Recent reviews by Lt.Stock

As someone who played a lot of beat them ups. We could be heroes has a straightforward gameplay loop centered around popular 90s beat them up like final fight, double Dragon and more modern ones like Like a Dragon and midnight fight express in terms of exploiting the environment to your advantage. Made by an indie UK developer, this is a Eurojank beat them up in its purest form. There is no flashy combos or breathtaking environments drawn by famous artists and mocaped but it's an "ugly" beat them up that is well worth your time

I will not mince words, it's janky as hell, with the physics systems of the environment being as much as a threat to you as to the enemy. Debris from destroyed objects can be used as weapons and they do not discriminate. Enemies will exploit cheap combos on you if you are not careful and as stages progress so does weapons available to enact vigilante justice upon

Speaking of vigilantism, We could be Heroes is my dream of a beat them that lets you use everything in the fight scene. Pick up the hood of a car and smash in the face of the hoodlums, pick up a saw from the DIY store and watch as your enemy is sliced in half by your reckless choice of weaponry, smash open the case of the gun store and help yourself to firearms as you inflict violence on all that oppose you

That said, it is also one of the most violent beat them up in turns of sociopathy as no one is safe if you choose. You can be a good Samaritan and resort to fists only and killing as a last resort. Or choose a path of reckless violence and use whatever at hand and attack anyone who looked at you funny to put an end to crime. With 8 fighters available and 4 to start with. There is plenty of repayability reinforced by coop multiplayer

For an indie game, we could be hero is a rare hero in the world of beat them ups as a throwback to simpler times of violenc

Finally the life sim I was looking for that isn't Inzoi or the Sims. A Life Sim Centered around life in the city with a side of Sundew Valley style farming.

French version of Battle Brothers, just as janky and time consuming as it's German Cousin.

Restaurant simulator offers a zen like experience compared it's rivals in the genre. Being a Michelin guide inspired game and made by the French and published by the French. This game offers only the most faithful cooking game experience that Cook Serve Delicious nor Cooking Simulator can provide. It bears the French culinary soul and culture and makes it an experience for everyone from people mildly interested in cooking, cooks and amateur food reviewers.

The story is barebones and straightforward, you and your associate Kassim has opened up a bistro like so many others in the city and throughout the three days you are guided into the culinary world.

Gameplay wise the game plays like a mix of CSD, Cooking Simulator and Cooking Mama, you have to grab ingredients from the fridge after you stocked them and work within a time window to prep, set up the restaurant decor to adjust the cuisine of the restaurant (after all, mismatched decorations may make someone who went to a Trattoria end up thinking they are eating at some bistro) and research new recipes to expand your horizons. The game slowly eases you into the life of a restaurant owner, teaching you have to make the most out of your employees and why constantly buying non local food will cause employee morale to plummet. Thankfully the cooking process is extremely lenient, errors in cooking is very difficult to invoke and the pace you work with the dining establishment is relatively benevolent.

Graphics wise, it relies a bit of a cartoonish graphic with a focus on making the food look as appetizing as possible. If you are not satisfied with how the food looks, you can go to the finishing stations and custom design the plate, food and do your creative spin on a dish, all within reason of course. But it's rare to see something you put on the plate look unappetizing.

Audio wise its wholly unremarkable, audio is servicable but the dialogue is meant to be basic and simple since it's not the focus of the game. You get your sizzles, your satisfying chops, but the music is just sufficient to get by and it's best you have some music to listen to while you cook.

So all in all, Cyanide and Nacon captured the essence of French restaurant culture in a 40 dollar experience I would gladly pay for since it's interactive learning anyways and now I found a way to know to make a mean steak frites at home. Chef Life is a culinary simulator I would recommend to anyone working in the industry or interested what French food feels like.

As someone who enjoys cooking and restaurant sims, it is rare to see something become a success on steam, either the game has great concepts but falls flat with the same failure rate as the restaurant industry irl or they last long only for mediocre visuals to put a hamper on the gameplay cycle. Either way, the restaurant management genre is remarkably difficult to pull off.

Mystia's Izakaya is one of the few experiences out there that serves as the one star Michelin star of restaurant sims compared to titles like Crossroads Inn, Restaurant Empire, Recipe for Disaster or Chef. Taking place in the popular Touhou Project setting. This game serves a hearty meal that earned it's overwhelmingly positive rating.

