Skwidy
2019
A short and fun game where you explore an island and climb up to its peak.
2022
Incredible open world that is extremely dense and fun to explore. Unlike many other open world games, this game forces you to find everything in the world. So it doesn't litter your map with a million icons, nor does it give you an extensive quest log. This makes exploring the world much more rewarding. It helps that you will constantly be finding new things.
Despite the game being open world, From Software still find ways to incorporate their classic level design in the game. This is largely done through legacy dungeons, which are extremely well designed classic Dark Souls levels. These levels constantly double back on themselves and are filled with little hidden paths to find.
Combat is pretty standard Dark Souls, but refined. There is now an attack you can do when you block an attack, which feels very good and is a very welcome addition. Now that there is a jump button, you can also do jump attacks which is really useful for closing distances. The new addition that brings the entire combat system together is that every enemy now has a hidden poise meter of sorts. This meter can be dropped with any attack, but strong attacks/strong jump attacks are necessary for dropping it to zero. Once dropped to zero, you get a critical hit on the enemy. All these additions make the combat much more strategic and fun, than the Dark Souls games.
From Software's titles are known to be quite difficult, and Elden Ring isn't any different. You should expect to die many times going into the game. However, this game isn't nearly as punishingly difficult as some may have you believe. Most of the game is very doable, but if you run into something too difficult, you can just go off and do something else. You can summon NPCs or other players to make the game significantly easier. The game also adds in items called Ashes which allow you to summon various characters into battle. The game doesn't have an easy mode, but you can absolutely make the game much easier for yourself through summons and through building your character certain ways like going for sorceries instead of greatswords.
Elden Ring not only great Souls game, but also one of the best open world games ever made. The combat is very fun and satisfying. The world constantly surprises with new and unique things, which makes exploration rewarding. Overall, I highly recommend Elden Ring anyone who doesn't hate souls game.
Despite the game being open world, From Software still find ways to incorporate their classic level design in the game. This is largely done through legacy dungeons, which are extremely well designed classic Dark Souls levels. These levels constantly double back on themselves and are filled with little hidden paths to find.
Combat is pretty standard Dark Souls, but refined. There is now an attack you can do when you block an attack, which feels very good and is a very welcome addition. Now that there is a jump button, you can also do jump attacks which is really useful for closing distances. The new addition that brings the entire combat system together is that every enemy now has a hidden poise meter of sorts. This meter can be dropped with any attack, but strong attacks/strong jump attacks are necessary for dropping it to zero. Once dropped to zero, you get a critical hit on the enemy. All these additions make the combat much more strategic and fun, than the Dark Souls games.
From Software's titles are known to be quite difficult, and Elden Ring isn't any different. You should expect to die many times going into the game. However, this game isn't nearly as punishingly difficult as some may have you believe. Most of the game is very doable, but if you run into something too difficult, you can just go off and do something else. You can summon NPCs or other players to make the game significantly easier. The game also adds in items called Ashes which allow you to summon various characters into battle. The game doesn't have an easy mode, but you can absolutely make the game much easier for yourself through summons and through building your character certain ways like going for sorceries instead of greatswords.
Elden Ring not only great Souls game, but also one of the best open world games ever made. The combat is very fun and satisfying. The world constantly surprises with new and unique things, which makes exploration rewarding. Overall, I highly recommend Elden Ring anyone who doesn't hate souls game.
This game is absolutely delightful. So friggin cute. The music is amazing. The is just fun to play. Its like any great Kirby game, but in 3d which is so incredibly fresh.
The game isn't always stupidly easy either. Every level has hidden waddle dees to find and challenges, which are never difficult but kept me engaged. There are also little optional speedrunning challenges in the game centered around specific copy abilities and mouthful modes which can be quite challenging to complete. Also postgame stuff can get challenging as well.
The game isn't always stupidly easy either. Every level has hidden waddle dees to find and challenges, which are never difficult but kept me engaged. There are also little optional speedrunning challenges in the game centered around specific copy abilities and mouthful modes which can be quite challenging to complete. Also postgame stuff can get challenging as well.
