Questy
2022
A Metroidvania/Metroid clone with an interesting art style in a creepy, grimy, abandoned planet atmosphere. Overall, I'm positive on the game but there are some things that need a bit more polish as I don't understand some of the design decisions.
Right off the bat, I'm not going to leave this one a star rating, as I did not even come close to finishing it (about 2 hours in). I'm more than likely not going to have time to finish this one before it leaves game pass. Shelving it for possible future purchase and playthrough. I'll update my review then.
Gameplay is very much Metroid but without the flashy feel. Every special collectible or upgrade seems to be a white glowy thing on the ground and there is absolutely no celebration in finding any of these. Remember in Metroid when you would collect an upgrade? That music? Yea, none of that.
Which is a shame because the game has cool, ambient music, but overall sound design is a bit strange. Some sounds rattled my speakers and others sounded muffled? I also didn't notice any boss music for bosses/named characters? Must've been on purpose? There aren't a lot of sound cues for things either.
There are NPCs with spoken dialog and your character talks now and then and I think the voice over is well done.
The game also has that whole, "die and you have to collect your stuff" mechanic thing going on. In this case, it's the points you collect from kills to upgrade your suit and buy stuff with. If you die, you have to find your way back to where it happened and get your points back.
I should also mention that upgrading your suit basically means leveling up. You need to find this decrepit statues to level up at, but when you do, you can level up as much as you like, as long as you have the points. You could potentially just grind out your levels and become super powerful and considering random, powerful, named characters just show up out of nowhere some times, that might be the way to go.
Anyway, as I mentioned above, I did not finish this one but I'd like to get it on sale in the future and jump back in.
Right off the bat, I'm not going to leave this one a star rating, as I did not even come close to finishing it (about 2 hours in). I'm more than likely not going to have time to finish this one before it leaves game pass. Shelving it for possible future purchase and playthrough. I'll update my review then.
Gameplay is very much Metroid but without the flashy feel. Every special collectible or upgrade seems to be a white glowy thing on the ground and there is absolutely no celebration in finding any of these. Remember in Metroid when you would collect an upgrade? That music? Yea, none of that.
Which is a shame because the game has cool, ambient music, but overall sound design is a bit strange. Some sounds rattled my speakers and others sounded muffled? I also didn't notice any boss music for bosses/named characters? Must've been on purpose? There aren't a lot of sound cues for things either.
There are NPCs with spoken dialog and your character talks now and then and I think the voice over is well done.
The game also has that whole, "die and you have to collect your stuff" mechanic thing going on. In this case, it's the points you collect from kills to upgrade your suit and buy stuff with. If you die, you have to find your way back to where it happened and get your points back.
I should also mention that upgrading your suit basically means leveling up. You need to find this decrepit statues to level up at, but when you do, you can level up as much as you like, as long as you have the points. You could potentially just grind out your levels and become super powerful and considering random, powerful, named characters just show up out of nowhere some times, that might be the way to go.
Anyway, as I mentioned above, I did not finish this one but I'd like to get it on sale in the future and jump back in.
2023
A unique 3d platforming, climbing game that is worth the journey if you don't mind a little janky gameplay and spacy, ambiguous story telling.
Jusant is you, as a kid, climbing a mountain for your little blue creature friend that you keep in your backpack. I won't spoil it here, mostly because I'm not entirely sure what happens at the end, but you do help your little blue friend... I think?
Regardless, the climbing is a lot of fun when it's working correctly and the mountain is really interesting as it changes biomes between chapters. There are also an absolute ton of collectibles, so if you like looking for collectibles, you have a bit more meat on the bone of this game. If you don't care about collectibles, you can breeze through this pretty quickly.
The climbing portions do get creative and puzzly with you using all your abilities (climbing, jumping, taking a breath, swinging, etc...) to figure out how to get up to the next area safely. This is SUPER satisfying and feels great when you figure out a tough area. I loved looking down and seeing where I came from and thinking "Wow, I actually climbed pretty far!"
There are some other little janky issues with maneuvering around the environment where the movement just doesn't feel as seamless as it should. I think about wall climbing in something like an Assassin's Creed or Price of Persia and how that felt pretty intuitive and easy but this game doesn't really follow those lines.
This is a blessing and a curse because I see what they were going for. They want you to control each arm with the triggers on the controller and they want that because it feels more challenging like you're actually climbing. They want you to feel like you're the one doing it. I get it.
However, there are times where the environment just works against you in a not so fun way. Like, when I'm just trying to climb down from a ledge, it feels like there are ledges that will let you and some won't and I don't get why.
There are times where grabbing at ledges can be super strange. The kids arms will some times just not grab what you're trying to grab even though he's right next to the ledge! His arms will hilariously go all over the place looking for something to grab or just keep grabbing the wrong thing! This is especially frustrating when you're trying to grab things that are moving.
Other times, you think you've grabbed a ledge only to find that you totally didn't and you will drop down. This can be frustrating when you forgot to set another hook in the wall to start from along your climb and you have to start over from the last check point below.
Overall, I enjoyed Jusant but by the end I was kind of over it. I think the game is the perfect length to not over stay its welcome and by the end, I felt satisfied with the journey. I just wish some of the little janky issues were more ironed out. Perhaps in a sequel? We'll see!
Jusant is you, as a kid, climbing a mountain for your little blue creature friend that you keep in your backpack. I won't spoil it here, mostly because I'm not entirely sure what happens at the end, but you do help your little blue friend... I think?
Regardless, the climbing is a lot of fun when it's working correctly and the mountain is really interesting as it changes biomes between chapters. There are also an absolute ton of collectibles, so if you like looking for collectibles, you have a bit more meat on the bone of this game. If you don't care about collectibles, you can breeze through this pretty quickly.
The climbing portions do get creative and puzzly with you using all your abilities (climbing, jumping, taking a breath, swinging, etc...) to figure out how to get up to the next area safely. This is SUPER satisfying and feels great when you figure out a tough area. I loved looking down and seeing where I came from and thinking "Wow, I actually climbed pretty far!"
