Author: stephensopinions

Alan Wake II (2023)

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Alan Wake II is insane. There’re layers upon layers of meta references buried within the spiraling madness that makes up the game. Remedy’s previous games never really clicked with me, but Alan Wake II did have my brain working overtime to decode the entangled threads of narrative that are sewn in a chaotic tapestry of nightmares. I highly value uniqueness, and the ability to push the gaming medium forward into a weird and strange direction is something that I applaud Alan Wake II for. It’s not without its flaws as there are quite a few things that I took issue with, but this is a truly bizarre game in the best way possible.

The story of Alan Wake has long been dormant. The basic premise is that the titular character, Alan Wake, is a best-selling author that gains the power to influence the world with his writing. On a trip to the remote Pacific Northwest town of Bright Falls, Alan got sucked into a horror story in which he sacrifices himself to rescue his wife from a dark presence. Alan is now trapped in a nightmarish dream reality while a doppelganger of his, called Mr. Scratch, is terrorizing the real world. In parallel with Alan’s story, a new protagonist named Saga Anderson and her partner Alex Casey arrive in Bright Falls to investigate a string of mysterious disappearances.

Saga investigates the quaint towns and the dense wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. A murder cult seems to be the cause of numerous disappearances, and she tries to deduce their goals and motives. While on the case, she learns of the dark presence and how an ever-changing horror story is coming to life. I enjoyed how the player could enter Saga’s “Mind Place” to put together the facts of the case. Her Mind Place is a cozy cabin with clues and papers strewn about. You use a big board to pin clues into place and make revelations about the plot. I do think this aspect might’ve been slightly overused, as there isn’t a ton of actual deduction or gameplay involved here. Mostly you’re just putting known pieces in place to move forward. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the noir vibes.

While Saga explores the real world, Alan is trapped in a labyrinthian nightmare. This is where things truly get weird. He wanders around an ever-shifting urban environment, rife with confusing dream logic. He’s caught in a surreal loop, desperate to escape. He has to use his abilities to write his way out of the loop. Alan visits numerous atmospherically dense locations such as a hotel, subway, and movie theater that were homes to ritualistic murders. As you explore these locations, you move pieces around on a storyboard to alter the plot and move forward. I absolutely adored how tense these sequences were. There’s a sense of dread of what you are going to see when you move a new horrifying plot element into place. One particularly haunting transformation was seeing how an ordinary hotel turned into a ghoulish scene where blood was scrawled across every wall and the hallways were strewn with gored bodies.

The seamless use of mixed media is part of what defines Alan Wake II. The transitions between game and live-action are incredibly well done and fuel the metanarrative aspects of the story. Remedy has a wonderful cast of actors that portray their characters expertly. It blurs the lines between what is real and what is dream logic. There’s a full 15-minute artistic short film that can be found which serves as a pivotal plot point of the imaginary murder cult in Alan’s dream reality. And that film uses the actor who also plays Alex Casey who is the main character in Alan’s detective novels, and that same actor also plays a different Alex Casey who is Saga Anderson’s partner in the real world. And that actor is the creative director of the game: Sam Lake. Who also plays other characters in Remedy’s expanded universe. There’re layers upon layers of references to unwind. Alan Wake II references itself, its predecessor, other games within its universe, and heavily leans on tropes from detective and horror media.

I find that media with heavy meta elements can often feel pretentious, but that’s not the case with Alan Wake II. The game knows that it can be ridiculous at times, and isn’t afraid to point this out. The writers clearly had fun with this game and they embraced the weirdness. Take for example the commercials that play on the TVs throughout Bright Falls. Two of the side characters write, direct, and star in their own goofy productions about their side businesses. Such as their coffee-themed amusement park with a moose as a mascot. I love that despite its metanarrative elements and complicated story, Alan Wake II doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Where Alan Wake II really shines is its thick atmosphere. The sharp contrast between the two protagonist’s settings created some phenomenal variety. As Saga you have to explore dense woods, small towns, and other rural locales. Conversely, Alan is trapped in an urban nightmare. Dirty streets, highrises, and buildings such as hotels dominate his perspective. Both settings are eerie. Saga wanders through thickets as cultists and possessed wolves stalk her. Shadows whisper and lunge at Alan as he navigates through nonsensical streets and corridors. Darkness envelopes both characters, and the safety provided by a break room or an abandoned hut is spirit-lifting as these are your only beacons of safety. The game’s spectacular visuals add to the sense of immersion, as Alan Wake II is a fantastic game to look at.

The gameplay of Alan Wake II was something that I was worried about. When I played the original Alan Wake I thought the setting and atmosphere were amazing, but the game was marred by an absolutely abysmal combat experience. Luckily, Alan Wake II keeps the premise of its predecessor but vastly improves upon it. To fight enemies, you need to focus your flashlight on them to break through their darkness shield. From there, it functions like a standard third-person-shooter. I quite liked how impactful all the weapons felt. The visual and auditory feedback was appropriately visceral, and enemies reacted strongly to being shot, especially if hit in a weak spot. I thought combat was fun overall, and the fast-moving enemies always kept me on my toes. That being said, there are a few issues that bothered me.

The first issue was the absolutely abysmal enemy variety. There’s only a handful of enemy types in the game, I found myself battling the same couple basic variations throughout the entire twenty-hour experience. Moreover, there is a ton of fluctuation in the number of enemies that the game throws at the player. There are times when you can go for what feels like hours without any combat, especially at the beginning of the game. And conversely, there were sections of the game that I couldn’t catch a breath because the game kept bombarding me with respawning cultists. Both of these extremes are negative. Too few encounters is an issue because it can get boring to just walk around with no threat of combat, and too many encounters kills the tension as it turns what should be frightening foes into a shooting gallery.

While Alan Wake II undoubtedly improved upon the gameplay of its predecessor, I still found it to be fairly clunky. Reloads are extremely time-consuming and easily interrupted, which is aggravating. However, I think the biggest cause of this is the camera. The over-the-shoulder camera is great for immersion, but I wish it zoomed out a tad during combat. When enemies get up close, the game feels unpleasantly claustrophobic and I had a difficult time adjusting the camera. I found myself saying “I can’t even see what’s going on” fairly often. There are also a ton of enemies that zip and teleport around, leaving me desperately rotating the camera to keep up. But as soon as the enemies were in my sights again, they just teleported away again. 

