117. Mayhem Brawler - Switch (1hr)

A surprisingly solid scrolling beat 'em up that clearly aims to do little more than tread water after Streets of Rage 4 made waves.  I'd be amazed of anyone involved in the development process had any intentions of making this more than a serviceable knock-off - it never quite feels like they fully backed their own horse, which is a shame because the plod/punch/repeat core feels kinda good.  There are multiple routes at the end of each stage (and three endings), but a straight playthrough won't take much more than an hour.  This might be the only genre where that's acceptable though, assuming you have two friends with a penchant for the format.  'Solid' isn't as loaded with faint praise as it might be elsewhere either - a lot of belt scrollers swing for solid and miss.  

Gameplay aside, it's admittedly a little irritating.  The faux graphic novel frames that punctuate the stages, social media feeds and voice acting/dialogue are piss.  I was tempted to type 'GCSE level' but I think that's a little unfair on kids old enough to have chosen their options.  At one point one of the six or seven different enemy types says "nobody shall pass" and one of the main characters says "HAR HAR HAARRR, I got that reference!".  Double facepalm please, with a slow head shake for the "sometimes I feel like I'm taking part in a scrolling beat 'em up!" comment that inevitably gets wheeled out later on.  Anyone who thought the chatty cigar muncher in Rive was bad needs to get a load of this lot.  It also tries to do something a little different with status effects, which is best ignored so I turned the ridiculous visual cues off.  Pure 'let's do something we can claim is original, but not worry about whether or not it adds to or detracts from the overall experience'.     

I knew the basics got a passing grade from an Xbox summer demo last year, so for the current price of £10.79 I'm not sulking.   Not for everyone but if you're into the genre and you've checked out the modern greats, you could do worse than spend an afternoon with two chums and one of the better average efforts.  It's still leagues ahead of fondly remembered guff like Knights of the Round. A strong but astonishingly uninspired [6]

One to play if it hits Game Pass I reckon.  In keeping with the decades old template, it's got subway trains, lifts, penthouses, smashable phoneboxes, degradable drainpipes, sewers, characters with the prefix 'fat', rampant police brutality and bin edibles for days.  Don't expect it to make any real attempt to rewrite the tropes, but do expect to be pleasantly surprised at how it imitates the best better than most.

29. Cuphead DLC [8]
A tasty side dish, which ups the quality a little bit more and features a few top-tier Cuphead bosses. Short but sweet.

30. Madison [6]
A first-person horror game with a whiny protagonist that relies too heavily on cheap jump scares for its horror. Otherwise, it's decent, with the standout feature that it arms you with a Polaroid camera and flash to stumble around in the dark, trigger weird events and solve its puzzles.

31. Stray [8]
The cat game is a good one, although that's as much down to the androids and locations as the feline star. Many games would make more sense if they replaced their protagonists with kitties and NPCs with robots.  

32. Poinpy [8]
The creators of Downwell turn things upside down with tons of colour and a battle against gravity. Touchscreen controls are great for catapulting yourself about collecting fruit, and while sometimes the random nature of layouts can conspire against you, it's a highly moreish combo chaser. Certainly one of the better mobile games I've tried.

33. Into the Breach: Advanced Edition [9]
Another Netflix revelation, playing such a compact strategy on a tablet with bags of new content is mobile perfection. There are fresh units, monsters, missions objectives, weapons and scenery features to work with, making it more than worth a revisit even if you've rinsed it before. 

34. Escape Academy [7]
A solidly entertaining effort at recreating the escape room experience digitally (with co-op, if desired). Stages are fairly short, but stuffed full of codes, patterns and objects to find, decipher and use. The scenarios are varied, and the puzzles tricky enough to have you pausing for thought without ever being dispiritingly complex. Nothing astonishing, but not much to complain about either.

35. Endling: Extinction Is Forever [6]
The fox game isn't as good as the cat game. It's rather caught between a Disneyfied depiction of the vixen and her cubs, and the horrors of an environment fast going to shit because humans can't stop doing human things. As a survival game, I never wanted it to be harsh, but then it's a little too mild and generous for the good of its catastrophic themes. The way the natural world changes day to day, forcing you to find new routes and risk contact with people is nicely done, but keeping the cubs fed is never really much of a worry. They are adorable, though.

