138 reviews liked by Ptcremisi


a review just below me likened this to devil daggers but bad

this is devil daggers but actually fun. while it still has some pitfalls due to the nature of these "endless simple shooters" , it makes it infinitely more enjoyable by 1) making it so you can be hit by more than one thing and 2) movement. however that does not make me enjoy the game for more than a while. i find this genre so boring, because all it boils down to is "run in a circle killing shit while more shit spawns until you inevitably die. and they dont give a million different options for killing shit, its either the melee attack or an SMG. and while i dont have a problem with such limited options in general, in this context it breeds boredom. id want actual levels designed for such mechanics, and afaik this game will not be more than an endless shooter. i dabble in cybergrind every now and again, but my main reason for loving ultrakill isnt cybergrind, its the levels and perfecting them.

don't get me wrong, i did enjoy the game when it got chaotic. with the added movement it's certainly better than devil daggers. but its cumbersome to start a run over and over again and never feel like youre making any progress, getting angry and dying earlier and earlier. i think im gonna refund this one, but im happy i got to try it out.


maybe ill check it out in a few years again.

ps, if this review reads poorly i had a much better review but i deleted it accidentally so i rushed this one trying to remember all the points i made but the prose is worse.

More of the same of that arcade-y goodness, now with a few enhancements made to the presentation and campaign progression. Instead of the basic Point A to Point B from the first game, you are now heavily incentivized to play to the best of your abilities, as performing well not only rewards you with a cool spot on the newly added leaderboard at the end, but allows you to move along branching paths in the 1P mode. Top it off with a larger roster of both characters and songs, and it really is all you would need from a Bust A Groove/Move sequel.

Very much appreciated being able to select Capoeira from the get-go this time around, since I really liked their vibe in the first game. Glad to learn more about them as well, love my funky little aliens.

Shorter review than I usually try and put out, but I can't say much more here. Would strongly recommend these games, their style is one I wish I could see so much more of, from a gameplay perspective and just the general aesthetic. Play them!

i love you, short, quirky 90's rhythm games.

I enjoyed Bust A Groove (or Bust A Move, as I played it) a nice amount. About as much as I was expecting to, really. The gameplay is pretty simple once you actually figure out what they're asking of you and it doesn't take any longer than an hour to finish up a single character's campaign. At the moment, I've only seen Strike's ending, but I'm sure I'll be returning to this game occasionally to try out the rest.

The music is great and easy to follow, as should be the case with any rhythm game, though I think I would have appreciated a little more experimentation when it came to each song's tempo. Combos tend to blend together once you get far enough in, as much as I tried to vary my timing a bit, especially since there isn't all too much variation to the actual input strings themselves.

Other than that, I can't think of much else to say. It's a very arcade-y feeling PS1 game, and I enjoyed my time with it, most likely will enjoy my time with later down the line as well. For now, though, I also have to play the sequel. Thank you Ptcremisi for the recommendations.

Psychopomp is a perplexing, and unsettling 3D dungeon crawler that’s currently free on Steam. It’s intentionally esoteric in just about every aspect in its design. It has a kind of vibe that’s very reminiscent of other indie games like Milk inside a bag of milk or OFF, a sort of dark perversion of early-to-mid 2000s nostalgia with its fuzzy polygonal visuals and its ambient downtempo soundtrack. It’s not a game that especially blew me away, but it was a nice palate cleanser. It’s something different, something new that I hadn’t really played before. It’s very short, only an hour long, and it feels more like a small experiment than a fully realized project, but it was still a pretty solid time.

You play as an unnamed protagonist who is clearly very paranoid and believes everyone in the world is keeping secrets from her. She may even possibly be suffering from psychosis-induced hallucinations. She develops a helmet which she refers to as the “Psychopomp” that allows her to see “a world hidden in plain sight, with all sorts of animals and creatures and dead bodies.” According to her, “there are catacombs hidden underneath every public government building”, and she sets out to infiltrate those hidden catacombs and uncover their secrets.

Despite the game’s cryptic dialogue, I think the themes of its narrative are very clear. It’s very much a game about capitalism and how the system is abused to keep those with money in power while the common people suffer through neglect. The dungeons you explore are located beneath a sewage plant, children’s hospital, and a public school, and you discover how each of these locations feed off of or drain resources and materials from people. It’s commentary on how these institutions can fail those it was meant to provide for. Despite the protagonist’s behavior giving the impression that she’s insane, I think that her belief that everyone is keeping secrets from her is supposed to represent how complacent we as a society are in letting these institutions get away with a lot of the awful things they do. To the protagonist, any sensible person would realize that something needs to be done about the people who are running these places, but no one is doing anything about it but her. For the sake of transparency (and to hopefully avoid any sort of debate in the comments) I will be fully up-front and say that I don’t feel that I’m educated on these topics enough to be able to hold an extensive conversation regarding them, nor do I feel my stance on these topics is necessary to elaborate on for the purposes of this review. I’m just sharing my interpretation of this game’s narrative themes.

