TheYeti
BACKER
2022
What if Overwatch was the same game but with wildly predatory microtransactions, overpriced skins, and no progression system. You've just made Overwatch 2.
Here we are again with another F2P game that learns zero lessons from Fortnite. Put premium currency in your pass and make it easy to level up! Encourage people to play your game because it's fun to progress. Don't encourage them to play under the threat of falling behind.
Biggest bummer about all this is that the game itself is actually fun as heck. After the server issues were resolved, I hopped on for a few hours and had a blast. I loved Overwatch and sank dozens of hours into it back in the day. I would love to play more Overwatch... it just sucks that the new hook Blizzard wants you to chomp down on basically requires you to spend money.
+ More Overwatch
- It's just more Overwatch
- Terrible microtransaztions
Here we are again with another F2P game that learns zero lessons from Fortnite. Put premium currency in your pass and make it easy to level up! Encourage people to play your game because it's fun to progress. Don't encourage them to play under the threat of falling behind.
Biggest bummer about all this is that the game itself is actually fun as heck. After the server issues were resolved, I hopped on for a few hours and had a blast. I loved Overwatch and sank dozens of hours into it back in the day. I would love to play more Overwatch... it just sucks that the new hook Blizzard wants you to chomp down on basically requires you to spend money.
+ More Overwatch
- It's just more Overwatch
- Terrible microtransaztions
2020
Sucker Punch succeeds in making a better Assassin's Creed than Ubisoft...
As an Assassin's Creed fan, I've always wanted an AC game set in Japan. Well, we finally got it, and it's leagues better than any actual AC game we've gotten in years.
Sucker Punch takes the open world checklist formula and absolutely streamlines it in a way that makes it feel like you're never actually doing a checklist. Every collectible has value and is actually fun to get. Fast travel is the easiest it's been in any other open world game, so jumping around to get a missed collectible is quick. The world design is what encourages exploration, not just the need to find the next question mark on the map.
I've played over a dozen games with photo modes in them and have never really cared much for them. I'll usually open it once to look at it and snap one obligatory photo, and then never touch it again.
In Ghost of Tsushima, I spent almost as much time taking photos as I did actually playing the game. That's due to a combination of the most insanely robust photo mode I've ever seen in a game, and a very photogenic gorgeous world.
Playing through Act 1, the story felt like it took the back seat to the world. I was enjoying running around, exploring, and fighting off the invaders.
That quickly took a turn in Act 2 and I became fully invested in not only Jin's story, but the stories of all of his companions.
After a slight lull in the beginning of Act 3, it finishes strong.
Really the only negative I have on the game is that it doesn't really do anything new. It truly does feel like they set out to make a better Assassin's Creed than Ubisoft - and that's exactly what they did. The world is gorgeous, it's fun to explore, getting collectibles isn't boring, the combat is fun, and the story is great, but it all feels incredibly safe.
It's a solid 4-star game that I wish took a couple more risks.
As an Assassin's Creed fan, I've always wanted an AC game set in Japan. Well, we finally got it, and it's leagues better than any actual AC game we've gotten in years.
Sucker Punch takes the open world checklist formula and absolutely streamlines it in a way that makes it feel like you're never actually doing a checklist. Every collectible has value and is actually fun to get. Fast travel is the easiest it's been in any other open world game, so jumping around to get a missed collectible is quick. The world design is what encourages exploration, not just the need to find the next question mark on the map.
I've played over a dozen games with photo modes in them and have never really cared much for them. I'll usually open it once to look at it and snap one obligatory photo, and then never touch it again.
In Ghost of Tsushima, I spent almost as much time taking photos as I did actually playing the game. That's due to a combination of the most insanely robust photo mode I've ever seen in a game, and a very photogenic gorgeous world.
Playing through Act 1, the story felt like it took the back seat to the world. I was enjoying running around, exploring, and fighting off the invaders.
That quickly took a turn in Act 2 and I became fully invested in not only Jin's story, but the stories of all of his companions.
After a slight lull in the beginning of Act 3, it finishes strong.