There are some other little janky issues with maneuvering around the environment where the movement just doesn't feel as seamless as it should. I think about wall climbing in something like an Assassin's Creed or Price of Persia and how that felt pretty intuitive and easy but this game doesn't really follow those lines.
This is a blessing and a curse because I see what they were going for. They want you to control each arm with the triggers on the controller and they want that because it feels more challenging like you're actually climbing. They want you to feel like you're the one doing it. I get it.
However, there are times where the environment just works against you in a not so fun way. Like, when I'm just trying to climb down from a ledge, it feels like there are ledges that will let you and some won't and I don't get why.
There are times where grabbing at ledges can be super strange. The kids arms will some times just not grab what you're trying to grab even though he's right next to the ledge! His arms will hilariously go all over the place looking for something to grab or just keep grabbing the wrong thing! This is especially frustrating when you're trying to grab things that are moving.
Other times, you think you've grabbed a ledge only to find that you totally didn't and you will drop down. This can be frustrating when you forgot to set another hook in the wall to start from along your climb and you have to start over from the last check point below.
Overall, I enjoyed Jusant but by the end I was kind of over it. I think the game is the perfect length to not over stay its welcome and by the end, I felt satisfied with the journey. I just wish some of the little janky issues were more ironed out. Perhaps in a sequel? We'll see!
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is an absolute joy to play. It's not perfect and it's not the best 2D Mario game, but it's damn good and it's a great place for new Mario fans to start!
Considering this was the first 2D Mario game in a while (New Super Mario Bros. Wii U released quite some time ago) Wonder is a game that Mario fans have been eagerly awaiting, even before it was announced earlier this year. Whatever the new 2D Mario game was, people wanted it! So here it is and it's quite amazing!
No longer are you in the mushroom kingdom but now you're in the flower kingdom! And no longer are you saving a princess but you're just saving the kingdom from Bowser. In fact, you can play as one of the Princess's if you like as the game offers you the ability to play as a huge amount of different characters that you can swap to play as whenever you feel like it! I love that feature.
In the flower kingdom, you will be working to get the wonder seeds back as you platform around. These magical seeds/flowers seem to be volatile or something as when put in the wrong hands, can be very dangerous and when you collect a wonder flower, everything in the level goes nuts! You almost find yourself in an "altered state" where the tubes may start to crawl all over, bulls may rampage throughout the level, piranha plants may sing to you, huge hippos may roll around and bounce you all over the place and these examples are just in the first world! To get out of these crazy places, you need to collect the wonder seed and find your way to the exit.
Because of these seeds/flowers, the variety of gameplay within the game is huge. There are a few times where the effects repeat between different levels, but for the most part, they're unique! The team behind this game really put a lot of time and love into this one, creating a unique experience in almost every level!
The enemy variety is immense as well. The game reuses the minor characters like goombas and koopas but throughout the game, most levels will feature completely unique enemies which is crazy to think about from a programming standpoint.
The new suits are interesting, but I'm not sure they're improving upon what we've already seen in a Mario game before. They become useful in certain situations just like in past games, I think the suit that is most fun is the elephant suit as you can splash water around and break bricks with your trunk. I was a little surprised that they didn't include the ability to fly or float around like we've seen in previous Mario games. Not that this has to be in here, but it's surprising.
To compliment the new suits, they've also added badges to the game which will give your character an added ability to use. These can range from an higher jump, to faster running, to a grappling hook! I didn't find that I really needed these badges much besides the sonar badge (is that the name of it?) as it helps to detect secrets in levels and I was trying to collect everything!
I was surprised to see that the game only really had 1 ghost house in it. I haven't finished the special world yet, but I only remember 1. In the past, the Mario games would have like 1 per world!
The music in the game is... fine. When you compare it to some of Mario's other games, I don't think it even compares and it's average at best.
The sound design for some of the game is not my cup of tea either. Most of it is fine and does the job but there are some annoying sounds, like the jump sounds for the toads and princesses for example.
I'm not usually one to complain about a game being too easy but honestly, this game is not challenging until you get into the latter part of the game or even to the special world levels. I think I may have died like 5 times during my play through and defeated Bowser with 65 lives to spare. For someone who grew up playing Mario, it's not a tough game.
As a dad, I must say that I am not happy that my 4 year old son can only pick between a Yoshi or Nabbit if he just wants to bounce around in a game with me and not worry about dying. He kept telling me he wanted to play as Mario or Luigi or even a Princess and it was a frustrating experience. He also wanted to become an elephant but Yoshi and Nabbit can't become the elephant for some odd reason. Why can't you select your character and just tell the game you want "kids mode" for that character? VERY odd design choice.
Most of these gripes are very small in the grand scheme of things as the gameplay is addicting and it's one of those games for me that I kept thinking about getting back to when I wasn't playing it and that is pretty rare for me these days.
Overall, I still think that Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros 3 are better games than this one, but this is a very close third for best 2D Mario games and that is a hell of a top 3!
Considering this was the first 2D Mario game in a while (New Super Mario Bros. Wii U released quite some time ago) Wonder is a game that Mario fans have been eagerly awaiting, even before it was announced earlier this year. Whatever the new 2D Mario game was, people wanted it! So here it is and it's quite amazing!
No longer are you in the mushroom kingdom but now you're in the flower kingdom! And no longer are you saving a princess but you're just saving the kingdom from Bowser. In fact, you can play as one of the Princess's if you like as the game offers you the ability to play as a huge amount of different characters that you can swap to play as whenever you feel like it! I love that feature.
In the flower kingdom, you will be working to get the wonder seeds back as you platform around. These magical seeds/flowers seem to be volatile or something as when put in the wrong hands, can be very dangerous and when you collect a wonder flower, everything in the level goes nuts! You almost find yourself in an "altered state" where the tubes may start to crawl all over, bulls may rampage throughout the level, piranha plants may sing to you, huge hippos may roll around and bounce you all over the place and these examples are just in the first world! To get out of these crazy places, you need to collect the wonder seed and find your way to the exit.
