A completely inoffensive little puzzle game that gives The Room vibes (the video game not the Tommy Wiseau joint).
Free on Epic games, I played this over three days but could see mobile being the better format for it by adding a little extra enjoyment to the whole thing with a small sense of tactility.

To sum Doors up, you have little Door based dioramas that you can interact with, pick up items such as levers and keys, find where they are placed, turn or twist and so on until the door opens and you’re done. Each stage has two hidden gems and a scroll to add a little more challenge or replayability to the bitesize puzzles and collecting those gems unlocks extra stages at the end of each chapter for a total of just under sixty “door-o-ramas” to enjoy.

Doors strength outside of being a nice breezy experience is the inventiveness in some of its stages, themes ranging from steampunk to ancient aztec to pirates and more give some interactions you wouldn’t have expected and a somewhat fresh experience each time.
I say somewhat because the level of the puzzles is very simple and also quite similar, matching puzzles, tile sliding etc.

A weakness however in Doors is its attempt at a narrative, unlocked through reading scrolls. It’s all quite vague, “Chaos vs Order” and really just feels unnecessary. I can see the inspiration from The Room here but whilst the plot was never the biggest draw of that series it actually felt intriguing and not like total filler.
Another small annoyance, a specific issue for me and my terrible short term memory is that there is no mark on the screen for whether you’ve found the scroll or either gem.
These tasks are so small there feels like no reason to pass them, but getting through a stage to find that actually, you didn’t get the blue gem, because a lot of it blends together in the mind is truly an irritation that would be overcome by the smallest of UI.
Lastly some interactions via clicking feel either too precise or imprecise, giving you the assumption that you can’t do something you can or whipping you around the diorama because you’ve hit a pixel through a gap to the otherside.
These annoyances are all very small and not deal breakers but they do damage an otherwise extremely relaxed experience.

If you’re a fan of The Room or just want a small puzzly game to fiddle with in bitesize chunks, Doors: Paradox is worth a go.
Free on Epic and free but with in-app purchases on the phone (it may be broken down into three titles on that format) is the best price for it.

For a good while now I have made it evident that I am huge fan of the Zero Escape games, I have persuaded many friends to play, go back to or even stream the game series and it easily sits within the echelon of GOATs for me, including my top 5 games here on backloggd.

AI: The Somnium Files, was a game I was very excited for - bought on launch (or thereabouts) and whilst it didn’t hit quite the right notes for me, I did thoroughly enjoy it.
Since then I’ve been chasing that Zero Escape level of enjoyment.
I started the Danganronpa series, which I feel off of for a combination of reasons. Watched more Japanese and Korean crime tv. The nearest anything has got to it was 2023’s Paranormasight.

So, why has it taken me so long to play nirvanA Initiative? Honestly, I have no good reason.
Sometimes games pass you by and for me wanting to pick it up after launch it took me a while before finding it at a price, I was happy to pay for an “old” game. Told you I had no good reason.

I’ll start here as I speak about the game by saying, I really enjoyed it. The first AI didn’t really stick with me, but this one has me much more excited to spread the good word and I think thanks to Uchikoshi pulling a few more Zero Escape style tricks, this game will be on I think about for a while.

AI 2 takes place in the same universe as the first, a near-future world with many similarities to our own but with some key differences in the jobs and technology our protagonists are involved with.
In this title we get a duo of protagonists in part due to Special Agent Kaname Date from the first title taking his holidays. Instead, we play as Kuroto Ryuki and the Date’s adopted daughter Mizuki. They’re job is the same as Date’s before, they work for “ABIS” the Advanced Brain Investigation Squad - in short they are police but also “Psyncers”.
If like me you enjoyed The Minority Report, with its precrime etc. you’ll enjoy AI’s main gimmick.
To put it simply the Somnium of the games’ title refers to a dreamscape, Somnium being Latin for dream after all. The agents can “psync” with someone to explore their dreams, see things from their past or unveil secrets they may be hiding.

The Somnium as a game device is genius before we even think about it mechanically.
It allows the game to give us very interesting and varied locations to explore that don’t need to make sense as they all follow dream logic.
Secondly, because these are dreams of an individual, we get the narrative device or unreliable narrators throughout as to how things may look or seem are from the dreamer’s perspective.
Without spoiling the plot or the many surprises this game has I can confidently say that these Somnium spaces will go places you do not expect, some fun, some dark, but all entertaining.
Within these different mechanics can be bought in and thrown away and the game itself can even slightly change its own themes and genre due to them.

The other main gimmick of the AI games are the AI-balls themselves.
Date’s partner Aiba returns in the left socket of Mizuki, while we are introduced to Tama - Ryuki’s partner.
These little AI robot-things give our main protagonists skills in the outside world, some things like zooms, video playback, x-ray vision and more to make them better detectives and give a great in-world reason to give the player lots of varied and interesting tools to solve things or simply engage with the story.
Within Somnium is where we control Aiba or Tama as they are the ones to physically (if we can call it that) navigate those dreamscapes.

Outside of the Somnium we also get VR sections, where the AI-ball can fully recreate a crime scene so that the detectives can check things without interference and in-game allow them to recreate what they conclude has happened to better understand it and show it to the person playing.
Where Somnium has its own rules and very strange, sometimes whacky interactions, the VR crime scenes feel a little more grounded and straight-faced… to a degree.

I say to a degree because one thing that I am not the biggest fan of but at times did enjoy is AI’s comedy. There’s a lot of gags, some great comedic dialogue and strange characters but the thing that typically puts me off is the weird-horniness that I have felt creeps far too often into any narrative based Japanese game.

The horniness is still here, you can see it straight off the bat with a lot of the character designs.
In the first title Date had a “porno-power” gag that at best made me smirk, which thankfully is mostly not here but that doesn’t stop many conversations leaning towards people being perverts or being accused of it.
Everyone is going to have a different line with how much of that type of comedy they will be ok with and the fact I mention it shows that I have a line but I would say this game rarely crossed it.
In fact it does many things that I was pleasantly surprised by, that being its handling of romance and also LGTBQ+ people.
I will also state clearly here that I don’t believe the horniness ever gets in the way of the many serious conversations and subject matters the game hits upon - which is a fear I have when playing something like this that I am enjoying.

To step back into speaking about the protagonists, again without any major spoilers, the game has two characters because the main plot involves a story, the HB case, in which Ryuki and a younger Mizuki were involved with and the serial killer seems to return six years later - where we get to investigate as an older Mizuki (with Aiba).
The HB case is the Half Body murders. It is as strange as it sounds and leads you into meeting a vast array of people and friends from the past, including a failing comedian, children from an orphanage, gene-scientists and cult leaders.
If you enjoyed Zero Escape for its, let’s call it education, then you will enjoy this too as this game uses many different ideas, historical happenings and philosophies that you will feel you have to go down a wiki hole about them - thankfully the game itself also contains a file on trivia, a highlight for me as there are multiple pages that explain wrestling moves.

AI 2 isn’t without faults, thankfully most of these sit within the boring technical side of things.
I played this on Switch and had four separate crashes to Home. The game gave saves often and ZR allows you to fast forward so it never took too much time getting back to the point I was at but obviously it’s less than ideal and can really break the immersion.
The other two much smaller technical issues that can break immersion also are the characters, specifically their heads in the lower-third to show who is speaking would sometimes have glitchy things like bouncy or clipping strands of hair. The second is the frame rate, this game isn’t one where that matters greatly but either when showing videos, transitioning in and out of Somnium and sometimes when changing those talking heads - the game visibly chugs.

The other fault for me is that the combat sequences, while kind of fun are more often than expected, narratively play out almost the same every time and the QTEs are just crap.
They’re never too taxing but they also don’t have a great logic to when they do and don’t appear and really don’t add anything to the scenes except a chance to fail and have to repeat.
Admittedly you can change the difficulty but I simply don’t think it’s an element this game even needs.

Overall AI The Somnium Files: nirvanA Initiative is fantastic, especially so if you are Uchikoshi-pilled like me. It’s a great story, with amazing twists, wonderful characters and a believable if sometimes silly world that will make you think about it once you’re done.
It has a decent amount of in-game rewards and achievements if that is something you crave and come in at a reasonable playtime of 20 hours give or take a few depending on how quick you are to solve things and how much you want to dig.

Finally getting around to AI2 makes me feel good, as I look at the past and towards the future.
I look at the past and now consider even more heavily trying some of Kotaro Uchikoshi’s previous VN series, and I look forward to the future as this shows that Zero Escape was not a complete fluke and that we can get more of that same goodness I crave.

As of writing, in recent gaming related news it has been announced the quite excellent video game Until Dawn is getting turned into a film. Even if we are to ignore the relatively poor hit rate of video game adaptations the reason for doing this is extremely lacking.
Until Dawn is an ode to teen slasher movies, but using the medium of video games instead of cinema allows for branching paths specific to the player, turning this thing based on a movie into a movie actually strips out what makes it unique.

