Headlander is a side-scrolling sci-fi romp about a floating human head in search of its body. The head is encapsulated in a jet-powered helmet that can rocket boost through the air as well as vacuum suck items out of place. Typically, the vacuum power is used to dislocate the heads of robot enemies so that (as the title of the game would suggest) the head can land in their empty neck holes and take control of their bodies. Enemy robots not only provide a place to land, but also play an integral role in how movement around the environment is handled.

Using the rainbow scheme of ROYGBV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet), doorways are color coded and only robots of that particular color (or right of that color in the scheme) may pass. For example a red robot may only pass through a red door, but an orange robot may pass through both red and orange. This type of gatekeeping feeds into the overall “Metroidvania” style of level design, where there is clearly a way to access a room, yet the level of robot clearance isn’t available until the story develops further and introduces green, blue, or violet robots so you can access what’s behind gates of those colors.

One of the neat things about this heady design is the fact that the robots aren’t just the same type of robot with a different color skin. There is a fairly large selection of robot types to land on, each offering a unique feel for both movement as well as attack. Some robots are fast and lanky, while others are gangly and skittish, motoring around on roller-skate-powered chassis. Military grade robots are armed with various laser bolts that can fire as a single, double, or triple blast, or a wild multi-spread rain of death. A menagerie of mutant-like bots are introduced as the story progresses (which are mostly for show, but there is a side quest mission requiring these oddities to be corralled for research).

Moving throughout the environment, energy spheres can be collected to unlock power-ups to the helmet, in addition to nodes which provide health and shield increases. Helmet upgrades provide damage boosts for weapons attached to robots as well as the ability to rocket boost through groups of enemies to blow them up. Melee attacks can be increased in damage, and there’s an ability to recharge the health of the robot bodies that have been landed on. One of the cool late game upgrades is the ability to trigger a spectrum shield (which diminishes the energy of the shield meter so it can’t be used indefinitely) and almost acts like an invisibility that just looks badass.

While the mechanics are fun and provide a thoughtful progression that really encourages exploring all aspects of the world to find every upgrade possible, the game wouldn’t be as good as it is without the story framing the player’s actions. Playing as the floating head (at the beginning the game allows players to select one of three faces—I picked the female head and strangely can’t imagine playing the game and having the story impact as much as it did if I had picked one of the male choices), a quest is presented to defeat Methuselah and find the rest of the player’s body. While the story isn’t exactly original, the stylized 70s sci-fi presentation adds so much greatness that the shortcomings can be easily overlooked. A retro-vibe oozes from each area that is simply a treat to explore. Citizen robots can be talked to and their conversations add a wonderful flavor that further enriches the atmosphere.

Keeping with the 70s look, the music also conveys a synth-pop style that is both gothic and disco at the same time. Headlander is a wonderful game that has a compelling enough story, wonderful environments, intuitive controls and gameplay that rewards players for exploring and collecting everything as the story progresses. Never did I feel like I was spending too much time exploring new areas or trying to figure out environmental puzzles. 

My only real complaint is how easily some areas feel overwhelming when it comes to combat. As mentioned earlier, military robots become a method for controlling and navigating through the world. At times, however, there are rooms that feel unbalanced with the number of robots converging on your floating head, or there is an absolute chaotic number of laser bolts zipping and bouncing around the level at any given moment. While hovering around as simply the head, the left stick controls flight direction, and the right stick can be used to put up a shield to deflect bolts, but the barrage of laser death is almost enough to send an epileptic into fits. I played this on PS4 and found that in a few locations, the frame rate would dip dramatically below the normal smooth 30+ frames per second. This wasn’t simply because of the number of enemies on screen, but also due to the visual effects being applied to the game.

Story progress eventually leads the Headlander into several boss battles, and each boss battle feels really good. These bosses mix up direct attacks with environmental puzzles and utilize all of the weapon and head upgrades that are provided along the way. I cannot stress enough how smartly the game is designed. Once the game is complete, the game allows players to go back and perform “clean-up” to find any missing power-ups or explore missed rooms while playing through initially.

Headlander is a great game. It’s not perfect of course, but it is yet another Double Fine gem that should not be overlooked. The art style, music, story, and gameplay all work so well together and provide an immensely fun and satisfying gaming experience. Fans of Metroidvania games have plenty to look forward to exploring all the nooks and crannies and discovering every hidden room. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have just a few trophies left to unlock for the platinum. Time to head back in for more!

