So, as always, I just finished playing a game and now I want to talk about it.

Today I played Disney Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse (God, that's kind of a mouthful). I should note now I bought it on steam for $14.99. I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to wait for a sale to purchase it.

What a delight this game is. Visually, it's very appealing and every inch of it tickles my nostalgia senses.

Disney is no stranger to nostalgia, and often we think more of what we remember of Disney than what they are now (really are they even relevant anymore? I mean, Pixar is fantastic but its not really Disney). In that sense Disney is what it is still because of what we remember Disney being for us at one time or another in our lives. I'm sure at some point there will be others who think back on Disney as something else entirely different from what I think about Disney(although I do wonder if the next generation will even care about Disney).

Anyway, despite my meandering I actually wanted to talk about Mickey in all of this. I realized today I haven't seen Mickey Mouse in any real relevant use in a very long time. There may be a show or something he's in now (I don't know, I stopped watching cartoons around the time the average cartoon became garbage), but Mickey hasnt really been culturally relevant in a long time.

I think the thing I loved most with Mickey were the old black and white cartoons. They were always my favorite things with Mickey. I actually always think back to the haunted house cartoon. It's a masterpiece and if you haven't seen it then you probably should (how weirdly relevant, being that all these horror games are coming out around this week and next month is October).

I grew up in the 80's, and while the black and whites were no longer "new" they still played them on the (at the time) new Disney channel (late 80s, early 90s something like that). My favorite time of the year for these cartoons, at the time, was halloween. Disney holiday specials around that time were some of the best ever created even today, but my favorites were always the halloween ones. Maybe because making something scary and also ok for kids is a real difficult task and so it comes incredible when its done perfectly. You have to make it scary but also funny. Disney always seemed to be able to pull that kind of thing off, at least for me, and I enjoyed it immensely.

I'm rambling, though. Castle of Illusion 2013 (I shortened the name, sue me) is an amalgamation of several 3d and 2d games. It is a lot what it aims to be- a reboot or remake of a classic game a lot of people loved- and it is a little bit something else. It delivers the original game in a lot of ways and even finds ways to surprise you a few times.

I really enjoyed the different layouts of the worlds and the simple, but fun, puzzles sprinkled in here and there through out the game. Traversing it also is fine (although I have heard somewhere that the controls on XBLA are awful) and for the most part I did not feel hampered. I think my only gripe was my own want to keep moving forward, really. I found myself frustrating myself more than anything. With patience and observation all the platforming, boss fighting, and (short) puzzle solving is really fairly simple.

Speaking of bosses; this game has a few. I read somewhere (maybe it was Polygon) that the boss fights in this game were the weakest part of the game. I disagree with that. They were fairly well done and while it's a simple act of discovering their patterns I think they do what games used to do which was force you to figure them out and challenge your ability to progress.

The boss fights, one and all, can be frustrating, certainly. Really, though, the majority of the frustration will come as you are trying to discover the patterns before you die. You should just give up on that first life in a first encounter with a boss, though. You will probably die the first time on most of them. Well, maybe. I mean if you have quick reflexes and adapt quickly then you can handle them fairly easily. Once you get the hang of the bosses they become simple at which point it can be a test of endurance.

The music and sound design in this game is probably my favorite part. I am so happy for that too. The game I always think of when it comes to Mickey Mouse is The World of Illusion (which was the Genesis sequel to Castle of Illusion). That game was so good I played and completed it so many times as a child I dont even remember. To top it off YOU COULD PLAY AS DONALD DUCK COOPERATIVELY WITH MICKEY! That was the greatest thing ever! It added so much more charm to the game on top of all the charm that game already had. I really actually hope this game does well so they remake or HD-ify World of Illusion because that game was SO GOOD!

Ok. Last thing I want to touch on is the how the developers tried to do something different. The game is not JUST a 2D platformer. I mean it is a platformer all the way through, but they add in moments where it suddenly shifts to a 3d plane so you can move anywhere, or makes you run up and down, or rotates the world. There's a lot of clever stuff like that that keep every world fresh and interesting all the way through the game. It never once got boring.

The game is most certainly short, which may throw some people off. I think it's the same length as the original though (clocking in for average Josh me at 2 and half hours to complete the whole game). I enjoyed every minute of it, though, and would still most certainly recommend it. The best part is, it's even great for kids. How often can you even say that about a video game anymore?

I am going to leave a photo dump at the bottom. Enjoy!

I just finished playing Gone Home yesterday and I feel compelled to write about it. It's incredibly impressive when I come across games that try something different. That try to say that playing a game can mean something that you're not used to.

Developers certainly have a long way to go, but when something like Dear Esther comes along and its hard to define what it is, I feel anyway, that you know the medium is growing.

