Emijx
If you can get past the possible fears of being called a furry for playing a game stylized like some classic animated films like An American Tail, than you're in for a good time. Story is pretty decent, gameplay is smooth, and there's enough content here to keep most people busy for a good bit. However, once you complete everything in a playthrough, there's no real need to go back and play the game again, unless you're going for every single achievement.
2014
This is one of the better and much more in depth visual novels that I've played in my life, and it's free. Is it as fancy as others? No. Is it as pretty as others? Some, yeah. Why is this set in a USSR childranger camp? I've got no clue, and I've beat the game like 3 different times already at least.
Just play it, it's free, the writing isn't that bad, the art and music are decent, there are some decent moments in there, and it's got more routes and endings than probably a third of the visual novels out on steam right now for actual cold hard cash.
Just play it, it's free, the writing isn't that bad, the art and music are decent, there are some decent moments in there, and it's got more routes and endings than probably a third of the visual novels out on steam right now for actual cold hard cash.
2012
It's the original hard as nails top down shooter, and god is it good.
Does it hold up nowadays? Not as much as it did on release, but god does it still look good and play super well. Now stop reading this and pick the game up already! It's worth it.
Does it hold up nowadays? Not as much as it did on release, but god does it still look good and play super well. Now stop reading this and pick the game up already! It's worth it.
It's a visual novel, yeah, so I'm not expecting the highest bar of quality, but it's pleasant to find that it's very well done. It uses the Ren.Py engine so it holds up pretty well with only a handful of graphical errors here and there. The writing is good, great at times even, with me really enjoying a couple of the routes you can take. There are a few errors here and there but overall, it's fine.
The gameplay for 80% of the time is box standard. But that 20% extra bit makes it...very interesting. There's a great magic system for learning spells, but in all honesty you only need to use like 5 or 6 spells throughout the whole game while the rest of your spellbook gets filled with things you'll never use, making spell navigation a nightmare. Overall it's not bad, but it needs a lot of work.
The other big issue is the graphics. Now, I'm not expecting Mona Lisa tier graphics, but I won't be the first person to admit that most of the characters look ripped straight out of one of those "How To Draw Anime" books you'd find as a kid at one of those scholastic book fairs. The sequel seems to have fixed this but still, it's a bit of a bar to clear if you're used to other visual novels on Steam.
Finally, you're gender-locked into playing as a girl. Granted, that's not at all a real issue considering that most visual novels on Steam force you to play as a guy, but it's still a thing to make note of. The sequel does do the inverse of this, but still. Just throwing this out there at the end.
Overall it's really not that bad if you can get around the absurdly dated visuals that you'll be staring at constantly through your playthrough. I wouldn't pick it up unless it was on sale, but still grab it if you like visual novels that give you the option to play with stats.
The gameplay for 80% of the time is box standard. But that 20% extra bit makes it...very interesting. There's a great magic system for learning spells, but in all honesty you only need to use like 5 or 6 spells throughout the whole game while the rest of your spellbook gets filled with things you'll never use, making spell navigation a nightmare. Overall it's not bad, but it needs a lot of work.
The other big issue is the graphics. Now, I'm not expecting Mona Lisa tier graphics, but I won't be the first person to admit that most of the characters look ripped straight out of one of those "How To Draw Anime" books you'd find as a kid at one of those scholastic book fairs. The sequel seems to have fixed this but still, it's a bit of a bar to clear if you're used to other visual novels on Steam.
Finally, you're gender-locked into playing as a girl. Granted, that's not at all a real issue considering that most visual novels on Steam force you to play as a guy, but it's still a thing to make note of. The sequel does do the inverse of this, but still. Just throwing this out there at the end.
Overall it's really not that bad if you can get around the absurdly dated visuals that you'll be staring at constantly through your playthrough. I wouldn't pick it up unless it was on sale, but still grab it if you like visual novels that give you the option to play with stats.
It's not possible to give a 3/4ths of a star on here, but just know it's slightly better than Episode 1. Is the gameplay better? Are the animations more palpable? Is the last section of the game better? No, none of that. It's just got Tails in it this time.
It's not worth it. Plays like garbage, looks like garbage, and pretty much is just garbage. For a full release game by the original devs, I've played far superior sonic fangames compared to this. There's a reason why there's not a Sonic The Hedgehog 5.
Game's really good. Gets a little slow in the last third but pretty much every metroidvania does. Final boss is a bit lack luster but gets better in one of the endings. Lots of movement upgrades but at the same time I wish there were more. Maybe some more speed or something, no idea.
