Recent reviews by El Minotoro

I think this is probably one of the best self aware metagame games out there. I enjoyed the puzzles, even if they're pretty easy. It's pretty funny, the story is engaging enough, over all its quite charming.

My play time has been buffed up by me leaving my computer with the game on so check other reviews for length.

It's a fun, simple, nonviolent metroidvania. It's not very long but everything about the experience works together. It's not going to blow you away, but hopefully you enjoy the experience like I did

Overall disappointing
This is the new Frog Fractions game. I dont know, it's like the magic is gone. If you liked the self aware weird games like the original FF you've seen the genre grow and this feels stale.

Look, its not even as good as the Master System version of the game. It's totally linear where the original had a choice of level order. The music doesn't seem to be inspired by the originals. Overall it's pretty disappointing, to be frank.

Nine years in the making, this castlevania bullethell is beautiful in soundtrack, visuals and story. It sits in a sweet spot of challenging but finishable. Thoughtful in design, the only drawbacks is that there is not enough of this game.

Things have changed since the review: on release, everything had a single puzzle (except the green buttons). The larger update did change that, which is good. I still don't like the game, but I absolutely concede that the developer made the game more expansive.

HOWEVER, from my original review, I still have issue with the fact the game has no world building. There is no narrative consistency to the endings. They reveal nothing about anything about the world and almost all result in the city being destroyed in a variety of comepletely unrelated ways.

The puzzles themselves are fine, but not exactly that difficult. Since the release of the update there are now quite a few puzzles. I know it's only $5, but I can't really recommend the game to a general audience, nor would I recommend it to people who are making the connection to Papers Please. I made that connection, but it's wrong. If you like puzzles with easyish answers, then yeah this could be your thing.

Caveat: Do you like logic puzzles and clue hunting? Yeah it's probably okay. But still, let me stress the lack of any kind of world-building. It's like sudoku.

Used a valve on a vat expecting a bit of an explosive distraction. Turns out flooding the room with poison gas is an even better distraction.

Genocide/10

Seriously though, this is a great stealth game where each level gives you an objective and optional mission and a hand full of items and abilities to get through it the way you want to. Are you the rooftop avenging BatGoblin remaining unseen like a ninja or the master of magical mystery methodically murdering multiple municipalities? Also like a ninja.

I don't like dating simulators.

However I do love the bizarre.

Pigeon/10.

Final word: $10 is not the most amount of money I've spent on a joke.

Fun Puzzle Platformer.

Stick it to the man is a puzzle platformer that reminds me somewhat of scribblenauts. You can pick up objects or even thoughts from characters and then you slap them onto the level or into character's minds to solve a series of puzzles that allow you to finish the level. This is pretty good on its own but that's not what this game is about.

This game is like an early 90's Nickleodeon cartoon, with incredible visuals and fun script. The main character works at a hard hat factory, testing hard hats. By having things dropped on his head.

TL: DR= Get this game.

Where to begin? This game is so awesome and so clever, it's hard to know how to start.

Hand of Fate is an early access game of indeterminate genre. Roguelike is probably closest fit, but it's a blend of deck-building, rogue-likes and Arkham Asylum's combat with a dark fantasy setting.

Early Access: Entirely playable. Very solid beta release.

Gameplay: You build an encounter deck and an equipment deck using cards you win through playing the game and defeating encouters. How this plays out narratively and mechanically is so clever. As an example, there are "Ratling Hunters" cards that become locked into your encounter deck until you defeat the "Ratling Exterminators" encounter.
When you encounter monsters, the action takes place in a small instanced arena where you must fight for your life. You start out with very little but as you gain cards you can become an incredible killing machine. Once you have the "counter" ability, it becomes similar to Batman Arkham Whatever's combat.

The encounters you face are randomly laid out as a tarot style reading. And you're going to die. Die a lot.

Asthetics: Visually, the game is nice enough to look at. It won't blow you away but it sets the dark fantasy mood. The audio for the game is mostly good but there are bugs. The music is fitting, the VO for the dealer is acerbic but sometimes the sounds are annoying. Spawning enemies all sound like the 60's version of the Penguin (waaaark wark wark wark) and your dude sounds like Link but looks like an ancient celtic bad-ass. Still, early access, it's forgivable.

This game is amazing. Get it. Just get it. The only thing I really want is more customisation over my character, or possibly mulitple characters. Playing as a mage or something like that would require a different eq. deck and thus DLC is born.