Recent reviews by Insatiable Wrath

404Sight is a free 3D runner in which you have to uphold net neutrality in the virtual world by having your avatar literally run through the connections while keeping your presence safe from the pesky government and its love of red laggy spots, or something, I don't know!

What I do know is that it's a fun time. For the price of free, this is a runner where you can just relax, listen to the alright tunes going on, and deliver that message, yo. Gameplay's real simple: stick to the green paths to pick up speed, jump from platform to platform when needed, go invisible to avoid the zits of Internet destruction, or even ram through them and disconnect their radius if they're landed. That's all there is to it.


Worth a playthrough. Easy difficulty, just relax and enjoy the ride.

Missing Translation is more or less a minimalistic black and white pixeldrawn compilation of puzzles. You're an average dude/lady who, in a random day, gets sucked into what I'm going to call the Puzzle Dimension, complete with exotic denizens who speak in a rather unique language, strange buildings, stranger mechanisms and you guessed it... puzzles.

You want to make sense of that language they're speaking? It's pretty much a puzzle to get to that point.

Operating what goes on in these buildings? Also a puzzle.

You like puzzles, don't you? I hope you do old boy because that's pretty much all that the game's going to give you.

It has a very abstract way of storytelling that is open to interpretation. It might all be going on our protagonist's head or he could have really been abducted to Puzzle Purgatory, we don't know. And that's okay.

Is this game fun though? Well it depends on how much you enjoy puzzles. I'm not very much of a puzzle gamer and I felt like the challenge was just right for them, no cakewalks, but nothing that got me stuck for an absurd amount of time, minus the language translation puzzle. However, that one happens to be optional. Which is all right by me.


Worth a playthrough. A puzzle game where the difficulty is just right.

CrocoMars is a short and free top-down shooter. You play as a space crocodile who has arrived at a remote planet on a recon assignment. Captain Deer wants you to check it out and be wary of any threats that may pop up. That's pretty much all you're getting storywise spoiler-free. Armed with your laser gun, go from checkpoint to checkpoint, purging xenos and attempting to survive along the way.

Yeah the game's story is rather silly and generic, but the gameplay more than makes up for that. It's pretty fun and challenging. However said challenge can also come across as very cheap due to some moves this game will pull on you. I'm talking pop-in enemies at random locations, running out of ammo easily and not being able to get it back or even getting lost on the planet unless you're sticking to the enemies/paths. Some of these you'll only power through trial and error. Want a hint? Keep a lot of bullets.

While the laser gun is the only weapon you can use, you do have various choices in powerups, however I only figured out what 2 or 3 of them actually did. The game doesn't do a good job of explaining what each does. I just went with using the ammo and hp powerups since those are pretty self-explanatory, and you should too, as given this short game's challenge will most likely have you needing those powerups.

The game will start in Russian and you can toggle an option to turn it into English but you're not missing out on much. It's playable either way, only affecting the cheesy dialogue you'll have with your commanding officer every now and then.


Worth a playthrough. Short and fun once you're past its glaring but not dealbreaking flaws.

Off-Peak is strange. It is random. It's seemingly insane and nonsensical, and yet open to a lot of interpretation.

You play as this unknown stranger who is on his way to a town. However, you found yourself stuck in a train station with no means of paying passage to your next destination. An altruistic man gives you a way out, and it'll involve having to explore most of what this train station has to offer.. but is it really a train station in the literal sense of the word?

Off-Peak asks you to find out. I'd describe this as an artsy indie walking simulator that takes around 30 minutes to complete. So not a lot of action, but definitely a lot of crazy. Potentially pretentious and vapid of course, but in my experience I've found it to be rather thought provoking after mulling it over some. If nothing else, I'd check it out for the soundtrack. They weren't messing around when they mentioned that you'd get "hypnotized" by the soundtrack. It's damn good. So yeah. Definitely check this one out.


Now here goes my personal interpretation of the game's messages and ending. Could be way off, but it's fun to write about. Spoilers from here on out.

I think the clue starts in the name itself: Off-Peak. Like you've ascended, but something... something seems off. The station, for one. It barely even looks or operates like one! In fact, upon closer inspection, one could say it's more like an oppressive dystopian town ruled by an iron fist mayor, whose inhabitants appear to exist in a state of monotony, routine, and order.

The merchants act like business as usual, taking a jab at consumerism saying that their few customers that do purchase vinyls or music sheets can't even play an instrument and are only there for the thrill of buying something new.

The bartender who runs a small board game pub enjoys routine so he already had all his schedules planned out in order to maximize profits. The patrons seem content to just spend their entire existence on their board game marathons, because if they leave, they fear they won't be able to make time again to come back.

It is a beautiful place filled with art everywhere, like it just breathes creativity, yet it contrasts with the dull mechanical lifestyle of just about everyone in the station. There's even a huge piano whose player refuses to play, staying in quiet contemplation, forever. As if any attempt to actually create art is forbidden, you have to go with what's already available.

