trailblazer_l
2021
this is all as of alpha 7.3
this game attempts to create an intersection of pokemon and life simulator and so far it is VERY inventive and creative, though a bit lacking in fun. the level curve is a bit all over the place and the systems can become monotonous well before you unlock some fun bits. i hope they do work out some of the kinks because the potential here is crazy
this game attempts to create an intersection of pokemon and life simulator and so far it is VERY inventive and creative, though a bit lacking in fun. the level curve is a bit all over the place and the systems can become monotonous well before you unlock some fun bits. i hope they do work out some of the kinks because the potential here is crazy
2019
look i am a team asano defender till i die in 99% of cases but this game just doesn’t make sense. i want to love it; it’s very charming and cute, but the core gameplay loop is just wrong from the ground up
2019
now that the new content is finally coming to a close, i must say that mario kart tour is genuinely one of the most fun mario kart and most fun mobile games in general. once the gacha was removed, the game completely changed how it’s made to be played, bringing elements of resource management and a skill requirement that made each week’s ranked exciting to try and get the highest scores out of whatever you’ve got.
2020
this is one of the few recent pokemon hacks to go for it and make a full new region from scratch. in a few ways it pays off, but in others it doesn’t.
for some positives, the whole thing is very impressive. there’s huge variety in pokemon to use and mechanics, dozens of sidequests, and a lot of cool areas. i did mostly enjoy what was on offer at least at the high points.
unfortunately, this length and depth has its setbacks. the entire thing is just TOO long and bloated. there’s areas and sidequests basically directly ripped from other pokemon games that just do not need to be here and it leads to the entire journey feeling like it drags and drags and drags. the story is also nothing special and yet there are regularly LONG cutscenes right before major battles which is miserable if you ever have to reset. i have no problem with the wealth of postgame content, but the main game needed several more trimmings to not feel like such a slog.
also final note fuck whoever made the ground elite four member what do you MEAN permanent unremovable sandstorm + sand rush pokemon spamming flinch moves???
for some positives, the whole thing is very impressive. there’s huge variety in pokemon to use and mechanics, dozens of sidequests, and a lot of cool areas. i did mostly enjoy what was on offer at least at the high points.
unfortunately, this length and depth has its setbacks. the entire thing is just TOO long and bloated. there’s areas and sidequests basically directly ripped from other pokemon games that just do not need to be here and it leads to the entire journey feeling like it drags and drags and drags. the story is also nothing special and yet there are regularly LONG cutscenes right before major battles which is miserable if you ever have to reset. i have no problem with the wealth of postgame content, but the main game needed several more trimmings to not feel like such a slog.
also final note fuck whoever made the ground elite four member what do you MEAN permanent unremovable sandstorm + sand rush pokemon spamming flinch moves???
2021
roll me freeze me juice me squeeze me i have put over 100 hours into this stupid animal casino and it has been consistently fun every time. the devs are very attentive and hold true to their vision and i appreciate them for it
2020
radical red is a labor of love by an entire community that somehow includes almost every pokemon in existence on a gba file and finds way to implement them all in competitive-esque battles to give a challenging, varied experience.
and i am about to be very mean to it. sorry.
radical red is a very impressive endeavor but i do not like it. not because it is difficult(it’s really not that bad there’s several cheese strats if you desperately desire to win), but because i do not like what it says about the pokemon community and its proclivities. pokemon fans have a massive chip on their shoulder over the fact that they are obsessed with a series for children. and to be clear, it is fine to love pokemon at any age, i myself am a grown pokemon addict, but the current obsession with hacks that have EVERY POKEMON and are the SUPER HARDEST EVER NO ACTUALLY reeks of a combination of insecurity and an unwillingness to venture beyond pokemon’s constraints. there are brutally difficult jrpgs out there, but pokemon necessarily has a difficulty ceiling because a lot of pokemon are just better than others. the moment players have access to aegislash, urshifu, mega audino for some reason, etc. the game becomes easy but with the appearance of difficulty because the trainers all have minmaxed legendaries and slightly more competent AI. eventually it feels like the game is patting you on the back for beating the SUPER DIFFICULT HARDCORE ACTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE game that hasn’t actually ever been that.
pokemon fans want to optimize themselves to death and to that end i have to ask, why are you not just playing competitive? radical red hall of fame teams tend to just look like competitive teams so i’m confused why pokemon fans froth over this. it creates and environment with 1000 pokemon to use, but by pokemon’s nature, when a game gets this ‘difficult’ there are really only ~60 pokemon worth using. you can lug a ledian to the elite four if you want but it feels like the game doesn’t want you to.
radical red is just a symptom of a greater problem; people adore it so obviously it fills a desire of the community, but this constant push towards optimizing all the fun out of the games is misguided and making rom hacks boring and samey. there are new difficulty hacks with every pokemon daily at this point and even though radical red is one of the originals, i find the entire genre uninteresting and devoid of the charm a standard pokemon adventure has. if i wanted to fight battles with legendaries and the top 1% of pokemon i’d just go play vgc.
and i am about to be very mean to it. sorry.
