[blog] JK's Backlog Battle

08/11/2022 - Coming Out on Top Completion.
Current Backlog: 514
Currently Playing: 16

Coming Out on Top is a choose-your-own-fate game
which places you in the role of college senior, Mark Matthews (or custom name if you choose so).
Mark comes out of the closet for his friends and he's ready to make up for lost time in the gay dating scene!
With the help of your loyal roommates you play through six hilarious routes and ten unforgettable dates.

This game is funny and witty, it’s explicit, and it embraces all kinds of sexual relationships—casual, long-term, friends with benefits…
Plus the guys are really, really hot. It's filled with endearing characters and personality types of all sorts,
you're bound to find someone in here you really vibe with. My only wish was that it would have been longer.

Also the menu music is now stuck in my brain.

People talk about
Luv luv luv luv luv
And it sounds like
Blah blah blah blah blah
Cause they really mean
Sex sex sex sex


- Marisa (JK)

10/11/2022 - Ever Seen A Cat? 3 Completion.
Current Backlog: 515
Currently Playing: 16

Ever Seen A Cat? 3 is the third game in the series.
It's a lovely hidden object game, where you try to find all the cats from different scenes.
It's basically the same as the previous games, just with fairytale scenes!
The Soundtrack is very lovely in this game and feels like it was greatly improved.
The game is still quite short and the cats are rather easy to find.
Some scenes took me max 3 minutes to do, but most of them were done in under 1 minute or just above.

This game is definitely worth the money in my opinion,
as it's well done and fun! Great entertainment.
- Marisa (JK)

12/11/2022 - A Castle Full of Cats Completion.
Current Backlog: 518
Currently Playing: 16

A Castle Full of Cats is the newest game in Devcats repertoire of games and it does not disappoint!

In this game you need to find the cursed cats hidden in different rooms of the castle
and pet and purify each one of them, even the ones in hiding out of sight in containers and unpredictable places!
You also get to meet old friends from their previous games, like Fofiño, who has been cursed by an evil force!
As Lily, you gather your friends and save him from the curse, letting love win all!

It's a lovely, spooky experience of a hidden object type of game, with lovely soundtrack and cute looking cats!
Even though quite short, it's definitely worth the money and it's full of fun times.
Highly recommended.
- Marisa (JK)

12/11/2022 - Fire Tonight Completion.
Current Backlog: 517
Currently Playing: 16

Fire Tonight is a short narrative puzzle game about Maya trying to find her way to Devin's place after a fire breaks out in the city.

You get to help Maya find her way across the city by foot, by car, by train, by roller skating and by hopping on rooftops
all while avoiding police barricades, traffic jams and the spreading fire around the city.

At the same time, confined to his small apartment, Devin anxiously awaits Maya's arrival.
He reminisces about their time together as you click and look through all the mementos scattered around his place.

The art is pretty, the soundtrack is pretty awesome and the story is alright.
It's a really short game, so the price could be better, but in the end I think it's definitely worth it
and fun to play through.
- Marisa (JK)

13/11/2022 - BAD END THEATER Completion.
Current Backlog: 516
Currently Playing: 16

In BAD END THEATER you get to choose from 4 different protagonists to play as;
The Hero, The Maiden, The Underling and The Overlord.
You go through the story to explore their traits and getting different endings for the characters.

The stories are all connected together and your choices as the characters affect how the story goes forward
even when you change the character you play as. A series of bad, tragic ends that seem to be never ending,
until finally tragedy will strike you and you will find the true end for yourself.

It's definitely a fantastic game that will suck you right in. The artstyle is lovely and the soundtrack is an absolute delight.
The ending is also cute and wholesome. Highly recommended for everyone, even at full price.
- Marisa (JK)

Horray for Santa Solas! :3
BAD END THEATER sounds like an interesting game, I think I'll check it out.

Horray for Santa Solas! :3
BAD END THEATER sounds like an interesting game, I think I'll check it out.

Santa Solas is here to bring all the happy presents this christmas! lmao

also yea, BAD END THEATER was really good, I had watched a playthrough of it previously
and was really excited to try it out myself. The end credit song is also really good.

