Prime Gaming’s Prime Day Offerings, Including Mass Effect

Another month and another bout of games available with Prime Gaming. Oh wait, that’s next week (I think). This week I’m talking about the surprise Prime Day “Freeloading” and the 25 games available starting today until July 13th. A few others are only on offer between the 12th and 13th. There is enough vagueness surrounding this and by nature not enough clarity that I can’t say for sure when by the hour X, Y, and Z will be available. Usually, you have to wait until 4-5 PM UTC for the Prime Gaming portals to update and show the present offers for X month, which makes things tricky.

First up in the Prime Day offerings would be the big one, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. I don’t think I have to do much to sell this one as it’s the wonderful remasters of the first three Mass Effect games with the 40 DLCs. The games are optimized a bit further for modern systems with better texture work, allowing you to play in 4K. Last year I did a review of the first Mass Effect on the Xbox One and loved it, which reminds me I need to tell Joker to stop crying about a crap drawing of a monkey and I’m ready for adventure 2.

Alongside the Prime Day offerings, right now you can pick up several games that you may have missed in previous months along with some new additions to Prime Gaming. We’ll start with something I was sent a key for a few years ago, Curve Games’ (formally Curve Digital) Serial Cleaner. It is a gory stealth mob clean-up game set in the 70s, where you play as a fine mustache attached to a man as he cleans up crime scenes full of dead bodies, cops, and pools of blood big enough that I am not allowed to talk about because Tony will break my kneecaps. It is a truly wonderful game I highly recommend.

For those that missed some of the “retro” games available with Prime in previous years, you can also pick up SNK’s Metal Slug 2. Originally released for Neo Geo systems because SNK used to own Neo Geo before that went the way of Sega. Thinking about it, it is one of the few games that would be classed as a Run-and-Gun, a sub-genre of platforming we no longer really have as Rogue-lite/likes take up that mantel of fast-paced platforming. If you need a reminder of why we left some of those mechanics behind, you can have one now with Prime.

Sticking with SNK for a minute, the Neo Geo games of yesteryear, and something we’ve had before, let’s get into Samurai Shodown II, a fighting game from 1994. I’m sure I’ll get some very strong words from Samuel on this, but unlike Metal Slug, Samurai Shodown II hasn’t dated as poorly because most fighting games have stayed the same for the most part in the last almost 30 years. Maybe it is lacking in the complexity of some of the series’ later releases but now it features online multiplayer ever its 2008 release on modern-ish consoles.

Another game that I’m sure I received a key from Curve Games many moons ago, we have Hue. A Metroidvania puzzle game that was released back in 2016 about, believe it or not, color. Exuding nothing but color, I think it is obvious why I like it given I bang on about games being too grey or brown all the time. It is fun, interesting, and yet there is very little to actually say about this one. It is just a nice little game to play for a few hours on a rainy Sunday or something.

Going back to the early 2000s and what I believe is only available on Prime Day, Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and its sequel, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. No, I didn’t get that wrong, Raven Software and LucasArts did. It stars series protagonist Kyle Katarn, and that poor bloke has been doing the Hokey Pokey with the Star Wars canon for so long he must want to strangle Jar Jar Binks at the Disney Christmas party every year.

Why am I not directly talking about the games? Much like everything from the early 2000s to do with Star Wars, aside from Battlefront II, both will have dated somewhat poorly. I know this because they used the Quake III engine.

Returning to what’s available now and what some of us already own, there is the sequel to 10 Second Ninja, 10 Second Ninja X. Basically, Hitler and robots are back again to kill a ninja. Released in 2016, it came in the wake of Super Meat Boy and all those platformers that like professing just how hard they are by asking you to do everything in 0.3 femtoseconds.

Less grotesque than most and in the case of Ed McMillen’s other platformer The End Is Nigh less depressing, 10 Second Ninja X opts for a child-friendly and colorful palette. Ultimately this makes it look generic and is likely the reason you’ve not bothered to play it even if you own it.

Another one I’m sure you have if you’ve been around long enough but most likely haven’t played, Death Squared. Released in 2017, this co-op puzzle game is the type of thing I’m sure was available during those pandemic times to give parents something to keep the kids occupied for a few hours each week. It is colorful, family-friendly, and has so little to talk about in the Steam description that it has two sentences. One of them is yelling that “You should buy it!”

Going back to fighting games, the 90s, and of course, SNK, Fatal Fury Special was a revision of sorts to 1992’s Fatal Fury 2. It was one of the many forgotten offspring of the many fighting games SNK, Capcom, and many others produced. Despite that, Fatal Fury Special was received well for its time. In the passage of time, however, it has aged poorly with its only revolutionary mechanic being the ability to jump between foreground and background, is more of an art of annoyance than it is fun or interesting.

