Welcome to my 2025 gaming review page!

Explanation of reviews (IMPORTANT!)

1 is bad, 10 is absolute top. this is not an ign scale where 7 is mediocre and 4 is worst ever game. some games use the fantano rating system (ie, strong/light x/10). some games are rated out of 10, and some games are rated out of 5. there is a difference between ratings on the x/5 scale vs the x/10, and a 4/5 is not the same as an 8/10. also, you cannot look at the rating of one game and compare it to another and say its better or worse based on review score. that isnt how it works. games are rated individually and in context, whatever that means. there's plenty of fantastic 3/5 games and awful 6/10 games (and vice versa).

games are listed roughly in the order in which they were played this year, which matters a lot for scoring. reviews were generally written shortly after each game was played with a few exceptions. some reviews were slightly edited after their initial writing. there may be slight score creep for this years scoring but i think it was mostly just a banger year for gaming.

i have tried to keep review length down to a single paragraph for every game but that means some of the reviews are single blocks of text which really should have been formatted into multiple paragraphs instead. sorry about that!

mass effect
platform: pc (legendary edition)
genre: fps with talking

Mass Effect is a mediocre fps with light rpg elements. This game has really poor signposting for what it wants you to do and by when. if you miss out on doing things, the game will be a lot different since there will be a point of no return for certain events and quests in the game. the good guy/bad guy system with "paragon/renegade" is pretty confusing and a lot of scoring on the scale is unexpected when you do things. i somehow ended this game with a paragon character despite executing people and generally doing renegade actions as a space racist. this game never excels in anything, and it seems like that's completely intentional. the paragon/renegade thing is a good example of this, while it presents itself as something that could be cool or dynamic, but it doesnt really matter regardless of what decisions you make. the core gameplay never gets more complicated or difficult than it is in the first missions. disappointing.

Score: light 6/10

mass effect 2
platform: pc (legendary edition)
genre: cover shooter with talking
game completed: yes

This game was better than the first game by a lot when it comes to the RPG/dialogue stuff. unfortunately it gets the same score because its just a cover shooter now. leveling the characters feels weird and theres a lot of shitty minigames for unlocking a door or scanning planets and stuff. the renegade/paragon stuff seems much better in this than the first game and it usually just makes more sense. you still just randomly get paragon or renegade from normal cutscenes without options but thats just how it goes I guess.

Score: 6/10

sonic heroes
platform: gcn emulated
genre: sonic adventure 2
game completed: game won with 1 of3 teams

How did they make this after SA2? Sonic adventure 2 was the worst good game i've ever played but this is just a bad game. really buggy. the music is OK sometimes. the game did actually have some good segments but its 90% trash.

Score: 2/5

umihara kawase
platform: snes on fpga
genre: rubbering action
game completed: yes

this game is amazing. You have an elastic grappling hook and go flying around the stages. some stages have multiple exits, so there are a lot of branching pathways and routes you can take. the game has a very high skill ceiling and the physics get more and more fun the more you play and get the hang of it.

Score: 4.5/5

secret of mana
platform: snes on fpga
genre: action jrpg
game completed: yes

this is one of the worst games i've played since i started tracking and reviewing them. this is an action rpg where you run around and kill stuff in the grass or a cave, and sometimes go into towers and kill stuff there. the attacks randomly dont hit, you have to wait for a stamina bar to fill up to do damage, and if your NPC teammates hit something before you do, then your hit wont register. your partner is tethered to you. so when your teammates get trapped on rocks and grass in the environment and you have to unstick them, making even just running around annoying. in the overworld, the minimap is on a globe (which rotates with no direction indicators) so you cant see the whole thing. every single thing in the game has some sort of friction. the music ranges from just OK to pretty good and the spritework is fantastic. too bad nothing can save the gameplay.

Score: light 2/10

evo: the search for eden
platform: snes on fpga
genre: platformer+
game completed: yes

this game has a vision. evolving your lil dude and leveling up and grinding is fun. you pick different body parts and use them to grind harder and get through stages. it starts off a bit slow and a lot of it is really easy, but it is pretty fun when you get into the swing of things. the music is terrible and theres 2 very bad levels but overall a really neat game that is a good length.

