Eh, you know what? Most people
probably skip the intro. I'll bring it back if I
have something to show off. Hey! Welcome to Ross's Game Dungeon. It is October so that means
Halloween is coming up. Now every Halloween, I want
to do everything I can. I want to watch scary movies,
set up a haunted house, hide in the bushes at night near
walkways wearing a hockey mask... But it seems like there's
never enough time for it all. Even then, my plans can backfire. I'll think I'll have a scary game for sure, and it ends up being a bright and
sunny day watching a genie get high. So this year, let's split the difference. We have a Halloween episode
coming, but before that, we have some Halloween game
appetizers to get us warmed up. None of these struck me as worth
throwing a full episode towards, but a bite-sized
trick-or-treat variety pack? Yeah, that sounds like
Halloween to me. So let's do it. All right, first up is "Camp Sunshine". "What kind of camper are you?"
I guess I'm a normal camper. So we start off with a very
JRPG Super Nintendo art style. "So kiddo, are you looking
forward to Summer Camp?" "Hmmm, yeah I guess so." "Hey, we'll have less of
that attitude young man!" Wow. If mama's upset about that attitude, I think she has unrealistic
expectations of people, in this case, teenagers. Maybe that's why she's getting divorced. So mom drops you off at summer camp, and for the record, these faces
make me want to punch everyone. This would be good for a brawler. So blah-blah-blah, here are
the camp rules, nobody cares. You're introduced to your
roommate, Jack. Mom leaves. "Anyhoo, it's getting late
so we should hit the hay. "See you in the morning for the
Camp Sunshine welcome breakfast." Okay, am I off-base here or does
this not look like the type of person who would worry about going to bed late? Mr. Dyed-Red-Rooster-Maned-Fauxh awk-Hair
is worried about stayin g up late and is excited about the camp breakfast? I can see him worried that we're
going to miss the rave, but whatever. Yeah, better "hit the hay". But we wake up later. [evil laughter] "Holy shit! What the hell was that? "There's blood everywhere! Fuck!" Hm. What's outside? ["C'mere, kid!"] Looks like it's stabbin' time! So we hide. Boopadoop-boop-boop-boopadoop-do o-doo... ["Don't you dare move."] And hide some more. Whoops. Whoops. Whooops. And this is the game. You travel from cabin to cabin looking
for supplies, and trying not to die. I like this contrast between a sunny
day, bright and cheerful graphics. It could almost be an
episode of "The Smurfs". La la la-la-la la... Yeah, Papa Smurf has been busy. As you wander around, you
try to evade the bear killer, and find clues about what's going on. When you find clues, it gives you a
flashback of events that led to this. It's a well-structured game. Some places will be locked off
which you find ways to open later. I ended up conserving my
battery power WAY too much, because realistically, if somebody
is out and about dicing people up, are you going to turn on your flashlight
for one second longer than you need to? Hey! Look at me! I'm over here! The gameplay is actually much
less scary than it looks, because UH-OH! THE BEAR'S
CHASING ME! HE'S CHASING ME! Ah-hah! His only weakness: Doors. If you go in any door, he disappears so
that takes a lot of the fright factor away. Now I'd show you the plot
but it's kind of boilerplate. You can piece it together pretty early on
and there's no big reveal once it's done. Although maybe I'm being unfair because this game's plot is definitely
better than your average slasher movie. I mean, this game is more-or-less
copying "Friday the 13th". Now Friday the 13th is infamous
for being bad on the Nintendo, but this is basically the same thing,
reimagined Super Nintendo-style, done right. So the Friday the 13th formula wasn't
bad. It was THIS GAME that was bad. Really, my biggest criticism
is this starts off GREAT, and is just only good afterwards. I mean, come on. If you open
with a body count like this, you've really got to up the ante
by the end to keep things moving. So, good game, but burns up too fast. You have to pace your killings, people.
This is a classic rookie mistake. Next up is "Lakeview Cabin". Yeah, "gamepad recommended".
