david.reviews: Games!

david.reviews: "Astro Bot"

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: Not a bad plat- just tracking everything down. The levels are just as fun as I remember. I didn't love the gauntlet sections (they punished errors too harshly) but it' just more of a good thing.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "20 More, Somehow Even Smaller, Mazes"

Sat, 19 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: Another delightful outing from FLEB. Pint sized, clever, and beautifully put together as always. Can't beat the price either! (free) Has great Steam Controller support, too!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Split Fiction"

Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: An absolute delight. Much like previous Hazelight titles, the gameplay is varied, co-operative, and inventive. I liked the asymmetry of it all- each player has their own overlapping puzzles and abilities. And nothing overstays its welcome.

The story is... well there's a story! But it never got in the way and helped explain the variety of locales well enough. There are some truly impressive sequences too, and plenty of cute jokes, nods, and allusions to other games.

Great with a partner. And plenty of accessibility options means everyone can have exactly as much fun as they want! I'm already ready for their next one.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "He Who Watches"

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: Excellent, if challenging, puzzle game. Enjoyed it thoroughly, but am not currently in the mood to play through the rest something so hard. Will revisit someday though, because it's some truly excellent design. Read more in my full review!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "1000xResist"

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★☆: Tells an ambitious story that I mostly enjoyed. Its non-linear narrative works well to keep everything mysterious while still being engaging. Its high concept world works well as a setting and the architecture of the garden was comforting while everything around it was not. The voice acting was superb, especially when performances were used to differentiate versions of individual characters. There wasn't much gameplay but had some cool ludonarrative cohesion that made it feel unique.

The worst thing I could say about it is how artsy it was. I'd admire its dedication to telling its story its way, but it occasionally veered into "art house movie" territory and lost me a little. Saying evocative phrases that seem like they make sense in the moment can only get you so far. I enjoyed it and wanted to see where it went, but I'm not totally sure it actually brought me anywhere. I might just be 20% too dumb for it though. And I wish there was a little less aimless wandering around.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana"

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: An excellent action RPG. Loved the breezy island setting and the exploration aspect. Finding castaways to grow your base who also act as shopkeepers is brilliant design- it helps your exploration have real gameplay impact and makes the settlement really feel lived in. It's a fun supporting cast though and they hold just enough space to be distinct without feeling like there's a million people to meet.

The story was interesting and runs a little long, but kept me engaged throughout. I wouldn't have hated if they'd kept it a simple adventure story, but I didn't mind where it went. I liked the time jump gameplay and am glad they didn't use it too heavily for puzzles. There was just enough of it to be novel.

Basically the epitome of a AA RPG. Combat is engaging without being complicated- jump, dodge, attack, block, 4 skills. Weapons get upgraded over time without you having to shop for them. There are armor & accessory slots that provide character customization, but there are only 3 stats, so your choices are never overwhelming. The controls are also simple, letting you do everything without memorizing a bunch of chords and button combinations. Each of the 6 characters handle differently, so they feel distinct to use, keeping combat fresh. Plus you could adjust the difficulty on the fly, so you can engage as much or as little as you want.

Maybe more than anything else, I loved how fast paced everything felt. Animations were snappy, you can sprint everywhere, the menus were responsive, and you can fast forward all the cutscenes and dialogue (if you so choose). The whole thing just felt breezy. It was a svelte runtime too, especially for a game of this size!

Just a delight, top to bottom.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Echo Isle"

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★☆: A compact, classic-Zelda inspired adventure game. I like that it followed the classic formula well: 4 little dungeons, each with an upgrade and a boss.

True to its word, there's no fluff. A single collectable, a linear series of areas, and few NPCs to talk with. I appreciate when games make a point to streamline their gameplay in useful ways. Much like Shapez distilled Factorio, removing elements helps what remains shine. The graphics and sound effects represent their inspiration well and going on a little adventure with power ups along the way was pleasant. I liked that I could hold everything in my head at once (like all of the places I couldn't reach yet) because the map is small and easy to reason about. Breezing through the whole thing in a sitting was relaxing and satisfying.

