Many Bricks Breaker is a very simple clone of any sort of Breakout style game out there, sporting a very simple color palette, simple levels and simple game mechanics. This makes for the quintessential TikTok video game that you would watch at the bottom meanwhile another stolen video plays at the top... In fact, that is how I found out about Many Bricks Breaker and even found its PC port, and then the rest is history.

The game is pretty much what it says in the tin, it's a pretty easy game where your objective is to clear out every stage from its different squares that disappear once you paddle a ball into them, the gameplay loop dwelves in just trying to hit somewhere where the ball will for sure stay and then just wait until a power-up that duplicates the amount of balls on-screen appears, after that you can see the balls spreading everywhere like a bunch of atoms (or perhaps something more) and before you know it, the stage is done. You do this for around 100 or so stages.
At least something to give it credit for is that it works marvels as a background game while you're listening to something or talking to other people, it's very Zen and you don't need much of you to actually get through it... But in the other hand that's kind of the demise of it.

Now, I'm not too knowledgeable on other "brick-breaker" Breakout games out there, but I'd assume they would feature so much more than this, right? Something like more modifiers or more creative ways to play or stages, I think that if I actually went out of my way to play a good puzzle game in this style I might even think worse of this game for being so easy and simple so bad that it's numbing. And I think that's the extreme where Many Bricks Breaker is at, it's nothing more than a mind-numbing Zen Breakout experience with zero to none skill involved, you pay 5 bucks for it upfront and it is exactly what you get, wouldn't really recommend it if you're looking for actively interactable puzzle action, in fact, I wouldn't even recommend it if you're looking for A Game at all.

...only as a dopamine stimulus device.

Played via the 25th Anniversary Update for Half-Life, which added Uplink as a playable chapter without the use of mods.

Not a lot to say about Half-Life: Uplink, that doesn't mean that it's bad but simply put, it's an abridged version of the action you see in the actual game, and for a demo it works marvels. As I said about the later on demo of the same style for Half-Life 2, I like that these demos ultimately gave you a fully-fledged piece of the GoldSrc engine to mess around with, and since there's no actual cut content you can experience what Half-Life has to offer but in a bite-sized more enclosed manner as a nice little treat to get accustomed to how the movement, gunplay and enemies work before jumping into the actual game.

Chaos;Head Noah is a visual novel with quite the history, from it kickstarting one of the best-selling visual novel franchises of all time whilst still being an underdog and not being released overseas for over a decade, and then when it released it was in a broken unreadable mess state that if it hadn't been for the team over at Committee of Zero it would've probably gotten us years for it to actually be able to read it without their professional grade translation. And all of that for a denpa science fiction heavy visual novel that in my opinion is just alright.

But, don't get me wrong. I do like Chaos;Head and I appreciate some things it does, I can't lie when I say there were some times when my jaw completely dropped at some of the most horror or gorier part of the story, some negative delusions, its surreal and philosophical nature too just really sets in the distinct tone of this visual novel that got really watered down in Steins;Gate for better or for worse, and the characters are pretty unique and cool (even though I wish there were more interactions amongst themselves instead of only with Takumi), sadly though sometimes it gets too pretentious with its themes of religion and stuff that really shows that this is pretty much just Neon Genesis Evangelion in the form of a visual novel with its tendency to be about a calamity, be psychological and somewhat erotic at some points as well as showcasing the inner turmoil and problems that confine our main protagonist from just "acting like a normal person".
Some people might hate Takumi Nishijō but you cannot deny that his showcase as a socially inept NEET chunibyo riddled with an anxiety disorder thats a byproduct of both constant self-isolation and growing up in internet culture, his unability to actually talk to other people firmly and just being paranoic as hell wherever he goes is pretty much real, he's an delusional idiot who speaks with anime girl figurines and in his head thinks he's better than anybody else, and it works so well when the story takes the turn of being chuni as hell, kind of like the delusions he imagines and then inserts himself into.

As for the rest of the cast, although I wish some of them had more interactions with themselves or we saw more people in general instead of the world revolving around the same 6 people or so, their routes sometimes really make you care more for them than what you'd usually be if you only read the common route, and that's good although it feels like the bunch of them are just a lot of added backstories, and they can heavily depend on if you truly care about any of the characters in the work.

