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Hey there! you probably already noticed that I’m a fiend. My last year’s art resolution which I even spelled out in the 2021 year-end list was to play fewer games, and yet here we are. 160 of them in a single year. So, this number may seem a little scary at first, but many of the games I finished this year were actually Shoot ’em Ups or short games in general. Yeah, I did many runs of every Shmup mentioned here, but most of them still didn’t get hours upon hours of playtime from me.

In 2022 I decided to focus my attention on more niche titles than usual, and it was so fun that I’ll probably keep doing it from now on forevermore. There are still some big releases here and there, but just the ones I was actually interested in playing. I’d still say I veered a bit too safe in regards to easygoing genres and — often, but not always — concepts (as you’ll notice in many games that I gave 2 Stars and some of the bottom 3 Star ones as well), but it had a greatly positive impact on my overall ethos as someone who started designing games as well as playing them.

So here’s how the list works: I wrote a micro review for most of these (following the 500 character limit on Backloggery), wrote some still small but bigger ones on Backloggd, tiered them into 1–5 Stars completely based on my personal takeaway, and then assembled this list on Backloggd as well for the final rankings. Still, I’d say going through this article is cool because I organized them all to make for the best reading experience — it’s fine to skip to any Star rating or game you’re interested in — and edited/added to many of the games right here.

The way I do this is pretty convoluted and it got even more so this year, but it works for me! The only big caveat is that the list on Backloggd is missing 7 games that aren’t on that site’s database. I did add a few there but didn’t make time for these 7. Don’t worry though, they’re still accounted for here!

For 2023, I want to take it easy. Seriously. I’ll focus on games from series I love but haven’t finished all the games from, some titles that I’ve been meaning to play forever, and surprises/oddities that I’m planning to play that’ll probably help me with some design concepts I’ve been studying for my next game. Less random stuff I get an urge to play out of nowhere, fewer new releases, and fewer games in general. I’m confident that this time I can follow through with my plans!

Just one more thing before we begin: this list is subject to (and certainly will) drastically change in the future. Yeah, that’s a given, but I also mean to say that most of these ratings, and especially rankings are just a fun excuse for me to format a list talking about what I played throughout the year. I’m not particularly fond of grading art in general, so take these as lighthearted feeling boxes that I’m gently putting games into. Let’s begin!

note: every screenshot used in this list is either mine or official from a game’s page unless stated otherwise.

unranked

i can’t rank these 3 for a variety of reasons.

?. heaven knows you — finished in… it’s complicated

does putting something here count if i made it? well, i’m putting it here regardless. heaven knows you is my visual novel. i made it in 15 days with a friend. it is my first game. i dunno what else to say. oh, it has witches and romance! i’m now working on making more games. if you want to read a postmortem on it you can see it here.

?. OutRun 2 SP: Special Tours

i’m gonna talk about Outrun 2006 later, which also includes this version inside it, so just wait a bit.

???. Bullet Heaven — finished in about an hour — almost 100%ed it, S rank on everything but the final stage and special stage 4

i was gonna put it on the list, but i completely forgot. it would probably be in 130th place or something.

never thought a bullet hell shmup with RPG mechanics could work this well (and running at 30fps, no less!). these extra mechanics make the shots pretty fun to play with since they start out kinda pitiful. rather chill compared to other shmups, great for beginners and people looking for a breather. there’s so much here as well, like a bunch of characters and extra levels. hope BH 2 took some risks, will play it later.

1star

these were mostly bad or painful to play. don’t regret playing most of them though.

165. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022) — finished in about 8 hours on hardened

this was miserable. most of the actions of the protagonists are absolutely repugnant, like when you fight terrorists in Iran in a crowded roadway to save a soldier who got captured by them while doing an unapproved mission that starts a war. of course, this rescue mission results in tons of civilian deaths. there are many examples of this here. apart from that, the campaign sucks even design-wise. most of the missions are loaded with shallow gimmicks and god-awful stealth sections.

164. Rance 01 — Quest for Hikari — finished in about 9 hours

i don’t have a big problem putting shocking content aside in order to enjoy something, but this is just wish fulfillment for narcissists who barely see other people as human. this series has an extremely loud cult following, so i decided to give it a fair shake. even ignoring the constant sexual assault Rance does (which was a big ask), the writers treat him like an animal most of the time, but then he has the gall to snarkily insult the same characters he abuses like a coward at every chance. it got really annoying really fast. at least i can say that the combat system implemented in the remake was fitting, you just throw everything you have at enemies like an animal. really fits Rance’s character.

163. Gungrave: Overdose — finished in 3:15:22 (in-game timer)

there’s not a single thing in Overdose that i like over the first Gungrave. the auto aim now sucks, the newly added lock-on sucks, the bosses are dealt with mostly by diving incessantly, it falls flat when it tries to flesh out the boring characters and it’s like 2 hours too long. as the icing on the cake, it ends with a boss that makes the game run at 5 fps. it’s just baffling. not even a solid arcade game, just suffering.

162. Crystar — finished 2 endings in 15:34:55 (in-game timer)

it’s a shame that the art and premise are so amazing because Crystar ended up being one of the most repetitive experiences i’ve ever had. it has 8 enemies that get repeated endlessly, a combat system that consists of you spamming the only 2 combos you can do, and a story that trips on itself every time it wants to convey emotion. characters become assholes out of nowhere and get back to normal at will, and the game makes you play the last 4 chapters multiple times to get the endings.

161. Gungrave G.O.R.E. — finished in about 14 hours

i was SO looking forward to this (which was the fault of the great CG trailers). so much so that i played the other games in preparation and fell in love with the first one. unfortunately, i had an awful time with GORE.

this is a great 3–4 hour game mauled and split into 13 grievous hours. the last hour and change of GORE are just the same 3 enemies over and over placed haphazardly throughout empty corridors. it’s a shame because i appreciate the mechanical additions like the improved charge shot and even glory kills. still, the story just plain sucks compared to the first game and even Overdose. just a bunch of expository dialogue — every big event happens offscreen, Grave is now a generic mute hero who saves the day without any personal stake in his mission, and Mika is just a damsel.

i thought it couldn’t get worse than Gungrave Overdose but i was wrong. that game at least had some restraint by only being 5 hours long. it sucks to say but i don’t like 2/3 of the Gungrave franchise now.

160. Wario Land 4 — finished in about 3:30 hours

i’m sorry, but i think this is the final nail in the coffin for my nintendo experiments. i was never a fan of their design philosophy, and Wario Land 4 is kind of just that on steroids. every level is annoying in a different way, the grab mechanic sucks as bad as it does in Mario but here it’s required more often, and the bosses are the worst. they follow that “try this gimmick 3x and you’re done” platformer formula but here it’s 15x. it’s a varied game but i don’t like what’s here… sorry.

2stars

i really wanted to like most of these, but they’re either unremarkable and bland or just irk me way too much in some way.

159. Amanda the Adventurer — completed in about 20 minutes (all endings)

i am giving this 2 stars solely because my 9 year old cousin played it with me on christmas eve while excitedly reciting the whole plot and lore of goddamn Amanda the Adventurer without stopping to breathe

158. Lila’s Tale and the Hidden Forest — finished in about an hour

this is a cute student game with nice visuals and that’s it. a platformer that’s a little reminiscent of Super Mario World 2 because of the health system, but it’s pretty unremarkable in most other areas. you go through 9 decently big stages and end collect eggs to acquire new clothing and feathers to get stars and progress. not that much design finesse, not that many cool gimmicks. still, i’m impressed by how great it looks and i’d give a shot to any future stuff this team works on.

157. Jet Buster — finished in about 30 minutes

after many runs, i can say that this isn’t really my thing. i often dislike many horizontal shmups like Darius and R-Type, but this is one of the first vertical ones that irk me. the patterns are a bit wonky and i really dislike the focus shot of the main character. it’s basically useless for bosses so you have to dodge without focusing, which sucks. the medal system is a fine idea but in practice it just makes me wanna play less since i have to use the focus shot to get points. :(

156. Sophstar — finished in about 2 hours — used 2 continues

Sophstar has a bunch of cool ships to try out, but none of them power up so they feel sluggish in the later stages. the scoring system and lack of physical hitboxes on enemies make for great skill expression, but goddamn does it feel awful to restart when dying because of how slow the pacing is in the first 3 levels. they should have cut the length of those in half. there are also painfully poorly telegraphed attacks and an overall lack of tact in that regard. had potential though.

155. Vampire Survivors — finished in like 12 hours idk fucked around a lot

this game makes me depressed. just an endless loop of barely there mechanics to keep you into a run with no clear art direction or ambitions at all. but i can’t lie, i still had fun. this game is destined to not be the greatest thing ever and it doesn’t really wanna be. it’s just the clearest possible dissection of the most popular extrinsic mechanics that hook you into a game. conflicted about it but whatever

154. Super Galaxy Squadron EX Turbo — finished in about 1:30 hours on Veteran difficulty

Galaxy Squadron is a shame. it could be a bit cooler but it chooses to be the most generic shmup possible with no minibosses and samey enemies. most of the levels are mindless, but some boss attacks are straight up insane on Veteran mode, which is Medium. the final boss especially is the single most unforgiving difficulty spike i’ve yet seen in the genre. more than half of the playtime of my first run was spent on it. it feels like a worse version of those rare Touhou random patterns. meh.

153. ascend. — finished in about 5 minutes (yep)

ascend. is a pretty basic platformer by the Signalis developers made in 2015. i was quite enjoying it till it ended in less than 10 minutes, which was kinda sad because i would still keep playing if they just made a couple more challenges with the same assets. the point of the story seems personal, so that made it a little more memorable.

