Recent reviews by ¤ βℓооđч ¤ Nico-Kun!

PAC-MAN 256 is an interesting twist on the classic PAC-MAN formula, and if you've ever gamed in the last 40+ years, you should at least know what PAC-MAN is about, so I'll just explain the "twist". Instead of having a bunch of similar mazes that you advance through by eating all pellets while avoiding the ghosts, in this game, the maze never ends, and you must always move forward, as the "glitch" advances through the maze. This Advancing Wall of Doom is a references to the 256th level glitch in the original Pac-Man, and if the glitch reaches you, it's game over.

Of course, the classic elements of Pac-Man are still there: there's pellets to eat, ghosts to avoid, fruit to eat, and power pellets. Oh, there's also several new power-ups that can help you deal with the ghosts: from lasers, to bombs, and even an aura that turns ghosts into cherries for you to eat. These power-ups can be upgraded by collecting coins as you play, although you can only have three power-ups show up per run.

As for the ghosts, there's several types, although not quite like in classic Pac-Man. While some are easy to avoid (the light blue ghost goes around in circle, the orange ghost always heads to the bottom of the screen), some might prove more challenging, such as the pink ghost or the glitchy one.

The main goal of the game, besides getting away from the glitch as I said above, is getting points, to get to the top of that scoreboard. You get points by eating pellets, getting combos, killing ghosts... If you manage to eat 256 pellets in a row, you trigger a special bonus that destroys all ghosts on screen giving you bonus points as well. There's also a local multiplayer mode that can be played with up to four players.

All in all, this is a fun, casual game that anyone can enjoy, so I recommend it.

Not sure if I should give this game the thumbs up or the thumbs down, so I'll probably decide as I finish typing this review. Anyway, what's Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing? Well, it seems to be Sega's response to Nintendo's Mario Kart, a party racing games featuring popular and obscure characters from Sega's catalog (mostly Sonic the Hedgehog characters). As someone who's never played a Mario Kart game due to a serious lack of a Nintendo console (but not of "Nintendos", as I've owned some non-Nintendo consoles), I don't have much experience with these types of games, and I can't compare the two.

The gameplay is decent, though I found it extremely janky at times. While there is a sort of tutorial when you first start the game (although you can skip it), it seems to skim over some details. I was, for example, very frustrated when I couldn't get a boost at the start of races, while my opponents could. It turns out you need to time your boost right in order to get it, and this depends on which character you're using, with some needing the full countdown to activate the boost (also, some characters' boost is pretty insignificant, to the point it basically makes no difference whether you get it right or not). Beyond this mechanic, the game also makes great use of drifting mechanics: when taking corners, you can start a drift to generate boost in order to get a lead. There's also items you can get during the races to either aid you or harm your enemies.

The character selection is pretty big; there's 20 different characters, and the same goes for track selection, with 24 tracks to choose from. Still, most of the characters and tracks are locked at first, and you can unlock by spending "Sega Miles" (no, not Miles "Tails" Prower, just regular miles) on the in-game shop. You can also unlock several new music tracks that you can choose from while playing.

When it comes to game modes, it offers both singleplayer and multiplayer (split screen) modes. In SP, you have Grand Prix, Single Race, Time Trials and Missions. Grand Prix mode has you race through four different tracks, earning points depending on how you finish, at the end of all tracks, the racer with more points wins. Single Race is just what the name implies, you can pick any track and set the number of laps, items and such. Time Trial has you compete against the staff time (and then your own) to set new track records. Finally, Mission mode has 64 different missions to complete, going from simple races, to stuff like boss fights. As for MP, I didn't mess around with it that much, as it only offers split screen (no online play), but from what I saw, there's a few more gamemodes, like one for collecting the Chaos Emeralds, and one for fighting between cars.

On the graphics side, it hasn't aged very well. It is a colourful game, I'll say that, but I noticed several graphical glitches at some points. As for sound, the track selection is very nice, so I have no issues there.

All in all, I think I've made my decision. While I found it an extremely janky port at first, I ended up enjoying my time with this game, to the point I went ahead and completed all the in-game challenges despite the game not having Steam achievements. So I guess I recommend it.

As a kid, I used to love playing several Apogee Software games. Of course, I never had the full versions, only shareware, but I still spent many hours playing them, the platformers in particular. And yet... Monuments of Mars is one I'd never actually played. And, if I did, then I don't recall it.

So, coming to it with a fresh perspective, I can say... Time has not been kind to this game. While I can still see myself enjoying other classics from this era, like, say, the original Duke Nukem or Secret Agent, this one I pretty much forced my way through. Fortunately, it's not a very challenging game, otherwise I don't know if I'd have made it through it. Plain and simple, the controls are very clunky, with inconsistent jumps and movement. The level design is also rather simple; the game is divided in four chapters of 20 levels each, each level being a single screen. Most of the time, you'll be figuring out how to get to the exit, perhaps interacting with different switches or looking for a key to spice things up.

