I’ve been as sick as a hapless landlubber on her first pirate’s quest for sweet, sweet booty this week.
The thing with being sick is, while I spent a vast majority of my time being pretty much dead to the world, I also had a few free hours to play some video games. This was, of course, delayed by the fact that I couldn’t look at a screen for longer than 5 minutes before desperately needing to blow tremendous chunks.
So shock horror, folks! I played some darn video games! Better yet, I played some fairly new-ish releases on Nintendo Switch! Honestly, I was still somewhat in a state of flu-ridden delirium which may or may not have influenced my experience.
In the words of my colleagues, Everything Is Content. While I wasn’t well enough to write out full paragraphs on my feelings about the games while I was playing them, I can definitely recreate my thoughts from when I played as well as my more cohesive thoughts now that I have a clearer mind.
Let’s go!
ElecHead
Sick Ruby
Haha, I’m a little guy. I’m a buzzy little fella. Energy boy. I am also my own worst enemy. Sometimes when I jump on stuff, I die. Ouch!
I’m having fun but it is also very hard. I’m just a little guy, why do I die? Now I’m throwing my head around like it’s nothing. If I did that in real life, I think people would be annoyed by it.
Sound Ruby
ElecHead rocks. It’s made by solo developer Nama Takahashi, and you play as a little robo-boy called Elec. It’s a somewhat simple puzzle platformer that isn’t so hard that you’re punching a hole in the wall but is challenging enough that you feel really, really good when you figure it out.
A small thing that I really liked was that you can go into the settings and change the colour scheme of the game. As a lover of pink, this was a must for me. You’re also able to unlock more colour schemes in-game, which is really neat!
It’s definitely a lot harder when you’ve got Flu Brain.
Lost Ruins
Sick Ruby
Girls! So many girls. Cool monster girls and lots of goblins. This game was made for me. I’m a girl, I’m a goblin. I’m the intersection of a girl and a goblin.
There’s lots of cool weapons and you just fuck everyone’s shit up. Some of the cool monster girls are my friends! I love my cool monster girl friends.
The game is very pretty and fun. Also a little bit silly. I love throwing the ham.
Sound Ruby
Lost Ruins is a pretty great addition to the vast library of Metroidvania games out right now. It’s not perfect (some of the melee controls were a little clunky), but it’s a short and sweet title nonetheless.
Where Lost Ruins really shines is its visuals. The character portraits are beautifully drawn, and really pop out. The pixel art, especially of the bosses, is gorgeous. I played the ‘Accessible’ difficulty, as I probably wouldn’t have been able to play anything else in my state, and it still provided a reasonable challenge.
I stand by what I said about the Throwing Ham. That weapon is OP.
Portal Companion Collection
Sick Ruby
Haha! Wee hee! Wahoo! Oooh, yay! Woah woah woah, oh! Woo!
Oooh, uh oh! Oh, oh, oh! Wow! Yay! Hahaha! Weeee!
Sound Ruby
Oh man, I am loving the Portal: Companion Collection. There’s no doubt in my mind that these games are perfect for a portable console. I’m a bit biased here because I have always loved the Portal games, but Valve have really knocked these ports out of the park.
The ports of both of these games on Nintendo Switch run so smoothly, and were so far my favourite way to play the games. If you’re wanting to replay Portal and Portal 2, or you’re wanting to play them for the first time, I highly recommend giving them a go on the Switch.
It takes the ability to play them on a laptop in bed and mixes it in with the controls you’d get on the console version of the games. It rocks, it rules, and it was a blessing to hear Stephen Merchant’s voice coming out of my Switch.
Corpse Factory
Sick Ruby
I can’t read!
Sound Ruby
I can’t give a full recommendation as I haven’t yet finished Corpse Factory, but I felt it necessary to include it here as I did indeed attempt to play it when I first fell ill.
For a visual novel, Corpse Factory is very cool! I had to play more of it when I was less sick because I foolishly played this game before any of the other games (when I was at my illest). While there is great voice acting in this game, I foolishly had my Switch on mute on the first play.
Playing it when I could read, I really enjoyed the unnerving energy emanating from this game. It doesn’t rely on jumpscares, but instead opts for an unending building of tension and suspense.
There aren’t a lot of choices made by the player, so this is definitely more for visual novel fans that don’t mind not having complete control of the plot.
I’m a lot better now, so having the chance to play these games while I was sick as well as better really opened my eyes as to how your state of mind can influence the media you consume.
All that being said, being bed-ridden can sometimes be a blessing when you want to catch up on some new games. These games definitely got me by while I made the effort to get better, and were definitely a saving grace when I did not have the brain capacity to make a coherent thought.
Do you have any games that got you by while you were very unwell? Chuck your sick day games in the comments.
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