152. Saints Row (2022) — finished in around 11 hours

the Saints Row reboot is a fine comeback to the series that tries sticking to the tone and absurdity seen in the early sections of Saints Row 3, which are coincidentally my favorite. the story setup is cool — you’re building a new gang with each of your friends after everyone got fired/kicked out of a previous one. it’s about connection and all, but it’s handled very poorly with bad dialogue and some awfully handled themes and twists. customization is incredible, driving feels nice, and combat is decent, but that’s not enough to compensate for a dry and soulless execution. i recommend disabling the ugly enemy life bars that make it look like a Ubisoft game.

151. Shooting Game KARI (2022) — finished in about 30 minutes — 1cc on easy

after a few runs of KARI, i’d say it’s simplicity is kinda impressive. you, a shield that recharges every level and lets you take some hits, two kinds of shots and that’s it. there’s not even a bomb or continues at all. it’s remarkable that it doesn’t get too boring during its 6 stages, but the patterns are kinda samey and the enemy variety is a bit too low for this kind of game. fun but not much else.

150. Sea of Solitude — finished in about 2 hours

i loved the visual direction and even some gameplay bits, but Sea of Solitude is just a confused game. it’s split between two completely different directions: one where it wants to be vague and allegorical (like in Gris or Dear Esther) and another where it wants to be a visual novel/book that relies on text rather than subtext. the game ends up doing both. everything that’s stated in subtext gets immediately explained away in detail. it ruins the atmosphere. still want to see the studio improve.

149. I am Sakuya: Touhou FPS Game — finished in about 40 minutes

this is… fine? it’s weird because while the aesthetic and weapons look very professional compared to many other GZDoom titles, it’s extremely haphazardly designed. enemies are placed around randomly in wide-empty spaces while you have basically infinite ammo for your pistol, which is also very strong (so the other weapons are useless!). i like the foundation and, because of the great attention to the Touhou theming, i think if this team got a decent designer they could make a great sequel.

148. Tomato Way — finished in about 50 minutes

this game is fun and i like the weird fruit-gore amateur artstyle, but it’s a by the book case of a poorly made/optimized one-man team unity game. hope the rest of the trilogy improves on the concept because this has the potential to be wackier.

147. Eden’s Edge — finished in about 20 minutes — used 2 continues

another fun doujin game made by x.x ! i much prefer the presentation on this one compared Blue Wish (to one of their other titles), but the patterns here are simpler and less varied, generally. but still, the sheer aggression of the enemies is remarkable, alongside the higher density of aimed bullets than usual being thrown at you. not sure i’m going to go back to this because of the teeny tiny resolution, but it was cool to see such an early doujin look almost as good as some early Touhou titles.

146. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle — finished both campaigns in about 10 hours. tried doing the last campaign but didn’t finish it

what happened? why did the Knuckles levels go from fun little colectathon-lite to the slowest thing ever? why are all the levels full of traps? why does Sonic control so badly? why does the last level make you redo all of it’s 7 sections when you run out of lives? i don’t get it. i love Sonic. i love Sonic Adventure. i was expecting to love this as well. goddamn it. i kinda like the plot though.

145. Samurai Maiden — finished in about 10 hours — Komimi route

i really respect that this is a goddamn character action yuri game that’s not just bait. the interactions you get for acquiring affection points with the girls are a highlight, but the combat is dull even for my very low expectations. attacks and combos are fine, but the enemies only become threatening in the very late game (and still only when in big numbers and accompanied by a boss or mini).

most of the time the miniboss controlling them just despawns the little dudes right as you’re attacking them. the few bosses there are here are repeated almost 5x each (in some cases more), so it gets real old real fast. the game looks beautiful and all, but the way the 3D models constantly shift around makes the story dialogue exhausting to sit through because the screen fades to black every single time they change positions. it kills the pace of any conversation. cute;unfocused

3stars

i kinda like these. some of them are harmless, some are just not that ambitious.

144. Pupperazzi — finished in about 2 hours

Pupperazzi is cozy. there’s not much to it apart from taking cute pictures of cutely-modeled dogs around Los Angeles, but it still offers variety enough in its missions to not get boring. it also has a surprisingly big amount of photography options that even exceed the ones found in Umurangi Generation, even if it doesn’t replicate the real deal as well as the latter. it’s all very simple and kinda ends out of nowhere, but it was fun.

143. Kiwi 64 — completed in about 15 minutes

aww, this was cute. little rough, a little uneventful even for its short length, but still fun. a Banjo Kazooie homage that also serves as a pretty interesting window to what this dev’s games would eventually become with Toree and other new titles. in Kiwi 64 you can see the same commitment to simple design and uninterrupted pace but done by a much less experienced Siactro.

142. Florence — finished in about 30 minutes

Florence is slightly unremarkable. i like how well it uses interactivity as a stand-in for dialogue, and i love the score. however, the ending could have had a bit more detail sprinkled in there because it’s a bit too sudden for it to make an impact. i was honestly surprised in how the game almost never tackled sadness inside the relationship, only anger, which is a cliché that irks me. it still is a pretty fun short experience that i would recommend for most people interested in games.

141. BLUE WISH — finished in about 30 minutes — used 3 continues

since this is one of x.x’s first games, it looks off — but not in a bad way. it’s simpler than its sequel Resurrection in every way, and it fits the smaller scope. most enemies don’t have any animations and just zoom around aimlessly, but the patterns are still fun to learn. it’s a surprising early title that navigates its limitations pretty well. still, a bit unremarkable.

140. Caladrius Blaze — finished in about an hour

Caladrius is a fun and fast-paced MOSS shoot ’em up, but it can be way too overwhelming at times. there are 6 buttons associated with the shooting, and you have to manage all of them while dodging really fast bullets from enemies that call for different shot types to be destroyed. it has its moments. the story having a decent bit of room in between shooting sections is also a nice change of pace for the genre. cool.

139. Telethugs — finished in about 30 minutes (Genesis port)

Telethugs is a pretty cool run-and-gun parody game. it’s simple but surprisingly unique in how the enemies work, because they have weird attack patterns and respawn in unpredictable ways. half of the game is comprised of linear levels that make sense and the other of tough auto scrollers that took me a while to get used to. it’s nice.

138. HITME — finished in about 30 minutes

this is a yaoi visual novel that’s equally as fluffy as it is punchy. warm like love, warm like blood. it’s a bit too short to leave a big impact, but looks great and has a pretty wonky english translation that can be fun to read. HITME is not fully my thing but still cool :)

137. Epic Battle Fantasy — finished in about an hour

the first in this 5 game long Flash-based RPG series offers a decent reread of how the genre usually works. you begin at level 99, so the combat system is always used to its fullest in every encounter from start to finish. the dynamic between the Hero character and the White Mage is clear and satisfying to take advantage of, and even the most frightening encounters are still manageable. if this was more fleshed out (let’s see in the sequels!) i’d enjoy it even more.

136. Saving You From Yourself — completed in about 15 minutes (all endings)

Saving You From Yourself is simple, looks like it was drawn by an early AI image generator, and may upset people that take its story at face value, but if you look just a bit below the surface, it has a decently thought-out way to convey a message about the importance of appropriate trans healthcare. since it’s so short i’d say just go play it.

135. Eden’s Aegis — finished in about 30 minutes — used 4 continues

Eden’s Aegis is another fine shmup by x.x… but a little less inventive than its predecessor Eden’s Edge. the aesthetic doesn’t appeal that much to me compared to Blue Wish and the scoring system/bullet patterns feel way more repetitive than in other x.x games. at least their engine is still like, great enough that it makes the core experience cool anyways.

134. Touhou: Luna Nights — finished in about 5 hours

Luna Nights is pretty unique. it asks you to balance its life, mp, and time gauges with caution to even continue being able to attack and reinforces this loop with every single enemy encounter in the game. the only problem i see with it is that it’s too short to develop the gameplay and way too linear for a metroidvania. it plays more like an action-platformer with a couple of detours than anything else, even if it lets you freely navigate the world. good, but i want more.

133. Lunistice — finished in about 2 hours

Lunistice looks great and also nails its game feel, but it’s a bit too drab to keep my interest. i started out going for 100% but got tired in the fourth stage because it just makes the levels go way too slowly. they’re made for fast-paced zooming but require you to keep repeating sections in order to get everything. Toree was more minimalistic so it didn’t bother me there. it got better when i started speeding through levels but there are very few enemy and obstacle types. :(

132. Epic Battle Fantasy: Adventure Story — finished in about 4 hours — almost 100%ed it

i really appreciate Matt Kupo’s early flash titles. like, this is extremely cool. if i had found any of those when i was a kid i’d be obsessed. since this is a EBF spinoff, there are RPG mechanics around which form a nice second layer of gameplay for you to think about. pretty simple, and has a cuter art style than in the main games. it’s just simple fun.

131. This Way Madness Lies — finished in about 7 hours

i was always curious to try one of Zeboyd’s fast-paced JRPGs, so i finally did it! the pixel art looks straight-up incredible and the writing fires off 20 jokes every two lines. it’s fun! but it didn’t charm me all that much since the story kept going through small vignettes really quickly while the dungeons near the end game started getting 0 plot and even no dialogue at all. still wanna play Cosmic Star Heroine later, hope that one suits me better.

