TheYeti
BACKER
Be it couch co-op or online with friends, Ultimate Chicken Horse delivers some of the most fun I've had playing multiplayer with friends in years. Good wacky fun with plenty to unlock.
However, that time spent with the game was only maybe a few play sessions. Once the novelty wore off, we messed with the settings to make it even crazier. And once that novelty wore off, we were all kind of done. Loved the time we spent with the game, but I really wish it had held our interest for longer.
+ Great multiplayer with custom modes
+ Lots to unlock
- The gameplay itself gets old after a bit
However, that time spent with the game was only maybe a few play sessions. Once the novelty wore off, we messed with the settings to make it even crazier. And once that novelty wore off, we were all kind of done. Loved the time we spent with the game, but I really wish it had held our interest for longer.
+ Great multiplayer with custom modes
+ Lots to unlock
- The gameplay itself gets old after a bit
2018
A wonderful puzzle game that does a lot with a little.
I think the most miraculous thing about this game is there are really only a couple buttons. You move time forward, reverse time, and interact. That’s it. Yet with that simplicity they manage to do a lot of interesting stuff and have some cool puzzles that require looking closely at the entire environment and what’s changing as time moves.
The mood, music, and story of the game is lovely. Just a wonderful experience.
My only complaint is that occasionally (mainly toward the end of the game), the puzzles have some unintuitive solutions that made me go “Oh. Huh. OK…”
+ Great minimalist puzzles
- Puzzles sometimes have convoluted solutions despite the simplicity.
I think the most miraculous thing about this game is there are really only a couple buttons. You move time forward, reverse time, and interact. That’s it. Yet with that simplicity they manage to do a lot of interesting stuff and have some cool puzzles that require looking closely at the entire environment and what’s changing as time moves.
The mood, music, and story of the game is lovely. Just a wonderful experience.
My only complaint is that occasionally (mainly toward the end of the game), the puzzles have some unintuitive solutions that made me go “Oh. Huh. OK…”
+ Great minimalist puzzles
- Puzzles sometimes have convoluted solutions despite the simplicity.
2020
A brilliant music mixing tool trapped in a bad video game.
Ever wanted to create cool music mixes but things like matching tempo & key, handling transitions, and making your own beats are all just too much? Then get Fuser.
Fuser is one of the coolest and most accessible music creation tools I have ever used. It takes all the stuff that DJs have to do manually and streamlines it so you can just slap some songs together to make something that is usually better than it has any right to be.
But Fuser isn’t just a music creation tool, it’s a video game. A video game that makes you play through its entire excruciatingly boring campaign to progress. And by the end of the campaign you still won’t be high enough level to unlock all the songs, instruments, and effects.
The campaign is basically just a tutorial for the music creation tool stretched into something that’s about 5x as long as it should be. The campaign is bad. The characters are bad. And even playing a set for a demanding crowd is often more stressful than enjoyable. You’ll spend the whole song watching the timer, trying to meet the objectives that pop up in the corner, while also trying to meet audience requests that often conflict with the set requirements of the stage. It’s simply not fun. And the fact that you basically have to play it kind of sucks.
Honestly the best part of this game is just popping into freeplay mode and making music. What does it sound like if I take the bass and melody lines of Bad Guy and mix them with the vocals of Take On Me in the minor key? Turns out it sounds hauntingly rad. What if I mix the vocals of 4 songs from 4 different genres? That’s unsurprisingly bad. That is where the fun of this game is - and if that all sounds fun to you, get Fuser. But you’ll need to put in some time with other less-fun aspects of the game if you want to expand your DJ library.
+ Brilliant and accessible music creation tool that makes it easy to just create fun stuff
- Music, samples, and effects are locked behind a slow leveling system
- Terrible campaign that basically just serves as an overly-long tutorial
- The actual act of playing the levels just isn’t fun
Ever wanted to create cool music mixes but things like matching tempo & key, handling transitions, and making your own beats are all just too much? Then get Fuser.
Fuser is one of the coolest and most accessible music creation tools I have ever used. It takes all the stuff that DJs have to do manually and streamlines it so you can just slap some songs together to make something that is usually better than it has any right to be.
