“Roguevania” is a curious genre tag that I’d never heard of before seeing it on Mother Machine’s Steam store page. I sort of understand it conceptually: take the randomly-generated level layouts and progression over the course of multiple “runs” of a roguelite and combine it with the “upgrade yourself to improve your ability to traverse the world” mechanisms of a Metroidvania. However, upon dissecting that idea, I immediately start finding holes. If you’re lacking a particular upgrade on a given run, does that mean it might be impossible to complete? Wouldn’t randomized level layouts be a nightmare to properly balance to give that satisfying sense of progression that the best Metroidvanias are known for? It seems like a recipe for disaster, which made me all the more intrigued to see how Mother Machine would pull it off.
Tag: Comedy
Wyrmhall: Brush and Banter Review
I find the popularity of games about work to be a bit odd. As someone with a day job that frequently drains me to the point where even fun extracurricular activities can feel like chores, it baffles me that people would want to spend their free time pretending to work at, say, a restaurant or grocery store. It makes a bit more sense for management sims; pretending to be the boss and run your own business can be an exciting and empowering glimpse into a world few will get to partake in. Yet for those where you’re a menial employee, I struggle to see the appeal of simulating the repetitive grind of a nine-to-five.
Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure Review
“Play more box games; it’ll be a fun bit!” was the prevailing thought when I decided to boot up Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure. After quite enjoying both my playthrough of Boxes: Lost Fragments and revisiting Flat Heroes to play it in multiplayer, checking out a boxy 3D platformer with positive Steam reviews seemed like a great step to continue the trend. And then I actually started playing it, which rapidly turned into one of the most frustrating gaming experiences I’ve had recently. Unbox isn’t the worst game I’ve played by far, but every design decision in it seems so vehemently opposed to fun that it’s a wonder the game was released in its current state.
Duck Detective: The Secret Salami Review
I was excited going into Duck Detective: The Secret Salami. Since it came out earlier this year, it’s a game that’s lived rent-free in the back of my mind, largely off the strength of its humorous title and fun premise. A cute little duck acting as a hard-boiled detective and interacting with a cast of colourful characters is the kind of thing that seems tailor-made for my tastes, and the fact that one of its primary mechanisms is a fill-in-the-blanks method of making deductions (sorry, “deducktions”) a la The Case of the Golden Idol (a game I haven’t played but thoroughly enjoyed watching a playthrough of) is the icing on the cake. Add in some great voice acting, solid writing, and a tightly-paced runtime, and you’ve got a recipe for a quality experience. And without burying the lede, while it didn’t blow me away, Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is still an entertaining mystery game that kept me engaged the whole time I played it.
Little Kitty, Big City Review
Open world games have a tendency to get bogged down in tedium. One need only look at the latest guff put out by the AAA gaming sphere to see countless examples of games promising massive open worlds with hundreds of hours of content … which tends to boil down to mindless fetch quests and a sea of meaningless collectibles. Enter Little Kitty, Big City, a game which – on the face of it – may seem a bit lacking because of its length. According to How Long to Beat, it can be completed in a mere two and a half hours if you’re mainlining the story, and my playthrough took just over five with many side objectives completed and collectibles found. As is so often the case, though, brevity breeds quality, and while Little Kitty, Big City is not without its faults, it’s still a shining example of an open world that’s actually fun to explore.
Olive's Game Garden 