Playing Every Game in the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality
PEGBRJE: ‘Magic Trick’ and ‘Extreme Mining’
XTREME.
Magic Trick is an arcade skate-trick inducing free roam game created by L8er Sk8rs Studios. Players follow Wizkid, a small individual in a wizard hat that just moved to a new town. Thankfully it is designed to be the perfect skater town, so everyone skates around and can let Wizkid go nuts. Oh, and did I mention that Wizkid is also a wizard? Time for some gnarly tricks.
Players will start in a simple location and get an optional tutorial from the legendary Tony Hawk — who just so happens to be an actual hawk. From this first lesson (or if players skipped it) there’s an entire skate park to practice moves and do all of the kickflips one can dream of.
If the skatepark does not hold interest, then players can move to the next region through these massive slides which serve to separate the areas and also trigger the regional music. Each region has its own characters to interact with who can give quests or just fun conversations. There are also cards to collect for those achievement hunters out there.
The real ‘catch’ however is first unlocked by speaking with Delia back in the skate park — usually this occurs right after Tony Hawk’s tutorial. She — and all of her subsequent relative magicians — will give Wizkid tutorials on how to use magic. That’s right, the skateboarding tricks can get even more wild. The first ability, and easily the most ‘abusable’, is the checkpoint. Players can have Wizkid set up a checkpoint anywhere, and by pressing a single button they can automatically return to that area. That means continuing grind rails, redoing jumps, and even just going back to other areas.
The possibilities are endless, especially as the other wizards give new ability such as building ramps, entering super speed, and more. It gives a fantastic new flavour to free roaming skating, allowing for more manipulation of the world while also giving more tools to have fun. Delia and the wizards will give quests to help teach these new spells, and their completion will unlock a ‘rainbow road’ of sorts. This is a grind rail that connects two regions together so that players can go between two places much faster than trying to push a skateboard up hill.
I don’t think I can do Magic Trick justice with this short review, because it brings together so many little elements that make for a hilariously good experience. You’ve got the animals of an adorable game to interact with, the freedom of a skateboard classic to pull off whatever gnarly tricks you can think of and magic to manipulate the world in ways thought impossible. The world is no longer just your oyster; it’s an entire ocean of skating tricks and colourful landscapes for anyone to enjoy.
If you were a fan of Pro Skater but were hoping for a bit more of a fantastical flair to it (and some hilarious writing) then this game is perfect for you.
Extreme Mining is an arcade top-down shooty shooty crafted by Tallbeard Studios, the American indie studio founded by musician Ben Burnes (and featured earlier in the bundle!). This time, players are a miner who is sick and tired of using traditional methods and has resorted to violence against the rocks that keep getting googly eyes.
Every player enters the same arena with the same loadout; a gun and a pickaxe that can be thrown and retrieved. Once the timer begins to descend, players will find red spots where the rocks spawn, and then the shooting begins in earnest. There are also green circle areas that appear to give temporary boosts, which can be handy for clearing out massive amounts of enemies quickly.
Once an enemy rock ‘dies’ it drops splinters of itself which can be collected for currency shown at the top in dollars. The rocks are not worth a lot, but they will despawn after a bit of time so don’t let them sit for too long. Every kill fills the Boss Bar, which will spawn alongside the minion rocks. Destroying it will give gems and brilliant rocks that are worth way more while simultaneously increasing the difficulty of the run moving forward.
The key to success however is not in the player’s ability to shoot, but in their resource management. At the top is a shop where players can buy upgrades for their miner such as decreasing the spread, increasing the damage of either weapon, health increases, and more. Everything increases in price after every purchase, so ensuring that there is enough money in the coffers is critical.
However, there is a single upgrade that is more important than all of those; time. Without purchasing time, players will find themselves ending earlier than expected as the timer runs out and they are forced to reset from the beginning. Time can be purchased in 30 second intervals, but will need to be stockpiled during dangerous times when the store is closed for various reasons. It also increases in price, so once again managing between buying damage vs buying time is key.
Getting in to the groove of Extreme Mining can take a bit, but once you’ve got your upgrade paths figured out and a steady rhythm you’ll be mining effectively in no time. Figuring out when to throw axes or when to move is a tricky but important skill, and ensuring that enemies do not flood the screen is harder than it looks. Nevertheless, if you can master all of these skills you’ll be rolling in dough — right up until something either kills you, or your timer ends and something ominous happens.
If you love top-down shooters that can go on forever if you are good enough, then you might enjoy mining things to the extreme.
Good luck, yellow miner — may your bullets carry you as far as they can.