But Fuser isn’t just a music creation tool, it’s a video game. A video game that makes you play through its entire excruciatingly boring campaign to progress. And by the end of the campaign you still won’t be high enough level to unlock all the songs, instruments, and effects.
The campaign is basically just a tutorial for the music creation tool stretched into something that’s about 5x as long as it should be. The campaign is bad. The characters are bad. And even playing a set for a demanding crowd is often more stressful than enjoyable. You’ll spend the whole song watching the timer, trying to meet the objectives that pop up in the corner, while also trying to meet audience requests that often conflict with the set requirements of the stage. It’s simply not fun. And the fact that you basically have to play it kind of sucks.
Honestly the best part of this game is just popping into freeplay mode and making music. What does it sound like if I take the bass and melody lines of Bad Guy and mix them with the vocals of Take On Me in the minor key? Turns out it sounds hauntingly rad. What if I mix the vocals of 4 songs from 4 different genres? That’s unsurprisingly bad. That is where the fun of this game is - and if that all sounds fun to you, get Fuser. But you’ll need to put in some time with other less-fun aspects of the game if you want to expand your DJ library.
+ Brilliant and accessible music creation tool that makes it easy to just create fun stuff
- Music, samples, and effects are locked behind a slow leveling system
- Terrible campaign that basically just serves as an overly-long tutorial
- The actual act of playing the levels just isn’t fun
Brilliant locomotion makes for a fun time once you get past the slow beginning.
I really did not enjoy Ori in the first hour or so that I played of it. It was slow and I constantly couldn’t tell if story progress or my own skill were preventing me from reaching certain areas or collectibles. The natural environmental design is beautiful to look at, but does a poor job of communicating what you can or can’t do in contrast to games like Guacamelee or Headlander which use clear visual design language to communicate progress blockers so you don’t waste your time trying to figure out what’s possible or not. It was a frustrating beginning.
However, once I got a bit further into the game and unlocked more skills that opened up locomotion, the game clicked and I fell in love. Moving through an entire area chaining together jumps, dashes, and yeeting off enemies is truly a joyous feeling. Yeah it was annoying that the fast travel spots were so far apart, but when moving is so quick and fun, I guess it’s not that bad. I started the game wanting to beat it as quickly as I could and by the end of it, I wanted to keep playing to find every collectible (which I did).
The “create your own checkpoint” system is interesting and sometimes works well. It doesn’t work well, however, when I forget to make a checkpoint and then die losing 10 minutes of progress. That is decidedly less fun. Even less fun are the escape sequences with zero checkpoints forcing you to replay the entire thing over and over again just to replay the last section because you can’t figure out what you’re doing wrong with a jump. Bad.
Ori also fails with accessibility and difficulty options. Turning the difficulty down to easy helps with the combat (that ends up being easy and inconsequential anyway), but does little to curb the difficulty of platforming.
As much as I loved Ori in the end, I still think there are games that do parts of Ori better. It’s not the best Metroidvania, it’s not the best side-scrolling shooter, and it’s certainly not the best 2D platformer. But it does combine all those elements better than most other games do and ends up being better than the sum of its parts.
+ Fully upgraded locomotion is a blast and better than most other games like it.
+ Beautiful soundtrack
+ Gorgeous visuals
- Slow and sort of just not fun beginning
- Poor accessibility/difficulty options
I really did not enjoy Ori in the first hour or so that I played of it. It was slow and I constantly couldn’t tell if story progress or my own skill were preventing me from reaching certain areas or collectibles. The natural environmental design is beautiful to look at, but does a poor job of communicating what you can or can’t do in contrast to games like Guacamelee or Headlander which use clear visual design language to communicate progress blockers so you don’t waste your time trying to figure out what’s possible or not. It was a frustrating beginning.
However, once I got a bit further into the game and unlocked more skills that opened up locomotion, the game clicked and I fell in love. Moving through an entire area chaining together jumps, dashes, and yeeting off enemies is truly a joyous feeling. Yeah it was annoying that the fast travel spots were so far apart, but when moving is so quick and fun, I guess it’s not that bad. I started the game wanting to beat it as quickly as I could and by the end of it, I wanted to keep playing to find every collectible (which I did).
