I bought this game a few months ago because I had vivid memories of playing it as a kid over at a friend's house. I used to love it back then but never had the chance to play it on my own let alone finish it.
So, I used the power of adulthood and got what I didn't as a kid.
It was pretty decent fun for the first three episodes, but halfway through the game, it did start to overstay its welcome with its incredibly repetitive gameplay and exhausting collectathon aspects.
It's at best a very casual platformer re-telling abridged versions of 6 Star Wars films and at worst an incredibly mundane bore.
It also didn't run very well at points which is odd. Just random hiccups where the game froze or cutscene audio de-synced. It's not really a visually complex game, so I'm baffled by that.
So, I used the power of adulthood and got what I didn't as a kid.
It was pretty decent fun for the first three episodes, but halfway through the game, it did start to overstay its welcome with its incredibly repetitive gameplay and exhausting collectathon aspects.
It's at best a very casual platformer re-telling abridged versions of 6 Star Wars films and at worst an incredibly mundane bore.
It also didn't run very well at points which is odd. Just random hiccups where the game froze or cutscene audio de-synced. It's not really a visually complex game, so I'm baffled by that.
2018
It really is just a bargain bin version of Riff Racer.
1992
Obviously, a lot more simplistic in comparison to DOOM and the level design would be hell to figure out without a map, but as a casual shooter, this was quite a lot of fun.
There are bullshit moments and the game does overstay its welcome a bit in the last two episodes, but overall I had a surprisingly good time.
There are bullshit moments and the game does overstay its welcome a bit in the last two episodes, but overall I had a surprisingly good time.
2006
I honestly just remember my sister forcing me to play it at the time and the songs Come As You Are by Nirvana, Song 2 by Blur, and 1985 by Bowling For Soup being repeated a lot.
2019
This is a really nicely designed, fun casal puzzle game that reminds me a bit of the Peggle series but with a different spin on it.
I enjoyed it a lot and since it's completely free on itch, I recommend it to anyone who is in the mood for a chill, wholesome little physics puzzler.
https://natewiesel.itch.io/flowerdrops
I enjoyed it a lot and since it's completely free on itch, I recommend it to anyone who is in the mood for a chill, wholesome little physics puzzler.
https://natewiesel.itch.io/flowerdrops
2015
Life is Strange is a franchise I never thought I'd get into. Hell, the only reasons why I eventually gave it a shot were that, for one, a very good friend of mine told me frequently about how much those games meant to him growing up, and two, the original became dirt cheap on Steam when a new game in the franchise was announced.
It took a while to really draw me in, but after episode 2 I got pretty hooked. Even though the clunky writing and the specific artsy teen hipster aesthetic can get a bit much at points, the story is generally pretty well put together and every episode usually has at least one very interesting and engaging difficult situation.
Episode 3 and 4 must have been my favorite ones.
I'm not absolutely in love with it, but I did enjoy it quite a lot. Enough to give Before the Storm and Life is Strange 2 a shot as well.
It took a while to really draw me in, but after episode 2 I got pretty hooked. Even though the clunky writing and the specific artsy teen hipster aesthetic can get a bit much at points, the story is generally pretty well put together and every episode usually has at least one very interesting and engaging difficult situation.
Episode 3 and 4 must have been my favorite ones.
I'm not absolutely in love with it, but I did enjoy it quite a lot. Enough to give Before the Storm and Life is Strange 2 a shot as well.
2018
The physical card game is one of the simplest and most fun party games about deduction and deceiving I know.
The videogame version is a little bit of a rough and barebones port, but it works and as long as you can find someone to play with online, you can have a pretty good time.
Obviously, the PC version takes away the layer of verbal communication with your opponent and trying to figure out their lies through their behavior during actual face-to-face matches, which brings the best out of this game. But it's still a decent alternative. And you technically could make up for that with a webcam and something like Discord.
The videogame version is a little bit of a rough and barebones port, but it works and as long as you can find someone to play with online, you can have a pretty good time.
Obviously, the PC version takes away the layer of verbal communication with your opponent and trying to figure out their lies through their behavior during actual face-to-face matches, which brings the best out of this game. But it's still a decent alternative. And you technically could make up for that with a webcam and something like Discord.
2019
I won the first game I played with friends, even though I had absolutely no idea what the fuck was going on while my friend played it a bunch of times before.
Once you actually figure out what's going on and how things work, it's a pretty fun time. At least when you're playing with friends. I don't think playing against CPU would be very fun with a game like this.
I could imagine though that this game would get pretty repetitive and boring after you played a few rounds.
Once you actually figure out what's going on and how things work, it's a pretty fun time. At least when you're playing with friends. I don't think playing against CPU would be very fun with a game like this.
I could imagine though that this game would get pretty repetitive and boring after you played a few rounds.
2007
Even worse than I expected. The stiffest kart racing game I have ever played. Awful.
2017
My best score is 2.067.
2020
The craziest thing about this is that it makes you catch Pokémon with nothing but master balls. Whether it's Mew or Magikarp.
I really liked the meta aspect of the concept: An eroge with a plot about an eroge studio.
The art is good and some of the writing is decent. Seeing the characters discuss what goes into the development of these lewd visual novels was fairly interesting
But I disliked most of the characters, there were too many unnecessary, uncomfortable moments regarding rape in the writing, and I'm not a fan of making the apparently 32 years old eroge studio president look as much like a child as they possibly could.
The art is good and some of the writing is decent. Seeing the characters discuss what goes into the development of these lewd visual novels was fairly interesting
But I disliked most of the characters, there were too many unnecessary, uncomfortable moments regarding rape in the writing, and I'm not a fan of making the apparently 32 years old eroge studio president look as much like a child as they possibly could.
2017
This review contains spoilers
I'm kinda indifferent about this game.