Aside from the camera, I found that the environmental design also was a significant source of frustration for me. While the game looks astonishing, I found myself confused and turned around quite often. I think having a mind-bending dreamscape that intentionally causes the player to get lost is great. But there were plenty of ordinary places that just felt poorly signposted. Organic and detailed environments are great, but I felt that they got in the way of navigation. I love that there was no mini-map or objective markers, but the environment did not lend itself to intuitive pathfinding. But my biggest frustration with Alan Wake II was its dynamic resource economy. 

An important aspect of any survival horror game is resource management. Having a limited number of bullets, healing items, and inventory space makes fights far more intense. Tension builds faster when you only have a handful of ammunition to dispatch enemies. Every encounter is terrifying knowing that it could deplete your resources. Alan Wake II does have limited resources, but its implementation is inelegant. It utilizes a dynamic system, doling out items based on how much the player already has in their inventory. If you’re running low on supplies, the game will give you more stuff, but if you are already rich in ammunition, you’ll get very few or no resources at all. At first glance, this seems like it makes sense as it ensures that the player never has too much or too little, but I find that this system undermines the entire point of resource management.

The point of having limited resources is the threat of running out. The helplessness of having no ammo to protect yourself. Having to explore and scavenge for resources can be anxiety-inducing. But there’s rarely any real threat of running out of resources in Alan Wake II. The game throws resources at you when you’re running low. And there’s little reason to thoroughly explore areas for more stuff because you get diminished amounts once you have a surplus. I found it frustrating that I was punished for scavenging, often opening a container to find it completely empty. Not only have I wasted my time, but I can never open that container again so I have permanently lost potential resources. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so aggravating if it wasn’t so obvious that the game is doing this.

For a game with such impeccable atmosphere, it’s a shame that immersion is so easily broken by something as simple as resource management. It’s obviously apparent that Alan Wake II is limiting your ammo once you open a container and there’s nothing in it. You can also game the system by stuffing excess ammo into your safe room box before going out to scavenge for resources. The game only cares about what’s currently in your inventory, so you can fake being low on ammo to get more. Breaking immersion is a sin in a game like this, and I often found myself pulled out of the world and into crunching numbers to determine whether or not opening a container was worth it.

Alan Wake II is a difficult game for me to judge. I can respect its artistic vision, the blending of genres, the use of mixed media, and of course how the story is open to many interpretations. But the game flounders a bit when it comes to basic elements such as combat, navigation, and resource economy. It’s tough to claim that this is a must play game when it falters at the basics. But Alan Wake II is a must play game. It’s unique. It’s innovative. And it pushes gaming forward as an artistic medium. It is for these reasons that I give Alan Wake II a 9/10. Even if its video-gamey elements are clunky, the unfaltering artistic vision of Alan Wake II makes it a can’t miss experience.

Cocoon (2023)

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Cocoon is unlike any other puzzle game that I’ve played. It revolves around the brilliant idea of portable worlds that you can jump in and out of. Worlds reside within other worlds, and you can carry them around as if they were just trinkets. It’s a Russian doll of realities that you traverse through. But it manages to reign in the difficulty and makes its puzzles approachable. There’s a sense of Zen as you solve mind-bending puzzles and take in the magnificently alien world of Cocoon.

The main idea of Cocoon is that the player can dive in and out of these world-like orbs. You carry them around, using them to power machinery and progress forward. You solve a puzzle in one orb which lets you do something in a different orb which lets you exit the orb that contains them both. Each orb additionally has some power to use in puzzles as you carry it. Puzzles often have you jump in and out of worlds, carrying the orbs around and utilizing their properties to bypass obstacles. The world within a world within a world within a world nature of the orbs can be rearranged and reformed to fit your needs. It may sound confusing but Cocoon is intelligently designed to minimize frustration and confusion. 

An interesting technique of puzzle design that Cocoon utilized was explicitly cutting off the player from backtracking once they encountered a new puzzle, so long as they had the required materials to progress. This minimizes the common confusion of spending a while staring at a puzzle and thinking you are missing something to proceed. Stopping you from going backwards is the game’s method of telling the player that the puzzle is solvable. It greatly reduces the frustration of backtracking or spending time messing with previous elements that have no bearing on the current puzzle.

I found that the puzzles of Cocoon were never too challenging. This is in part because the game stops you from getting too far off track, but it’s mostly because the puzzle design is fairly simple. Despite the mind-bending world-hopping mechanic of Cocoon, the game rarely requires an intricate series of steps to progress. Often, a puzzle will introduce a new idea that highlights the game’s underlying mechanics. It begs the player to tinker around and experiment with how nesting worlds like a Russian doll could be used to solve its puzzles. There’s a lot of potential for some truly difficult puzzles, but Cocoon holds back on purpose.

If you love games that fully explore their main mechanics, Cocoon may not be what you are looking for. Instead, Cocoon focuses on letting the player progress and discover its world and mysteries without being hindered too much. There is still a sense of accomplishment and Cocoon does make you feel intelligent due to the innate complexity of its core mechanic. I love immensely difficult puzzle games like Baba is You and Stephen’s Sausage Roll. They squeeze every drop of creativity out of their central mechanics, asking the player to use everything they’ve learned in an intricate series of steps. Cocoon isn’t that. And that’s ok. Personally, I would’ve loved to see a few trickier puzzles along the way, but Cocoon has other things going for it.

I loved the art and environmental design of Cocoon. You traverse a handful of different alien worlds, each being beautiful in its own right. There are alien contraptions and creatures that litter these worlds. I loved progressing through these worlds and marveling at their environments. Everything feels appropriately alien. The sound design uses echoing chirps and metallic groans that sound otherworldly. There is no written story in Cocoon, but there is some environmental storytelling to discover as you adventure through the orbs. I found the ending to be quite satisfying and it puts the entire journey into a new context.

