Mamon King

• Genre: Monster Raising(Life-Simulation?) RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 19 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's fine but I feel like it could use a bit more content to flesh out the experience a bit. Much of the time was spent kind of repetitively, once I got the hang of what I was doing.
• Soundtrack: It's what you'd expect for the type of game it is, nothing too special, but it's not bad.
• Why I played: I first saw the mish-mash of styles and mocked the game, but a post came up on my radar about how it was the dev's dream game and it caused me to give it a second look - early reviews were pretty positive and it had a decent launch discount, so I figured I'd give it a try.
• Did I cry: Nah.
• Jank: This is a pretty janky game. The visuals are a little janky, the style of the game isn't exactly cohesive - even when it comes to the monsters themselves, some using textures that other don't have. There are the occasionally glitches and needing to restart the game when you get locked out of menus. Nothing game breaking, but it's there.
• Difficulty: It's not too difficult until you get to the end-game stuff. There is a cap to how strong you can make your monsters and the end-game monsters meet that, so some of the last battles are determined with a mix of strategy and luck... well as long as you maxed out your monsters stats because otherwise you lose.
• Recommend to others: I think I would actually recommend it to those who are specifically looking for a Monster Rancher-like experience. That's about it. I don't think it does anything too new or too different to appeal to anyone else other than those who say "I wish there was a new Monster Rancher"
  

It's been a long time since I played a monster raising game, I use to really like them, but I guess the genre is rather niche within the realm of other monster collection and raising games. Like there are plenty of other games you "raise" monsters, but often with an entirely different set up. Like on a farm, where you walk around as your character and manage other aspects of the game. Maybe the Monster Rancher formula is just too narrow of a scope for a modern game, and is generally just meant to be the mechanic of another game. Like I just played Yahtzee the other night, except it wasn't Yahtzee, it was an entirely different, fleshed out game, with a card, and tokens, and victory points, etc. etc. that uses Yahtzee as it's mechanic. Rolling 5 dice, and rerolling your selected dice up to two more times to get the most optimal die.

Playing just Yahtzee just doesn't do it for me, there needs to be more, and maybe that's why that style of monster raising has fallen off. Not that there were tons in the genre to begin with, but between the first couple Digimon World, the aforementioned Monster Rancher, and one of my favorite games - Dragonseeds, there are at least a handful.

Anyway, Mamon King does have some modern sensibilities and feels quick paced and offers a good feedback loop. Despite using a calendar, I didn't hate it, as it works to help you plan for your days so you know what is coming up. Also there is persistent saving so there is no save-scumming, you just have to go wit, which probably worked out better for me because otherwise I would have done it constantly. Though there were two times I still wish I could have done it because it would have saved me a lot of gameplay time where I just kind of had to waste time, and the time wasted could have felt a little less wasted if there was more variety to the game play. I'm always for more mini-games, especially in a game like this that is practically built for having mini-games. Though it's little board-game traversing expedition was pretty neat and well implemented.

Some of the monster designs are pretty cool, but most are... okay. Maybe just not entirely to my taste, but it doesn't exactly make me want to play with more than I did. It lacks any kind of multiplayer, which is fine I guess, but most of these types of games have multiplayer. It's a staple to be able to pit your monster against your friends. Not that any of my friends are going to play this... or any of the other monster raising games I have played historically.

GO THERE

• Genre: Action
• Spoiler Free Review: Nothing to spoil.
• Time Played: <1 hour
• Too Short/Long: It's pretty short.
• Soundtrack: It has some cute tracks, but it's only a few.
• Why I played: I was gifted it for my birthday, thanks Rey pt. 2!
• Did I cry: Nah.
• Jank: It's a pretty simple and straight forward game, not much to jank up.
• Difficulty: A little bit more difficult than SHE SAVE, but only a little, maybe just because of being a little bit more complicated.
• Recommend to others: Still probably won't go out of my way to with this one, but it's also a cute little game and I'll keep an eye on what else the dev may do in the future.

In this game you have to GO THERE. There is where there is a like Tori Gate with the dragonest dragon, but also the dragons are the friends you make along the way. Much like SHE SAVE, it's just a simple boss rush game with a handful of stages, but in this one your character mostly heals and has a piddly little attack, but you gain the friendship of the dragons you fight and can use a couple of their abilities and switch between them in battle as you progress. This obviously appeals to me very much and is even more of an appropriate game to have played on my birthday.

SHE SAVE

• Genre: Action
• Spoiler Free Review: Nothing to spoil.
• Time Played: <1 hour
• Too Short/Long: It's pretty short.
• Soundtrack: It has some cute tracks, but it's only a few.
• Why I played: I was gifted it for my birthday, thanks Rey!
• Did I cry: Nah.
• Jank: It's a pretty simple and straight forward game, not much to jank up.
• Difficulty: It's not too difficult and I only had to retry a battle or two, but it has some challenges after you beat the game that are really difficult.
• Recommend to others: Probably won't go out of my way to, but it's a cute little game and I'll keep an eye on what else the dev may do in the future.

She save, she protect, she attack, she heal. She save is just a little game with very cute/cool pixel art. You play as a girl and do kind of a boss-rush things where you fight big screen covering dragons. I kinda love the idea and it would be cool to see a more fleshed boss, but I also really appreciate the art and the music was cute too. A fun little birthday bonus!

Tensei

• Genre: Arcade Platformer
• Spoiler Free Review: Nothing to spoil.
• Time Played: <1 hour
• Too Short/Long: Too short? I got what I paid for, I guess.
• Soundtrack: There is like an track and it doesn't entire fit the vibe.
• Why I played: It looked neat, and it was a dollar, maybe less?
• Did I cry: Nah.
• Jank: There isn't really any jank, to be fair.
• Difficulty: It's not that difficult, I failed my first run, won my second.
• Recommend to others: Probably not. It's too simple, even for what it is.

