Recent reviews by Zaneclodon

one of the best puzzle games i've ever played. the core mechanic of entering and exiting boxes is very interesting and well executed, and there's also a nice spread of mechanics added onto it that make for neat puzzles! the whole thing is wrapped up in very clean polish that pulls everything together, and the music's great and fits well. i wasn't totally stumped by any of the puzzles like i was with a handful of baba is you's tougher puzzles, but there's some nice and tricky ones here! highly recommend to anyone who enjoys pure puzzle games.

a fun little visual novel showing sides of sonic characters that most of the games don't get to explore. if you love sonic and his friends and you haven't played this yet, give it a try! it's free!

this whole game has a vibe of curiosity and discovery that made me want to keep going and see what's in store next. some things like missing platform jumps or not knowing where to go next would frustrate me in a different context, but here it doesn't really feel like that matters! i'm sure there's some fun secrets i missed, but the point here seems to just be exploring for however long you want without worrying too much about that. it's an enjoyable experience overall

Genuinely one of the best puzzle games I've ever played. The main mechanic of changing rules by pushing around words inside the levels is simply brilliant, but Baba Is You is best experienced without knowing what the mechanics really build to as the game progresses. I wish I could experience it all for the first time again!

what a beautiful game, in so many ways... the ending made me tear up because of how excellent the character writing here is! there's a lot of interesting gameplay all primarily built on one mechanic that doesn't get old and some fun puzzles, but it's the characters (particularly the dynamic between the Bard and Miriam) that really made me fall in love with Wandersong. this game won't connect with everyone, but if it clicks for you, you're bound to have a wonderful time after feeling all sorts of emotions through the journey!

(also there's a dedicated dance button usable at almost any time ;) plus a very nice secret unlockable after beating the game that i don't see much in other games)

Playing as impostor always leaves me too overwhelmed by options to do anything, but I love playing as crewmate and watching drama unfold between friends in a space where it's all something to laugh about once it's over. I don't think Among Us would be as well-received if there were rewards for winning; low stakes make losing just about as fun as winning.

TL;DR This game just isn't very good. Save your money and get something else if you're interested in a fun puzzle experience.

Something I haven't seen many other reviews mention is that the options menu purports to provide colorblind support, but the feature is worse than useless. First, selecting a type of colorblindness closes the main menu and leaves you on a blank title screen, forcing you to close the game. The next time you open the game and start playing, there will be a filter on top that simulates the type of colorblindness you selected. All these filters do is make it harder to distinguish colors, so removing the feature would at least make Colortone honest about its inaccessibility!

As for the game itself: Sound is off by default, but it's not worth turning it on because the music is just a small selection of repetitive tunes and there are almost no sound effects. The puzzles aren't very interesting and most hardly require any thought, but you'll need to perform plenty of repetitive actions to finish. There's some platforming here, but it's not very fun and sometimes even needlessly frustrating (as evidenced in the last level). The visual language isn't entirely consistent, either: I noticed that one of the buttons in the game is translucent, but another is opaque and seemed to be something to use a colored ball to interact with at first, but turned out to be something just to push.

There's also plenty of jankiness: objects will only sometimes respawn if they fall out of play, and death has inconsistent consequences. Sometimes you can reset the puzzle by dying, but other times dying will only put you back at the start without resetting anything, forcing you to return to the menu if you screwed up. The hit detection between planks and pegs is not always reliable, and I even had a plank fall between pegs when I was expecting it to land. Getting a ball to stay in a laser machine is difficult because rather than snap inside, the ball continues to roll inside the laser machine, requiring very precise placement to keep it from rolling out.

All I can say about this game that I actually liked is that most of the mechanics are pretty easy to understand without requiring explicit explanation. As long as you know how color mixing works and a few other basic things (e.g. green means go), you'll probably be able to figure out the puzzles in this game. However, Colortone is far from the only puzzle game to take this approach, and to give an example, Portal did it better despite releasing more than 8 years earlier.

On top of that, Portal is quite a bit longer, while Colortone has only 15 short levels! I ended up finishing in under 2 hours. There's way better games out there than this mediocre mess, and I wouldn't even recommend Colortone if it was free. Save your $4 (or however much less if it's on sale) and get a better game.

Space Hole 2018 lacks the polish you'd expect from a big-budget title (Sam Atlas was the only developer after all, thanks Sam), but in my opinion it more than makes up for that in its quantity of unique and interesting content. I was confused by the game at first, but a little while in I got hooked and proceeded to spend hours clearing areas and searching for new ones.

Overall, Space Hole 2018 is designed to mesmerize, with all sorts of flashy effects used to turn otherwise simple graphics into a psychedelic artist's dream. dl Salo's perfectly fitting music enhances the otherworldly quality throughout, turning the experience into something truly special. The game is broken up into several named locations, each of them consisting of areas with some similarities, but few areas even under the same name feel identical to each other. Don't even think of getting this game if you're photosensitive or even just don't like flashing lights, but if psychedelic stuff is your jam, you're gonna love this.

The main hook of Space Hole 2018 is exploration. Gameplay starts out rather simple, consisting of two modes: a flying mode where you can travel freely in 3D space, and a ball mode reminiscent of games such as Monkey Ball where you are constrained to rolling around, always facing gravity's pull. However, there are quite a few lab areas hidden around the map that unlock new abilities that can help you navigate the vast game world. This gives the game a bit of a Metroidvania flair, although you can get almost anywhere with your starting abilities and a good physics intuition. Hidden throughout many areas are "space gems", which can be used to access more routes from the game's hub areas, but these must be collected in ball mode - often getting the ball to the gems is not an easy task. You'll definitely want to check every corner of an area when looking for gems or "space holes" (exits), as many of them are hidden quite well.

I did encounter some issues with the game. Although most of the game ran fine on my computer, some areas caused significant framerate drops that interfered with camera rotation and made precise movement difficult. The "Area Complete" message is a bit finicky, as I sometimes had to re-enter an area after entering its last space hole to get it to appear, and in one case it appeared before I entered the last space hole. Some of the abilities were hard to understand and some were rarely useful. However, these issues were minor in my experience and I still enjoyed most of my playtime.

Overall, Space Hole 2018 is definitely worth playing (if you can handle the graphics) and can captivate for hours upon hours. After nine hours of playtime, there are still plenty of areas I have yet to visit and plenty of minor secrets left in areas I have already cleared. If a very indie, psychedelic, ball-rolling exploration game sounds like something you'd enjoy, pick this up and give it a try!

Pretty janky, but overall the main story is fun to play through. Some of the missions and Level A emblems are a pain - manageable but annoying. Looks pretty good with mods bringing back the Dreamcast look! And of course, the music is great as always for Sonic.

This game probably won't get you interested in Sonic if you aren't already, but fans will most likely enjoy it.

After everything, Toby Fox's breakout hit is still a touching story with lovable characters, great jokes, and a phenomenal soundtrack.