Now, you’re probably wondering why you’re reading about a totally different video game but this recent story came to mind when I was thinking about writing about my experience with The Wreck.

For all intents and purposes, The Wreck is a Visual Novel. You are spending most of your time with it simply listening and/or reading while there are some usually static images, well framed and cut but I will return to that.
The interactivity is extremely low, you sometimes click on key words in text to create dialogue choices and in other sections you can fast forward and rewind with the only objective being again, to find words to click on.

I have written time and time again about my love but struggle with VNs, much like the opening argument - it could be argued that if your story is essentially a book then why use the medium of video games?
If the medium needs more than words, but no interactivity then why not pick comics, animation or live-action films?
My struggle here is that I both find this argument to be reductive but partly agree. I find it difficult getting absorbed into a game where as the player I’m not playing.

At first The Wreck was no different, I played it in very small chunks because I’ve got the 2024 attention span - I’m not on TikTok but I do feel the need to be actively doing something and it’s the same reason I struggle to get through TV series, even it is something I love.
However this game, once its emotional beats really started to hit hard (because they were hitting from the start) I had to see it through.

With a game that is 99% story I don’t want to be giving even the slightest spoilers because all I have done is change its medium and like what may (likely) happen with the Until Dawn movie, I will be stripping away a lot of what makes it good.

The Wreck has you follow the protagonist Junon who has been called to hospital because her mother is on death’s door. This alone is something dramatic but the twist and where the intrigue starts is you quickly discover that Junon and Marie, her mother who she speaks about by name, do not have the best relationship and the papers which the hospital believes Junon signed were by her mum - leaving Junon in control and to a degree her mum’s life in her hands.

Understandably this is hard for Junon to process and decides to get in her car and leave, this is where a wreck happens but I will refrain from calling it The Wreck.
During this crash items come flying out of Junon’s handbag and clicking on one sends you into one of her memories.
Within the memory Junon narrates as you fly about scenes of her past and you are then sent through again with the ability to speed through or go back. As mentioned previously, this reveals words which bring out more thoughts and eventually greater realisations for Junon.
Once she remembers and/or realises what she needs to move on, time rewinds.
You and Junon are then pulled back to a previous conversation where a new option appears and helps her move on.

As the game progresses, Junon gets into conversations with many people in her life, decides to leave, crashes, you see another memory, come to a conclusion and zip - the story moves on, and this is how it plays out from beginning to end.

As these scenes build your understanding of Junon, and the people around Her’s lives become deeper but more understandable. Without specifics, this game covers love, hate, regret, pain, trauma and a whole load of difficult things that will make many people weep as they play.
This game doesn’t have difficulty settings, but it is hard in a fulfilling way.

The final reason I started with the Until Dawn chat is that The Wreck too is a love letter to cinema.
Not as directly in terms of trying to emulate a genre specifically, but for a game with very small amounts of animation it is still extremely cinematic. Junon as a character also is a movie lover and speaks about different elements of that passion throughout.
To just read this story would lose the impact of some of the quality voice acting, the great use of sound and inventive types of framing and more used within the memory sequences and more.

Your choices in dialogue are mostly quite restrictive, very few decisions change where things end up and sadly like many VNs you are given more of an illusion of choice than a completely unique experience to anyone else who plays it.
The moving forwards and backwards in memories is interactive by definition but barely feels it, it somewhat keeps you active but sadly feels like a bad version of “Where’s Wally?” at times where Wally is a blurry word on the screen.

Deciding whether or not The Wreck would be better in another medium is tough.
I think it would lose a lot if it were a book not a game, but a film? I’m unsure if you'd lose much outside of a film, other than it would be shorter and probably less repetitive in structure.

Ultimately, I found the story powerful and affecting. The presentation was mostly really nice outside of some character models occasionally looking dead behind the eyes and limited frames for speaking being a little off-putting.
I would have liked more in the way of choices feeling as if they mattered but this game has its story to tell and I can respect it doesn’t want too many deviations.

In truth, you already know if you like this sort of game. If you’re on the fence there is a demo although it does the sinful thing of not allowing you to follow it on if you do decide to purchase the game. Give it a go, just please, read the trigger warnings before you dive into it.
Life can be beautiful but it's also harsh.

Right here off the top I feel I need to give a short and lazy explanation of what this game is.
For those with a small working knowledge of indie titles, Cobalt Core = FTL X Slay the Spire.
For those not jamming with that equation, Cobalt Core is a roguelike deck builder where you control a spaceship and have three crew members (at a time) each with their own specialities as you try to head to an end point through branching paths, repairing, upgrading and obtaining new things as you go.

Roguelike deck builders are something I have always enjoyed, with a background in tabletop games, spending years of my life rolling dice, moving miniatures, shuffling cards and more. This genre was laser targeted at my interests.
However the genre is not particularly niche and there are many games under that banner.
It will be a turn off for some, a barrier that you may not be able to get past but I would like to explain why this one in particular is special to me.

To speak more to the fans of the genre, Cobalt Core is neither the deepest or most balanced of these games.
It has a wonderful story but nothing that gets close to being as intriguing as Inscryption.
What it does have over virtually all of the games in this genre I’ve played is that it feels better than all of them.

To explain how a card game could feel better, I will briefly describe the average game of Cobalt Core.
Your ship, which as you progress more unlock but I will get to that later, is at the bottom of the screen. To the left side are the portraits of your three chosen crew mates who have added their cards to a basic deck which will represent their speciality, be it a pilot, an engineer, or a weapons officer.
At the top is the enemy, typically a ship. You draw cards, have energy which is an equivalent to action points, mana or whatever resource is easiest for you to imagine.
Like virtually all card games, the cards cost these resources each turn and it’s your decision how to play these out.

The target isn’t simply just a ship though, you and the enemy both have segments.
Your cannons fire directly in front, ships can also fire missiles or release drones.
Some parts may be weak whilst others are armoured and all these things mean that there isn’t just a strategy to what you’re playing but also about positioning because in Cobalt Core it’s just as much about being in the right place as it is having the right cards.

How this works is you get a heads up of what your enemy will be doing, where they’re firing, if it will cause a negative effect and importantly how much damage you will take if you are right in front of their cannons.
Here is where Cobalt Core differentiates itself from many card games and that movement is a strategic and exciting factor. It isn’t just attack and defend, those are represented but positioning is key and this is how the game feels more involved, even if perhaps simpler, than many others in the genre.

Swaying between cannon fire, positioning the part of your ship which is armoured to take the hit or, further into the game, using and even controlling a mid-row of objects such as meteors or missiles to deal the most, take the least and have the best turn is a lot of fun in each and every battle.

I’m sure there’s an argument that having all these different tools to your disposal can make things too easy, but your enemies get similar things and further into runs and especially on higher difficulties you are managing so much that the wide variety of tools may be great but the wild variety of bad situations you are facing can be greater.

The variety is here. There are eight different characters to unlock and five different ships; that's two-hundred and eighty different combinations before we even start to look at different cards and artifacts picked up along the way.
I’m sure there is much more in others but this is more than enough.
Building a crew that feels powerful is like any great card game, it’s not just the combinations you come up with but how your mind works with them, what sort of play-style you prefer.

As you unlock more ships, completely new strategies appear and you’ll be cursing out a ship for being crap with little understanding before wondering if actually it’s OP and not balanced later and that journey is fun.
Each card you pick up after a fight can later be upgraded, this breeds new strategies. While also collecting artifacts (permanent changes to your ship) will create even more.

I’ve explained the average battle but I should briefly explain the average campaign or run, and what the objective is.
As previously mentioned, the campaign map is much like FTL or even Inscryption (although left to right rather than foreground to background).
You can plan ahead looking down at the locations on each branch, and there are seven different icons (including the exit) you will see.
Three are similar, these are the enemies, elite enemies and all the way to the right is the boss.
This is simple to understand, the elites are harder but give you more rewards and the bosses are less random as you will learn what comes at the end of each sector as it is the same each time - how you plan to prepare for them is up to you.
Between these can be; events, artifacts and repair yards.
Events range from meeting NPCs which may give you new cards, ships in distress or even pirates wanting to steal from you.
Artifacts are simply a choice of a permanent upgrade that can dramatically change your strategies as you move on. Without wanting to spoil all that there is, some of these are as simple as extra energy each turn, better engines meaning you start with more movement or possibly interesting effects such as starting with less cards in hand but getting free draws for taking specific types of actions.
These artifacts come from a pool that are available on all runs, but also one's specific to the crew you have picked and even the ship itself.
Lastly is the repair yard, this is where you can, as you would imagine, get your ship repaired of some damage. However here you also get the opportunity to upgrade cards or remove them.
Removing them is for the classic case of “deck thinning” an important strategy and common knowledge to most card-gamers as having less cards means you’ll see your best cards more often.
Although sometimes you’ll be using the bin to rid yourself of a bad card you may have picked up along the way.
Upgrading is as you imagine, making a card better. Each card has two choices of upgrade, most typically these are the choice of cheaper cost or more powerful effect but as you progress it may be to add more effects or be rid of negative ones such as letting a card that is usually once per battle be more permanent.
As you can imagine, this is just another layer to the variety and strategy the game offers.