2022
A fantastic secret filled zelda-like game. Discovering mechanics I could have done at the beginning of the game from a new collected page of the in-game instruction manual is a very satisfying feeling. I freaked out a little when I finally figured what the holy cross was.
Only major problem with the game is that the combat isn't very good. It's not bad, it's just subpar, which is disappointing when so many games of this style have come out recently with great combat like Unsighted and Hades. Since the combat isn't great, the couple difficulty spikes in the game are a tad frustrating, but never felt impossibly difficult.
This game has a true ending of sorts which I have not gotten (and I don't think I will). It requires you to unearth like 30 secrets in the game using the instruction manual. I did a bunch of them and its quite fun and satisfying to solve these, however it starts to feel like a chore. Some of the things the game asks you to do take far to much time (e.g. the puzzle to open the door at the top of the mountain) and just don't feel worth it to me. That said, if you like hunting down secrets in video games, you are going to have a great time in Tunic.
Only major problem with the game is that the combat isn't very good. It's not bad, it's just subpar, which is disappointing when so many games of this style have come out recently with great combat like Unsighted and Hades. Since the combat isn't great, the couple difficulty spikes in the game are a tad frustrating, but never felt impossibly difficult.
This game has a true ending of sorts which I have not gotten (and I don't think I will). It requires you to unearth like 30 secrets in the game using the instruction manual. I did a bunch of them and its quite fun and satisfying to solve these, however it starts to feel like a chore. Some of the things the game asks you to do take far to much time (e.g. the puzzle to open the door at the top of the mountain) and just don't feel worth it to me. That said, if you like hunting down secrets in video games, you are going to have a great time in Tunic.
2019
Best puzzle game I have ever played. It is stupidly creative. Puzzles in games like in The Witness or Portal tend to be quite similar to each, but each level in Baba is You feel very distinct from each. The game does get absurdly difficult, but that makes solving the games puzzles very satisfying. Not to mention how satisfying and amusing it is to create an unkillable Baba by making Baba have a box which immediatly turns into a Baba..
If you are in the mood for an open-world game with a ton of quests and points on a map to check off, you can't really go wrong with Horizon. The game is gorgeous, the combat is fun, the plot is engaging, and it is overall very polished.
However, it left me feeling kinda meh overall. The combat is fun, but gets overly repetitive by the end as there isn't much to it. You dodge roll and shoot arrows at weak points and that's about it. I enjoyed the plot, but much of dialogue was quite boring. Alloy is such a boring character, and characters she surrounds herself with aren't any better. The world is gorgeous, but there isn't anything to explore. It's all cookie cutter content, that is clearly labeled.
As an open world game, it's higher quality than your typical Ubisoft title. Though it isn't that much better at the end of the day.
However, it left me feeling kinda meh overall. The combat is fun, but gets overly repetitive by the end as there isn't much to it. You dodge roll and shoot arrows at weak points and that's about it. I enjoyed the plot, but much of dialogue was quite boring. Alloy is such a boring character, and characters she surrounds herself with aren't any better. The world is gorgeous, but there isn't anything to explore. It's all cookie cutter content, that is clearly labeled.
As an open world game, it's higher quality than your typical Ubisoft title. Though it isn't that much better at the end of the day.
2017
Yooka-Laylee doesn't quite live up to Banjo-Kazooie. It has much of the same fun and charm of Banjo, but it often feels like an unpolished imitation of Banjo than a true successor. I would still recommend fans of the original give this game a shot, but expect to get irritated at many parts.
I'll start out positive and say that the controls are pretty solid for a 3d platformer. You have a double jump and a hover ability, which makes platforming require less precision. It feels good hopping around the levels. There is also a roll ability which acts as your sprint and feels pretty good to use. Also collecting Pagies and Quills is just as satisfying as collecting Jiggies and Notes.
