The mermaid fight was one of the most frustrating experiences I've had with video games.

I'd love to see Rule get a proper rework where they can commit to the strengths of the game and banish the worst parts of it. I can see why they felt combat was required to appeal to the bigger survival horror market, but the game would be a million times approved if they got rid if fighting all together. Maybe tied boss fights into something more interesting with Brown, making it more of a puzzle than a battle. There's really something special buried in there somewhere.

Really good review of this one! Even if it brought back some degree of PTSD. I thought I had forgotten about the mermaid and how it was just a horrible slog to try beating it.

But yeah, when it comes to my memories of this game, your review hits the nail perfectly. Just a great vibe and a very subtle story that dances around and through reality to create a twisted fairy tale with grim real world stuff involved. And a clumsy and all-around horrid game built around it where you'll quickly learn to just not ever fight anything unless you're forced to because there is not one single fun aspect to watching an inept teenish girl stumbling over herself while flailing around with a very short ranged weapon.

Thank you, Jason. I intended for it to be something a lot less dense, but I got lost somewhere in the material. I hate that I would struggle to recommend the game more; rarely have I wanted to love something as much as Rule of Rose.

Thanks for reading.

What a terrific review! I now feel less distressed over my failure to play this one myself (though the consensus on the site seemed to be that it's very skippable). I barely even like the good horror games, so missing this one doesn't sound like the worst thing I've ever done... even though it sounds like I've missed out on some potentially neat lore and an aesthetic that would have been pretty cool at the time of its release.

Title: Cygni: All Guns Blazing
Platform: PS5

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps5/378515-cygni-all-guns-blazing/data

Added.

Thanks.

Yeah, this one bummed me out, especially since it seemed like it was going to be a good remake from the descriptions and screenshots I saw.

The other games from the devs, Orbit Studio, look like they have interesting concepts (a Scrooge Metroidvania??), but the gameplay looks to be underwhelming. Though, this is based solely on my Haunted House experience in comparison.

Thanks for reading!

It's a shame this one couldn't live up to its potential. You did a good job of describing the game's setup and how it fails to achieve much of anything. I'm not huge on stealth games, so maybe I would find the difficulty more to my liking, but the repetition still sounds like a dealbreaker and I'm not big on the idea of frequent bugs. Thanks for the heads up!

Title: Haunted House
Platform: PS5

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps5/411747-haunted-house/data

Added.

Thanks.

At least from time to time. Actually decided to do things a bit more intelligently. Exe-Create is still their most prolific creator and they also release free versions of most of their games (where you have ads popping up from time to time). So I moved from this old game by another team to the most recent Exe-Create one (Spirit Valor) to see if they've improved over the years or are just regurgitating every single element from game to game like in the past.

And the results are...not bad? A lot of that regurgitation, but the character building stuff is pretty fun and the dungeons are fairly large and have a certain amount of complexity to them. Something that at least will get me to say that it was reasonably fun! Unless things go downhill as the game progresses. Which is always a very real concern with these games.

Good review. Do have to correct the last photo tag, as the pic isn't appearing, but I liked the review. Seems like a neat game, if not one that's in my wheelhouse. I do remember playing the NES port of Shadowgate once a few decades ago, but never had any desire to touch the other games of that sort (Deja Vu, Uninvited).

Glad to hear that, Masters. Thanks!

Congratulations!

Time flies... for what it's worth, I think you've always struck a nice balance between humour and reviewing the actual game. Keep on keepin' on!

Thanks! Yeah, I was recently looking over my review catalog on the site and noticed 20 years was coming up on the site, so I decided to do something silly for it. My submission input isn't what it used to be, but that's more to do with being occupied with other things in life, so I try pacing myself.

There's definitely been some ups and downs in terms of the quality of my reviews, which is more noticeable in my "early-latter" reviews where I focus more on joking than actually reviewing the product. You can pull off humor in a review, but there has to be a right balance. I could take those down, but I leave them up as a reminder of what not to do.

Working on the quality of writing a review is a never-ending process, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Congratulations on your 20 years of reviewing, and your sense of history!

Once, each chapter opened a door to fresh realms. Those doors are now sealed, and couldn't be. What comes (will they keep the series going forever?) is competently designed products.

The real Khallenge is staying away from Kemco's games! Sometimes, JRPG junk food is just what the doctor ordered, right?

I quite like these types of games, but only if the core gameplay is entertaining on a repetitive scale, if that makes sense. Something like Pac-Man works better because you're always on the verge of losing due to its "survival" elements in play; though, the quality wildly varies depending on the Pac-Man spin-offs and port jobs you decide to choose.

Then there's something like the Bomberman series, where it's a its best with its multiplayer component. A lot of the games in the series just.... stink if you only play them for their single-player mode, which is more of an afterthought.

I enjoyed Pengo, but having to survive its 64 stages (which I think wasn't a thing for the arcade game, someone correct me?) can be a bit too much for some players, especially with its base mechanics not changing at all throughout the game. Still, I guess it's a testament to its structure that the game doesn't become downright boring as you play the whole loop.

Thanks for reading!

When I play a game like Pengo, I remind myself that at the time of its release, it was a lot more "cutting edge." There wasn't as much competition. However, it also cost a lot more than we would ever consider paying for such fare today. It feels like a miracle the medium developed past simple games of that sort, which sound more punishing than tough. Nowadays, I just don't have a lot of patience for a 64-stage adventure that might make me replay its earliest stages a bundle of times to get to the later ones. From your descriptions, it sounds like it is indeed well suited for the Game Gear, but I don't feel bad about missing out on it. You did a great job of getting into the nitty-gritty of how it feels to play. Nice work!

This sounds like such an interesting game. I love the idea of just being able to choose violence to progress, when thinking becomes too difficult or the puzzles too obtuse. It's neat the game apparently weaves this into its plot, so that it goes beyond just being a neat idea for the gameplay. I do wish it were possible to take either approach in all cases, but I understand that would have been a difficult feat to manage. Great review!

Astro Bot does seem really good. PS5 is in that weird zone where it feels like the PS4 generation stayed alive way longer than any other generation after the new systems came out. With me having the PS4 Plus and how its increased processing power makes it so I can play PS5 games that got PS4 ports (like Elden Ring) with no issue other than the longer load times the 4 has, it's rare I feel like I'm missing something by not upgrading. Astro Bot, R&C Rift Apart, Remnant 2, probably a couple others I'm not thinking of off my head, but I still have so much I haven't gotten to yet on the 4...

And, yeah, that's about what Sackboy is. A perfectly fun game that's great to go through in bits and pieces. I got it because it was one of the three free games offered at the beginning of the month through PS Plus some time ago, and sat on it until I was in the mood for a game like this. And, really, dealing with the Wii's motion controls in Galaxy 2 made me think I wanted to play an action platformer with the kind of control scheme I like, so it happened.