by mento
I'm not sure I have what it takes to make it through this year in one piece. Only one way to find out, I suppose.
Oh right, video games. Yeah, they're just below. Knock yourselves out.
/Edit: Stats! I haven't done these in a while, but then this is the first time I've ever completed 100 games in one year.
Showing 1-10 of 100 items
01/01. The sixth game of 2017's Go! Go! GOTY!. Just narrowly missed completing it last year, despite my best efforts. Turns out this partially procedurally-generated sci-fi dungeoncrawler was more substantial than I realized. Rad idea, but doesn't quite have the variation I'd hoped for. Since it's been in Early Access for years, it's possible they'll keep adding new content to this. (4 Stars.)
03/01. Phenomenal. Superb. All the superlatives. This is peak Mario for a 3D platformer collectathon nut like myself, and I appreciated there was more going on than a goofy capture mechanic and shiny junk littered everywhere: some effort was made to expand Mario's repertoire too. Could've done without that many Broodal fights and that godawful final challenge, but otherwise it's a new bar for future Marios to overcome. (5 Stars.)
06/01. The fifty-first Indie Game of the Week. A few months before its sequel season emerges, I took in another of Telltale's better-regarded episodic series. I liked the aesthetic of a neon fairytale noir, though like always I didn't really get the sense that my choices mattered a whole lot. A whodunnit with one guy what dunnit can only take you in so many directions, I guess. (4 Stars.)
08/01. The first of many SNES playthroughs this year. Demon's Crest is, like many SNES games appearing in this list, a lost classic that deserves more acclaim than it currently enjoys. A rare stage-based spacewhipper, its presentation and character controls are stellar, and I like it a darn sight more than the sadistic Super Ghouls N' Ghosts. (5 Stars.)
12/01. The fifty-second Indie Game of the Week. Really, I just needed something - anything - else to play on the Switch after I bought it, and the moderately discounted SteamWorld Dig 2 seemed like an obvious choice. Hopefully, Nintendo dispenses with this "Switch tax" and I can grab more Indies (sorry, "Nindies") for the platform. As for the game itself: pretty much what you would hope for in a SteamWorld Dig sequel, expanding on everything that worked and cutting down (or out) everything that didn't. I particularly liked the challenge caves with their little puzzles and how the game was kind enough to tell you if you'd found all the secrets within. Great progression for its spacewhipper-style traversal upgrades too - ensured that very little backtracking was involved. (5 Stars.)
16/01. First of a presently unknown number of HOPAs - Hidden Object Puzzle Adventures - that I'm looking into for mostly my own edification. This was a fairly enjoyable entry to start off: the hidden object stuff wasn't bad, the rest of the puzzles were kinda fun, and the story was, let's say, dumb in a not-unagreeable way. (4 Stars.)
18/01. The fifty-third Indie Game of the Week. A little bit of a disappointment perhaps, as it reaches for far more than it can manage. The purity of Octodad, as it were, lies in the original game's idea of "octopus posing as human finds even simple chores a complete ordeal" - when you start introducing boss fights and challenging platforming, it sort of takes away from that core appeal of the concept. Still, if nothing else it was probably a learning process for the devs. (2 Stars.)
22/01. Another SNES game for my SNES Classic Mk. II feature, Operation Logic Bomb was a genuine pleasant surprise for me. I didn't imagine I'd take to a top-down shooter - not one of my favorite genres, as it's often the format for risible movie license games - but O.L.B. had some smart ideas and a tactical edge to it that forced me to think as well as shoot quickly. And all this from Jaleco, no less. (4 Stars.)
25/01. The fifty-fourth Indie Game of the Week. Escape Goat's definitely in the "if it ain't broke" camp of game development, hewing close to the original game's blueprint to simply deliver more of the same. That isn't to say that I don't find the game compelling: the game has a mean streak a mile wide, and will frequently (and literally) pull the floor from under your feet as you try to solve its many single-screen labyrinths. The bonus rooms are particularly nasty. (4 Stars.)
29/01. A bit more like what I was expecting from this genre. I'm already starting to see similarities emerge and replicated puzzle types, and the game's doofy story about chasing Roman gods around to recover a big hammer is some inspired insipidity. Still, can't begrudge these games for their simple pleasures. (3 Stars.)
