Cool enhanced PC port of a classic DS multiplayer mainstay, a staple of Download Play which is a relic of a time when Nintendo once gave a shit about not just the console owner experience would be like but their friends or strangers' experiences. This lovely little project adds a built-in server browser, color palette options, new levels and a surprisingly 0 input lag online multiplayer experience (at the cost of visuals being somewhat out of sync)

I think it's fitting that a user called "ipodtouch0218" is the creator/host for it, it's very of the era with the kind of hardcore fans I associate with this game. Thank you, ipodtouch0218, for letting me relive a core memory.

Finally checked out that Metroid Prime remake that everyone's been talking about and damn, what a bold move to whole hog genre swap it into a pinball game! ...what's that now? You're telling me everyone's been talking about a Metroid Prime remaster, not a remake? You mean this review doesn't even benefit from being topical??

Anyway, yeah, it's a retreading of Metroid Prime in the form of a pinball game. That's pretty much all there is to it. It's not really a good Metroid or a good pinball game, but it is a fascinating curio.

The most notable element of the game is its soundtrack: while every other table has background music that would be right at home in the Metroid Prime series proper (like the Tallon Overwold table for example), the Pirate Frigate table has the most out-of-place buttrock Brinstar remix with squealing guitars and girthy bass aplenty. It's even wilder on real hardware - you don't need that Rumble Pak, the reverb from the absurdly mixed snare drum hits gotchu covered baby.

And if it that Brinstar remix sounds a bit familiar, it's because it's the wackass "SAMUS IS UNDER FIRE" song from Brawl. I went 16+ years thinking that remix was a fever dream cooked up custom for Smash Bros. but nah, that's from a goddamn pinball spinoff.

Hit credits after about four hours or so and thought to myself "this was a nice short little game, I wouldn't mind grabbing the rest of the collectibles before moving on". Like five sessions, ten hours, and several pages of notes and ciphers later, I can confidently say that I've had my fun here - and that is to say that there are still more things left to find!

This game's got layers, man.

If you like games like Super Metroid or Tunic and are looking for a densely atmospheric puzzle adventure, this is not a game you should be missing. With a few more fast travel points and a little less platforming precision in some areas (if you found all the bunnies, you'll know what I'm talking about), this would be an easy five star for me. But even with those few minor shortcomings, it's on my 2024 Game of the Year shortlist and I am confidently inducting it into my indie game hall of fame. I can already feel that this'll kick off another wave of indie game fever for me like Outer Wilds did a while back, too.

TL;DR: Animal Well is a fantastically unique experience from start to finish and it is absolutely worth all the high praise you've been hearing.



...still can't believe a donkey published this game...

a game that radicalized me in many ways. it taught me a very important lesson: gamers are stupid. and cruel. and wrong.
the story of this game is well known enough. a 2 person husband and wife indie team set out to make minecraft but an actiony rpg with a neverending procedurally generated world with multiplayer. then a billion people saw it and decided it was going to be the best and only videogame ever made. they made an alpha that people though was pretty cool and didnt update it for years, getting accusations of being scammers and liars, until finally putting out an update that completely overhauled and changed the game structure that everyone hated.
for one, you can't talk about this game without acknowledging the extreme cruelty of this game's fanbase. its fair to say the development team overpromised what this game would be. but so what? they were two people. be mad at yourself for believing it. i believed it because i was like 13 when this game got announced. what's your excuse? at the time i liked the alpha ok, when i could get it running on my shitty laptop. then i forgot about it until a few years ago, which brings me to point two.
the update made the game better. way better. so much better. this is an opinion, people can think what they'd like. but if you prefer whatever generic rpg structure they were going with in the alpha to the inspired exploration focused direction they took the final version, you are either being tricked by nostalgia or might just hate good things. the combat is messy, the progression is weird, and the system is in desperate need of a tutorial. but when you see how it works it just clicks into place.
the world is a series of regions, and each region is its own self-contained legend of zelda type exploration game. you need to find items and equipment to be able to reach new areas and get strong enough to beat monsters protecting other items and areas. and all these items only work in the region you found them. when you finish out the region, you find an artifact that provides some minor buff that persists between all regions. then you go to another region and start again.
it could be considered a flaw that there's no real endgame past that. you just keep amassing artifacts and becoming more powerful. i think the game would be better for it, but for what it is i love it. i love being able to go on a never ending series of self-contained adventures, slowly amassing power. imagine a lttp randomizer but at the end of each run link gets a new bonus power for the next run. it's not for everyone, i get that but i think this is the best version of cube world we could've gotten. it was never going to be whatever game everyone was imagining it to be.
this is a review i had been working on for a while, but i felt inspired to finish it because i recently saw wollay had started work on a new version of cube world for ue5 based on the game's alpha. that's not the version of the game i prefer, but i'm still excited to try it. i hope it will get people to give this game another chance.