Ran into 2 really annoying bugs, way too many enemies on the road, battles were constant or 2 random large enemies would come out of nowhere and I would get destroyed. Some of the vocations were really fun, some not so much.

When you are being overrun with enemies, the staggering is nuts, you can't get up and they just wail on you constantly. I didn't have many issues with the frame rate, generally decent. Combat was a little janky, also depends on your vocation.

The world is massive and gets even larger during the end game. Overall, I did enjoy my time with it even though I got a frustrated a few times. A solid 8/10.

Attack of the Karen’s is a roguelight arcade space shooter. Battle waves of enemies, elites, and Karen’s! As you progress through each level you gain upgrade materials where you can spend on upgrading your ship. Stronger weapons, more health, faster movement, new attachments. All to help you progress further and further. During each level you will also find temporary power ups in bubbles. You shoot these bubbles to break what power up you would like to acquire them. Every time you die the level board will shuffle randomly. Which means every time you die you will have to fight a different Karen (boss) each time. Keeps it refreshing and not as grindy.

The further you get into the runs the harder it gets, so relying on those upgrades are going to be needed in order to progress to the end. Attack of the Karen’s is fun, addictive and challenging. The characters are also all voice acted which is really nice. Some of the power ups you receive are pretty funny and ridiculous in a good way. The Karen bosses are also very unique as well.

Overall, if you are into roguelights, space shooters, boss rushes, etc… I cannot recommend this game enough to you. It’s a great time and it keeps making you come back for more for the “one more time” feeling.

Looking up I see Only a Ceiling is a good little narrative adventure. You explore the house, learn a lot about stress and how she manages to deal with it. The atmosphere quickly changes about half way through. The vibe is very creepy and makes good use of audio to give you a sense of urgency and stress. Once the game is beaten you unlock explore mode where you fully explore the house and learn more about the lore. A nice little treat for beating the game.

My only complaint is that the game is very short but it doesn't mean it's a bad game by any means. I'm hoping if their is another game that the length will be a little longer.

Sea of Stars is my 2023 game of the year. The pixel art is amazing. All of the visuals are colorful and practically bounce off of your screen. The visual effects really add to the environmental story telling as well.

The sound design is superb. I really enjoy the fact that you can simply walk around in any zone and you hear birds, walking, water, etc... It also adds to the environmental story telling.

The combat is really well done, similar to Super Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger. Time your attacks and blocks correctly and it will benefit you more in the end. It also works with items, spells and combos.

The MUSIC has to be my favorite thing about Sea of Stars. Every single time I was playing this game I could not help but either stop for a moment to appreciate the music or constantly bob my head and feet along with it. This soundtrack needs to be put on Spotify.

5/5 game. I recommend this to anyone, especially RPG fans. Well done!

(I received a key for this game for free by Flynn's Arcade)

Sentry City is a challenging side scrolling platformer. It plays similarly to Contra or even Alien Hominid. One shot and you are dead.

Each level has its own unique challenge. Different enemy types, hazards, traps, etc... Everything is out to kill you in Sentry City. Use cover to your fullest advantage, jump or drop down to other platforms at the right time so you can get your shot in before the enemy does.

The game is challenging, yes. But very rewarding when you make it to the end of the level. Some levels took me several attempts to successfully navigate and figure out how to get behind certain enemies. In a way, it is also a puzzler.

The length of the game is pretty good for its price tag with replayability for each level. After the completion of each level, you get a rating out of 3 for completing it in a certain time. Great addition for speed runners.

Sentry City runs very well on the Nintendo Switch. I personally only experienced one little issue. On one of the levels there are electric balls zooming across the floor. When I would fail the level and it reloads me back to the start of the level, sometimes the electric balls would randomly stop, then move, then stop again. Sometimes stopping completely allowing me to cheese the level a little bit. Other than that, no other issues came up during my play session.

Check out Sentry City on Switch and Steam if you're into the difficult old school platform shooters! I recommend it.

(Key was provided by Flynn’s Arcade, thank you!)

Papertris is a wonderful little game created by a father and his two sons. Just like in the name, it is what it sounds like, Tetris. It plays somewhat similar to Tetris, but not exactly. The biggest difference is the entire game is made of paper. You can rotate and move the blocks like in Tetris, however, unlike Tetris you do not line them up to match lines. This is basically a match three game in the form of Tetris. There are two modes, Challenge mode or Endless mode. There is also a multiplayer mode where you are able to play locally with up to 4 players.

