In

Completed:

1. Super Mario Odyssey [9]
28 Dec-1 Jan
Played to the credits, and got over 200 moons on the way.

This is pretty special. Love the open levels and the cap mechanic, and there are loads of clever ideas to put it to good use. Some of the creatures you can capture are wonderfully inventive.

It does often jump from one thing to the next too quickly, before making enough of them, but that's less of an issue once things get a bit more challenging. The low point of the game (other than those awful rabbit characters) is New Donk City about halfway in, but every stage after that is excellent. And now I've reached the end there's an absolute ton more stuff to get through. It's hard to know where to start, but I hope to come back to it and do more.

I still struggle with the controls and camera a bit in the trickier platform sections, but it does get slightly easier with practice. Mostly forgivable as well in a game that's trying so many different things and has so much content. Best Mario since 64.

2. Into the Breach [8]
3-6 Jan
Played 7 games in total (on Normal) and emerged victorious twice.
 
I always like a good turn-based strategy, so this was always likely to suit me and I immediately got drawn into it. I really like the way it reduces everything down to concentrated bite-sized chunks, and that it mostly ditches any kind of percentage based play for clear rules and outcomes. 

However, the downside of the small scale is a lack of variety, despite the different squads you can choose to control. I've had good value already, but I don't feel it has the replayability factor of the best in the genre, like Invisible Inc.

3. Mega Man 11 [7]
8-13 Jan
Completed on Normal difficulty. Same old Mega Man really, but with plenty more polish. Visually it's lovely, especially some of the bigger characters (special mention to inflatable frog mini-boss). Gameplay wise there's some tight level design that's mostly testing without being too vicious.

But there are leftovers of old design sensibilities and a generally odd approach to difficulty that don't quite work. It seems outdated now to make pits and especially spikes instant death hazards when everything else isn't. It makes certain screens difficult to pass at all while the rest are only likely to cause moderate damage if you mess things up. On the other hand you end up carrying a whole range of cheap useable items and equippable parts that can make many challenges insignificant. The big temptation is not to just stockpile a load of energy tanks for a boss encounter and then mindlessly blast through it, especially when a Game Over means repeating the whole stage again.

The best moments, as ever with MM, are when you do things properly, especially making the breakthrough against the first boss and then working out the weaknesses of the others using the new weapons you get from each victory. In fact, one of the highlights in the end was probably the boss rush, which I made myself do in one life without items.

Not sure I'm bothered about the extra challenges or difficulty levels now, but I've had a decent enough time with it.

4. Vane [3]
15 Jan
Stylish indie adventure that looks nice and has an interesting scenery morphing mechanic. But it's full of technical issues and feels like most of the content had to be stripped out to make it work at all.

5. Pikuniku [7]
22-23 Jan
Charming, funny, surprising indie game. The simple physics and character movement make some basic platforming puzzles more interesting, although never really challenging, and there's a good quantity of brief side distractions to discover if you explore the small game world. In the end, I was disappointed that some of the themes and ideas weren't developed enough, but by that point I'd had a few good hours of fun.

6. Wargroove [7]
01-08 Feb
I haven't actually finished the campaign yet, because I got bored of it. I've got quite far into it though, and did arcade mode with one character, so that counts.

In the end I'm not quite as into this as I'd hoped to be. The balance is still just right as in Advance Wars, but a lot of the battles drag on too long. I'm used to turn-based strategy games that pack just as much into smaller spaces and time frames now, and it can get tiresome shuffling units about rather than just getting on with it. It may be that I need to learn some better strategies, but it's hard not to get bogged down sometimes.

I have played it a lot over the last week though, so it's not like I didn't enjoy it. It can still be great when the missions are a bit smaller. Puzzle mode is also a good change of pace (still want to finish that).

But whether Advance Wars is just outdated now, or whether they didn't quite do it justice with the level design, it's not as quite as much fun to play as various other alternatives.