A single successful run will take around an hour, typically less as you play more of the game and get quicker at making decisions and fighting bosses.
If you manage to make a successful run you are rewarded with the chance to see a cutscene for one of your crew. I will not dive into the story to deeply but your characters are caught in a time loop, something happened to the titular Cobalt Core and getting to the end of these runs and confronting it allows you start piecing memories together to understand what is really at stake and how the crew ended up here in the first place.
Also if it wasn’t clear before, doing X amount of runs or things at higher difficulties may unlock more and the game politely points you in the direction of what to do if furthering the story isn’t enough.

The story itself I will say is good, heartwarming and funny thanks to the cast. A simple enough tale that is fun to unravel due to how it’s presented.
I feel that maybe they could have dug a deeper hole, but I respect the fun almost Star Fox like animal pals with the silly comedic panels, enemy designs and more along with some quality writing would maybe be at odds with anything too complex.
Really the lightness of it all helps the game feel so moreish. Runs aren’t long, dialogue isn’t too deep. You can pause when you like, come back when you want and it will always be fun.

If I had played it closer to release Cobalt Core would have been in my top five games of 2023 and that is extremely high praise.
There are small elements of the game that are not perfect, even ignoring that is may not be the deepest or most balanced of these games, simple things like the end of sector bosses never changing isn’t the best and maybe the toughest part is although everything an enemy is going to do seems heads up, how they are going to move is not and can really make or break some battles.
Outside of those two minor complaints there was never a moment while I was playing the game I thought the game needed changing. There are small dials that could use twisting and the balance and story not being the peak of what they can be is what keeps this “down”, to “only” being top five of one of the best years in gaming and not the very top.
Essentially what I am saying is as long as you enjoy deck builders you should be going out of your way to get this game and play it.

One of the fun things about the start of a new year is being able to hear everyone’s lists and rankings of their favourite things from the year past and to look out for yourself the things that sound interesting that either you didn’t have time for or weren’t even aware of.

Babbdi is one of those, as I was reading this article on Rock, Paper, Shotgun after already taking some notes of shorter indie titles I may have missed.
Funnily this game wouldn’t fall into my personal “qualifications” as a 2023 game due to it coming out a little more than a week before 2022 ended.

The top line on why you should also check this game out is that it is very short, easily completed in less than an hour and around two if you’re exploring a lot.
Also it is free and the system requirements are quite minimal so it isn’t going to be taxing for your pocket or your computer.

So, what the hell is Babbdi and why such a long introduction? Well, Babbdi is a game where you simply wander around a brutalist location, with twisted looking characters, trying out items one at a time on the simple quest of leaving this walled city.

The characters don’t have much to say, usually just speaking about what they are doing or hinting you towards your exit. Occasionally you’ll have small achievements to get via the denizens of this quite creepy place.
Items you find range from giving you different movement effects, to flashlights and other gadgets to help you search for secrets.
You can only hold one item at a time which on one hand can lead to further experimentation and saves you from getting confused with potential combinations or and inventory.
On the other hand the issue can become you don’t want to be rid of your favourite toy or perhaps you’ve found something that an item you had once before could help but you have no memory or guide to show you where you left it.

The game in its presentation and mechanics are in the politest way, janky.
This is clearly not by accident and the strangeness of the world and everything within creates a lot of intrigue that makes wandering around with what could be perceived as little to do quite fun.
An example item you get right at the start is a baseball bat, in any other game it would simply be for swinging at a ball or people’s heads. In Babbdi it can break some barriers but is actually used in what can be fairly described as a rocket jump.
This furthers adds to the strangeness and intrigue and gives the game huge potential to attempt to break it.
This however is a bit of a “Monkey’s Paw”.

By looking, sounding and feeling janky on purpose to create a feeling you unfortunately create potential barriers but worse within the jankiness can cause a bad time to be had in the game.
More than once I got my character completely stuck, there is only an autosave but I was lucky in closing down the game and returning freed my character of their trap.
More than once my searching for secrets would take me so far out to see absolutely nothing that I had no choice but to slowly go back (opening my phone in the other hand) and waste minutes doing absolutely nothing.
On one of these occasions I managed to get out of bounds, it is difficult to know where you are meant to be able to go when there are so many ways of breaking the traversal and in the case I could even get to a ship which had paintings on it, something that had to be placed by the devs, however trying to return was not only extremely slow but presented me with invisible walls that I had somehow passed through and needed to break back to get into the world or just delete all my progress and start again which sadly, did happen.

Now a game like this losing your progress may not be as bad as an RPG file becoming corrupted, as I stated at the start the game is very short. Still this was over an hour of progress and within the games restarted got rid of all my achievements (something it thankfully doesn’t do if you start another run on completion).
Being short Babbdi has instant replay value just out of curiosity but the game is designed to reward you, if in the most basic way, by giving you achievements and a list to check off that includes speaking to all the characters or even finishing the game within 4 minutes.

I may go back to doing these things as though my time with Babbdi wasn’t the greatest due to some technical problems, and the world feels repressive. It also was kind of fun and, the word I will use again - intriguing.

In a way I am confused as to why this game made the list of the article, I mentioned but, in another way, I can see how, with the right person, this can really dig its claws in and leave a lasting impression.

This is a review of "Keep It Alive" a short game by Daniel Mullins:
link here

With the announcement of Pony Island 2, I thought it was time for me to see if more of Mullin's game jam games were available as I had enjoyed Boba this year and previous entries such as "Sacrifices must be made" which became Inscryption.

I will start with a TLDR and that is whilst I do not think this game is as clever as either of the previous Jam games mentioned it is definitely worth your time and the zero it costs in money to grab a hold of.

Keep It Alive as the title refers to a heart, you’re a train driver in a pixel style quite reminiscent of Mullins other efforts - that has to crank a machine to keep this heart beating while also keeping the train filled with coal and the carriage defended as they all travel from Vancouver to Tijuana.
It’s an oddly fun but creepy premise which is what we’ve come to expect with Daniel Mullins’ games.

The genius of this little game is how it is played, WASD is all that is needed as you move your character left and right to the crank and coal, keeping your eye on the gauges above and occasionally using S to tie-up your laces (wasting time) and W to do something else which I will hold off from spoiling.

As far as a game like this goes, I cannot see it being extended into something large/full price but it does have some legs and would be a very interesting segment in a larger game.
You make some stops and there are some things that make the journey harder including terrain and outside interference which can create some chaos.
I could see this escalating further and even some extra tasks needing to be done still keeping to the simple controls if needed.
Overall it’s a very smart little game, that is well presented and manages to pique the imagination just a little in its extremely short run time and for how much you need to put into the game, it definitely gives you more back.

What a delightful little Holiday gift this was.
My gift to you is that this review will be well under a thousand words because really there is not much to say about Mobile Suit Baba that isn’t quite obvious.

First of all, I love the name. Mobile Suit Baba is brought to you by the creator of the word-pushing puzzle game Baba Is You, starring the same characters from that game and some of its mechanics.
Those unfamiliar, Baba Is You centred around pushing words to create simple sentences that would change the rules of the world. X is Y.
This would allow for many head scratching and chin rubbing moments as you were not just trying to move your character to their goal but changing what the goal was, what its properties may be, what even you are.

Mobile Suit Baba takes these mechanics and characters and places them in a familiar looking place of another Indie standout. Into the Breach.

Into the Breach, for those unfamiliar with that game, is a roguelite strategy game with mechs.
Rather than all out destruction being the mission, the game revolves around protecting cities, outlasting enemy invasions and usually doing so with clever manoeuvring more than death.
A lot of the battles would see your mechs flinging and pushing each other and enemies into advantageous positions and traps, playing keep away or simply some complete misdirection.
A key mechanic was seeing the turn order before you made your moves, this would create much more interesting scenarios than just the one push, and likely cause a chain reaction to create the perfect outcome.

Now simply, think about how both these games work. Take their mechanics and combine them and you have Mobile Suit Baba.
Movement and maps are very much ITB style but turn limits are much more about solving a BIY puzzle than surviving.
Baba and friends are protecting fruits against an evil that as the plot moves on, progresses through the map adding new characters with new mechanics along the way.
The game is a decent size, there are 43 stages in all and most of them allow a decent amount of creativity in getting your solution, even in some cases picking which line up of mechs you want to bring.

The story is fairly basic, silly, fun but the writing is decent and it never really interferes if you’re not interested.

All in, an easier and less stressful time than either BIY or ITB but probably the better for it.
The only real difficulty and perhaps frustration is that there are no hints, this is most likely down to their not typically being one way to solve a puzzle but with the fairly limited branches in stages it does mean if you’re stuck you’ve got little else to do.
Occasionally some death situations are not explained and although the game does involve trial and error, the second of cheapness can hinder what is otherwise a very smooth ride.