Because of these seeds/flowers, the variety of gameplay within the game is huge. There are a few times where the effects repeat between different levels, but for the most part, they're unique! The team behind this game really put a lot of time and love into this one, creating a unique experience in almost every level!
The enemy variety is immense as well. The game reuses the minor characters like goombas and koopas but throughout the game, most levels will feature completely unique enemies which is crazy to think about from a programming standpoint.
The new suits are interesting, but I'm not sure they're improving upon what we've already seen in a Mario game before. They become useful in certain situations just like in past games, I think the suit that is most fun is the elephant suit as you can splash water around and break bricks with your trunk. I was a little surprised that they didn't include the ability to fly or float around like we've seen in previous Mario games. Not that this has to be in here, but it's surprising.
To compliment the new suits, they've also added badges to the game which will give your character an added ability to use. These can range from an higher jump, to faster running, to a grappling hook! I didn't find that I really needed these badges much besides the sonar badge (is that the name of it?) as it helps to detect secrets in levels and I was trying to collect everything!
I was surprised to see that the game only really had 1 ghost house in it. I haven't finished the special world yet, but I only remember 1. In the past, the Mario games would have like 1 per world!
The music in the game is... fine. When you compare it to some of Mario's other games, I don't think it even compares and it's average at best.
The sound design for some of the game is not my cup of tea either. Most of it is fine and does the job but there are some annoying sounds, like the jump sounds for the toads and princesses for example.
I'm not usually one to complain about a game being too easy but honestly, this game is not challenging until you get into the latter part of the game or even to the special world levels. I think I may have died like 5 times during my play through and defeated Bowser with 65 lives to spare. For someone who grew up playing Mario, it's not a tough game.
As a dad, I must say that I am not happy that my 4 year old son can only pick between a Yoshi or Nabbit if he just wants to bounce around in a game with me and not worry about dying. He kept telling me he wanted to play as Mario or Luigi or even a Princess and it was a frustrating experience. He also wanted to become an elephant but Yoshi and Nabbit can't become the elephant for some odd reason. Why can't you select your character and just tell the game you want "kids mode" for that character? VERY odd design choice.
Most of these gripes are very small in the grand scheme of things as the gameplay is addicting and it's one of those games for me that I kept thinking about getting back to when I wasn't playing it and that is pretty rare for me these days.
Overall, I still think that Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros 3 are better games than this one, but this is a very close third for best 2D Mario games and that is a hell of a top 3!
2018
A bit repetitive and most of the characters are one dimensional but the story and Detective Pikachu himself really make this one a fun experience.
Detective Pikachu is a telltale style adventure game for younger gamers. Basically, you'll walk around environments, talk to lots of random people, collect evidence and solve all the mini cases you are tasked with while unraveling the main mystery at the same time.
I had this game from before and didn't put much time into it. With a sequel coming out, it reminded me of the game and I wanted to see if I would enjoy it. Bare in mind, I am not a long time Pokemon game fan. While I've always liked the monsters and the idea of having one as a friend, I found the games to be a bit repetitive and never really put much time into them. I have liked a few of the telltale games though, like The Walking Dead series for example.
For the most part, I had a lot of fun with Detective Pikachu. I think this version of Pikachu is great. I like his attitude and his love for coffee. He's also a great partner for Tim Goodman because he's the complete opposite personality.
The main character Tim doesn't have much personality. His name is Tim Goodman and his main characteristic is that he is a good man. Hence his name I guess. Tim is a bit boring but he would be a great friend to have for sure, I would want Tim in my corner.
In fact, many of the personalities in this game are either, this is a good person or a bad person and it's part of what makes this for kids (beside sit being a Pokemon game). There isn't much nuance to people in this one, but what do you expect from a game called Detective Pikachu?
The story itself is what kept me going with this. I wanted to see what would happen next and how they were going to solve the next case, leading us to figuring out who is creating this "chemical R" that makes Pokemon go crazy.
To unravel this mystery, in each chapter, you'll talk to several different people when you start a case to get info. Then when you find another piece of info from someone, you'll have to go around all over again to each person until you find the person who gives you the next tid-bit of info to drive the story forward.
I could only bring myself to play a half hour to an hour of this every so often because I would get tired of the back and forth between everyone. It becomes very repetitive at times. Mind you, this isn't every single chapter as some do move along at a better pace but there are some chapters where you do this over and over again and it becomes monotonous.
Once you collect enough testimony/info, you'll also have to solve logic puzzles to unlock the next step of the case. These range from incredibly simple to "I'm not sure what the game is asking of me right now." There were a few times where Pikachu would ask "How do we explain this part?" and I would look at the options available and be a little dumbfounded. Either I was way overthinking it as an adult or there was something lost in translation. I'm not sure which.
Overall though, this game was pretty fun! Like I said, this hard boiled, no nonsense Pikachu with a good heart is an awesome character. The gameplay gets a little repetitive but the story is fun and worth pushing through to see what happens and what quips Detective Pikachu will say next.
Detective Pikachu is a telltale style adventure game for younger gamers. Basically, you'll walk around environments, talk to lots of random people, collect evidence and solve all the mini cases you are tasked with while unraveling the main mystery at the same time.
I had this game from before and didn't put much time into it. With a sequel coming out, it reminded me of the game and I wanted to see if I would enjoy it. Bare in mind, I am not a long time Pokemon game fan. While I've always liked the monsters and the idea of having one as a friend, I found the games to be a bit repetitive and never really put much time into them. I have liked a few of the telltale games though, like The Walking Dead series for example.
For the most part, I had a lot of fun with Detective Pikachu. I think this version of Pikachu is great. I like his attitude and his love for coffee. He's also a great partner for Tim Goodman because he's the complete opposite personality.
The main character Tim doesn't have much personality. His name is Tim Goodman and his main characteristic is that he is a good man. Hence his name I guess. Tim is a bit boring but he would be a great friend to have for sure, I would want Tim in my corner.
In fact, many of the personalities in this game are either, this is a good person or a bad person and it's part of what makes this for kids (beside sit being a Pokemon game). There isn't much nuance to people in this one, but what do you expect from a game called Detective Pikachu?