Storywise, well, it's once again simple, which is expected for a game as old as this one. You play as an unnamed astronaut who's been tasked with rescuing missing astronauts from Mars, while investigating mysterious "monuments" left behind by some unknown civilization. As far as graphics go, well, this game was made for PC in an era in which PCs weren't all that powerful, so it has a very limited colour palette; sound is also just a handful of beeps and boops.

All in all, I can't really recommend this game. Then again, it's been delisted from Steam, so if anything, I'm just sharing my thoughts.

This mod is outright terrible. Simple as that, I decide to start my review by pointing out how terrible it is. Its plot seems uninspired, and not for trying to be a prequel to Half-Life (honestly, there's potential there, being one of the early scientists to venture into Xen), but rather because it takes that idea in the most nonsensical way possible.

First of all, this mod's main premise seems to be that you're the guy who got the crystal that caused the Resonance Cascade, and that's the first problem there, since we already know that crystal was delivered by the G-Man himself. Ok, we can still go with that premise, maybe we ended up giving the G-Man the crystal, but at least we get some adventures in Xen, right? Wrong. Why, despite Half-Life (and Blue Shift in particular) establishing that the crystals used for teleportation experiments were from Xen, this mod takes your character to an alternate universe, where, instead of Black Mesa, you have Black Rock. Just pure nonsense, to set the mod on a cargo ship.

Ok, at least the gameplay is gonna be interesting, right? Wrong again. Other than a few reskinned H.E.C.U., you'll be facing regular Half-Life enemies, with regular Half-Life weapons, and while I can enjoy that, over here it's just... I dunno, I guess it's because it's rather easy, as the cargo ship setting gives plenty of big, open spaces to snipe enemies from a distance. Then there's the final boss, which is just the Nihilanth turned on his side, so he's facing down, with a barnacle's tongue sticking out of its mouth. What this is supposed to mean in the context, I dunno, as dialogue from the single friendly NPC you encounter says they created it.

Honestly, as I said above, it's an outright terrible mod. Even the soundtrack, which is half decent, gets annoying as it seems to play on a loop. If I have to say a positive thing of this mod, is that at least they were able to implement subtitles for that friendly NPC.

Pretty cool of the creator of this mod to share the source files for the levels. If you're interested in modding yourself, this is a great thing to get, plus, it's free!

Half-Life: C.A.G.E.D. is a pretty short but incredibly amazing Half-Life mod in which you stage a prison escape to the rhythm of synthwave. There's not much more story than that, as you start out a prisoner, with only a few minutes to execution, and must make your escape.

Now, I've played many Half-Life mods in my life, but I gotta say, the quality in design for this mod is superb. The level design alone is pretty good, and it seems to really push the limits of the GoldSrc engine. While enemy variety isn't that extensive, as you'll be fighting some slightly remodeled H.E.C.U., it still offers a great challenge as you make your way through the prison.

The soundtrack, as I said above, uses a lot of synthwave, and it really works like a charm here, giving it an 80s or 90s action movie vibe. That, combined with the prison escape plot, makes for a great adventure. So, do I recommend Half-Life: C.A.G.E.D.? You can be damn sure I do!

Monument Valley 2 is a wonderful sequel to an already wonderful game, building up on the gameplay mechanics of its predecessor in interesting ways. Just like the original game, it's a relaxing puzzle game with a minimalist style. This time around, however, there's a bit more "story" to it. I mean, the first game had its own story as well, but in that game it was a bit more ambiguous, while here, you get the gist of the plot right away. Basically, it's a story about motherhood, as it follows a character named Ro and her daughter, and through its simplistic style, shows the process of growing up.

Now, about gameplay, as I said, it builds on the original game, as the puzzles are largely similar: you manipulate impossible geometry in order to progress through each level. Personally, I found the puzzles in this game to be somewhat easier than the first game, but it more than makes up for it with the new gameplay mechanics involving control of two characters, plus a few other things like controlling light to make plants grow.

The art style remains consistent with the first game, although with a more colourful palette this time around, with some new environments like a forest or a garden. All in all, I can say this is an excellent sequel for an excellent casual game, and so I recommend it!

Chill Corner is a similar program to Virtual Cottage. That is, basically a software where you set a timer and then listen to music to relax/study or otherwise concentrate. This game has a bit more interactivity than Virtual Cottage, as you can decorate the room to truly make it your own, although I personally prefer the simplicity of VC. Either way, it's still a decent app, so I can recommend it as well.

One of two DLCs for Virtual Cottage, which adds extra tracks to its playlist. Honestly, I had to get them both as a way to support the developers, as it's a really nice program. I recommend it!

One of two DLCs for Virtual Cottage, which adds extra tracks to its playlist. Honestly, I had to get them both as a way to support the developers, as it's a really nice program. I recommend it!