While we here at Operation Rainfall love covering the latest in gaming news and sharing our reviews of titles new and classic, we also just enjoy playing games in our downtime. So with that, sit back, relax, and check out what the oprainfall gaming crew have been up to this week!
So this week I don’t want to necessarily highlight a game but rather a console. I got my hands on an Analogue Pocket, the latest portable FPGA based handheld from Analogue. I was expecting a fairly competent device that can allow me to play my old GameBoy cartridges, but what I wasn’t expecting was the screen to be as sharp as it was. Seriously, pictures do not do the screen on it justice. I have never seen my GameBoy games look as great as they do on this device and thankfully the buttons all work pretty well, too. A recent update came out for the Analogue Pocket that even allows you to potentially load custom FPGA cores on this device to greatly expand the library of games you can play on this thing, including games from consoles such as the NES, SNES or Neo Geo. It’s not the cheapest device out there, but if you’re willing to give it a shot, you are going to have a great time! – Justin
I spent this week playing a couple different games. First on the list is the recently-released Papetura, a short, visually striking puzzle game from publisher Feardemic. I’ll have a full review for the game out later this week, but I want to just gush over the art direction for a bit here. The game is stop-motion, with all the characters and environments made completely out of paper. It took the developer seven years to make, and the level of craftsmanship, dedication, and passion are on display in every frame. It’s an undeniably beautiful, surreal environment that oozes character. It also relies really heavily on insect motifs, and the locale is highly reminiscent of a paper nest, so if you have issues with bugs in general or wasps in specific, the game might be a bit overwhelming visually. I found the textures of each area fascinating and honestly didn’t know paper could do half of what you see here. The lighting is also fantastic, helping to add depth to each crevice and indent, as well as highlight where to go when you’re exploring. The game is very short – I beat it in around two hours – so if you want to just immerse yourself in a gorgeously realized setting, you could do worse than Papetura.
I also played through Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome, an 18+ otome I picked up on Steam. (It’s also available on MangaGamer if you don’t want to toss Valve any money.) What a charming, hilarious little VN this was. I was crying from laughter about 20 minutes in and it never really let up, but the game has a lot of heart interspersed amongst the deadpan humor and outrageous character interactions. Ema is the tallest girl in school with natural resting bitch-face, and her classmates are terrified of her. This suits her fine because she’s a loner and would rather just stay home and sleep. Miki is a transfer student just returned from America who insists Ema is his muse, and won’t take no for an answer when he asks her to model his clothing. Saito is Miki’s best friend who has dreams of being a big-time producer, and he teams up with his fashion buddy to make Ema into the next top model. Let the sexy shenanigans ensue. I love fashion, so this is right up my alley, but the game is definitely more interested in the two idiot boys and the ways they make Ema’s life hellish, which I am also completely okay with. They’re objectively awful men and I love them. My biggest nitpick with this game was the way they localized the characters speaking English, but it wasn’t enough to ruin the experience. I had a lot of fun with this one and it’s great if you want a little bit of spice without things getting too intense. – Leah
This week in gaming I played a couple of different games. One of these is still under embargo for me, but you’ll see a review on it by the end of the week. I promise this one will be quite a review as well. Folks have not seen me rant in years, but it has to be done here. Other than playing that mess, I finished up Gore Screaming Show. I have to say I was very impressed with this visual novel. This is another quality release from JAST and shouldn’t be missed by fans of horror games. I’m going to look at an indie game called ASTLIBRA Revision, later in the week. The story seemed very interesting and the Action RPG gameplay looked pretty good as well. Guess I’ll see if looks are deceiving very soon. -Steve
I’ve been missing these Week in Gaming articles a little more often lately. This time, right when my first cold was dying down last weekend and was just about finished, it started back up again and became significantly worse. But while I was sick, in wanting something chill to play with little brainpower required, I went back to Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It’s not as fun anymore as back when I was first starting out in 2020 and could slowly build up my brand new island. I didn’t have things set how they are back then and now I simply don’t want to mess anything up in a full redesign. Nonetheless, it’s still fun to play every now and then and get back into things. Actually, I still had some vacation homes to design, I hadn’t finished the last couple and unlocked the final facility just yet. So that’s what I worked on this week. I still have a couple more houses to go, to get the last wave of soundscapes to use in my own home. But I can now decorate my villagers homes, so my last couple starter houses can be fixed and I got a whole bunch of new dancing reactions. Also, I’ve started making things a little more festive and began getting ready for the holiday season. I haven’t seen any snow yet though, I’m not sure if I missed the first snow on my island or if it just hasn’t occurred yet. – Jenae
What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!
You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!
