21 - Fun 2D platforming game with some twists. You can run on any surface and you have an Ikaruga-esque color switching mechanic - when you're red you can stand on red surfaces, not blue, and vice versa. The game feels like a dream to speedrunners. Very fast paced with an in-game timer, some collectibles, and lots of places to take shortcuts. My only complaint is how the control scheme works as you round a corner. Got me killed a few times, but I don't think there's a better way to do it. Very fun!
20 - This game was a lot like A Short Hike in that the characters were all silly and interesting, dialogues felt very natural even when they were ridiculous, and the whole game was very whimsical and fun. I usually intend to get everything (within reason) in games when I play them even for the first time, but this was one where you couldn't always tell what you needed to do to advance the story versus what was optional. The sound design was hilariously good and I've been humming the music for hours.
19 - I love it and everything about it. This game was perfect from beginning to end. Art style was cute, controls were very snappy and responsive, and dialogue felt so authentic. Items actually felt really rewarding to acquire so every fetch quest felt meaningful and the dialogue kept me coming back to people to see what funny new things they might say. In a lot of ways it felt like Animal Crossing, even down to the fishing, which probably lent to me having even more of a soft spot for this game.
18 - Super cute dungeon crawler adventure. Definitely feels like baby's first adventure game in terms of how textbook the design is and the difficulty level. A few times in my playthrough I guessed what would be in the next room and what items I needed to solve puzzles because the game was so cookie-cutter. Simplicity aside, I loved it. The song was an absolute BOP but I would have liked more of them in different areas. Also, killing frogs is sad. Play this game!
17 - Yeah idk man this game was weird. Reminded me a lot of TAMASHII. A little bit of interesting platforming but the "story" was a waste of time. The warnings at the start drummed up all this hype for scares and difficult platforming and whatnot and then it fell way short of what I expected. The menu screen song is a banger tho. DELETE ALL ANIME.
16 - The game is a roguelike and a bullet hell and I'm terrible at both so this one ended up taking me probably around 40 hours to get my first clear. The art is nice, sounds are fun, music is good, and the gameplay is honestly great. I was very out of my element here and it took me a long time to figure out a playstyle that worked for me, but the game grew on me as I did and I ended up really liking it. I've had my fill and have no real desire to keep playing, but definitely recommend!
15 - Very fun and different style of puzzle game. Could use some music or at least some sort of ambiance. Art style looks great. Sadly too short. Big recommend for 15-30 minutes of fun.
14 - Feeding a bunch of fuzzy doggos legs of ham and bowls of food and watching their little waggly tails as they eat from their food bowls and watching hearts float above their heads - what's not to love? The progression of puzzle difficulty seemed inconsistent. Some puzzles felt out of place and significantly easier than earlier puzzles, but that could just be chalked up to creativity and problem solving techniques. Some of the solutions required to get all of the meats were quite tricky and satisfying to finally figure out. Unfortunately the game feels like it runs out of gas on the last level which felt like a bit of a gimmick, but it certainly was the hardest and took the longest to solve. Good for a rush of dopamine and some mental calisthenics.
Yes, I did get a tweet back.
13 - This game was at a disadvantage before I even started because I'm not much of a fan of beat 'em ups but when I started playing there was absolutely no hope for redemption. The game looks good and that's where the positive review ends. There are two control schemes and they're both limited. Mouse and Keyboard offers precision with aiming via mouse cursor, but that only works for controlling workers and not your own attacks for whatever reason which can only be right or left and don't correspond to your cursor location but instead the direction your character is facing. Controller is more intuitive for controlling your own character and also controlling workers but they never listen to your commands anyway so why bother. Both control schemes are stifled by very slippery movement as if everything was ice. When using the basic melee attack, every third attack makes your character jump which might get you killed based on your surroundings. Friendly AI is impossibly bad and always doing the wrong thing. They are either not helping you fight or getting blown up, shot, burned, and killed any way they can. Your friendly AI units will also use the same projectile you have equipped sometimes so when throwing molotovs, sometimes they are thrown on your own people. There is a command to make friendlies go to your cursor with M&KB or in a general direction relative to your character with controller. AI seemed unresponsive to both and did whatever they wanted anyway. There is a reward system that unlocks new weapons and items for you if you do well on a given level which just feels like "win more" items. If you are good or doing well in your playthrough, then you get more items to make it easier as you progress. However, if you are bad or have trouble on a given level, you effectively get punished by the game difficulty and enemies ramping up per level and not being given anything to combat this. Some levels feel like the only way to beat them is to ignore the enemies and just make a dash to the exit which makes you wonder what the point of the game even is. The game in general is very socio-politically charged which I prefer to avoid by any means necessary. Even beating the game feels pointless and anticlimactic. There are more socio-political commentary scenes, it says you unlocked endless mode, and then you are put back on the world map as if you didn't do anything. Bad game. Don't play.