There is not really much to Tensei, it's just a game where you jump up along floating islands to try and reach higher and higher heights. There are certain bad islands you can't touch unless you goomba stomp a little volcano, and that's the only real hazard other than your own negligence. It's self-described as a zen game, and that's really all it is. Just something to play to play. I think after enough runs you get like an infinite mode or one without hazards? I'd have to just play to play for a few hours to unlock enough currency to buy the mode, but I got a credit roll as I "beat" a run, and I don't know if there is enough here for me to play for several hours more just to unlock a mode that allows me to play more. Maybe I'll pick it up again to play here and there, it's nice to look at, at least.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

• Genre: Action Adventure FPS
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 19 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's fine. Ran a little long on my end because I kept going back and forth to check areas over and over and there is no fast travel to do so, and I didn't activate the scouts that help you find missing items until my last pass through before finishing the game. I probably could have cut a solid few hours had I done that.
• Soundtrack: Soundtrack is fantastic. Mostly environmental mood setting type stuff, with a couple exceptions, but they still manage to be bangers.
• Why I played: I mean I play pretty much every Metroid game, but Samus on a motorcycle let's be real.
• Did I cry: Nah.
• Jank: It's a pretty polished game. There were like two times I encountered a glitch. One time where I was stuck/couldn't move and thought I was going to have to restart the game, and another where my scanning UI was popping on and off. They both worked themselves out though.
• Difficulty: It can be pretty difficult. It's not like grueling difficulty, but it can be a challenge and sometimes feel unfairly so when you're just trying to get from point A to point B. 
• Recommend to others: I'm not going to really go out of my way to recommend it, but anyone who likes Metroid/Metroid Prime, or has considered it, I definitely would. It's a really good game, but it's true to form for the series and I don't think is breaking any new ground.

I don't think I really have too much to say. After 18 years, this was I feel like a game that just played it safe. It did new stuff sure, I loved the motorcycle, and it played a little bit with each of the unique mechanics. There is some decent morphball puzzle/platforming and some motorcycle battles to mix it up, but they didn't go too hard, or lean too much into stuff outside the core game play. I think anyone with any fondness for Metroid Prime will be happy to play this one so long as they're reasonable, though some people are just looking to get mad at something.

I remember when Metroid Dread came out, a big complaint was it "uses too many buttons". I even know of someone who rage-quit the game entirely over it. I find it to be an odd complaint because modern controllers have so many buttons for a reason. Though I suppose if you mainly play certain genres - many buttons just become optional. Not to say controls couldn't be simplified or more intuitive, but Metroid Prime 4 definitely also uses all the buttons. I definitely felt it more for this one, and maybe because the more omni-direction nature of the game, but sometimes I would just be hitting stuff and doing the wrong thing. Plus the controls change depending on context too... there are the standard controls, the scan mode controls(not just for scanning!), the morphball controls, the motorcycle controls. There is a lot to do. But I'm not really complaining. In many cases, two buttons would perform the same function - I think this was to help with aiming during combat, and platforming, and stuff like that.

Arguably two things I wished were in the game would have required two more buttons. I wish Samus could dash - just run faster, and I wish she could punch. There are times in cutscenes where she just hits stuff, and the past couple Metroid games had the "melee counter". I really just wanted to smack stuff away that was right in my face. In sections where the bike was unavailable, I wish I could have just dashed or run to trek a bit faster. That would have made up for there being no fast-travel. Usually games like this would have a fast-travel, and this didn't, and I'm okay with that. It's not SO huge it's necessary, and sometimes fast-travel can take away from the experience. If there were tons of side missions and things I was actually required to go back and forth for, then maybe I'd need it, but it's not like it was a super long game anyway. I just wanted to run faster.

Digimon Story: Time Stranger

• Genre: RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: Story-wise yes, content wise no.
• Time Played: 100 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's not that I think it was too long, but the pacing felt a bit rough. It has you trek entirely through some areas, then trek entirely through them again later. Plus you unlock most side quests at the end of the game, which should you do, will have you trek through each of these areas again. They could have broke it up a bit by having some more sidequests available throughout gameplay and it would have been more fun to go through these areas again if they were identical upon revisit aside from enemies.
• Soundtrack: Soundtrack isn't all that great in my opinion. There are a couple fun tracks, but most of it almost sounds like stock loops and it makes me sleepy listening to it.
• Why I played: I loved Cyber Sleuth, and my biggest complain with Hacker's Memory - at least up to where I played, was it was just more Cyber Sleuth. I had hoped Time Stranger was going to be an entirely new, refreshing experience.
• Did I cry: Maybe a little on a few occasions.
• Jank: Not entirely much jank outside of invisible walls - though they are intentional invisible walls, they still feel out of place when you're not looking at the map. I'd say the jank lies more in some of the actual design decisions and such. Like not be able to look at your digivolution possibilities/digivolve while they're in a farm.
• Difficulty: At first I thought the game was going to have some challenge, earlier battles of the game required me to restructure my party, adjust my movesets, equipment, etc. At some point, it just didn't matter and I used the same digimon/moves the rest of the game. It could be my fault for trying to create the ultimate life form/doing this games version of grinding a little too much.
• Recommend to others: I think I would to people who like Digimon, sure, but I'm more likely to recommend Cyber Sleuth. It's been some time but my memories of it are still fonder. There are places where Time Stranger stands above it in, but it's not enough to take it's place.

Digimon: Time Stranger was alright. I like Digimon a lot and it satisfied an itch for a bit, I'm sure, but it didn't blow me away. I see a lot of posts in either Digimon-centric communities, or anti-Pokemon centric communities, how Digimon: Time Stranger is proof that Digimon is finally beating Pokemon or something.

This is... just not possible. I love Digimon, but Pokemon, as a brand is just something you can't compete with. Pokemon ZA may have it's issues, but it's still Pokemon, and the people I know who played that vs Time Stranger is 10-1. Even if somehow Time Stranger managed to sell better, it didn't "Win". In the time since Cybersleuth since I mentioned it and Pokemon also released it's mainline Sun and Moon games that year, Digimon has released a couple seasons of new anime, also a couple movies/ova type things, and a new card game. 4 "real games", and a whole bunch of service games, most of which are service terminated at this point, 3 remain, though one is China only and the other South Korea only. Overall, 11 games. Which isn't too bad.

Pokemon by comparison has released over 25 games in that same time. Only 1 service game has retired and a far larger percent are "real games" 16 in fact, with 8 of them being mainline games. Pokemon has never stopped airing anime, and their card game has caused retail stores to have to/attempt to enforce regulations on card purchases in the past few years due to it's popularity. It's just not a comparison, these two "mon" franchises aren't even on the same playing field. But I doubt anything will ever "beat" Pokemon at this point. It's too established, too ubiquitous. It's like Star Wars, Lords of the Rings, Harry Potter. It's place in pop culture set.

