NickelSandwich tarafından yazılan son incelemeler

Professionally viable pixel art software. That's the review.

Experimental arcade platformer game with messy physics, abilities, and level design, somewhat reminiscent of *squints eyes at notes* Starseed Pilgrim and Blueberry Garden, I guess? A challenging, luck-dependent, and yet somehow breezy way to spend a gaming session deep down the conceptual games iceberg.

Dope casual game. Bit of that incremental game vibe, that sick of your office assistant job in hell type aesthetic, it's a card-based roguelite survivor clone tower defense type thing. A little abstract, but your first completion won't take long at all. Lovely game to have up on the shelf.

For a low price you get a complete game design exploration that fits in a single gaming session, and enough depth for many more. This is essential gaming: a stylish mini-anthology of mechanics-based arcade horror experiments, and a fresh take on the Pac-Man formula.

This game knows where to take up space and time, and it's a good balance of boredom and distraction that fills up the space in my life that's too often taken up by game objectives and battlepass gacha fomo brainrot. I can tell the music and aesthetics will get old waaaay before I run out of new clothing options to buy, but it's not about that. Spirit City: Lofi Sessions is clearly designed with care and benevolence. All the use I've ♥♥♥♥♥♥ out of this game was therapeutic, and this is a great vision for the future of this type of app/game.

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I've played a few basic productivity games and some "fun" word processors. I've also played casual and incremental games that eat up all my time and attention instead of being what I want: a game to play when I don't want to play a game, when I want to work on something else but with a game going on in the background. Spirit City: Lofi Sessions is a lot closer to what I need.

First off, The aesthetics are actually good. There's not a ton of variety, but too much could be distracting and counter-intuitive. What's here is good and doesn't force itself on you. There's a few different looping playlists of chill music, and the music player is always in the center of the screen so that it's easy to adjust the volume or add relaxing noise filters like rain sounds. There's a light character creator that exclusively puts out cute doughy LGBT+ anime characters - which is great, what else did you want from this - with some clothing you can unlock by mostly just spending time with the game open. There's also some simple exploration elements where you "discover" new critters around your house by playing with the visual options and tinkering with the ASMR track settings - once you set it up you just have to idle there for a while.

In the meantime there's tools like a checklist, a timer (Pomodoro method), a habit tracker that hasn't clicked with me yet, and a simple journal that I often use for writing when I don't want to look at a word processor. What's nice is that while a few functions award XP, these tools are entirely optional. Even so, they *invite* productivity in a way that's really very novel for a game like this. This game knows where to take up space and time, and it's a good balance of boredom and distraction that fills up the space in my life that's too often taken up by game objectives and battlepass gacha fomo brainrot. I can tell the music and aesthetics will get old waaaay before I run out of new clothing options to buy, but it's not about that. Spirit City: Lofi Sessions is clearly designed with care and benevolence. All the use I've ♥♥♥♥♥♥ out of this game was therapeutic, and this is a great vision for the future of this type of app/game.

Fundamental single-player arcade card game. Appreciates the deck of cards intimately, as a possibility space, a sandbox, object and playground. The cards in this game are collectible, creative tools, and the randomness of the format and addictive hype represent the gambling roots of the medium without the exploitation. The game's actual design ethics are the same as any classic solitaire card game: discovering and exploring possibility space.

To be fair, if you're reading these reviews, it's probably because you're already playing Balatro. So if you are interested in exploring these themes more, check out Zachtronics Solitaire Collection.

Modern action-adventure game that hits *way* above its weight. Notes of Hollow Knight, Metroid, Celeste, and Umihara Kawase. Whets the imagination with a fresh setting, sweet characters, and a sophisticated balance of combat and acrobatics. Does a ton, and doesn't overdo it. I think this is one of the greats.

A unique incremental/idle/sandbox game that eschews huge numbers and currency accumulation for diversity and genetics. The conceit of raising weird little artificial dogs is perfect for this; dogs are an animal that humans both love and subject to exploitative eugenics. Wobbledogs are cheap, alien and a little insect-like, as if to evoke the experiments of fruit fly breeding. They're also quite cute, a little clever, and just long-lived enough to make you a little somber when it's time for one to go.

Early indie roguelite that attempts to translate the brutal physicality and procedure of games like Spelunky and Nuclear Throne to a pure FPS format, with a striking visual and aural identity. Has its limitations for sure, but considering the projects its designers would later be involved in, this is an interesting piece of game design.

Though Maddy later found significant recognition for the singleplayer platformer Celeste, the lesser-known Towerfall captures the chaos, customizability, and depth of the best Smash games without relying on a needlessly high input barrier or obnoxious tier list meta -- and remains one of the finest couch multiplayer games ever.