ArghMyToast
2017
This has quickly become my go-to game if I want to play something where I can just kinda turn off my brain and go. 200cc is a mistake though.
2020
I can feel the ice cubes.
2022
Was this game an unoptimized mess that validated your frustrations/concerns of Game Freak being unable to create a high quality 3D game due to some combination of being lazy, incompetent, time-crunched, and/or simply mismanaged?
Yes: ☑️ No: 🔲
Did you allow yourself to have fun after accepting that it will never get better?
Yes: ☑️ No: 🔲
Yes: ☑️ No: 🔲
Did you allow yourself to have fun after accepting that it will never get better?
Yes: ☑️ No: 🔲
2011
I wish I had played this closer to when it first released as it kinda felt like "Hades at home" in current year, but I had an enjoyable time nonetheless. Gotta say though, whoever's idea it was to make your dash speed slightly faster than the speed at which the ground would rise, holy moly you are a villain.
I love Debbie Delight.
2022
The world was really interesting, the visuals were pretty, and the sections where you were just exploring and messing around in the hub were fun and charming, though the more "gamey" action/stealth sections were kinda meh. And look, I know it's a video game, but if the whole point/appeal of this game is that you're just playing as a regular-ass cat, I kept thinking it was weird how there was no explanation whatsoever regarding how/why the (seemingly completely normal) cat was somehow magically able to understand everything that was being said to it and was motivated enough to follow through with all the complicated tasks that were asked of it.
2022
It's been a minute since I’ve experienced a game that has felt this addicting, smooth, and just pure fun to play. While the writing in the VN / story segments sometimes evoked the same feeling you get when you have to sit through a very mediocre anime, it was hard to be too bothered by it when you knew that you were just one Naruto joke away from being able to zip through the glass ocean at breakneck speeds while jamming out to the killer OST.
Case 1 is by far the best opening case in the series to this point, and it was interesting to piece together what was going on between the characters now and the events that took place after the previous game. While the last case had a lot of great moments and ideas, I found myself not caring about the stakes at place quite as much as I did for the last case in the previous games, so it didn't feel like it had as strong of an impact even though it was still a solid case overall.
I really wanted to like this game, but at some point I had to ask myself "Why am I continuing to play this if I'm having no fun at all trudging through one monotonous, annoying dungeon after another?" The main plotline was relatively interesting, but after subjecting myself to enough of the game's obnoxious dungeon crawling, I realized that I probably should be using my time more wisely than forcing myself to play for another potential 30 hours.
Have you ever played the board game Clue and thought to yourself, "I wonder if there is a single-player video game that evokes the same frustration I am currently feeling, has gameplay which really just boils down to obtuse guesswork masquerading as plot-driven sudoku-like deduction puzzles, and is brimming with mechanical design choices that appear to simply be in place to waste your time?" If so, then boy have I got a game for you.
I don't know how the idea of an open-world pinball game came about, but the result is as chill as the concept sounds. The main story is short enough that it can be completed in one day, but there are plenty of extra collectibles floating around to extend your playthrough if you didn't get enough pinballvania action.
2021
I went into this game completely blind outside of hearing that it's "kind of like Slay the Spire", and I would highly recommend doing the same. I can see how you might make that initial comparison given that at its core the game is most easily described as a roguelike deckbuilder, but the gameplay, presentation, and interesting ideas this game explores all come together to make an incredibly unique experience.
The best Mario Party in a very long time, though that's probably to be expected given that it's a "best of" collection from when the series was actually good. I would mostly just recommend this if you have a group of friends to play with in-person, but the game does actually have good online options if you're flying solo.
The campaign is really short and nonsensical, but that's probably not a huge issue if you just want to have a good time with friends. The minigames are as fun to play as always, and the different character abilities were interesting to experiment with (until you unlock Ashley, at which point literally why play anyone else), but I can't see this having the same staying power with me that Smooth Moves did.
Can't say I didn't have a good time putting hours upon hours into this game in high school, but sometimes I think about all the money spent on the plastic instruments collecting dust in my storage room, and I just think to myself that I could have afforded a much better Yugioh deck all those years ago. Anyways, this game was fun.