But, take simplification too far and the results can feel a little thin. To its credit, I prefer smaller games to those with near-infinite content. But at some point fluff provides opportunities to engage with the game's world and acquired abilities. Echo Isle was so streamlined, it feels like it will lack staying power. It was fun while it lasted, but it felt more like a snack than a meal.

And the combat, while simple, was frustrating at times. The sword swinging animation was interestingly imprecise. More than a few times, I'd be rotated slightly the wrong way or positioned just above an enemy and miss entirely. Accurate to early games, but has really been improved upon since then.

In the end, I enjoyed my brief time with Echo Isles and I think it's a great palette cleanser between other games. It may not stick with you, but you'll enjoy it while you're in there.

Thanks to the dev for the key!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Fail Fail Succeed"

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★☆: Cute little puzzle platformer where dying with an ability alters leaves something behind to help you solve puzzles. Neat concept, but (despite the cute dog) not really something I'd spend a ton of time with. It's just not the kind of gameplay that engages me. There's good polish though, including a a nice hint system and camera controls. Good ability variety, too!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "The Incident at Galley House"

Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: A gripping story and killer voice acting make this a compelling package. Read more in my full review!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Drop Duchy"

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: Excellent strategy game that mixes Tetris and deckbuilding. Shouldn't work as well as it does, but it's a hoot. There's a pretty good variety of deck archetypes and you can combine them in interesting and exciting ways. There's a great tech tree to unlock cards and being able to upgrade as you go lends a lot of strategy. Making numbers go up (in sometimes hilarious ways) was a blast. You don't even have to be that good at Tetris!

I could have used 10% more clarity for some of the card mechanics, but there's enough opportunity to undo mistakes (both the last piece and the whole level) that the cost of mistakes is low.

I got the DLCs to support the dev, but neither added particularly interesting mechanics. They're not _bad_, just underwhelming. They both require you to build in a really specific way that takes away some of the flexibility you get from the rest of the builds.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "The Red Pearls of Borneo"

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★☆: Heavily inspired by "Type Help", it does a good job carving out its own niche with a larger cast, multiple sections, and a visual interface to help your solve. I loved how much actual history it wove into the story

The gameplay itself follows a tried-and-true formula, but I found the game itself a little rough around the edges. The UX had lots of little papercuts and there were a _lot_ of typos. It's free, so one can only expect so much, but it still soured the experience a bit. In a game consisting of mostly text, your text must be correct. Plus, the back quarter of the game drags a bit- it's not a bad story, but it's a lot of clicking and not much solving. I liked the pseudo-interactive nature of the epilogues, but they felt slow compared to the actual puzzles.

But, these are all fixable in a sequel! I hope it gets the care and attention the format deserves.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Shadows of Doubt"

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★☆☆: It's a technically impressive game, but wasn't for me. I end up with the same problem I have with most immersive sims- there are so many ways to approach something that playing it at all becomes overwhelming. Plus when things start to go wrong, you die very quickly, not giving you much opportunity to understand how to react or take stock of the situation. It's cool that the world is so thoroughly simulated though, it's an interesting concept.

I'm also not sure I would have loved a fully generated mystery. Some of them would have been great, but others duds. I prefer a more crafted experience. I like the idea of truly getting to investigate my own way, but not doing it in practice.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Map Map: A Game About Maps"

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: An original and charming mapmaking adventure. Read more in my full review!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Tales of Berseria"

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★☆☆: As a longtime enjoyer of the Tales series, I came into Berseria with high hopes (and shame on me for letting the community set those expectations so high) and it failed to meet them.

The biggest weakness is the combat. Eschewing the series' Smash Bros-style control scheme, it instead lets you slot 4 moves onto each face button. This means to target enemy type and elemental resources there are up to 16 slots you need to memorize (and more if you play other characters). Either you're resetting them constantly to optimize every battle or you lean into the game's "choose for me!" button and literally just press X to clear every battle. There are other attacks (super, block, dodge) but a playable version of the combat felt so watered down that it just wasn't worth it. All of the other interesting gameplay decisions (equipment, etc) fed into combat. But if I wasn't engaging with that, then nothing else felt worthwile.

