Gamebox 2.0: Games of January 2024
It’s finally 2024 and that means getting our hands on the games to start the year off right. We raced Micro Machines in VR, became investigators for Bahnsen Knights and Card Detective, and went on a vampiric quest in The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest. Check out these game reviews and more in the January Gamebox 2.0.
Micro Machines: Mini Challenge Mayhem (Zach): Coming from WIMO Games for Meta Quest and Steam, Micro Machines: Mini Challenge Mayhem brings the classic toy line into VR. Mini Challenge Mayhem features several different game modes, including a time trial where you try to complete the prebuilt courses in the fastest time possible, Demolition, where you build a track to smash the most objects for points, and Stunt Challenge, where you try to rack up the most points by performing stunts. The racing is more like slot car racing than a traditional racing game, as the only car on the track is your Micro Machine and you only control the acceleration, boost, and stunts. You don’t need to worry about turning but you do need to modulate your speed so you don’t fly off the course or miss the track by jumping too far. The tracks take place in an array of environments, including a bedroom, arcade/den, and a construction site, all scaled to huge size against your tiny car.
Stunt Challenge and Demolition are interesting because you not only have to worry about racing, but you have to assemble the track yourself from a select number of pieces. It sort of feels like a puzzle as you experiment and try to figure out the best track to rack up the most points. Demolition has vibes of the iconic Crash Mode from the Burnout series with its physics-based destruction as you knock down items like balls and cups and can interact with items like rockets to cause more mayhem. You can build and test as much as you want and the track pieces and testing buttons are quickly accessed by flipping your wrist. Laying out actual track pieces is a little finicky at times but there is a clever mechanic where you can place two pieces out without connecting them and then dragging to try and create a track layout that will reach between them. The game also features several ways to view the action, from a hood cam to a chase camera and even a camera that mimics what it would be like to stand in the room and look down on the toys. That last mode feels a bit more of a gimmick and I mostly stuck with the chase cam.
There is also a Mixed Reality mode where you can build a track in your actual living room, kitchen, bedroom, etc, with features like portals and an enemy ghost that you can implement. If you get nauseous in VR or don’t have your VR stamina built up, this game, with its speed, could cause some issues but there are many comfort options, including creating more of a coned vision to make things easier to experience. As you progress through the challenges, you earn stars that you can use to unlock new Micro Machines cars and accessories like tires, paint jobs, and engines for them. You do have to purchase everything in a “series” before you can move on to another group of cars and accessories and I probably would have preferred just having everything in one menu and picking and choosing the cars and accessories I wanted. All the cars are actual Micro Machines and there’s some fun 90s nostalgia for Micro Machines fans as well, like the Super Van City sitting on a shelf in the bedroom environment. If you are looking for actual racing against opponents, Micro Machines: Mini Challenge Mayhem won’t satisfy you in that respect but the modes that are included are fun and the aspect of building the courses yourself and then racing them adds a fun puzzle aspect to the game that makes it worth checking out if you have a Meta Quest or Steam VR compatible headset.
Card Detective (Chris): When an accident at a construction site reveals a hidden body, an ambitious journalist begins an investigation to shuffle through the lies for the truth in Card Detective. Developed by MuccyGames, Card Detective is a part detective visual novel and part deck-building game. The plot follows Hazel Gong, a reporter for a struggling newspaper. When she discovers a big conspiracy surrounding the construction company, she finds a chance to prove herself by uncovering the people responsible. But with suspects trying to remain silent, Hazel will have to ask the right questions during her interviews to get her answers. The interview process is representative of a card game, where the player is given cards that can be used to lower a subject’s resistance to tell the truth. With some good questions, clever tactics, and some patience, Hazel can get people to talk and crack the case.
The gameplay of Card Detective is based on real-world interrogation techniques. The science of criminal psychology is conveniently simplified cards to represent different questions and methods used in cross-examinations. An interview process has the player draw random cards from their hand and see a few statements made by the interviewee. The statements are protected by a deception value and have certain effects on the player. The player has a limited amount of turns to ask questions and get the facts before the interviewee’s patience runs out and ends the interview.
The player’s deck is made of Strategy and Trick cards. Strategy is made up of different types of questions to ask a specific topic or a probing inquiry to gauge a response. Trick Cards can boost question card values or be used to set up chained effects to trap an interviewee’s response. Strategy and Trick cards have different values and effects and can be used in various tactics. The player’s cards can go towards the interviewee’s deception value that guards their ability to keep their secrets. However, if the player can deduce that an interviewee’s statement is a truth or lie, the player can directly attack that statement to quickly eliminate the deception.
Card Detective has an interesting concept for card-based examinations which unfolds in a dramatic story filled with twists and turns. The jazzy musical score and anime-inspired art style work well with the game’s mechanics. While the card aspect is entertaining for a few rounds, I wish the game had a little more depth with an enemy A.I system that adapts and adjusts the interviewee’s tactics. The interviewee has behavior and tactic cards that follow a fixed order and can be easily defeated sometimes by blind guessing on the statement. Tabletop card game players might be disappointed by a missing A.I system, but I can still enjoy a few rounds here and there to watch the story. Card Detective is suited for those visual novel gamers who want to explore card game mechanics without a grind for rare cards in a game. Card Detective was released on December 23 and is now available for Steam.