Score: 6.5/10

valkyrie profile
platform: psx on emu
genre: sidescrolling jrpg with platforming
game completed: yes

i'll start with what doesnt work: some atrocious dungeons near the end, really bad platforming controls, and some weirdness with getting the alternate ending (which i did not do). this game is great overall. for sound, the music is good, it sometimes has voice acting with a lot of the us pokemon dub staff. the graphics are top tier. excellent spritework and backgrounds with top tier aesthetics. the party member stories are told through cutscenes and when they are over, the story for that character is tied up and finished. the focus of the game is on gameplay and outside of the platforming its really good. this is a mega vibes game.

Score: 9.5/10

ssx3
platform: ps2 on emu
genre: xtreme snowboarding
game completed: not that kind of game but yes

This game is the ideal snowboarding game built from what cool boarders started. it has stuff thats good from both cool boarders and 1080 and a really iconic soundtrack that feels very early/mid 00s. theres a lot in this game and you could realistically play it for a very long time trying to collect everything.

Score: 9.5/10

sayonara umihara kawase
platform: pc
genre: rubbering action
game completed: one ending completed

this game is much worse than the snes game. the physics feel different and the game looks ugly. some of the music is ok. this game has nothing at all better about it from the original except you can use buttons to fire diagonally easier. i also hate the crab in here. this version was originally for the NDS and the pc version seems to be using the same assets which look really bad in the new art style.

Score: 5/10

super metroid
platform: snes on fpga
genre: metroidvania
game completed: yes

Very very good game, i had never played it before this. this game really nails the atmosphere and vibe thing. the music and sound is a huge part of that, and so is the great color palette. i liked the final few minutes of the game, it was a really excellent and satisfying end. i felt like the length was just right. bomb jumping is really cool.

Score: strong 7.5/10

monster hunter wilds
platform: pc
genre: monster hunter
game completed: story beaten/game played a lot

review from may 2025. this game is kinda good but every time i play it all i see are missed opportunities, because i am a hater. the hard part of the game has changed from completing hunts and completing them quickly to just completing hunts quickly. its genuinely hard to fail a hunt in this game. the artian weapon grinding system is extraordinarily bad and they don't seem to be adding anything to make it obsolete.

Score: 5/10

mariomon
platform: gba on fpga
genre: pokemon emerald romhack
game completed: yes

they streamlined a lot of the annoying parts about pokemon here, making menus more functional and not having HMs that force you to brick pokemon. the game has really lighthearted humor and tone and tries to do cool stuff w/ the pokemon formula, including adding a roguelike mode where you take some basic mons into a dungeon and see how far you can get. everything is mario themed and all the mario characters are here including waluigi who has his own casino. this hack is very well made. i enjoyed this more than pokemon emerald.

Score: 8/10

loco cycle
platform: pc
genre: 45 minutes of fun fmv with 3 hours of an action game
game completed: yes

the gameplay of this game is like a mobile game version of road rash but it has fmv segments that are funny. a side character is played by james gunn.

Score: 2.5/5 (recommended)

harvey birdman
platform: psp on emulator
genre: adult swim game
game completed: yes

this game is garbage. theres like nothing good about it somehow. the gameplay is super wack and most of the jokes miss completely. however, it is a complete game and experience. this game is like a time capsule for what a bad game could be in 2008.

Score: 1.5/5

asura the striker
platform: pc
genre: space harrier (female)
game completed: yes

I really enjoyed this game, but its really space harrier. it has a neat melee mechanic which is fun to use. there are branching pathways in an outrun style, with different bosses and challenges. there is one very bad level (clouds) and the rest are good. this is one of the better space harrier clones i've played

Score: 4/5

xenogears
platform: psx on emulator
genre: jrpg
game completed: yes

this game is extremely not good. the battling is not good on foot or in a mech. the game has platforming which is also not good. the plot is not good either. the game often feels like they did things only wanting to see what dumb shit they could get away with, like crucifying the stuffed animal character. or having a mech pilot with a weapon where they shoot their own cockpit through their mech's gun as a suicide attack. characters join the party and fade from relevance almost immediately with little or no impact on the story after they complete 1 tiny arc. disc 2 is like a storyboard that feels like its missing a lot and falls pretty flat because they skip over big events so quickly. they go over the entire worlds population being eradicated in a few lines of text. the music and graphics are both above average. there's real cinematography here as well, the camera zooms and pans and spins during story scenes to highlight the dialogue.

