2014
This game is hilarious because it looks so bad (the art was literally drawn by a child) but the gameplay is rock solid. It's a roguelike deck builder before roguelike deck builders were even a thing. The dev, Peter Whalen, actually got hired to help create Hearthstone after making it 'cause some Blizzard devs couldn't stop playing this dang game. I always thought Slay the Spire was a rip of Hearthstone's Dungeon Run but it turns out neither of 'em would've even been possible without this little gem.
And I gotta say, it totally holds up! It's got the whole gradual progression and unlocking of new characters and cards thing down pat. The whole Desktop Dungeons-esque dungeon crawling makes it pretty unique as most newer games in the genre get rid of that part in favor of a more streamlined, "tree diagram route" overworld progression thing like in StS or even Darkest Dungeon 2 now.
Personally, I don't have the patience to gradually unlock everything or even beat the final boss, though. Apparently it gets pretty crazy in terms of difficulty, which sounds pretty fun. Unfortunately there's just so many games in this genre now and they all take so long to progress through that my attention gets too divided to properly digest the whole of a single one of these. This is a good one though. And it's arguably pretty important too, historically I mean. So give it a shot!
And I gotta say, it totally holds up! It's got the whole gradual progression and unlocking of new characters and cards thing down pat. The whole Desktop Dungeons-esque dungeon crawling makes it pretty unique as most newer games in the genre get rid of that part in favor of a more streamlined, "tree diagram route" overworld progression thing like in StS or even Darkest Dungeon 2 now.
Personally, I don't have the patience to gradually unlock everything or even beat the final boss, though. Apparently it gets pretty crazy in terms of difficulty, which sounds pretty fun. Unfortunately there's just so many games in this genre now and they all take so long to progress through that my attention gets too divided to properly digest the whole of a single one of these. This is a good one though. And it's arguably pretty important too, historically I mean. So give it a shot!
2021
Haven't played this in like a year but I played it enough back when it was first blowing up (due primarily by Northernlion, which is pretty funny) to get the golden poop hat, which was my main goal, so I feel pretty good about that.
This is basically Dota 2 Autochess / Teamfight Tactics but with the minimalist design ethos of Hearthstone. Like Auto Chess, you roll an inventory of characters every turn to most efficiently stack units together and build a team that synergizes well enough to beat another player's team. And like Hearthstone, there's an emphasis on small numbers, a clean minimal interface, multiple called instances of rng only a computer could comfortably simulate in quick succession, and several small effects that chain together and stack in unexpected, interesting ways.
The brilliance in this particular packaging is the asynchronous multiplayer. Whereas Auto Chess had a limited amount of players in a lobby taking simultaneous timed turns, Super Auto Pets lets players take their time and fight the whole player base whenever it's convenient, perfect for mobile and way less stressful too. Add the colorful emoji graphics and you got a perfectly wholesome looking, but powerfully addicting and surprisingly deep strategy game that's fun for the whole family (I'm aware they recently changed the emoji graphics to their own original style. This is a misstep imo, the emoji graphics were great).
Apparently they're still updating the game, adding new animals and food and game modes so that's cool. The core design is honestly pretty impeccable so I'm happy to see so many people enjoying it so much.
This is basically Dota 2 Autochess / Teamfight Tactics but with the minimalist design ethos of Hearthstone. Like Auto Chess, you roll an inventory of characters every turn to most efficiently stack units together and build a team that synergizes well enough to beat another player's team. And like Hearthstone, there's an emphasis on small numbers, a clean minimal interface, multiple called instances of rng only a computer could comfortably simulate in quick succession, and several small effects that chain together and stack in unexpected, interesting ways.
The brilliance in this particular packaging is the asynchronous multiplayer. Whereas Auto Chess had a limited amount of players in a lobby taking simultaneous timed turns, Super Auto Pets lets players take their time and fight the whole player base whenever it's convenient, perfect for mobile and way less stressful too. Add the colorful emoji graphics and you got a perfectly wholesome looking, but powerfully addicting and surprisingly deep strategy game that's fun for the whole family (I'm aware they recently changed the emoji graphics to their own original style. This is a misstep imo, the emoji graphics were great).
Apparently they're still updating the game, adding new animals and food and game modes so that's cool. The core design is honestly pretty impeccable so I'm happy to see so many people enjoying it so much.