A new addition to the roster of games available with Prime is Gone Viral, a randomly generated dungeon crawler that is presented in trailers as an odd post-apocalyptic game show of sorts. I’d be fine with that. On the surface it is inoffensive, but there was one trailer that showed off Jo, a hammer-wielding typical buff woman with short hair and the ability to throw her hammer. I’m all for buff women throwing hammers, but I want it to come back to her like a boomerang rather than pop into her hand every time, as is the case with Gone Viral. There is a reason we all love Dad of War.

I’m going to get a lot of flak for this on Twitter: There are too many The King of Fighters games. This time out alone you can pick up KOF 2000 and KOF 2002, both of which I already own alongside three others, which includes 2009’s 2002 Ultimate Battle, a remake of one of the games available this month. In the 16 years between 1994 and 2010, there were 22 releases in the franchise, and since then there have been 2, one of which Samuel reviewed back in February. It is another couple of fighting games but with a massive roster of SNK fighting characters.

For the life of me, I can’t remember where I’ve seen or played Rain World but I do remember its survival platforming horribleness, I mean that in a good way. Basically, the world has gone to pot and you play as a slug-cat thing that has to survive in the dark atmospheric world of this broken ecosystem. Disgusting and lacking in bright colorful family-friendly gameplay, I enjoy it for its sense of foreboding atmosphere. Released in 2017, you’d think there would be a sequel coming along soon, but no, the as-yet-unannounced release date of Rain World: Downpour is in fact just DLC.

If interesting platforming doesn’t concern you, there is always Akupara Games’ horror offering this time out, The Crow’s Eye. At times it looks like your typical post-Amnesia stock assets and then the other half looks like a mid-00s sci-fi game on a budget. Proclaiming to be a puzzle platformer, the entire dark atmosphere and need for health projects a wholely different image to the goal that is trying to be achieved.

Aren’t I so Wacky: The Game, Manual Samuel is once again on offer. Under the vagueness of dark humor, Manual Samuel has you play as a bloke named Samuel who is dead, but made a deal and gets another chance to live, for a day. During that day he must do everything manually, (I.E you must do everything for him manually) and if he completes the day well enough, he’ll get to live again. It is simple and entirely built from the same “humor” that sees the release of Goat Simulator 3 happen, I don’t understand it.

Akin to all those games you’d play in school instead of being on CoolMathgames.com, or equally, all those Trials games Ubisoft keeps releasing. Pumped BMX Pro is a side-scrolling BMX game about not breaking your neck as you go plowing head first into the dirt on the other side of some jump. Lacking the slapstick humor of the Trials games, or even anything interesting, it is just another arcade thing I’m sure you’ll have forgotten was already in your Prime Gaming library.

Then we have the last of the Star Wars games available during Prime Day, and this time running in the almighty Unreal 2, Star Wars: Republic Commando. The 2005 Xbox and PC exclusive tactical first-person shooter is actually highly regarded, mostly for showcasing the Clone Wars before the animated series made it interesting for Star Wars fans. Starting on everyone’s third favorite Battlefront II map, Geonosis, it plays a bit more like the later Rainbow Six games rather than the best one, Rogue Spear. Simple and rudimentary by modern capacities, Republic Commando is a slice of mid-00s tactical fun.

Up next and available now is 8Doors: Arum’s Afterlife Adventure, a grim-looking Metroidvania using general Korean theming for its backdrop. As a relatively short game, it is harangued by several bugs that seemingly aren’t being fixed somewhat quickly. Notably, the simultaneous boss death bug apparently bricks the entire game locking you from progressing due to auto-saves upon death. Otherwise, it is typical of something small and indie-developed, though I do find myself saying “it is 2022” to several problems found with the game.

Returning for those that haven’t already picked it up through Prime or elsewhere, The Darkside Detective is available once again. One for all the point & click fans, the big beautiful pixeled (BBP) game focuses on a detective solving the supernatural through Pipe Mania puzzles and typical point & click gameplay. All the cases are a play on the names of established media or myths, and are full of equally tired references that I’m sure children would roll their eyes at. I wonder if you can tell I’m not jumping to play this one. Lisa and Alexx enjoyed the sequel though.

Another one of those “aren’t I so hacky, I took a tab of LSD before making my game” games, The Metronomicon: Slay the Dance Floor returns to Prime once again. A rhythm action game with more explosions of color than my nightmares of the Colour Experience in Bradford, The Metronomicon melds typical RPG classes and the horrors of fighting a blue fat bear-lion with party hats for horns and Captain Cutler’s ghost from 2004 Scooby-Doo 2 film. Have fun getting that film out of your head, it’s easy to forget The Metronomicon though, you’ve forgotten you’ve owned it since 2019.

