wallmeat
2018
The premise is interesting, but the combat hamstrings it for me. Dungeon roguelites must have enjoyable combat.
It is indeed Minecraft with RPG elements. I really like the town building and the overall cuteness, but the game insists on hand-holding to the point much of the gameplay feels like an extended tutorial. It stopped engaging me around the time I needed to build the Deitree. Around this point the developers realize some of the building is tedious and have the villagers do it for you, which only served to re-emphasize how on-rails the game is. I might return to it at some point.
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.
This is a solid beat-em-up with great graphics and good gameplay. As someone who put a ridiculous number of hours into TMNT II I appreciate the obvious love the devs have for the franchise. That being said, beat-em-ups are not my genre these days. I had nostalgic curiosity and enjoyed being able to play as April, but file it under Not For Me Dept.
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.
Couldn't get past the tutorial, I could never grok either the gamepad or keyboard controls. Such a shitty casual. :(
2020
The awkward controls killed this one for me, it simply wasn't fun to play, but I don't think the gimmick would have kept my interest for very long anyway.
2010
Revisiting this runner years later I find it's just as difficult as I remember, only now I have even less patience for memorization/reaction games. The penalty of returning to the beginning of the level is too stiff for me.
2021
A comfy puzzle in the vein of Carcassone, but it runs a bit long for my tastes, just like the aforementioned board game.
A chill and tightly-designed puzzle game. Trying to play Coop, my kid and I nearly murdered each other, but we both enjoy it solo and my kid did a non-completionist PT in a few days. I've been playing it off and on when I want something cute and low-key. The pixel toad gimmick was a boring way to add content, but I like the unique level challenges.
2013
I picked this up on the premise it's Lego GTA and my kid and I have been playing it off and on. It's honestly a pretty well designed game and I'm not too proud to admit I laughed at some of the jokes (notably "compuper"). I appreciate the coop mode, which makes it easy for me to jump in if my kid is having trouble.
2019
I was a little surprised I returned to this a few years later to play again. When I played before consoles lagged behind PCs but now everything is updated.
Forager is a clicker game with a bit more freedom and there is something about the early game, in particular, that I find relaxing. I tried the additional modes, but all they do is hinder your game in boring ways, like limiting the amount of area you can explore or increasing resources needed. I've enjoyed revisiting classic mode, but I do enjoy aspects of mid-late game when automation allows for a nice dopamine rush, but once things get too chaotic and cluttered I lose interest.
Forager is a clicker game with a bit more freedom and there is something about the early game, in particular, that I find relaxing. I tried the additional modes, but all they do is hinder your game in boring ways, like limiting the amount of area you can explore or increasing resources needed. I've enjoyed revisiting classic mode, but I do enjoy aspects of mid-late game when automation allows for a nice dopamine rush, but once things get too chaotic and cluttered I lose interest.
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.
2019
Cute voxel brawler with lots of achievement bling. The play control can use a little work (we found it almost difficult to aim ranged weapons) and it wears thin pretty quickly solo, but supports couch coop up to 4 players. My kid was absolutely thrilled with the graphics and silly weapons and characters. The graphics and environments are fun, but the gameplay is repetitious, sometimes even boring, and the bosses are punishingly hard beyond what I would expect for a game like this.
A relaxing puzzle platformer that uses directional controls only, no jumping, to navigate the ruins. The game has interesting environments and bits of the story are parceled out as the player explores the ruins. It's a chill experience and a beautiful game, but there are some bugs and rough edges I can't say I'd recommend it over similar games.