Cocoon may not be the longest or the hardest puzzle game, but it is one of the more memorable puzzle games that I have played. The truly alien setting paired with its world-hopping mechanics is immensely enjoyable. Its lower difficulty and stakes make for a fairly relaxing experience. That being said, I would have loved to see its mechanics potentially explored further in some challenging post-game content. It is for these reasons that I give Cocoon a 9/10. Cocoon is a phenomenal experience, even if it lacks some truly difficult puzzles.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020)

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To be brief, if you enjoyed Marvel’s Spider-Man, you’ll enjoy Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. If you are looking for more innovation, you’ll be disappointed by this title. That being said, I do think that Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a solid game all-around. In many ways, I found it had some improvements over its predecessor. But at the same time, all the major gameplay elements are nearly identical to Marvel’s Spider-Man. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to hone in on some minor improvements, but Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales feels derivative. Despite this, it’s still a fun game.

Peter Parker has gone on vacation and has left the responsibilities of being Spider-Man to his protege, Miles Morales. During this time, Miles discovers that a shady corporation is opening a dangerous energy reactor in his home borough of Harlem. He also runs into a mysterious gang who is hellbent on fighting said corporation. Like any classic Spider-Man tale, Miles has to balance his personal life and superhero life, which often clash and lead to some tough decisions.

I felt like the overarching plot of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales was solid. There’s a mostly charming cast of characters, some wholesome moments, some laughs, and some sadder moments as well. Everything you’ve come to expect out of a modern Marvel production is present. My favorite aspect of the narrative was how Miles grew more connected to Harlem specifically. I enjoyed spending time there and assisting the locals protect their home from gangs and crime. It felt more personal than just beating up baddies to save the entire city. Moreover, the Christmas setting added to the cozy vibes with snow-covered streets and lights decorating the city.

While I mostly enjoyed watching the story unfold, I felt as if the villains were pretty poor. One is a rich CEO who is willing to ignore safety concerns in the pursuit of more money. Which may be realistic, but is a tad boring. The other villain is more egregious. They make dumb decision after dumb decision and are extremely shortsighted. I can understand the “blinded by revenge” angle, but this particular character was infuriatingly obtuse.

While I felt that the story was serviceable, the real draw of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is the gameplay. Like its predecessor, swinging around New York City and fighting crime is just plain-old fun. The web-slinging traversal is so fluid and natural, it’s probably my favorite method of getting around in any video game. I don’t know why anyone would want to use fast-travel when you can zip around the city with ease.

When it comes to combat, Miles has a few more tricks up his sleeve than Peter Parker. While Peter focused on using gadgets during combat, Miles has Venom powers. As you land attacks and dodge hits, you’ll build up a Venom meter which can be used to unleash some more powerful attacks. While I still think that the combat in the Marvel’s Spider-Man games is a bit rudimentary, it’s easy to get into a satisfying flow of attacks, dodges, Venom moves, and finishers. There’s some fantastic animation work at play here which automatically makes any action you take look seamlessly heroic without you having to do much at all.

While the game nailed the cinematic aspect of combat, I do wish there was a bit more mechanical freedom in execution. I don’t need this to be a full-blown character-action game, but some more options other than mashing square would be great. Sure, you can throw debris around with your web-slinging powers or use gadgets, but the best way to do damage is just basic attacking until you charge up a special move.

Along with combat, stealth makes a return as an option to tackle enemy encounters. While it can be fun to catch enemies and hang them from the rafters like an actual spider, it’s a little too easy to be truly engaging. Since you can always be above enemies you can almost never be spotted as you move around. You can be spotted when performing a takedown, but the game explicitly tells you when it is safe to takedown an enemy and will warn you that you will be spotted. The combination of these things means you will never fail stealth unless you intend to. Moreover, Miles has a camouflage ability that you can activate to become invisible. Even if you do get spotted, you can just enter camouflage and wait until it’s safe to start performing stealth takedowns again.

I don’t think having simple combat and stealth is necessarily a terrible thing. Not every game needs to have the combat depth of Bayonetta or the carefully crafted stealth sequences Metal Gear Solid. But Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales needed to supplement its enemy encounters with something else. Swinging around the city is fun, but most of the time you are just traversing from encounter to encounter. There are a few side-objectives to break up the monotony, but the majority of objectives involve disposing of enemies. I would have loved to see more chase scenes or something similar to utilize Spider-Man’s powers in other ways than combat. The traversal is so smooth and fun, I wish it was better utilized for actual gameplay challenges.

I do have to give props to Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales for cutting down on some of the extraneous aspects of its predecessor. One of my biggest complaints about Marvel’s Spider-Man was how frequently the game veered off from playing as Spider-Man. Not to mention the annoyingly common circuit board puzzles. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales cut down on this filler content significantly. There’s still the occasional environmental puzzle, but at least you still get to play as Spider-Man while you solve it.

For the most part, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales feels like a fine-tuned retread of its predecessor. It trims the fat and adds a few new mechanics to make Miles’ gameplay feel distinct from Peter Parker. But it’s risk averse. It doesn’t do anything to wow the player or meaningfully distinguish itself. Nevertheless, it is still a fun game that manages to feel cozy and welcoming due to its setting and endearing cast of characters. It is for these reasons that I give Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales a 7.5/10. A refined Marvel’s Spider-Man game is great, but I would love to see Spidey’s powers taken even farther.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder (2023)

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We’ve waited nearly 30 years for the redemption of the 2D Super Mario series. I always found it odd that the last truly notable entries in the series were the Super Mario World games while the 3D Super Mario series has thrived with masterpiece after masterpiece of creative genius. But finally, there’s a return to form with Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Forgive my choice of words, but Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a wonderland of joyous ideas and imagination. 

I don’t want to harp too much on the past, but I think context is important. The last four entries in the 2D Super Mario series have been labeled as New Super Mario. These titles have been criticized for being remarkably similar to one another and lacking any sort of major innovation. While being serviceable platformers, they lacked the magic that Super Mario is known for.

With Super Mario Bros. Wonder, the magic is back. There’s an unparalleled level of creativity on display here. Nearly every single level introduces a new idea. It doesn’t dwell on any single mechanic, but each one goes through a natural progression over the duration of a level. Whether it be a new enemy, new obstacle, or a new gimmick, Super Mario Bros. Wonder takes care to let the player safely interact with its ideas before amping them up. But as the level progresses that idea gets elevated and asks more of the player, and it culminates in a final crescendo: the Wonder Flower.  

