the art direction is cool but otherwise ive never actually stomached enough of the game to see it all the way through, ive played it numerous times with friends and dicked around in the vehicles from time to time but like.. i tried this game at a time when i didnt really "Get" shooters, its probably a fine game but for me i just dont really see anything special in this series aside from a neat aesthetic.
Unfortunate that it seems like one of those things thats losin it's audience more and more with each entry

deadass pretty fun LMAO

i think this is harder to win in than fortnite or any of the other free "battlepass" multiplayer games tht are out there rn
people say this is a dead game but idk man they crossed over with fucking terry bogard and sonic the hedgehog in a recent couple years, that doesnt seem very 'dead' to me

I think my biggest criticism is just i wish i was destroying weenies more often in this, thats it rlly, otherwise you get in do some funny little platforming with the funny little mighty bean bitches and maybe get enough ingame currency to customize your mighty bean bitch to how u want

unlike fortnite i will not succumb to buyin anything here but you wont get your crops burnt and your jelking crystal revoked from me if you do, idgaf

A BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT hard to judge this game because it's an around 20 minute adventure game that boasts more themes and thought and environmental atmosphere than it does interactivity beyond talkin to fish and watchin an isopod rock the mic
But. ILL! T R Y!! ahem
How Fish Is Made is one of those games thats more of a thinkpiece and an experience than something you can see yourself replaying over and over again unless youre in a really particular sort of mood, its a very unique way to present how all living things cope with death and the fear of conviction and choice in multitudes of different ways
people like having choice until the strings attached start glistening in the void
I think that it's pretty safe to say that it never actually ever mattered if you chose up or down, left or right, blue or red, because at the end of the day we are all just Going Through
S o m e t h i n g
We are all living beings going at it in the grand scheme of existence, and that sucks.. but it's also ok! and sometimes it's not.
If it seems like im walking in circles quickly thats just because thats the meat of life, we make our own fate
we make our own meaning
we create and destroy and etc etc, this game does a nice job of planting the seed of doubt in your head while also representing how that seed can come in many different shapes and sizes, the path youre currently on in life may seem scary and then you wonder if you picked something else then itd be a nicer path
but then you notice how many people got fucked over on that other path

Some grass is always greener typa shit, but it all comes down to perspective and as eloquent as the writing is at times, i think its sad many will probably just think this game is just trying to be some stick-in-the-ass walking simulator trying to just be art or something. Like its scary to reflect on mortality, many people say they dont fear death, like pleadingly insistent wanting you to validate that they dont fear death or vice versa and it simply does not matter lmfao.
Nihilism in todays culture is always attempted to be portrayed as this really one dimensional "haw haw nothing matters!" shit by people that just dont Get It
but the beauty of it all Should be that nothing matters, so youre in the reigns and you cultivate what you feel Should be there
And as you get further along, and even forget about this review inevitably after reading it, youll still have moments where youll be like "there has to be more to this" or "i can make more of this.. right?" because the inevitability of time's march is a conveyer belt forward, not a finite mold, so go nuts
dance a little on it, drag your ass, clap your hands, finger guns, because the illusionary aspect of your free choice is free because its your own alone.. but hey atleast me saying all that nulls out any fears anyone could have about the future without relapsing thought right?... Right????..........................................................................................







right...?

final thoughts: I picked up, the isopod dance shoulda been on spotify, trypophobia warning just incase, this game is free, and thats all i got see ya

This was genuinely So good, most pleasant experience ive had with the series so far which is funny because on a technical level it's probably the worst ive played thus far. Barring being able to deal with the stupid ass goon guys that sit in the middle of a hall blocking your way with just a few shots of a pistol to the face and an actually Fun gun boss fight.. this SUUUUUUUUURE IS RGG's first outing with Yakuza on some new hardware alright lmao. And yesss yes yes I played the remastered version on my Xbox, and yet the civillians seem to crowd up in swarms weirdly and clip and bug into each other all weird, even ingame cutscenes ive seen some weird model glitches that i'd never seen at all in the first couple games.. and in general the enemy AI seems a lot softer this time around and hell the upgrade where you can get a second finishing move kind of just grants you access to a Lot of ways to exploit every boss in the game if youre paying attention to which light + heavy combo mixups grant you the best possible tool to break guards, though i digress, cause id rather feel Rewarded for learning the game's quirks, ins and outs than having my back blown out by a 54 year old devil may cry wannabe draining all of my resources (yes i am still bitter about that one fight even if it was all Fine in the end)

