1
General Gaming / Re: The Great(?) Video Game Spreadsheet Project: Year 32 Challenge!
« on: June 03, 2024, 08:53:22 PM »
Week 35: Current Weighted Top Twenty (as of 6/1/2024):
VVVVVV (4.47)
Paper Mario TTYD Remaster (4.46)
Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 (4.42)
UNSIGHTED (4.41)
Crawl (4.36)
Paper Mario TTYD (4.35)
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (4.3)
The Swapper (4.28)
Inscryption (4.25)
Donkey Kong (1994) (4.25)
Roller Coaster Tycoon (Deluxe) (4.23)
Crystal Project (4.23)
Dandara (4.21)
Mr. Driller Drill Land (4.21)
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (4.19)
ARMS (4.19)
Skwish (4.17)
Tetris Effect Connected (4.16)
Kirby's Air Ride (4.15)
Pick Pack Pup (4.12)
Well, it's been a doozy. I've got tons of games to talk about, with a whole bunch of positive feelings... and maybe some not-so-positive ones. I have rubber-banded between absolute delight and a bit of confusion in the past two months, but I'm happy to say that I've kept a decent-ish standard of playing a more than a game per week, though with shorter experiences, I guess that might be suspect.
Frogun (2.63) - Disliked
Quite low on the list is Frogun, a game I hoped would be better than it turned out to be. In evoking early 3D platformers, it adopted some of the idiosyncrasies and sluggishness of those games and was ultimately just a bit frustrating from a control standpoint and some tedious aesthetic choices. There are better games that evoke early 3D platformers. Play them instead.
Signalis (3.38) - Disliked
I respect the hell out of Signalis, but I really can't stand some of its design choices. The inventory limits are frustrating to an absurd extent and while I can understand why access to the map is taken away at certain points, it's frustrating for the sake of obtuseness and doesn't add to the game's horror. I loved the game's aesthetics and some of its ideas, but I don't think it perfectly sticks the landing. Oh well.
Sayonara Wild Hearts (3.93) - Loved
I dared myself to give this game more points, but this is the highest I could push it without feeling disingenuous. It sits at a respectable 52 at the moment, and I love that. This game rocks. It makes me want to play Lorelei. It's not perfect, but it is an absolute thrill ride.
Another Crab's Treasure (3.67) - Loved
Sadly, a bit of my appreciation for this game was hindered by poor Switch performance... but since performance doesn't factor into my ratings all that much, I can still give it a fairly high score while also understanding its flaws. This game pulls a "The Second Game by Aggro Crab" in its credits, and as far as I'm concerned, it earns it. It's pretty astounding to see the bump in ambition this dev has made between Going Under and Another Crab's Treasure, but there's a lot of shared DNA. Fun and tense boss battles, strong environmental design, and neat mechanics make this a very enjoyable ride. If you don't like Dark Souls, you might not enjoy this, but if you do like games with some layers to appreciate, I'd recommend it.
Bleak Sword DX (3.17) - Meh
Speaking of Dark Souls, turning the whole thing into an aesthetics-lite, arcade-style experience is a novel concept, but the twists in environmental design that are used to complicate matters sort of negated my overall enjoyment. The bite-sized levels and their quirks are really the only way the game re-invents its combat, so if you don't find yourself enjoying that element early on, you're likely headed for a lukewarm experience.
Vaporum (3.41) - Liked
I've sat on this real-time, first-person dungeon crawler for too long, and as it turns out, I probably did myself a disservice. I think it's a bit unfortunate that Vaporum works best when it isn't real-time, but rather incredibly methodical, because a real-time grid-based combat system does seem cool in concept. From the look of some puzzles here, the developers are a bit too confident in how universal their own game language is, and the narrative is a bit whack, but it does a fine job.
Astroneer (2.67) - Meh
Wow! What an incredibly badly-designed tutorial! It almost makes me want to disengage with your game entirely!
Paper Mario TTYD Remaster (4.46) - Loved
Well, it took me returning to this game many years since I last played it to find an even greater appreciation for it. I've noted that TTYD Remastered does an even better job of telegraphing how the player can modify the game's difficulty, at least in terms of action commands. But several quality of life changes make what was arguably my favorite JRPG ever even more accessible and replayable, not to mention some added endgame content for the truly unhinged. Since I did an all-BP run of the game, I'm delighting in how impressively it handles a ton of strategies.
WhatTheCrow (3.50) - Liked
A cute score chasing stealth destruction game, which never really plays out the same way more than once due to the weird enemy movement patterns. It's a lot of fun, but it's enhanced by some really slick animations during its opening sequence and an adorable art style.
