The original Animal Crossing is an interesting case study to me, considering that I've spent plenty of time playing the games after this (Wild World, New Leaf, and New Horizons) before coming back to the source. Right away, I can tell that the sauce is there but it's nowhere as polished as its successors. For example, you can't immediately submit fossils to the museum because Blathers isn't confident enough in his fossil certification; instead, you have to write up a letter, attach the fossil to the letter, and mail it off to the museum to get identified before it gets mailed back, and you also have to wait a day before finding your first fossil before you can mail it off to boot. There's other little things too, like Nook's Cranny being a bit "luck-based" in what tools they'll choose to sell to you first, so you might not get the chance to fish on the first day if it's not being sold, or how the Able Sisters aren't actually selling clothing in the original, just acting as a stand-in for custom designs that are more fully integrated in the sequels. Oh, and there are goddamn mosquitos everywhere that really love to bite me while I'm fishing for coelacanths and harvesting my daily money rock; I swear my budget Ico should have gotten West Nile virus by now considering how many times he's been bit over the past couple of weeks.

And yet, it's in these imperfections and its distinct vibe that the original carves out its niche. Unlike its successors, everyone in the village you move to is at best indifferent and at worst somewhat hostile and cynical of you, the newbie moving in. They don't make any attempts to hide it really; the villagers constantly joke about how they would never forget you when you load up your game again, and some even saw me as this kind of pestilence that existed and wanted nothing to do with whenever I tried chatting them up to see if I could do them any favors. The only guy in town who seems to give a damn about you is a raccoon who is more or less exploiting you for free labor. And yet, there's something oddly comforting about this and the "lack" of things to do in the original Animal Crossing when compared to the games that came after. I never felt like I was being rushed towards some light at the far end of the tunnel or felt disappointed that I didn't make enough progress to hit the next checkpoint, or even a need to make myself presentable and affable to those around me. If they didn't care, why should I? There's a million things to do in New Leaf and New Horizons that kept pushing me forward, and contrary to that, the lack of ambition in the original kept me rooted in the simple daily tasks; I was content just fishing to my heart's desire, having nothing to prove and no one to prove anything to. I may be done with Animal Crossing for now, but I can appreciate how it lets you forget about life for a while. It doesn't need to be something flashy or aspiring: it just is.

the "huge innovation that is finally bringing 2d mario back from the grave!" in question:

sorry it's fine it's not a bad game at all but any time I think about going back to play more I just don't really want to do it, feels like sludge content. I guess for kids it's better sludge content than like Roblox or whatever but it feels like there's nothing to even latch on to here if this Isn't your first platformer ever. There's like 2 bottomless pits in this entire game like wtf. Absolutely nothing to mechanically engage with besides the inherent fun in controlling the character which is as good as it's always been, which is part of the problem if you have ever played literally any other 2d mario game. Sometimes there'll be like a really hard side level and usually those are a bit more fun but from the 4 or 5 worlds I played there wasn't like a single goldilocks level, on the normal world the hard levels are "you might die like 2 times" hard and the special world was Balls hard enough to feel way too jarring coming from the main levels and just feel annoying.

Flower gimmicks are neat but ultimately they are gimmicks and it doesn't take long for them to iterate on every idea they had for it and for them to start repeating and getting super played out. Why is there so much bloat between levels, I remember someone posting something about how like dying is quicker since you're not booted back to the map, but every time you enter a new world which happens like every 30 minutes you've gotta spam through a bunch of dialogue written for 8 year olds, why is there so much dialogue in a mario game literally all of them have the same story that can be explained in 2 seconds why are we doing this.

really, feels like the first mario game that i'm just too old for or whatever. feels incredibly bizarre to see heaps and heaps of praise and calls for GOTY on what is functionally just another new soup game with some bells and whistles added lol. extremely extremely safe game, i mean maybe im stupid for expecting even the slightest deviance otherwise from a big budget AAA mario game released a couple months after the movie but whatever

A surprisingly sad journey into ethnic dilution and cultural identity. Playing out like a visual novel, the personable story is the attraction here as we uncover the highs and lows of an Indian family who have immigrated to Canada. How a child growing up in a foreign country feels apprehensive about displaying their ethnic background, only to soon realise that they should've embraced the culture their parents bestowed upon them all those years ago. It's actually really moving.

Player interaction comes from cooking and learning about South-Indian cuisine in between the narrative time jumps. While these little puzzles are presented with such authenticity, they are perhaps too basic and limited in the mechanical department. It's basically clicking ingredients in the right order. Now I'm not expecting 'Cooking Mama' level of chopping ingredients, stirring broths etc. but to really sell this as an interactive experience it just needed more involvement. Due to how short the story is - exacerbated by the fleeting time jumps which can diminish the core emotion - it just about gets away with it.

