Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley is a very sweet, cozy and charming game. Fans of the saga and especially the old animated 90s series or the books will like it, as both the artstyle and the stories seems like a perfect blend of the two. You’ll get to explore Moominvalley and meet most of the characters from the universe. Pretty good dialogue. The controls are also easy and intuitive.

I personally like that they didn’t hold back on Snufkin’s anarchism. He will destroy signs and even pick apart whole damn parks, and the anti-authoritarianism is treated like it’s heroic and not vandalism. For a game aimed towards children, I find that especially endearing in a way. The Groke scenes are also quite scary, and will appeal to those who remember it from the TV series. The relationship between Moomin and Snufkin are also exactly made in a way so you can interpret it how you see fit. (I see them as best friends personally.)

Only drawback is that it’s not a very difficult game, but I guess it goes more for being chill and almost meditative. It’s critiqued for being a bit short, but I think the length is alright. It’s a game anyone can play. It has a very nice end and animated sequences too.

I had a good time playing through Gabriel Knight: Sins Of The Father. It’s one of those 90s classics in the point and click genre I never played in the past, and it’s often listed as one of the best ones.

You are playing as Gabriel Knight, a struggling author who also runs a private bookstore. He has an assistant clerk working for him, Grace and a friend in the police, Mosley. The setting is there has been a succession of unsolved voodoo murders in town, and it’s pretty uncertain what is going on. Is it actually real voodoo? Or just murders made to look like they are? The police considers them fake voodoo, but your role is to do your own private investigation to write your book. Another part of the plot is Gabriel family history, which may or may not be connected to the story. Gabriel himself is a weird kind of person. Haunted by nightmares, a bit of a mess, and strangely sleazy to most women. Since the game is written by a woman I suppose it’s by design. Voiced by Tim Curry, which was an interesting choice.

I can see why GB is so beloved. There’s a very realistic feeling to New Orleans, and the characters and the setting that sets it all apart. The music is fitting, and the voice-acting is superb. There is a lot of dialogue though, but it’s extremely well written, and you’ll learn a lot about the history of voodoo and the everything else. I also liked how it’s divided into days.

The best part is when you meet an old lady who tells you about what is going on in town, and you learn about the voodoo scene in town, and how they are on to you and even people you know. One days a creepy guy looking through the window of the store. That was a great touch. It’s creepy and tense, and it get’s worse as the plot unfolds. The build up is masterful. I do however think there’s a slight disappointment when the mystery is revealed, although I’m not sure why I think so. It works, I’ll admit, but it’s a bit far out. Perhaps it reveals too much? Not as detailed as the earlier parts?

The very last part of the game also has a bit of the same structure as Kings Quest 6, where you can get to the ending, but if you missed something you can’t properly finish it while you have no way of knowing. I am personally not a fan of these, but seemed trendy at Sierra in those days. I also thought the zombie parts were a bit annoying.

I got stuck around 3-4 times in the game before having to use some minor hints at Uhs-hints.com, which is quite much for my «no hints allowed» standards. So the game was fairly hard at times for me, I’d say, but if you are patient most puzzles can be solved like with most games in this genre.
Either way, recommended.

I played the original many times in the past, but not the remastered version. I think I would recommend this version as it's just modest polishing up graphics just like Grim Fandango. Didn't mess with anything else. (With Monkey Island 1+2 I still prefer the original graphics)

Full Throttle is a great biker related point & clickgame with a great story and great voiceacting and great characters and great most things. It's a little short perhaps, and perhaps the action sequences isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I personally like them. Another classic from Tim Schafer and LucasArts.

Not Another Weekend is a good choice if you’re into the old point & click games from the 80s and 90s. I wasn’t 100% convinced at first, but it really grew on me. There’s just so many newer point & click games that tries to capture the feel of the old ones that it has become a bit difficult for all of them to stand out, but it slowly convinced me more and more that this is a very solid and unique game.

