Recent reviews by Spanky Pie

People love to hate this game but it still sucked in most of my hours this year so it must have done something right.

A really solid tycoon game. Goes above and beyond what you might expect from the genre.

Imagine making a movie. Now make two more, each with a different theme and identity. Now take each frame, map the important objects, and turn it into a video game. The sheer insanity to want to even attempt a project of this scope. And yet, Half Mermaid completely nails almost all aspects of it.

IMMORTALITY follows the unique idea of Sam Barlow's previous games "Her Story" and "Telling Lies" of following the story non-linearly by piecing together a narrative jigsaw clip by clip. New discoveries provide additional information, and sometimes completely re-contextualizes previously known facts.

In IMMORTALITY, the main hook is "What happened to Marissa Marcel?". She was an aspiring actress who starred in two unreleased movies from the late sixties/early seventies and promptly disappeared from the limelight. She returned in 1999 to shoot a comeback film, and yet, this movie did not make it to theaters either. You dive through the filmed scenes, BTS clips, rehearsals, table reads, and other recorded content from each of the three films to piece the story together.

Each of the three films has its own story. Piecing together the plot of each film is a big part of the fun. In IMMORTALITY, this is achieved by simply clicking through faces and objects, and it will whisk you away to another clip that contains the same motif. You'll be wondering what is happening as Marissa's character and the titular character in "Ambrosio" meet at a graveyard in the dead of night, how Marissa's character in "Minsky" ended up on a wild night out in the city with the detective investigating her lover's death, and why it is so important that Marissa's character in "Two of Everything" cannot swim.

Piece any of these together and it's already a satisfying experience. And then you realize that there is something deeper hidden within.

The biggest issue players seem to face is the lack of control as to which scene the player will view next. It does feel random when you're trying to focus on solving Minsky's mysteries but then a match cut suddenly takes you to Two of Everything. The match cut could also show scenes that you have already seen before, which only gets more often as you unlock more clips. However, the logic behind this does feel weighted, and if you are shown a repeated scene, it is likely that there just might be more to it than it first appears.

To say that this is an outstanding story-rich game is an understatement. Needless to say, IMMORTALITY is one of the most unforgettable experiences in all my time playing video games, and I can only wish to be able to play this game from scratch without knowing anything about it again.

So right off the bat, it's far from perfect. It could use quite a bit more quality of life, polishing, and maybe grind reduction/balancing. But it gives off such a strong retro-indie Japanese ARPG vibe, which is ok because it's exactly what it is.

It actually kind of reminds me of Recettear, but change the dungeon crawling and capitalism to sidescrolling and town-building. The game has so much charm that doing the most basic stuff like re-clearing dungeons still feels fun. Maybe that's just the part of me that's been missing the Suikoden universe so much.

Anyway, the game's pretty cheap, and a nice introduction to the world and characters of Eiyuden. Can't really say no to this one.

Probably the best narrative tied to a card game I've ever played. Just when you think you know everything there is to know, a whole new layer unlocks. Recommended for lucky carders.

If Friends of Mineral Town was a focused look at the core of what makes Story of Seasons games fun, Pioneers of Olive Town is a much more modern take. There are more ways to be creative, and there are options to automate some of the daily routine so you can focus more on what you enjoy. With more things to do, more variety on the stuff you already expect, and simplification of some of the more grindy parts of the game, Pioneers of Olive Town is a great place to jump into if you're wanting a more visually pleasing or mechanically sound Stardew Valley.

Very tightly written anti-detective game where you are trying to get away with throwing your husband overboard a ship, and you have to find a way to escape suspicion within 8 hours. Frame your fellow travelers, conspire with them to put another away, or get overrun with guilt and throw yourself overboard as well. With many secrets to find and narrative threads to explore, it was such a fun experience whether it was putting together the perfect plan or just messing around killing everyone else on the ship.

A great adventure through beautiful, disturbing, and impressively diverse environments with the fun gunplay, thrilling exploration, and exciting boss fights you've come to expect from Resident Evil. Filled with memorable moments and a surprisingly moving story that also quite neatly ties 7 and 8 to the rest of the series, Village absolutely just might be my favorite Resident Evil game of all time.

Relive-the-past-trauma-you've-already-suppressed-in-the-back-of-your-mind-years-ago Simulator 2021

Fully hand-crafted journey from start to finish. Short but memorable. Incredible music and visuals.