Steam Review - Consider liking it - it means a lot to me :)

Grindstone is a completely underrated gem. It has one of the best animations I've seen in a 2D game yet, with a distinctive artstyle that is so fluid and fresh. It's like watching Cartoon Network's golden age shows non-stop, and characters ooze personality and emotion on their reactions and expressions. The sound is crunchy and the gameplay is snappy, and even after dozens of hours with the game, it never ceases to be satisfying to chain a massive combo, seeing your enemies cower in fear, you smush through them with a ravenous hunger, and the crowd cheering your gratuitous display of violence (in particular once you pardon a slob and the kids cheer you on haahahah).

There's a semblance of a story going on, but it doesn't matter - the gameplay here is what carries everything else. It's an easy-to-pick, hard-to-master kind of game where situational awareness and gear loadout help you, but won't save you from a bad scenario, and you constantly need to balance creating props that allow you to combo (such as grindstones or enemy guts and drops) vs. making quick work at a level. There's such a massive amount of content here, from levels to worlds to side-dungeons to daily and weekly quests to 200 levels in the main path, it's wild. I was afraid of starting the game because I thought it would be too much, but now I see myself playing almost 2h every day just because it is that fun.

Seriously, this game is criminally underrated and underappreciated. For me it's on par with indie darlings such as Slay The Spire, Stardew Valley, and Hades. Buy it, play it, GRIND IT!

Steam Review - Consider liking it - it means a lot to me :)

Kind of …. meh. I tend to enjoy walking simulators, but I guess I prefer the ones where you don't feel completely alone. Such as Firewatch, where you always have a buddy talking to you and the world is open and expansive. Or Tacoma, where you're always surrounded by other characters. Gone Home reminded me more of Rachel Foster, which is kind of … not my favorite at all. The ambient is a bit oppressive, which I don't fully appreciate, and the game didn't run so well on my system, which surprises me given I can play RDR2 and The Last of Us remaster without an issue. Movement is quite sluggish.

It's a weak recommendation because of what it represents in the development of walking sims, but definitely not my favorite at it.

Metroidvania is probably my favorite genre, like ever, and I decided to kick off my backlog this year with all the Metroidvanias I've been sitting on while I wait for my January PAGYWOSG submissions to be approved.

Well, since Ghost 1.0 was on the list, and Mini Ghost exists, I figured this could be a good way to kill a day or two before being able to play my PAGYWOSG games.

While Mini Ghost was … fine … for most of its runtime, it has some poor design choices that are just too frustrating to cope with. In trying to emulate old games (in this case, from the MSX-era), the designer forgot he could keep the aesthetic but improve the gameplay. So yeah …. good luck spending half of your playtime exploring the world, and the other half running through the same screens again because you died in a boss and the only way of reaching it again is traversing the same old path you've been on since the beginning of the game. You don't want to provide good movement or defensive options? Fine, just don't flood my screen with unavoidable bullets, or enemies that stun-lock you in corners/in the air, above lava and with no mid-air control. Don't want to provide fast-track to a boss? Fine, just don't make a tortuous path that is three times as long as it needs to be and force me to navigate it.

It was a thumbs-up for 80% of my playtime, but the other 20% are so bad, so poor that I can't find myeslf recommending this game. Let's see if Ghost 1.0 delivers, although at this point I might just take it off my backlog and leave it in the pile of shame for some day.

Steam Review. Consider liking it - it means a lot to me :)

Tacoma was a wild experience - one of my favorite walking simulator so far, maybe second only to Firewatch. The detective kind of work involving rewinding and fast-forwarding recorded events is a lot of fun, the station is super beautiful and fun to explore, and there are decent puzzles involving physical objects and non-obvious connections and passwords. If we're being honest, all the puzzles are easy, but they are still fun to pursue.

I enjoyed my time in the station and wouldn't mind spending more time at such a gorgeous environment and with a great time-manipulation mechanic that should be more common in other games. And now, Happy 2025 folks!

