Running on Coffee and Doughnuts...

The Darkside Detective is a great point and click adventure game.
It doesn't take itself too seriously, and the puzzles are quite easy for this genre but the writing got quite a few genuine chuckles out of me and the low-res pixel art is pleasing to gaze at. It can at times look stunning in the more unusual environments.

I found it is a nice game to play in bursts. It has no overarching story; rather the game is split into "episodes" with each episode being its own separate adventure. Every episode can take anywhere from half an hour to 1 hour, which makes them ideal for a quick game in the evening.

The puzzles aren't particularly hard, but there isn't any moon logic here either. It's a good game to pop in and play leisurely.
Mechanically, the game is sound and the only problem I ran into was when I was confused about the order I had to do things in, inside one of the bonus episodes. It's not a big deal, and other than that little hiccup, I had a lot of fun with the game.

The writing is for the most part lighthearted and all of the plots within the game revolve around the antics and escapades involving Detective Francis McQueen and Officer Dooley, whose dynamic is wonderfully weaved and they play off each other in a thoroughly entertaining manner like a wicked song.
Francis and Dooley are assigned to a special division in the police department involving supernatural oddities, and investigating the mysteries they hold, which is the overarching theme of the episodes.

The music is composed by Ben Prunty, most notably composer of FTL: Faster Than Light and Subnautica: Below Zero OSTs.
I give my compliments towards the Darkside Detective OST as the moody, atmospheric setting-grounder, as well as capturing the essence of the location or situation happening on screen.
It is also excellent as a standalone album.

Overall, quality point and click romp, and unless you're looking for a mature storyline and brain-breaking puzzles, you'll hardly be disappointed.
I'll be looking forward to playing the sequel!!

An enrapturing thriller mystery about strange supernatural entities, radio frequencies and getting lost on an ex-military base island.

The game's aesthetics go hand in hand with the setting and the atmosphere, I felt very immersed in the flow of the story and the characters for the most part.
The art style is beautiful, with its toned colour palette and gentle lineart for the character art. The ambient music, or sometimes lack thereof, does a lot to set the tone of the setting and the situations.

It helps that the character dialogue is written in a way that feels natural and at many points, it feels realistic, so they are rather relatable and feel like actual people.
In the game, you are given dialogue trees, where you have options for how you want the conversation to play out.
My one complaint is that sometimes choosing an option cancels out/cuts off the currently playing dialogue or fades away too fast for the player to both process and have time to choose which option they want.
The dialogue also sometimes cuts off when approaching a location or when trying to interact with something else, so if you want to hear the rest of the dialogue, you sometimes have to stand around and wait for it to end.

The gameplay extends to simply moving the character around and choosing dialogue options or checking items, so it should be taken into account that the story being communicated is more important than gameplay variety.
The one interesting mechanic that Oxenfree puts forward is tuning a radio for different frequencies that you can use to reveal hidden lore or to solve puzzles, and sometimes do other things.
I thought personally that this was a really clever mechanic included in the game, and certainly spiced up the gameplay side of things.

The thing about Oxenfree; it has spooky moments, but it never fully leaps to true horror, so it is perfect if you like getting spooked, but don't tolerate horror games very well.
I enjoyed the thriller aspect to the story and the whole mystery behind it, even though I didn't fully understand everything that happened in the ending.

Oxenfree is a great narrative-first game, so as long as you keep that in mind, you are in for a good time.

You cannot overcome fear without staring it in the face first...


Omori started out not grabbing me as much in the beginning. Sure, it was cute and cozy. Felt homely, even.
But it puts up a false facade for the better beginning portion of its runtime.
The threshold of when the story picks up pace and starts revving up is well into the second or third hour even, and will throw off many people away from the game, I'll tell you that straight away.

However, for what this game offers in its entirety, as well as the messages and their intention, it all ultimately pays off in the end.
The game, in my opinion, has one of the most realistic depictions of mental illness I've seen portrayed in media, and it does so without lampshading or downplaying it. It is handled with a lot of care and nuance that really struck a chord with me that I don't believe any other game has before. I felt understood, and in turn understood what it was trying to say, too.
It is no secret that this level of attention to detail, along with the good writing and enjoyable characters, has resonated with many, many people out there.