04/12/2022 - Milo and the Magpies Completion.
Current Backlog: 527
Currently Playing: 17

Milo and the Magpies is a point-and-click, puzzle game following the story of a little cat named Milo,
who is trying to find his way home after getting turned around by an unfortunate encounter with some pesky magpies.
You help Milo sneak through the gardens of his neighbors by exploring and solving the various puzzles you come across.

The game is short, but a cute and simple indie game, with an adorable main character named Milo.
The artwork of the game is unique and lovely, the background music is soothing, but little funky,
and the puzzles are quite reasonable to do and not that difficult to solve.

The game is definitely worth it for the small price of 2€,
and I'm sure it will deliver a short but fun experience for most.
- Marisa (JK)

05/12/2022 - Etherborn Completion.
Current Backlog: 526
Currently Playing: 17

"Listen, at last, to what has always existed and was never there,
and seek until your last breath ━ the impossible pathway."

Delve into an atmospheric world of Etherborn, a puzzle platformer, that focuses on the aspects of ever changing gravity.
You play as a voiceless being that was just recently born into this world, where a bodiless voice guides your journey forward.
The game feels like a dream, the ever changing gravity with the structures is mesmerizing and disorienting at times,
you scratch your head many times when trying to find these orbs that get you forward,
but the puzzles are not too difficult that it would hinder the progress.

The low-poly graphical style of this game doesn't take away from the atmosphere of the game at all.
It actually enhances it! The way the fog around the platforms and the god rays that shine through the bars
add to the look of the game is absolutely fantastic!

I had a bunch of fun playing through the game for one time, but adding the new game plus was kind of annoying.
Sure it was different since the orbs were harder to find, but the game doesn't have any choices or different endings,
so adding a ng+ seems a little weird.

Even so, I think the game is very good indie game and well worth the playtime.
I don't think it should be as expensive as it currently is, so if you plan on getting it, just wait for a sale.
Otherwise, 100% recommended!
- Marisa (JK)

07/12/2022 - CATAIRE - Gambling with cats Completion.
Current Backlog: 528
Currently Playing: 16

💜This game was gifted to Catizens Curations for review.

CATAIRE is a quite interesting take on the classic solitaire game that most of us are familiar with.
However, the game is not regular solitaire, but tries to give it's own twist on how to play the game.
In my opinion it takes away from the fun of the game, but with a little fine-tuning, the game could be amazing.

Alright, so I played this game to 100% completion, which in hindsight, was not a good decision.
There is achievements up to 1000 games completed, which for a small game like this, is quite annoying,
especially when the style of solitaire is their own spin on the regular game.
To me it seemed mostly that they tried to add achievements just to boost the game time, and it definitely worked.

However, the dev is ready to listen to any suggestions and willing to work on updates,
at least hopefully, so the game is worth getting in that regard. It also has lots of cats, a light mode and dark mode,
which all adds to the playability. The difficulty ramps up a lot from easy to medium to hard,
so be aware of that when choosing to get this game.

I do recommend this game, just not for completionists.
- Marisa (JK)

12/12/2022 - Hooked on You: A Dead by Daylight Dating Sim Completion.
Current Backlog: 527
Currently Playing: 16

Alright, I gotta start this review by saying that I have never even once played Dead by Daylight,
but I am one of those people who watch others play it occasionally. I've always been a huge fan of monsters,
killers and all sorts of villains, so getting to date them and get hanky panky with them is amazing
and something I desperately needed for sure.

I think the writing of the content could have been better honestly,
but the fact that the game is so self-aware of its budget and how horny the players are,
just makes the game ten times more amazing just by that.

The artstyle is pleasing to look at and the way the characters are drawn and all of their sprites are absolutely stunning!
Great props for the artists for making the killers look like themselves in a lovely visual novel setting style.

All in all, it's funny, it's lovely, it definitely has great potential for future added content,
and the fact that someone who has never played Dead by Daylight before can fully enjoy the content of this game,
I would say that it's wholeheartedly worth it.
- Marisa (JK)

14/12/2022 - Cat's Princess Completion.
Current Backlog: 529
Currently Playing: 15

Cat's Princess is a shorter otome/visual novel game where you play as Leah,
the count's daughter, turned into a cat by an evil witch! You go on an adventure to find wise Rhjau,
to help her turn back to human and on the way you find amazing friends and even love.