The Wonder Flower serves as the key mechanic in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Every single standard level in the game has one, and they are wildly imaginative. Towards the end of every level, you can grab the Wonder Flower which transforms the level into something else entirely. Pipes come to life and wriggle around, Piranha Plants leave their pipes and sing, Mario turns into a fast-rolling ball of destruction, and that’s just the beginning. They are all wacky ideas that don’t fit in the classic Super Mario world that we know, but the nonsensical fun and unexpected surprise in every level is glorious. 

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is so jam-packed with creativity that it’s absurd. Just the base levels are plenty of fun on their own. Most levels introduce something entirely new to center its design around. And the Alice in Wonderland-esque nonsense that’s triggered when you grab a Wonder Flower serves as a bombastic evolution of the level with wondrous visual effects and marvelous mechanical switch-ups. I couldn’t wait to see what each level had in store for me, and I was always eagerly anticipating what the Wonder Flower would do next.

Apart from the level design, Super Mario Bros. Wonder lets the player express their own creativity with badges. You can equip a single badge to augment your abilities. Some of them provide simple passive bonuses like extra coins or a free power up, others give some additional abilities like being able to glide in the air briefly or get a small height boost when twirling. But there are also a few badges that majorly augment the way the game is played by having you bounce around like a spring, constantly run at high speed, or be invisible. I think the badges are fun options to mix up your abilities. They are never necessary outside of the occasional badge challenge level, which I appreciated. I stuck with a passive badge for most of the game as I felt the action badges would make the game too easy, but I appreciate that they exist for players who do want to have an additional ability. But I did love how badges were utilized for one-off challenges.

In between the non-stop barrage of creative levels there’s the occasional shorter bout. These can be combat focused K.O. arenas, short challenges utilizing badges, search party levels, a Wiggler race, or a celebratory break time. These are all fun little side missions to break up the longer courses. The badge challenges were my favorite as they serve as miniature training grounds to master using a specific badge. The only variant of these bite-sized levels that I didn’t enjoy were the search party levels in which the player has to probe the level for invisible secrets. I think these are meant to be played with friends, but as a solo player it leads to just a lot of jumping around for minutes at a time trying to find hidden blocks.

There’re only a few search party levels so it is not a particularly big issue. In fact, most of my complaints about Super Mario Bros. Wonder are very minor. I thought that the boss fights were a little underwhelming and could’ve made better use of Wonder Flowers. Additionally, while I enjoyed the themed overworld and searching for secret levels, I wish that more courses had secret exits like in Super Mario World. And the little flower guys that are in every level can be annoyingly positive and their plainly spoken English feels out of place in Super Mario. 

All of these gripes are minor. The only major thing that I would’ve loved to see in Super Mario Bros. Wonder was some more post-game content. There is a special world with some fantastic levels, but I wanted more of them. These levels were more challenging than the main campaign and often combined Wonder Flowers, badge challenges, and tricky design to make for some highly engaging levels. All things considered, if my biggest complaint about the game is that I wanted more of it, then that’s a pretty good indication of its quality.

I was blown away with how consistently imaginative Super Mario Bros. Wonder was. It’s crammed with tons of brand-new ideas and tricks, and that’s before even touching the Wonder Flower. This is the first time in decades that a 2D Super Mario game has captured the magic, sense of joy, and creativity that oozes from its 3D counterparts. I just couldn’t put down this game, it was a platforming joyride the whole way through. It is for these reasons I give Super Mario Bros. Wonder a 9.5/10. If this is the direction for future Super Mario titles, I am ecstatic and am eagerly awaiting the next release.

Pikmin (2001)

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Growing up I loved Pikmin. I never beat the game until I was older, but I loved playing it nonetheless. Real-time strategy (RTS) games can be intimidating as they have steep learning curves and can brutally punish the player for mistakes. But not Pikmin. This is an approachable RTS, so much so that it’s accessible for children. Yet there were plenty of bold design decisions that shaped how Pikmin is played, and I think those risky choices ultimately are what make the game so fantastic.

 You play as Captain Olimar, a funky little spaceman who crash landed on an alien planet. He only has 30 days of life support to sustain himself and you need to recover 30 missing spaceship components. Captain Olimar discovers a creature that he dubs Pikmin and he learns how to command and lead them so he can fix his ship and return home. It’s a simple premise, but there’s a few key aspects to take note of.

One of the first things that any player will notice about Pikmin is its setting. While Captain Olimar says he has landed on an alien planet, you’ll realize that the planet is only alien to him. The foliage and environmental design of Pikmin is obviously Earth from a microscopic perspective. Grass, stumps, and flowers tower over the player. Empty bottles and cardboard boxes are common obstacles. Most of the threatening fauna seem like evolved versions of common worms, flies, and ladybugs. I love this setting because it is immediately recognizable, but it does feel remarkably alien. Being scaled down makes the world feel monumentally different, and you have to learn how to survive.

A key component to survival in this alien setting is learning how to utilize Pikmin. The game frames this excellently to compliment the context of learning how to persevere in an unfamiliar environment. There are three types of Pikmin, each with their own properties and niches to understand. The world is rife with hazards such as fire, water, and of course various enemies. I love how Captain Olimar makes observations like how the Pikmin respond to the whistle, or that the blue Pikmin have gills and may be able to swim. While it seems tempting to just bring a bunch of each type of Pikmin everywhere you go for every situation, that can be a risky proposition.

I love how many subtle decisions go into playing Pikmin. You can have 100 Pikmin in your legion at any time, but controlling a big group can be massively unwieldy. It’s easy for them to get caught going through corridors, get picked off by roaming enemies, or accidentally fall into a pit of water. There’s a sort of parental instinct that kicks in when you play Pikmin, they are cute little guys who you planted and raised, there’s no way you want to risk a single death if you can help it. I often only explored with smaller groups of Pikmin so that I could always account for each and every one of them. 

