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Hey! You can find more current content from me on YouTube. For let's plays, check out Mean Stream Machine. For reviews and other content more in line with what used to be posted here, check out my "Good Games" podcast

~James

Luigi's Mansion

Nintendo - 2001 - Gamecube

Man Luigi's Mansion is a weird game. On paper, this game shouldn't even be good. Luigi explores a haunted mansion and vacuums ghosts? It's a type of game that's really easy to make wrong or design in a way that isn't fun for the player. It's really the type of game that only a developer like Nintendo could make

This was my first time playing Luigi's mansion since it launched back in 2001 which is fifteen years now. Crazy. Man I had forgotten how short this game is. A friend and I sat down to play through it one afternoon and we finished it in one sitting. If you don't dawdle around too much, you can finish this game in about 5 hours. Which is fine but unusually short for other Nintendo games of this era. The game still holds up pretty well, especially graphically considering the game is 15 years old now. The relative small size and scope of the mansion allowed the artists, modelers and animators to pour in a lot of detail into each of the rooms of the mansion which is still impressive today, especially considering this was a launch title.

Just about every encounter with a ghost boils down to trying to expose their weakness so that they can be vacuumed into Luigi's ghost capturing machine. Even 15 years later, this still feels like a unique idea. The closest elements in common with any other game are the light use of puzzle solving elements when trying to figure out how to expose the ghost's weakness. Even though the game still feels fresh it isn't without faults. I wouldn't criticize it for being too short, but I will criticize it for obvious attempts to pad out its length. Near the end of the game, Luigi is forced to trek back and forth from the roof of the mansion to the basement which takes roughly 5 minutes one way and there isn't anything new or interesting presented to you along the way. Now as an adult I can recognize when a game is stretching for time and I'm not sure why developers feel this is necessary. To me, artificially stretching a game's length in a boring or repetitive way is always way more egregious of a sin than just actually being short

Summary

Luigi's Mansion is a short but fun foray into a haunted house that's more about the atmosphere and elements of scariness than actually being scary, which I can appreciate. I've yet to play the Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon which is a 3DS exclusive sequel released in 2013 as part of Nintendo's "Year of Luigi" promotional event. I've heard good things about this game and I may need to check it out soon. As the popular internet saying goes: "The Year of Luigi never ends"

Duck Game

Landon Podbelski - 2014 - PC 

I am a sucker for a good local multiplayer game. Local multiplayer is one of my favorite experiences in games growing up with a Nintendo 64 and playing titles like Mario Party, GoldenEye and Mario Kart 64. It's an experience that's been getting more and more rare in recent AAA games especially since the advent of the internet and online multiplayer. I'm happy to see that indies and other small studios have noticed this absense and have picked up the mantle of developing awesome local multiplayer experiences. Duck Game is one such title, although it also has an online component. It's an arena combat game much like Towerfall: Ascension, another game I really loved. 

Duck Game takes those short and fast rounds from Towerfall and makes them even faster. For those not familiar with Towerfall, Duck Game is a 2D arena combat game. Think Super Smash Bros, but all weapons are a one hit kill. Levels are small and weapons are deadly, so rounds go really fast. Often times you're not even done laughing about the crazy thing that happened in the previous round by the time the next round starts. 

Another way Duck Game distinguishes itself from other games of its ilk is through its wacky sense of humor. It's a game published by Adult Swim games and I can't think of a more fitting publisher for this game's sense of humor. I mean you're controlling Ducks shooting each other with automatic weapons. There is a button on the controller mapped to "quack". That's it. That's all it does is make a quacking noise. That's the type of wacky humor that is on display here. 

The soundtrack, which strongly channels the sounds of the Sega Genesis, is another highlight. Like its gameplay, the tracks are short but sweet and pack a lot of punch. My favorites are Synth Rock, Steelmill Sunset and Butt Spin. Great stuff if you like the iconic electronic buzz of the Genesis sound chip.

Summary

If you're looking for an awesome and wacky time with some friends on the couch, you're looking for Duck Game. If you have no one to play with, it also features an online mode and a pretty fun single player challenge mode as well. Sometimes I just want to have a stupid and goofy time when I sit down to play a video game. And when I do, I'll be looking at Duck Game

Super Mario Sunshine

Nintendo - 2002 - Gamecube

I've been revisiting some of the Gamecube's greatest hits recently so I of course had to play through 2002's Super Mario Sunshine. Like Luigi's Mansion, this was the first time I had played through this game in maybe 15 years and this game holds up too, but man does it have some giant flaws. 

First of all, this is probably the most dialogue and cutscene heavy of any of the mainline Mario games. Which in and of itself is not a bad thing but Super Mario Sunshine opens with about 15 minutes of unskippable cutscenes and dialogue before you're finally set free in Delphino Plaza. 15 minutes is an eternity for a Mario game where I really don't care about the story or Mario's motivations. I just want to run and jump around. Although the whole FLUDD and pollution clean up is a very weird angle for a Mario game, I think the hover, turbo boost and rocket jump are a good addition to the 3D Mario moveset. The first few levels with wide sprawling areas and lots of upward vertical movement are a perfect compliment for the new moves given to Mario with FLUDD. The hovel nozzle allows you to steady your aerial approach when trying to land on the small bouncy cables and the rocket boost allows you to get up high quickly if you fall off. I think there's some decent level design on display here, but let me highlight one of the worst and most egregious errors in player input mapping I have ever seen. Ricco Harbor and Pinna Park both feature vertical AND horizontal chain link fence link surfaces that Mario can climb on. While Mario is climbing on a vertical fence, his A button is mapped to "jump" while his B button is mapped to a punch command which can hit enemies climbing on the opposite side of the fence. While Mario is hanging from a horizontal fence surface, his A button is mapped to the punch command while his B button LETS GO OF THE FENCE. NO, NO, NO! Bad! Bad! Bad! The horizontal controller mapping is the exact opposite on the vertical controller mapping! Pinna Park has vertical fences placed right next to horizontal fences with enemies crawling on either surface. I can not tell you how many times I accidentally fell off of the level while attempting to punch an enemy with the same button I had just pressed a second ago. Terrible. 

