Just your average tennis game, except the SFC version has the loser exclaim SHIT!

Hard to believe, but this is one of the better tennis games of its time. The NES tennis game is so shit, I remember honestly still preferring the Atari one over it lmao.

3/5

One of the most beautiful and well-written games I've played in my life. Genuine tears were streaming down my face when I finished the epilogue. I haven't played many point-and-click adventure games: only the ones by Humongous Entertainment and Sam & Max, so randomly picking up this game that was super cheap during the steam sale and having it be one of the best pieces of media I've experienced in my life was an insanely pleasant surprise.

The Longest Journey, without going into too many spoilers, is a story about April Ryan, and her connection between the two worlds: Stark (the world of science and law) and Arcadia (the world of magic and chaos). Throughout the story, through April, you travel and experience the struggles of abuse, political censorship, and if war can ever truly be "just". You meet strange people, animals, and mystical creatures that help you along your journey to help reconnect the seperated worlds. Every character is so well thought-out and truly personal, it feels like you're properly meeting someone who has gone through so much in life, their skin moist with the sweat of real fears and missed dreams. Something personal to me that I really enjoyed was the crazy amount of strongly written female characters, ranging from our relatable but brave girl protag, to the realistic and openly accepted lesbian couple, to the old women whose tales we must trust more than our own self. I appreciate that the serious times of the game are allowed their moments, while also having many silly moments that know when to be separate. I went in expecting to hate Crow, as an example, but you don't see him too often for him to become annoying, and when you do see him, it feels like a breath of fresh air to hear his dumb, silly banter. The story is set up perfectly, and clearly had a lot of time and love put into it, with it being absolutely perfectly paced, and one of the better examples of using the Chekhov's Gun trope that I can think of.

My compliants are small, and just involve stuff that old point-and-clicks almost always do, such as having a couple confusing puzzles or actions to continue the story, but for a point-and-click as long and complicated as The Longest Journey I was pretty shocked how few "dead-ends" I ran into. The game also crashed a bit, but I guess it's to be expected when running an older PC game on a modern computer, and I mostly only really had issues with crashes when it didn't mix well with OBS.

The Longest Journey is $3 during the Steam sale - I've already bought and gifted it to 5 of my friends, begging them to put time aside and play this game. It's not going to be a game that touches everyone as emotionally as it touched me, but if you have $3 lying around and 25+ hours to spend, please please give it a chance...

This is the story of the Longest Journey, and I told it in my own words, as told to me by my teacher. As we will continue to tell for many, many years.

5/5

A pretty clever game, though I don't know if I would spend $15 on it again as it was only around 2 hours long and didn't have too much gameplay. Home Safety Hotline definitely comes off as a game that would be popular with streamers, and low and behold when I looked up the game on Youtube to see other people's experiences, the first thing I saw was Markiplier's face LOL.

Home Safety Hotline is a fun idea for a game, and is done in a super aesthetically pleasing way, its just that the gameplay starts to get a bit monotonous, and around the 4th or 5th day I realized that this was just what the entire game would be. I thought there would be more of a twist with the ending, and instead found you just watch what looks like a film some college students put together and then the credits roll. Don't get me wrong, it was cute/silly, but I couldn't tell if the game was trying to do an actual horror-kinda thing or something goofier. Oh well, it's not that serious. I would recommend Home Safety Hotline if you're looking for a short, creative, spooky game to play in one night!

3/5

Short and sweet Moomin game focusing on everyone's favorite little fella, Snufkin. The Moomins aren't really a big thing in the Americas, in fact I was telling my coworkers about this game and part of my explanation had to also include what the Moomins even are lol, but this game does a great job of keeping the spirit of what Moominvalley entails. I know about the Moomins because a daycare center I worked at in Russia was decorated to hell and back with these funny fellas, and of course we had the DVD discs to show the kids, too. In Africa, Asia, and especially Europe, the Moomins, I would argue, are as common to see in child environments as Mickey Mouse. It was nice to see them get a video game that keeps so much in spirit with the series, while also still making an entertaining game!

