by mento
The year? 2022. The list? It's a bunch of video games I've played through to completion. Is there a third part to this bit? There will be when I think of something.
I've got some dumb ideas for features this year, but I also have my usual ones. Anything marked as an Indie Game of the Week, for example, has a much more detailed review attached to its wiki page (just click the game's entry on this list, check its forums tab, and there you go).
Showing 1-10 of 87 items
06/01. (The first game in Go! Go! GOTY! 2021.) A pleasant enough Indie explormer I probably spent way too much money on, Ender Lilies is certainly attractive and well-made but its struggle to find an identity of its own rather than an amalgam of other, more established explormers probably hurt it. It feels like a modernization without being a paradigm shift; the sense that it's polishing what's already extant rather than blazing a new trail for the format. You'll enjoy this if you like these kinds of games, but you might struggle to remember much about it months later. (4 Stars.)
07/01. The two-hundred-and-fifty-first Indie Game of the Week. I was drawn to these Opus games after playing the second one last year, and the first deals with one of my favorite subjects - astronomy - so I was definitely curious about it. It's a bit like the planet scanning mechanic in the Mass Effect series isolated and turned into its own mini puzzle game with a narrative wrapped around it, the latter taking more of the focus as you continue to get closer to figuring out where that dang ol' pale blue dot went to as issues keep piling up on your orbital telescope station. Wholesome, hopeful, and chill: just what I was looking for. (4 Stars.)
07/01. (The second game in Go! Go! GOTY! 2021.) One of a few run-based type games to double-down on the randomized gambling aspect of that genre; those where your chances of winning are more down to good fortune rather than the player's own skill and judgment. There's no guarantee you'll find a lucrative synergy of slot machine symbols in any given run on Luck be a Landlord, but it's certainly satisfying when a set comes together and you're raking in the dough. At least, enough dough to keep your landlord vulture at bay. It's a game that requires some experimentation and a lot of failure before it clicks. (4 Stars.)
09/01. (The third game in Go! Go! GOTY! 2021.) Really not a whole lot to say about this micro-sized platformer beyond that it goes for a slightly uncommon black-and-white crisp 8-bit aesthetic - one I suspect was due to playing a lot of Game Boy games on an emulator rather than the real deal, since the pea greenness (not to be confused with the green penis) isn't quite as apparent - and a mechanic where you can temporarily absorb light and use it to walk on air. Over before it really starts, though simultaneously at a point where you feel like it's shown all it has to show. (3 Stars.)
15/01. The two-hundred-and-fifty-second Indie Game of the Week. My first impression of MagiCat wasn't wholly positive: it felt a little too generic, both in its cute but unremarkable 16-bit appearance and in its simple, straightforward 2D platformer mechanics. It wasn't until I got a few hours in that I realized that I hadn't seen the same level gimmick repeated more than once, and there's more than sixty stages in the game total. That, combined with a decent challenge level and some intriguing puzzles around its collectibles (like in the more recent Super Mario games, there's three per level and half the fun of the game is figuring out how to find or reach them) eventually won me over. (4 Stars.)
18/01. (The fifth game in Go! Go! GOTY! 2021.) This is specifically for Chapter 2. Happy to see that Fox hadn't missed a beat when it comes to introducing new characters that you immediately love, whether they're some cute one-off or a recurring antagonist like Queen, and I enjoyed the whole cyberworld aesthetic and the subtle mechanical improvements to the combat and the mini-games. The soundtrack was off the damn chain too, especially the boss tracks, beaten only by Ys IX that year. It's probably going to be a while before the next installment, and I'm not certain I won't replay the first two chapters when that year arrives. (5 Stars.)
19/01. (The sixth game in Go! Go! GOTY! 2021.) A melancholy adventure game about leaving behind a life and a partner you loved due to economical circumstances that oft befall struggling creatives. The game isn't shy about its adoration for Kentucky Route Zero, throwing in as many stylistic allusions to that episodic misery sim as it can get away with. If you feel the "game as autobiography" is a concept with some legs, I'd recommend giving it a shot. Conversely, those that avoid games that are likely to bum them out might want to try something else. (4 Stars.)
19/01. (The fourth game in Go! Go! GOTY! 2021.) A run-based game about configuring the world as you go, building a cyclical route that is neither too tough nor too simple for your wandering hero to gain the strength and gear he needs to conquer the local boss. It's a game all about savvy judgment, from your character's equipment to the type of positive synergies you can make with the cards in your deck. I really liked its early DOS aesthetic and soundtrack too; like Return of the Obra Dinn, it's a nostalgia-fluffer that forgoes the usual time periods most others invoke. (4 Stars.)
20/01. The two-hundred-and-fifty-second Indie Game of the Week. A charming fairytale adventure game about a firefly on a mission and an ornery group of forest spirits that help and hinder her in turn. Very much one to appreciate for its aesthetic and storytelling rather than anything elaborate in terms of its puzzles and mini-games. Probably a great game suited for kids if you're figuring out what your little ones might respond to, though adults can certainly enjoy its earnestness as well. (4 Stars.)
24/01. (The eighth and final game in Go! Go! GOTY! 2021. The seventh, for the record, was Cloud Gardens which I did not complete.) One of those rare and precious puzzle games that takes a hoary format that has existed in paper form forever and figuring out a way that the video game medium can do something original in a fashion exclusive to the format. In this case, it's taking Spot the Difference - a mainstay in every newspaper's kids' section - and turning the two images into 3D dioramas that you can spin around and view at any angle. The dioramas alone are fun enough to explore; the simple process of finding five elements that don't match in the two otherwise identical tableaux is the icing on the cake. (4 Stars.)
