Category: Game reviews

Nif Nif (Steam Review)

Nif Nif is a cute rogue-like card battler sent to me by Springfox Games. The general idea is you play as a pig cleaning up the forest. As you make your way through the single-level you will use different cards to wipe mud and dirt off different forest creatures.

If this sounds simple, it is because it kind of is. My second run let me finish the whole thing. This unlocked the second character, a cat. The cat plays very differently but the game doesn’t really get any harder. You will however notice that enemies, including the final boss, do change and it will take a few runs before you see them all.

Leveling up each character unlocks new skins and hats, hats give you power-ups for the run

Leveling up unlocks new skins and cards, and finishing runs unlocks hats. Each hat offers a powerup for the entire run, and finishing the run while wearing a hat unlocks a new hat. There is also a full garden to unlock, which can be used to create food and cards.

They managed to do a lot with this game while also making it friendly for younger gamers. As a fan of these types of games I still enjoyed it, not every game needs to be super challenging, sometimes I just like to relax. This is a 7/10 game. I would like to see moe levels added to it, but aside from that I had a lot of fun with it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Near Dark

So Caleb is a good-looking country guy working on his dad’s farm with his little brother, living the typical boring farmhand life. When he and a buddy go into the city looking for chicks, beer, and a good time, Caleb finds it. Mae is hot, quirky, and likes Caleb a lot…so much she nearly bites his throat out getting some hanky panky. Understandably Caleb freaks out and heads back home, bleeding out and feeling his skin burn the closer morning comes. Before he can reach his home, he’s snatched by a gang layered in thick blankets who speed off with Caleb in an RV with all blacked out windows. Odd. Turns out Mae is part of a nomadic gang of anarchist vampires, feeding and raising hell by night while laying low come dawn. Caleb is drawn between his budding love for Mae and the comradery he begins slowly forging with the maniacs but is he willing to destroy his soul for love and immortality?

Ok, this movie is a gem and I’m utterly pissed its a pain in the ass to find. There’s some legal rights dispute bullshit with it so finding it physically is going to cost you a hell of a penny, and streaming is a headache. I found it on Tubi- once- after trying for over a decade to track it down.

If you loved Aliens the gang will look extremely familiar; Henrickson, Goldstein, and Paxton did Near Dark right after Aliens actually. Bill Paxton (RIP) steals the show as a menacing, hilarious, and awesome villain. The acting all around is great. I love that the movie is a terrific balance between a western and a horror movie. I weirdly found many themes from Twilight as far as Caleb’s pathos when he has to fight the cravings to keep his humanity, just obviously much better and effectively done, reminding me much of Kaneke’s arc in Tokyo Ghoul (season 1) . I do like how they came up with a clever means to a happy, albeit badass ending. In the end, I implore you to go find Near Dark and experience this super underrated, near-forgotten gem for yourselves. May the gaming gods bring you glory Mr Pig Knuckle.

Spilled! Steam Review

Spilled! over on Steam will be released on March 26th and was sent to me by its Developer and Publisher Lente who honestly I couldn’t really find their social media for. She is a single person who made the game over two years.

I took these off Steam, I swear I’m not stalking her or anything

The game is simple, in every way imaginable. You simply use the arrow keys to drive your boat around and clean up oil and in the process save some cute animals.

As you clean up the oil being spilled by a huge oil tanker, you earn money. This money is then used to upgrade your tiny boat with a bigger oil catcher, a faster motor, or a tank to hold oil. This makes gathering oil quicker and easier. There is only one enemy to fight at the very end, and I use the term fight very vaguely as he can not kill you, you simply use your hose to sink him. This same hose can be used to put out fires or wash oil off the sides of mountains throughout the world.

The game is fun for a little bit before it gets repetitive, which is nice because the game is only about an hour long. This doesn’t mean you have to sit there for an hour straight and beat it. Play it for 10 minutes at a time if you want. It wasn’t a bad way to spend an hour.

Another cool thing is that 10 cents of every sale goes to whale and dolphin conservation, so really you get to play a fun game and help animals in need. So if playing an 8/10 game wasn’t enough to support an Indy game, this should really help push it over the edge. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Suikoden 1 HD Remaster Review

  I have always loved the Suikoden games,so hearing about the remaster coming a few years ago I was obviously pretty excited. Reliving the story of a young man attempting to topple an empire after being saddled with a cursed rune (the Soul Eater) a story I have played probably a dozen times.