All that said, the story was pretty good. I loved that we were anti-heroes instead of plucky do-gooders. Some of the dialogue (Magilou, mostly) was the best performance I'd seen in ages. Outside of the typical anime stuff, there are some great characters in there. So much so that I'm planning on watching all the cutscenes through on youtube (something I've never done before).

I felt like I gave it the old college try, but when I'm searching phrases like "does this get better" and "Berseria combat bad?", it didn't bode well.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Frostpunk"

Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: Played all the base scenarios and some of the DLC (The Last Autumn). I had forgotten how well this game flows. City builders can get bogged down in minutia, but Frostpunk manages to strike the perfect balance between micro (managing work assignments) and macro (developing your economy, building buildings). Mix that with some tough narrative choices and general resource management and you've got a heck of a time. There's great variation between the scenarios, too. They each require different priorities and brought a good mix of mechanics to each outing. There's nothing that makes me feel quite as hopeless as my already suffering population staring down the barrel of more temperature drops. Enjoyed every minute of it.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Chorus"

Wed, 06 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★☆☆: Chorus initially wowed me with its freedom of motion and huge sense of scale. Its dogfighting battles were chaotic and cool, but felt like something I could really get good at. And that was true, but those battles came with a pretty serious legibility problem. With all the lasers and enemies flying around, it's easy to get disoriented. Couple that with a sort of nonsense story (albeit a nicely voice acted one) and an undercooked upgrade system and the game left me wanting. It's worth trying out if it's really up your alley and it's beautifully animated, but it didn't come together for me.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Wax Heads"

Sun, 03 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: A cozy visual novel that's full of energy and heart. Read more in my full review!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Ruined King: A League of Legends Story"

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: An excellent turn-based RPG steeped in the world of League of Legends. Fans of League will find many cute allusions, both in item names and lore scrolls you find scattered around. The voice acting is superb and there are lots of great side quests (including legendary weapons and abilities for each character. The "motion comic" animation worked well for the more involved scenes and the campfire conversations between characters did a lot to flesh out their relationships. The story is basic, but has some cool moments and isn't totally predicable. The battle system itself was great. Its small cast of playable characters feels both unique and true to their original designs. There's good ability variation and everything can be useful in the right context. Battles were fun without being overwhelming. The "lane" system adds a decent amount of strategic depth and bosses can use it for unique interactions, to great effect. The whole thing is just put together nicely and was a blast to play!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Thank Goodness You're Here!"

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: A short, surreal, lovingly animated experience. It's basically an interactive cartoon, but every inch of it is packed with jokes and visual gags, not to mention an unmistakable layer of British charm. Every single one of the game's many signs is hysterical. Helping all these lovable weirdos makes for a great evening.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "American Arcadia"

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: The gameplay is light, but the presentation is superb. The world flows around you, dialogue responding to your pacing so naturally that it's hard to believe it's not static. The story kept us guessing the whole time and it made great use of 3rd/1st person perspective. Felt like an interrogation of the attention and steaming economies, which most modern-set games don't really engage with. The whole world was beautifully designed too: retro futurism as far as the eye could see. I kept wondering why we don't have lobbies like that. And where their noses were!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "StarVaders"

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: A stellar roguelike deckbuilder on a 2D grid. Effectively mixing positioning and attack cards made for some really satisfying runs. Its "pack" system meant that synergies were easy to come by, which meant each run had a good shot and some interesting cohesion. There's a lot of cards and items to unlock (plus the characters themselves) which helped it feel fresh throughout. I was always interested in starting one more run. There's 3 classes and 4 characters in each, so plenty of build variety. It never felt _too_ difficult either, which I appreciated.

Boppin' soundtrack too; lots of bright guitar riffs that make it feel like an action anime. There's some light story, which is interesting enough. I appreciated that there was a "true ending", since a lot of times these sorts of games don't really end. It was perfect for what it was though.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Is This Seat Taken?"

