#a note on...

Minami Lane is a cozy management game by Doot and Blibloop! Build new shops, pet cats and make your villagers happy!

One of the few times I get a game on release without backing it! Unfortunately very short, but a worthwhile experience.

I really like everything about this game. From the music that kinda goes too hard for a cozy game, to the very soft art style, to the insanity of playing on 4x (four times) speed.

The gameplay is rather simple, but it's more of a strength than a weakness for a game of this variety. Especially if you want to relax, you don't want to be worried about money or optimizations. It's more about catering to the people on your street and making it the way you want.

Each shop has recipe options. You can make a bowl full of noodles at the ramen shop, or have no tapioca at the bubble tea shop. The customers do have a preferred combination of items and prices, so of course there's a little bit of intent behind the decisions.

Something I found really fun were naming the shops however I wanted. The karaoke bars were of course Survive and Revolve Bar, especially if they're playing Maka Bitai.

Because there's a lot of sit and watch involved with sim games, there are also a variety of small mechanics to keep you involved. The really cute one is petting the cats that show up (when you have enough beauty on your street. They give you money while also being adorable.

The more gameplay-oriented mechanic is the customer feedback, telling you how to adjust your shop's recipes for their perfect experience.

As a management sim, there are of course ways to optimize things—picking up the trash and gathering customer feedback automatically. I only ended up using the feedback upgrade because at some point, you won't be able to manually pay attention to 5+ shops at the same time.

One criticism I heard while playing the game was that it looks like a mobile game, which I can see. It's not so much a negative, rather just a style you don't normally see working well on PC games. It works alright here, though.

Personally, I think the game is too small. I wouldn't know what the devs could do to make the game longer without hurting/disrupting what they have in place (that, by the way, already works really well). The missions were enjoyable and I think more of those might be worth it.

If you love cozy games, Minami Lane is one to play with its great art style and chill gameplay!

As always,

Smushi Come Home is a 3D puzzle platformer by SomeHumbleOnion! Find your way home through the forest with the help of new friends!

This game was another quick one after I spent time finishing Yakuza 6 (which is a long JRPG, took me around 26hrs). Very nice change of pace, to be sure!

Smushi is the bravest mushroom I've ever met. Truly a joy to play as them! The adventure is split into three areas, each with their own gimmicks and puzzles and mechanics. They've all got different looks to them too, which was really nice.

Gameplay-wise, this game actually has a lot to offer in terms of world traversal. There's diving, gliding, and climbing, and they're all implemented nicely! Well, I think diving could use a little tweaking because swimming underwater is a little unwieldy, but overall still good. The puzzles are spread out, which gives you to explore the areas at your own pace.

The characters are all quirky and ultimately not many are that important once you finish an area. But that works! The narrative doesn't suffer from having all these side characters, especially since Smushi's goal (while I didn't ignore anyone) is to get back home.

Smushi Comes Home is a super cozy game that almost everyone can enjoy! Plus if you love mushrooms, that's a pretty good bonus.

As always,

Deep Rock Galactic is a co-op, first-person shooting (FPS) game by Ghost Ship Games.

Now I don't normally play FPS games. I'm terrible at them. But for my friends, sure, okay. I'll play. And that's why I've played this.

This game has two main parts to it: mining and fending off endless waves of spiders. Each mission has a set goal and through the level, you mine minerals to bring back to base or call down supplies or as a goal itself. The domestic creatures don't take kindly and they attack you with intermittent waves of mostly grunts but with enough variety to keep players on their toes. Simple, yes. Execution is a little wonky sometimes.

The best feature of this whole experience is the uniqueness of each class and their importance. Because unlike many, many games whose classes may have specific upsides, these classes are very balanced in terms of usability. The scout has a grapple that allows quick traversal around the map. The engineer has platforms to reach places. The gunner has a zip line. And the driller has a freeze gun and a flamethrower. Also drills. With the multitude of movement abilities, it's super interesting to delegate certain tasks to certain classes. As a scout, I'm often mining the hard-to-reach minerals while my team is actually scouting the area, ironically.

Ultimately, Deep Rock Galactic is super enjoyable with pals, especially for the first 20-40 hours!

As always,

A Short Hike is a game by adamgryu (Adam Robinson-Yu)! Reach the peak to get some signal!

This game is absolutely phenomenal. Full stop, exclamation point.

The only thing I knew about this game going in was that you collect gold feathers, which served as stamina. And in that case...

The movement is on point, tight, and feels more free the more Feather's you unlock! Very delightful! It's also really interesting to me that there are multiple ways to climb up the trail depending on how many feathers and what tools you have on hand.

There are challenges in the game! The boating challenge and the races! Those were really fun.

And the game looks super pretty too. There are different kinds of biomes in the game, which I was kind of surprised about. The colour-differences of each biomes is super smooth and nice to look at. Plus all the details in things like the plants and the weather is really cool!

I opted to keep the pixels medium rare, but you can turn them way down to minimum or all the way up to big and crunchy.

I really, really loved the music in this game, by the way. It, more often than not, transitioned between tracks smoothly, almost unnoticeable unless you're paying attention. Absolutely loved the execution in that. Not to mention the OST is now one of my playlists.

Narrative in the game is kinda sparse and that's A-OK. You've still gotta talk to everyone and they've all got their own things to say. Some have arcs/quests to follow. And the ending is super wholesome.

In all, A Short Hike is a wonderful, cozy experience that everyone has to try out!

As always,

En Garde! is an action game by Fireplace Games. Take up your sword and become the hero of the people!

When I first saw the trailer for this game, I knew it was going to be a pretty rad experience. I mean, who doesn't love fencing swordplay with a little bit of flair?