While the primary objective of the game is to recover ship parts, there’s a lot of preparatory work to achieve that goal. Walls need to be knocked down, bridges need to be built, you need to build up a force of Pikmin, you need to feed nectar to your Pikmin to empower them, and enemies need to be cleared out of the way. The game is a constant juggling act of small objectives, and it’s easy to feel accomplished with how quickly you progress.

Part of what fuels the rapid decision making of Pikmin is its most risky aspect: the time limit. It’s intimidating at first. 30 days to recover 30 parts. 1 part per day. And each day is only 13 minutes long. Truthfully, it’s a pretty generous limit. It’s often feasible to recover multiple parts every day, or at least make progress towards the next one. Nevertheless, the pressure of a time limit fuels the player to work quickly and attempt to multitask and make risky decisions. You can leave Pikmin to their own devices to take down walls or carry things back to base, but they are extremely vulnerable to predators. Moreover, any Pikmin left alone at the end of the day will be eaten. But if you want to get multiple parts in a day, you have to take that risk.

Time limits can often be off-putting by putting pressure on the player. But the time-crunch serves Pikmin well. You have to make decisions on the fly about what to do with your limited time. Whether it be planting new Pikmin, knocking down walls to serve as shortcuts, or just defeating enemies so they aren’t an issue for a few days, there’s always something to do. The time limit provides real tension and a sense of stake. But it isn’t oppressive as there’s an abundance of time to fully restore Olimar’s ship. 

If I had to complain about something about Pikmin, itis the artificial intelligence for the Pikmin themselves. I think it’s ok that they’re kind of dumb, as it contextually makes sense. They have a symbiotic relationship with Captain Olimar. They can use their overwhelming numbers to assist him, and he can use his brain to tell them what to do and help them reproduce. But at times they are just a little too dumb. Enough to be frustrating. It’s a pain to wrangle suicidal Pikmin who got distracted by grass or nectar. Or when throwing them at enemies to engage in combat I often found that the Pikmin would prioritize picking stuff up to carry home rather than attacking. I think it’s fine that they have a one-track mind, but when they actively ignore the player’s direction it can be frustrating.

Ultimately, Pikmin expertly marries its gameplay and narrative. From the somewhat-familiar alien setting, to the learning process of commanding Pikmin, to the parental responsibility that you feel for the titular creatures, to the impending doom that the time limit imparts, the game really does put the player in the shoes of Captain Olimar. And it does all this while remaining fun and accessible for all audiences. Pikmin has always been overlooked compared to other Nintendo juggernauts such as Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda, but in my opinion it’s just as classic.

Demon’s Souls (2020)

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As a fan of FromSoftware’s catalog, Demon’s Souls has long been my white whale. Dark Souls is in contention for my favorite game of all time, yet I never got the opportunity to play its predecessor. Being the progenitor of one of the most successful and influential franchises of games makes Demon’s Souls an incredibly important title. Yet, the original game has only ever been released on the Playstation 3. Which is why I was so excited about the remake of Demon’s Souls, bringing it to the Playstation 5. I really did want to play the original game first before reviewing the remake to compare the differences, but unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance. From what I can tell, this is a faithful recreation of the game, including all the weird, archaic, and unforgiving ideas that were removed from subsequent Soulsborne games. And I love Demon’s Souls for that.

I think Demon’s Souls unfortunately has a bad reputation for being a bit unforgiving with its design. There’s a lot of mechanics and ideas present in Demon’s Souls that never carried over to its successors, and many claim that is for the better. But I feel like playing Demon’s Souls was refreshing. There are many aspects of Demon’s Souls that I wish would make a return in modern releases, especially after playing Dark Souls III and Elden Ring. In short, I felt as if Demon’s Souls was a far more cerebral game, opposed to later titles which rely more on fast-paced action. Demon’s Souls is unforgiving and punishing, leading the player to be cautious and think carefully about their next course of action. To compliment this, combat and bosses are generally far easier to mechanically execute, as long as you come up with a reasonable strategy. What really makes Demon’s Souls shine is how its unforgiving nature contributes to its impeccable atmosphere and worldbuilding.

The world of Demon’s Souls is surprisingly grounded. With many of FromSoftware’s games, I take in the world and its locations, but I’m not quite sure how it all fits together due to the obscured nature of the storytelling. Demon’s Souls only ever lets the player have a fragmented understanding of the world, but I found it enthralling. There are five main locations that the player can visit, and each one is supplemented by some short text passages on their entrance. These brief backgrounds, along with environmental storytelling, were enough to make sense of their respective locales. 

Take the Valley of Defilement for example. It’s a narrow valley with poisonous sludge at its base. Its inhabitants have resorted to rickety shacks on the ledges and in the crevices of the walls. Narrow planks that overhang the darkness are the streets of the shoddily built shanty towns. The creatures who live here are all but forgotten, left to suffer in this vile mire. Yet, they make due. They defend their home, using its dark crevices as an advantage to sneak up on invaders. And they do so because the saintly Maiden Astraea lies at the heart of the swamp, and she has resolved to free the valley’s souls of suffering. They worship her, and she protects them. Through almost purely environmental storytelling, Demon’s Souls paints a vivid image of its world and how Valley of Defilement came to be what it is. It’s not just a dirty swamp of vile monsters for the player to slay, it’s a fully realized location that makes sense.

Demon’s Souls is often maligned for being unforgiving, but I don’t think this is an entirely fair perspective. I think the unrelenting challenge and inconveniences are crucial to building tension. The lack of checkpoints is often seen as inconvenient and tedious, but I think that having long gaps between safety is critical in a grim game such as Demon’s Souls. Each level only has a single checkpoint at the start, and many levels open up a shortcut or two as the player progresses. But even the shortcuts never lead directly to the boss. There’s always obstacles and danger blocking your path. I think this is fantastic because it ups the anxiety and tension of exploration and combat. A single misstep means you have to repeat large chunks of the level. This also encourages the player to not only to defeat enemies, but to master besting them in combat so that you can repeatedly bypass them. The added pressure of death works wonderfully with the boss battles in Demon’s Souls.

