It's that time again, I've played a few more games this year that I'm very excited to talk about. Cat Quest III was a game I've been excitedly anticipating since I checked out its demo and it's finally released, Vividlope was a game that caught my eye with its striking aesthetics, and Spark The Electric Jester 3 was a game I have been waiting to play for quite a long time. Spark 3 will get its own review because I have a lot to say about it, but for now, let's talk about Cat Quest III and Vividlope.
Cat Quest III:
Let's get Cat Quest out of the way first because it's the one I have the least to say about. Pretty much everything I said about the demo holds true with the final release, Cat Quest III is a charming and polished evolution of the series' formula with vastly improved visuals, more interesting combat mechanics, and a unique pirate theming which facilitates fun island exploration akin to games like Wind Waker. The biggest surprise is that compared to the demo, the final version of Cat Quest III has re-arranged its map to be far more open, allowing you to visit any island at any point with the only limit being your level. The added dose of nonlinearity really elevates the sense of exploration at the heart of Cat Quest III, and being able to chart my own path and explore the game's various islands at my leisure is infectiously fun. As a whole, I don't think this game is quite as long as the second, but the varied islands and setpieces (concert boss fight? dating sim dungeon?! Castlevania reference?!?!) meant it didn't feel nearly as repetitive.
That being said, I have two gripes. First off, it's incredibly easy to overlevel and accidentally snap this game in half. I ended up making myself a build so powerful that I was able to completely wipe the final boss with little effort, which is a shame considering how well-balanced the ship combat felt by comparison. My other bigger issue was the story, which I didn't totally vibe with. Spoilers ahead. The main plot is actually very similar to Puss In Boots 2 where you and a few other rival factions are all competing for the North Star to get some sort of wish granted. Your mentor (a spirit hiding out from Purgatory) wants you to find the North Star so he doesn't go to Purgatory and can spend more time with you, while the "antagonist" wants it because he's been shouldering a horrific curse for years to prevent his entire crew from getting it. And I'll be honest, I sympathize with the antagonist more, if anyone deserved that wish it's him. It also doesn't help that your friend ends up not dying through a sheer deus ex machina so he ended up experiencing less growth than either of the major antagonists.
Story gripes aside though, this was still an
incredibly fun and breezy action-adventure game that evolved the Cat
Quest formula both mechanically and in terms of presentation and polish.
4/5 Stars
Vividlope:
Recently, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble came out and it was pretty good. It did a good job in evolving the series both mechanically and in terms of world-building, but it still felt like one pivotal thing was missing, and it's not the minigames. I haven't made it a secret that I have a huge fondness for the Y2K Futurism aesthetic, especially when utilized in games for consoles like the Playstation, Dreamcast, and Gamecube. The combination of surreal and dreamy but vaguely futuristic imagery, sleek and stylish UI work, and comforting jungle music always serves to tap into a strange sense of nostalgia for an era I was just barely around for, and no series was as drenched with this kind of atmosphere as the early Super Monkey Ball games, which balanced fast-paced arcade-y freneticism with the eerie loneliness of traversing solitary islands floating in a large empty void. Banana Rumble was great, but it didn't quite capture those vibes, no game has... until I stumbled upon Vividlope.
Vividlope is a sort of arcade-puzzler that released in 2023 that took heavy inspiration from the Y2K aesthetic. I only found out about it once it released on Switch about a week ago, but it was love at first sight. It genuinely feels like a long-lost Dreamcast game, hitting on pretty much everything I adore about that era of games. And for $10, it's a deceptively fun, addictive, and replayable little game as well.
Let's get the obvious part out of the way, Vividlope looks and sounds absolutely incredible. I don't think I've played any other games that really nailed the visual identity of early Super Monkey Ball quite like this one, though it also adds a lot of its own unique style as well. I love the variety of trippy and strange backgrounds, the way the level select shows you a 3D render of each stage, and how many of the later stages base themselves on actual real-world objects to catch you off-guard. But there's some neat visual touches that feel uniquely Vividlope, like the phenomenal and adorable character designs that blend 2D with 3D. I genuinely can't get over how cute Cerise, Ecru, and Miss Noir look. The sound design is also stellar, like the charming voice clips for all the characters and that blissful level clear jingle, and the primarily jungle and DnB soundtrack is predictably fantastic. I also just like how clean and polished this game is, even on the Switch. Vividlope has run on a perfectly smooth 60fps with incredibly tight, accurate, and responsive controls, which very much brings to mind the Dreamcast's consistently clean arcade ports. On a purely presentation level, Vividlope knocks it out of the freaking park.
Vividlope tasks you with trying to paint all the tiles on a Mario Galaxy-esque planetoid by walking onto all of them, while also dodging a variety of enemies each with their own unique movement styles. The game starts fairly slow, but later levels toss in a variety of gimmicks like tiles that need to be painted multiple times or only once, moving platforms, and invisible tiles, along with increasingly more enemies to deal with at any one time. On top of that, you have a power bar that increases when you step on new tiles and decreases when you step on tiles that are already filled in, which bumps up your speed, gives you perks depending on the character you play as, and improves your rank. The game can get quite tough and there's a lot to keep track of, but I think Vividlope does a pretty solid job at keeping things fairly generous for all kinds of players. You only need to beat a fraction of the levels in each world to make it to the next, you can buy items before a difficult stage to make things easier for yourself, you get multiple lives, and each playable character has their own unique strengths, like Cerise being able to tank an extra hit, and Miss Noir being able to use her power bar to shoot fireballs at enemies. If you just want to beat the game casually, Vividlope's difficulty will probably end up hovering around Super Monkey Ball 2's story mode, maybe even a little easier since you don't need to beat every level.
Disclaimer: I have seen a lot of complaints over Vividlope's difficulty, but they seem to be directed towards the PC version. Apparently, the Switch version added some QoL improvements and reshuffled the level order to be more fair, but having not played the PC version, I can't really corroborate that. All I can say is that I thought this version of the game was totally fair and manageable.
And yet, if you want to get the most out of Vividlope, you will be immensely rewarded. This game has got an absolute treasure trove of content, more than you'd expect out of a game of this price. The main campaign has over 100 levels on its own, but each level also has a rank that you can get by finding all the bonus fruit, keeping your power bar up, and stepping on every tile. On top of that, each level has a Hard Mode version which you'll need to play to get the brutal V ranks. So that alone offers a ton of replayability, but there's also an Endless Mode with its own 45 exclusive stages, three playable characters each with their own unlockable hats, some unlockable modes and stages, achievements to get, and even a few neat extras like a Bestiary that lets you try dealing with all the different enemies and a Background Viewer because why not? If you vibe with this gameplay loop, there's a lot here to sink your teeth into.
Personally, I vibed with Vividlope hard, it's one hell of a fantastic arcade game. It's incredibly polished, inventive, and addictive as an arcade-puzzle game and offers a ton of replayability, and it's only elevated by the immaculate Y2K-inspired presentation and stellar character designs. Definitely one of the better surprise gems of the year as far as I'm concerned, and one of my new favorite games of 2023.
4.5/5 Stars
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