Pros:
+ Smart, heady game design
+ Fun environment navigation
+ Interesting 70s-style sci-fi story and presentation

Cons:
– Combat can feel overwhelming at times

Game Info:
Platform: Reviewed on PS4, also on PC
Publisher: Adult Swim Games
Developer: Double Fine Productions
Release Date: 7/26/2016
Genre: Action-Adventure / Metroidvania
ESRB Rating: Teen
Players: 1

Source: Review code provided by publisher

Buy From: PlayStation Store or Steam for $19.99. Headlander also is currently part of the Play 2016 PlayStation Store promotion.

In every neighborhood there’s always that one house that gives out the best candy, and every trick-or-treater rushes to get there first, before all the other kids have claimed the full size Snickers bars or King Size Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. (Screw all those mini candy bars!) This Halloween, in the video game neighborhood, Double Fine and Midnight City are the owners of the house with the best treats. Better yet, there is no supply limitation in this age of digital downloads.

You do need to own a PlayStation 3 or PlayStation 4 to get these goodies, though.

Following the October 28th PlayStation console launch of Costume Quest 2, LittleBigPlanet‘s loveable burlap mascot, Sackboy, will be added to the game in a free post-launch update. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Sackboy will be playable in time for Halloween. A specific release date for the DLC hasn’t been confirmed yet, but the press release announcement uses the phrase “in the coming weeks” to give an idea of release timing.

Sackboy will appear as a hidden bonus costume assembled by finding the four necessary materials–a burlap sack, buttons, thread and a whole lot of love. Sackboy’s DIY costume look is adorable while exploring town, but in combat his ‘Little Big Beat Down’ special attack packs a serious punch.

Double Fine and Midnight City are offering an early trick-or-treat surprise this weekend, kicking off Steam pre-orders for the PC/Mac/Linux release of Halloween-themed RPG adventure, Costume Quest 2. Two pre-purchase options are on the table. A payment of $14.99 includes the game and exclusive bonus costumes from the original quest, including the Robot, Unicorn, Eyeball and Pumpkin. Spending five bucks more upgrades to the $19.99 bundle featuring the first Costume Quest and its Grubbins on Ice DLC campaign, plus the same set of four bonus costumes.

In addition to Steam, Costume Quest 2 is scheduled to launch this October on PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Check out the new gameplay trailer premiering this weekend at PAX Prime in Seattle!

The next big thing coming from Double Fine Productions is Hack ‘n’ Slash, the puzzle adventure game about a young elven hacker who cheats and reprograms her way through a classic action/adventure game similar to the old top-down Legend of Zelda titles. Which makes it all the more appropriate that the game’s new trailer throws back to the hilariously awful 80s “Zelda Rap” commercial for the NES Legend of Zelda.

Although no such mention is made in the trailer, the title and description point out that Hack ‘n’ Slash will be available soon on Steam Early Access for PC, Mac, and Linux. A date isn’t specified, but in a PAX East update over on the Double Fine website the release window is narrowed down to within “a matter of weeks.”

Adventure games are one of the classic genres that I’m a total sucker for.  Old school adventures are what I cut my gaming teeth on, with titles like Day of the Tentacle, King’s Quest, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango helping to form my love and frustration with pointing and clicking on things. Not many other game types allow for such rich detail of character interaction and unique humor, yet at the same time puzzle logic in many adventure games more often than not slants toward the random and obscure mixture of mash everything together with the hope that eventually something sticks together and solves the problem.

Returning once again to the genre is Ron Gilbert with a team from Double Fine Productions to create a new take on adventure gaming with The Cave.  The premise: seven distinct personalities are in a talking cave and gamers must take three of the seven through a series of tunnels, revealing each character’s personal story along the way.  The cave itself is one massive level that can only be accessed by unique powers that each of the personalities possess.   Playing only three of the characters in one run through means that if someone wants to see how each story unfolds, the game must be played through three times.

Sadly, I couldn’t muster the desire to replay the game that many times. I could only make it through one time in full and about halfway through another trip, but I couldn’t bear to continue any farther.  It’s not that I don’t want to discover each character’s tale, but rather I don’t want to slog through the same puzzle sections more than once. The Cave is designed such that all areas can be accessed but only if certain powers (from specific characters) are being used at the time a new section is encountered.  For instance, the Knight has a special power that makes him invincible and as such the only way to unlock his story puzzles is to drop through several sections of the cave, avoiding damage from fire (and the fall itself) to unlock passage for the other members traveling with him on that particular playthrough.  The Twins have an ability that allows them to be in two places at once for a short period of time, so for example they can activate a lever or switch as a shadowy form while their physical form slips past a door.  And the Monk can use telekinetic powers to move objects into his hands, a useful ability for when an object is on the other side of a set of immovable bars.

