BobsYourUncle

The game is so varied in its gameplay with rhythm sections, interesting puzzles, engaging characters and writing. It’s all so great! I played it on apple arcade and bought on the switch just to support the devs. It shouldn’t be overlooked!

A puzzle point and click eerie adventure. The puzzles are unique and I’m loving all the different quirky characters. The writing is hard to read sometimes with all the slang different characters throw around. I’ve spend a good chunk of time just running around with all the different items just to see if the characters say something unique about it, and the crazy thing is a lot of time they do. Like at one point you get a wolf painting and I knew immediately who to give it to, but because I was curious I decided to see if other characters would respond to this item and every single one did! I love when games have that attention to detail and put stuff in there that most people won’t find. The art style and music are perfect. I feel like I’m walking around in a Psychonauts figment world. I’m playing this old school with a journal by my side because I hate getting hints and objectives marked on your map. That said if you do want hints, the game has loads. Characters will give you little nudges and a fortune teller will tell you what specific items are used for.

The music is phenomenal. Just listen to Spelunking with Trebhum on Youtube to see what I mean. The gameplay was interesting and more addicting than I initially expected. Fun breakups in the tedium by the cylinder having different modes. The water/food bars drop too quick (especially when you have many Trebhums). Also the cylinder goes too fast sometimes where I had to reload 3+ times. You can tweak the difficulty if it’s too hard. Really annoying to lose adaptations from beam enemies. It became easier to just reload than have to find these adaptations again. Same goes for your guys dying. Didn’t like losing them because you never knew when you’d see those abilities again due to different environments (sand, snow, grass, water, corrupted land). The gameplay loop started to wear thin at the end. Some mutations were meh. Also permanently unlocking some were ridiculously tedious to obtain. Exciting boss fights and puzzle design. Fantastic narrator. The organic/inorganic alien design and environment design was incredible. Some interesting themes that are left up to interpretation. Rolling to avoid the cylinder chasing behind is exhilarating/terrifying and requires skill with carefully timed jumps and avoiding hazards. Felt Breath of the Wild-esque with using different powers and environments to your advantage; scaring away enemies or killing them, knocking down hard to reach items, finding secrets.

I partly enjoyed my time with Hi Fi Rush but the lack of enemy variety, uninspired dialogue (especially the robots), stale text logs that attempt to build up this dystopian-lite world, and too similar environments make it an overall bad experience. I beat the first boss fight thinking, “Hey that was kinda fun!” but then it went right back to the unbearable snarky meta humor that is exhaustingly pervasive in superhero movies that I had to peace out. I couldn’t picture myself every caring for the peppy irreverent main character and I don’t get the appeal honestly. It’s an extremely polished experience I’ll give it that. Not a single bug, just boring beyond belief.

This is one of the most intuitive to learn and satisfying puzzle games I’ve ever played. If you think puzzle games aren’t for you, give this one a chance. It’s got just a couple buttons to remember and you can finish it in an evening. Although, I came back to find every secret just to relish every moment in its meticulously designed world. By the end I was craving more, which imo is a better feeling than a game that I couldn’t wait to end, even if it was a game I overall enjoyed.

Has a very slow start but develops into a vast and branching narrative the likes of which I have never experienced before. You become invested in Whit and his families’ journey through their lives, shaping it in ways that seem to be monumental. That is the absolute greatest thing about this game is you live with your choices and they keep coming back to inform your next decisions; they are not one-off’s like most choice-based narrative games. It’s all one continuous stream of pivotal moments, not self-contained episodes. I think it falls flat in some respects, in particular the music department. It becomes very repetitive with these ethereal, undulating, heartbeat-like rhythms that start to wear thin over many hours making choices and wandering its various mini-worlds. The art style left a lot to be desired. It worked for its purpose, but wasn’t great to look at; I wasn’t a fan of its muddy colors and I found the bloom to be excessive and irritating to the eye. I think its low detail presentation was a tactful strategy that allowed them to go all in on a truly branching narrative. Also I thought the writing was decent but never really rose to the level that I thought would rival a great novel. It was serviceable, but a bit choppy at points. Sadly the epilogue was exhausting with the amount of long pages of character summary to sift through. I enjoyed reading the conclusion of each character and my effect upon their life, but I wish it could have been shown with vignettes like it was for some of the characters it deemed worthy. How it all connects though through your choices is brilliant. It tells a grounded story in a slightly surreal atmosphere (that feels a bit tacked on), but serves to allow Whit to reflect on his life by revisiting important junctures. In telling this grounded story it allowed me to reflect on my life and my future in a way I had never attempted before. What choice would I make if I was in Whit’s shoes? But that’s what made it so compelling: I very likely will be forced to make choices along these lines, which made them personally more difficult to contemplate than dealing with something otherworldly. Even with all its faults, how your choices effect its large cast of characters, your choice of residence, what career or lack of career you will pursue, who you will back and who you will turn your back upon, is the best choice-based gameplay I have ever experienced just for the sheer weightiness of your choices and their far-reaching effects. It will stick with me for a long time and I’d like to think it’s prepared me in some small way for those same choices ahead in my life.

