The most immersive game I have ever played.

"Player immersion" is a concept often at the forefront of AAA game development, whether that be creating extremely realistic graphics, telling a cinematic story or even the idea of using AI dialogue in NPCs to simulate a real life conversation- all of these ideas have one thing in common. They strive to create a truly immersive experience for the player. Fallout: New Vegas does not have any of these traits and yet is the most immersive experience I have ever had in any videogame.

For example, Red Dead Redemption II, another AAA open world game, boasts a beautiful world with compelling stories and character animations that resemble real life and yet, I never feel truly immersed in this world. Sure horse balls shrink in cold weather and Arthur Morgan will physically load a weapon with different ammo each and every time you want to switch ammo types and while yes this is realistic, the game as a whole is not immersive. You can shoot up entire towns and the story will still play out the same and NPCs outside of the story don’t really matter at all or have anything interesting to say outside of mentioning a small quest. This isn't to say that RDR2 is a bad game, far from it! But rather, that Fallout: New Vegas is able to build a truly immersive world solely with stellar writing and player choice.

Right from the get-go you’re given the main quest. You were shot in the head, go find who did it. Of course, the logical next step is to ask around town about the man who shot you but what if you just wanted to shoot up the whole town? Well you can! And if you do, the main quest marker is just GONE. You’ve killed the person who had information on the guy who shot you, so of course you’re gonna have no idea where else to go. Any other game would have had an NPC who cannot be killed forcibly tell you where to go to complete the main quest, but it doesn’t! And the game is FILLED with moments like these. NPCs will offhandedly mention places of interest and mark it on your map only if you choose the correct dialogue that would get them to do so. Or, you could find these places organically on your own and bring up to them that you’ve already been there before! Nothing is locked behind a quest or NPC. If you do decide to shoot up a town you are realistically vilified or idolized by different factions in the world. The NCR may be happy you took out a portion of Caesar’s Legion and organically bring that up during conversations, or you may not even be allowed near NCR outposts as you’ve killed too many of their members. The world feels like one cohesive experience where every decision and quest weaves perfectly into each other. Combined with the brilliant setting of the post-post apocalypse where as a player you believe anything can happen. Robots and giant hulking mutants coexist in a world where there’s a realistic power struggle for control of the Mojave wasteland. It’s so believable and immersive to the point that when I get tired of the 40’s and 50’s music present in the game I turn off the radio and listen to other 40’s and 50’s songs through Spotify just to keep myself in this world. I cannot stress enough how much I love Fallout: New Vegas, and I implore anyone to get immersed in this world as well.

Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers is a mixed bag. A lot of reviews act like this game is awful, but I don't think it is; I find the game very fun, and it does improve on issues that I had with Sonic Robo Blast Kart 2, its predecessor. However, the developers have made questionable decisions that have turned a lot of players off from it.

To begin, Ring Racers is fundamentally inaccessible, in multiple senses of the word. The game is mechanically dense, which can be a turn-off. I personally enjoy the complexity of it, as it makes this game truly one of a kind. I also feel that the mechanics can be explained to a new player quickly and easily, despite the tutorial's best efforts.

Speaking of which, we come to most folks' chief complaint: The restriction of the game's content. Unlike SBR2K, you can't just install the game and hop online with your friend. The game starts up with a setup sequence which I found to be charming, if not a touch long-winded. Following that was the tutorial, which is a unskippable 30-minute stage that still fails to cover core mechanics of the game. Once you clear that, you get access to the main menu finally.

You still need to unlock the tracks and most of the characters, as well as key features of the game. This content is presented through a Super Smash Bros.-style unlockable gallery. The gated features include basics like online play, time trials, and loading mods. This makes the game effectively impossible to get quickly set up for a game sessions with a friend, unless you provide a list of the cheat codes the devs mercifully provided, or send over a save file with the needed content unlocked (Google is your friend for both of these). This is... egregious, to put it lightly. I understand and respect the desire from the devs to ensure players appreciate every bit of their 5 years of hard work; however, most players, including myself, find this to be an unwelcome change, if not a dealbreaker.

Beneath the complexity of the mechanics and the headache of getting started, is the game fun? Yes, it is. It's still a kart racer, with all the glorious chaos that entails. It can be overwhelming even by the standards of the genre though. Some mechanics shine while others are underutilized. The tracks also vary in quality. The AI is difficult, with rubberbanding that brings to mind racing games from the late 90s and early 00s. Getting hit with items leads to the harshest punishment I've seen in any kart racer; on multiple occasions, I'd be hit by an item in first place and by the time I recovered, I found myself in the last place. The handling is very slippery, adding to the chaos of the game.

