I'll put in Kelly Slater's Pro Surfing.
Nevermind. I completely forgot I already put in a nomination a week ago. lmao

- Matt

I nominate Atari's hardcore platformer Mr. Run and Jump.

- Matt

I just caught up with the final two games I wanted to play this Itchmas.

Red Snow was fine. Decent concept and presentation but I wasn't very enticed into getting a better score after the first run. I am down to check out the full Steam version once that's done.

Mobius was heckin' awesome. Loved that. Really nice outside-the-box platforming that teases the brain a little. Nice visual presentation too and fun music during that last boss fight.
Probably my second favorite pick in this Itchmas after Mr. Platformer.

Also just noticed that Mobius is made by the same person as MapFriend which we had during another Itchmas, and No Players Online which was nominated by someone for this Itchmas. (Although I can't find the post for that anymore. 🤔) And if I had realized that the nominated version of No Players Online is actually a new, explanded version and not the original game that I played already years ago, I would have actually voted for it. lol

- Matt

I found an odd bug today.
Going from another user's profile page to my own profile page through the link on top of the page falsely populates my "Currently Playing" section with a game from the other user's "Current Playing" section. It only happens to me from this specific user's page with this one specific game (Iris and the Giant)
I was able to replicate this in Vivaldi (Chromium) and Mullvad browser. So, it seems consistent.
I was trying to find another user with that game in the "Currently Playing" to see if it would behave the same there, but couldn't find anyone.

Here is a video to show what I mean:


- Matt

I already posted this in the Site Feedback thread, because I completely forgot that this separate thread exists. I'm also not really sure if this one has much purpose, to be honest. lol

But anyway, I would like to request the Vectrex to be listed as a platform. Doesn't have the biggest library but it is a pretty iconic 80s console. Some of the games are already in the database anyway.

Also, while I'm here: I think the Japanese (mostly adult) game shop DLsite would make sense to be added as a storefront.
The purchased games are usually direct downloads, but they do have an optional client for organizing. So, in that sense it's basically very similar to itch.io.

- Matt

I noticed recently that the Vectrex isn't listed as a platform. I feel like it should. Might not have been in stores long, but it is a pretty iconic 80s console and apparently still has a big homebrew community.

Anyway, I request it being added.

- Matt

I played Pretty Coo' and Yurivania today.

Pretty Coo' is very cute and the concept has potential to be fleshed out. But I had some problems with the pigeons' path-finding where it made progress super slow sometimes.
Also, what did the button at the end actually do? I activated it but I didn't see anything being triggered.
I was also really happy that you start out feeding the birds grains/seeds, but then later you end up feeding them unhealthy loafs of bread after all. I'm gonna detract points from it for that. smh

Yurivania was neat. I liked the visuals, but not so much the music.
Decent premise for a little metroidvania though even if the movement did not feel very satisfying at all.
Also got a Tiamat cameo. Very cool.
Jokes aside, props for them for making a functioning little game but it wasn't great. I'm curious if and how the sequels might have been improved.

Not sure if I'll play Day of the Hamster or The Moon Looks Beautiful Tonight to be honest. Neither point-and-click games or visual novels are really my cup of tea.

- Matt

Trying to catch up with Itchmas over the weekend. I played the first three picks tonight.

I liked Folder Dungeon quite a lot. Definitely could have needed some deeper mechanics and go on for longer. But the art design was very nice and the general concept is cool.

Oceanwork was a bit off-putting to me at first when I found out that it was about mining stuff to buy a bunch of upgrade items, but honestly as soon as you can dive deep enough to reach the gold, you have the money to buy anything in the shop real quick.
My thalassophobia kicked in a bit around that time as well even though I don't think there are any hostile creatures aside from the whale shark things.
I ended up getting the squid ending.

Mr. Platformer rules. I'm a bit of a sucker for ultra-simple Atari-style platformers anyway, so I had my fun with this right from the get-go. But as you finish the first loop and keep going because "so-and-so levels remain", the game ends up pulling out some genuinely challenging levels with a corruption theme. I had a ton of fun with it.
It was basically what I thought Atari's own recent Mr. Run and Jump would be but wasn't.
Definitely my favorite so far in this Itchmas event and possibly one of my favorite games in any Itchmas in general.