The story itself is what kept me going with this. I wanted to see what would happen next and how they were going to solve the next case, leading us to figuring out who is creating this "chemical R" that makes Pokemon go crazy.
To unravel this mystery, in each chapter, you'll talk to several different people when you start a case to get info. Then when you find another piece of info from someone, you'll have to go around all over again to each person until you find the person who gives you the next tid-bit of info to drive the story forward.
I could only bring myself to play a half hour to an hour of this every so often because I would get tired of the back and forth between everyone. It becomes very repetitive at times. Mind you, this isn't every single chapter as some do move along at a better pace but there are some chapters where you do this over and over again and it becomes monotonous.
Once you collect enough testimony/info, you'll also have to solve logic puzzles to unlock the next step of the case. These range from incredibly simple to "I'm not sure what the game is asking of me right now." There were a few times where Pikachu would ask "How do we explain this part?" and I would look at the options available and be a little dumbfounded. Either I was way overthinking it as an adult or there was something lost in translation. I'm not sure which.
Overall though, this game was pretty fun! Like I said, this hard boiled, no nonsense Pikachu with a good heart is an awesome character. The gameplay gets a little repetitive but the story is fun and worth pushing through to see what happens and what quips Detective Pikachu will say next.
I played it for about an hour and a half and it just wasn't grabbing me, so I'm shelving it for now. I thought the art style was nice but, at the moment, I'm just not in the mood for another crafting game. I also think the game tries way too hard to be funny and cute. Maybe I'll return to it in the future, maybe I won't. We'll see!
I can't officially review this since I won't be able to finish it in time when game pass is removing it, but from what I played (the first couple of levels) it's a very cool side scrolling beat em up! Looking forward to it getting it on sale later and playing through the rest.
2022
The games art style and sound design is amazing! It really immerses you and makes you feel like you're in an old Japanese film. However, the gameplay itself is pretty one note with the combat and gets pretty redundant, even by the time you finish this short experience. The games style is what kept me going, otherwise I probably would've left this one partway through.
2023
My only complaint about Cacoon is that there isn't more of it to play. This surprisingly short (probably because I was having such a great time playing it) game introduces you into a uniquely strange world with some of the best puzzle solving I've seen in a game in a long time.
If you do not like puzzle games, you want to stay far away from this one. However, if you enjoy the genre, you're in for a hell of a treat. You play as a little bug person who is hatched into a strange, confusing world. The game is ambiguous with it's story and setting, but this all works out for the gameplay.
The game play is puzzles, puzzles, puzzles, boss fight, puzzles. While in the beginning, they go pretty easy on you, eventually you start collecting these different color orbs that have different abilities when you carry them on your back. However, each orb can also be dove into to find another world within. You will get to the point where you're popping in and out of 3 orbs and swapping them off of your back to solve certain puzzles and it's very impressive to see it all come together.
There are some puzzles you will breeze through but there are other puzzles that will bend your mind. All the while, you realize that the game gives you no context for anything (not even button prompts) but somehow everything in the world makes sense and is intuitive to learn. You'll have many moments (as long as you don't use a guide) where you will feel like a genius for figuring out the solution to some of these puzzles.
And did I mention boss fights!? I did! However these boss fights are all fought passively in that, your character can not natively attack or shoot, so you'll have to get creative with what the boss gives you to defeat it. I also loved that the developer some times created unique boss phases that you'll only see during certain phases of the fight. They really put a lot of love and care into this game!
This would've been a 5 star game for me, as my ONLY gripe is that the game is a little TOO ambiguous. After the long journey of completing the game, they do treat you to a cool cutscene but I still have no idea what was going on or why we were doing what we did. Maybe I don't get it? Or maybe that's how they want it. Either way, this really isn't that big of a deal, but for me, it does keep it from 5 stars.
Again, hell of a game for puzzle fans. A must play!
If you do not like puzzle games, you want to stay far away from this one. However, if you enjoy the genre, you're in for a hell of a treat. You play as a little bug person who is hatched into a strange, confusing world. The game is ambiguous with it's story and setting, but this all works out for the gameplay.
The game play is puzzles, puzzles, puzzles, boss fight, puzzles. While in the beginning, they go pretty easy on you, eventually you start collecting these different color orbs that have different abilities when you carry them on your back. However, each orb can also be dove into to find another world within. You will get to the point where you're popping in and out of 3 orbs and swapping them off of your back to solve certain puzzles and it's very impressive to see it all come together.
There are some puzzles you will breeze through but there are other puzzles that will bend your mind. All the while, you realize that the game gives you no context for anything (not even button prompts) but somehow everything in the world makes sense and is intuitive to learn. You'll have many moments (as long as you don't use a guide) where you will feel like a genius for figuring out the solution to some of these puzzles.
And did I mention boss fights!? I did! However these boss fights are all fought passively in that, your character can not natively attack or shoot, so you'll have to get creative with what the boss gives you to defeat it. I also loved that the developer some times created unique boss phases that you'll only see during certain phases of the fight. They really put a lot of love and care into this game!
This would've been a 5 star game for me, as my ONLY gripe is that the game is a little TOO ambiguous. After the long journey of completing the game, they do treat you to a cool cutscene but I still have no idea what was going on or why we were doing what we did. Maybe I don't get it? Or maybe that's how they want it. Either way, this really isn't that big of a deal, but for me, it does keep it from 5 stars.
Again, hell of a game for puzzle fans. A must play!
I really wanted to like this one, but in the end, it’s just a bit too janky, unoptimized and strangely paced.
Bramble starts out pretty strong, where an interesting world unfolds in a dark forest atmosphere with fairy tale creatures but with several crashes, sounds issues and janky/stiff controls, the game started to feel like a chore to play through.
I found myself playing a chapter or even just part of a chapter and quitting thinking “I’m not in the mood for this right now” or the game would crash and I would just think, "okay, I'm good on this for tonight."
