Helldivers 2 is my humbling “don’t judge a book by its cover” experience. When I first saw this game in an ad, I thought it looked terribly dull and generic. I suppose an overdose of triple AAA schlock will distort your expectations. Luckily, peer pressure actually served me right for once and got me to try it anyway, and boy am I glad it did. Helldivers is up there with the greats in terms of fluidity, animation, and general movement of the game. Dolphin dives, dynamic prone turning, and quick perspective changes all make for a silky-smooth time that feels oh-so satisfying, and not to mention cinematic. It has very quickly entered my small but cherished circle of games to play when I just want to wind down and not think too hard about learning a new world or experience.

The stratagem system is ingenious as well, doing small directional inputs for your desired gadget or orbital strike in the heat of battle does so much to maintain the intensity when being attacked on all sides. Bonus points for the badass factor you feel when you get so used to the stratagem inputs that you could do them in less than a second. It’s a small detail, but I think the little DDR mechanic is key to making the game feel unique. Feeling the stress of missing a stratagem input three times in a row while surrounded by a deluge of bugs will change a man, and I think contributes to the cohesion of the narrative backdrop.

And if there’s one other aspect I can complement the game on, it’s in its undying devotion to maintaining the flavor of the world. Communicating community objectives as stylized mission operations in-game, explaining updates and bug fixes as in-world discoveries, and otherwise regularly releasing new enemies and objectives through diegetic means does so well to foster a fanbase that is equally motivated to engage with the cheeky, Starship Troopers aesthetic the game masterfully adopts and utilizes in the funniest ways.

The planets are abundant and stupendous, making me mourn what a newer Battlefront could have been. The bugs and bots are different in distinct, interesting ways (which makes me curious how this third faction soon to join will separate itself) that don’t pigeonhole you in one theater of war or the other. All in all, a great casual game that can pretty hellish the higher you go in difficulty. Speaking of, let’s talk about that.

While I think Helldivers 2 is a near perfect multiplayer title that fulfils a niche I didn’t even realize existed, it’s not without its own flaws. Firstly, it’s a little on the difficult side. Not so much outright, and certainly not below Helldiver difficulty, it’s more like a death by a thousand cuts, just infrequently and in a way that feels unfair. This is in no small part due to the following reasons: there’s too few powerful primaries, enemy spawn rates have been in flux balance wise for a while, certain enemies are too specialized regarding how to kill them, hit-stun can be unforgiving, and enemy aiming/rag-dolling can get way too out of hand. Though most of these issues can be mitigated by having a full, competent team, I think the fear of putting too much power in the hands of the players is an unfounded one. It’s certainly gotten better across the board, but when I’m being made a bloody paste by four chargers with the turn radius speed of prime Michael Jordan, or when literally a hundred bots are shooting thousands of laser bolts and rockets at me in a solo defense mission (seriously those levels are impossible alone), I can’t help but feel the game isn’t giving me a fair shake.

All that can be forgiven, and I have no doubt will be addressed in due time. My primary issue is with the game’s stability. Helldivers 2 is very, very glitchy. Just to name a few issues, I’ve had the exfill ship bug out, disallowing me to evac, had the objective probe spawn on an unreachable cliff, had numerous stim sound glitches, been randomly disconnected over a dozen times, had party invite glitches, enemies refusing to die, side objectives being unable to be interacted with, have fallen through the map once or twice, and had the ship not show up at all to pick me up. And to Arrowhead’s credit, they’re aware of and are diligently working on these issues, however with each new update I feel they’re eliminating one bug for three new ones. I’m cautious yet hopeful to see how that looks 12 months from now. Even at its worst the game is a really fun romp. 90% of the time you’ll have a blast, just be patient with the other 10%.

When you’re making a coop game, there’s two ways to ensure that I’ll enjoy my time. You can either make the game so laughably stupid and irreverent that I can’t help but laugh my way all the way through it, intentionally or not, or you can smartly design engaging, varied gameplay across multiple facets of the adventure. Hazelight Studio’s previous title, A Way Out, squarely fell in the former category. The schtick of both players having independent gaming states from each other (e.g. having one player stuck in a cutscene while the other is free to goof around in the meantime) makes for a gimmick that, while unintentionally humorous, takes away from any seriousness that could be conjured up.