I'll talk about that in a second. Anyway, this is, uh, another Friday
the 13th knockoff pixel art game. In fact, even now
I keep mixing up the names. "Camp Lake Cabin Sunshine". Anyway, it starts off with an ominous
beginning where you wander into the theater, the idea being that each episode is
a movie inside the main game. Okay! So we walk into the first
theater and get started. And here we are in a classic
Friday the 13th setting. This may as well be Camp Crystal Lake. So we can wander around and, um... what now? I can pick up things... Yeah, I'm going to put you right over there. Throw things... Oh whoops! I can drink beer, that's good. Oh damn. I didn't mean to do THAT. Oh wow. So now she's bloodied up
because I threw a sock at her. That knocked her onto the ground, too. I mean that looks like a sock to
me! Okay, so no sock throwing. Alright, go ahead and think
about what we should be doing while I talk about the controls. Okay, this is by no means
the first game to do this, but we've stumbled upon a grudge
I've been harboring for a while. Let's back up. "Gamepad recommended". What's this in my hand? Okay, start. Start! Anything! Yeah, what they mean is an Xbox controller. Starting around the mid-2000s, Microsoft decided that what gaming
on Windows was missing was the Xbox, so they made Xbox 360 controllers the
new standard for gamepads on the PC, and just threw normal
PC gamepads to the curb. Fast forward and a lot of Unity engine
games seem to follow that same standard. So nowadays, I'm running into
Windows games all the time that only support Xbox controllers. Now emulators do exist for this problem, but I swear
sometimes I just can't get some buttons to behave. It's always a pain in the ass for me. Now you might think, why not
just buy an Xbox controller? Well, besides me being resentful
about having to buy something new to replace something I have
that still works, I almost did that, except the Xbox
layout doesn't mesh well with my brain. If I'm using a gamepad, it's probably
for a 2D platformer or something. I'm kind of used to the Super
Nintendo or the Genesis standard. The PlayStation followed
that layout pretty closely, and Xbox decided to flip it, so my muscle memory is forever
going to think that this is wrong. Even the Wu-Tang has the
buttons more or less level. Now I realize this is basically
the pettiest thing in the world, because again, solutions
to this problem exist, but something about a company that
makes the platform you're playing on telling you to go buy parts
for a different platform because they broke the one
you were on, I can't get over. Did you know before it was shut down, the Games for Windows marketplace
redirected you to xbox.com? The moral of this story is Microsoft should
maybe be broken up into different companies? Anyway, back to the game, I'm
definitely liking the atmosphere, but I'm completely lost on
what to do on anything of this. Whoops, I'm dead. And that's
really the gameplay style here. Oops. If you wait long enough,
a killer comes at night, cuts the power, then comes to kill you, and from what I've read before, you have to set up an
elaborate series of traps to counter him and evade
him at the right times. The thing is, though, the game
doesn't explain any of this; you have to figure it all out one step
at a time by playing it over and over. You can't really prepare because you
don't know what the killer is going to do, but even if you did, figuring out
what you need to interact with to get where is a mystery in itself. Shit! This is Trial-and-Error: The Game. This
is what gaming purgatory looks like. Maybe some people like this, but this is a gameplay trend I'm
glad largely died in the 90s. I WANT to like this game--I just don't. You can just get drunk and
watch the sunset, though, so I can't call it a bad game, but
it's a little too indie for me. "Halloween Harry"! Yeah, I can only go so long
and not talk about this game. I mean, c'mon. It's called Halloween Harry. It's a sort of almost-classic
in the platformer genre. "Space Station Liberty".