Kirby Air Riders

• Genre: Racing
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 20 hours
• Too Short/Long: I felt it a little unnecessary to redo an entire run through Road Trip, but it wasn't too bad. I think I would have preferred if I could have just selected areas I didn't visit my first path, rather than fully restart, it also would have given more inventive to try harder difficulties, which could offer higher rewards - to better match the ever increasing stats.
• Soundtrack: Soundtrack is good, all the Kirby hits and more.
• Why I played: I really liked Kirby Air Ride back in the day, and it's hard to believe that was over twenty years ago, but I had made friends play that with me a few times here and there but I am pretty sure I was far more enthusiastic about it than anyone else I knew at the time.
• Did I cry: Nah, but it did have a surprising couple of moments where I reflexively winced.
• Jank: Kirby Air Ride was pretty janky even for it's time. Air Riders is much more polished, but I'd argue has it's... peculiarities. It's not poorly made by any means, it just kind of inherently janky to some degree.
• Difficulty: Pretty standard difficulty, I would say it definitely offers more challenge than most "real" Kirby games, even at it's easiest, and at it's hardest it's not unfair - just extremely challenging. Often, there is a gimmick to something that may make it seem harder without knowing what you have to do. It's a game that while it only uses two buttons and a stick for the majority of it's controls, is actually incredible complex and buried in it's own mechanics.
• Recommend to others: It's a tougher one to recommend because of it being a very non-standard racing game. It has a lot more to it than that, and doesn't even always feel explicitly like a racing game, but it's also not the same genre as a normal Kirby game. It definitely feels like a Kirby game, but it's entirely it's own thing. I really like it, and even Alice, who doesn't usually enjoy racing game, has had some fun playing it with me, but it's something you really gotta sit with to know.

Kirby Air Riders is the best racing game I've played this year. A year where both Mario Kart and Sonic game our with some kind of racing game that take place in a World, or... multiple. I've had Air Riders less than a week and already put more time in the both of them combined. I've played a couple other racing games this year, but not ones that came out this year. Some top-down racing games, the 2nd Hotwheels Unleashed, some misc other games, I'm sure.

This is easily the best, in my opinion. I always complain about how The Game Awards is too soon and always missing some great end of year releases. This year I mostly complained about it because of Metroid Prime 4 coming out soon, but I also mentioned Air Riders, more jokingly. While it's certainly no Game of the Year, looking at it's obvious potential nomination spot: Best Sports/Racing, the contenders being the aforementioned Mario and Sonic along with some misc. annual real sports sim games, I now actually DO think Kirby Air Riders is the Sports/Racing game of the year and it's unfortunately it won't even get nominated due to it's late release. That said, the awards are mostly a popularity contest and there is no way it's beating Mario Kart, even if it was objectively better, and I'm not saying it is, but I certainly enjoyed it (far) more, and am sure I'm not the only one.

Kirby Air Riders has four main modes which are basically: Normal Racing, Top Down ala Super Off Road, Mini Game Mode, and Story. The main appeal being the different ways to explore the game's unique mechanics. You auto-accelerator, and your main button mainly just breaks/boosts and most vehicles each have their own gimmick for how to be utilized correctly. On paper, it sounds more simple than it is, but Kirby Air Riders, with it's one one, or rather two buttons, is far more engaging than most racing games.

The story is mostly the mini-game mode with extra steps - a lot of extra steps. A lot of short challenges, choosing alternate paths, collecting stats and rides in order to race/fight stronger/faster opponents. While many of the challenges are racing in different ways, there is a pretty decent variety of other challenges, including various ways to battle, collect-a-thons, map-control etc. The way the story combines all these different modes and challenges make it feel like it's much more than a racing game. I felt like I was playing an actual campaign of sorts and it's fun and invigorating and escalates it into new heights beyond just another race, it does things very few other racing games do that actually make it feel engaging. It's almost a disservice to call it just a racing game. It's a celebration of all things Kirby, an action adventure party, that just so happens to utilize a unique racing game's mechanics for all of the gameplay.

Neon Inferno

• Genre: Run and Gun
• Spoiler Free Review: Not much to spoil.
• Time Played: ~5 hours
• Partner: Alice
• Too Short/Long: If we were better at the game, it would have been a good bit shorter, we both would have liked to have seen more. But it's way better than the ~1 hour length of the studio's previous game.
• Soundtrack: Soundtrack is pretty great, hype and surprisingly diverse.
• Why I played: I loved Steel Assault for the maybe 1 hour I played it. I had mentioned it seemed more like a proof of concept, and while this is an entirely different game, I can at least see where they learned this or that.
• Did I cry: Nah.
• Jank: I would say the only jank really is just that some of this hitboxes seem bigger than the affect. It's definitely not pixel perfect hit detection and I feel like if it isn't you should generally be conservative in a game that requires precision dodging of attacks.
• Difficulty: Played on the standard difficulty as per usual, though this game really asks you to play on hard/arcade, so I wonder if there is additional content there, if so, I just may. Anyway, it was still very tough on the standard difficulty.
• Recommend to others: I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes run and gun games like Contra. The action is intense and pretty well varied, it has new an interesting mechanics, and the art and soundtrack are awesome. I definitely think it has the co-op in mind though, so more recommended for co-op than single.

The second I saw the trailer for Neon Inferno I knew it was an instant buy from me. It was definitely a very cool game. I had a lot of fun, but I do wish I could have some more fun with it. There are only a handful of stages, but they're pretty big and often have several different gimmicks or design elements. It never feels like it's just filling space with another encounter. The bosses are each pretty different and each have a couple unique phases.

The main element to the game which is pretty cool is the fact that it has the standard action-platforming-esque run and shoot aspects, but it also has a "shoot the background" gallery shooting mechanic that you have to alternate back and forth between. Making it at times a cover-shooter, often sans cover. Pretty unique for a 2d side-scrolling game. In addition to your main gun, you also have a knife attack that can also parry certain types of shots. I think it really has two-player in mind, because there is stuff shooting at you from every direction at times but you need to stop and shoot the background. Juggling this with two people makes it feel actually possible. 

There are also some upgrades you can purchase in-game but I feel like these are actually pretty poorly implemented. They are expensive based off what you can earn in a level, and they're one-time use, and you can only carry one. I feel like the upgrades should have just been slottable equipment and maybe while you have limited ammo, you could turn it on/off during the stage. As it is, once you use it in a stage, you have like 30 special shots and then it's gone until you buy a new. An additional frustration to this is that some levels have (pretty severe) penalties to your income, which can basically mean you earn nothing (and maybe subtract from what you had? We had nothing at start of that mission). As it is we each used a singular equipment upgrade once each in our entire playthrough.

