make lists and games plural
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src/games/games.json
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{
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"layout": "layout/blog",
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"tags": ["games","post"]
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}
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src/games/modern_puzzle_games🚧.md
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src/games/modern_puzzle_games🚧.md
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---
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title: modern puzzle games
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draft: true
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---
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## antichamber
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## manifold garden
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## fez
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## the witness
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src/games/pizza_tower.md
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src/games/pizza_tower.md
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---
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title: pizza tower
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date: 2023-02-28
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---
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<!-- SCM Music Player https://www.scmplayer.net
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<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.scmplayer.net/script.js"
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data-config="{'skin':'skins/tunes/skin.css','volume':31,'autoplay':false,'shuffle':false,'repeat':1,'placement':'top','showplaylist':false,'playlist':[{'title':'Pizza Tower OST - Time for a Smackdown!','url':'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy2Etqoylew'},{'title':'Pizza Tower OST - Pizza Deluxe!','url':'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MK4t3s_y10'},{'title':'Pizza Tower OST - Cold Spaghetti','url':'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs6W0UYC64Y'},{'title':'Pizza Tower OST - Oregano Mirage','url':'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfHcDa5jCF0'},{'title':'Pizza Tower OST - Way Of The Pig','url':'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWI0ksuPSBI'},{'title':'Pizza Tower OST - Yeehaw DeliveryBoy','url':'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-dr4viC_hY'},{'title':'Pizza Tower OST - It%27s Pizza Time!','url':'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7gGacb8cO4'}]}" ></script>
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<!-- SCM Music Player script end -->
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<!-- {% include 'partials/playme.njk' %} -->
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i always have a moment when engaging with a piece of media that has "changing the game" status on launch. besides the subject of today's post, the most recent example i can remember is [everything everywhere all at once](https://letterboxd.com/film/everything-everywhere-all-at-once/). it's impossible to not be aware of the hype before you get in on the show or film or game yourself, and i find that i spend a huge amount of time wondering whether i actually like it or whether i feel like i _should_ like it. this said, i think i did like everything everywhere, and i think i like pizza tower as well, despite the hordes of video essayists raving about it en masse. they don't really have anything insightful to say about the experience, and neither do i, so i might just cut to the core of my feelings.
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### feel
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<img src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/pizzatower/images/d/d2/Idle_demo1.gif" style="width:100px;max-height:70px;object-fit:cover;object-position:bottom"/>
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you know how kids in the early 2000s would get given a gameboy or a playstation but because the parents had just made a pricey investment they had no interest in actually buying a top shelf game for it, so you end up with planet monsters for the gba and play it front to back because there isnt another option? i had sonic advance 2, which definitely wasn't the worst game i've ever played, but this particular "go fast at any cost" experience left a little to be desired. a horrid combination of viewport size (small) and map design (weird) meant that you could only get the wonderful sense of speed and fluidity that sonic promises by learning the maps and getting a bit lucky. more often than not a really fun feeling back and forth of horizontal springs and loops would be shot down by a 1 block high wall and a rising spike.
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pizza tower feels like applying the 2d sonic concept against 2020s era movement game sensibilities. slapping a couple of extra moves (wall runs, drifts, super jumps) onto the moveset means that you only need a fraction of a second to recover if you're about to hit a wall, meaning you can realistically play twitchily and take the environment at play time without having to memorise it. the grab being intrinsically a foreward moving action, and actually acting as a boost if you want to hit high speed from standing, vastly improves on a jump that requires you to slow down to hit a target unless you have the perfect speed and placement.
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these obviously arent the only movement techniques you have on hand but i think theyre the most important for making the game feel so smooth.
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### structure
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<img src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/pizzatower/images/8/88/Spr_player_skateboard.gif" style="width:100px;max-height:80px;object-fit:cover;object-position:bottom"/>
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i mostly just want to use this to talk about the final boss fight. the rest of the structure of the game is perfectly serviceable and simply facilitates you pushing through a sequence of cool areas while very calmly encouraging you to go back if you just blast through them without looking for secrets or collectables. zero complaints there 👍
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my one issue structure-wise is the boss fights, although this is hardly a unique complaint. the gameplay is pretty different and i didn't feel like it was really explained. i also wasn't very good at them, but i'm fine with being bad at boss fights if i can be pretty good at (and enjoy) the rest of the experience.
