cowboyjosh
BACKER
2019
Roguelikes just make me feel empty. I've felt exactly the same way after spending time with Monster Train, Hades, etc. It's fun for a little bit, then I die and am immediately overwhelmed with a sense of time wasted. I think my satisfaction relies on the novelty of seeing new environments and overcoming new obstacles. Replaying the same content over and over (even if it's randomized) quickly starts to feel like a grind.
Frustrating because it actually has a lot of cool mechanics. They’re all just implemented in like the least fun way possible.
2021
This is a PC game that was released on consoles without fixing the UI to work with a controller.
2021
The very bad new player experience pushed me off this game once (the tutorial consists of about 500 overlapping dialog windows explaining every mechanic in the game at the same time). I came back and powered through and while I can say I do understand the appeal, this game just isn't for me.
Coming from a background with a lot of Soulslikes and DMC-likes the combat felt incredibly slow and clunky. There's no target lock and a lot of the weapons have incredibly long windup and recovery animations, so it's easy to miss (which feels pretty bad when the thing you're fighting is the size of a school bus). I didn't get very far, only about 13 hours, but all of the enemies I fought were very repetitive and didn't exhibit any unique or interesting behaviors.
I did like all the cute little guys that help you out, and the wirebug was pretty fun to swing around on. The time sinks are egregious, but that's just typical GaaS game design for you. Like anything, I bet it's a lot more fun to play with friends.
Coming from a background with a lot of Soulslikes and DMC-likes the combat felt incredibly slow and clunky. There's no target lock and a lot of the weapons have incredibly long windup and recovery animations, so it's easy to miss (which feels pretty bad when the thing you're fighting is the size of a school bus). I didn't get very far, only about 13 hours, but all of the enemies I fought were very repetitive and didn't exhibit any unique or interesting behaviors.
I did like all the cute little guys that help you out, and the wirebug was pretty fun to swing around on. The time sinks are egregious, but that's just typical GaaS game design for you. Like anything, I bet it's a lot more fun to play with friends.
2016
What if Warioware was an R-rated crime melodrama with a 4 figure body count?
Overall, this gets a thumbs up from me. I found the combat to be pretty flat and uninteresting, although there is a bit of strategic depth as you unlock more abilities. The side activities are all well fleshed out and pretty fun (I even tried to learn Mahjong) but ultimately don't dovetail with the main activities and the whole experience ends up feeling like a sort of sampler platter, rather than a cohesive whole.
I did enjoy the main plot, though, primarily due to the inclusion of Haruka who I found to be cute and spunky without drifting into cornball territory. She effectively grounds the melodrama and once the story became primarily "protect the child" I was fully engaged even if I wasn't quite following every beat of the Yakuza clans' convoluted skullduggery.
Pros:
# Haruka - I can't wait to see what they do with her
# Pocket circuit - I played so much of this
# A solid, well-paced, high-drama plot
# Beating a group of guys with a park bench
Cons:
# Battle Bug Beauties is abhorrent; the game loses a full star for this
# Combat is repetitive
# Way too much button mashing (I hate button mashing)
Overall, this gets a thumbs up from me. I found the combat to be pretty flat and uninteresting, although there is a bit of strategic depth as you unlock more abilities. The side activities are all well fleshed out and pretty fun (I even tried to learn Mahjong) but ultimately don't dovetail with the main activities and the whole experience ends up feeling like a sort of sampler platter, rather than a cohesive whole.
I did enjoy the main plot, though, primarily due to the inclusion of Haruka who I found to be cute and spunky without drifting into cornball territory. She effectively grounds the melodrama and once the story became primarily "protect the child" I was fully engaged even if I wasn't quite following every beat of the Yakuza clans' convoluted skullduggery.
Pros:
# Haruka - I can't wait to see what they do with her
# Pocket circuit - I played so much of this
# A solid, well-paced, high-drama plot
# Beating a group of guys with a park bench
Cons:
# Battle Bug Beauties is abhorrent; the game loses a full star for this
# Combat is repetitive
# Way too much button mashing (I hate button mashing)
2020
Loved it! The unique and memorable characters, plot twists doled put in tantalizing chunks, and oh my god that delicious lore!