130. Rollerdrome — finished in about 2 hours

here’s my full review of Rollerdrome if you wanna hear more.

i really wish Rollerdrome was a bit more focused on the Tony Hawk influence than the generic arena shooter affair which it becomes at the last few levels (and on the hard mode). it has very satisfying movement and gunplay, but you always do the same things with it. the challenges are either score-based or trick based, but you only finish the level when you kill everyone, which doesn’t fit either one tightly. it isn’t seamless like in TH. it was kinda cool, but it could have been much more.

129. My Little Pegasus: Kizuna DoPonyPachi — finished in about an an hour with both characters — used 1 continue

okay, this is actually pretty awesome. an almost forgotten doujin equally inspired by DoDonPachi and Touhou with some very newgrounds-y art and fairly broken aspects. my Fluttershy run was about 10x easier than the Rainbow Dash one just because of how OP she is. it’s great. the patterns are surprisingly varied and interesting, even if they rely a lot on movement-based triggers which can make them a bit too wild for my liking. there’s a 2nd loop (that i haven’t gotten yet) if you 1cc it. cool!

128. Sonic GT (fangame) — finished in about an hour

pic from Tails’ Channel

Sonic GT’s biggest strength is its movement. it’s surprisingly even easier to spiral out of control than in Sonic Adventure, but it’s worth it. levels come and go so fast that you barely have time to breathe… it’s beautiful. some wonky level design and some really annoying bosses make the experience a little sour, but it doesn’t bring it down completely.

127. Spark the Electric Jester 2 — finished in 2:14:26 (in-game timer)

i guess it’s fine. sloppier than the first one in every way, but i appreciate the ambition. the story consists of 95% exposition and 5% characters being sad they don’t have friends while killing and insulting everyone around them. the gameplay and bosses are cute but going on ramps sucks. it’s cool that they brought back the different powers, but they feel more homogenized here; their attacks are too similar in damage and speed. insane to know this was made almost entirely by one person o-o

126. No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle — completed in 08:07:03 (in-game timer)

unlike the first game, NMH 2 has no real ethos, and just when it starts getting close to forming one in the end, it twists itself into being vapid again. if the combat wasn’t as repetitive and full of long arenas as it is this lack of story depth wouldn’t matter but well, the combat is just that… it can be fun though, i loved Shinobu’s levels. the plot is very weirdly written and extremely misogynistic for no reason at all, and Travis’s personality is all over the place compared to the first. cool but bleh.

125. Little duck’s big adventure: A bitsy RPG — finished in about an hour

this is an extremely well-scoped RPG made in the simplest engine possible. an adventure through tiny dungeons where you meet people with tiny quirks that still exude enough personality to string me along. it’s charming as hell and some of the bitsy art impressed me. there are even battles!

124. Terra Feminarum — finished in about 1:30 hours — normal/Lempo/true ending

this is one of the most impressive free games (tho it wasn’t always) i’ve ever played on Steam. like, the thing is a full-on shmup with seven levels, three characters, and difficulty options. i’d pay for this. it’s kinda odd seeing a Touhou-inspired shmup in 16:9, but that made it interestingly unique for me. unfortunately, i can’t say the same for the artstyle. it’s disgusting, really. kinda kills some of my enjoyment, together with the boring challenges you have to complete to get the true end.

123. Super Spacefortress Macross — finished in about 30 minutes — used a bunch of continues lol

damn, this is a real quarter stealer huh… the bullet patterns aren’t that complex or hard, so most of what kills you are long-winded beams or poorly telegraphed physical attacks. so yeah, it kiinda sucks in that regard, but i still really liked the visuals and mechas, so it evens out!

122. Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX 2 — finished in about 4 hours

what the hell was this? it’s not bad by any means, but it’s just a direct downgrade from the first game. the story is completely meaningless. Copen is just transported to a new dimension at the start and then comes back in the end. no character has any development or even any importance. the gameplay is also changed, and it’s weird. i don’t mind that you’re mainly melee-focused now, but instead of prevasion and multiple bullit dashes you get infinite healing, which is a lazy fix. disappointing.

121. Beeny — completed in about 30 minutes

yeah!! Siactro once again made a pretty simple platformer that has no business being this fun. the hell. like, this is just a squishy bee jumping around in order to climb a really tall tree to help their friend Kiwi. even doing the timed challenges to unlock the extra character and complete the game was a good time.

120. Castle of Shikigami — finished in about 25 minutes — used a buncha continues

pretty cool, but extremely unpredictable and weirdly paced. some patterns are way too easy, and then some random ones in between are way too hard. the characters are fun to play with but some are extremely hard to use (and i suck!). will play more to get used to it.

119. BLUE WISH RESURRECTION PLUS — finished in about 30 minutes — 1cc on original

note: ok so this is a funny little micro review. i basically only talk about the damn arcade slowdown feature. i’ll just let it speak for itself — first paragraph is about the original version and the second is about the Plus version.

oh my i accidentally downloaded the original RESURRECTION instead of the PLUS version and while i had a lot of fun in my first run, playing this game without arcade slowdown gave me a headache. the bosses are extremely fast and brutal when the game runs at 60 fps, so i had a hard time. still fun tho, even if very unoriginal since it’s basically a CAVE doujin.

compared to the original, the PLUS version of Resurrection felt way better to me. you have more ships from the get-go and compatibility fixes for modern windows PCs. more importantly, it comes with the (enabled by default) option of playing with arcade slowdown, which both makes it feel truer to the game’s CAVE inspiration and just better in general. it feels like it was designed to be played like this from the start.

118. Macbat 64: Journey of a Nice Chap — completed in about an hour

funnily enough, this is a direct sequel to Siactro’s Kiwi 64, but this time with a wider scope. instead of just one level, here you get more than 10 (including the extras) that serve as tiny little receptacles for streamlined collectathon-ing. it shines more on the personality front than Kiwi does but since now you play as a bat with a bunch of jumps things get even cozier.

117. Underliner — completed in about 30 minutes

Underliner is an interesting puzzle game that serves more as a show of potential for the developer than anything else. you connect lollipops with different rules together in a 3D space, kinda but not completely like in The Witness. even though some mechanics are a bit janky, that’s part of what makes it fun! there are even a few easter eggs laying around, which help it develop a sense of personality apart from only the puzzles. cool!

116. Kaikan — finished in about 20 minutes — used 1 continue

photo from RGCD

yet another doujin shmup; yet another good lesson and experience! Kaikan is relatively simple and has many more brain-dead enemies than usual, but they fit the scoring system well. you absorb points by letting go of the shot button, but if you start firing before they come to you, they lose value, so you gotta commit when you stop shooting or else you lose the points, so that explains why it never stops shoving enemies on your face. really fun to play, even though it’s not that remarkable.

115. Steelrising — finished in about 8 hours | La Fayette ending

here’s my full review of Steelrising if you wanna read more about it.

i love Steelrising’s combat and character design. not the humans, who look generically realistic, but the clockwork dolls and machines that wouldn’t look out of place next to Dishonored 2’s. this game rewards aggression by letting you refill your stamina immediately if you time a button right (like Gears’ reload), but unfortunately, it’s just uninventive. the story is emotionless and directionless, while the structure it uses is predictable and static, apart from lacking variety. just good.

114. Touhou 5 — Mystic Square — finished in about 5 hours | Normal/Marisa/Bad Ending 02

photo from this youtube video

Mystic Square is really polished. it runs with the same premise as the 2nd and 4th games and takes all the rough edges off. for a pc-98 shooter, it’s very impressive, even if it isn’t as much of a visual spectacle of the other games in the series. still, i think the difficulty is a bit wonky for me (at least where i stand in skill today). a lot of the more difficult patterns are very unique to this game, so they were kinda painful to learn. more painful than fun. still enjoyed it tho :)

113. Super Bomberman R — finished in about 3 hours on beginner mode (i suck)

Bomberman R is cool, pretty, and has a banging soundtrack, but it’s a bit too little. i was obsessed with Bomberman when i was younger and still find more things to like about the series to this day, but here the execution is a bit too simple for my taste. the levels are fun and all but they’re tougher than even the earlier game while not being all that complex, and the story feels a bit dry even if the presentation looks incredible. i hope R 2 fully realizes the formula. i’ll replay this later.

112. Somnium Angelus — finished in about 20 minutes

Somnium Angels is a rare kind of Yume Nikki fangame. not only because it’s 3D, but also because of how unusually linear it is. that’s not a knock against it though! each of the 3 initial worlds in this game are actually ill children’s dreams. you’re an angel who tries to trudge through them to comfort them. it’s pretty, has a great lo-fi soundtrack attached to it, and it’s short.

111. Dragon Quest — finished in about 6 hours

Dragon Quest 1 is the most barebones JRPG i’ve ever touched. that’s not really a knock on it. there’s only one party member, only one type of trap floor, very few enemy types, and the list goes on, but i couldn’t help but to play it from start to finish in two sittings. it does a lot with very little. the dialogue and exploration are both extremely charming, and it’s cute to see the last dungeon being as complex as any second dungeon in a newer game. i really liked it :)

110. The Cruel King and the Great Hero — finished in 11:32 (in-game timer)

this starts out as a cozy, beautiful gem, but ends as a bit of a headache. there’s no reason why a game with such simple combat needs so many encounters. there are 7 chapters in total, but the last two are just recycled areas with higher-level enemies. i loved the story, but i did not feel like the kind of thing you’d put in a game with so much repetition. i couldn’t even get the sense of adventure it tried to get through. it’s a 7-hour game trapped in a 12-hour one. could be better.

4stars

i really think more than 100 games i finished this year were great. i have a definitive place in my heart for them, even though they’re not lifelong passions.

