wallmeat
1989
One of the weaker Mario games, with slightly wonky controls and tiny sprites, and it turns into an unfortunate shooter at the end for no apparent reason, but it's a short game, forgiving in lives and checkpoints, and it's worth a visit just for the general weirdness (the UFOs and Egyptian tombs were my personal favorites) and the music.
2021
The thing that makes this game compelling--the unpredictability of the physics--is also the thing that makes mastery elusive and creates unfortunate premature endings. I've totally abandoned strategy and given up on getting 3000 points. My only purpose now is making big fruit bounce. Nothing matters but big fruit. And getting 2 watermelons, so they cancel each other out. My secret dream.
It's great and everyone who hates it is annoying.
2001
Weird, fun, addictive puzzler. A mashup of Picross and Magic Drop where the player completes block pictures by placing/removing blocks to fill in the blanks. If you are into handheld block puzzles definitely give this one a try.
2019
I power-gamed this the first 10 hours or so and really enjoyed that for what it was, but eventually the game became too grindy with options for friendship/relationship building too spaced out. If you're looking for a Stardew Valley surrogate you'll be disappointed but if you like cute clicker-types like Forager you will probably enjoy it.
A cute, polished, short gravity platformer. It's well designed, save a really arbitrary-feeling last boss, and worth a play for platformer fans.
2021
A chill organization game. I appreciate the space this game occupies, and as someone who takes joy from organizing things like component boxes I did like it at first, but I had my fill about halfway through. I found I didn't like unpacking the bathrooms or kitchens, so when it came to those areas I was just dumping stuff wherever it would go.
1992
The controls and speed on this game is abysmal. Astonishingly unfun.
1990
A fairly boring shmup with an awkward rotation mechanic.
2017
This really isn't my style of game at all, I already dislike brawlers and one with intentionally obtuse controls seems like a personal match made in hell, but I have laughed at the sheer ridiculousness of it and it is the game that finally pried my kid out of a Fall Guys death grip so I accept what it offers with thanks.
2019
I decided to give this another go on Nintendo Switch and it's a bad port. It has long load times and stutters, the graphics look weirdly rezzed down. What a waste of time. If I'd paid more than $3 I'd be genuinely annoyed.
2019
A crafting sim that, to its credit, does try to differentiate from Stardew Valley by focusing on building. There is a bit of a learning curve (I didn't quite grok mining at first) and the game expects you to explore the workbook and menus and sort out an early building strategy, which is fine. Most of the NPCs seem fairly mundane and uninteresting, but I think what kills this one for me is the abundance of crafting timers. I feel like I'm always waiting around to craft the most basic ingredients, only to wait even more after to craft those into something else. If the crux of the game is crafting, early pacing should be determined by ingredient rarity or volume rather than timers.
2018
The premise is interesting, but the combat hamstrings it for me. Dungeon roguelites must have enjoyable combat.
1993
This is an okay fantasy pinball game that's reasonably fun for what it is but is probably increasingly underwhelming the more you actually like pinball.
1989
I kinda like this shot-switching shmup, but as others have mentioned, having to switch shot-type in a particular order is a real nuisance.