radical red is a very impressive endeavor but i do not like it. not because it is difficult(it’s really not that bad there’s several cheese strats if you desperately desire to win), but because i do not like what it says about the pokemon community and its proclivities. pokemon fans have a massive chip on their shoulder over the fact that they are obsessed with a series for children. and to be clear, it is fine to love pokemon at any age, i myself am a grown pokemon addict, but the current obsession with hacks that have EVERY POKEMON and are the SUPER HARDEST EVER NO ACTUALLY reeks of a combination of insecurity and an unwillingness to venture beyond pokemon’s constraints. there are brutally difficult jrpgs out there, but pokemon necessarily has a difficulty ceiling because a lot of pokemon are just better than others. the moment players have access to aegislash, urshifu, mega audino for some reason, etc. the game becomes easy but with the appearance of difficulty because the trainers all have minmaxed legendaries and slightly more competent AI. eventually it feels like the game is patting you on the back for beating the SUPER DIFFICULT HARDCORE ACTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE game that hasn’t actually ever been that.
pokemon fans want to optimize themselves to death and to that end i have to ask, why are you not just playing competitive? radical red hall of fame teams tend to just look like competitive teams so i’m confused why pokemon fans froth over this. it creates and environment with 1000 pokemon to use, but by pokemon’s nature, when a game gets this ‘difficult’ there are really only ~60 pokemon worth using. you can lug a ledian to the elite four if you want but it feels like the game doesn’t want you to.
radical red is just a symptom of a greater problem; people adore it so obviously it fills a desire of the community, but this constant push towards optimizing all the fun out of the games is misguided and making rom hacks boring and samey. there are new difficulty hacks with every pokemon daily at this point and even though radical red is one of the originals, i find the entire genre uninteresting and devoid of the charm a standard pokemon adventure has. if i wanted to fight battles with legendaries and the top 1% of pokemon i’d just go play vgc.
i 100% this game in high school on a website that let you play GBA games in browser and it was a grand ole time. hamtaro my beloved
2023
this game feels like hoyoverse trying something more unique by using the framework and audience of genshin and i appreciate it for that. that said the updates are a bit too infrequent for the kind of game it is
2020
hoyoverse are a bunch of petty thieves who take from whatever’s popular at the time to create a game that’s a mishmash of everything done mediocrely. that said it can result in some very fun stuff, fontaine is a HIT and i’m glad i returned to experience it
2022
i’m not the type to refund a game very often but after just 2 runs i knew enough to know this game wasn’t for me. it feels very much like it’s just going through the motions that have been established by the genre. just checks off the roguelike checklist, slaps a peggle skin on it and calls it a day that’ll be $20 (which this game has no business being, even at a 25% off sale this game just does not have the content and polish to cost more than most of the roguelike greats)
the nature of peggle is luck and roguelikes are about rolling with the punches, so they should be a perfect match but the design here just is not good. i got to the final boss on my 2nd run (the dragon since i assume there are multiple) and the peg design was… just a pyramid with no thoughts of how that actually feels to play. some of these map designs just felt like no one ever playtested them. overall, the genre has so much better than this and it feels like this was made just to ride the tide of roguelikes being popular than to actually make a good game
the nature of peggle is luck and roguelikes are about rolling with the punches, so they should be a perfect match but the design here just is not good. i got to the final boss on my 2nd run (the dragon since i assume there are multiple) and the peg design was… just a pyramid with no thoughts of how that actually feels to play. some of these map designs just felt like no one ever playtested them. overall, the genre has so much better than this and it feels like this was made just to ride the tide of roguelikes being popular than to actually make a good game
2010
i don’t really know how to explain this game to someone who didn’t grow up with it. honestly i don’t really know how to explain it to myself! the physics are jank but very intentionally so leading to excellent emergent game design. the community is also very funny and the chat is always entertaining to this day. it’s a miracle this game is still alive and i’m glad i came back to it.
(side note: is this a furry thing? i feel like it might be but it’s unclear. i like the funny mice regardless i’m just not sure)
(side note: is this a furry thing? i feel like it might be but it’s unclear. i like the funny mice regardless i’m just not sure)
2012
listen.
this is not a recommendation. in fact don’t play this game. it’s glitchy it’s bad it’s generally not funny the balance isn’t good the plot makes no sense etc etc.
BUT.
this game shaped who i am in ways that are almost shameful to admit. the humor that does land lands PERFECTLY and a lot of the bad writing is hilarious in its own right. the game is frustrating nonsense and one of the most fun wild rides that a rom hack has to offer. nowadays when rom hacks are polished and a bit samey i think the sheer jank and hedonism of old rom hacks goes vastly underappreciated
this is not a recommendation. in fact don’t play this game. it’s glitchy it’s bad it’s generally not funny the balance isn’t good the plot makes no sense etc etc.
BUT.
this game shaped who i am in ways that are almost shameful to admit. the humor that does land lands PERFECTLY and a lot of the bad writing is hilarious in its own right. the game is frustrating nonsense and one of the most fun wild rides that a rom hack has to offer. nowadays when rom hacks are polished and a bit samey i think the sheer jank and hedonism of old rom hacks goes vastly underappreciated
2019
this game goes so unbelievably hard (i have never made it past like world 3). i am extremely terrible at it but the variety of interactions on display here are incredible. this does mean sometimes you lose a good run to being randomly thrown into a gang war but it’s worth it for the sheer depth of mechanics on display.
2016
so like, to be clear, this game is NOT good. it’s a bare bones character filled rpg where there’s never a point to training anyone because the next character you get will likely obsolete them. HOWEVER, for fans of the series it is very cute how just utterly stuffed with references and in jokes this is and the designs and animations are all adorable
the mainline fnaf franchise became so abstracted to the point that it’s not even really a playable game anymore so much as it’s a thing for youtubers to study and beat to the tune of millions of views from toddlers. to a casual player the gameplay experience of turning on all the animatronics is just utter confusion. that said, as a thing to dick around with for a few hours it’s not UNfun