Board 8 > August Game of the Month Club ft. Castle on Coast, NORCO, and Call of the Sea

(+) Yeah! (+)

Augusts Games:
Castle on the Coast (PC/XSX/PS5/Switch/XB1/PS4)
NORCO (PC/XSX/PS5/XB1/PS4)
Call of the Sea (PC/XSX/PS5/XB1/PS4)

What is Game of the Month Club?
Game of the Month is a community project open to all B8ers where users share, discover, play and/or discuss a select few games every month. The games featured each month are chosen by YOU the users (and Lady Luck)

The Basics
- Each month will usually feature three games that were chosen via a random drawing from a pool of games that users nominated
- For each game you beat, you get a cool point on our just-for-fun standings as well as a nomination for next month's randomized drawing
- In order to receive the point and nomination, you must beat said game within the calendar month
- If you beat one of the current month's games in the previous month, you can apply for a "recently beaten waiver," but you will only receive a point and no nomination should you do so
- Drawing for next month's games is usually on the 25th
- If you periodically keep us posted on your progress and/or talk about different aspects of the games, then everyone will obviously think you are super awesome!

Nomination Rules
- You get one nomination automatically each month
- You receive additional nominations each month for every featured game that you beat
- Each game you nominate has to be unique from all other nominations and cannot include a game that has already been selected for GotM
- Each game must be a standalone game that can be acquired and played on its own (aka cannot be DLC/expansion that requires the base game)
- Nominations only carry over if you beat a featured game after the drawing for next month's games but before the end of the month
- You also have the option of supporting 1 game each month. Your only limitation is that you can't support your own nomination

Just-for-Fun Top 15 Standings
KCF - 193
gameking - 116
ArkOfTurus - 114
Mr Crispy - 108
Lolo Guru - 71
Cody - 67
Seanchan - 47
KnightOfNee - 35
ViolentAbacus - 35
MegamanX - 28
Wickle - 27
FakeAccount - 26
Kenri - 24
Arti - 23
scarletspeed - 23

Spreadsheet with history
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X8E8oqzES42W4S82j7WTfNnzNa8c3uXdSE1rnqYG7WM/edit?usp=sharing

Castle on the Coast is on sale for $2 USD on Switch for about one hour lol
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/castle-on-the-coast-switch/

Call of the Sea is on PS+ Extra

We do have special nomination rules for this month as we will be celebrating the project's 10 year anniversary.

For this month:

• Everyone gets a flat five nominations
• Everyone gets unlimited supports
• Five games will be drawn for September, and the winning games will all be from unique original nominators to get as many people represented.

What I mean by flat is that the usual method of increasing nomination totals by beating featured games will be suspended for this month.

KCF has beaten Castle on the Coast (XB1)

I knew it was janky before I bought it years ago after watching some game footage, but what I didn't realize is how momentum-based it is. After a little bit of getting used to that combo, it was pretty easy to get comfortable with its physics and stringing together all of its various jumps to test the limits of the areas and their invisible walls. I ended up accidentally sequence breaking the last area by acquiring none of the three or four keys to unlock doors like I was supposed to lol.

The car and submarine though are not fun at all to use though. Luckily the car I think is just used for one area, and you can get a costume that allows you to stay underwater indefinitely to no longer need the sub.

It's a goofy and fun game that I paid like $5 for. I'm pleased.

Unless I feel like replaying the somber Call of the Sea or pick up where I left off in the depressing NORCO, I think this is it for me this month. I will come up with some noms later.

five noms huh

guess i'll sneak in here even though i never participate lol
Murders on the Yangtze River (PC/Mac)
Sumire (PC/Mac/Switch)
Until Then (PC/Linux/PS5)
Affogato (PC)
Kokoro Clover Season 1 (PC/Switch)

Support Sumire

Decided to skim through my backlog of free EGS games and decided to

Nominate Death Stranding, Sable, Ghostwire Tokyo, Towerfall Ascension, and Dandara

Started NORCO. Seems like my kind of surreal, and I'm definitely looking forward to playing more.

