A really cool mix of Into the Breach and Baba is You. Admittedly I have not played Into the Breach, so can't comment on how this compares to that, but I had fun playing this! I love the mix of tactics and puzzling going on in this game. Like it's not generally obvious how to complete a mission, but there's always more than one way to go about it. Though sometimes it does feel like there is only like one way to go about completing the bonus missions, which I'm not a huge fan of. Feels less like a tactics when it gets that way. Though I simultaneously wish there was more messing around with the rules like in Baba is You, which I admit is contradictory to what I just said about liking it when it feels more tactics-like than puzzle-like lol. In any event, this is really great side-game from Arvi.

Roguelikes tend to live or die based on how fun the core gameplay is. After all, who wants to play run after run of very samey content if the game feels really bad to play? So what better game to make a roguelike for than Splatoon, a third-person shooter with of the best and unique game feel out there. And yeah, unsurprisingly this DLC is fun! If you aren't a Splatoon fan already, this won't do anything for you, but Splatoon fans will certainly have a good time with it.

While I enjoyed it, I do have critiques. First of all, I like the concept of the vending machines, which act much like the shop in Slay the Spire, I just don't feel as though it was done very well. Everytime I've gone to it 2/3 of the options are replacing either the sub/super weapons of your kit. Would've been cool if there were more options so you could buy more chips, but instead you only end having one choice unless you have the reroll ability unlocked. Unless you want to a new sub/super or to just skip a floor, going with the vending machine feels pretty unrewarding.

Another complaint I have is that I beat it on like my third or fourth run? I do think I am good at Splatoon, but I don't think I am THAT good. I mean.... I guess kudos for them not falling into the roguelite trap of making the game almost impossible to beat without levelling up a bunch like in say Rogue Legacy, but now it just kinda feels over and done with. I have beat it a second time after, and I may go back to beat with some more weapons, just kind of killed the momentum for me.

I also will say there aren't too many interesting build choices you can make as you go throughout the game. Like every choice you make is just choosing what small buff to add to your character. Like do I want to move faster, have more range, or for Pearl to just occasionally drop a bomb? It's nothing like Hades where gaining a specific boon can completely change your playstyle. Still lots of fun, because it is Splatoon, but wouldn't exactly fly as a standalone roguelike.

So yeah, to wrap things up: it's more Splatoon, which is a good time! Roguelike fans can skip this one since I don't think the Roguelike part of this is necessarily amazing, but it is certainly still a lot of fun.

This game is just more of what you expect from the Insomniac Spider-man games, which.... isn't a bad thing by any means. In fact, the first game and Miles Morales are fantastic, it just all feels too familiar. Web swinging feels just as great as the original, combat still has you using gadgets and upper cutting foes into the air, it's still very cinematic and graphically detailed, and the open world is still largely a Ubisoft model of small objectives sprinkled across the map. All this works just as well as it did in the original, and in some ways perhaps marginally better. But again, the biggest issue is that none of this is really new at this point. But let's talk what is actually different in this one.

So the biggest change, which is literally on the cover is that you can play as both Peter and Miles. It certainly does add quite a bit being able to play both Spider-mans from a story perspective. This is especially the case when the Venom stuff starts to happen. Having two protagonists with very different personal lives and personalities genuinely helps add bit of variety to the game. It's just unfortunate that they play almost exactly the same. But that was to be expected, and honestly the character switching just reminds me of GTA V, which certainly worked out for Rockstar.

Honestly the change I felt the most playing the game is the expanded open world. You can now explore Brooklyn in addition to Manhattan. This doesn't just help in that it makes the world bigger, but just trying to get over the river when there aren't any buildings to web swing on is a really cool feeling. Plus, Brooklyn does feel quite a bit different from Manhattan, giving the world a lot more variety. And yeah gotta say, this is probably the best rendition of New York I've seen in a video game. It's just so detailed, and there is so much to explore and discover. It's just unfortunate all you can really do in it is fight crime and web swing.

Let's end of this review by talking about the story. Overall, the story is really great! Particularly everything to do with the Venom plot is really well done. Especially great to see as the movies have not done a good job with Venom. I do have one problem with the story though, which is that the first half of the game Kraven the Hunter is the big bad, but by the end of it he just feels like some bump in the road. As Venom comes into play, Kraven becomes completely overshadowed, which makes the first half feel like nothing but setup for Venom. This isn't helped by the fact that Kraven may have the least amount of depth of any villain in the game. Like he hunts super-villains, and that's his entire character. It's not terrible by any means, and the plot is still overall engaging, it's just a little disappointing how lame Kraven feels as a character looking back after beating the game.