109. Hazelnut Hex — finished in about 40 minutes | 2326600 points, used 1 continue

Hazelnut Hex is just a simple and tight horizontal shoot ’em up. there are no crazy mechanics or bullet types, just a pastel color palette and characters with cute designs talking about having breakfast. it’s good though! i give more credit to derivative games in this genre because iteration is what makes it interesting for me. i like playing them to simultaneously gather experience that i can use on other shmups. Hazelnut Hex specifically is pretty balanced and good for that use. great!

108. Her Story — finished in about 2 hours

not only does Her Story offer a great hook right off the bat, but it also manages to craft an interesting non-linear story out of it, even though it barely cares about its characters. even after i triggered the ending, i kept searching for another half an hour to piece together what was missing. i found the last few clips quite early, but there was so much nuance that i still needed to discover. it’s incredible how this kind of interactivity can personalize the story.

107. Rainbow Step — finished in about 30 minutes

cute visuals, cute vibes, cute premise! you play as a teru teru bozu that came to life after a flood destroyed a family’s home. they’re already gone, but you can at least stop it now to bring the balance back to nature. the puzzles are extremely simple to just make you think for a second or two before getting back to the platforming. perfect atthe end of a stressful day.

106. Call of Juarez: Gunslinger — finished in about 4 hours on hard difficulty

this is right from the weird fast-paced modern shooter era in the end of the 7th gen which had games like Vanquish and Bulletstorm. i love it. it goes along with the trending gameplay style of the time but it just never stops. the wild west theming is done as well as you can while also being a caricature, and the way it tells its story is extremely unique since you play as an unreliable narrator that’s telling his stories in a bar. gunplay is smooth and unforgiving. love it!

105. Gravity Bone — completed in about 15 minutes

Gravity Bone is a short and extremely charming experience right out of the indie boom of the late 2000s. in every step, there’s a twist. starting from when you discover this is a spy game and ending with the, well, ending. there are so many little gameplay and thematic surprises that it was impossible for me to not keep a smile on my face for the whole thing. made me excited to play developer Blendo’s next game, Thirty Flights of Loving.

104. Thirty Flights of Loving — finished in about 20 minutes

like its predecessor Gravity Bone, Thirty Flights is paced like a high-budget action short movie with a bunch of cuts and interesting stylistic choices. it’s dense as hell, thoroughly entertaining, and yet still comprehensive enough on a first playthrough. it pieces together many narrative elements in a collage of important vignettes without a single line of dialogue. i’d say these 2 games complete each other really well with their different styles and sequential plots.

103. Spark the Electric Jester — finished in about 4 hours

damn, this is kinda awesome. a (very) Sonic-inspired platformer, even more so than Freedom Planet. levels are relatively long and there is a big focus on combat. works great for most of the run but the last few make it too heavy-handed. bosses are fun with the system though — the dash opens up some cool dodge opportunities and the different forms you can acquire help to give it variety. pretty fun, just wanted it to stand out more.

102. Making Friends — finished all routes in about an hour

Making Friends is a cute visual novel about the relationship between two witches studying in a magic school. while Morgana hates everything there and makes a Homunculus to keep her company, her only friend Willow keeps an eye on her after they fight, not sure what to do. you control nothing but their emotions while you play, and get different conclusions based on how you feel, alongside a spell recipe. it’s fun and fits the visual novel genre perfectly.

101. Woeful Rapport — finished all routes in about 20 minutes

this visual novel has a lot of the instant death choice clichés of the genre, but it subverts them with no hesitation. look, what i mean to say here is that this game is really funny. you’re an undead trying to not be hunted for sport by the government, and to do so you need to disguise yourself as a catgirl to win a wrestling match against that catgirl’s ex-girlfriend. or… do the same thing but the other way around. it’s incredibly fun and charming, i wish it was longer.

100. Ib (2012) — finished in about 2 hours

what a clever game. it fully utilizes the RPG maker tools to craft interesting art-related puzzles while also doubling down as a mystery horror story that’s like… surprisingly character-driven! that’s pretty cool. i also love the visuals here — on literally everything down to the smaller details and character art. i just enjoy playing it a ton. wonder how the remake changed things around…

99. Dreamy Planet — completed in about 5 hours

Dreamy Planet is unlike whatever the hell i could’ve expected. it tackles many different subjects at once, and even one that i rarely saw represented this cautiously and respectfully in a game. aside from that, it’s beautiful, heartfelt, and explores the fleeting nature of childhood nostalgia, and what can be gained and lost from it. it’s appropriately messy even though it falls down a bit too much into tropes at some points.

98. Pokémon Legends: Arceus — finished in 27:02 (in-game timer) | Pokédex: 192 out of 242

i still can’t wrap my head around Legends: Arceus. while it is by far the most promising iteration of the Pokémon formula, the tangible low budget and gameplay restraints limit it so much that it becomes an experience riddled with “what ifs”. it is very hard to enjoy it for what it is when every single Pokémon acts in one out of the same three presets, and every place lacks strategic spots apart from grass to hide in. all this makes it even more puzzling that the game can still be this good.

97. eXceed 3rd — Jade Penetrate Black Package — finished in about 40 minutes on normal — used 1 continue at the final boss :/

yeah, eXceed 3rd is a little derivative of the Touhou series but without the charming writing or all the finesse of the patterns, but i still think it stands on its own well. it’s pretty streamlined and is full of crazy enemy designs that look awesome. it’s also relatively easygoing so also great for training reflexes.

THE FIGHTING GAME ZONE

Ok, I’m pretty bad at judging and comparing my experience with fighting games to other genres. So, since they’re all in the 4stars category for me, I decided to smush them all in this zone together to summarize my experience with the genre this year. They’re still being compared, but only to each other.

One more thing: my completion standard for them is finishing the arcade mode, not playing a certain amount of multiplayer, so there are some games in there that I played a bunch of but haven’t logged. Funnily enough, I’m not directly judging their campaigns here (most of the time), just talking about them generally. It’s weird, but since this is a single-player focused list that also doesn’t wanna be unfair to a game’s core appeal it fits.

96. BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger — finished 7 out of 10 campaigns in about 3:30 hours

Calamity Trigger is absolutely full of personality and charm. even if it took me ages to figure out even some of the less cloudy details of the story, getting it little by little while also exploring different characters’ playstyles proved to be a blast, especially since they also have many different kinds of interactions between characters and multiple endings. oh, combat feels nice too.

95. Ultra Street Fighter IV — finished a few arcade modes in about 2 hours

Street Fighter IV is technically incredible. even though the technical execution can be difficult for many characters, there are still ways of enjoying yourself even against experienced players (that i could still find and play matches with in 2022!). the arcade mode is a little dry (as usual), but figuring out the borderline insane AI still proved to be a fun challenge and made me learn a few basics of each character i decided to go for.

The King of Fighters — The Orochi Saga

i finished all of these, but i’m not gonna talk about them separately since they’re relatively similar and just get better as they go along. first off, here are the games listed so we don’t lose track of the list numbering:

94. The King of Fighters ’94 — finished in about an hour with Japan Team — used roughly 25 continues

image from fightersgeneration.com

93. The King of Fighters ’95 — finished in about an hour with Hero Team — used roughly 10 continues

92. The King of Fighters ’96 — finished in about 40 minutes with Hero Team — used 3 continues

91. The King of Fighters ’97 — finished in about 30 minutes with Hero Team — used 1 continue

90. The King of Fighters ’98 Ultimate Match Final Edition — finished in about an hour with Hero Team — used 2 continues

let’s talk about all of them together now. this was my first experience with the KOF series, and it made me appreciate the effort that SNK put into their characters, game flow, and even serialized storytelling. you can probably tell this by the diminishing amount of continues i took to finish the arcade modes for each game, but i really got into playing Kyo and his teams, together with some weirder ones for the ’97 secret ending and such. it was a blast that only got better with time. ’98, for example, is absolutely gorgeous and the perfect multiplayer version, especially with the modern PC port that includes Rollback netcode. loved ’em all.

89. DNF Duel — finished 6 campaigns in about 5 hours | also played a bunch with my friends + online

DNF Duel bridges the gap between casual and hardcore just like in Granblue Fantasy, but more well-rounded. your moves cost mana instead of going on individual cooldowns, and you can cancel a bunch of attacks into each other, but they don’t deal a lot of damage if you don’t do a proper combo route. the single-player content is lacking, though, because each character’s campaign barely offers any change to the story. you don’t even get an ending. still, i love the character’s and their playstyles.

88. Melty Blood: Type Lumina — finished a couple of campaigns in about an hour | played a bunch online

yeah, Type Lumina certainly simplifies and streamlines many mechanics from Actress Again Current Code, but taken on its own merits, it’s still a bunch of fun! i especially like the new visuals and the pretty simple to get used to combos. i’m glad they now let you play without auto combos because goddamn doing bread-and-butter combos in this game is so easy and satisfying! i still can’t parse most of what happens in AACC so this was great for me.

87. The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match — finished arcade mode in about an hour with K’, Benimaru and King — used 5 continues

i didn’t get time to play through the NESTS Saga, but i did get time to play 2002, which is nothing short of incredible. it’s an unbelievably huge dream match with so many characters it took me hours shuffling teams with my friend for us to get repeats. K’, my personal main, is pretty strong here as well, so i got the opportunity to train him while at an advantage lol.