Though on top of it all the game is still pretty fun and you even get a lot of opportunities to pick up new special moves from kiryu's first actual native english speaking friend AND black friend like holy fuck they remembered we can exist in Japan and are actually showin melanated ppl galore in Okinawa and some even in Kamurocho, its nice! Mack is a pretty funny character, understandably silly because i can totally see a lot of things he says coming out of the mouth of someone making a japanese friend for the first time in the late 00s
he didnt need to slip that bit about tentacle.. porn.. though.. i didnt need to know tht
ahem
But anyways I think Kiryu learning how to use a camera is extremely funny and adds a nice bit of interactivity to the gameplay that wasnt there before
and speaking of interactivity, i think that the chase missions are actually really fucking cool & even though sometimes it feels janky as all fuck esp with vaulting over things that FEEL like youre getting them at the right time.. I think theyre still a great idea for an addition because kiryu shouldnt Always need to kick the shit out of something or just talk to something to get an answer or progression out, infact thats kind of how it shouldve been with that jingweong bullshit in the latter bit of yakuza 2
Though i get that that shit wouldve been harder to do on the ps2
Anyways all the side content is there and i did some of the substories and i think they actually fit really well within the framework of the story this game is trying to tell, they feel a bit more.. local and tender??? Idk! It's kind of hard to put my finger on but it feels like such a relaxed game even when there's dudes trying to actually murder you LMFAO

I think the part about it that made it breeze by and feel so serene despite the apeshit plot and how severely lackin in money you are for most of this game unless you're prowling these streets on thug-patrol batman lite type shit, is that its by far the most emotional story this dev has told so far and that amplifies everything about the experience and gameplay for me.

I'll keep it short with the story because it's a LOT to fuckin digest and a backloggd review is no place for that shit really.

Weirdly enough the most intriguing thing about this entry in the series to me isnt that there's a mysterious benefactor resembling someone from the past, recurring characters' alignments and whereabouts unknown, shit or even this "greater enemy group" that has an underground presence throughout the whole game(which imo kind of sucks aside from the boss fight being kind of cool but i do like how seamless they assimilate and keep tabs on everything going on but jingweon mafia was runnin streets way harder in 2 and so was Goatda) NAH F U C K ALL THAT SHIT MANNN ITS THE ORPHANAGE ITS THE CHILDREN ITS THE CONNECTIONS ITS THAT KIRYU IS BEING ROBBED OF HIS FUCKING RETIREMENT AND ROPED INTO SOME MORE OF THAT B U L L L L L L L L shit, thats whats intriguing. The new connections he's made, the haven and calm before the storm he's enjoying, you feel it All, or atleast i fuckin do dude
because the reason why having kiryu interact with each kid and helping them with their problems is awesome isnt because its ""mindblowing storytelling"" but because it feels Earned. He's EARNED this. He has lost so much and will continue to lose and gain because that's life. He is ultimately a guy thats doomed to get fucked over in relationships platonic and romantic otherwise with people because even if he's a good guy, his status and world he was born in lingers in the background like a black swirling vortex and every time he has to batter that shit back
and he does! but usually at a cost, and this time the price is insane because of the personal stakes and sentimentality that it means
this game has a slow start because it wants you to see it from kiryu's point of view like that as well. I fucking love this main character, and I love this series. Now ill touch on the general plot as a whole, i like the idealogy clash with the final antagonist and the ending really does come out of left field yes... but i cant say its a marvel of writing and thats what keeps me from giving this game a 5/5 the most, a good shitload of this game's biggest twists and information are infodumped out the ass to you instead of the writers finding an organic way to go about all of this. The biggest excuse card they can pull is that Kiryu is out of the loop, which makes sense yes but the fact that it gets played so many times and you never even let Date do all that much aside from telling you the profiles of the new family patriarchs is really disappointing.

final thoughts: this game is one of my favorite games ever right now, that might change in the future bc like.. tbf i got like maybe 5 games to go until im fully caught up with the series still, but even if i sink this ranking lower i think itll still hold a sweet place in my heart. I think the final bits of the game can get really speech-y and derail from the tenseness you can feel in a scene but I get the point they were trying to make out.. just kinda fell flat though
Someone had told me before that they actually felt the orphanage content and stuff revolving around it felt really tame for an M rated game and that it seemed a lot softer than the content proposed in other entries in the series, and I couldnt disagree more.
A scarred man born and raised to bear and wear his dragon tattoo'd back bare and with pride and conviction, not as a lapdog or loyalty to occupation, but a moral representation of defending the righteous and aiming to teach and stand and invoke his scorching fury on anyone that dares to fuck with those he holds dear. When all is said and done he never wavers and plants his feet staring anyone in the face, asserting that he Can change and Will change, and that anyone is able to do so as well only if they take the steps to better themself and trust in those that trust in you. A man teaching lessons, righting wrongs, accepting shortcomings and that accidents can be out of your control and that its what you Do after the fact and the accountability and ever burning drive to rebuild that matters, giving warmth and hope to the next generation of scarred children, scarred like he was at an almost similarly young age by the throes of life.

