This is an ongoing list where I attempt to do the following: Play, Complete, and Rank every video game in the known universe in order to finally answer the age old question "What is the greatest game of all time?" For previous entries find the links on the attached spreadsheet.

How did I do?

It has been awhile since these hands have ranked a game, I wonder if I still know how to do it. I wasn’t kidding when I said that Alone in the Dark: New Nightmare broke me. Playing that game alongside Operation Darkness made me wonder why I gave up being a doctor for this line of work, like are video games even worth it? (Note: I was never going to be a doctor). It’s not even that those two games I was playing are the worst games in the world, but Alone in the Dark was so incredibly boring and poorly designed that it made gaming a chore to churn through it. Operation Darkness has been more interesting but frustratingly unforgiving that has resulted in so many wasted hours playing it (more to say on that later). I needed a break from my mission statement. I did some farming with “Coral Island,” got back into playing NBA 2k (don’t worry an old version that is still decent), and played bits of games with my kids until they lost interest (a surprisingly lot of Super Mario Maker 2). Oh I also think there was some holiday that we ended up hosting that may have replaced game time with clean time leading up to it.

But we are back (kinda) baby! I won’t lie to you, I’m sure I will be derailed before end of the year, but my plan is to finish two “main” games (Operation Darkness & MDK2) before the end of the year, and perhaps one or two more small games to round out the year. I really don’t want Operation Darkness to bleed into 2024.

So, here are two recovery games that I played to help bring me back from the brink.

Up first, “It’s Kooky,” which is the equivalent of a virtual seek-and-find game (you know, Where’s Waldo, or I Spy books). The game is broken up into different stages/environments that are all full screen black and white pictures. Every level has a set number of items that are available to find (usually around the 20-30 range) and the “harder” levels have a time-limit in which you have to find those items. What you are looking for are…drum roll please… “silly or kooky things.” I know that description doesn’t help much, but essentially you are finding things that are out of place in the picture. For instance, perhaps you are looking at a beach picture and you see an image of a Polar Bear surfing, or perhaps there are three kids eating ice cream in the picture, but one of the kids is holding the cone upside down. You know, super silly stuff. For the most part, when you see something you will know if it is out of place, there isn’t really a big debate to be had if you see someone with a bee hive for hair, or a raccoon playing a guitar. Of course the pictures are big enough that you aren’t going to just be able to immediately spot all the differences from the get go, but the game provides zoom in and zoom out features that allow you to explore the space. Find enough objects in a picture and it will unlock the next one, allowing you to move onto the next level without feeling like you need to hunt and peck for every single item before you can turn the page.

Why did I play this? Well that’s a good question, with a boring answer. My kids are at the age where they are very into these kinds of books. We have numerous Waldo books, and I Spy books, and knock offs galore. They can’t quite read yet (but they are getting there) so these are books they can pick up without Mom and Dad nearby and be able to know what they need to do without reading instructions or having us parse out text. It’s Kooky is just an extension of that. Here is a game we can throw up on the big tv while someone navigates calling out weird things we see, or this game plays great in handheld as it actually uses the touch screen for you to point out objects that don’t fall in line. It is a game that a full grown adult could play from start to finish in about 2 hours, but will provide a lot more to kids who can re-visit scenes and try to find the objects again. Also a big bonus, clicking on the wrong object does not penalize you in the slightest. No time off the clock, or 5 mistakes and you lose, you can click on everything to your hearts content.. another perfect children’s tool.

Of course the game is not perfect. Like a Waldo book, it has limited replay-ability. The pictures aren’t randomly generated and the images will always be in the same spot and it can be very easy to remember the locations of half the items without even trying. Not that it is a deal breaker, but there is no incentivization to 100% the levels. Once you unlock the next level, you don’t really need to go back and sweep up any finds that you missed. There is no bonus for finding everything in a level, no extras, no achievements, nothing. It’s not that I really expected something, but it does limit the short replay even more, because there is no high score table, or even checklist that you can work towards upon completing the game. Even the Waldo books had little checklists in the back of the book for more things to try and find after you mastered the first pass.

For a <$5 game you get what you pay for. This might entertain you and the kids for a weekend, and maybe they boot it up a few times afterwards when the feeling hits them, but you aren’t going to be coming back over and over again. I know we don’t really want to root for more DLC, but this would be a perfect game where I would be willing to pay $1 here and there for more levels. The Waldo comparison is really perfect for this game, for multiple reasons, but for time investment as well. My kids don’t sit down with a Waldo book for hours on end having the time of their life. They spend 10-15 minutes flipping pages, sometimes finding what they need to and other times just looking at the pictures and moving on. Maybe they go three months without opening the book at all, and maybe they love it for a week straight. What I will say is that all Waldo books are ranked higher than this game, but I haven’t reviewed the Waldo video games yet.

Is this the greatest game of all time?: Not even close

Where does it rank: It’s Kooky is a “fine” family-friendly search game. I had fun with it for the short time I played it, but it’s not really going to stand up on this list as some beacon for other smaller games to hit. It’s most notable comp on the list is a game called “Tiny Lands” which is head and shoulders above this game. It’s not that “It’s Kooky” is even a bad game, but it’s just a non-entity. It’s not a bottom 5 game, because there was some fun to be had with the kiddos, but if my list is a big list of recommendations, it would be hard to recommend this game over some of the more flawed but interesting games. Add in some color or some relaxing music, give me more levels or some more things to find and maybe this has more staying power, but I have it ranked as the 168th Greatest game of all time. It sits between “The Mahjong Huntress” (167th) and “Harm’s Way” (169th) out of 176 total games.

