[EVENT] PSNP Kaleidoscope Challenge! 2023 [ENDED]

[Breakingthegreen]

Howdy again friends, I said that my orange game would Tails of Irons lest than 24 hours ago, and my next submission is in fact Tails of Iron, the PS4 version specifically, it's the 14th game I've done, leaving me with Grey and Pink to complete the set.

 

 

It's been a funny day, the news of the Activision deal being being blocked occurred while I was playing this game so now my memory of Bobby Kotick is irreversibly linked to a giant undead rat, could be worse. But I won't let my memory linkages affect how I feel about the quality of the game, (my memory links Uncharted 3's museum level with a song I hate: "Stacy's Mom" but U3 is still my favourite in the franchise.)

 

Review Thyme! Tastes of Iron,  

Review Time! Tails of Iron is a 2D Souls-like, which basically just means a metroidvania where I die more, but this game has an easy mode, and you'd be right to assume I chose that option. I'm not a fan of most souls-likes for two reasons: I can't be bothered to struggle in boss fights in my free time, so the easy mode fixes that for me; the other is the largely "lore" story telling where it seems that the most interesting things in the game's world had already happened, and the game asks you to piece them together, ToI's story isn't like that, but it's only okay, it's a Rats vs Frogs war story, but the frogs are so under explored that I was convinced of a twist that would explore their complexity would happen during the ending. It didn't.

 

The game maps aren't especially big, but probably to make up for that, there are very few fast travel points. The side quests are a fairly uninspired, with combat being the bread and butter of all interaction in every aspect of the game, it's fortunate that combat is punchy enough to not get boring my 7 ish hours of playtime.

 

The game ran well on my base PS4 and is aesthetically a beauty to see.

 

It is a pretty good game and I'm happy it was on PS Plus to discover. 

[GT__Jedi]

About time I did another update on the card:

 

White: Telling Lies.  Pretty much a typing game.  Can't say too much other than it fits the white category.

 

Brown: The Council.  Interesting game, a bit wordy.  Nice "history" lesson and some easy puzzles.

 

Light Blue: Omno.  Wow. What can I say about this game!  For any of you who played Journey and enjoyed it, this is a must have game for your list.  I really enjoyed Journey, and playing a game that had so many references was quite plainly put, a joy.  I HIGHLY recommend you play this fun platformer!

 

 

[Yen-Pop]

 

Finally another update! I finished Horizon Forbidden West a couple weeks back, but I wasn't able to update 'til now - and I somehow timed it with the DLC coming out! I should have a couple more entries to add in the next few days since I'm finding myself with a lot of time on my hands right now. But I still don't have any ideas on what to choose for the green entries yet; I really get the impression that those will end up being my last two completed haha! But we'll see since I think my list has changed uhhhhhh twenty-eleven times already. 

 

Spoiler

White: Chicory: A Colorful Tale

Yellow: Yaga: Roots of Evil

Tan: Twelve Minutes

Orange: Stray

Red: Feudal Alloy

Pink: Paper Beasts

Maroon: Pyre

Purple: Afterparty

Deep Purple: Doctor Who: The Edge of Time

Blue: Untitled Goose Game

Light Blue: Horizon: Forbidden West

Green:

Light Green: 

Brown: Assassin's Creed Valhalla

Grey: Chicken Police

Black: Going Under

 

[Xylobe]

 

You thought I was what? Dead? Like my partner you just tossed off the cliff?

 

This is the first update for my second card! I don't think I've posted in here since I finished my first in February, but I've been enjoying reading everyone's updates as they come in. For this card, I have two goals: to focus on games that, from my perspective, have a clear dominant color (a couple on my first card may have been borderline), and to focus on games that are a bit more, for lack of a better term, "involved." Shoutout my <5-hour puzzle/adventure games - I play as many as I do for a reason! - but I'm not gunning for a 2-month completion this time around (Monster Hunter Rise and Puzzling Places will see to that). I'm kicking things off with Hogwarts Legacy for black, Tchia for yellow, Shadow of the Colossus for white, God of War III for orange, Itorah for purple, and Mulaka for green.

 

I actually had a pretty great time with Hogwarts Legacy, which took me by surprise (I bought it used! Don't send me to the gulag!). Hogwarts itself was great fun to explore, and while most of the rest of the game's open world is flyover country, the game at least has the decency to let you fly over it. It really is a shame that every story that comes out of this IP boils down to Thatcher Youth and the Blood Libel Experience.