The game is actually pretty fun and cute, the story isn't something grand,
but it's nice and well written enough to be enjoyable for sure! I enjoyed it so much in fact that I made a guide for it as well,
which I sometimes do for games that I feel like could benefit from them!

The artstyle is pretty great, I think the game's style shines through from the background art especially,
but with the sprite arts there could have been some improvements, at least in my opinion.
The CGs are also very lovely, but again, I feel like the character designs
and the big eyed anime design of them could have been better.
The cats were absolutely fantastically drawn though,
and I think that is one of the best parts of this game.

So as my final thoughts, if you enjoy otome games and stories about cats,
I can definitely recommend this game, even at full price. Great game.
- Marisa (JK)

20/12/2022 - Cat + Dog Completion.
Current Backlog: 538
Currently Playing: 15

💜This game was gifted to Catizens Curations for review.

Cat + Dog is the successor to a previous game I played called Cat Dungeon.
It's a fairly simple looking sokoban styled puzzle game with adorable main characters and a lovely pixel artstyle.

In this new game from Fortcullis Games, you control two characters simultaneously, the Cat and the Dog.
As you move the Cat left, the Dog goes right. The Cat loves fish and the Dog wants some bones!
The Cat must not touch the bones and the Dog must not touch the fish, pretty simple.
There is also the familiar boxes and spikes from the last game.

In my honest opinion, this game is another great game from this developer!
They listened to feedback very well and this game is even a little bit easier than the last,
making the beating of the game more faster, but still time consuming enough to be forth the effort.

This game is in-fact a great addition, and I fully recommend this to any puzzle enthusiasts
or those who want a little bit of challenge in their gaming.
- Marisa (JK)

26/12/2022 - Hidden Cats in London Completion.
Current Backlog: 541
Currently Playing: 15

💜 This game was gifted to Catizens Curations for review.

Another fantastic hidden object game from Nukearts Studio. Hidden Cats in London is a successor to the previous game Hidden Cats in Paris.
Where as the last game was quite short and lacked in overall content for a longer playability,
Hidden Cats in London shows a massive improvement in the content amount.

They have added two different modes for the main level in this game,
the main level showing the streets of London in a nice and pretty artstyle, that has lots of details and really makes you search for the hidden cats.
The regular mode has the same cats each time and a few hints to be used if you get stuck. The advanced mode has more cats in random spots,
special cats that unlock hidden levels and hints, and special characters that you need to find as well.
The hidden levels are also fun, but a lot simpler than the main level.
The cat's also look a little different compared to the main level, but still very cute.

There is a little more achievements in the game this time, but still very doable and they don't take too long.
There is a few hidden achievements, two specifically, that require you to complete the main level in regular and advanced mode without using hints.
I recommend trying to do those first, since they seem to be a little broken and if you don't do them first you need to remove the saves
and reset the game, to start again. This is only a bug however, and the devs are planning on fixing this soon.

Conclusion to my review; The game is a great improvement to the last one,
and is definitely worth the money even at full price. If you enjoy hidden object games and cute cats,
definitely get it!
- Marisa (JK)

28/12/2022 - Cats and Sokoban - Mimi's Scratcher Completion.
Current Backlog: 540
Currently Playing: 15

💜This game was gifted to Catizens Curations for review.

Mimi's Scratcher is a Sokoban type game in which you can push boxes,
stack boxes and even jump between platforms while carrying a box, when necessary
so that Mimi the absolutely adorable cat can reach her scratching post and have fun.
In this puzzle game you get to play through 55 levels (+1 secret level) that are all different and fun to complete.
There is no time limit and the levels are all relatively easy to complete if you are familiar with Sokoban styled puzzle games.

The soundtrack is a little repetitive, but still catchy and the design of the game is simple and minimalistic.
The cat is also very cute in her design, and makes cute little meow noises. Absolutely adorable!

