Recent reviews by curly_nuts

This is a fun party game.

There are a few things to keep in mind:

1. You have to download an app. Unlike jackbox or other games of this type, you need a dedicated app to play. I was a little annoyed that you have to have your guests download an app that they will never use outside of this single event. The only bright side is that the app is a relatively small sized download and it doesn't leave a large footprint in resource usage.

2. There are a bunch of different game modes. Some are better than others. It's not just the faker game, but that's probably the funnest.

3. Don't expect long sessions of play. After about 30 minutes, you'll either be too tired or too played out to continue. But the 30 minutes you do play is fun.

4. The game doesn't keep score like Jackbox does. Although some of the game modes are competitive, it seems like the objective is really just to have fun.

5. Everyone I played with joined the game fine, but the app on my phone wouldn't let me enter text to input my name. Therefore, I couldn't use my phone to play. Strange.

All in all, this is a fun party game that offers something different than the typical Jackbox experience. I recommend it if you're looking for a fun time with a large group.

What does it take for a game to be truly great? Obviously, no game is perfect but there are games that are so well designed and crafted that they leave a lasting impression and are fondly remembered long after completion. These are games that are admired. They are used to judge other games that come in their wake. This is the standard that I used in deciding whether a game is great or not.

Tunic, with no exaggeration, is a great game. From the lovely and expansive world you can explore to the tense and exciting battles you fight, this is a game that thrilled me and kept me entertained throughout. There is an incredible sense of wonder and excitement upon finding new dungeons or obtaining new equipment. With numerous and varied regions to explore, it really and truly is an adventure in the purest sense.

On the surface, Tunic is an adventure game that is reminiscent of old 8 and 16 bit games. Your little fox character washes ashore and must explore the world to find items for survival and clues to make sense of the story. You fight creatures large and small, with some pretty intense and remarkable boss fights along the way.

But this is only the surface. Tunic is actually a puzzle game. In a design decision of true brilliance, the game is littered with puzzles and mysteries that you must figure out. To aid you there is a beautifully illustrated instruction manual. The pages of the manual are scattered around the world and discovering each page brings you closer and closer to unraveling the mysteries of Tunic. As you accumulate pages, you're given more insight into Tunic's story and, more importantly, clues on how the game works and ways to interact with the world. Figuring out things that were previously unknown until a page in the manual is available gave me such a sense of accomplishment. I literally exclaimed "oh" so many times while figuring out different things with the aid of the manual.

I wouldn't want to spoil anything and you shouldn't spoil anything by reading a guide or wiki to get through this game, but just know that all the answers are in the manual. Literally, all the answers are there, right in front of you.

The game does have flaws. The graphics are not cutting edge and can be rough at times. Also, once you beaten the game, although a NG+ opens up, figuring out the puzzles does sap the replay value and there is little incentive to continue playing. Also, some puzzles are just too esoteric for what I imagine would be most people. I admit that I had to seek outside help for some puzzles that I lost patience on. The fact that the solution to those puzzles was something I could have figured out made me feel guilty and sad that I deprived myself the fun getting the solution myself.

After my experiences with this game, it will forever be used as a benchmark to judge other games in the genre.

Puzzle games come in all shapes and sizes but how many let you (inadvertently) kill hundreds of thousands of people? This puzzle game lets you direct the flow of hordes of humans to get to an the level exit and in doing so you will end up losing many, many people. Some will fall off the edge of the map, others will be tossed to their doom. It's like a highly advanced Lemmings game. And it's an absolute blast. The puzzles are thought provoking and clever. I was impressed by the quality of the levels and their design. The graphics are crisp and animations are smooth. I marveled at the number of people on the screen without any hint of slowdown. This is really a great game and deserves more attention.

This is a very, very good game. It plays like 3D Dot Game Heroes (port that game to PC, you cowards!). Wyvia is essentially an action RPG with towns, stats, items to find, and dungeons to explore. Not much of a story, or at least not a good story, but that's okay. I love the retro RPG charm and the game has a just-one-more dungeon addictiveness to it that kept me playing longer than I thought I would. It helps that many of the world assets remind me of the OG Dragon Quest. I love it and you will, too!

I'm not recommending this although I had some fun with it. So this is a mobile game. And like most mobile games, it really wants you to pay to win.

