Recent reviews by blue

in some ways yooka replaylee is kind of a character assassination of yooka laylee. it focuses more on a free roam collectathon that completely alters the flow of the game compared to the original, by removing the need to bracktrack, cutting down on character interactions in the various worlds and so on, completely neutering its source inspiration.

at the same time though i hate saying that because i think replaylee is a fun game, much more fun than the original. in terms of ideas, it is much closer to something like mario odyssey, where you're given everything off the bat and nothing other than very light amounts of collectible block your way forward, since you have all your moves from the beginning. it sucks that the original game is mostly "gone" but also i struggle to bemoan the situation because this game is very enjoyable, in spite of that. it's fun to fully free roam a world as soon as you arrive and see what they put in there, then move on to the next.

is this what playtonic initially wanted the game to be? is this a compromise on the vision to deliver an experience that's a bit less divisive? i don't know. what i do know is that i have fun playing this game.

dice gambit is very stylish and that is its strongest point. coupled with a solid customization system (lineage/classes/visuals) and you have an incredible passion projects. difficulty is also incredibly customizable, meaning you can have the game as hard or easy as you want it to be, from changing your block option to an evade to reducing your maximum family size.

there's a couple downsides. the biggest is that you will see the same locations often (which i can forgive given it all takes place in a specific location). the second and last i can think of is that the final boss is extremely not fun. just kind of felt like a pain after a pretty tight rest of the game. try the demo and if that's up your alley then pick up the game!

dead cells

cool game, fantastic soundtrack, great guns, the only issue here is that maraudeurs exist

the beat em up i knew i wanted and needed in my life please play this game it is so good

human mental torture experiment disguised as a video game you too can experience real anguish for the mere price of a handful of dollars on sale

it's like if olimar had a son and so we get british pikmin 2

a fine enough game. it does use the "idea" of metal slug (balls to the walls all the time) in a tactics format somewhat decently well. however with that said it goes against the "usuals" of the tactics format, meaning playing defensively. if you play defensively in this game, you die. a lot! a whole lot of dying.

the biggest oddity of the offense-focused gameplay is that you kind of need to move your units *then* attack, as opposed to the tradtional tactics gameplay of playing very defensively long term. this game needs you to move your units for combos, as aggressively as possible, then get the combo offs, and reap the rewards which are usually significant damage mitigation and adrenaline for special moves.

it's a little weird and somewhat demanding, i don't think i'll ever go for the true ending, but i think it's at least interesting, even if most people will bemoan not getting a new, actual metal slug title, especially considering the debacles of the IPs after they stopped making traditional metal slug games. for a lot of fans, the art style (even if good) in this game will probably not please them as it kind of goes against the intentional design of the older games.

price is a bit of a sticking point, you can tell effort went into this, but at that price point especially in the vast market of roguelikes where you have a lot of competition, i can imagine it will turn a lot of people off. still think it could be worth it for people on sale, at the very least

i could go on for like 10 paragraphs singing this game's praise but instead i'll list the only downside : there isn't more of it. probably one of the better racing games made in modern times. controls insanely well, every mistake feels personal because it *is* my fault.

you are missing out if you aren't at least thinking about playing it

the game is fine. the gameplay is fine. but i'm going to give it the big ole thumbs up because there's probably another million games you should be playing over this one.