While the controls are good, the camera is not. The camera frequently gets stuck on things, and when it's not getting stuck on things the game barely lets you control the darn thing. The frequently times I wanted to point the camera down at something below me, but the game just wouldn't let me do it. Many abilities Yooka and Laylee have require stamina, which just feels more like an annoyance than an interesting mechanic. Even worse, it takes like 10 seconds or so of waiting around until your stamina regenerates back to full, which is an awkwardly long time.
This game has similar problems to Tooie in that the levels are too big and require moves from later levels, but it's much worse in this game as the levels are significantly bigger than even Tooie's levels. It slows game down quite a bit, and makes it harder to figure out where you have and haven't gone. Plus all the levels feel like a bunch of small levels glued together instead of one coherent thing, which just kinda sucks.
The bosses and minigames also suck. They're not particularly fun and all take much longer than they should. I could forgive the bosses if some of the bosses weren't weirdly difficult. Dying to the last phase of a boss and having to do it all over again is such a drag. Every level has a "Rextro Arcade" minigame, which might make you think it will be styled like a retro arcade game, but no there all 3d and you play as Yooka-Laylee in all of the them. If you want to 100% the game, you will need play each of these at least twice because the game ties two pagies to each for some reason.
Overall, I did enjoy much of my time with Yooka-Laylee, but it never reached the same highs as Banjo. Plus, I often found myself irritated with the larger than necessary levels, awful camera, unnecessary stamina system, and particularly annoying Pagies. It's not nearly as good as Banjo-Kazooie, but I am at least happy that they tried.
I'll start out positive and say that the controls are pretty solid for a 3d platformer. You have a double jump and a hover ability, which makes platforming require less precision. It feels good hopping around the levels. There is also a roll ability which acts as your sprint and feels pretty good to use. Also collecting Pagies and Quills is just as satisfying as collecting Jiggies and Notes.
While the controls are good, the camera is not. The camera frequently gets stuck on things, and when it's not getting stuck on things the game barely lets you control the darn thing. The frequently times I wanted to point the camera down at something below me, but the game just wouldn't let me do it. Many abilities Yooka and Laylee have require stamina, which just feels more like an annoyance than an interesting mechanic. Even worse, it takes like 10 seconds or so of waiting around until your stamina regenerates back to full, which is an awkwardly long time.
This game has similar problems to Tooie in that the levels are too big and require moves from later levels, but it's much worse in this game as the levels are significantly bigger than even Tooie's levels. It slows game down quite a bit, and makes it harder to figure out where you have and haven't gone. Plus all the levels feel like a bunch of small levels glued together instead of one coherent thing, which just kinda sucks.
The bosses and minigames also suck. They're not particularly fun and all take much longer than they should. I could forgive the bosses if some of the bosses weren't weirdly difficult. Dying to the last phase of a boss and having to do it all over again is such a drag. Every level has a "Rextro Arcade" minigame, which might make you think it will be styled like a retro arcade game, but no there all 3d and you play as Yooka-Laylee in all of the them. If you want to 100% the game, you will need play each of these at least twice because the game ties two pagies to each for some reason.
Overall, I did enjoy much of my time with Yooka-Laylee, but it never reached the same highs as Banjo. Plus, I often found myself irritated with the larger than necessary levels, awful camera, unnecessary stamina system, and particularly annoying Pagies. It's not nearly as good as Banjo-Kazooie, but I am at least happy that they tried.
This is essentially just an expansion of the minigame from Planet Robobot. The gameplay is exactly the same as the minigame, but with new levels and boss fights added. The game also challenges you to get a gold ranking on every level to unlock harder versions of those levels and a "secret path", which I decided not to do, but certainly adds a lot of challenge and extends the playtime if that's what you desire. If you liked the minigame in Planet Robobot, I'd say this is well worth the price.
2016
It is Box-Boy, but with TWO boxes now! Neat!
2022
I dug this game. It's straight up an old samurai film turned video game. They managed to make this old black and white movie art style stupidly pretty. The way they position the camera for all the areas in the game often feels very artsy. By far the visuals are best part of the game.