The game is set in a cheap hotel in 80s, and you play as Mike, the bellboy who hates his job and is whipped around by his awful boss. For some bizarre reason he keeps the brain of his uncle in a jar, down in the basement, who he believes is telling him to get all the guests at the hotel to leave, as well as all the employees who works there to quit. All within the weekend. Quite a task, and it might take some quite extreme measures in some cases.

It feels a bit like Maniac Mansion as you’re basically inside one building with lots of rooms. There’s a very unique gallery of characters, and the humor is very funny and things easily get a bit out there. A lot of cheesy 80’s pop cultural references to action characters like The Terminator, Steven Seagall and Jean Claud Van Damme. Oh, and Hulk Hogan. Maybe Turtles too. Kind of. A lot of quirky characters.

In the later stage of the game things get more eerie and mysterious and you get to reveal what’s going on in the hotel, but i won't spoil it.

I also notice it’s marked as a bit "lewd" on Steam, but it’s nothing worse than a South Park or Family Guy episode, and it’s all pretty silly.

The game is probably closer to LucasArts in spirit than Sierra. You can never die, and its built around comedy. If you like Day Of The Tentacle, ZakMacKracken, Maniac Mansion, and want a modern alternative, this one you should try.

As for cons I kind of missed voiceacting when the game started, but I quickly got used to it. The overall reveal when it’s said and done is also little bit odd, but everything else is so fun in this game it doesn’t matter. Check it out!

Grim Fandango holds up! I played through it around 2006 the first time, so this is technically a replay, but I remembered very little. This was still quite challenging to get through.

If someone has issues with the controls the Remastered version fixes this and you can steer with the mouse. The graphics are also improved, so don't doubt if you're not sure if you're to play the Remastered version or the original.

I think the concept for Grim Fandango is very original. The film noir setting gives it a special feel and atmosphere, and the game plays with the tropes and stereotypes in a clever way. The characters are good, although I sometimes missed more depth in some of them as well as in "the lore", but it's still good enough. The puzzles are well made, like LucasArts games almost always are, but are quite hard at times, but if you're patient it's never impossible.

It's a pretty long game, especially compared to Full Throttle. I can recommend Grim Fandango for sure.

Played this with a friend for a whole evening on 2 player on my Sega Mini. I always heard it was extremely weird. I can see how it got that rumour, because it's true. I don't think I've played a game that I could compare it to.

It's about exploring a map with these islands. with a lot of quirky characters and bizarre situations scattered around. You find small gifts with strange abilities.

Without always knowing what you are trying to find you'll eventually find something that makes you progress. An elevator taking you to the next stage, even if you can fall back to the last level if you are unlucky.

It does feel like exploration is the main theme. With 2 player the screen splits, and it does have a unique feel to it. I quite liked it. Very novel and weird game.

I'm rating this based solely on the demo, as the game hasn't been released at the time of writing.

Lucy Dreaming was an amazing game, one of my favorites from last year, and this is the studio's next game, which appears to be in the same captivating style. It seems very promising and is based on the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story, albeit with its own twist.

I appreciate the mechanic of playing as Jekyll and Hyde and the incorporation of the night/day feature. It does remind me a bit of 'Day Of The Tentacle' where you can play in three different time periods. Even though it's just a demo, you can explore a reasonably large area.

The demo took approximately 90 minutes for me to finish. It exudes a certain dark humor, as seen in the content of the pie you receive, for example, but it's all in good fun.

F*** this is terrifying. Help Wantes is a good choice if you’re looking for a good horror game on VR. I’ve seen my share of horror movies, but can’t remember feeling this anxious and scared about playing a game in ages. I don't have that much experience with the PC games before playing this. I was just originally just looking for some horror experiences when I got an Oculus Quest 2, and stumbled over the world of FNAF, which I was just barely familiar with from before.

