[blog] churros are fried until they become crunchy, and may be sprinkled with sugar

I don't follow the guy on YouTube but, having recently purchased a Xbox Series S, the game pass recommendations video caught my attention. Specifically, the first game, Lonely Mountains: Downhill.

Start the game and the lack of music and the nature ambient sound immediately caught my attention, remembering breath of the wild a bit in that aspect. After 30 seconds of pedaling I was completely hooked, conducting the bicycle while feeling the momentum and the terrain is pure magic.

This game nails one of the things more important to me in gaming: movement. I got in such a zen state while playing it, it's almost like meditation. Can't wait to buy it on the next Steam sale and beat it again.

Result: completed

Rating: 10/10

Pros:
+ amazing sound design
+ easy to get used to physics
+ smooth learning curve
+ simple controls
+ relaxing

Cons:
(none)

Screenshots:


The game has a lovely tilt-shift look.


Planning your landing is a big part of the game.


Lava! That's paid DLC though.

Having read your review, I also noticed this was in a PSN sale yesterday, so I picked it up.

Spent all day playing the game and it is really great!

I thought I wasn't very good at the game to begin with as I couldn't get close to even the beginner challenge times. Then (after 2 hours!) I realised that the section timer resets everytime you crash, so you are not punished for trying new routes. Now I can blast through the beginner challenges!

Just trying to decide when to class the game as beat, as I don't think credits roll at any point?

Having read your review, I also noticed this was in a PSN sale yesterday, so I picked it up.

Spent all day playing the game and it is really great!

I thought I wasn't very good at the game to begin with as I couldn't get close to even the beginner challenge times. Then (after 2 hours!) I realised that the section timer resets everytime you crash, so you are not punished for trying new routes. Now I can blast through the beginner challenges!

Just trying to decide when to class the game as beat, as I don't think credits roll at any point?

I'm glad you liked it!

I guess we can consider finishing all stages/tracks at least once as beating the game, but that's a good question.

Ah, and I forgot to mention that after playing that game so much I realized how much I miss riding a bike (it's been over 15 years), so I bought one:



It's a cheap/simple bike, but it's so fun to ride it on a dirt road. Feeling like a kid again.

I'm glad you liked it!

I guess we can consider finishing all stages/tracks at least once as beating the game, but that's a good question.

I decided it was beating all the Beginner challenges.

I finished it earlier, but I’m going to keep on playing :)

Nice bike. I used to go mountain biking most weekends, but I haven’t even been on a bike for a few years.

I loved DEMON'S TILT so much that I'm going to buy whatever pixel art/retro looking pinball game that I find now.

This one is so cute that it hurts giving it a bad review, but it's just too small (no pixel scaling) and boring. The snowball grows as it moves and there's a mini breakout mini-game in the middle of the table, clever but not enough.

The snow theme and small pixel art remind me of SkiFree. Feeling old here.

Result: retired

Rating: 6/10

Pros:
+ lovely pixel art
+ night mode
+ breakout mini game

Cons:
- too bright
- single table and mode
- boring

Screenshots:


You lose when the snowball falls into the fire, cool! (no pun intended)

I like small puzzles on non-puzzle games (The Legend of Zelda, Resident Evil), but that's about it. I don't know why I still bother trying to play puzzle games.

Helltaker had enough eye candy for keeping me going, this one has nothing of that.

Result: retired

Rating: 5/10

Pros:
+ simple concept
+ horizontal and vertical movement

Cons:
- too bright
- bland environment
- boring music

Screenshots:


That's the game.

Simple and clean typing game. Tries to offer different modes, but some of them show you individual letters (without a word), which is breaks the flow. I like the mode that forces you to type a word backwards though.

Has a horrible default font for a typing game but fortunately you can change it. Also, there's a really annoying vibration sound once you score, that turning it off in the settings did nothing, maybe it's a bug.

Super cheap, still not worth it.

Result: completed (20m)

Rating: 2/10

Pros:
+ clean interface
+ font options
+ achievements

Cons:
- typing individual letters
- bad default font
- audio bug

Screenshots:


Not much fanfare, just type the word.


The game modes. Most are pretty bad.

A budget racing game that looks like it's developed by a fellow Brazilian. Too rough to recommend it. If you collide you are already lost, only fair on easy, all the stages look the same. Collision aside, acceleration and controlling the car is fine, but just too boring.

Result: completed (40m)

Rating: 2/10

Pros:
+ simple controls

Cons:
- bad collision mechanics
- too similar tracks
- too hard
- boring

Screenshots:


A single screenshot is enough, all of them would look the same.

There are multiple iterations of the "Barro" game (or should I say Barro series), and I think this one is the first. It's odd that it is much better than "Barro Racing" that came afterwards: more creative tracks, rain, fog, rear mirror, good draw distance, vehicles that look different from each other, etc.

