mortugender
i started playing on android in about 2020, moved to nintendo switch, and then dropped it (almost) indefinitely when i ended up inevitably getting bored. it's a grindy dress-up simulator that happens to also have a really beautiful story about environmental destruction if you pay close attention
the social functions are better than i've seen in most video games. it's heavy on consent - you can't even see people's avatars without them agreeing to let you look at them. but like any other social video game i'd recommend playing it with people you already know, because the playerbase skews pretty young and not only that, it ends up being kind of clique-y and therefore lonely. if you find someone who's willing to talk to a complete stranger chances are they're really fucking weird and might harass you in some way (been there, dealt with that)
... also the in-app purchases are kind of insanely priced. it's like 14 dollars for a little accessory on your character and if you don't buy it, it's gone. this game would be really magical if the developers didn't need to price things like that due to the state of the game industry. this wouldn't be as much of an issue if there were more things to do besides customizing your avatar.
despite all the negative stuff i have to say about it the game's charm heavily outweighs my criticisms. even on a lower-end device it still manages to be really pretty and any bugs that happen (that don't result in the player taking damage, but those get patched out quickly anyways) just end up being funny
(also honestly its popularity with kids is something i'm fine with because it's slow paced and isn't designed around being an overstimulating slot machine. i just wish the chat filter was at least a bit better)
edited out some redundant bits because i got really bad about mindlessly rambling in this one
the social functions are better than i've seen in most video games. it's heavy on consent - you can't even see people's avatars without them agreeing to let you look at them. but like any other social video game i'd recommend playing it with people you already know, because the playerbase skews pretty young and not only that, it ends up being kind of clique-y and therefore lonely. if you find someone who's willing to talk to a complete stranger chances are they're really fucking weird and might harass you in some way (been there, dealt with that)
... also the in-app purchases are kind of insanely priced. it's like 14 dollars for a little accessory on your character and if you don't buy it, it's gone. this game would be really magical if the developers didn't need to price things like that due to the state of the game industry. this wouldn't be as much of an issue if there were more things to do besides customizing your avatar.
despite all the negative stuff i have to say about it the game's charm heavily outweighs my criticisms. even on a lower-end device it still manages to be really pretty and any bugs that happen (that don't result in the player taking damage, but those get patched out quickly anyways) just end up being funny
(also honestly its popularity with kids is something i'm fine with because it's slow paced and isn't designed around being an overstimulating slot machine. i just wish the chat filter was at least a bit better)
edited out some redundant bits because i got really bad about mindlessly rambling in this one
2004
i don't know about this one... i think the wii game from my memory of it as a kid is just way better. my immediate impression is this isn't nearly as charming (cutscenes, minigames, etc) and i don't know if i'm interested in sticking with it
I don't know ... I really prefer the originals. The only thing this has for itself is the fact that there's cats, every other mechanic is just kind of boring. Especially walks.
2017
if you have a switch but don't have mario kart on it i genuinely wonder what you're even doing with it, half star off because it isn't really fun to play with stick drift but i know that isn't really the game's problem
i like being able to play as link
i like being able to play as link
the main selling point of animal crossing shouldn't be that it's a building simulator, it should be the interactions you have with the villagers and getting to experience seasonal events alongside them. this game has a very pretty exterior that might charm someone into buying it but when you open it up and look inside it's got absolutely nothing to actually do. the updates that it got were kind of fun to experience in real time (i got this game at launch originally) but years later they added nothing besides gyroids. like i can't remember a single thing that was added besides gyroids, which should've been there from the beginning?
yeah, the cities people are able to build in this are kind of cool, but it really just spits in the original spirit of animal crossing as a "small town social simulator". if you can control everything about your residents' lives like WHERE THEIR HOUSE GOES and they never do anything besides saying the same four passive and genial lines (the A and B personality subtypes do little to mitigate how stale villagers have become) then what reason is there to really play this
most irritatingly of all, this is the first game in the series that allows you to choose your skin tone (and hair texture) instead of just tanning during the summer so i can't even really be like "pick up the original or new leaf instead" because a lot of people like the ability to actually play as themselves. thank you nintendo for delivering a completely mediocre product with features that people have wanted for years so they're forced to play it anyways
tl;dr: this game is literally just the phrase "why does studio ghibli food look so good" and a whole bunch of air.
if you didn't buy it during the pandemic when people were actually excited to play it, then keep in mind that you will be burning 60 dollars. the best way to preserve your enjoyment is to not speed through the progression because believe me there is very little to actually do when you're done with that
i miss my boyfriend who's really handsome and swedish and i wish we could go to each other's islands but i can't and that's partially why i am so angry while writing this review
yeah, the cities people are able to build in this are kind of cool, but it really just spits in the original spirit of animal crossing as a "small town social simulator". if you can control everything about your residents' lives like WHERE THEIR HOUSE GOES and they never do anything besides saying the same four passive and genial lines (the A and B personality subtypes do little to mitigate how stale villagers have become) then what reason is there to really play this
most irritatingly of all, this is the first game in the series that allows you to choose your skin tone (and hair texture) instead of just tanning during the summer so i can't even really be like "pick up the original or new leaf instead" because a lot of people like the ability to actually play as themselves. thank you nintendo for delivering a completely mediocre product with features that people have wanted for years so they're forced to play it anyways
tl;dr: this game is literally just the phrase "why does studio ghibli food look so good" and a whole bunch of air.
