Easy recommend but I dunno if I'm in it for the long haul.

I haven't played a ton of deck/card games but I do enjoy a rogue lite/like/etc. Slay the Spire hooked me quick thanks to having elements of the latter. It was a big splash in the pan and I had fun getting used to its math. I tried to develop different strategies and approaches with the slowly opening deck. It was a fun little experience that plays great on the Steam Deck. I could suspend a run after any encounter and pick it back up whenever. Five minutes or ninety minutes, you can play this game in any length of session you so desire thanks to the encounters being so brief. But this quick turnover also hurt it for me.

Perhaps I played it "wrong" by sticking with the first character until I completed all the unlocks it offers? But I was growing a little bored by the end of that first grind. Switching to the second character was another quick splash of excitement but after the initial shine wore off; I started noticing more of what was the same rather than different. Same same same. I felt more and more constrained with how I "should" play. Somewhere in my dozens of gameplay hours I think the Deck itself became more responsible them rather than the enjoyment of the game itself. It went from a fun time sink to a situational/habitual one. And I think I'm moving on (for now?) without even having tried the other two characters.

All the same I had fun. And obviously yes, I did play dozens of hours. That always counts for something. The Overwhelmingly Positive reviews are deserved even if it sputtered out for me. Plus, sometimes I'm more bark than bite. It's not like I uninstalled it yet...

[copied from my Steam review]

I had fun 100%'ing it.

Wonder took a good minute to grow on me. I wasn't digging the whole elephant thing or all the badges and standies or whatever was going on. I was worried there was going to be too much to collect/do. I still haven't been compelled to dive back into Odyssey because of how many darn secrets there were to find (and not find). I love blind 100%'ing Mario games and I was worried this would be another drop. Luckily it's an appropriate level of secrets for the 2D landscape.

By the end all the badges and elephant stuff grew on me. I felt sharp with the gameplay and was having tons of fun in the home stretch. Some of the bonus world levels were a solid challenge. All with Super Mario Bros. 3 vibes throughout. Which I appreciated as an old head that grew up with NES.

Final boss was a let down. Didn't like it being a rhythm fight even if it was super forgiving. Just felt weird they took a small niche part of the game and suddenly made it the big show at the end. If you mainlined the game I can imagine that disappointment could've been compounded. But going for everything was the way to go for me. Got tons of hours and a good chunk of fun.

Plus I got to play as (blue) Toad. That was rad.

A much needed leap forward in near every regard.

I've always been a sucker for silly little narratives and FMV games. While Supermassive doesn't go full FMV, they try to bridge the gap with their character models. Combined with an always wide hokey-horror net being cast, their games are always good fun. But after getting through Until Dawn, Man of Medan, and Little Hope... I was left wanting a little more. Individually they're all that silly, campy fun. But as a whole the gimmick was running dry. There needed to be strides made.

House of Ashes takes those strides.

The story. The controls. The graphics. The scale. The scope. The polish. And more. They all finally stepped forward. Lessons were finally learned. Things finally evolved. I was impressed. Don't get me wrong, it's still a irrational logic defying horror romp and stumble. You still laugh aloud and shoot riffs from the hip at it all. That b-movie charm is far from gone. But the game concept, finally, progressed. Which makes me all the more excited to check out Devil in Me and The Quarry eventually. All the lost steam has been found.

This is even taking into account that I did a super sloppy rushed playthrough. I'm letting my SONY-price-gouged PS+ Premium subscription lapse. I don't play enough and they didn't offer me anything new with the new gouged price. So I was churning this out as the deadline looms. I set out to kill certain characters and save others. Supermassive as they are, ruined my plans as always. Which is why I will enjoy revisiting all these some day. An impressive feat for a narrative game.

Supermassive got some well earned confidence back from me here. A welcomed improvement on the formula.

"Final Girl" was my ending trophy.

Disjointed experience.

I got major "too many cooks in the kitchen" vibes throughout the various aspects of the game. And then all the pieces didn't match up. The themes, art, vibes, pace, gameplay, collecting, controls, individual stories, exploring, level design etc etc... Just all felt foreign to each other and even themselves. The vast majority of the individual bits are amazing on their own, I particularly liked the themes and universe, but they all didn't gel. But even the theme/universe were hurt by the story flow, which felt like it culminated with the hammer lady rather than the finale. And didn't match the art direction at all.