The game is lovely and relaxing, and you can take your time with it and still feel great even after doing all the levels.
Definitely a worthy puzzle game to get for your library, especially with the cheap price that it is even at full price.
- Marisa (JK)

28/12/2022 - Monument Valley Completion.
Current Backlog: 542
Currently Playing: 15

"Those who stole our sacred geometry, have forgotten their true selves.
Cursed to walk those monuments are they. Foolish princess, have you forgotten too?"

Monument Valley is a meditative and calming perspective-based puzzle game
where you manipulate the monument levels to create different paths to explore with each angle.
The levels are optical illusions at their core, being tricky, but immensely satisfying puzzles to solve.

You play as Ida, the "forgetful princess", as she explores the Monument Valley's geometry,
progressing through the levels and solving the puzzles, with her path sometimes being blocked by the weird crow people,
who basically don't do anything other than caw at you when you get too close and block your path with their daily stroll.

The game was originally a mobile game, that was brought to PC with the panoramic editions for both the first and the second game.
Even though it's origin is on mobile, the controls for the game are not bad on PC.
The import was done well and this game is definitely one of those puzzle games that are a must have.

The game is absolutely worth it to get and the panoramic collection for both the first and second game is a really good deal.
Fun and relaxing to solve with beautiful graphics. Fully recommended!
- Marisa (JK)

29/12/2022 - Ailment Completion.
Current Backlog: 541
Currently Playing: 15

You find yourself awaken without memories of what happened after being unconscious for three days.
All of the crew on the ship are attacking you and looking really close to zombies.
Time to get your memories back and find out the truth of what happened.
Ailment is a pixel-art action game which takes place on a spaceship in a far far galaxy.

You go from room to room, shooting your crewmates turned to zombies and collecting more weapons and searching the ship for clues.
You can find some companions in some rooms to help you on your journey through the ship, but even they will eventually fail and die.

I really liked the game, though it was slightly too repetitive.
There was also some bugs where some enemies had spawned outside the map's walls,
so I entered combat often when I didn't want to do that, especially when you can't interact with containers
and computers when you are in combat.

Either way, the game is short enough to complete
and cheap enough to be worth it for sure. Recommended!
- Marisa (JK)

31/12/2022 - Ghost in The Pool Completion.
Current Backlog: 540
Currently Playing: 15

Have you heard that the school's pool is haunted? Spooky!

Ghost in the pool is a horror visual novel, with a spooky and gory looking,
Japanese black and white manga style, that has an interesting story and multiple endings.
The story and art style are both derived from the original series of horror comic called “诡闻斋”.

For a short horror visual novel, the game was pretty decent and fun to play through.
I enjoyed reading the story, which was pretty straight forward and to the point for most of the time.
There were some bits that got me a bit confused, like the part with the cat.
Oh yeah, there is a pretty gruesome scene with a dead cat, so probably not for the weakest of us.

All in all, if someone is a fan of a good old fashioned ghost story,
I would highly recommend getting this game, to scratch that itch - and for such a great price as well.
- Marisa (JK)

31/12/2022 - Speed Dating for Ghosts Completion.
Current Backlog: 539
Currently Playing: 15

A cemetery's worth of phantoms, wraiths, and poltergeists lookin' for love.

Speed Dating for Ghosts is literally what it sounds like, a dating sim about speed dating for ghosts.
You start the game and get to pick from 3 different rooms that have 3 different ghosts in each.
You have two rounds to speak with all three of the ghosts in that room,
and the ghost changes in front of you every time a bell rings,
so... literally like speed dating works usually.

There is a lot of different dialogue in the game,
branching choices that make you want to meet the ghosts again later
and many different kinds of ghosts to choose from. The tone of this dating sim is definitely to be more comedic than romantic,
but it does work work in this concept really well. For me, my own favorites from the ghosts you can choose from
were Hattie, Spooky Peter and Gary. Hattie was sweet, but also told an important story about old people in nursing homes.
Spooky Peter was, as I understood, a plague doctor before he died, and he was very spooky and dry, but also really fun and interesting.
Gary was really creepy and well done, but also sad and interesting.

