Lewis' Grand Overview of 2021!
List of all the games I either saw credits for or felt satisified enough to consider completed. This was a year where, despite enjoying and playing a bunch of games in general, I didn't find too many games that released this year to be pretty noteworthy. I've still got some catching up to do (SMT V is just sitting unfinished on my switch rn what am i even doing) but overall for new releases I felt this year was pretty okay. Didn't find myself finishing many games in the tail end of the year but more than made up for it earlier on in 2021. Make sure to click on the Notes button for extended thoughts! Happy new years, guys!
31 Games
Such a solid game. Oozing style and just different enough that it still sticks in my mind a year later. Just wish the final trial was better done.
What a bastard of a game. I love it! Whilst not as refined as the original Spelunky, it's still a blast to play. The elasticity of the world is still there, there's still a buttload of secrets to discover and the general art and designs have seen a large increase in quality. My only complaint I guess is that after finishing the game once, I've kinda plateaued in terms of progress because of how tough and long the game can be.
Don't get me wrong, I really, really like the game but damn you Spelunky 2!
Don't get me wrong, I really, really like the game but damn you Spelunky 2!
fun racer :)
Still good. Wish I liked gothic stuff more since this VN is full of it but was well worth the read.
Okay I get it this game is the antithesis of No More Heroes 1 and it's kinda dissapointing in areas but...it's a blast, man! Also now no longer the worst No More Heroes game!
god the aesthetic fucks but why does the game feel so poor to contro-oh wait it's less than a pound? well i'll shut my mouth
As of right now, this is probably my GOTY of 2021. It's just incredibly well rounded that a lot of other games I played that came out this year aren't. Story is surprisingly strong with some great characters, art is top notch and the gameplay felt great.
I get some complaints about the gameplay maybe getting a bit repetitive at times but the way the gameplay kept progressing with the story mitigated a lot of that for me. Overall, great game! Love Setsu.
I get some complaints about the gameplay maybe getting a bit repetitive at times but the way the gameplay kept progressing with the story mitigated a lot of that for me. Overall, great game! Love Setsu.
Always considered this the dark era for grasshopper but a decade later I'm starting to come around a bit. Shadows of the Damned isn't a great game but ehhhhh it's dumb enough and still kinda fun enough that I can give it a thumbs up.
tfw no white girl gf
Already posted a lengthy, splurging review of this but yeah! It still fucks! The first of the Suda51 kino I played for the first time this year.
MAN, Flower, Sun and Rain. I haven't posted a review of this game because when I first finished it I was pretty mixed on it and wasn't really sure what to think of it. But honestly, as time has passed, I've started to appreciate it more and more and I still think about it every now and again.
Maybe when the remaster eventually comes out I'll play it again and be able to post some more coherent thoughts but for now I will say. It's a Video-Game.
Maybe when the remaster eventually comes out I'll play it again and be able to post some more coherent thoughts but for now I will say. It's a Video-Game.
hell yeah, dude
So this game looks gorgeous on a big TV screen but I feel like I have to come out and admit I feel nothing playing this. Like, somebody made a Doom game but I'm unsure if this is a Doom game worthy of the Doom name. Doom Doom Doom Doom.
rad platformer/metroidvania. cool gimmicks, not too long and has some gorgeous pixel art. power ups aren't amazing but hey, it's still pretty good.
DOOM
This was my first build engine game and honestly, I had some fun! Feel like the game gets a bit bloated towards the end with too many big levels with not a lot of new tricks (also doesn't help that the new weapons stop trickling down after the half way mark) but that first half is great and shooting still always felt good.
Replayed through it because why not. Still think this game rules. Still think this game is the modern day equivalent of Doom. Will probably see this appear on many more year lists to come. Cool game for Cool people.
My thoughts on this game haven't changed since I wrote my review so check that out but yeah...fuckinnnnn...maaaaaaaan....whys it gotta be bad!
BOY do I need to re-write my review of this game because I have totally excused how boring this game really is for it being "relaxing" which I have now come to realise was wrong of me after playing Shantae: Half-Genie Hero and realising that Shantae games can actually be fun unlike this so yeah!
Yes! A really good horror game! If have a bro you like to chill out with in-person and play old-skool PS2 horror games with then play this with them, it's real good.
disc room not good
cute lil game. whilst there was a bunch of humour from this that totally didn't land for me, i was surprised at how much of the writing i was actually ok with! also the dungeon crawler aspect was neat, basing it around being a beat-em up almost and throwing stuff you pick up off the floor was neat. i'm saying neat a lot because if you start to take the combat seriously the game kinda falls apart but i still liked it!
takes everything from the silver case and adds an extra bunch of insanity. more characters, more storylines, more super interesting and unconventional narrative lines and a whole lot more commentary on society and the world in general. definitely a lot more conceptual than his previous games and i can see why it could turn people off but man, if you go with the flow with it then you get super rewarded. highly, highly recommended game.
if u wanna control a cool blob through some boring levels this is it
not much to say about it other than i appreciate it. cool art style, i really like how off the dialogue is and it has one of the best video-game titles out there. and it doesn't have a lives system! it's everything you could want out of a video-games!