Easy puzzle and platforming gameplay with beautiful visuals and music. I think the ship is a little cumbersome to operate which does take away a bit for the gameplay; It makes it hard to appreciate the the sights and sounds when you’re fumbling with this mechanical monstrosity. Overall a very fun game though with a charming wordless story.

An incredible rhythm-based game with an original story that you can’t put down. I played this one all the way through in about 2 hours. It’s truly an engrossing narrative with gameplay that is so addicting and satisfying. It starts at fairly easy and really picks up the difficulty bear the halfway point. I don’t want to spoil the story but it goes to some really interesting places that I never expected. If you even have a passing interest in this game, give it a shot because I was blown away by its narrative, art, music, and gameplay.

This game is a chill side-scrolling adventure game where your ship slowly gets new upgrades and changes how it functions. After an apocalyptic climate event that leaves your homeland flooded, you set off to explore this new wasteland. So far from the two hours I’ve played its a meditative experience with amazing visuals and satisfying gameplay. Highly recommend it!

This game really surprised me with its narrative and dark tone (in a good way). At first I wasn’t a fan of its art style but it grew on me. It’s about 4 hours long and there are some interesting little choices you get to make, but nothing that significantly impacts the story. One such choice floored me! I sat there was minutes, debating what choice to make. It really was one of the hardest choices I’ve had to make in a game. Be prepared for some pretty upsetting subjects that are rarely addressed in video games. That’s what makes this game so exciting though!

I hate to be harsh but this is one of the worst games I’ve experienced. They made the gameplay brutally difficult and the controls wonky so a ten minute experience turns into an hour long slog. I quit before I got to the end because it was that bad. I enjoyed the art style but there was very little animation to speak of. DO NOT BUY

I came into this game with no expectations and I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It’s a charming adventure game with sometimes difficult puzzle solutions but never to the point of being infuriating. There are numerous mini games to enjoy if that’s your cup of tea. Speaking of which, one of the mini games involves making some chamomile tea to help you fall asleep. As far as the writing goes, It’s hilarious and quirky and you’ll quickly enjoy the time you spend with its characters. Additionally the music is relaxing and adds to the game’s easygoing nature. The game’s length also surprised me. For completionists like myself, it’ll take around 20 hours to do everything. There are just so many fun distractions to get **** into. I highly recommend anyone interested in strange classic adventure games to give this game a try. It’s the hidden gem of the year for me given its basically nonexistent coverage. It truly deserves more attention and I hope I can convince even one person to give it a a shot.

I was completely shocked that I enjoyed this game as much as I do. It’s incredibly quick-paced and rounds only last around 8 mins each. The rounds being so short actually helps you not feel too bad about a recent loss because you can jump back in within a minute or so. The gameplay feels weird starting out given that it’s a top down 2d battle royale game. The shooting also has a learning curve since you are required to have precise aim when fighting. After about 30 matches I started to feel like I understood the game better and it wasn’t so unfamiliar anymore. I think it took me around 60 matches to finally get a solo win, but your experience may differ depending on your skill level. The game also stays fresh with challenges and new cosmetics to strive for. I highly recommend everyone to try it out because you may be surprised how much you enjoy it like I was.