Games I've written about for kritiqal.com, whether in reviews, impressions, or some combination there of.
Transmutations: an owch analysis
"The (likely) good ending of BEAT THE ART BREAKER—what I deem the QUEEN EYE ending—provides an interesting contrast to AXE’s violent transformation, achievable only by rejecting financially motivated violence. In BTAB, the player is given control of the ART BREAKER, a brawler resembling those from AXE and the later PALACE. The ART BREAKER arrives in a city where at least two factions, insect-like gangsters and diminutive, pacifist wizards, are engaged in conflict."
Transmutations: an owch analysis
"The change that occurs in LONG LIVE THE AXE is the most violent of any owch game. Far from merciful, the player character, whom I will call the bruiser, can do little but bludgeon, slice, and shoot, killing hundreds of other creatures. Enemy infighting implies three or four warring factions in the game world, but the bruiser fights them all using their own weapons and even body parts. The scarce narrative context has the bruiser hear that someone, Iron Mind, is looking for them at the church. After threatening and insulting the bruiser, Iron Mind vanishes, and the bruiser descends into the basement of the church and begins to carve their way through the levels."
Transmutations: an owch analysis
"PALACE OF WOE is the only owch game in which the transformation is obviously positive: a magical, metaphorical, and literal gender transition that allows the player character to escape the PALACE OF WOE. To assume, because the developer is transgender, that her own transition is in some way analogous to the transformations in her videogames overall is a limiting and somewhat essentializing perspective. However, PALACE is a useful starting point for the analysis of this theme, as its uplifting trans allegory helps contextualize the deeper abstractions of owch’s other games."
What Comes After the wholesome end?
"It would be unfair to expect What Comes After to be a playable therapy session, applicable to any mental health issues from lowered self-esteem to suicidality. That’s a standard that has never been achieved by video games nor any other medium, from “inspirational” self-help videos to academic literature. If solving these issues was as simple as completing a game in less than an hour, the mental health crisis that numerous countries face today would not exist. But as What Comes After addresses these issues and suggests a solution (even advertising itself on the Steam page as “a personal journey of learning how to love yourself”), it is worth discussing how media can meaningfully talk about mental health, analyze whether this attempt can be considered successful, and where its limitations lie."
Another Night in the Woods
"Night in the Woods’ commentary doesn’t extend far beyond a surface-level analysis that the status quo has flaws. It’s certainly a great highlight of the average Joe’s plight in America, however, it doesn’t dive substantially into what belies it. You won’t find an analysis of how work is insidious, or of how Capitalism ingrains itself into the individual’s consciousness like a parasite. Instead, you are presented with an ambiguous notion that maybe things aren’t so good and that, possibly, something should be different."
BIG QUEER WAR MACHINE
"On the surface, this fleshy bond is the principal horror of THE EMBRACE. It sets out to tell a short, visceral story and succeeds marvellously. Perhaps the one and only complaint I have is that the final snippet of text is a little too hard to read, sliding off the screen before I can finish reading. Fortunately, the game automatically loops . All I need to do is quickly flick through its pages to get another look."
BIG QUEER WAR MACHINE
"From its very first moments, Can Androids Pray begins to draw connections between the bodies of its pilots and the mechs that house them. The camera lingers on dark splatters through the intro, and by the time I see the wreckage of a mech understand it to be blood. That blood might be made of oil or fuel or some other more fantastical substance but that doesn’t change the weight with which I view it."
Serve me through the wall
"What's so powerful about Lofi Ping Pong is how it understands its subject. It is a sad and challenging game wrapped in soft textures; less ping pong sim than twitchy rhythm game. Unlike its inspiration, here we can’t be wholly insulated. Our ironic detachment breaks every time we miss a beat, thrust back into consciousness and the glow of our monitor."
Food from the torpedo chambers
"SUPERLUNARY triumphs in the moments between pain and reconciliation, characters reaching out to one another as the only thing keeping them from falling inwards. It is not a sad game, not exactly, but its stability comes at a premium. Every pocket of intimacy exists inside a ship built for war, and even with the torpedos removed that fact is hard to ignore."