I love this space music. 2030! Only ten years, guys! I mean twelve. So, what's going on, Diane? Oop! An alien ship. We
know where this is going. Okay, they've invaded New York and
they're turning people into zombies. Yep, yep, I think I've heard
enough. This is no good, guys. Oh! A message from the leader. "Earth scum. You have 24 hours to
turn control of the planet over to me "or I'll begin turning my hostages
into brain-dead killer zombies." Well, you've already
converted a bunch of them; this isn't a very strong
negotiating position. If we resist you, you'll
turn us into zombies. If we give in, you'll turn us into zombies. I'm not seeing the downside to resisting. Yeah, we sent in a team,
they're all zombies now. Everybody's a zombie. Zombies. Okay, now she's talking about my weapons. "Sounds righteous, Diane!" Let's go! So the idea is, you run around the level, you have a jetpack--that's good, and a flamethrower--that's good, too. Y'know, there's nothing wrong
with giving your character an awesome weapon right from the
start, and then letting them keep it. These both need fuel, though. You can buy it and other weapons from
vending machines scattered around. That works. You rescue hostages, kill zombies, and
fight your way to the end of the level. And that's it. Rinse and repeat. There's a little bit of variety on the
enemies, and the game is a complete maze. Oh yeah, this is fun. Even the very beginning of
the game has a hidden ceiling. I don't like this crap unless
it's a secret or something. All right, you may not believe me, but
I generally don't care about nostalgia. Call me a philistine, but I
think if a game is old, so what? I'm not into old games so much as
I don't care when a game came out. If it's good and came out 20 years, awesome. If it's good and came out yesterday... Well, it's probably
expensive, but still, awesome! So is Halloween Harry an awesome game? Aaaaaahhhhhhh... Looking at
it, I have to go with "no". This wouldn't survive if
it was released today; the gameplay is just too mundane to me. The levels are all practically the same
thing, just with different backgrounds, and it's just one maze after another. I do like the idea of an office complex
that actually looks like this, though. Suspended platforms everywhere
inside some massive larger complex. Things like this can get
my imagination working. And the game tops off boss
fights with explosions, so I can't complain about everything. Hell yeah! But if there's one thing that
totally holds up from this game, it's the music. [music] I still love the space station theme. [music] And the menu theme, and
credits theme, and...yeah. It could stand maybe a
slightly more modern rendition, but keep the notes the same. They're great. The shareware copy of this actually
front-loaded all the best music into the game. Every single track in the shareware
is a homerun! All of them! The shareware swapped out
the office level music with the factory music since it's more rad, but then they swapped it
back in in the full version But then in "Alien Carnage",
which is the same game renamed, they swapped out the office level
for the sewer level. Developers. So there's some good stuff in here,
great music, a jetpack flametrooper, plasma weapon vending machines,
alien zombie cherubs... Well, we can pretty much gut
the core game and not lose much. This game doesn't live up to its name. Changing the name from Halloween
Harry to Alien Carnage is a copout. Instead, they should've
doubled down on Halloween. Where are your pumpkin bombs,
Harry? I feel a little robbed. Okay, let's cut to the ending. You soldier on to the alien ship, and
the end boss is... bum-bum-bummm... Alien Elvis. This honestly feels more random than clever. I mean, if we want to say Elvis was
an alien and faked his own death, would he really want to invade Earth
and turn everyone into zombies? I would've thought Earth treated him pretty
well--peanut butter banana sandwiches. Well, he's toast now, so here's the ending. BOOM! There's Harry off in his bubble pod. "You did it, Harry! You saved the world!" "Of course I saved the world.
That's what I'm paid to do. "Well, I'm outta here!" "Where are you going?" "Home to rest. I'm going to
need all the rest I can get "before they start
trudging out the sequels." Actually, this game did get
a sequel: "Zombie Wars". It's pretty much the same
thing, just outdoors. Hm. My memory is hazy, but I remember
there being more to that ending. Am I going crazy again? Let's check the
ending to Alien Carnage, just in case. "You did it Harry! Once again the world is
a nicer, rounder place in which to live!" Yeah, gotta keep it round. "It was nothing Diane. Nothing
that any red blooded American "with balls of steel wouldn't have done." Now's a good time to mention
this is an Australian game. "Well, I'm outta here!" "Where are you going?" "Somewhere... "Anywhere... "I dunno... I'm just a wild eyed
loner at the gates of oblivion." "Oh Harry, you're the best." Yeah, it was a simpler time
for game writing. So that's Halloween Harry. Okay, next game. "Made with Unity." Yeah, don't worry. We
don't need a gamepad where we're going. "Still Not Dead". This is a good title. Besides that being the
attitude I approach most days, that's also a great way to answer
people asking how you're doing. "How're you doing, Bob?"