2017
I've spent like 300 hours on this game and have never left the god dang asteroid. This is Stardew Valley levels of "never finished and never will".
2022
Mmmmm fish yum yum
Imagine doing the Daigo parry. Now imagine doing it for every enemy in the game.
That's the game. It's great.
That's the game. It's great.
2020
Actually really impressive how the game manages to perfectly re-contextualize the gameplay mechanics of both prophunt and speedrunning into a thematically consistent and artistically compelling narrative. Also love that it's only like 20 minutes long. Can't afford to waste any more time, after all...
2021
I feel like if they just cut the runtime of the "third act" in half and maybe expanded a bit on the mechanics of the second, the game would be perfect. 'Cause as is, the first part absolutely overshadows the rest. But otherwise really neat!
You'd probably get more out of the narrative if you're really into card games, though.
You'd probably get more out of the narrative if you're really into card games, though.
Pretty neat for what it is, which is basically just a Castlevania game with a cute gimmick where every enemy can drop an ability that you can use.
I like the combat, the music's great, and you can have a lot of fun with the abilities once the game opens up. It feels like there was a lot of heart and thought put into the game, but maybe they just didn't have the time or budget to really polish things up.
Things I like:
- The characters are fun (the few of them that there are), and I like that the game has a sense of humor
- The freedom to choose a truly customizable loadout from hundreds of abilities
- All of the neat little extra features, like speedrun mode, a built-in randomizer, alternate character modes
Things I don't like:
- Most of the abilities seem pretty useless, I ended up only sticking with a few that seemed obviously useful from the get-go
- There's only like three sidequests, and they all repeat like 20 times with no extra lore, just literally the same dialogue every time
- There's so much grinding. And the crafting system is cool in theory but it all just feels like such a chore. Why am I killing the same enemy over and over again for a specific material instead of actually playing the game?
Honestly, the core formula that this game is going for is really solid, I think. And I feel like if they ever make a sequel it could actually be pretty sick.
I like the combat, the music's great, and you can have a lot of fun with the abilities once the game opens up. It feels like there was a lot of heart and thought put into the game, but maybe they just didn't have the time or budget to really polish things up.
Things I like:
- The characters are fun (the few of them that there are), and I like that the game has a sense of humor
- The freedom to choose a truly customizable loadout from hundreds of abilities
- All of the neat little extra features, like speedrun mode, a built-in randomizer, alternate character modes
Things I don't like:
- Most of the abilities seem pretty useless, I ended up only sticking with a few that seemed obviously useful from the get-go
- There's only like three sidequests, and they all repeat like 20 times with no extra lore, just literally the same dialogue every time
- There's so much grinding. And the crafting system is cool in theory but it all just feels like such a chore. Why am I killing the same enemy over and over again for a specific material instead of actually playing the game?
Honestly, the core formula that this game is going for is really solid, I think. And I feel like if they ever make a sequel it could actually be pretty sick.
2021
Some of the narrative themes are really interesting in concept, but I don't think the game lands the execution very well. I just don't care enough about the characters to feel that strongly about whatever happens to them.
That being said, the gameplay's really fun, especially if you're into bullet hell stuff. Very fast paced and challenging, but not frustrating enough to make me quit, at least for me. Music's pretty good too, there's a couple of catchy tracks later on that really impressed, me. But I think maybe because I listen to a lot of EDM type stuff I was a little less wowed than other people would be.
Also, it wasn't really a problem for me, but I can very easily imagine someone else not liking all the crazy visual effects that they pile on you for some of the battles. I get that it's rhythm game-esque and you're supposed to "feel" the music, but they do it a bit too often that it starts to get cheesy, imo.
overall: not as good as undertale lmao, but still very good.
That being said, the gameplay's really fun, especially if you're into bullet hell stuff. Very fast paced and challenging, but not frustrating enough to make me quit, at least for me. Music's pretty good too, there's a couple of catchy tracks later on that really impressed, me. But I think maybe because I listen to a lot of EDM type stuff I was a little less wowed than other people would be.
Also, it wasn't really a problem for me, but I can very easily imagine someone else not liking all the crazy visual effects that they pile on you for some of the battles. I get that it's rhythm game-esque and you're supposed to "feel" the music, but they do it a bit too often that it starts to get cheesy, imo.
overall: not as good as undertale lmao, but still very good.
idk maybe I'm a sicko but I thought some of the deaths were like, weirdly funny. That fishery section was pretty neat though, cool use of controls.