I'm both not capable and not knowingly enough to talk about the psychological aspect of the work in-depth, as I am not really in the know for any of those topics and the sci-fi concepts really are just evil corpo wants to take over the world deceiving everyone's brains via 5G electromagnetic waves (or some bullshit like that) and then it all just goes back to Takumi having to do everything he does for X or Y motive and then it ends and happy ending. But it's a bit of a brain fuck, they don't hold back for most of these scenes and it's crucial that you pay attention to the distinct themes and concepts that are will be later referenced in next works, and honestly if you don't mind any of this it will not strike as bad, sometimes it can get a little bit boring as they talk in verbose, though.

Now, there's nothing exceedingly wrong with the visual novel. More like a bunch of little things piled up, but I feel like Chaos;Head's worst failure is its exposure. It's very clearly supposed to be a thrilling slow burn of a story, and maybe I am just really bad at reading (After all, I poured 95 hours reading this) but damn is the story padded out with a lot of nothingness very earlier on, and you can tell this when they're still introducing core concepts in later chapters instead of throwing them at you as the story progresses, or keeping them in the heroine routes so they're somewhat of a resource you learn later on to continue on with the true ending of it. But, a lot of it is introduced midway through a very long and oftentimes boring common route, this is most likely the case because the original Chaos;Head just consisted of its common route and endings, but I feel like for its revision they should've stopped the kinetic novel route and actually change up the beats of the story somewhat to actually make those heroine routes be sustainable enough to not feel bored as hell when reading through them (such was my case, but this can definitely be attributed to the fact that you need to skip through the entire game a good 6 times before locking into the routes themselves). Also the PC port was completely shafted out of all the cool effects the console versions had, so every dynamic part that would make you more immersed, such as the Delusion Trigger's static or the immersive sound of parts like Phantasm's concert was pretty much broken, some of it got salvaged by the Overhaul Patch but it's very clear that the bar was in hell.

Gotta admit, in some parts this kinda hit home hard and I'm not proud of that. We gotta do better Takumibros...

A Way Out is a co-op experience perhaps the very first of its kind to actually not require both people to own the game, and that will work online without the need of third-party software such as Parsec or Steam's Remote Play that is insanely fun with the right person. It is a game that gives both parties moments of action, decision-making and opportunities to mess around in its freely playable areas as well as involving a lot of interaction with the other person in the form of discussions, funny quips or having to actually work together and engage in momentum-based puzzles and quick time events, kind of like a co-op Telltale game, to actually get past the different levels which cover an overarching continuous story.

That's right, besides getting a fun co-op game you also get a fully-featured complete story with it! Honestly, Hazelight being the smaller team after all I wouldn't expect for it to feature a complete story with small minigames, easter eggs and being able to interact with various NPCs in the more open levels, but it sadly is the demise of the game since the story isn't all that impressive besides your basic breaking out of prison stuff, and then the twist makes it a bit lame in retrospect.
Everything besides that is nearly fine, but then there's very clearly a problem with balancing both characters' scenarios to have an equal amount of fun moments to play, I'm pretty sure Leo never gets to actually drive around when there's a chase going on, and then in the hospital section all Vincent does is run around meanwhile Leo is fighting people in a traditional fighting game and sidescroller section, definitely makes you feel like there's not nearly as many fun parts when playing as Vincent and that definitely should've been looked over, and they pretty much did with It Takes Two later on.

Leo Ending canon btw

Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen are a couple of games that form complete and faithful remakes of the Generation I games, so faithful that I'd even suggest to anyone looking to start somewhere in Pokémon near the start to just straight up choose an edition from the two and get going, not only is it the more refined, visually appealing and balanced version, it is practically nearly 1:1 with the Game Boy title just with a bunch of the quality of life features that came after it, as well as bugs fixed. It is so faithful in fact that you can pretty much take whatever I said about Pokémon Red and apply it to this game.

Without criticizing the content of this game itself, and having to pick at straws surround anything but the game itself, I can say that it is a nice time. The Game Boy Advance is a great fit for the simplicity of Gen I and its graphics, and overall the game is super colorful, way smoother and so much more faster to play, coupled with a remastered soundtrack and some new content to do, but nothing groundbreaking besides the changed things post-game that are a bit more of a hassle to do but whatever. Would've definitely benefited from some Gen II stuff like Johto Pokémon here and there, day and night cycle, baby forms or friendship evolutions, but I get that they really were through to making this Gen I but better at the time, and also a way to get some of those Pokémon out of there since the Game Boy couldn't communicate directly with the Game Boy Advance.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder was a pretty neat surprise back when it was first announced in June 21 of 2023's Nintendo Direct, a lot of people including myself kind of gave up the idea of a 2D Mario platformer that would have new concepts, be way more stylized, and for it to come in this very same generation before the Switch would be phased out. And for a while it seemed impossible, since the last interest in putting something out like this ended with New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe all the way back in early 2019, but lo and behold we had a new, and seemingly completely original 2D Mario platformer in the horizon... And man, I just couldn't be happier.