The “create your own checkpoint” system is interesting and sometimes works well. It doesn’t work well, however, when I forget to make a checkpoint and then die losing 10 minutes of progress. That is decidedly less fun. Even less fun are the escape sequences with zero checkpoints forcing you to replay the entire thing over and over again just to replay the last section because you can’t figure out what you’re doing wrong with a jump. Bad.
Ori also fails with accessibility and difficulty options. Turning the difficulty down to easy helps with the combat (that ends up being easy and inconsequential anyway), but does little to curb the difficulty of platforming.
As much as I loved Ori in the end, I still think there are games that do parts of Ori better. It’s not the best Metroidvania, it’s not the best side-scrolling shooter, and it’s certainly not the best 2D platformer. But it does combine all those elements better than most other games do and ends up being better than the sum of its parts.
+ Fully upgraded locomotion is a blast and better than most other games like it.
+ Beautiful soundtrack
+ Gorgeous visuals
- Slow and sort of just not fun beginning
- Poor accessibility/difficulty options
2019
Unique concept, chill music, and cute story blend together perfectly in this relaxing puzzle game that I wish were more challenging.
Monument Valley 1 and 2 are among the most clever puzzle games I’ve ever played, and I love them for it. So it’s no surprise that Ustwo has managed to put out another clever puzzle game, even though it doesn’t quite reach the level of Monument Valley. Frankly, Assemble With Care is not challenging. The puzzles seem to exist more as an avenue for storytelling than for the sake of the puzzles themselves - which is a shame because the concept is quite cool. Disassembling something, fixing it, reassembling it, and turning it on to see it work is a satisfying feeling even if it is simplified to the point of being accessible to children.
I would gladly play a sequel to this that focused more on complex puzzles that take some real thinking to solve. As it stands, Assemble With Care is still a wonderfully relaxing and charming experience that I’d recommend to anyone.
+ Relaxing and very charming
+ Unique puzzle mechanic
+ Chill music
- Absurdly easy. No challenge at all. (But hey sometimes that's OK)
Monument Valley 1 and 2 are among the most clever puzzle games I’ve ever played, and I love them for it. So it’s no surprise that Ustwo has managed to put out another clever puzzle game, even though it doesn’t quite reach the level of Monument Valley. Frankly, Assemble With Care is not challenging. The puzzles seem to exist more as an avenue for storytelling than for the sake of the puzzles themselves - which is a shame because the concept is quite cool. Disassembling something, fixing it, reassembling it, and turning it on to see it work is a satisfying feeling even if it is simplified to the point of being accessible to children.
I would gladly play a sequel to this that focused more on complex puzzles that take some real thinking to solve. As it stands, Assemble With Care is still a wonderfully relaxing and charming experience that I’d recommend to anyone.
+ Relaxing and very charming
+ Unique puzzle mechanic
+ Chill music
- Absurdly easy. No challenge at all. (But hey sometimes that's OK)
2021
This is the first video game in the history of me playing video games to ever give me a panic attack. Do not recommend
2021
A fun golf game bogged down by rough touch controls and a repetitive campaign
The fundamental gameplay and systems in Clap Hanz golf are unsurprisingly great given the history of this team. I don’t think the controls ported over to touch all that well, though. Not only are the techniques not explained well, but the touch controls are generally extremely imprecise, making it difficult to do well at higher levels of play.
The game really feels like something ripped out of the late 90s or early 2000s. Not only because of the visuals and menus, but for the collection of stereotypes that serve as the playable cast. There’s literally one black person in the entire game and his name is “MC Daryl”.
I was having a lot of fun with the game at first but it gets repetitive incredibly quickly. The game length is padded pretty heavily by simply making you replay the same handful of levels over and over again to earn stars and progress to the next rank. That’s the whole game. I made it to Rank 6 unlocking all the characters and outfits along the way before bouncing off. I’ve seen everything the game has to offer. I’m good.