As an aside, I'm really sad that Neon White is among the dubious four with nobody beating it. I'm having a lot of fun with it as I'm about to beat its second mission.

Support Sable

I played Sable last year (I think). A kind of interesting game but It ran like absolute poop.

Yeah, I tried it on three different platforms just to make sure that it wasn't my computer or systems, but no, it just has performance issues all throughout. I still did everything because the game was 100% up my alley, but man what that game could have been...

KCF0107 posted...

As an aside, I'm really sad that Neon White is among the dubious four with nobody beating it. I'm having a lot of fun with it as I'm about to beat its second mission.

I still regret this. It seemed like a good game, and I'll probably pick it up again and enjoy it, but I just wasn't feeling it at the time, and didn't want to keep pushing through because I could still refund it.

I'm surprised no one else gave it a shot, though.

I dont think it was on Game Pass at the time. I also think it was a month with some longer games I wanted to play.

Personally, I think games that have 0 finishes should still be eligible

Planning on Call of the Sea, gonna mull over my nominations for a while.

Support Towerfall Ascension

FYI Towerfall is an incredible game but mostly for the multiplayer, the campaign feels very secondary.

It's still fun but I highly recommend playing some matches with friends too if you want the real Towerfall experience.

I'm just going to toss out five noms now since I can always swap them out later

Alekon, Bat Boy, ECHO, Manifold Garden, Pyre

Monthly Progress
Castle - KCF
NORCO -
Sea -

Nominations
Ark - Death Stranding, Sable, Ghostwire Tokyo, TowerFall Ascension, Dandara
KCF - Alekon, Bat Boy, ECHO, Manifold Garden, Pyre
UF8 - Murder on Yangtze River, Sumire, Until Then, Affogato, Kokoro Clover Season 1

Supports
Cody - Tower
Kenri - Sumire, Sable

Castle on the Coast beaten!

I played through the tutorial, got to the outside of the castle, panned the camera around, and just went "oh no, I'm going to be 100%ing this"

(And then I did, except for a few achievements)

What a good game. It's as good as I remember late 90s 3D platformers being, and significantly better than (most) late 90s 3D platformers actually are.

I wish it was a touch harder though.

Nominate:

Alice: Madness Returns
Monster Sanctuary
Viewtiful Joe
Eastward
Perfect Dark

Extremely tentative noms.

Support:
Viewtiful Joe
Perfect Dark

ArkOfTurus has beaten Norco

Interesting game, interesting world-building, interesting visuals, but I don't think I entirely got what it was trying to say. Glad I played it, though, and will probably give it a replay at some point.

I've started Call of the Sea.

Really didn't have much of an idea of what to expect. And so far...it's fine. Bunch of walking around and some puzzles.

Monthly Progress
Castle - KCF, Kenri
NORCO - Ark
Sea -

Nominations
Ark - Death Stranding, Sable, Ghostwire Tokyo, TowerFall Ascension, Dandara
KCF - Alekon, Bat Boy, ECHO, Manifold Garden, Pyre
Kenri - Alice: Madness, Monster Sanctuary, Viewtiful Joe, Eastward, Perfect Dark
UF8 - Murder on Yangtze River, Sumire, Until Then, Affogato, Kokoro Clover Season 1

Supports
Cody - Tower
darkx - Joe, Perfect
Kenri - Sumire, Sable

Call of the Sea beated!

A light adventure game with some not too difficult puzzles and a bunch of walking simulator aspects. I have no strong opinions on the game. The puzzles were generally on the easy side if you interacted with all the objects and paid attention to the notes in your journal. Thank god they allowed you to press a button to move faster...but I still wish it was a bit faster than that.

BTW, I chose to accept my fate and remain on the island...

Dropping my nominations and some more supports.