Having followed the New Super Mario Bros. series of games for a while, and experiencing the downfall of it in real time as each entry felt more stale and lackluster, I think I was one of the few people who still kind of longed Nintendo would go back to the formula just once more, and then determining if it would be over for it or not. Now, the absence of a game or hearing anything about it being even made was pretty well worth it because Wonder managed to achieve everyone's expectations as to where to go next, and turning a page from the same old same old.
I remember that as a kid and even now up until the release of this game I've always thought than an easy way to make something more unique out of any New Super Mario Bros. game would imply something like an adventure bringing back something like Sarasaland, a realm that has only really appeared once, left us with Daisy and nothing else, but that at the same time had featured a lot of alternate versions to things we already knew were common in the Mushroom Kingdom, such as exploding Koopas or the Superball Flowers being an alternate version of the Fire Flowers we were already so accustomed to. And, well, I still do like an idea of expanding where Super Mario Land left off to an extent, but for Super Mario Bros. Wonder they practically did all of that and more.

Wonder, instead of easily just being in the Mushroom Kingdom like always, introduced a whole new Kingdom, the Flower Kingdom, a never-seen before refreshing new place with a whole flora and fauna of its own, with so many new concepts and twists on the classic Mario underground or sky worlds, everything in here is so new and refreshing yet so familiar and classic feeling enough for it to not feel like it's too different from other games in the New series, kind of proving that the core of those games was fine but it just needed more innovation when it came to a setting, power-ups and levels, and that is one of Wonder's main strengths besides taking a little bit from every Mario game.

The level design is on top in this one, there is so much in these levels it's insane. New enemies everywhere (and pretty much a new one every few levels), very well hidden and rewarding secrets, fun collectibles and a lot of the feature a striking balance of horizontality and verticality in pretty much all of them coming in play with sometimes playing in the foreground and other gimmicks. Speaking of gimmick, this game practically revolves around them as every level features a Wonder Flower which practically turns the stage on its head and introduces a special gimmick to it. I'm pretty sure every single Wonder found in these is in some regards unique (there only being "types" of Wonder per se) so whenever you find a Wonder Flower it's pretty much guaranteed to be something new or something you haven't seen in a while, which keeps it fresh and is effective with its resources.

There are many types of stages, ones are normal levels where your objective is to go to the flagpole, then there's a mix of pretty much anything; short stages where it's only one screen and it's mostly to give you a little challenge while making a Wonder Seed easily available, races with a Wiggler, search parties where it's a rather big screen and its search quest for many hidden collectibles in a seemingly empty place, and then of course, the Badge Challenge stages, which brings me to the badge system.

The newly introduced Badge system is your usual perk system but for Wonder, it pretty much is just a way to change up the gameplay, either drastically or just an aid to get to more hidden places in the stages themselves, the selection is fine and I'm sure people made better use of it than me as I usually have the same problem of having one perk always and never switching it off, if it wasn't because the Parachute Cap one they give you at first is pretty much one of the best ones because it offers infinite verticality and can save you from dying many times, so in that regard I wish they made you be able to equip many or make them more like side-grades rather than straight up making it easier to play, but I won't deny that it is a step in the right direction in every way.

I particularly like how the new power-ups actually feel straight out of those early 2010's videos where they showcased a bunch of crazy ass power-ups that seem so farfetched and non doable in a normal Mario game, but this is not a normal Mario game. They were quick to add in an Elephant power-up where you become bulky, and can destroy and deflect every enemy and block in the way besides being able to spray everything with water, or the Bubble Flower which is pretty much an alternative to the Ice Flower that makes bubbles that are able to encapsule enemies and make them be able to be jumped on from mid-air, or even the Drill Mushroom which is reminiscent of the Spin Drill all the way back to Super Mario Galaxy 2. All of these in a 2D Mario game make for an excellent cast of powers and stuff to choose from, besides some of these being necessary for some of the secrets or just to get away from situations easier.

