Hot_Anarcocoa
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Every now and then I think about how for a certain crowd of people, Spec Ops: The Line has grown out of favor and gotten a reputation of pretension, but this game is still viewed as an artsy masterpiece, despite them essentially doing the same thing.
shrug
5 stars, I like them both.
shrug
5 stars, I like them both.
This review contains spoilers
Like so many, I enjoyed my time with the original Stanley Parable, which underscores how truly disappointed I am with its sequel. Where the first game teemed with originality, The Stanley Parable 2 is dull, uninspired, and often insulting to its fan base. Rather than expand on what made the first game enjoyable, the sequel veers off into territory nobody asked for. An infinitely deep hole? Who cares? Where are the new endings? What about enjoyable bits from The Stanley Parable 1, like the Adventure Line? Instead, we get an uninspired sidequest collecting figurines. Even this diversion feels incomplete: collecting all the figurines gives you nothing! I must say though, I found the bucket to be quite comforting, a welcome reprieve from
1999
Played on N64 Switch Online.
I'll never understand why given all the potential things you could do with the premise of a golf game set in the Super Mario universe, they chose to not do anything interesting and just make this bland thing. Even the mini golf courses are just courses in the shapes of numbers and letters. I can't even give this the excuse of being an early golf game because Kirby's Dream Course came out on the SNES and utilizes the Kirby universe perfectly, and it's probably the single best golf game because of it! 1 star because I can make Peach call my opponent a whore.
I'll never understand why given all the potential things you could do with the premise of a golf game set in the Super Mario universe, they chose to not do anything interesting and just make this bland thing. Even the mini golf courses are just courses in the shapes of numbers and letters. I can't even give this the excuse of being an early golf game because Kirby's Dream Course came out on the SNES and utilizes the Kirby universe perfectly, and it's probably the single best golf game because of it! 1 star because I can make Peach call my opponent a whore.
This review contains spoilers
Pretty cool to see how the songs can change pretty significantly based on which of the three options you can go with actually. I can't believe I found the option to bring Freddie back from the dead on the playthrough where I wasn't romancing her!
2004
Hi my name's Mike and my level is all about blowin'!
This is the cutest game I've played that starts by furiously throwing bombs into an ape's scrotum.
Not saying anything new here but it could've used some more abilities as we've grown used to the wide array in Kirby's past games, but it's an excellent first foray into 3d. It's not something I would 100% but it was a very pleasant single playthrough which is all I really ask of a Kirby game. I just wish that they would've let my co-op buddy have abilities as well like past titles did. The co-op partner has a very limited move set and is kind of rendered useless once Kirby gets upgrades.
Not saying anything new here but it could've used some more abilities as we've grown used to the wide array in Kirby's past games, but it's an excellent first foray into 3d. It's not something I would 100% but it was a very pleasant single playthrough which is all I really ask of a Kirby game. I just wish that they would've let my co-op buddy have abilities as well like past titles did. The co-op partner has a very limited move set and is kind of rendered useless once Kirby gets upgrades.
Game tried to tell me that Big Bird originated from The Muppets and not Sesame Street and then tried to tell me that Muhammad Ali's name before he converted was Evander Holyfield and not Cassius Clay. I am not dumb enough to get the million.
2017
This review contains spoilers
Everyone should play this game and follow Scott Benson on Twitter, best follow hands down. I think this was the first game I ever played with explicitly leftist values, and it was just so refreshing to see the values I hold portrayed so well in a game. There’s a GDC talk that Scott did, and in it he talks about how he doesn’t particularly believe in making games to convert people or argue with the other side, but he makes them for the type of people who already live in these shitty situations, and know how terrible it all is. Using the game as a way to say “Hey, you’re not alone, there are other people in the same struggle, and we can relate to each others struggles and experiences.” There’s something really beautiful in that approach to making games.
In this game you’re playing as Mae, a 20 year old college dropout returning to her small town rust belt home, which has been ravaged by capitalism and its residents are struggling economically to get by. At the same time as being a deeply political story it’s also a coming of age tale, of Mae just being kind of a disaster still trying to figure out her life as a 20 year old, and how all these problems of class, mental health, and just the general struggle of being a person and figuring out who you are collide. I love all of Mae’s friends. I love the story of Bea and how she had to grow up quickly to help her family, and was never afforded some of the privileges of her other friends. Gregg rulz ok. You don’t spend as much time with Angus as you can with the other two, but when you get an opportunity to hang out with him for a night towards the end, he delivers one of the most moving speeches about how and why he became an atheist, and it’s so, so good and refreshing to hear something like that in a game. To hear atheism portrayed in a positive light. To spoil one of the best quotes, and this is the most quotable game I’ve played: “I believe in a universe that doesn’t care, and people who do.” That is one of the most deeply human, kind, and compassionate things I’ve ever heard in a game.
