Carrying on with my Furi replay, I find myself appreciating the downtime between fights more. The first time I played the game, I was a bit puzzled by the seemingly incongruous decision to intersperse cryptic furry monologues between bosses. In a boss rush game, it goes without saying, the focus tends to be found with bosses.

It’s really grown on me though. At worst it’s a 2 minute break for #Gamers to grab a Mountain Dew or whatever, but at its best, The Voice’s soliloquy adds weight and anticipation to each fight, while edging us closer to a greater understanding of what/why/how we’re escaping. Take The Scale for example: the deranged, sludge-soaked survivor of an instantaneous genocide, presumably at the hands of our player protagonist. The narrator’s unreliability in conveying such information – along with The Scales clear disgust for what we’ve done – has us question everything. Insert “are we the baddies?” sketch.

But the gameplay! Glorious gameplay! I will say my battle-hardened hands and Souls-sharpened reflexes made the game significantly easier than it was the first time round. There was no boss I straight up died to this time, though some of them did manage to set me back a health thingamajig a few times, especially those with a busted-arse sniper rifle. It didn’t take away from my enjoyment however, and conceivably added to it in the same way Dark Souls is a hell of a lot more fun when you’re not launching your controller at the wall because fucking Blighttown punishes dodging with immediate death. I could appreciate the fights more, their design and how they differ from one another, along with my returning love for these character designs. I have no familiarity with Takashi Okazaki’s work but Furi had/has me eyeing up Afro Samurai if only to see if his illustrations are as bold and memorable as they are here.

With the true final boss executed (a feat left unaccomplished years ago) and a newfound appreciation for those brief moments of calm, it’s safe to say I love Furi. It’s challenge done right, in large part because it focuses on the essentials and nails them to an undeniably polished degree. It doesn’t overextend itself either with superfluous storytelling or redundant systems. What narrative it does tell it does with brevity, impact, and class.

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Onto Two Point Hospital, a medical management sim by the same folks who worked on many other classic simulation games under the Bullfrog name, of which I have no experience with. I don’t know what it is about British game developers’ compulsion to make genitalia jokes, but I like it, and is the closest I’ll come (cum?) to being patriotic.

Everything about TPH is inviting, and even though I’m a novice at these sort of games, I’m making good progress through each hospital. I’m currently going with the strategy of hitting 1 star on a specific hospital and moving onto the next, as in a sort of story mode adjacent fashion, each subsequent location unlocks new mechanics, rooms, and items to manage. My style of management is one where I aim to please the employees first: The staff rooms are vast, clean toilets greet you at every turn, there’s always someone to cover your breaks, and to meet any potential demands for a prettier working environment, gaudy Sonic memorabilia litters every wall and floor of the hospital. It seems to work alright, though my tendency to give the inexperienced little guy a shot does tend to lead to a few more deaths than I’d like.

The soundtrack bop to non-bop ratio is so heavily weighted towards the former that it finally gave me the motivation to make the video game music playlist I’ve put off for so long. And yes, most of Furi’s OST made the cut.

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Unlike jazz, it doesn’t take a trained ear to pick through the seemingly discordant notes to understand what’s being said with Ape Out. If you have a penchant for rhythm, a keen eye for distinctive, hazy visuals, and a bit of a revolutionary streak, Ape Out delivers a short punchy experience unlike anything else. It’s a premier title in the “improvisational gorilla emancipation genre”, which while a bit dearth for competition would undoubtedly be a contender for king of the jungle.

There is a lot to say about Ape Out, especially the technical triumphs, though it’s safe to assume a relatively music illiterate listener like myself is better off leaving that side of things to other people. The jazz soundtrack delivers cymbal crashes and deep drum beats matching the player-driven, ape-delivered carnage on screen. It’s a playable version of the classic Musical Melee YouTube video, and slaps just as well. The visuals too almost feel influenced by player input, casting shadows based on what our rebellious gorilla friend would be able to see. It creates a fascinating effect whereby you’re never truly sure what lies around the corner, but also stuns the senses with a rainbow light show.

Perhaps it’s the animal rights advocate inside me speaking here, but the part of Ape Out I truly adored was the smash cut story, a brutal telling of an ape rising up against human oppressors, topped off charmingly with a true display of this beasts power as they rescue their presumed kin from the starting complex.

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To finish off this week, I dabbled with Just Cause 1 & 2 I played a lot of JC2 back in the day on the 360 but never reached for the first game. I’m unfortunately extremely picky when it comes to mouse input; any sort of input lag, mouse smoothing, acceleration, or lack of a decent sensitivity slider can ruin an entire game for me. JC1 has no sensitivity slider and the default speed seems designed for mice running at like 200dpi. The PC version also lacks controller support, so I binned it and just started a replay of JC2.

I don’t know if it’ll keep my attention for its entire length since a lot of open world games of this time had the usual samey formula, and bearing in mind I played the first 4 Assassin’s Creed games to completion this year, I might not have the stamina for it. The game’s chaos gimmick looks quaint by today’s standards, as it’s reduced to “shoot the red explosive thing”, and unfortunately I wouldn’t say the shooting part of that equation holds up that well. That said, I had forgot just how fun the grappling hook was. A lot of open world games live or die on their traversal and slingshotting around with the hook and parachute is honestly just as exhilarating as flinging around with reboot Spiderman’s webs.