12 - Another love letter to Mega Man. This one had an interesting energy mechanic that was inspired by the creator's Multiple Sclerosis. Lots of political humor and social commentary that went over my head. Despite this game being on color gradient with a variable palette, as a couple other license games were, the high pixel count made everything very detailed and it honestly looked really good. The upgrades make you feel very powerful which is nice, but they don't really feel optional. Either I'm very bad, or upgrades are required in a sense in order to advance through the game's story. I shudder at the thought of a minimalist run. The game offers A LOT of instruction and knowledge as far as tips, stats of skills, and what exactly each level of each upgrade will yield for you at your home base of sorts. Plenty of other cool tidbits like a sound test and fan art are also on display. Definitely not a short game, in my experience. Some friends had trouble with glitches and stuff, but I didn't run into any. All in all, a very well thought out and put together game, highly recommended.
11 - Short and sweet platformer. The momentum and slipperiness of your character makes things a bit harder, but still pretty easy overall. The checkpoints are the highlight of this game. The object itself and the sound that plays when you reach one are both so satisfying. Cool time trial game that would be fun to race with friends. Worth playing at least once.
10 - The creators of this game have a hard on for Mega Man. A remarkably mediocre game. Music was okay. Basically nothing in terms of instruction or why you're doing what you're doing. The story was... there, I suppose. The pixelated text was one step above illegible. W, M, and H all look like H which makes reading text fun. From the health bars and pickups to fighting robots and the boss rush at the end, it felt very much like a Mega Man game mashed up with a few other old (S)NES games that things were copied from. Controls are a bit clunky and unresponsive. Sword swing feels bad and enemies often phased through my swing to collide with me. Hit boxes aren't great. The choice to keep everything on a color gradient and change palette is cute, but made it tough to discern what exactly things are sometimes. Some cute hidden characters and content that either I didn't quite put together or isn't meant to be put together. Boss fight mechanics can mostly be ignored which makes them feel a bit dull and unrewarding. If you have it, you should play it, but don't go out of your way to buy it.
9 - Super fun game. A bit of a platformer and puzzle hybrid because sometimes the movements you have to take feel like riddles you need to solve. The game plays tricks on you because the upbeat music always makes you feel like you need to go fast, but sometimes the solution is going slower or waiting a bit longer. Some of the extra content is very hard, but still reasonable which makes it feel really good to complete. The sprites are also very cute so everyone should give this game a shot.
8 - Fun top-down 2D Metroidvania sort of style game. It was really unique in that you have 60 seconds to complete whatever your goals are before dying and respawning in your home. Some things are permanent and others have to be redone every minute. Very cute idea and pretty well executed. The entire game is black and white pixel art which gave it a neat retro feel, but made it a bit difficult to discern what exactly some things are without explicitly being told. Very fun, definitely recommended.
7 - Pretty cool stealth platformer. Controls felt a bit wonky but that was mostly the flip jump that didn't seem to work half the time and limited your jump height which felt really bad. The story was way over the top which made it cute in its own way. Cutscene art was cool. Music was jammy. I could see a lot of replayability in harder modes and seeking better grades for being quicker and getting caught less, but I don't think I'll bother. It was fun once.
6 - Another really fun and cute platformer game. The sprites are all really cute and the music is fire. Some characters released with the later updates are completely broken, but that's fine because you still have to play with the OG characters to unlock them. I wish there was some persistent recognition for beating the game with each character like changing their sprite or at least a crown or coloration of some kind on character select to indicate that you beat the game with them. Big recommend.
4 - Really fun platformer. Very cute characters that all looked super clean. Music was really jammy. Feels like something straight from the NES made in 2019 with passcodes and everything. A bit unforgiving, but it's good that way. Apparently, I played the whole game missing a huge mechanic just because I didn't know about it. Probably would've made the game easier but it was still fine this way. Big fan of this game all around. Definitely recommended but honestly pretty tough.
3 - Short 8-bit style platforming game. Pretty fun, but I don't see a lot of replayability aside from challenge modes like 1 life or speedruns. There was one part of the game that made no sense - white stuff normally kills you, but here you had to touch this one bit to open a path to advance through the level. Don't understand why this part was different or how you could know, but okay. Still a fun game and worth playing once.
2 - Very fun puzzle game. Music is fire. Some puzzles seemed to have way too many items which could just to make it easier on the player or just a difference in problem solving. There were also a few that were pretty easily cheesable. Excess items and alternate solutions made it very reminiscent of The Incredible Machine. Judging by the credits, it looks like it was made by one person and only playtested by him and one other so puzzle simplicity is understandable. I wouldn't change a thing.
1 - Very cute puzzle game. Honestly my only complaint is that it's too easy to go through doors on accident and reset rooms. You have to hold a button to intentionally reset a room so I would have liked if doors worked this way too. Nice, short game, good for a quick mental break if you just want to beat it or a few hours if you want to hundo.