if you didn't buy it during the pandemic when people were actually excited to play it, then keep in mind that you will be burning 60 dollars. the best way to preserve your enjoyment is to not speed through the progression because believe me there is very little to actually do when you're done with that
i miss my boyfriend who's really handsome and swedish and i wish we could go to each other's islands but i can't and that's partially why i am so angry while writing this review
i don't like a lot of stuff that this update added (particularly the meow coupons mechanic) i'll be completely honest
I dunno. I definitely see why other people like it but the lack of flicking and tapping makes it way more difficult for me personally. My thumb will literally snap into a 90 degree angle before it presses the A button. Or sometimes it locks up and I can't press in time. The "Tap Mode" (I think it's called that?) feels kind of like a consolation prize, it's absolutely what it says it is and there's no flicking. The QoL features like being able to see how good your timing actually was on the bottom screen & the practice modes supporting the player a little better (like showing you the beat if you mess up too many times in a row) are great though, I don't mind those.
I didn't really have fun with it and find it less accessible because of my hypermobility, but all that being said I'm sure literally anyone else could and I can't find it in me to straight up diss a Rhythm Heaven game. Maybe it wouldn't have thrown me off this badly had I played the Wii game before this one so I could see what direction the series was going in.
TL;DR: I hate having disordered fine motor skills
I didn't really have fun with it and find it less accessible because of my hypermobility, but all that being said I'm sure literally anyone else could and I can't find it in me to straight up diss a Rhythm Heaven game. Maybe it wouldn't have thrown me off this badly had I played the Wii game before this one so I could see what direction the series was going in.
TL;DR: I hate having disordered fine motor skills
2009
This review contains spoilers
played this on kongregate in about 2010 (i was like 9 years old or something, bad home life too if anyone cares) and unironically it might've prevented me from spiralling into a self harm addiction. every time i get the urge i end up thinking about this game and it snaps me out of it. that's probably the highest form of praise i could give, that it saved my life
that being said i don't have the nerve to replay it to give a more detailed review, but i remembered liking the chiptune-y music. i got both endings where you "break up" with "her" and the true ending where you wake up in the hospital and while nowadays i think it's pretty straightforward, i think experiencing it when i did was what made it so impactful to me
that being said i don't have the nerve to replay it to give a more detailed review, but i remembered liking the chiptune-y music. i got both endings where you "break up" with "her" and the true ending where you wake up in the hospital and while nowadays i think it's pretty straightforward, i think experiencing it when i did was what made it so impactful to me
i played this during a particularly difficult time in my life when i was dealing with some pretty bad grief. i don't know if it helped me cope or not because of how much i related to the protagonist but either way it stuck with me. it's really distinct both musically and visually in a way that, if i remember correctly, i'm surprised it was just made for a quick gamejam.
i should've told him about it while i could
i should've told him about it while i could
2008
i'm terrible at platformers so i wasn't able to get very far into it when i was a kid, but the artstyle and music really stuck with me all these years later. i never played the original, so i have no idea how it stacks up as a port, but i'm sure that's great too
2006
impossible to properly review because every game is wildly different and user made but there's a lot of good and surprisingly high-quality stuff on here
2008
highest score i got on this ever was 35k i think. i do not fucking play about bird & beans
2023
i have never had issues with my phone's battery while playing this and it's relatively old so i have no idea what other people are complaining about but also after so long waiting for it, i found it a little underwhelming in terms of visuals and features? particularly the music you can put on while you're sleeping, it's just a shitty loop that eventually turns off after ~20 minutes. i feel like it could easily be more relaxing when you have it open
i would recommend getting and playing it with some friends because that's the biggest reason it appeals to me; my boyfriend and i have each other added on pokemon sleep which makes me more than a little happy
i would recommend getting and playing it with some friends because that's the biggest reason it appeals to me; my boyfriend and i have each other added on pokemon sleep which makes me more than a little happy
2008
makes me incomprehensibly angry at times but it's got a strong visual style, great music, and best of all: i found it easy to emulate. my big tip for other people who don't have physical hardware: use a drawing tablet if you have one and resize the window to be larger. after that it's just practice.
the flicks are kind of a struggle for me due to hand issues, that i wouldn't be dealing with if i was playing with a stylus on physical hardware like the developers' intended experience, but oh well
the flicks are kind of a struggle for me due to hand issues, that i wouldn't be dealing with if i was playing with a stylus on physical hardware like the developers' intended experience, but oh well
it's not like any parents are going to be on backloggd reading a review for this game, but this game is far from accurate and abby should really lose her license. that being said i thought it was peak when i was a kid and didn't mind the repetitiveness. the only thing that really strongly irks me about it still to this day is writing the blood pressure/weight numbers because it refuses to recognize my handwriting half the time.
if it somehow got a remake that was more medically accurate and had more things to do, i'd be first in line, but it's just kind of okay with extra points for "well. i liked it as a kid".
if it somehow got a remake that was more medically accurate and had more things to do, i'd be first in line, but it's just kind of okay with extra points for "well. i liked it as a kid".