Later Alligator (Switch): COMPLETED!

Alligator New York, the setting for this game, is like Real New York only everyone is an alligator instead of a human being. If I were an alligator, I’d probably struggle to wear human clothes, drive human cars, and use human tools, but apparently instead of alligator things, human things work just fine. And alligators can have moustaches and hair? Of course. As a mysterious alligator, decked out in a 1920s Speakeasy-going suit, you’re convinced by paranoid young alligator Pat …

Pokémon Scarlet (Switch)

A rare (these days!) post about a game I’m playing but have not yet completed! So I’ve very much enjoyed recent, as in, 3DS onwards, Pokémon games. Partly because I’ve played them all while my daughter plays the other game (Violet, this time) and we sort of race to the end. Naturally, I win. This time around there has been more than usual in the way of complaints about the game. Mainly to do with bugs and performance issues, and …

A Building Full of Cats (Switch): COMPLETED!

This is a little “find the hidden cats” game. You literally just have to click on all of the cats, of which there are about 300, and then you “win”. Some are hidden in drawers or behind curtains. A few move and have to be found several times. Some blend in with the wallpaper, some don’t actually look much like cats, and some are tiny. But it’s a nice, quiet little game and passes the time, and sometimes, that’s fine.

Paradise Killer (Switch): COMPLETED!

I’ll admit, I went into this expecting a somewhat different sort of game. In my head, it was a bit Phoenix Wright or Murder By Numbers, but it actually turned out to be a more-interactive-than-usual visual novel with a make-your-own-ending, in first person with platforming. Neither the reviews nor the screenshots suggested the platforming was even a thing, but it is – and it’s a pretty big part of the game. So, my interpretation of the world in which this …

Blaster Master Zero 3 (Switch): COMPLETED!

The end of the trilogy! Jason finds himself in jail and Eve, his support droid Metal Attacker co-pilot slash creepy love interest is now queen of the mutants and poses a threat to the safety of the universe or something. It sort of makes sense if you concentrate really hard on the in-game dialogue but actually it just means more jumpy-tank fun across two separate dimensions. It’s back to being mostly set in the one “world”, unlike the galaxy hopping …

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe (Switch): COMPLETED!

The Stanley Parable is actually one of very few PC games I’ve completed. Certainly before I got my Steam Deck, anyway. It was funny, silly, and I enjoyed it very much. The “don’t play for five years” achievement was also a bit of a struggle because I did want to play it again in that time, but had to wait. I did though, then played it some more. But! Then! This happened! Ultra Deluxe is, on the outside, the same …

Arcade Paradise (Switch): COMPLETED!

In which you run a launderette, put washing on, tumble dry, collect it up, and pick up rubbish. Only! In the back room of the launderette is a mostly forgotten and unloved video game arcade with a handful of machines! So when you make laundry money, you buy more arcade machines, and then they make you money, and then they start to make so much money that, actually, the laundrette starts to just get in the way so you oust …

My Brother Ate My Pudding! (Switch): COMPLETED!

You know those silly “Mon Hid My Game!” games I played a while back? This is one of them, only with a slight difference. Each level, you have to hide from your sister. The first few are easy – behind a curtain, or in a cupboard – but they soon get more complicated. The gameplay, such that it is, is almost exactly like the other games and it has some similar 4th wall breaking “surprises” later on, but it’s a …

Lord Winklebottom Investigates (Switch): COMPLETED!

A point and click murder mystery adventure game where all the people are actually animals? Why yes, yes I do believe I will buy and play that. It’s really very good too. The puzzles are neither too easy nor too obscure, and the whodunnit (and, after that, the whydunnit) were both surprises and kept me wanting to play to get the resolution. The graphics are amazing, and the voice acting really something special. My only issue is the pacing is …

Heaven’s Vault (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

What an unusual game. I don’t mean that in a bad way, it’s just not really like anything I’ve played before. Heaven’s Vault has the feel of a point and click adventure game (albeit with direct control of your character), but it’s also mostly a visual novel. Except, it has “driving” sections. And, perhaps most interesting and unusual, there’s an entire language you have to slowly translate as the game progresses. Then there’s the animation style, which is like a …

Kirby’s Dream Land 3 (Switch): COMPLETED!

After the travesty that was Kirby 64, I thought I’d play this on the SNES service on the Switch. It’s been ages since I last did (and even then it was in Japanese), and I’d forgotten – and been tainted by 64 – just how good it looked. In fact, it’s probably the best looking SNES game. How did they go from this to that? Unpossible. I haven’t collected everything on every level, and I’ve not done all of the …

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (Switch): COMPLETED!

I had no idea there were bad Kirby games. Certainly, Kirby Air Ride and Kirby Not Smash Bros Because It’s Only Kirby in Different Colours Clash aren’t amazing, but they’re inoffensive and not really proper Kirby games. But Kirby 64 is bad. And not in a 1980s way. Considering that it came out after Mario 64, and is a much simpler game being only 2D (well, 2.5D really), how is it that this looks terrible? It’s worse than the NES …

Pac’n Roll Remix (Switch): COMPLETED!

No, I have no idea why I played this either. It’s one of the games on the somewhat hit-and-miss Pac-Man Museum+ collection and although it’s not really bad, there’s nothing special about it. Not least because the USP of “stroking” Pac-Man with your Nintendo DS stylus in order to twang him around the levels is totally lost. That’s said, I did enjoy most of it, aside from a couple of later levels where there are some nasty jumps-in-3D with no …

Shinsekai: Into the Depths (Switch): COMPLETED!

Just in case I’d not had enough Metroidvania games, I bought another one. Only this one is underwater! Which means you constantly have to look for oxygen, and being attacked drains your oxygen, and jetting around drains your oxygen, and you move slowly and you have a harpoon. And at one point you gain use of a hovercraft cowfish shaped submarine which means you don’t need oxygen when in it, and – more importantly – you can survive deeper water. …

Bit Orchard: Animal Valley (Switch): COMPLETED!

In case you were thinking this was like a Game Boy version of Stardew Valley, then you’re right. It is. Only very, very cut down. Well, maybe cut down is wrong. Streamlined? Slimmed down? As in that game, you inherit a run-down farm (an orchard, in this case – albeit one with only one tree), meet people, grow crops (well, just apples), do a bit of fishing, complete some quests, chat to a ghost, and so on. Only instead of …