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: A cute little constraint solving puzzle game about shapes with a lot of feelings. There's just enough story to keep things engaging and there are a lot of micro stories that come through the NPCs and their preferences (like needing to sit near, or away from, their manager). I was especially charmed by the art and sound design: everything makes funny little pops and boops as you move them around. It's just delightful. There's great level variety and the whole thing just oozes style. Not too hard, either.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Upalu Mundi"

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: A great mix of rail organization and true puzzles. Fun story to boot! Read more in my full review!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Hamstermind"

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★☆: Great puzzle variety and presentation, but weak endgame puzzles. Lot of fun overall though! Read more in my full review!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Ghost of Tsushima"

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: Beautiful presentation. The near lack of UI means you can focus on the gorgeous world around you. Favoring contextual guidance over a floating compass makes for a much more immersive experience than similar games. The story also punches way above its weight, adding context to (eventually repetitive) missions and driving big emotional beats in key moments. I also loved its focus on little moments, like letting you write haikus in especially picturesque spots.

The combat takes some time to get going, but really clicks once its does. Gets stale eventually, mostly due to the lack of enemy variety. Enemies get a little spongey, but you have enough tools that it's never too boring. The duels are cool, really capturing the essence of a tense sword fight. Stealth was decent, if basic.

The overall gameplay loop is a safe one: big standard open world faire (including the cluttered map and identical collectibles). But there's a reason the genre is popular: it's fun to run around and just exist in this world. If you don't mind the lack of originality, you'll have a good time. Everything's nicely polished.

I played the DLC as well and found it only ok. There's an ok plot, but mostly it's just more of the base game. More of a good thing is good, but I'm at an age where "more" is the last thing I need from these expansive open world adventures. I also didn't love the focus on hallucinations, a plot device I find tedious. That said, there's some nice narrative payoff for Jin before you wrap things up with him for good.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Vampire Survivors"

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: Game's gone through a lot of improvements since I played it last and it's official: it's got the juice. There's an actual arc to the levels and there's a lot more weapon diversity and ability to make builds (even through the RNG). Weapons are fun and combining them tickles my brain in cool ways. Music is great. Graphics are bad, but it doesn't really matter. It hits what it needs to. DLC is great too!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Astro Bot"

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: Delightful romp. The game oozes style and sets the bar for how the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers can be used in games. The world is vibrant and varied, doubling down on the Sony nostalgia. I especially liked the pastiche levels of other PS games; they really did their homework. Being able to play the levels fast or slow was good too - you only had to to find extra bots if you were excited to. The boss fights were only ok (all of the combat was, really) but the game is delightful anyway.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Chroma Zero"

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: Does a great job capturing the exploration aspects of Outer Wilds. It explains very little and sets you loose to understand the rules of the world. It expertly uses color theory as a base for most of its puzzles, slowly expanding what you can do an how you approach the world as you encounter new mechanics. Its stark, low-poly environment was a fun playground to explore and its concentric boxes are a wonderfully unique and alien setting.

It's tough to know if/when you're making progress at first. But there are little glowing dudes that give you pointers as you find them, which adds a light structure to the game. Navigating can be a little annoying, since you can lock yourself out of certain paths. The game encourages you to reset the world early and often, so you're never too suck, but it lead to a little more repetition than I wanted once I knew how to solve a puzzle. I ended up using a hint guide pretty aggressively, since I wanted to see the whole game but got a little impatient with some of the later puzzles.

Great time overall though, and a great soundtrack!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Lok Digital"

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: I never played the book, so I was glad the game seamlessly made the transition to digital. Finding paths through the grid is such a simple concept, but executed flawlessly. The puzzles themselves are clever and add new words and rules with care. The hint system worked well for unblocking us without just handing us the answers. The animations and overall presentation are delightful too.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Strange Jigsaws"

Sun, 28 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: There are few games as whimsical and engaging as what FLEB puts out. They're perfectly sized, surprising at every turn, and playful without compromise. I loved how every puzzled involved some sort of jigsaw, but their application and the process behind solving them varied wildly, so gameplay never felt repetitive. I love its eclectic art style and the experience of literally never knowing what's coming next.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Leap Year"