It Takes Two on the other hand, I think managed to find this beautiful balance of earnest fantasy-level silliness, replete with talking books and jarhead squirrels, while still maintaining narrative cohesion. There are no gimmicks here beyond an abundance of mini-games, as at its core It Takes Two is just another coop puzzle-platformer. The Pixar-esque story makes it so we don’t have to spend too much time investing in the characters backstories themselves, and instead focus on the antics we can get up to after having transformed into little clay and wood dolls.

The premise still tugs on your puppet-strings a fair amount, the story of a tumultuous marriage with a child in the middle is bound to, but it feels more like a catalyst for the gameplay than an unwanted and over-present detour. I made the mistake of assuming the story would be a ruse, as it almost felt too sincere in its outlandishness. But nah, it’s very much what it presents itself as on the surface. Which isn’t a problem per se, just comes as a bit of surprise for someone that’s used to third act twists. That’s likely just a me thing though, and to be honest, I kind of respect them more for not pulling any Shyamalanian twists.

I also loved how fantastical they got with the locales. A space-themed station with a monkey boss, a colorful plush kingdom modeled after your daughter’s bedroom, and a frozen wonderland were just some of the genuinely pulchritudinous sections of the game that I was excited to explore. And explore you are most definitely encouraged to do. Ignoring the main objectives, there’s a wide range of thematic minigames to determine who’s the real gamer among you and your coop partner. Of course, it goes without saying competitiveness really is a satisfaction multiplier here, which shouldn’t be an issue if you know who you’re playing with. Look no further to see how quickly civilization would collapse under pressure than to observe the sudden competitiveness summoned when someone feels the NEED to win in ice shuffle boarding.

And kudos to how many classic games are represented in It Takes Two. Sure, some are janky or one-and-done in terms of replayability, but some of the better ones could easily steal a good chunk of time when you’re in the midst of riffing with your plus one. And man is this game great for riffing. While I think part of this is owed to the very nature of having two people playing who have rapport with each other enhancing your enjoyment and relaxation, I stand by the fact that this game is positively hilarious. Be it the funky running cycles you both have, random platforming fails, the suddenness in which death sometimes anticlimactically graces you, or the absurdity of the objective itself, it’s not hard to have a good time here. I can count at least a handful of times where I was borderline crying-laughing at the situation unfolding.

Granted the game is quite long, it took me and my brother around 13 hours to complete, but I think it’s an accomplishment when by the end, I was a little sad it wasn’t longer. Highly recommend this to any duo gamingly adept enough to hold a controller.

In many ways, West of Dead is simultaneously the antithesis of AND the perfect model of the roguelike dungeon crawler. You got your consumables, different realms, rapid game reloads, short sessions meant to be replayable, and procedurally generated levels. I think what most sets it apart from your Hades or Enter the Gungeon is its particular emphasis on slower combat.

You learn this very quickly.

Instead of being "encouraged" to use cover generously, you’re all but forced to even in the first underworld area. When cover is destroyed our outside arm’s reach, you also have access to your main proactive defensive maneuver, the dodge. Your savior and condemner. This floaty dash is very inconsistent in its ability to actually dodge incoming shots. Try to use it only when necessary. While you can and sometimes have to spam it in swarm scenarios, I find it’s even less consistent in its pathing and distance you gain from using it when spamming the move.

So long as you can adjust your expectations for a slower, more methodical experience, you can enjoy yourself plenty with the combat, jank and all. In fact, the game is quite easy. I didn’t die once before I was already at the end in a minuscule four and a half hours. The only difficult sections - excluding getting used to the cover movement - was the final boss and the preacher, and the latter only because of his gargantuan health pool and seemingly neo-like ability to dodge your shots. Since it’s a roguelike you can obviously keep playing for more secrets and upgrades, but honestly? I had my fill by the end of my first session. In a pure dollars to hours exchange, West of Dead probably isn’t that great of a deal, but I didn’t regret my time with it at all. Luckily, I got it on sale, and so should you if you have any intention of playing it.

