amphibious_ReViews

It took me way too long to get to Owlboy . There are so many stellar indies on my backlog that continue to get usurped by the bigger-name games. It's a lot easier to talk to friends about big-budget AAA games since they are so much more likely to have played them, but less recognizable games like this can pull off some really special things. I only chose to start  Owlboy after owning it for nearly four years because I wanted a shorter game to fill the short lull before Christmas beefed up my library again, but I found that the game actually helped me to better appreciate the value of well-crafted independently-developed videogames. Owlboy is a story-oriented platformer that feels incredibly polished, no matter what angle you consider it from. You play as an owl named Otus, and, along with his friends, you go on an epic adventure that covers important themes, like loss, forgiveness, acceptance, and redemption. The characters and their animations can often feel comically over-the-t

Skylanders as a series holds a lot of nostalgia for me. I got the first game for Christmas when it came out, and played the series for years with my dad and brothers. In that time, we collectively amassed nearly 200 figures, all of which I recently rediscovered. Aching to relive that nostalgia, but not wanting to glue myself to a couch, I decided to play the only game in the series to make it to the Nintendo Switch . As the last game in the series, I expected some changes and growth in Skylanders Imaginators  that would bring the series to a new level, but I was surprised to find that it really just rehashed the story and mechanics of the first two entries, while adding light platforming of Swap Force . Like every other game in the series, Skylanders Imaginators asks you to protect the Skylands from the immature, power-hungry villain, Kaos. Instead of doing this with a set player-character, you can play as any one of the Skylanders released throughout the lifetime of the franchise,

I've recently tried to stay away from incremental/idle games. I've consistently had the problem of getting sucked in, even though I wasn't actually having any fun. I feel accomplished when I can see the numbers climb, but when the gameplay boils down to tapping an upgrade button and waiting, there's not much of a reason to keep playing. Every time I played one, I would eventually figure that out and move on, but only after having already wasted hours of my time. Purely for the sake of the adorable aesthetic, I gave into  Cats & Soup , but I'm still deciding if it was worth it. While it does some things that other incremental games are too lazy to commit to, like hosting passable minigames or offering a degree of customization, Cats & Soup ultimately ends up being the same as any other game in the genre. The cats are adorable, and they're what drew me to the game; it's obvious that a lot of care went into designing the little critters and their anima

If you've been to a party in the past five years, you've likely played a Jackbox game at least once. With eight Party Packs available on every major platform, they offer a ton of accessible fun. However, if you have somehow managed to avoid this whole series thus far, you have a little catching up to do. Luckily, while some of the later games have a steeper learning curve, but the first Party Pack is very approachable, and still a lot of fun! Jackbox Party Pack 1 is home to five games that I categorize into three groups. You Don't Know Jack 2015 and Lie Swatter are pure (albeit comedic) trivia, Drawful and Fibbage XL are creativity-focused competitions, and Word Spu d is a fairly straightforward word game. Lie Swatter and Word Spud were never very interesting for me, but the other three can be absolute blasts when playing them with a good group of friends or family. The Party Pack works by selecting one of the five included games and launching a lobby via the devi

Niantic 's biggest hit came out of a partnership with Nintendo . With the perfect balance of familiar and new mechanics, propelled by its world-famous branding, Pokémon Go has kept the company alive for half a decade. Unfortunately, none of its other games have managed to have the same impact, with one already shut down and another in its end-of-life. While I had big hopes for Pikmin Bloom and its revival of one of Nintendo 's dormant franchises, I foresee it suffering the same fate before long. While the game is definitely cute, there's nothing here with the staying power of Pokémon Go, or even Wizards Unite . Where Niantic 's other games are all about doing things while walking, Pikmin Bloom is pretty much just about walking. You grow new Pikmin by walking, you earn the in-game currency by walking, you activate flowers (the equivalent to Pokéstops or Inns) by walking, and you level up by walking. The goal of the title seems to be to foster a community around the

The biggest draw of the mainline Pokémon series for me is the collecting. I get a lot more enjoyment out of filling out the Pokédex than I do out of crafting the perfect team. However, sometimes a good old-fashioned Pokémon battle is just what I need. This urge really picked up for me once news about the Sinnoh remakes and Legends: Arceus started dropping more regularly, but I didn't want to start playing a whole mainline game with those right around the corner for fear of getting exhausted by the formula. That's when I remembered Pokémon Masters . I had previously passed it up thanks to its focus on battling over collecting, but suddenly it felt like the perfect fit. The battle system in Pokémon Masters EX  is far from traditional, but it works well and offers some unique nuance relative to the standard format. To start, battles are no longer one-on-one, or turn-based. Instead, you'll be directing three Pokémon , with the assistance of their trainers, in real-time figh

