Recent reviews by ReallyLoudScreamingBird

I have 500+ hours in Terraria. I wanted more. THEY GOT MODS. I CAN GET MORE. Currently mucking about with the Thorium mod.

I thought that this would be a Peglin-like. It is not. Ballionaire is about setting up chain reaction with your pegs (excuse me, "Triggers"). It's definitely deeper than Peglin, which I appreciate greatly, and hits a nice spot between planning and chance. I'm at 7 hours of gameplay at the moment, and I anticipate that I'll hit 40 easily enough.

(Disclaimer: I received this game as a gift, not from anyone associated with the game's production, but a gift nonetheless.)

Edit:
20 hours in and the game remains pretty fun. After having conquered each of the tables I can say that my favorite is the slot machine, the dangerwheel is the most interesting and challenging to set up a good run on, and the pinball table takes the longest to get used to - particularly if you're used to actual pinball physics. There is nothing more for me to unlock, and yet I am still "earning unlocks". I don't know if they're planning on adding more to the vending machine or not.

Weirdly addictive. It's a top down horde shooter, much like Crimsonland or the earlier Robotron, but with the caveat that the shooting happens automatically. You have to anticipate where your weapons will fire and line up ahead of time - at least for a while. By the time you're five minutes into a run you've typically got three to five weapons firing and at that point it's just wading through enemies and dodging the tougher ones until they go down.

There's not a lot in enemy AI to worry about. Level designs range from "pretty okay" to "baffling" in that "reused off the shelf assets" way. The game's humor is spot on (subtle as it is). But mostly it's just... fun. It's low-stakes dumb chaotic FUN, and I can't help but like it.

I hate the use of the word "roguelike" to describe Balatro. It isn't. It's a card game with very light roguelite elements. It is also very, very good and very addictive. Highly recommended.

A surprisingly deep strategy game! The experience is much like a very good Euro style board game. It's calming, charming, and finding fun synergies between the cards is quite addictive. Multiplayer is seamless. Soundtrack is wonderful. I think I have my new addiction.
10/10, no notes.

A capable and decent deckbuilder. I don't like it as much as Slay the Spire (though, admittedly, the fact that StS has a spectacular mod scene will tilt it in that direction pretty hard). With that said it's got some meat to it, and the Challenge mode is a good lifespan extender, even if half of it is seeing what the most broken setup of mutators possible is.
7.5/10

A generally fun, pleasant puzzle game. The campaign mode isn't really immersive, the plot is a little on the juvenile and shonen-influenced side, and there are parts that just don't make sense - but it's still kind of hard to dislike. As a unique twist on match-3 type games (and I mean it when I say unique, the mechanics are a REAL treat) I like it. The biggest complaint I have is that it's short. I've beaten campaign mode handily, and once you've done that there's no other scenarios to attempt, no harder maps to try to beat, nothing but either replaying it from the ground up or single-match versus mode against otehr players or bots, which is fine but less fun.

6.5/10

A peculiar and intuitive game. The balancing of chess mechanics with absurd vidya nonsense is well done, and never feels unfair. Having to choose an upgrade for you that's paired with an upgrade for the opposing army is a very nice touch. Highly recommended.

DB is a weird game. Or collection of games, to be pedantically accurate. Some of the titles are actually quite good, and some are just awful. Now, I know that's the intent - I remember the bad old days of renting a horrifically broken NES title only to realize just what I'd gotten myself into - but honestly, it feels kinda weird.

I will say that Shootyboots is weirdly addictive. I like Downwell, this is basically diet Downwell. It's genuinely fun.

Well-written. Liberal with the gut-punches as well as the warm and fuzzy moments. Has a fun card-based conflict system. Yeah, this is just plain good.