I’ve never played a dungeon crawler prior to this, so it was a bit of a challenge getting used to its controls. It may be 3D, but you don’t have a full range of motion, you can only move in the cardinal directions. You’re also limited in your ability to control the camera, you can only look around if you stand still and hold ctrl while moving your mouse. Despite being unusual and taking some getting used to, I didn’t really have any major issues with how the game controls until you’re forced to engage in combat. Combat feels really clunky. It’s very difficult to gauge your range of attack, and I found I often had to get in the enemies’ faces in order to be at a range to do damage to them. This basically forced me to stay in one place and mash left click while I prayed I killed them before they killed me. Thankfully there aren’t really many combat encounters in the game, but I definitely found this to be a sore spot. If you die, you do have to redo the entire dungeon from the very beginning, but the dungeons are so short and easy to navigate that it’s not as big of an inconvenience as it sounds.

The game’s biggest appeal to me is its presentation. Its art direction is excellent. The designs of all of the different creatures you encounter ride a fine line between grotesque and playfully unsettling. While environments can be very dark, the game uses various colored lights to great effect in different areas. I love the artstyle the protagonist is drawn in, it reminds me heavily of that late 2000s anime/Invader Zim-inspired art that could be found on DeviantArt back in the day. The soundtrack is also such a great listen, ambient downtempo is one of my favorite music genres and I really wish that more games used this kind of music in their soundtracks.

Psychopomp was a very refreshing game to play. It’s a neat trip that managed to really enthrall me with its aesthetics. It’s not revolutionary by any means, but I’d be hella down to play something like this that’s longer and more fleshed out, especially in regards to the combat. If you’re looking for something short but different, give this game a shot. It’s definitely not a game that’s going to be for everybody, but it’s free and it’s only an hour long, so you’ve got practically nothing to lose by giving this game a try.

First and foremost, I should be thanking my friend QuentTheSlayer for gifting Pseudoregalia to me a few months back during the Steam Winter Sale, go check him out, and thank you very much, Quent. I had heard about this game a little before that through a quick "check out these games!" sorta video, I thought the art looked pretty nice and I was intrigued by the concepts I had heard and the gameplay I had seen. It wasn't until another friend of mine also played through it recently and started singing its praises that I had finally decided to devote myself to it and boot it up.

It's a 3D Metroidvania type of deal, with a huge emphasis on its range of movement options that you will unlock throughout the game. That's easily its most notable aspect, the movement in Pseudoregalia can be absolutely stellar, with every ability having all the right tools to make platforming fun, as well as allowing you to challenge yourself upon coming across an obstacle that might seem impossible. Chances are, with the right amount of experimentation, you'll find a way through. I've always been a sucker for strong movement in any game that allows it, so naturally I'm gonna like what I'm given here.

I have a hard time praising much else, though. While yes, the platforming is fun when the opportunity arises, the actual world you will be exploring with your techniques can get very tedious to walk through. I even played this game after the map update, so, while I'm sure I didn't have it as bad as I could have, it still wasn't the best. The map does a somewhat poor job with its sense of direction, given that it's just a map, giving no details on your actual location. Very often would I find myself entering a room, only to immediately back out of it once I realized I was on the wrong path to my destination. Some rooms can also just prove relentlessly large in scale, with exits spanning multiple different walls and corners, as well as elevations.

To add even more, exploration can start to feel a bit aimless after enough time. There's not much of a story being told here, outside of the very beginning and the very end. There are a few pieces of lore strewn about with tombstones and bookshelves, I suppose. I just never felt I had a very clear goal the entire time I was playing, the number one collectible, being the Major Keys, aren't locked behind anything besides some quick platforming challenges, and collecting them still doesn't feel all too grand.

