Gamebox 2.0: Games of November 2024
We’re thankful to be able to check out several new games this month in the latest Gamebox 2.0. We experienced realistic combat in Six Days in Fallujah, went old-school with the arcadey Slam & Roll, tried to build a kingdom in Monarchy, and played through the history of Tetris in Tetris Forever. Check out our thoughts and reviews this month down below.
Six Days in Fallujah (Zach): Coming from Victura and Highwire Games, Six Days in Fallujah got a massive update with the “Command and Control Update.” A tactical first-person shooter based on the actual Second Battle of Fallujah that occurred in November 2004 in Iraq, you play as a member of the Marine Corps—3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, leading a fireteam that consists of you and three other squad mates. You can mix and match the composition of the fire team, having all AI, all humans or a mix of both, although you can only play with other human players in the Procedural missions.
This remastered edition gives two Story Mode missions to the game, which can be played solo with an AI fireteam. The Story missions act like an interactive documentary, with interviews with soldiers on the ground during the battle and a mix of animation and live real-world footage to provide historical context. It’s a bit like what Digital Eclipse has been doing with games like Atari 50 or Tetris Forever, where there is a timeline where you can see important events, topics, and people in addition to the videos and the actual missions. It’s extremely interesting to hear what it was like for the soldiers in the battle before you get dropped into the virtual version.
The actual gameplay is a very tactical and methodically-paced game. If you’re going in expecting Call of Duty, you’ll probably come away disappointed. There is a heavy emphasis on tactics and ensuring you are giving your fire team proper orders, like providing overwatch on a specific building or stacking up to breach a door. Firefights are quick and visceral, and you need to be aware of your surroundings and do things like check corners, or else you can find yourself quickly getting killed. You can survive a few hits and heal yourself, or your squad mates can heal you if they can get to you. Missions include clearing buildings, removing mortar teams, and escorting vehicles to a certain point. Some excellent sound design with gunfire and explosions put you into the battlefield, and the lack of music helps add to the realism. The new update also overhauls the graphics, which, while not on the level of something like Call of Duty, do a great job of replicating Fallujah’s dusty, wartorn landscape.
Along with the new Story Mode missions, there is a new Procedural mission, of which there are now 8 in the game. These missions offer procedurally generated missions that change the architecture and enemy placement each time, so you never know what to expect. If you’re looking for a more tactical, realistic shooter than the bombastic roller coaster ride of games like the Call of Duty series, definitely check out Six Days in Fallujah. It’s out in Early Access on Steam, with more updates planned and a console release sometime next year.
Tetris Forever (Chris) – Tetris is one of those perfect puzzle games with solid game mechanics, endless replayability, and a rich development history. For a game that started with simple green bracket pieces stacked together, Tetris has explored many ways to keep players coming back for more challenges. Digital Eclipse has conveniently packaged the history and gaming experience of the famous puzzler in Tetris Forever. This collection of archive footage, interviews, and Tetris titles is the newest entry in the Digital Eclipse Gold Master Series, where the gaming experience is presented like an interactive documentary and gallery. Gamers can freely view a timeline to learn of the major events of the development of Tetris and also play select titles to experience the evolution of the game.
Tetris Forever features 15 select Tetris titles that show the early iterations of the core mechanics of Tetris and the multiple variations that explored different play styles. This includes five versions of the original Tetris, three versions of Super Bombliss, Tetris 2 + BomBliss, Super Tetris 2 + BomBliss, Super Tetris 2 + BomBliss Genteiban, Super Tetris 3, Tetris Battle Gaiden, and the new exclusive Tetris Time Wrap developed by Digital Eclipse.
Starting with the original 1984 title developed for the Electronika 60, the original Tetris was the landmark title that was simple yet addictive. The mechanics are just rotating and dropping tetrominoes to fill a row, trying to avoid stacking too high to the screen. There are no saving pieces, no guiding drop shadow, or music for most of the versions. Four ported versions on the MS-DOS and the Famicom further expanded the graphics and the scoring system.
Tetris 2 + BomBliss developed for the Famicom explored new puzzling mechanics by having the ability to eliminate tetrominoes with an explosion. Any solid row with no explosives in there will not be eliminated until a row with explosives goes off first. Bombliss new rules take some adjustment if you expect to play regular Tetris. The strategy for making effective use of spaces is different when you have to hope that the right pieces are coming and if you made enough explosions to trigger a combo. This would later get a remake of Super Tetris 2 + BomBliss for the Super Famicom. Super Tetris 2 + BomBliss Genteiban would feature new graphics and a set of levels.
A standalone game of Bombliss was made called Super Bombliss, also known as Tetris Blast. This title continues the puzzle focus with the explosion mechanics. Developed for the Gameboy for the puzzle fan on the go, Super Bombliss is ported to the Super Famicom and the Gameboy Color. The Super Famicom version features some interesting CPI opponents with some difficult AI that end matches pretty quickly if you are not fast enough.
If players are looking for a more competitive play, then the criminally underrated Tetris Battle Gaiden is the right title to check out. Developed for the Super Famicom in 1993, Tetris Battle Gaiden is a puzzle adventure title that has anime-inspired characters and a story mode. Characters have unique attacks that can remove pieces from their grid or alter the arrangement of their opponent. The influences of the Puyo Puyo series are felt in this title, but it’s a standout Tetris game many fans should experience.
