A Game About Literally Doing Your Taxes

Game: A Game About Literally Doing Your Taxes

Developer: Not Sailor Studios

Download Link: https://notasailorstudios.itch.io/a-game-about-literally-doing-your-taxes

Pretty self-explanatory, no? A game about doing your taxes. No one likes doing it, and those that do are lying. Tax day is the most painful day of the year for anyone that receives a paycheck. Handing your money off to the government who uses the money for the budget of multiple programs: military, space exploration, garbage trucks, public transportation, and a myriad of other things I could spend all day listing off. So here comes a game by Not Sailor Studios that looks to turn doing taxes into entertainment, or at least tries to make taxes become entertainment, then again I'm not entirely sure that's the whole point of this whole game.

A Game About Literally Doing Your Taxes is a game about literally doing your taxes. You separate your junk mail from tax, bills, and checks and file your tax returns over the course of 7 days. Okay, so what's so special about it? Well, I don't want to give to much away with this little write-up. What I will say, however, is that this game is like a deconstruction of doing taxes, and repetitive, mundane work. You sort through your mail and throw away the non-necessities of life all for the sake of paying your taxes so you can be a good, upstanding citizen.

There's always the on-going argument whether taxation is theft or not. Or even if taxation is a good thing. This game isn't going to answer these political questions, but it does give some insight into the mundanity that is... well, taxes. There are some darker elements to this game, but I don't want to spoil the surprises this game has to offer.

I'm not going to sit here and act like this game is a "we live in a society" meme but there is some commentary on the state of society, at least here in the United States, about the state of taxes and how overwhelming it can be. If there's anything that can be said, it's that kids should be taught in school how to do their taxes, though that may put accountants out of a job. Taxes are dumb, but this game certainly isn't. Check it out!

Waltz with Bashir

Film: Waltz with Bashir

Director: Ari Folman

MPAA Rating: R

Release Date: 2008

Recently, I've been on a sort of movie watching binge, as I've experienced a slight burnout in regards to playing video games. Factoring that in with my computer's motherboard getting damaged, becoming absolutely unusable. So, I'm out of a reliable computer for the next couple of weeks or so and I'm gonna be bored out of my mind. That being said, however, I've been meaning to talk about a movie for a while, as it has been a hot minute since I have talked about a movie I've watched in recent times. I could look at something better established like Taxi Driver but I feel like I wouldn't really bring anything new to the table as far as discussion goes. So, why not discuss a film that is not often talked about? I guess this is the part where I start talking about Waltz with Bashir.

Waltz with Bashir is an animated war documentary about the grit of the 1982 Lebanon War. The film/documentary centers around filmmaker and Lebanon War veteran Ari Folman who has no recollection of the war he served in. In order to regain his memory of the war he served in, he reaches out to his friends to help him remember his days as a soldier in the war. Each friend he reaches out to gives their personal experiences of the war.

Waltz with Bashir presents itself as an animated film/documentary hybrid, combining documentary coverage with animated visual storytelling. I was not familiar with the 1982 Lebanon War before watching this film, so learning about the conflicts that happened was a new experience for me since it was never covered in my high school history class. Getting first-hand accounts from the veterans of the war was welcome, considering the United States' lack of involvement in the war.

The combination of personal accounts alongside animated visual storytelling is done masterfully with its use of animation and color. This film was animated entirely in Flash, which took 4 years to fully animate, and for a flash animated film, it looks incredible. I love the use of color the film uses. It looks filthy and gritty in the best way possible. Combining the personal accounts with the color, lighting, and animation make for a haunting experience when watching this film, not to mention the grit and violence that is showcased as well.

A lot of anti-war movies are set in a World War II setting, mainly cause the stage that was set was so spectacular and dramatic. Anti-war movies often show the drama and grit of war, but can't help but show off their acts of heroism and victory alongside the drama, in movies such as Saving Private Ryan or Hacksaw Ridge. In Waltz with Bashir however, there are no heroes in this story. This isn't a country like the United States going into the heart of war to save the day. In this conflict war crimes and genocide are committed. There are no acts of heroism in these accounts. There is no outside force coming to stop the conflict and take the glory. Evil is committed, but it's stated bluntly and neutrally. It's like having a nightmare where heinous acts are committed, but you can do nothing about it.

I think Waltz with Bashir touches upon the themes of anti-war better than any other movie I've seen. We have themes of guilt, evil, and international indifference that is peppered among the personal accounts, combined with the lack of heroism and intervention in the conflict. When Ari regains his memories of the war, he feels the guilt for doing nothing to stop Sabra and Shatila massacre, feeling as guilty as those who actually carried the genocidal act. That guilt had an effect on me as I began thinking about why the United States or any other foreign superpower didn't intervene in the injustice that took place among the hundreds, if not thousands, that were killed. It got me thinking about the U.S.' involvement in foreign conflicts and the importance of foreign policy, even if my mind and intellectual capacity is not necessarily at that level to discuss it.

Thinking back on watching this film/documentary, it does get me thinking about the brutality of war in a way that often doesn't get looked at in most anti-war films, the ones I have seen at least. This is a graphic, violent, hellish account of war and the atrocities committed in the Lebanon War. I *really* want to recommend this movie so badly, but the content and the language barrier may prove to be an issue. Perhaps it wasn't an issue for me, but I don't want to force this on people. What else can I say about Waltz with Bashir? It's an incredible film that gets you thinking about foreign conflicts and global superpowers' involvement in them, or in this case lack thereof. Its animation that helps paint the picture of the grit of war is stellar and memorable. Combine these aspects with the personal accounts of the war, you get a very haunting film/documentary of a conflict that shouldn't have been ignored

Verdict: 10/10

Critters for Sale

Game: Critters for Sale

Developer: Sonoshee

Platform: PC/Mac/Linux

Download Link: https://sonoshee.itch.io/critters-for-sale

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1078420/Critters_for_Sale/

Surrealism as a definition has transformed from describing the art movement of weird imagery in the early 1920s to essentially designating something as weird or bizarre. I've had my run-ins with surreal games in the past with stuff like EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OKAY, a game that is strange and nihilistic in presentation and tone respectively. Now let's take the strange presentation of that game and combine it with the mechanics of another game I have covered, Hell, and you get yourself one of the most bizarre and entrancing concepts I have played since restarting this blog.

Critters for Sale is a point n click game with themes surrounding the experience of death "from the comfort of your seat." The playable demo contains two out of five total playable vignettes. Each vignette centers around a different location in a different era of time, with themes centering around death and immortality amongst other themes. With multiple choices to make in this game, you must choose wisely in order to live. The game's two playable vignettes are "snake" and "goat," the first centering around receiving a text message from deceased pop star Michael Jackson to attend a club near your apartment, and the second where you traverse the Arabian Desert in Jordan accompanied by a goat and experimental hip-hop group Death Grips frontman Stefan "MC Ride" Burnett in search for a mystical cave.