Maybe that's for the best though, since combat seems to be the least centric component of the game. The most you will ever gain to your weapon is the ability to charge an attack, and a projectile (which, even then, is still used more for hitting far-off switches than actually fighting). I guess you also have the option to toss your sword, but I can't recall any instances of it being necessary, nor can I think of any reason I would actually want to do that.
In combat, basic enemies will usually fall to a few slashes, and sometimes you'll come across an enemy that requires a few more. There is little impact to your hits, with the complete lack of animation on contact or upon death. They will instead shake a bit, and then slowly fade out once they've taken too much damage.
I do think I was also a little overhyped on the final boss. I definitely enjoyed it (and it was definitely the most fun I had while fighting anything in this game), but it's very simple to learn and adapt to, and by the time you've figured that out, it'll be over just a few moments later. The boss falls, you get a quick little conversation over a white background, and are swiftly sent back to the title screen to no fanfare. Just feels really abrupt and anticlimactic.

I can still remember having fun from time to time with Pseudoregalia, it's just that those times were always in rather short bursts, before I had to return to my clueless wandering around the map. I'd still recommend it, of course, but I think I went into it a little overly enthusiastic, and came out just a bit worn out and disappointed. I will still look forward to the dev's next project, Electrokinetic, though.



i think Sybil mighta awoken a little something in me

Came for the twins, stayed for the Kingdom of Elgado!

Monster Hunter Rise is often compared to its very popular predecessor MH World and I don't think a comparison between those two games is fair, as it's really just a case of apples and oranges. For the sake of explaining it, I'll give a rundown of the differences between the two entries though.

First of all, this game was designed for the Nintendo Switch in mind. Given the portable nature of this hybrid console, Rise streamlined the gameplay loop a fair bit in order to make it more accessible to a pick-up-and-play gamestyle. This includes faster hunts, monsters being instantly shown on the minimap, increased traversal options with the Palamutes and the ability to pause the game anytime when you're not playing with others - a very nice feature to have (which was missing in World)! As a tradeoff, it doesn't have the expansive ecosystem or the tracking of monster footprints from World, so it's less immersive in that regard. But those gameplay changes aren't necessarily bad, they're just different. I for one appreciate the fast-paced and direct nature of Rise; it's a welcome change after spending hundreds of hours with the slower gameplay of World. Rise's combat specialises in the usage of the wirebugs, they serve as a mechanic to either perform special skills (similar to the ones in Generations) or can be used for easy movement as a grappling hook. Getting used to these little fellas can feel weird at first, but once you know your way around them they're just a ton of fun to use and can totally change the way you approach certain monsters. As an example, the flagship monster Magnamalo inflicts a special debuff that can only be cleansed through wirebug usage, so you need to keep the bar in mind and use the dash whenever you want to cure the ailment. Alongside Magnamalo, most of the other newcomers in Rise are great to fight aswell! Goss Harag is probably my favorite new addition, love his Yeti-inspired design and the fight in general. Looking forward to many great fights in Sunbreak too!

The Village quests ease you fairly well into the game, even though the first set of ranks were quite boring for someone acquainted with the franchise. Still a good introduction for new hunters and even allows you to skip the entire Low Rank of the Hub quests. Speaking of the Gathering Hub, it's rather... desolate these days on the PC port. Atleast there's the Better Matchmaking mod, which removes the Region Lock and helps you find matches a bit faster, but having to rely on a mod for something as basic as worldwide play is quite a bummer. Note that this is not an issue with the original version of the game on Switch and was only added to the PC port for some strange reason, so the game itself can't really be blamed for this. Another cool mod I can recommend is RiseTweaks for removing the framerate cap on cutscenes - another thing that should have been in the PC port from the start! Anyways, finding multiplayer matches over join requests isn't that hard for key quests (good luck finding a partner for event quests on PC though) and you should be able to reach Master Rank in no time. I can't really comment on the Master Rank content yet, as I just started Sunbreak yesterday, but it's pretty amazing so far!

My final thoughts? Rise is another wonderful Monster Hunter game and I had a great time with the base game on PC despite the aforementioned strange issues with the port. Liked it so much that I got the Sunbreak bundle on Switch as well, so make of that what you will. I think you'll get a great experience on any platform, just pick between the eye candy version (PC) or the one with the thriving playerbase (Switch). Can't go wrong here!

First 2024 game finished and holy shit this game. THIS is the absolute shit right here. One of the best fighting games ever to come out this year.

Now first off i just want to talk about how absolutely gorgeous this game looks from the stages, character models and effects and it all just does it.
From the beautiful alpaca riddled Ortiz Farm that have the best music ever which not gonna lie i feel like is a callback to the Hidden Retreat stage in Tekken 6 but minus the yodeling in the soundtrack but instead of sheep it's full of alpacas and the stormy and chaotic Fallen Destiny which was used in the trailer and the last chapter and man that music goes hard and just hearing it i can picture Jin and Kazuya absolutely duking it out beating the shit out of each other all the way to the large luxury boat sailing in the beautiful sunset in France owned by one elegant French spy Victor Chevalier (one of the playable characters in the game) and man the music just perfectly encapsulates the boat party feel to it and is definitely reminiscent of the G-Corp helipad stage in Tekken 7 that being the EDM or House like music with a slight of jazz to it and it is one of the best things i've ever heard.

