Recent reviews by sillythings

Look, I don't generally like to leave reviews for games before I've beat them or at least played them extensively, but even after just one hour it's clear that this is instantly a new classic.

Satisfying combat, an interesting and unique world to explore, great writing, mind-blowingly gorgeous art, brilliant music.

Silksong has a lot to live up to if it releases this year, is all I'm saying.

Grapple Dog is fantastic.

It's got an impeccable art style with adorable character designs, as well as really fun gameplay that escalates nicely in difficulty throughout the game.

The levels were fun to go through multiple times - both to casually explore and find every collectible, and then to do a Time Trial. It reminded me of Neon White in that sense, even though they're both obviously different games, and there was more of a sense of finding a hidden route to manage good times in Neon White. Still, I think the game is a real accomplishment in terms of level design.

Grapple Dog also just feels like a huge passion project - the final boss offered way more spectacle than what I'd expected, and the challenge levels that unlock past that actually feel like more than an afterthought - offering a whole new world design and some neat additional cutscenes. Speaking of, the game doesn't have a deep story or anything, but it manages to be interesting enough that those cutscenes will feel worth the effort to reach. A lot of the dialogue is very amusing and fun, and the villain is more interesting than he first appears.

Two small critiques - the music gets somewhat repetitive with only one track per world (especially in the first two worlds and vocal elements that make the repetition feel more grating). Fortunately it seems this will be remedied in the sequel, promising "level-by-level jams"! I also feel like for a game that encourages getting good times in going through a level, it would have been nice to include leaderboards. However, these are nitpicks at best and don't really detract from the overall game experience.

I highly recommend Grapple Dog if you're looking for a fun, linear platformer that you can either casually breeze through or obsess over for full completion!

A fantastic and fun romp that doesn't overstay its welcome.

The gameplay reminded me of the original Prince of Persia a bit - the more realistic movement speed, ledge climbing and the designs and setting helped create the association. I wasn't super keen on the combat at the start, but as you unlock more abilities and learn the ropes, it becomes enjoyable.

The boss fights are fun, the art and music are great, the story and lore are interesting and the platforming is varied and challenging without being annoying, and it's easy and fast to go back to previous levels if you happened to miss any collectibles at the end of the game. Most of all, the ability to burn so much of the environmental objects is extremely satisfying.

There's a lot of polish here, which helps make this feel like a full-fledged title, in spite of the shorter run-time. Highly recommended if you're looking for an enjoyable and unique action platformer to finish in a play session or two.

Wild to look at my Steam achievements and see that I'd played Aaaaa! for the Awesome all the way back in 2011. Aaaaa! Remastered felt very much like how I remembered the game, but it being over 10 years ago certainly wasn't a very clear or detailed memory, so I booted up the original to compare.

Turns out, it's really more like a sequel (or at least, a full re-imagining) than how I would imagine a remaster. As far as I can tell, the levels are completely new ones rather than direct remakes of the old ones, and there's a bunch of other differences too.

A lot of them are positive: The new cyberpunk-like visuals are great. The game feels much faster than the original (and that certainly always was part of its core appeal). The controls are streamlined a lot, and feel more fun and responsive as a result. It's still a great game to quickly hop into and have some high-speed thrills. This new one comes with a lot less joke-filled text to read, as well as a more subtle sound design (with no spoken words), which makes it a solid podcast-listening game, albeit at the cost of the offbeat charm the original had.

But other differences are negative. I can't say that I personally care too much for the lack of options in the options menu, though I understand that it can be an issue. But what feels really strange to me is to have a score-based game that doesn't have leaderboards (Aaaaa! for the Awesome did, and still does). Even if you're just trying to beat your own score, Aaaaa!Remastered gives you less motivation and data to do so. In the level select screen all you see is a star rating. The actual score? You only see that upon completing the level - and it's just the final number. A!ftA gave you a detailed rundown of how your score was composed (how many buildings you hugged, hand gestures you deployed, etc...). Furthermore, the previously mentioned level select screen only displays one of the 150+ levels at a time rather than a list that would let you pick out levels to perfect your score in at a quick glance. You can navigate through the levels one or ten at a time, so it could have been worse, but it seriously feels baffling that they didn't just put in a scrollable list (or at least the weird cube selection of A!ftA).

There is also no way to quickly restart a level other than exiting to the level select and hopping back in. The menu UI feels like it's made with generic placeholder designs and fonts (the pause menu during a level features pixelated text), which is at odds with the visual upgrade of the actual game.

Despite these flaws, I'm recommending the game. What's missing doesn't detract from the game, however having it be present could have made the overall experience shine even more. The core gameplay is still loads of fun, while feeling more polished than the original, which makes it the better starting point if you're new to the series. But I'd love to see the polish extended to the rest of the game in a potential future update. A remaster of the remaster, if you will.

Incredibly fun to play. Guaranteed laughs and a good time with your friends. It almost feels too early to say this after having played it for only 12 hours, but screw it - this is legitimately one of my favorite multiplayer games ever. I'm amazed this hasn't taken off to the extent that something like Among Us has.

Blends the vibe of Worms (especially in regards to the navigation and environmental manipulation) with the speed and accessibility of TowerFall (but with online multiplayer!), and the depth of interactions between abilities of Binding of Isaac. As a result, it feels easy to get into, but very deep to explore. The potential for frustration is low thanks to how quickly rounds go, and how deaths can often feel very comical.