Minor complaint overall though. I just wish there were a bit more of it, but I guess it's like 5x the length of the last game the devs made.

Ghost of Yotei

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: No real spoilers, even the screenshots are mostly just environments.
• Time Played: 73 Hour
• Too Short/Long: It was fine. I kind of could go either way too, it could have trimmed ups some aspect and not stuffed the game as much, but it also could have had more story-related stuff and I wouldn't complain.
• Soundtrack: Generally speaking the soundtrack is good. It's not something I'm going to listen to on it's own, but it captures the mood when necessary. A lot of the game is without music and just the ambient sounds of nature or whatever. Optionally there is a lo-fi mode, and while that may be fitting for some, it's not for me - not because I don't like lo-fi beats to samurai duel to, but it feels out of place for the mood.
• Why I played: I loved Ghost of Tsushima and it's on my list of favorite games.
• Did I cry: A bunch of times. Not big cries, but there were a handful of pretty emotional moments.
• Jank: For the most part it's pretty jank free. Something about the controls could be a little better in the thick of big fighters, and I don't like how when you climb on something you're not supposed to you just infinite jump hover and sometimes the game has to phase you back into the last safe location or something, but other than that it's a very polished game.
• Difficulty: A little bit of a mixed bag on this one. Some aspects were too easy, like the platforming which could be too "magnetic" with Atsu latching on to thing and every path clear and obvious with separate climbable terrain, usually rocks and such. While sometimes the combat was damn hard. I feel like it was a good bit harder than Tsushima, but it's been a few years.
• Recommend to others: I would definitely recommend Yotei to anyone who might be interested in any aspect of it. You don't need to play Tsushima first, it barely references it outside one side-quest and random note.(Yotei takes place 300 years in the future). I probably wouldn't even recommend Tsushima over for any particular reason. Though I could say the same for Yotei. I'm not sure if there is one I recommend "more". But Yotei is probably has more going for it, being a handful years newer.

Like Tsushima before it, Yotei was a great game. It's fun to play, but what Yotei has over anything is it's just a work of art in every moment to moment. It's a gorgeous game and screenshots do it no justice when compared to seeing it in motion. Not just that but even how vivid it appears when seeing it while playing just seems like such a bigger deal than a screenshot. I took so many and I feel like not a one truly does the game justice. 

It's definitely a game you don't just play to play. You play to enjoy the experience. Savor the moment. Appreciate the time it took to chisel out each detail. The game is nothing without that. Well that's unfair, it has really solid gameplay outside of that. But it's the game's beauty which makes it stand out more than anything.

Double Dragon Revive

• Genre: Beat 'em Up
• Spoiler Free Review: Not much to spoil.
• Time Played: 3-4 Hours
• Partner: Alice
• Too Short/Long: Pretty standard for a beat 'em up. I would have been happy with more though, it certainly didn't feel like a slog thus far.
• Soundtrack: Some of the tracks are really good, but it's hard to mess up the standard Double Dragon fare. It doesn't do much to set itself apart though.
• Why I played: I like the beat 'em ups.
• Did I cry: Nah.
• Jank: It's a little janky. The controls and feel of the game are generally pretty fun, and you'd think being 3D as opposed to sprites might fix some alignment stuff many beat 'em ups are plagued with, and it does. But it just has different alignment issue instead. Some relating to range, some just with the graphics depth perception. Outside that, they wanted to include some gimmicks in levels, but they're generally kind of janky. Not entirely failures, but they could have cooked a little longer. There was also once or twice we had to restart a mission or do some weird awkward stuff because of glitches.
• Difficulty: Mostly pretty standard, and what you should expect, with a couple difficulty spikes that seem unreasonable. A mid-game boss was probably the hardest boss fighter, and the second hardest is one it just throws too much on screen at once and there is little way for you to avoid it. Usually it's best in these games if you get some kind of invincibility frames after being hit, even if it's just recoil, but nah, you get juggled pretty badly.
• Recommend to others: Despite the jank and difficulty spikes, it was a very fun game overall. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of beat 'em ups, just maybe not at the 35 dollar launch price. Feels more like a 25 dollar game tops that you maybe wait for a sale for around 15 if it's not your top priority.

Feels weird that it's called "Revive" when the last Double Dragon game was just two years ago, and there wasn't a key element of revival in the story. It's in no way a big reboot of the series. It's not the first game in a long time, it's not the first 3d game, it doesn't make super major changes to the game play. I'm not sure why it's called Revive. Maybe the devs thought they were doing more than they did?

What is cool, and a great addition, is how much of the environment is interactable. Throwing enemies into objects, kicking chairs at enemies, vaulting over object, jumping off walls - all great additions to make a beat 'em up more dynamic. Some of it could have been a little less janky in execution or less ambiguous whether it would work or not, but overall pretty cool, and that's probably part of what kept the gameplay feeling fresh and why I would have liked to have seen more. I would have even liked to have seen more gimmick stages - if they were a little better executed, but overall I don't have many complaints in the design and probably would have been happier with another hour or two of levels. Also there is a character who I felt like should have clearly been unlockable, and I'm mad he wasn't. Not that I'm complaining too much, because I loved playing Marian and Alice was pretty happy with Junsuo Ranzo.

It's only two players, and might have been a little too chaotic for 4 players, but I can't help but wonder... ideally the game comes out with an update to fix some of the jank, add that other character (or two), 4 player mode, and an extra stage or two and we can pop it back in for another go.