Also, as a side note: It’s odd how frequently I incidentally play games that are roguelikes or Metroidvanias, with this one being one of the former. I don’t know if that speaks more to my not looking into prospective games deep enough or just the prevalence of those genres, or both. Not that it’s a bad thing, it’s just funny how many titles from those genres I’ve played without knowing ahead of time. But I digress.

The procedurally generated maps here are much smaller, refreshingly small in fact, and are well designed in the sense that it makes you feel like you’re outside while still in actuality being in dank, claustrophobic rooms better suited for close-quarters gunplay. There’s little to no backtracking, and realms take less than an hour to clear.

And while the game is blink and you’ll miss it quick, it will at least be a visually stunning time for the night it takes you to beat it. The comic book art style is undeniably the biggest beacon of awesome West of Dead possesses, and what I’d wager is the largest draw the game has. One that I’m afraid has caused a lot of unfortunate expectations, like the assumption that the depth is as good as the art direction. And I admit that as someone who is in the 90th percentile of people who played and actually enjoyed the title. Even I can agree this is missing some much-needed variety in the gun and tactics department. That said, I certainly had a better time than Ron Perlman did, who appeared to have been threatened at knifepoint to provide the VO for the main character for the game. Which is a shame, because he really is a great choice for the role.

To anyone considering buying West of Dead the two roadblock questions I’d ask would be: are you ok with a shorter, easier adventure than most roguelikes, and are you content with this being a cover shooter focused on methodical gunplay? If both of your answers are yes, then the game isn’t such a hard sell when it’s discounted. Otherwise, I’d steer clear.

I’ve not yet played it myself, but apparently El Huervo, the artist for this game, worked previously on Hotline Miami. And from all that I’ve seen, that makes more sense than the sun rising in the morning. By far Ultros’ biggest boon, the art style is absolutely gorgeous, with its sunbaked colors and sharp accents. The neon mosaic of a living sarcophagus adrift in space is an ethereal experience that, to make an early prediction, is a promising early contender for most visually stunning game of the year. If I were just grading the game on that I’d be a different story.

Sadly, the story feels like an experiment to say as few things in as many words as possible, which is weird considering your character doesn’t even talk. It becomes clear early on that Ultros is one of those metaphorical, lore-heavy games that requires a fair bit of reflection and time(line)-keeping to get in order, much less understand. I tried to hang on to every word said, but about an hour in I gave up on caring what the game had to say about metaphorical rebirth space-mumbo jumbo. I would say it made me feel like an idiot, but I challenge anyone not obsessed with the game to make any sense of the lore in Ultros. On its own the characters you meet are interesting and mysterious, shout out to my boy Gardner who’s just a chill dude doing what he does best, gardening. I think if they just left it there, with a kooky cast of characters that you meet and sometimes fight for first dibs at zoning privileges, it would be a charming story not unlike something like Undertale. As it stands, the cryptic monologues just didn’t do anything for me.

As the name Gardner suggests, planting and watering flora plays a significant part in healing yourself, fighting enemies, and traversing the living landscape. While the possibility of planting the wrong seed at the wrong spot exists, re-planting is made easy and non-punishing. Typically, when you plant a new seed, some time is necessary for the plant to grow to its full size if it’s a platforming shrub. A feature most evident in the rebirth mechanic that occurs every time you defeat a new section of the map, sending you back to where you first spawned and taking away your upgrades. On that aspect I’m lukewarm, since when I regained my skill points I usually just rebought the best upgrades over again. The idea is to experiment with new abilities and try out different skill sets, but with almost half the abilities falling squarely in the convenience category, I didn’t bother exploring too much. Conversely, I quite enjoyed the gardening angle. It’s a bit hard to keep track of what’s where when it’s a Metroidvania, but they sold me on the idea, however novel it may be.

The soundtrack was diverse, with traditional orchestral motifs and otherworldly moans interchanging throughout the winding tunnels of the ship. While I’m more privy to the weeping violins, I could appreciate the more haunting, abstract tunes as well. Fun fact by the way: composer Oscar Rydelius actually obtained a fair bit of the sounds in the score during a trip to Peru, including from ambient landscapes and indigenous instruments, which when pitch-shifted definitely fits the vibe they’re going for here.

