I'm genuinely taken aback by the fact that it took me five years to play another game from this dev. I seem to remember really wanting to buy this one for a long time, too… Anyway, A Wild Catgirl Appears! is the story of Ami, an ordinary student at an all girls' high school who's also secretly gay. She hasn't been able to come out of the closet in fear of being bullied, which makes sense, considering how rampant homophobia seems to be at her school. Due to a newly established rule, everyone is now obligated to join a club. Ami chooses the coding club to try and avoid doing too much work, but she quickly takes a liking to the club president and they begin work on a game about a ninja catgirl. Some time after her design is complete, the girls begin working on an RFID figurine of her and soon enough, it turns out that the figurine can morph into a living version of the catgirl herself - and back again, if needed! Shenanigans ensue (but not that many, really). The game has gotten multiple updates since it first came out - a new UI design and an art overhaul (the original art style for the CGs was rather poor; now the important scenes use different art styles, which also stand out when compared against the character sprites, but for the better now, in my opinion), but I have to say, I'm surprised by the discrepancy between my playtime and a bunch of other ones I looked at. To anyone who's played it before, is it possible that a chunk of the story was removed, or was it just a problem with the skip function? As for the story, it's your usual "baby's first dating sim"; the characters know each other for a week or so, go on one date and suddenly, they're in love and the game is over before your brain can catch up. That by itself wouldn't have been too bad, but this game very much reads like the author themselves processing their feelings regarding their own sexual orientation through the fantasy of catgirls from another world giving them the courage to open up and talk about it with someone. It's equal parts heartwarming and saddening, and in the end, given the length that it is, doesn't make for a particularly good story. That being said, I own all of the dev's other Steam releases, so I'm curious to see how much they've improved over the years.

Time to get started with the cat madness… For my first pick, this wasn't bad. The art style looks generic, but it's a different kind of minimalistic than the pioneer of this little subgenre. If you use a hint, you'll get a red, YouTube thumbnail-style arrow leading you to a matching circle around the area in which you need to look for the cat. Took me twice as long to complete, because this one actually has an achievement for not using any hints. Me dum dum!

Why is that subtitle not part of the Steam title? We may never know! Figment is an adventure game that plays out inside some guy's mind (no, really, you're never going to learn more than that), which seemed like a novel enough idea to me… and then I read that Psychonauts already did it, so I've got some catching up to do. You play as Dusty, the… well, I never really learned what he's supposed to be, exactly. [EDIT: In spite of having mixed thoughts about the first game, I already picked up the sequel and it graciously reminded me that Dusty is supposed to be a physical representation of courage.] The guardian that prevents evil from seeping in too deep? The imaginary friend? Why not both? …and you're accompanied by Piper, the bird. Apparently, Dusty has gotten rusty (bars), but now that the Fear of Loss has appeared and started taunting him, it turns out there's a whole lot of puzzling and fighting to do. And he's not the only baddie that needs defeating! The others have hidden in the Freedom Isles (aka "the right brain") and Clockwork Junction (aka "the left brain"). First of all, I have to say that Figment ended up being a mediocre experience all across the board. The visual presentation and main theme of exploring the mind while the body is comatose is reminiscent of Epistory (visually, it has also been compared to Bastion, though I have not played that game), but that's about where my praise ends. I love the distinction between the creative, free-spirited land of the right brain and the industrial, logic-focused land of the left brain, but nothing ever feels fully cohesive. Spiders being enemies in the left brain make sense, considering their well-established status of the "creepy crawlies", but in the right brain, your enemies are… vomiting rats…? I didn't think much of them, but I can only imagine that's enough to trigger emetophobia. Voice acting is all over the place, too; it'd be one thing if it was just the accents that were hard to place, but I'm almost certain there wasn't a single character that sounded "right" for all of their screen time. The Fear of Loss stands out in particular as possibly the least threatening villain ever, thanks to his voice. Also notable is the game's musical edge, with the villains breaking out into song when you fight them… and that was charming, but then the first villain alluded to autism being a disease. Supposedly, the devs explained somewhere that that was supposed to be an example of how wrong/uninformed the character is, but there's no room in the game itself for that to be addressed and/or challenged. Hardly a clever idea when there's still tons of people out there believing the vaccine hoax. Another similar miss comes in the form of mist that comes in waves to hurt you while you're exploring the left brain, aka "waves of depression". Do these devs just not have anyone neurodivergent on the team or did they seriously think this was okay? Because it's not, considering the "just smile and it'll be better" kind of narrative people with depression are being fed to this day. The gameplay is a mix of puzzle-solving and fighting enemies, with neither being particularly challenging. I'm echoing the reviews I read on this one, but the fights really are just a loop of "click until dead" > "get health back", rinse and repeat. As for puzzles, you know me - I used a guide to get through the sokoban-like puzzles in the left brain (mostly because that's not my cup of tea, but also, oh no, the sCaRy wAvEs oF dEpReSsIoN!!). And in the end, the moral of the story is that what we all need is that little voice inside our head to tell us to get better. Jesus. Can't say I'm in a hurry to play this again when the time comes.