The premise focuses on the one of the members of the weakest Youkai, Mystia Lorelei, most infamous for being devoured by the main antagonist Yuyuko from Perfect Cherry Blossom. After a disastrous dinner service that is about to have her devoured again. Keine saves her and sends her back to several months earlier where she was tasked to saving her friend from debt, little do she know. Her debt goes beyond a mere 3000 yen as the fate of Gensokyo hangs in the balance. The game is a faithful fan game for the Touhou setting, featuring an expanding cast of well known characters such as Marisa, Reimu and Sanae as well as Mystia's fellow yokai Cirno, Wriggle and Rumia.

Gameplay wise it is similar to Diner dash and Traveller's rest. Being an RPG Maker type game where you goal is to make as much money as possible in a two week limit with side stories and the cast of Touhou serving as both friend and foe to your success in the kitchen. In the daytime, Mystia has to procure ingredients for her dishes at a restaurant by either buying, gathering or asking friends to find stuff to give her. In the evening she runs her Izakaya proper, having to make sure the patrons have something that fits their price range as well as what they want to eat.

What makes the game stand out is the cooking system is about fulfilling tags, some tags are mutual exclusive (For example, you can have meat or vegetarian, filling or small portion, mild or savory) and others are dishes that are incompatible with the ingredient (Like your signature grilled lampreys) where attempts at culinary creativity may result in a dark matter disaster. It is also through these tags you meet the culinary demands of your toughest food critics, the cast of touhou. As I mentioned earlier, some like Rumia want raw meat while others like Reimu hates food that strips her of what little money she makes from her shrine and demands cheap and filling food. Meeting those tags requires you to build a scaling staircase of satisfied rare dinner guests who offers new recipes. The difficult cycle is mild for a Touhou game, but extra challenges will require you to have decent kitchen equipment, a good store of ingredients and remembering what does guest want. So far I have no problem with the dinner guests save the scripted ones. But the challenge for me is trying to be as creative as possible with themed menus everyday.

The 8bit graphics don't deter the game from being enjoyable as it provides the game with vibrant food art and cg designs and adorable sprite gifs.

If there is only one con of the game it is the fact that algorithim recommended me adult games as a result. I guess when your game is cheap, it also attracts other cheap adult games without the quality that Mystia Izakaya has

Overrall, Mystia's Izakaya is a welcome addition to the Touhou fangame lineup as one of the must plays, and for the price you are paying. It is like that soy chicken joint, it's cheap but delicious and worth a buy.

Nobody - The Turnaround (Or more accurately in Chinese, Everyday Person/Average Joe) is a life sim game developed by a Chinese Studio not as a commentary on the working lives of the Chinese population but to celebrate life of the common man. Compared to it's inspirations since as Sims Bustin Out/Urbz and Miami/Tokyo life by gameloft. Nobody is a more grounded game that nonetheless has it's own identity among other titles.


The main campaign focuses on the usual plot of a debt the player must pay off and through their interactions with the city become a success story. It's a bit sappy and predictable at times, but it feels human among similar attempts at prestige. The story takes place in the real life district of Langgong, Shenzen. This neighboring city to Hong Kong has become a place for opportunity as urban development has made your player character one of the many nobodies making a life for themselves.

The main campaign "Debt Trap" is a story shared by so many young men in China, the provider runs away from home and you are saddled with a debt and looking out for your sister and mother. But as the story of the debt drifts away from paying interest. You ask yourself this question: "How do I find a place in this city not just for myself but for my sister?" as your actions affect by those close to you and the people you work with develop a bond with in the bustling city. Overall despite the setup of the story, it has an optimistic but grounded feeling that makes you feel that by the end of the month you have done something good for yourself and others rather than the crushing misery as the month goes on and things only seem to get worse.


Nobody is a life sim with gameplay mechanics inspired by the Urbz. You play as a lone player avatar who wants to make their dream come true and to make a life for themselves they must start at the bottom with the help of job agencies who in exchange for taking some money from them, gives them a referral to the work place as a temp and through player makes more money through minigames. But we are not drones as much as fiction stereotype workers as some expendable work force who doesn't sleep or eat. As someone new to the city, our lives are bound by personal expectations so when we start out, we don't care how dirty we get or if we are picking trash off the ground in hopes of finding something valuable

The player resources you have to must manage is Cool/Sanity (Our actual HP, if it goes to 0. The player give up and end up as a worthless beggar and the game ends) and hunger as the critical states that detirmines if we live or not. But other needs are necessary as well as we get grungier, our clothes get worn out by the working life and just working nonstop will cause our mood to slowly deplete. To relieve stress, you can enjoy the entertainment in the city but as the city opens up. So does your expectations, so one day you are just content with life in the park shooting darts and dancing with aunties but the next day you want to check out the historic downtown and get drunk and sing some karaoke.