To me, that's some of the most mature shit you could ever do.

This is weirdly really pleasant what the hell im so surprised
I didnt think that id enjoy this game so much but it's got free choice with which "zones" (basically worlds) you wanna pick first, there's just the fireflower and glide in this game but thats honestly all u rlly need and sometimes the glide trivializes levels entirely, the music is FINE and i actually love how there's some original enemies in this that really caught me offguard & hello??? gordos in mario? whaaaat the hell
i knew links awakening had some other nintendo refs in it but i was majorly surprised seeing a gordo up in this bitch

The game overall is pretty easy, you can get extra lives like air if you try even a little, which is good because with the copious amounts of lives and checkpoints and shit in this game i doubt this could rlly piss anyone off while playing. The bosses themselves are also original!! No koopalings or any shit like that, just fun little weirdo inhabitants based on the themes present here
the tree area has a 'branching' path thing going on which is cute :) the haunted house area has two secret levels in it as well that you can find, the turtle area has this crazy pinnocchio ass whale interior tht ur going through that actually gets pretty tight- infact the more water oriented ones are really most of where i've gotten hit tbh with you

And then macro world is!!!!! well!!!! I think its cool in premise mostly but doesnt really fall through that well, i think itd feel much cooler if the gameboy had more oomph but for what's there is impressive and charming really

Space area goes crazy because even though it's like only two fuckin levels i love the gravity stuff, but i do dislike how you cant really take advantage of the glide ability While in that zone, like... why???

And the final boss and what they do with Wario is really fun!! definitely the most tight challenge the game can offer :) im thoroughly surprised, very solid game and definitely high up there in my favorite mario games now. I think its honestly just the fact that it's a gameboy game and doesnt have new favorite tracks from me or that many fun power ups to handle that hold it back a little.

final thoughts: alex wasn't lyin u really actually can just go up mario's dickhole and there's balls everywhere and nutcrackers and all this other crazy shit, wario's wild for modelilng an entire man's urethra into a platforming dungeon but ya know maybe thats why he never tried to swing on him again.

If you told me the OG was gonna get a sequel back when it dropped I wouldve arched an eyebrow at you like "huh???"
not because I didn't think the devs could do it but because I didnt think Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk was the type of game where someone had more in store.
But WOW it sure does
for the sake of this review lets call it Milk 2
Milk 2 is an improvement upon the first in nearly every way shape and form, the presentation adds a lot on top of what was already there with the original's subdued usage of color and storytelling about the inner anxieties that plague the human psyche as well as the turmoil that we as people can feel over something even as seemingly simple as just buying one specific thing from the grocery store, that lingering thought in the back of your head that something Could happen to you that could leave a scarring sense of futility and invulnerability of the cycles of the everyday

Milk 2's strongest aspect about all of this is that it's replay value emphasizes what its trying to nail through that struggle, I think the only thing that might chafe the atmopshere with the storytelling for some people is that the writing and the back and forth you have with the main character in Milk 2 could be seen as "word salad"-ey at points, as if sometimes its just abstract for the sake of it because it doesnt want to sit and dumb anything down or elaborate on fleeting points of its themes or else it outright shatters the immersion the player is supposed to feel

KIIIIIIIIIIND of a double edged sword and yeah im totally assuming that as a gripe the everyday person tht plays video games might feel but honestly if you picked up this shit at all and played both games then your tastes in games probably arent normal to begin with anyways.

final thoughts: it's a very cool and short yet captivating visual novel that genuinely surprised me in several points of playing, i really hope the devs keep it going even if it won't be a Milk 3
Because I think im pretty fond of their writing style and how they openly embrace this side of writing :)
...also i actually liked the hamster analogy hmph

To someone who never played this franchise before this felt like if tekken fell backwards in a paperjam and was shot out like a rocket through a different dimension
but thats not necessarily a bad thing just the gameplay was reminding me of it but clearly having its own differences

It was kinda fun, nobody really left a super strong impression on me though
the ninja is kinda funny, the final boss being female silver surfer is neat and sarah bryan genuinely looks like the medium rare between nina williams and zero suit samus
shes kinda fun
u h h h h h h h .... and YEAH its just kinda there for me, ill play it if someone asks to play it with me but otherwise cant see myself comin back to it on my own volition like some other series.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA So good. So I was looking forward to this game for like over 3 years or so right? Been loosely hearing wind of it's development and peeping any little morsels of information right? And you would THINK that in some way shape or form id have some type of expectations for how much Pizza Tower does with being a platformer of the warioland-esque variety? I am here to Tell YOU!... it exceeded pretty much every expectation i had LMAO