Every once in a while, I enter giveaways for these lewd games, convinced I'm not going to win… and then, I sometimes do. If you played any of these, you played them all; all you need to do is solve the puzzle. This one sets itself apart by featuring only art by Ringsel… of Ringsel (if I understand correctly, both the artist and their OC are named Ringsel). As with other games I've played from this dev (SEXTS and Meet My Teacher), the UI could look better and the BGM might need a replacement (just one, though; this game's got multiple, but one of them stands out in particular because it doesn't loop well).

I said I'd be happy to play it again next year, and I was! I almost forgot to utilize the uber trick of looking up the base tag repeatedly to watch all the videos in order! That helped me understand the story better, as after my initial playthrough, I was convinced Hannah/Eve was one and the same person with a case of DID, whereas now, I do believe that they're twins and Eve's last words are a rather straight-forward implication that her and Hannah are able to play one and the same person once again. I still can't believe Viva Seifert hasn't had many more acting roles before or after this. Also, if I ever play this a third time, maybe I won't forget to turn the visual filter off.

I can't tell where I first heard about it, or if I just hallucinated it, but I have to say this: I went into this game with the idea that it's supposed to be like A Short Hike and I was not disappointed. In the simplest of terms, Lil Gator Game is basically A Short Hike, just with a different coat of paint… and that didn't stop me from loving every second of it. They did a spoof on Ace Attorney, for goodness sake! But let's start at the beginning. You're Lil Gator (it's never explicitly stated how old you are, but I wanna say, no younger than 10 years old) and you're out playing with your friends. You're on a big, epic adventure, with enemies lurking around every corner and loot tucked away in the nooks and crannies you might not have even noticed. Your big sis is also there! …but she's stuck with her laptop, typing away at her project. Oh no! That means she's missing out on (possibly) the coolest game of her life! That's how the idea to improve the game even further hatches in the mind of Lil Gator. To do that, you'll need to run, jump and fly around the island to find some new friends (and lend them a hand before they'll lend you theirs), fight your way through hordes of enemies and collect all the loot. It's a charming little adventure for anyone and everyone who liked A Short Hike and/or (assuming you haven't played it) enjoys anthropomorphic animal characters, exploring at their own pace… relaxing, in general. Can't wait to have an excuse to play this again in the future.