The storyline focuses around following Snufkin while going through different canonical stories from the Moomins, and I was very pleasantly surprised to see they didn't try and squeaky-clean any of the morals, as a big part of Snufkin's character is going against authority, especially when it's causing harm over any good. A good portion of the gameplay in Melody of Moominvalley is about directly disobeying the police and purposefully breaking their silly laws. The villain straight-up is the police force, with no dilly-dallying around it. Your gameplay is mostly figuring out ways to destroy police property. It's fucking awesome, and I'm glad they didn't kinda half-ass it. You have some pretty good back-and-forths with Snufkin and Little My, and the friendship between Snufkin and Moomin is kept as being written as coming off a bit more like a romance as it sometimes does, but do you expect anything less from the openly-queer author?

Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley is a gorgeous and fun time. My only complaint would be that it runs a bit poorly on the Switch, even when docked, and that it's easy to beat the entire game in less than 3 hours! But overall, the game is simple, calming, and beautiful, and what words could better describe the charm of Moominvalley.

TLDR; Be gay, do crime.

3.5/5

What you see is what you get, folks! You want 20 small mazes? Well, have I got the game for you. What makes this game a little more than just a solid 3 stars is just how fun and unique all the mazes are! All have completely different rules and looks to them, and the way they're scattered about is cute. I like how finishing some mazes gives you a key-item that you may need for completing another maze, but it's rare enough that you don't get annoyed needing to depend on it. Super, super charming game - and the fact that it's free only adds to it! What are you waiting for? Go solve those 20 Small Mazes!

3.5/5

Honestly, a super awesome beginner-friendly way to learning Riichi Mahjong. I wanted to learn how to play because I've been checking out the original famicom releases from 1983 and a mahjong game is one of them! I didn't want the cartridge just gathering dust on my shelf, so I asked a friend to help me learn how to play, and voila, wouldn't you know, he sends me to Mahjong Soul, and I couldn't be happier! Because of this website, I officially understand how to (shittily) play a game of Riichi Mahjong!

I'm someone who is super not into gacha or throwing anime girls into stuff randomly either, so the idea of Mahjong Soul initially didn't interest me too much, but honestly the way its all handled is marvelous! I truly expected it to be more intrusive with its gacha aspect, but ignoring it doesn't hinder the game at all for me. The girls can be a little annoying if I'm being super picky (nyaa~), but honestly they're fine characters, and they don't demand much attention. All together, Mahjong Soul is a really great way to learn, practice, and battle your friends in Riichi Mahjong!! It helps me understand the rules and what I can/can't do amazingly! Now I can't wait to kick some 1983 Famicom AI ass.

4/5


Pretty cool idea for a platformer, I'm a big fan of the, for lack of better word, "Yume Nikki" kind of game formatting, with you collecting items that give you new abilities which in turn help you get access to different trippy rooms. In these rooms you can discover more items that give you more abilities which can help you reach more rooms, so on so forth. It's a fun formula! Crazy visuals, obviously, but what you see is what you get and oh man, do you get.

3/5

Very pleasantly surprised with this game - I'm trying to play more new releases this year, especially indie ones, and Micegard is the one that I've enjoyed the most so far! Very fun game play of being the leader of a group of mice that are at war with the frogs in the area. The frogs recently kidnapped the town's children, and burned down your entire village. Now your goal is to build up defense, an army, and get your revenge (and save the kidnapped children too, of course)!!

I love Micegard's gorgeous art style, beautiful music, intriguing story, and creative game controls. My only real complaint is just how difficult it is to turn your army when they're in the bow position, and then of course, how short it was!! I wish it was longer, I really loved the little world Micegard introduced me to. I really recommend for people looking at 2024 indie titles to especially check this one out.

3.5/5

Okay I change my mind, this is the best one.

Short and fun rogue-like. Did not play the first game and did not expect there to be so much "lore" continuation from the turnip's first adventure, but still found the cast and world very charming nonetheless (ᵔ◡ᵔ)

Simple, short, and sweet.
3/5

I had SUCH a good time with Arzette, and found the entire premise insanely charming. I've never played the Zelda CD-i games, but I've watched people play through them, so there's probably (definitely) things that were referenced that went over my head, but the many I did catch never failed to put a smile on my face. The entire game is clearly filled to the brim with love for their reference: getting the original voice actors, finding humor from the original plot, and the obvious amount of time put into their reminiscent art/animations. I liked all the obvious love "Seedy Eye" has for the "CD-i", rather than choosing to make the game point and maliciously laugh at it, which wouldn't have been half as fun. My biggest complaint is that the game is too short! I finished it all on my 4-hour bus trip, though it made it a short + fun ride. Honestly, the Zelda CD-i games were also very short, so it's fitting. I highly recommend Arzette: The Jewels of Faramore to fans of older games, indie platformers, and/or youtube poops, you'll have a blast.