Instead of doing multiple crappy Barro games, I think it would be more interesting to do a single one in an Early Access fashion. Iterations as improvements of an existing game (instead of yet another one-dollar game) and gathering a little community around feedback and playtesting.

One of the possible translations of the Portuguese word "Barro" is "Dirt". I wonder if that racing series is the inspiration.

Result: completed (20m)

Rating: 4/10

Pros:
+ simple controls
+ night, fog, and rain
+ rear mirror
+ creative tracks

Cons:
- no music
- boring

Screenshots:


Rear mirror, good draw distance, and creative tracks. A lot better than “Barro Racing”.


Rain!


Gotta love the “Validate” button for choosing your car.

I think I played this game for 2 hours. I normally try to come up with pros and cons for the games I list here and a score out of 10, but it would be unfair to do it while playing so little of it.

Unless it's something unbelievable well made (such as Hades) or contains some really crazy or interesting mechanic(s) (such as Streets of Rogue), being a roguelike just kills a game for me.

Undermine feels like the ultimate generic roguelike. It's just boring and 'samey'. Everything pretty much works as expected, but there's nothing special about the setting, story, combat, scenario, ...

I never learn and I'll probably have another roguelike game being listed here pretty soon, better luck next time!

Result: retired

Screenshots:


Yup, it's one of those.

Bloober Team games are mostly walking simulators, 'not for me' is a good expression for those.

But there is the Game Pass factor. The Medium came out day one on Game Pass and I can't resist a free (of extra charge) game.

At the beginning of the game, the fixed camera tricked me. Resident Evil immediately came to mind but rest assured, it's a walking simulator all right. Some puzzles here and there and some occasion runaway/stealth sections, but mostly walking.

The navigation between two worlds is completely underused. While it's cool to see the character walking on both worlds at the same time, you barely have to combine what you're seeing on both to achieve anything. You are either working on one world or the other, the puzzles rarely push the gimmick forward.

The mystery surrounding the protagonist hooked me up from the beginning. Some of the side story/characters are not as interesting, but I really like how the story wraps up in the end. Feels like a film (and that is a compliment).

I hate 'playing' the game, moving around feels stiff and I absolutely hate running away from the main monster. But on the other hand, everything else feels so well made. This is one of the most gorgeous game I've played and the soundtrack is amazing.

Oh, and important to mention, this game is dark. It didn't bother me, I think it was handled with care, but the game deals with child abuse. But in my opinion, the game should have a warning for that, it can caught someone off guard someone thinking it's just a 'spooky game'.

Result: completed

Rating: 7/10

Pros:
+ beautiful graphics
+ atmospheric soundtrack
+ interesting plot
+ creative storytelling
+ don't rely on jumpscares

Cons:
- bad stealh sections
- heavy story themes without warning
- walking simulator

Screnshots:


Singleplayer split screen.


Amazing artstyle.


Every frame a painting.

Bloober Team games are mostly walking simulators, 'not for me' is a good expression for those.

But there is the Game Pass factor. The Medium came out day one on Game Pass and I can't resist a free (of extra charge) game.

At the beginning of the game, the fixed camera tricked me. Resident Evil immediately came to mind but rest assured, it's a walking simulator all right. Some puzzles here and there and some occasion runaway/stealth sections, but mostly walking.

The navigation between two worlds is completely underused. While it's cool to see the character walking on both worlds at the same time, you barely have to combine what you're seeing on both to achieve anything. You are either working on one world or the other, the puzzles rarely push the gimmick forward.

The mystery surrounding the protagonist hooked me up from the beginning. Some of the side story/characters are not as interesting, but I really like how the story wraps up in the end. Feels like a film (and that is a compliment).

I hate 'playing' the game, moving around feels stiff and I absolutely hate running away from the main monster. But on the other hand, everything else feels so well made. This is one of the most gorgeous game I've played and the soundtrack is amazing.

Oh, and important to mention, this game is dark. It didn't bother me, I think it was handled with care, but the game deals with child abuse. But in my opinion, the game should have a warning for that, it can caught someone off guard someone thinking it's just a 'spooky game'.

Result: completed

Rating: 7/10

Pros:
+ beautiful graphics
+ atmospheric soundtrack
+ interesting plot
+ creative storytelling
+ don't rely on jumpscares

Cons:
- bad stealh sections
- heavy story themes without warning
- walking simulator

Screnshots:


Singleplayer split screen.


Amazing artstyle.


Every frame a painting.

The Medium did look interesting, I might check it out

Wave-based hack n slash with a single scenario. Bland assets and super repetitive gameplay, couldn't stand it for half an hour. Controls are responsive but the camera is awful, feels like game dev school homework.

There is a good amount of reviews and is "Very Positive" on Steam. Maybe I'm missing something here.

