Mancheg00bfusc8r
2022
Both funnier and more fun to play than I had expected, especially after having struggled to get through a few hours of the even Roiland-heavier Trover Saves the Universe. not going to argue it’s a truly great FPS - the waves of enemy encounters go on too long, and there’s barely an ending to speak of - but the combination of gameplay and comedy is pretty entertaining as long as you turn down the frequency of enemy/weapon chatter.
2023
Not the most original cinematic platformer you'll play, but a pretty strong example of the subgenre overall, with great art direction and solid puzzles (though a few do require annoyingly precise timing or are otherwise a bit obtuse). The story also isn't quite as compelling as I'd have liked, but what's here works well enough.
2019
review for Claire A scenario only; will update review or write a new one once I get around to playing through Leon B
A great remake that nicely modernizes old-school survival horror, though I didn't find it particularly scary, with inventory management that's actually fun in combination with unlocking new shortcuts and sections of the map. Mr. X is kind of annoying and the sewers aren't quite up to par with the other sections
A great remake that nicely modernizes old-school survival horror, though I didn't find it particularly scary, with inventory management that's actually fun in combination with unlocking new shortcuts and sections of the map. Mr. X is kind of annoying and the sewers aren't quite up to par with the other sections
An extremely charming, polished, and varied little platformer, paying tribute to the original 1990 games in the right ways (do we need a more complicated story than "Minnie has been kidnapped by an evil witch?" No. Does it make any sense that a bottle in the library level would lead to a world where everything is made of candy and desserts? Also no, but that's how Sega did it in 1990 so that's what we're doing) while having the confidence to completely reimagine the level designs in ways that would never have been possible on 8- or 16-bit hardware (I generally enjoyed the 3D sections, though I know not everyone agrees). Extremely short, even more so than I had remembered (I wish that every gem had at least gotten its own set of levels, even if that's not how the original game did it either), but that makes it a good one- or two-sitting play. A damn shame that Sega Studios Australia was shut down just before this game was released; would have liked to see them do more remakes in this vein.
Bramble is a very pretty, very linear... action/adventure? 3D cinematic platformer? in the Little Nightmares vein, with a beautifully realized Scandinavian folk horror setting. While the strengths of Bramble's art direction, atmosphere, and varied level design were enough to keep me playing through most of its duration (less so its story, which doesn't ultimately add up to much), it unfortunately commits a lot of game design sins that lead to unnecessary frustration: readability is often lacking, making it difficult to distinguish scenery from traversable paths; fixed camera angles lead to unnecessary difficulty gauging the distance of jumps; stealth sequences are tedious; the handful of boss battles generally go on for too long and make for frustrating difficulty spikes, even with mid-battle checkpoints, given that one hit always means death (I ultimately gave up at the last boss and watched a playthrough of the rest of the game on YouTube instead); and there's just too much reliance on trial and error in general, which is exacerbated by the previous points in this list. I'd still give it a qualified recommendation for fans of cinematic platformers or very linear horror action/adventure games, but definitely play it on Game Pass or wait for a sale.
2022
A triumph of sci-fi horror audiovisual design, with a narrative that some will find frustratingly oblique but whose deliberate ambiguity largely worked for me. Gameplay-wise, it’s not quite on the same level (it could have stood to be a bit shorter, as the backtracking does start to get tedious by the end, especially given the strict inventory limit), but as someone who hasn’t played many old-school survival horror games, I still enjoyed this homage a lot.
2022
A short, very pretty, and polished isometric walking sim/puzzler, with mechanically simple puzzles that are nonetheless generally satisfying to solve. Might have given it an extra half-star if it weren't for some pretty poor voice acting, but otherwise an easy recommendation if you're looking for a relaxed, story-driven game to play through in an hour or two.
2022
One of the most visually stunning games I’ve ever played, with a truly incredible realization of its Giger-inspired art direction in real-time 3D (the title screen transitioning into the opening of the game is a stunner in and of itself), but I can already tell from my brief time with it that the deliberately obtuse design and Myst-style puzzles aren’t going to be something I’d enjoy playing. Will watch a playthrough on YouTube instead.
Solid Monkey Island game, shame about the deliberately anticlimactic ending, which just does not work at all. Appreciate the effort to make the story accessible to people like me who have lost patience with the P&C genre over the years (gamepad support, casual mode, the generous hint system). Not really laugh-out-loud funny and there's way too much backtracking in Part 4.
2021
A cute, charming, low-difficulty, combat-free 3D platformer take on the A Short Hike-like subgenre. Writing sometimes seems like it's trying a bit hard to be wholesome and whimsical in an affected "UwU smol bean" register, and the last level in particular goes on a bit too long (hence why I ended up shelving it), but still a nice way to spend a few hours, even if Tinykin still holds the crown for this specific type of indie 3D platformer.
Even if it hadn’t been for this year’s events surrounding Justin Roiland, I’d probably still say that this is too much of him for one game, and that’s after a mere level and a half. Maybe it’d play a bit better in VR, as it was originally designed to, but probably not enough to significantly change my opinion of it
Doesn’t reinvent the Metroidvania genre, but a strong entry nonetheless, with fun brawler combat, decent level design, and gorgeous 2.5D visuals. A few annoying difficulty spikes and points where objectives are less clear than they should be, but not enough to drag down the experience too significantly.
2023
Free 20-minute platformer with a clever meta premise - you're a sentient game character (voiced by Nolan North!) tasked by the game designer with testing out her unfinished game before the publisher visits. Admittedly doesn't do anything that novel with that premise, but hey, it's free and 20 minutes long, so it doesn't really need to.
2021
solid, very short walking simulator with fairly minimal interactivity. Not sure this takes full advantage of the medium, as there's a lot of standing in place listening to dialogue, but the story is mostly compelling and it doesn't overstay its welcome
Very much an iterative sequel, but it's a strong one, even if the story leans a bit too hard into misery porn for my taste and the stealth/combat systems don't always work quite as well as I'd like. Overall, though, the storytelling, pacing, and polish are quite strong here even with a longer running time than the original.