86. The King of Fighters XV — finished Team Hero’s story in about an hour — did 8 other stories as well

KOF XV is insane, just the most accessible, still hard as hell, tightly designed game in the series. getting matches online still sucks but that’ll change soon with an upcoming update. but wow, this was the one that made me spend a good while in training mode and also get more into the lore behind the main stories since some of the endings actually move some things forward (unlike with XIV)! loved it.

THIS SPOT MARKS THE END OF

- THE FIGHTING GAME ZONE -

85. Rayman Legends — finished in about 4 hours

this game is made out of pure love. an absolutely stacked platformer that pays homage to its own series as much as it does for other ones. it controls beautifully and offers so many movement options that it’s overwhelming at first. the levels get a little too stop-and-start as you go along, but the optional Teensies keep them interesting throughout. it’s the kind of collectathon that i can see myself wanting to 100% complete someday, which is rare. pretty great.

84. Milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk — finished all endings/completed in about 1:30 hours

Milk outside is great. it’s also hard to talk about in such short-form micro reviews, so i won’t even try doing that here. i can say it looks great and uses interactivity and repetitiveness very well. get all endings and do some reading after if you want more perspective on the story.

83. SiN Episodes: Emergence — finished in about 2:30 hours

this game is a tragedy. this is only episode 1 of the 9 that were planned (and then canceled), and it’s fine, but it actually feels like it would be a pretty great series. it doesn’t stand out on combat feel at all, but the scarce resources+dynamic difficulty makes you always have to actively plan what guns and ammo you’re gonna use for the fights. it also features some pretty skies and lavish background art.

82. Super Sami Roll — finished in about 6:30 hours on advanced difficulty

all the complaining i’m about to do doesn’t take away how cool Sami Roll is. it’s a 3D physics-based platformer that decides to take a precision focus at the midpoint, which does not fit with the Nintendo-inspired “annoy instead of kill” philosophy. you take no damage from enemies and obstacles, but instead get stuck in a long animation that often gets you combo’d till you fall off the stage. it takes longer than it would if you got killed instantly, and it sucks. most of the game plays fine tho

81. Mushihimesama — finished in about 25 minutes | used like 3 continues

what the hell? Mushihimesama is fast. most bullets just cut through the screen very quickly and are there to give you major anxiety at all points. it may have no game-changing or innovative mechanics, but the visuals completely make up for that. the alien bugs contrasted with the mostly green and purple color palette look really unique and add a lot of flair to the game. i still haven’t beaten it enough to fully understand it, but i already feel how good it is.

80. Vomitoreum — completed in 2:44:13 (in-game timer)

Vomitoreum is vile, and it takes every opportunity it can to subvert that every once in a while. it looks rotten, but there is beauty beneath the surface, as the narrative ends up clarifying. the metroidvania style fits the world that constantly wraps around itself as you explore, and is especially impressive when you’re going for the 100%. great.

79. Super Kiwi 64 — completed in about an hour

what a cool game. it follows the bite-sized nature of other Siactro games while also delving deeper into the Kiwi series, and it’s all accompanied by the best soundtrack of the year and an incredible game feel. i just love flying round with my fake wings and booping things with my lil beak. like it’s predecessors, it’s pretty chill on the collectathon side, with simple triggers and tasks to get everything; but the ambiance and movement make it worth it. wowie

78. Chop Goblins — completed in about 2 hours

Chop Goblins has a clear focus on novelty and eventually mastery that really made my experience shine. it’s a small-scale FPS from Duskdev that shows his charming design sense alongside the beautiful and interesting environments he used to focus more on his older walking sim titles (there’s even a walking sim mode on here!). it’s so stripped back that you can’t even jump or crouch, just chop and shoot; that’s enough though! it’s just pretty fun and replayable, full of cool secrets.

77. wormgrubber — finished in about an hour

wormgrubber is a very tense horror visual novel with some great twists. it follows the story of a young vampire acolyte trying to help her master as best she can, but with great difficulty since she’s hungry from spending too much time without hunting for blood. it’s split between three narrators that break the pace in interesting ways and offer different perspectives of the world. it’s great!

76. CosmoDreamer — finished in about 2 hours

this game is insane. 8 whole levels of bullet hell coupled with notably hard and quick patterns. they’re long and can only be played individually in the main campaign, so your resources get reset in every one of them. it looks great in-game as well even if the character art is not my thing. it’s one of those games that impresses with the sheer amount of blinding lights and just -things- going on all at once.

75. Simple 2000 Series Vol. 105: The Maid Fuku to Kikanjuu — finished in about an hour

this is a stripped-back character action game that got translated in 2022. happy that it was my first Simple Series game because it shows many of the strengths of the format: an unusual premise, arcadey gameplay with just enough to it to not get boring, and charming presentation. i love all the ornate UI elements and the places where levels take place. there are even some gimmicky levels throughout that help keep the game fresh.

74. Need for Speed Unbound — finished in about 24 hours

after years of an identity crisis, it feels like NFS is finally starting to form a new one! Unbound incorporates many aspects of the modern iterations from the series and goes beyond them to focus on the street racing culture most of all, even if the actual writing and story suck (as usual). the attempt is worth it though because it means the soundtrack, art style, vehicle customizations, and character designs get to shine. after getting used to it, Unbound had many great ideas to show me.

73. Love 3 — finished in 0:37:12 (in-game timer) | replayed it a BUNCH

it’s outstanding how Fred Wood managed to make so many incredible levels with such a minimalist concept. Love 3 keeps the straightforward levels from 1, the harder platforming challenges that limit your moveset from Kuso, and presents more ways of playing aside from offering new kinds of levels with a more open structure. it’s still as difficult as you make it: set checkpoints whenever you’re grounded, but there are a bunch of cool limited lives challenges.

72. Touhou 6 — Embodiment of Scarlet Devil | finished in about 5 hours — Normal/Reimu/Bad Ending 02

dunno the OG source for this screenshot

damn, this took me a while. as the first Touhou game on windows, this jumped up the difficulty a lot, even when compared to Mystic Square. i love how basic the gameplay is (there are no gimmicks) because it sets a pretty nice standard for comparison and for the other games to build on. for someone that is pretty bad still at bullet hell games, normal felt pretty challenging, but it was perfectly balanced. i never felt overwhelmed enough that i didn’t know what to do. great!

71. Immortality — finished in about 8 hours

i’m a very curious person. cliffhangers always work a little too well on me… and Immortality immersed me so deeply that i simply forgot about the stuff i had to do for a couple of days. its unconventional structure is even more unpredictable than in Her Story because of the scale of having to comb through hundreds of clips from 3 different movies and their respective rehearsal/interview/BTS footage, and there are so many layers of narratives uncovering that i just couldn’t stop. beautiful game

70. The Tawashi — finished in about 1:20 hours

oh my god this game gave me sensory overload. a shmup with little regard to screen readability or theming. it’s just complete and beautiful nonsense. like with Pandara before it, it uses a random moe girl as the cover but she’s nowhere to be found in the game. maybe she’s the one piloting the Tawashi, maybe not. there’s no plot, but i think it would be great fun if it had even a basic text crawl at the beginning. i loved the shot types and collection mechanics as well.

69. POSTAL: Brain Damaged — finished in about 10 hours

Brain Damaged may not be old-school in its combat design, but it sure is in how it’s structured. it starts great in the first chapter, get’s amazing in the second, and severely decays in quality in the third. yeah, just like older shooters, it loses some steam in the end. however, the foundation is so good that it barely matters. the weapons are all useful and offer interesting solutions to multiple enemies, the levels are huge and winding, and the scenarios always change up from level to level.

68. Marble It Up! — finished in about 6:30 hours | gold rank in all worlds but 6

Marble It Up is a great homage to the extremely niche lineage of marble platformers like the Marble Blast series, which i played a lot of when i was a kid. it’s fairly precise and completely physics-based, a perfect formula for speedrunners. i’m not the best at it but i could get gold ranks in all standard worlds, but the 6th one is a mess. it’s required to beat the game nowadays but it was added as a challenge world post-launch. they’re bad, stale, and break often. fun game though.

67. Valis: The Fantasm Soldier — finished in about an hour

screenshot from sega retro

it’s such a relief playing an action platformer as chill as this Valis. half of it is slow-paced cutscenes, but the art looks nice enough for me to not care that much. the verticality and bosses are what made it for me though. just such a nice feeling to slowly go through levels and get the upgrades you want before going ham on a boss. hope the other ones are also cool

66. NeverAwake — finished in about 3 hours — route A

first off, NeverAwake looks insurmountably beautiful. the art and even animations here have that early 2000s internet goth look to them and that just pulled me right in from the start. not only that, it’s also a pretty creative twin-stick shooter with a huge amount and variety of levels. they have a cool understated difficulty selection where you can either wake up and end a boss on its 3rd phase or avoid the souls they drop to face all of its forms. cute and good.

65. YumeCore — finished in about an hour

i really like YumeCore. it’s passionately wacky and extremely short. the pacing is kinda insane. even though there are only 3 levels in the whole game, the last 2 have 3 bosses each, and they’re all really fun to fight! i’ve been warming up more and more to these doujins that fit neatly into a genre box but execute their own ideas with no filter inside those constraints. the art and music were also a big part of why this was so cool.

64. Flamingo Quest — completed in about 30 minutes

flamingo quest is a relaxing exploration game that can’t help but wear its heart on its sleeve. just like KateB’s other games, it’s at the same time overstated and earnest. a fun time that sets you free to muck around pink places while gliding around like a flamingo!