Really the only negative I have on the game is that it doesn't really do anything new. It truly does feel like they set out to make a better Assassin's Creed than Ubisoft - and that's exactly what they did. The world is gorgeous, it's fun to explore, getting collectibles isn't boring, the combat is fun, and the story is great, but it all feels incredibly safe.
It's a solid 4-star game that I wish took a couple more risks.
2014
To this day, it is impossible to describe to someone why Bayonetta 1 and 2 are as good as they are without sounding like an absolute madman.
1999
To this day, I will claim that LEGO Racers was my idea whenever it comes up. It was 1997, Mario Kart 64 had just come out and I was obsessed with LEGO. So I conceptualized a LEGO racing game. I drew the karts, the characters, everything. Back in the day, you could call the Nintendo Power Hotline and talk to a person for like tips, or just any random nonsense. So what did I do? I called them. I called them and spoke to a Nintendo Power Hotline agent for like 20 minutes about my game idea. Bless that woman for entertaining the ravings of a 7-year-old. 2 years later, LEGO Racers comes out. Coincidence??? Yeah probably but whatever. This game was my idea.
Delightfully silly little trilogy of games full of some real good laughs if it's your kind of humor. Plus some insightful lessons to be learned about the realities of crime.
Check out my individual reviews for the three Frog Detective games here:
Frog Detective 1: The Haunted Island
Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard
Frog Detective 3: Corruption at Cowboy County
Check out my individual reviews for the three Frog Detective games here:
Frog Detective 1: The Haunted Island
Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard
Frog Detective 3: Corruption at Cowboy County
1996
It's crazy how much Mario 64 defined the next couple decades of 3D Mario platformers. Every 3D Mario since 64 has had the same moveset and a lot of the same game structure, and for good reason - Mario 64 rules.
I know most folks regard Brawl as the worst Smash but I legit love it. Part of that is thanks to Subspace Emissary which kicks ass. Every other Smash game since then has had a lame campaign and I wish Nintendo would do something cool like this again. As a casual player, I thought this game itself played just fine.
2022
A neat mystery puzzle game wrapped up in a spooky plant lady vibe that sadly doesn’t always execute on some of the cool ideas it attempts and is burdened by poorly-designed UI/UX.
Strange Horticulture is, at its core, a deductive reasoning puzzle game that has you solving clues to identify plants and seeking out new plants to expand your collection. Most times, that loop of looking for a plant based on a vague description and trying to narrow it down using context clues or sketches can deliver a familiar satisfying rush that comes from puzzle games like this. Other times, “solving” a puzzle is just reading through 60 plant descriptions until you find one key word like “stranger” or “smokey” buried in the text. That’s not a puzzle, it's just tedious. The story, told through the visits of customers, is neat and the choices along the way (that set up multiple endings) made me feel invested in the twisty tale that was being told. After finishing the game, I enjoyed going back and seeing how some of the other endings played out.
Later in the game, once you’ve identified most of the plants, occasionally a customer will ask for one specific plant of the 77 unorganized plants on your shelf. So you’ll slowly scroll left to right looking for the one plant you need, but if you scroll too quickly, the label open/close animation won’t react in time and you’ll miss the name. Some method of auto-sorting your plants would have been a welcome addition to the game.
When not identifying plants to help customers, you’re following clues and solving riddles to visit specific locations on a map and find new plants to add to your collection. It’s a pretty fun idea in theory, but the map is quite large and the writing on it is often difficult to read, requiring constant use of the game’s dedicated magnifying glass button - a baffling game decision.
Searching for plants in your massive collection, reading too many descriptions, navigating around a map, and just interacting with your inventory are all things that shouldn’t be annoying but are due to the game’s poorly designed interface that is only made worse on consoles. I can only assume that this game was designed to be played with a mouse and keyboard on a 40 inch computer monitor that your face is 4 inches from at all times, because nothing else really makes sense. The script-like font is small, requiring frequent use of the magnifying glass just to be able to read literally any of the text in the game. There is an “easier to read font” option, that makes all the text more legible, but the interface does not adapt to the new text size, so conversations with NPCs constantly fall off the screen as you’re trying to read them which results in battling the scrolling dialogue. Additionally, while the “legible text” option does improve most of the menus, the map does not benefit from the cleaner text, so that continues to be difficult to read without the magnifying glass. Even with the magnification, the rivers are actively impossible to read due to the weird font choice. Controlling the game on console is a nightmare as the cursor is mapped to the left analog stick with a set cursor speed of “excruciatingly slow”. There are labels in the game so you can make notes of all the items you’re finding, but that feature is predictably a pain without a dedicated keyboard to use.