It's a small game in terms of actual content (I would gladly pay for DLC with more levels/environments!), but it's highly polished and offers so much variety in how a round can play out that I can see myself not getting tired of this any time soon.

A fantastic observation of the early internet and how it brought together people from very different walks of life.

Pulls you in with the goofy charm and nostalgia of seeing cheesy 3D GIFs, people struggling to figure out new tech, and teens being awkward - and then slowly sinks its hooks into you with great plot and character development. There's some creative and clever puzzles along the way too.

My single complaint is that at one point you're asked for a password, but expected to input a combination of a username and password. I feel a bit dumb for not thinking to give that a try - but I wanted to mention it to help anyone who might read this review to not make the same mistake.

Also, I hope that someone told Ruth about the contest result. That moment genuinely made me tear up haha. (minor spoilers for a minor character's arc)

Came for the Pinkie Pie mod, stuck around for the genuinely fantastic game and bangin tunes.

Very clever and unique gameplay concept, executed wonderfully with a lot of playstyle variety, gorgeous artwork and fun music. Great for short game breaks, too.

Everything you want out of a Metroidvania.
Fantastic art and music, with a huge and interesting map to explore.

I'd say that compared to other games in the genre, Astalon's focus lies primarily in exploration, navigation and platforming. Especially at the start, when you are trying to find your way and get your footing, the game's map can feel labyrinthine - in a good way. You'll discover that one central element of making progress comes from discovering and unlocking shortcuts - plainly visible and hidden ones alike. Whenever you die, you are set back to the very entrance of the Tower of Serpents, so these shortcuts can be huge time-savers in regaining your progress.

Some might find that approach frustrating, but I appreciated the way it essentially asked you to master an area before you could easily bypass it. It feels like the game rewards your knowledge about it, rather than encouraging a grind of upgrading your characters' stats.

Speaking of characters, the fact you can control multiple ones probably is one of the game's most unique aspects. While there are plenty of situations that call for the use of specific characters' abilities, it overall feels like you're able to pick a favorite and stick to that one. This is especially true at the start of the game, where you cannot change characters except at save spots and it feels more like you're sending specific characters on solitary excursions. It's an interesting mechanic, and I appreciated the way it unfolded over the course of the game, though it came with a few minor downsides.

One - it could be a bit annoying having to cycle through the characters (once you unlocked an ability to swap them on the fly) to quickly get to the one you wanted.

Two - at least for the character I favored, Kyuli, it felt like it made a lot of the boss fights somewhat underwhelming. Her bow and arrow attack has the ability to shoot from far across a room, which lets you keep a safe distance easily. On one hand, I appreciate that this was an option (and I guess if I wanted a bigger challenge, I could have used a different character), but on the other, the boss fights did suffer from it. My strategy throughout all of them felt like it never needed to adapt much, which is a shame. Especially the final boss fight felt anticlimactic (in challenge, certainly not in presentation - all the visuals for each fight were brilliant!). It's likely that this was due to me having explored all of the map and purchased plenty of upgrades beforehand. Though it's certainly not something I am going to hold against Astalon - as it's an issue that a lot of games in the genre have.

Again, I consider these minor downsides, and I really enjoyed my time with Astalon overall. But I wanted to point them out so that if you favor combat and challenging boss encounters in a Metroidvania, I would recommend adjusting your expectations of the game around that. Its challenges were much more akin to a marathon - getting to a boss fight unscathed (obstructed by platforming and lower level enemies; assisted by unlocked shortcuts) often felt like the much bigger challenge than the fight itself.

That said, once you finish the game, you unlock some additional modes that feature new characters. I did not finish these, only briefly tried to see what the new characters feel like. It's entirely possible that a bigger challenge can be present here, if that's what you're looking for. There also is a New Game+ mode that shuffles the map around, which certainly feels more involved and interesting than a lot of other New Game+ modes that simply let you carry over abilities from your first game.

Overall, I would say Astalon is of a medium difficulty. Especially when I started out, the game reminded me a lot of La-Mulana (in particular how secrets were hinted at in the environment, and how you could discover shortcuts). The key difference is that it's A LOT more approachable and easy - in particular regarding puzzles (Astalon is very light on them). So if you've bounced off of La-Mulana due to its difficulty or obscure nature, but enjoyed the overall vibe, I would heartily recommend Astalon.

And to every other Metroidvania fan - you will not go wrong with this game either. It's definitely one of the best around. Its length (around 20 hours for me to 100% it) hits that perfect sweet-spot. The art is fantastic, with countless unique sprites that give the entire game a truly handmade feel. There's more of a story present than in a lot of other genre contenders, and its presented well. The music is banging, and the gameplay feels incredibly satisfying - again, especially if you favor exploration and are okay with less challenging boss fights.

Incredible atmosphere unlike anything else out there, thanks to a fantastic soundtrack and sound design, as well as badass character and environment designs. Honestly a master class in "less is more" and using a limited amount of assets as an advantage. Just highly impressive.

Creative and tense take on the stealth formula that builds nicely throughout. Doesn't outstay it's welcome. I didn't feel tempted to go back and search for all the collectibles, though. While the environments are interesting to experience and explore, they're not interesting to search, if that makes sense.

The story is a bit on the ambiguous side, but it fits the presentation and sense of mystery and discovery. Over-explanation would've wrecked it.

Overall, I enjoyed it quite a lot. Shame it didn't get the attention it would've deserved.