7. Baba Is You [9]
22 Feb-6 Mar
I played this for about 30 hours in the last few weeks. It's a great puzzle game, full of clever ideas and endlessly flexible. There's also plenty of it. It gets difficult though. I got stuck a lot and sometimes spent ages on a single puzzle trying all sorts of solutions. Fortunately it's got an open structure, so you can keep switching between different routes until one of them gives way. And so often the solutions end up being simpler than you'd thought. I still haven't finished all of it, and I'm not sure I will, but it's probably a good one to go back to now and again just to see if anything new clicks. The system behind it is ingenious.

8. The Stillness of the Wind [6]
11-12 Mar
A slow indie game about loneliness and a life unlived. Has some interesting ideas but is also dull to play, which is kind of the point, but still.

9. Zelda: Breath of the Wild [10]
11 Jan-17 Mar
Finally decided to make a run for the middle and do the finale. The actual confrontation is a bit of a letdown in the end, but the castle was good fun. There's still tons more stuff I could do, of course. My profile says I've played over 70 hours. I've done 64 shrines, still got a few memories to find, and many many side quests to do.

Overall, it lived up to very high expectations. It absolutely is one of the greatest games ever made, and the sheer scope and quality of it are incredible. Certainly as long as there was more map to uncover I was happy to keep wandering and jumping into whatever came my way. I lost a bit of impetus towards the end, but it's something I could return to some day to mop up various stuff.

There's not much point going on about it all, especially as everyone else finished it 2 years ago, so here's 5 things that really made it for me:

1. Mountains: The combination of my desire to explore and that climbing ability made every mountain and tower irresistible. Get as high as possible, see what I can see, glide down to a point of interest. Repeat. 

2. The camera: I mean the camera in the Sheikah slate. As soon as it was introduced it changed the game for me. Suddenly there's a good reason to wander around observing the wildlife. You're not only an adventurer but also a tourist in the game world.

3. Breaking weapons: It's a brilliant idea to make everything so disposable. It really encourages you to use whatever you find instead of getting all precious about it and hoarding it for later. Hit an enemy until your weapon breaks. Pick up his weapon. Hit the next one. Liberating.

4. Leaving me alone: Who knew Nintendo would ever dare do this after forcing Navi, Fi and Boaty McBoatface on us? Someone's been playing Dark Souls, it seems, and then decided to take the idea even further. 

5. It's still Zelda: And yet despite the fact they've taken such a change of direction and clearly been inspired by other RPGs and open world games, everything in this still feels like Zelda. Most of all it reminded me of A Link to the Past. Just 100 times bigger.

10. Katana Zero [7]
9-12 Apr
Very much inspired by Hotline Miami in style and tone, and with the same brand of sudden, quick violence. The basics of combat work very well, with small groupings of well-timed strikes proving hilariously and brutally effective. The weird story is also decent enough, but it's a shame there's so much of it in comparison to the relatively short missions. It should have made more of its action sequences.

11. Steamworld Quest [6]
6-17 Apr
Card-based RPG that has a smart combat system at its core, but not much else around it to hold the attention. The exploration aspect of the game is very limited and there's not much to the story. No matter how good the battle system is - and it's not really amazing in the end - it can't stop the whole thing becoming very repetitive.

12. Sekiro [8]
22 Mar-28 Apr
I didn't beat the proper final boss, but did manage one of the endings. Overall, there is so much to like about it and it does most things almost perfectly, but a handful of issues can make it horribly frustrating at times. I'd have one session where it felt like the greatest action game ever, but almost always followed by another where it seemed to be tiresomely punishing. The imbalance between the fun of traversing the open areas and killing normal enemies to make quick progress, and then the multi-phase bosses that can take hours of repetition to learn, is ultimately too pronounced. The sword fighting is still wonderful though.

13. A Plague Tale: Innocence [7]
1-6 May
This is a decent narrative-led action/stealth game made quite a bit better by the quality of world and character building. Gameplay is simple enough to keep it moving at a good pace, but the real stars of the show are the kids, the views and the rats. It all lacks a bit of polish, but that's easy to forgive when the characters and situations drive it forward so well.

14. Heaven's Vault [7]
7-14 May
Indie sci-fi archeology joint. You go around looking for ancient stuff and translating inscriptions, in order to discover new sites of interest. There's also an interesting story going on about the peoples from different moons and some themes about how we understand history. The best part of it is exploring new sites and finding new stuff to translate. When you start to put the language together it's fascinating. The main issue with it though is that it all moves just a little too slow, especially sailing between locations, and the interface can be a bit clumsy.

