A simulation game in which you create and control or observe the lives of virtual humans (“Sims”) in a simplified version of the modern Western world. Sims can learn skills, make friends and enemies, start families and have children, go to school and get jobs, engage in various hobbies, and more - either under their own autonomous decision-making or under the direct control of the player. The game is a sandbox experience without explicit win or loss states and while many systems present obvious goals (such as advancing on career tracks and making lots of money) the player is free to pick and choose or ignore them entirely. As a result, the game is played in very different ways by different people - some use player-derived frameworks of goals and rules, others find hilarious/disturbing ways to torture Sims, still others work through complicated real-life issues and fantasies.

A conversational game about first contact with an alien race and the ramifications for humanity’s chances of survival. Play control rotates between a few humans and even the alien, and each has their own goals to accomplish mainly through dialog choices. The game is a semi-sequel to Subsurface Circular with a similar format and apparently set in the same world, but they stand separately and can be played in any order. They have slightly different strengths and weaknesses, but a lot of this review will be familiar if you’ve read the previous one.

A 3D collectathon platformer where the player character happens to be a car. The simple gameplay and story, vaporwave-like visuals, and relaxed soundtrack suggest the game is intended to be a chill experience, but lack of polish and backtracking-heavy design make it increasingly frustrating as the map opens up.

A car-based platformer is something I’ve wanted ever since Jim Sterling asked why 3D Sonic games didn’t use driving controls in 2011, but Car Quest doesn’t take full advantage of the premise. While some areas and challenges are built to make use of a car’s movement style (ramps that you must drive up to reach midair collectibles, a slalom that must be completed quickly) much of the game feels like a generic platformer (you can even swim for some reason) and challenges like pushing blocks don’t fit well with the car.

A character-driven narrative mystery game with occasional platform/rhythm/adventure game elements. Play as Mae, twenty-year-old college dropout returning to her hometown of Possum Springs and reuniting with her family and friends and confronting how things have changed. Gameplay is mostly a matter of exploring the town, talking to inhabitants and passers-through, and deciding which friend to spend the evening with on each day.

A sports minigame collection set in an island resort. Activities range widely from table hockey to skydiving to playing a glass harp, connected by a surprisingly rich hub world to explore and featuring a surprising amount of customization in the form of outfits, vehicle skins, a variety of dogs that can follow you around, and a villa for the player to lay out and furnish.

A 2D action RPG Metroidvania that feels like it’s set in an animated movie, because it basically is. Play as the amnesiac Dust exploring varied environments and fighting monsters to find answers and help people out along the way.

While not everyone likes the art style (which is somewhere between Vanillaware and The Secret of NIMH) I found it beautiful. The smooth-flowing animation is even more impressive due to it holding up perfectly during the game’s very fluid combo-based combat. HyperDuck Soundworks provides a beautiful soundtrack and the voice acting is always at least passable and features a couple of standout performances, particularly that of main character Dust. The story and its delivery are solid, with some likable characters and intriguing mysteries that have good payoffs.

A short and simple retro-styled game that feels like an essentialized homage to Zelda dungeons. As any of three shrine maidens, progress through a series of four levels defeating enemies and solving simple puzzles to reach and cleanse four gates which also act as save points. Once you’ve cleansed all four, fight a boss and proceed to the next level.

A life sim that casts you primarily as a farmer growing crops and raising livestock but also features fishing, cooking, crafting, mining, combat, and romanceable NPCs. The game is heavily influenced by the old Harvest Moon or Story of Seasons games, and is presented in a similar three-quarters overhead pixel-art style. While your farm is evaluated after three in-game years, the game is open-ended and you can continue playing and tackle whatever goals you like in whatever order you like.

A puzzle game tasking the player with writing simple programs to manipulate numbers. Eleven different programming commands are available as building blocks for conquering forty one increasingly-complex challenges. Most puzzles also have optional goals to optimize your program’s line count and execution time. The experience is lightly wrapped in a shallow but ironic story that has your program executed by a human office worker doing pointless work to climb a corporate ladder.

A bite-sized pixel-art underwater Metroidvania starring a squid. Swim to explore your environment, get new abilities, and do favors for sea urchins. It’s a solid foundation that feels more like a proof of concept than a finished game, clocking in at about an hour and leaving most of its ideas undeveloped.

A Musou game set in a crossover Fire Emblem world, featuring a few original characters and many from previous games - mostly Awakening, Fates, and Shadow Dragon. As is standard for Musou crossover games, elements from the franchise have been incorporated into the standard large-scale hack-and-slash gameplay - and Fire Emblem turns out to be a shockingly good fit, resulting in easily the mechanically-best Musou gameplay I’ve ever experienced.