The only catch with FNAF is what’s also could be considered one of it’s strengths. The jumpscares. It’s sort of built on it. Someone has critiqued FNAF for being a «jumpscare simulator». I don’t know if that is fair. The big question is if the jumpscares in FNAF are cheap or if they're a stroke of genius. I tend to lean towards the latter (to my own surprise, actually). In movies I tend to generally consider jumpscares a cheap tactic to scare a viewer, but in FNAF it’s usually not just random non-sensical jumpscares coming out of nowhere. They’re more like ‘elecrical shocks’ when you’re failing the task, which keeps you on your toes, and you can see coming, so it’s different than just cheap jumpscares. However, if you’re someone who can’t deal with jumpscares, then there’s more suitable choices in horror for VR.

FNAF are not just about jumpscares luckily. There's also something genuinely creepy with the universe, the music and sounds, and the characters, the secrets and the story aka «the lore». It’s just extremely well made. The games are also fun when you get into them of course.

My goal is to complete this game with all the minigames and secrets one day, maybe even the DLC, but I’m not sure if I can, but hey, I will keep trying.

In my quest to complete the LucasFilm/LucasArts adventure games Labyrinth : The Computer Game (1986) was my very last stop before completion. I have been curious about this one for years.

If Maniac Mansion and ZakMackracken are the grandfathers of point and click adventure games, then this is more like like a pre-historic species of the genre. While one could perhaps argue its no more primitive than the oldest Sierra games (Kings Quest, Space Quest, Larry, etc), that is true, but those games really are similar the later ones in those respected series with its cursor and typing based interface.

Labyrinth neither looks or feels like later games by LucasArts, but it's interesting to see what they had before the SCUMM system. They refused to use typing, so you have a scrolling wheel instead.

It certainly feels like a relic from the past, but its surprsingly alright and I guess you have to take it for what it is.

The first part of the game is more like a text adventure, but when you enter the fantasy world (the Labyrinth) it becomes a graphical adventyre, and you can control your customized character around with a joystick. There's characters to interact with, some stuff to pick up and some puzzles, and plenty of places to explore.

If you have watched the movie it helps with the puzzles.

The thing that's perhaps most similar to LucasArts games is the humor, because it does have some funny humor and situations, which would be a staple in most LucasArts games later.

Beyond that its very quirky, feels a little bit dated, controls a bit wonky, and you walk a little bit slow - but still is undeniably charming if you get into it, and if you are into the history of the adeventure game genre it's a must to experience Labyrinth. If not, any other LucasArts adventure game is recommended before this one.

I loaded up my Amiga and discovered this shooter for the system. This is a fun and challenging shoot'em up, and it's very unusual too, since you play as an insect (and not a spaceship). You play as a wasp, and all the enemies are snails, beatles and so on. Later on you shoot fishes. It also has some huge and pretty cool large bosses. It's supposed to be within a story where some kind of wizard has enchanted you or whatever. The music is also very catchy. I didn't intend to beat it, but since it was nail hards I used some of the custumized codes that were modded into the game. It was still very hard. The last boss took forever to beat. I would recommend Apidya, if you like a unique and well made "shmup". It does not exist on any other system which makes it an Amiga novelty.

I played this on the real SNES console with a cart previously owned by Mr. Wuratti here on Backlogged. I also re-watched all the movies while playing this.

It's a game that strangely has packed the 3 original movies into one game. That is a lot. So you're playing thorugh the story of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Temple Of Doom and Last Crusade in order. It feels like they perhaps tried to chew too much at once here, but hey, damn ambitious. You kind of get 3 games in 1 here.

The controls are good and responsive, and it's mostly fun to play and use your whip to swing around and take out enemies. Music and graphics are also pretty top notch for the SNES era, I would say. No complaints here.

The difficulty level is a bit all over the place though. Some areas I would just breeze through, while others I could get stuck on for quite a while. You could flip a coin if the level was going to be easy or hard. The part where you have to drive the minecart and shoot other carts + to change the railing on tracks I remember as one I found as one of the most frustrating ones. Strangely the start level with the huge rolling boulder was also much tougher than most of the later game. So the difficulty seemed very unbalanced.

