?/10 [Unrated]
For integrity's sake, I'll state upfront that I'm friends with the creator of this game. Emotionally honest and raw, it really cuts to the core of that complicated nature of love/friendship/relationships as a whole and the intimacy of those late-night convos where it feels like you could talk about anything. I have to reluctantly admit that the writing style may simply just not be my cup of tea, but it's got a lot of heart at its core that seems to have resonated with others, so I'm glad that it's found its audience, and I hope that Squigglydot succeeds with her future endeavors.

?/10 [Unrated]
Interesting forum anomaly, but ultimately boring and jank. Doesn't really have anything to catch your attention from the beginning, and its unfinished to boot. Not worth the effort I went through to find a copy.

?/10 [Unrated]
A wonderful sci-fi short-story built with chatbot technology to create a really immersive, atmospheric experience about a man and his machine that talks to God. Being asked by God at the end to remove one thing from existence was the toughest question a game has ever asked me. So glad I got to experience this before the servers shut down.

?/10 [Unrated]
Pretty strong for a first outing. Despite the stock assets, the writing is enjoyable and I really liked the story and the way it touches on the anxieties of the education system in parallel with religious trauma and such; it really touched on a lot of specific feelings I've had about my time with the education system and I thought it was executed quite well (I always have a lot of respect for stories that just sort of END with a suddenness like that.) I hope to see more from them in the future because there's potential here.

?/10 [Unrated]
"this is the videogame equivalent to slam poetry. I will not elaborate further." - LordDarias

A surreal short story about the end of the world and the kind of girls you'll meet after the world's gone to shit. Beyond the high-concept set-up, there's a lot of great low-key moments like reminiscing on old memories or ruminating on the nature of sex and violence. It's a good read for what it is.

?/10 [Unrated]
"this broader aesthetic sense of making art thats like an overtly long talk therapy session with some two faced white woman is becoming maddening to me." - SimonDedalus

1/10 [F-]
bad.

2/10 [F]
The game writes at one point that cakes use "dough" instead of "batter", which is the real reason I gave it such a low score.

2/10 [F]
Watched fellow Backloggd user Detchibe play this in one 8-hour sitting in a Discord voice call alongside jenny.

"You know in your bones that a joke will not be allowed to stand on its own, and that Roiland or his other hack voice 'actors' will need to get their own two cents in. It is a Reddit comment thread not only in content, but in presentation, someone always retelling the above poster's joke but worse. In Roiland's world, stuttering is a feature, not a bug. His stammering makes Porky Pig seem eloquent. A one-take wonder." - Detchibe

A generic 7th-gen shooter made absolutely abysmal by every voice actor blabbering out yet another bad punch-line for the 60th time that minute. Used AI Art and voices to decorate areas when they couldn't be assed to get anyone to spare talent on this shit. Terminally addicted to not shutting the fuck up. There's no doubt in my mind that there's going to be 10 more of these in the future and we will all be worse off for it.

2/10 [F]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user maradona.

"I swear to god if there's another stage after this I'm throwing myself into a river."
STAGE 8
And then we both closed Fightcade and watched the ending on YouTube.

2/10 [F]
It's only saving grace is the Homoerotic Pyramid Head Ending.

3/10 [D]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user maradona.

What starts off a neat little top-down Diablo clone slowly turns into the most mind-numbing, quarter-munching, soulless button masher ever made, with a final boss that's 15 minutes long and the least fun I've had as a co-op experience.

3/10 [D]
If I was Fuminori I simply would not have lost my humanity from witnessing extra-dimensional horrors beyond my comprehension, but that's just me :/

4/10 [D+]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user maradona.

I spent half an hour in a Fightcade match trying to beat Level 4 while someone played "21ST CENTURY HUMOR SOUND EFFECTS (10 HOUR EDITION)" over the Discord music bot. If that's not a modern day Sisyphean punishment, I don't know what is.

4/10 [D+]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user maradona.

I always wanted to play this because everyone said it was good and it turns out, everyone was lying. This game is a mind-numbing quarter-muncher that's only saved by its nostalgic coat of paint.

4/10 [D+]
Hell is real and it's the 8-bit halls of Daedalus Tower.

5/10 [C]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user maradona.

This feels like something you'd play in Purgatory while God decides whether you're going to Hell or not. Absolute nothing Puyo-Puyo clone.

5/10 [C]
I'll admit it: I downloaded it because of the anime girl on the cover. I stayed to satiate my crippling gambling addiction, and then left because the gambling sucked.