2009
Okay before you play this game, you actually have to do some troublesome set-up. I managed to find this video with like barely any views explaining what you gotta do. But basically, here's how to make the game playable:
1. Find and download the latest patch, v1.005. The Steam version actually never updated to the last patch, it's still on v1.004. There's a new gamemode and some new weapons.
2. Edit the Config file in the game's folder to change the resolution. You can also disable some visual effects like motion blur (god I hate motion blur).
3. Set the mouse DPI super low in the settings. This is counter-inituitive, but it makes you move way faster and makes the controls actually feel really good and satisfying. Also gives you less carpal tunnel.
Okay, as for the game itself, it kinda rules. I'd actually rate it way higher if it had some better UX and wasn't so goddamn janky. Here's some rough thoughts:
First of all, I really dig the aesthetic. It's like this Central Asian and Arabic steampunk world with Sci-fi Lovecraftian elements where people fly this contraptions hitting each other with hammers. It's a story about honor and vengeance and warring tribes but also there's flying worms and ancient machines and it's all just so weird and unique, I absolutely love it. The music's also just so good but I really wish there were more than like ten tracks.
The main attraction is of course the gameplay. And like, goddamn, it's so weird and unique and cool, I can't help but respect it. It's all dependent on the inherent joy of moving your mouse to swing a hammer and using momentum to just utterly smash the hell out of a dude. And it definitely delivers on that end. But what I wasn't expecting was even more gameplay options beyond that. You can equip blades and become more of a controlled assassin rather than a mindless flailing abomination like you might think from a game like this. You can throw daggers and equip shields and combine weapons to alter your swing physics based on weight difference. You can even shoot guns! The developer obviously put a lot of thought into different playstyles and really wanted to test out how much depth you can squeeze out of physics-based combat. I've never really seen anything quite like it.
Ok, so for complaints. There's the troublesome set-up obviously. There's also the crazy amount of visual effects that make it kinda hard to understand what's actually happening on screen. I can't tell you the amount of times I died and was like "literally what even killed me?" Also the game in general is like weirdly difficult at times. Sometimes enemies will just fly in out of nowhere and you have like a half a second to react before you get just utterly smashed in the face with a mace. There's a few times where the game asks you to be more precise with your hits, which I feel like is really testing the player's patience with the physics-based nature of the combat, but I kinda respect it I guess. I think a lot of people will be confused by the complicated story, but personally I don't really mind if a game just straight up doesn't care if you can't follow along. I find it charming, in a weird way, idk.
But yeah, if you're willing to do the set-up, you should definitely give this game a shot, there's honestly nothing else quite like it.
1. Find and download the latest patch, v1.005. The Steam version actually never updated to the last patch, it's still on v1.004. There's a new gamemode and some new weapons.
2. Edit the Config file in the game's folder to change the resolution. You can also disable some visual effects like motion blur (god I hate motion blur).
3. Set the mouse DPI super low in the settings. This is counter-inituitive, but it makes you move way faster and makes the controls actually feel really good and satisfying. Also gives you less carpal tunnel.
Okay, as for the game itself, it kinda rules. I'd actually rate it way higher if it had some better UX and wasn't so goddamn janky. Here's some rough thoughts:
First of all, I really dig the aesthetic. It's like this Central Asian and Arabic steampunk world with Sci-fi Lovecraftian elements where people fly this contraptions hitting each other with hammers. It's a story about honor and vengeance and warring tribes but also there's flying worms and ancient machines and it's all just so weird and unique, I absolutely love it. The music's also just so good but I really wish there were more than like ten tracks.
The main attraction is of course the gameplay. And like, goddamn, it's so weird and unique and cool, I can't help but respect it. It's all dependent on the inherent joy of moving your mouse to swing a hammer and using momentum to just utterly smash the hell out of a dude. And it definitely delivers on that end. But what I wasn't expecting was even more gameplay options beyond that. You can equip blades and become more of a controlled assassin rather than a mindless flailing abomination like you might think from a game like this. You can throw daggers and equip shields and combine weapons to alter your swing physics based on weight difference. You can even shoot guns! The developer obviously put a lot of thought into different playstyles and really wanted to test out how much depth you can squeeze out of physics-based combat. I've never really seen anything quite like it.