How did I do?

The next little game I played was called “The Bridge.” The Bridge… I suppose I would describe it as an M.C. Escher physics based puzzle game, but even as I type that I’m not sold on the shorthand. You play as a nameless character that most of the internet believes to be M.C. Escher as they navigate puzzle rooms. If you have never played the game before, it’s fairly hard to describe how the puzzles work, but I’ll do my best. In each room/level your ultimate goal is going through the exit door. Your character can walk back and forth, but there is no jumping, running, climbing etc. to get to the door. The powers that you do have is that you can rotate the world by using the shoulder buttons on the controller, these rotations will cause your character to slide or fall based on the fact that you are moving their floor, but it might also move a ball that you need to land on a button, or a key to maneuver to your path in order to unlock the door. These levels start relatively simple enough where you are just rotating to get your character on the same plane as the exit door, but eventually the game introduces alternate dimensions, gravity altering areas, and Escher-esque levels that seeming wrap in on themselves making navigation difficult. There is a handy rewind feature that allows you to back up what you did, either to erase a mis-step or mis-rotate, or even a death, but depending on how far back you need to rewind can be a slow process.

Yes, there are deaths. Your character or an important object can fall off the level if you aren’t careful, or you can be crushed by a boulder that you need to avoid/move into place. All of these no-win states pops up text on the screen and you can rewind from that point, undoing some simple actions, but sometimes it might be easier to do a hard reset of the level. Initially I was cruising through the early levels and thinking how hard can this game really be with such a limited control set, but this game can become somewhat brutal to figure out later individual puzzles. It goes from just a game about getting in the right place, to a process of sequencing that requires you to not only get to the right place, but do the right steps in the correct order to avoid dying, get a key, avoid dying again, and then end up near the door. That isn't crazy for a puzzle game, hell adventure game puzzles are all about following that sequencing logic, but this game never clicked with my brain. While most puzzle games, I can confidently say that I can solve given enough time, there were some levels that I just brute-forced and got lucky solving. Levels that if I had to play over, I would still have no knowledge of solving and just aimlessly rotate and move the pieces like you might fidget with a Rubik’s cube, until somehow you completed 2 sides.

There is a story here, but it is heavily in the background and up for interpretation. It mainly focuses on connecting your character to Issac Newton, becoming a tortured creator and having the world literally and figuratively fall down around you. When I finished the game (including the mirrored universe, which is like the same levels but harder that you already played through), there really isn’t much of closure. In fact the game just re-starts with your character waiting to be played with again. Was it a dream, reality, a foreshadow of things to come? Who knows. There are a couple fan theories on steam about the character being M.C. Escher his view of Issac Newton being this person he looked up to, ruining his life in trying to live up to his idol, creating essentially the tesseract and then realizing that Issac Newton was also a tortured soul.. You know, like that Simpsons episode where Homer wants to be an inventor, but all of this is speculation and the developer has not weighed in, but I didn’t really dig that far. It’s not a game that really hinges too much on the story, so if your interpretation is different, or you simply didn’t have one, I don’t think it will impact much.

I mainly played the game in short bursts while sitting on the couch or a little before bedtime, but it had the great honor of making me feel like an idiot for at least a third of its levels. That can be a frustrating experience depending on how you deal with puzzles in games. I beat my head against the wall over and over in order to prevail in some levels, because I didn’t want to watch a solution video, but that was because I was stubborn. Actually navigating levels, once you know the solution, can make this a very quick game. If you played this game, while following a guide for every level, you could probably beat the game in under two hours. For me, it probably took me closer to 6-8 hours. (I don't think I would recommend either process)

Is this the greatest game of all time?: Sorry, its a no for me dawg.

Where does it rank: The Bridge is a harder game for me to rank, in comparison to “It’s Kooky.” It is a much better designed game, it has more meat on it’s bones, and certainly something I spent more time with. Those aren’t really the sole ranking systems here, but it highlights that The Bridge is on a higher level. However, I didn’t super enjoy my time with the game either. I didn’t have big smiles on my face while I solved puzzles, and I spent more time in the game making mistakes then doing things correctly. It won’t be a game that I feel I will ever need to go back to, and sometimes the dour and oppressing appearance of the game (black and white only, small cramped levels with lots of death) also impacted my enjoyment. If I was to ignore the super hard levels (mirrored world) I might rank this a little higher, it would be an easier and less frustrating game, but I feel I would be ranking a game for only the first half. Adding in the more difficult, frustrating, and time consuming levels into the mix certainly drags down a game that wasn’t going to have a huge ranking anyway. I keep bouncing back and forth as to if it should even be higher than “It’s kooky.” That game at least gave me some fun moments with the family, so does this game rank lower, despite acknowledging that it is a better made game? No, but it’s very close. I have this game ranked as the 161st greatest game of all time. It sits between “Extreme Exorcism” (160th) and “Lost Lands: Dark Overlord" (162nd) out of 177 total games.

You would think that reviewing three games in a row that all fall in the bottom 20 would actually demoralize me more, but I’m back on my horse and playing video games again.

Anyone looking for it: here is the link to the list and more if you are interested in following along with me (this is not a self promotion).Here. I added links on the spreadsheet for quick navigation. Now if you missed a blog of a game you want to read about, you can get to it quickly, rather than having to scroll through my previous blogs wondering when it came up.

Thanks for listening

Future games coming up 1) MDK2 2) Operation Darkness 3) TBD