In the same vein we have Gone Home. Going in really you know nothing about what's going on, and that is truly the beauty of it. Do not spoil yourself on this one. Honestly, if you like a good story and the act of discovering the pieces as you go, go ahead and check this game out now. Don't read about it any further, and certainly don't watch someone else play it (well you can, but I feel that may diminish the impact a bit). When you're done all the blogs and articles about the game will still be there- as will the videos.

I know this probably seems pompous, or incredibly hyperbolic, but I feel this game is really important- at least as a way to tell a story in a game. I have never played a game that left me feeling any connection to its story on such a relatable level- much like a good film. I have liked a lot of games stories for certain reasons, some have even made me cry, but how often can I truly relate on some level to what the story is saying?

Sure, it's been incredible seeing what people can do with the apocalypse and zombies, and there have been amazing choices to make in games around that, but while you can ask yourself "what would I do in this situation" can you truly ever understand it? Can you ever really know what it feels like to shoot a child? While some may say yes this is a very small amount of people. It doesn't diminish the impact by any means but its thankfully a question we would not normally have to answer and most people never will have to think about it beyond whatever amount of gaming they do. I just bring this up because I found the story of Gone Home one that many can relate to- even me in a lot of ways.

Really, all you're doing is trying to find out why there is no one home when you get home from a year long trip and your rummaging through the house to find clues or answers to the questions that keep piling up. At it's core, though, it's a love story. A fairly simple one, too, but very effective.

It's fascinating to me the things I learned about myself when playing this. For one, there is never really any danger yet at the beginning you have this sense of foreboding. I don't know why. Maybe it's the sound of the rain, or the old creaky house, but I felt more and more as the game progressed that something bad happened and I am marching towards a terrible scene. So much so nearing the end I had become deeply worried that things would take a terrible turn and I was hoping so much that it wasn't what my mind was thinking it was.

It also brought me back to high school quite a bit. I was surprised by that.

Maybe it's because it's set in the 90's around when I was in high school, or maybe the attention to detail on the thought process of people, but while Sam's character certainly goes through something I have not I can relate to how out of place in the world she feels. I did as well in high school and often still do sometimes. We learn as we get older that is fairly normal, but in high school we believe it's just us. Really, everything feels so oppressive when you're in high school and I can remember this sense that if I just got to do what I wanted everything would be better. Of course, that is much more difficult than we understand at that age.

Oh well.

It's a really touching story that I would recommend. Much like Dear Esther it's not your standard game play but I have less problem calling this one a game as you do interact with the world beyond moving forward and you discover things about the story by interaction so there is a sense of engagement at the player level.

I found it really fascinating what they did with the story here and anyone looking for something different should definitely check it out.

See how many lights you leave on (or don't if you're like me and have to turn them off when you're out of a room). It's actually quite insane how many lights this house has.

I remember getting The Neverhood at a local Software Etc. in the mall. I think Topanga mall in California, actually- probably 1997 or so.

The most intriguing thing about the game was that they made it completely in claymation, which is still still pretty unheard of (even the spiritual successor, Armikrog, is going to have some CG from the sound of it). I have a love for claymation, stemming back probably all the way to The Wind and the Willows- followed by tons of Aardman stuff. There's always been something intriguing about it to me. It has a look, that is defined by it's meticulous shot by shot style of animation, and everything about it tends to be exaggerated- often (I would imagine) to save frames and therefore time.

The Neverhood is no exception to this, really. In fact it maybe does it more so than most claymation, and I would guess that was due to time constraints. It is not uncommon in The Neverhood for a frame of animation to hold longer than normal, or a movement to transition to another in a way that is uniquely claymation but also a tad off. It's not done in a bad way, mind you. It's just weird, and I like weird, so that's ok with me. It reminds me a lot of older Anime. Often, in older anime, they would hold a still frame for longer than necessary, and even just animate some form of color and line movement in the background to express something but for an exaggerated amount of time (it's possible this is still done). This is sort of what The Neverhood animation trades in, and does so mostly successfully.

I still enjoy the jokes, the tree that makes you burp and Willie (who you really don't know much about at the particular point in the game) dropping a flower in a pot on your head for some reason when you look up as he calls to you. It's very clever, and sometimes cute (the robot that loves his teddie bear comes to mind).

The story is done in an environmental way. You find video cartridges in various rooms and insert them into a viewer to get pieces of the back story. It is required you find all of these to even finish the game. This is another thing I would guess was done due to possibly time and money constraints. It's not bad, and helps to further give a sense of mystery to the world. Since it's a fairly linear game for the most part I don't feel lost. The interesting thing, to me, that I never noticed before was the games strong lenience on Christian philosophy. It's essentially the story of creation (as done in a way to suit a world made of Klay, and the game has a sense of this element which creates it, and mentions it in passing in things you can read or see within the game). It's probably for the best the game is self aware in this way, as the scenery (as claymation back drops go) seems very rushed. Again, I do suspect it was due to time and money, but one fairly obviously thing they rushed was the back grounds. The scenery often has a very muddy consistency- as if they slathered on the clay onto the back drop in a hurry. It does fit the story, as you come to find this world was created not long before you awoke, so you could also presume this was mildly intentional.