I did begin to worry, would it hold up? Could it even hold up to those memories? Happily the story is still amazing. The graphic updated also look great,mostly. The world map takes a bit of getting used to and they didn’t do anywhere near the work on the sprites of the characters as they did on the world itself. This isn’t a bad thing since the characters look good anyway,but it does create a weird disconnect that takes a bit to get used to.

There are some quality of life updates, for example anyone that has played the game will know who I am talking about. That piece of shit on the docks,will no longer block your path. If you know,you know. The ability to boost up the speed of battles is great when you just want to get through a dungeon, for example trying to get back through Necords castle for the second time.

All around, what I have always believed was the better of the first 2 games holds up. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Sugardew Island PS5 Review

Sugardew Island on PS5 is a nice treat sent my way by Rokaplay. All I really knew about it was it was a cozy farm shop game. The results were pleasantly nice.

You start the game as a female character (Sorry anti-woke brigade, this can’t be changed, go cry somewhere else, the rest of us don’t care) and you can give her a cute outfit. From here she will crash and end up on a not-so-deserted island surrounded by thorns. Your job is to use your farm and store to revitalize the island.

Unlike most games like this, you start off with a huge area you can farm, and you can buy animals right from the start. The limited stamina will hold you back though. This is increased simply by doing things. You improve the island by doing missions for the magical tree in the center of the island where Hare lives.

Hare doesn’t like humans, they screwed up the island in the first place with their greed. Hare does become more receptive to you as you accomplish missions and unlock more and more things such as different seeds, new tools, and bigger houses and shops for yourself. To achieve this you sell crops (well anything honestly, I sold extra wood once) at your store to the sprites that live on the island. This grants you harmony towards the missions.

Now I know many times I give my trophy hunter readers a heads up, and this game has some easy trophies. sell 250 of certain crops, or finish all the missions none of which are hard. The game does NOT contain a platinum trophy however.

So is this game worth your time? Truthfully for you more hardcore farming sim fans, no. A lot of the bells and whistles you have come to expect are missing. There is no fishing for example and while there are people to have a sort of romance with there are only 4 options. But if you are just looking for a casual farming sim to relax after a hard day of work, this game is great. I can’t wait to see what future updates might bring, it is a solid 8/10 game. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Trolls Vs Vikings Reborn (Steam)

Trolls Vs Vikings Reborn was sent to me by the fine folks at Megapop. I have to say, I wasn’t sure what to expect besides it being similar to Plants vs Zombies and honestly, that is exactly how this place. You set a miner up to dig up rocks that act as food so you can feed more trolls. They all do something different, my favorite lets you move him back and forth as he punches Vikings.

The story itself isn’t bad, A mysterious figure convinces the Vikings that the trolls have gold lying around and they will be rich if they come over and take it. Vikings being what they are, invade. A little troll girl overhears the conversation and warns them. This results in the Trolls having time to meet the Vikings for battle, which looks like a yard.

Now this would be fine, plenty of games follow a similar formula as other games, but the formula needs to work and work well. Happily Trolls vs Zombies Reborn is a 6 dollar game, which while more expensive than Plants vs Zombies, is a new experience that plays just as well. It is a 7/10 experience for me. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Blow It Up (PS5 Review)

Blow It Up is a physics destruction game sent to me by Brain Seal. Anyone familiar with the Angry Birds craze will instantly know how to play this game and what it is about. You aim, fire, knock over a structure, and kill some aliens.

There are 7 different, let us call them people, to throw at these structures all with different abilities. Some will simply move faster others explode or act as a bombers and just drop bombs in a row. They are easy and quick to unlock.

The game admittedly does not look the best, but for what they are going for and it being a budget title I don’t think it is fair to expect it to. Graphically it looks as good as it needs to. The sound is also solid, with explosions being satisfying and walls crashing down feeling like they have some weight to them.

My only real gripe was occasionally if you want to restart a mission you failed to succeed I did experience a couple of crashes and freezes, this was easily avoided tho by being careful when you pause.