This was a Replay. When I originally played through Travis Strikes Again I not only wasn't versed in what actually happened in No More Heroes 2 but I also didn't know anything about no Silver Case! So many references wasted against my small, mainstream pleb brain!! So I gave it another go-around to catch me up before NMH3's release and...well, read my updated review!
For some reason I had always avoided Quake because I felt like most of the conversation around Quake came more from it's legacy than the actual game itself. The multiplayer and its engine obviously revolutionised the FPS and video-games in general but nay a word heard about the single-player portion of the game.
So I was suprised to find out, upon playing through the new remastered version of the game, that it's actually really good! Like good good! Movement feels great, the level design is actually even better than that found in the first Doom game and it feels great to play! My only real complaint would be that the enemies feel a little bit too spongy, especially earlier on, and the weapon selecton is a little limited but other than that; banger of a game! The Genius Of John Romero!
So I was suprised to find out, upon playing through the new remastered version of the game, that it's actually really good! Like good good! Movement feels great, the level design is actually even better than that found in the first Doom game and it feels great to play! My only real complaint would be that the enemies feel a little bit too spongy, especially earlier on, and the weapon selecton is a little limited but other than that; banger of a game! The Genius Of John Romero!
A game that I was both hype for but also expecting disappointment from. It's true that Suda51 has immense talent that is certainly shown off in his games between 1998-2007 but also Suda is a different man these days. The best way it was shown to me was through playing one of the newly written bonus chapters in The 25th Ward called Blackout. The clashing of styles from the previous 2005 written Suda chapters to the newly 2018 written Suda chapter is obvious. Lots of references to pop culture and a constant need to break the 4th wall are as common in modern Suda writing as they are unsubtle.
Like I wanted to get hype for this because I had just experienced some amazing games from the man himself but also I knew that No More Heroes was a different thing than it was from the first game and that he was a different man as well and yep, No More Heroes III is pretty much what you'd expect. A fun game with zany art direction and some nice surprises that is also completely shallow and lacking in areas, especially characters. If you want to read more in-depth about it, check out my review!
Like I wanted to get hype for this because I had just experienced some amazing games from the man himself but also I knew that No More Heroes was a different thing than it was from the first game and that he was a different man as well and yep, No More Heroes III is pretty much what you'd expect. A fun game with zany art direction and some nice surprises that is also completely shallow and lacking in areas, especially characters. If you want to read more in-depth about it, check out my review!
not much of a fan of card games but I wanted to give this one a try because 1) out of respect over how GOOD steamworld dig 2 was and 2) the pink girl robot is really cute.
in the end, it was alright! some of the card stuff was fun, I enjoyed a lot of the arena battles. characters designs are nice. story was whatever but yeah. nothing special like dig 2 unfortunately but eh!
in the end, it was alright! some of the card stuff was fun, I enjoyed a lot of the arena battles. characters designs are nice. story was whatever but yeah. nothing special like dig 2 unfortunately but eh!
playing this made me feel like wayfoward are so close to making a really good shantae game. like it's all pretty much there: the varied levels and nice looking environments, the super cute art and designs (i prefer the drawn sprite stuff to the pixel art sprites), banger OST and some fun writing to top it all off!
The one thing that really lets it down is the structure, dude. like playing through the levels a bunch of extra times gets a bit tedious eventually and realising they're doing this because there isn't a whole lot more stuff to the game is kinda sad. Like if there was a lot less backtracking and more of a focus on creating new levels to the same caliber of the previous ones then this coulda been an all time fav! But alas, budget and stuff. I guess...
The one thing that really lets it down is the structure, dude. like playing through the levels a bunch of extra times gets a bit tedious eventually and realising they're doing this because there isn't a whole lot more stuff to the game is kinda sad. Like if there was a lot less backtracking and more of a focus on creating new levels to the same caliber of the previous ones then this coulda been an all time fav! But alas, budget and stuff. I guess...
this came outta NOWHERE! tried this game out because of humble choice and i'm really glad i stumbled across itbecause it's REALLY good! as shown by my caps lock!
i love how chaotic this game is. it's half farming game, half shoot-em up all bundled up in Rougelike Elements. feels like the dudes behind this wanted to just mash a bunch of stuff together and have fun with it and they succeeded! i've been coming back to this game for a while now and i'll probably write a full review on it soonish but yeah, for now though, it's farming for freaks!
i love how chaotic this game is. it's half farming game, half shoot-em up all bundled up in Rougelike Elements. feels like the dudes behind this wanted to just mash a bunch of stuff together and have fun with it and they succeeded! i've been coming back to this game for a while now and i'll probably write a full review on it soonish but yeah, for now though, it's farming for freaks!