A Coc 'n' Ball story

A neat little puzzle game with a great atmosphere and some really interesting ideas thanks to its ball-hopping, world jumping puzzles. I actually think its really well designed for newcomers to the genre, or those who are more familiar with the puzzle design of 2D platformers (which the game's director was responsible for with Limbo and Inside). It was a shame for me that these ideas weren't explored much further than surface level as there seemed to be so much promise for the kinds of puzzle possible, but it's hard to be too critical in that regard as it's not something the game ever really sets out to do.

I was probably more disappointed that Cocoon lacks much of a narrative hook - as mentioned the atmosphere is great but I was really playing more for the puzzles than any kind of world building which felt a bit perfunctory at times.

I'm not super into Match-3 titles so when I saw what genre Pick Pack Pup was I didn't think I'd get much out of it but thanks to the game leaning more into puzzle than time limit (for the most part anyway) I was able to sit back and enjoy this way more than I expected.

Pup's tale was also quite enjoyable with the obvious real world analogies to certain giant corporation warehouse packing centres - a bit on the nose but no less accurate for it.

Crank usage - I think it would have been pretty hard to get it working with the core match-3 mechanics so only really using it to unfurl the comic strip story was fair enough.

Despite not having a game in the franchise released for around 20 years, this almost seemed like an inevitability since Tetris 99, as F-Zero fits the battle royale style really quite well. Races are short and sweet, and if you fail then you can get right back into another game almost immediately (at least around launch).

I think releasing with a couple more tracks in the game's standard 99 mode (others are available but only in a sporadic 'expert courses' event) would have been a better idea than everyone choosing the same two tracks constantly in voting - I just want to play Sand Ocean for once, dammit

I also encountered a few online hiccups during tournaments that ate entry tickets and spat me out with online comms issues almost immediately despite other modes working fine but generally it's good pick up and play fun. We'll see how this progresses when more tracks are added and if we see any themed events incoming a solid start for now, and a great reintroduction to the F-Zero series for the modern audience despite its retro styling.

I never really minded Sackboy's floaty and slightly sluggish movement in his 2D outings, but there's something about moving across the Z-axis that feels like you're wading through thick soup. Maybe it's the perspective from the camera angles being used but I was never really able to build up any momentum on those kinds of levels which for me is a hallmark of an enjoyable platformer. Not to say I disliked every 3D level, but I found the game a lot more enjoyable when it returned to LBP's sidescrolling roots.

Even with the movement issues I found some things to like in the later level designs and challenge trials - this outing really does follow the Mario formula of starting easy and then throwing the hardest levels at you as optional content or once you've finished the main story which is a sensible way of doing things, but the majority of those early levels feel rather uninteresting as a result, something especially noticeable given the speed at which Sackboy can move.

Also a final note of praise for the audio team for how well implemented the music is to each world you're dashing about in, whether it's an original piece or a remix of licensed music.

While finishing off some of the Menus in single player it really stood out how bad the races against the AI are in this. Enforcing rolling starts means you're always 30-40 seconds behind the leader, which means you need a substantially faster car than the ones at the front to progress, which you can do just by applying upgrades up to the specific race limit. I wouldn't mind this so much for an arcade racer but GT is meant to be more focused on realism and it really takes you out of it.

Being so fast removes any on track battling as you whizz past on the straight as the game becomes a glorified time trial, and even then the game doesn't punish you for basically cheating and heavily cutting chicanes. This removes any nuance in the process, meaning you don't have to learn the car or track to progress.

Online is still fun though.

It's more Supraland, but more focused and with less perfunctory combat (though what is there is still rather unsatisying).

Unfortunately I didn't quite enjoy it as much as the first one and I think it's because the game gave me quite an acute case of motion sickness. I didn't feel great when playing the first game but I was ill at the time so thought it might be that - now I'm wondering if the game was actually making me feel slightly worse.

Anyway, the puzzle ideas are good but some of the signposting and level design leave something to be desired and felt like a bit of a step down compared to the previous game. Also wasn't a fan of the pickaxe as one of your main on-hand tools, destroying little blocks never really felt great and the puzzles it allowed weren't very interesting at all.

The first impressions I had for Dreams were that the toolset was impressive but that kind of thing wasn't for me, and the Media Molecule content at the time was fine but severely lacking. Things have changed massively in my three years away and if you're not into creation, I'd recommend looking at the games that MM have created and highlighted as there are some really interesting looking experiences there. One of these was Tren, which launched last week, a delightful little puzzler where you need to make your way across various wooden train-set levels to the goal.

A lot of concepts are crammed in here and while some are occasionally overused of not hugely fun (sorry Cren), the majority are well designed and your movement as the train is simple while feeling natural. You have a free moving camera for 95% of levels which is fine but it can occasionally have a mind of its own, zooming in when you don't want it to, preventing you from seeing up ahead. A minor frustration normally but when you're up against a time limit it can lead to situations where it's hard to adjust and you miss hazards, necessitating a restart or reset to track. That said, it's a rare problem and the overall challenge ramps up quite nicely throughout, with some intricate and almost thrilling levels coming your way towards the very end of the game.

The set dressing is wonderfully cozy and all the paraphernalia strewn across the levels and hub world (three rooms in a house) really hit those nostalgia buttons. I also really liked the music - chill in hubs and more dedicated puzzle levels, but playfully intense where attempting to beat the clock is involved. Alongside a couple more specific MM throwbacks, it really made me miss what that studio can do in their own dedicated games.

And this last point really got me thinking about how the MM (and some user-generated) games that have been made in Dreams should be classified. These creations are made in Dreams and for sure I spent the hours in this software to play them, but they can also be fully fledged experiences (I spent 9 hours with Tren) with Dreams being more akin to an engine at that point. So I feel a bit strange about how to log, rate and review this and other Dreams games that I may try in the future - and there are a few that look really interesting - as while I'm technically playing Dreams, I'm also not. I know a line has to be drawn somewhere but it feels really fuzzy to me here.

Due to the huge toolset and variety of content that can be created which spans a huge range of genres and tone, I think Dreams in its own little world of almost being its own platform - a normal level creator this title is not - and I find it a bit disappointing that there's no way to talk about these games on BL in standalone terms. The record will say that I replayed Dreams with a playtime of 9 hours, but that really doesn't tell the whole story.

Described by my partner as 'the game I hate where you're a box and you're inside a box and you're outside the box', this a great twist on the Sokoban formula.

Big fan of the critical path puzzles never really going too far in terms of difficulty, but with separate off-shoot challenge levels being available on each themed stage if you want to explore those ideas further. The post-game challenge levels can be a bit obtuse when mechanics are piled on top of each other but I guess that's where it makes sense for the puzzle design can go as wild as possible.