12 video games review

#1: Contradiction! - A Tim Folin Adventure

"Contradiction! - A Tim Folin Adventure is a modern FMV revival adventure game. A charming murder mystery, which has been a genre I’ve been really interested in as of late, this seemed right up my alley. Despite my disfamiliarity with Western Adventure Games, Contradiction remains approachable and broadly sensible throughout. A robust hint system prevents you from getting too stuck, but the meat of progression is still left for you to solve yourself. "

The game’s titular conceit is it’s Contradiction mechanic; Detective Jenks notes down a summary of all information given to him by a character, and if pieces don’t line up, he can combine them to present a contradiction. This works, most of the time. Being your only means of progressing the story makes it somewhat clunky, and there doesn’t seem to be handling for edge cases where two pieces of information roughly fit the same hole. Furthermore, all contradictions are limited to what a single individual has told you. This means that when a contradiction is found between two people who are aligned, you can’t actually do anything with this. The case information accumulates at a pretty monumental rate, and with every item having multiple points attached to them, the contradiction browser becomes somewhat unwieldy by the end of the game.

Despite some mechanical grievances, the plot, while simple in terms of structure; is very nicely set up and has engaging twists and turns. Inspector Jenks brings an excellent performance, bouncing between campy and compelling, as though the goofy exterior is an act to make people let their guard down. The townspeople all provide more grounded, believable performances, with none other than the Rand family’s standing out

#2: Sims - Bustin' Out

When Clem recommended I play The Sims - Busting Out, and specified the GBA version, I basically just assumed this was a personal fondness from her childhood; and a Sims game I hadn't already played. The Gameboy Advance clarification really sent this home, if Clem didn't have a ps2 growing up then why should I! But I took the recommendation to heart, and threw a rom onto my Thor and spun it up after finishing Mario Kart Wii. My prior assumption about the console Sims games were they were watered down versions of their fuller pc counterparts, and the handheld versions constituted a copy of a copy of sorts. But to my pleasant surprise, Sims Bustin’ Out's gba port is a really imaginative blend of the Sims core social mechanics and lifesim trappings, but reconstituted into a top down adventure game. You still have the base elements of interacting with Sims, working jobs, raising skills, and decorating your home, but these all serve as tools to progress through quests and advance through the chapters of the story. The island gated off behind these chapters, and there's a surprising amount to uncover in the environment. I didn't reach the end of the game; a lengthy grinding session was lost due to a saving mishap around the 2/3rds mark, and it killed my momentum. Despite this, Sims Bustin’ Out provides an excellent look at where the series could have gone, and where it could still go.

#3: Hypogea

A game I already had on my radar, Hypogea thoroughly whelmed me. The platforming mechanics are novel and clever, but the level design is very rote, with next to no challenging platforming sections to compliment the mechanics. The majority of friction you find will be from the puzzles, which are rarely taxing but mostly just rote. Each zone has a unique Gimmick that serves to keep things fairly fresh, a particular highlight being the butterflies that reveal hidden platforms. What could be a visually cool but mechanically uninteresting section is elevated by later segments where the platforming is actually made harder by the presence of these hidden objects, not easier. The visual direction is well executed but somewhat repetitive, with some zones having stronger environmental art than others. Despite it's short length it felt like it ran out of steam about two thirds in. The final setpiece is good, and it ends on a high note.

#4: Superliminal

Superliminal is a game I've been aware of for some time now, so I was eager to try it out. In many ways superliminal is a mirror to Hypogea. A clever core conceit that winds up being less interesting than you'd think. But here that is offset by a constant need to innovate. Twists and spins on the format are thrown at you right from the moment the core conceit grows weary. The developers likely realised their virality-bating perspective mechanic lent itself to gifs like a duck to water, but wouldn't hold it's own for a game longer than a tech demo. Superliminal then takes a hard right turn away from Portal into something much more Stanley Parable. The game lacks the sharp dialogue of both of those games, but is deceptively excellent in the art of comedy via level design. By the halfway mark the puzzles almost feel perfunctory, the main thrust being to see what else the game has to show you. There are some incredible setpieces in the final third of the game, but sadly the finale is entirely undercut with a final monologue where the amateur performance cannot save the clinched writing. The game leaves you on a sour note, the clever things it did feeling trite. Objectively retrospecting, I had a great time playing it, but I feel cool on the whole experience.

#5: Mario kart wii

Charlie why the hell did you give me goddamn mario kart wii. I've been playing this game since before you were forming goddamn sentences. I still have the promotional hat I got for pre-ordering it at Game. Mario Kart Wii is a game that means a great deal to me, but revisiting it doesn't really move me in the way other games of their era do. 8 better, World more interesting .