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<details>
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<summary>
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final boss spoilers
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</summary>
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this thankfully does not apply to the final boss. i weirdly found it to be the easiest boss in the game, and it did a great job of challenging me _just_ enough while giving multiple satisfying and punchy scenes bundled into one big fight. the reveal of pizzahead is delightful and was legitimately unexpected, and even though it was desperately obvious since the beginning of the game, i couldnt help but grin doing the crumbling tower escape.
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</details>
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i know that that wasn't the most in-depth or insightful input on the finale of the game, but i feel like i need to at least attempt to put into words how much fun i had with it. after a bit of a string of puzzle games ending in well meaning but somewhat limp conclusions ([antichamber](./../antichamber/) and [manifold garden](./../manifold_garden/)), it's nice to get back on form.
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### aesthetic
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<img src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/pizzatower/images/9/93/Peppino_crawl.gif" style="width:100px;max-height:40px;object-fit:cover;object-position:bottom"/>
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this is probably the area of the game that has been most harped on about by video essayists, but the art style is a breath of fresh air with its ms paint-ass wonky lines and paint bucket tone. the energy of peppino spaghetti and the games cast of characters is extremely chaotic, but i think the most important takeaway is that it has a different tone to the warioland 4 that inspired it. peppino is equal parts desperate and courageous which basically just means that he can be the best of both worlds when either situation demands it. most importantly to my personal enjoyment is that they dont lean on any gross humour like wario does. farts and breathing raw garlic breath arent really that funny and don't endear me to a character, sorry.
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before i started writing this segment i was planning on being a contrarian and saying that the soundtrack wasn't that memorable, but after listening to it through i do have to confirm that it's pretty good. i wish that people would stop fixating on pizza time because theres plenty of other goodies in there. that track in particular is excellent for hyping you up for the final escape, but i think something like [splatoon](./../splatoon/)'s [now or never](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua4s7tV8WGM) does a better job, potentially because it's guaranteed to end on a perfect crescendo. my questionable pizza tower skills meant that half the time i would end the level about 60% of the way in, where the song is just starting to build up again for the actual good players doing a second lap to get a p ranking.
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==>
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[](https://dailyhatsune.tumblr.com/post/710230130593857536/miku-from-hit-game-pizza-tower)
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<sub>[art by dailyhatsune on tumblr](https://dailyhatsune.tumblr.com/post/710230130593857536/miku-from-hit-game-pizza-tower)</sub>
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src/games/🚧the_witness.md
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src/games/🚧the_witness.md
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---
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title: the witness
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draft: true
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---
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i've been on a puzzle game kick recently; antichamber and manifold garden have always visually intrigued me, so i knocked them out in the beginnning of the year and found them pretty enjoyable. i had a crack at filament, which was a creative and interesting idea, but it went a little too hard too fast for my liking and i pretty quickly got demoralised and stopped playing. so what was next on the chopping block?
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we're only a quarter of the way in, but the witness is potentially my favourite game of the year. it's been out for about seven years now so i've heard plenty of hot takes on it and frankly expected it to not hold up to the hype, but i was almost instantly swept up in the puzzles and world. i pretty quickly started making comparisons to myst, as you're dropped on a big island with no people but loads of weird mechanisms, cryptic mechanisms and a wide variety of architecture and flora. the location designers clearly had no shortage of inspiration, because you can find all kinds of weird perspective tricks and shapes in shadows and reflections if viewed from just the right angle. the look of the whole game is bright and warm and i spent a lot of time heading over to some exciting looking ruin or cluster of plants i saw out of the corner of my eye.
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puzzle-wise, the witness is structured extremely well to make you feel like a genius, regardless of how clever you actually are. different puzzles follow different "rules" that dictate the lines that you should be drawing
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- potentially one of my favourite games so far this year
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- exploration
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- myst
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- puzzles always felt like they were easily explained
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- you need the perspective that if something is really difficult, you're probably not meant to be there yet
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- if it's in the middle of a section then just stepping away and doing something else generally helps
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- otherwise, the game really babies you through the beginning of a rule and if you're not being babied then
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# joseph anderson
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- i love joseph but this is one of his weaker videos
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- gripes were presented as design issues
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- 'i didnt get the sound puzzles'
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- brute forcing instead of experimenting to work out what's going on
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- complaining about optional puzzles being a waste of time despite them clearly being for completionists
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- josephs habit of playing a game to abs0lute completion bites him in the ass here
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- 'they made a game where the ridiculous endgame stuff pushes the line of what's fun to play' like no shit
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