This game's other huge problem is with the concept of a difficulty curve. The curve is all over the place with this game. In some levels, the stars get easier as you go. This is most noticeable at the end of the game where you're required to paddle through lava and jump through clouds in a relatively difficult platforming challenge. Then you fight Bowser which has got to be one of the easiest things to do in the entire game. I beat him in about 30 seconds on my first try. The other noticeable difficulty spikes are with the "secret" stars. The ones that require you to complete a platforming challenge without the use of FLUDD. I think the idea here is that FLUDD makes some of the platforming too easy. You can sort of use FLUDD to compensate for mistimed or misspaced jumps, so taking FLUDD away would lend for some interesting platforming challenges. The problem is that you get so used to using FLUDD to "cheat" that the platforming becomes that much more hard when its taken away from you. Add in the fact that making a platforming error on one of these stages usually results in Mario plummeting to his death instantly and now you've got some really unforgiving and incredibly challenging stages. Which is fine. But these "secret" stars are relatively much, much more difficult than most other stars.

Okay one last nitpicky thing. Remember Hotel Delphino on Gelato Beach? It was the one infested with a bunch of Boo ghosts. It was actually my favorite level as a kid. It was my least favorite this time around. There's a star that requires you to get Yoshi up to the attic to get past some Boos since they can only be defeated by being eaten by Yoshi. It's possible to fall through the attic into a room that you can only exit by opening a door. As far as I can tell, you cannot open doors while riding Yoshi. Which means you have to leave him in the room you fell into and he's trapped until he despawns, which is on a timer. The problem is a new Yoshi won't respawn until the old one dies, so if you fall into these rooms, you're basically stuck waiting two or three minutes for your Yoshi to die. Bad design. Oh also the underwater levels still suck in Sunshine.

Summary

I know I've done pretty much nothing but complain about Super Mario Sunshine, but I still think it's a good game. I mean if you compare it to other Mario games, it's probably average. But in the grand view of all video games, it's still good. It's worth taking another look at if you played it 15 years ago like I did, but I'm not sure I could recommend this one for a new player. It's far from Mario's best offering. For that, check out Super Mario 3D World.

South Park: The Stick of Truth

Obsidian/South Park Digital Studios - 2014 - PC/PS3/PS4/Xbox360/XboxOne

I think the best thing I could tell anyone about this game is not to play it unless you have at least some idea of what South Park is. South Park's patented "did they really just say that?" sense of humor is on display here - only dialed up to 11 because I assume the censorship guidelines for video games are much less strict than network television. So if you're easily offended by, well, anything really, you probably shouldn't play this game. However if you're a fan of South Park and know what you're getting yourself into, you're in for a treat

South Park: The Stick of Truth (TSOT), just like any episode of the television show, is a parody. Whereas the TV show picks a current topic or event or celebrity to parody, The Stick of Truth is a parody of video games while also obviously being one. Specifically, TSOT invokes The Elder Scolls: Skyrim quite a lot between making fart jokes out of dragonshouts and also emulating Skyrim's soundtrack surprisingly well. A few of the characters in the game, especially Cartman, are quite aware of the fact that they are characters in a video game and break the fourth wall frequently to point out that fact to humorous effect. There are several call outs to South Park's most popular episodes and reoccurring characters that will resonate for the fans of the TV show. Without spoiling anything, this game contains some of the most outrageous scenes I've ever played in a video game that may even surprise hardcore fans of the show.

The closest touchstone for the battle system is the Paper Mario series which requires you to perform short mini game-like quick time events to boost your attack power or partially block damage from an enemy. Just as in Paper Mario, I find this type of battle system compliments traditional turn based RPG combat very well as it keeps players a little more engaged since you have to play a little timing mini game while also making strategic decisions on which enemies to target with which attacks at the same time. Even if the mini games are mostly easy and trivial, it's one extra layer of interaction with the combat system that keeps the player engaged and creates the illusion of player skill. In addition to this, you still need to keep track of what enemies are weak to what attacks in the glorified game of rock paper scissors that is the same RPG combat tropes in TSOT as the games it's parodying. 

Summary

TSOT is fairly standard RPG faire with a pretty solid battle system. But the reason you'll play this game is for South Park's patented outrageous and irreverant sense of humor which is executed in TSOT just as good as any episode of the TV show. It's a must play for South Park fans. If you're not a South Park follower, I'd reccommend watching a few episodes of the show before playing TSOT to see if the game is your sort of thing

Inside

Playdead - 2016 - XboxOne/PC/PS4

Inside is the follow up to Playdead studio's 2010 critical success Limbo. Playing Inside will feel very familiar if you've played Limbo previously. Even though their gameplay is nearly identical, the two game's universes are not related in any way that is expressed explicitly by the game and you don't need to have played Limbo before Inside or anything like that. Inside begins, like its predecessor, with no narrative or explanation as you control a boy in a highly stylized world who runs to the right and tries to avoid the many dangers along the path of right-running. Inside never really deviates from the formula laid out by Limbo. Instead, Inside seems more interested in being the most highly polished version of what Limbo was.

Immediately noticeable is Inside's distinct art style. It's not strictly the same style as Limbo's, but I had the same response to gorgeous and striking visuals as I did when playing Playdead's first title. Not only is the art style highly polished, but the animations are noticeably very smooth. Every animation seamlessly flows into the next in a way that is both very impressive and also makes me wonder exactly how much time it took the animators and programmers to accomplish what they did.

If you haven't played Limbo, Inside is a puzzle platformer at its core. Most puzzles involve manipulating background physics objects or buttons or switches in such a way that will open a blocked path and allow you to progress. There is death in the game, but your character immediately respawns in nearly the same location you were before, except maybe the puzzle room is reset. Dying is included in the game for the most part to just serve the functional purpose of informing the player that they got the solution to the puzzle wrong. It's more about puzzles than platforming and I'd even say, especially in the case of Inside, it's more about experiencing the strange game world and the story than it is about solving puzzles

It's a little difficult to talk about the story and themes of Inside without spoiling anything, but there is absolutely no dialogue and no cutscenes. All of the story is communicated through the gameplay, the background elements and artwork and also through environmental storytelling. This is something I really appreciate since it's so much more difficult to tell an interesting story in a non-traditional fashion such as this one.