The characters are the heart and soul of Omori. Your best friends at your side, Aubrey, Kel, Hero and Basil.
The story is told from our protagonist's view, whose name is Sunny. Omori is Sunny's imaginary other half in an imaginary place called Headspace. The story interchanges between the real world and Headspace throughout the story as you make progress, and the dichotomy of these two worlds' stark differences ebb and flow with each other.

The aesthetic aspects feel unique and well-developed; The art style harbours pencil textures and a love for soft embracing colours, including pastels and retrowave/vaporwave-esque palettes, which it uses intelligently to make Headspace and the real world distinct.
The soundtrack is a marvel, with a dozen different battle and boss themes and many different tracks for all the different nooks and crannies of places you will find and explore, and characters you'll meet. The genre variety is quite impressive and the diversity makes it enjoyable to listen to even outside of the game.

The combat is rested upon a system of emotion-based mechanics which have strengths and weaknesses and all of them act as debuffs and buffs respectively. Turns taken can be followed up sometimes and have a level of strategy to them that was enjoyable to commandeer. It felt like a fresh take on the traditional RPG battle system.
Several of the boss fights were a true adrenline rush and a delighful experience!

Omori has stuck around in my mind long after I had played the game and I still find myself thinking back upon it frequently.
It has helped me reflect upon myself and confront a few of my own demons, too.

I love Omori wholeheartedly, Omocat has created something beautiful and poignant that connects with many people on different kind of level.
Thank you, Omocat and Team. <3

While I am not that big a fan of runner-type games, I enjoyed my time with AGNI.

Visually, it is stunning with its palatable use of colour, and overall has great artistic direction along with the calming, undulating soundtrack that adapts to what's happening on the screen.
The animations of the player character cat are lovely and I like the detail of the fragments that bounce off as the cat runs.

There is thought put into the gameplay loop for the player as there is both a "story" mode and an endless mode.
(I put story in quatation marks because ironically there is a lack of a story to tell, but it's not a big deal.)
Regardless, you unlock biomes and items for use for the endless mode as you progress through story mode.

Endless mode is exactly what you think it is, and score attack is the primary goal of this game. You can aid yourself in the endless mode using items you collect or can buy from the in-game store, such as invincibility or potions to restore your health.

The obstacles are all the same but it was nice to see different biomes and all the ideas that the developers put into this game.
I didn't encounter any bugs but for some reason my game booted in French? haha

Either way, AGNI is a very good game, especially for being free.

HELL IS FULL. BLOOD IS- ...wait.

Rarely ever do we get to see a level of such love, polish and attention to detail from freeware games, but Bloody Hell not only reaches, but jumps well and beyond what most free games even have to offer to a player.
Dare I say, this might be a contender for best free game on Steam as a whole. Every aspect of the game feels quality-assured.

To start off, the way the game controls is sublime, it works perfectly with a controller and feels snappy and responsive.
This also applies to the upgrades you obtain throughout the game, all of which add something to the gameplay and none of them ever felt redundant in my opinion.

There is a "charm" system of sorts, kinda like in Hollow Knight where you can apply perks to your gameplay mechanics, such as bashing more bones (currency) out of enemies, making your bullets travel faster etc etc. and although there were some I didn't end up using, I felt that these allowed for different variations in gameplay styles for different people's tastes, which is a great idea.

When it comes to difficulty, it felt very well-balanced and thoroughly playtested. I'm not very good at bullet hell games and struggled with the last two bosses, but I was having a lot of fun regardless and even though the game gets progressively harder with the types of enemies and bosses, it never felt unfair or impossible.

The art direction along with the music is extremely well done.
I was especially impressed with how the attacks were presented on the screen, so that it was visually fast to read and react to, which I think is a very, very important thing to have in a bullet hell game.

The aesthetics of each area felt distinct in both colour palette and layout. I found myself going back and still finding new paths and secrets I hadn't found before. My favourite area was probably the Abyssal Grove!
The spritework itself was excellent and have lively animations, both for enemies, bosses and NPCs.

The story's gist is very simple, you're an angel called Azrael who is tasked with the heavy burden of defeating Satan, God's orders. What ensues is a struggle for right and wrong, blood and guts and glory. The story is more so a vehicle for the game and not that deep, but it is complimented with witty comedic writing.