I enjoyed a lot about it, like the art style, the exploration bits, the soundtrack, and a lot of the writing. I usually enjoyed the more intimate moments a lot when dialog tackled real-life problems in a very direct way and makes the characters come across as very real and believable people. Even when the dialog options during those moments were kind of frustrating at times and I found myself siding with the other party of the conversation rather than Mae a lot of the times, those were the best part of the game for me. With each start of a new day, I just wanted to hit up the daily routes in the city, check up on my favorite NPCs, and progress in the main plot.
Like I said in my earlier post the dream sequence platforming segments were cool in concept, had a nice visual style and music, and were fun at points, but ultimately kind of got repetitive and felt like they got in the way when I just wanted to get out there and learn more about the characters or see what's next in the story. It's not a big problem, but I do feel like they could have been less frequent.
My biggest gripe with this game, for lack of a better term, is the final act when the game becomes less about relationships and intimacy, and instead almost abandons those aspects of the game to go on this kind of sudden "secret cult in a cave" adventure. It was kinda cool and I enjoyed it for what it was, but it wasn't at all what I expected or really wanted from this game. The whole time the game gets more and more intimate with the relationships you follow while you learn more and more about each characters' background, but then it just goes this sudden route of this occult murder mystery that at points felt like the game was jumping the shark for me and ends a bit abruptly.
I didn't hate that, but it just wasn't what I expected or hoped this game would be.
The game also didn't grab me emotionally nearly as much as I thought it would, especially after hearing other people's experiences with it. The personal moments characters have with each other were mostly quite effective and engaging, and all the themes of figuring out how life works were absolutely relatable, but I just thought there would be more, or that the game would do more with it.
It's still a good game. But it probably wouldn't show up on any of my favorite game lists.
I enjoyed a lot about it, like the art style, the exploration bits, the soundtrack, and a lot of the writing. I usually enjoyed the more intimate moments a lot when dialog tackled real-life problems in a very direct way and makes the characters come across as very real and believable people. Even when the dialog options during those moments were kind of frustrating at times and I found myself siding with the other party of the conversation rather than Mae a lot of the times, those were the best part of the game for me. With each start of a new day, I just wanted to hit up the daily routes in the city, check up on my favorite NPCs, and progress in the main plot.
Like I said in my earlier post the dream sequence platforming segments were cool in concept, had a nice visual style and music, and were fun at points, but ultimately kind of got repetitive and felt like they got in the way when I just wanted to get out there and learn more about the characters or see what's next in the story. It's not a big problem, but I do feel like they could have been less frequent.
My biggest gripe with this game, for lack of a better term, is the final act when the game becomes less about relationships and intimacy, and instead almost abandons those aspects of the game to go on this kind of sudden "secret cult in a cave" adventure. It was kinda cool and I enjoyed it for what it was, but it wasn't at all what I expected or really wanted from this game. The whole time the game gets more and more intimate with the relationships you follow while you learn more and more about each characters' background, but then it just goes this sudden route of this occult murder mystery that at points felt like the game was jumping the shark for me and ends a bit abruptly.
I didn't hate that, but it just wasn't what I expected or hoped this game would be.
The game also didn't grab me emotionally nearly as much as I thought it would, especially after hearing other people's experiences with it. The personal moments characters have with each other were mostly quite effective and engaging, and all the themes of figuring out how life works were absolutely relatable, but I just thought there would be more, or that the game would do more with it.
It's still a good game. But it probably wouldn't show up on any of my favorite game lists.
2012
I remember this being the hot indie game of the moment years ago and I had it on my backlog because of that for at least half a decade now. I kinda wish I hadn't waited that long, because this game kinda aged badly in terms of technology. I have the Steam release and for some reason, it ran so terribly on my Windows 10 machine that it was actually unplayable at first. Menus and level intro camera swoops were smooth and flawless. But as soon as you were allowed to take control of the characters, the fps went down to like 2 per second. That seems to be a pretty common thing and one solution is to actually enable compatibility mode, which makes it playable but I still had some weird errors like several different songs being played at the same time for most of my playtime. It's weird.
Either way, I can kinda see why the game was so hyped back then. It's a novel idea executed with clean and sleak visuals, and the combination of the deconstructed, basic platforming with the meta narrative and puzzle gameplay makes for a solid combination.
But I have to say, personally, I found a lot of the gameplay rather tedious than challenging or satisfying. A lot of the playtime is spent with switching through the different characters, performing the same movement combinations again and again to get all the required characters from start to finish, and it made me groan several times when a level loaded up that had more than 5 characters involved. The actual puzzles are pretty clever at times and the developer does bring a decent amount of different ideas throughout the story mode, but everytime I had to build little stairs to get some character with minimal movement ability up a hill, I just got bored and frustrated. It felt more like a repetitive chore than a game at points.
Switching through the characters can also be very annoying when there are a lot of them.
I wanna give credit where it's due, but I would lie if I said I loved playing this game.
Either way, I can kinda see why the game was so hyped back then. It's a novel idea executed with clean and sleak visuals, and the combination of the deconstructed, basic platforming with the meta narrative and puzzle gameplay makes for a solid combination.
But I have to say, personally, I found a lot of the gameplay rather tedious than challenging or satisfying. A lot of the playtime is spent with switching through the different characters, performing the same movement combinations again and again to get all the required characters from start to finish, and it made me groan several times when a level loaded up that had more than 5 characters involved. The actual puzzles are pretty clever at times and the developer does bring a decent amount of different ideas throughout the story mode, but everytime I had to build little stairs to get some character with minimal movement ability up a hill, I just got bored and frustrated. It felt more like a repetitive chore than a game at points.
Switching through the characters can also be very annoying when there are a lot of them.
I wanna give credit where it's due, but I would lie if I said I loved playing this game.