Cyberpunk 2077

• Genre: RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: Trying to be. Posting some story/dialog screenshots at the bottom.
• Time Played: 140 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Definitely feels a bit long because there is just so much stuff. I definitely feel like some of the gigs are there just to pad it out, but many of them still manage to build on the world, and some are even relevant to greater storylines. So it's hard to say it's actually too long, but almost any game that's more than 100 hours could probably stand to cut some content.
• Soundtrack: There are some amazing tracks, and while it may have some licensed, or some that had some collaborations, I think the vast majority was at least originally created for the game, and that said, damn. There are literal albums worth of music of a handful of different genres, and some real bangers in there.
• Why I played: I love cyberpunk as a genre, but prior to this game's release, I didn't really care. I saw an overhyped generic mess that overselling and uninspired. And maybe that wasn't entirely fair, but at least it wasn't quite as far off at release. After the game saw some revisions and made improvements, they never rereleased/updated the PS4 version, but PS4 players could get a free PS5 upgrade. Somehow that also meant people would sell PS4 copies for like 15 bucks, so I snagged the game on the cheap to give it a shot.
• Did I cry: Maybe a couple times, but more early-mid game than later on.
• Jank: At some point in its life it seems like this may have been the jankiest out there, and that might not entirely be true anymore, however, it's not without jank at all. All huge open world games experience some degree of problems. The more there is, the more that can go wrong. There were more than a few instances I had to restart the game because I literally couldn't continue playing. The main thing I somewhat frequently encountered, was a state where I could not bring up any menus and if I interacted with something that brought up a menu-like UI(like hacking panels), it would not come up and I would get stuck. Also sometimes I would get in a permanent state of combat or be unable to use any of the fast travels. The first time I experienced this I thought it was a story thing, so I was driving literally everywhere for many missions. I ended up restarting the game for an unrelated reason and found I could fast travel again - many hours later.
• Difficulty: I was playing the game on Normal originally, as I usually do and was finding it quite difficult at times. Eventually things evened out and then I found myself in a situation where I just couldn't level up any further. A quick look online suggested that you get more experience on Hard, so I switched to hard. It was hard at first, but eventually I got so powerful that "hard" was easy. I could have continued to very hard, but I worked hard to get where I was an liked feeling powerful toward the end of the game. Also, that final mission was still very difficult, I even considered switching back to easy, but I saw it through. Point is. There are so many variables in this game, it's probably hard to pinpoint what the perfect difficulty is. It's a very action heavy action game, but it's also still an RPG. Eventually your equipment/abilities/etc. could surpass what the game can offer.
• Recommend to others: This is not the same game it was at release, and as it currently is I would definitely recommend Cyberpunk to anyone who is vaguely interested. It may have some problems, but overall, it's just such an impressive game on so many levels. The effort that this game took, to put everything together is just unfathomable. The term AAA game is thrown around these days just to describe any potentially high quality, expensive to make, non-indie game. Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the very few games I would say fully fits the AAA descriptor. This is a AAA game as defined. I feel like this is to games what Avatar(2009 film) was to 3D films. It's not the first, it's not the best, it's not going to be everyone's favorite, but it is arguably the definitive experience when you refer to it.

My little bullet points got a bit more out of control than they usually do. So where do I begin? At the end. Finishing Cyberpunk 2077 left me with that feeling I only occasionally get upon completing a game. A tightness in my chest, a strange combination of adrenalin and hyper focus, with a relieved exasperation. It's a complex feeling that occurs after certain... uhh... game changing, games?

I'm still honestly not even sure if Cyberpunk 2077 makes "the list", but I feel like it's only fair to put it to test. I'll wait until I come down from this feeling, whatever it is. Maybe at the end of the year I'll reevaluate. Especially since a few sequels to games in my favorites list are queued up to be played now. I imagine it might have some changes coming.

Tron: Identity

• Genre: Adventure/Visual Novel
• Spoiler Free Review: Not exactly. There isn't much to write about without mentioning the progression of the story.
• Time Played: 3-4 Hours.
• Too Short/Long: Feels a little short. I thought the end would have been more like the first chapter. But it's just all there is to it.
• Soundtrack: Pretty good, but standard Tron sounding stuff.
• Why I played: I started to play Tron: Catalyst and met a character from Identity, so figured I should get that out of the way first.
• Did I cry: No.
• Jank: Nothing to really jank up in this game.
• Difficulty: It's so easy the actual game play portions are entirely optional. You can skip or have the game auto play them, or undo any of your moves. The main attraction is the story and the various paths you can take through it.
• Recommend to others: Not unless you're the most diehard Tron fan. Which I am. It's not bad, but the only thing you're going to really get out of this game is "more Tron".

Tron: Identity is kind of your standard detective solving a mystery adventure/visual novel. It's barely "adventure" except you can interact with some environments, choose where to go, and do some puzzles, and things will change in the game depending on your interactions, but it could have just been 100% a visual novel. It's interesting that some of your choices make for dramatically different perspective to a situation, but ultimately they don't change much in the overall outcome. Most of the story beats are still dependent on the fact there are multiple misunderstandings and unknown information, so while your actions have consequences, ultimately they are of no consequence. It also kind of skips the fact you should be able to solve the case 1/3rd of the way through with the resources provided to the detective, and things continue to just occur due to happenstance.

In my opinion, that's the absolute worst way to tell a detective story. Let me investigate, learn things relevant to the case, and solve it. Offering a revelation at the end that the main character and I both should have known 1/3rd the way through the game and most things just occurring because they happened to occur is just too convenient. It's not really a detective story, I just happened to be a detective and I was there. I just don't like it all being a coincidence. So if you consider the issues with the story and the story is 90% of the game, it's arguably a bad game. But it's Tron, so I'm not mad that I played it. The little puzzle gameplay was neat and felt like I was actually doing stuff, but I think it's also set up in a way nearly impossible to lose. I should have just skipped them to pay attention to the story.

Blade Chimera

• Genre: Action Platforming (Metroidvania)
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 12 Hours?
• Too Short/Long: About right.
• Soundtrack: Pretty standard fair, nothing that really sticks out.
• Why I played: I've played all the other games made by Team Ladybug, which are mostly the same genre.
• Did I cry: No.
• Jank: Not very janky. The only jank is maybe the slight awkwardness of the controls. It's something you get used to, but I definitely had to rebind them to even achieve that.
• Difficulty: It's mostly pretty easy. I don't recall there being a difficulty setting, but your level ups and equipment mostly outpace enemies.
• Recommend to others: Not really, not to most. While I enjoyed it, it's not really the best of it's genre. It's aesthetically pleasing and has a unique mechanic but overall I'd recommend many before it. If you've exhausted almost all other games in the genre though, it's certainly not bad.

Team Ladybug makes some pretty visually appealing games. This is their third action platforming metroidavania of the the four games they've made. The visual appeal is good at drawing you in, or me at least, but you need to have substance beyond that to make something really special and I think that's what each of their games really lacks.

The other two were both licensed so I didn't expect them to be the best things ever. They were both decent, but I think I felt like they were missing something. Especially in the level-design category. This is where Blade Chimera doesn't do better, and arguably even worse. Visually? More appeal - there is more stuff going on in the background. Functionally? Less creative, less interactivity. There are a wealth of corridors where it's just a hallway and you're meant to just fight your way through a dozen enemies. Everything is still very awkwardly angled and random to a point the design just feels like they're using a "metroidvania generator", or a "2d platformer game maker", so they can just place tiles down for each room. Very few rooms offered gimmicks or unique set pieces. They did introduce a mechanic in the level design that interacted with the main mechanics of the game, but only used it only a handful of times. It's a shame because it could have resulted in some very cool puzzle rooms, using that combination of mechanics. So the overall level design kinda stinks.