Delectably tender in the middle, but undercooked round the edges.

From all the other Metroidvanias that had been released at the time, this one stood out from the crowd. There was something about this game's art direction is that drove me to download it, and ever since I beat it, I'll never forget the experience that was my first playthrough of this game. Hollow Knight from the very start drops you in with no questions asked. You're a lone knight in this dark and depressing world filled with many creatures and things you have no way of knowing what could be around the next corner. It's the mysterious factor of the game along with the atmospheric soundtrack that draws you in and keeps you exploring for hours on end. Like most Metroidvanias, you will get more abilities the more you progress making the adventure smoother the more you play, but the game in turn also gets harder. You'll notice immediately when you die and realize that you lost all your currency, you'll probably end up scrambling back to get to where you died to collect it all again only to have died again, meaning that past soul with all your currency is gone. It stings, but it's something you'll learn throughout the game, the fact being that it won't hold your hand. It respects the player enough to check their surroundings and pick and choose their battles carefully. It's not the best I've played in terms of design but for their first time attempting this genre, they nailed it.

Pretty dang cool mystery/graphic adventure game! Nothing particularly crazy or groundbreaking here, just an intriguing small-town mystery polished to a sheen that you can play in a sitting or two. Love the way this game does branching paths like a Choose Your Own Adventure book too, not something you see too much outside of visual novels.

I've got some minor gripes (protip if you dont like the narrator's va's weird mic you can mute them and it doesnt hurt the game at all) but this is generally a really solid mystery game, especially if you're getting it thru gamepass. Crazy how every small town furry mystery game inspired in some part by Twin Peaks is better than the one that made the biggest waves

The story is not very good. I love children's picture books and I've always been a fan of Arthur, but beyond making very little sense, there's just not much to this story at all. Arthur is planning a party the same day as someone else but neither of them can reschedule for some reason? Why? Why can't you reschedule? This seems like a super solvable problem, but the solution they come up with in the end is terrible, it doesn't solve anything, it's basically just ignoring the issue entirely. Am I critiquing a story meant for children? Yes. But I generally hold Arthur to a higher standard than this. HOWEVER, this is still a very good interactive story just for the bizarre world of clickable background elements that are so standard with these types of programs. And the pixel art is seriously so charming, I really love it. I only wish I had played the version that had the extra minigames like the interactive "pin the tail on the donkey" and all that. I'll have to revisit this some time and check out that version. This was nice. (6/10)

Im not going to give this a score yet as quite frankly its very underbaked right now with heaps of bugs, issues and quest-breaking problems. Its also limited in the amount of content present. Im also not giving it a score yet as im waiting for WHEN that moment will drop where the F2P hits, paid content will swoop in and I want to know if and how predatory that microtransaction money will be before I make my full decision.

That said, as it stands Dreamlight Valley, it is a fun timesinky game. Its NOT Animal Crossing as some places are stating it is, its very much a collectathon with 101 fetch quests and basic friendship mechanics and its... Fairly fun and addictive. Its had me hooked for a whole and its pretty easy to just lose hours to it which is weird because normally you'd expect also there to be a ton of timers and energy meters that take an age to replenish but... No? Instead its just rather charming and fun to hang out with Mickey, Donald, Remy, Wall-E (Who is best robot ever SHUT UP) and more.

I dunno. Im just feeling cautious and im waiting for the other shoe to drop in case the game suddenly yanks some of the easy energy options away and bumps the crop/item respawn times up. Ive been burned too many times.

If you do want to play this, I do recommend either waiting for it to launch in full F2P form to get whats likely the intended experience or play through games pass. None of the packs are worth buying given how expensive they are and none actually provide enough stuff given the expensive as hell price point behind them.

On October 15th, I start playing The Good Life. Its on Xbox Game Pass, so I figured I’ll just give it a try for fun. It features Naomi Haywood, a journalist in crippling debt who needs money fast. She arrives in Rainy Woods with a hatred for “country bumpkins” and a slow run speed. Her first line is her hit catchphrase: “Goddamn hellhole.” The narrator mocks her relentlessly for supposed shallowness, in a way that starts to feel cruel almost instantly.

Slowly, the game opens up and my initial frustrations vanish. When Naomi turns into a cat, she can leap over fences and explore the full map of the game. When she turns into a dog, her run speed increases. Its starting to get really fun. However, I can already tell this isn’t a game I want to sit down and play on the couch for hours. I want this mobile, so I can easily stop playing at any given moment without worrying about finding a save point. I give in and buy the game on my switch for $40. The quality of the visuals is worse, but nothing that particularly bothers me. I start to replay the prologue and finish up sidequests faster. This, initially, gives me more money.