Of course, Nobody doesn't shy away from the dark side of life either, you can pilfer car batteries and seek out prostitutions knowing full well if you get caught you are going to jail and lose money (and the game in the campaign). I haven't delved in too hard to the night jobs concept but it will be something to explore


The game has a number of songs written by the studio that provides a melancholy yet hopeful tone. While I am not an audiophile, I do appreciate the lyrics of the opening sequence which sets the tone of the game, that it isn't a story of crushing poverty but one that can hope to rise out of the darkness.

Voice acting wise it's pretty standard as it is done by the studio staff and they speak in mandarin.


I definitely recommend Nobody the Turnaround for the homesick Chinese fan. It is a nice celebration of life without getting too sappy about it and a good means of releasing your feelings about how you want to live your own life as a nobody

Classic space opera style game with a focus on politics, intrigue and adventuring rather than biggaton weapons glassing planets to the ground.

Politics is a dirty business and like all dirty businesses, it is up to your criminal outfit to deal with the ins and outs of the political side of things as New York becomes the latest place to build your criminal empire upon.

In the Shadow Government DLC, you are thrust into finally dealing with the law. No longer just dealing with corrupt badges looking for their cut, politicians now have passed laws to make your life as an "entrepreneur" difficult. In the beginning of each game, your city will pass a number of laws that will work against you from having traffic laws that penalizes your movement speed, the ban of the selling of juice and concentrate that makes it difficult to produce more illicit booze or raising the price of goods in general.

To deal with the laws however we have to find people who want to enter the field of politics but need someone to help them on their way to that path. So we pay to sponsor a politician and in turn we must help them win the election by any means necessary from just throwing enough money at the problem, convince everyone in our territory that voting for our politics serves their personal interest.

But be careful about picking the right politician, ethnicity now matter as they would rather have someone from their country having a council seat and it is easier to have them elected than someone who isn't. Their traits also matter, for example someone who is a great orator will have more successful rallies and be able win election easiers but they don't generate as much influence as an established fat cat elite looking to step into the world of politics who not only has a steep cost but also won't be able to sway people as easily. All of this matters if you are aiming to win because if you lose, the councillor who won instead of your running man will certainly make it more difficult.

But say if you win and certainly with some effort you will, then you can decide what laws you want to pass, laws in CoG are like perks/flaws, you spend influence to get a perk and the same to remove a flaw. Choose carefully as the legislation period is brief and the sooner you reap the economic benefits of a politician, the better.

Overrall I will suggest you get this expansion as it adds a new dimension to handling obstacles that may get in your way to becoming a bootlegging tycoon and remember to place your vote, with a stack of greens of course.

The Italian Outfit like the other Outfit DLC is an addition to the CoG series by giving your ethnicity of choice a needed boost and unique nature to make their outfit stand out and this review will be focused on being an informative one as a must have for anyone who has followed the series

The Italians are now one of the more aggressive factions you can play as when you start out, as they have two things that makes them be more aggressive than the other outfits in the city. First is the Armored Car, a clear upgrade to the Sedan series as it is a passenge car with a capacity limit of 60 crocks (less than a pickup, more than a Sedan). This means your outfit won't need as hurting for truck space. They also now have the enchanced persuasion perk which increases the threshold required for people to trade with you, this skill allows Italian outfits to force fronts they extorted to buy or sell goods.

In addition to that, they have the Grappa building, a T2 Liquor that is made from Wine and benefits from any Winery related upgrades but costs an additional 30 small bottles for the Grapa as well as Gasoline. This means this business can produce two kinds of liquor to sell at the small speakeasies.

Finally their legacy goal: Finders Keepers rewards that aggressive playstyle by encouraging you to play as aggressive as possible, killing as many other hooligans and outfit members to relieve them of their alcohol and fund your cause

So as the italians say "Sono venuto, ho visto, mi sono ubriacato"

City of Gangsters like many who recommend the game isn't a crime sim, it is an illict goods logistic simulator where you play as an enterprising investor who is fulfil a certain demand that the government has made illegal. The game is perfect those who wants to flex their logistic brain instead of running around town gunning down everyone else.