Bearplane
2004
This is a pretty bad pinball game. The game clearly wants you to learn to actually play pinball, which is cool, but it wants you to control the ball pretty precisely from screen one. This ends up being a big ask in part because the ball physics feel off. Youll spend alot of time trying to hit a specific button to open the path to the next screen, losing your ball on that screen, then dropping you back to that previous screen to try and hit that button again. Its tedious and not particularly fun.
Game highlight: the visuals are charming and the opening cutscene is very funny.
Game highlight: the visuals are charming and the opening cutscene is very funny.
2019
My favorite since 0. Really enjoyed how they tied the different protagonists together. Also this is the first game that really sold that kiryu is a living legend in this world. I didnt even hate the weirdly horny ping pong mini game.
Hughlight: finally getting to control kiryu and wrecking shop.
Hughlight: finally getting to control kiryu and wrecking shop.
We lost our way as artists when we stopped making handheld pinball spinoffs.
A really sweet little VN. Only about 5 minutes long but im still thinking about it hours later.
look frog detective is very charming but its been diminishing returns since the first game.
I downloaded this when it blew up in 2017 and finally played it in 2024. Thought it was neat. The horror elements were effective and i enjoyed how the game asks you to resolve the conflict at the end.
2004
Spotted this while browsing [VERY LEGAL OFFLINE GAME STORE] and was immediately taken by the visuals. The backgrounds have a hyper compressed pre rendered look that i find extremely engaging. The character sprites meanwhile have a similar look to old mortal kombats roto/fmv style. Over detailed in a way that could only come from a non hand drawn process. The same studio was responsible for the home console version of the game and the two versions have remarkably similar combat mechanics and movement abilities. This leads me to suspect the GBA sprites are super low res renders of the home console 3d models either rotoscoped or just touched up by a pixel artist. Its an extremely cool look that i would love to try emulating someday.
Game Highlight: seeing an enemy shoot an ice ball at me, experiencing intense deja vu about that specific ice ball sprite, then realizing that the same studio later made the Bionicle GBA game my brother had in which im pretty sure they re-used the ice ball sprite.
Game Highlight: seeing an enemy shoot an ice ball at me, experiencing intense deja vu about that specific ice ball sprite, then realizing that the same studio later made the Bionicle GBA game my brother had in which im pretty sure they re-used the ice ball sprite.
2022
Picked this up because the art is cool. Its a fun enough one of these. Hasnt really kept my attention though.
2019
This game fucking rips. Pinball is the coolest game ever made.
2021
This game has an unfortunate tension in its design. Every world is a set of levels that must be completed to face a boss and clear the world. once the boss is defeated you unlock a new set of remix levels to clear in that same world. The remix levels are the best the game has to offer and the platforming really shines, but unfortunately the standard levels to get to those remix levels are much less engaging and ultimately lost my interest.
Game Highlight: The Soundtrack is excellent. Also the jumps feel pretty good.
Game Highlight: The Soundtrack is excellent. Also the jumps feel pretty good.
2020
Think im going to mark this as done. I think i got about halfway through. It was charming, and i enjoyed my time, but i felt the combat systems were lacking. None of the upgrades were particularly interesting and none of them synergized in ways that ever felt like i could get an actual build going.
Game Highlight: character art. everyone has so much personality in their character portraits. Endeared the cast to me very quickly.
Game Highlight: character art. everyone has so much personality in their character portraits. Endeared the cast to me very quickly.