I did manage to finish it though and I have to say, the games tone is all over the place. Some times it's beautiful and serene and other times it's dark and gratuitous with gore. It's really strange how it can feel like a kids game at one point and then 5 minutes later you're in a grisly horror movie. I guess that's true to fairy tales. Depending on who you are, you might REALLY like that, but for me, it feels unbalanced and a bit odd.
The boss battles are odd too. They're VERY creative, so points given there but some times they feel like they abruptly start out of nowhere and then you don't know what you're supposed to do. There are some boss phases that will have you scratching your head at first and wonder what you're even supposed to be doing.
I also died many times not understanding the boundaries of the world or the games mechanics caught me in a janky way, which was frustrating.
It’s a shame because there really are some cool and whimsical moments in the game and you could see what the dev was going for, but overall, this one just needed more TLC.
Bramble starts out pretty strong, where an interesting world unfolds in a dark forest atmosphere with fairy tale creatures but with several crashes, sounds issues and janky/stiff controls, the game started to feel like a chore to play through.
I found myself playing a chapter or even just part of a chapter and quitting thinking “I’m not in the mood for this right now” or the game would crash and I would just think, "okay, I'm good on this for tonight."
I did manage to finish it though and I have to say, the games tone is all over the place. Some times it's beautiful and serene and other times it's dark and gratuitous with gore. It's really strange how it can feel like a kids game at one point and then 5 minutes later you're in a grisly horror movie. I guess that's true to fairy tales. Depending on who you are, you might REALLY like that, but for me, it feels unbalanced and a bit odd.
The boss battles are odd too. They're VERY creative, so points given there but some times they feel like they abruptly start out of nowhere and then you don't know what you're supposed to do. There are some boss phases that will have you scratching your head at first and wonder what you're even supposed to be doing.
I also died many times not understanding the boundaries of the world or the games mechanics caught me in a janky way, which was frustrating.
It’s a shame because there really are some cool and whimsical moments in the game and you could see what the dev was going for, but overall, this one just needed more TLC.
1993
I played this on my Evercade on the Irem collection, which I assume is just the original Arcade version.
It's a pretty fun, short (5 levels) shmup with great old school arcade style graphics. It's pretty unique in that you play as a submarine, instead of a spaceship.
The big problem I have with it is that this game would've been near impossible to beat without a couple pocketfuls of quarters. It's a tough game with projectiles flying everywhere, all the time and I had to continue many, many, many times, so this game definitely lives up to the old "impossible to beat on one quarter" style of arcade games. If I didn't have unlimited credits on the Evercade, I wouldn't have enjoyed this at all.
It's a pretty fun, short (5 levels) shmup with great old school arcade style graphics. It's pretty unique in that you play as a submarine, instead of a spaceship.
The big problem I have with it is that this game would've been near impossible to beat without a couple pocketfuls of quarters. It's a tough game with projectiles flying everywhere, all the time and I had to continue many, many, many times, so this game definitely lives up to the old "impossible to beat on one quarter" style of arcade games. If I didn't have unlimited credits on the Evercade, I wouldn't have enjoyed this at all.
2023
Come for the dinosaur gimmick, stay for the bonkers story and really fun gameplay! As much as others are slamming this game for microtransactions, or for it being soulless, or saying it’s a guilty pleasure, the game offers enough variety in its multiplayer gameplay that it had me glued to it for a few weeks and I had a great time!
So, I have a bit of history with this game. My first experience with Exoprimal was the first announcement. When they showed all the dinosaurs pouring out of that portal, coming for the team, I was in! However, when the beta finally rolled around, I really didn’t have a great time with it. I wrote it off and said, eh, not for me.
But then the full release came to Game Pass and figured I would check it out. It took a few matches for this to really gel for me. I could tell during those matches, that there was something to this and I had to find out what it was. Then about 30 hours later, having completed the main story… I love this game!
While you may argue that a great game will hook you immediately, and most of the time I do agree with that sentiment, there are those games, usually multiplayer, that take a little time to win you over; if you give them the chance. Exoprimal is one of those games. It’s like Overwatch with a learning curve!
Everything in this game takes a little time to appreciate but it’s worth it! There is a surface to scratch through. Sort of like unwrapping a lot of paper, plastic and twist ties to finally get your toy out of the box.
What makes Exoprimal different is that it combines PVE and PVP into one game. You’ll play half a round killing dinosaurs with your group of 5 and then you’ll spend the other half fighting against another 5 person team AND more dinosaurs to try and win the match. How quickly you finish waves of enemies dictates how quickly you get to the PVP round and you could potentially get a huge head start if the other team isn’t doing well. And you can jump in with something called a Dominator, which turns you into a huge dinosaur like a T-REX to go after the enemy team and delay their process even more WHICH IS ALWAYS FUN.
The game is basically a weird action movie playing out in a video game. And on top of that, I really found myself loving the story, as nonsensical and weird as it is. I’m not even sure if I fully understand what happened? Strike that. I definitely don’t! And while I didn’t care about the characters at all when the game started, by the end, I did. In fact, there was a cutscene towards the end of the game that legitimately had me laughing out loud and games RARELY do that for me.
It’s also interesting how you can ONLY unlock more story beats in the game by finishing matches. You get a little progress bar and it’ll tell you, once you reach this point, you’ll get the next cutscene. And this is also how you get to unlock riads and boss battles with your teams. The story beats dictate whether you’re running into a character on the battle field or fighting a big bad. I thought this approach was pretty unique and really keeps you involved!
Quite honestly, what the game should be is a 5 or 10 person coop game. The PVP with the cube and hammer stuff feels very tacked on to me, while the PVE stuff feels very natural. Running around the city with friends, destroying dinosaurs is so much fun. Randomly joining a 10 man raid with both teams and taking down a huge boss is the best part of the game! Fighting another enemy team in this is…fine.
Though I will say that one of my top experience was in PVP. We were about to win the match by pushing our cube to the end and the sniper (I forget the class name) was shooting it from far away and about to disable it. So, I through up some of the buildable platforms that you can jump on in front of it at different heights and then we were able to secure the cube while the sniper kept just shooting the platform from their vantage point. This was a great feeling to win that way!
