Fifty Days of UFO 50: Day 36


    So, I've had a bit of a hard time getting into Rock On! Island. This is partially because I don't generally play a lot of tower defense games; I've never touched any Bloons TD, which from the outside seems like it must be seminal given the number of sequels and its placement on digital storefronts. Long ago, I probably took a little dip in Defense Grid and thought, "Neat!" before returning to the rivers and lakes that I'm used to. It just isn't a series of waterfalls that I tend to migrate up casually, and there simply has to be a way to escape this TLC metaphor I appear to be trapped in!
All I'm saying is that I'm a tower defense scrub- ENOUGH!

I've lost a bunch, and have slowly been learning weird tricks like putting chickens next to fires or spending meat while the dinos are active. Things that would have let me start kicking this game's butt MUCH sooner had I known about them.

...but that's just how UFO 50 is, right? We're chasing that experience of loading up a bunch of cracked shareware or renting games from the local gas station, situations where we didn't have the manuals and needed to learn to play the games by doing. I have years of practice at doing just that, so I got stuck into this challenging little game without ever bothering to enter your home Village of Peace.

It turns out there's been a whole helpful tutorial area at the beginning of this game the entire time! I've gotten way too used to figuring everything out the hard way. Everything these villagers are telling me is stuff that I found out through brutal trial-and-error.
I'm really mad at myself, but the humor inherent to this discovery was also painfully sublime; my partner was quite startled when I screamed "THERE'S A WHOLE VILLAGE?!"


    Going forward, I'll try not to assume that the UFO 50 Recovery Team is against any and all modern creature comforts. And if I manage to defeat Rock On! Island, perhaps I can keep a little tower defense streak going. I like the agency of being able to help my placed units out with my own avatar, and I've been hearing good things about Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess...

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