Score: strong 4/10 (not recommended)

not for broadcast
platform: pc
genre: fmv pick a path
game completed: yes

this game is an FMV game where you choose what to show on TV and can influence the plot and world based on what you show. the game somehow has centrist political messaging(?) in that it hates anyone with an opinion. but thats ok, because this is a video game and its silly and has really funny bits in it. theres actually a "character" plot for your guy that changes based on the fmvs, but none of it is fmv'd and its all just text, so who cares. overall a silly game. also, this game is british. the DLC is very very bad.

Score: 3/5

elden ring: nightreign
platform: pc
genre: multiplayer co-op roguelitish action
game completed: yes

you jump into a map in the elden ring engine and it randomizes enemy camp locations on a map with static geography. different camps drop different types of loot and you go fight stuff and try to get high enough level/good enough gear to fight a boss. i wish the map was randomized more to make it more dynamic and less rote. routing isnt really interesting and there's generally a clear best way to do things. learning the boss fights is pretty awful because they are gimmick fights with 30 minute boss runs. its good that the elden ring engine is as fun as it is, it carries everything else on its back. once you learn the bosses, its a pretty fun game.

Score: 3.5/5

road avenger (AKA road blaster)
platforms played: sega cd, saturn, psx, snes (homebrew msu-1 port)
genre: fmv driving action
game completed: yes

this is an fmv driving game. you do quick time events to drive. the plot is that your wife was killed by evil drivers and now you are the road avenger. the art is awesome and somehow driving with quick time events feels responsive and good. the sega cd version has good sound but the video quality is pretty bad, although completely playable. the saturn/psx/snes versions have much better video quality than the sega cd version. the psx version is probably the worst, and the sega saturn version is fantastic with good scalable difficulty options. the snes one was made a lot easier by whoever ported it, which is good or bad depending on if you are just a tourist or not. the cutscenes seem interpolated to be a little too smooth imo.

Score: 4.25/5 (recommended)

contradiction
platform: pc
genre: fmv investigation game
game completed: yes

very cool game. this was made by tim follin, who was famous for making a bunch of crazy NES music for games like pictionary and silver surfer. its a murder investigation game and you're a british detective in a small shitty town. there's weird freemasons or something and a fun bunch of characters you can interview. the reason its call contradiction is because after you interview them, you can call them out on a contradiction by picking 2 things they say that contradict one another from a huge list of things they said in your conversation. that part of the game is kind of whatever, but the scenes walking around and chatting with people are all fantastic. this game was extremely entertaining.

Score: 8/10 (recommended)

about an elf
platform: pc
genre: visual novel
game completed: no

this is a visual novel with a really unique aesthetic and not much else. the writing is really bad, almost as if its mocking you for playing. after an hour, this game lost all its charm.

Score: strong 2/10

james pond games (various)
platform: genesis and snes, both on fpga
genre: european
games completed: no

the art in these games is repulsive. the design makes me sick.

Score: 0.5/5 (not recommended)

metroid fusion
platform: gba on fpga
genre: linear metroidvania
game completed: yes

this is the baby metroid game. the story just tells you directly where to go in cutscenes with text and story. theres an elevator hub that actually lights up for what the current floor goal is. the environmental storytelling from super metroid is not a part of this game. instead, there are blocks of text to read that just tell you whats going on as the game progresses. you can backtrack to find missiles and stuff but the game is trivially easy so its not really needed. the game is still passable. also theres no bomb jumping, what the hell.

Score: 2.5/5

baldurs gate 3
platform: pc
genre: computer rpg
game completed: yes (2nd playthrough)

my previous playthrough of this game was a bit of a buggy mess done right after the game came out. this second playthrough took me 125 hours and i tried out the harder difficulty below honour mode which has permadeath. this playthrough was much less buggy but still had a lot of bugs including in the final fight. i played on controller and the controller UI was the only consistently buggy thing, and it was bugged from the start to the finish. playing on the harder difficulty wasnt really that hard because it taught me how to break the game pretty early, and the game ended up being much easier than my first run. the voice acting is great. the writing varies wildly, but its overall really good. i also enjoyed how fleshed out even the unethical/mean choices were written, which are often just written as jokes in other games.