"Well, Jim. I'm still not dead." That's another one of those lines that goes
better if you cock a shotgun after saying it. So this is a first-person shooter, and
lots of things are randomly generated, so we'll just hop in and see what we get. Now you get to choose a
global buff for the level. Oh, "Brain Dead". That's
like the best one to get. I don't want START with that--you'll
get the wrong impression of this game. Let's try again. Yeah, none of these are that great. So when you don't know what to pick,
get paid to let the game decide for you. Hell yeah. So here's the game. We have "Doom"-era graphics, and
"Wolfenstein"-era controlling. There is NO vertical axis;
you cannot aim up or down. You mostly don't need to
but that still upsets me. We're just not embracing
the third dimension. Even though it upsets mathematicians, gaming has generally accepted the
term "2.5D games" as subgenre. So, what is this? 2.75D? I CAN jump. Anyway, you're in Hell, or something.
Everything's trying to kill you. The goal is to kill them first so
you can summon a portal and escape. I don't know why it works this way.
We'll just blame this all on black magic. So we have a hell-world with
enemies that defy explanation: the cross monster things,
the cubed sorcerers... Okay, THOSE are zombies. We have to kill the monsters, but
we also need money. More money. We need it so we can buy things.
There's no free lunch in Hell. Okay, literally the lunch is free, but
you have to find it. It's not easy. You DO have to buy your
weapons, which are random, and buy your ammo, which is expensive. And while you're doing this,
enemies are on your tail. In fact, this game makes
me paranoid to turn around, because I lose a little
speed in the process, and you turn back and--NYAAAAH! But, besides that--BLAAH!
WE'VE BEEN FORESAKEN! THE WORLD IS ENDING! DEATH IS COMING FOR US! Yeah, as if you didn't have
enough to juggle already, there's an invisible time limit
on every level--about two minutes. After that, the grinning skull of death
comes for you, and there's no escaping it. It smashes through buildings. OH NO! WE HAVE TO FIND THE PORTAL! FIND THE PORTAL NOW! Then it's back for more, and here is a
great feature I've barely seen elsewhere. You don't just choose your buffs,
you choose your hindrances, too. Honestly, this is more important. I mean, how many games do you wish you
could just skip a mechanic you don't like? Like maybe swap out small annoying
flying enemies you can't hit, and just have meaner regular enemies
instead? I can think of plenty. So what should I choose? Yeah, I agree. Double your
death, double your fun. Oh yeah. Remember how you can't aim down? Yeah, that's still not
irritating me or anything. I think I know why they did it, though. If you look up or down in
sprite-based games like this, it takes some of the magic out of it. Then we pull away too much of the curtain and destroy the illusion of
these sophisticated graphics. And we can afford a gun.
The rifle, that's good. Now you might expect me
to use this on everything, but again, ammo is not cheap. There's always something to worry about: health, ammo, money, time--God, time! That's the draw of this game: Your real life seems more
manageable after dealing with this. Oh no! It's the cube wizard! He trapped me! OH, DEATH IS COMING! IT'S COMING! MAKE IT TO THE PORTAL! THE PORTAL! Another buff. Jumping grenades, huh? This was a mistake. This means
I have to get closer to them. You can't throw grenades very far with your
feet unless you're a good hacky sack player. Out of time again! They're coming for me!
