Harlequit
2009
Absolutely horrible, but its horribleness is so fitting that I love it.
The boldness in direction of an indie game with the budget of an inindie game. Awesome.
1980
Easily the worst murder mystery plot ever written.
Does a lot of unusual and counter-intuitive things, which makes sense considering its originality, but it's mostly playable. Not really sure how the forest worked though, had to look that up.
Does a lot of unusual and counter-intuitive things, which makes sense considering its originality, but it's mostly playable. Not really sure how the forest worked though, had to look that up.
2019
Musashi = Biden?!?!
1998
Very, very good. I definitely need to play more playable text adventures like this (I get the feeling that very, very few will be on the same level though)
1993
It's like the original Kid Dracula but good, except that the first already was really good.
A bit difficult at parts, though I think using save states (but only at checkpoints, so it's like infinite lives) makes it much more fun.
Unfortunately the difficulty's increase towards the end feels mostly unfair (another point in favour of save states here), and there's a lot of platforming traps you can be fated into before you even see them, but it's still one of the greatest games out there.
A bit difficult at parts, though I think using save states (but only at checkpoints, so it's like infinite lives) makes it much more fun.
Unfortunately the difficulty's increase towards the end feels mostly unfair (another point in favour of save states here), and there's a lot of platforming traps you can be fated into before you even see them, but it's still one of the greatest games out there.
Very, very beautiful. I didn't like the gameplay at first, but I warmed up to it over my first playthrough. I'll play it a bit more but it comes with the unavoidable downside of using up several GB of storage, so I don't think it will survive on my Switch much longer. Far from a bad game though.
2019
Mostly really nice, but held back by the strategic elements. Replaying sections isn't very fun.
2006
I hate Hugo Fact but this has some of the greatest gameplay of any game. Masterpiece (if you overlook Hugo Fact).
1997
Didn't get the good ending, but definitely wouldn't want to. Slow gameplay is held back further by most of the abilities.
It looks very nice with its art style though.
Not sure if it's good or bad, but killing enemies felt less jarring here than any later entry I've played, apart from when I consciously thought about what the enemies looked like.
It looks very nice with its art style though.
Not sure if it's good or bad, but killing enemies felt less jarring here than any later entry I've played, apart from when I consciously thought about what the enemies looked like.
Severely underappreciated in the West.
At the start, the gameplay is really fun, some of the best I've played from a NES game. But as the difficulty increases, it becomes infinitely more annoying to play. On the first few stages, the infinite continues (and no intralevel checkpoints) worked really nicely, then it felt like actually it would be nice to have a checkpoint at each door, and then it felt like there was nothing that could be done to make it fair. Though I did use save states, especially later on, so I don't know exactly what it's like without them.
The "Garfield" elements here are almost non-existent, other than the presence of characters (and some vague thematic similarities like it taking place in locations including a house, plus eternal suffering). Characters exhibit no familiar traits so they still don't even contribute much there.
It seems too obvious to be a glitch (though reasonably it must be?) but the fish collectable is quite useful. Usually, it detracts health, but if it would be enough to kill you, it instead completely fills the health bar. And it's fairly doable to use or exploit this throughout (even easier if you use save states). It adds an interesting element where if your health gets too low, it might be most efficient to get it low enough, and then search out a fish bone to fill it up again.
And it's elements like this that really make gameplay interesting. Being able to look around for items adds some interesting survival elements, where you can choose to aim to fill up on health / ammo, or you can try and rush on before more enemies spawn. The multiple weapon types work well too, and it's nice cycling through them quickly (compared to something like the Mega Man pause interface). It's nothing too complicated, but its simplicity works in its favour.
I think it controls nicely too, and if the enemies were more forgiving then it could've been a really nice game.
The difficulty really brings the whole thing down significantly though.
Also I liked the progression from "knife throwing boss" to "apple throwing boss" to "knife throwing boss" again.
At the start, the gameplay is really fun, some of the best I've played from a NES game. But as the difficulty increases, it becomes infinitely more annoying to play. On the first few stages, the infinite continues (and no intralevel checkpoints) worked really nicely, then it felt like actually it would be nice to have a checkpoint at each door, and then it felt like there was nothing that could be done to make it fair. Though I did use save states, especially later on, so I don't know exactly what it's like without them.