Ring Racers does improve over its predecessor in two key ways: first of all, I feel the track design is more readable in this game. While playing SRB2K, my friends and I have run into several cases where we got confused on where the track expects us to go next. This game remedies that with redesigned tracks from the first game. The second improvement is the addition of a proper local multiplayer mode. In SRB2K, the local multiplayer almost feels like an unintended feature. However, this game supports local multiplayer naturally. I know this is a more niche features among the game's target audience, but it is something I sorely missed in SRBK2.

To conclude, Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers is a very promising game. The game is uniquely complex by kart racer standards, both to its benefit and detriment. The gameplay is fundamentally fun, building off a solid base, but still needs fine-tuning. The core issue with the game is its gating of so much of its content to newcomers. Even without the flawed physics and irritating onboarding, I still wouldn't say this is a game for everyone, and that's okay: SRB2K, its predecessor, isn't going anywhere. It released in a flawed state, but if AAA games can recover from rough launches, I don't doubt this can too.

compared to thecatamites' newer work, especially ...Of the Killer, i think this really just isn't for me. there's some funny/ charming moments, such as with dracula, some moments with other npcs, and silly items and attack descriptions. that being said, it really wasn't as constantly funny or charming as i hoped it would be, especially with something this short. i can, however, appreciate just going out there and MAKING something like this. videogames can just be little short things like this, and that's great.

i'm generally not a turn-based rpg girl and i honestly don't really know why this had to actually play as a tbrpg at all. it didn't add much if anything to the experience for me. you get so many use items and level ups and new gear frequently. so frequently, in fact, that there were a couple times where i got better gear before i even got the chance to really use my previous gear in the battles that mostly felt like fluff. nothing was really funny about the battles thematically or otherwise, and spamming attacks works perfectly fine on everything.

is that the point? is it supposed to just be a mockery of sorts of tbrpgs and their tropes? the ending definitely plays off of this in a mildly funny way, so maybe that's the intention. if that is the case, i don't think it's all that successful regardless. the game feels a little bit too eager to go along with its rpg elements with a progression scheme that is wholly mismatched with the scope of the game. i wish that there was more focus placed on its humorous elements, and would have honestly preferred a simple walk-n-talk rpgmaker game here, though that would probably go fully against the intentions of Space Funeral in the first place.

i could totally be missing something that makes this great to other people. maybe it was really neat back in 2010 or something, but i'm not going to sit here in 2024 and pretend like i really enjoyed it when i didn't.

if you really want what i consider non-stop charm and fun from thecatamites without unnecessary "gameplay" overhead, go play ...Of the Killer and 10 Beautiful Postcards.

PaRappa the Rapper’s infectious charm is unfortunately shoved to the side for non-functional, confusing gameplay.

I was really feeling this game up until the license battle, because I hadn’t experienced any functionality problems up to that point. Once I started noticing buttons weren’t responding and timing of the rhythm was all out of order, I realized it was a gameplay issue. I wanted to make sure at least, because sometimes I am pretty stupid. But, the internet has collectively agreed that this game doesn’t work, and the internet is always right.

In the final chapter, it’s worse than ever. You’ll hit triangle 5 times in a row in the exact same rhythm that was done before you, but the game reads it as if you hit it twice. Towards the end, you have to hit circle about 2 beats faster than it tells you to, and L twice without it showing up on the screen. It’s like this for the majority of the final half of the game. Or, you’ll mess up so comically bad you can’t even imagine how it would give you 6 points, but it just does. Also, how does the point system work? +6, +5, -1, -0, -however many you have if you mess up at bad? It’s so utterly pointless I don’t know why it’s even there. Just stick to the “U Rappin’” on the right side, it works just fine.

Where PaRappa really shines, though, is its unserious nature in its storytelling, meant to be goofy. The beauty of children’s media is that sometimes, the people making that media know adults watch, so the humor can land for any age. At one point PaRappa has to take a shit and it suddenly becomes the most attracted Sunny (his confusing relationship) has ever been to him, okay then. Then you get in a fucking rap battle with 4 people just to take a shit. Did they shit themselves?

