Nilsenberg
BACKER
2016
Beautiful, sparse, petrifying. LIMBO's big brother in every way. Absolutely masterful. Want to write more on this eventually, but I'll settle on this for now.
Arrrrggghhhhhhhh! Video. Games!
1985
The last two worlds bring this game down significantly. Managed to get through them only once I committed to creating save points during levels as well, as there were so many scenarios stacked on top of each other (poor hitboxes, whatever's going on whenever you try to jump while on staircases, superfluous maze-puzzles etc.), that I found myself getting more and more frustrated. It didn't feel like I was getting better, only that I was beating my head against trial-and-error annoyances. Granted, this could also be just me who suck ass at 2D Mario, and that more experienced players gets through this blindfolded, but it did feel less than fair towards the end there. Still, when you move through each obstacle and find that flow, it's a different breed of satisfying. Looking forward to see how the 2D-sequels will fare in comparison.
2019
The last level of this is outstanding – the rest of it is brutally compromised by narration so obtuse, and dialogue so crusty, that it becomes a pitiful husk of prestige-TV sentiments in service of raw-as-fuck realism. It’s a prototypical, self-obsessed work of rather hollow maturity. I don’t know if I would’ve even finished this if it wasn’t for the mind-boggling RT-implementation.
2022
No, you're not terrible at defending, the game is just really that embarrassing.
2017
Fittingly addictive (i.e. capitalism as an illogical numbers-chasing game). Gets messier than I would've preferred in the back-half (which mostly just comes down to its brilliantly stripped-down, spreadsheet-esque UX becoming overburdened with stuff to keep track of), but still, it's an impressive achievement to take one of the dullest genres under the sun and making it into a game about something. Probably as good as a game like this could ever be.
Yeah, I don’t know why (or if, who’s to say that this game is even real, I’ve certainly never heard it mentioned by anyone else) I played this when I was a kid either.
2018
If you would like to play a game where you’re fighting enemies in indistinguishable arenas, against mumbling villains who you can’t fucking understand, amidst a morass of uninspired missions, strung together by big-budget outsourcing jobs for the cinematics to try to unceremoniously save the wreckage of drama that the game itself hasn’t had the development time to cover; then you’re in luck…but I sure as hell wasn’t. A braindead, bare-bones product of hokey fan-service slop. Greatest of oofs.
2010
Just about the most sobering, poignant ensemble piece I’ve ever experienced in a video game.
Deeply fond of this awkward crossbreed between RTS and 2D-fighting, despite never having played MTG in my life. What it lacked in depth and polish it made up for in genuine, simple fun.
2007
Holy shit, they really took "bad ending" literally huh?
2007
So happy to finally have my Switch repaired (after months of mulling over the expenses among other things), because it finally gave me a chance to play this (no, I don't have a PC). It's fantastic. Existential comedy and clever design rolled into one. If more games were shorter than three hours, the world would be a better place.
Pretty much perfect.
2018
I think my problems with this game arises primarily from its hyperlinearity; levels are designed in segments, meaning you have to clear the objects of one segment before being catapulted into the next. Seeing how the game's design is so clearly derived from KATAMARI DAMACY, I can't help but wonder why Esposito chose this approach to level design in favor of DAMACY's more free-form one. Here, the levels play themselves – chances are that if you just swirl around with the hole in a purely haphazard manner you'll still clear the course in five minutes or less. It's a puzzle game that requires little input, and even less thought, to beat. A sort of anti-puzzle verging on anti-game. Flabbergasted at how such a tap-in idea can result in such a nothing experience.
2020
Looks shamelessly bad for a game that runs this horrendously, but besides those glaringly obvious technical deficiences I still vibe with this series immensely. Virtually all of the new weapons are hits, and the added option for duel-wielding any two combination of guns means that battles can be staged at an even more ludicrous scale than before. It's not even near the same level of design mastery as DOOM: ETERNAL, but the singular nature of Sam as a franchise still ensures that there really is no other shooter series available that allows you to, for example, annihilate 200 enemies at once with a damn portable blackhole, or grind footsoldiers to a pulp while riding through a grotesquely picturesque French countryside on a combine. It's the little things here in life, ey?