive about Stadia's future. They have some questions to answer about commitment, no one trusts Google after all, and desperately need a killer app but as the premiere Cloud gaming service right now, there is no better.