I played the demo of Endling and thought it did some things quite well, but it didn't quite feel worth bothering with. I reckon I would've played it a few years ago. Too many decent options these days though.

Oof!  Think I gave it an eight or so.  I seriously can’t remember fuck all about it though so maybe that was a bit much.  Only that it has nice graphics and went for too long.  LOL at the yellow shadow.

Not canon!

It gets plenty of love Wario, I'm definitely in the minority with the 'it's gash' opinion for no.4. Reading some reviews after finishing it had me wondering if they'd been playing the same game. I couldn't click with it at all.

Low level hyped. It was a bit checklisty but much higher quality than expected (considering the 3D/2D blend, which rarely works for me).

Part 1: Games 1-4 (Ready or Not, Can Androids Pray, Bad End Theater, Anger Foot) 
Part 2: Game 5 (Bloodborne PSX) 
Part 3: Game 6 (Day Repeat Day) 
Part 4: Games 7-14 (Elden Ring, GT7, Horizon: Forbidden West, Emily is Away 3, Fifa 22, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Good Night Knight, There is no Game) 
Part 5: Games 15-22 (Disco Elysium, Cyberpunk 2077, Deep Rock Galactic, YAKLAD, Manifold Garden, Factori, Circadian Dice, Nier Re[in]carnation) 
Part 6: Game 23 (The Sexy Brutale)
Part 7: Games 24-31 (Dragon's Dogma, Vampyr, Rogue Legacy 2, Lair of the Clockwork God, Escape Simulator, Ender Lillies, Rhythm Doctor, Citizen Sleeper)
Part 8: Games 32-33 (You Have to Win this Game, Narita Boy)
Part 9: Game 34 (Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion)

Game 35: NORCO



NORCO is a lot. An oppressive weird trip through an alt-future Louisiana, a future where the end has already happened. This is post-late-stage capitalism, the body is already dead and it is bloated and decomposing before our very eyes. 

Characters speak around each other, often in overly flowery terms. Nobody makes any sense. It has comedy, but comedy so black and dry as to be actively unsettling. Mechanically it's fine - there's not much to write home about here, but it's not about that. It's not even about the characters, or the story, or the art - all of which are special - it's about that ambiance, that general feeling of malaise that is just there, always there. Can't remember a game that ever made me feel that...off. [9]

Game 36: Buck Up and Drive



Yo, it's like Outrun but now the car can do sick flips and tricks and there's some Burnout in there for good measure, and you can customise your car and put flames on it and...the game really should be better than it is with ingredients like that.

I don't want to be too harsh on this - it's a small itch.io title from a solo dev (I think) and what it does it does well. There's just, not much game here. After 5 minutes with it you have seen everything the game has to offer. It's a game that looks incredible in GIFs, but there's nothing beyond that. A shame, then, and maybe one day it will be something more. Fun for a handful of minutes and not a second longer. [5]

Game 37: A Year of Springs



If you've ever played a Ren'Py game, the above screenshot will be very familiar. It's a Ren'Py visual novel with occasional choices and lots of kinetic dialogue. That's it - and, that's ok. Visual novels are visual novels. What makes a difference is the story.

This particular VN has a decent story. Or, 3 stories rather. Won't go into too much detail, but these stories are ruminations on Trans identity and while I am very much not the audience, in all likelihood, for this game, I can say I had a decent time with it. The art was cute, the characters were fun to spend time with and the story (and choices) got me thinking about the situations the characters face and the way the world views them. Short, sweet, not a bad way to spend a break or two. [7]

Game 38: Buddy Simulator 1984



Can't remember why I brought this - might have just been an impulse purchase but, whatever the reason, it was a good choice. 

