Bio
Played Donkey Kong Country in the year of our lord 1996 and it has been all downhill from there.
Personal Ratings
1★
5★

Badges


GOTY '23

Participated in the 2023 Game of the Year Event

1 Years of Service

Being part of the Backloggd community for 1 year

Clearin your Calendar

Journaled games at least 15 days a month over a year

Gamer

Played 250+ games

GOTY '22

Participated in the 2022 Game of the Year Event

Roadtrip

Voted for at least 3 features on the roadmap

Best Friends

Become mutual friends with at least 3 others

Noticed

Gained 3+ followers

Full-Time

Journaled games once a day for a month straight

On Schedule

Journaled games once a day for a week straight

N00b

Played 100+ games

Favorite Games

Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Celeste
Celeste
Firewatch
Firewatch
Kingdom Hearts Final Mix
Kingdom Hearts Final Mix
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade

270

Total Games Played

010

Played in 2024

290

Games Backloggd


Recently Played See More

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Mar 25

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker

Mar 18

Final Fantasy VII Remake: Episode Intermission
Final Fantasy VII Remake: Episode Intermission

Mar 07

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade

Mar 06

Guitar Hero Live
Guitar Hero Live

Mar 03

Recently Reviewed See More

I recently played Power to Play: The Game, a browser game promoting the album of the same title (minus "The Game", of course) from the British pop punks, McFly. Going into it, I did not expect much but a hollow attempt at recreating something retro. McFly have a history of hollow marketing ploys: from the exaggerated Super City website to the laughable Nowhere Left to Run short film. It shouldn't be denied that the band has talent. That is the last thing I want to imply, especially since I have called myself a McFly fan since 2005. I have fond memories of listening to their music on the bus ride to school, and buying their albums and concert DVDs off Ebay since they didn't sell them in the states. It wasn't until the late '00s that their music was finally made available to buy on the US iTunes store!

I say all that because as much as I have a soft spot for the band, I have grown tired of their cheap attempts at trying to lead people to their material. McFly have never been a deep band. Their music can sometimes reach deeper, but the majority of their songs are surface level. While they have come a long way from their first single, Five Colours in Her Hair, the band has never been able to hook me in the same way they did when I was a teenager. Since the release of their fifth studio album, Above the Noise in 2010, their music has left me feeling cold and cynical. I always return to listen to new albums and always wish I would fall in love again, but I have long since accepted that this is not going to happen. [Insert a gif of Regina George saying, stop trying to make [McFly] happen.]

All that said, I have listened to their newest album and I like it. It is the album I wanted from McFly in 2010 when we got the overproduced Above the Noise instead. I love the vibes of the album, this retro rock and roll aesthetic. I love that Dougie, the band's bassist, is getting a substantial amount of time to stretch his vocal range. Sure he has always sung backup vocals and has had his solo moments (Transylvania, Silence is a Scary Sound, Corrupted), but those tracks are either just one featured on an album or songs that never got a proper studio release. It is awesome to see how much he specifically has grown as a musician. Building on that, it is great to hear the band not restricting themselves to splitting the vocals among Danny and Tom in every song. They've been building on this with recent releases (can't say anything specific here since I haven't really enjoyed their recent work and am not too familiar with it beyond my memory of previewing tracks) but it is great to see just how well it works. Overall, this album lets go of the McFly formula and also feels like a natural progression of their music in a way their albums since Above the Noise have not felt. It feels mature yet still McFly. While I still am not super familiar with the album yet, I am happy to say there are tracks that I absolutely love (Forever's Not Enough and Route 55) and that is more than I can say for any of their albums from the last 10 years.

I know this is not an album review, but I wanted to say all this to help you have a clearer understanding of my perspective. I could have written much more than that, so you're welcome.

All of that said, Power to Play: The Game is a game that attempts to pay homage to retro '80s aesthetics. But unlike the album which succeeds at this, The Game is less of an homage and more of a direct rip off of '80s video games, specifically Super Mario Bros., and isn't even a good rip off. Upon starting the game and choosing your character (one of the four McFly members), one can easily spot that the level is almost identical to the first level of Super Mario Bros. Even the powerups are in the same locations…and the powerups are exactly the same. The first powerup allows the player to grow bigger and the second gives them a fire flower, though this game calls it a Dragon Ball (an homage to a fan favorite long unreleased track). Enemies are tapes that you must stomp on or a large microphone (in reference to the band's fourth studio album, Radio:Active) spitting out hammers like Mario's hammer brother enemies. It wouldn't be so bad if the game had decent controls, but it turns out the game only looks like Mario and steals ideas from Mario. It plays horrendously. The controls are slippery and the jump is unwieldy. Though it is only a browser game, there is no excuse for this design in 2023. I've played plenty of browser games that have played smoothly and used the limited controls to their advantage. (As a side note, the game does not seem to work on all browsers. I originally started to play on Chrome but the game never loaded. I ended up playing on Microsoft Edge.) The Game feels cheap. Not only does the gameplay make it feel cheap, but the overall aesthetic feels icky. The oversaturated neon colors work fine for the album's aesthetics, but look like a mismatched mess in the game. The player sprites are close enough to their real life counterparts, but look as if they didn't make it past the first draft. On top of this, the music is incredibly distracting. When you load up the game, it asks you if you want to login to Spotify or play as a guest. I played as a guest so I'm not sure if the experience differs from logging in, but playing as a guest only plays previews from the new album in a loop. Songs went by way too quickly and the transitions from song to song were jarring. But the worst part is that the music just doesn't work with what the game is going for. The music evokes '80s rock vibes which is far from the vibes of retro games of the time. Wouldn't it have been cool if they had released an 8-bit version of the album to go with the game? I know it would require more time and money, but the marketing team is clearly not hurting financially.

Just like the marketing for McFly's past projects, this is another attempt to do something unique and interesting that falls flat and feels hollow. There is no charm to the game. It does not pay tribute to retro games but copies them, and doesn't even do anything interesting with the copy. Honestly, it just makes me want to play Super Mario Bros. instead. I don't think McFly were aiming to make this a stellar game. It exists to promote the album, not be Game of the Year. But damn, wouldn't it have been cool if they had tightened the controls, made an 8-bit version of the album to be the soundtrack, and had a more cohesive design (instead of being a direct copy of a game). That would have been so impressive and made the game more than passing marketing jargon. So many things are vying for our time and money, and more often than not they are empty promises. I just wish this invitation to play was met with a fun play experience, and not one that made me feel miserable and wishing I could play another game.