helenacell
194 Reviews liked by helenacell
Home Safety Hotline
2024
Home Safety Hotline takes analog horror and its '90s call center conceit to humorous ends and time-wasting interludes without ever proving its point beyond a cute bestiary to scroll through in the tedium of waiting. If time between calls were shorter, I might be more lenient on how the game proceeds, though an option to skip this wait time is appreciable for replaying the game. The couple hours necessary to beat the game are fine enough if the demo satisfies (but be warned it never improves in scares or game mechanics).
Who thought making fall damage in a platformer was a good mechanic, seriously I want to know I just wanna have a few words
Animal Well
2024
This review contains spoilers
You start, you explore, you discover. For something without dialogue, this game does a ridiculously good job of explaining itself. The organic discovery of how the world and mechanics of Animal Well work is immaculate.
You reach the credits and think you're done with a cute, short, simple, indie game, and then you remember all of the places you noticed and didn't know what to do with during your playthrough. So you head back to the rooms, double check, find something interesting, swim deeper into the well.
Eventually you discover something you couldn't possibly figure out on your own, and so you turn to the internet. Only to discover that the game wanted that from you, there are things in this game that require a community to solve together, secrets you aren't meant to find unless you already know they're there. Animal Well is a game that keeps on giving. Even when you think it has nothing left to show you.
I'm not entirely sure what happened, I bought the game on a whim six days ago, and I've played it every day since. Despite finishing most of the in-game content aside from breaking the game and doing speed runs, I don't think I'm going to stop playing any time soon.
After two credits sequences and twenty achievements, I was eaten by a rabbit and now I can turn into a moth and fly freely around the entire map. After an audio file from Billy Basso, Dan Adleman and Dunkey played I gained a permanent pair of headphones. After I changed my computers date to the 2nd of February I was given a drink by a Groundhog and gained a permanent extra heart. Though I haven't run out of things to do, I think it's time to stop before the game is over for good.
But I don't want to leave the well yet.
You reach the credits and think you're done with a cute, short, simple, indie game, and then you remember all of the places you noticed and didn't know what to do with during your playthrough. So you head back to the rooms, double check, find something interesting, swim deeper into the well.
Eventually you discover something you couldn't possibly figure out on your own, and so you turn to the internet. Only to discover that the game wanted that from you, there are things in this game that require a community to solve together, secrets you aren't meant to find unless you already know they're there. Animal Well is a game that keeps on giving. Even when you think it has nothing left to show you.
I'm not entirely sure what happened, I bought the game on a whim six days ago, and I've played it every day since. Despite finishing most of the in-game content aside from breaking the game and doing speed runs, I don't think I'm going to stop playing any time soon.
After two credits sequences and twenty achievements, I was eaten by a rabbit and now I can turn into a moth and fly freely around the entire map. After an audio file from Billy Basso, Dan Adleman and Dunkey played I gained a permanent pair of headphones. After I changed my computers date to the 2nd of February I was given a drink by a Groundhog and gained a permanent extra heart. Though I haven't run out of things to do, I think it's time to stop before the game is over for good.
But I don't want to leave the well yet.
Another one that I used to watch in elementary school. The game was very different from a lot of others for the GB and that kinda interested me.
It's not an amazing game but it's good to test your "balance" skills
It's not an amazing game but it's good to test your "balance" skills
What a great launch!
Batman: Vengeance
2001
2D fighter-platformer.
Not great, shame since it's based on one of the best versions of the character, the BTAS version
Not great, shame since it's based on one of the best versions of the character, the BTAS version
Batman: Vengeance
2001
So inoffensive yet boring. Awful music. Ended up beating the game because it was so simple. Cannot believe this is a gba game from 2001 and not an Amiga game from 1986 with how the music sounds and how it plays. 3/10 for at least functioning and keeping my attention for a while.
I think the Dark Knight took muscle relaxers because he's throwing punches out at the speed of a Korean War vet
At least you get to fight seemingly endless clones of Allen the Alien from Invincible, the multiverse really is real
At least you get to fight seemingly endless clones of Allen the Alien from Invincible, the multiverse really is real
Bazooka Boy
TBD
Game isn't completely horrible but the gameplay is extremely straightforward and nothing about it is super engaging. The aesthetics, programming, and level design all are done fairly poorly. Go play Angry Birds instead.
I am in fact still a little baby.
Tunic
2022
By design, TUNIC, in a contemporary scenario, is flawed. It's hostile - leaving you with pieces of bread crumbs, often unintelligible and obtuse. No doubt it's confusing, and intentionally difficult to grasp for most who attempt to play it.
That doesn't mean I dislike TUNIC, though. The core reason why TUNIC is difficult to love is because of how much do you need to engage with it. Is it the world? Do you love deciphering manuals? Are the rewards for solving such a weird puzzle satisfying?
To be frank, TUNIC resonates with my brain, the morbid curiosity that constantly wants to seek, explore, discover and be baffled about. I love the opaqueness TUNIC offers.
That doesn't mean I dislike TUNIC, though. The core reason why TUNIC is difficult to love is because of how much do you need to engage with it. Is it the world? Do you love deciphering manuals? Are the rewards for solving such a weird puzzle satisfying?
To be frank, TUNIC resonates with my brain, the morbid curiosity that constantly wants to seek, explore, discover and be baffled about. I love the opaqueness TUNIC offers.
Fun fact: This was made by the people who developed that bad Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends game on the gameboy advance. But WOW this is way worse than that game. Only thing I can praise was how the characters look and that they gave a good version of the theme song to use as the intro of this game. But other than that? All this is, is a boring fetch quest game. Everything I dislike about Foster's on GBA is done WORSE in this game. Fetch quests are even more annoying. It's even more tedious and repetitive. It's extremely tedious. The minigames are laughably easy to where I actually yawned (not joking). Every time where I am about to complete a mission, OOPS YOU GOT ANOTHER ONE TO DO IN ORDER TO COMPLETE THAT MISSION.
Overall, what a boring, tedious, repetitive experience of a Camp Lazlo game. At least with Foster's I never at all once felt bored throughout that game despite it being a bad game. And at least you had more stuff to do instead of the same thing every time. You're better off watching the show. Do that instead of playing this game.
Overall, what a boring, tedious, repetitive experience of a Camp Lazlo game. At least with Foster's I never at all once felt bored throughout that game despite it being a bad game. And at least you had more stuff to do instead of the same thing every time. You're better off watching the show. Do that instead of playing this game.
American Idol
2003
Paula Abdul telling me my performance lit up the stage made my day
Today is the day imagination died.
Cool music playlist, fun minigames and overall the story was good.