Summary

Just like Limbo, Inside is a short-ish puzzle platformer in a visually striking world. Your opinion of Inside will likely be the same as Limbo, but if you've never experienced a Playdead game before, I'd recommend giving Inside a shot. It's a dark and beautiful game world that's worth checking out

Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma

Chime - 2016 - Vita/3DS/PC

At last we finally have the conclusion to the Zero Escape series after it appeared for a couple years that this game wouldn't get funding due to relative poor sales of the previous two games in the series. Although I'd have to admit all games in the series are pretty flawed in one way or another, I'd still recommend giving these a look if you're down for a pretty well written mystery/thriller with an unmistakably Japanese flavor. So before we go any further, know that THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN LIGHT SPOILERS FOR 999 AND VIRTUE'S LAST REWARD because I have no idea how to discuss this series' convoluted plot otherwise

Zero Time Dilemma begins in December of 2028 at the Dcom facility in Nevada and takes place after the events of 999, but before the events of Virtue's Last Reward. Sigma and Phi have traveled back in time and joined what is known as "The Dcom experiment" in order to prevent the outbreak of the Radical-6 virus which has killed most of Earth's population in the future. They are joined by Junpei and Akane from 999 who have been tracking the movements of a terrorist organization known as "Free the Soul" whose objectives also include destroying humanity. They are joined by heroic firefighter Carlos, sad sack Eric, seductive Mira, a somehow familiar looking girl named Diana, and a young boy boy has no memory and wears a strange capsule on his head. As part of the Dcom experiment, the group of them are (of course) locked in a facility and forced to play a deadly "decision game". The group is forced to split into 3 teams and told that at any point if 6 people are dead, the remaining survivors will be allowed to escape. Additionally, every 90 minutes a drug from the participants bracelets is injected which puts them to sleep and wipes their short term memories. Pretty crazy stuff

The story of Zero Time Dilemma is told in 90 minute "fragments" where you choose what team you'd like to follow and watch what events play out over the next 90 minutes. Only you initially have no idea where those 90 minutes fit into the grand timeline of the game. Sometimes you'll start a fragment and half of the group will be already dead and you'll have no idea why. I actually found this approach to storytelling a little annoying and hard to follow as I never knew where in the timeline I was and near the end I couldn't keep track of all the reveals of who was dead and who was alive and why.

After 999's static images and fixed camera, Virtue's Last Reward introduced voice acting and full 3d models with moderately successful results. Zero Time Dilemma takes it even farther with a much more distinctly cinematic approach to portraying its story. Zero Time Dilemma uses much more camera panning and animations during cutscenes. This is a slightly less successful transition unfortunately. It was pretty clear that the animation team was either rushed or not very experienced. Animations are jerky and forced and the lip sync is pretty questionable. It personally didn't bother me too much, but it was certainly notable and I know a lot of people will find the stiff animations a distracting drawback

I thought the puzzles in Zero Time Dilemma were some of the best of the series. They were varied, interesting and had me pulling out actual pen and paper to work through problems. Depending on the order of the fragments you play, the pacing of the puzzle rooms can be a little weird though. In my experience, I had tons of puzzle rooms in the beginning and middle of the game, but almost none near the end which made playing through the end of the game more like watching a movie. Speaking of the end... it was kind of a let down. Without discussing any spoilers, the ending was sort of plain and disappointing which was a surprise in of itself since 999 and Virtue's Last Reward had such huge reveals and shocking twists. Ahh well, it was still nice to finally have some sort of closure for this series.

Summary

Regardless of what the marketing of this game wants you to believe, you can't play it without playing the first two games first. Or at least you shouldn't. Start there first or else you'll likely be massively confused. For veterans of the series, this game will offer some closure for the story, albeit a slightly disappointing one. I still must admit I enjoyed this game a lot as it features some of the strongest puzzle rooms in the series. The Zero Time Dilemma journey is much more enjoyable than the destination, and the journey is worth it.

Pokemon GO

Niantic - 2016 - iOS/Android

This is probably the most timely review I've ever written since at the time of this writing, practically everyone I bump into is on their phones furiously tapping away at Pokemon GO. I was on my lunchbreak and saw people in the restaurant playing, on my way back, I saw a car pull up next to a known gym and whip out their phones, and on the way back to work, there was a lady in my elevator trying to catch a Pidgey. It's safe to say that Pokemania is sweeping the nation again for the first time since the franchise's initial release. 

So for those not swept up in the fever of Pokemon GO players, this game is a phone app that functions largely by placing virtual objects in real space by using the Google Maps API and your phone's GPS. It functions very similarly to Ingress, Niantic's other popular game, albeit much less popular. The game encourages you to explore the real world to find virtual monsters on your phone. The terrain around where you are may encourage certain types of pokemon to appear. For instance, water type pokemon are often found near bodies of water while more common Pokemon like Pidgey or Ratatta can be found pretty much anywhere.

Real world places of interest appear in the game as either Pokestops or gyms. At a Pokestop, you can restock on poke balls or other healing items where at a gym what you can do depends on what team controls the gym and also what team you've decided to join. There are three teams: mystic, valor and instinct all vying for control over in game gyms. At an enemy gym, defeating all Pokemon in the gym will allow you to claim the gym for your team and earn daily rewards as long as you still have a Pokemon present in the gym. Training at a friendly gym may increase the gym's prestige level and allow it to house more friendly Pokemon. Battles are not turn based, as in nearly all other Pokemon games. In Pokemon GO, battles pretty much consist of furiously tapping on the enemy Pokemon to reduce its health. You can also hold down on the screen to attempt a stronger attack, but this can only be done once a stamina meter has been sufficiently charged. 

Summary

The shell for a really amazing Pokemon game is all here, but I find this game to be pretty feature incomplete at the moment in addition to being very buggy. The app seems to freeze a lot when catching Pokemon or battling at a gym which can only be remedied by restarting the game completely. But the freezes only occur when you can login to the game in the first place, as the servers are very frequently down due to overloading. I'd love to see trading and friendly battles added soon, and maybe a little more depth added to the combat system, although I'd like to see server issues addressed first obviously. None of my concerns about bugs or lack of features have dissuaded half the population from playing this though and it's exploding in popularity at the time of this writing. Gotta catch 'em all!

Dark Souls 3

From Software - 2016 - PC/PS4/XboxOne

When I finished Dark Souls II earlier this year, I criticized it for having lackluster level design and a dull story especially when compared to the amazing precedent that was set with the original Dark Souls. Hidetaka Miyazaki, who directed Demon's Souls and Dark Souls was busy making Bloodborne while Dark Souls 2 was in development and I think his presence was missed. DS2 wasn't terrible, but it didn't quite have the magic of the first game. Miyazaki's magic, while difficult to describe, was something I immediately felt when I started Dark Souls 3. I think it's most noticeable in the level and enemy design. From Software in general has an unrivaled expertise in 3D level design. If you ever want to see video game level design's version of the Mona Lisa, you need to check out some of From Software's offerings from DS1 and DS3

Not only are the environments created in a very mechanically and structurally pleasing way, but the visuals are top notch here as well. As much as DS3's world in concerned with killing you, it's also just as concerned with having you admire its beauty. DS3 has some of the most breathtaking mountains, valleys, lakes and castles I've ever seen in a video game. It can be hard to admire the scenery with the constant threat of death right in front of you, but if you have a chance to stop and take it in, Dark Souls 3 is quite a sight to behold. It's also quite proficient at one of my favorite things to see done well: environmental storytelling. Want to get an idea of how old DS3's Firelink Shrine is? Head below the shrine and see the massive crypt filled with the remains of past fire keepers. Stuff like that really helps with player immersion and bringing the game world to life

