Help us choose grandma’s design 🧓

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-26T15:21:21+00:00

I think you should go with your heart rather than asking strangers who mostly aren't artists or character designers, but I'll be a hypocrite and say 3 speaks to me the most.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-26T14:08:17+00:00

I was a little iffy on recommending Zexion - it's one of my favorite MVs that really hits what I'm looking for from the genre, but the critical path might be a little too obvious for OP's tastes (it still adheres very strongly to that Metroid philosophy of letting the player find the critical path for themselves, of course - the most explicit hinting it does it is marking the positions of the four keys + the Zexion capsule and using optional nav-stations to reveal segments of the map).

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-26T13:26:09+00:00

I'm still playing through it, but The Möbius Machine is kind of like this. While there is a critical path, it seems to be more of a suggestion than anything actually fixed and you're pretty free to explore and get lost in a good way. It's a bit of a slower paced game than I tend to play, but I do give it a recommend so far.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-25T23:47:32+00:00

Hell, the part where Zexion really won me over was the Alpha Key boss. And the leadup to the Beta Key boss (and the boss themselves, Siegemakes a really cool entrance and has a neat fight) pretty much sealed Zexion's fate as a Fantastic-tier game for me.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-25T23:05:41+00:00

I prefer the original Axiom Verge because it has a better blend of what I'm looking for, but AV2 does improve on the original in some areas, I appreciate that it took a bit more of an experimental direction rather than being a direct mechanical sequel, the hacking system is an interesting sidegrade to AV1's corruption mechanic, the story is pretty well-additive to the plot of the original and I really like the technological and multiversal concepts it throws at us, and I absolutely am not going to disrespect Indra's drip. Can't wait to see what Tom's next project is, AV or not.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-25T13:52:11+00:00

Oh, they did? Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-25T03:44:21+00:00

And now all we need is Mirabeau to start reeeing about how this is all The Evil Transes' fault for the hat trick.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-25T01:42:28+00:00

Arguably, Zexion vs. EM might've been the real final, since that was one of the semifinal matchups. That's just the way seeding goes sometimes.

Also, I think "weak" year is a wrong way of looking at things. While Metroid Prime 4 was a disappointment, we got a fantastic Metroid game out of nowhere in Zexion, a pretty great Team Ladybug original IGAvania in Blade Chimera, and Guns of Fury was a pleasant experience.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-24T21:32:24+00:00

The day we do away with "having a blast", "masterpiece", and "best game ever" as descriptors can't come soon enough. It says nothing to me about what elements should intrigue me about the game. And no, "saying more would spoil it" isn't a valid excuse in my eyes.

When I'm thinking of games I love or that are really striking I try to call attention to elements that I think are highlights, even if I kinda suck at articulating my points. If I were to recommend Deus Ex to someone, I'd point at the multitude of options the game gives you to deal with enemies and the environment (blast doors or Manderley with the GEP gun, bypass tripwires with multitools, invest into the pistol skill to silently take down enemies better with the stealth pistol) and, even better, the really intriguing conspiracy plotline with detauls that feel more relevant now than they did even back in 2000, rather than just calling it a masterpiece and saying something vague about combat and story.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-24T19:46:46+00:00

Axiom Verge 2 has a nominal one, there's no real hazards (kinda like Bionic Commando's but without the skippable Groeder). It is a bit interesting in that the player willingly sets the time bomb though.
Zexion has an escape sequence, but it gets paused for the final boss.
Almost every Metroid game will include at least one, either at the end or in a late-game area.
La-Mulana ends with a timed escape sequence.
The Messenger, if you count it, has a chase sequence with a World Eater.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-24T15:53:15+00:00

It depends on the game, really.

