Thomas Was Alone (PS4) Review

 

Thomas Was Alone (PS4) Review

Date Released: 25 November 2014

Date Played: Summer 2017

Introduction:

There's a famous quote about the rock band, The Velvet Underground, that basically says, "The Velvet Underground only sold about 2000 albums, but every person that bought that album started their own band."  Thus, you end up having one of the most influential bands of all time despite a lackluster initial reception.  I feel like Thomas Was Alone is the Velvet Underground of the indie game scene.  The general population looks on the game with a general fondness and it received some good praise from the critics.  But, the people that loved this game... really loved it.  Several reviewers I watched online talked about how it changed their life and inspired them to become game developers. Others claimed it changed the way that they viewed video games and even personal relationships in their life.  Even Youtube megastar, PewDiePie, said it was his favorite indie game of all time in one video.  Regardless of how you feel about the game, there's certainly a certain mystique surrounding it that can be rather polarizing. It's an important entry in the indie game scene for sure and even gamers who have no desire to play it should at least be made aware of its existence and the ideas that it tries to address.

Thomas Was Alone was originally a Flash-based browser game that was later turned into a more complete package and ported to almost every platform out there.  Mike Bithell, the creator, wanted to create a game that was strikingly simple in its presentation but had both a compelling narrative and fun gameplay to round out the package. Danny Wallace, the humorist, was brought in to perform the game's important narration and to give the game an overall somber feel while still providing a healthy does of British dry wit. The whole package is designed to focus on the feelings and aspirations of the cast and is more of a character study over its other elements.

Story, Themes, Gameplay, and Presentation:

When you boil it all down, Thomas Was Alone is a puzzle platformer that is focused on the concept of loneliness.  You begin as Thomas, the titular protagonist of the game, and he is... alone.  Represented by nothing more than a simple rectangle, you control Thomas with the analog stick and only have the ability to jump in side-scrolling fashion. In each level, your objective is to get Thomas into a portal that is represented by a white outline of his body. The stages start out very simply in the beginning and become more and more complex and difficult as you progress through the game's chapters. All the while, you'll be listening to the fantastically delivered narration that describes Thomas' feelings, motivations, and objectives.  Despite only being a rectangle, Thomas has a pretty well developed personality for a video game character and it's very easy for the player to sympathize with his plight.

Along the way, you meet other characters represented by other quadrilaterals who have their own personalities, motivations, and weaknesses.  As they become Thomas' companions, you all begin to work together to solve the more and more increasingly complex puzzles and it won't be long until you're wracking your brain trying to figure out how to get each of these pieces into their respective portals to finish the stage.  Switching between the various characters is done with the simple press of a button and they will all usually have to assist each other by providing a height boost, serving as a floating platform, or by sneaking through at tight space where the other pieces are ill-suited for that particular task.  Over the course of the game's 3-5 hour length, you'll have many mechanics introduced to you to throw more and more complexity into the game's workings.  You'll encounter timing puzzles, deadly spikes, trampolines, and all other manner of hinderances to impede your progress.  Dying is common, but luckily, you respawn immediately so the game never becomes too tedious.  You will, however, need to bring your thinking cap and at least some modicum of platforming skills.  

The overall story involves the characters being escaped A.I. components that have escaped from a computer program or some other such nonsense. Everyone is trying reach something called the Emergence which is where they become actual entities rather than existing as only computer code. There are other AIs that act as antagonists and attempt to reach the Emergence before Thomas and his friends or to derail their progress.  It's honestly and overly convoluted plot for such a simple looking game and really only serves as a basis for the player to work through the emotional and conceptual themes surrounding the game.  Lonliness, friendship, betrayal, support, trust, and many other concepts are the real focus of the game and are what makes it stand out in my memory.

The visual style of the game is extremely basic with mostly dark blue, purple, and black backgrounds that have an austere presentation.  As mentioned earlier, the characters themselves are nothing more than colored geometric shapes (despite their much more developed personalities and desires).  The game doesn't really need fancy graphics and it was a very wise idea to intentionally tone down the visual presentation in order to make the concepts the game attempts to hammer home much more impactful.  A lot of flash isn't needed when your puzzles, mechanics, and themes are this well done.  