Nominate: Bugsnax, Princess Peach: Showtime!, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Burnout Paradise

Support: ECHO, Pyre, Alice: Madness, Perfect Dark, Sumire

Haven't started Call of the Sea yet. The first few days after surgery I could barely see My vision is finally returning so maybe I can start it soon. NORCO still gonna depend on a big sale happening randomly

Drawing in a week

Noms:
Ape Escape
Arcadian Atlas
Bayonetta 3
Puzzle Agent
Yoshi's Crafted World

Nominate:
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Half Life 2: Episode 2
The Last of Us: Part 2
Batman: Arkham Origins
A Plague Tale: Requiem

Nominations:
Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore
Metal Gear Solid
Pokmon Trading Card Game
The Simpsons: Hit & Run
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom

Support:
Viewtiful Joe

Support:
Princess Peach Showtime
Metal Gear Solid
Simpsons Hit and Run

Nominate:
Ace Attorney Investigations 2
Touhou Luna Nights
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Command and Conquer: Red Alert
Shantae: Half Genie Hero

Support:
Pyre
Perfect Dark
Monster Sanctuary
Eastward
Puzzle Agent
Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore

Support

Ace Attorney Investigations 2
Touhou Luna Nights

Monthly Progress
Castle - KCF, Kenri
NORCO - Ark
Sea - Sean

Nominations
Ark - Death Stranding, Sable, Ghostwire Tokyo, TowerFall Ascension, Dandara
Cody - Bugsnax, Peach Showtime, Jedi: Survivor, Spider-Man Miles, Burnout Paradise
Crispy - AAI2, Touhou Luna, Indiana Jones Fate, C&C Red Alert, Shante: HGH
darkx - Ape Escape, Arcadian Atlas, Bayonetta 3, Puzzle Agent, Yoshi Crafted
KCF - Alekon, Bat Boy, ECHO, Manifold Garden, Pyre
Kenri - Alice: Madness, Monster Sanctuary, Viewtiful Joe, Eastward, Perfect Dark
Paul - Arzette, MGS, Pokemon TCG, Simpsons H&R, Spongebob Bikini
Sean - Wolfenstein II, Half-Life 2 EP2, Last of Us II, Batman: AO, Plague Tale Req
UF8 - Murder on Yangtze River, Sumire, Until Then, Affogato, Kokoro Clover Season 1

Supports
Ark - AAI2, Touhou
Cody - Tower, ECHO, Pyre, Alice, Pefect, Sumire
Crispy - Pyre, Perfect, Sanctuary, Eastward, Puzzle, Arzette
darkx - Joe, Perfect, Peach, MGS, Simpsons
KCF - Wolfenstein II, Spongebob
Kenri - Sumire, Sable
Paul - Viewtiful

I will support:
Wolfenstein II
Spongebob Bikini Bottom

I've been playing one of my noms, so I'm going to swap Bat Boy with Teslagrad 2

Drawing in two days

I've started Call of the Sea and played a few chapters. It's not really my type of game but it's enjoyable. I'm having a sad amount of difficulty with the frankly not that tough puzzles.

Support Simpsons Hit & Run, Dandara

There's a good chance I don't finish Simpsons if it's selected, but nevertheless. And Dandara I've already beaten and it's good, but I think there's been new content since then.

Kenri has beaten Call of the Sea

It was... okay. The difficulty of the puzzles seems very up and down. Chapter 4 had a puzzle I had to look up the solution to and I still didn't understand what it was asking of me even then. The story feels very mixed too. Sometimes Norah is a genius and sometimes she is incredibly blind to what's going on. I am glad that they let you just walk away at the end and that that felt like a full-fledged ending still. A lot of games that spur the main character towards a horrible fate and then offer a choice at the end to reject it seem to get mad at you, the player, for choosing that option.

Kind of felt like another game like Edith Finch where I can't think of a whole lot bad to say about it, it just doesn't really appeal to me, and part of that is just that the genre isn't my favorite. Shrug.

This will probably be my last call for nominations, supports, and changes. I will likely close things after I wake up as I will be on a time crunch for things I have to do.

Support
The Simpsons: Hit & Run
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom

Everything is now closed. I will draw as soon as I can (lots to input)

And your September Games of the Month to celebrate the project's 10-year anniversary are...