I frequently read that Demon’s Souls has the worst bosses in the series because they are easy and often gimmicky. But I disagree. The bosses are easier to execute then later games because they have fewer attack patterns and generally attack in a slower, more telegraphed manner. But many of the bosses have a trick to them that the player has to figure out. They have unique arenas, weak spots that must be focused, or potent attacks that you have to figure out how to counter. While it’s true that the bosses may be on the easier side, I think each one provides a unique experience that is distinct and memorable. Moreover, easier bosses make sense when the player has to overcome a gauntlet of challenging enemies just to give the boss another shot. It would be enormously frustrating to have to replay the whole level dozens of times because the boss is monstrously difficult.

I think over the years Soulsborne has focused on making bosses more and more difficult. While games like Elden Ring nail the spectacle of boss fights, I do think they often go too far with the bosses moveset. Demon’s Souls bosses are relatively simple in comparison, but I find them to be more memorable because they are all so different. Not just visually different, but mechanically different. While there are some straight up one-on-one duels, there is often more to contend with than just the basic combos that the boss can throw out. The bosses having a “gimmick” is what makes them interesting and memorable. 

Not every fight should follow the routine of learning how to dodge every attack the boss has, finding safe times to attack, then getting a hit or two in. Variety is what keeps the game fresh and interesting. While fast-paced duels are often the pinnacle of boss fights, they are even more impactful and memorable if they are kept as an occasional treat. Having some more “gimmicky” fights interspersed throughout the game is a breath of fresh air. And Demon’s Souls bosses are memorable because they behave so differently than many other bosses in the series.

While I do love Demon’s Souls eccentricities, there are some aspects of the game that do feel archaic. The most obvious example is the healing system. In Demon’s Souls, the player collects a variety of consumable moon grasses which restore health. These are collected through exploration, combat, or you can straight up purchase them from certain merchants. While I do think it’s a good idea to limit how much the player can heal, it’s too easy to abuse this system. I often carried dozens of moon grass items, so as long as I didn’t make an egregious mistake I could always heal up to max health with little threat. Conversely, worse players may often run out of moon grass and have to farm enemies to replenish their stock, which is obnoxious. Dark Souls immensely improved on this by only providing a few chugs of their healing flask per checkpoint. That way, players would never have too much or too little.

Demon’s Souls has a unique mechanic which changes the world depending on your actions, called tendency. I think this is actually kind of a nice idea, but its implementation is esoteric. Good actions will make your tendency “white”, while performing bad actions skews it towards “black”. Certain secrets open up depending on your tendency, enemies may get stronger but provide better rewards, and there may even be additional enemies. My issue is how poorly explained this all is. It’s very easy to unknowingly perform an action which makes you move towards black tendency, which ultimately makes the game more difficult. I suppose the learning process can be seen as fun and interesting, but mending your tendency after it plummets is unreliable.

There are a few other archaic systems in Demon’s Souls such as the upgrade system and inventory encumbrance that I don’t want to delve too deep into. But an area that I do think is important to discuss is what FromSoftware is famous for: world and level design. The levels of Demon’s Souls are actually quite condensed, which I think is a positive. It’s tempting to fully explore each area because of this. Mechanically, I also think that the levels are quite good. There’s a variety of scenarios and encounters that the player has to not only use their skills to overcome, but to use their brain as well. There’s a lot of traps and obstacles that encourage caution and thoughtful exploration. 

I do think that Demon’s Souls shows its age a bit in some of its levels. There is an abundance of narrow corridors, ledges, and groups of enemies that show the weaknesses of the game. Combat is stunted in cramped spaces like corridors and ledges because your weapon often hits the wall instead of enemies. I get the realism factor here, but enemies don’t seem to follow this rule and inherently have an advantage in these spaces. Furthermore, groups of enemies are famously difficult to deal with in Soulsborne games, and Demon’s Souls has a ton of these groups. The slower pace of combat doesn’t work well when you have to contend with many foes and it’s easy to get stunlocked into death. 

As for the world design of Demon’s Souls, I quite enjoy the areas individually but I wish they were not completely disconnected from each other. There are five major areas in the game, each with a handful of levels. But these major areas are not connected with each other, the only way you can access them is through the hub area. I think this is unfortunate in a game that otherwise is impressively immersive. Constantly sitting in load screens and fast traveling around is just not nearly as captivating as having a singular, connected world.

As previously mentioned, I haven’t had the opportunity to play the original game so my perspective on Demon’s Souls as a remake is limited. From my research, it seems as though the gameplay is extremely faithful. Visually, the remake is stunning. However, when compared to the original game’s environments, the remake is showier. The simple Eastern European style simple castles are more ornate. Moreover, the sun beams and impressive lighting do impose a sense of grandeur that wasn’t present in the original game. Gone is the dirty and eerie faint glow of lighting. I don’t think the visual differences are a huge deal as the atmosphere retains its somber mood. I think the bigger change is the music.

After listening to both soundtracks, I think it’s a shame that the spirit of the original was lost in the transition. Particularly in the boss fights. As previously mentioned, the boss fights in Demon’s Souls aren’t always epic one on one duels, many are somber, depressing, or disturbing. The original soundtrack captures these differences quite well. The Fool’s Idol piece is a stark example of how drastically the music was changed. Don’t get me wrong, the music is beautiful. But not like every boss fight needs to be a grand duel, not every song needs to have a dramatic choir with full orchestral backing. 

Playing Demon’s Souls put the whole series in perspective for me. It makes me long for a time where Soulsborne games emphasized memorable experiences rather than just difficult ones. Conversely, Demon’s Souls also made me realize how far the series has come. There are many archaic and esoteric aspects to Demon’s Souls, and I am glad that the remake let me experience it all faithfully. It is for these reasons I give Demon’s Souls an 8/10. I encourage everyone to give Demon’s Souls a fair shot. It was a risky title when it was originally released, and not every idea was a hit, but there’s a sense of magic and authenticity that arise from the game’s bold choices.

Bugsnax (2020)

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There’s something about Bugsnax that makes it feel nostalgic despite it being released in 2020. It feels like it belongs in the Gamecube/Playstation 2 era of wacky and cartoonish games. Visually, mechanically, and conceptually, Bugsnax feels like one of those weird games that I would play when I was a kid. There’s a certain sense of charm and creativity that is present throughout Bugsnax. Although I don’t consider it a flawless experience in any sense, it’s definitely a game that I enjoyed playing.