15. Devil May Cry V [7]
14-21 May
The focus and purity of this is very commendable - it's all about the combat - and the systems are clearly refined and deep. What I'm not sure about is whether it assumes too much prior knowledge. I've finished it on Devil Hunter mode (Normal, effectively) and I feel like I've learned 100 different moves but I haven't really been taught how to play it. It's like there's another game running parallel to the OTT button-mashing hack and slash thing I played, but it doesn't want to tell you what it is. Instead it keeps loading on new techniques and controls, until there's too much to remember. Fair enough to an extent, in terms of giving you plenty of approaches and styles, but it makes it all kind of confusing. The other issue is the level design is pretty bland for the most part, so whether it's worth going through all those levels again just to improve skills is questionable. It probably isn't for me, but I did have a laugh with it for the most part. The spectacle, especially with bosses, was strong and the action was frantic and fun. I can understand why some people would love it, but my experience was merely good.

16. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night [8]
19-29 Jun
A near perfect follow up to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night over 20 years later. It captures everything that made that game stand out, including some of the wonkiness, while adding a lot of modern touches. It's happy to let you experiment and play with tons of different set ups, even at the expense of balance, and adds so many nice little call backs to the older game that it's impossible not to appreciate the detail. The only issue really is that the final third drags a bit as you have to figure out what to do.

17. Judgment [7]
1 Jun-2 Jul
Pretty much what I felt about Yakuza 0 in the end, which is a mix of positive and negative. I liked the change of perspective here, in playing an ex-lawyer private detective instead of an actual Yakuza, and all the different detective modes (trailing, chasing, evidence collecting, disguises) add variety. But none of them are substantial or remotely taxing and they don't develop much throughout the game. The only mild challenge comes from the combat, which is as clumsy and hilariously OTT as ever. But then the characters are great. The story is completely daft but also quite addictive. The side missions are often wonderfully silly. And there are all the various distractions (drone racing in particular is good). So it's hard not to like the game even when it's not asking you to do much or sending you running around the city on errands. I doubt I've got another of these games in me, but I'd definitely pay attention if they ever announced a Yagami and Kaito spinoff of some sort. 

18. Sea of Solitude [6]
5-6 Jul
Done in about 4 hours. 5 at most. Which is fine. It's probably most comparable to Rime in terms of what you actually do - ie not much beyond finding your way - and its attempt to represent themes with its various obstacles and sections. The environment design is very good, in the way it keeps changing how you navigate the same locations with the rising and falling water level and other tricks. It's a shame it's so heavy-handed with the story and dialogue, because it could get its point across with more subtlety, and that some sections feel less well thought through than others. But it's still quite effective.

19. Bayonetta 2 [9]
22 May-7 Jul
I'm a big fan of Bayonetta and did almost everything there was to do in the first game. But then I thought it did so much and did everything so well, there wasn't much point in a sequel, because it had nowhere to go. Then a sequel came out, and of course I wanted to play it, and now it's on Switch, I have.

Just got round to finishing on Normal (started a while back and got sidetracked), and in a way I think I was probably right. There isn't anywhere for it to go. Mostly it's more Bayonetta, with some of the minor annoyances (QTEs) ironed out. On one hand, that means the combat is still *that* good, far better than in any similar game, with the pace and the timing and the style. It's hectic and visually busy, and yet you can be fully aware of what's going on and in complete control doing the craziest of moves. On the other, it's never quite as fresh, and the design is just a notch down from the scale of the first game. Levels aren't as varied, the new monsters are less memorable, the boss fights are pretty much all the same, the weapons less satisfying. Even the torture attacks feel a bit tame.

Still, I've only finished on Normal, and the first Witch Trial that's unlocked is already a step up from a lot of the main game. And the combat is still *that* good. It's just a question of how much time and effort I want to put into it now. If I try and do almost everything again, I could really get into it. I'm just not sure I've got the inclination this time. I hope Bayonetta 3 tries to move things forward more, if it can find somewhere new to go.