Ok, so for complaints. There's the troublesome set-up obviously. There's also the crazy amount of visual effects that make it kinda hard to understand what's actually happening on screen. I can't tell you the amount of times I died and was like "literally what even killed me?" Also the game in general is like weirdly difficult at times. Sometimes enemies will just fly in out of nowhere and you have like a half a second to react before you get just utterly smashed in the face with a mace. There's a few times where the game asks you to be more precise with your hits, which I feel like is really testing the player's patience with the physics-based nature of the combat, but I kinda respect it I guess. I think a lot of people will be confused by the complicated story, but personally I don't really mind if a game just straight up doesn't care if you can't follow along. I find it charming, in a weird way, idk.
But yeah, if you're willing to do the set-up, you should definitely give this game a shot, there's honestly nothing else quite like it.
2002
I've never felt so in control of an onscreen avatar and yet so utterly out of control. The physics which the game's mechanics fundamentally depend on feel so incredibly random, and yet weirdly consistent? To master the game is to develop an intuition for how and when the physics will screw up and fling your character in a strangely predictable way. It's almost like you're using the game's glitchiness to overcome its own shoddy construction.
And yet it all feels so intentional, like it was meant to feel stupid, such that only the truly deranged could appreciate its exceptional game design. The obstacles seem impossible to overcome at first and yet, after throwing yourself at them over and over, you find that they are actually rigorously playtested tests of dexterity that provide specific challenges so that the player would be forced to intuitively master impossibly subtle mechanics to overcome them. Every tree branch that blocks your path begs you to hook your hammer in and climb it. Every jutting piece of rock that seems just out of reach taunts you, almost as if saying "Bet you wish you could jump, huh? Well...have you tried?" The simple placement of the terrain provides such a natural tutorialization of the game's unique and inspired mechanics that is nothing short of masterful.
An important question to ask, though, is now that I've completed the game, would I play it again? Hell no. This game is a nightmare to play. It's incredibly glitchy and chaotic and an incredible test of patience. I can't tell you how many tens of times my hammer fell through a length of rope for seemingly no reason. Or how many hundreds of times I tried to hook my hammer into a piece of rock after "jumping" into it, only for the tip of the hammer to read my movements as a "thrust" and fling me directly in the other direction. It also doesn't help that the game doesn't even lock your mouse to the window, so if you accidentally move your mouse away into a second monitor, you lose all control of your hammer until you realize what happened and move it back in, making it a rare case where a dual monitor set-up is actually a disadvantage. Nevertheless, while playing the game does let you recognize the genius of the design, I really would rather do literally anything else than play this game ever again. I'm certainly glad I played it all the way through once, but from now on, keep this thing the hell away from me.
And yet it all feels so intentional, like it was meant to feel stupid, such that only the truly deranged could appreciate its exceptional game design. The obstacles seem impossible to overcome at first and yet, after throwing yourself at them over and over, you find that they are actually rigorously playtested tests of dexterity that provide specific challenges so that the player would be forced to intuitively master impossibly subtle mechanics to overcome them. Every tree branch that blocks your path begs you to hook your hammer in and climb it. Every jutting piece of rock that seems just out of reach taunts you, almost as if saying "Bet you wish you could jump, huh? Well...have you tried?" The simple placement of the terrain provides such a natural tutorialization of the game's unique and inspired mechanics that is nothing short of masterful.
An important question to ask, though, is now that I've completed the game, would I play it again? Hell no. This game is a nightmare to play. It's incredibly glitchy and chaotic and an incredible test of patience. I can't tell you how many tens of times my hammer fell through a length of rope for seemingly no reason. Or how many hundreds of times I tried to hook my hammer into a piece of rock after "jumping" into it, only for the tip of the hammer to read my movements as a "thrust" and fling me directly in the other direction. It also doesn't help that the game doesn't even lock your mouse to the window, so if you accidentally move your mouse away into a second monitor, you lose all control of your hammer until you realize what happened and move it back in, making it a rare case where a dual monitor set-up is actually a disadvantage. Nevertheless, while playing the game does let you recognize the genius of the design, I really would rather do literally anything else than play this game ever again. I'm certainly glad I played it all the way through once, but from now on, keep this thing the hell away from me.