amphibious_ReViews

  Who knew a Snapchat game about throwing pizza to a cat could be so fun? I mean, it only took me a couple dozen levels to realize that it wasn't going anywhere, but it was still a fun distraction for a bit. This game alone is far from enough to keep me coming back, but it has opened me up to a whole library of easy-access competitive games. The gameplay in Pizza Cat is extremely simplistic. You set the trajectory of a frisbee-like pizza and then let it fly, hoping to avoid any obstacles on its way to a clearly-starved feline. The game has a little variety in the locations and types of obstacles, but not much. As it seems to have endless levels, I found that my real goal in the game was getting enough coins to afford the pizza toppings I wanted. As you play, you'll earn coins, which can be used in the in-game shop to buy cosmetics for your pizza. They don't provide any gameplay advantage, but my cat needed some broccoli in it's diet, so it works for me. The real draw

  This is it folks. This is the Rusty Lake magnum opus. It has an intriguing story that ties itself beautifully to the established universe. Its gameplay builds on the solid foundation of its predecessors, and it stays engaging throughout the entire experience. The game even incorporates a little humor to balance the series' usual morbidity. Roots is easily my favorite entry in the franchise thus far, and I don't see it losing its throne anytime soon. As the second paid title in it's series, I had big expectations for Roots . The first premium game, Rusty Lake Hotel , earned its price tag with major plot points and a lot more content than was usually on offer from its Cube Escape peers. I anticipated that Roots would at least match that, but in many ways, it more than excelled. The characters were far more interesting, and their horrid relationships with one another were truly engrossing. Contrast to Hotel's  looping structure, playing this game made me feel like I

  Although its main mechanic of sliding an object over a 2d plane isn't very unique in the puzzle game scene, Quell was able to set itself apart with an absolutely gorgeous aesthetic. I'm used to puzzle games focusing on minimalism and often leaving their visuals rather simple. Quell shook that up all the way from the structure of its menus to the animation of its sprites. Everything in this game is beautiful both visually and audibly. Unlike similar titles, such as Flow Free , the content in this game is far from endless, but the developers do a good job of stretching each of the levels enough to extend the gameplay without causing any of them to overstay their welcome. The main task presented by this game is guiding a water droplet through the small (but intricate) mazes found on your window panes. The droplet has to collect each of the pearls in the maze without getting trapped or popped by the hazards around it. As you progress through the levels, the time period in which

  For a poor sucker like me, sometimes dreams of Skyrim are busted by realities like  Blades . As I already own the former on PC, I still haven't found it in me to buy it again for Switch . Unfortunately, I rarely have time to boot up anything more than a handheld, so my next best thing was Tamriel 's finest free-to-play adventure. For something that started it's life on smartphones, it does look pretty fantastic, and honestly, the combat is pretty exciting once you get past the lack of ranged weaponry. The story even kept me engaged for as long as I played. However, I kept finding it hard to pick the game back up thanks to the forced grinding of repetitive side-missions. Simplifying the Elder Scrolls formula to fit on mobile devices did require big sacrifices, such as the removal of the series-standard open world and developable skills. The result is a clean, streamlined experience that actually fits the platform pretty nicely, at least at first. All gameplay starts in a

After my experience with Battlezone , I had a really tough time deciding how I felt about it. The game is technologically fascinating, and is truly a well-made tank simulation for being four decades old. However, it would have taken a miracle for me to survive more than a minute or two in my playthroughs, which is pretty disheartening. Battlezone puts you in the role of a tank with seemingly no allies and legions of enemies.  Without the ability to strafe, I could never really figure out how to balance dodging and shooting in order to be successful. However, that difficulty aided my suspension of disbelief; even though I have no idea what driving a tank feels like, this game made me think I do. Unfortunately, constantly seeing my screen crack after less than a minute of roaming this endless wasteland was pretty discouraging. I was usually able to take out a couple enemy tanks before I lost, so it wasn't all for nothing, but it still sort of felt like it was. Of all of the classic

  Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is a murder-mystery visual novel. The game's linear structure may leave some people frustrated, but, I found that the combination of intriguing mysteries and over-the-top characters was enough to keep me happily engaged the whole way through. The game did a great job of making me feel like I was the one making smart deductions and groundbreaking discoveries, even though they were all inevitable pieces of the main story, and I definitely consider that smart game design. I didn't find the whole game to be perfect, and the final episode suffers from a serious lack of cohesion, but that was far from enough to sour a game this good. Playing as an amateur defense attorney who seems to think he's also a detective, you are tasked with trying to protect your innocent clients from conviction, despite insurmountable odds. The only way this is possible is by finding every little contradiction in witness testimonies while in court, and interrogating the h