20. Gunstar Heroes [7]
12 Jul
Played through the whole thing on MD Classics in about an hour and a half. It's not a game I actually had on the MD originally, but I have played it before on emulation. Honestly, it's not one of my favourite Treasure games. It's bursting with great ideas and the many many boss designs are pretty clever. But I find the controls a bit sludgy and imprecise (and the jump is irritatingly weedy) and the whole thing just a bit messy and uneven. The difficulty level in particular is all over the place, with some bosses able to destroy you quickly if don't learn patterns and others falling over before they've barely had a chance to do anything. I may have felt differently if I'd played it when it first came out, and it's always difficult to judge an old game like this when you're trying to charge through it in one go. It is still a cut above most games of its time, but a little below the standard of other Treasures like Dynamite Headdy, Astro Boy, or even Mischief Makers.

21. Futuregrind [8]
13 Jul
This was very cheap and turned out to be very good. A simpler version of Trials in a way, but you have to keep matching the colour of your wheels to the rails you land on. It's a clever system that has plenty of flexibility and makes for some challenging courses. Most importantly the control is spot on, so it's always your fault when it goes wrong. It's nowhere near as ambitious or precise as Trials, but it does what it sets out to do without any real flaws. 

22. Fire Emblem: Three Houses [8]
16-25 July
Only finished one character's story so far. I have written a full review here. In summary, it's a very impressively big and detailed game with tons of features that all tie into each other. For the most part that's all good, as it adds loads of customisation options and allows the story and characters to really develop, so you do start to care what happens to them in battles. But then all the relationship building and activities outside battle make the pace very slow, and sometimes there's just too many things to remember to do. It's a weird situation where everything new added seems to both benefit and detract from the core game.

23. Resident Evil 2 [9]
15 Jul-3 Aug
For someone who always preferred the second game of the PS1 series and has been hoping for a remake since they did the first one, this is near perfect. It gets the balance just right between keeping the feel of the source material and its core mechanics and advancing it in loads of interesting little ways. The weird thing is how it feels like this was the game I always felt like I was playing 20 years ago, although it was nowhere near as good. It's clear that they studied the original in great detail and have gone to a lot of effort to create a sense of familiarity while keeping you guessing, and the smaller differences between the two characters' stories are also really smart. Take, for example, the way the 'licker' is introduced in the first story and how that plays with your expectations from the past, and then how it does it in the second story. And with the visuals and monster designs, it feels a bit more grounded in reality (despite still being pretty cheesy and daft), and is thus often genuinely tense. The only issues really are that the item system might have been streamlined more, and it doesn't finish as strongly as it starts (they never do). But I loved almost every minute of it. An amazing remake and just a top class action adventure game.

24. The Church in the Darkness [4]
27 Jul-4 Aug
There's a good premise here, as you enter the compound of a socialist, Christian commune in the South American jungle uninvited to look for your nephew, and each time you start the conditions are different - sometimes it's all going well and peaceful, sometimes it's being run like a brutal dictatorship. The core stealth mechanics are OK too, but it's all too simple and too repetitive for the repeat play throughs required to see the many endings. Plus it has some annoying quirks and control issues that make it frustrating at times. Needed more depth and polish.

25. Detention [9]
21-24 Aug
So I'd read about this horror game that was supposed to be really good earlier in the year, and when I saw Detention on sale in the PS store I thought that was it. Turns out that the game I'd read about was Devotion and had only been released on PC anyway, and had since been removed from sale altogether. It also turns out that Detention was the previous game from the same Taiwanese devs, Red Candle. It also also turns out that it's really good.

Think something like a 2D side-on Silent Hill, with nightmarish versions of ordinary locations (most of it is set around a school). But there's no combat and it's a bit more puzzle focused, kind of like a simple point 'n' click adventure, but not shit. But then it's set in Taiwan during the 60s during the anti-Communist purges and all the disturbing shit connects to the terrors of the time. And it's really quite scary, or at least very tense for long periods. Genuinely effective horror. For instance, to get past monsters you have to hold your breath and walk really slowly right by them, which never stops being a nervy experience. You're also forced to get your hands dirty to solve some of the puzzles, with one 'solution' being particularly grim. But the inventiveness is admirable and it all fits with the overall themes. If anything, perhaps it drags out the final part a bit much, with a tonal shift that focuses more on the narrative, but it's a powerful enough story to get away with it.