Critters for Sale's presentation was what caught my eye when searching for a game to play and this certainly did not disappoint at all. The black and white, grainy presentation and nightmarish tone reminds a lot of Hell, a game I previously mentioned. The old school FMV presentation and animation seem almost next level in comparison. The atmosphere of the vignettes is otherworldly, like a strange dream you'd have at night. With casual conversations with a dead celebrity to traversing the desert with a cryptic man, this game really hits the weird factor that comes from a dream.

Critters for Sale is a strange game with a lot of potential. As of writing this, it is currently still in development and will get a full release on Steam once it is finished. I can't wait to see what else Sonoshee has in store with this game. Its presentation and atmosphere are great and I hope to see this game get weirder as time goes on.

Smashing Super Twins

Game: Smashing Super Twins

Developer: Mark Swindoll

Platform: PC

Download link: https://marksw.itch.io/smashing-super-twins-fight

I liked playing Super Smash Bros. Melee from 2012 until around 2018. I got into the game by watching a match between old school Captain Falcon player Jeff "SilentSpectre" Leung face off against Ice Climber player Robert "Wobbles" Wright in game 2 of their loser's semis match at a tournament called "Mango Juice." I was really into playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl at the time and seeing people playing Melee so quickly and optimally really intrigued me. Video in question below (coarse language in the video, so fair warning):

Long story short, I ground out the game, found out I wasn't quite good enough, had a bad experience at a tournament one year, so I stopped playing. Then Super Smash Bros. Ultimate came out and I haven't really looked back.

So why bring this up? This seems like some needless information, yeah? Well, I guess context is important when explaining my experience with this franchise. So coming into Smashing Super Twins, I thought it would be important to share such experience. Needless to say, Smashing Super Twins is like a bootlegged version of Melee where you can only play as one character, have one move, and can guard. It's ironically the fairest version of any Smash Bros. game I've played in all my years of playing these games.

Smashing Super Twins is very straightforward: knock your opponent off the stage more times than them and you win. No advanced tech, no character selection, no wavedashing, no l-canceling, no tripping, no rage mechanic, just you against the opponent in a one-on-one duel to the death. This is strictly a multiplayer game and has no AI to it, so find a buddy, or a willing person, and challenge them.

The game has quite a similarity to Divekick, wherein you can only attack in midair. While in that game you had essentially only two buttons to work with, Smashing Super Twins gives you more options in movement, like in the main Smash Bros. installments.

Is the game silly? Yeah, considering that the music of the game is a reversed version of one of the tracks from Melee, that being the Final Destination theme. It was made for Duplicade 2015 after all, where the goal was to make a 2-player arcade experience that lasts about 30 seconds and is essentially supposed to be designed as a bootleg. Overall, it pretty much succeeds.

Throughout my years of playing Super Smash Bros., this is one of the strangest fan games I've encountered. It's not super complex, but it doesn't need to be. It's a harmless bootleg that's pretty funny. I'm surprised the Smash fandom doesn't really know about this thing or even talk about it. I can see it being played at Smash Summit as like a silly side-tournament or something. I'm sure twitch chat would get a kick out of it.

Hell

Game: Hell

Developer: ahintoflime

Platform: PC/Mac

Download Link: https://ahintoflime.itch.io/hell

We all have our own vision of what Hell looks like. We imagine it as fire and brimstone, gnashing of teeth, or perhaps as just a state of mind. Our personal concepts are often based upon religious principles or off of the Divine Comedy, which, ironically, got accepted into religious canon in some sects of Christianity, but I digress. Hell is an interesting concept that has often been tackled in video games. Games such as Doom and Dante's Inferno have you battling in the depths of Hell itself, while games such as Agony have you stealthily exploring the place. So yeah, we often get depictions of Hell widely accepted in the likes of being a terrible place to be, but what about emphasizing the "state of mind" aspect of it? Well, you're probably not going to find an easily accessible game to play. The closest you'll probably get to Hell being a state of mind is in ahintoflime's effort known as Hell.

Hell is a game that was made for A Game By Its Cover 2017, a game jam where you create a game based off the cover art of a Famicom cartridge created by Famicase. Setting some self parameters for himself, such as creating a game in a genre you don't like, ahintoflime developed a point & click game for the jam that explores Hell. The game has some items you can pick up that can affect your playthrough interactions. The game is a short point & click adventure that lasts roughly around 5 minutes of play time.

It's interesting how Hell presents itself. You're not entirely sure where you are in this world. The only clear thing is that you are dead and you feel mopey. The graphics are presented in a black and white, grainy aesthetic, that is very reminiscent of grainy black and white stills you'd find in a history textbook. It's a very moody world that is being depicted here. I'm not entirely sure if it's Hell, but I guess we can assume it is Hell. After all, you are dead and you aren't exactly in a chipper mood.

The world does feel rather interesting though. It feels like a nightmare that plays more off of the fear of the unknown and surrealism. Hell also likes to play off of other types of fears too, like the fear of giant bugs and clowns and the like. It just feels like a very strange nightmare that you can't wake up from, even though your short play session will say differently. If there was any complaint to be had from my end it would that I wish there was more to explore and the path wasn't so linear, despite the branching of paths.

Hell is an interesting game that I kind of wish had slightly more depth to it but considering it's a small project, I feel like that'd be asking too much from it. For what you get, Hell is an interesting experience that is neat to look at and interact with. For a genre he doesn't like, there is quite a bit of potential to be had from ahintoflime's game. I wonder if he might try expanding upon this concept in the future, though I'm not sure if he would entirely want to. But who am I to judge?

EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK

Game: EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK

Developer: Nathalie Lawhead

Platform: PC/Mac

Download Link: https://alienmelon.itch.io/everything-is-going-to-be-ok

I'm the "weird one" when it comes to my group of friends that I have in real life. When I'm in the mood to, I will often show some stuff to my friends that I find entertaining and see their reactions to said stuff. Some are adventurous and end up laughing worriedly at the stuff I share while others are completely averse to the idea. Perhaps it's to keep their sanity intact, or perhaps they just aren't very adventurous. I don't know. It is a great mystery. I guess I can call myself adventurous when it comes to media in general. I'm always looking to try out something new or something that I haven't experienced before. Will this get me in trouble in the future? I don't think so, but I do find it weird that a lot of people aren't willing to step outside of their comfort zones. Then again, I come from a flock of people that, wording this carefully, tend to be closed minded. They aren't really looking to try something that is way outside of their comfort zone, which on the one hand I get, but on the other hand, it is slightly frustrating in terms of sharing interests.

