Video Game Thoughts

Released in 2018, Merrily Perilly puts us in the role of Perry, an unfortunate man who can't seem to catch a break. We begin as Perry, who is already severely dehydrated, stumbles upon a small, unfamiliar town. With the goal of finding something to slake his thirst, we begin speaking to the eccentric residents which include bears, witches, vampires, mermaids, and most terrifying of all, would be comedians. With the clock ticking away, we have more than a few options for findi

Developed by Oh, a Rock! Studios, The Pizza Delivery Boy Who Saved the World bills itself as a semi-autobiographical visual novel about pizza and time travel. We play as Doug Rivers, a man seemingly stuck delivering pizza for a local pizzeria while dealing with lazy coworkers, idiotic customers, and a boss that is equal parts corrupt and incompetent. This all changes when, after yet another exciting day of slinging pies, he's approached by a man who claims to be him from the

After serving as director for both Silent Hill while at Konami and later Siren at Sony, Keiichiro Toyama gained a bit of a reputation for working within the horror genre. With the increasing costs and decreasing profits of the genre, he decided to prove his ability to design outside of it, turning a vague idea about people floating in space into a gravity action game. Originally intended for the PS3, the gameplay was inspired by his experience with the Sixaxis controller prio

Billed as a psychological horror game, The Town of Light is more of a walking sim with sadly true to life horror elements sprinkled throughout. Truly the most horrifying aspect of the game is the fact that as awful and inhumane as the subject matter is, it's only slightly fictionalized, and depicts the very real treatment of actual human beings. Before going any further, I cannot stress enough how traumatizing and triggering the subject matter of the game is. It depicts some

Beginning development in 2008, 999 was the first title for which Kotaro Uchikoshi would serve as director in addition to his duties as writer and designer. Bringing his love of browser based escape room games, and feeling they could benefit from a larger focus on storytelling, the game plays largely as a visual novel with puzzle elements added that serve to deepen the mystery surrounding the plot. Uchikoshi's writing style, which sees a larger emphasis on storylines over char

While video games have been host to simulation titles as far back as the 80's, there's a newer sub-genre that has developed in recent years. Starting, arguably, with 2013's Surgeon Simulator, which took a far more tongue in cheek slapstick approach, this new generation of simulator games focus less on accuracy and more on the sheer absurdity of the genre itself. More recently, the trend seems to be churning out sims for every role imaginable, often using pre-made assets and A

Developed by studio Coal Supper, a team consisting of programmer Will Todd and artist James Carbutt, Thank Goodness You're Here! is an adventure puzzle game with a distinctly British sense of humor. The initial concept for the game was a series of sketch comedy vignettes with plans to incorporate deep puzzles, complex controls, and non-linear elements to string them together. Fearing that without a stronger vision for the game that they would end making a bad puzzle game, the

Introduced in 2013's The Playroom, the general concept for the Astro Bot series has always been fairly straightforward, serving as essentially a tech demo and tutorial to the myriad of functions present in the PS4 and PS5. Generally consisting of minigames that take advantage of the unique features of the Sony consoles, the games serve as an introduction to the DualSense controller and Sony's VR headset, all in a cute, family friendly package. After finishing work on Astro's

Founded by industry veterans from Telltale Games, Ubisoft, and Night School Studio in 2018, following the rather sudden closure of Telltale Games, AdHoc Studio partnered with Critical Role Productions to create a workplace comedy game focused on superheroes. The original concept was meant to be a live action production inspired by, of all things, ESPN's "This is SportsCenter" commercials, though the idea was scrapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Revived in the form of a vide

Since I apparently have a new fascination with playing games in which I play as a cat, Copycat's siren call of feline antics was irresistible. Developed as the debut title from Spoonful of Wonderful, Copycat puts us in the role of a stray cat with a checkered past as we get adopted from a shelter and, over the course of the game, learn the true value of home. Though most of the game is lighthearted and silly, the narrative touches on some deeper, rather dark elements, handlin