Mobile Suit Baba is definitely worth playing, it’s pay what you want and whilst I downloaded it for nothing I gave money afterwards because it had definitely earned it.
It’s good, it’s a clever mash-up of two games that ends up not being quite as good as either but I am certain Hempuli is more than aware of that and it is nice to just see a dev make a game, show their inspiration clearly and exclaim their love for another modern classic.

This title is a masterclass in the subgenre of puzzle-platformers that many indie games live in. The place where it isn’t just about going left to right and solving puzzles, but where it’s all about emotions, feelings, beautiful art, music and essentially just vibes.

Your character, never given a name during your time playing is an unknown red coat and hat wearing person who at first you are simply just moving from left to right with.
You learn, or more so confirm, movement is with the stick, you have a little jump and a button to pick items up. Interacting is simply done by picking up and placing objects or physically pushing your character into buttons or movable objects.
That’s it, except, you can zoom in and out.
A simple addition to a set of simple controls that enables you to feel the scale of what the protagonist is coming across, the vastness of the journey you are heading on and also the fine details and information that maybe can be taken from the world at their level.

Outside of some seagulls and other animals you move by, you are all alone in this world, heading forwards for honestly, an unknown reason. Freedom, back to someone, it is always never completely clear and still you feel things for this character as this journey continues.

I say that you as the protagonist are alone, but truthfully this isn’t quite the case as I see it.
Very early on through some basic puzzle solving you discover what is this game’s main thing: The Okomotive.
To describe the Okomotive as simply a vehicle almost feels reductive. True, it is a tool for your character to travel from A to B, to head towards the unknown in the right direction but over time it feels like so much more.
It feels almost like a companion, you take care of it as you must fuel it, stop fires and fix any potential mishaps.
Along your journey you find new ways to upgrade the Okomotive and each of these feels more fulfilling and more like a real gift than upgrades do in most other games.

I can only imagine the bond you feel with this big wheeled, trash eating, sail using car thing is what it is like to own and love a Classic or Vintage vehicle.
To say that before I even played this myself, watching @nightmaremodego stream this I got emotional about a car, feels wild but this game manages to do this.
The rollercoaster is not just the physical ride it takes but the emotions this game manages to surface along the way.

The art in FAR is beautiful, painterly, fascinating to absorb the worlds as you pass them and the weather changes.
The music is incredible and puts in so much work, you can feel excited, frightened, calm, proud - for such a short journey it would be a crime to explain each or any of these highs but they are there.

Earlier in the year I played a game that was much more of a “limbo clone” and it too had wonderful music and great art but it didn’t have as much soul as FAR, for it couldn’t hold a candle to what this game does. In that review I used words such as cute, nice and slow.
Those could apply to FAR but don’t cover it, instead majestic, fascinating and gentle are what come to mind.
In other version of this type of game I can find myself becoming bored, feeling that it is time for the next thing, in FAR I only ever felt this way when I would leave the Okomotive to find fuel far away and the only criticism I have is really grasping and that is I would like maybe one or two more bits to pick up easier - that’s it.

My advice, whenever you may be reading this, grab this game for the pennies it costs to get now. Stick your headphones in, shut out the rest of the world and play this through, even potentially in one sitting.
I am not expecting you to cry, but if you do play this and do not feel anything I would be shocked.

I have a great appreciation of Scotland, a lot of connection to it but it always feels distant.
Scottish friends, Scottish family, but miles between us although on the same island.

I’ve never roamed the highlands and I’m not sure I ever will but I can fit so much of it together in my mind, between stories I’ve read, tales that have been told to me and my own time living by heathland - I can respect and imagine the glory of it all.

A Highland Song captures the idea of journeying across these paths well, not following roads but paths by others, innovating ways across where nature has returned to block your way.
In a way the game could be seen as a 2D walking simulator, but due to the scale of the walk it very much has platforming elements too.
A brilliant edition is how the game replicates the idea of running through a long stretch of clearer land, hopping over stones and other tripping hazards but never needing to stop and climb. The wind flowing through Moira, the protagonist’s hair as she is inspired by the deer and wildlife. Rather than just holding left or right the B button initiates a sprint which becomes a rhythm game backed by beautiful classical Scottish music, plenty of flutes, that simply involve presses of X and Y where Moira needs to hop.

When the paths aren’t so clear, Moira is climbing, finding items, sheltering in overhangs, caves and preferably buildings from the typically wet weather as the game leads into Spring.
The climbing is simple, there is no stamina gauge you can see, but Moira will sound out of breath, she will eventually need to stop to get it back and when night falls not only will it be nearly impossible to see, even with a torch, but she’ll need somewhere safe to shelter or risk losing health that typically only drops if she’s managed to bump herself on a fall.

During all this climbing and running, your aim is to find peaks, get up high to survey the rest of the land in your grand journey to the sea - a lighthouse in the distant background that guides your way.
As you progress Moira will either have notes she has bought or maps and things she has found to help her journey from one peak to another. It gives the journey a back and forth feel as you may find a new guide but need to get back to the peak to see where this shortcut will be.
Occasionally there will be other things, even people that may help guide the way but a large element of this game is discovery and I don’t want to completely ruin that.

All in this game looks fantastic, the art is lovely, the sights for the peaks are wondrous and there is plenty of colour and emotion conveyed throughout every sight.
The voice acting is brilliant, I have some bias because I have been known to watch the protagonist’s VA on Twitch. In general it is so nice to hear actual Scottish voice actors using Scottish dialect, it adds authenticity to the story and helps you believe in the characters and their tales - I just wish more of it was voice acted than it is.

With my connection with Scotland, minor connection with this game and love for everything it is trying to do, A Highland Song had massive potential to sneak in as a Game of the Year for me.
Unfortunately though there were times where this song for me, was less a beautiful ballad and more similar to hold music with a company you don’t want to be speaking to.

Many elements of the game gave me minor annoyances. The rhythm game at first seemed exciting but when it first introduced a second button the icons were less clear and felt more of a gotcha than an increase in difficulty. This game made me feel incredibly stupid because it never gave me the prompt or tutorial of how to hop down from background to foreground and, not the only time, I felt I was stuck with no way to progress.

Progression can feel irritating. The idea of finding notes, picking out what is being highlighted while on a peak, to then find a shortcut or an item to lead you further down a treasure hunt is, on paper, great. When it works it is genuinely quite fun but the issue is finding these clues, these breadcrumbs as it were in the first place.
They are highlighted in classic video game shiny spot form but if you’re rushing you can easily miss these pop up and more often than not there is nothing else visually to show you there is something of interest to stop at.
Too often the maps lead you back to places you have already been and more often than it should the reason Moira didn’t notice the path when there the first time is extremely contrived.

Throughout this treasure trail are little items, these can be used to progress certain places or as offerings when you are at the peaks. Sadly I am reminded of older, less-good point and clicks too often with these - sometimes there is obvious logic of what you can use or what you need but too often you can just be clicking each option until something works.

The game itself encourages multiple playthroughs, the item finding leans into this as, for example - one time I discovered a stone with a hole in that looked towards the lighthouse but could not use it, on another run I had the correct item to combine and it gave me a short scene and only then did Moira see a path to go forwards.
This sounds like typical game logic, finding the blue door but without the blue key, but because it can be obtuse and backtracking isn’t encouraged as the game is leading you to make this journey in a set amount of time this “blue door” feels like a wall and often then just has you running in circles to either find that key or another exit.
Going around the same peak twice feels fine but beyond that it becomes tedious which is further exacerbated if you are aiming for a quicker time, more peaks found etc. on other playthroughs as the movement is good but not exciting enough to want to do the same thing over and over.

I spoke about moving from the background to foreground and this is another reason that traversal can also be an irritation. Sometimes the painterly art doesn’t make things clear, not being 3D also makes judging distances in a third direction hard to judge and this leads to experimentation which can go wrong, hurt the character, slow you down and once again lead to repetition.

There are other minor things, bits I didn’t love and after my second session with this game, I started to believe I might even hate it but in the end it was more that I was just disappointed.
I wanted to love this game, its art - audibly and visually is fantastic. Its ideas and innovations are great but the actual act of playing the game never felt amazing and the idea of repeating it for just a few drops of more goodness are not enticing to me at all.
It is strange, because when I see others praising something I didn’t enjoy I tend to believe that they must have gotten something out of it that I could not - but A Highland Song ticked so many boxes, I wouldn’t say it was ever like it was designed for me but it definitely falls into my interests and sadly that just made it a bitter pill to swallow.

The main question I have after playing this game is, where the hell is Treasure now?

If, like me, playing the Mega Drive as a child was a major part of why you’re into gaming, you probably love Gunstar Heroes and Treasure, that game’s developer.
I was very pleased to discover after looking this game up recently for a pair of reasons, that this was a Hitmaker/Treasure game as if I hadn’t already believed one source on this game being great that felt like a stamp of quality where I’d definitely enjoy my time at the very least if not have a brand new favourite.

reasons being Samuel Roberts of The Back Page Podcast calling this a GBA all-timer and the recent Pluto anime adaptation on Netflix.