Overall, I think this game is a short little fun trip for those of us who enjoy dating sims,
and it's definitely worth it. I honestly think you should wait for a sale as the amount of content
and dialogue is not worth it for the full price, but it's still worth to get.
- Marisa (JK)

02/01/2023 - Ralph and the Blue Ball Completion.
Current Backlog: 543
Currently Playing: 15

It's short, easy to 100% and has cute art of a dog looking for it's toys.
It's not a big game, in fact this game can be completed in under 20 minutes.
Still, I think it's an alright game to be played, though I wouldn't actually pay for this myself (got it as a gift).
A little fun hidden object game.
- Marisa (JK)

02/01/2023 - Sunlight Completion.
Current Backlog: 542
Currently Playing: 15

Nice little experience of a walking simulator game, with a cryptic allegorical story.

The description is very misleading, as there is barely nothing to explore, since the environment and the narration is very repetitive.
It's trying to be very "enlightening" game, though with the lack of actual gameplay content, you could call this more of a piece of audio literature.
It would probably hit the spot for a poetry fan, or someone who can make more sense of the story the trees are telling you.

Honestly, wouldn't recommend the game, maybe if it was free, then I might.
- Marisa (JK)

02/01/2023 - Sunlight Completion.
Current Backlog: 542
Currently Playing: 15

Nice little experience of a walking simulator game, with a cryptic allegorical story.

The description is very misleading, as there is barely nothing to explore, since the environment and the narration is very repetitive.
It's trying to be very "enlightening" game, though with the lack of actual gameplay content, you could call this more of a piece of audio literature.
It would probably hit the spot for a poetry fan, or someone who can make more sense of the story the trees are telling you.

Honestly, wouldn't recommend the game, maybe if it was free, then I might.
- Marisa (JK)

I thought it was a beautiful game with a very relaxing atmosphere and I enjoyed the different narrators. But I do agree that there's little gameplay and I probably would not have gotten it, if it hadn't been included in a bundle I bought.

I thought it was a beautiful game with a very relaxing atmosphere and I enjoyed the different narrators. But I do agree that there's little gameplay and I probably would not have gotten it, if it hadn't been included in a bundle I bought.

it was indeed super pretty and I feel like I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't playing it quite tired.
I was tired, so listening to the trees talk made me feel even more sleepy and it didn't really make me want to focus on it.

The game was in Jingle Jam, which is a charity game bundle, so I am glad that it was in it, but I would have not bought the game myself.
I did trade for it, but otherwise, not really worth it for me.

I'm glad you enjoyed it though!

03/01/2023 - Montaro Completion.
Current Backlog: 541
Currently Playing: 15

#BringBackDOGEmeme2023 #muchwow

Montaro is a casual runner game with an adorable Shiba Inu as it's main cast!
You play in a randomly generated city as the dog, you are able to jump and you are meant to avoid some annoying enemies,
like some of the street cats and the crows, uncovered manholes. You can trip up on banana peels, but don't worry!
Your armor is panties and to get more you can collect them from the school girls on the streets.

Despite the fact that you collect panties of highschoolers (which is super creepy btw), the game is actually fun and replayable for a long time.
There is cute costumes to buy and wear with the doge coins you collect each run and there is a highscore mechanic in the game,
which makes it fun to try and beat your own highscore for a long while.

All in all, the game is really cheap and super fun to play with great pixel graphics and fun soundtrack,
so it's definitely a worthy purchase for anyone.
- Marisa (JK)

03/01/2023 - Montaro RE Completion.
Current Backlog: 540
Currently Playing: 15

The Doge is back!

Montaro RE is a sequel to the previous game called Montaro.
It's a randomly generated, casual runner game where your goal is to avoid some other animals,
uncovered manholes, and banana peels.

Compared to the previous game, this one didn't really add anything new and was mostly the same old concept as previously.
The setting changed now to a more urban city center, but the models seem to be the same for most of the sprites.
The game also has a lower amount of achievements which makes it a faster game to complete and move aside.

Still, I believe this game is worth it, but I would rather recommend the previous game over this one,
so I will have to say, not recommended on this one.
- Marisa (JK)