5/10 [C]
A demo I found on itch.io that caught my attention due to the artstyle and self-admitted Tsutomu Nihei inspiration. Incredibly janky so far (can't jump, have to come to a full stop before you can walk after running, can't aim without moving first), but it has potential. Can't be too harsh on a demo but it leaves a lot to be desired at the moment.

5/10 [C]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user maradona.

Primo Italiano Kusoge.

5/10 [C]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user maradona.

We spent like 35 minutes trying to beat Stage 1 and our reward was getting sent to New York 💀

5/10 [C]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user maradona, in tandem with friends & Backloggd users Squigglydot and Cold_Comfort.

Backloggd users Squigglydot and Cold_Comfort are notorious hack-fraud CHEATERS who LIE about their so-called """victory""" over me and maradona in the 1st Annual Backloggd Kusoge Race. Do NOT believe their LIES!

5/10 [C]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user maradona.

Would've been a 6/10 if it wasn't for the homophobic stage :/

5/10 [C]
Played it because my friend C_F had created a translation for it and needed some help testing it out. Classic Mega Man but reimagined as a boss rush/fighting game hybrid all about getting a high score. Mindless but fun, and its cool getting to see some of the SNES-era robot masters get 8-bit-ified.

5/10 [C]
Played this for fellow Backloggd user Detchibe.

I was up to their challenge of making any headway in this game in lieu of the others who tried and failed, and I made a valiant effort. After the valiant effort though I kinda stopped caring to make any headway in this bizarre lovechild of Splatoon and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Not a bad game all things considered but it's not something I'm coming back to. At least I own it before it gets yoinked off the store shelves.

5/10 [C]
A R !!!
A R !!!
A R !!!
A R !!!
S L
G L
P L SH

5/10 [C]
I was spoiled on it but I am still in disbelief that this game actually ends on a Mickey Rourke rap. Absolutely insane.

5/10 [C]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user maradona.

It's a video game. You press buttons, and sometimes the sprites on screen react to said button presses.

5/10 [C]
Totally brainless game where chibi 2hus swing Buster Swords and gain loot with exponentially bigger numbers than the last. Cool if you're into that sort of thing, but I feel like after 2 hours I got my fill.

6/10 [C+]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user maradona.

I am so good at American history (<= Guessed on every single question and still won with a 300K point lead)

6/10 [C+]
Short, sweet, fun. Unsubtle about it's vampire metaphor and the general doldrums of retail work, but it's cute :)

6/10 [C+]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user maradona.

Usually don't log games I didn't play personally but considering it's a VN with 0 replayability, I feel fine logging it since I watched a friend of mine play it in a Discord call. We got gay married, gay divorced, and murdered in the span of an hour, so even though the writing kind blows it's great as a Jackbox-esque comedy act to laugh at with friends.

6/10 [C+]
Played with fellow Backloggd users maradona, Squigglydot, eclair, and AG147.

Saw the N-Word from randos in the lobby twice in the span of half an hour, a truly impressive Slur:Playtime ratio if I've ever seen one

6/10 [C+]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user maradona.

"Cowa-chungus is funny right?" - maradona
"No." - everyone in VC

6/10 [C+]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user maradona.

"HOW TO PLAY" Lady, if you're reading this, call me.

6/10 [C+]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user maradona.

Never played Sunset Riders but this game is actually really fun as a charming co-op escapade. The most accurate depiction of Texas in media yet.

6/10 [C+]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user maradona.

M. Bison can start flying between parallel dimension whenever he wants. Ken's Shoryuken spawns an unblockable wall of Hadokens. Zangief can command grab you from across the map. May God only comprehend it.

6/10 [C+]
Fantastic vibes machine (even though it softlocked on me when I played).

6/10 [C+]
I did not expect this game to wipe out all of humanity a 1/3rd of the way through but that's just the way these things go I suppose.

6/10 [C+]
I was enjoying it at first but it got really repetitive and samey after a while. The writing isn't bad but it's not stellar, and the dungeon designs can be hit or miss, but the Magic Circle system is genuinely really inventive and the character customization is weirdly extensive for a game of this caliber. You can end the game at any point, so while I ostensibly got a joke ending for bailing a little over halfway through, I'm fine with calling that quits.

6/10 [C+]
Definitely a step in the right direction coming off the mediocre heels of ClaDun, but even the lesser focus on story and higher focus on player creativity can't save a relatively mediocre dungeon crawler. While it doesn't have the staying power of other dungeon crawlers, allowing me to recreate the entire cast of Azumanga Daioh and engage in Osaka Gaming™ is definitely a positive for any game.