So why am I bringing this up? Because I'm about to share is pretty weird, even by my standards. That is Nathalie Lawhead's EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK, easily one of the weirdest pieces of media I've come across since discovering YouTube Poops back in 2007 (which I still enjoy to this day). EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK is a collection of small games and interactive pieces of media bundled together into a single package. Every single one of these vignettes is like a strange fever dream: it's weird, it's horrifying, but at the same time intriguing.

What has stuck out to me about Lawhead's projects, like Electric Love Potato and ARMAGAD (which I still need to play), is the presentation of her projects. Nearly everything is presented in a way that is hard to describe. I can't call it zany just for the sake of it, because that would more than likely come off as callous. It seems more like reveling in one's own weirdness to the point of just owning it, but at the same time, it feels grounded in a way where it comes off as a natural personality. Maybe it's because she's able to present her weirdness through her coding skills. Her presentation reminds me a lot of something that Adult Swim would spotlight or ask a commission for.

Such presentation is well expressed in EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK. Much of the vignettes talk of suffering and pain in a very nihilistic way. It's like the message it's getting across is that life's pain and suffering can't be solved by surges of forced optimism and "ignorance is bliss." This is especially exemplified in "PAGE 2" where when you ask the cute cartoon character if they are okay, they say that "everything is perfect" or "nothing is wrong" when they are clearly suffering from being impaled. When you ask for some words of wisdom from the character, they spout a motivational poster with random phrases that are just as meaningless as advice given on perseverance and finding meaning. As if needing "more of 'X'" is just not gonna cut it. I even got a randomly generated poster that said: "Optimism is never enough." Needless to say, that is very much true.

It's not just physical suffering. There is also social suffering! Like on in "PAGE 18" where your goal is to try to socialize in a conversation without making it awkward. This is difficult because ultimately you're in a conversation that you don't care about and when the conversation gets around to you, you are struggling to answer with a topic that is related to the conversation. If you go off topic, you increase your awkwardness level. It's an introvert's worst nightmare come to life!

With much of these vignettes, there is also some social media actions you can utilize in-game if you connect your Twitter account. For instance, "PAGE 6" has you creating your own nihilistic cult after finding out your wife is pregnant with someone else's child. When you reach the end of the vignette, you can name your cult and tweet about the members that committed suicide with you off the edge of a cliff. Yeah, this game is dark.

EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK is a surreal fever dream of a game that is super intriguing to look at and play. Its nihilistic commentary on hardship and suffering is something to behold and is very relatable for those who have struggles in life, which is pretty much everyone. While I'm not one to think nihilistically, or at least not yet, I do appreciate some of the heavy realities that Nathalie Lawhead brings to the table with this game. For some of us, life is misery, and no amount of optimistic perseverance can save us from it. Sometimes, we just have to live through it and there isn't much we can do about it. EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK is a game that I had the utmost pleasure of playing. It's quirky, dark, and at times pretty funny. Its presentation is stellar and its commentary on life is profound as well, even if I end up not entirely agreeing with it. Maybe I'm not supposed to though? I don't know. I'm not sure if I know anything anymore.

and i made sure to hold your head sideways

Game: and i made sure to hold your head sideways

Developer: Jenny Jiao Hsia and AP Thomson

Platform: Browser

Play here: https://q_dork.itch.io/and-i-made-sure-to-hold-your-head-sideways

I've stated before in my post about Kill Baby Hitler that I'm not too crazy about visual novels. I'm not one to immediately write them off as hot garbage without playing them myself, but I will say they aren't my cup of tea, mainly because of how drab the presentation can be. Interactive fiction can be done well if given the right application of its tools. One of those games that I have come across in my recommended feed on itch.io was and i made sure to hold your head sideways. 

And i made sure to hold your head sideways is an interactive fiction game made by Jenny Jiao Hsia and AP Thomson for FLATGAME Annual Jam 2016. The main idea was to create a game or visual novel utilizing the basic fundamentals of the Unity game engine; essentially using the game engine at its most basic of functions. The interactive fiction piece, without giving too much away, tells the story from the first-person perspective of our main character recounting the events of a party they and a friend went to while attempting to help the latter sober up before things got out of hand.

Normally, as I've stated before, interactive fiction isn't necessarily my forte. What I will say though is that this piece did manage to keep my attention because of its presentation. Its story is told very much like in a pop-up book format, from my perspective at least, and using the arrow keys to form the illustrations to continue the story I found to be incredibly charming. It also helped to keep me engaged while reading the story as opposed to just clicking away through heaps of text. Coupled with the black and white color scheme, it maintains a simple and intimate aesthetic, like the coupling of memories piecing themselves together when thinking back on an event that happened.

I also liked the way the story zigzags along as you progress through the story, like literally zigzags. As in the camera jumps from one picture to the next in a zany way. It helps give the game some personality. The music itself has this ambient vibe to it as if recalling a memory from the past. I found it charming, to say the least.

I was pleasantly surprised by and i made sure to hold your head sideways as far as interactive fiction goes. I enjoyed the personality this little game had, how you pulled the pieces together like a puzzle. While this hasn't fully changed my opinion on interactive fiction as a whole, it does help take the idea of giving some more in the future a chance. Perhaps I'll cover another interactive fiction piece on this Frankenstein monster of a blog.

Planetarium

Game: Planetarium

Developer: Daniel Linssen

Platform: PC

Download Link: https://managore.itch.io/planetarium

I love space! Space is super cool. Realizing you live in a universe where you are as insignificant as a speck of dust is both saddening yet intriguing to think about. Teams are always on the search for exoplanets, especially ones that could potentially be teeming with life. Now, I could always boot up Space Engine and explore the far reaches of a procedurally generated universe, or boot up Elite Dangerous and live life as a space trader or explorer in the Milky Way galaxy. However, sometimes, I just want to look at cool looking planets that could potentially host life on them. I could search for them in Space Engine, but that can be a bit of a hassle sometimes. Sometimes I don't wanna put in the work and just have planets be generated for me in a piece of software. That's where Daniel Linssen's Planetarium comes in.

Planetarium is a software which generates planets. It generates planets based on the lettered characters that are typed in, essentially acting as a seed for what planet gets generated. There are millions of combinations of letters you can put into the system to the point where it's futile to figure out just how many exactly you can generate. All planets that are generated are Earth-like planets that have the potential for life. You can also rotate the planets left and right, along with looking at their moon system when applicable. You can also take screenshots of planets you think are cool and save them in a folder.

