Remains one of my favorites of all time so many years later. I'm sure it helps that this was one of the first games I ever owned, but there's still such a zen-like quality to running and jumping around the most beautiful PS1 pastels and polygons while Copeland's perfect score accompanies every moment. Full completion is a breeze and rarely frustrating (Tree Tops aside of course), so much so that you could probably knock out this entire game in a weekend if you wanted.

I'll keep coming back to Spyro until the day I die, you can count on that.

Great news! You too can develop a debilitating gambling addiction for only $15!

I don't think you could create a more addicting game if you tried. The pick-up-and-play element of this roguelite deckbuilder is so strong since it's based on poker, a game invented in the goddamn 1700s. For those of you keeping score at home, that's before we figured out how to synthesize cocaine.

And yet somehow, despite its simple origins, Balatro is just packed full of content. The game keeps throwing new shit at me left and right and I haven't even cleared the third stake yet. The satisfaction of making an absolutely busted deck setup is insanely gratifying, like what do you MEAN that I can score three million points by playing a single crumpled holofoil ace of spades with some red wax on it while the sound design and screen shake activate every neuron in my monkey brain. Is it legal to do that. I don't think it should be. This game needs like a Prop 65 warning or something.

Probably gonna continue playing this one until it stops having a Tetris effect (no not that one) like impact on my dreams. I woke up in a cold sweat last night because I was dealt some clubs when I needed hearts. That sounds like a metaphor for something. Hopefully Mercury isn't in retrograde or I might be in trouble. Maybe I should consult a psychic, or at least one of my goth friends who can read tarot and is a little too obsessed with astrology. Or perhaps I'm just a fool. I fold, cash me out dealer before I royal flush my life away.

Anyway good game. Don't even think about checking it out.

* Played perfectly on Ubuntu 20.04.6 via Proton 7.0-6.

Remedy has to stop giving all their "good stories but half-baked gameplay" IPs to Microsoft because this game is just begging for an Alan Wake 2-tier sequel. There are a few moments where the otherwise standard (but very well-written) time travel plot veers ever so briefly into rad as hell territory, but those aspects of the narrative never get their proper moment in the sun and are largely left for us to speculate about. I would love to see what Sam Lake and his merry band of madlads cook up with those concepts now that the foundation of this world has been firmly established, but alas, Quantum Break is likely locked up in the Recycle Bin alongside Internet Explorer for the foreseeable future. Ah well, at least we've got legally distinct Tim(e) Breaker and Warlin Door now.

I'd give this a solid "check it out" even if I can only muster to rate it "good", because there's a wonderful sense of ambition on display here. Like, love it or hate it, you're not gonna find another game that plays full, live-action TV show episodes with dynamic content based on decisions you made in the gameplay segments in between its narrative chapters. Most people would call that very concept absurd just due to simple logistics, but Remedy will not be dissuaded by such mundane troubles. Sure, the episodes are shot like the digital display ads you might find in a dentist's office between fillings, but goddamn I'll give them props for going for it all the same.

Of course, it helps that Lance Reddick brings his best to every scene he's in, because that's just how he rolls. Rest in peace, man - gone too soon for real.

I was totally vibin' with this and considering it a perfectly satisfying portable Monkey Ball experience (note: I have not played the original GCN games) up until the first level of the "advanced" courses completely filtered me. If it takes 5 continues to beat Level 1-1 then I simply do not care to experience the rest of those levels!

Side note: this era of gaming gives me serious "dead mall" vibes at times. For instance, the top-level menu of this game has a dedicated Facebook icon that, when selected, tells you that its functionality, whatever that used to be, is no longer supported. Had the same experience with Touch My Katamari and its "near"-powered Buddy Plaza. Feelin' like a ghost in the machine with how many Vita features just no longer work in 2024.

seeing the moja: oh. not sure about that.

seeing the black locoroco: c'mon guys.

hearing the black locoroco: GUYS

Somehow the exact perfect midpoint between Insomniac's two other prime offerings, Ratchet & Clank and Marvel's Spider-Man, and it definitely feels like a necessary stepping stone for the latter's development in particular.

Has a great aesthetic and soundtrack, but somehow the game just kinda feels undercooked all throughout. Like, this is probably the least polished Insomniac game I've ever played. The moments where the game leans into how stupid and manic and frenetic it all is are where the game truly shines, but in between those moments (usually Insomniac's trademark Mega Set Pieces and Absurd Corporate Satire), the game is strangely... I wanna say "rizzless"? Despite being ostensibly My Shit, it never fully clicked with me.

Yuri Lowenthal was basically carrying this game on his shoulders too: without his charismatic performance, I would find it hard to care at all about anything narrative-wise. Don't think I'll be able to name a single memorable character from this in about a week. I will certainly remember the bizarre surprise celebrity cameo that occurs near the end of the game for seemingly no reason, though.

Anyway, don't mythologize this one like I did due to its elusive platform exclusivity: it's entirely skippable.

This game came as a complete system shock. About an hour from here is a town with a name that's a barely disguised synonym for "Possum Springs", and I may or may not have lived in the real life analogs for both "Hunwick" and "Bright Harbor". So, you can imagine my surprise when starting this up and seeing so many deeply familiar things appear on screen. Here we go, Smelters, am I right?