The game mechanics are mostly what you'd come to expect if you've played any of From Software's similar offerings. It does seem like the team made a decision to push the combat mechanics more in the direction of DS1 than DS2. Gone is DS2's health bar reduction on every death. Enemies now respawn indefinitely like DS1. Also "humanity", which is now called "ember" is a binary state, again just like DS1. The primary new mix up to the gameplay formula comes in the form of weapon arts. Weapon arts are unique skills that are tied to your left hand item and can range from temporary buffs to entirely new unique moves. Often times your left hand item will be a shield which may have a shield bash or shield parry as like the previous Dark Souls games, or your shield may even default to your right hand weapon's weapon art skill as is the case when you have nothing at all equipped in the left hand slot. Most weapon arts consume your magic meter as well which also gives non magic classes incentive to put points into leveling up their magic bar. I found weapon arts to be a welcome addition to the Souls formula that adds interesting and unique skills and abilities and makes experimenting around with different equipment load outs even more fun and interesting

The strange and alluring mystique of Dark Souls' lore is back in full force. As I wandered through the Dark Souls 3's various mysterious locations, I found myself reading the item descriptions of various weapons and armor I picked up for additional lore. I was even drawn to watching several YouTube videos explaining the backstories of several bosses and NPC and theorizing on their connections. There are also several tie ins and reoccurring characters from the first Dark Souls so veterans of the series are in for a few surprising pay-offs especially for those who are deeply invested in the lore.

Summary
If this truly is the last Souls game we get, it is certainly a worthy send off for the series. Level design, audiovisuals, gameplay and lore are all top notch here and in some cases arguably the best we've seen of the Dark Souls series. This is one of my favorite games of the year so far and a must play for fans of these games who are up for one more challenge.

Star Wars: Battlefront (2015)

DICE (EA) - 2015 - PC/PS4/XboxOne

My self imposed policy for writing about games here is that I've tried to complete or at least get close to completing every game I review. For the most part, I've attained that goal with most of the games I've written about here with just a handful of exceptions. Other than I think DOTA 2, this is the first multiplayer-only game I've reviewed so I really can't finish this game. Yes I know, Star Wars Battlefront 2015 has a few training missions you can play offline, but let's be honest. No one is playing them. Just like no one plays DOTA 2 offline. I'm not a huge multiplayer shooter guy, but I am a big Star Wars fan, so I feel obliged to discuss this game a bit but before we begin - Full disclosure - I haven't played THAT much of Star Wars Battlefront 2015 which I will now refer to as just Battlefront for convenience, even though that causes confusion since there is also another game called Star Wars Battlefront that came out in 2004 (I guess we have to call that Battlefront 1 now...?). Anyway, I've probably only played about 5 hours of this game but I still feel like that's enough time to talk about it and have an at least somewhat informed opinion.

First of all the good - this game is gorgeous. EA and Dice have nailed the audiovisual presentation here. I usually play most of my games on PC as I have a fairly high end rig, but even playing on console (Battlefront came bundled with my PS4), this game still looks amazing. The way the sparks fly out of surfaces when laser blasts hit them, the sound effects of the different vehicles, everything combines to make this probably the most accurate and high fidelity recreation of the Star Wars universe in any video game I've played to date. Until I heard the voice acting. Darth Vader sounds ridiculous. And the Emporer too. Like come on, EA couldn't find anyone who could do the voices better than this? I feel like every aspiring soundalike has a good pocket Vader or pocket Palpatine.

So as some people already know, this game was widely criticized at launch for not having enough content. Which I agree with. Not having a single player campaign was a big downer for me especially since I enjoyed the campaigns from the other two games in the series. I read recently that a decision was made to cut single player content from the game in order to ship the game alongside Star Wars Episode 7 - a decision that I think ultimately hurt the game. I believe most people, myself included, would have gladly waiting a few more months for a game with more content especially since Battlefront had almost nothing to do with Episode 7. But I'm not sure Battlefront's problem ends with lack of content. I don't think Battlefront did enough to set itself apart. Yes it has the Star Wars license and did a reasonably good job adapting it to the game, but it still just mostly felt like Battlefield, but model swapped with Star Wars characters, vehicles and guns. In a market that's already heavily saturated with multiplayer shooters, there's nothing that really makes Battlefront stand out from the crowd aside from the Star Wars license which is admittedly the only reason I played this game in the first place.

Summary

Star Wars Battlefront 2015 is a very pretty albeit somewhat vanilla multiplayer shooter that is somewhat light in content. I've heard several rumors recently about EA announcing a Battlefront 2 which hopefully isn't the real title of the game or else everyone will always have to qualify if they're talking about Battlefront 2 2005 or Battlefront 2 2017 (maybe). Hopefully EA and Dice have taken the criticism on Battlefront 2015 to heart and we'll get a more interesting and content heavy game this time around

Pocket Mortys

Big Pixel Studios - 2016 - Android/iOS

Ho ho another free to play game. And a licensed game no less. I've become a filthy casual. I guess. Developed by Big Pixel Studios and published by Adult Swim games, Pocket Mortys is based on the television show Rick & Morty and is a blatant and often self aware Pokemon clone. If you haven't checked out Rick & Morty, this game probably won't have much mileage with you. And if you haven't checked out Rick & Morty, you totally should. It's like Adventure Time but with more swearing. It's co-created by Justin Roiland (Earl of Lemongrab) and both title characters are also voiced by Roiland. It really is one of the best things on television right now. Anyway Pocket Mortys is mostly based around Season 1 - Episode 10: Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind which establishes that there are multiple concurrent timelines with multiple Ricks and multiple Mortys. In the game you play as Rick and you must collect and train your Mortys to eventually defeat the council of Ricks to get your teleport gun back to return to your own timeline.

Pocket Mortys is free to play, but also doesn't rub your face in the paid content for the game hardly at all which I really appreciated. Most of the paid content is just to buy more items which can capture new Mortys or heal your existing team, but it's certainly not necessary to pay money to progress in this game. There is also a crafting system in the game where random items you pick up throughout your adventures. Pro tip - look up all of the crafting recipes. The only other way to figure them out if by trial and error which is really tedious. Once you progress far enough in the game, it'll become clear that the core loop of this game is simply collecting and battling Mortys and there's not much more content to the game. But considering I paid nothing for this experience, I can't complain too much.