If your goal is searching for Earth in Planetarium, you're going to be spending a lot of time with this software. It's not so easy as to type in "Earth" and you get a planet accurate to the proportions and geography of Earth. You're going to have to sort through a lot of planets before you find one that closely resembles Earth. It more than likely is one of 150 secret planets that you can discover in this software, which is one of the reasons to keep searching for planets to generate. They are elusive, so it'll take some creativity to find them.

I haven't fully uncovered Planetarium's secrets, but my love for astronomy does bring me back to software such as this. Planets are cool to look at, and if we ever get technology powerful enough to get a visible look at exoplanets, perhaps our fundamental understanding of how the universe works will continue to change. Until then, we can always imagine what Earth-like planets look like way out in the cosmos, with Planetarium giving us an albeit pixelated start. 

Rain

Game: Rain

Developers: DDRKirby and Kat Jia (Cocoa Moss)

Platform: Browser

Play here: https://ddrkirbyisq.itch.io/rain

Got another weather-based game to speak about. Previously, I took a look at the game Wisper, a game where you control the wind to help an island's inhabitants. This time I'm taking a look at something a little bit different. Instead of wind being our weather pattern of the day, this time we'll be accompanied by rain. The rain has this sort of vibe of to it, like somberness, sadness, and sometimes intimacy. There seems to be this feel to rain where you just want to stay indoors and cuddle with someone or something and just hang out and stay dry as you listen to the rain pelt the roof of your home and the thunder rumble in the distance. The collaborative work of DDRKirby and Kat Jia have a somewhat different approach to rain though, with Kat Jia commenting how they and their programming partner love the feeling of walking in the rain. These two try to invoke this sort of wonder through their collaborative project called Rain.

Rain is an atmospheric flash game where you control a child walking through the rain. No enemies, no time limit, no end goal. You simply just walk in the rain and soak in the atmosphere. The atmosphere of this game is great. The graphics have this intimate, childlike drawing to them, and having you play as a kid sort helps with this feeling of innocence as you walk through the rain. The sound design is also rich, with the pelting rain and the booming thunder in the distance. All of this, coupled with the soundtrack, give this game quite a bit of personality.

It's kind of hard for me to put into words the kind of feeling Rain is looking to invoke, to me at least. The mood I get from this game is a sense of childlike wonder of playing in the rain, without the baggage of getting sick from being in it for too long. All of the elements of this game combined give this sort of intimate feel to it, like a passion project from somebody, even though it is small in scale.

Rain is a short, but sweet little game. If you're looking for a small game with a good sense of mood to it, I recommend playing this game. It's not exactly grandiose in scale, but it doesn't need to be. Sometimes some great mood setters come in a small package.

Wisper

Game: Wisper

Developer: Sunshore Studios

Platform: PC

Download link: https://sunshore-studios.itch.io/wisper

Where the wind blows, no one knows! The weather is known for its unpredictability. Chaos in its most natural form here on planet Earth. But what if we were able to tap into that kind of power and harness it for good? Well, for one, you get windmills, which we have already accomplished. But what if we were to harness it for good? Well, you still get windmills. ...okay. Then how about harnessing the power of the wind to help those in need? Okay, technically you still get windmills. Look, I'm trying to segway into talking about the game Wisper.

So, what is Wisper? It is a game where you control the wind to help those in need on the island of Sunshore. You must rid the island of the troubles that plague the inhabitants, and bring good fortune back to it by using the power of the wind. Solving the problems of Sunshore's inhabitants has you collecting tokens that represent the curse on the island and return them to the shrine so that good fortune may return to the island.

When I first saw Wisper, I found the game bearing a resemblance to Flower, a game that saw its initial release on the PS3, and a game I played briefly when it was showcased at my city's art museum for its special exhibit about art and video games. While it bears such resemblance, Wisper has a different approach than Flower. The latter was looking to get an emotional experience out of the player. I'm not going to act like I should be comparing Wisper to Flower on a fundamental level, as I don't think that would be fair, considering that Wisper is a senior project made by a small team at a university as opposed to a full-fledged game released on the PSN storefront. That means we've gotta be more laxed in attitude when looking at this game.

Overall, this game is pretty laid back in attitude. Even in the troubles that the island's inhabitants are going through, the game is really upbeat and relaxed in tone. The problems you have to solve range from helping a child swing on a swingset to help rebuild a sandcastle to getting a gust of wind for a child's kite. Yeah, not exactly superheroic duties to be had here, but help you provide nonetheless. Anything will do for your friendly neighborhood gust of wind.

I think my only major issue with this game was getting used to controlling the wind. The controls feel slightly alien at first, but over time I got used to them. Something else I should probably address is that you may want to complete this game in one sitting, as I have had issues reloading my save file. I'm not sure if this is a widespread issue, but I thought I might as well address it.

Overall though, I enjoyed my time with Wisper. There's a lot to explore and the island is quite large, with plenty of space to move about. It's pretty impressive for a senior project, and I do wish Sunshore Studios the best of luck out there when it comes to making games. Maybe I'll look at something totally new from them in the future. Who knows? Wherever the wind takes us!

Sundered

Game: Sundered

Developer: Thunder Lotus

Publisher: Thunder Lotus

Platform: PC/Mac/Linux/PS4/Switch

ESRB Rating: T

Sundered is a metroidvania/rogue-like hybrid game. You take control of the character Eshe, who has been taken hostage in a haunted, Lovecraftian-like world where man and machine meet cosmic horrors. You must traverse this world, accompanied by a mysterious artifact that communicates with you throughout your journey, telling the lore of the land and tempting you to embrace the horrors this mysterious world has to offer. Along on your journey, you collect artifacts called "elder shards" that you can choose to destroy to keep your humanity intact or return them to shrines to enhance your abilities in new ways. These changes are permanent, so choose wisely.

If I was going solely by presentation alone, Sundered would be a 10. The visuals in this game are absolutely stunning. The artwork and animations are all hand drawn, just like in Thunder Lotus' previous venture, Jotun, and they do not disappoint. The animations are silky smooth and flow beautifully. Not to mention the colors are beautiful as well, with them being vibrant yet at the same time evoking an eerie feel to the world around you. The meshing of machine and Lovecraftian horror is also meshed very well too, like two worlds that were never supposed to collide in the first place, as all hell would break loose. The designs of the monsters, especially the bosses, all evoke this eldritchian horror to them that is super otherworldly in its presentation.I'm so glad they released a digital artbook in the newsletter they had, as the artwork is just gorgeous.

