A great choice if you like bad art, boring music and repetitive gameplay. I dont like how games like this waste your time, there is no sense of progression whatsoever, you bang your head against a wall until chance favours you. It feels way too determined by luck, i beat the game on my forth try (my first attempt with that character) thanks to a stream of lucky cards and upgrades and then spent the next 6 hours unable to do so again with the other characters. It feels like your cards dont matter as much as the powerups do, with which you have far less control over. The great thing with card games are the micro decisions you make on each turn feeling like you are outsmarting your opponent but this game does not scratch that itch at all, most fights were determined before you started. Can you block 56 surprise damage this turn? Nope, back to the start with you. I do not get the hype at all and I love deckbuilding/ card games. Dominion, Inscryption & hearthstone are among some of my favourites

Animal well is enigmatic, stylish and consise. Its a very short game if taken at face value; about 5 hours. But that 5 hours is fantastic, the sound design is phenominal, the pixel art is some of the greatest out there, the vibe is impeccible. Its so refreshing to play a metroidvania(ish) that actually comes up with unqiue upgrades. And I love how they all have multiple uses that only become apparent through experimentation. The game is more akin to 'Yoku's island express' than 'Hollow Knight' largly due to a lack of any combat mechanics. And its laser focus on puzzles with a spattering of platforming challenge. Now, when you finish the main goal you certainly feel like there is a lot more to be experienced, plenty of loose ends or areas yet explored and this is where the game becomes more of a mixed bag. Its both really exciting discovering even more locations and trickier puzzles, and quite exhausting just running laps of the same map over and over. Because there is no combat, alongside the nature of a puzzle staying solved, the corridoors become mostly empty passages with no resistance or interaction to be had. This part of the game is at its best when you're activley thinking about how to solve a problem or engaging with the environment to progress, and is at its worst when you're just looking for an invisible hole in the wall. The problem is most exacerbated by the post game items that are at once fun and instill dread as you realise you need to retrace the entire map, AGAIN to see what new stuff if may uncover. Ultimately this game is a clear labour of love and I could only hope all games would meet the level of quality Animal Well displays!

A great, short, story driven experience. Some beautiful visuals and a great thriller plot. The setting is perfect for a walking-sim by the end you really have a good mental map of the forest with its many winding paths and shortcuts. The ending might not be to everyone's taste but I think this game really highlights the story telling potential the medium possesses. The writing is at times a bit cheesy and occasionally very dumb (When they find the walkie talkie being a painful example) But otherwise its really fantastic and can be beaten in just a couple of sittings (took me about 3 and a half hours) I highly recommend turning off the map marker as doing actual orienteering using the compass and landmarks really adds to the whole experience and is baffling that the game isn't like that by default.

Fantastic game, but the main story feels like it stops just as it gets going. The side-story content with olimar is fine as a way of remixing the story levels with different goals but isnt substantial enough to feel like its a significant addition. It would be better if it was a madatory part of the story rather than optional. It does strangly introduce/ spoil blue pikmin before you come across them in the main stroy though. The side-missions are also fun at first but when you realise its just 5 levels with different enemy layouts 4 times over it feels less satisfying to play through them all.

Not sure how to review this. Its still portal which is a great short adventure. But it runs like crap, I have a brand new 4070super and the default settings had the game chugging along at 20ish fps (to get it to run you have to open the nvidia app and get it to optimise the settings for you). The game itself is basically a tech demo for nvidia, and i think it does a very poor job of doing that. It runs poorly and all the upscale frame genny stuff just leaves everything with this strange plasticy wobbly feel to it, you cant help but notice how drastically the quality decreases while youre moving and then you feel the quality increasing when you stop and its in those moments where the game engine is catching up with you that it feels most uncanny.

Mind bending, takes a while to really understand how the 4th dimension works but you really do get a solid grasp by the end. You would rarely get anything close to par on your first play through, but when you go back and try again you realise how much you've learnt. The final world I genuinely didn't understand and would finish those levels by total trial and error. A mix of puzzle game and mini golf. Let down a little bit by underdeveloped UI and 'game' aspects being a little lackluster, no real scoreboards or much for keeping track of your progres, lacks a good drive to go through and try everything again bar a couple of simple achievements which I think is a missed opportunity.