It felt like that as time went on, I'd come to realize that perhaps this train station was a kind of Purgatory, except the train wasn't the final destination. Muriel's Circus was, as she and the 3 strange ladies are taking you there by the time Off-Peak's over. Maybe they're taking you to like Heaven or something. Or it may have been an alien abduction after all, who knows.

I'm sure I'm overthinking this a whole lot and half of what I just wrote is nonsense. But considering Off-Peak only lasts 30 minutes and made me write all this does say something.

I won't be forgetting this one anytime soon.

The Bottom of the Well is a very interesting little visual novel, although I have a few issues with it being spoiled by other great VNs, namely:

- No saving during a run, meaning that if you pick a wrong choice, you're gonna have to do the whole thing again. Thankfully it's not too long.

- Being able to skip all the dialogue including the unseen dialogue means that you're going to have trouble knowing whether or not you're going through a brand new choice, since the alternative would be having to read something you've already seen for the 7th time.

- The game expects you to fail several times before it gives you more options to get through it.

These issues aside, expect a pretty interesting spin on Alice in Wonderland in a nuclear holocaust situation. The approach to recurring dreams and your constant replays were fairly original, and I did have fun with this one, at least for the first time around.

XXZ is a match 3 game about killing sexy zombies in a resort tropical island, so Dead Island.

The game is very minimalistic in its approach, and exceedingly so. It doesn't make any effort to explain how it works, what the icons or most options do, so you're fumbling around the first few minutes or so, probably losing the first few levels until you figure it out.

The match 3 board has icons for each of the 3 characters you control, red being the axe guy, blue the blonde, and yellow the brunette, each with their own stats and hp. If any of them die during the level, you lose.

The character that is in the front line (right side of the screen) is both the one that takes and deals damage, but only if you match their particular icons. In addition to this, you can also heal, and gain experience by matching those icons, green and pink respectively.

You also gain experience by dealing damage and matching the character's icons. Again, not wanting to lose is probably a good idea since you'll lose all progress and level ups during the level. Some zombies have special attacks, such as bludgeoning you and preventing you from attacking from the next turn, others can stab you which effectively "poison" you, dealing damage even when you pull them away from the frontlines and you may even get some which immobilize you indefinitely until you try to attack and cut yourself loose.

All in all, it was okay. Not terrible, just okay.

The first 10 minutes of Dev Guy made me think that I was playing one of the worst games ever. The dialogue was being horribly unfunny, the walking had this annoying sound, and the world just felt so bland. But I powered through it.

Turns out that Dev Guy eventually redeems itself and becomes a fairly enjoyable satire of indie gaming. If you can stand this until you get the flash drive, you'll end up having fun with this for the most part as I genuinely laughed at how ridiculous some parts of the game got, especially its minigames, easily the best part of Dev Guy.

Expect "deep 10/10" stories that no one'll understand, waifu firewalls, and stick figure wet dreams.

Truly, what more could you ever want?

Emily is Away is a short and definitely nostalgic trip for those who grew up in the 90's, as early instant messenger clients such as AOL and MSN were popular at a time where typing your favorite song, band, lyrics, or edgy catchphrase in your status was the thing that the cool kids used to do.

Playing this game was like a time machine for me, like it was 2005 all over again. You play as a boy who's soon to graduate from high school. You're really close to this girl, Emily. With each of you going to different colleges, the only way to keep in touch is through the internet. And so, two teenagers go on their journeys of self-discovery and higher learning, while catching up online every now and then. You get to mostly steer the story the way you want by choosing which messages you want to send. Mostly. Keep in mind you're just a teen, whose emotions are all over the place.

Is it teen drama? For sure. Is it worth playing? Absolutely. It's about the details. Details such as that hesitation in deleting parts of a message or outright changing it after you've given it a second thought or identifying which year you're playing ingame by the choice of avatars the game gives you.

It was a great time and I'm definitely playing the sequel.

CUPID is a very well written story about love in its many wonderful and twisted forms. Bliss, madness, destruction, healing.. all of that and more is here.

You play as this young socially awkward young lady in 18th century France who is guided by the voices in their head (that's you, the player...or is it?) as she wanders aimlessly trying to find a purpose, until her chance meeting with a gifted piano player and a wealthy marquis.. The rest I'll leave to you so you can enjoy the experience, spoiler-free.

I recommend turning the mature filter off, since it'll make the dialogue more genuine and gritty, making for an overall better experience. In case you're wondering, no, this isn't a dating sim VN, but a more focused type of tale, one worth reading through.

Hawaiian mythology is pretty rich, and although parts of it have already been incorporated in some games and franchises, I still think it has a lot of untapped potential in terms of storytelling.

Maui however, isn't the one to give that to you.

It's a free short game where you're tasked with saving your sister from the gods. You do this by doing a trial for each one, gaining their powers along the way. Depending on which god you're favoring at the moment, you can either be faster, stronger, or a combination of those and more. It definitely feels and breathes Hawaii, and the graphics style is quite adorable.

However, none of this actually excuses the poor gameplay and repetition. The normal enemies will eviscerate you, so you're just better off skipping them. You have poor control over your character, and the bad soon starts to outweigh the good.

A good effort, but you're better off skipping this one.