Presentation is all well in good, but unfortunately, Sundered's gameplay and mechanics are a bit of a mixed bag in terms of execution. The idea of a metroidvania with randomly generated elements thrown in seems like a neat idea on paper, but in practice in Sundered, it's a bit messy. Sundered's level design is a mix of randomly generated rooms in set boxes on your map screen, along with unchanging spots to sort of act as landmarks for exploration. When you die, the layout of the randomly generated rooms changes. This ultimately makes exploration unnecessarily cumbersome and frustrating at times, especially when you get overrun by a horde of enemies at random.

Speaking of which, enemies sometimes come at you in hordes when a gong sounds in the background. These hordes come in randomly except in certain areas where enemies infinitely spawn, and depending on your current health and resources, can instantly kill an explorative outing you've set on. Dying though is a small setback, outside of the world rearranging itself, and brings you back to the hub where you can get upgrades in your skill tree by spending gems that you obtain by defeating enemies and killing bosses. If you want to survive your outings in Sundered you're going to need to do a lot of grinding for gems, so you'll want to invest a lot of your gems into "luck," which increases the number of gems you obtain from killing enemies.

Combat against your enemies involves a lot of mashing the attack button, making combat slightly mindless, since you are given a bit of leeway when it comes to taking damage at first with your shield that you can upgrade that tanks hits before it breaks, leaving you incredibly vulnerable. Since hordes of enemies come at you in this game, the developers made combat centered around mob control, so your attacks have wide arches and big hitboxes, allowing you to deal with enemies easier. You also get finishers and charge attacks to help deal more damage. When you're in a pinch, you can use your cannon to deal with a large crowd of enemies. One of my gripes is that I wish that there was more enemy variety in the game itself. Each of the 3 areas has roughly 4 or 5 different enemy types that get tougher depending on their color coordination. I'd normally be more forgiving of this, considering there is only 3 areas to explore, but as massive as these areas are, and the fact that the third area rehashes some of the minibosses in area 2 as enemy variants, it's hard for me to ignore.

The scale of boss fights in Sundered is immense. Despite there being 4 boss fights per the direction of the resisting or embracing mechanic (6 in total), these boss fights are big and brutal. I do have some gripes with how repetitive and boring the Hysteria fight is, but the fight against Legion and Salvation is one of my favorites with how much it has you on your toes in the fight. The designs of these bosses are done very well and fit with the art direction the game is going for. I'm also glad they included the ability to refight these bosses to your own discretion.

Sundered is one of those games I truly wanted to be love at first trailer watch, but after having a hands-on experience with the game itself, I can't say I was fully enthralled with it. Exploration in this game can be a chore at times and the game itself can be a bit of a grind, plus the combat is a little mindless, but the boss fights are fun and the art direction is absolutely stunning. I overall did enjoy my time with Sundered and I am currently doing a full resist playthrough on and off right now. As flawed this game is at times, I consider Sundered to be one of the more underrated games of 2017. Give it a whirl if you haven't already.

Final Verdict: 7/10

The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+

Game: The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+

Developer: Nicalis
Publisher: Nicalis

Platform: PC/Mac/Linux/PS4/Switch/XBOne

ESRB Rating: M

I'm not exactly proud of the amount of time I've sunk into The Binding of Isaac. Not to say that I'm not proud of my accomplishments over the years of playing this game, but when you consider that I have sunk more than 558 hours into this game over the course of 5 years of playing this game on PC alone (not counting my time on the Switch), I think it is safe to say that I have a problem. Recently though, my playing with this game has slowed down considerably. Instead of doing daily challenges and doing a run or two nearly every day, my time with The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ has slowed to playing maybe one run every few weeks. Could this be me having a falling out with one of my most played games of all time? I'm not sure. Today, I felt like doing something slightly different. I want to take an honest look at one of the games I've played to death and give a fair review on it. Or at least what I see as fair. Let's begin.

The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ is a top-down, roguelike dungeon crawler where you play as a naked boy named Isaac who is on the run from his mother who is looking to sacrifice him as an offering to God. You as Isaac must traverse your basement and the underground caverns beneath your house, picking up items that affect your attacks and stats while fighting hordes of monsters that get in your way. As you play, you unlock new items and new characters to play as, each with their own special characteristics. Being a roguelike, each run is randomly generated and when you die, you lose everything in that run. 

Each character you play has their own unique attributes to them that set them apart. Isaac is able to reroll items on pedestals (when unlocked), Azazel can fly and has a short range brimstone laser attack, The Lost dies in one hit but can take devil deals for free, and Lilith is blindfolded and can only attack with her familiar, just to name a few. There are a plethora of items you can obtain throughout your runs of playing this game, all of which affect your playstyle in some way shape or form. These can affect your tears, your main way of attacking, movement speed, offense, defense, and so on. These items can range from simple household items like a potato peeler to grotesque bodily disorders like proptosis. Almost every item is unique in what attributes they alter upon the player's character, but depending on the character, these items lead to no change at all.

Like the items, there is a myriad of enemies you can encounter in this game. The enemies you encounter have different attack patterns that need to be memorized to best deal with them in each room. Some enemies are area exclusive while other enemies make a wide range of appearances throughout your runs. Every floor you explore has a boss fight at the end where you must kill the boss in order to proceed to the next floor. There are a wide variety of boss fights for each floor, each fight, for the most part, being a fair challenge with patterns to recognize in their attacks.

When it comes to difficulty balance in the Binding of Isaac: Rebirth expansions so far, I feel like there has been trouble for Nicalis getting the balance right. The fairest DLC expansion, in my opinion, was the previous expansion "Afterbirth." To me, that expansion had just the right balance of fairness and challenge, even if most runs came down to luck then and now. I feel like with Afterbirth+ with content being constantly added to the game through updates and the like, there seems to have been little playtesting time with some of the boss fights. For example, The Matriarch's boss fight is terribly balanced, with attacks and patterns that are heavily designed against the player having an advantage in the fight. Not to mention, still, for the life of me, I cannot get down the attack patterns for Brownie, as I still think that boss fight is just such a mess, especially when you get a weak build in a run. While I'm at it, the new final boss added in this expansion is still terribly designed, with attacks that fly all over the place in erratic patterns, along with attacks that are nigh impossible to dodge as the fight progresses. Needless to say, it's not a fun fight.

A lot of your success in this game is going to depend on the items you get in a run. Trust me, sometimes you need a good relationship with RNGsus in order to have success in a run. Some days are definitely better than others, with times of dying and/or resetting more times than you can count before you get the perfect run. This can be fun at times, since the gameplay is engaging enough already, but over my years of playing, it sometimes becomes exhausting to the point of where if I don't get good luck in 2 or 3 runs, I just stop playing entirely as I feel it isn't worth the hassle today, sometimes for the better really, considering my love-hate relationship with this game.