The lowest point for me was the combat controls. I'm getting a little long in the tooth so trigger and bumper heavy stuff still doesn't click with me great. But I found certain moves and transitions to be incredibly unresponsive at the worst times. The hammer move being the standout. This frustration was compounded by some battles with horrible respawn points. I am not ashamed to say I killed the difficulty on some battles as to not have to go through the bad respawn sequences again.

I would most definitely play a sequel that was smoothed and fleshed out with more care. But I feel like there was already too much outside and inside interference in vision here that the whole barrel might be spoiled. Something(s) went wrong. Tons of charm and love still made it to the end product though. There's something here and I don't regret playing it to the end. I just don't think it came together.

For better or worse you know what you're getting with these games.

These are gonna be B-movie silly. Like twelve terribly hokey horror movies piled on top of each other. The dialogue is going to be incredibly unnatural. Characters will react in completely absurd ways to your inputs. There will be no logic to anything. But! It will be laugh out loud fun. The graphics/animation "acting" will be gloriously goofy. Wild things will abound. Strange things shall be afoot. And there will be some fun in there somewhere.

I thought Little Hope flowed a million times better than Man of Medan did. The jump cuts depending on your chosen branches weren't as jarring and almost made sense this time. This could've been due to the story being a bit more linear, but all the branches felt a little more smooth. I think Medan definitely had better, and more, action but Little Hope has a small hint of polish. And the action/story did snowball eventually.

I still got annoyed with some uncontrollable, obtuse, unfair, dumb, unsatisfying turns here and there. But my chosen path actually fit the "twist" cutscene ending pretty darn well. So even though it was stupid, it fit. I was content with the end. The complaints there are probably a tad overblown. But to each their own. I get the arguments against it.

I'm always going to find fun in these... But I wish the games were taking bigger leaps forward between entries. I had planned to churn them all out after having a ton of guilty-pleasure fun with Until Dawn, but then Medan was so clunky and a backwards step I took a break. While I do believe Little Hope is indeed a cleaner experience, it does feel like a mostly sideways step. If/when I play House of Ashes, I hope there's something more. But my doubt of that will likely send the series to the back burner again. The gimmick needs a new fold.

2.5D Klonoa just never clicked for me and while this remaster finally got me through both games; I didn't have a ton of fun and it wasn't much more than a facelift.

I cannot tell you the amount of times I've tried to play Door to Phantomile over the last 25+ years. From original hardware, to emulation, to emulation handhelds, to emulation on Steam Deck... It was always a few levels and shelved. There was something there that kept me coming back for another attempt. I eventually found Klona happiness in Moonlight Museum for the WonderSwan and the two GBA games.

With this love of 2D Klonoa games; I was determined to find the fun in the more popular games. I force fed myself the Reverie Series. Door to Phantomile showed that the Reverie was just a facelift as quality-of-life in something as simple as the gem count was lacking. I ended up not going for the 100% I found so much fun in from the 2D entries. I beat it. I felt indifferent.

And after a month+ long break I just mainlined Lunatea's Veil. FFWD'ing cutscenes (the single QoL addition), going for no collectables. I had a lot more fun with this entry. The maps were more polished in the presentation, making the 2.5D make a little more sense. The puzzles had a hint of a challenge towards the end. But I was playing and beating it out of spite more than anything. And I didn't care for the repeated level angle to it.

I'm just a 2D Klonoa person in the end. It's me, not you 2.5D Klonoa. I'm sorry.

Mostly unfair review;

Fire 'n Ice is a solid puzzler but Catrap (1990 Game Boy) has irreparably harmed how I view puzzlers of this type from the era. It's not Fire 'n Ice's fault Catrap exists, or that I played it a couple years back. But the quality of life that Catrap's rewind added to the genre era is just something I can't come back from.

Fire 'n Ice has a good gimmick/hook and most of the puzzles are well designed. I just don't want to have to start a puzzle over because I made a mistake on step 22 of 30. I could save scum after every move sure, but man. Catrap really ruined a whole generation and style of puzzlers for me.