The idea behind Bugsnax is that you are a journalist investigating the disappearance of an adventurer on an unexplored island. A small group has taken up residence on this island because it is home to the titular species of creatures. These Bugsnax are animals that look like food: strawberries, hamburgers, tacos, etc. When you consume them, part of your body takes on traits of the Bugsnax. It is a frightening concept if taken out of the lens of the silly and carefree presentation of the game. When you arrive on the island, you realize that the group who had settled here has split up for some reason, and it is your job to get to the bottom of what happened.

The core gameplay of Bugsnax is catching Bugsnax. As you progress through the game, you unlock tools, traps, and gadgets to wrangle the little critters. It starts out simple enough, such as setting net traps next to bushes while waiting for timid Bugsnax to poke their heads out. As the game progresses, you need to use tools in conjunction with one another as well as the environment and even other Bugsnax. At its core, Bugsnax is an adventure-puzzle game. Trying to figure out how to catch the different creatures was extremely enjoyable. It’s different, it’s unique, and it’s fun to figure out how to capture the trickier Bugsnax and add them to your collection.

While I do appreciate the unique concept and gameplay, I do wish it increased in complexity and depth as the game progressed. While some Bugsnax are trickier than others to capture, it feels like there is a lot of repetition to pad out the game’s cast of creatures. There are a lot of similar Bugsnax that are functionally identical to one another, they are just found in different parts of the map. This can get particularly tedious when trying to tackle many of the game’s sidequests, as they often are as simple as going to catch common Bugsnax around the island. Catching a dozen different variations of the Strabby is not really an engaging puzzle.

As the game progresses, there are some slightly more complex Bugsnax to catch. Some fly, some are frozen and can’t be touched, and others are on fire and will burn your traps. These are interesting the first couple times you encounter them, but once you realize how to handle these hurdles you can use the same strategy for all other similar Bugsnax. There are a few bosses which are unique and I enjoyed figuring out how to handle them, but they are few and far between. Bugsnax would have benefited from having fewer filler and repeat creatures, and more unique Bugsnax that require the user to engage in some problem solving.

Aside from the creature capturing, the appeal of Bugsnax is in the charming cast of characters. There is a central town where residents that you assist will return to. It’s quite cozy to hang out in town and visit with the seemingly silly characters. I was surprised as I kept playing by the depth of the cast.

For what seems like a childish game and concept, Bugsnax has some mature themes and character growth. The townspeople have complex motivations and interpersonal relations. The isolation and pressure of living in a false paradise led to arguments, tension, and distrust. As you progress each character’s story, they are led to resolve their conflicts in mature manners. I was impressed by how real and multi-faceted every character’s personality was.

The weakest aspect of Bugsnax is easily its presentation. Specifically, the visuals. The voice acting was solid, and I loved how the creatures would shout their own names like Pokémon. But visually, the game looks like it belongs in a different era. I like the choice of being cartoonish, but the execution is dated. Honestly, this isn’t a big deal, but it is funny considering that Bugsnax was a launch title for the graphically powerful PS5.

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy Bugsnax as much as I did. I had fun working out how to capture all the creatures. The variety of gadgets and tools makes for some fun puzzles, but I do wish that there were more unique Bugsnax rather than the multitude of different colored species. For a game that seems childish, there are some mature themes and lessons to be learned from the characters. It is for these reasons that I give Bugsnax a 6.5/10. I don’t think it will blow anyone’s mind, but Bugsnax is a fun little adventure nonetheless.

Dredge (2023)

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On the surface, Dredge does not appear to be anything special. Mostly, it’s a simple fishing game with some resource management and exploration. But Dredge is more than the sum of its parts. Its systems work together to create an addictive loop that it’s easy to sink hours into. But where Dredge really shines is in its quaint, yet unsettling atmosphere. 

You play as a fisherman who has crashed along the shore of the small town of Greater Marrow. The mayor provides you with a boat, as long as you promise to sell your fish to the town to repay your debt. There’s something quite unsettling about the town, as inhabitants whisper about the previous mayor and fisherman who disappeared. Nevertheless, the town is a safe haven for your travels across the ocean. The lighthouse is an ever-present beacon, guiding the player back to the safety of the harbor no matter where you roam.

Traveling the seas is fairly relaxing most of the time, but if you aren’t watching the clock, you could find yourself in the pitch-black night. As you spend time away from the safety of a dock at night the panic meter quickly fills. Ghostly apparitions and eldritch abominations stalk your small ship, causing you to frantically navigate to a port. Yet in this panic it is easy to become hopelessly lost and crash upon the rocks. There’s an effect that I quite like when the panic meter fills in which terrain is often invisible until you get very close to it. This is excellent as it punishes the player for panicking and not cautiously steering, and it is thematically appropriate as a terrified captain is prone to making errors and splintering their vessel on the rocks.

The juxtaposition of safe ports and disquieting darkness is something that I adore. There’s something charming about how a little bit of light and comfort can become such a powerful motivator when surrounded by uncertainty. Dredge is dotted by little towns and floating platforms that serve as shelter. The imposing aesthetic also fuels the contrast between the night and day of Dredge.

The art of Dredge is highly stylized, relying on low-poly silhouettes and shadows. This low-poly approach is utilized wonderfully to create cozy towns and calming waters. Yet, in an almost impressionist fashion, Dredge plays with light and shadows to create more ominous scenes and characters. The standard fish that you become familiar with often can be seen as “aberrations”, deformed and disturbing versions of themselves that suggest that there is something wrong with these waters.

While it’s obvious that Dredge nails the atmosphere and vibes of a spooky fishing game, I think its rudimentary gameplay systems also complement each other quite well to make for a game that’s hard to put down. There are four main components to gameplay: fishing, inventory management, upgrading, and exploration. All of these are relatively simple in isolation, but the quick cycling between them kept gameplay fresh.

