The Korg games on Nintendo systems are like the best kept secrets. There's at least one on every Nintendo handheld since the DS (including the Switch) that really give you a suite of features to play with. The Korg DS-10 is the simplest of these releases, but do not discount it because this is a full fledged synthesizer.

This one is my favorite DS experiences due to it's simplicity, yet complex it's enough to create cool patterns that you can plug into a DAW or what have you via AUX cable and do with it as you please. Extremely fucking cool.

I have a physical copy of this for fun, but I encourage anyone who can emulate DS games on a touch pad of some kind to check this out. It's novelty only in the screen size of the systems you work with.

This game has everything you could ever want: gameplay revolving around ragdoll physics, sick mind powers AND a nu metal theme and tie-in music video That's it. It's over for the rest of these pretenders out here. I'm like that guy in that Junji Ito manga about fitting into the hole. This is my video game.

This game barrels over It's own stupid ass by being dumb fun. Fun that is dumber than anything it can be criticized for. I want more games where you levitate on doors. I want to possess the body of a man to kiss another man. I want to set people on fire. I want to harness the near infinite kinetic potential of my mind to order Chipotle on my jailbroken Neurolink. These are things only Psi-Ops The Mindgate Conspiracy can deliver. The limitations of what you can do here are gen six console processing and what I can fucking do with my mind.

WITH MY MIIIIIND
WITH MY MIIIIIIIEEEEIIIIND

Errrm what the scallop! Did Mario make this? It's Made In Italy. The thing only has one purpose in this destitute world, and that is to watch you slide numbers and make big number. Is there merit in this? It's not that fun, even with secret ninjutsu tips you can get on the Internet. If I was on a plane and it crashed and fucking exploded, I would not think about this game at all during my final breaths. Maybe if there were 2048 passengers I probably would chuckle a bit, then again I'd probably be sleeping or some shit.

Now, the game has crazy mods that overhaul everything, it's like Skyrim! Anybody can do it even. Look up the plethora of clones that exist, some may shock you, some may whelm you, some may goad you further in the pursuit of knowledge regarding Obama's last name, but don't forget that the soup is cold and the salad is hot if it's a school lunch. Plus, isn't it better to replace the numbers by cooler things like cool cars because otherwise, you are very nerdy for playing 2048 i aint ngl imagine going "I reached a high score of 131072 🤓🤓" instead of "I reached nirvana on the highway to hell" have some self-respect you nincompoop. What would brock obama say if he saw all that "i suck dick and huuuuuh i eat pussy too" damn he's bisexual thats crazy alhamdulillah hope he enjoys the 2048 mating technique 👏

Are you telling me a high number happens to fall like that? No! He orchestrated it! Gabriele Cirulli! He slided in a chain of numbers that happens to be my IP address and he gets to be a lauded game designer? What a joke! I do respect the hustle though. There's a spin on the formula not available for logging on Backloggd called Nextagon and that one was cool huuuuuh I'm exhausting my options here, can I discuss the game without anymore ad hominems? How about the fact the game promotes incest values by only allowing us to pair twin numbers together! This wouldn't fly even in the joint. i delet myself. bye

As I traversed the upside down castle with whip in hand fighting knights with my cool back dash I thought to myself Castlevania Symphony of the Night is a great game! I was however playing Afterimage, a Metroidvania made by Aurogon Shanghai. It's one of those games that I simply can't remember where I heard about it but It's been on my radar a while for it's gorgeous visual style...and I'll frankly play any Metroidvania you throw at me.

From a Metoidvania point of view it's kind of weak in a lot of ways though. The game is absolutely massive with about 20 locations to explore over the course of the adventure. Some of these locations are almost the size of other games of the genres entire maps and it took me over 30 hours to initially finish it off. The level design is expansive with various secrets to find with more skills and abilities unlocked as you would expect but backtracking is a nightmare and fast travelling uses a consumable item which just seemingly discourages it early on. The mid game I found it difficult to know exactly where to go and there is a weird difficulty spike due to the multiple directions which took a while to smooth out. The story equally feels it lacks cohesion. It's very dialogue, character and plot heavy but at the same time wants to be mysterious and lore intense like Dark Souls / Hollow Knight yet instead just leaves a lot of questions like it was never really finished. Playing the extra mode unlocked after several endings as a side story does answer some of it, as does the true ending but there are still many aspects of the plot that feel very incomplete or unsatisfying.

So why a 7/10 if you are luke warm on the level design and story Fallen? I hear you ask in confusion. It's simply because despite that, I had a lot of fun with it. The locations are varied and the artwork is really stunning throughout, the soundtrack is beautiful and sometimes haunting. The protagonist Renee's animations are smooth and combat for the most part is fun with a variety of weapons, accessories and magic to choose from.

Yes the game could have done with tightening up a little bit where I think they got a little overzealous but overall it's a fun little game.

+ Beautiful art design.
+ I liked the soft haunting melodies of the OST.
+ Combat is fast and fluid with some good options.
+ I just like exploring in Metroidvanias...

- Level's are a little too large.
- Story could be tightened up more, it wants both a lot of dialogue yet mysterious lore and doesn't quite work for either.

A fairly solid game that's brought down a bit by some slower "roaming around trying to find out what to do next" moments and also being a star wars game.

Enjoyed the gameplay mainly, the last boss fight is too close to dark souls in that it tries my patience with the expectation of constant perfect blocks and timing. Also the combat barely functions with more than about 3 enemies and everybody having at least one unblockable attack.

I liked the characters a lot, my main issue with the story is that the main movies are written in stone. As such I know that these characters can't actually save the galaxy because the movies have to happen and the owners of the ip are too tightfisted to let this be its own alternate timeline thing.

Also just a very flawed understanding of what those first 3 movies were doing, probably due to worry about my least favorite thing in star wars "the cinematic universe." The light and dark side are set in stone. This series still has to drag all the prequel baggage with it. There's no iffyness to it. You either are a monk or you go full crazy murder man. Can't have any questioning that being a pious monk that pushes anything worldly away is maybe not the best way to be balanced.

7/10