I would also argue that the difficulty arc in Fire 'n Ice has some real random peaks that stand out far too much for their order in the game. But maybe I was just looking for a way out. Ultimately I shelved at the final of World 4.

The art and animation got me as far as I did get. It's most definitely a late in the NES lifespan game in that respect. Really smooth sprite animations.

[Emulated/played on Anbernic RG35XX]

A mixed bag.

I'm a believer that 2D Klonoa is better than 2.5D Klonoa. Moonlight Museum is a must play in my book. Empire of Dreams was a fun way to bring it to GBA. But I gotta say, Dream Champ Tournament was a step back.

I don't like the art direction, it's arguably downright ugly. The bonus stages are tragic. And the pacing lacks. But it's not all bad. Some of the puzzle elements they introduced expanded the 2D Klonoa dynamics in a way that felt new. The middle chunk of the game feels really polished and fun. But then you end up in slow motion underwater levels and the momentum is lost.

So yeah, it was a mixed bag. A definite step backwards despite finding inventive new folds to the puzzle platforming. There's definitely enough here that I'm left baffled it's the last 2D Klonoa. Hopefully the Reverie Series leads to a reboot of some sort, though I imagine that'll be 2.5D unfortunately.

Wahoo!

[Emulated/played on Anbernic RG35XX]

Loaded it up solely to see the old logo and menu screen from the anniversary update; Ended up playing it through for the umpteenth time. I couldn't resist.

Half-Life came out in my early teens. You've heard the story a million times but it really completely changed things. Especially for me since I hadn't played many FPS games prior. I simply didn't think video games could be... This. I was lost in this game. Absorbed in it. Every vent, every gun, every sequence, I loved it. Even Xen. I'm a Xen apologist through and through. It was daunting and alien. There isn't a moment in Half-Life I wasn't sweating during that virgin(in more ways than one) playthrough. While the illusion is long gone and I know how to fly through the game and beat the bosses, I still remember the way it all felt the first time, every time.

Half-Life is the perfect game to me. You just always remember your first. The level design is as good as it gets, still. And the way the narrative is told ambiguously through play still rarely gets matched all these years later. It has more of a sense of freedom than some open world games even though it's linear. I can't gush enough. It came together at the perfect time in gaming history with the right recipe of love and deadline crunch. It can't, hasn't, and won't ever be improved in my eyes. I even put it, well, ahead of HL2 (there are dozens of us, dozens!).

I love Half-Life. Happy (belated) anniversary.

[copied from my Steam review]

I'm a sucker for 2D Klonoa.

Moonlight Museum on WonderSwan was one of my favorite discoveries since diving into the world of emulation handhelds a couple years back. And Empire of Dreams came next. I enjoyed it immensely.

The Reverie Series made its way to PS+ recently-ish and I decided to give those a try again. I'm near the end of Door to Phantomile but call me crazy; I just think Klonoa works better in 2D. And I have a new handheld I'm in love with currently. So the PS5 went back to collecting dust and I loaded up Empire of Dreams for the second time within the last couple of years.

I don't tend to replay games with this short of a turnaround but it was fun all over again. It's really a darn good game. The puzzles and platforming build up. The two types of bonus stages are fun and challenging. The bosses are admittedly a breeze but their variety is fun.

2D Klonoa is good Klonoa.

[Emulated/played on Anbernic RG35XX]

I had an Atomic Purple Game Boy Color back in the before times and I loved this game. I never beat it because it's a difficult one. And my Game Boy eventually melted on the dashboard of a car in the desert Sun. Tilt 'n' Tumble would remain a fond, uncompleted, memory for nearly two decades.

While browsing one day, I (s)tumbled over a ROMhack for the game that gave it d-pad controls. While it definitely isn't the true Tilt 'n' Tumble experience, it was a way to revisit this long lost memory. And one of my Chinese retro game handhelds is Atomic Purple. I just had to.

D-pad definitely takes a bulk of the challenge away, yet also removes some of the finest finesse. It's a massive net gain towards easy, but it changes the feel too. It's hard to explain unless you've played both.

But the game is still Kirby. It's still full of charming sprites and ideas. And yeah, it's fun. I played it through and got to see all of the game I never got to before. It's cool to read that it is available on the Switch these days too. While it's a difficult one, it really was something special. It deserves to be played.

