A pretty solid start to the Professor Layton franchise. I'll admit that I had try and keep my expectations low after playing through Unwound Future last year, but I still think this game holds up mostly fine. You do spend an eternity and a half just wandering around the main part of town though, so that can get a bit monotonous, and the game REALLY likes sliding puzzles and matchbox puzzles. I think they really improved upon puzzle variety and matched that up with the environment better in the later games, so I'm looking forward to playing more soon.

The presentation is definitely the strongest part of Necrobarista; it keeps you engaged with what's happening on screen and is very distinct from other visual novels I've played. The main story is strong enough and has some great moments, but I think the real gems come from the side stories you find scattered throughout the Terminal, and especially the two main side stories with different characters and their own plots. I found those to be very gripping tales that had little to no fat. They almost made the main story feel a bit weak at times considering how well told they were, which is why the score is a bit lower than some of the other VNs I've played. That, and the game is sort of short for the price you pay. Still a worthwhile game to muse about death and coffee though, especially if it's on sale.

The one and a half stars taken off is mainly because this game is a tough nut to crack to make it run well; you either have to open the game at a different resolution and play in a small window, or you have to use Borderless Gaming after making it run window mode and hope it doesn't crash before you set it up with Borderless Gaming. As is, the game also instantly crashes if you alt tab out at any point.

Now, having said my piece about the technical issues, this game is surprisingly compelling in how it manages to weave its narrative about fate and the limits and ethics of technology. It doesn't overstay its welcome either; it leads you comfortably through the plot and its questions with virtually no gaping plot holes, and then sends you on your way. I didn't feel it was overly preachy either; the game gives you a lot of leeway on how to interpret its philosophy, and I appreciate that. It's definitely worth a playthrough if you're into a more introspective and short title.

EDIT: Looking back at this a year later, hasn't aged as well as I'd thought due to its depiction of mental health struggles...

If I had to use one word to describe Water Warfare, it would be "functional." It's your pretty standard run of the mill FPS but with water guns instead of AK 47s and Desert Eagles so you can play this with your kid sister. It's kinda like how George and Harold from Captain Underpants talk about adults freaking out when you portray violence between humans, but they take no issue if you portray violence between humans and robots or aliens instead. Anyways, Water Warfare's aiming and camera controls feel pretty in-line for the Wii motion control era, with your Wii mote used for aiming and your Nunchuk used for movement. While it's not the greatest sensation moving around and using the Wii mote for camera control, I can also acknowledge on my end that maybe this feels smoother if you use the Super Zapper accessory (I did not have one on hand). Water Warfare's got your standard different types of water guns (such as a shotgun and a machine gun) and some pick up powerups like a water bucket grenade and water bottle refills (which is important because refilling water is a bit annoying since you have to go to a water fountain and stick around for a solid half minute or so and are quite vulnerable). Really, the only glaring nitpick is that I think the game's very Suzie Snowflake in that it's lacking a bit of aesthetic, with a pretty generic soundtrack and no cutesy/cartoony sound effects from the standard looking Dokapon Kingdom characters. It gets the job done in all other regards and has plenty of standard shooter modes (like capture the flag, only now it's capture the treasure chest) and enough maps to keep you occupied. Overall, I think Water Warfare is a solid enough alternative if you want to get your younger siblings and cousins on the track to playing DOOM, but you're not really missing anything if you want to just wait a few years to get them the good stuff.

(This is part of a series of retrospective reviews of some of the titles I explored almost a month ago during Party Game weekend... I'm still doing independent play and research on a few so I'll be spacing out these reviews to avoid flooding.)

Unfortunately, I don't think that Move or Die is one of the party games that gelled with my friends and I. The gimmick behind Move or Die is to engage in a series of random "last one standing" scenarios via 2D platforming that usually throw a bunch of hazards in your way (i.e. what I refer to as "monkey in the cage" platforming); the game heavily discourages camping as a viable option by making you take damage if you stand still or just jump in place. However, you can easily bypass this mechanism by dash dancing in place, which the game will still recognize as movement and more or less serves the same function as camping. As a result, not only do I think the gimmick is somewhat worn out and obsolete, but I also think the game gets stale pretty quickly as many of these last man standing scenarios feel very similar to one another. Port quality issues that popped up when double controller input glitches occurred on my Twitch Prime copy also did not help the overall experience. If you're looking for a more chaotic quick session arena party game, I'd definitely suggest Duck Game or Stick Fight: The Game over this.

I played a little bit of Gish maybe... 8 years ago? I don't recall why I put it down, but after playing again today as part of my 2000s video gaming adventure, I figured out pretty quickly why. It plays as a platformer, but it's pretty awkward at times to even aim and land your jumps since you have to bob up and down and can't change your momentum fairly well. I also found myself without enough momentum to stick to walls (or too much momentum to stick to ceilings) and this led to a pretty frustrating experience unfortunately. Couple this with a boss fight where I just got assaulted by enemies and could barely jump, much less land successful attacks. I think it's a pretty cool idea but there are definitely much better games that pull this off nowadays and it unfortunately has not aged well in my mind.

I definitely enjoyed Uncharted 2 a lot more than The Last of Us; I think Uncharted nails the action-adventure movie feel down quite well. The running/climbing is great, the chase sequences are thrilling, and the puzzles aren't anything groundbreaking but they get the job done. That said, my experience was marred several times by a couple of trends:

1. Swarm of enemies come out to fight you, and several of them have quick kill/insta kill weapons (such as multiple snipers in the back or multiple grenade launcher/RPG boys making your life miserable), and you can't immediately reach them due to all the shotgun bulky boys blocking your way who can somehow snipe you from 15 meters away with every bullet of the shotgun

2. Bullet sponge enemies in general that don't even get flinched when you attack them, so you have to constantly run and gun, but you also can't easily dodge their attacks because their attacks have the range of Marth's standing grab in SSBM; this was a HUGE problem with Chapter 25

Oh, and the final boss fight was kind of underwhelming unfortunately. Same run and gun strategy except he also has a shotgun... yaaay...

I still had a lot of fun with Uncharted 2 nevertheless, and as said before, it captures the action adventure genre down very well; when it is fun, it is absolutely exhilarating. If they alleviated the prior two issues I had mentioned (definitely make it a little easier to fight the bulky shotgun enemies), then I'd say the whole experience is a giant joy ride. Looking forward to playing Uncharted 3 sooner than later, considering the praise that it gets on Backloggd.