The gameplay here is extremely basic, just simple first person exploration, collection, and light puzzles and platforming. You can’t even die. But this was a world I never stopped wanting to know more about. Smart writing, colorful artwork and a jazzy original soundtrack wrap this game up into a relaxing but engrossing package that’s hard to put down.
The gameplay here is extremely basic, just simple first person exploration, collection, and light puzzles and platforming. You can’t even die. But this was a world I never stopped wanting to know more about. Smart writing, colorful artwork and a jazzy original soundtrack wrap this game up into a relaxing but engrossing package that’s hard to put down.
Seems ok but I’ve got plenty of Soulslikes in my life and I don’t like the Diablo-style loot; too much inventory management. It does a lot well, though, and has fun, fluid combat.
1992
In this game ostensibly about gang warfare, the boss of the first stage is a genie. The boss of the second stage is a Black guy. I didn’t stick around long enough to find out what kind of trend was emerging from those data points.
The cover art is the high point of this low budget stinker. The animation is downright ugly and has the bare minimum of frames, the levels are brief and somehow still repetitive, and there’s hardly any moves! No run, no kick, no special power, no melee weapons. The game only uses two of the SNES’s 6 buttons. Just punch and jump. This is an easy pass.
The cover art is the high point of this low budget stinker. The animation is downright ugly and has the bare minimum of frames, the levels are brief and somehow still repetitive, and there’s hardly any moves! No run, no kick, no special power, no melee weapons. The game only uses two of the SNES’s 6 buttons. Just punch and jump. This is an easy pass.
2011
Clearly taking strong inspiration from Half-Life 2, this deeply generic shooter has a strong corporate odor. The constant "this is what you should be doing" barks and yellow arrows drawn on everything telling you where to go gives it that focus-tested sterile smoothness that's high on playability and low on personality. I do like the gun that shoots through walls, though.
2023
The same weirdly stiff combat as Monster Hunter but with less polish. I didn’t stick with it long enough to really play with the construction stuff so that might be a redeeming factor.
I couldn’t figure out what the tutorial was telling me to do
2022
This is a real gem. It looks great, feels great and tells a really interesting story with very few words
Some surprisingly good high points, but many more low points. What Kids These Days might refer to as “mid.”
2017
Great music! But I’ve never experienced such clumsy, erratic movement in a post-SMB platformer. If the jump don’t have it, the game don’t have it.
2013
this movie is the sequel to the mandalorian. unfortunately baby yoda is a huge megastar now so he refused to do the movie so they recast him as a white girl whose only force power is super acting. the mandalorian lost his space ship so they have to go to pawnee to see ron swanson which made me cry so hard it broke my playstation. altogether i really like this new direction for star wars but the gameplay isn't so great. too much sneaking! i hope i get the jetpack soon.
update 23/03/10: i beat the movie!! turns out humans are the real monsters and there's no jetpack. i was hoping they'd bring back amy sedaris's character because after baby yoda stopped telling jokes it was all like doom and gloom like shooting doctors and lying to children. i have a couple ideas for the sequel if the devs are reading this: 1. more jokes, maybe a funny droid or something 2. you should get the jetpack earlier 3. prioritize fidelity of control over fidelity of animation. overall i liked the story ok but the gameplay was too slow. i give it 3 out of 5 death stars.
update 23/03/10: i beat the movie!! turns out humans are the real monsters and there's no jetpack. i was hoping they'd bring back amy sedaris's character because after baby yoda stopped telling jokes it was all like doom and gloom like shooting doctors and lying to children. i have a couple ideas for the sequel if the devs are reading this: 1. more jokes, maybe a funny droid or something 2. you should get the jetpack earlier 3. prioritize fidelity of control over fidelity of animation. overall i liked the story ok but the gameplay was too slow. i give it 3 out of 5 death stars.