VVVVVV (4.47)
Paper Mario TTYD Remaster (4.46)
Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 (4.42)
UNSIGHTED (4.41)
Crawl (4.36)
Paper Mario TTYD (4.35)
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (4.3)
The Swapper (4.28)
Inscryption (4.25)
Donkey Kong (1994) (4.25)
Roller Coaster Tycoon (Deluxe) (4.23)
Crystal Project (4.23)
Dandara (4.21)
Mr. Driller Drill Land (4.21)
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (4.19)
ARMS (4.19)
Skwish (4.17)
Tetris Effect Connected (4.16)
Kirby's Air Ride (4.15)
Pick Pack Pup (4.12)
Well, it's been a doozy. I've got tons of games to talk about, with a whole bunch of positive feelings... and maybe some not-so-positive ones. I have rubber-banded between absolute delight and a bit of confusion in the past two months, but I'm happy to say that I've kept a decent-ish standard of playing a more than a game per week, though with shorter experiences, I guess that might be suspect.
Frogun (2.63) - Disliked
Quite low on the list is Frogun, a game I hoped would be better than it turned out to be. In evoking early 3D platformers, it adopted some of the idiosyncrasies and sluggishness of those games and was ultimately just a bit frustrating from a control standpoint and some tedious aesthetic choices. There are better games that evoke early 3D platformers. Play them instead.
Signalis (3.38) - Disliked
I respect the hell out of Signalis, but I really can't stand some of its design choices. The inventory limits are frustrating to an absurd extent and while I can understand why access to the map is taken away at certain points, it's frustrating for the sake of obtuseness and doesn't add to the game's horror. I loved the game's aesthetics and some of its ideas, but I don't think it perfectly sticks the landing. Oh well.
Sayonara Wild Hearts (3.93) - Loved
I dared myself to give this game more points, but this is the highest I could push it without feeling disingenuous. It sits at a respectable 52 at the moment, and I love that. This game rocks. It makes me want to play Lorelei. It's not perfect, but it is an absolute thrill ride.
Another Crab's Treasure (3.67) - Loved
Sadly, a bit of my appreciation for this game was hindered by poor Switch performance... but since performance doesn't factor into my ratings all that much, I can still give it a fairly high score while also understanding its flaws. This game pulls a "The Second Game by Aggro Crab" in its credits, and as far as I'm concerned, it earns it. It's pretty astounding to see the bump in ambition this dev has made between Going Under and Another Crab's Treasure, but there's a lot of shared DNA. Fun and tense boss battles, strong environmental design, and neat mechanics make this a very enjoyable ride. If you don't like Dark Souls, you might not enjoy this, but if you do like games with some layers to appreciate, I'd recommend it.
Bleak Sword DX (3.17) - Meh
Speaking of Dark Souls, turning the whole thing into an aesthetics-lite, arcade-style experience is a novel concept, but the twists in environmental design that are used to complicate matters sort of negated my overall enjoyment. The bite-sized levels and their quirks are really the only way the game re-invents its combat, so if you don't find yourself enjoying that element early on, you're likely headed for a lukewarm experience.
Vaporum (3.41) - Liked
I've sat on this real-time, first-person dungeon crawler for too long, and as it turns out, I probably did myself a disservice. I think it's a bit unfortunate that Vaporum works best when it isn't real-time, but rather incredibly methodical, because a real-time grid-based combat system does seem cool in concept. From the look of some puzzles here, the developers are a bit too confident in how universal their own game language is, and the narrative is a bit whack, but it does a fine job.
Astroneer (2.67) - Meh
Wow! What an incredibly badly-designed tutorial! It almost makes me want to disengage with your game entirely!
Paper Mario TTYD Remaster (4.46) - Loved
Well, it took me returning to this game many years since I last played it to find an even greater appreciation for it. I've noted that TTYD Remastered does an even better job of telegraphing how the player can modify the game's difficulty, at least in terms of action commands. But several quality of life changes make what was arguably my favorite JRPG ever even more accessible and replayable, not to mention some added endgame content for the truly unhinged. Since I did an all-BP run of the game, I'm delighting in how impressively it handles a ton of strategies.
WhatTheCrow (3.50) - Liked
A cute score chasing stealth destruction game, which never really plays out the same way more than once due to the weird enemy movement patterns. It's a lot of fun, but it's enhanced by some really slick animations during its opening sequence and an adorable art style.