Overall, get it. It's all good, from animation to music to artstyle to gameplay.
Overall, get it. It's all good, from animation to music to artstyle to gameplay.
2023
Taps into that perfect balance of "So absurd you can't stop laughing" and "So terrifying you can't stop screaming". Even in early access, every single co-op horror experience should take aggressive notes from this.
Only complaint as of right now is I wish the dead had more ways to ♥♥♥♥ with the living. Let me make noises, let me force lights to flicker. There's only one thing funnier than watching them stumble around in the dark alone and terrified, and that's knowing I'M the one making them terrified and they don't even know it.
Only complaint as of right now is I wish the dead had more ways to ♥♥♥♥ with the living. Let me make noises, let me force lights to flicker. There's only one thing funnier than watching them stumble around in the dark alone and terrified, and that's knowing I'M the one making them terrified and they don't even know it.
From the people who made stuff like Journey, you'd think that Journey but Multiplayer could only do so much. But I can say for sure that the limits you might think this game has have been repeatedly broken again and again and again. It's really hard for a game to get me super emotional, only a handful of games have that level of staying power in my mind. But a multiplayer game where a majority of the interactions you can have with other players are limited to funny little emotes and honking like an otomatone genuinely did it.
This game has awed me, this game has wowed me, this game has made me laugh, and this game has forced me into silence because of it's beauty. It's a really really simple game, and if you have friends to play it with, it's probably one of the best multiplayer games I've ever played. Bar none.
Just please if you can, play it on PC in my opinion. It's the one thing it's on that can both take complete control of it's hardware to show Sky at the graphical fidelity it's art style deserves, but also gives it multiple control schemes that fit it better than touch controls. Even if you think it's easily playable on a phone, you'll really see the beauty when it's not on a screen that could be used as a movie theater by ants.
This game has awed me, this game has wowed me, this game has made me laugh, and this game has forced me into silence because of it's beauty. It's a really really simple game, and if you have friends to play it with, it's probably one of the best multiplayer games I've ever played. Bar none.
Just please if you can, play it on PC in my opinion. It's the one thing it's on that can both take complete control of it's hardware to show Sky at the graphical fidelity it's art style deserves, but also gives it multiple control schemes that fit it better than touch controls. Even if you think it's easily playable on a phone, you'll really see the beauty when it's not on a screen that could be used as a movie theater by ants.
Currently at time of writing, Sonic Colors: Ultimate is very difficult to recommend. Is it a port of a good Sonic game? Yeah, it sure is. But hooo boy does this rerelease have it's problems.
Let's start with the deal breakers and work our way down.
- There's an obscene amount of bloom on every light source and object, including Sonic himself. Some areas this is passable, but for worlds such as Starlight Carnival, which is almost entirely neon lights on a pitch black background, it can render the game uncomfortable to play to near unplayable. Potentially able to be modded out.
- There's an obscene amount of stutter during active gameplay. I don't think it's because of my machine, I've got a 3070 and it's held up incredibly well on other games that, believe it or not, aren't ports of Wii games. Heck, it even runs games on Dolphin like a fucking champ. So I can't tell if it's an optimization error or if the game is struggling under these very lenient conditions. But for a Sonic game, it can be absolutely unbearable to deal with.
- The cutscenes are fucking strange to me as someone who's played the Wii version before. They're clearly upscaled, but to a really weird and disgusting degree. Character edges shake like a mess and lips desync easily. It's honestly a little hard to watch Sonic and Tails interact in them, although most of Eggman's are okay.
- The customizations seem to be a last minute duct tape addition with how aggressive they are with the currency needed to get them. It doesn't help that all of them can be boiled down to "Neat, but you'll never be able to tell you have them on in actual gameplay." Not a deal breaker, but certainly annoying.
- Extra Lives are replaced with Tails Pickups (as an aside it's fucked up that you pick up his disembodied head as a life) where if you fall down a pit then he'll help you back up, saving you your rings in exchange for a life. Neat for a Sonic game where 1 hit loses all of your rings, but the put down animation takes an eternity and a half.
- The remixed music for a Sonic game is profoundly bad. I'm sorry if it's not awful to you, but when most of the remixes sound like a group of elementary school students copying the tracks with Kazoos, Vuvuzelas, and Otomatones. In comparison to the original tracks you're really scraping the bottom of the barrel calling these inferior versions "Remixes". It's this low on the list because unlike everything else listed here you can actually turn it off.