 

I was on the fence about playing Tchia at all, but it debuted on Plus right when I was in desperate need of a break from the game I'll be talking about next. Another game that I had a really good time with overall, but it suffers from the most severe tonal whiplash I think I've ever seen. For the most part it's this whimsical, all-ages romp through a fictionalized version of the Pacific territory of New Caledonia, but occasional story scenes felt more like they were ripped from the latest Far Cry spinoff. It's really quite jarring, but not enough to distract from simple joys like reaching hypersonic speeds using nothing but a rock.

 

Shadow of the Colossus is of course a classic, and one of my favorite games of all time. You don't need me to tell you what it is, but you might need me to tell you that the PS3 remaster dropped a figurative nuclear bomb on the game's physics and AI. This version of the game is a petty and vindictive gremlin in ways that the PS2 original and PS4 remake could never imagine. It's been a month, and just thinking about the 15th colossus still gives me conniptions. If this isn't my hardest platinum to date, then I don't know what would be.

 

God of War III, like all of the old-school God of War games, is the Mountain Dew of video games. I don't mind it, but I also don't respect it. I'm mostly just happy to get another ancient PS3 game completed from the dregs of my profile.

 

I picked up Itorah at launch because I love metroidvanias, and the gorgeous artstyle and interesting Mesoamerican inspiration sucked me in. It's crap. Bad controls, poor level design, and effectively no world design to speak of. The trophy list only makes things worse, requiring many hours of lengthy backtracking and farming unless you happen to stumble upon the one reasonable farming spot in the entire game (or just read the forum post I made about it). I haven't been this disappointed in a game since Salt and Sacrifice. Definitely one to avoid.

 

Mulaka is another Mesoamerican-inspired game, but a dramatically better one. It's a combat-heavy 3D platformer set in northern Mexico with a very PS1-inspired low-poly aesthetic. There aren't many levels, but they run an interesting spectrum from completely open to completely linear, and all but one work pretty well. The combat isn't my favorite, which could be an issue for how much of it there is, but it at least keeps things interesting by giving the player plenty of options (and more importantly, expecting them all to be used). Overall unique and pleasant, so I'd give it a soft recommendation.

[shxrpay]

Just finished my 7th game, this time it's Brawlout for Green! Not much to say this time, honestly most of it was me spamming X every minute or so and watching Breaking Bad on a second monitor. I'm happy though, ~15 hours for 27 ultra rares is pretty sick in my book. Self boosted with my PS4 for the online matches. Only sort of difficult part is the arcade towers against the AI, the hard one was gonna make me go crazy because I'd gotten so close on some of the battles so many times. I'm pretty bad at fighting games anyway so the 4/10 on the guide didn't really apply to me ?

 

 

Completed Games:

Yellow ~ Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction

Orange ~ Deathloop

Pink ~ inFamous First Light

Light Blue ~ Resident Evil 2

Green ~ Brawlout

Grey ~ The Medium

Black ~ Pinball Heroes

[JadedDragos]

Hit my milestone of #150 with Forgotton Anne, which I set for my BLUE.

 

Edited April 29, 2023 by JadedDragos

[PotrikBerger]

Game #14 finally completed - Like a Dragon: Ishin!

 

Green - Need for Speed Unbound

Brown - Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me

Pink - Chicory: A Colourful Tale

Yellow -  Like a dragon: Ishin!

Blue - Resident Evil 4

White - Cricket 22

Purple - Darq

Tan - Forspoken

Orange - Weird West

Red - Inscryption 

Black - Dark Souls: Remastered

Light Blue - Hogwarts Legacy

Deep Purple - Football Manager 2023

Grey - PGA Tour 2k23

[MarkusT1992]

Finish my next game with Last Day of June. I decided to play it before it leaves PS+ next month and I'm glad I did.

It was a nice little game with a good story and a few easy puzzles.

 

[DrunkenEngineer]

Two more colors down, a little late on posting these.

 

 

LIGHT GREEN - Leo's Fortune

 

MAROON - Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania

 

I completed Leo's a good bit ago and have written elsewhere about how tough it is.  Dead Cells DLC was a pleasant surprise when it launched, and I'm always down to play more of the game!