The thing that makes these pain points more frustrating is that I actually really enjoyed most of my time with Strange Horticulture, but it constantly felt as though I was fighting against the game to find the fun. Underneath the poorly-designed UI and weird design decisions is a pretty great game! Finding that game, however, takes some work. And maybe a lot of work if you’re playing on console.
+ Satisfying deductive puzzle solving
+ Great spooky vibes
+ Fun, creative plants with interesting descriptions
+ Great story choices throughout the game that set up multiple endings
- Terrible UI that often feels anti-player for the sake of “theme”
- Console/controller support is all around terrible from UI adaptation to controller use
- Some puzzles are more tedious reading than actual puzzle-solving
Strange Horticulture is, at its core, a deductive reasoning puzzle game that has you solving clues to identify plants and seeking out new plants to expand your collection. Most times, that loop of looking for a plant based on a vague description and trying to narrow it down using context clues or sketches can deliver a familiar satisfying rush that comes from puzzle games like this. Other times, “solving” a puzzle is just reading through 60 plant descriptions until you find one key word like “stranger” or “smokey” buried in the text. That’s not a puzzle, it's just tedious. The story, told through the visits of customers, is neat and the choices along the way (that set up multiple endings) made me feel invested in the twisty tale that was being told. After finishing the game, I enjoyed going back and seeing how some of the other endings played out.
Later in the game, once you’ve identified most of the plants, occasionally a customer will ask for one specific plant of the 77 unorganized plants on your shelf. So you’ll slowly scroll left to right looking for the one plant you need, but if you scroll too quickly, the label open/close animation won’t react in time and you’ll miss the name. Some method of auto-sorting your plants would have been a welcome addition to the game.
When not identifying plants to help customers, you’re following clues and solving riddles to visit specific locations on a map and find new plants to add to your collection. It’s a pretty fun idea in theory, but the map is quite large and the writing on it is often difficult to read, requiring constant use of the game’s dedicated magnifying glass button - a baffling game decision.
Searching for plants in your massive collection, reading too many descriptions, navigating around a map, and just interacting with your inventory are all things that shouldn’t be annoying but are due to the game’s poorly designed interface that is only made worse on consoles. I can only assume that this game was designed to be played with a mouse and keyboard on a 40 inch computer monitor that your face is 4 inches from at all times, because nothing else really makes sense. The script-like font is small, requiring frequent use of the magnifying glass just to be able to read literally any of the text in the game. There is an “easier to read font” option, that makes all the text more legible, but the interface does not adapt to the new text size, so conversations with NPCs constantly fall off the screen as you’re trying to read them which results in battling the scrolling dialogue. Additionally, while the “legible text” option does improve most of the menus, the map does not benefit from the cleaner text, so that continues to be difficult to read without the magnifying glass. Even with the magnification, the rivers are actively impossible to read due to the weird font choice. Controlling the game on console is a nightmare as the cursor is mapped to the left analog stick with a set cursor speed of “excruciatingly slow”. There are labels in the game so you can make notes of all the items you’re finding, but that feature is predictably a pain without a dedicated keyboard to use.
The thing that makes these pain points more frustrating is that I actually really enjoyed most of my time with Strange Horticulture, but it constantly felt as though I was fighting against the game to find the fun. Underneath the poorly-designed UI and weird design decisions is a pretty great game! Finding that game, however, takes some work. And maybe a lot of work if you’re playing on console.