My higher rating admittedly reflects me scratching a personal nostalgia itch. Plus I'm a huge sucker for novelty features in general. I will still definitely have to experience that gyro novelty again some time and play it again "right". Always itchy..

[Emulated/played on Anbernic RG35XX]

A long while back I felt like broadening my PICO-8 experience outside of Celeste some and stumbled over this game in a list. Never got around to it until today. I liked it a lot!

Obviously there's the restrictions and limits of what you can do with PICO-8 when it comes to length so I was left wanting a lot more. But that's also a compliment to how good it was.

Golf and puzzles are two of my favorite genres of video games. Combine the two and I'm usually happy. I only had to scratch my head once here and golf is more just used as a theme, but it's a compact and tight PICO-8 game as they should be. Good fun.

[Emulated/played on Anbernic RG35XX]

Any time I get a new handheld or controller I eventually find myself playing the PICO-8 version of Celeste through. For me, I think it's the best way to test a d-pad and how much accidental diagonals you're gonna get out of it.

This is a highly subjective subject (can flat out depend on how you use your thumb or what you want to feel) and there's much quicker ways to test it. Heck, some games you even might want easy/quick diagonals. Then it goes without saying that I am by no means whatsoever an expert or high level precision gamer. I'm old and slow. But I can beat Celeste in a sitting and by the end I have a "feel" for the d-pad I'm using and the nuances of it. Train my thumb to the particular d-pad for both precision and rolling.

Sure I could just load up Contra and press down and rock it back and forth like "Retro Game Corps" does on YouTube. Or load up any Wario Land game and try to do some precision butt-smashes. But a round of Celeste "Classic" will tell me the same info AND get me used to the nuances of working with it. Something about an upward test maybe? Dunno, it works.

It's a fun little test and I do it rarely enough that I'm always shocked to have forgotten a level/screen. It's a tight little game that I honestly enjoy far more than the one with the "story".

[Emulated/played on Anbernic RG35XX... That might need some d-pad tape modding]

Ah, what the Virtual Boy could have been...

I love the change of pace that Wario Land games bring. From the more methodical platforming to the treasure/secret hunting. They're all around fun games. Virtual Boy Wario Land is no different. It's a complete Wario Land experience with tons to find and lots of levels.

I never had a Virtual Boy but boy did I play the heck out of the display unit at the local department store back when they came out. Shoving my child face right in the same view piece countless filthy strangers had before me. I always loved taking my eyes out of the piercing red graphics void after fifteen minutes and being blinded by the store's florescent lights. It's really a mystery how this platform didn't work...

They always had this and Red Alarm available to play. I'm very happy to have finally beat Virtual Boy Wario land. Albeit emulated with all the color choices that come with it. But I still had to sear my eyes in some manner; I busted out a cardboard pair of red/cyan 3D glasses and enabled anaglyph mode. The 3D elements were there with the Virtual Boy. Especially with a parallax platformer like this. AND they took advantage of the depth in the gameplay design. It's just a shame the only tech they had at the time was... That.

An amazing game that would've easily flagship'd the Virtual Boy if it was practical. Perhaps even my favorite Wario Land! I had fun finding all the treasures and figuring out the bosses (even if they were on the easier side).

[Emulated/played on Anbernic RG35XX w/ anaglyph red/cyan glasses]

Short and rough around the edges but enough of a gameplay core that you're left wishing there was a bit more to it.

I grew up watching The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and playing NES but had no idea this game existed. When I stumbled over it I decided to check it out.

The platforming and gunplay isn't really bad at all for the era. The movement and jumps are super tight and controllable. You can move left and right freely. Enemies don't respawn which is always welcome. Some of the cutscene stills are beautiful pixel art. There's a pinch of variety. And well, it's Young Indy!

The game falls a little flat with the depth. The game is over in a couple hours after three levels. While you go from Mexico to Germany, you're left wanting a lot more Indiana globe trotting. The bosses are haphazard trial and error. And some parts of the game just feel rushed and clunky. A lot of parts. I wouldn't be surprised to hear this was an extremely short development cycle.

I'm glad I checked it out. It has some charm, just not quite enough.

[Emulated/played on Miyoo Mini v2]