The original Final Fantasy from 1987 is a nice little quaint adventure that served as a revolutionary stepping stone for what would become one of the largest JRPG franchises of all time. Given the history of this franchise and it’s current stature in worldwide culture, it is quite humbling returning to its core roots with the original title. It obviously has quirks that you can associate with older games from this era--an exorbitant amount of random encounters, a story that leaves out detail, a simplistic combat system, and mechanics that literally are so bugged they don’t even work. Even taking all of those things into account, Final Fantasy is still a blast. There is a kind of special magic that really works. Final Fantasy is a quaint, fun, simple adventure that impresses more with how much they accomplished with so little resources than it disappoints. It’s not an adventure I will want to return to anytime soon, but it is one I will remember.

I think I could play Tinykin forever.

If there were always more areas to explore, I would never get tired of this game. It's a beautiful hybrid of 3D platforming and stress-free, enemyless Pikmin, a combination I never would have come up with myself. Playing Tinykin feels like putting vanilla extract in your lemonade for the first time. (I'm serious, it's delicious, BUT JUST A TINY BIT OF VANILLA DON'T OVERDO IT) This new combination of things I already loved has blown me away.

Now, 100%ing the game was a bit of a drag at the end, but I did eventually find every single Tinykin and every bit of pollen in the house. If I could change one thing about the game, I would have included an unlockable radar for both Tinykin and Pollen. Since there are two exhibits in the hub area that you're meant to fill (the drinks and the artefacs), radar/detectors being rewards for completing each of these would have been perfect. There's no real reward for completion other than achievements, but the game was so delightful that I wanted to play every bit of it that I could.

The story is wack though, I rewatched the ending twice and still can't confidently explain what really happened!

Tinykin is just Pikmin with all the stress removed, and I honestly love it for that.

This may sound blasphemous, but Tinykin is literally everything I always wanted Pikmin to be. I've played and enjoyed every Pikmin game but I always end up bouncing off before finishing the campaign. The stress of desperately trying to find the resources you're looking for while solving puzzles and fending off predators, all within a time limit, is not a chill experience. I always wished Pikmin was more about the joy of simply exploring with your Pikmin - and that is Tinykin's entire premise.

Tinykin is a charming game about exploring environments, platforming, solving puzzles, and finding secrets all with the aid of your adorable little Pikmin Tinykin. It's an incredibly low-stakes game - if you miss your jump platforming and fall to your death, you'll pop back into existence in the spot you jumped from. Really the biggest risk you'll face in Tinykin is missing a couple collectibles while you explore, resulting in you needing to comb the entire level again trying to find the one or two things you missed. An unlockable in-game tool to help you track down your missing collectibles would be a welcome addition. Even though the extra collectibles are entirely optional, I’m a completionist so I spent 1-2 additional hours trying to find an extremely small handful of pickups I had missed. Thankfully, cruising around on your soap bar, grinding, and gliding around the level is so much fun, I didn't usually mind that extra time. I was just happy to be spending more time exploring the brilliantly-designed world with my cute little buddies.

Yeah, the stakes are low which might not work for some people and the game isn’t that deep or complex, but every once in a while, I love a good, chill game that's just simply fun. Tinykin is an absolute joy and I recommend it to anyone looking for a delightful game to relax with.

+ Chill, low-stakes gameplay
+ Wonderful level design that encourages exploration
+ Fun puzzle-solving and platforming
+ Excellent traversal
+ Relaxing soundtrack and cute sound effects

- Desperately needs a better way to find missing collectibles
- No level-select makes going back to past levels a bit of a pain
- Story is nonsense

(7-year-old's review, typed by her dad)

[Dad: What score are you thinking]

[CatTheCutest: A five!]

[Dad: A five?? Are you sure?]

[CatTheCutest: Well, a four. A four-point-five!!]

Okay. So first up, you start off as Gollum, and if you look at him, he's kind of creepy and horrifying. Then you see some... beautiful image. But then Gollum shows up! GRRR! And also it's very dark, so it's kinda hard to find things, especially those VINES. It was just so dark. There was only like teensy bits of fire and that was your only light. And be careful, or else you'll accidentally fall off a cliff! Cuz I did.