+ Satisfying deductive puzzle solving
+ Great spooky vibes
+ Fun, creative plants with interesting descriptions
+ Great story choices throughout the game that set up multiple endings
- Terrible UI that often feels anti-player for the sake of “theme”
- Console/controller support is all around terrible from UI adaptation to controller use
- Some puzzles are more tedious reading than actual puzzle-solving
Majora’s Mask is one of the most unique Zelda games of all time with a ton of rad ideas, surrounded by several annoying mechanics that can leave parts of the game feeling frustrating and tedious.
Similar to Ocarina, I have some very specific memories of playing Majora’s Mask as a kid but not a lot of overall memory of the game itself. My strongest memories are how cool it was that Link could transform into a Deku, Goron, and Zora and that the Couples quest was an absolute pain in the ass. I genuinely have such fond memories of Link being able to transform at will by just throwing on a mask. Even revisiting it now, it’s such an awesome mechanic.
The very concept of making Zelda a time loop game is a cool idea, but I found that that premise ended up causing a few annoyances (like having to have the same conversations with NPCs every single loop). The rules around what resets when you go back in time feels pretty arbitrary. Your ammo resets, but your health and magic do not. Why do I lose my arrows and bombs, but keep my bow and bomb bag? Why do I keep all of my masks? If every element in the world resets, why don’t pieces of heart respawn? Once you start thinking about it all, none of it really makes sense. Which is what leads me to my biggest complaint - dungeon regions completely resetting. One of the most satisfying things in the game is lifting the curses of the different areas in Termina after you beat the dungeon boss and get their mask. So nothing sucks more than restarting the loop and realizing that the poison you cleared from the swamp or the frost you cleared from the mountains is back and the dungeon boss is alive again, even though you still have their mask. What’s worse is that several puzzles require these regions to be in their “healed” states, which means you may need to go back and defeat a boss again. When you defeat a boss, claim its mask, and heal a region, the region should remain in that cleansed state. If not, how are any of the giants actually free? Better yet (even though this would’ve sucked), make the player go through and defeat all 4 bosses in the final time loop before continuing on to the final boss. Either fully commit to the time loop mechanic, or fully commit to your ability to master time.
As I played more of the game,I realized I never actually beat it as a kid or finished getting the masks, so I’m glad I remedied that. Not only did I beat the game, but I finally did the childhood goal I never achieved - I got the Fierce Deity mask, and holy crap was it cool. The little kid inside me was screaming as I wrecked the final boss as Fierce Deity Link. It only took revisiting the game 23 years later, but I finally conquered Majora’s Mask, even if the journey was occasionally annoying.
+ Link transforming into races that all play different is cool as heck
+ Time loop Zelda is an interesting idea
+ Gameplay holds up surprisingly well
+ Soundtrack rips
+ The mask collection aspect of the game is a cool, functional collectible
- Time loop logic feels arbitrary and inconsistent
- Zones resetting every loop is a bummer
- Losing all your ammo every loop sucks
- Having the same NPC conversations over and over is annoying
Similar to Ocarina, I have some very specific memories of playing Majora’s Mask as a kid but not a lot of overall memory of the game itself. My strongest memories are how cool it was that Link could transform into a Deku, Goron, and Zora and that the Couples quest was an absolute pain in the ass. I genuinely have such fond memories of Link being able to transform at will by just throwing on a mask. Even revisiting it now, it’s such an awesome mechanic.
The very concept of making Zelda a time loop game is a cool idea, but I found that that premise ended up causing a few annoyances (like having to have the same conversations with NPCs every single loop). The rules around what resets when you go back in time feels pretty arbitrary. Your ammo resets, but your health and magic do not. Why do I lose my arrows and bombs, but keep my bow and bomb bag? Why do I keep all of my masks? If every element in the world resets, why don’t pieces of heart respawn? Once you start thinking about it all, none of it really makes sense. Which is what leads me to my biggest complaint - dungeon regions completely resetting. One of the most satisfying things in the game is lifting the curses of the different areas in Termina after you beat the dungeon boss and get their mask. So nothing sucks more than restarting the loop and realizing that the poison you cleared from the swamp or the frost you cleared from the mountains is back and the dungeon boss is alive again, even though you still have their mask. What’s worse is that several puzzles require these regions to be in their “healed” states, which means you may need to go back and defeat a boss again. When you defeat a boss, claim its mask, and heal a region, the region should remain in that cleansed state. If not, how are any of the giants actually free? Better yet (even though this would’ve sucked), make the player go through and defeat all 4 bosses in the final time loop before continuing on to the final boss. Either fully commit to the time loop mechanic, or fully commit to your ability to master time.
