Recent reviews by 🐊 big challenges 🐊

Pretty fun game! Neat unconventional loadout, satisfying mix of stealth and third-person-shooter gamplay. As far as writing aging, I think it's at a weird impasse because while it was made in the 00s, it wasn't made by Americans, so they're willing to say things Americans at the time wouldn't.

The graphical upgrade is phenomenal, and not in the standard "hd graphics realism" way. It's got a very distinct artstyle that I would describe as "80s parody of 50s pop culture". It's neat to look at and really gives the game a lot more personality.

I will say Armageddon feels a bit too difficult and, being an 00s game, it leans a little too hard into "funnie repressed gay" jokes. Like it's not constant, but it rears it's ugly head every so often.

Bug Fables is an absolutely phenomenal RPG inspired by the Paper Mario series that I feel not only matches, but surpasses the quality of it's source of inspiration. The combat is surprisingly tactical and well-designed, the characters and writing are absolutely wonderful, and the art is adorable.

Suggestions for new players: Turn hard mode on if you feel fights are getting to easy and turn it off if they're getting too hard. You can change your medal loadout if you die in a boss fight or a scripted enemy encounter. Increasing HP and TP is more useful in the early game and medal points are more useful in the mid-to-late game. Berries should be saved up in the bank and used sparingly until you unlock the card game tournament, which is easily the best way to make money in the game. In the event you get an item called an "attack pepper", use it on Vi.

In a world of alligators, in the metropolis of Alligator New York City, you are an enigmatic, pinstripe-suit-clad investigator who has been hired by Pat, a neurotic and anxiety-ridden 24-year-old. Pat has heard word from his relatives of something called "The Event" that is to take place on his birthday, which is today. You must traverse Alligator New York City tracking down the 30+ members of Pat's family and interview them about "The Event".

Of course, in order for them to cough up more information, you're going to have to do them some favors, in the form of a minigame. The minigames vary widely from gator to gator, but they all tie into the character and are often hilarious. The 12-year-old Sweet Geraldine enlists you to help out in her "heist" for toys by playing a crane game. Pat's dad, Two-ton Tony, wants you to help him fire up his massive grill, which mainly involves blowing away smoke, putting out fires, and warming up cold spots before it completely breaks down. Tall Jerry needs you to exorcise his phone by searching for and deleting photos that have ghosts hidden in them.

You operate on a time limit of one full day, so you'll need to do multiple runs to meet all of Pat's relatives and complete all their minigames, collecting puzzle pieces along the way. Thankfully, progress with finding relatives and puzzle piece collecting carries over between runs. If you lose a minigame, you may retry at the cost of taking another fifteen minutes out of your day. At certain points in the day, you will be called up by Pat to help him with his own problems.

The game was developed by Smallbu animation studios, which is composed of married couple Alex and Lindsay Small-Butera, who have worked on animations together for over a decade, both creating their own animations (most famously the surreal but charming Baman Piderman) and contributing animations to numerous animated shows. This was in collaboration with a number of colleagues they've come to know over the years, including musician 2 Mello, who composed a distinct and memorable soundtrack for the game.

Overall, Later, Alligator is a charming, hilarious, and beautifully animated game and it easily goes on my GOTY list. My one complaint is that some of the games can be frustrating or difficult to understand, and may require some trial and error.

Hypnospace Outlaw is truly and incredible game.

The year is 1999 and you've volunteered to join a moderation team for Hypnospace, an online service you browse in your sleep. You end up going on a hilarious and surprisingly emotional journey through the world of web 1.0, visiting clunky webpages and weirdos on the internet and better understanding those weirdos through your online exploration.

The gameplay is largely built around exploring this fictional internet using a mockup of an OS and fiddling around with it's weirdness. The puzzles are built around interesting bits of internet detective work, tracking down IPs and passwords, finding hidden-off alcoves of the web in order to find and solve online law violations, such as copyright infringement, harassment, and malware.

