Reviews
Reviews of the games I play, aiming to quickly encapsulate the game’s essence and quirks. Most games have an audience; my goal is for the review to make it clear to you whether you are part of a game’s audience (whether or not I am).
The second in a series of budget-priced downloadable Picross games for the 3DS.
There are 150 standard Picross puzzles up to 15x15 in size. Unfortunately, you can’t choose between Normal and Free rule sets; the puzzles are divided into ones that must be played Normal and ones that must be played Free.
The first in a series of budget-priced downloadable Picross games for the 3DS.
There are 150 standard Picross puzzles up to 15x15 in size. Unfortunately, you can’t choose between Normal and Free rule sets; the puzzles are divided into ones that must be played Normal and ones that must be played Free.
One of the first Picross video games. There are 192 puzzles played with Normal rules, giving time penalties for mistakes made. After completing these, a further 64 puzzles are available in “Time Trial” mode, which follows Free rules but also randomizes the order of the puzzles. The only assist available is Hint Roulette, which unfortunately can’t be disabled completely - if you don’t want it, you have to say “no” to it (which is not the default option) every time you start a puzzle (outside of Time Trial).
A text-based idle game where you play as a paperclip maximizer. Click to create paperclips, then buy upgrades to increase your ability to create paperclips, and go on from there - like many of the best idle games, there are a number of phases each with their own focus and surprises.
This game casts you as the healer standing behind the tank who takes on wave after wave of enemies. Spend your slowly-regenerating mana, items dropped by enemies, and level-up skill points in order to keep the tank alive for as long as possible. You will eventually fall, and the goal is to get farther next time.
A twin-stick shooter played on the surface of a sphere. The core gameplay is Asteroids-like with large rocks that break down into smaller ones and occasional enemies, but with a few sources of added variety.
This is a cleaned-up port of the PS3 version plus its DLC packs, with some extra streaming-friendly features and new DLC on top.
A twin-stick shooter played on the surface of a sphere. The core gameplay is Asteroids-like with large rocks that break down into smaller ones and occasional enemies, but with a few sources of added variety.
This game takes the same great formula as its predecessor, but makes some tweaks. Most notably, there are now only two weapon and asteroid types, with the least interesting one of the original three being dropped.
A twin-stick shooter played on the surface of a sphere (and an enhanced remake of Super Stardust on the Amiga). The core gameplay is Asteroids-like with large rocks that break down into smaller ones and occasional enemies, but with a few sources of added variety.
There are three different weapons to switch between for different playstyles - a spread shot, a focused long-range shot, and a whip-like beam.
A space shooter game that puts the player in control of a small ship in an asteroid field. The player can turn the ship clockwise or counterclockwise, fire engines to accelerate forward, or shoot a projectile weapon. The ship broadly follows Newtonian physics - it has inertia and will keep moving in a direction after the player cuts the engines unless they rotate and accelerate in the opposite direction.
A mobile adaptation of the long-running Dynasty Warriors series based on the setting, events, and cast of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The sprawling and dynamic Musou gameplay for which the franchise is famous has been scaled down and streamlined to work on mobile - levels are much shorter and simpler and generally have you taking a linear path to fight through waves of mooks until a boss appears.