Immaculate vibes, deceptively tough 'platforming', OLED showpiece

Dry

Like I get that this game is bad, but hitting that enrage button in the middle of a dialogue tree conversation never failed to make me laugh. It's stupid fun

No death counter
No timer
No collectibles
No leaderboards
No saving
No cost

Just some of the most well considered, blisteringly hard precision platforming I've ever done in my life, and a ton of perseverance.

The crew mechanic undermines the clever gimmick by allowing you to coast by with your dependable easy characters. Penny's stage was the strongest because of this, as it forced you to learn her rules for a full level set without a crew. Also, the 'trapped in a game' setting is missing a bit of the charm of the WarioWare world (something Penny's section also does best, that song whewwww).

Heavy NieR vibes in its world design, thrillingly tough bosses, delightfully dumb story & charmingly garbage VO, more particle effects than anyone could ask for, and Helvis.

Maybe Roger Ebert was right

Back and forth fetch quest checklisting with bad combat and way too referential in its writing

lol

I felt nothing

Glow up of the century

Undeniably jank, but somehow it just works

Shout out to ActEsper

Tries something different with its gameplay when it should've just ran with the visual style and great music and went tried and true bullet hell shmup

gorgeous vibe but this train takes too long to really get goin

Overcame my 'Retro Game Inspired Action Platformer' cynicism and made me look like a total fool for even being cynical in the first place.

Just throw on a podcast and play TDM, Shotty Snipers, or SWAT

It's all about the transitions baby, a playable arcade action movie

Beat it on my first run, it's cool

Why would anyone ever play this when Super Meat Boy did it exponentially better, like, 11 years ago

Total mechanical & stylistic congruence.

Jumping over a riot shield, activating bullet time, backflipping, and popping a headshot NEVER gets old

Really cute story, but nothing that makes it stand out as a video game

So laser focused and fun to play that you may skip over the surprising number of secrets throughout (I sure did)

VR Escape Room Fever Dream

Liked the shooting and flashing lights, didn't care for most everything else

One of the best adventure FPS games I've ever played

SOTN without the fluff

It's Insomniac, it was always gonna be great.

Perfect Steamdeck toilet game, all I need is a Steamdeck.

I played this while watching http://www.twitch.tv/omsthechef play MGS: The Twin Snakes. Twin Snakes is great.

The first hour is gold, but it kinda wears its welcome with too many mechanically similar minigames

What a masterpiece. Endlessly charming, imaginative, fun, emotionally impactful, and just plain cool without ever feeling like it's trying too hard to be any of those things. Bursting at the seams with creativity, and makes it all look so easy.

a toe-dip back into the world of MOBAs as a now clean ex-Dota 2 addict. Love the rigid 10 minute game structure.

I was the speedrun world record holder, and I'm sitting on a skip that will break the world record time wide open but I'm scared to post it cause I don't want to get beat again

A clever battle royale with a really novel twist on the pac-man formula

Terrific shooting, borderline unfinished everything else

10 slogging middle hours bookended by an incredible first and last 2 hours.

Every element of a great video game distilled down to its simplest and purest form

I sincerely wish this was enjoyable cause the concept of a playable metal opera is hilarious, but playing it is so stressful that you can't parse any of it

undeniably gorgeous, and I enjoyed the secret hunt, but I didn't really have fun?

Feels like the game this solo dev has had cooking in their brain since they were a child. Uncompromising, pure in its vision, and filled to the brim with childlike wonder. A magical journey.

Just wanna get home after a double shift delivering these packages but this fuckin apartment complex has me chasing down babies and shit

I miss baiting out Pokemon Evolutions, and there's a too much grinding, but this stayed surprisingly true to the original

Feels really bad to play, and everyone talks way too much but literally none of the dialogue matters cause it's like 90% aesthetic technobabble jargon

https://castandspear.com/best-fishing-memes/

Amazing atmosphere, crummy combat

It's FUN

My first MonHun game, and I totally get it.

The Citizen Kane of Flappy Bird

Fun way to spend an hour, should've been a mobile game

If you've seen one level then you've seen the whole game

This game successfully won me over by the end, after a good three hours at the beginning of thinking they just didn't get it.