And yet the weaving of all these cool, unique aspects can’t help but make it apparent how generic the world and movement is. You get gadgets, but none of them really stand out as particularly creative or fun. Even as far as Metroidvanias go, this one feels extremely linear. Twice did I have to look up how to progress further, as seemingly all points of entries into further areas were blocked off or otherwise restricted. If you’re going to make an ultra-dense Metroidvania that’s fine, you simply have to keep in mind that it should be tailored to all orders of progression. The last thing I want to do is go back and forth jump-hugging a wall in hopes that I can break the game into submission.

Now if more sections were like my favorite area of Ultros, the weird pirate game show section, where you play silly sports contests against various aliens, then I’d likely be singing a different tune altogether. It’s cheeky, and wacky, and unfortunately the only memorable section of the game that doesn’t involve running from Qualia, another character in Ultros. Next time, less filler and more killer. While my time was still positive overall, I can’t help finding myself somewhat disappointed with what we got. Unless you’re a hardcore Metroidvania fanatic AND in love with the style like me, maybe just stick to finding a neat wallpaper inspired by the game and giving a listen to the soundtrack.

I’m a bit embarrassed to rate this game as high as I am, but I just can’t resist when it’s Snake 2.0. And it is most definitely 2.0. The basic idea is that instead of the traditional Snake rules we all know and love, you can now jump over yourself and even ride yourself to prevent death and gain more snake length space. The catch is, mean little apples spawn outside the perimeter of the area, who are intent on taking a bite out of the snake this time. They’ll latch onto you and ride upwards towards your head, resulting in a game over if they reach it. To prevent this, you can jump on your back with clever positioning and jump-timing, allowing you to eat the homicidal apples right off of you.

There’s some different speeds you can choose to lower or raise difficulty, but regardless of what you choose you start at a moderately long length. Something I’m unique in not minding it seems. To me, the first few snake lengths are filler seconds that are negligibly difficult, so to short circuit that downtime isn’t such a massive lost. However, an option to outright choose starting length would be killer too.

Classic games like these are what I love to see being reinvented on the Playdate. Short, non-intensive ventures that already have wide recognition and at least a modest amount of fondness from the general public. The profitability might be low, but that’s what makes it such a great candidate for the seasonal catalogue. Personally, I would have been fine paying a couple of dollars no problem, but they made the smartest move to get more people on board and acquainted with the concept. Hopefully this trend of putting small spins on 90s Windows games continues. Next up, Minesweeper! Who’s with me?

Reel Steal is a vertical progressing, height-based platformer where you control your thief character as you smash and grab loot from rich moguls and magnates to get back at them. You start from the top of the level - the building you’ve infiltrated - and by using the crank you control your descent, and once you’ve grabbed the loot, your ascent too. The one kink in the design for me is the perpetual horizontal strafing your character is forced to do at all times. The idea is for you to wait until your character is lined up just right to continue your descent into the level, or if you’re an impatient person, to use the face button to manually change your direction of movement at any time.

At no point are you given the ability to be completely still. Even when you are changing your movement direction you are always in motion. While this adds some intended challenge, the ergonomics of the handheld makes for an uncomfortable hand position if you want to use the crank and have constant access to the face button at the same time, at least for me. This usually meant unless I was feeling particularly impatient, I just waited for my character to loop around the right direction. The time loss was negligible for a game like this, but even still, with all things being equal I think forgoing the forced horizontal movement altogether would be a more satisfying choice. To compensate they could just elaborate on the trap and level design.

The levels themselves I found as endearing as the characters. Short bursts of simple platforming that wouldn’t be out of place on the homepage of coolmathgames.com, if anyone remembers that oasis that every middle schooler lauded. The campaigns are thematic, with repeated replays encouraged with small tweaks and new character abilities. I did it only twice, but I can see myself returning at some point. My favorite little detail though has got to be the option to leave a customizable calling card at the end of every level. It’s like a cursed etch-a-sketch that challenges your creativity and dare I say artistic capabilities. I love little bursts of character and flavor like that. As small as an aspect as that is, it’s the kind of thing that sticks with you when you think of the game.

