When it comes to many pieces of media out there, there is always a goal in mind when it comes to what the product is meant to do. It could be used to entertain the masses, it could be used to assist you in some way down the road, or it can be used to bring up a compelling argument that is meant to make you think. Sometimes though, a product is purely meant to educate its audience on a wide variety of topics, and in terms of video games, there have been plenty of educational titles that cover a wide variety of subjects. There have been games that are purely aimed at preschoolers, which teach pretty much exactly what you would expect them to, and then there are games aimed at more broad topics that are aimed at people of many ages, like with drug PSA games like Wally Bear and the NO! Gang. But then, there are games that tackle issues that are less discussed, such as with one game that tackles… diabetes. Yes, I’m serious. That game would happen to be Captain Novolin.

Surprisingly, I have known about this game for quite a few years now, and even then, I am still completely baffled by the fact it exists at all. I mean, seriously, what other video games out there do you know about that’s sole purpose is to inform kids about how to handle diabetes? Yeah, not many others. But either way, I went into this with pretty low expectations, because considering what this game is, there isn’t much to get excited about, but I was at least hoping that I would actually learn some stuff about diabetes, because that is the whole point, after all. And you know what? I actually did learn a good number of things about diabetes, so I can say that it does its job well. It is complete garbage in every other way, but for being a piece of educational software, it did educate me, which is all that I asked for.

The story is about aliens invading, and they just so happen to take the form of junk food, so naturally, it is up to the diabetic superhero, Captain Novolin, to save the day, which is a much better plot then anything from the MCU, so I will give it that, the graphics are about the quality that you would expect from a game like this, but I will give it some credit for not making me wanna punch a hole straight through the screen, the music is extremely forgettable, to the point where I don’t remember a single track from the entire game, but I can tell you that there definitely was music, the control is extremely basic, having your typical platforming controls, and they work well enough most of the time, and the game is about everything you expect it to be, in all the best and worst ways that a game like this can deliver.

The game is the most on-the-rails 2D platformer I have ever played, where you take control of Captain Novolin himself, take on a set of very boring and generic levels, avoid every single bad food enemy you encounter to avoid death, gather enough of the food prescribed by your doctor to keep your blood sugar at a normal level, with all the food of course just being scattered around the ground as it usually is, and answer plenty of questions relating to diabetes while checking your blood sugar levels often. And that is it. That is pretty much the entire game. Like with Wally Bear, there are really only two ways that I can properly judge this game: as a game, of course, and as an educational tool.

As a game, once again, it is pretty fucking bad. There is nothing particularly wrong with the main gameplay itself, as it does serve as a means of getting you along in your journey and teaching kids about diabetes, but what’s wrong with it is that it is the most bland gameplay for a platformer I have ever seen. You don’t have any form of attack, you don’t get any powerups, you don’t have any means of defeating enemies, and there is only one boss in the game, who is a big ol’ fat guy, because of course he is. For the entire game, you are just walking from left to right, gathering up the food you need, and avoid enemies. It’s fine for what it is, but you don’t need me to tell you that this shit gets very boring very quickly, and if you play through just one level of the game, you pretty much have played through the entire game right then and there. One problem I did have with the game though would be with the cookie enemies. I swear, no matter what you do, it is almost impossible to avoid getting hit by these guys, as they jump when you do, making them very hard to avoid.

So yeah, the game completely fails as a game, but how does it do as an educational tool? Well… it is actually pretty good, and very informative in that aspect. For the record, I should state, I do not have diabetes myself, and I have never known anyone personally who is diabetic themselves, so I went into this game knowing only very basic knowledge of what the condition is all about. Thankfully, the game was able to teach me plenty about it, not just through answering plenty of questions relating to the condition, but also shows/describes what a diabetic individual goes through on a daily basis. So, even if the game itself fails completely at being a fun and enjoyable video game, I can say that it is a very good educational tool, and one that I’m sure many can learn from. That doesn’t mean I’m ever going to play it again, but still.

Overall, despite being a very informative piece of software that taught me more about diabetes than anything else ever could, it is still a piece of shit video game that nobody should ever play, unless they wanna get a laugh about how completely random and bizarre it is, in which case, then go right ahead. Just, you know, don’t expect to have any kind of fun with it, because that is certainly not what you will be getting from the game whatsoever. And before we end this off, you wanna know something else I learned from this game? That it isn’t the only one. Yeah, there are apparently three more of these kinds of games, with another one also being about diabetes, and the other two being about smoking and asthma. I have no idea how these things kept getting made, but either way, I am now very terrified and excited to play those in like five years from now.