As you explore you get to learn more about these online denizens and their relationships with each other. People have intricacies and complexities that you don't initially expect from them, ultimately leading to a moral of how weirdos on the internet are people and shouldn't be dismissed for their messiness and shortcomings.

Overall an excellent game and likely on my GOTY list, possibly even my game of the decade list.

Yakuza 0 is a truly excellent game. It is a period piece set in 1980s Japan during the peak of their real estate bubble, and follows the story of Kazuma Kiryu, a Yakuza framed for a murder he didn't commit, and Goro Majima, a Yakuza who destroyed his reputation and is being kept under watch as he is forced into legitimate business. They find themselves wrapped up in an inner-yakuza conspiracy, encountering ups and downs and twists and turns, and lots and lots of punching dudes,

The gameplay focuses largely on exploring two small but dense city areas: Kamurocho, a red-light district in Tokyo based on the real-life Tokyo district Kabukicho, and Sotenbori, an entertainment district in Osaka based on the real-life Osaka district Dōtonbori. While exploring the towns, the player can run into random encounters, entertain themselves with a variety of activities such as singing karaoke, playing arcade games, fishing, and dining at restaurants, and running into "substories", sidestories where the player helps out residents, often with humorous twists to them. The combat is beat-em-up-inspired brawling where both characters employ their own sets of unique combat styles. The combat is fluid and fun, with each style having it's own fun twists to it.

The game's writing is fantastic, and employs an interesting balance of comedy and drama. One moment the player can encounter a heavy dramatic scene where they deal with the harsh realities of being a yakuza, and half an hour later they can be engaged in a cartoonishly overdramatic disco battle. Both the drama and the comedy is fun and engaging in their own ways, and they balance in a way that bring out the best in each other.

It is worth noting that the localization is handled in a unique way. While text is translated in an engaging and well-written manner, the actual voice acting is kept in japanese, helping highlight the very japanese nature of the game's world. In fact, it can be said that a lot of the game can be seen as a dedicated portrayal of japanese city life, particularly the culture and lifestyle of the 80s real estate bubble. The yakuza are portrayed in a way that clearly shows a lot of research put into it (an unfamiliar western player may be surprised to learn of how during the time period yakuza were much more publically permitted, as they had played a massive part in the postwar restoration effort).

Personally, I have massively enjoyed the game. When I first heard of what the series was like I was deeply interested and desperately wanted to play it, and this PC port has finally allowed me to do so. I would go as far to say that this would be in my top 10 video games I've ever played. I hope desperately for more PC ports, particularly of the Kiwami ports that have been released and the ones currently in development for Playstation 4.

NITW is a fascinating game with beautiful music and art that is well written and explores social issues that desperately need exploring in our time. I highly reccomend it to anyone interested in getting a better understanding of leftist american politics.

When I was in middle school, I played the game this is a spinoff of, Kingdom of Loathing. It was simple, but charming and hilarious without getting overbearing in it's love of nerd culture.

This game very much retains that game's charm, and I would even say improves on it. I also found it reminiscent in a certain way of Fallout 1 and 2, although with generally better comedy.

Easily the sleeper hit of 2017

Read-Only Memories is a genuinely fun and lovable game that takes cyberpunk in a new direction that, like cyberpunk should, reflects on modern politics and the potential scenarios of the future. It also features fantastic aesthetics reminiscent of 90's anime and Hideo Kojima's Snatcher.

As a bisexual man, I found the game's LGBT cast and options for expressing my sexuality and allowing for nonbinary pronouns to be very liberating. I feel that by doing so, it is more progressive and relateable than most games that come out these days.

The characters and story are what really draw me in, however. I loved all the details and the lovable characters, especially Jess Meas, and Chad and Oli.

Overall, one of my top games of 2015.

Undertale is a simply amazing game that captures what made Earthbound great far more than any other game I can think of.

This game let me live out my dreams of building a Goku.