Another spot where this game truly shines is in its masterful use of music. Having a computer program represented by a rectangle as your main character and giving it a large host of human emotions that the gamer is supposed to empathize with is a difficult bridge to gap; and the perfectly blended artificial chip-tune sounds with actual instruments such as guitar, piano, and orchestral strings echo this sentiment extremely well.  Sometimes, the soundtrack is unobtrusive and minimalistic to give a relaxed mood and at other times it becomes heavy and pensive to accentuate the intensity that's building in the gameplay.  It encompasses a huge range of emotions and flows masterfully along with the narrative developments in the game. In my opinion, the game is carried by its soundtrack and would not have been able to convey it's ideas without it.

Conclusion:

Thomas Was Alone is a very important game that has continued to maintain its reputation as an indie darling for over a decade.  I feel that it succeeds in it's attempts to have a good puzzle game that deals with strong human emotions but presents everything in a very minimalistic manner.  It's a worthwhile journey to take, albeit a little sad and melancholy for large parts of its duration. The narration and characters are all very likeable and quite memorable.  Even several years, and a few hundred games played in interim before returning to this game, I had a good recollection of Thomas and his friends and looked back on them fondly.

Sadly, unlike many other puzzle based games, this one doesn't really have the addictive sort of gameplay that you are normally expecting and it instead serves as a sort of background task you're attempting to complete while you listen to the narration and try to put yourself into the mental mindset of Thomas and his companions. This is typically the modus operandi of any puzzle platformer that you will encounter, so it was to be expected. If I had to give you the too long, didn't read impression of this game I would say that Thomas Was Alone is very much a one-and-done sort of game, and I would highly recommend it to someone who is a fan of games that are more thought provoking rather than mechanically focused.  I had a good time with it, but once it was over, it isn't something I'm really craving coming back to visit anytime soon.

Final Status: Completed (game beaten and all trophies earned)

Final Score: 7/10 

Tanuki Justice (PS4) Review

Tanuki Justice (PS4) Review

Release Date: 16 October 2020

Date Played: 30 December 2021

Introduction:

Tanuki Justice is a charming 8-bit inspired side scrolling action platformer.  The developers, Wonderboy Bob & Storybird Studio, proudly display their inspirations with this cute, fun, and difficult game. You can see, hear, and feel the influences of Mega Man, Ninja Gaiden, and even Contra in this throwback to the golden era of gaming when the NES reigned supreme. 

You play as a Tanuki (a Japanese Raccoon) and his sister (in 2 player mode) who have to platform their way through 7 stages while taking out countless anthropomorphic enemies on their quest to save the world. It's a basic story that we've seen a million times and fits in nicely with the old-school feel.  Honestly, you don't need anymore exposition than the brief but well illustrated cut-scene before you're dropped right into the action. Everything is presented in a fantastic feudal Japan art style that really helps the game stand out and gives it a nice little boost to its appeal.

Gameplay:  

Like most, "Nintendo Hard" games from yesteryear, Tanuki Justice gives us easy to learn but difficult to master gameplay.  Present are the one hit deaths, respawning enemies, and tight platforming that drove me into a rage when I was a child.  You're armed only with your double jump and a very short range and weak throwing star. You can fire in all 8 directions and can even lock your shot or character in place with use of the trigger buttons. In addition to this you have a massively destructive magic attack that can be unleashed once the meter is filled. This will usually make quick work of any enemy you come across and will even take a pretty sizable chunk out of the bosses you'll encounter along your way. Filling the meter is as simple as destroying the enemies you come across or by collecting crystals hidden in chests around the level. In addition to these crystals, you'll also find powerups for your throwing star, 1-ups, and shields.  All of these are highly essential and you'll want to grab everything you can find.  The shield will prevent you from taking a hit and basically serves as an extra life.  The throwing star upgrade greatly increases the range and power of your puny base shot and is a necessity for most of the game. Although it doesn't increase your very limited range as much as I would have liked, completing many of the levels without it feels like an almost insurmountable task at times because you won't be able to reach enemies without getting right in their faces. 