The rest of the problems lie with the original too. It's oddly too floaty, it's hard to get into a flow state, the red rings are remarkably annoying, sometimes the game just breaks going from 2D to 3D or from a scripted sequence to a nonscripted sequence or vice versa. But at the very least I didn't have the displeasure of being blinded while playing it. If you do pick it up, try to find some sort of mod that cuts the bloom and fixes the stuttering issues. Otherwise you're in for a bad time instead of just a time.
Let's start with the deal breakers and work our way down.
- There's an obscene amount of bloom on every light source and object, including Sonic himself. Some areas this is passable, but for worlds such as Starlight Carnival, which is almost entirely neon lights on a pitch black background, it can render the game uncomfortable to play to near unplayable. Potentially able to be modded out.
- There's an obscene amount of stutter during active gameplay. I don't think it's because of my machine, I've got a 3070 and it's held up incredibly well on other games that, believe it or not, aren't ports of Wii games. Heck, it even runs games on Dolphin like a fucking champ. So I can't tell if it's an optimization error or if the game is struggling under these very lenient conditions. But for a Sonic game, it can be absolutely unbearable to deal with.
- The cutscenes are fucking strange to me as someone who's played the Wii version before. They're clearly upscaled, but to a really weird and disgusting degree. Character edges shake like a mess and lips desync easily. It's honestly a little hard to watch Sonic and Tails interact in them, although most of Eggman's are okay.
- The customizations seem to be a last minute duct tape addition with how aggressive they are with the currency needed to get them. It doesn't help that all of them can be boiled down to "Neat, but you'll never be able to tell you have them on in actual gameplay." Not a deal breaker, but certainly annoying.
- Extra Lives are replaced with Tails Pickups (as an aside it's fucked up that you pick up his disembodied head as a life) where if you fall down a pit then he'll help you back up, saving you your rings in exchange for a life. Neat for a Sonic game where 1 hit loses all of your rings, but the put down animation takes an eternity and a half.
- The remixed music for a Sonic game is profoundly bad. I'm sorry if it's not awful to you, but when most of the remixes sound like a group of elementary school students copying the tracks with Kazoos, Vuvuzelas, and Otomatones. In comparison to the original tracks you're really scraping the bottom of the barrel calling these inferior versions "Remixes". It's this low on the list because unlike everything else listed here you can actually turn it off.
The rest of the problems lie with the original too. It's oddly too floaty, it's hard to get into a flow state, the red rings are remarkably annoying, sometimes the game just breaks going from 2D to 3D or from a scripted sequence to a nonscripted sequence or vice versa. But at the very least I didn't have the displeasure of being blinded while playing it. If you do pick it up, try to find some sort of mod that cuts the bloom and fixes the stuttering issues. Otherwise you're in for a bad time instead of just a time.
TLDR: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game. Is one of the greatest games ever ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ made. That's being held back by a ball and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ chain because the company that made it was Ubisoft. The game runs absolutely fine on it's own without problems, but my god is it a Ubisoft release and my god do they hate people who play their games on things that aren't Ubisoft storefronts by ruining the experience for everyone.
A game that has unmatched visual style, some of the smoothest controls I've ever had the pleasure of using, one of the best soundtracks for a video game ever composed, some of the nicest knowing nods to consumers of the base property, and I could and honestly should go on. Issue is that it's a Ubisoft game. So somethings just don't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ make sense.
Uplay is a forced install (although it's Ubisoft Connect now it's the same ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing I don't care what they call it, it's still unbridled tumoric ass), and a forced launch if you want to play the game even in single player. Achievements? Ubisoft Connect exclusive, no Steam stuff. In fact, Steam Remote Play just doesn't work at the time of writing this. Multiple controllers don't function when this game is being played through it for reasons completely unknown.
Ubisoft surprising nobody when it comes to being professionals at Pulling Ubisofts aside, please for the love of god get this game and beat it either alone or with friends. It's a super SUPER fun time for everyone involved and I heavily recommend it. Especially get it right now because the reason this dropped this year and is a huge deal is because the game got taken off storefronts YEARS ago due to licensing issues (i.e. Ubisoft not renewing the license like BASTARDS-) and let's just be real it's a Ubisoft product, so they might just do the same ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing again. So get it while it's back or you might not be able to get it again legally ever again.
A game that has unmatched visual style, some of the smoothest controls I've ever had the pleasure of using, one of the best soundtracks for a video game ever composed, some of the nicest knowing nods to consumers of the base property, and I could and honestly should go on. Issue is that it's a Ubisoft game. So somethings just don't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ make sense.