Game #385

Sadly, this game just isn't for me. The movement is smooth and satisfying when traversing the city overall, but I often got frustrated when trying to navigate to a specific part of an enclosed space. The combat is a real highlight, as there are a lot of options for dealing with various enemy types and Spidey really feels super-heroic without being overpowered; however, there are so many options that I often felt overwhelmed by choice.

What killed this game for me is how samey each element becomes. Yes, there are an enormous number of options for combat and movement, but I found myself relying on tried and true tactics too often after attempting some unsatisfying variation. The collectibles and side missions are largely just traversal busywork, but they are mandatory to unlock more powers, gadgets, and suits.

What really saves this game is the impeccable graphics, story, and overall tone. Insomniac really nailed the Spider-Man feel, so if that's your thing you will probably breeze right past my issues and love every second of this immaculately crafted experience. Content junkies will also love ticking off the plethora of open-world checkboxes. To me, so much of the presented content felt so generic it could have been procedurally generated, and the story missions didn't strike me as particularly interesting any more than the superhero blockbusters they are based on.

It was a 3 star game up until the point I quit.

Granted I’ve never been super interested in slice of life anime or high school setting, I am clearly not the target audience for this game and I understand that. I also mistakenly played this version instead of the newer and more QoL updated versions.

Combat was fun at first, but quickly turned frustrating with how swingy the turns can be. A random crit can wipe your party, or a random death spell can wipe you, and early game there’s really no way to prevent it. Save often.

Social grinding was boring for me for the most part and I didn’t find many of the characters super engaging. Some were, I just didn’t love a lot of the character development, not to say it may not get better later.

I did max out a couple social links for reference, the hanged man arcana was my favorite of them all.

The main reason I stopped playing was the beach scene. I won’t go into details but the transphobia made me instantly drop the game, and from what I hear persona 4 and 5 has similar problems.

When it comes to modern, long lasting genres, survival horror is one of the most prominent and successful ones when it comes to video games. It hasn’t been around as long as most other popular game genres, but it has become one of the most popular and beloved, and there have been many games developed over the years centered around this genre… for better or worse. Of course though, survival horror wasn’t always a staple of the industry, such as back in the late 80s and early 90s, where the genre was practically non-existent. Sure, there were some horror games out there at the time, but when it came to early horror in video games, it mostly just consisted of video games with spooky themes, like with Castlevania and Splatterhouse. That would change though when it came to one of the first most notable survival horror games to have ever been made, Alone in the Dark.

Since Alone in the Dark is being brought back from the dead… again, I decided that I wanted to properly take a look at the series by playing the first entry. After all, I had been wanting to see what Alone in the Dark was all about, since it would be the game to inspire Resident Evil, which would also go on to inspire many, and I mean MANY, different horror games and franchises later down the road. So, I played through the game, and… it was actually a lot better than I thought it would be. Obviously, I can’t judge the game as harshly as other games I have covered, given how it was one of the first to properly take on the genre, and… well, given how it looks, but I actually ended up having a lot more fun with it than I was expecting, even if the game is FAR from perfect.

The story is pretty simple, just about one of two characters going to investigate the supposed death of one who lived in a supposed haunted mansion, but again, for the time, not too many games had this kind of story, and they weren’t really presented in this style, the graphics are… well, let’s be honest, they’re fucking terrible, but for 1992, it is pretty impressive seeing what was made here, even if it looks extremely primitive nowadays, the music is enjoyable, even if there are few tracks, and it seems like they play whenever the game feels like it a lot of the time, the control is… pretty awkward, especially when paired up with the depth perception of some rooms, but again, I can’t blame the game too much given what it is and when it was made, even if it hasn’t aged all too well, and the gameplay is somewhat what you would expect from a game of this style, establishing a lot of the tropes that many games after this would go on to use.