Score: 9/10 (recommended)

metal slader glory
platform: snes on fpga
genre: visual novel
game completed: yes

great VN with great art. the original is for the NES and looks really incredible for the system. the SNES one uses the same pixel art just adapted to the SNES. it would have been nice to see some of it cleaned up a bit or with better colors, but it still has a lot of style. there are branching pathways here that change what you see in the story a little, but from what I could tell, they don't really change the ending or the fates of any characters. the game has so much style, it even has diegetic passwords instead of a save system, just to be cool. the music here is pretty average to good, but it really works with the game. this game is much more aesthetically pleasing than it is good, but its just long enough so it doesn't wear thin.

Score: 3/5

shinobi art of vengeance
platform: pc
genre: combat-oriented 2d platformer
game completed: yes

the art in this game is amazing. everything looks great and there's no corners cut when it comes to how things look. the level design is pretty horrible though. every level has challenges to complete: elite combats, finding medals, etc. and the levels are designed in a paint-by-numbers fashion. the levels feel laid out very inorganically. there's no mystery to where a battle segment may take place, you can tell just by looking at the level where you're going to be locked into a combat challenge. there's a bunch of switches and doors and backtracking and a lot of shit that has nothing to do with the identity of shinobi as a series. the combat is sort of like a 2d version of the combat from the 3d shinobi games on the ps2. the best level in the game is a level that is a straight line with no backtracking or annoying shit. the worst level is one where you have to hit a bunch of switches and open a lot of doors. after beating the game i did go back to try and see how interesting it would be to try and 100% the levels and it wasn't. the art carries so much of this game. its a fine game, just filled with modern game design trappings that are nothing like what i would expect or want out of a shinobi game.

Score: 3/5

tex murphy: under a killing moon
platform: pc (played thru dosbox)
genre: detective noir adventure
game completed: yes

this is a point and click adventure game with some interesting controls for moving around in 3d. tex murphy is a sarcastic PI living in the outskirts of new san francisco near the ruins of old san francisco after world war 3. the game has real actors for all the characters and voice acting for commenting on everything in the game's environment. the story goes crazy and the tone is perfect for this type of game. there's a lot of funny stuff in this game. it has a robust hint system which outlines objectives even if you dont cash in hints. without hints, the game is challenging, and its still fun even with some hints used. this is one of the most fun adventure games like this i've played since gabriel knight 2. this is part of a series but it only has passing references to old events, and is a self-contained story.

Score: 4/5 (recommended)

tex murphy: the pandora directive
platform: pc (played thru dosbox)
genre: detective noir adventure
game completed: yes, one ending

this is the next game in the tex murphy series and its much bigger in scope than the previous game. there's better puzzles and stories, and theres multiple pathways through the game. the hint system starts locked up in this game and you have to turn on baby mode to see it. this changes some puzzles and actually even has fewer scenes than the gamer mode. you can turn it on at any time though, and I did turn it on a little over halfway through when I got stuck. this game is still funny and entertaining but with more control over the ending, a lot of things feel like they have much higher stakes. the story in this game is self-contained just like the last game, but it really needs the first game to set up the characters and setting.

Score: 8/10 (recommended)

devil may cry (1st game not DmC)
platform: pc (part of dmc collection)
genre: action/adventure
game completed: yes

I did not think this game was very good but it wasn't that bad. the main way I played this game was shooting a rocket launcher and rolling or spamming stinger. the combats were not really interesting or challenging but they were definitely annoying. the camera sucks. the last boss does the thing where it turn into a different game. the first half is a bad version of space harrier and the second half is like a shooting gallery puzzle boss thing. the cutscenes are good. the sound is pretty good too.

Score: 2.5/5

boku no natsuyasumi 2
platform: ps2 on emulator
genre: 1975 summer vacation
game completed: yes

in this game, you play as a stupid kid named boku and you are on summer vacation at your aunt and uncles motel. your mom is pregnant and she wants you out of the house. the structure of the game is simple: every day, you wake up and have summer vacation. there is a timer for how long you can spend per day (which you can set to fast/medium/slow). its around 20 minutes on medium speed. the game starts on 8/1/1975 and ends on 8/31/1975, giving you just one month to explore the area. you can do whatever you want and the characters in the town all have lives and schedules. you can go exploring just to explore, going through the woods or swimming and collecting bottle caps. you can fish. you can catch and battle beetles with your cousins. you can get to know your temporary neighbors and other guests at the hotel. there's no end goal that you don't set for yourself. this game is heartwarming and sweet, and also funny. it's even sometimes exciting and the limited timer makes your actions feel like they have weight even though you're just a dumb kid on vacation who's just screwing around. my playthrough had me playing one day in my real august 2025 per one day in the game and this felt like the "correct" way to play, if there is one. this is one of my favorite games of all time. i also waited for a month and a half after playing it to write this review just to make sure i still feel that way.

