One of the most heartfelt homages to the arcade scene of the 80s that I've ever played. Annalynn doesn't simply copy ideas from its ancestors, it takes those ideas and creates something with its own identity. You've obviously got Pac-Man as a base, but the decision to design it as a 2D platformer gives it room for a lot more variety and stage hazards. A lot of it actually reminds me of Mario Vs. Donkey Kong. The music sounds straight out of a classic Namco arcade title, with extremely memorable melodies for every stage.

In terms of sheer addictiveness, it's commendable that I always manage to boot up Annalynn every time it catches my eye in my Steam library. I've got around 60 games unfinished in my backlog, but I keep coming back for one more round of Annalynn...which turns into several rounds, which turns into a couple hours sucked away by this wonderful game. Fulfilling certain conditions unlocks alternate palettes for Annalynn, and clearing the game once unlocks extras like Practice Mode, Random Mode and optional cheats, so there's a decent amount of content to dig into here.

It only costs $5, so you've really got nothing to lose. Skip grabbing takeout and make your lunch at home, buy Annanlynn instead. You can buy it on itch.io to directly support the dev, or buy it on Steam if you value convenience more. Either way, I want more people to play this game. Hopefully this review can help put it on even just a few more people's radars.