The gameplay is definitely a selling point. I love games where a little bit of skill is necessary. The parrying mechanic is fantastic, with very obvious indicators between knowing when to dodge (orange) and parry (blue). I didn't find too much use for the panache system because I was always in the action and I forget that I can use it aside from it being rather necessary to finish the final boss battle. To me, that's a pretty major loss since flair is a big positive for the game and its experience.

Which leads to my biggest issue of the game: the enemies. Every enemy has three attacks (ones to parry, ones to dodge, and one for either). Some do only parry-able or dodge-able attacks or some do both. It was all very samey once you get to episode 4, but due to how short the game is, it plays just fine.

My real issue with the enemies is the number of them and what happens when you combine the types. The bosses for episodes 2 and 4 (and some arena battles with reinforcements) were very annoying for this reason.

Often you'd have two enemies attacking at the same time, but one would be a parry and the other would be a dodge. The best answer should be to dodge, but, when it comes to episodes 3 and 4, you can't because enemies can recover their guard. Now when you have a horde of enemies attacking you in this way (3 or more enemies at once), it feels like the difficulty is a little silly, especially since fencing is mostly for duelling and not for fending off crowds of people. I'd think that crowds wouldn't be as big an issue if the enemy types were grouped better, but that's just my take.

With that said, the duels themselves are awesome. It's a great feeling being able to overtake your opponent in a duel and I wish there was more of that, honestly.

Ending on a mostly positive note, what surprised me the most is the absolutely fantastic voice acting and music. I did not expect the level of polish that the game provides, mostly because it is astoundingly short. The dialogue really comes alive thanks to their performances.

Honestly though, I wish this game had a little more to it. A bit longer. A bit more variety in battle. If the acts had more narrative flesh to them, that'd be nice, but it works well as is. I haven't experienced the arena mode, but I can't imagine it adding more to my personal experience of the game.

Overall, En Garde! is a well-polished fencing game that you should give a try if you're into the flair!

As always,

Bear and Breakfast is a management sim by Gummy Cat where you try to bring the humans back as Hank the Bear.

I'm a bit torn on how to feel about this game. Ultimately, I don't think the positives—fantastic artwork, chill music, and wild idea about playing as a bear—can fully carry this game.

Let's be clear: Bear and Breakfast is a solid game. The work put into this game is amazing and the experience was overall good! Play this game for the vibes! Play this game to chill! I love the artwork and the soundtrack (which at times reminded me of Celeste, specifically during the night). The narrative starts off small and grows bigger over the course of the game!

But as a management game, it falls a little short in some spaces.

On my part, I think I sped through this game and I don't think that kind of playstyle suits it. I finished the main game in about 50 in-game days, while achievements were under 70. I played this game relatively fast compared to the chill/relaxed way you're supposed to play it.

Let me go through what I think are issues.

The resources are kind of a mess. You get too much of the low-level materials and never enough of the higher-level ones. Case-in-point, I never sought out anything but Mahogany Wood and Iron Plates by the time I was in Highlake while Silk is a resource that can only be bought. The biggest thing I wished for to make the progression flow smoother was a trade-in sort of mechanic. Something as small as a five tier 1 woods for a tier 3. And it's weird that gathering crafting resources isn't automated like many other parts of the game are by the end.

Speaking of automated, automating tasks at the end of the game leaves you standing around to wait. I don't know how many players make it that far into the game because according to Steam's achievements, only about 15% ever get automated heating and cooking. But I feel like it's a missed opportunity to shift the main focus from the management to the narrative. Like it kinda does it. But it's paywalled behind a 50k gold quest during a point in (my) game where I was earning 5k/day. By that point, I'd explored everything and was just waiting for something to happen.

Lastly something small: I wish the finale lasted a little longer. There's a lot of narrative build-up in the game. Four resorts worth, to be exact. And I think the twist is good. But for some reason or another, it felt lacking to me. Maybe it's because I'd already had all the quest items in tow while doing the final quest line. Regardless, I feel like it should have built up to something big, exciting, and tangible for the player so they can celebrate. The credits roll. And then you're back in the game.

Did I mention the credits didn't roll automatically at the end? Kind of a shame, really.

Despite all this, Bear and Breakfast is solid for what it is: a low-stakes, low-energy, cozy management sim where you play as a bear. And that's all it needs to be.

As always,

Risk of Rain 2 is a co-op roguelike by Hopoo Games! Loot chests, kill bosses, and charge up that teleporter!

I feel like I have a love/hate relationship with this game. But that's because I'm playing it with the same crew as I did with Deep Rock Galactic and the mechanics feel more punishing.

With that said, the game is pretty dang good! It's full of action and exploration. Getting the right build is usually a challenge (unless you've got Artifact of Command on and can just choose your items!). You can get severely overpowered when getting the right items and it's real fun.

My issues with this game start with opening it. Incredibly long load time for whatever reason. But that's only a slight issue, no real effect.

I think that the game is really, really unbalanced. Some survivors are effective, but most aren't. Or, they take a specific build and playstyle to make them effective. And the point I'm making is that characters aren't effective. I simply won't play Commando or Engineer or Captain or Acrid because Bandit and Artificer (in my opinion and with my playstyle) are more usable and more consistent than the others. The difficulty spikes because their abilities can be pretty situational, or offer a different style of play.

Take Engineer, for example. He's really defensive, with his turrets and shield. But since I play with loot goblins who I call friends, I can't feasibly use him.

In another facet, many survivors are really immobile. This can make things tough in later stages when surviving (and honestly, traversing through the stages themselves) requires an increased ability to move. Requires as in, it'd be real difficult if you, for instance, didn't have a dash or the double jump item.

For all it's worth, I think this game is pretty fun. There are some good times to be had, but I recommend playing with friends!

Risk of Rain 2 is a solid entry for those interested in co-op roguelikes, especially when you've got friends to play with!

As always,