[GT__Jedi]

End of April Update:

 

Grey: Old Man's Journey  Well, this game only took me 3 years and 8 months to finish.  Had a problem with the whole train track fiasco and gave up years ago.  Got encouragement from a good friend and got off my ass and finished the game.  Other than that, a relaxing game with a bittersweet story.

 

[hi-im-hawkeye]

Update time!

 

Added a few games since las update.

 

LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7 (PS4) - Did this with the girlfriend. She's not a fan of playing but she enjoys watching and trying to figure out the puzzles. Good game, had played originally on the PS3.

 

Ice Age: Scrat's Nutty Adventure (PS5) - Same thing, with the girlfriend. We did the PS4 version previously and thought we should do this too. Pretty janky compared to the PS4 version.

 

Adam's Venture Origins (PS4) - Terrible game. Glad it's over and didn't take too much time.

 

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (PS4) - Decent. Not the best. Enjoyed the ride though.

 

Spyro The Dragon (PS4) - Never played it originally so thought we would give the series a go. Loved it! We even started the second one already. Easy game to play while still enjoying the company of the girlfriend.

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by hi-im-hawkeye

[diskdocx]

Update time!

 

 

First update in a while. I've been lost in Horizon Forbidden West - which will eventually be my Blue square, but got a ways to go still....

 

Anyway - I've moved Clid the Snail to Purple, going to do Art of Rally for Pink instead. Removed A Year of Springs.

 

For new completions, I have 2;

 

LocoRoco Midnight Carnival for Maroon. An ok game, even with the easy list though some of the wall jump sections in the levels were tough. Glad this didn't need 100% collection or it would have been quite tough.

 

EverReach Project Eden. Hooboy. This game was pure garbage. I would be hard pressed to call it the worst PS4 game I've played, but if you take out EZPZ shovelware, this would definitely be right up there in the top 10. Terrible voice acting, poor graphics, unbalanced game play even on easy, and a broken shooting mechanic in a third person shooter. Not only can't you switch sights from left shoulder to right shoulder, but you can't move while unholstering your weapon and it is the slowest animation ever. Controls suck, with the worst aiming ever, and story was weak and ended quite abruptly.

 

The only good things would be the main character has a nice ass and it is Deep Purple. It's just that bad.

[JungleCat20]

Red is no longer a nightmare. Nine games done.  

 

Edited May 2, 2023 by JungleCat20

[Acszr]

Another update with Insurgency: Sandstorm for white.

 

[WyndigoSpirit]

You had me at rainbows! This is a pretty casual event with a long timeline, so I think I would like to sign-up and give it a try! If that's okay. Never signed up for an event before.

 

 

This is currently what I've played so far this year. I scoured my shelf of games to see if I could find stuff I already own and to my surprise I had a game for each colour! I'm going to try and not buy games for this. There's one game on my list I'm waiting on a physical for, but I had already planned on buying it anyway. Red is also gonna be intimidating as the only two Red games I have are loooooooong. 

 

If everything looks okay, I'll try and write a quick review for all my currently completed games in my next update. Which should be fairly soon, as my niece and I are playing A Way Out, which is a pretty short one.

[DrBloodmoney]

15 hours ago, WyndigoSpirit said:

You had me at rainbows! This is a pretty casual event with a long timeline, so I think I would like to sign-up and give it a try! If that's okay. Never signed up for an event before.

 

 

This is currently what I've played so far this year. I scoured my shelf of games to see if I could find stuff I already own and to my surprise I had a game for each colour! I'm going to try and not buy games for this. There's one game on my list I'm waiting on a physical for, but I had already planned on buying it anyway. Red is also gonna be intimidating as the only two Red games I have are loooooooong. 

 

If everything looks okay, I'll try and write a quick review for all my currently completed games in my next update. Which should be fairly soon, as my niece and I are playing A Way Out, which is a pretty short one.

 

welcome mate!

 

Nice list so far, and happy to be the one to pop your Event Cherry ?

 

Added you to the Big Sexy Participants list - have fun!

[Shyjun]

I am late to the party but I would like to participate in the event as well.

 

I already got 8 different colours, and should get a 9th one soon (Persona 4 Golden for Yellow).