+ Fun golf game
- Poor explanation for any sort of technical or advanced golf controls
- Touch controls are imprecise and finicky
- Embarrassingly non-diverse cast filled with stereotypes
- Repetitive
The fundamental gameplay and systems in Clap Hanz golf are unsurprisingly great given the history of this team. I don’t think the controls ported over to touch all that well, though. Not only are the techniques not explained well, but the touch controls are generally extremely imprecise, making it difficult to do well at higher levels of play.
The game really feels like something ripped out of the late 90s or early 2000s. Not only because of the visuals and menus, but for the collection of stereotypes that serve as the playable cast. There’s literally one black person in the entire game and his name is “MC Daryl”.
I was having a lot of fun with the game at first but it gets repetitive incredibly quickly. The game length is padded pretty heavily by simply making you replay the same handful of levels over and over again to earn stars and progress to the next rank. That’s the whole game. I made it to Rank 6 unlocking all the characters and outfits along the way before bouncing off. I’ve seen everything the game has to offer. I’m good.
+ Fun golf game
- Poor explanation for any sort of technical or advanced golf controls
- Touch controls are imprecise and finicky
- Embarrassingly non-diverse cast filled with stereotypes
- Repetitive
2020
A lovely resource management game with a great and surprisingly emotional story.
I really enjoyed my time with Spirifarer - the gameplay, story, and the spirits themselves were all wonderful. It’s a different take on the resource management sim and it’s fun having to juggle farming materials for upgrades, managing requests, and taking care of the spirits aboard your ship. Unfortunately, I don’t think it does a great job of balancing the resource management gameplay so that it is consistently engaging throughout the entire story. The end of the game was a bit dull for me as all my upgrades and miscellaneous tasks were done so most of my time was spent sitting idle on a boat as I sailed from port to port waiting to finish out the last spirits’ stories.
The stories you experience along your journey are great. I definitely grew more than a little attached to many of the spirits, so saying goodbye to them ended up being a bit emotional. On the other hand, some of the other spirits were so insufferable I couldn’t wait to get them off my ship. But overall, Spiritfarer made me more emotional than most other video games do.
The game could also do with a number of quality of life improvements as well. Like you can’t see the map to check resources at your location unless you’re on the boat. Weird choice. I also had enormous performance issues on Switch. Not only would I see frequent framerate drops, but I had at least one crash per game session and, due to the game’s infrequent autosaves and lack of a manual save option, would result in a decent chunk of lost progress.
Overall, those gripes are easy to overlook as they don’t really impact the moment-to-moment joy of playing this game too heavily. I didn’t expect the game to make me as emotional as it did but I had no shortage of tears in my eyes when I finished the story.
+ The spirits are (mostly) great and I loved being a part of their journeys
+ Satisfying resource management and upgrade progression
+ Overall relaxing game with great music
- Could use some quality of life improvements
- Performance issues and crashes on the Nintendo Switch
- End of the game gets tedious
I really enjoyed my time with Spirifarer - the gameplay, story, and the spirits themselves were all wonderful. It’s a different take on the resource management sim and it’s fun having to juggle farming materials for upgrades, managing requests, and taking care of the spirits aboard your ship. Unfortunately, I don’t think it does a great job of balancing the resource management gameplay so that it is consistently engaging throughout the entire story. The end of the game was a bit dull for me as all my upgrades and miscellaneous tasks were done so most of my time was spent sitting idle on a boat as I sailed from port to port waiting to finish out the last spirits’ stories.
The stories you experience along your journey are great. I definitely grew more than a little attached to many of the spirits, so saying goodbye to them ended up being a bit emotional. On the other hand, some of the other spirits were so insufferable I couldn’t wait to get them off my ship. But overall, Spiritfarer made me more emotional than most other video games do.
The game could also do with a number of quality of life improvements as well. Like you can’t see the map to check resources at your location unless you’re on the boat. Weird choice. I also had enormous performance issues on Switch. Not only would I see frequent framerate drops, but I had at least one crash per game session and, due to the game’s infrequent autosaves and lack of a manual save option, would result in a decent chunk of lost progress.
Overall, those gripes are easy to overlook as they don’t really impact the moment-to-moment joy of playing this game too heavily. I didn’t expect the game to make me as emotional as it did but I had no shortage of tears in my eyes when I finished the story.
