Release: 2024, PC/Switch/Xbox One/Xbox Series
Beaten: May 16, Xbox Series S (Game Pass)
Playtime: 4h 24m (Main+), 7h 43m (100%)
I don't really know where to begin for this one.
Little Kitty Big City is a good game. It's not perfect, but it's fun and, overall, quite good. My enjoyment of the game stems a lot from the circumstances of the time when I played it. My cat had just passed away the same day I began my playthrough.
Jupiter was a naughty boy in his life, and LKBC let me play as a cute, sweet, loved, and naughty cat. I contextualized the entire game through the love for my cat who was no longer around. It was like I was playing with him again.
I could probably write a lot more about Little Kitty Big City. I could talk about what it does right, what it does wrong. I could talk more about Jupiter, about the complex emotions brought up by seeing him manifest on screen as a black kitty. But I don't really want to. I've been tired and sad, and this game simply provided me with some joy and catharsis at a time where it was sorely needed. I will be forever thankful that a team put so much love into this game and then that it reached me at exactly the right time.
Release: 2005, GCN
Beaten: May 27th, GCN
Playtime: 28h 53m
Vastly superior over its predecessor in basically every way, XD has hardly any of the frustrations that made Colosseum so insufferable at times. It still has its own quirks and annoyances, but it's safe to say that all my biggest gripes with Colosseum were totally ironed out. I enjoyed XD quite a bit and found myself eager to play it, which is usually how I feel about good Pokemon games.
A very short and sweet platformer with a series of three small, open worlds. Everything about this game is pleasant. It is not difficult in the slightest, perhaps to its detriment at times (at one point, it presents you with the easiest, lowest-stakes obstacle course ever and offers you accessibility options before you can even try it once), but generally speaking I think the majority of the game just being really accessible platforming and exploration is a good thing. It's another one of those games I'd probably recommend picking up on a sale because of how short it is for the base asking price, but I think discourse about a game's "value" in dollars is stupid, so there's no reason to get into it. Overall, it's 4-5 hours of good, relaxing fun.
Release: 2023, PC/Switch
Beaten: May 20th, Switch
Playtime: 5h 30m
Honestly quite good in every regard. The aesthetics are on point, the story and writing is overall solid, and the gameplay feels satisfying and rewarding. I think some elements are a bit half-baked; for example, I never really used any of the additional ammo types you can switch to besides ones required for progression because they weren't as interesting and had limited uses. Mostly the game is pretty tightly designed to be a short experience which doesn't involve much time-wasting. There's a surprising amount of choices which seem like they'd change the story substantially, which might make repeat playthroughs interesting. And the movement tech feels so good that I could reasonably see myself enjoying another run through. All that being said, I still didn't feel like the game was doing anything mind-blowing, but it is, overall, really good and worth playing.
Release: 2020, PC
Beaten: May 8th, Xbox Series S
Playtime: 1h 36m
A very pretty and somber puzzle game about grief and working through it. It's also a game about love, and losing someone you care about, and the resulting trauma. It handles these subjects with a degree of tact and delicacy that makes the ending feel earned and cathartic. I appreciated this game.
Release: 2023, PC/Xbox One/Xbox Series
Beaten: May 8th, PC (Game Pass)
Playtime: 9h 30m
Ghostlore is an action-RPG (Diablo-esque) with a unique aesthetic and a good handful of interesting mechanics that allow for really deep character customization. My build was centered around ranged combat with summons/minions doing the bulk of the work. I think I designated probably like two hours of my playtime or more just going through my loot and optimizing my build. I don't really know how I feel about the fact that I spent so much time not actually playing the game and instead sorting or rearranging. There's a small amount of self-enforced puzzle-solving involved when optimizing that bordered on a bit frustrating and made me wish the game offered ways to automatically fill spaces for me. But the game was well-built and engaging enough to leave me thinking about it when I wasn't playing it, and the more minor adjustments of my gear/build were mostly entertaining. The thing I liked least about the game was constantly having to return to town to sell/store items. The loot drop-rate is pretty high, which can be satisfying, but a lot of those drops are total junk or glyphs (items that are part of one of the game's customization mechanics) which need to be manually sorted through. If there was a pouch which automatically stored glyphs (alongside any effective sorting method for them), I feel like my issues with the game would be mostly solved. Overall, I enjoyed my time with the game, but due to some clunkiness and inventory management issues, I don't see myself playing it too much further.
Release: 2024, PC/PS5/Xbox Series
Beaten: May 1st, Xbox Series S (Game Pass)
Playtime: 13h 20m
This'll be a long one.
As I write this, I last played Harold Halibut three days ago. I'm still finding my mind wandering to the game's beautiful set design, poignant scenes, and unique characters. The game advertises itself with a slogan to the effect of "a hand-crafted adventure," and I think that does come across by how meticulously put-together everything is. Clear consideration was put into just about every element, which I say even while believing that some beats fell flat, that it didn't always follow through with its own messages, and that the game is not always very well-constructed from a technical standpoint. Still, I think that they made something they were wholly proud of.
The game itself is slow. It's dull. But I never felt like dropping it. Sometimes I found myself wondering why Harold was being forced to move at walking speed across an environment, following a character with zero dialogue to accompany the trek. But usually I found myself not minding the fact that there isn't much to it. You're not really solving puzzles, well, ever. You're doing a lot of back and forth around a station which will sometimes make you do two warps just to get to a place that could have taken one. In between menial tasks, I found myself often navigating to areas to see if there were new interactions, and about half the time I was rewarded for that curiosity, which made the other half the time more frustrating. But, again, I didn't feel discouraged. I didn't feel, necessarily, like my time was being wasted.
And I believe there's a definite reason for that. In my opinion, it makes narrative sense that everything is so slow. It makes sense that you're tasked with doing simple things and plodding from one area to the next. Harold Halibut (the game) wants to push the fact that Harold Halibut (the character) doesn't do things for himself. He lives in service of others, following orders or just making it aimlessly through the day. And when he interacts with people, it's an effort. An effort often in vain, one that might result in him being mocked or made a fool. But also an effort that often uplifts both parties, that changes someone's direction, that provides purpose to a group of people who feel mostly aimless.
So when Harold Halibut (the guy) does something for himself, when he expresses philosophical thought or makes genuine connection with others, when he gets sad or angry or fucks up immeasurably and feels remorse, it means so much more. Because you've been Harold. You've seen his aimlessness and his passiveness and you've seen the abuse he suffers just for being a bit odd. You've experienced the exasperating nature of just putting yourself out there, and you've been rewarded and punished for it in kind. You've done exactly what you thought you were supposed to and still screwed it up.
This is a story about finding your way. About connecting against all odds. About love, but not really, and about humanity, but not really that either. About living a life primarily in service of others, feeling like you never reach your potential, if you even have any idea what your "potential" might be. And about coming to terms with that life and accepting it. Or maybe even about finding what it is you are meant for, and accepting that despite how fucking hard it is, and how much wasted effort you'll have to cope with once you've found it, and how nothing will ever be the same or ever feel easy again.
It's about living in the moments of aimlessness, knowing that there will eventually be moments of purpose. And about being okay with both.
