Recent reviews by An Easy Target

Well, I can't even get the goshdarn thing to run. The minutes you see indicated here are all from trying startup.

If this changes I'll review it anew. Until then, beware, this may not play kindly with newer vorrichtungen.

A believably frustrating, yet, when you get it right, surprisingly satisfying mightken game. The controls are as simple as they ought to come; swiff clockwise, swiff witherclockwise, fire thrusters, fire thrusters hard. These tools in a low-pull loft make for a straining challenge, but one wherein the wins feel good - better than I thought I'd feel again, even, at least for something so simple.

For the price, it's worth it; it's so simple that you get what you pay for. Sales can make it even more fair.

A tongue-in-cheek RPG that makes fun of Cthulu and anime-style JRPG's at the same time.

I never broke into the JRPG genre proper, so I can't rate how good it is compared to those. HOwever, the combat does seem to have room for actual strategy, and it can feel satisfying when you take a bad guy down.

The silly dialogue is what really sells it. I'm not really the happiest person on Earth with HP Lovecraft or his work, or how seriously his fans take it, so this make-funnery and forced fusion of it with JRPG setting tropes and visuals make for a satisfying slice of humble pie to watch be eaten as I play.

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Weaknesses include a lack of clear direction and difficulty finding where your next objective is supposed to be. Thankfully, you can chat with party members at any time- something every RPG should have allowed, really- and outside of funny worldbuilding talks, they can also give you a hint of at least what to look out for, although I still think things should be named on the overworld map.

I've had to stop because the goshdarn challenge where the cube body is introduced is impossible, but maybe you'll have better luck.

The premise is clever and the art deco look gives it a self-standing feel. The bright colors and jazz help it avoid feeling creepy. Instead it's mostly funny.

Be warned, thanks to the nature of the game, it can be a graphics hog.

An interactive art experience moreso than a game proper, advanced exclusively by pressing the left and right arrow keys. Don't bother clicking around, I've found out it doesn't do anything besides a purely aesthetic mouse cursor icon change.

The show-don't-tell approach works well with the one-of-a-kind artwork, and makes for an open-ended tale that any seer may take as they will. For me, personally, it hit home about my experiences in regards to interacting with others while I have given up on feeling anything ever again, but, again, the lack of words make it open-ended.

For those who want a break from gaming in favor of interactive art and a wordless tale, give A Raven Monologue a fanding.

The gameplay is simple, and yet offers many possibilities. It gets challenging fast, but it's very satisfying.

And if, like me, you sometimes want to reap a freebie, you can save up points to have the game reveal to you the answer to a puzzle. I personally am not good at puzzles, so this was a must for me.

Oddly for a simple puzzle game about sliding a water droplet around, there's actually a tale to tell- or show, rather, as it's understated and expressed almost entirely through the ambient visuals, including how they change as you move on, as well as through the names of the individual puzzles and, if you heed closely, the arrangement of obstacles and gimmicks in each individual puzzle's respective layout.

Well, on my new laptop the screen is skewed such that key options in the game are far off-screen, like the option to click "next" during a cutscene or adjust the settings, so it's unplayable for me now.

However, I gainzecker from fanding this on a desktop that it's a fun, indrawing sidescroller with challenging gameplay. The cartoony sci-fi look makes it disarming and indrawing, and yet the hardness of winning makes it fulfilling to overcome foes and hurdles.

If I can get this running smoothly with the full screen in sight, I'll have to come back for a more ordly review. For now, know I recommend it- if your PC's screen will work with it, that is.

I really like the presentation. The late 90's/Early 2000's graphics are eyecatching and heartlilting, at least for me, and the ost is really good; enough I would like to buy it.

The gameplay is very simple. You tilt the stage to get the ball from point A to point B. Except for in particular levels, it can only take so long a fall, so room-reckoning is needed to tender one's speed.

The challenge for each level is unforgiving- spikes are common and it's easy to wind up just breaking the ball from too high a fall- but you can start the challenge again with a click of the mouse button or spacebar, and the effect is almost immediate. This makes would would be unforgivable into a likable challenge, and the game itself into an entity that acknowledges that you're trying and empowers you to do so.

If it cost even a cent or took itself at all seriously I wouldn't suggest it. The bee hives we're supposed to use the rocks to hit are nowhere in sight, the banana peels have just disappeared into the ground at guests' feet when they landed, and movement, though fluid, isn't fluid enough.

However, as a free and intentionally wonky game, it's a short dollop of charm. The bear's satisfying to move with what fluidity he *does* have, once you get the hang of it, and hiding in the bushes, stealing food and running away, walkingright by guests or rangers, or, especially, actually duping them by just holding branches out and staying still are all fun, funny, and satisfying.

It has quite a ways to go to be a game proper, but as a proof of concept, these University of Utah folks may pat themselves on the back, and the University of Utah itself has my onlooking for having chosen to get an education-borne project out into the gaming world like this.

To be honest, I haven't gotten far in this game, so if I can get it to run again, I hope it'll be at a time in my life I can really feel the thrum of fandom and write a fresh review.

For now, I can say that this is a likable experience- *if* you're interested in a genre-hodgepodge with light elements of each, where presentation and an escape to when PC gaming was more of a wonderful wild west than nowadays.

Simply put, you explore a fantasy world as a young Bri'ish lass- at least, I think she is- and you have the satisfaction of a Petz Dogz 2 overworld exploration setup (but without throwable rocks and stuff) meets creature collection meets first person dogfights.


In fact, each of these are exceptionally simple in their respective part. Walking around the overworld consists, indeed, of just walking and jumping. The creature collection really comes down mostly to wild encounters or, one time, being 'given' the creature you choose out of three. The actual fights are mostly about movement around a single structure on a floating block of land with only one possible attack option; no secondary attacks or defensive abilities to speak of.

The simplicity of each of the above aspects is both a blessing and a curse. It's annoying that you can't do more in the overworld, that there's not more to finding the creatures you want to capture and/or fight, and most of all for me, that you can't choose and mix-and-match special abilities to customize your fae's fighting style to your liking.

And yet, because each is simple, Zanzarah: The Hidden Portal has a certain charm, a sort of forward honesty about its bibe as an experimental mixed-genre project, and it also lets the presentation of late-90's, early 2000's makshevbilithen take a front row seat to the eyes.

For the affordable price, I do recommend it. Just know it is a classic, so it could have a hiccup or two running.