Score: 10/10 (recommended)

nine sols
platform: pc
genre: quasi-metroidvania (zeldavania) with parries
game completed: yes

this is the game for parrying. i thought it was going to be like hollow knight because of how it looks, but its not like hollow knight at all. the levels are mostly self-contained and while you can travel between them you don't usually have to backtrack to do anything. the areas are big and and can be really complicated to navigate, in a good way. the combat is parry-focused and the bosses are mostly really fun and the difficulty is just right for them. the regular combats can be really tiresome to deal with since so many of them want you to parry and sometimes you just want to kill shit and get through the level without enemies being an obstacle you have to respect. the game feels good to control and the movement options are fun to use. the art, lore, and style of the game are all really cool and the game does a really good job at environmental storytelling. the music is trash.

Score: 7/10

D
platform: psx on emulator
genre: first person interactive horror movie
game completed: yes

FMV games are not typically done in the way that this one is. in D, you are on a 2 hour timer and if you cannot beat the game, you just get a game over. this game took me 2 tries to get through, with my first run resulting in a time over. puzzles are not randomized in any way between playthroughs, so if you know puzzle solutions already you can save an immense amount of time. my second run through the game was under an hour, but it skipped a lot of scenes from the first which were good. the plot is based around Laura trying to stop her father who is on a killing spree at a hospital. the puzzles are awful and uninteresting. the music is not great. the movement is so slow and it can feel excruciating just to do simple things, things like turning your character or opening a door can result in a 15-20 second cutscene. the voice acting is completely flat. the FMVs are fun and strange. its a good thing that this game is so short because if it was any longer it would be too awful to play.

Score: strong 3/5 (recommended)

haste
platform: pc
genre: temple run sonic the hedgehog tribes skiing roguelite
game completed: yes

i'll start with the bad first: all the roguelite flavor things outside of the level generation are bad. usable items feel unimpactful a lot of the time and most items are just +speed. the decisions you make in between levels to choose which level to go to are not interesting or challenging. outside of that stuff, the actual moment to moment gameplay is great on the regular running stages. this has meta-progression but its pretty easy to get through the story in under 15 hours.

Score: 3/5

blippo+
platform: pc
genre: interactive story (not a game)
game completed: yes

interactive fiction is a genre you can do a lot of ways, and blippo is really unique. the basic idea is that you can view an alien tv station from earth, and they know you can see it, and are interested in sharing their culture. there is a story here, and what you do as the "player" is choose what to view on the virtual tv station. there's also a ceefax (uk-based tv bbs) that you can read. there has not been a game like this before and there probably won't be another game like this for some time, if ever. master class in fmv.

Score: 10/10 (recommended)

omega boost
platform: psx on emulator
genre: mecha "rail shooter"
game completed: yes

trash. would have rated it lower but it has extremely sweet fmvs and music. this game is a "rail shooter" except you dont have to move unless you "omega boost" out of the way of something. its weird to think of this as a rail shooter because you are not on a rail, you stand still while enemies attack. in a way you are kind of on a rail because enemies come to you so its not like you can get lost. sometimes you have to press a button to turn and face the enemy. this game having a good reputation while its contemporaries go unloved is so sad. the music gets drowned out by the noise of the game unfortunately.

Score: strong 5/10

shining force cd
platform: sega cd on fpga
genre: srpg
game completed: yes

this game is a great game if you played shining force 2 like me. it feels like a map pack for shining force 2, but in actuality its a remake of the 2 gamegear games on the shining force 2 engine. theres no town segments, you just go from fight to fight through 3 stories and one optional bonus chapter which i did not do. i do feel like the maps are not nearly as interesting as the ones in shining force 1 and 2 and there are not a huge variety of enemies. but the game is extremely chill with great graphics and sound (except for some of the spell sfx). if you play on hardware you need the battery backup pack or it wont work right.

