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