6/10 [C+]
I spent 5 hours of my life playing through chase sequences where I got felt up by naked mole-rats in the Alaska Dimension and solved braindead puzzles, all so a PS2 model-looking therapist could call me an alcoholic turbovirgin. In all seriousness, I think Shattered Memories is a novel experience above all else, with a lot of big ideas it doesn't neccessarily pull off as well as it thinks it does, but it's knack for little touches and general okay-ness of everything puts it head and shoulders above the other Western entries as a whole for attempting something different instead of wallowing in SH2's big, unfilled boots.

6/10 [C+]
The Maiden in Black is funny-looking, and I like her goofy accent :)

6/10 [C+]
HEAT OF THE DESERT, DUST SETTLES ON MY FACE/WITHOUT A COMPASS, THE SOLDIER KNOWS NO DISGRACE!/OUT OF THE ASHES, THE EAGLE RISES STILL/FREEDOM IS CALLING TO ALL MEN WHO BEND THEIR WILL!

7/10 [B]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user maradona.

Surprisingly charming beat-em-up by SNK. That Windy Valley-esque stage is a contender for some of the most beautiful background sprite work in arcade history.

7/10 [B]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user C_F.

This game is fucking STUNNING for a Neo-Geo era game, like it straight up looks like those "retro throwback" indie titles you see nowadays on modern engines. It's Snow Bros but better because it's themed after the superior holiday, Halloween.

7/10 [B]
Played with fellow Backloggd user jenny.

This game would be a long-in-the-tooth generic beat-em-up if it weren't for its fucking insane aesthetic and commitment to always throwing something new at you every second of every level. Haunted mansions in Texas, cyborg alligator fights in Florida, the final boss is a Babe Ruth mecha; this game has everything you could ever want.

7/10 [B]
Surprisingly fun little RTS. I want a plush toy of the main dude on the cover STAT!

7/10 [B]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user C_F.

Certainly the strangest Christmas story I've seen put to screen. While its on the lower end of difficulty in terms of shmups, it's still a really fun time with a friend, and as a shmup, its got some real fun mechanics with the multiple shot types and offensive-shield mechanic, and the Christmas aesthetic/overall spritework is really visually stunning. When the game hits 15FPS trying to handle 2 bozos firing a zillion projectiles at once? Baby, that's where the SOUL is located 😎.

7/10 [B]
I had to restart this game every 15 minutes because the wind sound would start playing at full volume above everything else and made the game really annoying to get through. Other than that, Palette's a really neat piece of RPG Maker History that deserves to be talked about more these days.

7/10 [B]
Honestly one of the hardest games for me to write about because I really don't know how to write about mechanics in a truly engaging way if I'm being honest. It's fun though! Mario can do a handstand and I think that's neat :)

7/10 [B]
Played with fellow Backloggd users maradona, Squigglydot, eclair, AG147, DFW_Robbo, BeachEpisode, and Detchibe.

I can't aim for shit but rocket jumping around a community-made 9/11 map is some of the most insane multiplayer shit I've experienced as of late.

7/10 [B]
An entry for Touhou Pride Game Jam 4.

A point and click adventure game/visual novel hybrid about Renko and Merry trapped on a ghost ship, the way it uses the Hifuu Club stories' more grounded approach to the Touhou universe and its antics give this a really unique tone that's complemented well by the artstyle. It has some kinks to work out here and there but it's a fun time!

7/10 [B]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user maradona.

The legendary adventures of Greldon the Bald and DAFTPU the Elf

7/10 [B]
Blunt. Eye-searing. Violent. Evocative of old punk zines you would make at the local library and sell for $1. It forgoes any traditional notion of game design or normalcy for a purely atmospheric experience that I can't really put into words. It is worth a play at only 5 minutes.

7/10 [B]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user ludzu.

For such a niche game like Turtle Head to get such a passionate and high-quality fan-remake like this is the dream for most hobbyist RPG Maker devs, and the game itself is honestly pretty good for what it is (a very "they know what they want, they go for it and they don't try to do anything other than that"). The extra scenario also helps recontextualize a lot of nothing characters from the main route in very interesting and earnest (if a bit heavy handed) ways, and it was a very sweet experience overall, even if the writing is too fixfic-y for my liking. This one comes in as a recommendation for those looking for a hidden RPG Maker gem. (Side-note: The original was made Pikasprey, who makes videos about Pokemon glitches that have millions of views. The internet's a small world, huh?)