Launched in Febuary of 2003, Kingdom of Loathing is a browser based adventure game notable for its hand-drawn assets and surrealist humor. In it, the player explores a satirical fantasy land primarily through text while engaging in PvE combat. There are PvP options available, as well as a chat feature, the ability to join clans, and a surprisingly robust option to sell items to other players that has been the focus of academic study. While the visuals are simple, the characte

Released in September of 2020, When the Past Was Around was created and illustrated by Indonesian illustrator and developer Brigatta Rena who wanted to create a love story that was relatable, yet mysterious. Partially based on her own life experiences, the game was made with no dialogue, leaving interpretation up to the player. While this caused some issues during development as each team member interpreted the story differently, they eventually agreed on the details after a

Developed by Colombian indie studio Dreams Uncorporated, Cris Tales is a self proclaimed tribute to classing JRPG titles such as Final Fantasy, Persona, and Chrono Trigger. Featuring plenty of influences from Colombian culture and architecture, the game also shows clear visual influences from Genndy Tartakovsky, Mary Blair, and Eyvind Earle, with character designs inspired by 2009's The Secret of Kells. Combined, these influences give Cris Tales a unique visual identity that

After working on the excellent sidecroller beat 'em up, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, the team at Tribute Games approached Marvel in hopes of developing a game in the Marvel universe. Getting the greenlight with the condition that the game launch with at least 15 playable characters, the team set out to compile a roster of popular and lesser known characters while taking artistic cues from Jack Kirby, Jim Lee, and John Byrne. They chose to adapt 2006's Ann

After playing Pokémon Legends: Z-A and being left with a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth, I yearned for a new experience that could perfectly capture the glory days of the franchise. Unwilling to replay for the thousandth time one of the many versions of the game to be released over the past 30 years, I opted to look elsewhere, finding myself desperately scouring the eShop in the pursuit of that sweet dragon-type fix. As a popular and incredibly profitable franchise, Pokémo

How far can you take a single gameplay concept? How far can you push a premise, regardless of how stupid it may be, before you cross the line between funny and annoying? How far can you stretch the premise of the player controlling each individual action, such as taking a step or breathing, without the game losing its charm and becoming unplayable? Is it possible for Death to land a kickflip? These are the hard hitting questions that the team at Perfectly Paranormal set out t

Final Fantasy, as one of gaming's longest running franchises, is certainly no stranger to spin-off titles. Generally, these either become new series themselves, such as with the Mana, Bravely Default, and Octopath games, or serve as the odd direct sequel to a mainline game. The few times that the series has experimented by branching out into other genres is typically met rather tepidly. So, imagine my absolute surprise when Square, in collaboration with Team Ninja, announced

Released in 2021, In Sound Mind is the first game built from the ground up by the team at We Create Stuff, whose previous work included browser and flash based projects, as well as the Nightmare House games which were elaborate, horror themed Half-Life 2 mods. Working with mental health advisors and with a soundtrack crafted by the band "The Living Tombstone"In Sound Mind bills itself as a psychological horror game. Putting players in the role of therapist, Desmond Wales, the

First released in 1997, the Harry Potter series quickly became an international phenomenon, and easily sits among the top ten highest grossing franchises in history, currently nestled comfortably between the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Hello Kitty. While certainly not without controversy of its own, unsurprising considering its focus on wizards and magic, it inspired a generation of children and adults to discover a love of reading, and has inspired an untold number of work

Releasing in 1996, the Pokémon franchise, originally developed from director Satoshi Tajiri's childhood love of collecting bugs, has grown to become the highest grossing media franchise of all time. What began as a passion project that was cobbled together with barely functional code exploded into a juggernaut that easily rakes in over $10 billion dollars a year. With this massive success comes a ton of pressure to constantly release new items, whether it be trading cards, pl