26. Astral Chain [9]
3-16 Sept
This was marvellous. The legion/chain idea has been so comprehensively thought through, not only in combat - where you can bind enemies, catapult them away and hookshot yourself around arenas - but also in the plaftorming sections, the exploration and the various mini games and detective modes. There's a ton of variety, with extreme shifts of pace from the frantic fighting to the more laidback and amusing community policing, but it never feels disjointed. Even when you're doing more mundane stuff it doesn't feel like busywork because it all makes sense as part of the whole, and it keeps moving too quickly for anything to become tiresome. The combat is still the main attraction, though, and it's Platinum at its best. It's not as immediate as Bayonetta, given the complexity of controlling yourself and half-controlling your legions at the same time, but once it starts to come together it's just as thrilling and rewarding. Besides all that, the visual style and soundtrack are also pretty special. Other than some minor issues with the camera and getting used to the controls, it's simply a top class action adventure game from start to finish.

27. Creature in the Well [6]
3-18 Sept
It's a nice idea (sort of action pinball) and some parts did develop into interesting challenges, especially the boss sections. But a lot of other bits were a non-event. Overall it could do with some tighter design, and just do a bit more with the concept.

28. Sayonara Wild Hearts [8]
20-25 Sept
I've found all the diamonds and got gold ranks on most levels, and I think I'm done. And a good time was had. It's all about the switches of pace and perspective in time to the music, sending you running, flying, motorcycling, shooting in quick succession as the world morphs around the track. Yes, it's simple. Yes, you have to repeat and memorise to get a good run/score. But it's meant to be a performance, a one-take high concept 80s pop video, and as such it works. It especially works with the big vocal numbers, and it's a shame there weren't more of those, but there's plenty of variety throughout, and some nice nods to classic games. The overall result is something imaginative, a little different and often simply pleasurable to take part in.

29. Untitled Goose Game [6]
28 Sep-2 Oct
This feels like a good idea still in search of a game. Going around just being a dickhead is a laugh (I should know, etc.) and there are a handful of decent slapstick payoffs, but it's all a bit flimsy and underdone.

Mostly I think the human characters let it down. The AI is so basic that each one is only fun to torment briefly. It barely feels worth doing anything elaborate off-script when there's no real recognition for it. And even then the behaviour is unreliable and glitchy, as they keep changing their mind about what they're looking for and you end up waiting for them to complete pointless routines. I started the game losing 20 minutes because the first character didn't trigger, meaning I couldn't enter the garden, and after that I never felt I could trust it to behave, which is never good when it's based on puzzles with very specific solutions. On top of that, the models and animation just aren't clear and expressive enough to make the comedy work as well as it might.

I think it's telling how little content there is here, in that it suggests it was difficult to get much out of the concept beyond the initial idea. I did still enjoy being a horrible goose, and it's a great central character with its attitude and that honk, but beyond the novelty of twatting about the execution of everything around it isn't quite there. If it had been a fiver I probably would've adjusted my expectations accordingly, but for the actual price I wanted something, well, better.

30. Zelda: Link's Awakening [8]
2-8 Oct
Some classic Zelda-ing with a touch of odd. In some ways you can tell it came from a smaller system originally, because everything's quite compact and simple. I think mostly that's a good thing, knocking out the possibility of too much chatter between progress points or overly indulgent dungeon design. It's a nice straightforward rhythm of over and under-world exploring, with the map expanding in clear and logical ways after each boss fight. It does make enemies and especially bosses disappoiningly easy to deal with, but it all adds to a relaxed pace of near constant advancement. The few times I got stuck it was due to some rather old school puzzle design or poor communication (and I really wasn't keen on the last but one dungeon), but hardly enough to spoil things. And then there's the plot, which is sparse but rests on a neat little paradox where that I think has some scope for analysis. Overall, it's a great little counterpart to the far more complex and sophisticated Breath of the Wild.

31. Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom [7]
24 Aug-9 Oct
This is a very large Metroidvania, packed with plenty of stuff to find. But it's a mixed bag in terms of the level design and has some irritating issues that take the shine off it a lot of the time. Mean enemy placement, slidey control, and uneven checkpointing (and some checkpoints don't refill your health when you restart, which is annoyingly unnecessary) give it an old school feel, but in other ways it does everything it can to add modern quality of life features. Often it's just a little off, which is a shame because there's clearly a ton of thought and effort gone into it. The haunted mansion level near the end really stands out and shows what might have been if the quality was as high throughout.

32. Felix the Reaper [5]
15-18 Oct
Decent spin on block puzzles which never develops or connects its various ideas in any meaningful way. Despite the light twisting mechanic, the attempts at dark humour and Felix's constant dancing (which adds very little), in the end you're really just shifting around boxes and barrels.  

33. Slay the Spire [9]
12-24 Oct
A couple of the most recent Roguelites I've played (Darkest Dungeon, Dead Cells) have fallen short of expectations, and I wondered if card games were my thing after the dull Steamworld Quest. But this proves that it was them, not me. It's simply a much smarter rule set than in those other games, with better balance, cleverer synergies and more room for improvisation. The fact that almost every hand involves an interesting tactical choice says it all, and as with all the best games like this (Spelunky, Invisible Inc.), the more you play the more you can mitigate the element of luck, without ever removing the random aspect. It's also a moderate enough challenge that I could finish it with the 3 characters after a couple of dozen goes rather than hundreds, leaving it fresh enough to return to from time to time in future.

34. Concrete Genie [7]
23-27 Oct
This was pleasant, although a little slight. The painting aspect is the main focus and it's rather lovely. It helps that the visual style of bright 2D genies, flora and fauna on the muted 3D backgrounds of an abandoned town is really striking. You can paint some great looking murals and odd looking genies to populate them. The way the genies interact with you and the other stuff you paint is a nice touch too. What it does best is that old Okami trick of encouraging you to paint lots of little things then panning back once you've completed an area to show you how you've rejuvenated the whole thing.

Most other aspects are a little underdone though. Platforming, exploring, puzzles, enemies - they're all there but none feel like they've been fully exploited before the end. By the time you start having to think about combining the powers of different genies, you're almost done. It feels like there was enough there conceptually to turn this into something bigger, but what's there is absorbing enough for half-a-dozen hours. 7 rather than 6 is for the visuals - they really are very good.

35. Ape Out [8]
5-6 Nov
I love the style of this, and the structure that unfolds like a classic, high concept arcade game, building on a tight rule set with slight variations throughout. The soundtrack is the highlight, with its jazz drums and cymbals beating out the rhythm of your actions. It's perfect for a style of play that often feels like improv, with its meandering progress routes and moments of panic, that also match the sense of controlling a gorilla run amok. The classic jazz album visual design rounds it off perfectly. The game itself manages to segue between different modes from moment to moment with a very basic control system. Bursts of stealth, twin-stick shooting and maze running blend together. and each enemy type demands its own approach. The only issues really are due to unevenness, in quality of level design and difficulty, with some sections flying by with no new challenges and a few bits proving irritatingly tough (level 3.6, that's you). Otherwise it does exactly what it sets out to do. And the ending is great too.

36. Sparklite [6]
7-10 Nov
This started off very promising and it certainly looks and sounds the part. 16-bit visuals and sounds that reminded me of Secret of Mana as much as anything (although the music isn't that good). The combat and upgrading systems are also solid and there are some decent boss fights. But in the end it's all just a little bland. Exploring isn't that much fun when what you discover is rarely exciting. It works by procedurally shifting around the contents of the levels each time you return to the hub (although it's really not a Roguelike, as you're always progressing and keep stuff when you die), and in each area there's a new piece of equipment to find as well as other caves and grottoes with useful power ups. But once you've found the main stuff it gets repetitive traipsing around looking for minor treasures. It doesn't help that the level design never really requires you to use your Zelda-like inventory to solve puzzles either. Each item is really just a new kind of key to access more of the area. I still finished it and couldn't really dislike it, but it just didn't do enough.

