A masterpiece. It’s been a long time since a game has made be feel so absolutely enthralled all the way through. Now admittedly, it is only a hour long. But I believe this is one of those short indies that really are as close to a perfect video game experience as possible.

There were multiple moments here that gave my whole body chills, especially one particular moment in the middle of the game.

With this game being made by MrSuicideSheep, of course I expected the score to be phenomenal. But wow they went absolutely all fuckin out with the sound design. Genuinely industry leading. And the art direction to go with it is absolutely off the charts.

The gameplay is perfectly paced with a beautifully simple progression of platforming abilities. Nothing ever felt too impossible, poorly designed or balanced, or overindulgent.

I guess at this point, my only complaint is I wish it was longer? It’s really a perfect experience, but the platforming mechanics they have crafted here feel so good that I could easily go for another hour or two to be honest.

This game absolutely fucking ruled and is a perfect example of how much of a beautifully crafted piece of art video games can be.

Crash Bandicoot --
I admire how faithful the developers were with this remake. However, there are loads of moments in this game they could have taken some creative influence to make things better for the modern audience. So many levels are plagued with bad camera angels and other QoL issues that are held over from the original. Also why did they remove the cheats??

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back --
> In progress…

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped --
> Haven’t started…

Incredibly annoyed with the combat. Combat can be really damn fun when it works, but for me it just feels so unresponsive most of the time. Like this game is frustrating as hell UX wise in combat. Telling me I can dodge something when I can't, telling me I can do a finishing combo when I cant, etc etc etc. Getting stun locked over and over again. Its annoying as hell. I thought I would get used to it but somehow they actually made it worse than the first game in this regard. Which was a problem in the first two but not nearly this frustrating. Maybe I’m the only person, I see basically no one complain about these things but I had multiple nights I outright stopped playing due to the combat. I could ramble about the combat and unresponsive ness of the game for hours but you get the point.

Story was incredibly lack luster in a lot of ways. Like it hit a lot of amazing big beats but skipped over so incredibly much in between. I feel like the story alone should have been 35 hours, but instead was crammed into 20, so pacing just felt bad. There were so many intimate character moments I feel like we could have gotten that we just didn’t because we were too busy skipping from one main villain destroying NYC to the next.

World was expanded which was so needed but then heavily under utilized massive parts of it and the benefit it added was lost by the wing suit being so OP.

Progression also felt non-existent other than gaining the symbiote abilities.

Conclusion:
Spider-Man 2 improved on the formula in some areas, but it’s worse than the first two games in some key places for me that really matters: Combat, Story, Pacing, Progression.
To be clear, I still had fun with the power fantasy of being Spider-Man. I also really enjoyed the side content and the main story/character beats. But those things only take you so far when so much of the rest of the game frustrated me every step of the way.

Really disappointed honestly. When I chose to get this on launch I was choosing between it and another game and I wish I had chose the other and avoided launch price.

Enjoyable time that adds to the original story and of course its just a great time returning to this world and the gameplay of the RE4 Remake.

I do have to say, this DLC definitely is not as polished as the base game. In terms of actual polish, performance, and balance, it seems it isn't nearly as fleshed out as the original game. The boss fights were more tedious and I found myself frustrated at times when animations would go on for too long or dodging just wouldn't work.

Balance issues where most enemies were just either too easy or bullet sponges. I think that one is kind of more understandable since they are condensing the base game's story and gameplay progression into like one-fourth of the gameplay time.

Overall its a fun but flawed return to an absolutely perfect base game. If you enjoyed the base game, its highly unlikely you won't like this. Especially with how great of a value it is; only $10 for 6+ hours of content!

10/17/23 — Shelving the game for now. Got a bit through Act 3 but realized that it literally has more content than the first two Acts combined and I had to put the game down 😭

I’ve been playing for over two and a half months and am over 90 hours in and need a break.

Despite this, without even finishing the game I can definitely call this my game of the year. Easily one of the most surprising, innovative, and flushed out experiences I’ve ever had in gaming. Perhaps it’s baby’s first CRPG syndrome, but this game is god damn special and unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. Truly another one of those games where you ask “What if” and you’re always greeted with an answer.

I will update this later with a very long thought out review, but to put it simply —

This is the greatest video game I’ve ever played.

EDIT: I’ve tried to properly write a review for this game for months. Simply put I think the game just means too much to me to put into a formal review. So here we are, possibly my favorite game of all time. Period. That’s it. That’s the review.

This was a very anticipated game for me ever since I saw it at E3 a few years ago and it didn't disappoint!