Summary

For a free game, Pocket Mortys is pretty solid even if it is a shameless rip of of Pokemon. I can't really strongly recommend this if you're not a Rick & Morty fan as a lot of the references are going to fall flat. But if you're looking for a free version of Pokemon, you could probably do worse that this

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Blizzard Entertainment - 2014 - PC/iOS/Android

For the longest time, I've never understood Magic: The Gathering. I have several friends who are way, way into it, collect all the cards and go to weekly tournaments. It just never clicked with me. Then I played Hearthstone. I get it now. Magic is still not something I'm interested in diving into, but now I at least understand its relatively large popularity and massive player base. 

Hearthstone is Blizzard Entertainment's take on Magic The Gathering. I haven't played too much Magic so I can't speak to the differences and similarities between the two games, but I can tell you what Hearthstone is. It's a two player digital card game where the objective it to reduce your opponent's hero's health to zero. All heroes have a starting health of 30, a unique special ability and a unique card set which can govern your high level playstyle. There is also a common pool of cards from which any class can draw from to compile their deck, but usually the class specific cards are slightly more powerful and can synergize better around the hero's playstyle. All heroes are unlocked at the beginning, but playing as a certain hero will unlock more of that class' unique cards. That seems to be the main philosophy behind the progression system in Hearthstone: play more to unlock more cards. Of course you can spend real money to buy card packs as well but I'm happy to report I've resisted that temptation thus far. Which isn't to say that Hearthstone isn't worth spending money on, it's just that my personal reaction to the free to play model is to see how much fun I can have with the game without spending any money on it. And Hearthstone is very facilitative to my preference towards playing free to play games as the in game currency is given away fairly liberally to encourage buying more card packs. 

There are 4 main game modes in Hearthstone: "play" where you can play against a friend or be paired up against a random online opponent of supposed equal strength. "Solo play" is similar to the normal play mode, but here you can practice strategies against an AI or pay real money to play through an adventure campaign where you can unlock unique cards. The "Arena" mode costs a modest entry fee of real or in game currency to construct a semi-random deck of cards from a semi-random list of heroes. You're given three lives to play against other players in the same mode. The longer you last, the better your reward will be. But once you die three times, you're out of the arena until you pay another entry fee. The final game mode is the "Tavern Brawl" which is a weekly event that applies different wacky game changing rules each week. One of the last Tavern Brawls I did was to construct a deck out of just two different cards. Pretty interesting. 

Summary

I've had a pretty fun time with Hearthstone. It's neat as a mobile app to pick up and play a few rounds while I'm waiting on something. I don't think this is a game I'd ever get into playing competitively as I'm of the opinion there's way too much luck involved. But it's still a neat little game that scratches the itch in my brain that enjoys making rapid cost/benefit analysis decisions.

Digital: A Love Story

Christine Love - 2010 - PC

Aaaaand we're back after a nice two month break. Strange to think that this is pretty much the first extended break I've taken from this since starting writing games reviews and criticism since like 2013. This week I want to talk about Christine Love's Digital: A Love Story. Yes, it's another visual novel. I know I've posted several of these recently, but if you're not into visual novels, check back soon for more reviews of "real games". But you should know that there will be a review up in the next few months for Zero Time Dilemma which is another visual novel and a game that I am highly anticipating since it will finally resolve the cliffhanger ending of Virtue's Last Reward. Anyway, back to being on topic...

Digital: A Love Story is developer/writer Christine Love's first successful game. It started picking up traction and gaining attention after being released on the internet for free in 2010. Digital is a mystery/romance story set in the late 80s where you, the player character, purchase a PC and connect it to the internet for the first time. The game can kind of be considered a desktop simulator as the entirety of the story is communicated to you by logging in to early era electronic bulletin board systems and reading message posts. The game clearly has a nostalgia for this early era of the internet and wants you to feel that nostalgia too as it plays the entirety of the old dial-up modem sound while you wait for your computer to connect to the message board. It even has you type out the entire phone number for your modem and makes you keep track of your logins and names of different bulletin boards. 

One of the most interesting creative choices Digital makes is that you only see the messages and replies of other people, but never what your character types. It's a neat way of engaging the player and your creativity when you read a response message and then try to infer what your character must have typed. In order to keep up with the story, you also need to pay close attention to the names of the people you're chatting with in various message board forums and any information they give you as you may need this to progress further in the game. Thankfully, the game keeps an archive of all messages you received so you can go back and re-read any important information if you find yourself stuck. And you WILL find yourself stuff in this game, which I feel was one of my biggest frustrations with Digital. It's an interesting story and I felt the pacing kept being slowed by repeated nostalgia trips which eventually become annoyances when listening to the modem connecting sound effect and typing out usernames and passwords to various forums over and over. The peak of my annoyance with this weird pacing came when I downloaded a virus in the game that obscured the text on my screen and made it nearly impossible to tell what I was doing. I couldn't really tell what the point of this part of the game was, it really just seemed like Digital was getting in the way of itself

Summary

Digital is a quirky visual novel with a lot of nostalgia for the late 80s. It has some self imposed pacing issues in an otherwise interesting and and novel form of story presentation. I'm not sure if this game really has a good soundtrack, but "Paper Dolls" is one of the most catchy tunes you will hear in a video game. I'm not even sure where this plays in game. Anyway, your mileage with Digital will likely depend on whether you find this game's constant throwbacks to the technology of the late 80s charming or tedious. I think I fall into the latter camp, but this is still worth a look if visual novels are your thing

You can download Digital: A Love Story for free here

Thirty Flights of Loving

Blendo Games - 2012 - PC

I just finished Thirty Flights of Loving and I'm not sure what I just played. I do know that it's a roughly 10-15 minute experience telling a story about spies... carrying out a heist? ...I think? What I do know is that it was created by Brendon Chung, the one-man team behind Blendo Games who is also responsible for Flotilla, Atom Zombie Smasher and the upcoming Quadrilateral Cowboy. Thirty Flights of Loving (TFOL) was created as part of a Kickstarter campaign to support the Idle Thumbs podcast, of which I am a frequent listener. According to Chung, TFOL was an excercise in creating a game that tells a story without any dialogue. TFOL is certinaly a realization of that concept, but I don't think it's very successful in telling a clear and understandable story

Part of the problem here is that in order to get the whole picture of what's going on in TFOL, you had to have played some of Chung's previous games. TFOL opens by announcing that it's the sequel to a game called Gravity Bone, which is jarring to anyone (myself included) who wasn't aware of Gravity Bone and was expecting TFOL to be a standalone experience. I found TFOL to be a pretty hard and confusing game to parse through. Part of it is the lack of any dialogue, part of it is the smash cuts and non-linear presentation of the story, and part of it is the expectation that the audience has also played Gravity Bone. By doing a bit of research and also watching an excellent video by Errant Signal, I was able to find out that Gravity Bone is part of Chung's long running series of games called "Citizen Abel". Now I'm not sure if playing all of the other Citizen Abel games helps TFOL make more sense, but that's a lot to expect your audience to do espiecially considering some of the older Citizen Abel games are Quake II and Half Life II mods. And if having played those games doesn't contribute anything to the understanding of TFOL, why brand it as the sequel to Gravity Bone? I acknowledge that some my confusion with the story may be my own fault for not having played the other games, but this was one of several nits I had to pick with this game.