So I was having fun with the levels building castles and putting up defenses when by level 10, the difficulty spikes and the game almost forces you to either wait for a money drop (about an hour and half) or use gems to buy powerful spells. Can you guess what is a limited resource in this game? Gems, of course. I don't like the gotcha mechanic and it has no place on Steam.

Besides this, there really isn't too much strategy involved. You're going to use the same building strategies for all maps. You'll also start to feel constrained by the limited height and width of the maps which provide very limited range for creativity or intricacy.

I'm a little sad that I'm leaving this review because I think if this was just a normal game without the mobile BS, it would be pretty good and fun. But once you hit that difficulty spike and feel that gotcha, it's all downhill.

I love me some party games, so it kinda pains me to leave a negative review on this one. Its got pretty good production value and a intriguing concept, but it's just not that exciting; or, at least it's not exciting enough for a party game. I was honestly bored after the first round and couldn't wait to be done.

Every player represents a part of humanity with the goal of surviving an Earth generated crisis. You see, Earth is playing against humanity to undue the damage we've caused these many thousands of years. As a segment of humanity (media, world leaders, scientists) it's your job to work cooperatively (or not) with your fellow humans to defend against major catastrophes before the human population reaches zero.

This sounds good, but the game gets bogged down in overly complicated decisions that have no real clear direction. Do you cooperate with scientists in reporting good news or criticize their slow progress? Do you impose strict laws to keep the population in lockdown or side with industry and risk disease spread for the sake of keeping businesses open? Do you really want to answer these questions with friends or family in a party setting? If you do, you'll definitely see a lot of bored faces.

The difference between this and Jackbox is that Jackbox is designed for parties. Jackbox games are delivered in bite sized amounts, just enough to get the point across and have fun. This game gives you a mouthful and you're expected digest a little too much.

This is a decently made game but it's brought down by annoying mechanics. You get to pick from a variety of starting characters, each with their own unique weapon, ability, and super move. Then you'll run through about five levels, each with its own boss. In each level, you'll find a variety of weapons from different classes, sometimes rare weapons which are very powerful. But ammo is always in short supply! This all culminates in a big boss battle at the end of the game.

The problem is that you'll die, a lot, and often in cheap ways; enemies will shoot you from off screen, you'll be surrounded because of poorly designed, randomly generated levels, and the upgrades offered at the end of the level just don't help. And God help you if all you find in a level are useless melee weapons. Why are they even in this game to begin with when nearly all the enemies shoot you from a distance?

The game ultimately boils down into you trying to get a perfect run, i.e., getting the perfect weapons, having the perfect level layout, and obtaining the best upgrades. It's not the worst, but it certainly could have been better. It just sucks that I have to die so many times because of cheap deaths until I find the right combination that gets me through the game.

I'm giving it a thumbs up because, overall, it's decent and kept me entertained with its unique weapons and pretty good enemy AI. But the cheap deaths, poor level generator, and heavily reliance on luck keeps this from being perfect. I suggest pick it up on sale to get the most bang for your buck.

Dragon Quest Treasures is a spin off of DQ XI, which was an amazing game. It features younger versions of Erik and his sister on their quest to find treasure. The story is pretty simple, but the plot builds as you progress.

The game is wonderfully colorful and vibrant. Enemies are classic DQ and the locations are varied and, at times, quite beautiful.

The game features RPG-lite mechanics like leveling up and item usage, but it's more of an action/adventure game. You can roam an open world, accepting quests and tackling dungeons throughout. Battles are played out in real-time, with your monster allies helping you in battle. Your attacks are limited, but there's plenty of enemy variety to keep things fresh.

The best part about the game is the collecting mechanic. You collect treasure, ingredients, monsters, and items and it's a blast. It can be quite addictive trying to find better and better treasure. And with more treasure comes more play mechanics like building up your base and opening up new features to play around with.

This is an absolute blast to play and worth every penny. Don't let the childish visuals fool you, this game is fun and worth a purchase.

Holy crap, this is an amazing little rogue-lite shoot'em up! I was pleasantly surprised at how feature-rich this game is with multiple weapons, pilots, and optional gear that makes every run unique and challenging. It's a wonderful twist on the genre and a fantastic game.

Just in time for Halloween! Eerie, haunting, and downright scary. I never knew PSone era graphics could make me crap my pants!