But yeah.... after all those thoughts, it really is just more of the same. Play it if you liked the other two Spider-man games. If didn't like those games, you will also not like this one. Definitely one of these games a shot though if you haven't played any of them. These games are nothing revolutionary or new, but they are possibly the best renditions on the whole Arkham Knight superhero formula established by Rocksteady many years ago.

Chicken Shoot does something special I've never seen in any other game before: it gives us right-handers a slight taste of what it would be like if our dominant hand were our left. See the world assumes everyone uses their right hand to the point that school desks are designed for for right-handers. Heck even the Nintendo DS lite system is designed for right-handers as the stylus is stored on the right hand side! However Chicken Shoot subverses this trope by assuming your left hand is the dominant one. See, the best way to control the reticle is through the touchscreen, but the only way to shoot is by pressing the A button making holding the stylus with the left hand the most optimal option. It's immediately apparent this game is not designed with me in mind making Chicken Shoot for Nintendo DS the most eye opening gaming experiences I've had in most recent memory......

Or at least I would say that if it wasn't clear the game is just garbage shovelware. It's duck hunt without any of the charm or fun. Honestly the only reason why controls are the way they are is they probably just forgot the system had a touchscreen and throw in support at the last second without thinking about how people would actually have to play using the touchscreen. They designers were probably not left-handed, they just didn't give a shit.

This game is unironically great. Like it isn't just a stupid comedy game, but also a great rhythm game. It is genuinely a fun time trying to toot in rhythm and pitch to the music, even if it can feel impossible at times. Heck it feeling impossible just adds to the comedy of the game, which I must say is quite great. Like they almost certainly could've used a trombone sound that sounded ya know... good, but instead they decided on this awful sound, which just makes the songs sound so incredibly stupid it's incredible. All the weird baboon/hot dog shit is just the cherry on top.

I do have some complaints with the switch version though. First off, it did freeze on my a few times when I earned some the rewards (like the trombone colors). Also I only saw one joke on the loading screen throughout the entire game. Neither is a big deal, but are certainly annoyances. What is kind of a big problem is that the tilt controls constantly drifted to the point where I essentially pointing the switch screen at the ground or 180 degrees away from my face. I often had to pause to recalibrate 2 or 3 times during some of the songs. Outside of calibration the motion controls worked really good actually, but constantly having to recalibrate definitely sucked. Honestly may have given this game a 5/5 if it weren't that one control issue, as I do think this game achieves exactly what it is going for. So probably play the PC version, if that is available for you.

Elec Head is a cute short puzzle platformer. The whole game is centered around the core mechanic of you powering everything you touch, which leads to a lot scenarios that require you to think outside of the box. No puzzle was too terribly challenging to figure out, but it never got trivially easy either. I was always learning how various mechanics work in the game, which is no doubt helped by it's short run time of about 1 hour.

If you are looking for a short puzzle platformer to play, Elec Head is the way to go.

Pepper Grinder does one thing very well, which is of course the drilling. I never quite got tired of it. It's so much fun flinging yourself out of the dirt!

I also like that the game supports multiple play styles. Like you can play it slow and explore to find the secret skull coins or you can play it fast and try to go for a low time. I feel the game could've also supported a score attack mode where you need to collect as many of the diamonds as possible, as they are fun to collect but are borderline useless in the game.

That said Pepper Grinder does try to do other things like make you drive vehicles and a few levels are basically shoot em ups. These other sections aren't bad, but they aren't amazing either. It kinda feels like they ran out of ways to make the drilling fun and just decided to add extra shit in to make it not as repetitive.

There is also a shop which unfortunately doesn't really sell anything interesting. You collect these diamonds throughout the game, but the only thing you can buy with them is stickers and temporary health. Stickers are especially bizarre as people interested in playing a fast paced platformer are probably not super interested in decorating with stickers. You can at least buy extra levels and different colors for your character with the skull coins, which ain't too bad.

That said, Pepper Grinder is never boring or frustrating to play. It's an overall a solid platformer with a fun drill mechanic and a great art style. I just think it could've been a bit more.