Or, when PaRappa’s dad says he has 59 monthly installments left on his car that PaRappa took without permission and totaled. Why 59? Why not? Sometimes being random without being too extra can be so dumb it’s at least humorous.

It’s just extremely disappointing that half of a 30 minute game straight up doesn’t work, because when I wasn’t getting irritated by broken gameplay, I was having a lot of fun. 3/10.

It's pretty cute i guess.

As much as I'd love to not mention it, it's impossible not to compare this game to Lethal Company. I feel like any game going forward that wants to try and recapture that Lethal Company appeal is going to have a hard time beating what Lethal Company already offers.

I think this game is way more chill than lethal company. Not that I'm ever a "try hard" when I play lethal with my friends, but this game incentivizes the silliness that tends to come with your average game of lethal. Both the games are dumb fun, but this game encourages you to be dumb. You are playing as a group of "Spooktubers" after all.

The camera mechanic is pretty cool, and is where most of the "chill factor" comes from in the game. Rather than hunting for junk like in lethal company, you're on the hunt for views on a clip show you make with an in game camera. This is where the magic of this game comes in, as one player can record up to ~2 minutes of footage with the in game camera. This leads to everyone being dumb on purpose, after all your best friend dying means more views right? It's a ton of fun finishing a dive into the "old world" and coming back up and watching the stupidity unfold in a sporadic retelling of your adventure.

The other chill factor in this game is the monsters. Compared to lethal company, the monsters in content warning are much less, well, "lethal". This is done purposefully since as I mentioned earlier the game wants you to be stupid. Where a lot of the comedy of lethal company comes from the instant-ness of death the monsters in that game cause, the comedy in content warning is seeing the monsters brutalize your friends, only for them to stand back up and walk it off.

There's a lot less pressure in this game than in Lethal Company, and in a lot of ways it works well. There's one treasure (the camera) and you're a lot more likely to all survive due to the inherently less hostile game design.

However, the game just doesn't have the depth Lethal company does. All the rewards in this game are mostly cosmetic, Expensive emotes, Party poppers, Silly microphones, etc. It plays into the gameplay loop well enough, your videos get "higher production" the longer you go. But they don't really effect how you interact with the world, unlike Lethal Company. In lethal you can get new tools that let you explore outside of facilities, or teleporters that can create clutch saves, or instant chaos. In Content Warning each loop is the same, even the location you dive to is picked for you and stays the same for the 3 day loop for each view quota. As it is now, I feel like I've seen most of what Content Warning has to offer. And it was a good time! But I don't think I could play this more than maybe one or two more times.

I got the game on launch when it was free for the day, and as a free game it's a 100% recommend. At $8 It's still pretty cheap, but I would only get it if your friends already have it or want to play it. However, if the game gets some updates, then I might change my tune! I do think it has room to grow and be a more "chill" alternative to the game play loop Lethal Company currently dominates.

It’s pretty amazing that even after making a game that did a really job adapting the source material along with having most of the voice cast come back to reprise their roles, you somehow made a game that feels like it has nothing to do with Adventure Time outside of having the characters and some references.

So here’s the thing. I was gonna go off on this game for its lackluster job of adapting the show’s style of humor, it’s repetitive dungeon crawling gameplay that gets old after a few floors, and its super grindy progression system. But my PS3 froze up and when I turned it back on my save file got corrupted and I lost 3 hours of monotonous gameplay, meaning I’d have to start allllllllllllllllllllll over again. I said fuck that and turned the game off.

I wanted to be nice to this game since the last time I played it was when it first came out, but no 13 year old STRM was right this is still as bad as I remembered

On paper, I should really like Crumble. I like momentum based platforming. I'm a fan of using your grapple hook to fling your character forward with a rush of speed. Playing as a cute character that's reminiscent of Gooey from Dreamland 2 or a Dragon Quest Slime makes me smile ear to ear. But the game never quite lands for me.

It's design reminds me of a bit of a mix between Sonic and Marble It Up. High speeds with an emphasis on momentum. Unfortunately, like Sonic, the base movement of your character feels slightly sluggish, one of the main aspects of Sonic that I've greatly disliked. This may be a game that much like Sonic, is better on sequential play throughs, but for a first timer, it was rough to even want to finish. It reminded me of my time with Dreamland 2, ironically enough.

The fast paced momentum rolls found in Marble It Up are here as well, and they're serviceable sections and were my favorite parts of the game. The flow felt intact and much more tighter in with the level design, keeping with the flow of the player. The rest of the game felt like a restless struggle against itself.

