Subsurface Circular

• Genre: Adventure
• Time Played: 3-4 Hours? Gotta check when Switch lets me.
• Too Short/Long: Maybe a little on the short side. I was enjoying it so I would have liked to have a few more conversations before the story wrapped up. It seemed a little sudden.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased.
• Why I played: I have liked the Mike Bithell games I have played, and grabbed this when I learned about it, seeing that Bithell was doing a Tron Visual Novel looking game.
• Recommend to others: Yeah, if you don't mind that it's a bit short, I think the dialog is fun.

Subsurface Circular has you play the role of a robot detective investigating from the comfort of your own subway. As a higher intellect AI, you're not allowed to leave the train you're on, and can only investigate passengers of the train. The game is pretty much just a handful of conversations, sometimes requiring you to answer simple questions based off information provided, or figure out what you have to ask others in order to answer a question another passenger has. It's not too complicated, but I enjoyed it.

Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider

• Genre: 2D Action Platforming
• Time Played: 3-4 Hours
• Too Short/Long: I would have been happy with a little more, but it was fine.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased.
• Why I played: Motorcycle Samurai Action Platformer with Mega Man elements? How could I not? Also the gorgeously detailed pixel art, even if it at times bordering on grotesque.
• Recommend to others: I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes games like the original Ninja Gaiden or Strider, though Hagane might be a more direct inspiration.

I've played all of Joymasher's games and enjoyed them all, even if sometimes I think they're working within their self-imposed limitations a little too much. Controls could be tighter, as they often are in modern action platforming games. In Joymasher tradition the controls are just a little stiff and it leads to missing jumps you shouldn't. Thankfully their endless pits aren't actually endless pits and even accidentally falling into spiked or electric floors, isn't too painful.

Other than that? Excellent game. Basically mixing the previously mentioned games with the Mega Man style progression/upgrades. Prologue level, 6 level choices, then a couple final levels that thankfully do not include a boss rush. I was enjoying it and would have been happy with a bit more. Joymasher seems to like to make different games inspired by different classic games each time, but I would be really happy if they turned this one into a series.

Also I would have liked more motorcycle sections. The Mode 7 style sections a couple times is nice, but the game teases you with some side scrolling motorcycling by having a couple level intros take that perspective. Only with Moonrider jumping off before you gain control.

The Stanley Parable

• Genre: Adventure
• Time Played:  2.8 Hours
• Too Short/Long: I feel like it's more of a your mileage may vary situation. For me, it was fine.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased the normal amount.
• Why I played: I have had it for awhile and always meant to play it. I think I recently saw some stuff on it that inspired me to finally check it out.
• Recommend to others: I think I got it in a bundle a long time ago. I'd say if it's one of those games in your backlog that you already own, give it a shot.

The Stanley Parable is a game that I think, had I played it 10 years ago when it came out, I would have thought it to be far more poignant and unique. Playing now? I've seen other games do what it does. Not necessarily better, not exactly the same ways, but just similar enough. I also play a lot of weirdo indie games too, so it might just be something I experience more of than some others may.

Not only is the length of the game kinda a your mileage may vary type deal, but so is the whole experience. Have you seen this kind of stuff? Are you familiar with the tropes? At some point, it even references that fact. I think hinting that someone might not get the same out of the experience if they aren't familiar with some of the narrative framing in other media.

Anyway, I had fun with it and it's definitely worth it if you have it. I played the original, and more recently there is an expanded version that looks like it has far more to offer, so if you need more than 3 hours of content and want to purchase it because you don't already own it, that may be the better choice. I am fine with 3 hours of content. The game is a little bit of a mystery, but I THINK I did pretty much all it has to offer (within reason). I did get a credit roll, but that was only roughly halfway through my playtime, so I went back in for more to ensure I saw it all.

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

• Genre: Adventure
• Time Played:  3.8 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Pretty much just right.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Very pleased, they didn't have to go this hard for a free "April Fools" game.
• Why I played: A free Sonic game, so why not at least give it a shot.
• Recommend to others: Absolutely - if you actually care about Sonic stuff. It's mostly just fanservice.

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog was released for April Fools day, and absolutely sounds like a joke game, but it's no joke. It's a legit, fun little murder mystery adventure game with a serviceable runner mini-game. For free!? Honestly, I've played many little indie game I paid 5-10 bucks for that were definitely worth the price that didn't offer as much.