The game also has passwords, and gives new ones out pretty regularly. Almost too often. If it wasn't for that this game would be almost unbearable to play though.

Sometimes the bosses feels like pushovers and other times not. This made me feel like the game is possibly a bit unpolished, and that some corners had to be cut maybe. Which is a little unfortunate, as this could have been classic level otherwise.. Still, I definitely recommend it. Especially if you like Indiana Jones.

Played over a period of 20 days. I'm not an experienced Pokemon player, having only played through Blue/Red in the past previously, but damn, while the game was pretty easy for a while it got harder in the last third. The last Elite Four + Champion match was surprisingly tough. Victory Road was also a bit tricky finding your way through.

I played the final battle with a team of Milotic, Groudon, Salamence, Breloom, Gardevoir and Manectric, and with Max Potions and Revives in the bag. Especially Milotic and Salamence takes quite some effort getting. Which I researched my way to recognize would be a pretty damn OP team. I thought I would sweep through it all.

Not completely. In my first couple of attempts I failed. Only in my third attempt I managed to do it successfully. Milotic's Ice Beam and Hydro Pump, and Manectric's Thunderbolt would be deal breakers, but, wow, it was quite challenging. I'm impressed if people beat it with weaker and more random Pokemons.

Anyway! If you like Pokemon it's a pretty good game. It's quite like Red and Blue but with more additional features, basically. Most notably (except colors) berries, Pokemon items, "nature" elements like weather, the Pokeblock contest (which was a bit odd), and 2 vs 2 matches, and a couple of other things. Also, a bunch of new Pokemons, even if there was quite a few of the original generation here too.

My only problem with games like these is they can get a bit too addicting, and depending a little too much on grinding. Which can be timeconsuming, and tiring, yet weirdly addicting at the same time. However, it's pretty good escapism if that's what you're after. I quite understand the success of this franchise.

I've played Maniac Mansion several times in the past, and probably gotten to around 50% of it, but only recently did I put in the effort to actually play through the whole game, and with all the different endings.

Maniac Mansion is a game of its time that you have to see for what it was when it came out (1987), but was something truly unique and that would have enormous influence on later games. It feels more like a type of game that tries to find its form, and stumbles a bit, but in the end gets there - but still it's important to remember what a stepping stone it was for what to come later. I personally consider the first Monkey Island to be the first game LucasArts really mastered the format, but Maniac Mansion undeniable paved the way to get there and is a good game on its own.

Compared to it's excellent sequel Day Of The Tentacle, that still holds up perfectly today, Maniac Mansion shows it's age at times and seems quite rough around the edges. I miss verbal commands like "talk to" or "look at". Other verbal commands seems superfluous. Certain puzzles also seems odd and clumsy, but most of it is still good and fun to figure out.

Maniac Mansion is clearly inspired by campy horror b-films, but like most LucasArts games, its really more of a comedy game. At times it is very funny, and there's a sense of childlike creativity and silliness that serves the game, since the story isn't exactly very deep (nor does it try to be). Even if I have to say that the concept of an evil living purple meteor is quite bizarre.

The idea of being able to choose from different characters to solve parts of the game differently is unique, and I don't think even many games since has done this. It's clever, and gives you a reason to beat the game several times with the different characters to see all the different endings.

That said it seems they could have done more with this unique concept too, and some of it seems half-baked. For example Razor and Syd are both musicians and do the exact same thing, (they even play the exact same song, which I at least expected they could switch out!), and as for Jeff (the surfer dude), it seems they didn't get to give him any unique abilities or an ending at all (his only ability is fixing a phone, which Bernard also does). Since the characters never talks to people (no conversations), or is able to look at objects, it loses the possibility of character development, which the game would have benefitted from.

I think Maniac Mansion strength probably is in it's innovation which was very ambitious and influencial for it's time, but compared to today's standards it seems imperfect and a bit flawed, but charmingly so, perhaps.