Bahnsen Knights (Zach): Coming from Chorus and LCB Games Studios, Bahnsen Knights is the third game in the Pixel Pulps adventure game series, the previous two entries I have been a huge fan of. Throwing back to old-school CGA/VGA adventure games with its graphical style, Bahnsen Knights puts you in the shoes of Boulder, an undercover agent who is infiltrating the titular cult, the Bahnsen Knights. His fellow agent and best friend disappeared while investigating the Knights and Boulder wants to find out what happened and stop whatever nefarious plan they have planned. There are a few differences compared to the previous two games in the series, Varney Lake and Mothmen 1966. In those two games, you played as several protagonists but here you are fully in the shoes of Boulder. The game also adds a distrust meter to all the cult members you meet and if it gets filled, they know Boulder is an undercover agent and bad things happen. The graphics and writing are top-notch, as it has been for this entire series and the game is divided into chapters that are the perfect length to make you want to play “just one more” and get sucked in for much longer than you intended. The previous games had a greenish/bluish tint to the old-school graphics but Bahnsen Knights leans into an extremely vivid red/purple/pink style that adds to the demonic/cult plotline.
The pixel art is incredible and, along with the writing, makes for a thrilling and compelling thriller storyline. My one complaint for the Pixel Pulp series continues in Bahnsen Knights though, which is it’s a bit awkward when the game has action sequences. There are sequences where you are driving and need to move left or right but, instead of direct control. You have to scroll to the text option for each action and select it. It adds just enough delay to potentially cause you to fail some of the sequences but, thankfully, you quickly get right back to where you were if you hit a game over. The game also continues the series fascination with card games and solitaire variants but this game’s version is even more confusing and inscrutable than the previous ones, even after listening to the instructions a few times. Luckily that’s optional and just a minor distraction from the main story. If you’ve played the previous Pixel Pulp games, this is another great entry in the series and, if you haven’t, you can still jump right in and play through the great story and enjoy the killer graphics. It’s out now on PC, Switch, PS5/4, and Xbox Series S/X.
The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest – Demo (Chris): When it comes to Castlevania titles, developers have either tried to become a spiritual successor or taken the series’ best design influences and dressed it up in a different setting. But there are a few games that dare to carefully embrace and parody the series’ oddities. Now Programancer and Retroware dare to showcase all the silly and strange things the Castlevania ignores in The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest. Developed as a homage to the classic 2D Castlevania era games, TASQ follows monster hunter Simon as he tries to resurrect then slay Dracula, just for spite. The vampiric lord has already been defeated by a rival hunter and now Simon seeks a way to outshine the competition.
While the plot is not quite a noble heroic journey, the gameplay is everything an epic quest should be. As the title implies, TASQ borrows heavily from Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest design. Simon is a close replicate of a Belmot-level hunter; his primary weapon of choice is a whip and he carries around holy items to toss at his enemies. Simon also has a sweet sliding kick that’ll quickly launch him into foes. But his fighting talents will only get him so far and he’ll have to lend out his service to townsfolk. Simon will have to find and talk to people, who will give him to get tips and items for his quest. There is also a day and night system that affects monsters and events. Simon can only access parts when it’s the proper hours, encouraging players to plan out their routes.
I got to try the latest version of the demo which gives a pretty good insight to a portion of the main game loop. Controlling Simon has that classic Castlevania feel. Whipping enemies is not fast and fluid, so you have to react a bit faster to compensate for a brief wind-up time. The graphics perfectly capture the retro look of the game. The 8-bit sprite work looks great and is colored well which would probably push the NES to its limits. There are additional options to further extend the pixel quality to emulate playing the game on a CRT monitor for a truly retro experience. The game has been in development for a few years at this point and the demo showcases all the familiar mechanics well. The presentation is well polished and you can feel the care that went into recreating the tone of a Castlevania game. This a title that Metroidvania fans should be checking out when it gets a full release in 2025.
Skyrockets: Festivals of Fire (Zach): We got a rundown of the game at PAX Unplugged last year but Skyrockets: Festivals of Fire from Floodgate Games is out now. In a co-op game, a group of 2-5 players are trying to put on the best fireworks show, which requires precise timing and coordination. Skyrockets’ main mechanic is a series of sand timers, each set to a different amount of time. At the start of the game, players choose which of the 30 different challenges they want to take on. Each challenge has a specific initial setup to how the sand timers are set up and different aspects unique to each one. The training mission simply has you and your group trying to get one timer to the end of the scoring track but the later missions add dynamics like having to flip timers on top of each other, only person knowing how much time is left on all the timers or no talking between the players. The main goal is usually to get the orange timer to the end of the scoring row to the red detonate button, which will conclude the show and win the game for the players.
If any of the sand timers besides the orange timer run out of sand, your team is penalized by a spectator “leaving” the show. If three spectators leave, your show is a failure and you lose. Once the game gets going, it’s a frantic but fun test of coordination and teamwork. On each player’s turn, they play a firework card with one or more colors corresponding to the timers, whatever colors are on the card are the timers you flip over. You can wait and flip the timers whenever you want but you risk the other timers running out. The key is to communicate and plan with the other players, asking what colors they can play next turn and calling out if any of the timers are getting low. Each game usually takes about 10 minutes and it seems like a great game if you have a dedicated board game group that knows each other well. You can play a few rounds to kick off a night of board gaming and work your way up to the crazier and more difficult challenges. All the components are well made and it’s fun to have this many sand timers in one game. If you’re looking for a fast-paced and fun co-op game for your table, definitely check out Skyrockets: Festivals of Fire wherever you get board games or directly from Floodgate Games.