As I played more of the game,I realized I never actually beat it as a kid or finished getting the masks, so I’m glad I remedied that. Not only did I beat the game, but I finally did the childhood goal I never achieved - I got the Fierce Deity mask, and holy crap was it cool. The little kid inside me was screaming as I wrecked the final boss as Fierce Deity Link. It only took revisiting the game 23 years later, but I finally conquered Majora’s Mask, even if the journey was occasionally annoying.
+ Link transforming into races that all play different is cool as heck
+ Time loop Zelda is an interesting idea
+ Gameplay holds up surprisingly well
+ Soundtrack rips
+ The mask collection aspect of the game is a cool, functional collectible
- Time loop logic feels arbitrary and inconsistent
- Zones resetting every loop is a bummer
- Losing all your ammo every loop sucks
- Having the same NPC conversations over and over is annoying
1986
I’d argue that most NES games (possibly outside of the Mario games) have not held up particularly well, and that absolutely includes The Legend of Zelda. From the weird need to find items and dungeon entrances behind bombable walls, to the game inexplicably letting you buy 4 of the same item when you can only use 1. It’s for sure a quirky, old game and I’m grateful to modern guides and save states on NSO for making it easier to experience. It took me way too long to finally play the first game from my favorite game series of all time, but I’m glad I did.
+ Cool to see the origins of items, enemies, and characters of the Zelda franchise
+ This game was probably wicked cool in 1986
- Not terribly intuitive to play in 2023
- Hidden dungeons and items behind unmarked destroyable walls
- You can buy duplicates of unique items for some reason
- Finding 100 rupees when your wallet is full just wipes them from the game
- The music loops are so short and repetitive I found myself, for the first time in my life, muting a Zelda game
+ Cool to see the origins of items, enemies, and characters of the Zelda franchise
+ This game was probably wicked cool in 1986
- Not terribly intuitive to play in 2023
- Hidden dungeons and items behind unmarked destroyable walls
- You can buy duplicates of unique items for some reason
- Finding 100 rupees when your wallet is full just wipes them from the game
- The music loops are so short and repetitive I found myself, for the first time in my life, muting a Zelda game
The GamePad mode that lets you create blocks was fun for my young nephews to mess around with.
However, playing this game with children in which you could pick each other up and throw each other off the edge was a nightmare. Do not recommend.
However, playing this game with children in which you could pick each other up and throw each other off the edge was a nightmare. Do not recommend.
It's tail time. Even as a kid I think I acknowledged that this game wasn't good, yet it is still seared pretty deeply into my brain.
Instead of taking the "play through the events of the movie" route that 95% of licensed video games used to take, Toy Story 3 instead says "hey what if you just got to play around in Andy's imagination the way he plays with his toys". It freaking rules.
Not only do I think this is one of the best licensed video games ever made, but this game also laid the groundwork for Disney Infinity, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Not only do I think this is one of the best licensed video games ever made, but this game also laid the groundwork for Disney Infinity, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
2022
An addictive mobile card game that respects your time in ways that something like Hearthstone does not. And the best part is - you can play as much as you want without ever spending a dollar.
I always had trouble getting into Hearthstone specifically because of the time investment needed to play it. Marvel Snap remedies that problem with its short 6-round games that only take a few minutes to play making it easy to squeeze in a couple rounds while waiting in line somewhere, brushing your teeth, pooping, etc.
What's more is I never felt pressured to spend even a dollar on the game. Spending money in this game gives you no gameplay advantage over other players because the main thing you spend money on is just cosmetic variants of your cards. Season Passes do have a handful of cards in them you can get if you buy the pass, but all those cards are unlockable through normal gameplay.