The enemy variety is switched up as you progress through the areas, with the last area having variations of enemies you fought before but with a different attack pattern; for example they can now teleport and their bullets home in on you.
Might sound small, but these changes, both visual and mechanical, added more diversity and kept me on my toes constantly.

The only real complaint I have is honestly even then a nitpick at worst, and that is that the battle theme got a bit stale towards the latter half of the game, and another battle theme or a remix would've remedied that. But again, this is really a nitpick.

In summary, fast-paced bullet hell metroidvania with many secrets and a lot of heart. If you like Binding of Isaac and Doom, this might be up your alley.

Unreal amounts of talent and passion exudes from Bloody Hell, what a fantastic game!!
Thank you for sharing your game with us, Pun Intended!! Best of luck in your future endeavors.

Bust a Move, it's Pizza Time!

Although its outward comedic guise might throw some people for a loop, Pizza Tower seriously packs a wallop in almost everything it dips its disproportionate, cartoony feet in.

With its emphasis on speedy traversal AND doing it in style, the game manages to knock it out of the park not only with its aesthetics, music and painstakingly crafted (yet incredibly amusing) animations, but also in other areas like the level design and the abundant amount of secrets sprinkled throughout each level add many layers to an already delicious deep dish [pizza] that this title is.

Controls as Smooth as Melted Cheese!
The buttery-smooth controls feel fine-tuned to a T and are super responsive, which clicks like two gears in the fact that the game rewards you for not only mastering these controls, but also Peppino's moveset in tandem with the level layouts. You're given quite a handful of moves you can use at any time, and knowing when and how you can use them gives you different options for moving through each level.

Goes without saying, achieving higher ranks/scores will test your ability to wield this moveset and know it like the back of your hand. This is especially vital to completing Lap 2, which almost each level has, wherein you return from the end of the level and as the name implies, do a second lap around with the remaining time.

Story
The gist of the story itself is that Peppino sets out on a mission to take down the looming Pizza Tower, which threatens the existence of his own restaurant, and bombastically powers through each floor of the Tower to take down Pizzaface, the main anatagonist.
The story isn't anything overly complicated or over the top, but it doesn't need to be. It serves as a perfectly valid vessel through which the game itself lives through, with the actual contents of the characters/environments conveying the story, but not through dialogue or cutscenes, but just by being themselves. In a way, it kind of leaves a bit of room for interpretations sometimes. And it works extremely well!

Soundtrack - Cookin' up the Beat!
The soundtrack for Pizza Tower is out of this world; Undeniably groovy basslines, pleasantly abrasive harks, explosive galloping riffs/percussion and the guitar SHREDDING! - It's all here.
One thing I especially like is that harbours a great affinity for its bass guitars and heavy (albeit genius) use of sampling in most if not all tracks.
Thanks to the tasteful variety of genres and experimental instrumentation/audio effects, it constantly switches up the atmosphere and feel to match its surroundings and never ever got stale thanks to this. I was genuinely impressed with the OST for this game!
The music sits at the forefront of the experience together with the gameplay and presentation, helping sell its frantic - and at times, anxiety inducing - barrelling movement that Peppino embodies.

Art Direction/Aesthetics - Dripping with Style!
Pizza Tower's art style is a unique colourful pixelart mixture whose deceivingly crude and simple exterior bellies an extraordinary amount of personality and movement conveyed within countless different animations that are inspired by 90s cartoons. Exaggerated motions and squash and stretch are pretty much everywhere.
All the characters' personalities are constantly on full display with a dash of dynamic energy, bringing them to life.
The colour palettes for each level are very pleasing to look at and most of them seem implemented well enough to make the levels readable in gameplay terms.

You want some sauce with that?
To add some extra spicy toppings to this tangy dish of a game, it has plenty of replay value. Each level has a set of collectibles called Toppins, secret rooms, and a janitor room (basically a bonus find key + unlock door thing).
All of these plus maintaining your combo meter and completing Lap 2 contribute to your rank, of which P Rank are the highest.
Simply put, there is a lot to the game even after you've completed it once. It really seems like one of those games that feels very rewarding to master.

