Xanther
39 reviews liked by Xanther
Basilisk 2000
2023
would it be too myhouse.wad of me to call this ergodic gaming??
VVVVVV
2010
ʎʇᴉɔᴉldɯᴉs sʇᴉ uᴉ ʇɔǝɟɹǝԀ
This review contains spoilers
This game's got to be the most creative and at the same time outright disturbing way to narrate a story that I have ever seen in media. There is no salvation in garage: bad dream adventure. You are called to explore your past and define your present by interacting with the bleakest and darkest plastic caricature of mankind's corruption. The game relies heavily on symbolism, so while it can be very brutal about some heavy themes, it doesn't ever directly adress them, giving the player the opportunity to grasp the feeling of them rather than trying to have a conversation about them. Generally it's amazing how I never expected to be given the opportunity to think about the effects of trauma in human relationships and be morally conscious about prostitution and industrialization by fishing for Japanese frogs.
absolutely fuckin' schasty game that does not hold back with its visuals in the slightest. some of the best atmosphere in any game ive ever played that does its best to make the player uncomfortable at every turn. that being said, the story was a little hard to follow, which i think was intentional, but it made it hard to know where to go or what to do. im pretty used to point and clicks having obtuse solutions and all that, but with how far apart places can be in this game, and the clock mechanic meaning certain things are only accessible at certain times, it somewhat discourages experimentation. i recall having to look up a speedrun near the end to figure out what to do to finish the game. that being said, you should absolutely still check this game out, its totally worth it
Voices of the Void
2022
I don't think I've played a game that manages to bounce between silly and terrifying so often. I find myself chuckling, cowering, and chuckling over what I cowered at. What a wonderful, digital home this game is!
What do you mean "there's a ghost, Nancy" I'm out here till 3am playing pachinko and solving sudoku puzzles, the only thing I'm haunted by is success, bitch. I don't even lose sleep when I bring up your dead mother in increasingly inappropriate ways.
I left Kenny to save him from bad writing.
Shipwrecked 64
2024
This review contains spoilers
This is a really tough one to rate. On one hand, the story is engaging and I really appreciate all the unique ways it is told throughout, and on the other hand there are some glaring flaws that ultimately had a somewhat negative impact on my immersion, without ruining it outright. Here are just some of my scattered thoughts on this wild ride of a game.
- Love when something in-game causes something else to happen on your computer or outside the parameters of the game window, such as opening up tabs, launching videos and even downloads, and even going as far as to send you a friend request on the Epic Game Store. Original, and honestly pretty terrifying.
- Forces you to lose mini games in order to progress the story, which I thought was cool.
- Scares run the gamut from simple atmospheric horror, to over-the-top jump scares. It's all over the place, and I love that.
- Use of the otherwise empty black bars on the sides of the screen is really creative and spooky.
But there are some downsides.
- Platforming can be annoying at times, especially wall jumping. Needs a little more polish.
- Most of the gameplay is more or less finding passcodes and inputting them correctly to progress, yet some of the solutions to these are SUPER convoluted (which I guess is the point, but ruins momentum).
- Probably my biggest gripe comes in the later layers of the game, when you are tasked with outmaneuvering and sneaking by the monsters. What starts as a genuinely creepy part loses its charm when hiding from the monsters, which can be for MINUTES at a time in one spot. Like I'll hide in a tube and wait for them to disappear which can literally take up to 5 minutes. Makes my mentality go from "oh this is scary, let me avoid them" to "I don't care if I get jump-scared I just want to progress." Really this can be fixed to be slightly more forgiving for a better overall experience.
Overall, despite these flaws, I would recommend this for anyone interested in a horror game that takes an unusual approach to storytelling.
- Love when something in-game causes something else to happen on your computer or outside the parameters of the game window, such as opening up tabs, launching videos and even downloads, and even going as far as to send you a friend request on the Epic Game Store. Original, and honestly pretty terrifying.
- Forces you to lose mini games in order to progress the story, which I thought was cool.
- Scares run the gamut from simple atmospheric horror, to over-the-top jump scares. It's all over the place, and I love that.
- Use of the otherwise empty black bars on the sides of the screen is really creative and spooky.
But there are some downsides.
- Platforming can be annoying at times, especially wall jumping. Needs a little more polish.