Score: 3.75/5

family guy
platform: ps2 on emulator
genre: animated sitcom
game completed: yes

this game is better than you would expect. it has a lot of variety in the gameplay because there are 3 different characters with different stages. brian has stealth levels, stewie has run and gun levels, and peter has beat em up levels. stewie and peter get a lot of upgrades as the game goes on. the game will occasional do cutaway minigame gags which are family guy style cutaway bits done as a minigame. the jokes are family guy jokes. its very loyal to the source material. the only bad thing is that every stage goes on for a few segments too many. it gets pretty repetitive on the brian levels especially.

Score: 2.75/5

absolum
platform: pc
genre: beat em up roguelite
game completed: yes

i cant really tell if this game is great or not. it has a lot of good things in it and its easy to play co-op online. it's a roguelite with meta-progression that matters a whole lot. once you're maxed out, the game is trivial. there are branching paths to take but there seems to be a clear best path. rerolls are cheap and forcing a build in every run is pretty reasonable. the story is pretty whatever. the process leading up through getting all the meta-progression stuff finished is quite good, but after you're finished, the game doesn't have much excitement. also, runs take too long.

Score: strong 3/5

legend of mana
platform: pc (hd remaster)
genre: action jrpg
game completed: yes

they managed to make a jrpg where wandering around just messing around is actually how you play the game. you drop artifacts on to the world map to make a map node you can visit. there's multiple characters and plotlines for a lot of them. you can do the quests as you find them, at whatever pace you want. amazing graphics and sound here. all of the different map nodes you unlock have unique tilesets and backgrounds. the soundtrack in this remaster is one of the best jrpg soundtracks ive ever heard. there's a big complex crafting system which isn't necessary to interact with, but is neat if you care to. the action battle system is fun but it plays like total shit since it feels unresponsive and simple. it's a god game though, either in spite of or because of how bad it plays.

Score: 9/10 (recommended)

dmc3
platform: pc in the dmc hd collection
genre: action-adventure
game completed: yes

the music and environments are great. when in combat, the game is engaging and the bosses are pretty fun overall. the combat stuff makes up 10% of the gameplay though. the rest of the game is an adventure game where you climb a tower and every part of it is awful. the camera angles are nice aesthetically but poisonous to the gameplay. many fights are fights against the camera instead of enemies. theres an unlock system that is super restrictive and requires a ton of grinding. you have "styles" you can level up by grinding. i finished the game with my highest level style being level 2 (of 4) and all the others being level 1. bosses are the high point in this game. this game is far worse than hat kid steals the declaration of independence 3: kingslayer.

Score: 6.5/10*

*i want to mention the software package of the hd collection here, even though its not really gameplay related. its really bad. it has shitty textures and a lot of the graphical effects from the ps2 version are missing completely. the game dropped to 50 fps for me whenever subtitles were displayed. this rating is not factoring in how bad the collection itself is.

dark nights with poe and munroe
platform: pc
genre: a long fmv
game completed: yes

this is barely a game. its like a tv show with 6 episodes. there are little decisions you make during each episode of this game, and they don't seem to do much. the acting and story and characters are awful. the camerawork and lighting are also bad. this game felt hard to get through and it has basically no gameplay, you just watch the episodes and choose whatever options you want. i don't have anything positive to say about this game.

Score: 3.5/10 (not recommended)

slay the princess
platform: pc
genre: doki doki literature club
game completed: yes

this game is kind of a visual novel/interactive story where you pick paths and learn more about the princess you've been sent to slay (and yourself). it's entirely voice acted and the voice acting is fine, bordering on good. i didn't like the art at first but it really grew on me. this is a game that can be completed in one session with room for additional playthroughs if you want to see bonus scenes or alternate paths.

Score: strong 6/10

metroid zero mission
platform: gba on fpga
genre: metroidvania
game completed: yes

this game is so much better than metroid fusion. the annoying things about metroid fusion are all gone, and a lot of the cool things from super metroid have returned. there's actually more of a story being told in this game than super metroid and it has some great segments where you are without your suit and have to get geared up again. the atmosphere and music are on par with super metroid. exploration, which was removed from fusion, is back. bomb jumping is back, although it has been made significantly easier.