Result: retired

Screenshots:


Japanese schoolgirl and magic demonic sword.


That's the game.


In all fairness, there's a mechanic for sucking enemy's health that is interesting on paper.

This isn't a game, it's an emulator. A pretty unique one if you ask me, it's an NES emulator that plays the games as 3D!

It's not 'automagical', there's a list for supported games (which is pretty long). Eventually the novelty wears off and playing the game on 2D feels better than on 3D. It was enough for me beating Super Mario Bros. 3 though.

But hey, I'm glad that I've purchased it. Such a cool tool, I would love to see a SNES one.

Screenshots:


You can rotate the camera as you please.


Dark background usually looks better.


Shadows.

This game looks so so lovely. Unfortunately, it’s not that good. Controlling the character feels off, which is pretty bad especially for a platformer. I feel the character is too heavy for a cute 2D platformer and I guess there’s a bit of input lag, but I’m not 100% sure.

It’s somewhat of easy platinum on PlayStation, except for the trophies of beating stage/boss taking no damage, which is not that hard but can be a bit of a pain.

The game is super short, I didn’t track my time with it but I guess it’s just a couple of hours to beat if not less.

Result: completed

Rating: 5/10

Pros:
+ trophies/achievements
+ lovely pixel graphics

Cons:
- bad music
- too short
- not worth replaying
- imprecise controls
- no powerups

Screenshots:


Look at that title screen, how adorable.


I like how colorful the game looks.


Boss fight.

Edit: duplicated post, my bad.

I've decided to play this blast from the past, I've used to love this game when I was younger. I thought they had remastered this game since it got released not long ago on PS4/Xbox One/Switch, but the Steam version that I've played seems to be nothing more than a port.

Graphics aged horribly. When you are in the racing, since you have to pay attention to a bunch of stuff and things move fast, it's not that noticeable. But when the game stops and you get a chance on taking a better look at some texture, oh boy, it's hideous.

But the most important is that the game still super fun. It required some getting used to, having to use both WASD and arrow keys was new to me.

My major problem with this game is that there are 2 or 3 tracks that I simply can't even finish, it's ridiculously hard. I get the feeling I'm doing something wrong, because on the other tracks the difficulty seems just right.

Result: retired

Rating: 7/10

Pros:
+ controlling the podracer aged well
+ inventive in-race power management

Cons:
- graphics aged poorly
- some tracks are impossible hard

Screenshots:


Using both WASD and arrow keys, now that's podracing!


The graphics didn't age well at all.


Spooky section.

The sequel of 20XX, 30XX. Early access game.

The most noticeable improvement is the artstyle, now it's pixel art and it's really beautiful, I like it quite a lot even though I would add a minor complaint that sometimes the background and sometimes (especially when you are going fast) is hard to tell what's background stuff from what it isn't.

The music is has a chip-tune feel and it's well made, but I think they should be more 'rock' like Mega Man X. Some of the tracks feels like it's for a happy and cheerful platformer game, and not for a fast-paced one.

It's missing some end of run bosses (probably a couple of last bosses, like 20XX), I'm assuming they'll add during development. Right now there are 6 stages/bosses which I got my money's worth of fun out of it, plus I'll have some excuse in the future to check the game out again.

Ah, and most important, dashing still feels perfect. The best thing about the game.

Result: completed

Rating: 8/10

Pros:
+ responsive controls
+ perfect dashing
+ beautiful pixel art
+ interesting powerups
+ balanced rogue-lite items

Cons:
- some hard to see enemies
- short

Screenshots:


Beautiful pixel art.


Boss battle.


End of run.

I've checked out some Steam Next Fest demos and there's some really good stuff out there. Here are some of the demos I think were 'good' but not 'great' (coming up next).


City of Beats: Cool concept, the beat of the song is made by the shooting, that idea never gets old. Rogue-like, bullet hell-ish. Unfortunately, the scenarios and enemies are bland and uninteresting.


Mayhem Brawler: Looks a lot like Streets of Rage 4. There's a cool idea of having a fake tweets coming up along with the cutscene, but I can't just follow it, I find it hard to follow two things at once and that I don't get the jokes. I feel old.


Okinawa Rush: Such pretty pixel art. The screen is really small, seems like a perfect game for a GBA or some handheld of its size. I love the theme and artstyle but something feels off on the combat, I think it's the hit feedback (or the lack of it).


Super Magbot: The most creative one, you have separate blue and red magnetic fields (shoulder buttons), and there are blue and red platforms scattered around the levels (box-like levels, size of the screen). Sometimes you have to attract (same color) to pull the character or to repel (different color) to make it jump. The hardest levels messes up with your brain a little bit but it's so satisfying to beat it. The extra levels have a bubble thing that I didn't really get how they work, that's a bummer. Oh, and sorry for the lack of screenshot of a level.