The split reality gimmick is dumb and it's sooooo slowwwwww.

Just Google Zdzisław Beksiński instead

Golf is frustrating

I don't caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaare about this corny couple and their doomed relationship

The coziest way to spend an afternoon

Took over my life for a couple days, but the idle side and resource grinding is too much once you find your winning strategy

Perhaps the perfect sequel

On 1.0 release week, this game fulfilled a craving that I've been unable to satiate since 2005 when I spent every day after school playing Warcraft III custom games.

I came back after that release week rush, and got absolutely filtered by the people still playing.

Ugh

There is a direct parallel between how many little Rot dudes I had following me and how much I was enjoying the game

Doesn't do anything better than the game it shamelessly rips from

Absolutely nothing redeemable here

The further down the rabbit hole it went, the less interested I became.

Asks too much of the player in order to play it the right way, when playing it wrong (and not fun) gets wins anyway. But the concept is gold and I'd love to play a true focused inhouse game someday

BBBB
(Beautiful But Bonelessly Boring)

Culmination

Incredibly fun rhythm platformer, just wish there was more music than Honktown Clownaround

idk man, this middle section of my list has a whole bunch of games that like, don't necessarily have anything wrong with them, but why would anyone ever take time out of their life to play them? Why did *I* play them?

TOTSUGE-
Communicating With Server . . .

Frustrating demands for twin-stick precision accuracy hold it back. The boss with the switching color Ikaruga influence was sick tho

I just don't get Ghosts n Goblins appeal at all. Can't believe I played through the whole thing on Knight.

Imagine if the whole game was like that two minute Harlem Jazz Improv sequence. It's not, but imagine if it was

Way too long, way too frustrating. Could trim like 45% of it and shuffle the levels so that the difficulty scales properly and it would've been great, cause the rest of the package is wonderful

Perhaps the best 'forever game' I've ever played, which is why I had to quit cold turkey after entering the Hall of Fame. Alarmingly addictive.

With its mechanically deep and satisfyingly weighty combat, gorgeously captivating 2.5d world, and thoughtful gameplay variety, F.I.S.T. punches way above its own weight.

If it weren't for the mildly bloated final act and trouble sticking the landing, this would be easy top 5. A must-play if you're a metroidvania fan.

Shouldn't have been an Undertale-like, cause I really did enjoy the Reverse Guitar Hero combat but had to subject myself to the bad world and worse writing in order to experience it

Feels a bit unfinished, and very light on playtime, but boy do I love jumpin and shootin and dodgin projectiles.

https://youtu.be/XaKr98ktoxU

Having trouble phrasing precisely how ingenious this game is.

The Fruit >>>>>>>

Cartoon Cartoon Summer Resort for a new generation

Ends with a whimper. . . . . Get it?

This was originally slated as a $70 PS5 launch title dude

Comfort Food

That final loop? Chef's kiss

"I love it when a plan comes together"

Play this with a group of your closest friends, either online or on a couch, for maximum effect.

Salim >>>>

A total eyesore, but still the best game of the year based on a twelve minute loop

Fails to surprise

Bland and too long

I've been getting really into "hell". Both as a mindset and as something to strive for, in an organizational sense.
There's something intensely beautiful about it.

Gets a bit too depraved in places for my tastes, but the approach to short storytelling is worth trying out

I have a friend that considers himself an "archer main"; I spend a lot of my time just thinking about him and getting pissed off.

They should teach this game in schools

Maddy been playing a LOT of Mario Maker 2 and it shows in the level structure. Spiderman grappling hook never really felt great to use, but there are worse ways to spend 15 minutes.

If you just ignore literally everything about it narratively, it's more cod and kinda fun, but moreso than any other cod game I've played it is devoid of human compassion, and the game's approach to diversity is misguided at best and offensive at worst.

The most clever Undertale-like since Undertale

It's cute but the actual gameplay gimmick isn't really that cool in execution, and it's the same thing over and over

A beautiful framework for Open World Mario, but the 3d World moveset doesn't work when you put camera control on the right stick.

As soon as it tries to be funny, it nosedives in quality. Also has a really fucked up portion where you are asked to run over pedestrians that totally rubbed me the wrong way.