+ The spirits are (mostly) great and I loved being a part of their journeys
+ Satisfying resource management and upgrade progression
+ Overall relaxing game with great music
- Could use some quality of life improvements
- Performance issues and crashes on the Nintendo Switch
- End of the game gets tedious
I know this game is unpopular and seen as a let down after GW 1 and 2, but I never played those. So having no expectations going in, my friends and I had a great deal of fun in this game for months.
2020
Not as much of a game as it is a tech demo. Lovely and very cool thing, but still a tech demo.
Would love to see this whole system integrated into a game with progression or some sort of reason to build a town.
Would love to see this whole system integrated into a game with progression or some sort of reason to build a town.
2019
A delightful experience beginning to end.
I cannot say enough good things about this game. I honestly can't even find a minor gripe to complain about. It's a short game, only 2-4 hours depending on how much you want to collect or do. It's short, but sweet.
It's a perfect game to play in an evening. The tone, music, and overall vibe make this one of the most feel-good games I've played in a while.
For lack of a better word, it's incredibly wholesome.
+ Delightfully wholesome
+ Beautiful, relaxing music
+ Cute visuals that work with the vibe
+ Fun, quirky characters
+ Good collectibles that tie into progress. The more you get, the easier it is to cruise around the island.
I cannot say enough good things about this game. I honestly can't even find a minor gripe to complain about. It's a short game, only 2-4 hours depending on how much you want to collect or do. It's short, but sweet.
It's a perfect game to play in an evening. The tone, music, and overall vibe make this one of the most feel-good games I've played in a while.
For lack of a better word, it's incredibly wholesome.
+ Delightfully wholesome
+ Beautiful, relaxing music
+ Cute visuals that work with the vibe
+ Fun, quirky characters
+ Good collectibles that tie into progress. The more you get, the easier it is to cruise around the island.
Half a good vibes photography game, half a frustratingly janky game of eye spy.
The half of this game that is taking photos of seagulls and stuff is my jam. Chill soundtrack, neat visuals, plus photography? That's got me written all over it.
The half the game that is Skyrim-jumping around the environment hunting for obtuse clues and impossibly small film canisters within a time limit is not fun. Dare I say it, it's kind of bad.
Having to awkwardly parkour around a level while getting stuck on ledges or falling only to have clamber up a bunch of wood planks again just so I can look for the word "squid" on a billboard is not fun.
This could all be a bit more forgivable if the photograph element was well made. It is not. Adjusting the focus is finicky. Objects the same distance away from you will be different degrees of in-focus. Sometimes objects will just disappear completely. As someone who enjoys photography, this game didn't really deliver on what I was hoping for.
+ Good soundtrack and neat visuals
+ Good vibez
- Poorly done photography
- Janky Skyrim parkour
- Obtuse clues
The half of this game that is taking photos of seagulls and stuff is my jam. Chill soundtrack, neat visuals, plus photography? That's got me written all over it.
The half the game that is Skyrim-jumping around the environment hunting for obtuse clues and impossibly small film canisters within a time limit is not fun. Dare I say it, it's kind of bad.
Having to awkwardly parkour around a level while getting stuck on ledges or falling only to have clamber up a bunch of wood planks again just so I can look for the word "squid" on a billboard is not fun.
This could all be a bit more forgivable if the photograph element was well made. It is not. Adjusting the focus is finicky. Objects the same distance away from you will be different degrees of in-focus. Sometimes objects will just disappear completely. As someone who enjoys photography, this game didn't really deliver on what I was hoping for.
+ Good soundtrack and neat visuals
+ Good vibez
- Poorly done photography
- Janky Skyrim parkour
- Obtuse clues
2019
Genuinely love this game. What a damn good time.
Incredibly addicting and satisfying gameplay loop that does such a good job of making you feel more and more powerful.
Usually I need good cross-run persistent progression for me to get into a rogue-ike, but Risk of Rain 2 has such good gameplay that I always wanted to jump back in and play another round. Though, if I could change one thing I do wish there was more that carried over between runs beyond lunar coins and unlocks. Let me permanently upgrade my favorite classes!