Another thing that sticks with me is the perplexingly low ratings from other users. Beside the one issue I find with the control scheme, Reel Steal runs and plays like a charm. I’m a subscriber to the different strokes for different folks mentality, but I don’t want it left unsaid that this game isn’t earnest in what it’s trying to do. Given that it’s one of the handful of free games for the Playdate, there’s really no reason to not give it a chance.

A rare free game for the Playdate that doesn’t come from the seasonal catalogue, Recommendation Dog!! is the fast-paced brother of Root Bear in spirit and function, though noticeably lacking any delicious puns in this instance. I guess the developers just wanted you to be a dog with a job for some reason, fair enough I suppose. Where they substantively differ is in the details.

Recommendation Dog!! is more about pure speed and image recognition, with you trying to match prospective customers with a suitable worker for their problem as fast as possible to serve as many people as you can before the time is up. From starving customers in need of a chef, to people who just want to see some magic tricks, the rolodex of workers you’re given to search in order to fulfill as many clients’ needs as possible makes for a dizzying list of characters.

Besides that, it’s not so different from your typical score-chaser. It has a “story mode” that is extremely easy and over before you know it. The length is fine, but for a title offering such an inconspicuous challenge it should have been much tighter on the required timing of each level. It has an endless mode as well of course. I wasn’t nearly as drawn to spend too much time on it for this game. When the game’s difficulty is only capped by raw hand speed, I can only get so much better before I’ve had my fill. Still, for a free title I would say it’s a decent one.

Just what is says on the tin, Root Bear is a score-chaser game where you have a minute to fill as many glasses for thirsty bears as possible before times runs out. Unlike Whitewater Wipeout, there’s some extra elements here that add to it beyond simply cranking for your life. Which I’m especially thankful for, as I’m in no rush for my poor crank to wear out.

For one thing, trying to balance speed and precision is not only rewarding, but requires a fair bit of practice. While it’s true you can fill the cups quicker by pouring at a higher volume, using the predictive pour shadow isn’t so simple. It has this hard to describe pour stop delay/exponential pour speed growth that you have to try for yourself to really know what I’m talking about. Regardless of the technical explanation, it’s an addictive loop. Plus I can’t resist trying to get better when that sweet little harp twang and bear doing the bon appetit symbol is my reward for a perfect pour.

I believe Root Bear was briefly viral a few months back, when the aforementioned reward screen, failed pour screen (which is equally funny), and punny premise grabbed the indie corner of the internet by the joystick. And if for no other reason than it putting the game on my radar, I’m grateful for that. With a reasonably capped high score on account of a one minute round timer, it doesn’t feel unattainable to try for a new record, even if just by one point. Root Bear is a terminally easy to pick up and put down game. It may not be an all-time lister as far as the Playdate catalogue goes, but it’s genuinely one of my favorite entries in the score-chaser genre and a fantastic example of what the Playdate should strive to host.

An intriguing pitch, The Botanist is a comic that boasts a cutesy short story sequence with you turning the pages using the Playdate’s crank, along with using other interactive elements that help progress it along. I’ll ignore the money-to-experience ratio, as I went in expecting some loss in that department. At 8 dollars, 10 minutes long, and with a static story, the game has a low-replayability and little investment potential. That’s all good and well, the problem is when you actually see what it has to offer.

The art is fine, the interactivity is lower than it should have been, in scope and creativity, but the true nail in the coffin is the completely incomprehensible “story”. That is, there is no story, no narrative, no message, no real characters. There’s thousands of stories that can and have been told without dialogue, and done in much less time than The Botanist has. The issue is that it’s not really a comic, moreso a loose collection of images with vague connections to each other. I love arthouse, minimalist games with outside the box methods of communicating information and involving the player. Though The Botanist claims to do this, it feels more like a bait and switch, or to be more fair, an unfinished game altogether. Some more time in the oven with a clear intention laid out and implemented would have made me much more receptive to what we got.