One thing is for sure is that each match will keep you on your toes. Sometimes you’re just killing dinosaurs, sometimes you’re protecting nodes, sometimes you’re escorting someone, and sometimes the game just takes you to a huge raid will all 10 players!
Another great feeling is unleashing your ultimate on a huge dinosaur or team to take them out. Have a T REX after you? Direct ultimate to take out the last quarter of their health!
I know I’ve been gushing about this game and you’re thinking, why did you give this a 3.5 if you like it so much? Well, there are definitely some things I’m not a fan of.
First off, the overall art style is bland and in some ways, the game is kind of generic. As pointed out above, I don’t remember the sniper class name… off the top of my head, I can’t remember any of the class names. I guess maybe because I didn’t grow up as a huge mech fan, but it was really hard for me to discern the difference between the classes in the game at first or even remember the names of the classes because that just doesn’t gel for me. Every exo suit, as their called, is different and offers different strengths but it takes a while to learn these things. The suits for me basically become things like “Oh the shooty guy” or the “grenade guy” or the “healing goblin guy.”
The environment and the cyber-ish, dystopia look of the cities you fight in aren’t very unique looking to me. They look like they could’ve been a Unity demo or something. There are areas that are beautiful to look at but there is a lack of landmarks and central design in the maps to help make these places memorable. The characters are in the same boat, as I mentioned above. The characters get more exciting when they start adding in some of the crazy skins you can unlock, but then that some times takes you out of the experience. Playing as a football player while a crazy AI is trying to destroy you, it doesn’t work in this game. I think the game taking itself too seriously is where it needs to stay, not being silly.
Unlocks take a LONG time to unlock. You get war chests to unlock stuff every now and then but it took me a lot time to get anything of value. The free tier of the battle pass is also represented terribly here where with the Battle Pass you get something new every level up, on the free tier, you’ll get something like every 6 levels and it’s nothing exciting (maybe a not very fun emote or something).
Speaking of the Battle Pass, the microtransactions are also kind of gross right out of the gate. $5 for a set of clothes and emojis for a character? Get out of here.
And as much as I like the nonsensical story, I think it’s a double edged sword. There are parts of it that are like “What?!” or “Wait how does this even work?” which I thinki could be a turn off for some. But that’s what you get with time traveling, parallel dimensions, Evil AI and Mechs from Japan.
I’m still picking at the last few online achievements here and there (Wow, kill 100,000 dinosaurs? Gonna be here a while…) and I’m going to keep playing off and on for a bit. I don’t plan on buying any microtransactions or the battle pass and I think that if you ignore that part of the game and push through some of the learning curve here, you’ll have a good time! I know that’s a big ask for some, but for me, it was worth it.
So, I have a bit of history with this game. My first experience with Exoprimal was the first announcement. When they showed all the dinosaurs pouring out of that portal, coming for the team, I was in! However, when the beta finally rolled around, I really didn’t have a great time with it. I wrote it off and said, eh, not for me.
But then the full release came to Game Pass and figured I would check it out. It took a few matches for this to really gel for me. I could tell during those matches, that there was something to this and I had to find out what it was. Then about 30 hours later, having completed the main story… I love this game!
While you may argue that a great game will hook you immediately, and most of the time I do agree with that sentiment, there are those games, usually multiplayer, that take a little time to win you over; if you give them the chance. Exoprimal is one of those games. It’s like Overwatch with a learning curve!
Everything in this game takes a little time to appreciate but it’s worth it! There is a surface to scratch through. Sort of like unwrapping a lot of paper, plastic and twist ties to finally get your toy out of the box.
What makes Exoprimal different is that it combines PVE and PVP into one game. You’ll play half a round killing dinosaurs with your group of 5 and then you’ll spend the other half fighting against another 5 person team AND more dinosaurs to try and win the match. How quickly you finish waves of enemies dictates how quickly you get to the PVP round and you could potentially get a huge head start if the other team isn’t doing well. And you can jump in with something called a Dominator, which turns you into a huge dinosaur like a T-REX to go after the enemy team and delay their process even more WHICH IS ALWAYS FUN.
The game is basically a weird action movie playing out in a video game. And on top of that, I really found myself loving the story, as nonsensical and weird as it is. I’m not even sure if I fully understand what happened? Strike that. I definitely don’t! And while I didn’t care about the characters at all when the game started, by the end, I did. In fact, there was a cutscene towards the end of the game that legitimately had me laughing out loud and games RARELY do that for me.
It’s also interesting how you can ONLY unlock more story beats in the game by finishing matches. You get a little progress bar and it’ll tell you, once you reach this point, you’ll get the next cutscene. And this is also how you get to unlock riads and boss battles with your teams. The story beats dictate whether you’re running into a character on the battle field or fighting a big bad. I thought this approach was pretty unique and really keeps you involved!
Quite honestly, what the game should be is a 5 or 10 person coop game. The PVP with the cube and hammer stuff feels very tacked on to me, while the PVE stuff feels very natural. Running around the city with friends, destroying dinosaurs is so much fun. Randomly joining a 10 man raid with both teams and taking down a huge boss is the best part of the game! Fighting another enemy team in this is…fine.
Though I will say that one of my top experience was in PVP. We were about to win the match by pushing our cube to the end and the sniper (I forget the class name) was shooting it from far away and about to disable it. So, I through up some of the buildable platforms that you can jump on in front of it at different heights and then we were able to secure the cube while the sniper kept just shooting the platform from their vantage point. This was a great feeling to win that way!
One thing is for sure is that each match will keep you on your toes. Sometimes you’re just killing dinosaurs, sometimes you’re protecting nodes, sometimes you’re escorting someone, and sometimes the game just takes you to a huge raid will all 10 players!
Another great feeling is unleashing your ultimate on a huge dinosaur or team to take them out. Have a T REX after you? Direct ultimate to take out the last quarter of their health!