As I mentioned earlier, the story in TFOL is told non-linearly and without any dialogue at all. As you might guess, it makes the story a bit hard to follow. Even though I played through the game twice to try to piece it together, I still can't come up with a reading on this game that isn't jumbled nonsense. I'd love to hear someone else's interpretation of the story though, if someone can actually manage to follow it and come up with an understanding.

Summary

I'm all for smaller games made for a specific audience, so I feel bad picking on the little guy here. Nevertheless, I found TFOL to be a short and confusing experiment in weird and nonsensical storytelling. I've now written quite a few words about a game that has none.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

 Spike Chunsoft - 2010 - iOS/Android/Vita/PSP/PC

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is a visual novel style game with elements of the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney games. I was turned on to Danganronpa after it released on Steam and I saw it was developed by Spike Chunsoft who was also responsible for 999 and Virtue's Last Reward, both of which I'm quite fond of despite their respective flaws. Even though Danganronpa and the Zero Escape games do not share the same writing talent, they do all feature Japanese anime styled characters and have similar-ish themes.

In Danganronpa, you play as Makoto Naegi - an average student who was nevertheless accepted to an elite high school academy that only admits students considered to be the best at what they do. During his first day of school, Makoto blacks out and when he comes to he finds that he is one of several students that are trapped in the high school. All the exit doors have been barred and the windows sealed. The high school is deserted with the exception of the students and a creepy remote-controlled teddy bear who calls himself Monokuma. Monokuma tells the students that the only way to escape the high school is by killing another student without getting caught. As the days go by, various murders eventually take place and it's up to you as Makoto to gather the evidence and solve each crime

After investigating a murder scene and gathering evidence, a "class trial" takes place where the facts of the case are deliberated. Here, you'll often need to catch other students either misstating a fact or outright lying and support your cause with pieces of evidence from the case that contradict what a classmate is saying. This is where Danganronpa is most game-y and most separates itself from being just a pure visual novel. It's also where I feel this game is at its worst. The evidence puzzles seem to usually fall into one of two categories. Either the puzzle is so painfully obvious that it feels unsatisfying to solve or the puzzle is so contrived and obscure that you have to trial and error your way into the game's very specific line of thinking. The latter is particularly frustrating when the game tries to railroad you down one particular line of thinking when other possibilities seemed just as plausible to me. There are also weird rhythm game sections during the class trial that feel weak and forced. I appreciate that the game was trying to break the monotony of just reading text forever, but I often found these sections to be more frustrating than exciting

The strength of Danganronpa lies with its storytelling. It's probably unfair to compare this with the Zero Escape games even if it's the same developer, it's a different writer, but I'm going to do so anyway. I felt Danganronpa had a pretty good cast of well written characters - probably a stronger cast than any of the Zero Escape games. If you like wacky high school anime characters, Danganronpa is your game. But I found the mystery of each murder and the overall mystery of the high school much less compelling than anything written in the Zero Escape games. The Zero Escape games had me on the edge of my seat trying to figure out "whodunnit" and how it was possible and the revelation of those mysteries was always mind-blowing. Danganronpa's murders seemed a little too random and contrived. The revelation of its mysteries was always weird and wacky, but in a way that was often too unbelievable.

Summary
Danganronpa was fairly solid - good enough for me to await the release of its sequel on Steam. But I can't recommend this game without a caveat. It's still probably unfair of me to compare Danganronpa to another game not even in the same series or by the same writer, but I feel these games are similar enough to warrant me doing so: If you haven't played 999, do that first. If you have, then know that Danganronpa sacrifices a focus on a compelling and well thought out mystery in favor of more character focused moments full of anime melodrama and silliness.

The Jackbox Party Pack 2

Jackbox Games - 2015 - PS3/PS4/XboxOne/PC

As I did when I reviewed the original Jackbox Party Pack, I'm going to divide this review into several little mini-sections: one for each game in the pack. The Jackbox Party Pack 2 is at its core, the same concept as its predecessor - a bunch of multiplayer mini-games where your cell phones are the input devices. The novelty here is that because your phones are the input devices, no one knows who typed or drew what except for the author. So now on with the review:

Fibbage 2
This is exactly the same game as the first time around, but with new questions. The game presents you with a weird fact, and you have to fill in the blank to try to trick your opponents into guessing your answer. Still pretty much Balderdash if you've ever played that.

Earwax
In earwax, you're presented with a category or an event or some similar thing and you have to choose a sound effect to match what's presented.  Then two player's selections go head to head and a judge votes on which is the most appropriate sound effect. I thought this game was pretty weak and the selectable sound effects started to repeat with just two or three rounds of play. Disappointing.

Bidiots
This was the strangest game in the pack. It seemed like an attempt to evolve on Drawful, which I believe to be the strongest game in the previous pack. In Bidiots, each player draws several art pieces based on several prompts. The pieces are assigned random monetary values, then players bid on each piece. Sometimes you'll be given clues to what a piece is worth based on the prompt that was used to draw it, but it's not always clear what prompt matches with what piece. And sometimes, you're not given a prompt at all. It turns one of the best games in the previous pack into one of the most unsatisfying experiences in Jackbox Party Pack 2. The rules are unclear and the games take way too long. The fun and silliness of drawing and guessing other's drawings turns into a boring bidding game. Bidiots was also a huge disappointment.

Quiplash XL
This is pretty much Earwax but without the sound effects. Players type in responses to the game's prompts to fill in the blank, then a judge votes on the best one. Quiplash still seemed somewhat lazy to me but was slightly more enjoyable than Earwax, only because a freeform response seemed more creatively satisfying to me than picking from pre-defined sound effects.