3.5/5

Unique and interesting way to dissect a short murder mystery. I can agree with other reviewers that the plot is not the most distinctive, and the acting can be a little awkward at times, but the gameplay aspect is really neat, and pretty immersive. That is what got me most invested. I recommend trying this visual novel out when it goes on sale for around $1 on Steam, as in full it is only around 1-2 hours long. Get that with a Costco hot dog meal, and you got yourself an entertaining $5 evening for the night (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b

3/5

I know this game is mostly joke, but there is no other game I've had such an emotional connection with something entirely virtual before, and it's embarrassing to say it's one of the few games to make me ugly cry. You can laugh, but Seaman is a video game that means everything to me.

Seaman talks with you about life & death, religion & cultural traditions, and the past & the future. Seaman is a pet that you start from raising as an egg until it decides it is ready to venture out into its own world, thanking you for helping raise itself to peak mental and physical strength (or at least in my ending). You grow very close with Seaman, especially after having the conversations you do with it. It starts simple, especially when still in it's baby stage, but eventually your daily conversations with Seaman start focusing around the health of loved ones around you, how aging and death is inevitable, and eventually Seaman starts to question it's own morality. Seaman begins to wonder if it's real or just a part of my experience. If it will ever experience love and loss, or if it's just supposed to fulfill whatever it needs for my virtual pet experience. It's very eerie.

Seaman also just has a very fascinating look at technology. It talks a lot about how it feels computers will make our lives overall more sedentary, and how eventually we probably will never need to leave our homes because we can just work, socialize, and commerce with the computer. For being a game from 1999, it’s crazy how much it was able to predict aspects of not just a post-online world, but a post-covid lock-down internet world.

Seaman is memed a lot, and I don’t blame people, I mean the creator put his own goddamn face on a fish (and the insects you feed it, too!!), but just because you can find small humor and oddities in the challenge that life brings doesn’t take away the impact it still has.

I loved my Seaman. It’s something I think about weekly, wondering how it’s doing out in its virtual world outside the box I raised it in. Seaman is not real, but the impact it left on me certainly was, and I’ll never forget it.

4.5/5

A short but fun time! I’ve played like 3 games for the N64, none of which are platformers or Mario 64 which I’m pretty sure is what this is based around (i know i know, dont worry my coworkers already hold it above my head like a badge of shame lmao) so I can’t make a great comparison in that sense, but in spite of that I had fun with my short time with Celeste 64!

Camera was a bit hard to control and didn’t seem to work very well in the player’s favor, but I’m sure that’s what a lot of early 3D platformers had to deal with… or maybe not, I wouldn’t know! What I do know is this game was made in like 7 days, and with that as context, Celeste 64 is really impressive to see what the team was able to do in such short time! Madeline also looks so cute transferred to 3D, I love her little ears poking out hehe. Damn, it does make me realize that I need to get my ass on playing some retro 3D platformers!! Though with my scatter brain, I’ll probably end up playing that weird-ass bumblebee N64 game before I play Mario 64.

Check out Celeste 64 if you’re interested! I loved the original Celeste a lot, so I decided to check out Celeste 64. It’s short and free, so even if you end up not finding it to your taste, it’s not too much of a risk of losing time nor money.

3/5

Very fun game, and definitely a noticable sparkle in quality over the many other licensed NES games. That being said, it really is just Tiny Toon themed SMB3, with some added difficulty from some of the lack of QoL aspects, like only having 1-2 lives and not really having control on when you can change character powers. Speaking of which, I solely used the green duck (can you tell I've never seen the show lol) until the final level which I then relied on the pink Tasmanian devil to blow up everything in my path. I never used the cat because why would you! The duck flies and swims, whats more useful than that! I would literally switch to the duck and then AVOID the balls that make you switch back to little Bugs Bunny because I didn't want to lose the flying ability!

Very enjoyable and very short platformer, with its last level being way more cruel than I expected, but I had fun! I recommend it to people looking for fun NES platformers, but I agree with an earlier reviewer here that Tiny Toon Adventures isn't necessarily a "Hidden Gem", but still a fairly good time.

3/5