Challenge mode is a series of levels where each level gets a bit more difficult, changes the goal of the level and adds new gimmicks as you progress. One level may have you clear out a certain amount of blocks or earn a certain score. Match 3 to clear, may sound easy, but it gets complicated and strategic. Sure, you can clear 3 but what you want to do is create combos. Match 3 or more, but the pieces above fall down and create another 3 or more matching blocks and the clear. That creates a combo. A combo is used to gain more bonus points or to clear out the blocks you need, faster. It can get pretty challenging.

Endless mode is just the base game of falling pieces to the bottom as you match 3. However, as you progress in score it will soon get faster and faster each time you hit a certain score requirement. Lots of strategy in this mode and it gets you sweating really quickly.

One of my favorite little things of Papertris is while you are playing each level, on each side of the board in the background you can see little paper blocks moving and falling. It’s a nice little thing to have while you are playing. What’s nice about it is it doesn’t cause any distractions.

If you’re into puzzle games or Tetris, please check out this awesome title over on Steam or Nintendo Switch.

Disclaimer: I received this game for free from Flynn's Arcade.

The Legend of Gwen is a 3D Platformer, similar to Mario, and Zelda. The objective is to complete each level by gathering the appropriate amount of stars to proceed. Each level also has other objectives like find the treasure and defeat a certain amount of enemies. This adds a whole new layer of difficulty which is nice.

Your basic control scheme is moving, jumping, shooting magic projectiles and casting magic abilities which you get on certain levels. The magic abilities provide a wide range of different ways to play each level. My favorite one is the magic dash, especially for people who want to run through the level as quest as they can. Makes for a great speedrun.

The music is super charming and caught myself often tapping my foot alongside it. I really enjoyed the visual style of the game as well. Cutesy platformer. The design of Gwen is great! I streamed this game and my viewers immediately commented on the cute art style.

I only had a couple of issues when I played, which I am sure they can patch to correct. One issue was the hit boxes for some of the enemies, especially the spiders. I would find myself jumping on the spiders directly but still died or got hurt for doing so. Detection wasn't spot on. I also had one issue where I jumped on a platform and it killed me, saying I was under the zone where if you fall, you lose a life. The final issue I had which wasn't a huge issue was the tightness of the movement. It can feel a little slow when trying to turn around and it would be nice if they could add some sort of indication underneath the character to show where you will land when you jump onto other platforms.

Overall, my experience with The Legend of Gwen was a positive one and I cannot wait to see wait other games _WiWiGames creates next! Well done!

(I am currently playing end game content.)

Pokémon Scarlet overall was an enjoyable game. Besides being very disappointed how this game was released, I still had a lot of fun with it. I just imagine a world where this game was running at 60FPS. I say this because for most of the game I found myself actually zoned out and focused on finding Pokémon in each new area to expand my Pokedex. It was a great feeling that I haven’t had since Red and Blue. The reason for this is because this is an open world Pokémon game so seeing Pokémon pop up left and right was exciting because I wasn’t sure which new Pokémon I would see. I went into this game without any spoilers for the first time since Red and Blue.

The story format is a lot better in these version as you have three different paths to go down. You have your basic obtain 8 badges and become the champion of the region. You also have to complete gym challenges before fighting the gym leader. I found most of the gym challenges to be boring. You also have the Path of Star where you have to take out the leaders of Team Star. The only thing I didn’t like about this one was you had to defeat 30 Pokémon for each camp with the new mechanic of sending out your Pokémon to the field in Auto battles. I found it was boring and took too long. The other one which I enjoyed the most was finding and fighting the Titan Pokémon. Each time you took one down you would gain a new exploration power for Koraidon. I didn’t look up any spoilers for this either so it was exciting to see which new powers I would receive each time.

Once you have completed all story events you head on over to one of the final challenges which is Aero Zero. The giant crater in the center of the map. This had a unique story twist to it which I liked and a bit darker and sad. Overall the final battle was really well done and the music was just awesome. I recommend beating the game to see this.

Once area zero is done you go through a series of 4 battles at the academy which doesn’t take too long overall and generally easy. Once completed you head on over to all the post-game stuff where you catch the legendary Pokémon and finish your Pokedex for the region which I am currently working on myself.

Overall, it was a pretty enjoyable game where I actually felt immersed in the world. If the game was less glitch, buggy and less ugly. It would have been an exceptional game.