I really like the way the game looks, nonetheless (again, I have a soft spot for claymation), and more often than not I found myself again enjoying looking at the world of The Neverhood.

The sound design in this game is mostly fantastic. Minus a few technical irks (such as Klayman's walking- which I mention later) it's a lot of fun. Very cartoon sounding effects for the most part, which are done well and fit the comedy the game goes for.

The music is incredible. I think it's probably one of my favorite soundtracks in an adventure game, ever... still. Terry S. Taylor did a brilliant job at making a crazy, twisted, sometimes somber, often spastic soundtrack. I think there's a total of like... 40 songs or something in this game. Maybe not, but there's a ton and everyone one of them is so much fun to listen to (with the crown jewel probably being The Neverhood theme itself). As a kid I loved the sound track so much I copied it to a cassette tape so I could listen to it more. Such a great sound track.

I do remember in the demo (I still have somewhere) the music is actually different and the music in that is also really good- I don't remember if it featured any of the songs in the actual game I only remember that they are different. The music was another big reason I got the game, though, as when I played the demo (now that I recall) the music really stood out; it's just so incredibly done. I can't gush over the music enough.

I do have to mention the puzzles now, though. I think there are some really frustrating things about this game (I have always felt this way). For instance, the games INCESSANT need to back track. Now I played this game a lot when I got it, so playing it again over a decade later I did find the answers to things just by memory sometimes, and I knew how grueling certain things were (such as you have to find all the video cartridges just for example, I knew that was a requirement to finish so I made sure not to forget- although I did still manage to forget one and had to backtrack for it) but it still weighs on you when you have to do it. I know it was/is an adventure game trope, and the most unpopular one at that. I feel a lot of good classic adventure games found smart ways to back track but still instill a sense of discovery while doing so. The worst thing is always forgetting something or not knowing you needed something you didn't get so you have to find it which means walking all the way back to somewhere on the other side of the game world. It's compounded in The Neverhood because there is a constant stream of things you have to do and often you don't really realize what something does because it triggers something for later or you cant get something until you do something else. Sometimes its a small thing (like turning on the water) and others it feels obscure until you stumble on it later (like the foghorn button door). Thankfully the game is never picky about skipping cut scenes so moving around the world is mostly easy to do and quick, but it gets slowed at times by certain means of travel (such as using the transporter) and the way Klayman walks sometimes makes me want to bash my head into the desk because it's slower on the third person scenes than it is on the first person ones and it cant be skipped when its third person (due to it not being cut scenes when he walks)- there's also something I cant place about how he walks I cant stand either. I think it's mainly the volume of his foot steps.

The puzzles themselves are smartly designed; consisting of sound puzzles, sliding puzzles, a memory puzzle, a switching puzzle (that involves dynamite which is actually a fairly simplistic puzzle), and environmental puzzles- among, probably, others . The puzzles themselves usually make sense, and the most annoying thing for me is that most of them always change so even if you remember what to do you still have to figure it out again. I like to move along when I'm replaying a game, so that slightly annoys me when they do that but I know that is kind of silly. Still... slider logic puzzles. Has anyone ever liked those? haha

This game unfortunately came out too late- having released at the end of the Adventure game domination (actually just as the genre was "dieing") so the game was a financial failure. I always thought that was unfortunate, as adventure games go it is a smartly made one. It has several moments that annoy the hell out of me still (and the amount of note taking you have to do- I still am not sure if I think it's smart or annoying the things that I have to write down for this game) but all in all I still enjoy going to The Neverhood. It's a weird place, with varying degrees of beautiful scenery, amazing claymation cutscenes that are fun to watch, and some alright puzzles that annoy the hell out of me. Although, I still feel smart when I solve a puzzle (although less so because often I can remember the answer) and I enjoy the absurdity of the worlds context.

So, in closing I'll just say that I really enjoy The Neverhood still. I do have a lot of nostalgia for it, but playing it again is a reminder of the things I both hate about some adventure games and the things that I love. I hope with Armikrog they go beyond what they did with The Neverhood. They can leave out things like the hall of records (which is 38 screens of text [I think] on a wall that you have to walk all the way down for a video cartridge) and finding ways to not backtrack, or at least backtrack in more interesting ways and I'd probably be happier with it. All in all, though, it's still a one of a kind adventure. You wont see an all claymation video game anywhere else.

As always, a photo dump at the end. Enjoy!