i... actually played this on my 3ds, so i'm sad i can't list it as that for the platform! despite that, this game is... not great. i like yugioh, so honestly i still had a really fun time, but it basically draws up to: place down the highest atk card. win. it is impossible to lose against the pc, and it was just a time killer. i enjoyed it just for the sake of playing an old (maybe one of the oldest?) yugioh game that i didn't get to during my childhood, so at least it has that going for it. the sprites are also incredibly cute. bakura looks soooo sweet <3

rating this is weird, but i use it almost daily and like having the stats it provides. yes, you can just use a fitbit or whatever other watch, but as someone who cannot afford that kind of luxury, i like pokemon sleep! i charge my phone through the day, and let it stay unplugged at night and use it as an alarm. this has actually HELPED my sleep schedule, crazy enough, and i get cute little friends when i wake up.

my only grievance is that... well, when i wake up, i am bombarded by things to do. i've started ending my sleep tracking, and then not moving past that screen until i get up fully because looking at my phone hurts my eyes that early. wish the whole "taking photos" or "meals" systems were more streamlined & instant so i'm not forced to swipe on my phone right as i get up.

osomatsu-san matsumatsuri, i'm sorry for giving you 3 stars babygirl but you deserve it... that being said: i love this game. it's so charming, and it holds a special place in my heart alongside all the silly spin-offs that osomatsu-san specifically has had, and i'm SO glad i stumbled across it.

to begin: this game is a collection of minigames based around the shenanigans from season 1. albeit, a little loosely. these minigames are: horse racing, donjara/ponjan (based off the mahjong episode), running chibita's oden stand, whack-a-mole, fishing, sutabaa cafe, surviving a mixer, snowball fight, mr flag sync, and a space game...?

really, its quite an eclectic collection of games.

your goal is to pick one of the loser brothers and raise his popularity/likeability by winning games with him, the more games you win, the more unlockables and affection he will receive. oh, did i not mention the unlockables? we'll get to that... overall, the games are surprisingly pretty fun but the limitation of this game being pretty low budget really shines. i think they work really well, and considering this game was about 20 bucks on release? i'm satisfied with it and i can see myself coming back to this when i have just a little time to kill and want to play on my 3ds. i wanted to go in depth about each game, but there isn't a HUGE amount to say about them, so i'll just give my highlight thoughts.

- the fishing minigame is busted. it is like stupidly hard to play, and i'm not sure if it's just a flaw in me misunderstanding HOW to play it because of the translation barrier, but truthfully i don't think so. i can catch small and mid-sized fish, but the large ones are absolutely impossible. i know this game is old af, but bandai namco please tell the devs to release a patch that will nerf the large fish LMAO
- the oden stand is just a match three but the art for it is so fucking cute lmao i actually really liked this one. its just speed matching. feels great.
- horse racing is so rng, it makes me mad but its perfect for the game it is.
- i dont know who decided to make the hatabou flag minigame a rhythm game but i LOVE YOU! it is so fitting and seeing karamatsu raise his lil flags in sync with hatabou is so funny. thank u.
- the mixer one... i dont understand why they're in those costumes. what is going on over there. i know we're trying to keep the nightmare brothers away from the girls, but why tf is zombie santa ichi here. what is going ON.
- space ?
- snowball minigame is really cute and probably the most fun. just wish it was a little harder or a little faster.

so now that we've discussed THAT, it's time to get to the meat of the game: your rewards for playing. as you win and get more points and subsequently rank up towards more popularity ratings, you unlock different outfits/sprites for the brother you won with, new backgrounds, voice lines, anime cgs, and even voicelines for the brother of your choice. it's... honestly really cute. a lot of these are just ripped from other spinoffs or promo artwork, but the variety and sheer amount of artwork in here is kind of ridiculous. it's all surprisingly high quality and really fucking cute!! there are a LOT of unlockables, 48 voicelines, sprites, and backgrounds PER sextuplet, which is more than i had expected to begin with.