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore (PC/XSX/PS5/Switch)
Dandara (PC/XB1/PS4/Switch/iOS/Android)
Pyre (PC/PS4)
Perfect Dark (XSX/Switch/N64)
Burnout Paradise (PC/XB1/PS4/Switch/360/PS3)

Congrats to Paul, Ark, myself, Kenri, and Cody for having their games selected!

I was hoping that with nine of us nominating/supporting, everyone would be represented, but sadly that wasn't the case.

1. Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore (Paul)
2. Dandara (Ark)
3. Pyre (KCF)
4. Perfect Dark (Kenri)
5. Burnout Paradise (Cody)
6. Ghostwire: Tokyo (Ark)
7. Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit (Crispy)
8. Batman: Arkham Origins (Sean)
9. Alice: Madness Returns (Kenri)
10. Metal Gear Solid (Paul)
11. TowerFall Ascension (Ark)
12. Last of Us Part II, The (Sean)
13. Ape Escape (darkx)
14. Teslagrad 2 (KCF)
15. Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit (Crispy)
16. Simpsons: Hit & Run, The (Paul)
17. Yoshi's Crafted World (darkx)
18. Princess Peach: Showtime! (Cody)
19. Puzzle Agent (darkx)
20. Touhou Luna Nights (Crispy)
21. Kokoro Clover Season 1 (UF8)
22. Monster Sanctuary (Kenri)
23. Touhou Luna Nights (Crispy)
24. Bayonetta 3 (darkx)
25. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (Sean)
26. Princess Peach: Showtime! (Cody)
27. Metal Gear Solid (Paul)
28. SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom (Paul)
29. Until Then (UF8)
30. Manifold Garden (KCF)
31. Pyre (KCF)
32. Alekon (KCF)
33. Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore (Paul)
34. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (Cody)
35. SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom (Paul)
36. Sumire (UF8)
37. ECHO (KCF)
38. Dandara (Ark)
39. Pokemon Trading Card Game (Paul)
40. Half-Life 2: Episode Two (Sean)
41. Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (Crispy)
42. Perfect Dark (Kenri)
43. Simpsons: Hit & Run, The (Paul)
44. ECHO (KCF)
45. Arcadian Atlas (darkx)
46. Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Cody)
47. Viewtiful Joe (Kenri)
48. Affogato (UF8)
49. Simpsons: Hit & Run, The (Paul)
50. Death Stranding (Ark)
51. Viewtiful Joe (Kenri)
52. Plague Tale: Requiem, A (Sean)
53. Simpsons: Hit & Run, The (Paul)
54. Eastward (Kenri)
55. Sable (Ark)
56. TowerFall Ascension (Ark)
57. Monster Sanctuary (Kenri)
58. Command & Conquer: Red Alert (Crispy)
59. Perfect Dark (Kenri)
60. Sable (Ark)
61. SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom (Paul)
62. Sumire (UF8)
63. Viewtiful Joe (Kenri)
64. Puzzle Agent (darkx)
65. Busgnax (Cody)
66. Alice: Madness Returns (Kenri)
67. Murders on the Yangtze River (UF8)
68. Perfect Dark (Kenri)
69. Pyre (KCF)
70. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (Crispy)
71. Eastward (Kenri)
72. Sumire (UF8)
73. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (Sean)

I hope that this all looks right

Arzette is on sale for $12 USD on Switch
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/arzette-the-jewel-of-faramore-switch/

Perfect Dark is on Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion

Perfect Dark is on Game Pass for console (via Rare Replay)

Burnout Paradise Remastered is on EA Play and Game Pass Ultimate/PC (via EA Play)

Burnout Paradise Remastered is on sale for $5 USD on PS4 and Xbox One
https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0006-CUSA10866_00-STELLARPARADISE0
https://www.xbox.com/en-us/games/store/burnout-paradise-remastered/bqmq3k1blv1t

Ooh, Pyre. I didn't support it because I've had trouble getting it to run on my PC and on Steam Deck, but maybe this is the push I need to get it figured out.

Glad Perfect Dark won because it seems like a lot of people wanted that one!

Looks like I'll only be in for Perfect Dark, but at least that gives me the option to start some of those other games at my own leisure.