Recent reviews by Crater Labs

This is a great game that feels like a throwback to a very particular era of gaming. While it's billed as a nod to arcade games of the eighties (and you can certainly see that inspiration there), what it actually *felt* like to me was like I was playing the kinds of PC games that I would load up on DOS back in the nineties. I was a little behind the times with my computer games at the time, of course, but playing this made me really nostalgic for Commander Keen and Jazz Jackrabbit, even if most of the gameplay is a more direct nod to arcade titles like Bubble Bobble.

Having said *that*, I think this game is really, *really* good. I don't think it's as good as Donut Dodo, but that's like saying a deluxe hamburger isn't as good as a fine steak, sometimes you're more in the mood for one than the other. These people understand what makes arcade games great, and they've geared this game to be that. So definitely play it (and also play Donut Dodo, which is a nod to a slightly different era of arcade game (think Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Popeye for that one, while this one is more Bubble Bobble and Sonic the Hedgehog. Less Atari, more Neo Geo)

tl;dr: this is a great game! Buy it!

This game takes the visual novel format that Fiction Factory Games already did so well in Arcade Spirits and The New Challengers and pushes it into a more "game-ified" space, and it's awesome. One of the big criticisms I hear of visual novels is that sometimes they're not really games, they're just stories you read and occasionally you get to make a decision that impacts what ending you'll see. I think in most cases that's fine, but Penny Larceny is an experiment to push that visual novel format in a new direction to something more game-y, and the experiment pays off well!

While still very much a visual novel, the game is broken up into a series of "heists", with each heist having a number of stages: casing the joint, formulating your plan, and pulling off the crime. The game actively scores you as you engage in your criminality (using the in-world conceit of a gig-economy app that leaves a rating for your performance.) The whole thing is simultaneously evocative of classic heist movies, but also feels like a classic video game with individual levels, set piece challenges, and to a lesser extent "bosses", though that's more an aspect of the story than the gameplay.

The end result is an episodic series of game levels that can be taken in fun, satisfying chunks, meaning you can play through a bunch of them in an evening, or just one or two if you're looking for something light, fun, and enjoyable that'll wrap up.

I haven't taken the time to replay it much yet, but I'm planning on it. The game has numerous heists I haven't done in my initial playthrough, and I want to go back and get a higher star rating on some of my first runs. Also I only really worked for one boss, a computer named Hate-4000, and I wanna see what the other bosses can offer.

On the subject of going back for higher ratings, though: the game is very encouraging in letting you know that the stars don't ultimately matter to your success, they're just a measure of how your peers or potential future employers might think of your work when they hear about it. I'm sure that they affect *something* (probably better endings), but so far my favorite ending to a caper was a heist where I only got one single star. I wouldn't say I succeeded, but the mission goals changed, the boss was happy with it, and at the end of the day things were really satisfying story-wise, so the fact that I got one out of five stars is almost barely a factor. I'm not going to replay it out of a desire to complete everything, I'm replaying it out of a desire to see everything, if that makes sense. It's a subtle distinction, but an important one, and one this game understands.

Anyway, I love everything about this game, despite only seeing what I assume to be about a sixth (maybe a twelfth?) of it. I play slowly, but what I've seen is great. If you like heists, quick adventure stories, or well-written superhero comedy that acts as a fable about the tragedies of the economic realities facing a lot of Millennial and Zoomer people in the workforce, then you should definitely get this game. (Oh, also the music is amazing, lots of cool electro-swing, fun heist/mystery tunes, occasionally some moodier noir-movie stuff for when the characters are introspective and bummed out about life, all of it really well done. Okay, that's the end of the review, bye bye!)

There are three ways to enjoy Five Nights At Freddy's games: the first is to enjoy the mechanical challenge in front of you. Classically it's a high-stakes game of red light/green light, sometimes it's mini-game puzzle solving, this time it's adventure/mystery 3D interaction with survival horror elements. The second way is to get really invested in the background lore and mystery, so that you can figure out why this kid named Gregory's mere existence tells you so much about a Purple Guy who doesn't* even appear in the game. But the third way?

The third way is to vibe with what's happening in the moment. And I maintain this is the best way to play all of them, and the way that this particular installment was designed for. Yeah, yeah, lore lore, missing children, bite of '87, blah blah blah, THIS is a game where you are a kid locked in a pizza restaurant after dark, and the robot mascots are out to kill you. The pizza restaurant is also the world's biggest combination shopping mall and amusement park ever, somehow. You will use all of the pizza place's go-karts and pizza manufacturing facilities and mini-golf courses against your pursuers. YOU WILL PLAY LASER TAG AND THE LASERS WILL ACTUALLY BE EFFECTIVE AT FIGHTING THE KILLER ROBOTS. All of this will happen with the friendly, avuncular guidance of your big brother best friend guardian teddy bear rockstar superhero pal Freddy Fazbear. Unlike the first game where getting stuffed into Freddy will kill you, this time stuffing yourself into Freddy Fazbear will be your saving grace against all the other killer robots. All the naysayers who are like "but it was glitchy upon release" or "but this game messes up the lore so badly" are blinding themselves to the sheer awesome vibes that this game offers right now (and those glitches are mostly patched out by now... mostly, anyway)! Hop into this game, order up a bunch of pizza, and be a superstar as you live every twelve year old kids' fantasy of being a butt-kicking, rock-n-rolling, laser blasting, race car driving, robot smashing troublemaker that no responsible adult can contain no matter how hard they try, all while being locked in a pizza restaurant/arcade/movie theater/candy store/playground for the night! This game ROCKS and I will challenge anyone who thinks otherwise to a game of Hide And Seek on Roxy's Raceway.