the artwork (and music, tbh) are really fucking good in this game. while there is some recycling from the anime, a lot of the assets are completely new, and the amount of detail they put into everything is so unbearably sweet. one of my favorite bits from the 1st season is karamatsu's ungodly glitter pants that he wears when he goes fishing with totty, and they... actually made that his default outfit when you play the fishing game with him ?! the other brothers get their default outfits, but they actually drew something new for kara cause of the episode! granted, its a whole 15 minute segment from an episode and thats what this whole game is based off of, but the fact they drew up new assets for it was surprising and very cool. its easy to have just... not done that and use a screencap instead, but they didn't and you can see where they did similar in other minigames. even the main menu is a cutely animated scene from the opening where they sit around, smiling, and idle around. there is a lot of heart in this game's entire art direction, but i shouldn't be surprised when this is something that has persisted over the years in the osomatsu dev teams.

as further proof of this, this game is... so quirky. there's a whole tab dedicated to 3 silly, non-minigame features: a clock, calculator, and alarm clock ?! both the calculator and alarm clock have 3 skins per brother, with the alarm clock/timer having a different voiceline from the brother of your choice as the sound. its so freaking cute that they did this. as far as i can tell, these are completely new lines. and the clocks have embarrassingly cringe artwork that makes me love them endlessly. have i mentioned how charming this game is????

if it wasn't clear already, i love the direction they took this game. there is so much heart in it, and i really admire that especially when this game was just a miscellaneous collection of one-off minigames meant to capitalize on the success of the first season. my biggest and only gripe, is just how little there is to do. the games are alright, and while i will probably replay this more than i'd like to admit, it's mostly from the charm of this being a series i really love and not for how fun the whack-a-mole game is (insert sarcastic cheering). the lack of games or at least game depth makes unlocking all the cute sprites and voice lines just... impossible. i dont want to set that goal for myself, because it'd be entirely unfun. i wish there was more, ultimately, and i can't suggest someone to buy this, but i am glad this was made. thank god for how wonderful all the osomatsu game devs have been and will continue to be. you can tell with each game that they love this series, and this one isn't an exception.

okay this is fun but there is one game mode, and like no cool collectables to be collected for playing this one, very simple, game over and over. i mean, it sold for literally 5 dollars on the eshop so i guess what did i expect, but... come onnnnn !!! still kinda fun though. idk how to describe this gameplay. it's like a tile matching game, but in the sense you get a board and swipe to connect chained bubbles that have the same color. when you connect a large chain, releasing pops them and you get points. idk, its kinda fun but its not a crazy moment, i guess.

Definitely need to replay this eventually, but wow! Really surprised me. I have always loved dating sims (and visual novels in general) but my biggest gripe with the genre is just... how much you are railroaded into being the character the game wants or NEEDS you to be. to give your main character such a variable personality and a story that actually respects and acknowledges that is insanely taxing. despite this, OL:BA does just that, with a level of customization that i knew existed, but didn't expect to like so much.

OL:BA allows you a level of customization i've never seen in a any dating sim or VN before. you can customize your characters appearance, pronouns, personality & feelings towards the love interest, Cove, as well as help guide the relationship you and the main LI through menu options, selecting the amount of agency you'd like your character to have, or naturally as a result of the choices you make. after steps 1 and 2, or childhood and middle school years respectively, i was unsure just how much my choices would affect the story. it felt like they had, but without wanting to redo anything until i played it once through, i had no frame of measure. it was a pleasant surprise when i decided to switch my characters interest in the LI from "disinterested" to "crushing" between steps 2 and 3 that not only did the game respond according, allowing very different toned options to me, but also acknowledging multiple times how the relationship because my character and Cove went from that of not-really-friends to very close, all because of the attitude and choices i started to make. honestly, sometimes the amount of choice was a little overwhelming! i challenged myself not to really reload or select other dialogue options, just to really immerse myself, and i was pleasantly surprised to see just how much this customizability helped with that. i was generally not very interested in cove during steps 1 and 2, but the natural progression of the relationship was genuinely so fun to watch unravel i found myself really loving certain memories, dialogues, etc. and even teared up during step 4 lol... the game really builds itself around who you are as a player, while still not sacrificing the story and person it allows Cove to grow into as well. i don't tend to replay games much, but i am REALLY looking forward to replaying this one.

also, i must mention: this was free!?! im so used to vns/dating sims gating the higher quality cgs and content behind pay walls, but everything available to you in the base game is insanely high quality. im not surprised their recent entries will be more paid, because they definitely deserve to be paid for how much effort and love shines through all this.