Aside from the stages the character models in here are just visually stunning and all look distinct and unique from each other and is a big step up from Tekken 7's almost lifeless looking characters like really their texture and facial animation is a real big upgrade like they actually human and not plastic dolls or something.

Despite it's current 32 total characters in the games roster which most of them are returning characters from previous games and some additional new faces like Victor, Azucena, and Reina that all do different things and have it's ups and downs, some are more powerful or stupidly overpowered to the point where they need to be nerfed but there's definitely like 1 or 3 characters that strike your fancy and make them your main and you can customize them to your heart's content if you have the right amount of gold to buy a certain item (but im sure you're already rich from all the character episodes and from playing the main story). Although the options are pretty limited at the moment it's still really fun to just dress up your character as characters from other media and many iconic legacy outfits that are present in Tekken 7 made it's appearance as a preset outfit whenever you play the game and it can be bought and customizable

The gameplay is what you come to expect from a Tekken game that being the fast-paced, adrenaline-inducing combat that everyone loves and they introduced a new mechanic called the Heat System which i feel like is the devs way of rewarding players that mostly rely on attacking and not so much defending and when activated not only do they do chip damage and it converts to health but also added additional movements and although the Heat bar doesn't last long, the bar doesn't deplete whenever you get hit.

That's all i want to say, go play the game 👍

An ambiguous story that flips a lot of the hero-dependent narratives of the period on their head. I get the whole Yoko Taro story structure thing has been done to death now that we live in a post-Nier world, but it's pretty fresh here. I dig this.

Playing this game will kind of make you want to die, but honestly it's pretty disorienting in the most captivating way possible.

I see a lot of people form the conclusion that this game is "bad on purpose" but I sort of resent the implication of that. I feel like this game was good on purpose. Often games are reduced to being either "fun" or "not fun" and that's so boring. Let a game make you feel like shit once or twice, you'll be better for it (and cooler, more badass etc. etc.)

Of the Mario Kart games I had played prior to this whole marathon I'm doing, Mario Kart Wii was the one I played the absolute least. I think the main reason for that is I got my wii in the latter half of 2010 and got this game for Christmas that year. However, next Christmas I got a 3DS and Mario Kart 7 and just never really went back to this one because the only time I was Mario Karting was on the school bus. Eventually 8 came out and that gave me even less of a reason to come back to this one. So it's been around 12 years since I last touched this game. As such, I gave this a 6 and thought it was just an average Mario Kart purely because I barely played it. Coming back to it in 2024 though, not only is it really great, it's my favorite Mario Kart I've played thus far in this marathon. I always thought I liked DS more overall since I had fonder memories with it but Wii is just more fun overall due to a couple things it did incredibly well.

The biggest and best thing Wii excelled at I think, is its new track selection. I honest to god don't think there's a single track I dislike. Maybe there's a couple tracks I think are just decent like Luigi Circuit or Mario Circuit but the track list is absolutely chock full of bangers. Mushroom Gorge, Toad's Factory, Coconut Mall, DK Summit, Wario's Gold Mine, Koopa Cape, Maple Treeway and this game's Rainbow Road. Those are just some of my absolute favorites but the rest are really good too. I know 7 and 8's original tracks already, and I've played through most of Double Dash's through other games in the series and also have seen the tracks that have not appeared in other games. With that said, I can say without a shadow of a doubt, Mario Kart Wii has the best selection of original courses out of every game in the series. The ratio of amazing/good courses is just too high for me not to claim that to be true. Either way, certainly a big reason this game is still a ton of fun to this day.

Something else this game did well was it's retro track selection. It may not be as good as 8's or even 7's for that matter, but it's leagues better than DS's I think. A big reason for that is half of the courses aren't from SNES or Super Circuit. And the ones that were, are a lot better this time around. Same with the Double Dash picks, Peach Beach is meh but Waluigi Stadium and DK mountain are awesome picks. The N64 picks are pretty solid too. Only one I think this game did dirty was DS. Peach Gardens and Delfino Square, while not my favorites from DS, were both pretty good. However, the other two courses are Yoshi Falls and Desert Hills which were some of my least favorites from DS. They could've picked some fan favorites like Waluigi Pinball or Airship Fortress but no, they picked some of the lamest courses. Hey, 7 actually had those two courses in its retro selection so I'll definitely be looking forward to them when I get to that game. Anyways, the retro selection could've been better but it's a big improvement from DS's selection.