The game is a “survival horror” game, where you go through a mansion full of dangerous creatures, traps, and scares, find many items around the place to help defend yourself and explore around more, solve puzzles to find more rooms throughout the mansion and more tools to help survive, fight off against plenty of enemies with the limited resources you have, and try not to get scared along the way… even though it’s really easy to do in this case. For being one of the first of the genre, the gameplay actually holds up pretty well for the most part, giving the player plenty of room to look around the mansion, as well as enough of an idea of where to go, while also placing enough restrictions on the player to make them still feel powerless, and in turn, more nervous for their own life.

There are plenty of elements that can be found in this game that have influenced many other games later down the road, such as the use of fixed camera angles to avoke a sense of frustration and fear from the player, limited inventory so that you have to carefully think about what you should and shouldn’t carry with you to protect yourself and proceed forward, and having a non-linear sense of progression (for the most part), where the player is given a sense of freedom to explore around most of the mansion, see what they can find, and use what they find to figure out how to delve further down. Needless to say, this gameplay style works very well, allowing the player to go about their own will without needless handholding, while allowing them to feel plenty of satisfaction from solving puzzles, defeating enemies, and figuring this out… even though I used a guide for my playthrough, but even then, I still had a lot of fun going through all the different puzzles.

There are two main problems that I have with the game, which aren’t necessarily the game’s fault, but more so due to its age. First of all, obviously, the game isn’t scary at all. Yes, this is to be expected from a game that looks like this, but I imagine, for the time it came out, it was one of the scarier games to get, and it kind of could still be seen as scary, but more so towards how everything looks strange and unnatural. So, since the scare factor is eliminated, the only joy you would get from playing the game would be reliant on the gameplay, which may or may not turn people away from it.

The second problem is that the fixed camera angles could’ve been done a LOT better here. Now, I am not one of those people who believe that fixed camera angles in these types of games are garbage, and make the game too frustrating to want to play, because they do add another layer of horror to these HORROR games. However, I will say, working around in some of these camera angles can be a huge pain in the ass, whether it be from not knowing what is an object and what isn’t (even though that usually isn’t a problem), unwarranted deaths due to a lack of understanding how to move around an invisible wall that you just ran into, and those times when the camera is zoomed way too far out or in, not giving you enough room to see what’s around you, or too much room to the point where you can easily misguide yourself and end up dying. This isn’t too much of an issue, as I was able to get through the game regardless of these issues, but still, it could’ve been done better.

Overall, despite how poorly the game has aged, and some frustration when it comes to the camera angles, I still ended up having a pretty good time with the original Alone in the Dark, and I am glad that I finally decided to check out an entry in the series after knowing about for a long time. I would recommend it for those who are fans of the survival horror genre, and want to know more about the earliest products to be made around it, but for those who can’t get into it as much as me, you would probably find better enjoyment just by watching it on YouTube. Also, I did lie when I said that this game wasn’t scary at all… because I did get slightly scared by the frog in the intro. I mean, come on, the close-up view of it and the loud-ass croak sound caught me off guard. Gotta watch my back now, just in case a frog tries to jump me sometime in the near future.

Game #316

This is my favorite 2D Mario game of all time. I know there are many others that people would swear by, like Super Mario World, or maybe even the newer games, but to me, this is the PERFECT 2D Mario game in my eyes.

The story is what you would expect from a Mario game, so no need to go into it, the gameplay is fast and incredibly fun, the controls are heaven, the graphics are great, the art style is very appealing, the music is catchy and iconic, the powerups are incredibly fun to use, the levels are really fun to run through, with something different about each one, the difficulty is just right for me, and the game is much longer than the previous games, giving you a lot to do before you are done with it.

If I could complain about anything, I could say it is kind of annoying how there is no way to save your progress or use a password, especially since this game is kinda lengthy, but that doesn't really bother me that much, as I usually finish it in one sitting whenever I play through it again.

Overall, while there have been many other great 2D Mario games before and since this one, I will probably always consider this game to be my absolute favorite out of all of them, and a must play for anyone who is a fan of the series.

Game #6

It's like the original Super Mario Bros., except IT SUCKS! Ok, that's not true, it doesn't suck, as it is essentially the same game as the original Super Mario Bros., but it looks somewhat better. Everything is almost the exact same, except for the level design, which is so poorly designed and way too difficult to where it ruins the game for most people, including me. If you really wanted to play this game, and I mean, REALLY play it, just stick with the All-Stars version. Avoid the original NES game at all costs.

Game #2