And to top this off...
Pizza Tower, despite not having been out for very long, has already amassed a massive following, and not without reason. It is an indie darling that is simply fun, solidly built and, well, has a lot of heart. I've got nothing but praise for it, frankly. Very exciting to see what else the devs come out with in the future!

Little Nightmares is a game with good intentions that does some things right, but often stumbles over itself.

With that in mind, this is more of a mixed review rather than a purely positive one.
I'll start with the praise; the game looks GORGEOUS.

Whether it's something grotesque or something beautiful, it is lovingly rendered in the murky colour palette and really nice lighting effects and textures.

Thanks to the art direction and visual effects, Little Nightmares excels in creating a breathing, living world and atmosphere.
It is a bleak, asphyxiating aura that emanates from the environment and the creatures/monsters you find along the way, and in my opinion, it is the strongest aspect of the game, along with its unique ideas and concepts.

The other positive comment I can make on the game is that the sound design is done very well too.
Some of the game involves very disgusting creatures and monsters that make the most vile, repulsive sounds, but this is absolutely perfect for this game since it is a horror game and that was the intention.
But even that aside, from the soft footsteps that Six makes, to the creaking, ominous ambiance of the environment, the audio feels almost tangible and real.


With my praise out of the way, let's get onto the negatives...

Little Nightmares's gameplay consists of a mix of puzzles and linear exploration of small levels, usually solid rooms or pipes and sewers. Since you are a small human(?), the rooms belonging to the residential horrors are filled with huge pieces of furniture and other items that present either a climbing obstacle or a simple problem-solving puzzle, such as flipping a switch to get past an electric fence.
You'll meet a few of the monstrous beings that inhabit the Maw and attempt to barely escape their clutches as they lumber towards you with hungry stares.

There is nothing wrong with the gameplay style itself or what they were going for with it, but the problem is that sometimes what you can and can't do isn't communicated very clearly, so you end up having to resort to trial and error to figure it out, or you get killed because of something that the game did not tell you about.

The controls don't seem that bad at first but you'll quickly find that it has a sense of clunkiness to it that will probably lead to at least a few of your deaths.
The camera angles used sometimes are more atmospheric/movie-like in nature and while it looks great visually, it makes the gameplay agonising at times to the lack of proper depth perception, having to make some jumps several times.

The respawn time is also kinda long and the checkpoints aren't always fair, but for the most part, it is tolerable.

I was really frustrated playing this game because I really wanted to like it. And I love the aesthetics, worldbuilding and concept portion of it, but I felt like the moment I began to get immersed while playing, the controls and jankiness of the gameplay would take me out of the experience.

It is not only frustrating but each death cheapens and kills the tension and adrenaline in what would've otherwise been a very good scary moment.
There were a lot of times in this game where I just wanted to get a part over and done with because it became very tedious.
The monsters, instead of being scary, become annoying enemies that get in your way.

Again, this is not to say that there weren't any good moments; the first impressions with the monsters and traversing the environment really wowed me and I enjoyed those a lot, but the frustrating apsects of the game really brought the overall experience down for me.

To add to all of this, the game is quite short, sitting around the 3-4 hour mark for normal completion.
Some other people in the reviews could beat it in under 2.
Normally, I wouldn't mind the runtime if it weren't for the fact that playing this game feels like doing a chore at times.

Would I recommend this game still?
Yes, it is unique and deserves a chance, but be wary that some parts of this game are flawed to say the least.
In good faith to the developers, I will be willing to try the sequel in hopes that my issues are remedied in the following entry.

"It's a Mad World, better watch yo step!"

MadWorld, a monochromatic spectacle drizzled over in crimson and bounced off in hip hop beats.

It makes me horribly disappointed that this game was buried under so many other games, because it has a lot of great aspects about it coupled with a few problems that hold it back, but not enough to overshadow its positives.
Its ill-fated exclusivity to the Wii probably played a hand in clipping its wings before it ever could really fly.

Being the first title developed by Platinum, MadWorld encompasses almost everything that this studio's titles have been come to known for over the years - over the top EVERYTHING, dynamic cinematography, fantastic score, solid combat system and memorable, if a bit off-hand, characters.
You see these elements in copious amounts in their later entries, such as Bayonetta and Metal Gear Rising.