Over my years of playing Isaac, I feel like I've got plenty out of it so far. With new content coming out in the near future, and content that I have still yet to unlock (unlocking The Forgotten is too much for me), I enjoy booting up the game every once in a while. I'm not as heavily invested in the game as I once was, but it still holds a special place in my gaming library. I don't think Afterbirth+ tops Afterbirth in terms of enjoyment (personal bias since I was able to 1001% Afterbirth a few days before Afterbirth+), but I will say it does the job well and good for the content this behemoth of a game gets. I'm looking forward to Repentance when it comes out with more cautious optimism.

Rating: 8/10
The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ still has fun to be had with its addicting gameplay, dragon's horde of content, many ways to play and tons of secrets, but it's not without a few hiccups, such as some new boss fights not being very well balanced and some of the content being a little too cryptic and frustrating to unlock. I think taking a break from the game has given me a better perspective of how I feel in regards to the new content, both the good and the bad. Thanks for reading my flawed review. Hopefully, I get better at this over time.

Kill Baby Hitler

Game: Kill Baby Hitler

Developer: Jacklehamster

Platform: Browser

Play here: https://jacklehamster.itch.io/kill-baby-hitler

Here's a question I'm sure you've probably gotten asked in the past year or so: would you go back in time to kill baby Adolf Hitler? Now, I'm sure you already have your personal answer that you are most eager to share. My answer is "no" because of how little we understand how time travel works on a fundamental level. There almost always seems to be this notion in pop culture that reality will fix itself when something in the past is altered thanks in part to time travel movies like Back to the Future and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Movies like these and their concepts of how time travel "works" are so ingrained in the pop culture consciousness that we often just assume that that's how time travel works when in reality time travel is already such an out there concept that we have no idea how the rules of it would work. I think I've gone on a bit of a tangent talking about our misunderstanding of time travel when I should be discussing a little something I forgot I had in my itch.io browser app game library. A little visual novel that looks to bring this discussion back into the light and have a little bit more of a mature discussion on the matter. 

Kill Baby Hitler is a visual novel microgame developed by Jacklehamster. The premise has you being assigned a mission to go back in time to kill Adolf Hitler. This mission, should you accept it, has a catch though. The only way you can kill your target is going back to the year 1889, the year Hitler was born, and kill your target when he was only a baby. Do you accept the mission and its risks and kill baby Hitler? 

I'm surprised by how little fanfare this game got at the second spike of the kill baby Hitler controversy. Then again, itch.io is not exactly a gaming giant like Steam or a huge social media platform like Twitter. I guess when it comes to games as an art form, some sort of expect games to be grand and in your face about its message, like Spec Ops: The Line does with the morality of war. I'm not exactly trying to say Kill Baby Hitler is super nuanced in its message, but it does bring more intellectual maturity to the discussion than say a post on Twitter that seeks to virtue signal to the "obvious" choice of the matter. With Nazism being a hot button topic nowadays, approaching the issue with maturity is certainly needed, as opposed to demonizing either side of the political aisle just because their beliefs don't 100% line up with your own.

But I digress. How is the game itself? I'm not really a fan of visual novel type games, just to get this out of the way. I'll spare you the details and just say they aren't necessarily my thing. Kill Baby Hitler is thankfully pretty short and to the point on its subject matter. According to the developer, there are 4 possible endings, and I've gotten 3 of them so far. I also like the detail that before you have the option of killing infant Hitler or not, you can draw a Hitler-stache on the baby itself for a little comedic effect. The straightforward ending is killing baby Hitler. Doing so causes reality to warp, saving millions of lives at the cost of your existence. A small price to pay for the good of humanity, depending on how you look at it. You can also choose not to kill baby Hitler in a couple of ways. One is by shooting at anything but the baby himself, or by refusing to take the gun in the beginning. 

I do kind of wish that this visual novel got a little more attention at the height of the topic's popularity, but I'm not entirely sure that it would have stifled some of the political immaturity from either side. I'm not saying it would have been a catalyst, I'm just saying not much would probably change. This game doesn't really change my answer of whether or not I would kill baby Hitler, but it was a short and surprisingly enjoyable experience. Play this game if you want, and I've got to work on getting that last ending.

chasing birds

Game: chasing birds

Developer: davidczar

Platform: Windows/Mac

Download Link: https://davidczar.itch.io/chasing-birds

I’ve always wondered how simple life would be if I were just a dog. You know, just running around, fetching a stick, chasing birds, peeing on fire hydrants, the whole shebang. Some days I just want to go to a park and just run the world, you know? Thankfully, davidczar helps to bring a dream like mine to life in his dog simulation microgame, chasing birds.

Chasing birds was made for Self-Care Jam 2 on itch.io, a game jam centered on making destressing games. In it, you play as a dog in the park with no set objective, but you’re given quite a bit to do at the park: chase birds and squirrels, bark, run around, pee on fire hydrants, or just lay down and relax, like a good boy. Cause all dogs are the good puppies, except when they're not. Barking also causes nearby dogs to start following you around, giving you a pack of dogs to run around and chase birds. Running with your fellow canine compadres is pretty satisfying and fun I imagine for a dog as you chase away those pesky birds.

The strongest aspect of chasing birds is the atmosphere. The ambiance of the park with leaves rustling and the birds chirping, even a police siren off in the distance, give this game quite a bit of life for how small it is. The minimalistic art style is also charming too. Its use of bright colors gives the park a nice warm, but breezy look and feel to it. Combine those together and it’s a nice and cozy experience.

My only gripe is that I wish the park you roam around was a wee bit bigger. Just a little bit more room to run around and do things. Though if you are a dog, you probably wouldn’t be too much of a stickler. After all, you're already having the time of your life running around a dog park with some buddies, so you can't really complain.

Chasing birds does what it sets out to do successfully; exploring a dog park as a dog and just having a relaxing experience chasing birds away. It's a nice game to turn on every once and a while and play it for a little bit. Considering what we go through each and every day, we sometimes need a little something to help us wind down and relax. Perhaps chasing birds is that one game to help you cool off from the stress of the world. Or you could just pop in Doom 2016 and destroy a bunch of demons in the depths of hell, but what's the fun in that!? Or you could just turn chasing birds on to distract your dog for a little bit. Check it out for yourself and have a nice, stress-free day! 

Bernband

Game: Bernband

Developer: Tom van den Boogaart

Platform: PC/Linux

Download Link: https://gamejolt.com/games/bernband/34864

City life has intrigued me to some degree. I got to experience it for a week when I took a trip to Washington D.C. with the family 6 years ago. We stayed at a hotel in Crystal City, Virginia, a city just a subway ride away from D.C. It was a very memorable trip for me: experiencing the subway rides, walking along the streets of Crystal City, and staying in a high rise, apartment-like hotel room are all stuck in my memory. And for good reason too, as the experience was very endearing, living in a downtown area of a big city. While many games take place in a huge sprawling city, like the Grand Theft Auto line of games, their intentions aren't necessarily making the player experience being in a sprawling metropolis and soaking everything in. In the current state of video gaming, one of the best games to invoke a big city atmosphere is Bernband.