63. DoDonPachi — finished in about 30 minutes | used 2 continues

wow. CAVE shmups are always a blast in one way or another, but DoDonPachi thoroughly keeps a beautiful pace. it’s still pretty hard, but also allows room for you to learn patterns on the fly and to try out different ways of dealing with some of them.

62. One Shot in the Dark, Now I’m Dead. — finished in about 30 minutes

i looove this so much. i always doze off when fiction starts getting way too geopolitical (e.g. filled with acronyms and dozens of characters with different roles), but this is especially well-written, so that wasn’t a problem at all! not only that but it feels very lonely and dreadful to spend your final moments sacrificing yourself just to parse some info. it’s just you, the Anna A.I and a windows xp looking screensaver against pages upon pages of text. great.

61. Sol Divide — finished in about 30 minutes | Tyora/Kashon co-op ending — used a bunch of continues lol

srry for the amd watermark lol

Sol Divide is chaos. fast, loose, and unmercifully hard even for an arcade game, especially in the 4-phase boss fight at the ending. it’s pretty short though, like reaaally short. i kept dying and feeling bad so i ended up playing coop to take advantage of the more forgiving retry system. yeah, i suck at arcade games still, but i swear i’m trying to keep things true to the OG game design. Sol divide wants to steal quarters, so i gave it like 8 virtual ones. fun ride but kinda incomprehensible.

60. Udongein X — finished in about 1:30 hours on normal mode (+extra stage)

this is so cool. it’s basically just Mega Man X with Touhou characters and bullet pattens but i do not care. i love both, and this is extremely solid. bosses are all fair and reactable, the stages get interesting gameplay mixups that don’t detract from the core gameplay… it’s just good. i wish there was a bit more platforming but that’s about it. i’ll check out lunatic mode to see what the game’s like at its fullest.

59. YIIK: A Postmodern RPG — finished in 14:38:52 (in-game timer)

if you wanna hear me be confused about YIIK a little more, here’s my full essay on it.

the more i think about YIIK, the more i like YIIK. in between all of the filler and annoying technical issues there’s a great level of enjoyment to be taken out of it, mostly stemming from the completely broken story that aims too high while taking forever to get nowhere — funnily enough, it ended up revealing a surprising amount of depth and cool ideas the more i dug in. it never failed to be entertaining. but man, the combat is a little too much. battles can take up to 15 minutes. they’re not hard, just long. there are way too many of them. waay too much filler. YIIK is painful/interesting, idk. my brain is broken

58. Hypnagogia 無限の夢 Boundless Dreams — finished in about 5 hours (all secret dreams as well)

i love this so much… you do some simple platforming and talk to some people while interacting with whatever you find along the way inside some relatively comprehensive dreams. some of them are a little uninventive visually and almost /too/ polished to feel uncanny, but the later dreams work better in this regard. Hypnagogia is an intensely relaxing experience for anyone with even a shred of patience.

57. Akasha Dreams — finished in about 40 minutes

this is a fun and very peculiar visual novel about Cora, a NEET girl who’s falling in love with Nora, another member of her religious covenant. it flows back and forth between her life on the SOULNET and the real world, punctuating Cora’s different personality in them. it’s funny, visually interesting, and has a lot of artwork for a short game jam project. the only thing i didn’t really like was the ending, which i won’t spoil.

56. Espgaluda — finished in about 30 minutes — used a whole buncha continues (mostly on the final boss)

i just love Espgaluda’s style and unrelenting barrage of weird patterns. even though the pace is not as tight as DoDonPachi, it’s kept entertaining by how much more unpredictable it is. basically, the only thing that’s weird is the ridiculous difficulty spike at the final boss, but everything else feels great.

55. Ridge Racer Type 4 — finished in about an hour

damn this game is so FUN… it’s simple, arcadey as hell, and has some crazy drifting to boot. i dunno much about cars at all but i still dabble in arcade racing games from time to time, and this was perfect for me. it also has a crazy good presentation with all the yellows, the character portraits of the barebones story, and the music. great

54. Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes — finished in about 9 hours

the best game to ever suck.

oh my, this was slapped together, but beautifully! it has a buncha problems, most of which don’t really matter when you consider how one-of-a-kind the writing and concepts are. it’s not lazy meta writing, but clear-cut homages to Grasshopper’s own work and legacy as well as the beauty and ugliness of the game industry and game development, which falls perfectly in line with how the NMH series seeks to explore the relationship between player and video game. enemies suck but whatever.

53. Touhou 7 — Perfect Cherry Blossom — finished in about an hour | Normal/Reimu/Bad Ending 01

pic from this Jaimers video

that was even better than 6! and way easier too. although the cherry gimmick isn’t the most impactful (it’s mostly for score iirc), Touhou 7 has way flashier bullet patterns than any of its counterparts, and it helps a lot that i can see my hitbox when focusing. pretty fun!

52. Yurukill: The Calumniation Games — finished normal difficulty in 10:05 (in-game timer)

this game is nuts. it’s like 5 kinds of games at once, but it plays like none of them. it’s a bit of an escape room death game detective shoot ’em up bullet hell thingy, but the narrative goes to places that you wouldn’t expect with the initial tone. even one of Yurukills biggest focuses, which is bullet hell, plays really weirdly. it feels like there should be a difficulty option between normal and HELL. still, it pulls off something no other game could accomplish with its crazy premise. luvit!

51. Tokyo 42 — finished in about 8 hours

Tokyo 42 is an insanely stylish open-world shooter game. its cyberpunk aesthetic transcends the most common played-out tropes and the open-world design allows for many different playstyles, almost like an immersive sim. the plot is a little dry but it sets up the world well enough that it doesn’t bother me. it’s impressive.

50. Gungrave — finished in about an hour

Gungrave is so confident in itself. it’s a 1-hour long arcade character action game with absolutely no fluff. you just shoot and tank control your way through the levels packed with enemies and clever little design decisions that keep the action of spamming the “shoot” button feeling varied. even the melee attack is streamlined here. you only have a 1-hit combo, but it deals insane damage. the story is pretty simple and generic but the visuals deliver it beautifully. pretty fun.

49. Armored Core — finished in about 5 hours

Armored Core is so sleek. it just wears its main appeal on its sleeve without shame and is fully stripped back off of any distraction. you split your time playing this between building your mech with the varied array of options and doing resource management on the missions in order to save money on repairs and ammo refills (which are automatically deducted from your payroll). i never thought i’d have this much fun with this but i’m happy i did. even the more annoying missions can be fun.

48. Supercharged Robot VULKAISER — finished in about 1:30 hours | 1cc on normal (took a few runs)

consider me an Astro Port fan now. their games are a uniquely simple brand of standard but executed in whatever weird ways then can get away with. VULKAISER looks and sounds extremely unique because of it’s 70s-inspired tokusatsu/mecha aesthetic, and while the gameplay is the standard horizontal shmup fair, the mechanics are arranged in a strange way, along with the crazy enemy design (not that much different from what they did on WITCH-BOT Meglilo). had a good time with it.

47. WITCH-BOT MEGLILO — finished in about 3 hours | 1cc on normal

pretty! cool! WITCH-BOT MEGLILO is to magical girl anime what VULKAISER was to mecha anime (both by Astro Port!). it’s as old school as possible in regards to the colors and overall energy, which floats more around the 70s and 80s than the 90s, which is unique for this kind of doujinshi. not only that, but the actual shooting is pretty cool! changing weapons is a bit weird and there are some confusing enemies on the last level, but the warp mechanic lets you get away with mistakes often. great!

46. Klonoa: Door to Phantomile — finished in 02:50:32 (in-game timer)

here’s my full review of both Klonoa 1 & 2 if you wanna hear more.

the first Klonoa is such a beautiful oddity. it plays like i thought NiGHTS would play when i first looked at the cover. it’s a dreamlike platformer full of silly animations and weird mechanics. it’s slow-paced, encourages exploration in mostly semi-linear 2.5D stages, and usually lets you keep only one thing on your mind at any given point. straightforwardly beautiful. the story is a little slow, but it perfectly exemplifies the kind of world you’re going through. i really like it!

45. Yakuza Kiwami — finished in 12:16 (in-game timer)

it’s easy to shrug off the first Yakuza’s accomplishments when you play it after 0, and especially when playing the remake. it’s way more combat-focused, pulpy, and straightforward… it’s a great game though, and you can feel how ambitious it truly is just by following the main story. i surprisingly found the combat more enjoyable than in 0, if i ignore the last chapter’s obsession with firearms and all. this series is special.

44. Rez Infinite — finished in about 1:30 hours

i felt like i was literally inside of this goddamn game. can’t tell if my brain turned off or completely turned on. i love how off-kilter the songs get as some of your attacks sometimes miss the beat and since this is not a pure rhythm game, it just continues. it looks breathtakingly abstract and reminded me of many different faint memories throughout the different areas.

43. Magic Wand — finished in about an hour

this game is about… uh… Radiget’s quest to find the Magic Wand, i guess? i don’t know what else to expect from Space Funeral’s developer, but this is way cooler than anything i could imagine. it’s a small experience that urges you to do things for no reason, just because it’s fun. the dialogue is somehow almost as incomprehensible as Hylics’ randomly generated gibberish, and the visuals are some of the most inspiring retro-style experiments i’ve seen in a long while. please play this.

42. Kamiwaza: Way of the Thief — finished in 5:59 (in-game timer)

in Kamiwaza you roam around familiar areas robbing similar items while hopping around in plain sight like a maniac and sometimes doing a few main story tasks. i love it. the stealth system is incredibly fast-paced and works like a sneak-infused stylish combat system. better yet: it kinda works like an immersive sim. everything you do leaves consequences behind that influence both the gameplay and the route you take in the story. it was surprisingly inventive.