The story follows grisly, permanent-frowned protagonist Jack Cayman's ascent to destroy the DeathWatch games from within - a modern-day take on gladiator fights of the Colloseum, where the strongest pit against each other to survive and win the games.
(By the way, to me, Jack seems heavily inspired by Hellboy both in design and personality lol)
The whole story takes place on an isolated island, with you progressing through different areas of the island, from cityscapes to medieval mansions, to area 51 spoof - there's enough variety to not get boring.

Although the story is done well enough imo, it sometimes feels as though it serves as a mere backdrop for everything else happening in the game. This is not necessarily to its detriment, however.
The story has a neat plot twist near the end that didn't amount to much, but was still appreciated.

One addition to the game that I thought was clever were the commentators.
Essentially, since this whole thing is a game show, there are two commentators constantly rambling away in the background, reacting to your actions and how you kill enemies or even when you get hurt.
The writing/humour is juvenile and at times cringe, which would normally be a negative.

However, I feel the commentators add a layer of ironic authenticity to the feel of the game and this satirical, jabbering style of commentary is something that is yet to be replicated in this manner in another game.
It has times where it rounds back around to being genuinely funny, too.

The combat system, in a nutshell, is trying to get you to be creative with your kills by stacking enemy damage using objects from the environment. This can be done by impaling enemies with roadsigns, slamming a barrel onto them, slinging them on a launchpad...there's many different ways to eviscerate the hooligans running around trying to kill you, and doing different patterns with higher stacks will net you more points.

The game attempts to keep this system fresh by implementing new enviromental elements with each new area, but I did find sometimes I fell into repetition with the kills despite that.

One of the main complaints people have about this game are the gimmicky motion controls that admittedly are a weak aspect and can sometimes feel like a pitfall or oversight in some parts of the game.

For me, the camera was my main problem I had with this game, as sometimes it felt unruly and even though lock-on exists, sometimes it feels as though the game ignores it somehow and pans the camera in a janky way that doesn't align with the lock on at all.

Each level can take anywhere from 15 mins to 30 mins depending on how well you do, as the level progression opens up quicker if you rack up points faster.

As a palette cleanser, each level is accentuated with a Bloodbath Challenge - essentially minigames that can help you gather a large sum of points in a short amount of time.
I found that these were quite enjoyable, and I appreciate that there is a variety of challenges, which helps from feeling stale.

Each area has its own enemy types, and besides a main boss for each level, there are also a small selection of mini bosses that roam the level as you progress and can show up at random times to catch you off guard.

Most of the bosses are distinct enough to be memorable, some are more creative than others in execution and theme.

MadWorld's most distinct feature lies in its bold and unique monochromatic art style, flavoured throughout with comic book influences.
The story is told through either animated cutscenes or in comic book-like panel format that never feels out of place and flows perfectly from one point to the other.

Sometimes the art style gets in the way of readability when playing the game, however, it was never bad enough to the point where it took away from my immersion.
I was also willing to forgive some of it due to the fact that this game attempted something new with its style instead of using a safe, tried-and-true method.

Another highlight of MadWorld for me was the soundtrack.
The game loves its hip hop beats and there is no shortage of it here.
It is a unique take to have a fully hip-hop/rap centred soundtrack for the entire game, in my opinion.

The tracks itself are incredibly done and fit the tone of the game in many ways.
A lot of love and effort was put into the presentation and feel of this game especially, and it really shows.
There is a lot of variety, most of the bosses have their own theme songs and overall it is just a fantastic decision that improved the overall experience and made it stand out a lot compared to a lot of other games I've played.

Overall, MadWorld is a kickass, SEVERELY underrated game with a lot of charm, personality and violent fun.

Love this game so much, I hope one day they port this to modern consoles, because it being stuck to the Wii is one of its biggest caveats.

A short, relaxing hidden object game about finding bees hidden inside a painting.

The UI is nice and simple, controls whatever way you're more comfortable with and the paintings are absolutely stunning! Each one feels distinct from one another.
This is helped by the fact that each painting has different sound effects and music assigned to it, helping the player immerse themselves in the game.

It's not that deep, but this is a very good and relaxing point and clicker that you can turn off your brain to after a stressful day.
Plus, it is free. So what are you waiting for? Dive in and look for those buzzing buggers!

