I didn't come here for excellence, I came here to satisfy a curiosity. This collection serves a very specific purpose so I am rating it based on that purpose. I streamed it for a bunch of friends and we got just over an hour's worth of laughs out it. That's what we wanted from it and that's exactly what we got!
As for the games themselves, they did scratch my brain in the way I thought they would. Most were actually decently engaging puzzle games if I didn't expect the world from them. While the levels were slow to present any challenges, that felt true to the mobile game experience to me where there's fanfare for the simplest of puzzle clears to make you feel clever before stepping up the difficulty faster than expected. This collection doesn't attempt to add any quality or integrity to "these games" (yes, there's even an IQ stat!) and I love them for it. It does add some of its own personality though; shout out to the gyrating ogre in Number Tower.
For funsies, here's how I rank the various games from most to least liked:
1. Pin Pull - An order of operations puzzle that I genuinely liked
2. Parking Lot - Higher levels actually required some effort
3. Color Lab - Hideous colors but satisfying to the lizard brain
4. Cash Run - Nonsense budgeting / platforming combo? I guess?
5. Number Tower - Just math... but gyrating ogre
I played Those Games and now I know what the skeezy ads are all about. The itch has been scratched. I doubt I'll play this collection again anytime soon but the concept is entertaining and honestly did me a service. $10 on Steam for a funny stream with my friends and immunizing myself against weird ads? Worth it!
As for the games themselves, they did scratch my brain in the way I thought they would. Most were actually decently engaging puzzle games if I didn't expect the world from them. While the levels were slow to present any challenges, that felt true to the mobile game experience to me where there's fanfare for the simplest of puzzle clears to make you feel clever before stepping up the difficulty faster than expected. This collection doesn't attempt to add any quality or integrity to "these games" (yes, there's even an IQ stat!) and I love them for it. It does add some of its own personality though; shout out to the gyrating ogre in Number Tower.
For funsies, here's how I rank the various games from most to least liked:
1. Pin Pull - An order of operations puzzle that I genuinely liked
2. Parking Lot - Higher levels actually required some effort
3. Color Lab - Hideous colors but satisfying to the lizard brain
4. Cash Run - Nonsense budgeting / platforming combo? I guess?
5. Number Tower - Just math... but gyrating ogre
I played Those Games and now I know what the skeezy ads are all about. The itch has been scratched. I doubt I'll play this collection again anytime soon but the concept is entertaining and honestly did me a service. $10 on Steam for a funny stream with my friends and immunizing myself against weird ads? Worth it!