QCF: A Hat in Time

012 gave us the year of the bow, then 2015 became the year of the sequel, and while it 2017 has been a significantly memorable year for video games as a whole, there’s no denying that it will also go down as the year that hosted the return of the 3D Platformer.

Granted, while there’s been a lot of praise for the throwback titles that have dropped so far, the craze has also seen its fair share of criticism, generating a lot of commentary on whether or not the genre even deserved such a renaissance in the first place.

Of all the games in the conversation though, one KickStarted-project stuck out as the dark horse of the topic; Gears for Breakfast’s A Hat in Time. While most games like Polykid Games’ Poi or Playtonic’s Yooka-Laylee were heavily promoted as spiritual successors to the iconic gems that best defined the collection-driven gameplay, the folks behind A Hat in Time were more concerned with creating an adventure where the journey itself is as, if not more rewarding than the destination. The Humble-Bundle published title establishes early that it’s 3D Platforming gameplay relegates the collectibles or objectives into being more of an accessory than a direct extension.

As novel as these ambitions were on paper however, A Hat in Time fails to step with its best foot forward at the early going, and barely manages to stick its landing, taking far too long to pick up any sort of real momentum in what’s ultimately, a clumsy outing.

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QCF: Crash Bandicoot: N Sane Trilogy

hile there are dozens upon dozens of gaming franchises that are languishing in obscurity these days, none have quite sparked the sort of fiery demand that Marsupial Mascot Crash Bandicoot has. The once revered Sony icon had recently resurfaced as a cameo character in the latest Skylanders entry, and the fan service in response proved that plenty of folks had still held onto their memories of the edgy Jorts-wearing furball fondly, which didn’t go unnoticed by Activison or Sony.

Wisely banking off of the nostalgia of the Bandicoots earlier titles during his prime, the two companies had finally decided to pull the trigger, Crash Bandicoot: N-Sane Trilogy, exclusively for the PlayStation 4, a remastered collection of the first three titles newly developed from the ground up by Vicarious Visions.

The question here however was never whether or not Crash Bandicoot could be brought back but rather, whether or not he SHOULD be—many of the charming elements of the series are also some of the same rough-edged quirks that relegate the games into being the clumsy 3D relics (pun gratifyingly intended) that they ultimately are.

While there are few conventions that haven’t aged well, and a few new glaring issues that weren’t there before, the trilogy still manages to iron out a lot of the wrinkles of the originals, delivering a wonderful compilation of the Bandicoot’s early outings that both fans, and new comers alike.

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QCF: Yooka-Laylee

here’s been somewhat of a void in gaming that I’ve steadily seen getting filled the last two years. It seemed like forever and ago when we had something to play that was just whimsical or wholesome from a title that wasn’t developed by Nintendo. The dearth of platformers has led to KickStarter being used as a platform to those vocal few however; a demand for the comeback of games that featured charming characters who would run around and pick things up until something happens.

The Veteran team members from Rare’s Nintendo 64 days like Chris Sutherland, Gavin Price, and Grant Kirkhope heard that demand, and decided that the crowdfunding route was going to be their best shot at making it happen, and made it happen they did. These men and several other members formed the studio Playtonic Games, and launched a KickStarter for a game named Yooka-Laylee.

The spiritual successor the Bear and Bird Games that’re still held in high regards was able to reach its projected goal of $270,041 in less than an hour, and quickly went on to earn a million dollars faster than any other video game project has ever earned on KickStarter—this was a big deal.

Fast-forward to two years later to where the Platformer is just days away from release, and while I can’t tell whether or not that it’s still a big deal with games like Super Mario Odyssey, A Hat in Time, and a slew of others hitting 2017. I can tell you that they’ll have a hard act to follow because this Buddy-duo adventure is a great romp, even with its fair share of fumbles.

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PPR Presents Play Play: Brave Fencer Musashi

he frontier of platformers back in the late 90’s was uhhh, endearing to say the least. And man, oh MAN, were they ever just a wave of cutesy, mascot-ready, big-headed snark-slingers filled with all of that ‘tude.

Brave Fencer Musashi is a charming little melting pot of those sentiments, standing out among the herd with a bunch of action-RPG dynamics, with some Kirby mechanics on top. Now the question is whether or not this game aged very well? Not to mention where it comes into play with Nomura design timeline of limb belts and superfluous zippers on zippers, and more as Ser and Georgie wax on about it between all the shitty Haikus they hear about death.

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