In theory using your tongue to grapple hook platforms should be exhilarating to perform, but the result is usually a fight between reeling yourself back in, or fighting with the controls to direct your slimey splooshing body towards the next floating, potentially unstable platform. The game is designed with these types of platforms, often being used as a challenge, floating or suspended in the air to give the player a challenge. This would be fine, IF the player had a better way to control where the grapple tongue is placed. In a way, I'd call it too loose. This makes trying to navigate tougher challenges more of a struggle against the controls than it is a rewarding challenge against the game design.

The music is what I would call "midi ragtime", and I'm personally not a fan of it. Repetitive, sometimes borderline annoying compositions, sometimes poor audio mixing, and generally just a very forgettable selection of music. The music felt unfitting for a colorfully fun romp through strange new worlds. It never made me feel like I was driving forward, but instead meandering around, which is the exact opposite of the gameplay.

It's never fun to be overtly critical to a game. Crumble was a game I was looking forward to eventually buying and playing as it went on sale, (I received it for free). I believe this was the developer's first game, and for a first game, it's a well put together package. The developer did everything themselves, which is a commendable, herculean effort. Even if I'm critical of certain aspects, I think there's a spark of something that I can clearly see be refined and tweaked into becoming something that's more satisfying. If someone were to be in love with the aspects I found unsatisfying, I could understand where they're coming from, but I think there's a happy medium to be found within a sequel with more experience under their belt.

I think this is a pretty fun little expansion, and a fun little foray into roguelikes for Nintendo. Notice how I said little twice?

I don't want to sound like an entitled gamer with this review, but my biggest complaint with Side Order is that it felt like it was JUST short of being something really special. The first chunk of this DLC is really cool, the tutorial climb up the tower is full of dialogue and character interactions, there's cutscenes and intrigue. You get to the top and win the fight! But uh oh, the real big bad appears! Back to the bottom of the spire with you! Now for the roguelite to begin!

Now the first couple runs of Side Order proper are really fun! Seeing all the new bosses, the new enemies and floor layouts, the new chips to modify your weapon! It's all super cool to see, what's next! With little to no upgrades its super challenging and has a good amount of butt clench! I really was proud of myself for beating it on my third attempt (#humblebrag) because it felt like the odds were against me! I cleared the final boss with my final life and got hyped up for the final sequence of the game! It was a really good time, and now they're challenging me to beat it with every weapon? Sick!

However that's where the cracks start to show.

The first thing that kind of grated on me was that excluding the final boss, there are only 3 possible bosses, and you see 2 of them on each run. This leads to the randomness of bosses during runs being, pretty limited. I wish they had either had all 3 bosses during the run and eliminated the random chance, or perhaps added just one more boss so that there weren't so few boss combos possible. Second, the chips simply aren't as run changing as they should be. The ultimate change in each run is what weapon you're using, it doesn't feel fun to build around certain chips when all that REALLY matters is the gun. Finally, the "hacks" from Marina make subsequent runs trivial once you have enough. After clearing the tower 2-3 times, I don't think I lost a run until the final challenge.

As for the story, well. It's really bare bones. You get scraps each time you beat the final boss with a new weapon, and the dev logs explain how the expansion came to be, but it's not really anything crazy, unlike the octo expansion in the (much better) game before this. There's some cute dialogue in the elevator going up the tower, but in a game that encourages you to beat it at least 12 times, it repeats too soon, and I started skipping it.



Ultimately I think it's the best part of Splatoon 3, which is not a high bar as I think splat 3 is a step down from it's predecessor. So if you already own the game and have 20 bucks to spare, check it out, its fun enough to dive back into Splatoon for a bit.

Finally I want to talk about the final challange Spoilers ahead for that I guess (it's just gameplay mechanics.)


The idea of climbing the tower with no upgrades again was cool, something deserving of a giant reward. It was cool to some extent! I liked only having one life, it made every mistake feel grave and I went into a panic! Beating the final boss as "wimpy" as possible felt cool too...



and then nothing. no cutscene. barebones rewards. nothing. Hell, the story implication is that you just saved your own soul and they don't. really mention that. I was really pissed at this. I get a reskin of a weapon I don't use in the multiplayer, and a sticker for my battle tag? and story wise all i get is a pat on the back from Pearl? come on dude.