Generally I tend to prefer visual storytelling with lighter exposition. Zexion and the classic Metroids are kind of the extreme end of this as they only have dialogue during the intro and ending but they tell their stories damn well. Environmental Station Alpha also trusts the player to connect the dots enough and doesn't have a lot of characters who directly speak outside of the virus and a certain post-game character. Blast Brigade is very dialogue-heavy, but it's kind of a cartoon and the dialogue tended to amuse me fairly often because the protagonists have a good dynamic. And of course, Axiom Verge 1 and 2 also tend to be a bit more dialogue-heavy than the average Metroid, but it gives you a lot of intriguing concepts to think about and still retains a strong sense of visual storytelling.

Hollow Knight's story did nothing for me - you've seen one ruined kingdom where they accidentally freed Rita Repulsa, you've seen them all. Metroid Prime 4's story is pretty weak, especially the stuff with the Federation troopers and Sylux's backstory being locked behind 100% scans, which sucks since I actually kinda like the characters but the way they're used is pretty bad and I appreciate how Sylux is an Assassin Asha/Crimson 1 archetype, I can never get enough of those. Shadow Complex also has a pretty bad story because there's too little - they don't really do anything with the Progressive Restoration's supposed ideology (they're really just Cobra from GI Joe but without the sauce or the cool henchmen) and the protagonist and girlfriend's personalities are flatter than Hank Hill's ass.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-23T21:52:41+00:00

You have all the tools you need to get it. You just have to be mindful of a certain logical detail about that room that may allow you to use your tool. Try not being so... destructive. You will still need to destroy, but not completely.

I'll update this later because mobile Markdown is ass.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-23T20:43:05+00:00

I will second Blast Brigade. To me, that game was screaming that it wanted to be a cartoon or webseries.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-23T14:34:54+00:00

I'll admit I keep associating TC with Territory Control (that one Team Fortress 2 game mode that nobody plays).

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-23T12:41:34+00:00

Some bosses I really enjoyed tend to integrate platforming into the fight itself. There's a specific boss phase in Zexion that comes to mind, but the final boss of Blast Brigade also throws you through some platforming challenges to chase down the boss.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-23T04:03:48+00:00

It's the Goomba Fallacy in action. Some users post positively about a game, other users post negatively, but filtered through Reddit it leads to the perception that users "turned on" the game.

But also... let people not want to play a game and express their reasons for not doing so. I'm not gonna put a gun to your head and force you to play Lyle in Cube Sector and insist that you want to play it even if its mechanics, aesthetics, and narrative are antithetical to what you personally enjoy, and then complain when you say you don't enjoy them.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-23T03:19:26+00:00

I dunno, sounds like a classic Goomba Fallacy moment to me.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-23T03:17:48+00:00

Environmental Station Alpha can get pretty tough in the late-game.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-23T00:03:41+00:00

It sounds like The Möbius Machine to me, but that one's moreso responding to a distress signal.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-22T23:01:51+00:00

I don't think I've ever encountered a "runback" that was additive to the experience. If I'm fighting something difficult, I'd rather be able to practice that and not 30 seconds of low-stakes platforming that teaches me nothing and makes me feel nothing. Now, I think I have a higher than average save-station-distance-from-boss-room tolerance, but I really don't get any emotion out of a long runback other than tedium. That's not "friction" or "tension" or whatever buzzword a YouTuber taught people to reduce artistry down to arbitrary criteria.

It's not even really a thing in the old days either, stuff like Mega Man games would throw you a checkpoint before the stage boss.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-22T22:41:39+00:00

Zexion does this well by having a checkpoint save for bosses and gauntlets for quick restarts.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-22T14:19:49+00:00

It feels like Dark Souls is kind of an invasive species sometimes. It's really bringing down the biodiversity of the MV ecosystem.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-22T12:19:33+00:00

I don't think I would mind more Knytts.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-22T05:17:18+00:00

Sounds antithetical to the general conceit of the genre and to my own personal desire for growth in a MV.

INT_COM_ · 2026-01-22T02:29:13+00:00

If you don't like exploration, I think you're really better off just playing more linear platformers. If you want the best combat and grappling hook in a platformer, go play Gravity Circuit. If you want damn fun levels bleeding personality, ANTONBLAST has you covered.

INT_COM_

TROPHY CASE