PLANET OF LANA is an incredibly brilliant game in terms of art direction, music/score, and story.

The art and score blew me away right from the very first trailer I saw. The watercolor paint art style and the ethereal but also sci-fi feeling score is just so unique. Also, some of the music that you hear later in the game is just absolutely BEAUTIFUL, some of the best video game music I've heard in
a while!

The story is very simple as are many games of this genre, but it definitely captures you for the full runtime of the game. From the sheer sense of wonder with how big the world is and the events occurring around you, the affection you feel for your companion, and the sense of horror in later sections of the game. It's breathtaking, horrifying, and heartbreaking throughout and I was really blown away.

I did encounter some frustration with the gameplay here and there. I often found that platforming in general but specifically jumping from one ledge to another, could be very frustrating at times. Some ledges have a few more "inches" of invisible hitbox that aren't represented visually. So I would often find myself jumping too early, then falling to my death or onto whatever was below.

Admittedly, I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, but a few puzzles felt quite obtuse and confusing. I ended up looking up a walkthrough video about 3 times throughout which is unfortunate.

Overall, this game is brilliant. PLANET OF LANA is not perfect but for me, it absolutely makes up for its faults in terms of story, art, and score. At times, it definitely wears its inspiration from games that defined the genre, such as INSIDE (2016), on its sleeve. However, it also goes above and beyond elevating the gameplay with in-depth puzzles and stealth mechanics. This game is a worthwhile experience for anyone that is a fan of incredible art direction, subtle storytelling, or just a supporter of fantastic indie experiences in general.

A very uninspiring reboot of an early 2000's action platformer. It might be worth a try if you have nostalgia for that kind of game, but I would watch some gameplay/trailers first. While I am a massive fan of that kind of game myself, I can't say I ever played any of the original Kao games, but overall I would say this one is a very forgettable experience.

Also it had very not solid feeling controls and an odd feeling delay on a lot of the inputs which made it feel like it took a bit too much inspiration from those early 2000's games 😂

This was my second attempt to play through Skyward Sword HD (first time I got about 80% through, this time about half way.) Despite being a massive LoZ fan (that never got the chance to play SS original) I genuinely can’t stand to finish this game. The combat is just so frustratingly not fun with the janky joystick config in the remaster. I adore the lore, the story, the art direction, world/map, music, EVERYTHING ELSE IS PERFECT. But the combat is just such a massive turn off. It’s very very cool in concept but in practice it’s just awful. Motion controls seem slightly more acceptable but with either option still it feels like 30% of the time your swings are just ignored or worse — they are misinterpreted for swinging the opposite direction. At first I felt like I could get past it but as I fought larger groups of enemies and harder bosses, it became clear that this play through was just going to be more of a point of frustration than any fun. I guess I’ll just never play through Skyward Sword unless a modder or Nintendo decide to remake or update it to be better.

I was really looking forward to this game for a long time. Ever since it was first announced back in 2021.

Overall it was a good experience and I think it did what it set out to do. Though I will say it’s not perfect.

I encountered bugs on multiple occasions that completely halted progression requiring me to restart sections of levels multiple times (or even just back out to the main menu and then go back in).

Another issue: while I feel the majority of the game did a great job with this, the final level really confused me. There were multiple mechanics that just didn’t work the same way as they did in the rest of the game and multiple new mechanics it just didn’t bother to explain. Ultimately this lead to a really bitter ending after getting pretty frustrated by this.

Overall I enjoyed my experience but at the price of $25, it’s hard to justify. I was definitely let down by the short (4-6 hours) of playtime (though if you’re a completionist there is definitely multiple more hours of content for you). I also had some fairly annoying bugs and just general other grievances. I will say, I do love that a portion of the Steam sales (at least at launch) go to a wildlife fund which is awesome and so on brand for this game.

This game really is a full package honestly. Satisfying automation, wholesome vibes with the art direction and score, a nice little story, and all under the guise of fun VR mechanics.

The puzzles were challenging enough, some were very daunting but ultimately very solvable and satisfying once you completed them.

There’s definitely some room for completionists here too with some of the challenges which were quite fun but start getting exceedingly difficult towards the end.

My only main issue the game had (which only became noticeable towards the last couple of levels) was how inconsistent some of your recordings could act with the physics of the objects in the game. Overall this wasn’t a massive issue but it led to some frustration on a couple of occasions.

Overall a genuinely great game and this studio deserves a lot of praise and support for whatever they decide to do next. One of my favorite games of 2022 now.