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86/100. Wandersong is a 2D platformer/adventure game about a hero-turned-bard-turned-hero who 'fights' with his voice. Despite some of the gameplay's simplicity, it just works. Most of the characters are fairly interesting, and even when the writing can seem a little amateurish, the story still manages to be compelling despite its straightforwardness. The presentation is great as well, with a minimalist art style that can occasionally look a bit like paper cut-outs against a backdrop, with a lot of stylistic blurring used to great effect to really accentuate that pseudo 3D style. I can't say I was surprised by my enjoyment of Wandersong, but I can say that it thoroughly lives up to the hype and is a must-play for fans of 2D platformer/adventure games.

82/100. GNOG is a 3D puzzle game that revolves around the solving of a few puzzle boxes, each with their own unique mechanics and style. I've played through this game a few times, and each time I was blown away by the creativity of some of the puzzles. It might not be a particularly difficult experience, but in my mind, it doesn't have to be. Part of the charm of GNOG is in just how chill it can be while still engaging the player, a balancing act that many games of the type fail to do. Another aspect worth noting is the vibrant presentation, which is beautifully animated and uses a rather minimal art style to great effect. GNOG ranks among the best casual puzzlers out there, and comes highly recommended for those who find themselves looking for a solid puzzle title.

78/100. Sophie's Safecracking Simulator is a fairly realistic safecracking simulator, which mechanically recreates randomly generated lock systems for the player to solve, with or without the aid of a few devices. The game is executed almost flawlessly(apart from an occasionally messy tutorial and a few graphical bugs), and it's good fun for those who have the patience. This might be too specific for most players, but I found this to be quite an enjoyable and relaxing experience, and certainly one that I'll be revisiting.

76/100. Antecrpyt is a tough-as-nails 2D shooter and all the better for it. Rather than opting for the traditional twin-stick approach, the game uses a unique aiming system that places the emphasis on moving instead of on aiming, giving the game a rather unique feel. While the game is quite polished and pretty consistently enjoyable, the crushing difficulty can at times feel more frustrating than satisfying, but that never diminishes the allure of the game. For those who are up for a challenge, this is one that is definitely worth adding to one's "to-play" list.

72/100. Evergate is a puzzle-platformer by PQube Games, following an entity that is trying to go back to earth by way of the titular 'Evergate' but is interrupted by the memories of someone else. I haven't even come close to finishing it as far as I know, but I will say that the game is stunning in presentation, both visually and auditorily, which makes it even more painful to say that I wasn't too impressed by either the gameplay or the story. That's not to say that the gameplay is bad, but it's a bit too easy and the 'picking levels from a menu' structure doesn't pair well with the type of game that it wants to be. I imagine that I'll continue to play more than the hour I've spent with it, but it's hard to feel motivated by a game that seemingly doesn't have any narrative progression for the entirety of its runtime. The narrative might be the biggest flaw in the entire game, largely due to how sparse it really is. This is something that might have worked for a game with stronger gameplay but feels glaringly obvious in this work. Overall, it does have its flaws, but it is still beautiful to look at, which helps to carry the experience through some of its unevenness. 

71/100. Minit Fun Racer is the best kind of game: the one that knows exactly what it is. While it's admittedly quite simple, it's nonetheless a highly engaging and polished arcade 'racing' game that cleverly reuses some of the mechanics from popular indie Minit to complement an already amusing experience. It took me about half an hour to reach the finish line, but there's a wealth of achievements to chase after which could easily extend one's playtime to perhaps 1-2 hours. Even if it's not the most complex of games, this one still comes highly recommend. 

67/100. Fortune-499 is a top-down RPG? game about corporate oracles. It's quite polished and lengthy for a game of its narrative scope, but that latter point is also to the detriment of what could have been a slightly more engaging experience. The problem tends to be that there isn't too much of an overlying objective besides "eventually figure out what the deal is with these monsters", and one could assume that there's probably a climactic boss fight at the end of the game, but that isn't too much of a driving force, and, paired with the relatively simple combat, it just make it feel a bit too spaced out. At the same time, I still really enjoyed certain aspects of the game, and will probably be continuing it to see if the narrative begins to congeal at some point, but it's definitely not a perfect experience.

(Review based on one hour of playtime).

66/100. [Speer] is a retro puzzle-platformer where players control a spear-throwing entity across 100 levels. Out of the 30 levels that I tested, it felt like most of the game was more designed around platforming than puzzling, which works well enough, although the controls are not as tight as one might want for certain parts of the game. There's nothing that stands out as particularly 'bad' in the game, and it is somewhat entertaining as a whole, but there's a streak of blandness that taints its rather colorful exterior, making it rather difficult to play for more than just a few levels. I might continue with this one, but it's not the type of game that I'm exactly dying to return to.

64/100. SkateBIRD is, well, a skating game with birds. This simple concept is in equal parts elegant and clunky in its execution, in that some aspects feel quite satisfying while others break the experience. The main problem is the actual skating controls, but for those who don't find themselves frustrated after a dozen attempts on the same level just because of the flimsy controls, then there is quite a sugary experience underneath. The vibe of the game is quite pleasant, and that might be enough for some to overlook the flaws of the game, but those looking for a more fleshed-out experience will probably be unsatisfied with the game's relatively casual approach. It's too frustrating for casual player and too shallow for more intensive ones, but there's still an audience out there somewhere. I imagine I'll be playing more of this, even if it isn't a first priority.

(Review based off of the experience up to the completion of the first world in the game, or roughly 1.5 hours of playtime).

62/100. inbento is a hyper-casual puzzle game developed by afterburn, the studio behind the acclaimed golf peaks. The problem I have with this game is the problem I have with many hyper-casual puzzle games, that being that, regardless of how good the puzzles are, there's still no sense of progression. What makes inbento suffer even more from this problem is that the puzzles aren't necessarily all that good, even if it's thoroughly polished and well presented. In this case, an aversion to simplicity might have helped the game, but as it stands, it just feels like another puzzle game without any x-factor to keep the player playing.

61/100. SNAAAK is a 10-minute 'Snakevania', combining the control scheme of Snake with the atmosphere of a metroidvania. While some of the puzzles do feel quite novel and the ambience of the world is somewhat intriguing, the game's abrupt ending make it feel more like a tutorial level than a complete and self-contained game. Even if the game might be overpriced at $1.99, it's still a fairly engaging way to spend 10 minutes for those who own it already.

People who liked this game should make sure to check out Pipe by Tak, a game that feels quite similar but is perhaps executed a tiny bit more effectively than this one.

52/100. Rip Them Off is a puzzle/tower-defense? game stylized to fit an angular 50's aesthetic. That aesthetic might be all that the game has going for it, with the gameplay feeling frustratingly lackluster. The problem is that the game tries to make a puzzle game out of what should be a strategy game, resulting in an experience that frequently reverts to simple trial-and-error. Additionally, the game is very obviously a mobile game and intended to be played on a mobile device, and the developers put very little work into porting it over to computer, so the interface is frequently oversized and the art doesn't scale up particularly well. Overall, I think it's definitely fun to look at a few screenshots, but this game is quite a disappointment.