The game is simple, and kind of short, it is also only about $8 so realistically the real question is, is it worth that price point? It has around 70 levels which is more than enough to keep you occupied for a few hours trying to collect gold trophies on all of them, there are gold coins to collect as well. The platinum is pretty simple so for hunters that will be an incentive. All in all, it is an 8/10 game. I had fun with it, it did a great job capturing that angry bids feel without completely ripping off the game. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Monster Hunter Wilds (PS5)

What is there to say about this game that hasn’t been said by a million others. Is it beautiful? Damn right, it is. Does it control great? Absolutely. Did I drop eleven hours into it the day it launched? No, it was 10 hours 58 minutes, and 47 seconds. Thanks for counting Capcom.

Dude knows what this is and still almost dies because of it

Now, I do have to add this, I played on PS5 and supposedly the PC launch was horrific. I do have a friend playing over on PC, and he hasn’t had any complaints or run into any of the issues you will see on the Steam store. That isn’t to say they don’t exist, he just has a mid-range PC and maybe he is lucky.

Now that the Steam version is out of the way, back to the two other complaints I have seen. The story is easy, and the menu system. I can’t deny the easy part or say it is true, I have been playing Monster Hunter since I can’t remember when each game seems to get easier, and at this point, I haven’t been carted or lost a hunt in wilds yet, and I have finished the story. The menus are also easier to navigate than ever, however isn’t exactly a compliment because they have always been abysmal.

The game, however, is probably the best Monster Hunter to date in terms of gameplay. As an avid hunting horn user this thing has never felt better. They added a few things in Rise and added more here. It is no longer just a buff weapon but a full-on damage dealer as well, without the need to farm for decorations and gear. It isn’t a top-tier damage dealer of course but it is far more viable solo.

If you were considering buying this one but may have been on the fence, it is time to hop off the fence. Join the hunters’ guild and kill some monsters. They deserve it. Ok as always they really don’t and we are probably the bad guys for committing genocide. Regardless, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory,

X-Out: Resurfaced (Xbox Review)

X-Out: Resurfaced was sent to me by ININ Games a company you all know I love for their ability to bring games from the past to the modern era. (seriously if you guys are listening, The Guardian Legend is begging you for an update) and once again they have nailed this one. If you enjoyed the original don’t think, just go pick this one up. It is worth the $20.

This Boss almost cost me a controller

The game itself is a typical side-scrolling shooter straight from the Amiga days of computer shooters. You get some money, build a submarine, start on the left-hand side of the screen, move to the right avoiding bullets and enemies, and use assorted powerups and bullets of your own to make your way to the boss.

The game is beautiful and easy to control. Also, no game has pissed me off this badly since, actually, I don’t know when. BloodBorne review maybe, and I have beat Dark Souls 2 and Elden Ring since then. The game is not easy, and it is hard in the best way possible. There are no cheap deaths here. It is all skill, or lack of skill that will kill you. If you can’t “git gud” as they say, look up the cheat codes. Yes, those exist, just like the good old days. When ININ brought this bad boy from the past they left those intact.

This game isn’t for everyone, it is hard and it is a niche genre of game from a niche time in gaming. But for the people who love that period, it is a must-have for your collection. 9/10, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Cattle Country (Steam Fest Demo)

Cattle Country is a cozy farming simulator tossed my way by Castle Pixel and the demo is fantastic. It has everything you would hope from a game that lets you live the farming life, cattle, crops, fishing, crafting, and over 20 people to get to know and love.

Don’t let that description fool you, you could easily see these amazing pixel graphics, see it is a farming sim, and think, is this trying to take on Stardew Valley for the crown as king of the mountain. We all know this is an impossible challenge, and Castle Pixel doesn’t even try. There are some obvious things in common that go all the way back to Harvest Moon on the Super Nintendo. For example two of your first quests are to meet all the people in town and harvest some crops.

The game itself tho more or less just sets you down to let you do what you want. On my first day, I went and met the guy who runs the blacksmithing place and we talked about his dreams that I interrupted. Then I decided to just break some rocks and knock down some trees. I don’t know why I chose this path, I simply felt like doing it. On day 2 I decided to plan more crops and cook some food while doing some fishing.

The fishing mini-game is actually very easy, simply cast out and hit a button and boom mini-game starts. As the bar moves hit it a couple times when it is in the green zone and you catch a fish.

For fans of the genre definitely go check out the demo. More importantly, for those reading this thinking PC players get all the great games, a PS5 and Switch version is coming out this year as well. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.