They're coming for me, guys! Ouch! That hurt! TO THE PORTAL! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR LUNCH! HRAAAGH! "Broken arm" sounds good to me. I don't
want to get close to these bastards. GET THE FOOD! GET THE FOOD! GET AWAY FROM ME, BLOB MONSTER! IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN! PORTAL! Two more levels to go... "Explosive ammo" sounds good. I mean, c'mon. OH NO! THEY'RE MESSING ME UP! I DON'T NOW IF I'M GONNA MAKE IT! OH NO! THE PORTAL'S NOT UNLOCKED YET! OKAY, THERE IT IS! MOVE! I need this ammo. OH NO! THAT WAS STUPID! THIS IS A TRAP! C'MON, C'MON, C'MON! NGYAH! Okay! Last level! Yeah, sure, you can choose future options
for me. I'll be enjoying the end credits. All right, I need to--OH NO! I FAILED THE GAME! NOW I'M DEAD!
I DIDN'T LIVE UP TO THE TITLE! Okay, well we have to do this
again. I was almost there. This'll be the fast version. I'll say the most frustrating
thing about this game is you think you're heading towards
ammo or weapons or something, but you have to snake around these complex
layouts to get to where you need to go. I don't have time for that! Do I
look like I have time for that?! Yeah! Uzi! We'll save that
for special occasions. Eh, these are bad. "Fog" it is! DIE! DIE! DIE! "Brain dead"! Oh, we've got this now. And so the pattern continues. I have to say, this is the
perfect lunch break game. If you have 15 minutes free and need
to make the absolute most of it, this is the game to play. You'd be forgiven for thinking
this was some cheap cash-in game. I mean, maybe it is, I don't know. But the gameplay is actually there, and I'd love to see a more fleshed-out
game steal a lot from this. I'm a loud shopper! SALE! SALE! SALE! Anyway, I look at this game and
it's giving me a certain vibe. Back in the 90s, the public
thought games were just for kids, but then Doom and "Mortal Kombat" came
out, and started scaring everybody, Congress was questioning
if we should ban them, Bill Gates was giving press conferences
in a trenchcoat with a shotgun, it was the end of the world! Well, I see this game and I feel like
this is what they were afraid of. This is what they were trying
to prevent. This is it. These Satanic monsters with the
inverted crosses on their heads, the violence, the curses,
the haunting music... This game will swallow your soul! You can just feel the evil
emanating from it. If you play this game, you'd
better get good at surviving Hell, because that's where you're going next. So let's buckle down and
do this. Final level. It's the same thing, except
this time, I have an Uzi. Let's see if Hell notices the difference. I think it does. That's it! Portal unlocked! Go go go! And... I can't move! Did I make it? "Still not dead"! And... nothing. It's just an endless wave. Dante talks about the layers of Hell, but
looks like it's more of a Möbius strip. This game needs more stuff
at the end of the tunnel. Either give me an ending or give
me more to discover at the edges. If I can survive to wave 100, I want
to see new lands, unfathomable horrors, or secrets of the universe or something. Oh, it's early access. I didn't even notice. I got this with a bundle
of non-early access games. It doesn't say "early access"
on Steam. Nothing is sacred. So I guess I tricked myself this time. All right, well that does it for this
sampler pack. Stay tuned for some more. Until next time, stay not dead! [music] [Subtitles by danielsangeo]
[music] [music] ["Our commitment is to make the tools to
make the platform better and better--" ["Hey, Bill! Yeah, yeah..." ["Don't interrupt me."]
I am glad Ross is back. If anyone doesnt know he was in a nightmare scenario where his apartment was infested with mold and he couldn't find any available place to move to. There was also extra confusion because he is an immigrant living in Poland.
edit: A few weeks ago he finally moved out and is in a new mold-free apartment fyi.
Oh boy! Ross always has some great stuff lined up for Halloween! I just hope we also get a JonTron video in time for the spooky day!
has anyone ever seen this guy and wiiviewr in the same room?