I've seen a lot of people complain about the combat, but it isn't that bad. It's actually quite satisfying cutting down foes in a couple sword swings. That said, the combat lacks depth. Throughout the game you learn various combos, some of which if you land will allow you to one-shot enemies AND give a bit of health back. At the end of game you end up spamming these combos over and over without much thought, because they are stupidly effective. Thus, the game starts to get dull and repetitive in the last couple hours, which is not so good when the game is only about 6 hours long or so. So the combat isn't bad perse, and I liked it for the first couple hours of the game, it just could be quite a bit better.
Trek to Yomi is a pretty good game. Definitely recommend to anyone who has game pass.
I've seen a lot of people complain about the combat, but it isn't that bad. It's actually quite satisfying cutting down foes in a couple sword swings. That said, the combat lacks depth. Throughout the game you learn various combos, some of which if you land will allow you to one-shot enemies AND give a bit of health back. At the end of game you end up spamming these combos over and over without much thought, because they are stupidly effective. Thus, the game starts to get dull and repetitive in the last couple hours, which is not so good when the game is only about 6 hours long or so. So the combat isn't bad perse, and I liked it for the first couple hours of the game, it just could be quite a bit better.
Trek to Yomi is a pretty good game. Definitely recommend to anyone who has game pass.
2021
Really fun and solid co-op game. The game has some extremely well-tuned game feel to it. It just feels so good to move around in the game. The animation and art-style are quite good as well. Something particularly cool is how frequently the game changes up what you are doing. For the most part it's a simple puzzle platformer, but there moments where it changes to stuff like a 2d fighting game or to like a top-down action game. The sheer breadth of ideas at display is really cool.
I do have some issues with however. For a very linear co-op game, the game is bit too long. There are certainly some weak sections of the game that could have been cut to make it fun throughout the whole game and make the game less of a chore to get through. Moreover, the story is awful. It just doesn't tackle divorce with much nuance at all. The message seems to be to never get a divorce, just try to rediscover your love. That's nice, but not great general advice, and kinda feels like the protagonists probably should get a divorce. They don't seem to give a shit at all about their daughter who is now alone with her practically dead parents. The character "Book of Love" constantly pops up and is just an awful character. So yeah, play the game for the fun gameplay and cool art style, not so much the story.
I do have some issues with however. For a very linear co-op game, the game is bit too long. There are certainly some weak sections of the game that could have been cut to make it fun throughout the whole game and make the game less of a chore to get through. Moreover, the story is awful. It just doesn't tackle divorce with much nuance at all. The message seems to be to never get a divorce, just try to rediscover your love. That's nice, but not great general advice, and kinda feels like the protagonists probably should get a divorce. They don't seem to give a shit at all about their daughter who is now alone with her practically dead parents. The character "Book of Love" constantly pops up and is just an awful character. So yeah, play the game for the fun gameplay and cool art style, not so much the story.
If you like Metroidvanias, do yourself a favor and play this game. Making the game a pinball game instead of a platformer is a really fun and fresh take on the genre. I had really great time exploring the map and finding all the little collectibles. The music is great as well. The pinball sometimes requires you to be annoyingly precise with timing the flippers, but it's not too frequent. Overall, it's a fun game!
2019
This game is basically Luigi's Mansion, but you have guns instead of a vacuum cleaner.
This is how you make DLC. Your DLC shouldn't just be additional content for content's sake, but actually add something to the game. This DLC has some of the coolest bosses/enemies in bloodborne. Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower is easily one of my favorite boss fights of all time. The levels are gorgeous and incredibly surreal. Like it actually feels like your in a strange dream world. Also, if you found the original game too easy, this DLC will likely kick your ass, which is great for the veterans of the game. Most importantly of all though, it adds some rad weapons to the game. The original game lacked a bit of weapon variety imo, but the DLC fixes that issue.
This game really makes you FEEL like you are commiting tax evasion.