Hot_Anarcocoa
BACKER
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.
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.../
2020
I tried getting this nonsense put onto IGDB twice and got denied so congrats to the madlad who got it done! 5 stars for the goofs.
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!
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.
1995
This has a bit of a learning curve to the controls but once you get the hang of it this game is rad as hell. Challenging but fair, awesome pixel art and dope boss battles. Had to abandon it at stage 20 because that's about where my skill level ends, but definitely worth checking out. Should mention that I played this on easy, you gotta be some kind of gaming master to do this on hard.
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.
2021
This review contains spoilers
As the game says in its ending moments: "But grand words and stories, I think they may be overrated."
We live in a world which tries to measure the worth of our lives in productivity. In a world where the main character of our stories are great individuals, who accomplish incredible feats. Sometimes, the story you need to hear most, is one that runs contrary to this narrative. Sometimes, you need a story to remind you to stop worrying about being the most productive, or accomplishing some grand achievement; to let all of that melt away and allow yourself to be in the present. Sometimes, you need to hear that just being you, and having those connections with the people you care about, is enough. This is that kind of story, and I'm glad to have experienced it.
We live in a world which tries to measure the worth of our lives in productivity. In a world where the main character of our stories are great individuals, who accomplish incredible feats. Sometimes, the story you need to hear most, is one that runs contrary to this narrative. Sometimes, you need a story to remind you to stop worrying about being the most productive, or accomplishing some grand achievement; to let all of that melt away and allow yourself to be in the present. Sometimes, you need to hear that just being you, and having those connections with the people you care about, is enough. This is that kind of story, and I'm glad to have experienced it.
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.
The definition of "bang for your buck." This was one of the first XBLIG games and was a fun twin-stick shooter centered around a funny meta-humor song about the developer using XNA to make the game, and selling it for a dollar. The visuals get a little trippy as they start to show the lyrics to the song in a big bold pixel font on the stage, and laser light shows start happening. The enemies also get nice and varied throughout the game so it doesn't get too stale. For a dollar, it was a good buy back in the day. I played it through multiple times and would always recommend it to friends around the time of its release.
2018
This is a game where you play as a teenage trans girl on the internet in the 1990's, finding out that she's trans. The entire game takes place on the interface of the 90's computer, and the gameplay is primarily talking to friends on the messenger app, while also dealing with an abusive parental situation. The dialogue in this game is so well written and really captures the way someone that age would be talking to their friends on their 90's dial up internet connection. There is definitely a lack of stories about trans people in media, let alone in games, and I can't really think of any that are specifically about someone finding out that they are trans. In every movie or game with a trans person that I've seen, they were already out to themselves. So I really liked this because I think it's a story that very much needed to be told somewhere, and I think the way they told it through this game was really well done. I also ended up watching the trans speedrunner proto magicalgirl play through this game (at normal speed) because I needed help with the one puzzle in the game, and seeing how strongly the game resonated with someone who clearly had a similar experience was really cool to see. It's always great when a game can connect with someone in that way.
2001
3d Sonic bad. I played a small bit of this one on my brother's Dreamcast as a kid and even then I was kind of like "This isn't fun? Why isn't Sonic fun?" Going back and watching Let's Plays of SA1&2, the animations are some of the worst I've ever seen, and the gameplay is just...people who call this one of their favorite games have some kind of ultra-powerful nostalgia goggles I've never been able to get my hands on. The soundtrack slaps though. ♪ Got places to go, gotta follow my rainbow! ♪
World of Final Fantasy fills the desires of a very specific niche, which is people who both enjoy chibi style humor, and also have played every main series Final Fantasy game. Luckily for me, it's a niche I fit into. This game had me laughing out loud at multiple points, and it was fun going through the story and seeing which classic Final Fantasy character and setting I would run into next.
The combat is also really fun, It's like Pokemon but with classic Final Fantasy monsters. You have to stack 2 of them with your main character being the 3rd in the stack, and you can transform your character from regular form to chibi form depending on what you want. The ability to speed up the battles is also a breath of fresh air in a turn based combat game, making what used to feel like a grind feel quick and fun.
If you're craving a Final Fantasy crossover game, skip Dissidia and play this instead. Tons of stuff to fill your nostalgia craving, and the two new main characters are a joy if you like that kind of humor. This is legitimately one of my favorite Final Fantasy games now.
The combat is also really fun, It's like Pokemon but with classic Final Fantasy monsters. You have to stack 2 of them with your main character being the 3rd in the stack, and you can transform your character from regular form to chibi form depending on what you want. The ability to speed up the battles is also a breath of fresh air in a turn based combat game, making what used to feel like a grind feel quick and fun.
If you're craving a Final Fantasy crossover game, skip Dissidia and play this instead. Tons of stuff to fill your nostalgia craving, and the two new main characters are a joy if you like that kind of humor. This is legitimately one of my favorite Final Fantasy games now.
2019
Was finally able to get this on Red Candle Games' website after some trouble getting my card to work on a Taiwanese website, but it was well worth it. Incredibly well done horror game with a very intimate story about family, societal pressures, and how cults take advantage of people.