Sat, 27 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: Wanted to play the DLC, but had forgotten enough of the mechanics that I needed a replay first. Game still rocks. The environments are so elegantly designed, only allowing moves in each room that fit the puzzle. Just as fun the second time through!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Monument Valley III"

Fri, 26 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: Absolutely stunning presentation. Every frame is gorgeous, every animation a delight. The music is pleasant and the puzzles are fun, but not especially challenging. There's a bit of story that's pretty abstract, but stays out of the way. More than anything, it's a very relaxing 2 hours, absorbed into this pastel world.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Dragonsweeper"

Fri, 26 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★★☆: Clever concept that took some time to wrap my head around. The minesweeper gameplay is good, but felt like it leaned too far into randomness vs the (closer to) pure strategy of real minesweeper. Props for trying new things though!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Öoo"

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: Öoo is both the name of the game and the sound I constantly made while playing this extremely tight little puzzle platformer. Elegantly teaches you mechanics while ensuring you understand them before progressing to the next area. Packs a remarkable amount of gameplay into a deceptively simple experience.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "The Rise of the Golden Idol"

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: [DLC 4: The Curse of the Last Reaper] A thrilling end to the Golden Idol DLCs. There's a cute nod to Obra Dinn, plus the standard clever piecing together of events. Had a blast, per usual.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope"

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★★☆: Like a good sequel, it improves and streamlines the bumpy parts of the first game. Gone are costly weapon upgrades, replaced by "just leveling up" and cosmetics.

The tactical gameplay I liked from the first game was back, but the open-world levels were more filler than focus. The story levels themselves were varied and interesting, but there were plenty of random encounters that were too easy. The big cast could have dropped a few characters without missing much. And, the story was pretty bad and missing much of the humor from before. Also, the shopping wasn't especially compelling.

It scores this highly on the strength of its core gameplay, in spite of basically everything else (like how badly it ran on the Switch).

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Total Reload"

Sun, 16 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★☆☆: Decent enough puzzles held back by a lackluster narrative. Read more in my full review!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "A Case of Fraud"

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★★☆: Decent deduction gameplay that was a little too easy for my tastes. But a great finale to cap the whole thing off! Read more in my full review!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Orbyss"

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: Exquisite UI coupled with tons of great puzzle mechanics & an atmospheric setting make for a dynamite time. Read more in my full review!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Spooky Express"

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: Clever little puzzles and superb atmosphere make for a great Halloween experience. Read more in my full review!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart"

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: A second playthrough made for a fun plat. The game could have used a little more enemy variety. But the omega weapons were fun and the return of the bolt multiplier is always good. Still gorgeous in motion. Was fun to revisit the world!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "The Rise of the Golden Idol"

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: [DLC 3: The Age of Restraint] Great scenario, fun concepts, good puzzles. Felt on the easier side, but I liked the way everything tied together. Felt tight.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Sifu"

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★☆☆: A beautiful, intense game that I unfortunately liked the idea of more than actually playing.

On the one hand, Sifu has a lot going for it. Its environments are starkly beautiful. I also loved the way playing later levels unlocked shortcuts through earlier ones. It's a simple yet elegant solution to streamline the process of playing through levels repeatedly. Every animation is precise and fluid, which makes it feel like you're in a Jackie Chan movie. You get to play through his chaotic, 8 vs 1 brawls in close quarters with plenty of environmental interactions. Their vision here was clear and I think they nailed it. The dodging animations were just as good as the punching, so getting into a rhythm felt great. The age system, which lowers your health in exchange for more damage as you die, is a unique twist on the genre.

On the other hand, the combat itself felt tedious. Once you learn the enemy attack timings, fights (especially bosses) become these drawn-out slogs where you dodge, get two attacks in, and then have to wait your turn to do a tiny bit more of damage. And you'll learn the timings pretty fast, because there's not much in the way of enemy variety. The outfits change, but there are only about 4 basic enemies you'll square off against (plus a few varieties of elites). But the number of times you run through the game coupled with the repetitiveness of it all makes for a shine that wears off quickly.

