Prior to Hades, Pyre was my favorite Supergiant game, and I still have a lot of love for it. As is standard for Supergiant, the aesthetics are the real standout here. The graphics are gorgeous, resembling a painted mural, rich in color in a way that's fantastical and otherworldly. The celestial motifs that persist throughout the game - the constellations that your roaming band of exiles use to navigate between each Rite location, for example - also serve to contribute to this feeling. As always, Darren Korb's soundtrack is excellent, blending various folk styles as well as some more out-there things like "pirate rock" or "baroque harpsichord music with hip hop beats". The other great thing about the game is its ensemble cast, which includes tons of memorable allies and adversaries, including my favorite character Rukey Greentail, a wry smuggler who is also a dog with a mustache.

But the most interesting part of the game is the Rites, which are essentially a magical basketball league in which exiles compete for the ability to break free of the purgatorial Downside and return to civilized society. Unlike most games, you don't receive a Game Over when you lose - the plot will continue, changing to reflect the outcome of each match. This determines which of the several opposing teams you will face in the final "Liberation Rite" of each "season". Whichever team wins the Liberation Rite will get to choose one teammate to free from exile. This is fascinating to me, because once you free a teammate, they are gone forever, unable to be used or interacted with for the rest of the game. Depending on the outcome of each match, this can drastically change your team's makeup as the game goes on. Losing a liberation rite means your opponent will go free instead - which might be good or bad thing depending on who said opponent is. It could be Dalbert, a kindly old dog with a sense of piety, or it could be someone like H. Manley Tinderstauf, a stuck-up aristocratic tree who everyone in the game despises. It's always bittersweet setting someone free from exile - you want them to be able to return to their loved ones back in the normal world, but at the same time their absence will be deeply felt by all those left stuck in the Downside.

Each opposing team has its own leader character with their own reasons for their exile, and motivations for what they plan on doing once they return back home. They also each have a connection to one of the members of your own team. Each time you face off against a team, these interpersonal storylines progress in interesting ways, with variable results based on whether you win or lose. It's an excellent way of writing a sports game with an ensemble cast and a character-driven plot.

Although some people might not like the sports gameplay, I found it very enjoyable, especially since it's tied so heavily to the story progression. There is very little I can complain about with regards to Pyre - it's simply a fantastic game.

Much like The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, this is another roguelike that I put over a hundred hours into before realizing that I really didn't like it. My major complaint is how slow and laborious the gameplay feels - until you get a decent number of speed upgrades, you hobble around each level at a snail's pace engaging in boring combat with enemies that take too long to die. The most captivating part of the game is its upgrade system, which allows you to stack multiple copies of the same upgrade for enhanced effects. However, although there is some satisfaction in getting a ton of useful upgrades, it only partially obscures the fact that the core gameplay is extremely boring. The levels are incredibly samey and involve doing the same exact stuff over and over again, and they also look incredibly bland with little in terms of decoration. After doing a four hour long run where I beat the final boss several times, I came to realize that the only enjoyment I got out of the game was the possibility of becoming extremely powerful after stacking a bunch of upgrades. Once I had felt what that was like, I no longer had any desire to play it, which is awful for a roguelike. It's just a totally bland and uninspired 2D shooter game.

What the hell does "Risk of Rain" even mean?

Nuclear Throne is Vlambeer in its element - a fast, crunchy projectile-saturated shoot 'em up roguelike. Unlike many roguelikes, it's not really focused on "builds" - there are upgrades, yes, but these upgrades are rather rudimentary things like "move faster" or "have more max health". The simplicity works well for the game, though, since the focus is meant to be on the combat itself. There's a lot of weapons in the game, most of which are pretty fun to use, especially when paired with certain characters' special abilities and late-game Ultra Mutations. The ability to loop through the game after reaching the titular Nuclear Throne adds a fun amount of replayability to the whole thing, especially since it only takes a handful of minutes to get there. All in all, this is a very solid title.