To cap off my thoughts on this one, I’m gonna recommend this really well written piece by Trevor Strunk about Night in the Woods called The Monster at the End of Capitalism, but be warned that it will spoil huge parts of the game, so I’d definitely recommend playing it first. Here’s the link to that: https://mapleespionagelovesong.wordpress.com/.../the.../
In this game you’re playing as Mae, a 20 year old college dropout returning to her small town rust belt home, which has been ravaged by capitalism and its residents are struggling economically to get by. At the same time as being a deeply political story it’s also a coming of age tale, of Mae just being kind of a disaster still trying to figure out her life as a 20 year old, and how all these problems of class, mental health, and just the general struggle of being a person and figuring out who you are collide. I love all of Mae’s friends. I love the story of Bea and how she had to grow up quickly to help her family, and was never afforded some of the privileges of her other friends. Gregg rulz ok. You don’t spend as much time with Angus as you can with the other two, but when you get an opportunity to hang out with him for a night towards the end, he delivers one of the most moving speeches about how and why he became an atheist, and it’s so, so good and refreshing to hear something like that in a game. To hear atheism portrayed in a positive light. To spoil one of the best quotes, and this is the most quotable game I’ve played: “I believe in a universe that doesn’t care, and people who do.” That is one of the most deeply human, kind, and compassionate things I’ve ever heard in a game.
To cap off my thoughts on this one, I’m gonna recommend this really well written piece by Trevor Strunk about Night in the Woods called The Monster at the End of Capitalism, but be warned that it will spoil huge parts of the game, so I’d definitely recommend playing it first. Here’s the link to that: https://mapleespionagelovesong.wordpress.com/.../the.../
This was a massive disappointment for me. I was sold on this game when I saw its trailer during the Nintendo Direct, thinking it was going to be a sort of dystopian hip-hop rebellion kind of game. What I got was what if Bit.Trip Runner was terribly designed.
Maybe I'm missing something, but to me the music seemed utterly uninspired. It was the same kind of dull instrumental jazz tunes throughout the vast majority of the game. No song stood out as very different from any other song to me. Based on the trailer, I expected something with a bit more rapping in it, hoping the lyrics would tie into the dystopian setting. There was really only one level, the last one, that had some good rapping in it, and even then it wasn't able to keep it up for the whole level. The last level had a clever gimmick to it, and while the song was more enjoyable than the rest of the game, it was much too little, much too late at that point for me.
Worse yet, the music doesn't really sync up with the gameplay in any way whatsoever. While games like Bit.Trip Runner and Sayonara Wild Hearts have their soundtracks inextricably linked to their gameplay; Never Yield feels like a slog through the same obstacles over and over again, with a disconnected soundtrack in the background. And the repetitive obstacles are made even worse by the fact that some levels of this game are just repeats of previous levels. Even in the final level which had some enjoyable elements, after the rapping ends it goes right back to feeling like the same grind as the rest of the game.
Also, the default difficulty of this game makes a slow motion effect happen anytime you approach an obstacle. Not only does this mess with the flow of the game, it will sometimes happen so early that if you react to it immediately, you'll have reacted too soon and will end up hitting the obstacle anyways. At the same time, there were many moments where I timed a jump too late, and my character would clip through the obstacle and keep going as if I had cleared it.
As for this game's story, there hardly is one, and it's told through cutscenes that lack any sound effects, and have animations so poor they look like they were made in Gary's Mod. I haven't felt this swindled by a game in a long time, hard pass on this one.
Maybe I'm missing something, but to me the music seemed utterly uninspired. It was the same kind of dull instrumental jazz tunes throughout the vast majority of the game. No song stood out as very different from any other song to me. Based on the trailer, I expected something with a bit more rapping in it, hoping the lyrics would tie into the dystopian setting. There was really only one level, the last one, that had some good rapping in it, and even then it wasn't able to keep it up for the whole level. The last level had a clever gimmick to it, and while the song was more enjoyable than the rest of the game, it was much too little, much too late at that point for me.
Worse yet, the music doesn't really sync up with the gameplay in any way whatsoever. While games like Bit.Trip Runner and Sayonara Wild Hearts have their soundtracks inextricably linked to their gameplay; Never Yield feels like a slog through the same obstacles over and over again, with a disconnected soundtrack in the background. And the repetitive obstacles are made even worse by the fact that some levels of this game are just repeats of previous levels. Even in the final level which had some enjoyable elements, after the rapping ends it goes right back to feeling like the same grind as the rest of the game.
Also, the default difficulty of this game makes a slow motion effect happen anytime you approach an obstacle. Not only does this mess with the flow of the game, it will sometimes happen so early that if you react to it immediately, you'll have reacted too soon and will end up hitting the obstacle anyways. At the same time, there were many moments where I timed a jump too late, and my character would clip through the obstacle and keep going as if I had cleared it.
