Pine717
78 Reviews liked by Pine717
Donkey Kong
1994
Donkey Kong
1994
This is an outstanding puzzle-platformer that takes the original concept of the arcade classic, and builds upon it to create something very special. The perfect game to play on the go—the bite-sized levels makes it easy to break out the Game Boy if you have a few minutes to kill. The only issue is I didn’t want to stop playing! I would have easily enjoyed playing many more levels. I may need to check out the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series to see how they compare to this game.
At first I imagined a game about 5x5 grids would be quite boring for picross veterans, but I was wildly surprised by how much they can make such tiny puzzles feel interesting.
Picross X trades the laid back puzzle solving for a fast paced action marathon of solving little squares and it works. I played with touch controls and I feel like it is necessary for the optimal experience, playing with buttons feels clunky and slow. The game adapts itself to each control scheme, but touch controls are definitely the most fun way of playing.
Over time the luster does fade a bit, even with all the variety in gimmicks it feels like you have seen too much of everything. This doesn't erase the achievement of creating a fun action version of Picross, and I really enjoyed my time with it.
Picross X trades the laid back puzzle solving for a fast paced action marathon of solving little squares and it works. I played with touch controls and I feel like it is necessary for the optimal experience, playing with buttons feels clunky and slow. The game adapts itself to each control scheme, but touch controls are definitely the most fun way of playing.
Over time the luster does fade a bit, even with all the variety in gimmicks it feels like you have seen too much of everything. This doesn't erase the achievement of creating a fun action version of Picross, and I really enjoyed my time with it.
Mirror's Edge
2008
A Metroidvania title controlled as a sprawling pinball table, this game is a fun experiment that only loses steam because there are only so many ways you can kick off of a flipper. Cute and colorful art, some clever exploration tricks, and a handful of fun personalities keep it from feeling like it has overstayed its welcome.
Celeste
2018
A remake of my favorite game ever, yeah it's still decent. BUT, there are some reallyyyyyyyy weird-ass changes in this version that perplex the hell out of me and also ruin some parts of the game surprisingly. Why didn't this get the OoT treatment and just have the graphics updated and implement some quality-of-life features? Especially with the boss changes. Like, come on, why does every boss get fitted with a glowing eyeball as its weakness. I couldn't believe that when I first played it. Why were the swimming mechanics taken out behind the woodshed and put down, when they were some of the most fluid swimming controls around. Why did the Sheikah Stones get turned into hand-holding walkthroughs when the game gives players all of the information they need to give them a sense of self-gratification when they complete anything in this game on their own. This should've been a slam dunk but it just wasn't. Kind of a shame...
B.J. Blazkowicz is the greatest war hero of all time. o7
Seriously though I was expecting this game to be just mindlessly running round killing nazis for kicks and that'd be that. The plot existing just enough to string together a series of levels. But no, the story and characters were surprisingly engaging, and what I'd intended to be a game I play on the side ended up being a game that I played and enjoyed like any other. Sure it's got a lot of silly shit in it, but hey, so long as nazis are getting fucked over I'll allow it >:)
I had a lot of fun with this and I'm interested to see where things go from here. My only regret was neglecting the perk challenges until the last third of the game :(
Bring on the next one!
Seriously though I was expecting this game to be just mindlessly running round killing nazis for kicks and that'd be that. The plot existing just enough to string together a series of levels. But no, the story and characters were surprisingly engaging, and what I'd intended to be a game I play on the side ended up being a game that I played and enjoyed like any other. Sure it's got a lot of silly shit in it, but hey, so long as nazis are getting fucked over I'll allow it >:)
I had a lot of fun with this and I'm interested to see where things go from here. My only regret was neglecting the perk challenges until the last third of the game :(
Bring on the next one!
Pros:
- aesthetically pleasing art style
- customization of playable character using different forms
- relatively fun story
Cons:
-repetitiveness and grindness of having to do 'chore' quests to rank up forms. Especially once hybrid quests (custom form) start.
- gatekeeping by suddenly running out of form quests (e.g. can't get to A rank cause literally no new form quests were given)
- OST is nice but not much variety, tiring to listen to same 3-5 songs
- Dungeons don't seem to have any unique memorable bosses from what I saw in the 6-7 hours that I played.
Overall, good game but maybe more fun and less repetitive playing co-op?
- aesthetically pleasing art style
- customization of playable character using different forms
- relatively fun story
Cons:
-repetitiveness and grindness of having to do 'chore' quests to rank up forms. Especially once hybrid quests (custom form) start.
- gatekeeping by suddenly running out of form quests (e.g. can't get to A rank cause literally no new form quests were given)
- OST is nice but not much variety, tiring to listen to same 3-5 songs
- Dungeons don't seem to have any unique memorable bosses from what I saw in the 6-7 hours that I played.
Overall, good game but maybe more fun and less repetitive playing co-op?