+ Top tier gameplay that feels good
+ Great power trip
+ Good aesthetic and music to match
- No real cross-run persistent progression
Incredibly addicting and satisfying gameplay loop that does such a good job of making you feel more and more powerful.
Usually I need good cross-run persistent progression for me to get into a rogue-ike, but Risk of Rain 2 has such good gameplay that I always wanted to jump back in and play another round. Though, if I could change one thing I do wish there was more that carried over between runs beyond lunar coins and unlocks. Let me permanently upgrade my favorite classes!
+ Top tier gameplay that feels good
+ Great power trip
+ Good aesthetic and music to match
- No real cross-run persistent progression
2017
Equal parts stuff I loved and stuff I didn't.
The moment-to-moment writing is the real winner in this game. Every conversation with your friends, your parents, or just random folks in the town was great.
Some were laugh-out-loud funny, others were surprisingly impactful and meaningful. I couldn't wait to chat with my mom, dad, friends, and random townsfolk every day to see what they were up to and see what they had to say. I loved the characters in this game (with the exception of the main character)
But while the conversations are great, getting to those great moments is a chore. The gameplay is slow, and the game doesn't give you a "goal" or any sort of clue as to why you are playing this game until you're about 75% into the game. The counter-point to that is "the point is that there is no point" to which I say "Yeah but this is a video game".
There are one or two very minor questions it presents toward the beginning of the game, but any time those come up, Mae pushes them off later and later. Until you eventually get a pretty brief explanation.
Speaking of Mae, she is the absolute worst. Every decision she makes is selfish and every word she says is wildly insensitive. Watching your character interact with others while saying truly stupid things is like watching a car crash in slow motion. What's worse is the game occasionally gives you the "choice" of which very bad thing you want to say.
Night in the Woods simultaneously feels nice and short while also overstaying its welcome. It wants you to live in this world but doesn't give you enough to do. It's really a game about nothing more than chilling with friends. Those friends have nice things to say but I wish there was more to this than "nice conversations"
+ Fantastic moment-to-moment writing
+ Excellent characters
+ Great soundtrack
+ Gregg
- Big boring lulls between interesting bits
- Buries the "big story" lead about 6 hours into the game
- Main character is insufferable
The moment-to-moment writing is the real winner in this game. Every conversation with your friends, your parents, or just random folks in the town was great.
Some were laugh-out-loud funny, others were surprisingly impactful and meaningful. I couldn't wait to chat with my mom, dad, friends, and random townsfolk every day to see what they were up to and see what they had to say. I loved the characters in this game (with the exception of the main character)
But while the conversations are great, getting to those great moments is a chore. The gameplay is slow, and the game doesn't give you a "goal" or any sort of clue as to why you are playing this game until you're about 75% into the game. The counter-point to that is "the point is that there is no point" to which I say "Yeah but this is a video game".
There are one or two very minor questions it presents toward the beginning of the game, but any time those come up, Mae pushes them off later and later. Until you eventually get a pretty brief explanation.
Speaking of Mae, she is the absolute worst. Every decision she makes is selfish and every word she says is wildly insensitive. Watching your character interact with others while saying truly stupid things is like watching a car crash in slow motion. What's worse is the game occasionally gives you the "choice" of which very bad thing you want to say.
Night in the Woods simultaneously feels nice and short while also overstaying its welcome. It wants you to live in this world but doesn't give you enough to do. It's really a game about nothing more than chilling with friends. Those friends have nice things to say but I wish there was more to this than "nice conversations"
+ Fantastic moment-to-moment writing
+ Excellent characters
+ Great soundtrack
+ Gregg
- Big boring lulls between interesting bits
- Buries the "big story" lead about 6 hours into the game
- Main character is insufferable
2019
Great Pokémon game that feels unfinished in some places. I don’t mind the smaller PokeDex as it made it easier for someone like me to complete my living Dex, but some features in the game felt half baked. Many of the cut scenes didn’t even feel finished.
That said, I’ve put more time into this Pokémon game than any other Pokémon game before it and even after beating it I kept returning to do some raids and shiny hunting.
That said, I’ve put more time into this Pokémon game than any other Pokémon game before it and even after beating it I kept returning to do some raids and shiny hunting.