Recent reviews by Toddly Enough

VHR is primarily a game about turning/drifting well. It wears its inspirations on its sleeve, "you get what it says on the tin" and all that, like you really won't be surprised by this game if you've watched any of the gameplay trailers. So, if you like what you've seen, tight drifting, poppin' pixel art, fun tracks with saturated colors and a throwback (but not fully retro) vibe, then you'll be happy to know that's on offer. In particular the mid-and-later levels are fun and challenging with solid music to keep the vibes up which carried me through the whole campaign. It's clear what VHR wanted to get right, and it got those things right.

While I do recommend the game for those reasons, overall, I was let down by VHR. It nails that stuff, yes, but only that. The minigames aren't fun enough to be worth the distraction, there's not much nuance to the car control despite a few tuning settings (if you have low speed, you'll lose, end of story), and most of the charm ends at the levels. There's maybe 3 standout designs and beyond that it's a wasteland for diversity both in characters and cars. Obvs that's not what most people are here for, but it left me feeling like VHR didn't reach its potential. The rally levels in particular were a sore spot as they're basically circuit races without a map. Without strong theming, characterization (all the non-rivals racers are literally DRIVER # etc.), or interesting road/car mechanics, it's just fun driving and I wish it could've been more than that.

This gameeeee is excellent. The "game soup" of it is 50% Hotline Miami 50% Neon White, which makes for a frenetic and challenging soup which champions quick decisions, spacial awareness, and y'know... doing dope ♥♥♥♥. I Am Your Beast is very TIGHT, it has a lot of verbs and they all connect to each other in fun and dynamic ways. While there aren't Leaderboards for now (the devs said maybe if everyone buys this game which they should hehe) with some levels being locked behind S ranks there's plenty of built-in reasons to put in the planning and attempts required to hit reach an S rank.

Surprisingly for this genre, less surprising if you know Strange Scaffold, the story is excellent (and again, very tight). Charming, a little bit serious but also small enough in scope to not be *too* serious, and well acted, when its moments come together they hit and work as framing for why each level is the way it is.

All that to say, if this looks like a game you'd like, you'll like it. It's what it looks like, it does it extremely well, and there's plenty to justify the price (especially if we get leaderboards down the line).

The Crush House nails everything it's shown off: the believable-yet-satirical procedural conversations and subsequent relationships, the silly filming challenges which can be at times fairly difficult, and the task-oriented gameplay of combining a diverse cast of attention-seekers in order to illicit the widest variety of interactions from them. It's only unfortunate the game doesn't evolve much beyond those things.

For my money, getting exactly what I expected was plenty and it all landed very well! Figuring out how to appease each audience, especially when opposing audiences like "wholesome" and "wine moms" would show up, was compelling from a social engineering meets framing puzzle perspective. Those challenges take up most of your brain after a couple seasons (when playing on Normal) 'cause you've just got a *lot* to do to hit your goals. Between trying to setup camera shots you get the bits of conversation coming through which highlight how bonkers exactly what you're filming (and why you're doing it from inside a well) is. All the characters are great and while they do seem to share dialogue along shared traits at time, I've many times seen a the same line result in different outcomes due to who was involved (or what came before it).

So, I do very much recommend this game as I had an excellent time with it! But I think the idea is so incredibly strong and trashy reality dating TV is so well-known that the shortcomings in terms of scope are apparent especially if you're really into the premise. All that to say: temper your expectations and you'll have a lovely time breaking hearts at The Crush House~

Really enjoying this game so far! It's another card in the deck of Card Roguelites like Slay the Spire, Dicey Dungeons, Wildfrost, Monster Train, etc. So the short version is: if you want a deck building roguelike with a fun twist and great art, here you are. That said, this game is more focused around the combo of your hero and their companion rather than expansive, run-destroying deckbuilding. It has more of an adventurous feel to it (the aesthetics help with that of course) where it's you against the dungeon, making the best of what you come across and less trying to big brain the whole game based off a specific combo you're banking on. To help with this, there's several heroes to pick from and thus each companion - hero combo makes for a different game experience.

I'd say so far, this game doesn't reach the heights of satisfaction the other games in this space reach, but it's also a game you can play without being so dialed in, and so it's more relaxing. Definitely a solid recommend~

An engaging mystery with an interesting central mechanic that's definitely worth its play time (around 4 hours) for mystery lovers. What you do with your own information is up to you, as the actual gameplay of This Bed We Made centers around shaping the body of evidence by throwing (or not throwing) away items found in the guests' rooms. This dynamic of piecing together everything going on at the Clarington Hotel combined with understanding how it'll be perceived by concerned parties makes for an intriguing and fairly unique mystery puzzle approach. The story's compelling but grounded and centered around a subject with a vitally important message that's handled with care and does land (if you're paying attention), but while I can't share why for spoiler reasons, I don't feel Lowbirth Games quite stuck the landing. I can't help but feel this game's narrative would've been better served in gameplay as a thriller, balancing the comings-and-goings of guests and potential murderers, but it is primarily a "look at notes" game from which you derive clues to solve the mystery. However, given that it is not, you can take your time and enjoy the detailed guest rooms while you decide how you'd like your story to end. On that note, the environments and characters are well-realized, it's only unfortunate the animations are fairly wooden. However, I've played many mysteries like this where no characters show up at all (you probably know the one if you're a fan of this genre) and their presence definitely elevated the experience.

Highly recommend for mystery folks~

A tight but charming deduction game with just the right amount of challenge for its scope. The simple system of sort of madlibbing clue words into a pre-composed logical thought balance guiding the player and distracting them with valid (and sometimes silly) options to make sure you really know the solution to a Deduc(k)tion. Duck Detective gets every element right for its premise from the crisp, inviting visuals and the tone-setting noir soundtrack, to the intriguing if ridiculous mystery premise and down-to-earth writing. The clues are carefully laid out as to not be obvious (in fact some are quite clever), but there are no leaps in logic that aren't grounded in what's presented. If you're struggling, the notebook makes it clear when there's more evidence to be found if you're missing something.

If you're looking for a fun mystery and a fair challenge, perhaps for a plane/bus/long car ride or just something for your detective brain to chew on, I'd highly recommend it!

P.S. There's a dedicated quack button, so...

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