The concept sounds novel: A murder mystery visual novel mixed with picross, but in reality it's not terribly interesting. It's just a murder mystery game that has you do picross here and there to uncover clues essentially. The picross does break up the monotony of the visual novel style gameplay, which is appreciated, but that is really all it does. Otherwise it is just your standard picross.

Storywise I also don't have a lot to say either. It's entertaining enough, but it wasn't engaging enough for me get through the whole thing. The writing is solid with lots of humor, but the plot leaves a bit to be desired.

Overall, this game just feels like came from a group of friends being like "Yo wouldn't a picross murder mystery be sick?! " without actually considering how either genre could the other one shine. It just plays as though they shoved a picross minigame into a murder mystery, and called it a day. If you like both genres, certainly go play it, but it isn't anything special.

I played the Gameboy color game via the 3DS back went they released it in like 2015 or whatever, so when Nintendo announced a remake Link's Awakening for Switch... I was little disappointed honestly. Don't get me wrong, I loved the GB game, but I really wanted to see Nintendo make a completely new 2D Zelda game. Like I appreciated Link Between Worlds a lot, but even that is still using the same map from a Link to the Past.

That said, I finally got around to playing through the first three dungeons at least, and it was a lot of fun! The new artstyle is really nice, there are a bunch of small quality of life improvements like the power acorns not giving you text every time, and the overall feel of the game is quite good. However, I still feel like this game is a tad lazy to be honest. Like it is pretty much straight up Link's Awakening with small improvements, HD graphics, and small additions. It also has some kinda bad Framerate stuttering in parts of the game, which I feel like is really bad for a game like this.

With all that said, while I may personally be disappointed with the game, it still is Link's Awakening and is a really fun game. If you haven't played the original, this is an easy recommend. If you have played the original and want play Link's Awakening again, this ain't a bad way to do it.

This is a continuation of "Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk", and that is mostly what it is. Honestly, I find this one to be a less special experience in comparison to the first, and would only recommend this to people who played the first. While neither has a lot of gameplay, in this one you are largely just talking to the protagonist, while the first you are actually guiding the protagonist through the act of buying milk. That said it is still a good game, and an interesting exploration of mental illness like the first with a great artstyle. It's also worth noting this game is certainly substantive and better looking the first, even including some really nice animated cutscenes. It just feels a bit like this game is mostly just expanding on and adding details to the first game instead of being it's own thing. That isn't necessarily a bad thing given how good the first one is, but I do wish it were a little more. Though I do love that in adding details, it still isn't 100% clear what is the truth, and what exactly the past of the protagonist is. Like she clearly sees her mom as a monster, but is she actually being abusive or that just how she sees her mom?

Also just want to say I love all of the various endings you can get. They are such interesting abstract explorations of the main character's psyche. Though I do think there is a problem in that none of them alone are quite satisfying as endings alone, but taken together they are quite satisfying. I don't think there is an easy solution to this problem, but that's just how I felt after ending the game then going to watch the rest of the endings on youtube.

I did not play My House ..... well not really. I played it, got an ending that lead to me playing Underhalls from Doom 2, then watched the Youtube video by Power Pak, which has almost 10M views at this point? Honestly, I thought that first ending was neat and pretty trippy, but I still wondered why people cared so much? And wow, after watching the YT video I get it. This Doom mod is WILD. But there was just no way in hell I was going to find find all those secrets on my own.

On one hand, it sucks having to wander around smacking the E key on everything you see in hopes of finding a secret. On the other hand, just dropping this massive mod filled to the brim with secrets without of any of it is objectively awesome. It's like those old creepy pastas about video games, but this is real and actually good. Serious props to the dude who this; this is seriously some impressive stuff.

This is a must-play for any fan of From Software's games. Seriously, if I didn't know any better I would assume this was a From Soft game. It feels like Bloodborne 2 if Bloodborne 2 took place in the world of Pinocchio for some reason, which is some seriously high praise for a game made by a fairly small team.

Also I want to discuss the story, which against all odds is also great. It's bit like Sekiro in that there certainly is a story just about anybody can follow, but there's tons of item descriptions and the like for any lore fanatics to dig their into. Honestly though, Pinocchio makes a great souls-like story weirdly enough. Like the main story beat in the game is Pinocchio's humanity, and he evolves from puppet to human over the course of the game as you lie and help out people in your journey. It's such a soulsy thing, but also perfectly fits with the story of Pinocchio, I just love it so very much.