There’s several meters to keep track of. A food meter, a health meter, a stamina meter, an awake meter, and an invisible stress meter. Health meter shouldn’t be confused with HP. The instant the prologue ends, I go to eat some food to rebuild Naomi's food meter. However, it was too many sweet foods too soon. There's a cracking sound and I'm informed Naomi has a toothache. This cuts one of my stats, health, in half. I go to the merged Hospital/Vet. The doctor makes me pay $150 to fix my tooth. I now have less money on this playthrough than I did on the Xbox playthrough.

Problems escalate. Naomi's overall health meter (which I initially assumed was the stress meter) is at 0. This makes her more vulnerable to illness. I step outside of Naomi's house. As the game is loading, it informs me Naomi has caught a cold. Once the village actually loads up, I can see that its raining. A cold cuts Naomi's stamina in half, making it harder to run. Cold Medicine is also $150.

I start running around the map, trying to find opportunities to make money. I learn something interesting about the fast travel system. If you use the shrines to teleport, you can travel without any problems or consequences. If you try to fast travel using the map itself (which only lets you go directly to your house, tbf), it will add to your invisible stress meter and result in a headache. This impacts her Awake meter. If the Awake meter falls to zero, she'll pass out. Fixing a headache also costs $150.

I look online for ways to make money. At this point in the game, there's three plot paths I can progress down, labelled Route A, B, and C. You can do them at any time and you aren't even stuck on them once you pick one to do. I learn that when you finish Route A, an easy minigame opens up that nets you $750 a day.

It's here that I first read the words “DrinKing game.” The reddit and steam forums seem to be consistently bemoaning whatever it might be. I assume it's a pop quiz of some kind and brush it off- I’ll look up the answers later.

Route A is pretty fun, all things considered. I learn how to ride sheep. Unlocking the sheep lets you go even faster on the map, without worrying about your stamina. I go through sheep riding challenge courses, which eventually leads me to a castle. A knight in a squeaky voice gives me a puzzle to solve, which requires me to look at some paintings of local residents and figure out which one is fully accurate to the residents. I teleport back to the village, double check some faces, and then return to the knight. The knight opens up the gate. At this point, I'm locked into Route A and can't do the rest of the game until I finish this story beat. At the castle, Naomi is transported to the distant past. As part of the quest, she needs to smuggle some old whiskeys back to the present. To get to the castle basement, you need to do another sheep riding challenge, followed by slowly carrying some kegs from one side of the room to another.

A drunk vicar enters the room. He won't let me leave unless I beat him in a drinking minigame. He… is the DrinKing.

DrinKing requires you to balance a ball/(beer bottle?) on a plank, allegedly a visual for keeping your sobriety. If the ball falls off within ten seconds, its a game over. You have to survive five different rounds of this game before you can progress.

I fail consistently for an hour.

I return to the forums, searching for help. According to all these DrinKing game threads, alcohol medicine can be used to make the challenge easier. I also see a comment that says “Its not that hard on keyboard, not sure what everyone’s problems are. This game has a lot of issues, but this isn’t one of them.” I briefly, in my darkest of hearts, consider if a Steam version would be a better experience before I toss away the thought. I’m too deep into the game now. I decide to take a risk. I reload my save to before entering the castle and go to find this medicine.

I search for an hour. The Hospital/Vet doesn't sell the medicine. The grocer doesn't sell the medicine. The witch in the woods doesn't sell the medicine.

The clothing store sells the medicine. Mercifully, its only $7 each.

The clothing store has a stock of three sobering up medicine. If I want more, I have to wait for them to restock. They restock every Monday/Thursday.

I decide to finish more of the game. I start Route C, where I meet more wacky characters and take their pictures, which finishes more sidequests. I manage to get a stock of 6 medicine and I return to Route A and the castle.

So when the game said the medicine "sobered up" Naomi, I assumed it would stop the ball from falling off the plank for a while. Instead, it extends the length of plank. This gives you more time to survive and make a recover if you're spiraling out of control, but not much.

I play the minigame for another hour. I make no progress.

I realize I need more medicine.

Throughout all this, I haven’t stopped thinking that comment about how easy this game was.

I look at the clock.

Its 6 am. I had started that current session around 8 pm, intercut with some chatting with my partner and googling. I had an eye doctor appointment in three and a half hours.

Despite all my frustration and anger and despair and existential dread…. I couldn’t put this game down for a second.

Its a bad game to play. The writing is clumsy and cliche, its mean to its protagonist in a way that makes it unclear if its targeting the player too. The mechanics, the game feel of it all, is utterly atrocious. But… I kind of love it. I don’t know how to explain why. There’s a real possibility I go for all the sidequests. I can't stop thinking about this game. Its... incredible.