Uplay is a forced install (although it's Ubisoft Connect now it's the same ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing I don't care what they call it, it's still unbridled tumoric ass), and a forced launch if you want to play the game even in single player. Achievements? Ubisoft Connect exclusive, no Steam stuff. In fact, Steam Remote Play just doesn't work at the time of writing this. Multiple controllers don't function when this game is being played through it for reasons completely unknown.
Ubisoft surprising nobody when it comes to being professionals at Pulling Ubisofts aside, please for the love of god get this game and beat it either alone or with friends. It's a super SUPER fun time for everyone involved and I heavily recommend it. Especially get it right now because the reason this dropped this year and is a huge deal is because the game got taken off storefronts YEARS ago due to licensing issues (i.e. Ubisoft not renewing the license like BASTARDS-) and let's just be real it's a Ubisoft product, so they might just do the same ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing again. So get it while it's back or you might not be able to get it again legally ever again.
2010
If there's any game I can point to and go "Your grandmother might be able to play it and say she's played a video game more complicated than pong", VVVVVV might be that game. It's incredibly simple. Ya move left and right, and instead of jumping you flip gravity to run on the ceiling. Or the floor...wait, was the floor the ceiling or is the ceiling now the floor...oooghh...
Long story short for a game as short and simple as VVVVVV, get it. It's 5 bucks normally and goes on sale a majority of the time as long as there's a sale available. It's one of the best 2D platformers ever made, and considering it's able to be beaten in an hour, that should say how fantastic the experience is.
Long story short for a game as short and simple as VVVVVV, get it. It's 5 bucks normally and goes on sale a majority of the time as long as there's a sale available. It's one of the best 2D platformers ever made, and considering it's able to be beaten in an hour, that should say how fantastic the experience is.
A Sonic fan-game publicly put out by SEGA that's written FANTASTICALLY. The art is pretty, the gameplay is good enough for a free game, and everything has so much personality that I adore it.
THEY ALSO GAVE TAILS A TINY HAT!!!!
Play through it, give it a stellar steam review, and then play through it with friends. If for no other reasons than they made an escape room joke which I hope turns into a Zero Escape parody and they had a vent be an important plot point without making an Among Us reference in 2023. And I know for a fact that took a massive amount of restraint to do that.
THEY ALSO GAVE TAILS A TINY HAT!!!!
Play through it, give it a stellar steam review, and then play through it with friends. If for no other reasons than they made an escape room joke which I hope turns into a Zero Escape parody and they had a vent be an important plot point without making an Among Us reference in 2023. And I know for a fact that took a massive amount of restraint to do that.
The fact that you have to download and use EA's proprietary game launcher in order to even run the damn game is asinine and should be taken out back and shot in the face.
Game is fantastic once you get past that trash though, it's a solid 7/10 while only suffering from the typical NFS problems of a strikingly limited soundtrack leading to repetition that makes you want anything else and a single player campaign that's both way too long and way too easy leading to the end game being a struggle to siphon any remaining joy from the 10-15 races you've spent the last 40 hours completing to the point where your cars outrun all the other cars on the track and the routes for each individual circuit is ingrained into your skull.
Game is fantastic once you get past that trash though, it's a solid 7/10 while only suffering from the typical NFS problems of a strikingly limited soundtrack leading to repetition that makes you want anything else and a single player campaign that's both way too long and way too easy leading to the end game being a struggle to siphon any remaining joy from the 10-15 races you've spent the last 40 hours completing to the point where your cars outrun all the other cars on the track and the routes for each individual circuit is ingrained into your skull.
2015
If there's anything I want to bury into your mind through reading these reviews, it's that for the most part a simple concept executed amazingly will always trump an ambitious concept treated halfheartedly. And Jamestown is no exception.
It's a SHMUP, which is something that's honestly rare outside of the Touhou series nowadays. It's got a stellar art style, a very good if short story, enough ship variation to keep things interesting, and enough difficulty states to both let you relax and go your own pace while also pushing you to slowly creep up to that peak difficulty level.
It's good on your own, like really REALLY good. But if you can get a few friends together to huddle around your computer like a bunch of cultist gremlins worshiping some sort of evil god, you will have a fucking blast with this game. I'm certain.
It's a SHMUP, which is something that's honestly rare outside of the Touhou series nowadays. It's got a stellar art style, a very good if short story, enough ship variation to keep things interesting, and enough difficulty states to both let you relax and go your own pace while also pushing you to slowly creep up to that peak difficulty level.
It's good on your own, like really REALLY good. But if you can get a few friends together to huddle around your computer like a bunch of cultist gremlins worshiping some sort of evil god, you will have a fucking blast with this game. I'm certain.