of course, there are still limitations to this system. you have to read a LOT of menu-ing and really spend time in menus to curate your experience (it lessens after step 1, but really it was a lot to take in at first) but that was fine once i adjusted. similarly, for a game that takes so much of your input into question, it's a bit... mixed? for me on how much of your family you do/don't have control over. i can't think of a family dynamic i related to so little, which was nice but felt a bit at odds with the way the game wanted me to play. i felt so immersed, like i was really thinking as myself as a child/teen/adult/etc, only to get dropped into family dynamics i was Not accustomed to and didnt really care for. the moms and sister are fine! the cousin is cool! i just... did not relate at all, which isnt the games fault necessarily, but did make certain parts of part 3-4 have much less impact since it felt very jarring to go between. hope that makes sense...

still, a really good play. would definitely recommend if you have time to kill and want a new VN/dating sim to try. even if you don't vibe with cove or the other LI's (theyre trapped behind dlc), you always have the option to remain platonicly bonded with them which is very, very cool. what a fun game. i genuinely cant believe i got so invested. i really feel like my attitudes i chose in game reflected my progression with cove as well, which was so satisfying to play lol.

brotato is easy to dismiss as another vampire survivors clone and you'd be partially correct. if you dont like the vampire survivors dodge-and-weave-auto-attacking playstyle, there isn't much brotato can do to convince you to change your mind and you're better off just saving your money.

with that being said, if you played vampire survivors and liked it but found it was too simple or too same-y with not enough challenge or variety, brotato is perfect for you. there are SO many weapons, characters, and intricacies to the stats systems and weapon systems that are simple enough for someone new, but can be min-maxed enough if you want to really try-hard. this game is very much a roguelike in the way it presents its shops, upgrades, and gentle power-scaling, but is also very reminiscent of teamfight tactics with the way it handles weapon progression. you merge commons to form epics, epics to form rares, and so on and so forth, with bonuses if you stay within the same class of weapons.

i want to say more but i feel like i need to play it for longer to really have a solid opinion worth listening to. the game is only five dollars and the devs deserve every penny. if you're remotely interested you should definitely go for it. this is a tentative early rating but i really do think it will change in the future (hopefully more positively).

bonus points btw for having so much accessibility options. granted the game is simple but having a mouse-only way to play is cool. ever since my friend on twitter has dealt with a wrist injury, i've come to note just how many things are impossible to play for anyone who is disabled. its impossible as a small team to cater to everything possible, but it's nice to see some attempts be made. i've found myself making more notes on games' accessibility features even if i wouldn't ever recommend it to my friend just because now its something i'm more aware of. it's astounding how many games are not as accommodating as they could be, so it's nice to see some options here.

why do all house flipper/home decorator games insist on the hyper-realistic artstyle. it just looks ugly. a lot of the actual decorating systems in this is pretty nice, and imo functions a lot nicer than the sims & house flipper. i like the way jobs are specific and how customers evaluate your score or commission especially if compared to house flipper. i love being able to flip between first and third person, and overall it just feels way better to set dress houses for whatever you want. i love the feel of cleaning and demolishing houses in house flipper, but the sims has always had a level of polish in actually placing down decor that nothing else could close to. i think hometopia hits pretty close to that for me, while still remaining very distinct and different. i've not seen/played enough to really rate it, but it has promise and i think that if enough of a community forms this could really be something i sink my time into. even if its just for set dressing houses for fun and never saving them.

I love ninja kiwi and I love the bloons franchise but god this was such a letdown. the exp grind to unlocking tower upgrades to use in pvp duels is the worst slog ever. ninjakiwi has made minor attempts to fix the issue in the past but this system is a nightmare to deal with as a new player which only makes the already high barrier to entry worse. the love put into this game's appearance and personality is apparent, which makes the glaring issues in this game feel so much worse. the game is rarely updated with anything meaningful, locked behind the speed of which btd 6 gets a new tower or upgrade, which is close to never. all you have to look forward to while playing are patch notes and balance changes which make the game feel stale. luckily, many of the meta issues that arose during its launch month have since been fixed and the variation in loadouts makes the ranked grind much more fun than it was initially, but i can't in good faith recommend it and it's dwindling player base seems to agree with me.