A video game adaptation of a mathematical picture-drawing puzzle that plays like if Picross took a few steps toward Minesweeper.

As with Picross, you have a rectangular grid where some squares are meant to be colored in to reveal a picture. Unlike Picross, here the clues are numbers from zero to nine found in some of the squares, indicating how many of the immediately-surrounding squares (plus the clue square itself) should be filled in. A nine means to fill in the entire three-by-three section, while a zero means all of those squares are blank instead. By starting with the zeroes and nines (or sixes along the grid’s edge, or fours in its corners) and spreading to adjacent clues (a three next to a nine, for example, means the remaining six squares in the three’s area should be blank) you gradually fill in or blank out every square in the grid and reveal the image.

A spin-off of the Senran Kagura series that presents a short and simple visual novel about face-of-the-series Asuka exploring her feelings and confessing her love for the player character. This is accomplished via a series of sexually-charged vignettes in which the player massages Asuka in simple minigames to unlock her emotions. There’s also DLC to add four other characters (Yumi, Murasaki, Ryōna, and Yomi) and more cosmetic options for the series staple dress-up and diorama modes. Unfortunately, the game fails on almost every level.

A 2D retro-styled Metroidvania in a well-developed world with platforming puzzles and varied combat that both make full use of your ever-growing toolset. The mechanics are satisfying and the storytelling is compelling, but the game doesn’t respect the player’s time quite as much as I’d like.

Your main tools are your wrench, which can thwack enemies or turn bolts to activate mechanisms, and your stun gun, which can blast enemies or open certain barriers. Both receive upgrades through the course of the game, granting new abilities used both for combat and for puzzle-based exploration. As a result, the action stays fresh and varied and tests you on many different mechanical skills.

A fast-paced 2D retro-styled brawler. While there are a couple of minor platforming puzzles and one hidden path to a secret boss, the focus is squarely on combat. There is a story that does serve as a sequel to the first Noitu Love, but that game is not at all a prerequisite to understanding or enjoying this one. The game’s biggest selling points are its excellent boss design and its unusual pointer-heavy control scheme - on PC, you must play using keyboard and mouse; on 3DS and Wii U, it’s buttons and stylus or Wiimote and nunchuck. The three playable characters use the pointer in different ways, but it’s always core to their combat mechanics and often their traversal abilities as well.

A 2D retro-styled platformer and brawler. Navigate through six large levels over the course of an hour or so, beating up a robot army and using “evomatic” machines to change forms and gain new powers used both for combat and platforming puzzles. There is a story, but it doesn’t matter much.

A jigsaw-like puzzle game with an international theme. Photos and a few drawings from a variety of countries are divided into rectilinear, Tetris-like pieces that the player must arrange to reconstruct the image.

Gameplay is kept uncluttered and manageable on a phone’s screen by focusing only on usable pieces. You start every puzzle with only two pieces; once these are combined several more are added, but only ones that can be used to connect to other pieces you have so far. As you use up this set, more pieces are added, until the full puzzle is present and you can complete the entire image. This is a great system that means that starting a new puzzle is never overwhelming.

A game that has you running a boutique selling clothes and accessories and incidentally helping a few young women become pop idols. With low-stakes gameplay in a safe and friendly world, it’s mostly a warm and relaxing game, but interruptive management sim elements and slow progression make it more tedious and repetitive than it needs to be.

An RPG with retro aesthetics and an intricately strategic turn-based combat system. Recruit a diverse cast of teammates, explore sci-fi environments, and battle your way through uncovering and thwarting a sinister plot. The Sega Saturn-like visuals and music by HyperDuck SoundWorks are both appealing and put to good use, and the UI is carefully crafted to give you all the information you need to navigate battle without being overwhelming.

An exploration and survival game with building and space sim elements. Explore procedurally-generated alien worlds, scan the wildlife, and collect resources and artifacts. Craft technology and upgrades, build a base, and trade with aliens. Fight space pirates, command fleets of ships, and investigate the galaxy’s mysteries.

It’s a very ambitious game that constantly gets in its own way. Most of the gameplay is not particularly refined or compelling, but the real problems are the places where the design actively damages what would be enjoyable about the game. The spacious and often beautiful landscapes are made for relaxed exploration, but that’s rendered impossible by a tiny inventory and the constant need to refuel the equipment that enables your exploration. Your space suit’s two types of life support, your multi-tool’s two types of mining beam, and your ship’s three types of engines all take different fuels and are always running out.