It's solitaire but with a few minor tweaks that are somewhat neat, but they hardly reinvent the game. The main change is that when you draw cards instead of going on a stack they go on top of every column you got going which can make things a little harder to work around, but it's not that different all in all. There's also options to use fewer suits than in traditional solitaire which can be handy if you want it to be less involved. Can't say this really improves on Solitaire, but it's okay.

This is a bad game with some phenomenal moments and sequences in the back half. These sequences are super cool, cinematic and novel but it's hard to say if seeing them is worth going through hours of running out of ammo, getting lost, dying, being shot from who knows where, failing at stealth and feeling generally shitty. Plus though the game does eventually find its footing, the issues never fully go away even then. The payoff is great, mind blowing even, but the game is rough and annoying.

An enormous adventure teeming with goodness. Each kingdom is jammed full of Moons (which leave you in the world Banjo style) to collect, even relatively small ones. It's amazing how much they can cram into some of them compact as they are. Traversing the world is a delight as Mario's basic moveset gives you so much mobility even before you consider Capturing, an inspired new mechanic that adds tons of gameplay variety on top of that. It's all super charming and dense with wondrous content. <3

A decent shooter with quite a few large and gorgeous worlds that doesn't go the distance. As cool as the worlds are the gameplay is so basic that it's hard to justify spending the enormous time it demands to progress through the game, see new areas and do new things. The missions are really long too, which is a problem when each is also flavorless and unremarkable. There's only so many times I can do samey missions before getting bored, even if the gameplay is basically fine. Did not hook me!

A short VN that's very personal and worth seeing through. It develops its characters very well and also has a few things to say about the world which are smart and interesting. It's written solidly throughout even when it indulges in referential humor, memes and outmoded internet lingo. Somehow that all works here, coming off as being authentic to the characters and the time period, which was full of dorks like these. It feels very knowing. All in all, it's a fun VN that comes from the heart.

A fun indie platformer that's came out great. There's not a lot of stages, but each one has a great premise (like chasing mafiosos around pretending to be a zombie) and often comes with a lot of great writing and gags. Like Psychonauts but with the structure of Mario 64. The platforming isn't super tight, but it's really thrilling often enough. While not every world is a winner, it's cool how they all feel experimental and you never know what you're going to get going into one. It's delightful.

Holy shit this game goes places. In a serious full of great twists, this final entry delivers the best ones yet. Some made me say "goddamn it" and despair, others made say "goddamn it" and laugh. They're something else. The individual cases are solid too, all very well executed little mysteries that are fun to untangle or watch be untangled depending on the case. There's still issues here with certain characters, events and whatever, but it nails the landing and hits hard. Killer finale. <3

A sequel to Cook Serve Delicious that changes little. The basic gameplay of doing intensive demanding microgames is basically unchanged with the exception of the brand new holding station mechanic, which doesn't really add much to the proceedings. There's also now more personality in the restaurants that you're cooking for and more customization in your own restaurant, but these are largely ornamental. It's kind of just the same game but a tiny bit more elaborate. It's still good, very frantic.

Breaking into spaceships and getting up to some dirt within them makes for extremely compelling drama. It's really fun to start a new character, roleplay a bit by thinking about how they would approach various missions differently from others whether they'd be a pacifist ghost or just ram another ship into the target one and then playing things out, improvising where necessary. It's all super satisfying, and the systems all work really well to allow for a variety of approaches. It rules. <3

A bland little prequel to Life Is Strange that lacks the main hook of Life Is Strange - time travel tomfoolery - and makes no attempt to replace it. For what it's worth it does star Chloe, a cool character from the original game, but that on its own isn't enough. It's just a boring and clunky adventure game that doesn't measure up to the original game despite starring one of its two stars. A pale imitation that doesn't even try to imitate.

A tactics game with fewer random numbers and more mobility. Lots, more mobility. Seriously, you can go pretty go pretty damn far between sliding through enemies, jumping off allies and using other abilities which makes you feel very powerful. It's also nice how RNG isn't make or break. It feels very fair and quite entertaining up until you hit a brick wall difficulty wise in the back half. Then it's less fair and drags a bit, which is a damn shame. Still, up until then it's fun and charming.

This is a really really well made platformer, the only problem is that it's a Sonic game. The game over system is annoying. Drowning is bullshit. Getting crushed is bullshit. A lot of bosses are annoying. All this comes with the territory and yet doesn't stop it from being overall pretty damn fun and as good as 2D Sonic has been since the GBA. The levels looks great, there's a lot of characters to play as, and it handles about as well as Sonic can. Plus, the DLC Encore mode is pretty neat too.

While you can technically play this alone, this is a local multiplayer game and it only really shines when you get a crew together to tackle all the wacky scenarios as a group. It's great how each stage requires you to work together with your teammates splitting responsibilities and coordinating all sorts of things while the stage itself seeks to undermine you. It rides the line between chaos and manageable pretty well, and there's enough scenarios where it's hard to run out. It's goofy fun.

2017

Turns out NBA Jam and Oregon Trail go together really well. It's a super out there combination of concepts and ideas, and yet it's all very solid. The gameplay consists of ceremonial rites you perform by dunking an orb into a flame, which is really compelling in a reasonably strategic way as a sports game should, plus the outcomes drive the narrative of the overall journey providing meaningful stakes. It just rules to recruit a crew of outcast ballers, level them up and bring the noise.

Just a real big improvement over the first game. Most especially improved is the single player, whose levels are now based around a wide variety of weapons which makes for a campaign with substantially more variety even before factoring in the more cleverly designed (albeit difficult) DLC campaign. The basic gameplay and multiplayer modes haven't changed much beyond the addition of a coop mode, but both still work very well. Inking paths then zooming down them is still novel as core conceits go.