by mento
Gaming in the 2020s! I predict it'll be another quiet year, at least until the new consoles show up (and maybe a little after then, since launch libraries are rarely anything to write home about). I'll probably spend most of this year trying to polish off all the standouts of the previous decade; I've still got a lot to get through.
Here we go:
Showing 1-10 of 100 items
09/01. The one-hundred-and-fifty-second Indie Game of the Week. A delightful game about ghosts, frogs, wool, dancing, science, and the importance of oral hygiene. More of an interactive kid's cartoon than a detective game. Wholesome but wafer-thin. (4 Stars.)
12/01. A carry-over from last year, where it was the December Bucketlog entry. Despite not really caring for Fire Emblem, this FE/SMT cross over might be my favorite of the MegaTen games, at least mechanically speaking. The sessions system, though it makes every battle twice as long, is a fun idea that has you pondering the best chains to use and all the showbiz flourishes definitely lent the game a distinct personality. (5 Stars.)
22/01. The one-hundred-and-fifty-third Indie Game of the Week. Avadon 2 is much like the first: you play a cop in a corrupt system that might still be the only failsafe to prevent all-out war, and you fight a lot of monsters and brigands in an isometric grid-based battle system. Not much to look at and very similar to other Spiderweb games, but I like to drop back into this series occasionally for that boost of nostalgia. (4 Stars.)
23/01. The one-hundred-and-fifty-fourth Indie Game of the Week. A chilling space thriller that feels part Event Horizon and part Aliens, that largely deals with unethical science and how much more messed up it can get with space-age technology. Some really irksome and unintuitive puzzles towards the end mars an otherwise atmospheric and disturbing adventure game. (3 Stars.)
26/01. The adventures of Luigi and Gooigi sounded like one of the highlights of 2019, so I was fortunate enough to receive it as a gift and took to cleaning up the massive hotel and its unusual thematic choices of floors. I think this game could be considered the best you're going to get out of its specific model of vacuuming up trash in the hopes that money or a Boo pops out, and I enjoyed its endless imagination. Kinda wish I had a better use for that money than the usual Wario Land "you get a better castle at the end". (5 Stars.)
31/01. The one-hundred-and-fifty-fifth Indie Game of the Week. More first-person real-time dungeon crawlers are starting to emerge after the surprise success of the Grimrock games, and Vaporum might be the first to hit the same highs. As well as nailing its eerie steampunk atmosphere, there's some new great features - a button that makes time stand still, so you can think about your next move or make timing-based puzzles easier - and a heavier emphasis on epistolary storytelling. Makes me hopeful this hoary sub-genre isn't running out of steam, so to speak. (5 Stars.)
05/02. A superb open-world RPG from Obsidian, very much aligned with what they were doing with Fallout New Vegas with a whole new setting that still balances older visions of the future with jeremiads on rampant capitalism and corporate ownership. It almost feels like what might've happened to the Fallout universe if the bombs didn't drop and they reached the Space Age. Gameplay's good - the slow-motion is an adequate VATS replacement - and having multiple worlds makes for a fine change of pace. Just wish it was a little bigger in every sense of the term - world mass, items, mechanics - but I know if it was, Obsidian would still be ironing out bugs to this day. Good on them for exercising some restraint, I suppose. (4 Stars.)
13/02. The one-hundred-and-fifty-seventh Indie Game of the Week. Cute little game about dropping things in holes, somewhat scuppered by the law of conservation of detail that smaller Indie devs have to abide by. Katamari (which clearly inspired Donut County) could fill its levels with all sorts of junk and let the player pick their route through it; with Donut County, there's almost always only one ordered critical path. Still, it's very charming and some uncomplicated fun while it lasts. (4 Stars.)
19/02. It's been too damn long - almost six years! - since I last partook in Falcom's other major RPG series. Trails in the Sky SC not only has the excellent writing (and localization!) and characterization of the former, but the combat's been tweaked for the higher difficulty and made far more complex and compelling as a result. It's hard to name too many JRPGs that are operating on this game's level, despite its slightly antiquated look. (5 Stars.)
20/02. The one-hundred-and-fifty-eighth Indie Game of the Week. I've got a twofer here for the 158th slot: Ludosity's ZX-inspired Princess Remedy duo are action games that feel like miniature Zelda shoot 'em ups, presented as abstract battles of medicines versus ailments. The exploration angle and the snappy dialogue help elevate its action core further. (4 Stars.)