The Legend of Tianding: Beat em up with heavy story and comic book artstyle. The beginning of the story takes too long (especially for a demo), but the gameplay is satisfying.

GRIME: Nice artstyle, interesting world. I really liked this game, but it's hard to pinpoint exactly why. I think I just like the scenarios and the main character. The combat is solid and the Metroidvania part seems okay. The souls-like aspect of it is not really needed (stamina-based combat, recover resource when dead), but it doesn't bother that much. Excited for the release, one of my highlights.


Your character.


It's a side-scroller.


Boss fight.

Sable: Everything feels so perfect. The psychedelic but not quite artstyle. The loneliness of the desert. The platforming of Breath of the Wild (scale and glide).The purposely low frame animations. Solve a quest in your own way. The book-like dialog. The personality of the NPCs. I think I'm in love, my most anticipated game by far.

Oh, and controlling the bike sucks. I guess no one is perfect then.


Jumping into the world.


Some lovely dialog.

I love the art style that some of these indie titles pull off. It can be a bit hit or miss, but your latest blog entry reminded me of that.

Sable: Everything feels so perfect. The psychedelic but not quite artstyle. The loneliness of the desert. The platforming of Breath of the Wild (scale and glide).The purposely low frame animations. Solve a quest in your own way. The book-like dialog. The personality of the NPCs. I think I'm in love, my most anticipated game by far.

Oh, and controlling the bike sucks. I guess no one is perfect then.


Jumping into the world.


Some lovely dialog.

Sable looks interesting to me. Not enough for me to pick up, but just the overall look caught my attention. I'm excited to hear your future thoughts on this!

Ah, Biomutant. I feel bad about this game. Such charming presentation, interesting premise, small team, such bad reviews. Don't get me wrong, it has a lot of problems and deserves criticism, and it's definitely overpriced at the typical $60 AAA price.

But oh it's so charismatic. I heard that the team is composed of 20 devs, which if that's the case they are heroes for how big and beautiful the world is.

The good? Gorgeous game, cute characters, amazing weapon crafting, fun combat on paper, photo mode is really cool.

The bad? Everything is janky and underdeveloped. I mean, everything. The combat, the animations, the half-baked morality system, the copy-paste quest types...

If this game replaced some of its useless systems for polishing what works, it would be so much better. Also, it's criminal how it underuses its platforming, which is awesome (jumping, dashing, gliding, ...).

I'm a Biomutant apologist, I confess, I liked the game a lot despite its problems. I can't wait to talk about this game 10 years from now, when it will be a forgotten game (and a cult classic for some).

Result: completed

Rating: 8/10

Pros:
+ charismatic
+ amazing weapon crafting
+ fun combat
+ fun powerups
+ platforming
+ relaxing atmosphere
+ inventive character creator
+ beautiful graphics
+ great draw distance
+ creative npc/enemy art designs
+ huge world
+ mount variety

Cons:
- overuse of narrator
- floaty combat
- bad combat animations
- repetitive objectives
- repetitive music
- bad hit feedback
- unbalanced
- puzzles are too easy
- unpolished

Screenshots:


One of the vehicles.


Now that's a unique vehicle design.


Saving a village.

Ah, Biomutant. I feel bad about this game. Such charming presentation, interesting premise, small team, such bad reviews. Don't get me wrong, it has a lot of problems and deserves criticism, and it's definitely overpriced at the typical $60 AAA price.

But oh it's so charismatic. I heard that the team is composed of 20 devs, which if that's the case they are heroes for how big and beautiful the world is.

The good? Gorgeous game, cute characters, amazing weapon crafting, fun combat on paper, photo mode is really cool.

The bad? Everything is janky and underdeveloped. I mean, everything. The combat, the animations, the half-baked morality system, the copy-paste quest types...

If this game replaced some of its useless systems for polishing what works, it would be so much better. Also, it's criminal how it underuses its platforming, which is awesome (jumping, dashing, gliding, ...).

I'm a Biomutant apologist, I confess, I liked the game a lot despite its problems. I can't wait to talk about this game 10 years from now, when it will be a forgotten game (and a cult classic for some).

Result: completed

Rating: 8/10

Pros:
+ charismatic
+ amazing weapon crafting
+ fun combat
+ fun powerups
+ platforming
+ relaxing atmosphere
+ inventive character creator
+ beautiful graphics
+ great draw distance
+ creative npc/enemy art designs
+ huge world
+ mount variety

Cons:
- overuse of narrator
- floaty combat
- bad combat animations
- repetitive objectives
- repetitive music
- bad hit feedback
- unbalanced
- puzzles are too easy
- unpolished

Screenshots:


One of the vehicles.


Now that's a unique vehicle design.


Saving a village.

That's such a shame with Biomutant because it looked so damn promising. Ah well... gamers win and lose some I guess... :(