37. Ori and the Blind Forest [9]
16-23 Nov
This is up there with the best modern Metroidvania games. A lot of it is tried and tested stuff (although the 'bash' power is a bit of a game changer), but it's delivered with such polish and imagination it doesn't matter. Level design is where it really shines and it's consistently top class. The way layouts loop around, or the way new powers are introduced, tested, refined and combined over the course of hours is very impressive, and it always feels worth recovering old ground once you've made significant advances. What it really nails that every Metroidvania should aim for is getting more enjoyable with every major new power that unlocks. The make your own checkpoint system is also smart, if a little generous by the end of the game. And it all looks great too. Criticisms are minor - slightly misjudged chase sequences, oversensitive control and some visual detail getting in the way of clarity. It's not quite the precision platformer it wants to be, but I never struggled too much.

38. Lost Ember [5]
20-21 Nov
I almost really liked this. It's let down by a very creaky engine and a lack of focus. It actually ends up being quite Journey-like. You play as a wolf but can also possess any other animals you come across to traverse different terrain. There aren't any puzzles or combat or anything like that, just keep going, explore, enjoy the landscapes and the sensation of flying/running/swimming that controlling each beast provides. There are some good views and some stand out sequences, plus it uses the set up to deliver an interesting story about the end of a human civilisation, viewed through the eyes of the natural world that outlasts it. But it overuses a handful of animal types, especially in the first half, and often doesn't give you enough to do with them. Most of all, the performance is poor and the way your creatures move and struggle to interact convincingly with the world makes it feel dated. There are invisible walls, camera glitches and loading pauses that detract from an experience that should be about visual splendour and smooth flow. Over the course of the game you cover tons of ground and different locations. It's an absorbing journey and quite an achievement to make such a large world. But quantity too often comes at the expense of quality.

39. Arise: A Simple Story [8]
27 Nov-1 Dec
This is a simple story told exceptionally well without any words. Look back on the life of an old man in some sort of nomadic tribe by taking him through key events in his life relating to love and loss. Each stage represents a different emotion and does a great job in getting that across with the visual experience, the soundtrack, the environment design and your interaction with it. Mostly it involves simple platforming, with the added twist of a time lapse that you control, rewinding and forwarding the space around you to create ways forward. Every stage uses this in a slightly different way, and it really goes with the theme of reliving and examining your memories. The platforming itself is unfortunately a bit ropey, mainly due to the fixed camera angles that can make judging jumps difficult. But tolerate that and you've got a really magical experience (the lighting and music add so much) that has some big emotional twists along the way. 

40. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen [7]
3-16 Dec
I bought this cheap as something to play for a couple of weeks before going away for Xmas and it did its job. I ran through the last few parts pretty quickly to get it finished and even dropped down to easy for the last battle, after one already rather long failed first attempt. Normally I wouldn't have tried to tackle it so soon and was probably a bit under-leveled.

Anyway, solid action RPGing, which delivered in the areas I want - exploring, fighting and treasure hunting. The rest of it, like story, characters and the intricacies of item management, I found easy to ignore. It's best when you set out on a long trek into uncharted territory and stumble upon an unexpected location to poke around, eventually coming home with a sack full of loot after some close encounters. A few more enemy types would've been nice, but the group combat with AI pawns works well most of the time, even if everything's a bit rough around the edges.

There's clearly tons more to do and plenty more depth if I want it, but I'm happy with seeing the credits and moving on.

41. Blazing Chrome [7]
22-30 Dec
A very effective homage to 16-bit Contra games that gets everything right except perhaps the most important thing. It looks and sounds the part, controls pretty fluidly and sets a solid but fair challenge. Levels are reasonably varied and the bosses are big and require some learning. I enjoyed playing through it and may return to give other characters a try. But it just lacks the spark of imagination of its source material, and even when it gets a little experimental there are no real wow moments. It's one thing invoking the classics, but the real standout quality of the older games was how they pushed the boundaries of the genre. And that's not something you can recreate through mimicry, no matter how respectfully it's done.