My biggest issue with the game is that their microtransactions are insanely overpriced across the board. The battle pass is $10 and you cannot use any premium currency gained to unlock it. The amount of items you get in the pass is abysmal compared to other F2P games. You get 3 card variants themed after the season, 2 random variants, and then a ton of filler currency and XP. Additionally, the pass is only 50 tiers and the seasons only last 4 weeks. Compare that to something like Fortnite which has 100 tiers over 3 month, has 5x the number of actual items in the pass, and enough currency to buy the next season's pass. If you bought every season pass in Marvel Snap for a year, it would cost you $120 and you'd have a handful of cosmetic cards to show for it. In contrast, you could spend $10 in Fortnite for the whole year and be set as long as you play. And that's not even mentioning Marvel Snap's ludicrous bundles that cost $75 for 1 card variant, a profile picture, and some currency. While Fortnite is a game for everyone, Marvel Snap's target customer is clearly whales.
I loved the game for the amount of time I spent on it but eventually the grind set in and the absurd microtransaction costs got to me. Great game but boy do they need some new direction on the live service side.
+ Fantastic, addicting gameplay
+ Short rounds that value your time
+ Great card designs that are really satisfying to level up
+ Plenty to do in the game without ever spending a dollar
- Some of the worst microtransaction pricing I've ever seen in a game
- Terrible battle pass
- Progression becomes a grind at higher levels
I always had trouble getting into Hearthstone specifically because of the time investment needed to play it. Marvel Snap remedies that problem with its short 6-round games that only take a few minutes to play making it easy to squeeze in a couple rounds while waiting in line somewhere, brushing your teeth, pooping, etc.
What's more is I never felt pressured to spend even a dollar on the game. Spending money in this game gives you no gameplay advantage over other players because the main thing you spend money on is just cosmetic variants of your cards. Season Passes do have a handful of cards in them you can get if you buy the pass, but all those cards are unlockable through normal gameplay.
My biggest issue with the game is that their microtransactions are insanely overpriced across the board. The battle pass is $10 and you cannot use any premium currency gained to unlock it. The amount of items you get in the pass is abysmal compared to other F2P games. You get 3 card variants themed after the season, 2 random variants, and then a ton of filler currency and XP. Additionally, the pass is only 50 tiers and the seasons only last 4 weeks. Compare that to something like Fortnite which has 100 tiers over 3 month, has 5x the number of actual items in the pass, and enough currency to buy the next season's pass. If you bought every season pass in Marvel Snap for a year, it would cost you $120 and you'd have a handful of cosmetic cards to show for it. In contrast, you could spend $10 in Fortnite for the whole year and be set as long as you play. And that's not even mentioning Marvel Snap's ludicrous bundles that cost $75 for 1 card variant, a profile picture, and some currency. While Fortnite is a game for everyone, Marvel Snap's target customer is clearly whales.
I loved the game for the amount of time I spent on it but eventually the grind set in and the absurd microtransaction costs got to me. Great game but boy do they need some new direction on the live service side.
+ Fantastic, addicting gameplay
+ Short rounds that value your time
+ Great card designs that are really satisfying to level up
+ Plenty to do in the game without ever spending a dollar
- Some of the worst microtransaction pricing I've ever seen in a game
- Terrible battle pass
- Progression becomes a grind at higher levels
A great remaster of one of my favorite PS2 games of all time.
Katamari Damacy is a delight. The gameplay of starting small and rolling up stuff to get bigger and bigger is still cool as hell almost 2 decades later. The art style, the vibe, the music - all flawless. God what a perfect game. It's so weird in the best ways.
+ Extremely fun gameplay
+ Perfectly weird
+ 10/10 soundtrack
+ Best vibes
- Controls are occasionally frustrating especially when you get wedged between two objects and can't move
- The level timer can sometimes be stressful
Katamari Damacy is a delight. The gameplay of starting small and rolling up stuff to get bigger and bigger is still cool as hell almost 2 decades later. The art style, the vibe, the music - all flawless. God what a perfect game. It's so weird in the best ways.
+ Extremely fun gameplay
+ Perfectly weird
+ 10/10 soundtrack
+ Best vibes
- Controls are occasionally frustrating especially when you get wedged between two objects and can't move
- The level timer can sometimes be stressful