Gonna keep going with these games tomorrow.

- Matt

Put my votes in now.
That pigeon game better win a spot. 😤

- Matt

What if I play all the games before voting even starts? 😈

- Matt

Last minute nomination here: Pop'n Twinbee on SNES

- Matt

Purple Prose for Purple Hearts: **** the Witch

The Moon Looks Beautiful Tonight

I especially hope the first one does well: It is actually made by a friend of mine who I've known for a very long time, about 15 years by this point, and is their first game project! I've yet to try it out myself but I am very excited to and I am hoping other people can enjoy it too! It was also made for a MenHera Game Jam so ay.

I'm getting "A password is required to view this page" for the witch game.

- Matt

Hell yeah. Here are my nominations.

Folder Dungeon - A dungeon crawler roguelike inside computer folder! Make difficult decisions, fight enemies, collect powerful relics!

Mobius - A mind-bending puzzle platformer on mobius strips!

- Matt

I'm gonna nominate the re-branded Bloodborne Kart (now titled Nightmare Kart), which is slated to come out on May 31st for free.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2930160/Nightmare_Kart/

- Matt

Ayo, this rules!
I won't be participating since I don't own either of those consoles but it's still really awesome to see you two put this together. Good luck to everyone!

- Matt

Last minute nomination here... You know what's always late? Public transport.
So, I'm gonna nominate Tram Simulator Urban Transit.

- Matt

Found a dupe.

https://howlongtobeat.com/game/58886
https://howlongtobeat.com/game/66719

- Matt

I got my first credit roll today. Got ending #04 and the bonus ending #12.
I really like the world. I'm not a huge VN person though. I'll probably give it another quick run or two sometime to see some more outcomes, but I'm not gonna be hunting for specific endings.

I love the vibes though and all the pretty birds. Big fan of the little mentions of real-life things that inspired the dev, like the shoutout to that real pigeon blog and the info to the real bird café that the one in-game location is based on. I even found one of the birds on the café's website that one of the characters was based on. lol
I wonder if that place is still open.

Curious to buy that sequel Holiday Star someday and maybe look into those manga doujins that apparently exist.
Also hoping that the delayed sequel Hatoful Boyfriend: Mirrors actually sees the light of day sometime.

- Matt

Wait, they are not like... Scared or try to fly away from you? Did you feed them something?

I started putting out bird seed in February and these two eventually noticed that. So now they come to my window a lot to see if I put some out.
And yeah, they aren't too skiddish. If I'm careful and don't do any sudden moves, they let me get very close to watch them.

No feeding out of the hand yet though. They hate hands.

- Matt

I started it today.
I bought this game a couple years ago via DLsite, this Japanese store. Glad the GOTM pushed me to finally actually boot it up for once. Though it took me a while to actually get it running because it looks like the version that is sold on DLsite is like an original, early version that doesn't run well on modern Windows these days. lol
Well, I got it working eventually and clicked my way through some first bits and pieces. I'm glad I never actually looked into it too much when it was at the height of its popularity online, so I'm going in mostly blind. I know there is something like a "true plot" that's only revealed later or when you go down a certain path, which I'm expecting to maybe have a bit of a darker tone, but I don't actually know any details at all. Right now I'm really enjoying the absurd writing and the variety in pigeon types.

Anyway, I love pigeons and I actually just befriended a pigeon pair IRL that keep visiting my window pretty much daily right now. So, if I ever get stuck, I can ask them for dating tips.


- Matt

My regular nomination: Aka

My Fool's nomination: Star Wars: Super Bombad Racing

- Matt

Might not answer your question completely, but there is this old thread about it where both the HLTB owner/admin Everdred and an IGN employee (RyanQ) give some comments on it at least.

https://howlongtobeat.com/forum/thread/2476/1

- Matt

Hiya.
I'd take Orbital Racer off your hands if no one else claimed it yet.
Appreciate it.

- Matt

I'm really into the antigrav racer BallisticNG right now, so I'll nomimate that.

- Matt

Every time I played a game I counted it as a completion. So with halo 2 i played it through and consdiered each playthough a seperate completion. So that is why my stats are so high.

Are you saying every time you started up Halo 2 and played for a bit, you logged that as a full completion? Every game session? Even when you haven't finished the game yet?

- Matt