7/10 [B]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user C_F.

Couldn't get it working on my machine so I watched a longplay with a friend of mine. I am a massive sucker for conspiracy theories and early point and click aesthetics, so this was right up my alley. Being able to keep up with all the talk of the Illuminati merking JFK for trying to look into UFO case files made me feel like a bonafide conspiracy nut and I loved every aspect of its plot and presentation. A pretty unnerving game that needs to seen by anyone with a passing interest in this sort of stuff.

7/10 [B]
The singer for the Haibane Renmei ED "Blue Flow" does the opening and that's enough to bump this thing up to a 7 instead of a 6.

7/10 [B]
OSAKA GAMING.

7/10 [B]
There's a lot to love about We Know the Devil. It's strong queer/religious horror with striking aesthetics that balances the mundane reality of human insecurities and coming to grips with one's identity against an insidious and surreal world that's never truly explained in-game. Don't be surprised when those spurned by God turn to the Devil. They're the only one still lending an open hand.

7/10 [B]
Damn, I shoulda never smoked that shit, now my ass is a vessel for the Frenzied Flame, bringing about the complete destruction of The Lands Between and cleansing the world in its all-consuming inferno :/

8/10 [B+]
Flying in my airborne coffin firing my Amazon™-brand heat-seeking missiles to shoot down the Microsoft™ fighter jets trying to invade Province 32-A of the Greater American Landmass Union (sponsored by Wal-Mart™). Y2K Hellworld simulator with impeccable vibes, and an undeniably essential piece of the Y2K-Cyberpunk canon.

8/10 [B+]
An entry for Touhou Pride Game Jam 4.

A short and sweet minigame collection about lesbian 2hus and relationship advice with a jazzy coat of paint and a sincere sense of passion in every aspect, both technical and aesthetic. It just makes you feel good :)

8/10 [B+]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user maradona.

Despite getting my ass kicked 6 ways from Sunday by maradona, I adore this game's general flow and visual presentation. Lots of fun characters and general batshit mechanics that make it a fun time even when you're losing!

Favorite character is probably Chen-Mao :)

8/10 [B+]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user C_F.

"I will not die until I achieve something.

Even though the ideal is high, I never give in.

Therefore, I never die with regrets."

The polarity mechanic really gives Ikaruga a unique kind of skill set that a regular shmup doesn't and it's all the better for it. A totally unique game building off the mechanics of Treasure's previous endeavors to make an unforgiving yet unforgettable experience.

8/10 [B+]
Baba is You? No, Baba is Me!

8/10 [B+]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user maradona.

To everyone who was in the voice chat when I blew out the speakers after I made that Birdie from halfway across the map: Sorry :(

8/10 [B+]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user C_F.

After playing a lot of shitty beat-em-ups, this one is a breath of fresh air for being a really intricate, beautiful-looking and beautiful-feeling game to play with the lads. More beat-em-ups should allow you to Enemy Step off goons as a fanservice anime girls.

8/10 [B+]
Completed once with Reimu (2 Continues) and once with Marisa (1 Continue).

I was gonna go through the PC-98 games at first before getting to Touhou 6, but I was planning on doing a Halloween-themed art thing on EoSD and wanted to beat the game before doing so, so I caved and beat this game first (my Halloween art plans fell through in the end however). Pretty difficult and unforgiving for a Touhou game (no hitbox compounded with its Easy mode mockery make it the more challenging of the Windows-era games), but it's still quite fun and very famous for a reason. Not a great entry point into the series but a fun shmup overall.

8/10 [B+]
"Wow, this blindfolded speedrun is so cool. I could totally beat this game" (<= clueless)
Title Defense Bald Bull is bar none the toughest fight in this fucking game, I hope he eats shit and dies. Other than that, Punch-Out!! is still one of the best to ever do it. Pure, no-frills, skill-based gaming with a capital G.

8/10 [B+]
"There's a lady in my head who calls me a 'pathetic insect' 😎"
[90s Drum and Bass starts up]

Hands down the greatest ending to anything ever. Genuinely thought I was hallucinating at 4 AM when I saw it.

8/10 [B+]
I wish I could double jump :(

8/10 [B+]
On your mark, get set!/We're riding on the Internet!/Cyberspace, set free!/Hello virtual reality!/An interactive appetite, searching for a website/A window to the world to go get online!/Take a spin, now you're in with the techno set!/You're going surfing on the internet!