Dragonyhm

• Genre: RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: Not really sure, it doesn't track it in any way, and I played it while doing other stuff frequently, and generally short bursts. My best guess is... ~15 hours?
• Too Short/Long: It's pretty much just right for what it was. It may require a bit too much grinding to pad the time, but that would be expected for a game of the era it's trying to imitate.
• Soundtrack: Mostly game boy beep boop sounds, but it's fitting.
• Why I played: Via some ad or something I found out about modretro doing a bunch of "new" game boy games. Game Boy-esque indie games are nothing new, but this was exclusively a physical release.
• Did I cry: No.
• Jank: There is a little jank here. Despite being a pretty simple game. I'm not sure if this is on purpose to imitate the era, or just poor game design. Considering I had to restart the game boy a few times to fix the issues, I wouldn't quite chalk it up to intentional jank.
• Difficulty: As a turn-based rpg with only one playable character, you constantly need to heal via some method or another. I wouldn't say it's explicitly difficult, but in my mind, how much I need to heal equates with difficulty and the game requires you to heal a lot.
• Recommend to others: It was a cute game, and I enjoyed it. But it's only available via physical Gameboy cart, despite being a relatively new game. There is a demo on itch, so there is little reason for it to be only on this cart outside the gimmick, so I can't really recommend it to people on that alone. If everyone had their gameboys and was playing those? I might recommend it if we were still actually in original gameboy era.

No screenshots for Dragonyhm as it was played on my GBA SP. Which is a shame, because like Estique, it has some really cool old-school art. Technically I probably could have played this on my Retron because it also has a gameboy slot and taken some screenshots there, but I'm not going to now. I went for the full original experience I guess.

Dragonyhm is one of a good handful of games that ModRetro has as exclusively physical games I guess to further support their new Gameboy-like console. Similar to the Analogue Pocket, but more loyal to the original style. Hard for me to drop a couple hundred bucks on a a console that only plays original game boy/game boy color games in the year 2025. Thankfully they're designed to play on original hardware, and I do have a handful of GBA SPs laying around. I wish I had the extra bright SP, or DS played regular gameboy games. The lack of saturation in the front light display which I have not used for quite some time was quite noticable and maybe cause a little eye strain. I don't know how we managed without even that prior to the SPs release.

Back to Dragonyhm specifically though. It was a cute game. I really appreciated the detail to getting the whole old school experience. The instruction booklet we great. Cool art, details on how to play, how to advance. It was very nostalgic. The game really feels like something that could have come out 30 years ago. It's a turn-based rpg somewhere between an Final Fantasy Legends or Pokemon Red/Blue. 

The biggest downside with this turned based system is it's too much like a traditional turned based system and there is only one character, so you always need to heal him and there are very few way to mitigate needing to heal. You can increase your defense and lower the enemies attack, but that takes several turns. Generally speaking enemies are doing about 1/3 of your health at any given time, so a lot of battles end up being attack, heal, attack, heal, attack, heal.

I find you can do single character turned based rpg mechanics, with some kind of gimmick the prevents damage entirely a bit better. Still, as long as you're willing to endure that aspect, it's a fun little game. I enjoyed exploring it's world, leaning it's story and the writing and character interactions were mostly decent/cute/nostalgic. It's not going to blow anyone's mind, but it was fun for what it was.

Death Stranding

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: Pretty much, other than talking about game progression.
• Time Played: 80 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's not that it was too short or too long, really just awkward pacing since so much of the "real" story happens so late in the game.
• Soundtrack: Soundtrack is excellent. They make a point of introducing and presenting new tracks while on important missions, you can replay them via structures and in your room, but Sam should have had an ipod or something. Or at least been able to listen to music via streaming on the chiral network. Not that the score is bad, but it's usually pretty passive, so it would have been nice to be able to listen to the music while doing missions that didn't matter as much and exploring.
• Why I played: I'm a big fan of Metal Gear and by extension, most of Kojima's work. So I'm more than likely to try any Hideo Kojima game made by Hideo Kojima, that was written by Hideo Kojima, Directed by Hideo Kojima, and Produced by Hideo Kojima.
• Did I cry: Yes, a couple times.
• Jank: There isn't too much jank. The jankiest I think things are is sometimes controlling Sam doesn't quite do what you expect it to. The controls are a bit loose to ensure he interacts with the environment properly, but that also means there can be a delay in the interactions. Forcing him to trip and stumble, or fall from a great height when you clearly pressed the button required to avoid that.
• Difficulty: I played this one on easy because there is some scary stuff that borders on horror-game scenarios that would have made it otherwise unplayable for me if I didn't get some leeway. It also just increases the general survivability to get from point a to point b with less deterioration, and stamina decrease. Playing on a harder difficulty wouldn't have really made it harder from what I can tell, it just would have made everything take longer and maybe caused more frustration or boredom. It's already a long enough game. I think I made the right choice by giving myself some breathing room for this one. There is easier still, and harder difficulties. I think if you like intense horror-esque moments and don't mind the monotony of backtracking more, the normal and harder difficulties would be appropriate, but even "easy" still offers a decent level of challenge.
• Recommend to others: I think Death Stranding gets downplayed too much as a "Walking Simulator" but when most people think of a walking simulator, they think of games where you just move from point a to point b with little-to-no other mechanics. Death Stranding actually has a lot things going on and a lot of things to do, and in the end, I would actually recommend it pretty strongly.

I feel like Death Stranding, closer to it's actual release, was memed on constantly. When it came out, it sold well enough it seemed, but people stopped talking about it. Maybe because those who actually played it enjoyed it and there wasn't much more to meme? I feel like even positive reception was rather quiet. I did start playing it myself, but I don't think I made it through the first area, and most the game takes place in the second. There is still plenty of weirdness and things that are like "why did it have to be this way" but I guess it had to be this way, because that's how it's written. Nothing exists just for the sake of it, within the confines of the story. They may not explain it for 50 hours into the game, but at least they make an attempt and it more or less comes together fluidly.

