It's possible to look at a level of Humanity for ages. The visual concept of bipedal figures swarming or moving like schools of fish remains striking throughout the game's transformations. The soundtrack is also pleasantly abstract, which works well at both regular speed and fast-forward. That's a good thing, as the major downside to the game can be how much it relies on trial-and-error and restarts. However, the variety of levels and challenges ensures that issue doesn't dominate the game. Some levels are genuine brain-twisters and the boss fights (yep, it's a puzzle game with boss fights!) are always a spectacle.

After a bit under 60 escape attempts, with 10 successful, I rolled credits satisfied. I had plenty of fun along the way, particularly with how the game develops through dialog run after run. The cast is entertaining, particularly when they interact or comment on one another, and the action drew me in most of the time.

While there are a lot of options for players to customize Zag and set conditions for runs, I would have liked for there to be more variety in the Underworld. Rooms became a bit too recognizable at the end. Even with Extreme Measures, so did the boss fights. But I was still discovering new combinations of weapons and boons in my latest run and having a good time. The combination of visual novel and roguelite with Supergiant's flair for production still stands out, though.

Good for a quick hit of puzzle-platforming. The puzzles in that designation are better than the platforming, in that I kind of wish this hadn't been restricted to a game that would fit in a one-button jam. I enjoyed the use of gravity and the resulting emphasis on spacing and directionality. But I would have enjoyed it more without fighting the controls that require a jump and stomp in order to change direction. Having such a heavy mechanic doesn't quite jive with the puzzle design and led to a few retries that felt unnecessary.

With that said, I also enjoyed the available variety in star types, obstacles, and even the color palette. I plan to check out more from Escada soon.

I started replaying this when I first got a PS5. It was a lights-out difference from my first play on PS4. Turns out that not having to wait for things like the start screen to load has a big impact. I also had a much easier time navigating the Oldest House this go around and rushing launch powers to maximum made it an easy trip. I wound up completing every side mission, since that's where a lot of the flavor is. And in 2023, the sequence of Finnish Tango > Ashtray Maze is still just about as good as it gets in action/adventure games.

There's more to World of Horror than I thought at first glance. That is, more options and depth in what can be done in different locations, events, and cases. Koźmiński and the rest of the small team around this one accomplished a lot with a little. The interface is still clunky and cluttered, but it works well enough within the game's structural pillars of dungeon crawling and random generation. Speaking of, the text and themes of the game are a better fit for those structures than usual. Strange and threatening happenings can happen at any moment, but what else should be expected when an eldritch force attempts to break through into our world?

Unfortunately, playing this one made me think of better games that I would rather be playing. Well, one is a set of games: the Treasure Trove games. I could be playing any one of those and doing a challenge run in which I destroy every checkpoint. That would have the same effect of resetting my progress with each death, but I would benefit from well-crafted levels and more precise controls. Similarly, I think there's some clear inspiration from Downwell in here, but without the momentum and deceptive simplicity. Those are good ingredients, but they don't come together in Shovel Knight Dig. Ultimately, I don't think that procedural generation and Shovel Knight go all that well together.

I had a circuitous route to Risk of Rain as I've already played (but haven't yet finished) its sequel. With a winning run in this one, I'm curious to see if I'll have more luck with the second. But I do think that the first Hopoo effort still has some great things going for it in its own right. It's a very readable game despite its chaos and scale. Classes are varied and stacking items and drones is a blast. The soundtrack is worth an extra star in its own right, too. Most importantly, it feels like the designers trust the player to have fun with the game in their own way. There's a lot of control in when to start the fireworks, fight bosses, and progress, right up until the final boss.

Blown away by this one being from 1991. It must have been from the future. Really, it's Compile building on the platform of their previous work. Spriggan has a great implementation of the Aleste system of collecting multiple power-ups but these ones can be combined to change the shape and pattern of your shot. Even better, each of the three that you can hold at a time can be ejected in a pinch as a small bomb. Sprites are great, there are fully voiced cutscenes (that my lacking Japanese was not up to, that's on me), and designs are detailed. There could be a little more to some enemies and patterns, but there's more than enough variety for its six-levels-plus-a-final-boss.

Holds up very well. As with a lot of the Atari arcade games from the 70s, the most impressive thing about it is the feeling of momentum. I think there's still an element of psychological mystery as to how the feeling of gravity is communicated so well with so little. There is something charming about the simplicity of the vector graphics and they're complimented with numerical readouts for speed and direction. There's also the snark and satisfaction of the text messages that display after landings, both successful and attempted. It's very satisfying to nudge the lander into a 5x score multiplying landing spot and see "The Eagle Has Landed."