Even though the devs and the bootlickers are insistent that the whole time the game was in beta phase, the game was not marketed on Steam as being in early access or having it said anywhere on the store page that this was an open beta.
The fact that so many people are leaving reviews, comments, forum posts etc. stating they didn't know it was still in beta is quite evident of the fact that they didn't do a good job of communicating that.

What "beta" has battle passes, seasons, tournaments, gets awards and all manner of monetisation included in it?
When the game first properly released on here, I myself was convinced that once the new characters and other content started getting added, that that was the end of the beta.

Because really, think about it.
Normally, when a game is in beta, the devs don't just shut the game down for half a year to "finish" it. They only shut the beta down after the full game is complete. Hence, the game technically in the eyes of many, did release and should've been labeled as full release, as that is what it was being treated as.

And even besides that, there was never any mention anywhere here that the game would be closing down for half a year.
I'm sorry, but this is a really scummy tactic and the devs should've been transparent with the community about this especially, considering the game not only sold founder packs up to $100, but also was riddled with microtransactions, battle passes and all the other nonsense that live service games nowadays carry...

That of course, people bought because there was no mention anywhere that any of this would be yanked away from them at the drop of a hat. Oh, and by the way, these people cannot get refunds for anything they bought, either.
And don't tell me they "said" this anywhere, because if they really gave a ♥♥♥♥ about the players knowing this, they would put the information somewhere accessible instead of "somewhere on their website", hidden away in a corner.


Multiversus itself is an alright game. Not the Smash Bros killer that everyone and their grandmas touted it to be, but fair enough for what it was mechanically and conceptually.
The movement felt kinda floaty, the hitboxes aren't the best.
Servers could range from being serviceable to downright atrocious, not to mention the broken matchmaking that makes no sense.

All the stages felt bland and uninspired despite them being based off of existing properties, were for the most part just empty platforms with a different colour backdrop and not much else besides that.
The music....I guess it exists.
The thing about Multiversus is that it didn't try to do anything new or mindblowing, trying to reinvent the wheel - and sometimes, that's ok. But if you're not going to offer anything new, you need to make the metaphorical reinvented wheel the best you can make it.

The character selection wasn't bad, and they kept adding new characters, but the amount of grinding you would have to do to get even one more character was not worth it, and felt tailored that way to incentivise paying for them.
I get it, the game has to make money somehow. But I'd rather buy a game that has a roster that I can unlock through actually playing rather than grinding for endless hours just to get one more character.
The character rotation was a neat idea and allowed you to use a character even if you didn't own it, but still didn't detract from the fact that the monetisation got progressively worse and worse over time.

Another problem is that instead of trying to focus on fixing the issues that the players were complaining about, they just putting out new battle passes, icons, cosmetics etc. because somewhere along the line, monetisation was being prioritised over actual gameplay.

And gradually, content droughts would appear that would make players drop off the game and that inconsistency, along with all the other problems I mentioned, is what shaved the playerbase down to minimum after the initial hype of the game died.
It is a good guess to assume that the reason why they are shutting the game down to "fully release" it is simply a ploy to generate interest again after a long silence, because the dwindling player numbers weren't generating enough money.

While I do believe initially the game was made with good intentions, I cannot in good faith recommend this game to other people, especially given how they treated the playerbase that supported them from the beginning.

Whether this game will actually return as they say, or will end up with "complications" that will be the nail in the coffin, we have yet to see...
Either way, truly a shame.

A short, lighthearted point and click adventure set in a universe inhabited by alligators.

In Later Alligator, you attempt to help Pat - a paranoid, jumpy and scatter-brained fellow who thinks his family might be out for his head.

Although it isn't long, the game hands you the reins to explore a city where you'll find a myriad of colourful characters, each one having a distinct flavour to the last.

By meeting the different characters, you'll be given the chance to complete a wide series of a variety of minigames, ranging from pinball, slider puzzles, a dating sim, five finger fillet, etc. etc.
You don't have to complete them all to win the game, but I enjoyed my time with most of them and it's nice that there is a lot to choose from to fill out the time.