Bomb Corp.
I'm not sure who worked on this game whether it be a different group internally or a secret different studio altogether or something, but this game is so different from the others in the pack, both in visual aesthetic and gameplay quality. This is definitely the highlight of Jackbox Party Pack 2. In Bomb Corp. , each player is given a crucial step to disarming a bomb on their phone, but all steps need to be followed in order to diffuse the bomb correctly. It's a really fun excersise in communication and cooperation as all players need to work together to diffuse the bomb properly. This game was pretty cool

Summary
Even with the inclusion of the excellent Bomb Corp., The Jackbox Party Pack 2 was still a disappointment to me. Other than Bomb Corp., the pack felt like a rushed package with incomplete or creatively dull ideas resulting in unsatisfying gameplay experiences. The absense of the well-known "You Don't Know Jack" mini-game was puzzling as well. I'm not sure if they tried to rush this package out in order to capitalize on the success of the first game or what, but that's what it felt like. If you haven't played the games from the first Jackbox Party Pack, I'd strongly reccommend giving those a look first. But if you have, prepare yourself for a disappointment

Firewatch

Campo Santo - 2016 - PC/PS4

Firewatch is a game made, in part, by some of the awesome folks over at the Idle Thumbs network who host a bunch of gaming podcasts that I frequently listen to. So being somewhat familiar with some of the folks who made this game had be very excited to see this game released. Director Jake Rodkin and writer Sean Vanaman previously worked at Telltale on The Walking Dead game, so that's the kind of high caliber writing I was expecting from Firewatch. And it delivers - kind of. Firewatch is a narrative heavy exploration game where you the player character take a summer job as a park ranger to escape and diconnect from your own life for a while.

For most intents and purposes, Firewatch is another Walking Simulator, except for when choosing dialogue responses when talking to Deliliah, a fellow park ranger who keeps in contact with you via radio. The dialogue interactions between Henry, the player character, and Delilah are very well written, charming and geniuine in a way that sells the evolution of the relationship between two middle aged people who don't know each other and whose relationship grows only through conversations over a radio. Picking up or looking at certain objects in the game will sometimes generate a prompt to question Delilah about what you're looking at which can be informative or humorous or reveal aspects of Henry or Delilah's characters. Firewatch can hit a range of emotions from quiet and metitative to tense and suspenseful. It's a game that has you pondering events of the plot, or mulling over things Deliliah is saying all while exploring the wilderness.

The excellent characters and writing had me hooked and this seemed like it would be a game I would fall in love with up until I got to the ending. The ending to the game comes rather abruptly and leaves a lot of plot threads unaddressed or explained unsatisfactorily. It appears as though Campo Santo ran out of time during development and possibly weren't able to include some of the content that would have neatly wrapped up these story threads. But as it stands, these threads don't end up connecting or leading anywhere and the ending of the game feels abrupt and unsatisfying. Still, the first two thirds of the game are engaging and well written, so if you're up for a walk in the woods that you know won't take you anywhere, check out Firewatch

Rocket League

Psyonix - 2015 - PC/PS4

As I've written before, I prefer my sports games to be fantastical as opposed to realistic. If I want to play a "realistic" sport, I'll just go outside and actually play it. But when I want to play a game of soccer with flying rocket powered RC cars, I'm coming to Rocket League

Really all you need to know about Rocket League is "soccer with flying rocket powered RC cars". And that's what's brilliant about Rocket League's design: simplicity. It's easy to grasp the mechanics and understand what you need to do to win the game. But there's still an incredible amount of depth and skill required in mastering these mechanics. Controlling your car is easy, but learning how to manipulate the ball can be difficult. The ball is essentially a large, low gravity physics object and learning how to strike the ball so it goes where you want it to can be a bit frustrating for new players. After learning how to strike the ball, the next challenge in the Rocket League meta game is learning where to position your car in different situations so you can be prepared when your teammate crosses the ball over to you and you can take that game winning shot on goal.

Learning when to use your rocket fuel is also crucial step on the way to becoming a Rocket League master. Newer players may be tempted to constantly burn through their fuel in order to get to the ball first - which in my experience can be a valid strategy. There are several glowing powerup pads scattered throughout the field that will refill your rocket fuel when you drive over them, so it's often tempting to use your fuel very aggressively. But I've also found having some spare fuel to intercept an opponent's shot on goal or to take a shot of your own when the ball bounces your way can be the difference between victory and defeat.

After playing several hours against the CPU just trying to get the hang of the game, playing against others online was initially a little intimidating. But the Rocket League matchmaking system seemed to work pretty well and I found that I was being pared with and against players of similar skill level pretty often. Playing online even supports local split screen, so you and a friend in the same room can join a team together and take on the internet. Rocket League supports 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4 matches. I've mostly only palyed 2v2 and 3v3 and I think 3v3 is my favorite. 4v4 can feel crowded, 2v2 can feel empty, and although I haven't tried it, I'd imagine 1v1 would just feel gimmicky. Although it's not something I'm personally interested in, there's also a decent infrastructure with tiered rankings in place for those who want to play this game competitively as well

Rocket League Video Review

Summary
Rocket League is a great execution of an awesome idea. It reminds me what's great about my favorite competitive games: it's easy to pick up and play, anyone can learn it. But it takes time and practice to really master this game.

Dark Souls II

FromSoftware - 2014 - PS3\PS4\X360\XboxOne\PC

I started playing Dark Souls 2 immediately after completing the first Dark Souls game as I couldn't get enough of the first game. It's tough but fair action RPG combat system had taught me to pay attention to enemy attack patterns, be wary of traps and to frequently praise the sun. I needed more. On the surface, Dark Souls 2 appears to be a very safe "more of the same" sequel to the first game. However, there are some notable departures from the original formula once you dig in to the game.

Firstly humanity and hollowing are no longer a boolean "yes" or "no", you're either human or you're partially hollow. The more you die, the more hollow you become and the more your maximum health decreases. This can be reversed by using a consumable "human effigy", which are thankfully quite plentiful in this game. But if you're human or close to being human, the more susceptible to invasions you are. But you can still only summon a friendly companion to battle if you're 100% human.

I know Hidetaka Miyazaki, who directed both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls was busy making Bloodborne during Dark Souls 2's development. I think the lack of his presence is felt when examining some of the details of Dark Souls 2 up close. For example the level design of the first Dark Souls game was something I really loved. All of the levels looped back on each other so that as you progressed, you would unlock natural paths and shortcuts back to earlier levels in the game. Not so much with Dark Souls 2. The level design is much more linear and you'll need to just keep progressing in a certain direction until you can't progress any more, then warp back to another bonfire, which is an ability you have from the get-go in this game. Another really strange design decision is that you can only level up in one particular bonfire by talking to a nearby NPC as opposed to leveling up at any bonfire as was the case in the first game. In practice this becomes rather annoying as you have to warp back and forth to level up and suffer through loading screens each time which seems unnecessary.

