Posted on by Annie Gallagher · 1 Comment

Quick Review: Ib (PC)

Ib | Banner

Playing through Ib was a fascinating experience. Free to play RPG Maker horror games seem to be surprisingly common, and it surprises me that you don’t see many professional developers copying their format. There has always been something unappealing to me about most standard horror games. The kind that consist almost entirely of jump scares and “run and hide from scary monsters” moments. While that isn’t an inherently bad premise, It seems a tad boring to me to rely on assaulting the players senses rather than horrifying them through the content of the story. Read more

Posted on by Annie Gallagher · 12 Comments

Cosmic Star Heroine (PC/PS4/Vita/XONE/Switch): Mission Accomplished (Detailed Review)

Cosmic Star Heroine | Silver Dragon

Without a doubt, my favorite game genre has to be the JRPG. Games of this genre tend to have just the right balance between familiar and new. They are wide and expansive yet they aren’t overblown wannabe Hollywood movies like most AAA games are… for the most part.

One who has followed this blog for a while is likely familiar with my love of JRPGs, and likely knows that I took way too long to get around to reviewing this heavily JRPG influenced game. This game was requested as a review by Ryumaou Juno, a former patron of mine and still an occasional reader as far as I know. My apologies for taking so long to get to this one, my unreliability with getting requested reviews out quickly is precisely why I added much more stricter criteria for them. But hey, my incessant procrastination meant that I could have this the 150th game review to be put up on this site… unfortunately I didn’t because I had to put my Eryi’s Action review up. Read more

Posted on by Annie Gallagher · 4 Comments

Eryi’s Action (PC): Like I Wanna be the Guy… Except Fun (Detailed Review)

Eryi's Action | field

Eryi’s Action is a game that, while not the most well known, seems to have gotten some popularity from some of the more popular lets players of Youtube. The nature of the game is one that makes a blind run interesting simply due to the reactions that one may have to its content. The reactions in the case of Eryi’s Action are, of course, to the game’s high difficulty level. Read more

Posted on by Annie Gallagher · 1 Comment

Steam Greenlight Landfill: They Breathe

They Breathe | Logo

Titles like They Breath are the types of games that Steam’s refund system was made for. It is a pointless barely interactive and directionless “experimental” title that’s only claim to decency is to be vaguely artistic in order to impress people who do not even enjoy games in the first place, or at least that’s the only way I can see games like They Breathe existing. Furthermore the game is over in about half an hour so one would be under the 3 hour limit even if they beat it 3 times.

It is not that They Breathe could not have been a good game; it is more so that They Breathe chooses not to be a good game. It does nothing other than build a light bit of suspense up at to what the point of the game could be, only to reveal that there is no point or twist at the end to begin with. That is not even taking into account that the half hour leading up to that has boring and frustrating gameplay as well.

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Posted on by Annie Gallagher

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch): Ultimately, A Letdown (Detailed Review)

Super Smash bros. Ultimate | Box art

I enjoyed Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. I enjoyed it… but I also felt it was a let down in a number of ways, and I consider it the weakest in the series (with exception to the original which I haven’t played and thus can’t speak on).

I want to emphasize that most of my criticisms of Ultimate are as a single player experience, and that I couldn’t care less that you can’t doowop an skippity uppity airslap into a wavedashed cockdump sparklenut or spitshine a ledge canceled dickknob after twirlywhirly dibdidybobbidyboo 2: Electric Boogaloo. I am aware that fighting games are typically multi-player focused, but I never got into strictly multi-player games. Also there is the fact that the Switch now requires a subscription for online multi-player that I’ve heard isn’t an improvement over Smash 4’s free online. Read more

Posted on by Annie Gallagher · 2 Comments

Standard Review: Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit (PS3/360/PC)

Hell Yeah! Warth of the Dead Rabbit | Box Art

Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit is a game that could be seen as somewhat of a modern twist on the whole “anthropomorphic animal with attitude” archetype that pervaded the 90s. Of course it is fitting that this was made by Sega, the same company that gave us Sonic the Hedgehog, the quintessential animal with attitude in video games. So the question is, does Hell Yeah manage to recreate what made the original Sonic memorable? The answer to that is that it kind of does, but it kind of doesn’t.

In terms of its presentation, Hell Yeah! excels. The art style is very flashy, the game has some hilarious dialogue, the music kicks ass, and pretty much everything about this game gives off the idea that this is going to be a fun game. The game’s storyline is about the prince of hell, a skeletal Rabbit named Ash, who is trying to hunt down the 100 monsters that saw a photo he mistakenly put up on his blog of him cuddling a stuffed animal. Read more

Posted on by Annie Gallagher · 4 Comments

Standard Review: Teslagrad (PC/PS3/PS4/Vita/WiiU/Switch/XONE/IOS)

Teslagrad | header

Teslagrad was an indie platformer title released in 2013 that seemed to have had some fairly decent reception. Unfortunately I really cannot why. Well technically I can but I do not find it to be a logically sound reason. Teslagrad is a game that looks nice and sounds nice, and it seems fun at first, but a lot of its design flaws are very subtle to the point where the average player won’t realize they are there. Do not get me wrong, they will in fact experience these flaws, but they will likely not see them as such despite them for some reasons that I plan to explain shortly. Read more

Posted on by Annie Gallagher · 1 Comment

Steam Greenlight Landfill: Disorder

Disorder | Logo

Disorder is a first attempt by the ridiculously named Swagabyte games that sounds interesting on the surface. It is an atmospheric puzzle platformer that uses a similar dual world mechanic as games like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. It also has a vague allegorical storyline that is told through text appearing on screen during gameplay. While there are some decent ideas involved, the game unfortunately falls short of an interesting experience and I did not care for it. Read more

Posted on by Annie Gallagher · 2 Comments

Standard Review: eXceed 2nd – Vampire REX (PC)

eXceed 2nd Va.jpg

I first wrote my review of the first eXceed title back in 2014, and I took a lot longer to get to this game than I expected. Granted it is probably more absurd for me to have not reviewed another Senran Kagura or Persona game until now, but your Goddess works in mysterious ways after all, and by that she means that playing eXceed 2nd at this time was a spur of the moment decision without much prior thought.

It was quite convenient that I played through the first eXceed with my old crappy computer because I actually tried replaying it recently. That attempt was short lived because I realized that the first eXceed was not re-formatted for newer PCs. It was originally a 2005 title so ran well on my old crappy computer but was pretty much unplayable on my newer one. it is quite clear that the effort was put into the 2nd and 3rd games with the first one as little more than an afterthought, and having now played Vampire Rex I can see why. Read more

Posted on by Annie Gallagher · 2 Comments

Quick Review: The Deed (PC)

The Deed | Logo

The Deed seems like an interesting game at first glance. It has a unique take on the traditional murder mystery title where, instead of the detective, you play as the killer. This game has you put in the role of a man visiting his family for his father’s birthday. However, he plans to murder his sister due to his family’s refusal to have her committed, and out of revenge for her sadistic and insane behavior when he was younger. To be more specific with the storyline, Arren’s Family was abhorrently abusive to him. His father would frequently beat him and his sister killed his pet rat, and took great pleasure in doing so. What inspires Arren to commit the titular deed is when his father decides to disinherit him in favor of his sister. Read more