That said, I imagine it would be a hard sell to charge for it, but for anyone among it's intended audience, for the price of free, it's definitely worth it. The writing isn't going to blow your mind, but it's cute to see all the characters play their parts and do a fun little thing together. Also a lot of the more recent games have ignored a lot of the characters or elements in this game, so I appreciate just seeing some of them.

198X

• Genre: Arcade Compilation
• Time Played: 1-2 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Too short.
• Pleased/Disappointed: A little disappointed at the length.
• Why I played: This is basically a synthwave videogame.
• Recommend to others: Not really, it's just too short to recommend. Watch the trailer, that's the whole game.

198X is a game I should love... in theory. It does have great pixel art, it has a pretty cool compilation of made up arcade titles, it does have great music. But it's over in a flash. For a game composed of 5 games, I feel like I should have spent more time with it, though I could argue that at a couple hours, that's a visit to the arcade, playing a handful of games, just a level or two before moving on. 

Honestly, that's probably what they're going for. The little arcade games are really only framing device for the story they want to tell, which mostly happens between games, but this is also supposed to be a "part 1" and it came out 4 years ago and devs have been silent for half of them it would seem, so I wouldn't hold out for a part 2.

The games themselves each individually have heart and are carefully crafted for an experience that feels arcade-like, and with a difficulty that makes it feel like you really had to try, but clearly not for someone who is going all in on that specific game. Personally I liked the shoot em up the the most because I like shmups. The ninja, runner-style game goes on a little too long by comparison of the others, if you ask me. It has like 5 levels? And if not for the jankyness of the beat-em-up it would probably be my least favorite. The rest pretty much just have 2 levels and the RPG is just kinda one longer level.

Lil Gator Game

• Genre: Adventure
• Time Played: 5-10 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Pretty much just right for what it is.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased, it's a cute lil game.
• Why I played: Because it's like Zelda. I think I saw it in some "Games to play while you wait for Tears of the Kingdom" list, but I only put it on my wishlist and by time it was on sale, Tears of the Kingdom was out(or about to be).
• Recommend to others: It's a very cute game and if a super simplified chill game that references Zelda stuff sounds like something you're into, I would definitely check it out.

On the complete opposite spectrum of Zelda games is Lil Gator Game. I guess I shouldn't say opposite because it's all there in spirit. It would more be opposite if I just played Darksiders. But still, this was a relatively short romp through a playground with no real stakes to speak of. You have no health bar, there are no enemies that attack back, and failed challenges are very quickly restarted, the ones that are even possible to fail.

This is basically a video game version of playing pretend Zelda. For me, it's very nostalgic, because as a young kid, I would in-fact, play pretend Zelda. I only could have dreamed of it being nearly a elaborate as it is in this game though.

It's mostly just cute, a lil guy trying to get his big sister to larp with him like they used to, but she's too busy to GM a game and has to work on her project. The game definitely choked me up a bit, as I expected it would. 

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Time Played: 140+ Hours
• Too Short/Long: Definitely too long. I played Breath of the Wild roughly the same amount, but that was because I didn't want to stop, and played all the DLC too.
• Pleased/Disappointed: A mixture, definitely pleased in the sense that it is definitely a good game that I definitely enjoyed, but it's not to cut and dry.
• Why I played: Because it's Zelda, and I was highly anticipating it's release.
• Recommend to others: Yeah, though probably no need to recommend it to anyone as anyone who would be interested isn't gonna be on the fence. I would definitely recommend it to people who didn't think BOTW was filled enough, or somehow didn't offer them enough freedom, also who thought weapons broke too easily.

I really liked Tears of the Kingdom, but just that. I really liked it. I didn't love it, despite potentially many objective improvements over Breath of the Wild. Breath of the Wild just clicked with me more. Tears of the Kingdom feels like a weird middleground between DLC and a new game. It feels like when an MMO(World of Warcraft specifically?) does one of those "world shaking" events that change the entire game environment rather than a whole new game.

I feel like TotK is even more similar to BotW than Oracle of Ages is to Oracle of Seasons. I could be exaggerating but we're talking mostly the same layout of the overworld with some environmental changes and a different set of powers, right?