I wish I didn't have such bad memories associated with cats IRL to enjoy this game more. Here, you play as a cat that fell out the window of… boy, the fourth, or maybe fifth floor while napping on the windowsill and somehow survived it, and now… well, now you've got to get back home. But you're too tired to climb that high and as it soon turns out, some animals around the place could use your help, so going home might have to wait after all. In the shortest of terms, where Lil Gator Game is like A Short Hike turned 3D, Little Kitty, Big City is like A Short Hike with less soul… The first issue are the huge water puddles all over the place. This is explained somewhere along the way as a freak accident of the waterworks, but it never actually gets fixed. It's one thing that some of those are used to prevent you from trying to walk off the map where it ends, but accidentally running into one of the other ones while casually zooming around town is inevitable… and then you're gonna have to watch the grand animation of the cat jumping and hissing every time this happens, which kills all the momentum of running. Same with unlocked fast travel points, someone just decided that Tanuki (the character in charge of the fast travel system) has to stick her head out of the sewers, so forget about running over any unlocked fast travel points - you're just going to end up bonking your head against them/Tanuki. Another big aspect of the game is platforming - you're going to have to jump around to find your way onto rooftops and various other fixtures. The problem with this is, not only does jumping feel sluggish/weighty, it would be impossible to get anywhere without using the "precision jump"; that is, holding down the jump button to align the trajectory of the jump before committing to your decision. This is another thing that eliminates any possible sense of momentum from the equation. Then, there's climbing. Whereas in A Short Hike and Lil Gator Game, you're able to climb any vertical surface you push against, here climbing is limited to surfaces covered in ivory. This is a great way to entice the player to look closer for new places to go, but… why, then, is there a failsafe where if you jump at a surface with no ivory, the cat will slowly slide down it, claws scratching and all? I can't think of a single time that helped me get anywhere I thought I was meant to go; if anything, that's usually what happened after I failed a jump that, in hindsight, was likely never to be made in the first place. And if you press the jump button while sliding down, you'll jump away from the wall instead of sliding down faster, which, at least to me, seems counterintuitive. There's too many hats to collect, which sounds like the most ridiculous con for a casual game such as this to have, but considering the playtime and the fact that half of them aren't even found by combing through the world, but bought from gacha machines, I don't understand what the thought process behind this decision was. And speaking of in-game currency, while the various optional tasks are reasonable, the one for recycling a hundred items (which is one of the ways you could get more currency) is absolutely not it. The city is only really big from the kitty's point of view, so if you don't keep track of this task (and a few other ones), you might end up having to play catch-up after getting everything else done (don't ask me how I know). Thankfully, for this one specifically, someone has figured out a way to cheese it, which I hope the devs won't pick up as a bug to be fixed. It still hasn't been a month since this game came out, so we'll see about that. Lastly, I think I missed some kind of emotional impact from this game. While A Short Hike was all about being in the moment to experience the beauty of nature and Lil Gator Game tried to approach growing up and the importance of taking a break, there's… really nothing here. Getting a collar from your owner, and with it, the ability to name yourself was a nice touch, but in the end, that's it. It's a perfectly okay game for casual players and cat lovers, which I - the broken record that I am - am glad to have played on Game Pass, because it's wildly expensive in relation to the amount of content it provides.

From the maker of SEXTS, this is… pretty much the same game, except with images that have a more realistic art style. The one thing that seems to have been modified besides that is that now, you can choose to input randomly generated strings of letters (using only C, V, B and N) or arrow keys, instead of a regular typing game. The BGM is still just the one annoying piece that won't help you concentrate at all, the images are still AI generated and "touched up by AI-friendly porn artists" aaand you can still make a wallpaper by compiling three of your favorite images. Lastly, I found that the achievement descriptions and icons for completing all free levels for each girl are jumbled up… but at least they unlock properly!

I managed to snatch one of the codes for this one when the dev announced it on SG, but in retrospect, I don't really know why… I suppose I wasn't expecting this one to be F2P when it comes out. It's more similar to Love Colors than any other pixel coloring game, if only because it's being marketed as a game you can play with friends (again, I don't have any friends who would want to play with me, so I'm glad singleplayer isn't an afterthought). The dev was responsive to feedback, fixing a bunch of issues and even adding new images to the game not that long after it initially released, but I'm still looking forward to some QoL changes I think are important, such as making zooming in/out smoother (and making it possible to zoom out further, it's annoying having to drag your way around images this small) and removing the points/leaderboard system (because… why? why does it exist in the first place? all it does is stress me out about not spending every second coloring while I just want to find a new video to watch on the side). That being said, it is another casual coloring game, so as long as it keeps getting free content updates, I'm on board.

Wow! Can't believe I'm finally done with this series! This one was simply great, from the Cartoon category featuring Disney character names in spite of Disney having its own category, through the Tastes category, which was just one big mystery to me, all the way to the fact that a good chunk of the words you need to find are just missing their last letters. A great experience all around, definitely worth $10! Sarcasm, sarcasm, this is ALL SARCASM!