The other big addition this game added was the trick system. Every Mario Kart after this one also has it too and there's a good reason why they've kept it ever since. It makes ramps that much more fun to drive off of, it's just super satisfying to shake the controller and see your kart do the most sick tricks in the air. Same with the half-pipe ramps which are an amazing addition as well. Honestly, they're usually slower than just driving if they're optional ones but courses like DK Pass or Bowser's Castle where they're pretty much mandatory (unless you have a mushroom) make those levels that much more fun to play and gives the game it's own identity since 8 did away with them (they are actually back in the Booster Courses but I haven't played those).

All this stuff is great and makes me enjoy this game a ton, but I do have a couple issues with this game that makes me like it less than 8 still. One of the biggest issues is the game's balancing. Another thing the game added was bikes which was huge. The developers must've had a huge hard on for them though as they're WAY better than any of the karts. The inside drift bikes especially are just too broken. So basically, there's two types of bikes. Outward drift and inward drift. Outward drift asks like a kart basically while inward drift makes it so as soon as you start to drift you can only drift sharply into the direction. Kinda hard to explain but if you've played the game you know. I remember hating inward drifting when I played this game all the way back in the day. Now though, I find inward drifting bikes to be a really fun and not nearly as annoying to use. However, like I said they're just too broken since you can cut corners insanely fast and also instead of getting a two stage mini turbo, you only get the one stage blue sparks but in turn you can perform a wheelie at any time by shaking the wiimote and that gives you a small speed boost. Because of all this, once I got the Mach Bike or Flame Runner, I just never used a kart or outside drift bike again just cuz there's no need to. 8 definitely fixed this cuz the balancing between the two is much better in that game.

A couple other issues I had was the item frequency and the battle mode being poor. The items can be super obnoxious in this game at times. I really don't know why but it's just super easy to get spammed with blue shells when in first. There were a couple games where I'd be hit by a blue shell like 7 times in one game. And plenty of times where I'd be hit by one and then hit by lightning, this game is just insane when it comes to it's items and sometimes it's just not fun. The battle mode I also remember not being that great back in the day. The courses were solid and all but the issue was you're forced to be on teams and cannot ever have it be a free for all. This is just lame and while it's not as bad as base 8's battle mode, it certainly isn't that far off. Also I was gonna say the bloom can really make the game look ugly or weird at times but honestly I got used to it pretty quickly and don't have much of an issue with it like I once thought. Still think Double Dash looks better than this game especially since some of the character models still aren't that great looking (not nearly as mad as DS tho).

I was also gonna say how it stinks to unlock every character because a couple of them require you to get a star or more on every cup(or just play and absurd amount of races) and the way to get star rank is a little weird in this game but I was actually able to do it in the end. Got one star or higher in 50, 100 and 150cc as well as unlocking every expert ghost time trial so I was able to unlock every character. Didn't feel like doing mirror mode though so I didn't get every kart but I feel pretty satisfied with what I did. Never unlocked a lot of stuff in this game back then when I played so it felt good to finally do so.

Overall, while I had some minor issues, this was easily the best Mario Kart game I've played thus far in this marathon. I'm super happy I redeemed myself with this game because a ton of my friends love it and I can finally see why they do. Really wish I played this more with my buds back in the day haha, ah well. Next up is Mario Kart 7 so look forward to that soon!

g...gumi...........

As much as I would love to keep up the bit and give this game another 5 star rating like I did with Project Mirai, I have to be honest eventually. You can really see what they wanted to do with Megpoid the Music, but unfortunately it did not go well in the slightest.

To get the good out of the way first, it's GUMI. I love her very much. The song selection is surprisingly pretty good, even if it's only 30 quick songs. Ten-Faced is great, Mozaik Role is obviously a fantastic inclusion, Life Reset Button look I can't just clog this review with GUMI songs. If you're a fan of her, you're gonna like what you find here. If you're not, this is a really good way to become one.

This would all be fine and good if the actual gameplay that accompanied each song was fun as well. This game suffers from some pretty horribly timed charting, half the time I couldn't even tell what they were trying to do. Not all of it, mind you. When a majority of the rhythm game isn't fun to play, you appreciate the decent-good charts a hell of a lot more, but that's a very rare occasion.

Sucks to see this is the only game of her own. I didn't hate it, but I can't call it good. Maybe one day she'll have her comeback, I just want to see Gumi thrive for once.

anyway hey while you're here
listen
to
these
thank u