Metrico+

• Genre: Platforming Puzzle
• Time Played: 4.6 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Feels about right for what it is. I was getting a little fatigued at the very end.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Kinda Neutral.
• Why I played: I played a demo of Metrico a long time ago, on Vita I think, and it left quite the impression on me. I always meant to play it. I think I got it super cheap in a recent sale.
• Recommend to others: I don't really feel like I would recommend it. It's not bad, but... it's not as special as it could be. I would probably recommend many other platforming puzzle games first.

Metrico starts off really strong, it introduces cool mechanics based off movement and a world that responds to your every interaction, and presents itself as a game inspired by... metrics/analytics... it's Excel.. the platformer, but as the puzzles become more challenging, it's more about figuring out specifically what makes the world interact with you, rather than everything you do changing the space around you.

I think it could have been really cool if the world was much more dynamic and complicated and responded to each new mechanic, causing layers of interactions, but I can also see how it would be really hard to develop puzzles around that. In the end, I feel like it's a game that starts off strong then just becomes a mess of flailing around until you figure out what works so you can solve the puzzle. It's a cool idea, but probably implemented in other games more successfully. 

Smelter

• Genre: Platforming Action / RTS
• Time Played: 20 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's about right, but the difficulty of replaying sections definitely increased the time by a significant margin.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased, my only disappointment is due to the structure of the game you only get a short time with all your abilities.
• Why I played: I started playing Smelter almost two years ago, just a couple levels(which I ended up replaying anyway). I needed some more linear action platforming after They Always Run, but maybe something that mixed it up a bit, so Smelter was pretty perfect follow up.
• Recommend to others: Smelter is an extremely difficult game, maybe not at first, but around the middle point the difficulty jumps way up. So it's hard to recommend. I would probably recommend it to everyone if it were just a bit easier. I feel just like 15% more leeway when it came to most challenges in the game would have made the game a significantly smoother experience.

Everywhere I looked I saw Smelter compared to Actraiser, and I have only played a little bit of Actraiser, but if I recall there is a little bit more managing of your city/world, and the action platforming stuff is far less fun. It is clearly trying to be a similar game though, Actraiser you have an Angel, this game you have a demon, and I think there is some heaven/hell stuff in Actraiser, in this game you specifically are playing Eve, is in, Adam and Eve.

Smelter is more like Mega Man in it's platforming sequences and a very basic RTS with a commander unit you play as in it's overworld. When you fly around in the overworld as Smelter you can shoot and heal your locations and it really requires you to actively participate. It's simple, but still challenging.

They Always Run

• Genre: Platforming Action
• Time Played: ~12 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Just when it was feeling too long it started to feel too short.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Very pleased, I liked it a lot, but there are aspects that were disappointing.
• Why I played: Kind of on a whim, I was waiting for a sale on Switch, I don't think it's been on sale yet, compared to Steam that regularly went on sale, I think it was on it's highest sale yet and just started playing it immediately when seeing what would work on Steam deck.
• Recommend to others: Tough, I really liked it, but I'm not sure everyone would see past some of the jank.

They Always Run is a pretty cool action platformer, more focus on the action - but a good amount on platforming too. Combat has a good set of diverse mechanics. It's not just stab with weapon and jump around enemy. It can be, but then you're not really doing it right. A lot of focus on counters and using your third arm, and switching up between basic attacks and guns. It does that right for the most part.