Photos of future ruins
"Dear Future is an asynchronous massively-multiplayer photography game about exploring an abandoned city. I have been trying to write about it for several weeks and have found myself incapable of doing with any organization or distance. What follow, instead, are orchestrated recollections and half-formed conclusions of my time with the game. A half-step towards the understanding I'm searching for."
Even the Ocean's Sophomore Woes and Shadow Drafts
"Even the Ocean sits unfortunately between an early indie hit and a decade defining classic. It is the studio’s most technically accomplished game to date but lacks the emotional heft of its siblings; a delight in itself that falls shy of the incredibly high bar Analgesic have set for themselves. But as a transitional piece it is one of the best modern examples we have of thematic development across games, made more interesting through Anodyne 2's parallels."
The cross you gave to me
"Video games are built on violence. Violence towards their creators at the hands of industry overlords. Violence towards their fans through the cultivation of toxic communities. Violence to the planet by the manufacturing of useless hardware and the ballooning footprint of server farms. Violence as the primary verb through which we understand our interactions in these digital worlds. The argument of whether games should be violent is over, violence has won."
a dry well’s basement (after Always Down)
i am going away; bye bye, so long
but i won’t be far, just a moment gone
compel me down with earth and siren song
orchestral strings played just ahead, beyond
through damp angular caves long since withdrawn
dark hued chiroptera and fire strewn pits
break me and send me back out this dead ditch
at last thrown into a dry well’s basement
i have arrived and just as quickly pitch
thrown up towards home i make my ascent
the snake drifts past (after SNAAAK)
snake the vines, lost broken tunnels, paste in
orange goo and techno sentries, slowly
slip towards new exits, fresh contraption
dithers and divides, harsh fragility
collides, eating its vast extremity
all’s toward freedom, cold isolation
buckets of crabs grasp emancipation
left behind nature takes ahold, biting
at the glass, waiting for inspiration
the snake drifts past, desperately climbing
remember brown frond (after Cover Me In Leaves)
break my skin and sketch upon it my fear
each new carved hope itching inked scar tissue
dead strip malls eulogize each new lost year
talking - fucking - strangers, picturing you
too cruel to hold, too cruel not to–
remember brown frond, the crack of oak twigs?
leaf littered asphalt from our first last kiss?
walk this memory, press my body close
trace lines down my arm, draw in what i miss
arching limbs of this tree, a future chose
sonic (after Stroke)
when i was eight i popped my cheek, split it
on the edge of a china cabinet
and ruined our movie night. i couldn’t spit
as they pulled my face back, stuck laminate
hospital glue, reversed the accident.
i remember how dark the ceiling was
the masks and confusion, getting sonic
at eight on a school night, staining the gauze
with ketchup blood hands, acting aphonic
thinking i’d come out ahead with this flaw
wood wrapped hearts (after SLASHER, interrupted)
crack! the limb snaps, wooden splinters feather
the ground, a crow’s nest, something wet drips down
yellow sap on an arm, fool’s fake leather
heavy in this post-rain mist that chokes, drown
the song of cackling birds, red bitter sound
echo off the white picket wall, fall
at that familiar door, this dusty hall
always the same names carved in wood wrapped hearts
knowing before it’s voiced whose name they call
always the same end, now the curtains part
a cannon of known forms (after :))
a cannon of known forms, play since compiled.
what of the spaces between? the movements
through which a game dissolves which once beguiled;
small joys in the gaps between monuments.