I’m somebody who missed the initial Titanfall hubbub. Back in 2014 I was deep in the trenches of the console warfare, with my lot thrown in with the Playstation side, and I was years out from ever getting my hands on a PC. It’s when I first played Titanfall 2 five or six years back that I realized the true tragedy of that. If Titanfall 1 plays anything like its sequel, then I was missing out big time. I’ll admit, the game seems deceptively unremarkable on the surface.

The Titan mechs are the obvious draw of course, the spin on the traditional run-and-gun gameplay beyond the high octane movement that it already has otherwise. The balance they’ve found between making the titans neither overpowered nor underpowered is something that would leave any dev team green with jealousy. They’re strong, epic battle equalizers with firm limits that keep them fun to fight even as an on-the-ground pilot, be it with anti-titan weapons or by stealing the batteries directly from the Titans in a sneak attack. Moreover, each Titan has impressively varying abilities that allow for hunker down tactics, area denial crowd-control, blitz-based swordplay and many more playstyles. Similar to the story, Titanfall 2 very much rewards you for practicing your Titan tactics. Knowing when to drop and where to drop can make the difference between you being a one-man killing machine or being made into scrap metal. And with an average of 2-4 Titan call-ins a match you’ll get the hang of it in no time.

Miraculously, the boots on the ground parts of the match give the mechs a run for their money in terms of fun. Though ground is a loose truth seeing how often you’ll be midair, spraying and praying the day away. Wall-running, boost jumps, grapple hooks, and sliding are all commonplace in future shooters these days, but Respawn’s use of momentum is what truly elevates an already very polished experience. Be it the streamlined map design for both Titans and Pilots to shine, creative ability gadgets, or overall movement, every facet of Titanfall feels so good to play. It feels so excellent in fact that I actually wish the grapple hook ability was a permanent ability itself. It’s not the best competitively speaking, yet it raises the fun factor from a high 9 to a neck-breaking 10. So naturally, I require it be permanently grafted to my arm.

The story was short, even as far as shooters go. It introduced a good number of multiplayer gadget abilities and their mechanics, but I wish it had gone further with the trippy combining of multiple gadgets. Some massive time-parkour set pieces could be a milestone of cinematic gameplay if performed to its potential. We saw hints of that when held captive at that training facility by Ash, I just wanted more like it. That and the arcade-like boss fights with their little sassy intros. I could watch those all day. I had the ending spoiled to me beforehand, so maybe my expectations were too high for emotional beats, but even if I didn’t I’d still be surprised that they went with Glenn Steinbaum for BT-7274. During the whole game they’re clearing setting up a slow-burn friendship between yourself, Pilot Jack Cooper, and your newly acquired Titan, BT. Matthew Mercer is just fine as Jack Cooper, however Glenn is decidedly more monotone. Not in a “oh he’s a robot so he just sounds a bit off”, but in a “this guy is devoid of any emotional capacity beyond naivete” kind of way.

Luckily, the mediocre story mode being the lowest point of the game works just fine for me. In terms of multiplayer focused shooters, it does what it should set out to do, which is to keep me coming back again and again. After playing off-and-on the last couple of years on PS4 and PC I can freely say Titanfall 2 comfortably resides in my top 3 multiplayer PvPs of all time, something that I say with a LOT of experience behind me. It’s one of those rare titles where every moment in a match feels like it could be taken from a movie with how intense and badass each second fighting feels.

Granted it takes a bit of time getting into the handling of it, particularly when just coming from a different shooter. The floaty, fast movement is very different than your typical fanfare, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t cement itself as a A+ entry in the FPS Hall of Fame. Let me put it to you this way, I enjoy the franchise and its aesthetic so much that I own the wearable replica Jack Cooper helmet from the collector’s edition. If you’re curious what it looks like there’s pictures on my Twitter as well.

Casual Birder felt very much like a bite-sized version of the classic 2D Zeldas. With its top-down view, absurdist town plagued by a gang of bad apples who take birding way too seriously, slapstick humor, and meta references, the game truly is a love letter to OG adventure games as much as it is a love letter to birds. The picture-taking mechanic is definitely one of the most fleshed out features I’ve seen thus far for the console. And one that I actually enjoyed engaging in. I’m excited to think how they can add to it in a potential sequel, which I hope we’ll see someday.

