Recent reviews by TeaWorkAJ

Everything fun about the original plus more.

I was already a big fan of the original burger shop, ignoring my nostalgia bias I still think that game holds up extremely well and the sequel is no exception.

The main difference between this game and the first is that there are three phases instead of one; breakfast, lunch, and dinner. A seemingly small change on paper but adds so much variety and replayability to the game. You are constantly switching up what you are working with, and it makes the different customers and their unique preferences a lot more chaotic yet predictable at the same time

Also, this time there is an actual story. It’s honestly weird to be talking about the story in an arcade restaurant game, but it’s pretty serviceable (pun unintended). It doesn’t make or break the game and I can’t really hate it as it just makes Burger Shop 2 an even more complete experience.

All around, Burger shop 2 takes everything fun from the first game and makes it smoother with a lot more to do. It’s just a game that makes you want to keep playing.

Pure unabashed fun

If you ever hear someone complaining about games not being fun anymore, then they clearly haven’t played neon white yet. Because Neon White is one of the most fun I have had playing a game in a long while.
To illustrate just how much I love the gameplay, Let me say that I’m not one not usually for time limits and speedrunning. I typically find them annoying ways to restrict the player or rush them bland levels.

I went for dev times in this game.

The game’s level design is extremely well crafted, not only must you reach a goal as quickly as possible, you have to eliminate every enemy in the level. This creates a lot of strategy outside just running towards the exit. Using the cards in the map to cross snipe enemies or slam into them with a card effect while progression through the map is a blast. The entire card system is just excellent in general, conceptually your weapons being able to be discarded for mobility tools is amazing and in execution it makes the game smooth as hell and something that you want to perfect.

The art style is very clean, the character designs are especially solid even though I’m not sure if any person needs that many belts. Most of the landscapes are gorgeous as well. They did not skimp out just because they thought you would be too busy speeding through the level. Also, the soundtrack is a trip, the good kind. Not a lot of standout individual tracks, but consistency is king in terms of the OST, I couldn’t think of a single track that I got tired of.

Also, the story is mad overhated. Sure, there were a few parts that mildly annoyed me, but even then there were so many parts that worked. The characters will deceptively grow on you even if you initially groan at them showing up. So many weird character decisions make sense with time that I’m not surprised people who wrote off the story in the first few scenes couldn’t see just how much everything connects by the end because they preemptively decided “The story is bad”. Neon red and Mikey are my goats. Also this game is surprisingly hilarious at times as well. I genuinely chuckled at a lot of the dialogue.

All around an amazing game. Should have won best indie at the game awards twenty times over. 100% worth your time.

Unsuspecting genius.

I worried that this game would just be nostalgia bait for a time I barely remembered, but I am beyond pleasantly surprised, this game is excellent from start to finish.

Aesthetically, the old internet appearance could have come off cheesy, but it is unreal how accurate and genuine the style of the game is down to every last page, graphic, and username. There are cheesy mp3 songs that you can download to your in-game desktop, crudely drawn webcomics, and flaming motorcycle gifs. The game is so accurate that it even includes virtual pets that pissed me off during my play through.

Also, from a conceptual standpoint, I love the idea of making a puzzle game out of being a forum moderator. And in this case the cards are played entirely right, It’s an entirely different kind of challenge looking through pages and searching the database looking for violations. There are a few select cases which I would say totes the line between being too difficult, but that only makes a vast majority of them a lot more satisfying to finally complete. In a few cases there are different solutions to the same problems, as well as bonus points to be rewarded for players who explore the pages, so there are a lot of ways the player can out-wit the system so to speak. I think the main thing is that being a game based off the internet, it has the convenience of being able to look up specific pages and users related to any puzzle, while still providing the challenge of needing to figure out how to access hidden/locked sites.

Lastly, the story is surprisingly thought-provoking? I don’t like to give spoilers in my steam reviews so It’s hard to really talk about the game’s twists and turns throughout, but the game genuinely made me feel like a terrible person at times and also made me think about how the internet is going to impact how we look back on the past. If this sounds absurd then trust me you really just got to play through the story to understand what I mean.

That’s probably my ending thought; this is a game that offers a lot, it is basically its own fictional archive of the early internet. It really is a game you have to experience for yourself.

Equally endearing and suspenseful.

The writing in the game is top-notch, which really is the most important thing in any visual novel. It was genuinely refreshing as there are hardly any unnecessary out of character moments or contrived details for the sake of the plot, any mistake or misunderstanding genuinely feels in character and makes sense in context. The writing is also very mature at times, there were many scenes that had me particularly invested without even doing anything over the top, just genuine conversations between the characters that show nuance and growth.

I think it does kinda lose its momentum during the true ending, but even I can’t fault it that hard when that’s after six other really strong endings. I also wish there was more art drawn for the game at points, as it can be disheartening to stare at a black screen when the story is going on. This is mainly because the art that is there is very strong, even if it’s not particularly refined. The character designs are top-notch and the lighting in some scenes are fittingly atmospheric.

Ultimately this is a Free Visual Novel, It’s very much worth your time if you’re even slightly interested.

Enjoyable arcade fun.

I played this game a lot as a child, but I’m a fair person who can admit when my enjoyment is mostly due to nostalgia. But to my surprise this game is very consistently solid throughout the entire run time.