Another place where Miyazaki's absence is felt is with the story. Yes, the first Dark Souls game had a sparse and cryptic story as is the case with the second game, but there were memorable characters and bosses and locations. They were made memorable through repeated mentions and given weight by the way they the characters referred to them. Even though the story was sparse and cryptic, it felt plausibly real. Dark Souls 2's story is just simply sparse and cryptic. New locations are discovered and conquered without fanfare or reaction by the game's story. Fighting a boss in Dark Souls 2 is not an epic clash with the legendary creature you've heard so much about. It's just another boss. Even the "greater soul" bosses seem unremarkable from both a story and gameplay perspective.

Speaking of gameplay, the combat is still pretty solid. It's a bit more balanced and polished, and there seems to be more a few more valid builds now. However, I will say that the difficulty curve does seem especially wonky. There are a few pain points in the beginning and middle of the game, but everything else including the end of the game is a relative cakewalk. I've talked with a few friends who have played this game about their experience with the difficulty curve and have had some conflicting reports, so which parts of the game you find challenging may partially depend on your character build and playstyle.

Summary
It may not have the brilliance of its predecessor, but Dark Souls 2 is still a solid game for those people looking for more masochistic fun. Story and level design aren't quite what they were in the first Dark Souls game, but this game is still solid enough to warrant a recommendation. I've now moved on to Bloodborne to satiate my love of these games and have so far been enjoying this same style of game with a fresh setting.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Nintendo - 2002 - GameCube/WiiU

See also my Top 10 Zelda Games

Happy new year! I hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday break. If you haven't done so already, you can check out my best games I played in 2015 list right here. You may also be interested in my top 10 Zelda games list or my top 10 Star Wars games lists as well. Anyway, on with the review

When replaying The Wind Waker recently, it really struck me how well this game has aged. I think this game could literally come out tomorrow and it would have an amazing reception, despite the fact that this game is nearly 15 years old. Now I wasn't playing the HD remake on WiiU either, I'm talking about the original on GameCube. The cell shaded graphics which had a mixed reception on release now blend right in with the modern "toon" style graphics popularized by recent indie titles. This graphic style also allows for what I believe is the most expressive and emotive iteration of Link in any Zelda title. I love seeing the suspicion or anger or happiness that was so clearly readable on Link's face.

The Wind Waker finds Link exploring the open seas on a small sailboat in a very vast and open game world. The Wind Waker especially excels at the same thing a lot of the other Zelda titles do well which is immersive world building. The Wind Waker's world feels immersive and real because the characters and events in the world are well written enough to make it feel that way. There's a part of the game not too far into Wind Waker where Link needs to crawl through a maze of tunnels underneath Windfall Island. There's nothing in the main storyline of the game that will specifically or directly prompt you to crawl through these tunnels, this is just a hidden optional side quest. Once you reach the end of the tunnels, you'll find a treasure chest with a pictograph box which is an item that kicks off several more sidequests, but what struck me about the pictograph quest was the inclusion of some readable text next to the treasure chest where you find the pictograph box. The text explains that there was a thief who was imprisoned presumably for stealing the pictograph box, and who dug a series of tunnels below Windfall Island in an attempt to find a way to escape the prison cell. This was pretty cool to me, and a neat example of the high quality of writing and world building on display in the Wind Waker. The game could have just made you crawl through a maze and then simply given you the pictograph box, but the fact that they included this little story behind it that justifies the level design in a believable way adds some realism and fidelity to the world in the Wind Waker

Wind Waker Video Review

Summary
The game is also not without its faults. I think the stealth section that occurs near the beginning of the game is really tedious, too long and one of the weakest points of the game. I can remember having a poor first impression of this game and thinking on my first playthrough how dull this stealth part of the game was. And then right after introducing stealth to you, the game promptly drops it and never revisits it for the rest of the game. Plus there's a few too many mandatory fetch quests with a repetitive and boring sailing sections near the end of the game (which was I think partially remedied in the HD WiiU version). But even with its faults, the Wind Waker is one of the strongest Zelda titles out there, and a perfect place to start if you've never played a game in this series before.

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime

Ateroid Base - 2015 - XboxOne/PC

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is the mouthful of a title given to developer Asteroid Base's inaugural game. I actually got to preview this at PAX Prime earlier this year and it was one of the most popular titles in the indie area and with good reason. Lovers is a cooperative space exploration game where two players must cooperate to man various stations on a spaceship to navigate through space and rescue little space critters. In order to complete a level, a certain number of little space critters has to be rescued for the exit to be unlocked but if you and your partner are feeling like completionists, you can collect all of the critters in each stage to get access to different model ships and unlock other powerups faster. The locations of the critters and the entire world as a whole are totally differently systematically generated on each run, giving every playthrough a fresh feel. Once you find a critter, usually some small challenge has to be completed before you can rescue them. For example, you may have to fight several waves of enemies, escape an explosion or fight a mini boss. 

There are various stations to man on each ship including weapons, shields, engines and a powerful yamato cannon weapon. There are several campaigns that are made up of 4 levels and a final boss fight. Each level offers upgrade crystals that you can install in your systems that will persist throughout the campaign. Deciding which crystals to place in which systems is initially a fun experimental learning process, but I've found once you know what the crystal combinations do, you usually fall into a pattern of upgrading that results in a familiar ship layout each time. But there are also several ship layouts to unlock in the game, each with their own stats and quirky gameplay rules. For instance, there's one unlockable ship that constantly rotates around while you play, making locating and controlling your character within the ship quite a challenge, but as a tradeoff, the ship is also immune to terrain damage. I'm a sucker for these kinds of unlockable gameplay variations and this game reminded me a bit of my favorite FTL from the space exploration and battles right down to the unlockable ships. Obviously the gameplay is nowhere close to the same, but there are similarities to be drawn between the two roguelike space exploration games

There are only two crew members, making coordination and teamwork a key to success in this game. Communication with your partner is necessary and coming up with a good strategy is vital so that you and your teammate aren't running to the same stations to man the same systems. Once you get that strategy established and you and your partner know how to run the ship like seasoned space travelers, it's a really neat feeling. But it's also just as fun to yell and scream at your partner when things are going horribly wrong and your ship is about to explode

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime Video Review

Summary
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime offers the best experiences for couch co-op play. It's conceptually simple to learn and easy to pick up and play. But there's still a decent amount of strategy, skill and depth to be found here as well, and applying these strategies skill and depth of understanding of the game is especially necessary in the later levels where the difficulty gets ratcheted up quite a bit. I really enjoyed this game; it's one of the best couch cooperative experiences I've had. If you and a friend are looking for something to play, you can't go wrong with Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime