Recent reviews by Vlash

TL;DR: Scritchy Scratchy is a highly addictive roguelite clicker game about making numbers go up by scratching scratchcards. If you're even remotely interested in this, just buy it!

There is something "lizard brain-like" about just seeing numbers go up, and Scritchy Scratchy manages to scratch this itch almost perfectly! I played it to completion in 2–3 sittings over about 19 hours, and that says a lot for me. It's the perfect game to play while watching something in the background or listening to a podcast. You don't need to have your full focus on the game at all times, unless you go for one specific achievement that is time-sensitive. It's a very nice and chill game about scratching cards, and while it's not the same as scratching cards in real life, it's definitely much healthier for my wallet.

The roguelite aspect comes between each run, where you can upgrade your chances for a better run next time. Not every upgrade feels good or even useful, but many of them change the game in a positive way. After having done maybe 15–20-ish runs, I have some wishes for how to smooth out a few friction points.

When you're in a run, you have a gadgets menu for upgrading in-game stuff, but I would have liked it if these upgrades disappeared from the menu once they are purchased or maxed out. This already happens on the right side with the upgrades menu when you max out your scratching coin. The current solution creates friction because you have to constantly scroll up and down the gadget list to check what to upgrade next. If they disappeared, it would free up more space. At least have this as an option in the settings, or let me swipe them off the screen maybe?

I started to notice a bug after a while. I don't know what causes it, but I think it started happening after I became a "faithful servant" for the first time. At this point, I probably also started using keyboard shortcuts more. Increasingly often, my cursor would change to a coin, and I couldn't click on any cards or anything else. I had to exit to the main menu and then go back into the game. Thankfully, the game saves everything, so you don't lose progress by doing this, but it's an annoying bug nonetheless.

The button to collect your winnings under a ticket should always be in the same spot on the screen and not jump around because the scratchcards are different sizes. This is annoying in websites or applications as well, where for instance the next/previous page buttons buttons jump around instead of staying put. When I was programming back in the day, I would always make sure that these types of buttons stayed in the same spot. The button to collect winnings is something you click a lot, often very fast and repeatedly, so when the button changes place and you are dropped out of the "collect your winnings" screen, it's just annoying.

Other than those small friction points, this game is really good!

TL;DR: Retro Rewind perfectly captures that nostalgic 90s video store vibe, but the experience is currently marred by a broken economy that actually punishes you for progressing. There is a great game hidden here, but it needs patches before it’s truly worth your time.

I’ve put 21.5 hours into this and have 100%'ed the game. Sadly, the experience comes to a grinding halt after the first two hours. While the 90s video store vibe is spot on (it brought back so many great memories of visiting my local video store in my youth), the balancing and lack of guidance make it a frustrating experience. I liked the parody movies that come out as a 'new movie' ever week, but I didn't like so much just random names and artwork on the rest of the movies. They just mix and match a few stickers on the covers.

After the first two hours, you have mostly seen everything the game has to offer. You just repeat the same tasks over and over. I hoped that unlocking workers would automate the process and increase my earnings, but it’s quite the opposite.
In the early game I made about 400–500 per day by doing everything manually, but in the late game (Level 20) I only net about 170–250 per day with two workers.

The more you "progress", the less you earn. After paying wages, I can barely afford to buy new movies or shelves for the store, often having to save up for several days just to make a single purchase.

I spent 15 hours with the starting size shop before I even realized I could expand it. I assumed it would be a level-up unlock, a phone call, or an option on the in-game PC. Instead, you have to touch a blueprint poster on the office wall. Something my brain completely ignored as a non-essential decoration. I eventually had to Google it.
Everything else in the game is grounded in either the catalogue or PC, so those places would be a natural place for buying the expansion as well, or at least be clearly highlighted in a way. How about having the blueprint on a architect desk? 75% of my playtime was spent in the tiny starter store because the game failed to communicate this mechanic.

The worker AI is incredibly taxing! Multiple times, I hired someone only for them to claim they were sick before working a single minute. There needs to be a cooldown or "bad luck protection" for new hires.
Workers fall asleep way too often, sometimes even before the first customer arrives.
Even with the fastest working skill, the return station worker can't keep up. I often find myself waiting 10–15 real-life minutes after closing just to watch my two workers chug through the return bin.

The game desperately needs an "Always Run" toggle. Also, the constant phone ringing actually stresses me out, we need a way to mute the phone specifically without killing the game sounds. Furthermore, mechanics like decorations and leaflets seem to have zero impact on customer flow or income, despite what the game tells you.

The Verdict:
I love the nostalgia, and the early gameplay loop is strong. However, I want to feel like a manager, not a babysitter. By the end game, I should be making high-level choices for the store, but instead, I feel like I’m on "food stamps" because I can't earn enough to do almost anything.
I only finished this for the 100% completion. There is a good game hidden here, but it’s buried under unnecessary grind and poor balancing. My recommendation is wait for patches.

Pinball Spire is a short but sweet little pinballvania game as the developers call it, and I think that's a fitting genre for this game! You unlock abilities that will help you progress, and it's not too difficult at all. I completed it in one sitting in two and a half hours. I got it super cheap on fanatical, but I think the normal price is a bit steep.

Myst is simply an all-time classic that is just as fun today in this remake as it was in the original version! I have such fond memories of this game from back in the 90s, and being able to relive it in this new version is absolutely a fantastic blast from the past. The ability to experience the whole thing in VR elevates it even further. I really enjoyed all the puzzles, except for one maze puzzle towards the end.

The new coat of paint with the superb graphics makes the whole game shine and sparkle. The old-school FMVs can be toggled on or off, though I didn’t get subtitles to work when using the old-style FMVs. The ability to take photos into an in-game notebook is such a quality-of-life update, so my physical note-taking was at a minimum for this playthrough! I didn’t experience any bugs either, but I played it in late 2025, so it has had many patches over the years.

All in all, I think this will be a fun game for both new and returning players.

Usually I avoid early access titles like the plague, since I prefer to play games when they’re actually finished. But I tried the demo and got hooked immediately!
Right now, just after the early access launch, it’s already a great game that’s very addicting and fun to play.
Just go play it and have a great time! It’s polished and meaty with lots to do. I didn’t experience any game-breaking bugs myself, though I’ve seen reports from others.

The game mostly lets you find your own way to complete objectives. It’s incredibly fun to arrive at a new place and set up shop by building infrastructure and exploring, and every time I feel like I’m getting better at organizing and setting everything up. Laying down electric and other types of cables in a neat manner is very satisfying!
Oh, and the developers have hidden sooo many secrets everywhere that are really fun to find! They’re very well hidden, and I’m pretty sure I haven’t even found 10–20% of them.

I do wish it was better optimized though. In certain areas I got down to 22fps with my RTX 2070 Super. My GPU is a bit old at this point, but I had a steady 60fps in the beginning. Later on it seems like the simulation of the electric grid networks and such slows things down, well that’s my guess. I ran everything on low settings, 1080p, DLSS at about 50% resolution scaling, and I even used a command line to disable ray tracing.

The developers have something really good going here, and it’s already so much fun. It can only get better from here, and I’m excited to see where they take it next!



Potential spoilers below for my future wishes and bugs!


My future wishes:
-I hope they add more quests and side quests.
-More of those tasty secrets to find! Maybe some of them could unlock non-essential skills/blueprints you can build?
Maybe some could be audio logs? More variety in secrets we find would be great!
-Speaking of the secret logs you find: I wish I could read them immediately when picking them up. As it is right now, once I get to a computer, it’s impossible to know which ones I’ve already read. I started reading a few, and they were interesting, but I couldn’t keep track of what was new. A way to mark entries as “read” would help, or just let me open the memory/item directly on pickup.
-Being able to respec enhancements, since you can’t fully upgrade everything (at least for now).
-Is there any point to the Improved Hydraulics enhancement? I went through the whole game without needing points in that or Vitality to play comfortably. Some stats feel essential (like battery capacity), and others not so much. I wish they all had meaningful gameplay functions.
-I wish there were a way to see how much electricity, diesel, petrol, etc. is stored across the entire connected network, including the boat network and platforms like Lazarus. For instance, right now I can go to a medium battery, and see that it's full at 6kWh, but then I've to remember how many batteries are in the netork, and then add them all up. I’d also like to see current production in real time somewhere.
-When docked, especially when moored, the boat moves way too much with the waves. That said, it is very cool to moor during a lightning/rain storm with big waves. It brings me back to boating with my father.
-I was a bit disappointed by the supposed “360-degree light” you can build and equip, because I still got attacked from behind by light-sensitive monsters. I wish it actually lit the full 360 degrees around me to make walking around a bit safer, or that you change the text of the item to reflect more accurately what it does.
-I can attach items to walls and then detach them again, but if I detach a chest by accident and want to reattach it, I can't do that (?). I have to rebuild it. Maybe we need stronger glue that works more than once? :p
-When building anything and you see the striped outline of the item I'm about to build, I wish it was clearer where plugs will be sticking out, which way the item is actually facing, and how the display on a chest is rotated. Right now it’s basically a 50/50 gamble. Most of my chests ended up facing the wrong way or upside down, and it pokes at my OCD a bit. :p
-The boat could be a little faster. With only electric motors (fully upgraded) turned on, it takes me about 20 minutes to travel from the first seed vault to Lazarus, and I’m not wasting precious diesel unless I really need to! :p
-Items in general need more info when you click them in the inventory or chest screens. More detail on what they do, how much they weigh, how much electricity they consume, etc.
-I often wished for the ability to see myself from third-person perspective.
-The height of the player seems a bit low as well, especially when walking up stairs.
-The cable system for connecting things to my robot’s body, backpack, and guns was messy and needs improvement. If I had both an Electric Rifle and an Electric Pistol equipped, attaching one of them to the battery backpack was painful. The button prompts also changed constantly. I get the idea of giving the player freedom, but some buttons should stay consistent, for instance, connecting to the backpack should always be one key, weapon slot 1 another, weapon slot 2 another, and so on. It often swapped around because it only wanted to show three options at a time. This might work better on a gamepad, but on keyboard/mouse it got messy. The main issue was when I used Electric Rifle + Electric Pistol + the battery backpack and wanted to charge them all from a socket on my boat for instance.
-This isn't a automation game directly, but I do wish for some kind of bigger production chain, with belt networks or even flying drones akin to Factorio or Dyson Sphere Program for delivering ingredients or putting them from my backpack and into the correct chests.

Great atmosphere and an intriguing setting/story, in a clear Half-Life-inspired world! It’s tense, immersive, and scary (a bit too much for a scardy cat like me). The ending puzzle was a bit unclear, and I had to check the forums just to get past this, but otherwise this was a solid demo. Add VR support, and this could be pure gold!

What a great and nostalgic demo! It takes me back to playing the first game back in the day!
I really love the art style, it kinda feels like a mix of Torins Passage and Kings Quest 7, with a pinch of the Duck Tales tv show from 2017. Oh, and the voice acting is great too! I hope it can bring the charm from the first games!

If I had to nit pick about something, it would be that it kinda feels a bit slow. The walking is a bit too slow (even double clicking), the scene zoom that happens some times is also very slow to give you control back. Also let me skip past scenes/interactions I've seen before, for instance the interaction of using the wand on anything that transforms Simon to pixel art is very long, and it happens every time I click with the wand on something wrong(?) and it can't be skipped.

But overall, I'm really looking forward to this point and click adventure!

A great little gem of a puzzle game! I've played it before on flatscreen, but being inside the world in VR is something else. Colorful, charming visuals that run great even on my aging RTX 2070 Super. I had a hard time putting the game down once I started playing!

You don't directly control the characters, but instead you manipulate time forward or backward, watching events unfold and guiding them indirectly to solve diorama-style puzzles. Finding all the hidden collectibles were my favorite part, and 100%-ing the game after finishing was pure joy.

The puzzles are on the easier side, but that actually makes the pacing feel smooth. It’s over a bit too soon (4–5 hours, or double for 100% completion), but the experience is more than worth it. The devs have been quick with bug fixes since the Next Fest pre-release demo, and I’m excited to see what they make next.

My score: 8/10!

Played on Quest 3, and everything worked perfectly through Virtual Desktop.

I only checked out Shadow Legend because it’s from the same dev as Arken Age, and it kinda feels like a predecessor to that game. It’s pretty short, clocking in at about five hours to 100% it without rushing, but I still highly recommend it. It’s short, but sweet! And if you end up liking it, Arken Age is the natural next step. Same vibe, just better in pretty much every way.

A few cons: The combat wasn’t so great for me, and it honestly felt kind of tacked on, like something they added late in development just to have that checkmark. It works, it’s just not a selling point for me. The game’s also pretty linear, and once you move on, you can't go back to earlier areas (though there is a level select after you've finished the game). It doesn’t really feel like a full RPG, but more like a bunch of ideas the devs wanted to try out before they really found their groove with Arken Age.

That said, I still had a good time just wandering around, finding hidden stuff, and doing the light platforming and puzzles. The exploration side of things is definitely where the game shines for me, and it’s what kept me engaged the whole way through.

Score: A solid 7 out of 10.

It's a fantastic demo, and it has me excited for the full release! I thought the first game was pretty good, but was very buggy when it first released. ML2 is a huge step up in just about every way! Every gameplay system has had major improvements! I really loved the new dungeon crawling and shoppe modes, with roguelite elements in both modes now. Sure there are some stuttering here and there, but it ran overall pretty good at 60 fps (for the most part) for me in 1440p on my old RTX 2070 Super. The stuttering and fps drops seemed to be due to loading things in the background and maybe shader compilation, so I'm hoping this will be better in the full release, but I'm pretty happy where it's at even now.