caleb
2023
What’s that they say about the highest form of flattery?
2023
Conceptually very cool, but the core game loop is just too repetitive.
2019
A rich world and story delivered far too slowly through some seriously tedious traversal and exploration mechanics. It’s a cool game to read and a poor one to play.
2010
Deeply boring. Unproductively clunky. I’d so much rather watch a bad movie than be forced to control 15 hours of one.
I put another fifty hours into this and decided it’s better than the sum of its parts. Great game for vibin’, chillin’, goin’ with the flow, groovin’, all that jazz.
2019
Can’t think of many better ways to spend two hours than with this microscopic Breath of the Animal Crossing Wild.
2022
A beautifully told, frequently funny, often overwrought, always thought-provoking, incomplete yet unforgettable little story.
Deeply regret letting friends convince me to sink my life into the mediocre stealth action game wrapped in 30 hours of rock-stupid misery porn that is The Last of Us 2. Wish I’d just played another Life Is Strange for 100% less psychotic lesbian smooch sci-fi story game in 1/3 of the time.
If someone who grew up with a DS doesn’t adore the shit out of this game, odds are good they were a lonely only child.
1992
Just about as delightful a cute-em-up as I’ve played on the SNES. Co-op really seals the deal.
2001
Shitty, chunky Tetris with fart noises for a soundtrack.
1992
Looks great, sounds nice, plays like nothing worth talking about.
2022
A fundamentally perfect Pikmin-esque platformer. There wasn’t one minute of this I didn’t enjoy bouncing around these imaginative worlds poking every nook and cranny.
I can’t fault Tinykin for anything except that (1) it limits you to one save file, which is always stupid, and (2) it ends.
I can’t fault Tinykin for anything except that (1) it limits you to one save file, which is always stupid, and (2) it ends.
2022
A largely pointless retread of the last GoW’s themes with more annoying combat and less thoughtful puzzles. 10 hours of decent action game stretched over 40 hours of Marvel movie.
A cute, charming, funny-in-a-smiling-not-laughing-out-loud-way little linear adventure game that will mostly be of interest to young kids and fans of Link’s Awakening curious to see where its engine developed.
Mechanically, there’s nothing particularly interesting or challenging about Kaeru no Tame. Most of it is an exercise in walking from one cutscene trigger to another, punctuated by trivial platforming sections and periodic automated combat. Occasionally an item exchange is involved, presaging to some extent the trading minigame that serves as a minor side attraction in Link’s Awakening. Talking to an NPC with the correct item is inventory is about the extent of problem-solving Kaeru no Tame demands of a player.
Still, the personality and presentation which would make Link’s Awakening an enduring classic are out on full display here, albeit with an even lighter and goofier tone. It’s hard not to find something to like in this frog-themed children’s story even if there’s not much of a game surrounding it.
Mechanically, there’s nothing particularly interesting or challenging about Kaeru no Tame. Most of it is an exercise in walking from one cutscene trigger to another, punctuated by trivial platforming sections and periodic automated combat. Occasionally an item exchange is involved, presaging to some extent the trading minigame that serves as a minor side attraction in Link’s Awakening. Talking to an NPC with the correct item is inventory is about the extent of problem-solving Kaeru no Tame demands of a player.
Still, the personality and presentation which would make Link’s Awakening an enduring classic are out on full display here, albeit with an even lighter and goofier tone. It’s hard not to find something to like in this frog-themed children’s story even if there’s not much of a game surrounding it.