- Most of the gameplay is more or less finding passcodes and inputting them correctly to progress, yet some of the solutions to these are SUPER convoluted (which I guess is the point, but ruins momentum).
- Probably my biggest gripe comes in the later layers of the game, when you are tasked with outmaneuvering and sneaking by the monsters. What starts as a genuinely creepy part loses its charm when hiding from the monsters, which can be for MINUTES at a time in one spot. Like I'll hide in a tube and wait for them to disappear which can literally take up to 5 minutes. Makes my mentality go from "oh this is scary, let me avoid them" to "I don't care if I get jump-scared I just want to progress." Really this can be fixed to be slightly more forgiving for a better overall experience.
Overall, despite these flaws, I would recommend this for anyone interested in a horror game that takes an unusual approach to storytelling.
Garten of Banban 6
2023
"Real Banban" only consists of the dc Emotional Hardcore scene and the late 90's Screamo scene. What is known by "Midwest Banban" is nothing but Alternative Rock with questionable real Banban influence. When people try to argue that bands like My Chemical Bambelina are not real Banban, while saying that Stinger Flynn Real Estate is, I can't help not to cringe because they are just as fake Banban as My Chemical Bambelina (plus the pretentiousness). Real Banban sounds ENERGETIC, POWERFUL and somewhat HATEFUL. Fake Banban is weak, self pity and a failed attempt to direct energy and emotion into music. Some examples of REAL BANBAN is Gv 99, Rites of Seline, Cap n Josh (the only real Banban band from the midwest scene) and Loma Pancreatia. Some examples of FAKE BANBAN are Ophelian Football, My Chemical Bambelina, and Minecraft BANBAN BELONGS TO HARDCORE NOT TO INDIE, POP PUNK, ALT ROCK OR ANY OTHER MAINSTREAM GENRE
Who's Lila?
2022
Any piece of media to actually scare the shit out of me deserves credit where credit is due. It is wearing its Lynch sleeve very loud and proud (lol at the explicit Blue Velvet callout, when you hide in a closet) and it is doing it pretty well. I can't say I was ever imagining a horror game using the Mario 64 title screen mechanics to ever exist, but it is endlessly creepy. Seeing Will's face take up half the screen for basically your entire runtime pretty much always put me in a state of uneasiness, not helped by how easily you can morph his face into something grotesque. I feel as though its pho pixelated aesthetic really makes its more abstract horrors really pop out into some of the most horrifying things I've seen in a game like this. The game is taking inspiration from most of Lynch's body of work, and especially The Return, but a lot of the morphing of digitized faces really reminded me of the most chilling parts of Inland Empire. Who's Lila is is an absolute champion of art direction.
The game is pretty great, and short, so going super in depth would likely be a disservice, but I will say the game left me, very greedily, wanting a bit more from the endings. There is fifteen of them, which is a respectable amount, and I appreciate that the game leaves enough of itself open to interpretation and the ARG elements add enough texture to the worldbuilding or context to have it all make sense, but I feel like even just one more really unique scenario really could've set this game into a truly legendary space. Feel as though some of the endings you can get are just repetitive enough to feel kind of a chore to get them all, but thats me nitpicking a bit. What we got here really is great, if you're itching for something to geniunely unnerve you, this is a must. Gonna look out for this developer team's future work, they've got a keen eye for excellent scares. Thank you Jacob Geller for being one of the only big gaming Youtubers to point in the right direction for micro indies like this.
The game is pretty great, and short, so going super in depth would likely be a disservice, but I will say the game left me, very greedily, wanting a bit more from the endings. There is fifteen of them, which is a respectable amount, and I appreciate that the game leaves enough of itself open to interpretation and the ARG elements add enough texture to the worldbuilding or context to have it all make sense, but I feel like even just one more really unique scenario really could've set this game into a truly legendary space. Feel as though some of the endings you can get are just repetitive enough to feel kind of a chore to get them all, but thats me nitpicking a bit. What we got here really is great, if you're itching for something to geniunely unnerve you, this is a must. Gonna look out for this developer team's future work, they've got a keen eye for excellent scares. Thank you Jacob Geller for being one of the only big gaming Youtubers to point in the right direction for micro indies like this.
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