All the hallmarks of what puts Treasure games, Gunstar Heroes and Alien Soldier especially on the map are here.
The pixel art is fantastic, the music is good, the combat mostly feels smooth and the level and boss variety keep the game from ever feeling completely repetitive which is important with simpler genres such as beat ‘em ups.

Really that simplification of genre and the console limitations are the primary cause of my hang-ups with this game. I’m a man who can respect past titles and I don’t need to have the most frames and fanciest lighting - but I am still a man living in 2023 where some features, not even QoL have been removed or at least smoothed out in modern representations and it can make it difficult to go back.
One minor thing is some fiddliness, which I found a lot of can be attributed to the few buttons the GBA has.
As Astro boy pushes through the stages fighting enemy robots and goons along the way, before inevitably fighting a usually quite impressive boss, he can dash using his jets for fast movement and some evasion. As with most games you become more used to the timing as you spend time with Astro but a third button would have made this feel more natural and feel less like you mistimed things due to missed inputs and the like.
Another minor niggle is with the special moves, his butt gun for hitting the entire screen and his big beam cannon are simple enough with using either shoulder button to activate, but the third powerful dash uses both A+B at once and whilst that is one of the easiest button combinations to do in gaming it also suffers from not always registering which can be frustrating as the fights become more difficult and your time against bosses becomes more desperate.

Outside of button limitation the other minor annoyances are things that just feel a little out of date. Whether it’s being hit from something you couldn’t see off screen, bosses becoming impossible to dodge because they take up all the space or similarly your own attacks not counting because they aren’t on screen enough, these things give not a feeling of challenge but a feeling of being cheated.
I appreciate a challenge and this game has it, but I also don’t think any of the above counts.

Where it does count are things like the bosses (sans full screen takeovers) where you are either having to learn spacing to dodge and get hits in best or even learning patterns and what specials are best to use when.
Sometimes Astro Boy is grounded, sometimes he’s floating about and occasionally in a break from that you can be jetting at high speeds in bullet-hell-like combat.

Challenge and variation also comes within variation on these levels, Astro will be on moving levels, low gravity, platforms, dodging traps and more and outside of some frustration due to not “getting good” at later stages I never felt the game was too repetitive even though really it maybe is.
Pacing is always something I come back to in reviews and due to this variety and how the story is given, Omega Factor gets a big thumbs up in that department.

The story itself is good, with some smart elements I did not expect but “your mileage may vary” depending on how invested in Astro Boy and Tezuka’s other works you are because this game boasts 40+ characters but if you’re like me you maybe knew a dozen tops.
Some of the cameos felt to me much like I imagine the many MCU post-credits do to casual fans, to quote the other Back Page Podcast host’ it has very “it’s me Blorko” energy.

One interesting but potentially flawed mechanic ties into meeting these characters and that is the whole “Omega Factor”. Astro meeting folk, getting a new understanding of emotions etc. unlocks this and in game terms gives you a level up.
I call this potentially flawed because although it is interesting and the game does give warning for when “Sensors” need upgrading you have no idea what comes ahead and it isn’t quite an RPG where having different builds is something the game is balanced for.

The other strength in the story I do want to speak about but I do not want to spoil it for those who have no idea so WARNING.

WARNING - for those wanting to go in blind do not read the rest of this review.
Just know that in my humble opinion the story does take this game from good to potentially great.

For me this twist and feature of Astro Boy was half-spoiled but I didn’t know exactly about how it was integrated.
Before the credits hit, it’s bad news for our lad, the villain Sharaku, Prince of the Mu Empire and his third eye have succeeded, the world is on fire and a big spooky skull from space is coming.
Much like Empire Strikes Back though, this is just the beginning of the end for our hero as he is resurrected by the Phoenix and sent back in time.
This allows Astro to redo battles, meet new people and change the past by going back and forth with the new information he gains.

This implementation reminds me of one of my all-time favourite games series; Zero Escape.
Whilst not quite as deep or big-brained using stages like a time-line means the interaction is quite similar and I am here for it.
The issue I have with the game here however is two-fold.
First off, not enough changes, you aren’t just skipping into new dialogue you are once again having to play the entire game with just some occasional boss changes and eventually some new stages and endings. I praise this game’s variety but this is repetition at its core and it is time consuming.
Once again difficulty rears its head here and at this point is where I suffered most because at first it felt easier, in Rebirth you have kept all the levels you’ve obtained and it seemed to trivialise the first stages but slowly it becomes apparent that actually enemies are tougher and stronger - something the game didn’t inform you of and doesn’t really make any sense.
It took until about stage four of the initial seven for this to really kick in but sadly in stage five and six I failed more often than I had in the Birth run-through and it wasn’t too interesting things like the bosses. Also, one final nail in the coffin was that the checkpointing the previous run had was mostly removed - this is a part which has me questioning my own memory but at point I was having to do whole levels before a boss again and again where originally I feel like if I did die the game started me near where I got to.

In the end, I think I rate Astro Boy: Omega Factor lower than most who have played it and I believe “git gud” is part of that story. Maybe I am more of a modern gamer who needs their hand held than I think, but I feel I haven’t typically turned away from challenges in the past and even infamously difficult things I don’t complain are unfair.
I would just leave the point that I am reviewing this game two decades after its launch, I have no history with the Gameboy Advance as I went from GB Light straight to DS Lite with no Nintendo handhelds of my own between, and I also have very little history with Astro Boy as a franchise.

Regardless I think Omega Factor is great, I am going to play more and it has whet my appetite for more Tezuka works as well as Treasure games.

I find the word ‘perspective’ to be an ever fascinating one, a noun with two meanings that conjure up such strong imagery, imagination and long thought processes.

On the more clinical side, perspective is simply art representing three-dimensions in two-dimensional ways so that you can see how things relate… which is interesting.
Interesting because the deeper version of the word encompasses feelings, people’s attitudes and point of views on anything and everything, life if we want to boil it down to a single word.

Small Saga has a lot of interesting perspectives.
Visually it shows a world that we as humans live in but from the view of a few inches tall, that of rodents - mice, rats, moles and more.
This perspective is not just visual but asks the question how would these animals view the rest of the world, if they had the cognition of a human - including not only other animals and their surroundings but also humans themselves.

This is the simple and smart appeal of Small Saga. A JRPG-lite with classic fantasy archetypes, kings, warriors, knights, mages, bards and more but with mice, rats and other small creatures.
Much like some of the best JRPGs of the past, our protagonist Verm’s goal is to, in search of revenge, kill a god!
The Yellow God, here however, is a human in yellow coveralls and a mask. This yellow god filled a land, seemingly heaven, full of all the seeds and grain a mouse could want full of a terrible fog and nasty traps - as a human being playing this game however, you realise that heaven is a supermarket aisle and this Yellow God and his fog are simply - pest control.

The different perspectives Small Saga uses though are not all world building, they don’t just pose questions about “what does a mouse think a cat is?” but brings in conversations about a whole host of much more serious matters, minorities, diversities, class, gender, sexuality and how these things are perceived and looked at by different views.

It is strange, because in 2023 it is not rare for a game to “be woke” as morons may say, by including queer relationships, characters with disabilities and to make anti-fascist statements but something about how it is written and how it is woven into this world made it stick with me more personally than many of these more outright queer etc. games do.
Perhaps it’s because the game isn’t trying to be about these things, these things just are.
Perhaps because Small Saga’s world feels closer to home, the world (and it’s map) are actually London and because of that the cast has a great diverse range of character voices written with quality dialogue that includes, English, Welsh and Scottish slang, amongst more, that makes it all feel that much more real for me - an English lad, with Scottish family and friends, Welsh pals and a diverse range of people I call friends from all of the pre-mentioned groups.

Although as an aside, do Scottish people actually say “Bampot”? It’s a term I know of and heard, but only really as a joke, usually of a Scot doing an exaggerated impression of a specific kind of Scot.

Before I move to more granular and mechanical impressions, I need to stop and state that Small Saga’s world, characters and ideas within that setting are excellent and the true selling point of this game. Games are not always about what you are doing, but I appreciate that simply enjoying a story isn’t always enough for some when taking part in this medium.
Small Saga’s tale is great, it is somewhat of a simple hero's journey but it makes great points and has inventive ideas along the way. Any time the word “simple” comes to mind in terms of story, it is maybe better read as “nice and digestible” - the game never becomes bloated, it respects you but also has a few optional moments if you would like more from the world and your runtime.

JRPG is the short-hand for how I’ve explained what genre this game is. @SketchyJeremy the games developer is evidently not Japanese so turn-based, is a more accurate description but clear inspiration has been taken from the JRPG genre, Mario RPG and Final Fantasy: The Four Heroes of Light and more.

The Turn-based combat system is one that is simple to grasp, heroes have hit points and action points, moves take action points to use and hit points are as always your life.
Turns start from your team, starting right and moving left until your actions are made and the enemies respond. Within this your heroes can aid each other with buffs, more AP, more HP and even extra turns and you quickly find yourself following a formula to efficiently defeat the opposing side.
The characters you gain access to include, a warrior, a pyromancer, a bard and more. These work exactly how you’d expect if you’ve ever played a game like this which is comforting but a little too frictionless.