The folks behind Exploding Kittens have been pretty active over the past few years, releasing numerous new games alongside half a dozen expansions to their original smash hit. Kitty Letter finds itself in that growing library, but it stands out as the only video game (other than the digital version of Exploding Kittens itself). I only downloaded it because it looked like a funnier version of an addictive mobile game my wife used to play. I really had no idea what I was in for. Kitty Letter is a competitive word game with tower-defense-style mechanics. You can play against real people, but I feel like that lowers the experience to that of a simple competitive mobile game but with The Oatmeal art. It's the story mode where this game really shines. Gameplay-wise, it's really just a set of levels designed to ease you into the game's mechanics. However, the narrative is absolutey hysterical. Never before have I enjoyed eating expired, uncooked fish, or writing nasty online

From the moment you pick up Doom , you're in the action. Actually, you don't even get any sort of exposition or context until you complete the entire first episode. Normally this kind of disregard for storytelling and world-building would disappoint me, but it feels perfect here. I'm definitely a sucker for a good story and an engrossing world, but Doom taught me that sometimes getting in the zone and wrecking house can be pretty good too. On paper, Doom really isn't my kind of shooter. When playing an FPS, I prefer to play smart and deliberate, making all of my choices cautiously, or based on well-planned strategies. Doom instead requires quick thinking and on-the-fly reactions, punishing you for moving too slow or playing it too safe with your resources, especially later in the game. That's why I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the whole thing. I would occasionally fall back into my habit of planning and risk management, fail, and remember how to play again.

I first picked up Upland at the peak of my cryptocurrency hype. It advertised itself as a blockchain-based property trading game, which seemed right up my alley at the time. However, this was far from the game I was expecting, and the manipulative money-squeezing practices made it pretty easy to drop after just a little while. Without the gross commercial tactics, this could even have been a really fun game, but as it stands, I can't see it ever reaching that point. Plus, the "blockchain" technology that they were advertising was essentially just their backend database for keeping track of who owned what, which I found to be pretty disappointing. The main goal in Upland is to fictitiously trade real-world properties in order to earn a passive income that lets you trade even more. That sounds like a lot of fun to me, but the implementation killed it right out of the gate. When you start the game, you're gifted enough in-game currency to buy a small starter property a

Square Enix really knocked it out of the park with this one. I try not to play 80 hour RPGs too often, just because I have so many games in my backlog that get held up by titles like this, but every once in a while I just have to give in. My original plan was to slowly make my way through the whole Dragon Quest series and reach this one eventually, but I heard too many raving testimonies to not play it while it's still relevant. Gameplay-wise, I pretty much knew exactly what to expect, but the breadth of the story and the depth to the characters surprised me. When it comes to modern RPGs, I typically expect impressive, fleshed out narratives that pick up the slack for their less impressive battle systems. With "pep," a temporary boost to party members' stats that can be sacrificed for powerful group attacks, being the only thing that separated the combat here from the first Final Fantasy , I figured out pretty early that it would be the same here. The story started

I'm not sure what I was expecting when I picked up Samorost , but it certainly wasn't this. My understanding was that this was some sort of peculiar point-and-click title, which was somewhat correct. However, I underestimated just how bizarre the world of Samorost could be, and I was blown away at how atmospheric and engrossing its environments were. I think I came into the game expecting the puzzles to be what held my attention the most, so I was pleasantly surprised when I enjoyed exploring the environment more. Samorost is very short but very engrossing. It started life as a Flash game created for a college project and has since been re-released outside of Flash in order to promote its two premium sequels. This updated version supports different screen resolutions and is in high definition, but it retains everything else from the original release. Considering Samorost from the perspective of it being a Flash game, its point-and-click structure makes a lot of sense, but

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box was actually my introduction to the Layton series. I beat it for the first time just recently, but I have tried to start the game at least a few times over the past decade. I was fascinated by the characters, the puzzles, the mini-games, and everything in between, but I just wasn't dedicated enough to the story or the concept when I first tried it out. However, once I had beaten Curious Village , revisiting Diabolical Box made a lot of sense. Right out of the gate, it is clear that this is a sequel done right. The foundation of the original was strong and remains relatively unaltered here, but quality-of-life changes and fixes to the repetitive nature help this game to vastly outshine its predecessor. Most of what I found charming and enjoyable about Curious Village still applies here, and practically all of my complaints have been addressed in some way. The cute story and humorous characters return, but now with a larger cast of unique p

Pokémon X was a big deal for me. I had just gotten my hands on a 3DS when the game was announced, and having already pumped hundreds of hours into FireRed , my only mainline Pokémon  game at the time, I was absolutely ready for something new. I easily could have picked up any game from the DS era to satisfy that itch, but watching the teaser trailers advertising mega evolution and the gorgeous 3d everything, I knew that wasn't really an option. Once I got my hands on the game, I knew I had made the right choice. From the moment I first heard the opening theme to the day I completed the national dex, I was absolutely enamored. I consider Pokémon X and Y to be the start of a major transition for the series. While most of the traditions and tropes from the previous five generations are still present here, there are some important changes and additions that mark a new direction for the mainline series. Obviously, the game is in 3d instead of 2d, but there was a waterfall of changes