The Online mode makes the feeling of loneliness from playing a game that's probably meant to be for more than singleplayer go away as you can instantly connect and see other people seamlessly playing the same levels as you, being able to make an emote or offer a standee so if they get defeated in a more difficult part of the level they can go right back without going through a game over, and being able to aide others in things like search parties or by giving them an item. Is a very cute feature that while isn't straight up online multiplayer, makes the feeling of playing through the game a collective one more than just straight up loneliness, I like that they kept it semi-canon too by not having other people who play as your character and not having more than 4 people on the stage at all times, things would've gotten really messy then so I'm glad it is how it is right now.

And I guess for the bad part would be the duration of the game. 2D Mario has never been that long, and don't get me wrong the game isn't super short like New Super Mario Bros. 2 is, but in some regards it feels like you have too much fun binging it so it runs out very quickly, at least for the more avid players. But there's also an argument to be had that some of the worlds weren't as realized as one could've thought, knowing that at least two of them didn't even even have a final boss fight and were more of an overall quest you took on and then moved on to another world with an annoyingly confusing or big layout. And then the bosses themselves weren't really all that good since it's all just Bowser Jr. with a new yet very easy to figure and beat Wonder effect, for once the Koopalings would've been nice to have in some regard so it wouldn't just be the same over and over again, or hell, make it like 2006's New Super Mario Bros. where every boss would be a big bad powerful version of a more common enemy. Something like that would've been more nice and refreshing than what we got.

But for what it is, it's not bad at all. This was actually one of the few releases I was able to catch onto when it came out thanks to my girlfriend, and I've never been too psyched about awaiting a Nintendo game then playing it as soon as it's out the oven, but for a mainline entry in one of the series that's been part of my childhood for so long, I knew I had to. And I have no regrets, I'm glad 2D Mario is making a resurgence and while I feel like this one is the stepping point from the New series to something completely new, I feel like it's a great transition into possibly making something even more wilder and different for a possible next entry, I just wish this had come out sooner in the Switch's lifespan so I could have been filled with hope from much, much earlier.

Monsterbag's a weird one. Released in 2015 by latin american studio IguanaBee for a console in the midst of its failure of a lifespan, is a point-and-click puzzle stealth game with a remarkable artstyle, great sound design and a very competent story and ways of storytelling that honestly, get kinda heart-wrenching sometimes, it is very clear where the inspiration from things like Neon Genesis Evangelion are in the backstory behind the simplistic and goofy facade.

This game is a weirdly enticing and mesmerizing little adventure only spanning a couple of hours (or more if you go for all trophies), where you are quite literally, a monster bag trying to keep your owner--Nia out of constant danger that kind of goes in with the story that unfolds as you play the game. It isn't a technological marvel or anything but the CGI cutscenes cutting into gameplay are neat and honestly well thought out, fun to look at and reminiscent of cartoons like The Amazing World of Gumball with the goofy cartoony characters mixing in with semi-realistic (in detail) yet monochromatic environments.

Pretty much all positives but the only real thing hindering this game from being more known and having a better median score would be its platform of release, being a portable console with a rather small screen, having to tap here and there to pick out even smaller objects in game is kind of a hassle sometimes, the framerate is kinda bad and it can lag out here and there, and it just makes me wonder why did they choose the PlayStation Vita instead of PC for a game like this where a lot of things you can pick out from the background and stuff would be better to choose with a mouse of all things.

And then probably the one thing that kinda got me the most is that the some of the mechanics regarding "not being seen" work half the time, later on in the game you're faced with a lot of puzzles that require a lot of precision between two other entities who are facing both ways at the same time, and for one of the trophies you have to move from one monster to another in a time frame of like a second or two before you can be looked at, if a monster looks your way when you're in the middle of your animation you'll get caught and then sometimes the animation loop is so short that when you're sure to be able to go to another monsters' back, they already looked at your animation as you entered theirs and it's game over. A bit frustrating and I wish they could've toned it down a little bit for some of those last levels that do require you to do the same task over and over again if you fail, other than that the game is worth the time if you own the console, as it might never get out sadly.

Mega Man & Bass is a pretty small and unobtrusive spin-off of the classic Mega Man series of games, but it might as well be the weirdest game in the series that still bases itself after the classic run-and-gun platformer gameplay. It is a very late stage of the "retro" era of Mega Man, seen as it was a late SNES title and games like Mega Man X through X4 were already coming out, it kind of makes you wonder why did they even bother making this?