Small Saga forgoes any potential “grinding” as there are no random encounters and levelling up happens at specific points and after particular battles.
When you do get to level you have access to a grid that does branch into different areas allowing you a choice of not just do you want attack strength or more HP but also which abilities you would like your characters to learn. The other nice thing about this grid is you can respec at any time so there is no stress if you wish you went down a different path.
Lastly on the character customisation front, each hero has a weapon, armour (just one set) and two accessories which are consumable which refill after each fight.

Overall this combat is clean and simple, which is good, the fights look great - some brilliant use of visual perspective, fonts, and even some fun additions later so not all fights are exactly the same but within this combat is one of Small Saga’s biggest issues and that is lack of challenge.

To be so frictionless makes any encounters outside of bosses quite boring, and even within some they are over so quickly you don’t get a chance to appreciate them.
Over my entire playthrough I saw the game over screen twice. Once was due to a mis click in a timed event and the second was a poor attempt at an optional boss that really was down to me running even this impressive looking encounter on auto-pilot and not engaging with it fully.
I hope in the future there is a patch for some difficulty sliders because whilst having a sub-8 hour game feel quite frictionless is nice the complete lack of challenge almost makes you question what is the point.

Outside of combat, mechanically there are a few side-objectives. Most of which are sadly just fetch quests, there is some good storytelling within but the variety is somewhat lacking, a maze and a couple of rhythm game bits and that is your lot.
It’s a shame because I don’t think Small Saga “needs” anything more, but it is hard to praise the game from this side of things when really there is nothing new or interesting to prop it up in discussion.

Really, Small Saga is about the experience in art, music and writing. The combat and any “gameplay” functions are more a way to keep you engaged outside of just walking about and reading and this is fine.
I thoroughly enjoyed Small Saga and would heartily recommend it, but I cannot rate it so high especially when even this year other small studios (maybe not as small) have released more full and interesting games in the JRPG space. It is all remarkably close and for the asking price this game should still be on your Steam Wishlist after reading this.
Just don’t expect a GOTY, mind-blowing, world altering time - expect a very nice, very enjoyable little tale about a mouse with a penknife and go from there.

When writing anything I do wonder about the audience who will read it, the likeness is that it’ll be a handful of friends at most, maybe a few extra “randoms” via searching for specific titles or if I get Bingo by hitting the front page of the site.
If it wasn’t clear from the opening paragraph of reflection a lot of my reviews are almost more like journals, after all the site does have a journal tab that records your progress and it feels like a logical way to look at the process. I’m not writing for a specific audience, I’m writing for me - sure I want people to read my words and I enjoy the interactions and conversations it can create but to imagine yourself as a “writer” here, however good you are is a little too out there from my perspective.

I say this because if I were running a website or magazine I wouldn’t give someone like me (straight, white, male) this game to review because the writing, the subjects it touches on are never going to quite hit as hard.
Sure I can, and will, break down the game by its mechanics and touch on how good I felt the writing was but this game didn’t and could not hit on a level it will for some.
From my perspective, whatever that is worth, Thirsty Suitors is well written and feels mostly quite open, deep and honest about a whole range of different genders, sexualities and cultures.
I say mostly because the occasional character piece did feel cliché, bordering stereotypical to me but I am not in the position to fully judge if they did lean too far or not.

The writing, be it between Jala (the protagonist) and her parents, her internal monologue with her “sister” in her head or in the quite out there pseudo-psychic battles with her exes, is strong.
Characters are funny but also flawed, some more obviously than others but everyone feels real even whilst being presented in a cel-shaded-like style in a semi-cartoonish world.
I cannot deny that some of the writing did straight up make me feel old, but I never once felt as with a lot of media that “kids don’t talk this way”. I say kids, they’re mostly in their twenties.

Plot wise this story shares a lot with Scott Pilgrim, although rather than fighting a new partner's exes it surrounds Jala returning home (90’s Washington US) to face and make-good with her exes as well as her family.
I will not delve deep into each character but Jala is (I assume) a pansexual, cis female, American with an Indian mother and Sri Lankan father. As I said near the start, a much more diverse and interesting spectrum of gender, race and sexuality than myself.
Jala has many more exes than I do and unlike me they’re not all just white women.
This game flies the LGBT+ flag with pride and it’s great, it isn’t just Jala’s exes though, it’s not brushed off as just a thing with “the kids” either which is a nice thing to see.
Unlike Scott, Jala is cool and outwardly confident, she skates, she has style and there are a lot of people lusting after her.

Battles with the exes, suitors and Bear cult children (it’s a whole thing) are fought in turn based style, much like a JRPG.
Jala can use taunts that range from thirsty to heartless that show opponents weaknesses and can create debuffs. It’s an interesting system where you’re discovering what the suitor type is and exploiting it with specific attacks against it while at the same time trying to avoid the same happening to Jala.
The combat is sadly a little basic, it uses Mario RPG like QTE elements to keep the moves engaging but the system barely evolves outside of some summons.
The strength of the system however is not only how it reflects the whole idea of the game, a battle of wits - but also some deep reflections but how it integrates conversations and conversational choices within to further the story and give you a much more colourful impression of the characters in it.
The highlights of these are the boss battles against the exes where their insecurities and the like are visualised as how they see themselves and also with things that may protect them.
One of the more interesting boss fights is against an ex who clearly has an internal conflict about not only showing their sexuality but who they should be culturally - wanting to be progressive but also wanting to carry history with them.
Although some of these visualisations are arguably simplifications, they are easy to understand even for a default player 1 like myself and also to the game’s benefit are exciting to look at.

Outside of RPG battling and some conversational choices, the game has two other elements.
First off is skateboarding, a passion of Jala’s and the way she traverses the main town area.
Sadly it just feels quite bad to do, boards tend to be somewhat magnetic in games and as a fan of Jet Set Radio I am not against it - but here it’s turned up too much.
Jala gets sucked towards things too easily and although can stop very fast just feels like she is bumping into so much if you’re trying anything precise.
You do get used to how it controls but becoming competent with something does not mean it becomes enjoyable. At best some segments feel like a mini-roller coaster in an almost 3D Sonic way, but in this flow the game doesn’t feel skill based and sometimes just gets in the way.
I found myself wishing Jala could just carry the board and run around town, when the skatepark area opens it took me around 15 minutes to get bored of it and when the game announced the skate challenges were completely optional I couldn’t click on skipping them any faster.

It’s a shame because I feel, putting it in basic terms, skating is the second main part of the game and it has a lot of this game’s landscape dedicated to it but… it’s bad.

The other gaming element is cooking, these are mostly optional too and give Jala a chance to pick the brains of her parents. Cooking itself is QTE challenges with some choices in how to use your heat gauge to gain a better score but sadly is a broken system in the “compliment” wheel being the easiest way to get a high score but the thing with the most RNG.
I took part in all the cooking I could, one of my favourite characters in the game was Jala’s father so interacting with him always kept me smiling. Also the side quests for exes you made up with all mostly had you cook for them so you could get ahead of that.

The other benefit to cooking was getting food items for it that were for healing in battle.
Skating challenges would give you attack items and cosmetics but sadly the game falls apart a little here too.
I never set any difficulty down but I never felt the need to use items until some later boss fights and that was to keep my health topped up and nothing more.
Due to most fights being about the conversations and finding weaknesses I never really felt Jala needed the extra hand with tools, the summons you get as the game progresses were more than enough to keep on top of the increasing levels of the opposition.
This meant that not only did I not want to do the skating because it felt bad, there was no real incentive to do so. Really outside of dialogue there wasn’t any incentive to do anything bar follow the critical path.

I say falls apart but specifically “a little” because really this game is much more like a VN under its skin. It has systems and skateboarding but I think the people that will love Thirsty Suitors would love it without these, bare naked and being honest about itself like the story is trying to be.
Don’t get me wrong, the game tries to be more and it doesn’t fail, it just doesn’t succeed in a meaningful manner. Having these mechanics and systems makes it a lot easier to swallow and probably a lot more approachable.

While what Thirsty Suitors does have to show is nice, well presented with decent voice acting, music and a great art direction it can feel a little bare.
The house is essentially one room with a few items to look at. The town has four buildings which are all one room with little in them to interact with and the skatepark side of things is there but nothing new or exciting - and that is it, three areas which while again presented nicely are on one of the most pointless maps in games.

Overall I had a good time with Thirsty Suitors, it never really outstayed its welcome but would have felt much a much tighter experience with the skating completely cut.
The story and characters were great and although I cannot fully relate to it all the game did definitely make me feel for a lot of the characters and enjoy a good few of them being around.
Jala herself was a joy as a protagonist but sadly what she had to do outside of talking wasn’t all that satisfying.