Buddy Simulator is a game about playing with an AI companion. I named mine Muzzy and, just like the real thing, he was overly needy and insecure to the point of being cloying. Despite having to spend hours with Muzzy, however, I had a good time. And, in spite of the old-school presentation, the game manages to be regularly inventive and, often, surprising. It can jump pretty effortlessly between funny, creative and creepy, and it's a game that just feels assured. Would recommend this to the PC crew if they're looking for sth different. [8]

Game 39: Dicey Dungeons



I played Circadian Dice earlier in the year and really liked it. This has similarities - asking you to fiddle with dice setups in various guises to go through a set of floors or challenges. Circadian Dice, however, was far more involved in it's mechanics, revelling in the micromanagement and setup of everything. Dicey Dungeons is softer, simpler, breezier. And...not necessarily better. But, it was still a good time and the aesthetic and OST do so much good work here . [7]

Game 40: Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order: EA

Not really a Star Wars person but I am a Souls person and I am a Metroid person and this game has both of those wrapped in there. Played in on PS4 but hated the technical performance. Tried it again on PS5 and finished it. It's often quite pretty, and there's some good stuff there. I can't help but feel that it's a sequel away from being properly good, though. There's too much jank here, still, the combat just doesn't have the same level of tightness that its peers have, it's too buggy and it falls just short of being quite good overall. As it is, I had a decent time, and if I cared about Lord Bonubu from the Wanglespango Sector I'd probably upgrade that to a good time. [6] 

Game 41: Grindstone



This was fine. [6]

Game 42: What the Golf

It's a funny game about not really Golf-ing. Played it before for work-related stuff but finally got round to playing the finished product properly. It's a decent gag and a lot of fun, but I imagine mileage will vary greatly. [7]

Game 43: Reigns



Played it a few hours, saw most of what there is to see. Won't play it again. Another short and sweet thing. 

Reigns is like Tinder but, instead of dating, you are a King and the left/right is about making yes/no decisions. You will die a lot as reigns can be short and cruel and even "good" kings see a swift end due to interests of corrupt opposing parties (fuck you, church!). I enjoyed this. [6]

Game 44: Moonlighter



Played a fair chunk of this over the past week or so. 

Moonlighter is a dungeon crawler and shop management sim all in one. The dungeon crawler part is fine albeit a little simple, and the shop management part is fine, albeit a little simple. The basic loop is a good'un though, and progress is continuinal and rewarding. Combat is a little, well, shitter than I'd like. It's not bad but it's a frequent-ish annoyance and is absolutely the low-point of the gameplay loop. While the basic weapons and gear feel nice, the stabby-stabby feels overly rigid and the very digital four-directional attacks don't feel great when enemy movement is very analogue. The roll is proper good, though, so a bonus point for that. [7]

120. The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition - Xbox Series S (4hrs 40mins)

I fancied fitting this in before Return lands, which was well timed as Tilly's been on a Pirates of the Caribbean kick since growing up two years overnight (after spending an afternoon chatting with an older girl who loves them at a mate's BBQ).  I didn't expect her to enjoy this as much as she did, which in turn helped me enjoy it even more than I knew I would.   

One paragraph in and this review's already a write-off, but everyone knows about the game anyway.  The SE treatment is nasty, both in terms of look and the needlessly cumbersome inventory controls, but the voicework is strong and original version is present and correct at the touch of a button (love a good redo/retro one-press option).  Tilly requested the redo for the most part, the weirdo.  Was lovely to see some of the gags landing on fresh eyes.  I wasn't much older than her when I first played it (on a mate's Amiga that we had to leave on overnight to finish it for some reason). The docks love scene was a hit (she's been signing letters and notes off with "plunder bunny" since), as was Stan and the sleeping BUT NOT DEAD poodles.  A true classic.  Yes, some of the solutions are a bit of a stretch, but that's the nature of the beast. [9]

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Hmmm Grindstone is on my watch list. Not quite sure how it got there as I don't tend to like that sort of game. Must've been a forum rec at some point. Great review of Buddy Sim.

Yeah, I mean, Grindstone is a Match-X game, and it's not a bad one. There's some cool stuff mixed in there and they get pretty creative with it. The art style is super expressive. It's just...not the type of game that really works for me. Imagine you'd end up in a similar place to me after a few hours. 

Got it for "free" on Apple Arcade though, so didn't cost me anything beyond that.

121. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - PS5 version (12-13hrs)

I enjoyed all the Uncharted games (except the Vita one, admittedly), and this is always top of the pile when I jump in on the 4,2,1,3 thing.  I'd only played it once, as is my wont with most non bitesize games, but recently decided I fancied a shiny 60fps runthrough.  Which I incorrectly assumed I'd be able to do by popping the PS4 disc into my PS5.  I expect I bored everyone to tears in the PS5 thread when I was buying the upgrade, but the TL,DR from me is that while the framerate boost makes a visually divine game even more glorious, the rest of the polishing is lost on a 1080p display unless you're the kind of dullard who counts extra dust particles and marvels at how far we've come.  I don't expect my games to be overhauled for free, but my hot take 'I reckon' is that the PS5 should be able to boost the framerate on this natively - which was one of the selling points of the console for me - and the Legacy of Thieves collection (£45 unless you own U4/LL) is A Bit Cheeky.  Most other 30fps games have their framerates doubled by simple HW electrickery, so why can't the ones Sony want to remaster?  And is it really a legit remaster if most people probably couldn't tell the difference?  Cue Bloodborne Remaster announcement...   

With the oh-shit-now-I'm-a-dullard! talk out the way, it's still a fantastic game, full of a frankly ridiculous level of spit and polish.  I still struggle with expansive open world experiences, much as I try to fit in, so the 'go this way, shoot this lot, watch this cut-scene without feeling the urge to skip' franchise loop works perfectly for me.  "But Nathan is a mass murderer, which doesn't tie in with the moralistic cinematics!".  Lel; wobble your heads, suspend your disbelief, headshot some goons and stop riding Troy's bucket through life.   

My first playthrough (standard difficulty, PS4) would've probably taken 15hrs or more.  I shaved at least a couple of hours off this on PS5 by reducing the gunfight difficulty down to 'light' this time, but it's still a long adventure for something with such a heavily scripted feel.  The high gloss linear progression is manna from heaven to me, but this sort of thing has a sweet spot for length and my only real complaint is that this keeps going for a smidge longer than it should, and as a knock on effect there are points where cracks in the playable side of the itinerary start to appear.  Sometimes you'll need a boost to a higher ledge, sometimes you'll boost your companion to a higher ledge.  Sometimes you'll push a crate to reach a ledge, sometimes you'll rope a crate and pull it towards you, sometimes you'll boost a companion who pushes a crate down to you. Or vice versa.  Sometimes you'll hop from ledge to ledge without the handhold crumbling, sometimes you won't ("that was too close!"), but the end result is always the same (more often than not there's a specific way to go, and if you choose poorly Drake will either say 'hmmm, not that way', or you'll find a useless bit of collectible tat in a dead end).  Sometimes one of these things will have happened so many times in one stretch of gameplay a character will roll out a quip to add levity to the repetition ("another crate huh?"), but in all honestly your limited to-do list is stretched pretty thin over the course of such a long adventure, and the self-aware dialogue is just Pollyfiller.  It's fine, but only just, and although the whole quest is top quality I think the game would benefit from shedding a chapter or two.  Which ones?  I dunno.  Not the best ones innit.  It could probably do with a few less crate push sections in the surviving chapters too - as this is equal parts 'cinematic experience' and 'videogame', sometimes it'd be nice to just have more handholds within reach, y'know?  It often feels like the traversal layouts and light puzzles are solely designed to slow you down. 

Anyway, it's still an exceptional adventure six years on, and in any form remains one of the best looking 3D videogames in existence.  I played the first chapter on PS4 while I was trying decide whether to pay a tenner for the framerate upgrade, and it still looked ridiculously good.  The gunplay is underappreciated too - it's a simple, fun arena clearer whenever the bad guys appear, and I never thought the enemy waves outstayed their welcome in this one.  It's the best in the series and as there are still so few big budget linear single player experiences anywhere close it retains the [9] I would've given it at launch.  Originality is overrated, I would definitely play another sequel.

123. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 - Switch (2hrs)

I was a latecomer to the Castlevania games.  I guess I played my first one close to a decade ago, as part of the Retro Club thread.  Over the years we've covered IV, Bloodlines and Symphony of the Night in there, all of which would be in with a shout for a top ten on their respective host consoles.  I'm not sure what the story is with the Bloodstained games and tbh I can't be bothered to look.  They're either homages with no affiliation to the series, or it's a lost license thing and some of the developers are CV stalwarts.  Either way the straightforward 8-bit styled efforts appeal to me more than the sprawling (and not particularly nice looking imo, which I'll admit is a problem) Ritual of the Night.  I might still play it at some point though, depending on how far off Silksong is.  I played the retro mode that appeared in a title update, which was okay, but 20hrs of 'vania + the Metroid element is an undertaking.