Ongoing:


Virtua Racing
29 Jun-

Daemon X Machina
4 Sept-

Outer Wilds

Waiting list:

Control
Death Stranding
River City Girls

Wish list:

Return of the Obra Dinn
Kine
Indivisible
The Ninja Saviors
Cuphead

In. No, really.

Completed:
Florence ****
07/01
Short but very engaging mobile game that does some really novel things with the mobile platform to tell it's story.

My Brother Ate My Pudding
08/01
Short, dumb, fun mobile puzzle game.

Pokémon Let's Go Eevee *****
24/01
Its Pokémon.

Gunman Clive
28/01
Fairly enjoyable platformer with some interesting ideas that doesn't out stay it's welcome or become too frustrating.

Night In The Woods
18/02

Chuchel
02/03

Yakuza 0
21/03

Minit
25/03

Yakuza Kiwami
21/04

MvC Infinite
04/05

Mortal Kombat X
05/05

Super Mario Maker
02/07

Apex Legends
22/07

Hollow Knight
26/07

Fire Emblem Three Houses
21/08

Return of the Obra Dinn
07/09

Untitled Goose Game
01/10

Zelda: Links Awakening
02/10

Transistor
10/11

Remnant from the ashes?
11/11

pixel puzzle
11/11

Alto's Adventure
11/11

Ordia
11/11

Doom (2016)
10/12


Ongoing:
Resident Evil VII
Final Fantasy IX

Frosty can do what he likes.

In!

1. Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna)
6th January 2019 – 6th January 2019
Iñupiaq flavoured puzzle platformer tale. Educational rather than entertaining. 6

2. The Gardens Between
7th January 2019 – 9th January 2019
Short, whimsical, time bending puzzler entertains. Love your friends. 7

3. >observer_
27th January 2019 – 2nd February 2019
Rutger barely elevates mildly diverting, talk heavy thriller. Average. 6

4. Thomas Was Alone
9th March 2019 – 11th March 2019
Witty, simplistic but entertaining block puzzler. Wallace narration good. 7.5

5. Strange Brigade
17th December 2018 – 9th April 2019
Fun and tricky Egyptian flavoured zombie co-op shooter, tally ho. 8

6. The Walking Dead
28th May 2019 – 31st May 2019


7. The Walking Dead: Season Two
31st May 2019 – 8th June 2019


8. Tacoma
8th June 2019 – 9th June 2019


9. Resident Evil Revelations
22nd June 2019 – 24th June 2019


10. ACA NeoGeo Metal Slug X
20th July 2019 – 20th July 2019


11. Resident Evil 4
29th July 2019 – 14th August 2019


12. Gears of War 4
18th August 2019 – 8th September 2019


13. Old Man's Journey
22nd September 2019 – 22nd September 2019


14. World War Z
12th October 2019 – 20th October 2019


15. Afterparty
29th October 2019 – 9th November 2019


16. Blair Witch
26th October 2019 – 17th November 2019


17. Resident Evil
29th December 2015 – 24th November 2019

I'll probably manage 4 this year.

I'll list the stuff I finish, doubt I'll hit 52 as the Vita well has run dry (even for someone who's happy to lick a muddy puddle), there's nothing left on 3DS I want to play and I've worked through most of my GBA shoebox. Chances are I'll still hit 40ish playing indie games at home though, we'll see.

JonB wrote:

Wish list:Bayonetta 2

You wanna borrow it? I’m halfway through at the mo and can send to you when I’m done? Cos I’m prob gonna do hard run on 1 before returning to 2.

In, obv, but hey Cocha I did 14 last year not 13!

I only played it on GC, think it might be easier with that pad, though I didn't finish it either

It's to a completion that you're comfortable with. I'm gonna be playing a lot of 16Bit and lower era game this year, and I reckon many of them will push me close but hell I'll count if I reach my finish even if it's not the games ending

My other forum has a like option, I don't want it here but I keep reaching for it

Yeah boss rush is poor design and can see people give up at that point. You missed the amazing final level though. Lots of Star Wars.

Hopefully this is a page turn so I can do my list here for ease...