Reviews are not entirely about their scores, but if you look at this as low, know that there are two major factors which I believe could make this a much higher rated game for you personally.
First mechanically you might actually enjoy skateboarding, want to do all the challenges and this will give Thirsty Suitors much more meat on the bone as an experience.
Secondly is if you are LGTQ+ or from a much more interesting background than me because the flavour of this game will be so much more aromatic or even spicy to you.

To end with a cliché, variety is the spice of life.
I believe this is important within people and I think it is important with art too. I’m happy this game exists, I am especially happy that this is on many systems including Game Pass and possibly coming to more because even if you are just a straight white male like me who is probably not putting this on their GOTY list it is really worth listening to what it has to say.

Video games and climbing have been a pairing for the longest time.
As games have moved on we’ve tended to find most games that have three-dimensional climbing as a core mechanic have all narrowed their design down to “the right way” - homogeneity is another way to look at if, like me, you appreciate new ideas more than just the greatest polish.
Don’t get me wrong, in many ways games homogenize and that does for the most part make things more accessible, it takes confusion out of acts in games you’ve performed countless times before and allows you to concentrate on whatever else the game is trying to deliver.

But what if the game was all about climbing?
Overall this is where Jusant lands. Don’t Nod has used it’s (quite divisive) narrative chops to litter Jusant’s world with lore in the form of letters and interesting soundscapes that let you imagine a world that existed before you started to climb there but overall this is all secondary to doing a lot of climbing with a little blue lad (Ballast?) in your rucksack.

For the most part the climbing in Jusant does feel good, you are not just tapping a single button to climb, nor are you just pushing your protagonist in one direction.
You are reaching, grasping for handholds. You are using your ropes to allow yourself to lower into positions, wall run along gaps or even take courageous swings.
Each grasp is done with a trigger to represent a hand and one of the most enjoyable things is the simplest of climbs, scurrying up a wall or even a ladder feels great as your rhythm increases and you see our hero speed up.
As the game progresses a few new tricks are added, your little blue pal helps create some additional paths as well as give you a general direction in which to go but sadly even in the short space of time you’ll spend with this game it never feels like it adds anything to new or game changing to how you started.

Jusant has a very pleasant art style and one of the more impressive things it manages to do, considering the theme and its relatively short runtime is give you some beautiful and diverse locations to see. It could simply be broken down as chapters being much like different Zones in Sonic games but they tie together in a much smoother and less jarring way.
Sadly because you’re spending most of your time looking up sheer cliffs with your face in a wall it is hard to fully appreciate the decorations and typically when you are walking around it’s not all that exciting.
It is hard to ever get truly lost for a long time but some areas do feel like exploration is encouraged but the rewards of things like a letter don’t particularly entice. This means when you do just want to get back to that lovely climbing, frustration can quickly build if you aren’t sure where to go, if you should loopback or if you’ve missed something.
The guidance you get via the wee guy using the d-pad also doesn’t help, it just shows a genuine direction which more often than not is obviously “up” and only appears within certain ranges anyway.
The other part about running about outside of the climbing that is disappointing is this is where more often I found it felt a little janky, the character will never leap of edges to their death but it also means they suddenly stop at edges of terrain that isn’t dangerous, temporarily getting stuck on geometry more often than I’d like.
Also, areas have things that look almost identical to handholds you have used are nothing. I’m glad Jusant doesn’t paint every climbable surface in a completely obvious manner but to do the opposite, make non-climbable things look as if they were, is just irritating.

I posed the question “but what if the game was all about climbing?” and I think my answer is quite simple, if a little vague. It would be fine - and to me that is what Jusant is.

Good climbing mechanics but little else, some decent graphics and nice sound design alongside forgettable music and a story that if it is any good is delivered in such an unexciting way it too will also not stick in the mind for long.

Jusant took me just a little over four hours to finish and I look at that as a nice thing. I appreciate these light and tight experiences, however the honest truth is this was not done in one sitting, nor two, because I had to take breaks.
These breaks were not due to life getting in the way but due to tedium.
I don’t need to be committing acts of violence or sitting to watch extended FMV sequences between my climbing but I do see why most games put at least something here and what Jusant does to break up your time, keep you on board is more like nothing and however highly you can rate the climbing mechanics in this game (which are great not perfect) they are not diverse enough to spend all your time doing.

TLDR: Jusant more like PooPant(s) am I right?

Where do you even start when trying to review this game? You can look at the past titles in the series, slim the focus down to just the 2D platforming style ones and compare how it has changed and arguably evolved over time.
This is an angle I am sure many, and I know some, people will use when writing about this title but I have to come out on top and say something that may invalidate all the words I write following.
I don’t love 2D Mario games.

Yes, I’m one of those people. I was a Sega kid, a huge Sonic fan and although not a person who will slurp up any crap with the blue blur’s name on it, do still hope to have an ounce of the great feelings I got when I was in single digits of years old.
This is not to say I hate Mario or that I never played his games, it’s just I never got to spend the time with him, his loose approximation of lore never dug into my soul like (Fleetway) Sonic the Comic did. I never got to learn exactly how good the little plumber could be on the move at a young age and although I have been back and appreciate what the guy in the dungarees does it’s a harder sell when you’re a decade or even decades removed.

For me to compare Wonder to Super Mario Land 3 or Super Mario World, the ones I usually hear heralded as the greatest, would be false because I don’t have nearly enough understanding to write eloquently and informatively about them.

If you read anything else I put up on this site or have checked “Favorite Games” in my profile you’ll see that Mario is still quite an important character to me.
Once the platforming mascots of the 90’s big two entered the third dimension it didn’t take long for even me, a Sonic fan, to see that Mario had the spikey lad beat.
Sonic Adventure had some interesting things and although not the best paced or most polished game I would still argue Sonic Adventure 2 was good. Super Mario 64 however was great, it was a game changer.
Triple jump in time towards the Wii and the Galaxy games arrive and my thoughts and feelings have been cemented. These are not just game changers but the best in class and some of the best of all time.

This short personal history lesson, which is far from over, highlights a major factor that I need to speak about now in regards to Wonder. It is the factor that, if I had to simply boil down why Galaxy 2 is still, in my opinion, the best platforming game period, is innovations and pure ideas per minute.
Every Mario game has done this. I am aware it is not exclusively a Galaxy trait but the pure volume and successful hit-rate of new idea, new idea, new idea… that Galaxy has is unparalleled.
Wonder may lose one third of the dimensions Galaxy has but it doesn’t drop one third in that department.

Each new power up from Elephant to Bubble is brilliantly executed, adds fun obvious surface details and small control traits that give the player very different feeling stages to go through and master.
Each Wonder seed, the main gimmick of the game, brings to life a whole new experience with very little repetition which further adds variety and excitement to each stage.
Each badge, the new selectable power up system, doesn’t quite do as good a job as the previous but even so hidden within are abilities whole other platformers would use as their gimmicks and also do give some extra replay value.

Mario Wonder much like the best Mario games has such a great variety of stages throughout that by the end of the game when something finally repeats you almost get nostalgic for the beginning of the game - it doesn’t feel like a rehash but a beautiful showcase of something that they’d only shown for the first time in this game but already feels like it’s part of the DNA of the series.

At this stage, with all the praise I have given Mario Wonder in just a few paragraphs the question is not if the game is good but how good? Where does it sit in the pantheon of platformers?
Now as mentioned before, I don’t feel I can fairly place this game if we go all the way back into the 90’s but when we look at what I believe to be the cream of the crop in modern 2D platformers then yes - Super Mario Bros Wonder does sit amongst them.

As an aside, I’ve mentioned what I feel these are but a quick few titles to sate your curiosity: Rayman Origins/Legends, Celeste, Sonic Mania, this game and also Pizza Tower, a comparison I just can’t help but return to in my head again and again.

When I speak on “modern” my shortlist does go back over a decade, so the question here is why did none of the New Super Mario Bros. games do it for me?
To review those games would truly have to involve looking back at the games many other people played as children and as I have said I would find that difficult and a little dishonest for me to write about, however I can say that NSMB felt less new to me than the 3D titles did and less new than even Wonder does.
Some of this goes back to volume and quality of ideas, none of them hit for me and although it being more of the same is no bad thing when a lot of people would call SMW the GOAT, it just felt like more of the same.
Also one of the most superficial reasons too, was simply the look. NSMB felt to me almost plastic-like, the aura it has is one of a shiny new replica rather than a fresh piece of art - something I do not get from Wonder with its new little facial expressions, animations and even the new varieties of friends and enemies like Poplins or Trottin’ Piranha Plants.
To put my feelings on NSMB simply, when I saw the first Wonder trailer I got some NSMB vibes and instantly thought “I’ll play this but I probably won’t love it” and thankfully I was wrong.