One playthrough is relatively fun because each of the general puzzle areas that precede the character-specific puzzles have their own unique challenges and are interesting the first time you encounter them. However, upon a repeat visit I found myself suffering a bad case of déjà vu.  Sure I knew how to solve the puzzles, but what hampers the fun is the amount of backtracking that is required to complete even the simplest of tasks. Each character can freely move throughout any section of the current puzzle area and switching between the characters is handled by mapping each character to a button on the D-pad.  But actually moving through each section feels overly time-consuming.  An object such as an undamaged fuse may be in a panel two or three stories above where it is needed to activate a crane or a fortune telling box.  Navigating the area to get to the fuse, traveling back down to where it is needed to solve the puzzle, and then discovering that the fuse is needed once again to be used back in the original location feels like unnecessary busy work.  Especially if you select a character to carry the fuse back to the original location and then realize that that character needs to be in a different spot to use their special power once the fuse is back in its intended location. Backtracking for items is one of the more frustrating design limitations of the game, particularly when each character can only carry one object at a time.

Backtracking wouldn’t be as frustrating if the characters didn’t move with such plodding imprecision.  Jumping doesn’t always feel accurate and climbing up objects (either ladders or boulders) feels overly weighty and slow.  Using objects is also a hit or miss proposition at times.  Picking up one object drops whatever a character may be carrying.  Fine, but what if a puzzle trigger in the world is also next to an object that has been dropped?  Pressing the Square button to interact often times leads to picking up the object on the ground instead of using the object in hand with the trigger in the world.  The ability to easily choose which item you want to interact with is inconsistent and frustrating if too many interactive objects are close to each other.

For all my griping about the mechanics of the game, I can still honestly say that I enjoyed most of my time with the journey.  The spoken narration from The Cave itself is dark, wry and mostly damn funny.  The character stories and specific puzzles are also clever and fit with the narrative.  I absolutely loved the Twins backstory. Their home shows a mastery of level layout and design, consisting of subtle environmental details that flesh out their story while also providing a satisfying puzzle challenge. Sadly, I can’t say the same for the Knight, or the Monk.  While the dark and grisly ending of the Knight’s puzzle section was freaking hilarious, the amount of backtracking soured my time in that part of the cave.

My second attempt at playing the game led me to choose the Hillbilly, the Time Traveler and the Scientist.  Unfortunately, even their initial backstory panels couldn’t keep me invested in slogging through the same puzzles long enough to unlock the story beyond the Hillbilly’s unique section.  Movement, confined inventory/object management and the constant backtracking removed all of my goodwill toward playing through a full second time. If the game had nine characters instead of seven, and didn’t require replaying large swathes of the same sections over again and again, I could easily see myself playing through the game three full times.  If there were some way to bypass the general puzzles that tie each character puzzle together (once it was solved the first time of course), the game wouldn’t feel like such a chore. And if inventory was handled in a shared magic bag (if a cave can talk why can’t there be a magic bag that all characters have access to?) the game would feel a whole lot less tedious.  Of course, these “ifs” would likely break the balance of the game, but they wouldn’t necessarily need to be made available until after the game was completed once.

Humor in games is tricky, but The Cave offers a dark view that is genuinely funny. Unfortunately, the game mechanics drag down the pacing of the game such that the timing of the humor has almost a delayed reaction.  While each selectable character has an interesting story to discover, there are too many obstacles to make that discovery as enjoyable as it could and damn well should be. Even with its flaws, though, The Cave should be experienced at least once, if only to see just how crazy the layout of one gigantic level interconnects to tell the humorous stories of seven different characters.  Which characters are best to take on the first run through is hard to say, as I can’t bear to put myself through two more full sessions to find out.

Pros:
+ Dark humor
+ Puzzle solutions seem natural, not random and forced
+ Multiple playthroughs are an option

Cons:
– Too much backtracking
– No shared inventory
– Movement can feel too weighty and imprecise
– No option to skip previously solved puzzles

Game Info:
Platform: Reviewed on PS3 via PSN, also available on Steam, XBLA and Wii U eShop
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Double Fine Productions
Release Date: 1/23/2013
Genre: Adventure
ESRB Rating: Teen
Players: 1
Source: Review code provided by publisher

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Costume Quest is one of my favorite downloadable games, not just from calendar year 2010, but out of all the PSN and XBLA games currently available. So, obviously, the prospect of Double Fine’s trick-or-treat RPG expanding through DLC was something I was initially excited by. After playing the first DLC add-on, Grubbins on Ice, I’m not so sure about that any more.

