Recent reviews by Forstride

Animal Well is a great exploration game with an ethereal feel to it thanks to its art direction and sound design. While it does have actual puzzles, it's much more focused on exploring the map and finding eggs and secret paths using the items you collect along the way. Some obstacles require some very clever thinking, but most are fairly straightforward and don't require a ton of time to be spent on them.

As for negatives, a few items (Especially the Bouncy Ball) don't feel like their primary uses are telegraphed properly when you first acquire them, and after looking up the solutions to the last few eggs I couldn't get on my own, I can definitely say I never would've found them otherwise due to the items needed to get them having very obtuse uses.

Some people have said the game is too short, which it probably is if your only goal is to get to the credits as fast as possible and ignore everything else...But after exploring the vast majority of the map and completing all of the achievements, I felt like the length was just right. Overall, if you're a fan of FEZ, Knytt Underground, and similar exploration-focused games, you'll probably love Animal Well.

Been following the game for a long time, and I'd say it was worth the wait. It *is* very short, especially considering the game is very easy and straightforward, but it's also very polished with fluid controls, and pretty much every level offered new gameplay mechanics, cool setpieces, and so on.

As far as negatives go, obviously the relative lack of content is the biggest thing, but for basically being developed by a single person, it's forgivable IMO, especially given the quality of what's there. Also not a fan of time trials being tied to 100%ing the game (Not a fan of that in *any* game regardless of length).

Overall, it's obviously not the most revolutionary, genre-defining game or whatever, but it's definitely a solid platformer, and I think it's worth the $15 price.

The game nails the essence of MHA and had a lot of potential at its core, but there's always some kind of bug or exploit at any given time that ruins the game, and the devs take MONTHS to fix them, which is completely unacceptable for a live service game.

Balance is also a mixed bag with some characters remaining absolutely broken for months on end, and some getting nerfed into the ground when they didn't need it at all. The gacha system is still horrible as well, and trying to earn things for free isn't worth the amount of grinding it takes when drop rates are horrendous and the pity system might as well not even exist for anyone but whales.

It's a shame, because I really enjoyed the game at launch and was hopeful to see where it might end up a few months down the road, but with minimal improvements in that time, it's just not worth playing anymore IMO.

Yes, there's really nothing to offer in terms of actual gameplay, but it's still an experience of its own. There's a bunch of neat little things you can stumble upon, some reacting and moving around, some playing sound effects, and some just there for the sake of being there. You can just explore and relax at your own leisure, listening to the ambient music and sounds, and finding some of the secrets that the game has.

It's simultaneously the most accessible Crash game, and the most frustrating. Lots of the same hitbox/precision ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that the older games have, random difficulty spikes in certain levels, ridiculous 100% requirements, etc. But it's very aesthetically pleasing, most levels are fun, and there's a lot of content, especially if you actually are insane enough to 100% it.

A decent platformer. The levels are fairly simple, and the collectibles are also pretty easy to obtain on your first run of a level. Definitely wouldn't put it up there with its fellow PS1 brethren (Crash and Spyro), especially compared to their remakes, but it's not *bad*. Wait for a sale though, because it's absolutely not worth $30 IMO.

Small and sweet, but I really hope this gets expanded into a more expansive game. The mechanics and aesthetic are there, and while this isn't necessarily a bad game or anything, it wasn't really as satisfying as it could've been. Hard to complain for the price though.

A very, VERY small game, but it recreates the Donkey Kong Country aesthetic pretty well, and there's a lot of opportunity for this to be fleshed out into a more expansive game

Cute game, and the web mechanics are very satisfying and fun to play around with.

Honestly a really fun racing game. I LOVE the whole announcer thing and the energy it brings while racing, and wish more games would do that.