No really like the game is that good :O !!
Ya girl already fucks with ms paint art style and this really shows how much humor, emotion and vibe you can give off within it. Pepino's expressions and movement are played up in the best way possible and every drop of that is seamlessly imbedded into his platforming kit
and oh Boy it takes full advantage of that with these levels

There's about 5 floors in the tower, which means 5 arcs of the game with a handful each and then a boss fight, pretty standard fare- HOWEVER u also have secret platforming levels to look forward to that are embedded into the level layout and some of them are pretty fun to stumble upon while you maybe messed up a jump and then others you will probably be gnashing your teeth out of your skull before eventually caving in and looking up some kind of a guide to find the remainder of the damned things (not that thats inherently a Bad thing i mean they are called SECRET levels its not like theyll snitch themselves out to you

I think the only thing abt this game at all that kinda pisses me off is when u do a misinput in this game and pepino bounces off the ridge or goes doink against the wall, it can be DAMNING in the later levels Good Loooooooord
but thats more of a nitpick than anything else

final thoughts:
a new favorite game of mine and blew expectations out the water, and GOD hype as fuck conclusion. I never even sunk my teeth in any of the games it drew inspiration for but this was intensely pleasant

HOT DAMN!!!!! Ok so obvious shit out of the way first this game is packed to the brim with color and energy and the art style is definitely hitting the chord of being something like a niche mini series of a show that happened in the early 00s that had this as a tie in game that somehow crossed dimensions over to us in present day... does that sound insane? MAYBE!!!! IDC THIS SHIT WENT HARD AS FUCK!!! And here's why

A rhythm action game is a unicorn of a mashup that honestly i dont think ive ever seen done in this exact way, everything from the environments that bustle and bounce along to the beat of the world around you.. to the beat of your allies and enemies attacks its all SO! FUCKING! A D D I C T I N G! Sometimes id find myself genuinely just lingering around areas for much longer, my play times for these levels that are around maybe 30 minutes a pop each sit around an hour and do you know Why?????? I LOVE TIMING MY SHIT TO THE BEAT, I LOVE GETTING THAT TRIPLE DASH IN EVEN IF I DONT NEED IT, SOMETIMES HANGING ON IT FOR MINUTES ON END ITS SO G O O D

The story also makes a lot of use of this, each boss syncs up with the beat and theyre ALL fun in my opinion. Like youd expect them to run out of steam or something at some point but they Always manage to do something DIFFERENT with each one, now im not completely dicksuckin the game by sayin youll see never before seen concepts before for those boss fights constantly but its lavishly presented in a way thats so fresh and figuratively AND literally keeps the beat going and doesnt dwell too long on one verse. Even the structure for which you approach the bosses can be pretty different as well!!!!

The Story absolutely knows what it is and takes as much opportunity as it can to just get to the point, be pretty funny and even in a cheesy way tug at my heart TBH. It's not winnin any awards in that ballpark, sure, but this is actual candy for your retinas...

Final Thoughts: this shit is STILL unreal to me. a day 1 announcement and release game that shows up and manages to have so much content even after you beat it w/o being trickled in free dlc or paid dlc at all... the OST, the art style the sounds the gameplay oh my fucking god. It's a beautiful taste of early 00s action gameplay like what i felt experiencing via Devil May Cry but weirdly more enjoyable to me... i think what choked me up the most about this game too was that the story and gameplay are all so to the point and the message in it is so pure.. that i think it actually hit at the perfect time in my life. Seeing all these weenies be friends made me taste something, and at first i thought it was envy.. and then i thought harder about it for hours until it clicked that its not Envy but in awe at how this game reminds me of better days. It reminds me of having a tight friendgroup where everyone feels there for each other, it reminds me of how vibrant things felt and how they can Still Be if you seize your own beat in a myriad of others in society. Because if you lose that? It's all just noise, the hardest thing to overcome in the game. Each enemy individually is easy pickings, but in high numbers you cant lose your beat.. that rhythm that guides you and cuts harder than any swing of your guitar.
This game is the first ever that I think has made it sink in that while im thinking about all of these things..
Im getting old :\ ... but thats Good because that means I can appreciate shit like this immensely more than I would if I was a preteen or a kid for the reasons i stated
And I STILL have content to see.....
FUCk.