I played Curse of the Moon on Vita and thought it was fine, but the onus on repeated playthroughs didn't really appeal.  It still doesn't, but I've at least developed an appreciation for what they're trying to achieve.  There are multiple routes through each stage, some of which are inaccessible until you've hit the credits at least once, and 'Episode 2', which unlocks post completion, appears to be a rejigged Episode 1 with additions such as new enemies and extra boss patterns.  The main quest is so hard on the default difficulty that I dropped it down to casual after three stages and started again - infinite lives and no knockbacks makes me feel like chief scrub, but I'll live.  Once again it's a shame there aren't more options - what I would've liked is infinite lives + knockbacks (a series staple).  Can't have everything I guess.

The character swap system is fine, and all the characters I unlocked felt noticeably different (giving one a rifle is a bold move for a CV game, but it worked).  The oversized mech felt out of place - the invincibility special felt OP and its hover jump was a bit imprecise, but fair play for the devs trying something different.  If certain characters die certain routes become impossible to reach, and of course there are plenty of hazards to keep you on your toes.  It's all quite well designed really, it's just a shame that the controls never feel sharp enough to swoon over.  In terms of visuals it looks slightly more legit 8-bit than the 'boosted 8-bit' style of Yacht Club games, or the relevant stages in something like The Messenger.  The main sprites look great in all their NES inspired, basic colorwashed pixel splendour.  I know many people are sick to death of this particular style, but I'm not - it's a nice looking game and it delivers a solid non-Metroidvania Castlevania experience. [6], but that's probably a bit mean.  I've marked it down a point because I'm still annoyed by retroking's co-op complaint, whereby the screen apparently freezes for a brief moment whenever either player swaps character, which just sounds teeth grindingly annoying in a game that sets out to fuck you up at every turn anyway.  I wasn't dissatisfied at the half price price though, and may return for the second episode at some point.

36: Nex Machina (PC) 9/10

This is the second time I played it through.  As with the first time I loved it, played it on easy mode, and thought 'this is awesome, but I really need to get better at it'.  When you beat it on easy, you can beat it through attrition with its infinite continues and generous checkpoints.  So I never really had the same high stakes experience like I got with Returnal (Ie, by the last boss in that game, I was a sweating shaking mess with an elevated heart rate.  With Nex I was calm throughout).  But you can't really get better at this kind of game when you only play it once every 2 years!  Anyway, excellent twin stick shooter, gorgeously presented, and I really need to give it the attention it deserves, but probably won't.

37: Resogun (PS5) 9/10

You can do pretty much the same review as I did with Nex Machina, except, this is my first go at it!

Absolute stunner and has aged beautifully, pretty sure this was a launch PS4 game and it hasn't aged a day.  I'll play it again in 2024 on easy mode.

38: Olli Olli World (PS5) 7/10

I was really liking this, but I got about halfway through, took a week off, and when I tried to play again I as buggered.  Muscle memory hadn't retained how to do any of the advanced stuff, and I couldn't be bothered starting again.

Lovely looking Adventure Time graphics, it has a nice breezy lightly comic tone (but have to admit I skipped the dialogue pretty early on.  Felt like it was getting in the way of playing and wasn't that entertaining).  

I really liked it early when it was just using a button and the left stick, felt really elegant, but as more and more systems get included I kinda lost interest.  I wish they found a way to make the whole game work with less.  I don't know.  I asked Seinfeld for his opinion and he agreed, saying, what's the deal with Olli Olli World?  Do we really need an entire world of Olli Olli?  Would a continent of Olli Olli not be enough?  

Sorry.  i thought it was alright but expected it would be awesome.

Glad it wasn't just me!  The bit where I cracked it was needing a different input to grind on stairs than you do to grind on rails, and I'd also forgotten how to manual.

Not saying it's easy to do in the heat of battle mind!

It pops up with the lb prompt when you get the timing right...though I'm never ready to press LB so it's usually wasted anyway