Although there's so many different minigames to play, the Mario Party-esque nature of them means that the game has no real direction in coherency of gameplay and some of the minigames can feel janky.
Despite this, looking past this flaw isn't too hard considering what the rest of the game has to offer.

The writing is lighthearted and obviously isn't meant to be taken seriously, but the goofy nature of the game together with its cast of idiosyncratic personalities definitely helps elevate what is essentially a minimal mystery plot wrapped around a collection of mini games.

The art style is distinct and has an interesting use of its bleached colour palettes. I enjoyed the different portrayals of the alligators with different snouts, eyes, noses etc., some of the looked quite funny too.

One thing I definitely was surprised but nonetheless VERY impressed by was all of the fabulous animation work for just about any area, character, locale, minigame - you name it.
All of it is lovingly brought to life in hand-drawn animation that, along with its alligator-themed world, sets Later Alligator apart from many of its ilk in that regard.

Lastly, the soundtrack is both fitting, moody and eccentric in all the right ways for its scenarios that they feature in. It accompanies the game well, but also stands on its own as nice pieces of music too.

To sum it up, Later Alligator is a solid point and click game that is a little bit distracted by its attempt to try so many different things at once, but nonetheless is an enjoyable experience on a lot of fronts.

We Were Here, a co-op adventure for two that will probably have you and your friend screaming, laughing and maybe even crying at each other throughout its runtime.

It's a fun, albeit underused concept that I hope the creators have expanded upon in further entries.
One person plays the role of explorer, and the other librarian. The problem is that librarian's role is mostly just giving guidance to the explorer who actually has to physically carry out and solve the puzzles.

I mostly just wish that both players could swap roles for each puzzle or balance it somehow so the librarian has something else to do other than giving instructions the whole time.
My friend and I still had fun, but felt there was very little replay value once the puzzles have been done once, regardless if you play explorer or librarian.

Other than the co-op experience, the game doesn't offer anything too special. The artstyle is pretty, but not particularly unique. The sound effects and music, or what little there is of it, is okay, it fits the game but again, won't knock your socks off or anything.

There was also one or two bugs we ran into, nothing as bad as some of the other reviewers have had to go through but the chess puzzle was being unresponsive at times, which obviously made me fail at it.
Also, whose bright idea was it to cover up 90% of the screen during that puzzle....?
I get it, I'm dying of hypothermia but at least let me see what I'm doing.

The puzzles themselves were engaging for the most part and my friend and I enjoyed what was there, the theater puzzle was really clever especially.

A short, sweet and insidious point and click adventure following the plight of Ms Appleton and her little tavern.

During it's approximate 20 minutes of runtime, it presents its well-executed story that will pull you in and leave you with satisfaction and the tinge of wanting more. The atmosphere is so thick, it could practically be cut with a knife.

The pixel art is gorgeous, with its immaculate, painstakingly detailed lighting and I loved seeing every scene and location in the game.

The gameplay is simply the point and click gameplay that you, your grandma and your dog are familiar with.
But you know what? It doesn't matter, because it's such a sweet little game that it doesn't need to reinvent the wheel.

The Supper is a fantastic dip of the toes into bittersweet madness of the premise, adorned with horror elements.
Great little game that only asks for your time.

Good idea, poor execution.

Unfortunately Art Sqool is mostly style over substance.

The main gist of it is that you are an art student called Froshmin who attends an art college assisted by a professor composed of artificial intelligence.

You get to explore a campus full of random objects and architecture and draw pictures with provided MS Paint-level tools, but in the end it doesn't amount to much because the controls aren't very good, there's no in-game tutorials, hell there's not even an option menu.

The novelty of Art Sqool wears off after about an hour of playing. The campus's random nature and poor controls are off-putting and made me not want to explore further to find all the brushes. I only managed to find all swatches.

The idea with you being provided prompts for your art pieces is good, but the grading system feels very arbitrary and borderline unfair due to no direction or feedback system to tell you what the AI wants from you.

I could draw random blobs of colour sometimes and get a B or A, but other times I could spend time and effort trying to make something good only for the AI to give me a C at best or get me to redo it all again at worst.

I expected a lot more out of this game but in the end, even though I managed to finish it, I wouldn't recommend it because it feels like the dev had an idea for the main concept and visuals but ran out of steam when it came to the actual gameplay.