It's not like a very good game, it also doesn't feature a whole ton in its story and gameplay and overall it just an awkward title between the X and Classic series (You get to play as Bass which is pretty much just a watered down X, but you can opt for normal Mega Man 8-like gameplay when choosing Rock) with pretty meh level design and boss fights.

Something of note is that the powers are pretty cool and somewhat innovative from the common Mega Man 2-like power ups (like having knock-off versions of the Leaf Shield or Metal Blade in every game), and that there is a vast shop with a lot of things to exchange bolts with. But there is only a few you can have as passives while you're only allowed to have one activated at a time, so most of the times unless you're trying to get it all collectables you're usually just gonna stick with two or three that aid you in different ways, sometimes even necessary too because holy hell this game can get tough sometimes.

In pure Mega Man fashion, this game is sometimes very unforgiving, but it's not really so hard that when you beat it you actually feel good about it, it's just kinda frustrating since there's actually not a lot of pick ups for your health or energy, kind of falling into that micromanaging hell most classic Mega Man games suffer, and that 8 managed to solve by being a fun time. This one didn't learn from all that and just decided to do its own thing.

Most new Robot Master are okay, and its interesting how many others came back from 8 further putting the idea that this is just an alternate take on 8, but some of the new designs are pretty cool like Burner Man or Cold Man and I can give it some merit for that, but overall I can only recommend if you've already experienced all of the numbered entries and somehow want more, because it really is just more Mega Man.

Bean has been essential to video game history. Unbeknownst to everyone, Bean has been able to remain an infinitely replayable classic of state-of-the-art gaming in merely two years of its existence, has broken countless records since its debut with a whopping 37 all-time concurrent players enjoying and swinging around the illustrious and wonderful world of Bean.
This game might just be a metaphor for life itself, how a shell of a conscious mind (the smiling "Bean" that is protagonist to this very piece) jumps from platform to platform, with hamburger in hand whilst avoiding hot-boiling lava at its very feet could very well be interpreted as the balance we have in our lives, risking it for the sake of advancement in our daily goals, sure it might be hard to wake up every day to go work a 9-to-5, but at the end of the day there will always be a Shiny Golden Orb waiting for you at home.

AJ_Avocado's storytelling is something to take note of, as well, might even dethrone Hideo Kojima or Goichi Suda in that regard, wake me up when a Metal Gear Solid or a No More Heroes represents all that is fake in life, fake friendships and relationships as evil red fake platforms that you can phase through if you don't watch your steps correctly, and impeding you from actually achieving your daily objective.

I cannot recommend this game for sane minds, because it ultimately could result in too much and leave you tasteless for any sort of media after experiencing Bean. Nothing will ever compare to Bean or even come close to the masterfully crafted inclusive experience that is Bean.

Mega Microgames (or very annoyingly stylized as Mega Microgame$!) is the very first installment in the WarioWare series by then imagined with Inc. at the end, and what then was a pretty innovative casual game you could hop in and off with a brand-new cast of characters that are minimally analogue to the Mario universe, kind of working like a bunch of knock-offs actually, after all Wario has always been built to be the inverse of the hero he was designed after.

Leaving that aside, the very first WarioWare is as odd and basic as it can get for the franchise, the core characters are introduced and given their own backstories whilst Wario gets his own overarching story, these are presented with little cutesy cutscenes that eventually transition into the microgames themselves, and I gotta say that the art for these are kinda basic, a lot of still and non-detailed backgrounds that makes the one microgame that's super detailed every so often stand out like a sore thumb, whilst the microgames themselves tend to be vary basic with its controls and not a lot of gimmicky ones which is kind of why I think they branched out and started doing straight up gimmicks with motion and touch controls later on.

Something that's kind of annoying is the fact that you don't really unlock all of the microgames per "level" (or character) in one or two sessions, and a lot of the locked ones don't take priority to be unlocked over the ones you've already played, so it makes it a bit boring and repetitive to go back and play some of these over and over again, especially when you're supposed to unlock new levels or high-score minigames with these, so I really didn't bother doing any of that after trying so many times, I don't think they were that worth it anyway since they are just that, high-score minigames, microgame collections based on difficulty and nothing more.

Good enough start, but it isn't like Rhythm Heaven where every game was kinda consistent in content and quality, others clearly supersede this one and it's evident why it isn't talked about as much.