Recent reviews by Alyoshanks

It has a ton of depth, clean mechanics, and a UI that's very learnable. RTS games don't get much stronger than this if you like the genre.

A nice little synthwave zen racer. Worth a buck or two, and not a bad way to pass a half hour while you listen to a podcast or the like. It's a little shallow--there are only four modes, and I'd argue two (the timed mode and the bomb mode) are actively bad. Timed mode (minute count down to set a high score) defeats the purpose of a forever-racer and the bomb mode uses a unique vehicle that is boring relative to all the other cars. However this leaves the two neverending modes with different levels of traffic, depending on how much you want to pay attention, and I think the various locations and vibes are fun.

This is extremely fun 'avoid-em-up', meaning that it's a bullet-hell style game where you don't shoot and your objective is just to hit five points of interest around the screen while your standard bullet-hell enemies (trackers, jumpers, hitscan, projectiles, etc) try to catch you. It's very pretty, the UI is fine, the sounds are adequate, but where it really stood out to me was in level/mechanic progression. The game knows exactly how long to use a mechanic before introducing something new, or a new enemy type, and there were multiple points towards the end of the game where I was surprised that they were introducing new components, instead of just stacking what the game had already introduced in ever larger setpieces. In fact, the stereotypical massive bullet-hell field where your screen is covered in dozens of enemies was used so infrequently that it almost felt like it's own twist when it did show up--the studio here clearly had more fun designing a few enemy mechanics and then figuring out fun ways to use just a few of them in most levels.

Despite my 8hrs in game, I got to the credits screen in just under 3hrs, finishing ~95% of the levels. There are just a couple branching paths that would have added on another 20-30 mins. After you complete each level (by getting at least four of the points of interest and getting to the end portal), you have the opportunity to 100% each level by getting all five points in a set time. Some of the levels were clearly designed to be more challenging with the time limit, so there's some replayability here.

The only bug or issue I occasionally noticed was my mouse glitching out when I tried to move it along the edge of my screen. When my mouse wasn't touching the edge, I generally found the inputs responsive.

It's well worth a pickup if it goes on sale and you like the genre.

This is a well-made little runner that's worth picking up for a buck if you're a fan of the genre. First thing to note--the UI and menus are extremely responsive and easy to navigate. This is worth noting as this is the kind of product where you just want to be able to jump into the gameplay as quickly as possible. It feels polished and while the timing of jumps and "floatiness" takes some time to get used to, I think it makes for a slightly different feel on the standard runner gameplay that's fun. It's not groundbreaking but at a buck fifty or so on sale, no one is saying it is.

At a technical level game doesn't feel finished. Menus are overlaid over other menus, I couldn't quit the game, traps couldn't be placed (and I couldn't find a clear reason why based on the UI) and the initial gameplay loop isn't terribly gripping. Could be entertaining for kids since they'll love the premise but I wouldn't recommend it beyond that.

This game is so good that when I first beat it on a random sorta-bootlegish copy I went out and bought it just to support the devs. It controls so well and the learning curve is perfect--tough, but you're continually improving.

Lilly Looking Through is a simple short puzzle game, and I very much enjoyed it. Towards the end, the puzzles get less and less intuitive, but everything is solvable. The music is pleasant and the game is beautiful. Definitely worth picking up when it goes on sale.

This was the first game I ever beat, and it's the only game that I will end up beating multiple times. Put simply, it's fun. Its absurd humor and fantastic weapons system really put it over the top, and the open world is another major plus.

Absolutely fantastic game. First of all, I cannot say enough about the soundtrack. I know that's relatively minor in the scale of things, but it does show how hard Supergiant worked on Bastion. The story is fairly simple, and the game is not too long, but it does almost everything right; combat is simple to learn and use, the artwork is gorgeous, and level design is solid. Movement might be a touch awkward at first (the game is isometric), but using a controller helps with that. There's not a whole lot of replayability, other than some arena levels, but even then I highly recommend this as an excellent indie title.

This is, in my opinion, the best game of 2012. The art is magnificent, the choices you make are incredibly haunting, and the simple gameplay and unique plot leave you unable to put it down...it's a beautiful game.