I wondered why you never hear about this game compared to Pony Island and Inscryption, and the reason is… it kinda sucks, comparatively. It has a really cool setup and I think it squanders it a bit, nevermind that making a game where you play games and then just failing completely to actually represent half those genres in terms of gameplay is... weird. I mean things like the shooter or the RTS clearly had a lot of effort put into them, but the platforming or "fighting game" gameplay are kind of a joke. Still I feel like its biggest issue lies in the ending, which I can't really explain without spoiling. Still, the game is enjoyable, just not great.

Another fantastic game by the brilliant Daniel Mullins. The Hex covers the mystery that surrounds many different forgotten game characters. I can only imagine the pains this must have been to code. It's a platformer, fighting game, RPG, top-down shooter, and more.

While I adore this game, I do think some parts of it drags on for a little longer than needed. Especially the RPG part. You could argue this is a commentary about how turn based RPGs usually are very long, but I personally found this part of the game fairly boring.

That said, other than that the genre bending game is incredible. The gameplay and commentary on games as a whole in very interesting, fun and overall an experience you can't get anywhere else. We'll all keep buying Daniel Mullins games.

An expansion on the core ideas of Pony Island (and everything else Mullins has released, to some extent). It’s also a very direct riff (or dunk??) on The Beginners Guide, and makes heavy use of the neither-you-nor-your-player-character-want-to-do-this-but-you-have-no-choice-to-proceed mechanical narrative device (the “Bioshock Special”). So a real mishmash of video game meta-narrative concepts.

Less elegant than Pony Island but still a good time. Glad I got to experience Inscryption first (like most people, I’m sure) before seeing some of the same tricks used here in what’s hard not to think of as a trial run.

If you haven't played this game, do not read this review or anything else about it. Hop in and play it blind.

I thought this game would mostly be about playing through different genres of games, albeit with a bit of meta stuff since I knew this was the same developer that made Pony Island. What I got was an interesting fourth-wall-breaking story. Playing through different genres that connected the characters together kept things fresh and interesting and I love how these seemingly separate characters had been weaved together to tell something much larger. The fourth wall breaks that begin more and more towards the end of the game really got me and Sado was an incredibly creepy antagonist. Revealing the player themselves as a character of their own to complete the hex in the game's true ending was brilliant. Beyond that, there are a lot of secrets to delve into and explore not only in the game but out of it. The cipher in the game files and in an entirely different game extends the story beyond the bounds of just the game. A wonderful gem that is worth the time played.