As you go through the diverse settings of the games stages that range from bamboo forests, undergrown caverns, graveyards, and even a ninja temple, enemies will come at you from all directions and will sometimes even spawn right in front of you as they jump out of doors at the last second.  Knowing when to move forward or hold back and wait for the opportune moment is key to this game.  Often enemies are placed in a precarious position that will put your skills and reflexes to the test. Sometimes, they pop out of nowhere and basically sucker punch you in the face and cause you to die. A lot of the time you don't have the chance to react to this and just have to know where the enemies are going to be before they get there. This is especially true in the second half of the game where you'll need to play the stages again and again to memorize the enemy patters and carefully learn to route your way through the hazards of bottomless pits, spikes, disappearing platforms, and dozens of lethal enemy types. Yes, this game is just as challenging as those incredibly difficult games from the NES days.  Luckily, the developer takes pity on you and allows you to respawn right where you died until you run out of lives.  If you're forced to continue, you have to start at the beginning of the stage, but it's never that far to go as the levels are action packed but brief.  Also, you're given unlimited continues on Normal and Hard difficulties.  This makes the game beatable as you're allowed to retry each stage as many times as you need until you get it right.  And, by the way, you WILL need to retry the later stages several times for sure. After you finish a stage, it's unlocked in a level select for that difficulty.  This of course allows you to practice each stage to your heart's content. At the end of each stage, you'll face off against one of the fun and well thought out bosses. They all have engaging patterns that you'll have to learn to master them.  While difficult, I never found any of them to be annoying or frustrating and was able to get the kill after only a handful of tries and usually enjoyed my time doing it.

The trophies in the game, however, ARE extremely frustrating, draconian, difficult, and downright impossible. Many of the trophies focus on beating the game in a certain time limit, or without dying, or without killing a certain number of enemies.  I was absolutely shocked to see that more than half of the trophies in the game have a 0.0% completion rate.  As in, NOONE, has EVER done these tasks.  I think it's a little brazen for the developers to think that their game is so unbelievably amazing that they expected the community to basically want to perfect a world record caliber speed run just to unlock them.  

Presentation:

This game is oozing with charm from ever aspect.  The main characters are unbelievably cute in their design and their little furrowed and menacing brows only make them even more adorable.  The same can be said for the dozens of well designed enemy and boss models. All of the stages are bright and colorful and feel very different not only in design but also in art direction.  There are many memorable and striking set pieces that are thrown your way as you work through the game.  I won't spoil these, but they certainly stand out in several of the stages and remind you that you're playing on a current gen console and not something from 1985.  

The music is also quite good and has some catchy tunes to it.  My daughter and her friends were hanging out in my game room while I was playing, and I caught them all humming along to the soundtrack.  If that's not a compliment to the composer, I don't know what would be.  Once again, you can feel a strong influence from Mega Man and Ninja Gaiden.  Perhaps a little TOO strong because I heard little hints of melody taken directly from those games and chord progressions that I know were lifted from some of my favorite stages in those games.  It's not blatant or malicious, but you can tell that some of the hooks were um, borrowed, from the NES greats.  

Conclusion:

Tanuki Justice is exactly what it was developed to be.  For better or worse, it feels like it could have been released in 1989.  You have the very short game length (less than 20 minutes if you're good enough) that is made artificially longer by its extreme difficulty and having to retry levels over and over.  This is made more obvious by having unlimited continues.  You'll soon realize that most stages are only a two or three minutes long.  It's a tough balancing act and I'm not sure the developers could have done any better.  You don't want to pad out your game because you need keep it short and energized like they were back in the day.  But, you don't want to scare off modern gamers by limiting their continues and trying their patience to the point of them quitting. Pleasantly, I think Tanuki Justice successfully walks this tightrope and give the player just enough challenge to make them feel like they're playing a game from that period, but has enough leeway to actually allow them to finish it.  

I can honestly say that if this game had been released on the NES or Sega Master System three decades ago, it would be considered one of the best games on the system and a bonified classic.  It's a fantastic recreation of a game from that time period and can stand toe to toe with them.  Unfortunately, this game wasn't created in 1989 and was released in a time where we're going through a retro themed game renaissance.  Other 8-bit inspired indie games over the last few years have taken the framework of these classic games and evolved and improved them to create something magnificent and groundbreaking.  Some of these games have even won game of the year by beating out AAA multi-million dollar franchises with insane pedigrees.  Tanuki Justice doesn't do that. It doesn't try to break new ground or alter the formula in any way.  It pays homage to the games that inspired it by trying to be exactly like them... and it succeeds.  The only problem with that is that there already so many games just like this and you could just play them instead. I wish it had gone out of its way to bring something new to the table. Personally, I was able to beat it, but didn't have any desire to put more time into it because I felt like I had seen it all before. It made me say to myself, "Man, I should play Ninja Gaiden again."

Final Status: Beaten

Final Score: 7/10 (Good)