I know I’ve been gushing about this game and you’re thinking, why did you give this a 3.5 if you like it so much? Well, there are definitely some things I’m not a fan of.
First off, the overall art style is bland and in some ways, the game is kind of generic. As pointed out above, I don’t remember the sniper class name… off the top of my head, I can’t remember any of the class names. I guess maybe because I didn’t grow up as a huge mech fan, but it was really hard for me to discern the difference between the classes in the game at first or even remember the names of the classes because that just doesn’t gel for me. Every exo suit, as their called, is different and offers different strengths but it takes a while to learn these things. The suits for me basically become things like “Oh the shooty guy” or the “grenade guy” or the “healing goblin guy.”
The environment and the cyber-ish, dystopia look of the cities you fight in aren’t very unique looking to me. They look like they could’ve been a Unity demo or something. There are areas that are beautiful to look at but there is a lack of landmarks and central design in the maps to help make these places memorable. The characters are in the same boat, as I mentioned above. The characters get more exciting when they start adding in some of the crazy skins you can unlock, but then that some times takes you out of the experience. Playing as a football player while a crazy AI is trying to destroy you, it doesn’t work in this game. I think the game taking itself too seriously is where it needs to stay, not being silly.
Unlocks take a LONG time to unlock. You get war chests to unlock stuff every now and then but it took me a lot time to get anything of value. The free tier of the battle pass is also represented terribly here where with the Battle Pass you get something new every level up, on the free tier, you’ll get something like every 6 levels and it’s nothing exciting (maybe a not very fun emote or something).
Speaking of the Battle Pass, the microtransactions are also kind of gross right out of the gate. $5 for a set of clothes and emojis for a character? Get out of here.
And as much as I like the nonsensical story, I think it’s a double edged sword. There are parts of it that are like “What?!” or “Wait how does this even work?” which I thinki could be a turn off for some. But that’s what you get with time traveling, parallel dimensions, Evil AI and Mechs from Japan.
I’m still picking at the last few online achievements here and there (Wow, kill 100,000 dinosaurs? Gonna be here a while…) and I’m going to keep playing off and on for a bit. I don’t plan on buying any microtransactions or the battle pass and I think that if you ignore that part of the game and push through some of the learning curve here, you’ll have a good time! I know that’s a big ask for some, but for me, it was worth it.
2021
This is a very cute and cozy little game that focuses on taking pictures of tons of different things to finish quests. This adventure has an amazing vibe to it with fun characters and silly situations that's definitely worth your time.
The game loop is very simple. You show up to an area, you scope it out, except quests, take photos to trigger the quest or turn them in to who requested it and then gain enough stamps to move on to the next area. Venturing into a new area is super fun, discovering all of the inhabitants and watching everything unfold is a joy.
You'll do quests for ghosts and bugs and campers and all kinds of characters. That truly is where the game shines because the writing for everyone is really fun and it's all in the name of just having a good time.
Though cozy, the developer designed the game in such a way that, yes, you can VERY EASILY finish the game but for those who are completionists, there are a lot of interesting quests and approaches to taking photos that will have you scratching your head a bit. It's less about solving puzzles and more about solving riddles, so for some quests, you will be experimenting a lot. This can be a blessing and a curse because there were definitely a couple quests where I felt super smart for figuring it out but others where I had to look it up as I knew there was no way I would figure out what the vague quest text was getting at. And it ended up, yea, there was no way I would've figured that out.
The only other faults I can give the game is that, at times, the camera view feels awkward. I guess you can chalk this up to 3d world issues, but the camera just controls strangely in certain areas, and I didn't feel like I could always see everything I needed to. Maybe that was the point?
I also found myself hitting the wrong buttons a lot. I'm not sure if it was the layout or the flow of button presses but I would constantly hit the menu button when I wanted to take a photo. I was also hitting the wrong button a lot to select an ability while in camera mode. It wasn't a huge hassle but it happened enough that I noticed it was a strange phenomenon.
Despite those small things, this is an awesome one to check out!
The game loop is very simple. You show up to an area, you scope it out, except quests, take photos to trigger the quest or turn them in to who requested it and then gain enough stamps to move on to the next area. Venturing into a new area is super fun, discovering all of the inhabitants and watching everything unfold is a joy.
You'll do quests for ghosts and bugs and campers and all kinds of characters. That truly is where the game shines because the writing for everyone is really fun and it's all in the name of just having a good time.
Though cozy, the developer designed the game in such a way that, yes, you can VERY EASILY finish the game but for those who are completionists, there are a lot of interesting quests and approaches to taking photos that will have you scratching your head a bit. It's less about solving puzzles and more about solving riddles, so for some quests, you will be experimenting a lot. This can be a blessing and a curse because there were definitely a couple quests where I felt super smart for figuring it out but others where I had to look it up as I knew there was no way I would figure out what the vague quest text was getting at. And it ended up, yea, there was no way I would've figured that out.
The only other faults I can give the game is that, at times, the camera view feels awkward. I guess you can chalk this up to 3d world issues, but the camera just controls strangely in certain areas, and I didn't feel like I could always see everything I needed to. Maybe that was the point?
I also found myself hitting the wrong buttons a lot. I'm not sure if it was the layout or the flow of button presses but I would constantly hit the menu button when I wanted to take a photo. I was also hitting the wrong button a lot to select an ability while in camera mode. It wasn't a huge hassle but it happened enough that I noticed it was a strange phenomenon.
Despite those small things, this is an awesome one to check out!
2022
I'm really torn on this one. Immortality, from a development, mechanic and production standpoint is amazing. However, I'm not sure I fully understood what was going on in the story, how the mechanics actually work or what I was supposed to take from all of this.