41. HITMAN 2 — finished main missions and DLCs in about 8 hours

HITMAN 2 cements the reboots as a proper saga and does that while playing the concept of a sequel completely straight. there are no big changes in the gameplay or plot structure, but the story has some. it acts as a bridge for a finale, and it ends up feeling a little unfulfilling because of that. still, the missions are enormous in scale and they offer more flexibility in approach before getting mastery in comparison to the first. the DLC missions slap as well. pretty good!

40. LOVE 2: kuso — finished in 0:39:24 (in-game timer)

feels good to be back to this streamlined precision platformer series afterplaying the 1st in 2021. Kuso is way harder and more focused on taking the timing aspect away from your jump by using auto jump pads you juggle between or free falls; it all feels delightfully novel. it’s just as harsh with transitions as the first, but hits harder here. songs get cut off right as you cross the finish line of a level you’ve been banging your head at only for a new one to begin alongside a new challenge.

39. PANDARA — finished in about 1:30 hours

pandara is cool. one of those doujin games that crams a bunch of ambitious ideas into the simplest template possible. this is a shmup with no mechanics apart from shooting and leveling up. sometimes other pandas help you out, but they die almost immediately. it’s so offputing. the character on the cover doesn’t even appear on the story, she’s just there for the arcade mode. though it has these mysterious qualities that only make it more interesting for me, it also feels good to play!

38. FINAL FANTASY VII — finished in about 30 hours

here’s my full essay on Final Fantasy VII if you wanna hear more. there’s a video version as well.

i have a strange relationship with FFVII. it’s an incredible achievement, but just as rough around the edges as GTA III for no apparent reason. there’s so much wrong with the UI and ATB systems that it just gets annoying to fight, and there are sections that fuck you over on the gameplay side because of what’s going on in the story. even with all that, FFVII won me over. it respects its characters a lot and gives them a lot of development, and every place you visit feels whole. this is a gem.

37. Shin chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation -The Endless Seven-Day Journey- — finished in 10:06:23 (in-game timer)

the first time any Boku no Natsuyasumi game is available in English is also a weird double dip because it’s also the first time a Shin-Chan game has been localized! it’s cute, simple, and a little bit dragged out, but perfect for someone like me who likes the childhood whimsy the game portrays. Shinnosuke is always doing stuff around town and accomplishing way too much for a 5-year old on vacation, and it all still feels relaxing. loved doing the side quests too. pretty good!!

36. Bullet Witch — finished in about 3 hours

incredibly entertaining fast food gaming. zero substance, great looks… kinda like a merge of Cavia’s weirdo PS2 games with that 360 shine. this is the antithesis of Homefront’s boring approach to this genre of minimalistic shooting affair because of style alone. this actually feels like it has potential with its current set of ideas (gameplay-wise, because the thin plot is not worth saving). imagine if Alicia could do some crazy dashes and shoot while side somersaulting. fun game.

35. No More Heroes — finished (true ending) in 12:24 (in-game timer)

No More Heroes is an insane video game as obsessed with murder as it is with the mundane. kinda rules having a game like this make me rethink everything about the reasons why i play video games in the first place. the combat is fun and relatively simple and like 80% of the levels are now stuck in my brain forever bc of how memorable they are. the ending is a lil off but the game’s great.

34. Towelket: One More Time 3 (Karaage Tanpopo) — completed in about 6 hours

despite the name, this is the first Towelket to be released. it’s a charming JRPG with surprisingly detailed villages and interactions, and an adventurous story and pacing that reminded me of the appeal of the Dragon Quest series. i hate how pervy everything around the Groom character is (and how prominent he is in the plot), but i can ignore that after years of seeing bullshit like this. heard the other games dealt with heavier plots, i hope they’re cool as well.

33. ZONNEBLOEM — finished in about 30 minutes

ZONNEBLOEM is like a fading memory of a perfect, but long-gone summer day. it’s a romance between two friends who haven’t talked in a long time. they have great chemistry, and their relationship feels authentically awkward at the beginning of their reunion. really nice!

32. Batsugun — finished in about 30 minutes — used 1 continue

Batsugun feels like the closest you can get to danmaku without being a bullet hell. it’s extremely fast-paced and demands a good knowledge of its patterns for you to get through the whole thing. in just two runs i went from having to use like 12 continues to “only” 5. it feels great to learn the patterns, since they aren’t that traditionally difficult, just can be overwhelming if you’re not used to them. the special version feels way better because of the smaller hitbox. cool game. close to 1cc.

31. The Bouncer — finished in about 1:30 hours — Sion route

The Bouncer took many turns before fully clicking with me, but every one of them was individually cool. it looks incredible, from the directing to the combat. even with the simple premise, the game moves incredibly quickly to establish and resolve mysteries while giving you sudden but welcome bursts of combat to do in between. it looks great and plays decent, but i especially enjoyed finding out ways to break it! it’s fully confident in its direction. luvit!

30. Good Morning Is A Social Construct — finished in about 40 minutes

this visual novel is incredible. it’s a slice of life story about three very stubborn girls, each in their own way. they all grow and make mistakes so seamlessly throughout the story that i just couldn’t stop reading. the soundtrack and visuals helped the story feel as formative and down to earth as it needed to be for it to work. great.

29. NEON STRUCT — finished in about 5 hours

NEON STRUCT is a Thief-inspired indie about espionage and the politics that accompany it. it’s extremely minimalist in both looks and gameplay, and that’s what makes it work well. this is not a Thief clone. you can sneak while sliding like crazy and the missions are much simpler in design, so much so that the game doesn’t offer a map option. as much as the choices are cool and mostly handled with side objectives, you get no tangible reward or for them other than the satisfaction and the occasional item. still, they make every corner of the maps interesting places to explore on their own, which mimics Thief’s appeal for someone like me who likes looking around a lot.

28. Diadra Empty — finished in 1:08 (in-game timer) — natural mode

this game is insaaaane i swear. it’s a free roam shmup in the same vein as Fantasy Zone, but with a shit ton of bullets flying around and a strong dash move you can do, as well as strafing. it has an extremely surreal and empty atmosphere that really appeals to me, and it’s also reflected in the enemies and bosses you face. it’s weird, hard to get used to, fast-paced, and many other ambiguous adjectives, but for me it’s kinda perfect. i’ll replay it a few times before cementing it as a 5star tho

5stars

beautiful!perfect for me!!fun as hell!!!depressing as hell!!!

27. Nightmare Reaper — finished in about 21 hours | sacrifice ending

Nightmare Reaper is the platonic ideal of action gaming. it doesn’t just offer a lot of explosions, it knows how to shake things up when needed, and gives you ample time to breathe and think in between the crazier parts. each of the huge 3 chapters has its own identity, and they almost feel like different games entirely. 1st focuses on old-school simplified dungeon crawling, 2nd on exploration, and 3rd on pure madness. the plot also has a very cool hook that crawls into your mind while you play.

26. times infinity — completed in about 5 hours

times infinity is a genre mash mostly focused on narrative, and it rules. both the gameplay and the cutscene presentation constantly change to fit the vibe of the scene instead of serving a strict narrative purpose, which it also does sometimes. it focuses less on portraits to convey emotions in exchange for constant unique artworks. the extra chapter mostly lacks those but it provides a fitting end for such an odd story. great!

25. FAITH: The Unholy Trinity — finished all 3 chapters in about 5 hours (got the good neutral ending in chapter 3)

what a fascinating and outstandingly beautiful game. you don’t see a game like FAITH all that often. it goes above and beyond anything you could expect for something that has its biggest visual inspirations lying on the Apple II of all things. the cutscenes are among the most impressive i’ve ever seen and the Christian horror inspirations run deep and meaningfully impact the narrative. even the mechanics (which are simple at first glance) get explored and turned on their heads constantly.

24. Elden Ring — finished in 64:57:14 (in-game timer) | age of stars ending, all major bosses

Elden Ring merges completely different kinds of games together seamlessly with an unprecedented scale. tough battles give way to calm, somber moments of gaze at the crumbling state of the world, which for the first time you can actually see all of. The Lands Between is a domain filled with the same problems that plagued the middle ages in real life, but it has spiraled so far downwards that not even nature wants to fix it.

23. Imperishable Memories — finished in about an hour

Imperishable Memories is an extremely unique horizontal STG. it focuses a lot on the story while still using its relatively simple mechanics to further its themes. the narrative is just abstracted enough to be fun to decode while also not being hard to figure out, and the art style works along with everything to make you a bit weirded out while playing. loved it.

22. ARCHANGEL:NEMESIS (chapters 1 &2) — finished in about 3 hours

since this visual novel is not available to download anymore due to the creators’ choice to release it all at once as of now, i’ll keep this brief. ARCHANGEL:NEMESIS is a gorgeous game that weaves themes nonstop while constantly taking time to build the characters without losing steam. the way it deals with online conspiracies, the church, and twisted religious values is mystical and still pretty open and interesting. can’t wait for the full thing!

21. Touhou 8 — Imperishable Night — finished in about an hour — Normal/Reimu/Normal Ending 5

Touhou 8 shows the beginning of a big shift in design focus for the series. bullet patterns are extremely varied and flashy, the human/yokai and time mechanics actually impact the gameplay a lot and the bigger focus on the story all make this a very interesting entry. i really like all the new characters also. i replayed this to death and still no Normal 1cc for me (though i’m close!!), but i’ll get there, right?