Score: 4.25/5 (recommended)

hypnospace outlaw
platform: pc
genre: internet detective sim
game completed: yes

good art and music in this game. they made a cool fake internet to browse. its entertaining learning about all the netizens of hypnospace and learning all their stories. once you have browsed all of the funny and cool stuff, the leftover part where you are playing a game sucks. browsing pages and getting into people's business is cool, but the detective part with objectives is obnoxious and tedious. i was stuck for 3 or 4 hours because i didn't click something on a page i had already been to. if i'm going to rate this game, i'm going to rate the stuff the game is actually about, which isn't the gameplay, its the world they made for the game. as someone who spent their formative years on the mid 90s to early 2000s internet, this game captures the good parts of that era so well. this game has good worldbuilding and since time flows in it, you get to see a real progression in what happens in a bunch of online communities. the gameplay objectives are secondary to everything else.

Score: 8.5/10 (recommended if you used the internet in the late 90s and early 2000s)

assault spy
platform: pc
genre: character action
game completed: yes

i liked this game more than dmc. its inspired by the combat in dmc and other character action games. theres 2 playable characters. unlike dmc, you can unlock most of the moves in a single run. doing a playthrough on both characters took me around 6 hours and the game feels replayable because its cutscenes and combat with no real exploration and no puzzle solving outside of combat puzzles. its hard not to compare this to dmc since dmc is basically the only character action game ive really played through, but this game feels like it "fixed" everything that i didn't like about dmc1 and dmc3.

Score: 4/5

mass effect 3
platform: pc in the legendary collection
genre: cover shooter
game completed: yes

i feel like this game should have been better. you take your shepard through 3 games making what are basically pointless decisions the entire time only for the thing to end with you choosing your ending from a dialogue wheel. some parts of the ending are governed by a numerical score for how many of the boring random missions you do. characters have never been less interesting. mass effect 1 and 2 weren't exactly amazing either, but i just had expected something better after they get 3 tries at making this game. the cover shooter sections are much shorter than mass effect 2, but to fill time we have stuff like a mission where shepard goes into a computer and shoots orange data for 45 minutes (which does not fight back).

Score: 3/10

thank goodness you're here
platform: pc
genre: british adventure
game completed: yes

this game is really neat, its like a little interactive cartoon where you run around a fictional british town and you do things that are british. you interact with meat pies and lager and help people in town by doing cartoony things. the game kind of funnels you into every correct answer pretty well so its not like you can fail. the game can be funny but its also british. they use british pidgin english for all the dialogue and menus (if you can answer a riddle in british english) so if you don't know cockney rhyming slang you might not get everything. the voice acting is really good and overall the general vibe is just "silly." its a pretty short game, around 2 hours long and it doesn't overstay its welcome.

Score: strong 3/5

neyasnoe
platform: pc
genre: slavic walking simulator
game completed: yes

this is a super short game that is really a series of vignettes showcasing how pointless life can feel in eastern europe. the game doesn't come off as completely nihilistic but it explores ennui and how people cope with it. you can do drugs, eat, drink, dance, and listen to techno music. you can explore shitty housing blocks filled with rats and trash. you can go to a poetry reading and listen in on conversations at a brewery. the game is over in 45 minutes but it's still great. it has a super good soundtrack.

Score: 8/10 (recommended)

unbeatable
platform: pc
genre: music
game completed: story mode completed

this game is pretty amazing. it took a very long time to come out and the wait was pretty worth it. the music game part is pretty simple, its basically muse dash. so there are 2 lanes for notes to come down and you can time your button presses. in story mode, the game is constantly changing up how the note scroll looks visually. it feels like you're doing a set of rhythm minigames sometimes for story sections. there are a ton of songs made just for this game and the soundtrack is amazing. the game story is pretty classic indie game stuff: regret, depression, the dangers of nihilism, and finding joy through your passion. but the way it was told made it feel very fresh and fun. this game is an all-timer indie game.

Score: 9.8/10 (recommended)

windswept
platform: pc
genre: animal platformer
game completed: story completed

this is an animal platformer that takes a lot of inspiration from donkey kong country. you play as a turtle and a duck with different moves and have to go through levels filled with collectibles and bonus stages. there are a bunch of mini game unlocks and level unlocks. the difficulty is pretty high for a lot of the challenges, but just completing stages isn't too hard. you have infinite lives and there's some generous checkpoints too. the turtle and duck have interesting mechanics, they each move and play differently and can pick each other up to do different things. the presentation is nice and chill with cute graphics and music.

Score: 7/10 (recommended)