Português: ESSE É O JOGO SUPREMO, o ápice máximo e absoluto de toda a ficção, de todas as mídias e de todo entretenimento. Esse jogo foi, é, e vai continuar sendo tão primordial, tão fundamental, e também tão importante na minha vida, que eu não poderia fazer só uma análise chata e cheia de texto, então é isso.
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English: THIS IS THE SUPREME GAME, the maximum and absolute peak of all fiction, of all media, and of all entertainment. This game was, is, and will continue to be so primordial, so fundamental, and also so important in my life, that I couldn't do just a boring, text-filled review, so that's it.

I'm shattered. No game has made me sob this hard. I often say "I'm crying" when I watch, read, or play something sad, but that's mostly exaggeration. I just tear up and very rarely actually cry, but no, I straight up loud sobbed after finishing this. I broke down. My face contorted and couldn't hold back a stream of tears for half an hour straight. My lips were quivering and I was groaning and I could barely breathe; I almost never respond this intensely to things.

Stories about apocalypses normally benefit from their own silliness. These narratives never feel real; they're either too fun, dramatic, or action-packed to have substantial weight. But Goodbye Volcano High is exceptionally hard to swallow.

These feel like actual teenagers. They have real interests, their diverse identities are relatable, their dialogue sounds genuine, they mess around naturally, their tabletop sessions have all these little details and comments that make them feel like the ones I've had, they have awfully relatable casual conversations, and their issues are grounded. For a game about dinosaur people, I always felt like these kids were human.

When you take some of the most real feeling characters I've met in any game and have them face the existentialism that arises from fears of an apocalypse, I was constantly on edge. This is a story where its characters have to grapple with the inevitability of their deaths, and at no point was I not deep in thought regarding their fate. Their happiness, each tuft of fun, and all of its love and positivity is carried by the gargantuan burden of questioning what will happen when that asteroid hits.

When characters make comments about "asteroid facts," describing things like "if you hit solid rock hard enough, it can liquify," it's some of the most disturbing shit I've seen in a game. It may seem tame in a vacuum, but when your world and characters are this convincing, the concept of a realistically approached end of the world is terrifying.

It's especially upsetting in the beginning, when everyone treats the asteroid as a joke, with folks making memes and using it as a crutch for humor. People claiming they wish the asteroid would just hit to get them out of certain situations is so painfully real. It's a behavior that actual people would showcase, and little moments like that make me think about our own existence and how little time we have.

Its narrative is tied to our most future-conscious period—senior year of high school, where we are expected to make definitive decisions on what we do for the rest of our lives—and those futures being shattered by an unavoidable natural disaster is heartbreaking. To see these kids lose their ambitions and dreams, and there is nothing they can do but accept their fates… it's far too fucking heavy for anyone at that age to have to go through. Just thinking about it nearly brings me to tears.

And I cannot put into words how much I relate to the protagonist. Fang failing to find acceptance from their parents, difficulties with their gender identity, conflicts and conversations with their brother, being pegged as the spoiled, selfish brat, and even something as simple as being Arabic... all of it feels so scarily relatable to my personal experience. Many people won't quite get that from it, and it is probably a huge contributor towards why Goodbye Volcano High felt so real for me, but I see myself in Fang more than I ever have in any fictional character.

Today, I'm flying across the Atlantic ocean to see my girlfriend for the first time. I can say a lot about Goodbye Volcano High, but the only thing that matters is that after finishing it, I want nothing more than to hug her as hard as possible. To value the people in my life and the short time we have. The few moments of happiness we can spare in something so ephemeral.

Goodbye Volcano High shattered me, but rather than it having a debilitating effect, I want to do better at cherishing the people I love.

It’s hard to believe this exists. Its illustrations are straight out of a warm children's book; it's carefully woven to evoke this all-encompassing sensation that you're deep in the throes of a fairy tale, with its most sinister moments only solidifying that feeling. Its effortlessly delightful soundtrack and phenomenally soft, cozy drawings brought such a sincere smile to my face.

Somehow, Square Enix published this dating sim RPG where you can ONLY romance other women. Yep, it’s 100% queer. Alongside its shockingly uncomfortable commitment to abstract horror, staggering production quality, and 90s anime aesthetic inspirations, it is a personal dream game. I cannot fathom how this is actually real.

I’m only just recovering from my first playthrough, but after catching four of the game’s endings, I don't have much else to say except I’m in love with Little Goody Two Shoes. I want to write more about it someday soon, but I am deep in adoration after having finished the game tonight and need to get the word out there.

Please, if you're a fan of 90s anime, love abstract horror, are into magical, fairy-tale aesthetics/music, or are remotely excited by the idea of sapphic love stories, do not miss out on this. Little Goody Two Shoes is wonderful.