Night in the Woods completely nails the sense of ennui I feel only more strongly with every subsequent visit to my hometown since moving out: things are recognizable on the surface, but underneath have been weathered by the passage of time. Favorite hangout spots and local businesses replaced by big corporate brands, institutions once newly built now fallen into disrepair, the childhood homes of friends under new ownership as everyone has gradually moved away to start their own families - and a feeling of "stuckness" in everyone who still remains. You can really sense that this game was written by someone who lived this, by someone who feels this ennui in the very stardust that makes up their atoms.

Based on that alone, I was destined to connect with this game. The fact that it's also heavily inspired by Twin Peaks and features a boldly unique art direction paired with a bangin' soundtrack slots Night in the Woods comfortably into the realm of "totally my shit". Beyond that though, everything about this game lives up to its hype as an indie darling and I simply cannot recommend it enough - especially if you've ever felt the crushing weight of living in a former labor union town well past its prime.

gregg rulz ok

Finally, a game that dares to ask: "what if the X-Files had budget and was based out of the 𝙷𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚎 from 𝙷𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚎 of Leaves (𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚊𝚞𝚛 included)?"

This happens more and more now.

So much of this game is playing exactly to some of my more niche tastes, from the brutalist office building full of deeply unsettling horror imagery occupying impossible space and time to the absolute overdose of collectibles in the form of data logs, documents, and inter-department communications that rewards exploration with substantial lore and world-building details. For me, exploring the sights and untangling the narrative were the strongest points of Control, and Remedy remains one of the best studios when it comes to environmental storytelling. It helps that this game is pretty much Alan Wake 1.5, while simultaneously making Control into a nexus of sorts for the entire Remedy Connected Universe. The Oldest 𝙷𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚎 is an awesome setting for a game too, allowing for effectively infinite possibilities within its pocket dimension - doubly so when the Oceanview Motel and Casino is considered. I've honestly never seen a game so ambitious with its setting alone, truly.

The word that describes this is redacted.

The only thing holding this game back for me is its combat. It's serviceable, but there's simply too much of it given that it boils down to shoot til empty -> launch stuff while gun recharges -> shoot while launch recharges. I also just hate randomly generated loot stats in games - I probably spent a cumulative two hours of the game comparing mods like "health +34%" vs "health +33%" to clear out the abysmally small inventory you get. This issue is exasperated in the expansions when the amount of unique mod types quintuples but your inventory cap stays the same. It's annoying, especially given that enemies randomly respawn as you explore the 𝙷𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚎. If you replaced even a quarter of the random lootbox exploration rewards with more documents or multimedia collectibles or altered items or lore rooms, this would be an easy 10/10 for me.

You want to smile.

All in all though, Control is an easy recommend because there's simply nothing else like it. If you're wondering if you'll like it, here's a good heuristic: does a puzzle that requires you to decipher a code in the reversed lyrics of an in-game song sound rad as hell to you? If you answered yes, then you should play Control.

You want this to be true.

HOLD THE FORT. You mean to tell me that Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Masahiro Sakurai collaborated on a falling block puzzle game in 2006 and I'm just now finding out about it??

In short, this game rules. Sakurai brings the Melee orchestral soundfont, quirky game menus, charming art direction and scenario, and simple twist on a beloved genre that completely reinvents its gameplay. Mizuguchi brings the snappy gamefeel, reactive sound design, and overall dopamine-inducing game design. Together, they've made an addicting little time waster that's perfect as a pre-bedtime ritual.

Notably, this game is designed in such a way that I can't imagine it working on anything but the DS due to the touchscreen. Maybe a modern smartphone or even Switch port is possible, but Meteos is one of those classic victims of innovation left in the dust by the modern games industry.

aka Metal Gear: Ghost Babel

This getting branded as "Metal Gear Solid" outside of Japan was a massive disservice, as this is not simply a ported/demake'd MGS1. Sure, it's heavily inspired by MGS1 gameplay-wise, but Ghost Babel is a totally unique and strange alternate-universe sequel to the original Metal Gear. Even more bizarre is how much future games seem to pull directly from Ghost Babel. The narrative is, shockingly, a proto-MGSV in a lot of ways with the subplot of Viper (a venomous snake, if you will) and his crusade of vengeance against FOXHOUND. There's even straight up [REDACTED] in this game, whereas MGSV held back and wouldn't go all the way despite the themes. Some of MGS3's narrative and best moments are taken right out of this game, too. And the post-game special VR missions are just straight up Raiden's VR training alluded to in MGS2, that's not even up for debate - the missions are literally conducted by one of the Patriot AIs! It's impressive how overlooked Ghost Babel is in the Metal Gear series history given all that.

Overall, this is a delightful experience: the visuals are oozing with charm (that codec screen is just eye candy to me), and the gameplay is that classic Metal Gear 2 top-down goodness. It's retro in all the right ways if you ask me, and it doesn't overstay its welcome. Metal Gear fans owe it to themselves to check this one out - just play it with save states to bypass some of the frustrating padding introduced in the last few levels.

🐍📦