With Minecraft being the marketing juggernaut that it is, there's a lot of crap that gets sold just because it's associated with the brand. Kids love the stuff, and I'm glad they can have fun with it, I just find myself disappointed that such an original game is represented by crappy plastic toys and endless varieties of low-quality apparel. Minecraft Dungeons seems to be a product of that same marketing titan, slapping a coat of Minecraft paint on something completely unrelated to the original work just to sell some units. However, quite unexpectedly, Dungeons manages to stand on its own as a fun little adventure. It's definitely not without its flaws, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game. Unfortunately, my first impression wasn't great. Minecraft Dungeons is a fairly straightforward dungeon-crawler, tasking you with exploring a set of fairly linear maps while defeating enemies in order to reach a boss or an exit at their end. However, before you can

While arcade-style games have always had a huge presence in the mobile-phone videogame market, most attempts at bringing classic arcade IPs to the platform left something to be desired. With those kinds of games originally built with joysticks and buttons in mind, the touch screen just can't match the precision they require. However, attempts at making new games in recognizable franchises could be successful if they were designed with the platform in mind. Bandai-Namco seemed to pick up on this when they hired the studio behind the immensely popular Frogger clone, Crossy Roads . The result of this partnership was a PAC-MAN game that actually feels like it belongs on the platform. Adopting Crossy Road 's blocky aesthetic by default, and adjusting the camera from overhead to an isometric view, PAC-MAN 256 allows its titular protagonist to move the same as he always has, but in a world that's much more akin to a mid-twenty-tens mobile game. Dropping stages in favor of an i

Trials and Tribulations is easily the best game in the original Ace Attorney  trilogy. In addition to restructuring the formula established in the first two titles, this game brought back the overarching plot that Justice for All   was sorely lacking. Trials and Tribulations managed not only to have its own fantastic, self-contained story but also to unify all three games with a concluding chapter that completely blew me away. It was because of that story that I got sucked into this game, and sucked in quickly. Now you likely aren't, and shouldn't be, playing this before you have played its two predecessors, so you should be pretty familiar with the mechanics the moment you pick it up. Nothing new has been added since Justice for All , and the investigating, court battling, and psych-lock breaking feels the same as it always did. It's the story where Trials and Tribulations really shakes things up. Where the previous games were chronologically linear, this one actually b

I used to watch my dad play Joust a lot when I was a kid, but a large majority of my gaming experience from that time in my life was Nintendo -centric. That trend continues even today, although to a much lesser degree, and those experiences really shape the lenses through which I view the games that I play. It's because of this that I had two prevailing thoughts while playing Joust . Those being, it's a lot like Balloon Fight , and Balloon Fight is better. This isn't to say that Joust is a bad game, just that I found the NES classic feels like a more refined iteration of the same formula. Both games provide you control over a character that can really only move by flapping through the air (although Joust does let you run while on the ground). Repeated button presses help you gain elevation, with steering requiring both patience and good timing while in flight. This system of navigation was a real sticking point for me in Joust , thanks to how floaty it is. In Balloon F

When I first picked up Animal Crossing: New Leaf , I had no idea what to expect. It was my first encounter with the series, and I only decided to get it because I had seen it mentioned positively in articles and videos about separate games. My hopes were high when I first booted it up, and I was completely done within an hour. The slow pace and general lack of direction just didn't mesh with whatever expectations I had formed, and it wasn't until a whole year later that I decided to give it a second chance. Luckily, entering with an open mind that second time gave me the opportunity I needed to truly appreciate what was on offer in this charming little game, and I ended up putting a few dozen more hours into it after that. As with the rest of the series, New Leaf acts as a "life-simulator," letting you do plain, real-life things like furnishing your home, going shopping, planting flowers, or interacting with your neighbors. The big change here is that you are no long

When I first heard about Crash Bandicoot: On the Run , I was excited about the prospect of playing a Crash game on my phone, especially one built with the platform in mind. The pre-release screenshots inspired most of my hopefulness, making the game out to be a safe but enjoyable combination of Subway Surfers and the N. Sane Trilogy . The developer's history didn't inspire a lot of confidence in the potential player-friendliness of the game, but I stayed hopeful nonetheless. Upon release, I found that everything played out generally as expected, if not a little worse. It all looks and feels pretty great, but the execution is a total disaster. The primary goal in On the Run is to defeat interdimensional bosses and their henchmen, thereby returning them to their home dimension. You do this by avoiding obstacles and attacks in three-track auto-runner levels until you are close enough to hit your opponent with a portal weapon. If that was the whole game, I would be happy. Unfort

I had never played a MOBA before Pokémon Unite , so I wasn't sure what to expect coming into it. I had obviously heard of games like League of Legends and DOTA 2 , but I'm just not huge on the whole competitive scene, so I was never too interested in giving them a try. However, I don't think I have ever argued with a free Pokémon game, especially one for the Switch . They may not always be that great, but I love Pokémon and I love not spending money, so I will always give them a shot. Leading with that mindset, I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly this game sucked me in, though less pleasantly surprised by how quickly I felt like I had my fill. As its genre dictates, each match in Pokémon Unite sees you teaming up with a small group of other players to try and outperform an opposing team in a small arena. You do so by defeating the wild Pokémon throughout the arena to collect their energy and earn experience points. Energy can be used to earn points for your team