Bernband is a walking sim developed by Tom van den Boogaart, a member of the Sokpop collective. The game has you exploring a big city. 

...

Okay. I'm going to be blunt here. This game is not for everyone. I mean this in a way where one person isn't necessarily going to get the same experience that I did. A lot of the games I have covered so far have been experiments in some form or another, presenting ideas in a fairly straightforward fashion. Bernband's goal to the player is to soak in the atmosphere of its world and to "get lost" in it. For some people I know, their definition of a video game is going to be vastly different from mine, and will probably write off these types of games as pretentious fluff. And they have every right to make such a statement. I'm not going to act like walking simulators are the greatest artistic expressions to come out of video games, but when they are done well, they can really leave a lasting effect on the player. Bernband is one of those games, to me anyway.

Bernband has no set objective to it. You just go around exploring the city. There's no guide to tell you where you must go, no emotion it's trying to invoke, no story to be told. You just explore a city and soak in the atmosphere around you. It's like stopping to smell the flowers and taking in your surroundings that you may often take for granted. Sometimes I look at the overpass by the park near my home and think about just walking underneath and soaking it all in, the shadow of the overpass, the ambiance of highway traffic above, it sounds intriguing to me, albeit also pretentious (lol).

The presentation of the Bernband is pretty amazing. The sound design is expertly done. The ambiance of futuristic cars driving above and the music and background noise of the multiple bars and clubs you can go to are deafeningly realistic in volume, though not to the point of aggravated annoyance like in a bass boosted "ear rape" meme video. The world feels super alien, both figuratively, and somewhat realistically, as you are surrounded by alien civilians living out their lives, walking down the street, or even going to a night school. The game itself also looks great too, with its minimalist, pixel art style being really charming but nonetheless absorbing.

Doing some research on Bernband was also an interesting experience, as this game got some publicity by some gaming outlets such as PC Gamer and more accessible news outlets like Vice. There was also an open letter discussion I found between two writers who had their own takes on Bernband that they shared with each other one being positive and the other more mixed. I also found out that a possible updated version is being made by the Sokpop collective as well, with updated visuals and possibly a bigger world to explore.

Bernband is a game that is very good at what it tries to accomplish in my eyes. Its atmosphere is intriguing and its world was fairly enticing. It's a short, free game that in my opinion goes a long way. Have an open mind and give this a shot. Don't just take my word for it.

This is your life now

Game: This is your life now

Developer: More Mountains

Platform: PC/Mac

Download Link: https://more-mountains.itch.io/this-is-your-life-now

What doth life? Are we just fleshy blips in a meaningless stew of cosmic oblivion? Or is it vice reversa? Seriously though, what is the meaning of life? How does one figure out their true purpose in life? Some view life as meaningless and we are all just here in the middle of the cosmic universe living on a rock that floats through, as inconspicuous as the dust in the wind. Others find meaning through religion, whether believing in a being larger than life itself or shaping your life in a way that transcends natural humanity. A lot of people don't always have the answers, and I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that I have them either. Instead, I'll talk about a little game that may try to help us understand a way to live life. That being This is your life now.

Created for Ludum Dare 44, where the theme is your life as currency, just like a previous game I covered, that being Elevator Pitch, This is your life now takes the player on a journey through life, making friends, getting good grades, choosing between having a social life and introversion, and dealing with the crippling disparity of accepting the fact that you are going to die someday. All accompanied by a cutesy art style of what looks like rejected organs that God or evolution (take your pick or both) considered but ultimately decided against it. The theme of your life as a currency is utilized in making the hard choices in life that you would like, but also living with the consequences of said choices. And these choices are not always easy, depending on who you are. You may have a hard time picking between choosing between introversion or social life, as the former grants you safety at the cost of social life, while choosing to be more extroverted may cause the exact opposite. 

The cutesy, innocent art style is all well and charming, but the use of color is also fairly well used too, like with grey representing adulthood, as it feels bleak and despondent, not to mention the loss of your hope at the realization you're going to die or a light orange used for old age as if the sun is coming up, hitting a new chapter on life, even though it is the end, but I must say, this game is fairly bleak as far as outlook on life goes. No matter your choices, some sort of consequence is sure to follow, like not getting good grades leads to addiction that follows you for the rest of your life, or having kids costs you your partner. Honestly, this game doesn't like to pull its punches.

No matter what combination I have tried, I've never been able to live a fulfilling life. It seems as if This is your life now seeks to imply that living a perfect, fulfilling life is nigh impossible, no matter what your choices are. This game is actually rather depressing the more I think about it. Its cute art style is merely just a masquerade hiding its true purpose. Maybe life is bleak after all.

This game, in retrospect, feels like a punch in the gut with its message, with its cute aesthetic being nothing more than a trojan horse looking to let itself in and wreak havoc upon my mind. This game made me feel kind of sad. It's as if I have already reached the stage of adulthood in the game itself, and lost my hope as my outlook on life looks bleak. I could also be overexaggerating too. Give this game a whirl if you want to make yourself feel sad or have a poor outlook on life.

i drew this because i was bored

Game: i drew this because i was bored

Developer: DragonZBW (Sparklight Games)

Platform: PC/Mac

Download Link: https://dragonzbw.itch.io/i-drew-this-because-i-was-bored

Art is subjective, the should be obvious. A piece of media can be worth nothing to someone, yet priceless to another, the whole one man's trash saying and all. I'm no artist, but I have seen the perspective artists have on their own work, much of it negative. We are our own worst critics, I know that first hand, having deleted my first blog and trying to keep this one afloat while battling depression. It's not easy, and the low viewership can be demoralizing at times, but I want to cover pieces of media I find worth talking about, be it movies or games. One microgame that has stuck with me for the longest time is i drew this because i was bored. 

Developed by DragonZBW, i drew this because i was bored is a microgame that was developed for the 35th Ludum Dare event, a game jam that involved the theme of transformation. In this game, you control a drawn creation that has the ability to transform. Your forms are a creature that walks, a creature that swims, and a creature that flies. You use these transformation powers at your disposal to traverse the levels drawn out to you, all the while amusing your creator until they "grow bored of you" and decide to erase you. The pencil drawn, lined paper aesthetic gives this game quite a bit of personality. It makes this microgame feel very intimate at times, with its creator seemingly making everything out of the blue, which while it may seem careless, considering it is a doodle on a piece of paper, it does give the game a ton of personality, graphically. 