9/10 [A]
This, Def Jam: FFNY, Urban Reigns, and CvS2 all occupy a very specific aesthetic range but I've yet to figure out what it is as of time of writing.

9/10 [A]
"A real man should be a little stupid."

The finale to Yakuza 2 is incredibly dumb and borderline OOC for Kiryu but its also peak "DUDES ROCK", so I can't be too mad since I also got caught up in the emotion of the scene.

A massive step up in quality from 1. Combat still has the satisfying grime and crunch that I loved about the first game's dirty street brawl aesthetic, but Kiryu no longer controls like a fridge on a Roomba and he has so many more moves at his disposal. Music is probably my favorite of the series so far (North Menace and Wirepuller are phenomenal tracks), and the city of Sotenbori is a joy to explore. An unexpected entry in the Christmas Gaming Canon, but a welcome one.

9/10 [A]
Played in the Backloggd Discord's weekly tournaments alongside fellow Backloggd users Squigglydot, Detchibe, gomit, Cold_Comfort, Squigglydot, and crystal.

Pulse-pounding, nail-biting, vitriol-generating edge-of-your-seat match 3 action the likes of which you've never seen. Also its cuuuuute :3 and I like it.

9/10 [A]
"Lol Roger Ebert was fully convinced that games could be vital art after being captivated by this intricate, atmospheric exploration game and he probably only changed his opinion after seeing how awful and immature every capital g Gamer's shitty taste is" - PansyDragoonSaga

9/10 [A]
Truly, Wario's greatest achievement.

9/10 [A]
Press any key to live.

9/10 [A]
I needed a good rhythm game to cut my teeth on and by god did this sink its claws into me. I cannot count the amount of times I was like "One more song." and then immediately spent another 40 minutes playing. The music bangs, the depth is insane, it has Megurine Luka, it's truly everything a man could want. The only things holding it back for me are the analog stick notes my jank-ass drifting controllers can't hit consistently and the sizeable amount of "eh"-tier songs out of the 40. It's Vocaloid propaganda and I am most definitely not immune.
Fave songs: "Melt", "Akatsuki Arrival", "Roshin Yukai", "Luka★Luka Night Fever", "Hello, Worker", "Close and Open, Demons and the Dead", "Two-Sided Lovers"

9/10 [A]
After being spurned by Vermillion Descent earlier in the year, SIGNALIS managed to deliver the goods. Silent Hill by way of Tsutomu Nihei is the kind of niche overlap dream game I've always wanted, and god damn does SIGNALIS deliver. The quintessential sleeper hit of 2022 and by far one of the best releases of the year, SIGNALIS is a survival horror throwback that really understands what made the classics tick and had me pullin' all-nighter sessions because I couldn't stop playing this game. It's biggest strength is also it's biggest flaws however, and that's the fact that it's wayyy too proud of it's heritage in ways that detract from the overall experience. It's clearly a labor of love and not at all a cynical rehash of these ideas (far from it), but it all kind of compounds into a Greatest Hits of things you recognize and I found myself taken out of the experience when I realized they re-did SH2's opening cutscene with the mirror and I'm going "Okay, I get it." SIGNALIS however, is still more than worth your time if you love Survival Horror.
P.S.: The lead artist for SIGNALIS retweeted my fanart for the game and it was the most surreal thing to happen to me this year.

9/10 [A]
"truly possibly the only vital work of queer art in video games ever produced." - ghost_girl

Dripping style out the wazoo, this is a rare case of a quote-unquote "trauma" game that manages to sidestep all the inherent issues of the movement to make a game that's both intensely personal and perverse in how much it says about its creator, about society, & about abuse and neglect, while still letting you come away with more to ruminate on beyond the surface-level information that Parun gives to you. I definitely need another playthrough or two to wrap my head around it but fuuuck, man. That climax is such a rollercoaster of emotions.

10/10 [A+]
I flip-flopped between a 9 and a 10 but I think any game that can manage to have my rapt attention for 10 straight hours beginning to end is doing something right. Probably the best STOMP in the industry.

10/10 [A+]
Played with good friend and fellow Backloggd user C_F.

"Feel visible matter...
Feel invisible matter...
There is life everywhere."

BE ATTITUDE FOR GAINS...
1. BE PRAYING
2. BE PRAYING
3. BE PRAYING

10/10 [A+]
That little tune became a lullaby.

And why?

The singer's voice was honey-love.