My only complaint: all the collectibles feel tacked on. They're an interesting little bonus that adds some gameplay moments and helps to break up the action of constant exploration and pizzaplex traversation, but they're about as inconsequential as they come, with only a few actually giving in-game bonuses. Ideally, I'd have liked it if you could get certain miniscule bonuses for completing sets of items, but as it is the bonuses you can get are locked to certain collectibles. Don't get me wrong, I love collecting things, Zork 1 is one of my favorite games ever, but these things needed more sparkle. Maybe if you had an avatar that you could customize with all the shirts and hats and masks you found? I dunno.

Oh, and the DLC is pretty good too. My only complaint about it is how linear it is. I definitely preferred the open-ended nature of the main game. But DLC's gonna DLC, y'know?

Anyway, yeah. My complaint about the collectibles aside, this is a great game. Start playing it now, superstar!

This one's actually pretty decent. Episode 1 leaves a lot to be desired, but this particular game fixes a lot of the first episode's issues. Honestly, kinda wish there was a part three to go along with this.

A wonderful, if simple, visual novel supplemented with some light point and click adventure game elements and an occasional runner-style mini-game. Well written, hilarious, great music, and if you're a fan of the characters they're done very nicely. Can YOU figure out Who Murdered Sonic The Hedgehog?!

This game is great. I bought it on a recommendation thinking "Ugh, fine, I'll try it" emotionally ready for a Pac-Man clone or something, but what I found was a *delight*. I've lost hours of multiple evenings at this point, only finally finishing the first round (probably would've gone faster but dangit I had to chase the glowing donut score multiplier). This is fantastic. If there's anything in you that likes the classic arcade vibe, this is what you wanna get. It isn't like how games back then were, it's what you *remember* them being like.

This is a really good "mess around and have fun" game. It's simple to control, but very tricky to master, and it doesn't take itself too seriously so the whole thing feels like how improv comedy is at its best when things start to go amazingly wrong. Also has a decent amount of side activities for people who want more than the basic guitar hero style parody that's goin' on.

While it initially had a rocky opening week with people using keyboard reconfigurations to cheat the game into an impossible-to-play scenario, the game's current set up still affords the spirit of the original challenge. Effectively gamifying the "mouse up" input command while treating the "mouse left" and "mouse right" input commands as danger, this game proposes a challenge that is simultaneously very simple but also very challenging to pull off (at least it does in Online Mode when the sword gets longer and heavier with every victory before it resets at 10,000 pulls.)

If you're curious about this game... buy it! It's great! And now that it's possible again, kingship is within your grasp! And if the online "King Of Kings" mode is a bit too much, you can always lift your spirits by trying it again in offline mode. (I truly recommend doing it in online mode, though. The finale is a fun reward after all the work that goes into it.)

Good luck, my liege!

This game is what you need to start playing to experience point and click adventure gaming at its finest. The *actual* adventure gaming at its finest is Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse. But before you get to that, you must play this and also season 2.

How does it hold up to the original? It's great! The visuals are improved. They have altered a few things, but the altered things were elements of polish that reflect society's growing understanding of how to better talk about things and represent people (actually hiring a black actor to play Bosco, for instance). While it initially took a couple of games for the new Bosco voice to find his sea legs, they went back and updated the first couple of episodes so now it practically sounds like the same old Bosco. (And no worries about the original Bosco actor, he's still Jimmy Two Teeth so he's still in the game.)

So whether you're a new fan wondering about what this whole Sam & Max thing is, or a returning fan ready to re-experience a classic, know that the team from Skunkape Games has the legacy of Sam & Max *well* in hand. Enjoy!

I don't play many visual novels or dating sims, but I gave this one a try and I'm really glad I did! I haven't run every path of the story, so I can only speak to about two and a half-ish different runs' worth of content, but so far stories have been engaging and the characters fun and friendly. It reminded me of Arcade Spirits in that some of the paths seem more geared toward general friendship or finding your place in your life in the odd world that you're in. Unlike most other games I've played like this, the game almost takes a "Choose Your Own Adventure" path that allows you to just focus on the story line of one character at a time, or to diversify your approach with the limited time that the game allots for you. I think the closest analogue to something like it I've seen is Long Live The Queen, only here you pick who you spend time with rather than what classes you pursue.

For a few quick pros and cons...

PROS
-Great story arcs and fun characters
-Multi-tined story progression allows for quick dives into the game.
-Varied endings, with different story paths allowing impacts in others (not sure how deep this system goes yet)

CONS
-A few grammatical issues here and there.
-At a first glance, some of the story progressions appear to assume that you've gotten a certain distance in some others that you might not've. Summer's arc kicked off with a feat of magic that didn't quite seem to fit the general level of magical ability the rest of the story implied was available, though on a replay while looking for alternate paths through Summer's arc it didn't seem quite as off to me.
-The visuals for the "scene selection screen" every new week don't quite match the rest of the game in a way that was initially jarring. It's not bad, but I wasn't expecting the character designs and backgrounds to suddenly shift, and it took some getting used to.
-Broke my heart with, like, three different Summer endings, and then revealed that the game merely considers those to be Neutral endings instead of Bad endings, so now I'm terrified.

All in all, it's a fun little set of stories.