The gameplay is pretty straightforward; as stated before, you traverse the levels and transform into whichever creature is best suited for such endeavor, granted flying is the best way to maneuver as far as speed is concerned when you aren't in the water. The game is relatively short, with gameplay sessions lasting around 10 minutes or so, though that isn't counting the last level which is ridiculously difficult in comparison to the rest of the levels in the game.

From an outside perspective, this game doesn't seem like much. It's simple to play, has a very simple art style and has some flaws to it. So, why has this game stuck with me? Well, in the first paragraph, I mentioned the statement of "art is subjective" and one's perspective on their own creation being slanted negatively from their own perspective. This game, to me anyway, speaks fundamentally about the subject of art from our own perspective of it. Like I said before, we as humans often have a negative perception of our own creations, often calling our creations terrible. Part of this is exemplified by the creator of this doodled creature looking to erase it from existence, as they believe that their creation has long served past its purpose of amusement, possibly hinting that the creator isn't proud of its creation. This idea, in my opinion, can apply to writers, filmmakers, artists and so on. Anyone involved in creating media I believe can relate to how the creator in this game feels about its own drawing.

Or maybe I'm just pretentious and full of shit? I don't know. I think there's more to this game than meets the eye. I believe it speaks on a fundamental level of our personal perspective of our own art. But I've rambled far enough on this little game already. Give it a shot if you haven't and see what it has in store for you. Also, have a great day while you're at it!

99

Game: 99

Developer: rxi

Platform: PC/Mac/Linux

Download Link: https://rxi.itch.io/99

Some of my favorite games to play off of itch.io are sometimes the more simple games. Nothing jaw-dropping in aesthetic (though I do enjoy those) or super innovative (and I enjoy those as well), just a straightforward game with simple controls and simple execution. For those who are familiar with my earlier endeavor when I covered microgames (before I yeeted it out of existence), 99 was the first game I covered. It was also a time I used a rating system for covering microgames, something I heavily regret doing in hindsight. But nonetheless, I decided to revisit a little "old friend" to help me get through some stressful times.

99 is a game where your goal is to roam a pixelated world and collect 99 coins while avoiding enemies like killer bunny people and ghosts. Collect all the coins, and you beat the game. Simple as that. Such is the beauty of simplicity. Now, you may be wondering, dear reader, why on Earth would I go to the trouble of looking at a simple game such as this? Wouldn't you want to look at something more complex in developer rxi's catalog of games, like Toastbear or Shuriken? To you I say, well, I would like to talk about those games at some point, but I want to get this one out of the way? Why? Well, because I like it a lot.

99 is a very nice looking microgame, with its nice pixelated graphics and simple, yet charming animation and designs. The character you control is what I believe to be a flightless bird. I could be wrong, but the super minute details aren't always that important. This game was made for Low Rez Jam 2016, and it looks really well polished for using the 64x64 resolution. It looks very much like a game on a portable system, like a Game Boy Color, which, while I'm not sure was the intentional approach of the developer, but it does sort of look that way.

Controlling your character is super simple; you use the arrow keys to move and X (or up arrow key) to jump. Essentially, you can play this game with one hand. What do you do with the other hand? Well, your guess is as good as mine. Read a book, eat a snack, file your taxes, fap (not recommended), a whole myriad of different tasks, I suppose. If there is anything I could really criticize about this game, it's the screen being zoomed in a little too much. It sometimes obstructs your view to what comes next, and you have little to no time to react. But, it doesn't detract from the overall experience too much.

I love how simple this game is. It definitely hearkens back to a more simple time of gaming where games weren't super complex or super long. Sometimes, when I want to play a game, I don't always want to embark on an epic adventure, do really complex inputs, or "git gud". Sometimes I just want to sit down and play a straightforward, blunt experience that is short, simple, and to the point. Overall, 99 fits that description and it still holds a special place in my itch.io game collection as one of my first, and favorite, games I've played on the platform. Give it a whirl for yourself.

Mom's Soup

Game: Mom's Soup

Developer: RobotBand

Platform: Browser

Play it here: https://robotband.itch.io/moms-soup

Happy Mother's Day! Mother's Day is a special day where we celebrate the moms who brought us into this world, raised us, and found out how much of a disappointment we are as we fail to live up to expectations. Anyone relate? No, or just not admitting to it? Never mind. We love our moms out there, and what better way to celebrate than by playing some video games? Since today was Mother's Day, I thought and said to myself "Self, what games out there are centered around mothers?" To put it bluntly, not too many, but there are games to be had to play on this special day; case in point, Mom's Soup. 

Mom's Soup has you playing as Eddie who goes on a mundane epic quest to get groceries for his mom so she can make some delicious soup. You must explore 4 different areas to locate these ingredients: the store, the river, the mountain, and the forest. Collect the ingredients of broth, fish, mushrooms, and deer meat and mom will be able to make her soup. Now, you could complain and bemoan "But Mom!" but it's Mother's Day today, so we should be prime to be doing favors for her, after all, she raised little brats like us. 

The game is charming in its simplicity with its visuals and gameplay, looking very reminiscent of an Atari 2600 game from back in the early 80s, except probably better programmed and lacking in sound. Eddie looks very much like a Pac-Man ghost out doing groceries for his mom. Such a nice boy! I wonder if he gets an allowance? Probably not. Each area is set apart by their colors, with the hub and store being yellow and blue, the forest being brown and green, the mountain being grey and white, and the river being blue and green. Some of the areas have nice scenery, such as the riverbed, with its Spongebob Squarepants decor at the bottom of the river being a fairly nice touch that helps give the game some personality.

The four different areas you explore are differentiated not just by color, but by the way you must explore each area in order to get your item. The shop requires 3 coins in order to buy broth, with 1 coin hidden in each area, the forest has you traversing the forest in a lost woods sort of fashion that is a callback to The Legend of Zelda on the NES, the mountain has you exploring a maze with switches to help view the layout, and the river has you swimming underwater. Commenting on the last section, swimming in the river is much more difficult than it needed to be, as the swimming pattern is incredibly precise, and diverting off course means certain death and restarting the level. Who would have thought that getting groceries for mom would be this difficult?

Once you collect all the ingredients, Mom is able to make some soup and everyone is happy. You'll probably be told that the harshness of your quest was a learning experience that is all for the better in the long run and you'll agree because you love your mother so much. Perhaps the extremities of gathering ingredients are a reminder of life's harsh realities that we must be ready for and that our parents help prepare us for. Just watch out for the curve balls life is gonna throw at you.