20. Mirror’s Edge Catalyst — finished in about 11 hours

as much as it’s a half-step, i still loved Catalyst. it still has a horrible story (even worse than in the first game imo), but the art style looks even more developed, and being given the opportunity to explore a whole ass world is just the coolest. this game has a lot of problems, but most of them are offset just by the main parkour mechanics and the visuals being perfect for me. i wish the series would continue, but at this point, it’s very unlikely that it will happen.

19. Spark the Electric Jester 3 — finished in about 5 hours

Spark 3 is unbelievable. i can’t even begin to rationalize how this was mostly made by one person in the span of 3 years. it’s relentlessly fast, insanely polished, and surprisingly varied. that’s a lot of adjectives, but it’s the only way i can sum it up. it merges every single cool idea the dev ever had and boasts beautifully animated cutscenes at every step. even the story is an insane step up from 2, even though it still could use some more character-focused moments. +soundtrack bangs. luvit

18. #doubleblush — finished in about 30 minutes

#doubleblush is extremely cute. it’s a yuri visual novel about two girls who just met in a church. they go on dates. they talk a lot. they understand each other even though they are very different. it’s heartwarming. i love them sooooooooo much it’s crazy.

17. Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 — finished (true ending) in 3:37:39 (in-game timer)

Gunvolt 3 leaves the usual iteration that games in the action-platformer usually do (which you can see in how similar the first 6 Mega Man games are, for example) behind and instead changes protagonists once again. playing as Kirin feels incredible, and she has the highest skill ceiling in the series. all of the stages are designed around her. the story kinda sucks like in the Luminous Avenger games, but the characters are fun stereotypes at least. love it!

16. Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure — finished in 9:53:20 (in-game timer)

here’s my full Rhapsody review if you wanna hear more about it.

this is a beautiful game stained by what could be either budget or time limitations. Rhapsody is a full-on musical SRPG aimed at beginners that offers one of the best stories on the PS1. it’s standard fare but presented uniquely through the music and the characters’ personalities, which shine at every step. the only thing that bars this is the complete disregard for dungeon design. they’re all the same and extremely boring. that said, since that’s very far from the game’s actual focus, it still works exactly as intended. can’t wait for the other 2 games to be localized.

15. The MISSING: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories — finished in 06:07:46 (in-game timer)

The Missing is heartwarming. every part of it works for it to enrich the narrative, so the slow pace and self-injury mechanic (?) work really well together. it also knows when to leave space for lighter moments, so it doesn’t get bogged down with only depressing themes all the time. i’m usually not one for puzzles, but they were really chill and creative here. nothing too complex, nothing too dull. oh, did i mention the story is gorgeous? yeah, i’m not gonna spoil it!

14. STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN — finished in 21:22:36 (in-game timer)

i feel like square made this game just for me. it balances genuine goofiness with serious moments naturally, and like other Nomura games, it is very story-light in the beginning, and extremely story-heavy in the end. playing it is also bliss. it merges the strategic counterplays of Final Fantasy with the gritty and reflex-based combat of Nioh and other souls-likes. all of the dungeons are distinct and have braindead puzzles that are there to add flavor instead of challenging you. incredible.

13. Cherry Tree High Comedy Club — finished in 3:07 (in-game timer)

here’s my full essay about Cherry Tree High Comedy Club if you wanna see more.

Cherry Tree High Comedy Club is such a comfy gem. it’s a platonic dating sim where you play as Mairu, a 3rd-year high school student who needs to recruit 3 more people in a month to start her much dreamed about comedy club. it starts out a little confusing which makes getting the best ending almost impossible in your first run, but the new game + option is there to encourage you to go for more. the events you get by getting closer to people and your skill management are a joy. luv it!

12. The Midnight Sanctuary — completed in 2:50:04 (in-game timer)

The Midnight Sanctuary tells a sour story of a decaying village with extremely devoted unorthodox christian residents. you play as a “little watcher” from Daiusu village guiding the protagonist Mamoru, who’s visiting the village as part of her academic christian research. it’s an odd and somber story that tonally whiplashes itself around constantly while representing every aspect of the village with a distinctly minimalistic artstyle. i love it!

11. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride — finished in 30:03 (in-game timer)

Dragon Quest V is a sign that JRPGs don’t need to always follow the tried and true genre structure to succeed. it moves the genre forward almost by accident while paving its own path. playing as a whole family feels satisfying and personal, and while not something that can (or needs to) be applied to every game, it’s what forms this specific entry’s identity. the monster-catching mechanic also makes for varied combat that makes you use even the ones on standby to your advantage. incredible.

10. Yakuza 0 — finished in 22:00 (in-game timer)

Yakuza 0 is lush. be it in every one of the painstakingly detailed cutscenes, the numerous different gameplay systems and minigames, and even the story’s concept and pacing. no detail gets spared, but what ends up in the game is all part of the vision, which is of a violent game that hates violence. it tells a reluctantly grim tale that wants to break free at any moment, and it impressed me to hell and back. loooooove it.

9. OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast — finished a buncha times on both OutRun modes

incredible. i almost have no words. the tracks twist around as you drift and the car physics are just like the ones you imagine driving a car feels like in the craziest movie chase scenes. most of the environments are serene and all are breathtakingly beautiful. i’d travel to in the places in this game in a heartbeat. hell, i’d live in them. i am getting acquainted with arcade games as time passes but OutRun 2 SP seals the deal for me. i love it.

now about Coast 2 Coast: still love it but i honestly think the SP version is better. the ending sequences are missing from here and even though there are more cars, you gotta unlock them manually which feels off for an arcade game. at least SP itself is inside the PC version, so i’m happy.

8. momosdiary — finished in about 30 minutes

note: the thing about not taking my ranking all that seriously goes double with this and the next game, which are way too personal for a jackass like me to put in a list and say one’s better than the other, or even compare with other games. i debated leaving them out of the list but still wanted to highlight them as they were very touching and healing experiences for me.

this is a heavy and personal visual novel. it’s great, but it feels disrespectful to try to boil it down in a review like this. read the author’s postmortem after you finish.

7. Heisei Pistol Show — finished in about 2 hours

touching. i feel conflicted talking about Heisei Pistol Show and other extremely personal titles like Momo’s Diary because it feels wrong in a way; especially since Parun, this game’s dev, took their own life in 2011. Heisei’s story fights with itself. it reflects Heart (the protagonist) and their optimism even when in pain. he goes through his own struggles and queer experiences through the lens of a fairy tale. it hurts.

6. Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil — finished in 02:58:21 (in-game timer)

here’s my full review of both Klonoa 1 & 2 if you wanna hear more.

Klonoa 2 is an iterative sequel in gameplay and a spiritual one story-wise. it widened the scope of the themes while still maintaining the mysterious dreamlike atmosphere. the new cast is way more present and they kinda have personalities now! while the levels look more like defined locations (which robs a bit of the OG’s uncanny vibe), the revisits still shine in the same manner as the first. Klonoa 2 also asks more of the player and even gets kinda challenging at the end. luv it!

5. Ready Player Fuck — finished in 1:14:58 (in-game timer) | got 16/20 pages

Ready Player Fuck is an insane amalgamation of tropes and references that puts everything inauthentic about today’s pop culture to the front. it’s straightforwardly devious and perfectly executed. also, most things you do can tank the framerate to the single digits, the bonus missions are a nightmare to control, and everything looks positively janky. the sprint button is literally just two run cycles overlapping. it’s incredible.

4. Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo 2.0 — finished in about 40 minutes | around rank 60

Mecha Ritz is beautiful. pretty good for ppl who suck like me because of the adaptative difficulty, it makes a first-time 1cc run almost guaranteed while it takes me way too much time training to get it in other games. the story about a girl who destroyed the world to the point of unrecognizeability contextualizes the abstract visuals pretty nicely, and they already look good and unobtrusive on their own. i’ll definitely replay this a bunch like i did with Deathsmiles. (update: i did! the 2.0 version released this year [6 years after the OG launch] and it’s even better. my favorite shmup ever!]

3. PRODUCER 2021 — finished in about 2 hours

incredible, really. the world is extremely malleable and unpredictable because, well, it’s falling apart slowly. it’s in a pretty dire state, but that doesn’t bother the protagonist Toto enough for him to give up. the dude just wants to meet people and live a stable life someday. maybe find someone that cares about him as well. PRODUCER is a pretty chaotic experience that takes advantage of how chopped up the arcs and objectives are together with its short length. it’s incredible!

2. Spartoi Meadow — finished in about 3 hours

here’s my video essay about Spartoi Meadow if you wanna hear more about it.

Spartoi Meadow is a very off-kilter action RPG that offers more atmosphere than anything else and works wonders because of it. the combat is satisfying and relatively loose while also being strategic, since you can only get away with attacking without being interrupted if you used a costly skill or are well-positioned. aside from the cool mechanics, it has a wonky translation, pretty skies, and a charming soundtrack. great.

1. The Silver Case — completed all chapters of both campaigns in 15:08:22 (in-game timer)

The Silver Case is a masterpiece. i don’t even like using that word, but i’m making an exception. at the same time, you get a gripping story with both fast and slow-paced bits scattered around the two campaigns and some of the best use of budget for the purpose of presentation ever. it’s incredible that what’s essentially a visual novel can have this much interactivity. the thematic threads are consistent and don’t lie only in the main plot. there’s much more to the story than just the game.

that’s it!

i loved my experience with games in 2023, and boy did i learn a lot about different genres, subgenres, and sub subgenres. please look forward to more games by me this year and definitely more articles! thank you for reading!