edit: apparently literally hours after i posted this review, Tetris Holding LLC took down setris but it's still available on archive.org: https://archive.org/details/setris-1.2

if that link goes down hmu on discord i gotchu

I am and always have been quite bad at Tetris but DAMN

Immensely satisfying physics, sounds, and screen shake, but with some gameplay tweaking this could really shine. I think part of the problem is the sand falls slower than the pieces do as soon as you go up a level in difficulty, which essentially makes it impossible to catch up past a certain height. Also, it sometimes feels like there are too many colors, maybe 3 instead of 4 would feel better at harder difficulties? And of course, probably don't need to have actual tetronimos as pieces, though it works surprisingly well!

Playing JellyCar Worlds, it feels like no time has passed at all since the original game I used to play practically daily on my iPod Touch. Worlds is built on the same solid grounding of pure fun, low consequences that the original had. It's not hard to tell each level was built with love and care while still allowing so much room for the player to push the boundaries (sometimes literally).

I wish I could try out the custom car sounds, but I don't think that feature is available on Switch. Designing my own car was a lot of fun though, especially when I found out the burger design I drew coincidentally had matching tires and an antenna to go with it. The car variety was nice too, and the different cars actually had their own little pros and cons that actually made me swap back and forth (though I think if I had to stick with one, it'd be the tank which seems like the most direct upgrade over the original).

I've seen it been mentioned by someone else, but the skull levels are ridiculously difficult compared to anything else in the game. It's fun to have a big challenge as a reward for getting through everything else, but the movement required to beat some of them is insanely precise and often fidgety. They quickly go from fun to frustrating when you fall back to the start in Getting Over It style fashion.

As of writing this there are 6 worlds with 2 more yet to come, plus a level editor. The price already fits the bill for the amount in 6 worlds, and this game is easy to step back into so I feel fine with the slight incompleteness of the game on release, if anything just because that means the fun isn't yet going to end.

Gosh. What a fantastic Zachlike! I played on/off for about 3 months, with a total of 72 hours of gameplay to beat every level in the game, and I was always looking forwards to playing more.

The core mechanic is incredibly simple: you have a tape of instructions that you can read from one end with scanners and print on the other end with stampers. Other than that, you just have conveyor belts, pipes (for intersecting paths), and most interestingly: goals and trash bins. Everything you create has to go out through one of these exits, and you have full control on where to place them on the square grid. This quickly leads to lots of possibilities!

It doesn't take long before you reach levels that ask you to do really simple tasks (reverse the tape, for example), that actually requires some clever tricks and lots more space and time than you might expect. Rarely do these tasks get too complicated that they can't be explained in a couple of sentences.

What's so amazing is that even though almost every level gives you the exact same tools and building space, each level feels like it's own mountain to climb.

The keyboard shortcuts take forever to get used to (I was still messing some of them up even at the end of my playthrough!) but they are so immensely useful in putting together and reshaping designs that once you get the hang of them, it will feel like you're a photoshop wizard employing a million shortcuts to whip up your next piece.

There is some level of plot happening in the background, but its fairly minimal and not at all necessary in understanding the gameplay. For the most part, I disconnected with it and just played for the puzzles.

And yes, the last puzzle is a doozy. But it's amazingly simple at its core and is such a great finale!

Perfect little game. The script, voice acting, character art, background art, music, sound effects, are all absolutely wonderful and genuinely charming. The puzzles were generally good too, if a little bit samey/simple sometimes.

The characters were all so well defined and unique which made every little interaction with them a delight. Everyone had their own theme music, which was not only amazing but suited each character to a tee.

Won't go into the story too much as to avoid making this spoilers, but it was an actually pretty reasonable, well-dressed mystery, with bits that could be pieced together before the game explicitly stated them.

As a huge Layton fan, I love this game, some aspects even moreso than with any of the Layton games. I think it fell slightly flat on the puzzles, which is Layton's greatest strength (besides great art/music direction), but had a much more cohesive story and fun dialogue than anything from Level-5.

Highly recommend to any fans of detective stories looking for a pleasant, low-stress casual game.

a LOVELY puzzle game, oh wow. This game has changed my perspective on how good a NES game could be.

The devs found a simple mechanic (the ice wand) and never wavered from it. It allowed for so many clever puzzles with only one new twist every world or two. The way they introduced the mechanics was perfect, forcing you to run into the scenario that teaches you how a new piece of the puzzle works before sending you off to solve the rest of the world on your own. And you can skip around to any (non-boss) puzzle in ANY world, anytime you want! I can't believe how much this game got right, all the way back in 1992. Even the boss levels, with moving elements, were remarkably well-done, if somewhat repetitive.

Round 7-2 is perhaps one of the best puzzles in the whole game. Knowing it was possible, knowing there was no jank, made it so fun to figure out and so rewarding to get the solution.

The spritework is cute and awesome. The cutscenes and story were unexpected but welcome. There was a new song for each world and they were all bangers.

This game even has a level editor! I mean come on, this has to be one of the most impressive puzzle titles for the NES. What an absolute masterpiece.

I came across this game while looking into early escape room games, as it is one of three games that Takagism cited as inspiration for Crimson Room. This isn't an escape room game, and it doesn't really share any style or mechanics with Crimson Room, but wow is it a fantastic piece of art.

Chasm is very reminiscent of the Humongous Entertainment games such as Spy Fox, capturing that same eye-popping colorful style with unexpected camera angles and whimsical landscapes. What's awesome about this game is it takes huge inspiration from a real place, El Caminito del Rey, a cliffside walkway in Spain, that the developers actually visited as part of the development process!

Chasm so easily and effortlessly inspires wonder. I have a lot more I'd like to say about this game, but I'm going to gather my thoughts a bit and write up a bigger post somewhere off-site. I highly recommend checking it out (the easiest way to do so is probably via Flashpoint, which it is available on).

nothing against violence in video games but the realism is a bit too much for me

like, am i the only one actually experiencing major cognitive dissonance?

maybe its just being from LA but it sort of fucks with my head to run someone over with my car. or get shot. or shoot someone. at the mall i shop at. ack. i can't play this game anymore.

what does it take for something to get so real it actually feels wrong to play? why are we bothering to find out?