Seemingly a bit of a bundle that isn’t available on Steam, The Addling Adventures is a pack of three point-and-click games: Angelo and Deemon: One Hell of a Quest, The Wild Case, and Varenje. The last of those is something I reviewed on a now-defunct Italian website many years ago because I am just that old.

Varenje is a colorful but mental game, The Wild Case is dressed up like a hidden-object game but lacks that type of typical gameplay, and Angelo and Deemon: One Hell of a Quest is interesting as you play a vlogger that makes a deal with the devil. However, the game itself is poorly translated.

I’m going to provide you with the opening line of the Steam description for Cloud & Sheep 2: “In this eagerly anticipated sequel of the game ‘Clouds & Sheep’, the cute sheep are finally on the loose again!” Strangely, there isn’t a Cloud & Sheep (1) on Steam, but we’ll finish off the account of the game according to the developer: “Solve countless quests and fulfill your wooly friends’ needs.”

I have a question for you, what is this game supposed to be from that description and whatever screenshot I’ve provided? I’m asking because I honestly couldn’t tell you either way, and I’ve just come off of writing about three separate not-E3 shows summating more than 100 games in just a few words.

A prime example of summarizing something in just a few words: Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams is a hardcore 2.5D platformer now with an additional co-op focus thanks to the latest update. I no longer have to say anything else for that because, with those few words and the screenshot, I’ve given you everything you need to know. It is a bit colorful and seemingly features the Mario problem of levels; grassland, desert, ocean, jungle, ice world, fire world, boss. It even includes a big purple lizard.

Given 7s across the board, which in the games industry is everyone else’s 5, Need for Speed: Heat didn’t rev anyone’s engine. Available on Prime Day, you can pick up the twenty-ninth of all Need for Speed games released since 1994. Supposedly it is praised highly for its song collection, losing out to Death Stranding, but to be honest, I don’t know what a French Montana is though I guess, La vie est ce que vous en faites (Google it). To be honest, I just wish EA wouldn’t squander Criterion Games on supporting Need for Speed and have them make a proper Burnout.

I hope you like anime! Available right now, Metal Unit is a side-scrolling platformer with pixelated young women in outfits tighter than your dad’s jeans after Thanksgiving, hairstyles that are designed by men who’ve never had to deal with long hair, and most importantly, boobies. You play as Joanna on a mission to capture her sister who committed treason, and you must wear M-Unit 11, possibly compressing Joanna’s organs while being entirely unsuitable for combat. Much like most of Neowiz’s games such as Dandy Ace or 8Doors: Arum’s Afterlife Adventure, it looks great and colorful, but I still don’t care.

Alongside the Addling Adventure bundle from Legacy Games, Puzzle of the Year is a pack of 10 very simple and cheap games available on Steam. LIT: Bend the Light, Prune, Lyne, Evergarden, Nakobi, Hook Klocki, Up Left Out, Rosette and Words, and Nagiq 2: Treasure Hunt. I’ll return to my usual argument that this offering is more for the parents of young kids looking for something to distract them for a short amount of time as they clean up the house. If there is one game among them I’d suggest looking further into, it would be Evergarden, a hex-based puzzle game with a wonderful little deer.

Despite the name, this is not a series of racing games, we have another Legacy Games bundle of three hidden object games. All in the Road Trip series, so you can place a dry heave before all these upcoming titles, USA, Europe, and USA 2 West CE (according to the trailer). These are something to keep nan occupied while you clean the house, especially after her mid-afternoon nap once you’ve given her sugar to crash on, then pop on some repeats of Fiona Bruce’s Antiques Roadshow and she’ll be silent until dinner. Give her too much excitement during the day and you’ll never get her to bed on time.

A bit like the old Micro Machines/ToyBox Turbos games, Bang Bang Racing is a modern top-down arcade racer with chunky little versions of your American muscle, formula racers, or even LMP racers. There isn’t really much to say on this one as much like fighting games, racing ever since Burnout 3: Takedown has stayed the same with its formula, for better or worse. If you’re having a crap day or fancy flinging a small car into a corner and destroying half the track, have at it you mental little creatures, you sat through 29 of my summaries already.

We’ll end as we began, with me mentioning an EA game I reviewed in the past year. GRID: Legends is the latest game in the sub-series of the long-running and now dead TOCA series. It stars The Doctor as one of your rivals. Yes, I’ll be calling myself Missy next time I play. Of course as the last of the Prime Day offerings, you’ll have to wait for this one, but generally, it is a solid racing game held up by a story that is alright and arcade-sim racing that is the staple of the GRID series.