The "Garfield" elements here are almost non-existent, other than the presence of characters (and some vague thematic similarities like it taking place in locations including a house, plus eternal suffering). Characters exhibit no familiar traits so they still don't even contribute much there.
It seems too obvious to be a glitch (though reasonably it must be?) but the fish collectable is quite useful. Usually, it detracts health, but if it would be enough to kill you, it instead completely fills the health bar. And it's fairly doable to use or exploit this throughout (even easier if you use save states). It adds an interesting element where if your health gets too low, it might be most efficient to get it low enough, and then search out a fish bone to fill it up again.
And it's elements like this that really make gameplay interesting. Being able to look around for items adds some interesting survival elements, where you can choose to aim to fill up on health / ammo, or you can try and rush on before more enemies spawn. The multiple weapon types work well too, and it's nice cycling through them quickly (compared to something like the Mega Man pause interface). It's nothing too complicated, but its simplicity works in its favour.
I think it controls nicely too, and if the enemies were more forgiving then it could've been a really nice game.
The difficulty really brings the whole thing down significantly though.
Also I liked the progression from "knife throwing boss" to "apple throwing boss" to "knife throwing boss" again.
I started playing this in 2017. I got through the first chapter, and almost all of the second, but only just now played the third and fourth. Most of it's really good, but some parts (specifically in 4-3 and 4-4) were absolutely game ruining. This could've been a 9/10, but instead it is a 6-ish/10, and I won't be getting the true ending for fear it could kill me.
2015
"Taichi Kurosu Goes to Sustown" is a 2015 visual novel released by the un-copyrighted equivalent to Kenco. Its gameplay loop is more or less identical to that of the game "Among Us", but the characters are less sus and waaay more human.
While visual novels can sometimes be considered not games, this one tries to show otherwise by having a New Game + mode that recommends you replay it right the way through. Also of note is the inclusion of 2018 image macro "Big Chungus" as one of the characters, albeit in disguise as Tomitake Jirou.
However, not all is perfect. This has, by far, the worst media player option I have ever seen in a game. It's genuinely kind of ridiculous.
Overall, I'd give Taichi Kurosu goes to Sustown a 95/100 rating since it has an interesting story and some things.
While visual novels can sometimes be considered not games, this one tries to show otherwise by having a New Game + mode that recommends you replay it right the way through. Also of note is the inclusion of 2018 image macro "Big Chungus" as one of the characters, albeit in disguise as Tomitake Jirou.
However, not all is perfect. This has, by far, the worst media player option I have ever seen in a game. It's genuinely kind of ridiculous.
Overall, I'd give Taichi Kurosu goes to Sustown a 95/100 rating since it has an interesting story and some things.
2008
Surprisingly fun for such a tie-in game.
I like how they have the plot point about getting past alligators by making them laugh, then later on you just get alligator enemies that you kill to get past.
Quite short and easy, but that's better than short and extremely hard and unfair and hellish, like the Garfield Gets Real game. It also beats Gets Real by having some really nice looking sprites (compared to (possibly appropriately) ugly 3D models).
I wish they hadn't cancelled the Pet Force game. It's safe to say it wouldn't have been incredible, but it could've been interesting.
I like how they have the plot point about getting past alligators by making them laugh, then later on you just get alligator enemies that you kill to get past.
Quite short and easy, but that's better than short and extremely hard and unfair and hellish, like the Garfield Gets Real game. It also beats Gets Real by having some really nice looking sprites (compared to (possibly appropriately) ugly 3D models).
I wish they hadn't cancelled the Pet Force game. It's safe to say it wouldn't have been incredible, but it could've been interesting.
2005
Delightfully linear, and fast paced. A lot of it seemed a little ridiculous, but it was constantly fun and engaging so it's a good experience. I hope they make Still Life 3 where you get to see Gus die a horrible death though unless that happens in 2 but it probably doesn't anyway I think he's probably old by that point so it's not really bad and I don't like Gus much anyway he's probably my least favourite adventure game protagonist.