Recent reviews by Shad0WeN

A brilliant and creative game that did the whole 2D action on 3D surfaces gameplay mechanic before The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds or Super Mario Odyssey ever did. The levels are diverse and well designed, enemy variety is interesting, the attacks and move sets you unlock and can combine together are compelling and feel fluid, and the boss fights are creative and make good use of the game's various mechanics. The Rap and Hip Hop music is not really my cup of tea but it seems good for what it is, though fairly repetitive as it cycles two of the tracks per level but probably should have done more than that. The only really glaring issue is some random crashing on one particular level (Times Square) late in the game but other than that it was smooth sailing for me. Obviously something that slipped through the cracks in playtesting and QA. It may take a few re-tries but I was able to complete that level in its entirety multiple times. As far as the framerate being capped at 30fps goes, I think that was blown way out of proportion and people sometimes tend to focus to a draconian degree on technical details that are negligible in the end. This isn't like a multiplayer first-person shooter where tens of milliseconds could potentially matter. As such it did not affect my enjoyment of the game whatsoever and frankly I find it to be a non-issue (just as it was for me with Teleglitch for example). I had a great time with this game and trying to get all the secret tags and 100% each level and the actual gameplay is definitely deserving of a higher rating on here than it ultimately got. It been a long time since its release and it looks like it will never get a sequel, which is unfortunate.

A fun minimalist strategy game that I would otherwise recommend but can't because of how frequently it breaks. Aside from crashing on occasion, sometimes it happens randomly whereby you can no longer interact with elements of your tower (nothing happens when you click on them like it's supposed to), effectively ending the game. It's enjoyable when it works but too often it breaks.

I didn't get a chance to try an online game as it didn't find any but it looks like you can invite a friend and I suspect that is probably the best way to play. The computer opponent is okay but certainly wouldn't be as skilled or challenging as a human one and there are no difficulty levels.

Alright, so people might look at the screenshots or trailer for this game and be falsely tempted to think that it's just some 2D Zelda clone but that's not really doing it justice. It takes inspiration from it to be sure but Ittle Dew, being a smaller indie game, is far more focused on lots of very creative puzzle solving as a means of progression over somewhat subdued elements of exploration and combat that the Zelda formula relies more on.

Pros:

• Absolutely fantastic puzzles that make very creative use of only a few items.
  
• Substantial non-linear design that gives you different paths by which to progress and which adds a decent amount of replayability with things like achievement hunting.
  
• The writing and sense of humor.
  
• The world lore, though it can be rather confusing or obscure at times.
  
• Easter eggs.

Neutral:

• The music is okay but nothing special. The Castle theme was kind of catchy though.
  
• The art style. Some people may love it while others don't care for it.

Cons:

• Assigning controls to a gamepad in the launcher is somewhat buggy. I have to make sure to rebind the horizontal and vertical movement axes for both the D-pad and analog stick every time the game is launched or the controls won't work right. It's not the first time I've encountered issues with the Unity launcher, which I hate.
  
• The game world is rather small and I would have liked to have seen more fleshed-out exploration and combat, though from what I understand this seems to have been made more of a focus in Ittle Dew 2.

Final Verdict:

An excellent puzzle game that had me thinking hard at times and which I really enjoyed a lot. Again, just don't go in expecting 2D Zelda. This is more Sokoban with a twist.

An awesome RPG game in the form of a platformer. Kind of like the old school 2D Castlevania games but with much more of a focus on RPG elements. Can't really think of another title that's such a neat mashup of the two genres. The single player part of the game is well-polished and seems like it is reasonably lengthy. It's also well-written with a good sense of humor in the dialogue with numerous references to other games and pop culture. I know it has an unusual name but don't overlook this gem!!

Pros:
- very fun physics-based puzzles
- frequent checkpoints
- unique & interesting visual style
- dark & creepy atmosphere
- good sense of isolation & exploration
- good ambient sound effects
- gruesome death animations
- secret hidden eggs & bonus area w/ difficult challenge

Cons:
- short game
- very little replayability
- no volume control, sparse options
- can't customize controls
- gamepad support limited to Xbox360 controller only

Other Thoughts:
Don't expect to get more than 10 hours tops out of this game. In spite of that I would highly recommend LIMBO if you like games that involve thought-provoking puzzles, simply because the experience is that AWESOME while it lasts. The lack of options is a minor issue & doesn't really impact the enjoyment of the game itself.

-- read the FULL REVIEW at http://www.metacritic.com/user/Shad0WeN --

Pros:
- cute & fun addictive puzzle game
- interesting graphics, sound effects, music
- nice variety of items and objects to interact with
- built-in puzzle hints system if you need a little help
- viewable puzzle solutions for those that really wanna cheat

Cons:
- limited screen resolutions (1024 x 768 & 800 x 600 only)
- no volume control
- puzzle solutions don't require any effort to access (unlike Machinarium where you had to play a mini-game)

Other Thoughts:
Kind of reminds me of the old Lemmings games a little bit but with only one character to manipulate & guide to safety instead of many. Haven't had a chance to play very much yet but it does seem a little easy so far. Time will tell.

An inventive & unique action puzzle game that revolves around the manipulation of time to solve various puzzles, with an interesting & thought provoking storyline that has hidden dark layers & undertones beneath the colorful semi-cartoony graphics. Progressing through the game & solving the variety of diverse puzzles is certainly brain-teasing, & while some may leave you totally stumped at times, Braid is the type of game where as you are running around experimenting the answer will hit you all of a sudden & keeps you coming back for more. You can't die in Braid, but don't let that fool you into thinking this game is somehow lacking in difficulty. It's definitely quite challenging & just when you think you have solved it all there are secrets hidden throughout the game. While the game is not that long the experience will certainly leave its mark upon you. Thanks to Braid I now pay a lot more attention to indie games because there are some real gems out there. Also can't wait for "The Witness", the follow-up to this from lead developer Jonathan Blow.