Full Review on Steam. Consider liking it - it means a lot to me :)

South Scrimshaw - Part One is less of a game and more of an interactive piece of media. It is a linear story told with superb narration and beautiful drawings and paintings. Plot-wise, it follows the early lifecycle stages of a fictional Brillo whale on a fictional planet, as being recorded by a documentary crew. It is fully devoted to that idea, and sells it remarkably well.

While somewhat short, it's entertaining during all of it's runtime, and for free, there's no reason to not check it out. I can't wait to see/play/read the next chapters, hopefully in less than 20 years. It's also an easy 100% if you care about that kind of stuff. I don't, usually try to avoid it, but this time it came before I realized 🤷‍♀️

Full Review on Steam with more details - I'll keep it short here. Consider liking it - it means a lot to me :)

If I wanted to be precise, I'd say Going Under is a 3D action roguelike with a heavy focus on combat. But since we're all friends here, I can just say Going Under is a lot of fun.

It's a light-hearted, funny, beautifully stylized and awesome-sounding game that makes funs of modern workplaces while being a cohesive roguelike. Runs are short, ranging from 5-25 minutes (5 if you die, 25min usually if you move really slowly and thoroughly). Dying is never a big deal, and you're almost always making progress at something.

There is a story, it's not terrible but it's kind of predictable and not the star of the show. The dialogue is really good thou in the micro-level, i.e. when characters are interacting with each other. By the end of my playthrough, I really cherished the time I spent at Fizzle with my co-workers.

Gameplay-wise, it's a bit of a mess. One-on-one combat is good enough, with good dodge rolls and lots of different weapons to utilize against your foes. Bosses can be a lot of fun when you got it under control (except for Hover Hands). The problem is that you rarely got it under control, and some rooms have so many enemies and effects around you that you'll be forced to take some (or a lot of) damage to clear it, potentially hurting your run in the long-term. Not a big problem, but it's a game that relies more on RNG than on your skills to determine whether you'll breeze through a boss or barely make it through floor one.

Overall, this is a terrific first game for Aggro Crab, full of humor, character, good fun, good graphics, good music, and a decent combat and progression system. While not perfect, I can't wait to play more of their games!

PS - yeah, could not keep it short. Sorry!! 🤷‍♂️

This is wild. I got Vampire Survivors on Epic a week ago, and I've already sunk over 21 hours on it. It's so addictive. Now I understand why people like it so much.

While I haven't completed the game, I've played it enough to consider it at least Beaten (I marked it as Beaten when I defeated the Reaper for the first time). Recently unlocked Darkanas. It feels like each run opens three or four new goals. I can anticipate leaving this game installed for a really long time, playing 30 or 40 minutes every now and then.

A super welcome palate cleanser after playing Journey. I had zero knowledge or expectations about Sheepy besides the fact that it was short, but boy, did this game surprise me in a positive way or what. Like a lot of people mentioned in the Steam review page for the game, this is a free game definitely worth paying for.

Presentation, audio, graphics, narrative, everything is crisp and polished. Gameplay mechanics layer nicely and during the short one hour with this game, you'll have a fair share of exploration, platforming, combat, and adventure. I loved every second of it.

If I had to complain about anything, it would be on how short the timing window for the double jump is. But considering every time you fail a double jump, you can retry it in a matter of seconds, even that complaint is unwarranted. Given some padding and some additional levels, I could see this becoming something akin to Celeste, Hollow Knight, or Ori. The vibes are just so spot-on

Steam Review

If you, like me, spend some time on gaming Youtube, you're guaranteed to have seen footage from Journey. I had a vague idea of what the game was about before playing it today, and while I enjoyed my time with it, I fail to understand what all the hype about the game is. Maybe it's because during my playthrough I never saw another player, even though the game told me I met eight companions during my play. Bug, glitch, or lack of luck? I don't know, but it didn't leave a strong impression on me.

After souring on Flower, that's a 2/2 mixed feelings for thatgamecompany. Not sure if I'm willing to give them a third chance.

Steam Review