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess

• Genre: Action/Tower Defense
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: ~25
• Too Short/Long: It felt a little long because it expects you to replay levels a lot.
• Soundtrack: For a game where dancing is so central to its theme, I kind of expected a better soundtrack overall. Some of the games later tracks are great though.
• Why I played: Weeb.
• Did I cry: No.
• Jank: For the most part it's solid. Sometimes thing don't connect when they feel like they should, and encountered a couple graphic/sound glitches that quickly resolved.
• Difficulty: It's a little tough at times. I think tower defense games have to be a little bit to be engaging. As a hybrid, each aspect was too tough on it's own, but I guess that means it was well balanced.
• Recommend to others: I'm a bit in the middle for this one. I'd only recommend it to people who specifically like japanese folklore stuff and would also be interested in a hybrid character action/tower defense game.

Kunitsu-Gami is a rare new Capcom IP in the year 2025. Okay well technically it came out last year, but it's still surprising from a company that has gone from frequently making all new games to relying almost exclusively on it's strongest selling franchises. While I don't think Kunitsu-Gami is going to blow away many people, I do hope it does well enough to convince Capcom it was worth it.

There is a specific flow to Kunitsu-Gami's gameplay and while I enjoy it, it's repetitious nature does not benefit it. Most levels have you spending your time frantically running around to purify the town and repairs defenses in the time you have before the defense phase, before you're subject to a period where you can only fight back and order/reposition your units. Some levels mix up with gimmicks, and I think each gimmick is used at least twice, but I still feel like there should have been more use of some of these gimmicks as too many levels felt samey.

Besides the bulk of the gameplay, there is also a little bit of town management, but there isn't really any customization. Each level acts as a little hub once beaten, and it's just assigning people to repairs so you eventually unlock more skill points or collectables, you just have to play a level or two and return to unlock regards, rinse and repeat. Maybe it's better then just spending some misc currency to buy upgrades/unlocks, and it's nice to flesh out the environment of the game, but it kind of just felt like a hassle. Like I was walking around to go to places that would just be a menu option, and doing it dozens upon dozens of times didn't help with the game feeling repetitive.

The game does lean hard into it's style. The environments are maybe a little generic, as they are intended to just be historical Japanese settings, but the character/costume design, the items, and all the things that flavor the world are handled with care. Overall it's pretty unique in that regard.

The story is a bit vague in it's presentation as none of the characters really have any dialog. Most of the story is short sequences of interactions and gesturing. Basically, the land is corrupt/defiled and you are on a mission to purify it.

It's another one to mark down as a PS2-ass game I've played this year. That description has kind of expanded to mean anywhere from like PSX-PS3, but it fits there solidly. One, it's a time when Capcom was actually making new games outside it's top four franchises. Two, it seems like it's just kind of a weird little experiment of a game. Three, it's a bit more simple in it's execution, so it just feels more like a game that would have come out twenty years ago. I don't mean that as a bad thing, I never do. It's just a difference in how games were made versus how they are currently made, and I keep going back to it, so there is definitely something about the straightforwardness of "this is what this game is" that appeals to me.

Ghostrunner

• Genre: First-Person Action Platformer
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 
• Too Short/Long: Feels about right.
• Soundtrack: When you're stuck in an area you may have to hear a track for a long time, thankfully the loops are pretty solid and do well to not feel too repetitive. The music is pretty damn good, but it is just kind of a bunch of high energy electronic loops. 
• Why I played: I wanted to be a Cyber Ninja That Climbs The City... in 4k.
• Did I cry: No, not exactly an emotional story.
• Jank: Sometimes the footholds can be a little janky. Getting caught on weird platforms, objects jutting out, etc. Not that there are many, but other first person platformers feel a bit smoother.
• Difficulty: It is extremely difficult. This goes in the bin of most difficult games I've played.
• Recommend to others: I would recommend it very selectively. People who like a challenge and the type of games that present each area as a trial you have to play repeatedly to figure out. This one is a little different because the levels are far longer than typical speed running trial games, but it still includes leaderboards and such.

Ghostrunner is a damn tough game. It's got the bones of a trial/speed running game, but most trial/speed running games have pretty short levels. It's something like that combined with a more traditional level design. Some levels are pretty lengthy and take awhile, but checkpoints are pretty generous, so it's not arduous to retry areas.

While some of the areas are really on point with the cyberpunk aesthetic, and you have a cyberspace environment you visit from time to time, a lot of the game is just general metal+industrial areas, a lot of weird sewers and ducts and rafters and stuff like that, it kind of blends in together. One other thing that's kind of odd is the scale. It always feels like you're crouching, even though you can crouch/slide. Compared to a lot of objects in the environment, you seem really small. Though sometimes you feel too big compared directly to say, a chair. I feel like scale is very important for first person games. Not necessarily for immersion, if that's something that's important to you, but just for judgement and sense of placement, etc. Otherwise there is this just uncanny feeling as you maneuver around.

I still really liked it. It was at it's best when it presented a new challenge in a unique way or a gimmick. It did a good job at mixing it up from time to time, but I feel like they could have done a bit better. A lot of the areas were just "Enemies are set up in an annoying way, stay alive and figure out how to kill them all." Which brings me to my next point. I played like 70% of the game thinking "Damn this game would be so much more fun if you didn't instantly die anything happened. If only I could take a single hit before dying it would be so much better."

Lo and behold, assist mode offers an option to have a single-hit shield. This game is constantly telling you what a badass you are. You are playing a Ghostrunner, an elite perfect combination of genetics and engineering. Yet, everything kills you instantly. It kind of ruins the feeling of feeling like a badass. Turning on the single-hit shield changed the game for me. I still died, a lot. The game is constantly getting more difficult and it's not gradual. I usually try to play games on "normal difficult" as it's the way the game is intended to be played(via many in-game descriptions), and I do have fun with a challenge, but I think this game is objectively more fun with this option on. It didn't change any other aspect of gameplay, just gives you the ability to take a single hit(except from environmental damage) before dying.

Anyway, I already started the second game, as part of my reason for finally playing this was because I got the second and I think they did a lot to balance and improve upon this one, but I'm a little burned out on it generally so I'll likely move on to something else before coming back to Ghostrunner 2. I liked it overall, it was just a little exhausting.

Tower Wizard

• Genre: Clicker
• Spoiler Free Review: Nothing to spoil.
• Time Played: 12 Hours(Mostly passive/idle time with some clicks here and there outside the few big pushes and resets)
• Too Short/Long: Fine, I guess. I feel like these types of games should be longer and more gradual.
• Soundtrack: The tracks are nice but just like, game sounds to fill the void.
• Why I played: A cheap game recommended by a coworker that had visual appeal. 
• Did I cry: No.
• Jank: No jank, everything is pretty straightforward. Maybe that the menus don't really resize even if you resize the window? So you have to position your "camera" correctly to view the menu if you have a smaller window.
• Difficulty: It's not really that difficult, but feels like the path of progression is pretty linear.
• Recommend to others: It's cute but it's hard to recommend a clicker game because it's literally just a waste of time. I wouldn't have gone out of my way to recommend it as it was to me.