On paper, the game doesn’t seem like anything special, just around a hundred levels of fulfilling orders, but there are many small details that make it so much more. For example, each time before starting a level you choose a new item to add to the menu, and this keeps going on for basically the entire game. The menu keeps getting more and more complicated but never to the point of being overwhelming. I mean it’s almost absurd how much gets added overtime but never do additions feel random or out of left field, sometimes an upgrade can be as simple as adding bacon to a burger or a different drink flavor which keeps the gameplay at a fair level.

There are also customers, more getting introduced, who have a lot of personality to them despite the fact you will only ever see their backside. Each of them have different ordering patterns to get accustomed to, and the level will tell you in advance so you know what to look at for. Such as the business man who always orders the same thing every time or the mime who copies orders. This mental pre-planning you can do before you are thrust into the chaos of completing orders is just another mechanic that makes the gameplay loop in Burger Shop so compelling.

Basically, all this is to say is this game is a blast to play through.

I’m still not a huge fan of roguelikes, but at least you can’t say I didn’t try.

To start off with the positives, this game has a lot of content beyond what’s expected for the genre, there are 37 levels in the main campaign that each offers a different challenge. This is one of the game's greatest strengths but also its biggest weakness. The rules and play style between the characters and levels are all so different to the point where nothing really sticks, if you really enjoy the ruleset for one level, well that’s probably the only time you’re going to see it. I didn’t really notice this until the final level introduces an entirely new level gimmick that is cool on paper, but still feels entirely out of left field. Sure you can replay the levels you enjoy, but I also don’t like the idea of ignoring the rest of the game to replay the same mission again.

In general, there are a lot of ideas that don’t feel fully executed again, once again partly due to every level having a different gimmick. There is a really weird weakness and resistance system that only applies to a few enemies, at best it kinda just exists and at worst it completely shuts down unique deck builds; why make an interesting combo that relies on setting all your opponents dice on fire when the final boss can be a dragon that takes less damage from all fire. With the ability to upgrade cards the player is urged to commit to a deck, why would they take the risk on something that might be less effective later. You think being a roguelike would encourage experimentation, but most of the time the same stagnant deck types end up being the most effective.

I’ll round this out with more positives since I don’t want to sound completely negative. The free DLCs included are pretty fun albeit short, I especially like the levels that turn the gameplay into a puzzle that was actually a unique and fun section. The presentation and music are pretty clean, nothing crazy but nothing to hate either. There is a good selection of achievements, which encourage variance in play style far more than the actual games does, though It does kinda bum be there is only three achievements across the entire DLCs.

There is a lot of content in this game, and a lot of it is enjoyable. But overall I’m mostly underwhelmed.

A game I want to enjoy far more than I actually do.

What starts out as a fun physics game to mess around with quickly becomes obnoxious and the idea of hopping from truck to truck quickly gets bogged down with annoying timing puzzles and precision platforming which doesn’t work with the slippery controls and inconsistent movement of the trucks.

I was also bummed out by how disappointing some of the upgrades were, the first few upgrades you unlock are easily the best (double jump, slowing down time) and most of the ones afterward while more unique conceptually felt rough to use.

It’s definitely a game that is meant to be more fun to master, gliding through levels at top speeds and the game does reward you for doing so but at the same time it felt more infuriating to rush through a level rather than rewarding. At that point you are just throwing yourself forward just to get some sort of satisfaction.

I told someone I beat this game, and they thought it was just meant for YouTuber background footage, which probably summarizes my thoughts as well.

I played this game like eight month ago, not a big fan.

Pure brilliance.

I don't think I will ever play a game that combines story, music, and game play so perfectly as Celeste does.

Lena Raine (who also created my favorite tracks from Deltarune and Minecraft), delivers with an OST with no misses that not only fits each section of the game but tracks will change during sections of the level to match the changing atmosphere with new instruments and sounds being added to the tunes.

Story wise, It may be a bit segmented but the progression of Madeline's journey is just amazing to watch and due to the excellence in music and game play you feel her emotions all the way through from the stress of the mirror temple to thrill of confronting our shadow counterpart.

Lastly game play. Yes, Celeste is a hard game with even harder side content, but due to the multitude of checkpoints between individual screens I would say only 1% of 'screens' in Celeste got the the point of feeling overtly punishing. Ignoring difficulty, the simple controls yet new gimmicks each level brings make Madeline fun to control in a plethora of uniquely designed platforming challenges.

however, no game is perfect and Celeste is no exception. Firstly, keyboard controls are unplayable, If using a controller wasn't so much smoother this would be an immediate deal breaker. Second, Four chapters in a row all end with you being chased/attacked by something (If including the random snowballs in Chapter 4) and each successive chase scene is less satisfying with the last; at least this culminates to one of the best sequences within chapter 6. Third, the game kinda hides stuff from you, the options hides an elusive crouch dash option never taught in game and you have to reopen the game to unlock the game's assist mode if you want a more casual time.

Besides these three issues (two of which can avoided with pretext, and the other is preference), this game is genuine blast. Well made and carefully crafted to be a challenging but extremely rewarding experience.

Also, beyond the main story is loads of post-game content featuring new music, story, and levels that turn up the challenge which I can only guess will match the excellence that this game has astounded me with before.

I have 900 hours, enough said.

But to be serious, Team Fortress 2 is great class based first person shooter. The game modes are all varied and keep the experience fresh. The nine classes each have fun personalities and equally fun play styles. Community servers provide chaotic moments in extremely different game modes. Overall a great game that is well worth a literally a zero dollar price tag.