Digital Eclipse delivered its love letter to Tetris with the new game Tetris Time Wrap. This new game follows the classic Tetris experience with a fun nostalgia twist. For every ten lines cleared, a special time tetromino will appear. Clearing a line with that piece will wrap to a certain era of Tetris for a small mini-game challenge. Players have 20 seconds to complete the specific challenge in a unique setting before being wrapped back to their last standard puzzle grid as they left it. In multiplier mode, getting the time tetromino will cause the other opponents to be stuck in the past and force to complete the challenge. This is perfect for the die-hard Tetris fans that have played all the spin-offs and variants, and looking to see how well they stack up against other dedicated fans.
The game library also features two non-Tetris titles to try. Igo: Kyuu Roban Taikyoku, Bullet Proof Software’s first licensed Nintendo product that Henk Rogers worked on, and Hatris, Alexey Pajitnov’s puzzler about stacking hats. While these two games did not expand on the core Tetris gameplay, they are milestone games in their own right since they help connect the right producers to make Tetris, which is the case for Igo. Or, they allowed a creator to experiment with new concepts like Hatris.
Tetris Forever is an interesting compilation of video game history. For enthusiastic fans, it offers a top-notch opportunity to delve into the rich history and evolution of the Tetris series, with fascinating insights into its development and impact within the industry. While the game featured only scratches the surface of the Tetris titles that were produced over the 40 years. However, the curated collection of both classic and experimental titles celebrates the timeless appeal of solid fundamentals that few puzzle games come close to reaching. Whether you’re revisiting old favorites or discovering new twists, Tetris Forever is a digital treasure trove that showcases Tetris’s importance in gaming history and where the series can lead next.
Slam and Roll (Zach): Coming from KaleidoGames, Slam & Roll is an old-school arcade platformer that will have fans of games like Snow Bros. feeling right at home. When aliens attack famous monuments around the globe, a sports club armed with magical equipment is ready to fight back. There are several characters, each with a different sports weapon, like a tennis racket, hockey stick, baseball bat, etc. Each character has bullet speed and drop, strength, and explosion-type stats. You’ll start with two characters to choose from, but as you proceed through the levels, you’ll rescue the other characters after defeating the boss of each world.
There are over 200 stages to play through, and they are all one-screen platforming levels, with the goal being to clear out the enemies in each stage and then progress up to the next one. Using your sports weapon, you can turn the enemies into an explosive projectile that you can either slam or ride on and detonate, with each enemy you hit with the projectile getting defeated. You can’t jump or touch the enemies if they aren’t tied up in your weapons effect. It’s an absolute blast to get to the top of the screen, attack an enemy, ride them down the stage, and take out the other enemies for a massive combo.
When you defeat enemies, you can also get power-ups that increase your speed or other enhancements, and there are also bonus items to collect to increase your score. The game nails the 90s arcade aesthetics along with the controls, and it fits right alongside the games that inspired it, like Bubble Bobble and Snow Bros. The game was conceived back in 1992 for the MSX by Jaime Dominguez of KaleidoGames but couldn’t be realized until the current team formed in 2021. You can play the game solo or with a friend in co-op, and there are two different modes: a more accessible and more modern “Tour” mode, which has an adaptive difficulty, or an old-school “Arcade” mode. Slam & Roll is a fantastic arcade-style platformer that will more than satisfy fans of the “stage clear” genre, and it’s available now on Steam, Switch, and Xbox Series S/X.
Monarchy (Zach): Coming from Brain Seal Entertainment, Monarchy is a new 2D real-time strategy game where you play as a ruler, trying to build your kingdom and survive the world’s dangers. The game has three scenarios to choose from, each with its unique challenges and dangers. Starting with just your ruler (a king or queen) and an archer, you set out to build your base and explore the world. Once you find a suitable land for your base camp, you can create other structures and recruit more warriors or workers. You need to find gold in chests in the world or via a cart that arrives each morning and can deliver gold or more workers. During the day, you can explore the surrounding lands, but at night, you must survive an onslaught of enemies like evil knights and bandits. If they attack your ruler when they have no gold or destroy your base camp structure, you lose the scenario.
There’s a highly engaging and interesting press-your-luck style feel to the building and exploration. You need to push out into the dark woods and find what is out there, but if you stay out too long, you could easily get overwhelmed by a horde of enemies. Learning the game’s flow and how you should proceed with building and exploring takes a bit. It seems like you need to start slow and build up your base’s defenses so it can survive an assault even if you aren’t there to directly oversee what is happening, which will let you potentially stay out longer and explore.
One minor complaint is that the game is a bit obtuse regarding what things do or the effects of certain decisions. For example, you can build a sort of runestone that can provide upgrades, but you choose from two pictures that give a vague idea of what each upgrade will do, so it’s trial and error to pick something, see what the effect is, and then remember it for the next run. I prefer a bit more info, especially in a strategy game where certain upgrades or stats could significantly affect how well you progress. There are also some environmental areas and upgrades for your base that you cannot see how and when you can use them. Each action usually has a number of coin icons that tell you how much you need to spend, but some are canceled out until specific criteria are met; sometimes, it’s hard to tell exactly what you need to do to achieve that.
One area where the game isn’t lacking is in the presentation, as it has a gorgeous cartoony art style with some fantastic lighting effects, especially when it becomes night, or you delve into the deep, dark woods. Monarchy is an interesting and fun spin on the strategy genre that could have benefited the player by providing a bit more information. The base building and combat are simple on the surface but deep once you get into it, and the world is gorgeous and interesting to explore. It’s now on Steam, Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X.