I love the movie clip approach with this game but I just wish the story was more cohesive and less random. It's basically a randomized, video scavenger hunt and I get that they wanted this to be mysterious and rewarding for those seeking everything out, but after the novelty wears off, it’s not really that fun. In the end, the credits rolled and I don't know why. I think I have an idea of what was happening but I don't fully "get it." 🤷
I love the movie clip approach with this game but I just wish the story was more cohesive and less random. It's basically a randomized, video scavenger hunt and I get that they wanted this to be mysterious and rewarding for those seeking everything out, but after the novelty wears off, it’s not really that fun. In the end, the credits rolled and I don't know why. I think I have an idea of what was happening but I don't fully "get it." 🤷
An awesome, button-mashy feeling brawler game that feels like it's trying to be the 3d version of Hotline Miami. Tons of fun abilities to fight the large variety of enemies and lots of references to action movies and videogames. Very fun!
I wanted to finish this in time for when it was removed from Game Pass, but I ran out of time. I was playing it the night before it was being taken off game pass and I got to the boss that drives the harvester farm vehicle thing and got frustrated. I probably died on that boss about 15 times, it was late, I had work in the morning, I hung it up. Maybe I'll return to it at some point in the future.
I wanted to finish this in time for when it was removed from Game Pass, but I ran out of time. I was playing it the night before it was being taken off game pass and I got to the boss that drives the harvester farm vehicle thing and got frustrated. I probably died on that boss about 15 times, it was late, I had work in the morning, I hung it up. Maybe I'll return to it at some point in the future.
2019
A short hike is a short, cozy, 3d platformer that has all the good vibes. It's like if Super Mario 64 and Animal Crossing went on a relaxing camping trip together!
You play as Claire, a young bird who is visiting her aunt for the summer. On the island where her aunt lives, there are a ton of other campers and kids that are also enjoying the summer. You'll run and fly around (you are a bird after all), helping them with little tasks and collecting gold feathers that will help you ultimately reach the summit of the mountain on this island.
You'll accomplish these tasks by using tools you find during your adventure (shovel, fishing pole, bucket, etc...) or just by simply chatting with them.
The game promotes a non-linear, "Play-your-own-way" style of gameplay by letting you do tasks in whatever order you like. I loved that I could explore where ever I wanted, however I wanted and do whatever I felt like doing at the moment. The only gatekeeping in the game were higher cliffs and ledges that were only accessible if you had enough gold feathers to do so, as they help you fly and climb higher. There were many times though that if I couldn't get up one way, thinking I needed more feathers, I could easily go another way via a small ledge or alcove and keep climbing around.
While getting to the top of the mountain may not take you much time (I did it in about an hour and a half) there are still a lot of other little side things to do like catching all the fish in your journal, watering all the sprouts with your bucket and digging all of the secret holes on island.
While the game is entirely enjoyable, there were a couple aspects of it that I would like to change.
First off, The game goes for the old school, crunchy, pixelated look that many games are going for these days. They want it to look very "N64" right? Which is fine, I have no problem with that. However, playing this on a Series X, the default pixel setting was very harsh on the eyes. Luckily in the options there is a setting to adjust this. You can go all the way from chunky monkey pixels all the way to super smooth. This is something I think they should let you choose right from the get go before you start a game. I did see online that some people didn't know there was an option to change it and were very happy when they found out they could!
I also wish I had full control of the camera in the game. I'm sure this wasn't implemented because the developer wanted the game to be accessible to as many gamers as possible and cameras in 3d platformers have always been problematic. However, there are times where I would've loved to be able to move it a bit more to the left or right just to get a better vantage point.
And finally, I would love a different menu UI as well. When you go into your menu to swap your current equipped tool, they've implemented a long horizontal bar with tons of icons which I don't think is the most effective way to present all of your items and tools. At times, it was a little annoying to deal with. On that note, a shortcut menu to swap your tools would also be great!
All in all, I really liked A Short Hike. There are fun characters, great controls, and silly events and races. The feeling of gliding from the summit of the mountain, all the way down to the beach is pretty amazing. This is an island I will definitely vacation on again!
You play as Claire, a young bird who is visiting her aunt for the summer. On the island where her aunt lives, there are a ton of other campers and kids that are also enjoying the summer. You'll run and fly around (you are a bird after all), helping them with little tasks and collecting gold feathers that will help you ultimately reach the summit of the mountain on this island.
You'll accomplish these tasks by using tools you find during your adventure (shovel, fishing pole, bucket, etc...) or just by simply chatting with them.
The game promotes a non-linear, "Play-your-own-way" style of gameplay by letting you do tasks in whatever order you like. I loved that I could explore where ever I wanted, however I wanted and do whatever I felt like doing at the moment. The only gatekeeping in the game were higher cliffs and ledges that were only accessible if you had enough gold feathers to do so, as they help you fly and climb higher. There were many times though that if I couldn't get up one way, thinking I needed more feathers, I could easily go another way via a small ledge or alcove and keep climbing around.
While getting to the top of the mountain may not take you much time (I did it in about an hour and a half) there are still a lot of other little side things to do like catching all the fish in your journal, watering all the sprouts with your bucket and digging all of the secret holes on island.
While the game is entirely enjoyable, there were a couple aspects of it that I would like to change.
First off, The game goes for the old school, crunchy, pixelated look that many games are going for these days. They want it to look very "N64" right? Which is fine, I have no problem with that. However, playing this on a Series X, the default pixel setting was very harsh on the eyes. Luckily in the options there is a setting to adjust this. You can go all the way from chunky monkey pixels all the way to super smooth. This is something I think they should let you choose right from the get go before you start a game. I did see online that some people didn't know there was an option to change it and were very happy when they found out they could!
I also wish I had full control of the camera in the game. I'm sure this wasn't implemented because the developer wanted the game to be accessible to as many gamers as possible and cameras in 3d platformers have always been problematic. However, there are times where I would've loved to be able to move it a bit more to the left or right just to get a better vantage point.
And finally, I would love a different menu UI as well. When you go into your menu to swap your current equipped tool, they've implemented a long horizontal bar with tons of icons which I don't think is the most effective way to present all of your items and tools. At times, it was a little annoying to deal with. On that note, a shortcut menu to swap your tools would also be great!
All in all, I really liked A Short Hike. There are fun characters, great controls, and silly events and races. The feeling of gliding from the summit of the mountain, all the way down to the beach is pretty amazing. This is an island I will definitely vacation on again!