Of course, some obnoxious design choices like the dark cave section keep me from declaring the game as flawless in its execution, and a couple of the birds are way too hard to photograph. For good and for bad (but mostly good), Casual Birder is quite the dead ringer to games like Link to the Past and Earthbound. Suffice it to say I can see why it is one of the most beloved of all the seasonal releases. And ironically enough, it needing to be short and succinct on account of being a Playdate entry actually allows it to reach it’s highest highs much quicker than most games, without overstaying its welcome a second too long.

Pick Pack Pup is a grid-matching puzzle game that twists the traditional premise by having packages be sent only on a verification click by the user. The more packages on screen at once, the more points you get for shipping them. I bleed Bejeweled gems, so this was right up my wheelhouse. And the small mechanical change of cashing in matches felt novel enough to warrant its existence.

While entirely free of crank integration gameplay-wise, it offers very cute story sections presented as newspaper reels that you page-turn by using the crank. Nothing crazy, but it complimented the quirky aesthetic that they’re going for in this anthropomorphic world. The levels were broken up into time-based, move-based, and item-based requirements, and even had a lil Tetris homage. It wasn’t a hard game, so not letting player get too comfortable with level patterns kept the pace nice and brisk.

For those aching for that matching-game kick on Playdate, Pick Pack Pup also offers an infinity mode, chill mode, and danger zone. Just about every variation possible for stress-lovers and lazy-players are available for people who are particularly fond of the genre. For what it is I enjoyed my time with it. The grid perhaps could have been bigger by default, but that’s a minor nitpick of mine. Given its genre popularity it’s almost a given that something like Pick Pack Pup would be made for the Playdate, however it does provide that signature Playdate twist that sets it apart from mindless copycats, if only just slightly.

I won’t explain the rules of Uno, I’ll just say if you don’t know already then you’re in for a real treat if you ever meet me. In fact, you’re actually reading a review from a celebrity. I’m the Wild4Uno guy in their screenshot for the steam page. I’m still waiting on those royalties by the way, but I digress.

It feels weird saying this about a silly card-based video game, but Ubisoft’s Uno is a very sleek experience. It’s colorful, streamlined, and does well to stretch the mileage offered by Uno’s basic premise. Sure, people still rage-quit way too much, and heaven help you if you ever find a match where people are using custom card art which massively changes the look of every single card. Even with all that though it’s still the definite way to play with your boys or just to wind down for the night.

It’s also where my mind was massively expanded as to the extent to which the game can be modified with rules. Playing a round with 7-0, jump-in, draw to match, stacking, bluffing, and force play will change you as a person. It can also significantly prolong a match, So be wary when making or joining a match how you’d like it set up. Recommending this game is much the same as recommending the actual card game. If you enjoy Uno (which you better you goober), then you’ll understand the draw. Of course some people would only ever play with friends, which I can also understand. Costing only five bucks and with only a miniscule amount of investment required, Uno makes for a great evening decompressor or a fantastic idle game just to kill time or do some multitasking.

I’m not sure if it’s better or worse that Panic decided to start with a pretty weak title for the Playdate’s first free season 1 game. If you remember those McDonalds happy meal toys that were little handheld digital soccer goalie games in the late 2000s, Whitewater Wipeout very much reminds me of them. They’re both small, short, sports based games that rely on providing 1-5 minute sessions rather than a prolonged experience. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, as I am writing this review after having already played a handful of other Playdate games, but I think a couple of other titles do this so much better and more addictively than WW does.

Unlike Root Bear, Snak, (two Playdate games I’ll review soon) and even the soccer McDonalds toy, Whitewater Wipeout is less about precision practice and random chances resulting in strategy re-evaluations and more about doing one single thing the exact same every single time. I’ll give small props that it relies solely on the console’s crank, but finding the sweet spot in how many times you can spin around in a circle before you wipeout from the waves or landing upside down gets old fast. It’s a game about performing simple surfing tricks as you flee an approaching wave, so why can I only do one move? Why would I want to play the game any more than to understand what it’s about when that entails me having to sustain a single time-limit unbound run by flipping over and over and over with no breakup of monotony or increasing of stakes. Whitewater Wipeout isn’t bad because the mechanics aren’t sound or premise uninteresting. It’s bad because it offers little to latch onto past its elevator pitch and doesn’t stand out from other five minute pick-up-and-play games.