When I speak about the most recent 2D platforming greats the first comparison with this game right now is actually to the aforementioned Pizza Tower.
I love Wario, it is hard for me to say with complete conviction that Wario Land is better than Mario’s two dimensional escapades but I do have more love for them and I genuinely prefer Wario Land 4 more than any NSMB variant.
Pizza Tower therefore already has an advantage over Mario Wonder due to this.
It’s a different beast, much more about speed and aggression - it’s going for a retro look and not trying to be a new generation, even though it is.
When comparing the two it is really as subjective as it gets. Mario Wonder looks beautiful, and it would be easy to say it looks “nicer” than Pizza Tower, but that game is not trying to be nice, it is trying to be gross and weird, and it succeeds. Both games are full of life, fantastic little animations, great innovative power-ups and ideas that change the play pattern.
Pizza Tower easily beats Mario Wonder in the music department for me, it’s a soundtrack I go back to again and again but also whilst Wonder does have the typical Mario style of soundtrack you’ll find humming to yourself as you boil the kettle none of it really true sticks or surprises - sure there are some musical elements that put a huge grin across my face but I can’t see me even considering grabbing the OST in a physical format.

My last Pizza Tower comparison point goes into the final few things I want to discuss with Mario Wonder and that is replayability, completely clearing the game and what the game gives you or what you may want to do.
Before I finish with it I will say, by a margin Pizza Tower is my preference between these two games but if you read me putting Wario Land 4 on a pedestal as insanity then you know that it’s probably an opinion we don’t agree on.
Pizza Tower has replay built in via collecting “toppins” and then getting higher ranks - something which is a little too hardcore for me but I am sure to go back to when there’s a quiet period for new releases.

One element Wonder has which I can’t skip, but will skim past is online capabilities.
This game can be played in multiplayer, not something new to the series but an addition I know will go down greatly with the right people, especially parents with children who game together.
To talk on that would be even less honest than me speaking of 90’s Mario memories.
What I can briefly add my two pennies on is the new, “Strand Game” like systems of playing online.
Death Stranding and Dark Souls, two games that are nothing like Mario Wonder but that do weirdly share traits in the way they work online.
If you enjoy collecting stickers and the like, Mario Wonder has standees - each of the dozen playable characters have a dozen different standee poses to collect. In game these can be placed for other players in your level to interact with and use as lifesaving checkpoints.
Much like Dark Souls you can also see ghostly images of the other players and emote to potentially guide them to a secret exit or warn them of a pit. In a more literal sense you can see their ghostly image (of their ghost) if they die and can get to you quickly to be revived.
All together it feels implemented very well, Internet additions and Nintendo don’t go hand-in-hand typically but credit where it’s due. For me however I felt that either the reviving made things too easy or was pointless and I didn’t like the extra things being on screen.
Nintendo have done a good job to not fill the screen with new furniture but for such a pretty and elegant game I didn’t want it added in that way.
The one exception are treasure hunting stages, full of big coins and even blocks that are invisible (to most players). These stages are a complete crap shoot playing offline but are maybe the most fun implementation of what Wonder is going for.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder otherwise however, actually fits the box ticking part of my brain perfectly.
Multiple Wonder Seeds and three giant coins on most levels give you a reason for at least one extra playthrough and if it doesn’t because your first run is perfect, grabbing the top of the flagpole as you leave some levels have secret exits too.
These bonus exits which typically lead into more stages are a great classic feeling way to unlock some alternate routes as you go, and where it might not be quite as free flow as I’d have liked, the more open map of Mario Wonder’s world lets you tackle the game, mostly, in your own way.

To add to this is the badges system, which I find smart but not perfect. A minor smudge on the record of this game, an eyelash in its extremely tasty soup.
Badges unlock as you progress the game, giving Mario new abilities and in some cases changing how he acts completely - those styles (the rightmost if you’ve started the game) I think are great because they truly change how the game can play and definitely add an extra challenge or replay value.
The others however feel like things that when you unlock them should have just been in Mario’s base move set, sure I’ll take the hat glide to make getting the flagpole tip easier but shouldn’t I always have a dash underwater with or without it? It’s a strange addition to Mario that almost feels a little half baked, something to make it feel more new and modern but not as well thought out as its core ideas like the Wonder Seeds or even new power-ups.
In the end any of these negatives sounding comparisons or criticisms are as minor as they come. At its worst Super Mario Bros. Wonder only “fails” because it doesn’t completely rewrite the game or blow you away, but at its best it does or at least it shows why Mario is the icon, why Nintendo will forever pump out multiple platforming series with the plumber and his pals and between all that have them play sports, drive karts and do whatever else may sell.

Simply, Mario is good.

More than once this year I have gone back to play games I missed from studios that bought out things I love. I’ve really enjoyed seeing previous works that can show you first attempts at stories, ideas and mechanics that would become much stronger in a later form.

Bytten Studios, based in Brighton released Cassette Beasts this year and it is quietly one of the best and most interesting JRPGs in a while. A grown up Pokémon that shows love and respect to the genre’s history.
Bytten’s previous work was this, Lenna’s Inception and the team were clearly Nintendo fans as this is their take, their love letter to The Legend of Zelda (TLOZ).

Much like Cassette Beasts does, Lenna’s Inception follows the formula whilst also playing with it and breaking through its edges.
The story itself starts with you as protagonist Lenna teaching her class when suddenly the school is pulled away, by a glitch?
Lenna goes to find the village elder who she finds dead, with a message written in blood “It’s to go alo…”. To any fan of TLOZ this is quite familiar.

Soon after comes in a tunic wearing boy named Lance, Lenna hand’s over the blade the elder was grasping and they go to a tutorial area where Lance dies.
At first this seems quite funny, you wonder if the tone of the game is going to be “edgy” but thankfully what follows is much smarter and more mature than the intro may lead you to believe.

Without spoiling any more of the story Lenna goes on a quest, she has eight dungeons to enter with bosses and unique items that let her progress further. The usual TLOZ affair except for one key difference and that is the dungeons are procedurally generated.
Again much like Bytten would go on to do with Cassette Beasts, this game isn’t a retread it has its own modern innovations and giving the game a lot of replayability via procedural generation is one of them. Also included which is great for the speedrunning crowd is that worlds can be seeded so if you don’t want a random experience on a repeat playthrough you can.

Unfortunately while I have the utmost respect for giving these options to the speedrunning communities and the like, and I really appreciate ideas above just simple polish I would have preferred procedural generation wasn’t a part of the game.
Not a particular new take but procedural generation never quite shows the art or thoughtfulness that a crafted experience can, even with a good selection of tile palettes and enemy designs the dungeons all feel very similar. Classic TLOZ also has great emphasis on dungeons not only having unique looks but puzzles and mechanics - there is very little of that here.
Almost all of the new items you obtain for traversal may as well be keys - melt ice, pick up rocks, shoot target boards, all of these are single squares taken out by one item.
Worse still is the puzzles or lack thereof, each dungeon simply has some block pushing which looks aesthetically the same in each of them and that’s it until the final dungeon which isn’t procedurally generated.

Between the fairly boring puzzles and layouts of the dungeons the combat itself is quite easy and fairly flaccid. You can unlock different swords and a few other items throughout your journey but none of these ever truly change how it feels.
This extends to the bosses, the (again like Cassette Beasts) Archangels which have fantastic designs but are as good as the most middling TLOZ boss at best.
It’s a huge shame because the presentation is fantastic but the content is lacking, like a beautifully prepared dinner that tastes like a ready meal.

One thing that needs to be mentioned is how Bytten does a fantastic job in their homage, not just to the Zelda games of the past but also glitches and what surrounds that.
A lot of the plot circles around an overflow glitch happening, the start of the game uses visual glitches like they are natural disasters and towards the end of the game you are deep in broken looking places and screen wrapping your way through.
This again is very cool but personally a part of the game I found quite frustrating, it was nice to finally get into a more crafted part of the game but it was actually for me a huge difficulty spike.

Finally another “but”. Lenna’s Inception has a very smart story that uses the glitch elements and plays with the format of the genre in a quite Undertale style.
There are multiple endings and to achieve the “Perfect Ending” you have to do things a little differently than you would expect.
It’s cool and it gives the game replay value, but without knowing this beforehand you can find yourself doing a lot of side quests for items that you ultimately have actually missed the chance to use. In many games it’d be fine because you could go back or maybe there would be a NG+ but Lenna’s Inception doesn’t work that way because again its innovation of procedural generation encourages full replays.
For me, because my enjoyment came from the innovation, the ideas and the plot but not the actual dungeon crawling and world exploring I could not bring myself to go through it again.

At this point I like to suggest if it’s worth buying a game but also if there are issues: what to do.
I think Lenna’s Inception is definitely worth picking up and seeing through yourself, if just to support a British Indie Dev that is doing great work with wonderful ideas, great art and fantastic music.
However I don’t know what to do about the multiple endings. Maybe if you play through in co-op a second playthrough will be more enjoyable, you could look up what to do first but I wouldn’t want to spoil it ahead of time as I value discovery (I hate I’ve spoiled as much as I have).
The only other answer is to do what I did, everything you can and then watch YouTube videos afterwards but honestly, that’s disappointing.

This may not be the most glowing review but I am definitely a fan of this studio and eagerly look forward to what is next from them.