Don’t take that to mean Grubbins on Ice isn’t a competent piece of DLC. On the contrary, it’s every bit the wholesome JRPG romp that the main quest is, and it’s a reasonable value for the amount of extra content it presents. But altogether, it just didn’t click for me like the full game did.

At $5 (400 MS Points), Grubbins on Ice is a third of the price of the full deal – and in terms of content it provides basically a third as much of everything. Costume Quest itself is around six to eight hours tops, has a level cap of 10, consists of roughly 25 quests spread across three main areas, and comes with 11 costumes, 20+ Battle Stamps and ~50 Creepy Treat cards. Comparatively, Grubbins on Ice takes no more than two to three hours to finish, bumps the level cap up to 14, offers 10 new quests in a single hub environment with 20 additional houses to trick or treat, gives you three new costumes to play with, and comes with even more Battles Stamps and Creepy Treat cards to collect. See, that’s not too shabby for the spend – there’s plenty to keep you busy for a bored afternoon.

Beyond the extras, the core game is the same. Halloween now past and the snowy doldrums of winter set in, Grubbins on Ice picks up shortly after the close of original, with Wren, Reynold and their fellowship of merry trick-or-treaters called back into action after Lucy gets sucked into a portal transporting her to the tumultuous monster kingdom of Repugia. To get her back, you must explore Rupugia, complete quests and slay monsters in accessible, briskly paced turn-based battles, going door to door around town with candy bags in hand and costumes at the ready.

The QTE-heavy combat system remains quick and enjoyable, and, on the back of Double Fine’s witty writing skills, the story is another whimsical excursion through childhood fantasy. So those are definite pluses, as are a few other things, such as a new manual save feature, improved technical performance, and the way the game continues off of what you accomplished in the main game.

But amidst these high points, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing. The DLC doesn’t really up the easy-going difficulty level from before and the all-too-familiar quests feel more like busy work a second time around. The three new costumes don’t seem particularly useful or necessary either. The Pirate is great, with its adventure ability to zip-line with a hook and its devastating combat ability which unleashes volley of cannon fire that strikes all enemies. But the other two – an Eyeball and a Yeti – don’t bring anything new or interesting to the table and quickly drop out of thought when planning costume combinations to take into battle.

Grubbins on Ice is basically everything I expected and wanted in a Costume Quest DLC extension, so you’d think I’d gobble it up like candy and ask for more. But strangely, now that I’ve completed it, I’ve almost immediately forgotten about it, and except for the closing teaser hinting at further possibilities for expansion, I can’t point to a single meaningful thing that I’d feel bad about missing out on. And now the more I think about it, maybe Costume Quest is a one-hit wonder; a game that deserves to be savored on its own like a tasty piece of candy but isn’t complex or substantial enough to satisfy for multiple tastings.

I can see a heftier Easter-themed add-on possibly winning me back over (egg hunts and bunny costumes for the win!), but after this I’d much prefer to see Double Fine ditch the DLC route and go all out with a full-fledged sequel.

Pros:
+ Good chunk of new content at a cheap price
+ More fun trick-or-treat RPG-ing
+ Same great Double Fine humor

Cons:
– New costumes really don’t add much overall
– No increase in difficulty
– Cut-and-paste quests

Game Info:
Platform: Downloadable content for Costume Quest on PSN/XBLA (reviewed on XBLA)
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Double Fine
Release Date: 12/8/2010
Genre: RPG
ESRB Rating: E10+
Players: 1
Source: Review code provided by publisher

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What type of game do you normally associate with Halloween? Probably something scary or gory like Silent Hill, Dead Space or Alan Wake, am I right? But how about a trick-or-treating JRPG in which you play as a troop of youngsters on a pint-sized quest to save Halloween from a witch stealing everyone’s candy? Bet you never thought about that. Well, Tim Schafer and the wacky guys and gals at Double Fine did – and that’s why they are such geniuses.