still I long to move beyond cracked pavement
and in these transitions see something new
gestures at play that’s unfixed and askew
but which reminds me of some childish zeal
some naïve scene leaking rose residue
of flash and freeware feeling more than real
i thought i heard you dreaming (after HANDMADEDEATHLABYRINTH issue 0)
i thought i heard you dreaming, over there
behind the stranger, the golem, the roach
blocking the way, pushing you back up here
bolstered and burdened, failure caught your throat
asking for help within dreams you reproach
what a fool, what filth, ignorant to all
no torch or spell will let you out this hall
embrace your new life of sewage and grime
blip blip says the guard, a pitiful call
nobody leaves in the shell of a slime
remedy was here (after Sealed Estate)
remedy was here, cracks in the tv
static hissing through the dim lit hallway
minigolf lanes and notes looking past me
the flashlight dies to let the shadows play
don’t listen to the cds, sonic castaways
i’m an intruder looking for shelter
i lie aloud, try to con my answer
hollow faces growl, my eyes start to run
eyes upon me, insulted i’m not her
the end comes too soon i gasp at no one
where nobody cries (after Locked In)
they’re fighting again, out in the kitchen
i shouldn’t move, just play dead, stay in bed
maybe they’ll quit, come back to tuck me in
i just want it to end, to not feel bad
is it my fault, dad? why’s mom always sad?
crawl under deeper into covers so
the words can’t reach you, just til tomorrow.
don’t listen to them yell, just close your eyes
send your dreams to a place only you know
somewhere far away where nobody cries
internet of kitty things (after You are such a Soft and Round Kitten)
a round floof defies gravity, beyond
physics, up the wall to another place
untold knowledge beneath their fur, bleach blonde
perfectly combed, carting a frog through space
digitizing themselves with an embrace.
irony poisoned and fully immune
a computer virus, softly consume
and hue this death in blue boxes, pity
eyes melted in the glare, monochrome doom
sending me back out to me you, kitty
"Broke Brodie has a great vibe, some sort of fireside ghost story trapped in an NES cart. Brodie and his family have been kidnapped and the ghosts don’t want to give up the keys! But, actually, they’re not so stubborn. Everyone’s just holding on to what little they have (being ghosts and all)."
"Building Relationships is a pun wrapping around to sincerity. The buildings are sentient, they have feelings, they’re looking for love. It’s sweet if suitably surreal. There’s an ironic detachment, buildings passing around weird socks and surviving random accidents. But never does Building Relationships transition into being itself a joke. Playing as a sentient building is almost secondary to the island’s tone, a place at once alive to the characters within it but unmoving and cut off from the rest of the world."
"Perhaps with more time Asobi could properly unpack all the themes it’s bundling, but at 10-15 minutes, it doesn’t make the impression it aspires to. The stories here are still intimate and at times impactful, but I was left wishing this was a more ordinary taxi with more human passengers."
"It’s refreshing to see a visual novel taking artistic inspiration from shows like Steven Universe and Gravity Falls. Spare Parts has a great chunky art style with thick outlines and pastel shades, cute characters with energetic expressions. It goes a long way in establishing a unique identity for the game from other more traditionally anime VNs. The interface is mechanically identical to most VNs but I love the blocky minimalism, red highlights emphasizing each choice to feel more impactful than a simple button."
"Traitor Nightly is immediately confounding. Its rules tell only the mechanics of the pieces but actually doing well is equal parts luck and patience. I lost many matches on the first turn and many more through a failed roll that tilted things entirely to my opponent. But games are quick and the framing captivating. I was not playing against an NPC but a grandmaster, the host of a popular program who has never lost on the air. How could I stop without at least once knocking them off their throne?"
"It is surprising how defined a space Stigmata draws given the intense pixelation effect applied to the player’s vision. Objects move in and out of focus, sometimes extremely vivid other times discernible as only different colored blobs. I felt compelled to squint, as if not trusting my own vision. It is hard to know what to trust here. I do not think it is less significant if these scenes are imagined, but it certainly shifts what it means to return to them at the end. Am I choosing to live among eldritch abominations, or is this just how I make sense of life’s smaller struggles? I am alone either way."
"You know that nightmare where your teeth are falling out? How about the one where teeth are growing from places they shouldn’t? Teeth Simulator is something like that, and it’s disgusting. But also, I can’t imagine anything but disgust as the goal, so in that sense, it’s a major success."