Tower Wizard is a clicker/incremental game where you just upgrade stuff until you have the better stuff and then you can start over with more upgrade to be able to get more stuff until you have better stuff than you had before.

It's fine for what it is, but what it is, is just something to waste your time with. Some clicker games make it feel like there is strategy or consequence. Some make you feel smart for what you did, or have high moments where cool things happen after big upgrades that are super satisfying. Tower Wizard just kind of plays out until it doesn't.

As far as I can tell, the balance of the game is "too balanced" - meaning you just always buy whatever upgrade you can and you'll be able to within a reasonable time be able to complete what you want to complete. You have to "reset" a few times, but I feel like those are more or less standardized points with some slight variation. I only had to reset twice even though there are 4 tiers of upgrades and on that last one I had every upgrade(but not every level of every upgrade), and I literally played with the exact strategy I said, which is the closest thing to no strategy "buy an upgrade as soon as it's available". Basically, always ensuring the lowest cost upgrade is purchased until I can't purchase any more, and having my "workers" evenly distributed.

Without some kind of puzzle to solve it just falls flat.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: Very slight spoilers due to mechanics and setting.
• Time Played: ~10 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's about right.
• Soundtrack: Another one that is mostly just ambience, though the ambience is very important to the experience of the game, and there are at least a handful of notable scores, and when they hit, they hit really well. They fit the mood perfectly. Notably Andy LaPlegua of Combichrist worked on the music. Also the ending credits is a licensed track from one of my favorite bands, VNV Nation.
• Why I played: I've been meaning to play this one for awhile. It was a pretty big deal when it was new, it just took me til they released a sequel to get around to it.
• Did I cry: A little bit.
• Jank: This is a pretty polished game. It's also pretty linear so there isn't much to experience jank-wise. There was one time after a cutscene Senua's hair was wiggling around wildly in a glitch-state until there was another cutscene.
• Difficulty: It has a difficulty that feels "just right" for the experience. It might be considered hard by some, but I don't think it really is. I think it just does a really good job at making it "feel hard", and most the puzzles are just looking in the right direction from and navigating the right way. The puzzles would only really be difficult if you struggle with spatial awareness.
• Recommend to others: I would really recommend this to someone who enjoys very a visceral experience and narrative. I can imagine it being difficult to play for someone who isn't in the right mental space, or if you just don't engage with video games on a certain emotional level.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is a really good game and I'm disappointed in myself for not playing it sooner. It's not that long, and there have been times where it's come up in conversation where I now wish I could have engaged in back then. I imagine not too many people have it in recent memory unless they're replaying it before getting into the sequel.

Even though the combat is really basic, I really enjoyed it. You got your light attack, hard attack, block/parry, dodge, run. Run can modify some attacks, you can counter with parries, combos change up the attacks and I think even the dodge modifies the attack? It all feels really smooth and intuitive even though it doesn't really throw anything new into the mix. There are no skill trees. You only get an item that acts something like a "rage meter" or other similar mechanics. You use it, and time for everyone else is slowed down, usually. What's more is it ties into one of the main mechanics of the game you use for puzzle solving, in combat. "Focusing" is the main mechanic for puzzle solving, to see things as they truly are or should be? That's your "rage meter" and sometimes you can't even hit enemies unless you "focus". So it makes sense within the narrative without even actually giving Senua powers. Additionally there is probably some deeper meaning to the item that allows you to "focus" during combat.

I don't mind a linear game, but something about it feels like a game that should have a little more navigating, and more secrets to find. There are secrets to find, exclusively in the way of lorestones, and they're worth finding. I think they put a slight spin on some of the stories, but they're generally just telling you about Norse mythology, and the stories are also usually analogous to something that has either happened or is happening with Senua.

All together I think the most impressive thing they did with the game is make it cohesive, when the whole idea is that things are not as they seem. Senua's schizophrenia is the main theme of the game, and when first getting into it, the combination of audio and visual feedback pulled at my chest in an anxiety inducing way. I mean this as a compliment, it was wholly the intention of the game to do so and they succeeded well.

Inside

I just realized I can add captions to images(easily, without going into html view). You have no idea how many times I wanted to add captions to images but also didn't want to make a habit of using html for my stupid little blog posts. Anyway, if I wasn't just explaining that I found captions, I would caption this: "This is the most interesting screenshot I took that isn't a spoiler."

• Genre: Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: ~4 Hours
• Too Short/Long: While it's pretty short, it's fine for what it is, much longer would have dragged it out.
• Soundtrack: There is barely a soundtrack, it's mostly just ambient noises with a couple swells of tones.
• Why I played: I've been recommended Inside a lot. Both indirectly via youtube videos or articles from sources I enjoy, and directly by people I know. It's come up more than most games. I played Limbo and... kind of liked it, so I figured I'd give this a shot.
• Did I cry: No.
• Jank: There isn't much to be janky. Maybe the worst thing is sometimes it seems like the interactions can be particular when they should give a little more range of access.
• Difficulty: It's not really that difficult. There are a few moments in the game where spatial awareness combined with clever maneuvers are required but it starts you approximately 10 seconds before that so you get to try again right away.
• Recommend to others: Maybe it just didn't click with me, but I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend this. I don't think it was a bad game, it just wasn't that interesting. I didn't even love Limbo the way some people did when that was newer, and I don't think this is as good as that.

There isn't too much to elaborate on here. The game is pretty... straight forward. As in you walk straight forward, interact with the one or two interactable objects and then continue to walk straight forward. Sometimes you need to have specific timing to your walking forward and sometimes you need to jump while walking forward. Occasionally you'll be swimming forward, and there are a few instances of the game where they mix it up, just a little bit. In interesting ways mind you, ways that some other games would(and have) made entire gimmicks out of.

That said, I feel like you could have really expanded on any of those mechanics and made a more full game play experience. Not that I think its entirely incomplete, but it lacks something, for me. There is no dialog, the narrative is entirely contextual. You're a little boy and you're running from some people and as you go on you see more and more things. There is room to speculate on these things, if you're someone who likes to do theorize. If you don't, then it feels pretty... straight forward.