 

 

White - Persona 3 Portable
Orange - Dragon Ball Z Kakarot

Red - Tails of Iron

Blue - Persona 3 Dancing in Moonlight

Light Blue - Abzu

Green - Meet Your Maker

Grey - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Black - Hogwarts Legacy

Edited May 5, 2023 by Shyjun

[PotrikBerger]

Game #15 for challenge complete - Horror Tales: The Wine

 

Green - Need for Speed Unbound

Brown - Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me

Pink - Chicory: A Colourful Tale

Yellow -  Like a dragon: Ishin!

Blue - Resident Evil 4

Maroon - Horror Tales: The Wine

White - Cricket 22

Purple - Darq

Tan - Forspoken

Orange - Weird West

Red - Inscryption 

Black - Dark Souls: Remastered

Light Blue - Hogwarts Legacy

Deep Purple - Football Manager 2023

Grey - PGA Tour 2k23

 

Just need a light green now to get the card complete. Any suggestions? Can be PS4 or PS5 but would prefer a game available in hard copy, not from the ps store. Thanks peeps.

[Heather342]

1 hour ago, PotrikBerger said:

 

Just need a light green now to get the card complete. Any suggestions? Can be PS4 or PS5 but would prefer a game available in hard copy, not from the ps store. Thanks peeps.

I was gonna do Tunic, but I don't know if that's got a physical release 

[DrBloodmoney]

1 hour ago, PotrikBerger said:

 

Just need a light green now to get the card complete. Any suggestions? Can be PS4 or PS5 but would prefer a game available in hard copy, not from the ps store. Thanks peeps.

 

A few I'd recommend:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm also currently playing this one:

 

...which I've not finished yet, so can't fully endorse.... but I'm really enjoying it so far!

[PotrikBerger]

29 minutes ago, Heather342 said:

I was gonna do Tunic, but I don't know if that's got a physical release 

 

Ive just checked, physical due out on 28th July so this is definitely one I will use if I haven’t got it by then, thank you. To be honest, it looks great fun and right up my street so I may get it anyway. Thanks for the heads up

 

and @DrBloodmoney thanks so much for the many recommendations. Hotline Miami is definitely one I’m going to check out as it’s interested me before. I kind of assumed that tile would be black or pink so the fact it’s a green one I can use has grabbed my attention. A couple of the others I’ve never come across before so will check them out also. Thanks for the tips guys, I can get this done soon methinks.

 

And also, just wanted to say thank you for recommendation to move inscription to maroon following one of my previous posts, but by chance I came across a very very cheap hard copy of The Wine, saw it was a Maroon tile so just went with that. Otherwise I definitely would have followed the previous advice.

[DrBloodmoney]

3 minutes ago, PotrikBerger said:

 

Ive just checked, physical due out on 28th July so this is definitely one I will use if I haven’t got it by then, thank you. To be honest, it looks great fun and right up my street so I may get it anyway. Thanks for the heads up

 

and @DrBloodmoney thanks so much for the many recommendations. Hotline Miami is definitely one I’m going to check out as it’s interested me before. I kind of assumed that tile would be black or pink so the fact it’s a green one I can use has grabbed my attention. A couple of the others I’ve never come across before so will check them out also. Thanks for the tips guys, I can get this done soon methinks.

 

And also, just wanted to say thank you for recommendation to move inscription to maroon following one of my previous posts, but by chance I came across a very very cheap hard copy of The Wine, saw it was a Maroon tile so just went with that. Otherwise I definitely would have followed the previous advice.

 

Tunic is an amazing game - if that one is a possibility, I'll absolutely add my endorsement to @Heather342's!

[KingVenus]

Hey everyone! First time joining an event but this one seems pretty fun and laid back.

 

This is my Kaleidoscope right now:

 

 

I hope to keep filling it although I don't know what I'll be playing next.

 

Have fun!

Edited May 4, 2023 by KingVenus

[D4T-V4UL7_HUN7R_]

Number 12 completed  Got the platinum for Resident Evil Village. S ranking the mercenaries maps was the only really difficult part of the platinum. But after learning the maps it became quite fun and I ended up going for SS rank on them to get the light saber for the melee only run. This was probably my favorite game I've played this year so far. 

 

Getting close to completing my first rainbow, only a few more to go!

[cstanci]

I would like to join this event! I feel like since it's only May, I have a real shot at getting this done!