Ahh, it’s been like two months and I’m over halfway through the next ten, and I still haven’t finished ranking these ten games. Adding Let’s Playing to the mix has certainly confused the pace of the Bag of Games process, but I still want to keep up with it!
1. The Case of the Golden Idol - I played the DLC yesterday and that’s really what made me realize oh crap I need to do this ranking. This is the good shit right here, a fun story told through a series of bite-sized logic puzzles. Absolutely one of the best detective games I’ve ever played, right up there with Paradise Killer.
2. Pentiment - This game is a beautiful tapestry, totally devoted to its artistry, its historic faithfulness, its rich world, its intriguing mystery, its roleplaying potential and its interesting social mechanics. I’m very much a person who just enjoys choosing dialogue options for the sake of choosing them and doesn’t really care if they actually make an impact, but when they do make a tangible impact? That’s the icing on the cake.
3. Citizen Sleeper - We’re still up in S-tier, baby! Such a unique and incredibly written take on the RPG. I love games where I have to make tough decisions!
4. The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow - My brother played this one too. I was just talking about it with him and the ending was, let’s say, controversial between the two of us. I liked it fine. As my first ever completed Let’s Play, I can imagine this game will remain special to me for a long time.
5. Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion - Silly and delightful and very upsetting. This is literally the only piece of media that should be allowed to incorporate COVID into its story for the next, like, twenty years.
6. JUMPGRID - A cool little rhythm-action-arcadey thing? It never had a chance at the top half of the list with the five superb games already mentioned, but it’s still blood-pumping fun.
7. Genesis Noir - It dragged on a little longer than I would have liked, to the point where I actually got a little tired of pointing and clicking, can you even imagine? But ooh, this game is still brimming with style and interesting ideas.
8. Memoir En Code: Reissue - I am forever an advocate for game developers making weird little personal projects like this! I probably won’t go out of my way to play them but! If you put them in a big itch.io bundle! I will absolutely play your short autobiographical games and have a hoot of a time!
9. Epiphany City - I don’t mind that this is a game more oriented towards kids. A lot of the puzzles were fun and creative despite being simple! But the graphics were ugly, the controls were clunky, and the story was cheesy and dumb, and I don’t think family-friendliness excuses any of that.
10. Verdant Skies - Definitely one of those instances where this could be a fantastic entry into a genre for all that I know, but I do not enjoy that genre so it doesn’t really matter.