An oft overlooked game when considering the breakout hits of 2023, I feel like Atomic Heart is a praiseworthy shooter that promises good things for debut studio Mundfish’s future projects if they can keep us this momentum and passion.

Unfortunately, with as talented as a studio Mundfish clearly is, they haven’t yet nailed down dialogue, or for that matter quality voice acting. Going into the game I was no stranger to the fact that the dialogue and voice performances were less than stellar, so I made an executive decision to use the original Russian language setting and just turn on subtitles. That didn’t fix the clearly sophomoric and needlessly edgy script, but it made me roll my eyes just a teensy bit less when I had to read it instead of hearing it. Would definitely recommend doing that for anyone being held back from playing by memes they’ve seen online of the game’s writing snafus.

Because where Atomic Heart lags behind ten years in dialogue quality it more than makes up for in gunplay and graphics. Modifying guns with elemental mods, upgrading your high-tech glove to shoot electricity, frost, and telekinetic grabs, and perfecting the surprisingly reactive movement feels fantastic once you figure out what works against what enemy. Furthermore, the enemy designs were AWESOME, and what’s more they gave an actual reason to try different strategies what with their built-in immunities and weaknesses. Sometimes that means that you have a much harder time ahead, for when you don’t have the tools to most easily take down the boss in question, other times it’s a massive relief and provides a nice burst of happy brain chemicals when you can just melt the enemies because you’re armed for all occasions and have been upgrading smartly and in a wide range of upgrade paths. The only enemy that raised my blood pressure beyond enjoyment was the Plyush, the fleshly figures. Now that might be because I didn’t upgrade my combat axe particularly far, but I also think that limiting effective combat to exclusively melee methods are a mistake in all scenarios besides prologues. Regardless, don’t make the same mistake I did: mind your melee options.

Like I mentioned in passing, the game looks gorgeous as well. Graphically, it can compete with the likes of any triple-A giant. Only complication there is the game is quite spotty with stuttering and rendering new objects and environments, regardless of graphics settings. Only once did a bug force me to restart, but it’s something you’ll definitely notice now and again. Regardless, it’s still more stable than Fallen Order is five years later, as much as I like that game. Not that it excuses it, just wanted to add that comparison for anyone it might help evaluate the stability of the game.

The story was decent, if meandering at points. The back-to-back plot twists felt too predictable for what should have been game-changing, and it was clear rewrites forced things to be rushed. Which is made especially obvious when a certain someone dies near the climax of the game off-screen. Despite its hiccups, including the at-times confusing motivation of every character, the execution of its alternate history dystopia kept me intrigued enough to stay on the narrative rollercoaster. Granted the ending was strange. The “true” ending was the one that prematurely ended the game, while the “alternative” ending gatekept probably the best boss fight in the whole experience. I can understand wanting to continue the story in the DLC, and I know most people will get the boss fight ending anyway, however It’s a tad odd they didn’t or couldn’t weave gameplay and a satisfying conclusion together at once.

I would likely praise the open world too if not for the foolish decision to tie endless enemy respawning to every corner of the map. I’m not exaggerating when I say that you’ll not have more than a minute of peace in any square foot of the open world. The enemy spawn points, patrols, and respawns are brutal with a capital B. Kill them as many times as you want, some repair bots will show up to fix them up quicker than you can say gesundheit. I only hope they learn to relax the chaos in future installment/DLCs, because I would have liked to explore more than I was encouraged to.

Not without some very real flaws, I hold firm that Atomic Heart shows enough heart and genuine talent to overcome the weight of its issues. All the same, I would still strongly advise going into this game with a healthy serving of patience. For fair reasons and bad ones, Atomic Heart is a very polarizing title in the fickle, ever ebbing and flowing gamosphere, but it’s a title deserving of a fair shake.