As for this game's story, there hardly is one, and it's told through cutscenes that lack any sound effects, and have animations so poor they look like they were made in Gary's Mod. I haven't felt this swindled by a game in a long time, hard pass on this one.
2021
I have to agree with Flatterdorsch's review of this game. The presentation is clearly this game's strong suit and if you're a fan of games with a unique aesthetic you'll love this one. The improvisation scene and a scene towards the end are stand out sections of the game that have a lot of creativity in them, and are what push my score up to 4 stars. I do have to say though, that I had trouble wrapping my head around the puzzle segment with the scientist, and had to look that one up. I also had to look up the final fifteen minutes or so of this game, because as of right now, I've attempted the ending 3 times on Switch, and it keeps crashing.
1999
I loved playing this on Dreamcast a whole bunch but also, I swear to god I played this at an arcade once where you had to actually use a boat as a controller and it would shake around and stuff! Did I hallucinate this!? Was this a different game!? Help!
1992
I've got to balance out this game's average rating 'cause y'all are brutal on this website. This game single handedly invented the genre of kart racers so it gets 5 stars from me for its impact. Took what could be a fun but rather simplistic genre and added things like items and a battle mode to make for a great party experience. The physics absolutely take some getting used to, but once you get used to them this is a lot of fun. I feel like a lot of people who are used to newer entries in the series are going to try this out once, think the physics are awful, and turn it off with a sour taste in their mouth. But back in the day this was it dude, this was the game like this, and you would play it over and over until you got it and it was fun! I mainly did this with Super Circuit on the GBA as a kid, but that skill set translated over to this game once I started playing it. Mode 7 is also dope, this game good.
2020
This review contains spoilers
I really liked this game. It’s an Earthbound style rpg with some horror elements, and if you dig games like Undertale or LISA, or even Yume Nikki to a certain extent, you’ll probably like this one too. The music and the visuals are so good in this, and the Earthbound-esque writing is perfectly fun and silly, while the horror elements are suitably creepy, and the story will take you to some high highs, and some low lows. I don’t have a whole lot to say about this other than it’s a really well done game in that style.
The only thing that I wasn't really a fan of is that there is a twist towards the end which I have issues with. For the vast majority of the game you're under the impression that a character has committed suicide, and the narrative deals with this really well. The suicide has caused your friend group to break up as everyone has their own methods of coping, but in the end they come together and deal with it in a very well written way. But then a plot twist reveals that it was actually the protagonist who killed this character in an accident, and then he and another character framed it as a suicide to cover up his guilt. It just felt like a gross way to engage with that topic to me, especially since it was handled so well before that point. I just wish that between the suicide story, and the dealing with guilt story, they chose one or the other rather than combining them in this kind of gross way.
If they wanted to do the guilt story, they could have kept everything the same but simply not gone the extra step of having the characters frame the death as a suicide, and rather just had the protagonist lie about how the death happened. But even with all that said, it still does some cool stuff with its ending that I really liked, and it’s definitely earned its spot as a top tier game in my opinion.
The only thing that I wasn't really a fan of is that there is a twist towards the end which I have issues with. For the vast majority of the game you're under the impression that a character has committed suicide, and the narrative deals with this really well. The suicide has caused your friend group to break up as everyone has their own methods of coping, but in the end they come together and deal with it in a very well written way. But then a plot twist reveals that it was actually the protagonist who killed this character in an accident, and then he and another character framed it as a suicide to cover up his guilt. It just felt like a gross way to engage with that topic to me, especially since it was handled so well before that point. I just wish that between the suicide story, and the dealing with guilt story, they chose one or the other rather than combining them in this kind of gross way.
If they wanted to do the guilt story, they could have kept everything the same but simply not gone the extra step of having the characters frame the death as a suicide, and rather just had the protagonist lie about how the death happened. But even with all that said, it still does some cool stuff with its ending that I really liked, and it’s definitely earned its spot as a top tier game in my opinion.
2018
I never knew about the Lebensborn program before playing this game, so it was a valuable educational experience for me on that front. Essentially a resource management game where you have take care of your adopted child, whose biological father was a Nazi, in post-WWII Norway. The social situations that come up in this game will tug at your heartstrings as you try to take care of this kid. I'm glad this game exists, as we should never forget these historical events, and how they shape the societies and individuals around them.
2009
One of the least newcomer friendly games I've ever played. I tried giving it a chance by playing a match against bots with a friend who played a lot, and it was just, imagine the entire inventory of World of Warcraft but you have like one minute to learn it. And if you don't learn it and go online, everyone is going to be an asshole to you.