As I already mentioned, Costume Quest is a Halloween-themed JRPG-lite. And by JRPG-lite I mean it brings together staple JRPG elements like turn-based battles, fetch questing, treasure hunting, town exploration and party management, but it does so on a smaller scale, without the incessant random encounters, level grinding, lengthy dialogue exposition, cliché characters and plot, or the snarky “emo” attitude that is running rampant through the JRPG genre.

Instead, Costume Quest has you roaming around a Grubbin-infested neighborhood, shopping mall and fall carnival, going door to door for candy and completing silly collection jobs for other kids and citizens to earn candy, experience and materials to build additional costumes – all on a quest that takes no more than six to eight hours from start to finish. Who says all RPGs have to be 40-plus-hour epics?

There are 13 different costumes to create — each providing special abilities in exploration and battle – and a handy radial menu makes switching back and forth a snap. The knight costume, for example, gives you a shield to deflect acorns being thrown at you by a pesky squirrel or to serve as an umbrella allowing you to walk underneath waterfalls or other falling objects. There is also a robot that gives you wheels to roll up ramps, a ninja with stealth mode capabilities, and a space warrior with a beam to light up dark hallways.

In place of the traditional random encounters, you visit every house/store/stall with its porch light on and knock on the door. If a human answers the door, you get gobs of candy, which acts as currency to purchase Battle Stamps that can be equipped to your party to provide buffs like increased attack damage, counterattacks, auto-revive and so on. If a Grubbin or other nasty critter answers the door, however, a battle is triggered. At certain times random monsters can also be found walking around the game world, and if you want to do some extra battling you can engage them on your own.

Combat in the game is completely turn-based and should feel instantly familiar to anyone who has played any of the classic Final Fantasy games – though on a much lighter scale, of course. Your party of up to three characters stands opposite to a gang of up to three enemies, and from there you attack turn by turn until the monsters have been defeated. Don’t expect a whole lot of complexity, though, because this game is exceedingly simple and direct – and also a heck of a lot of fun!

During battle, you have one basic attack and one special attack which charges up after a few turns go by. Whenever you attack (and whenever you are on defense), a short quick time event pops up, and if you nail the button prompt with proper timing your attack deals more damage (or your defense holds firm and damage is reduced).

That’s all there is to it. No, seriously. This game really is that simple-minded. Hell, the level cap is 10 for crying out loud! Some light strategy is involved when setting up your party’s Battle Stamps and choosing costumes to find a good balance of special abilities. The Ninja, Robot and Statue of Liberty became my go-to lineup – the Ninja for its strong melee and protective shroud ability, the Robot for its powerful missile barrage attack, and the Statue of Liberty for its healing anthem. But by and large, the game is an easy, breezy romp that keeps the pace snappy and doesn’t require you to think a whole lot – and somehow it feels oh so right.

Something about watching big-eyed, cartoony kindergartners transform into powerful heroes satisfies that childhood fantasy of building a homemade costume and becoming the character/creature/thing of inspiration, and the cel-shaded graphics help bring the fantasy to life with tremendous whimsy and personality. As with any Tim Schafer production, the writing is sharp and witty, and while you won’t be laughing out loud like in many of his past titles, the game’s charming story, characters and dialogue deliver wholesome comedy for gamers of all ages.

On a sour note, I do have to point out that the game’s audio is disappointingly subdued. There isn’t a line of spoken dialogue, and the music, although appropriately haunting in a cutesy Halloween way, just gets lost in the shuffle far too often. At times I actually had to check to make sure the game hadn’t been muted, because for long stretches it would become so quiet. I think a more prominent score and maybe some form of fake gibberish dialogue would have provided an extra little punch of personality to completely round out the experience.

But that is a small complaint in an otherwise fun loving, easygoing role-playing adventure. Costume Quest is a sugary sweet gaming delight, tastier than any candied treat you can stuff into your face this Halloween or any other time of the year. I wouldn’t want all RPGs to be this brisk and this basic, but in this instance it works like a charm.

Pros:
+ Dumbed-down JRPG design is actually really well balanced and a ton of fun
+ Costume changing system makes you feel like a kid again (if you’re an adult that is!)
+ Charming story and characters backed by humorous writing
+ Cute graphics

Cons:
– Audio is noticeably subdued across the board

Game Info:
Platform: Reviewed on Xbox Live Arcade for Xbox 360, also available on PS3 via PSN
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Double Fine
Release Date: PSN – 10/19/2010; XBLA – 10/20/2010
Genre: RPG
ESRB Rating: E10+
Players: 1
Source: Review code provided by publisher

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