Dunkey really wasn't exaggerating!

Animal Well is an absolute spectacle of an indie game, with unique gameplay elements and incredibly clever puzzles that push the limits of what a Metroidvania can expect from a player. I'm quite surprised that I was able to finish this game without a guide, but that just goes to show how effortlessly the mechanics are communicated!

And of course, the biggest stand-out is the GORGEOUS animation that I couldn't stop admiring from start to finish. If this game should be remembered for any one thing, it HAS to be the phenomenal art design.

"Completionist" Update:

THIS GAME IS SO DEEP AND COMPLEX THAT I CAN'T 100% IT! ONE OF THE PUZZLES REQUIRED 64 CORRECT INPUTS IN A FUCKING ROW!!! MY BRAIN HAS MELTED TO SLUDGE AND THERE IS NO END IN SIGHT!

Zelda doesn't miss with artistic merit, it would seem. While it doesn't push the story very hard, the idea of visiting a magical dream-world full of heart and adventure, but having to accept that the dream must eventually come to an end is good stuff! It's different for a Zelda game, but it fits it well, and it's willing to get silly and weird for the dream-world which I appreciate so very much. In a perfect game, all of this combined could easily bring me to tears, but like I said originally, they don't push the story on you strong enough to really impact you.

How's the gameplay? Eh, it's fine. Nothing wrong with it, but it ain't special either. I got tired of it by the end, but the story kept me going, and it ended with a gratifying finale all the same.

I think the relatively small Arkham Asylum location lent itself better to a more concise Die Hard-inspired narrative, but this story isn't Die Hard anymore, it's finally, truly, BATMAN now! The story and setting are fantastic, and the villain lineup in this game is impeccable, offering so many fun surprises and cameos that my fanboy heart nearly exploded! Catwoman is especially a wonderful addition, if a bit underused for the most part.

I have to say though, the Completionist work might be too damn much in this one. We need to get The Riddler on his meds again.

Nothing changed about the game in the YEAR AND A HALF it was gone, except for the addition of three new characters and three new premium currencies. The game is still painfully buggy, with painfully slow combat, and frustratingly unbalanced characters.

Keep all of that in mind when I say this game is so damn fun! I am in love with the roster, there are just so many fun characters to play as! Tom & Jerry is my main, but I’m also great at LeBron James and Superman! Even the characters that I don’t play are so well made that I have to respect the work put into them! Also, the fact that Game of Thrones has a rep at all is still hard to believe, but I desperately crave a character that ISN’T my least favorite character in the show.

Anyway the single-player mode is mediocre and I just found out that you can’t even train with characters before buying them anymore and that’s STUPID! Don’t support this nonsense! Don’t give Warner Brothers a dime!

But also you should play this game because it’s actually pretty fun sometimes. I also have stocks in Warner Bros so I want this game to perform well…

Can y’all tell I’m conflicted?

I thought I was done with Portal 2 mods. Now I know that I only just scratched the surface...

Aperture Tag is the good kind of "average", where despite it's overall average-ness, it's still short, sweet, and charming! There's a cool parkour section near the end that was really fun and exciting, and I REALLY liked visiting rooms from past Portal games with the new gel gun. I think overall, the game might've been a little too easy, mostly because there's a much shorter limit to creative freedom with the gel guns compared to portal guns, but the devs did a pretty solid job making a solid game out of it!

Finally, I’ve played the most praised game of all time that’s been on my to-do-list since the day I turned one-and-a-half. I can absolutely see how this is considered peak Paper Mario - which isn’t a particularly high bar - but I don’t necessarily agree that it’s “peak RPG”. It’s a great game, but it never really scratched that RPG itch if you know what I’m saying. It’s also true that the Persona franchise has placed that itch in an impossible to reach spot, so I don’t fully blame this game for being less than I expected.

At the end of the day, all that matters is that this game sells well, because this series is in dire need of a course correction and they’ve given us the means to show them how much we want it. The rebellion HAS BEGUN!