I also didn't care for the progression system, which lets you slowly unlock new moves for your current run. But when you reset, you lose anything you haven't unlocked 5 times. For a genre that's so muscle memory dependent, having an attack work now and stop working later was consistently frustrating rather than rewarding.

Great care clearly went into Sifu's production and that attention to detail shines through in every moment. But In a game that's all about combat, fights really need to knock it out of the park. None of this is helped by the fact that I don't really care for fighting games. In the end, I dropped the game to its easier difficulty and sailed through, but I was disappointed that it came to that. I think there's a game in there I would have liked more, but this wasn't quite it.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Cryptmaster"

Sun, 28 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: Mixes strategic combat with typing better than I would have thought possible. Guessing the words to level up worked well and getting letters as rewards is an ingenious bit of design. Remembering what combos I could use got increasingly tricky, which was fun.

Exploring the world was great, even if the minimap left something to be desired. The music is unexpectedly top-tier and the stark art style works great. There's also great cast of NPCs that bring the world of the undead to life. And I'm a sucker for a game with a in-universe card game that everyone plays. Matches could be inconsistent, but it acted as a great change of pace when regular combat was getting stressful.

The game played a little fast & loose with cooldowns and when exactly the enemy would attack. While I suspect it was cheating a bit in my favor, the lack of precision sometimes made planning hard. But, these complaints are minor. Was pleasantly surprised at every step of the journey.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age"

Sun, 14 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: There's a lot of game in this game, but much of it is good!

It did a great delivering the tried-and-true JRPG formula: lots of gear / stats / abilities, repetitive turn-based battles, and rewarding you for going the extra mile. It felt good to be back in the saddle, since I don't always have patience for these. The crafting system was pretty good, adding a level of skill to a system that's usually just a menu. The pace of the battles reminded me a lot of FFX, which is always good. I really liked that you could set your whole party to CPU controlled, so battles would fight themselves. That let me grind as much (or as little) as I wanted, which was huge when the game was so long. The world is large and well-realized. There's plenty of things to do. The series' cheeky humor is on full display, which leant a lighter air to some more serious goings-on.

The worst part is probably the pacing- there are too many endings in this game. Being a legendary hero was fun, but they needed to know when to quit. The difficulty was also on the easy side (maybe because of the aforementioned auto-grinding), but there's a setting for that if you want a hard mode. It's also a little silly to complain about, but there's maybe too much of everything? In addition to the whole main quest, there's a whole separate series of 2D sidequests I basically never touched. They act as a love letter to the rest of the series, which is cool. But at some point, there's just too much if I'm going to play anything else this year.

That said, nobody is doing very traditional JRPGs better, so if that's what you're in the mood for, DQXI acts as potent comfort food.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Thirty Flights of Loving"

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: A non-linear heist. What it lacks in gameplay, it makes up for in storytelling. There's a lot there in between its surrealism. Weirdly, the cinematography is what stood out the most to me. Everything is "shot" very precisely. Music is great too. It's a fun, odd, tidy little package.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Gravity Bone"

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★★☆: Odd little interactive experience. Weaves a bit of story into its walking. Builds a lot of world in a very short amount of space.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Slider"

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: Just killer. Clever little puzzles, tons of mechanics, cute side characters, simple yet expressive art. Not too long, but engaging. Enough variety that the same base mechanic (sliding puzzles) never gets boring. Good music on a few of the levels. Can get tough, but there's a good hint/answer system posted online by the dev. And you can't beat this price!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Wilmot Works It Out"

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: Small and delightful. The relaxed jigsaw-centric gameplay is a step up from the fairly frantic order fulfillment of the first game. I liked the little narrative that moves everything along without taking center stage. The whole thing is pleasant and just thinky enough to keep you engaged without being punitive in any way. There's a cool new game plus mode as well! It's a rare sequel that improves on its original in basically every way.

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

david.reviews: "Arranger"

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT

★★★★: Delightfully tight puzzle game. Takes a simple mechanic, commits to it, and really explores the space. Art is beautiful, soundtrack is nice, story is just thought provoking enough Art is beautiful, soundtrack is nice, story is just thought provoking enough. Doesn't overstay its welcome either. Loved the whole thing!

FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!