For a fishing game, the actual act of fishing is simple. It’s a minigame in which you time a button press to reel in the fish faster. There are some variations in what the timing wheel looks like and how it functions, but the basic idea is always the same. The only other mastery involved with fishing is identifying the silhouettes of the species of fish to know which one you’re reeling in. Inventory management is similarly straightforward. You have limited capacity on your boat and need to decide what equipment to bring. Moreover, you have to arrange any of your catches or plunder to maximize the relatively limited capacity of your cargo hold. It’s not necessarily difficult, but the awkward geometry of the fish and cargo hold does engage your brain to fit the pieces together. The other component to inventory management is just deciding what is even worth a spot in your hold, as it fills up quickly.

Through maximizing your inventory space and fishing efforts, there are numerous avenues to improve your boat. You can use your yields to upgrade your rods, engines, trawl nets, crab pots, lights, and cargo space. There are so many ways to improve that it always feels like you’re on the cusp of the next one. The upgrades feed into the other avenues of gameplay as it allows you to catch different varieties of fish, have a larger inventory, and explore new areas. While none of the gameplay aspects are complex or deep, they embrace the spirit of brevity to ensure that Dredge never gets stale. They feed into each other for a rapid feedback cycle that it’s easy to get sucked into.

My one desire for Dredge would be to lean more on the night-time terrors. The game rarely encourages the player to make the intimidating trek out into the treacherous night sea. The atmosphere at night is thick and eerie, but aside from a couple of night-only fish there’s rarely a reason to take the risk. Moreover, I wish that being out at night was slightly more threatening. While it’s initially anxiety-inducing, I quickly realized that it was only a little more treacherous than standard sailing. The Lovecraftian atmosphere and spooky vibes are only captivating if the world is actually dangerous. Once the illusion is broken, the game isn’t nearly as suspenseful.

In a year full of smash-hit indie games, I’m glad I chose to play Dredge this spooky season. Its ambience is impeccable. The warm and cozy feeling of taking port under the safety of the lighthouse after frantically evading terrifying monstrosities is magical. While the gameplay doesn’t do anything spectacular or novel, it all fits together quite nicely and knows not to overstay its welcome. It is for these reasons that I give Dredge an 8/10. Dredge has mastered the art of being relaxing while being disquieting, and I love that.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (2020)

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I was apprehensive when I decided to give 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim a go. Visual novel games have never appealed to me, and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is a long game with a lot of text and not a lot of gameplay. But I was assured that it was one of the best video game stories of recent years, and I had to give it a shot. After playing it, I still can’t say that I am a fan of visual novels. However, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim does take an extraordinarily unique and risky approach to the presentation of its story. 

Imagine a story that mashes together every single sci-fi concept that you can think of, with 13 protagonists whose episodes can be viewed in almost any order, and a non-linear presentation of events. It sounds like a complete mess, but 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim mostly pulls it off. The idea behind the game is that you follow the stories of 13 characters, each with 7-8 individual episodes. Each character’s story seems to take inspiration from a classic sci-fi trope such as aliens, time travel, giant robots, memory wiping, etc. Gameplay during these episodes typically

consists of walking around and talking to different characters. As you gain information, you gain keywords that are saved in a memory cloud that you can access at any time. These keywords are used to ask questions and unravel the numerous mysteries that permeate the world.

The gameplay is not particularly riveting, but the key appeal of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is trying to figure out what the hell is going on. There’s so many subplots, secrets, interpersonal conflicts, and twists that it can be difficult to keep track of it all. Luckily, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim does a great job at letting the player jog their memory by going into the archive and replaying scenes or get a summary of the key events in a given episode. 

Where 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim excels is how it masterfully intertwines all the main character’s arcs. While each character has their own story, they play key roles in each other’s lives. It’s fun to make chronological realizations as the episodes play out and you recognize where character’s scenes overlap and interact. I loved when I could notice other characters going about their stories during an unrelated episode. Even with 13 independent plots of perplexing sci-fi ideas, it all comes together thanks to the interwoven tapestry of threads. 

My time with 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim could be summarized as a rollercoaster. And I mean that literally. Like any rollercoaster with high peaks and thrilling drops, there’s a ton of buildup as you climb up the tracks to the summit. And while there were plenty of twists and turns and climaxes to pique my interest, there were more valleys that lost my attention completely. The pacing and length of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is its biggest flaw. The nature of having 13 different stories is that there are 13 plots to set up, 13 characters to get familiar with, and a ton of exposition to get the stories where they need to be before the action can kick off.

It’s particularly frustrating when you are absorbed by a given storyline only to have to go back to the start of a different character’s arc. It’s jarring to be knee deep in androids and secret agents only to be dropped back into discussing what’s for dinner and who a side-character has a crush on. These dramatic peaks and valleys of excitement are what sucked me out of the story the most. It’s also worth mentioning that I found the writing and characters to lean towards the young adult genre. There’s nothing wrong with that, but these days I’m not interested in high school romances as a key plot element.

While the visual novel detective episodes are the bulk of the game, there actually are some real-time strategy segments. You control the 13 main characters in their mechanized mega-robots called sentinels to battle against evil giant robots known as kaiju. Before each battle you can choose 6 characters to deploy, each with their own stats and moveset. These sections are… fine. I wouldn’t want to play a lot of these battles back-to-back but they do serve as a nice break from the barrage of exposition. 

Most of the complexity of the combat comes from the mission select screen. There are four different classes of sentinels: melee, all-rounder, ranged, and support. Their roles are obvious, but each character has an attack or two that are unique to them. It’s fun to experiment with different combinations and learn which attacks are the most potent. But once you do find out which characters and attacks are best, it becomes all too easy to just spam the same ones over and over again until victory. While it is fun to repeatedly destroy big groups of kaiju, it can get repetitive over the course of a few battles.

Part of what makes the combat seem repetitive and dull is the uninspiring visuals. Every single combat mission is set in the same generic city environment, and all the robots are also blocky abstract representations instead of unique sprites. It makes every battle feel a little same-y when you are looking at the same thing all the time. Which is really a shame because the game looks fantastic otherwise.

Just one glance makes it apparent that 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim has some fantastic character models. The characters visually pop and look great in motion. There’s something interesting about Vanillaware’s art style, and I can’t quite put my finger on what makes it look so distinct from other similar studios. It may be that the characters look incredibly natural, even just standing still. The characters breathe and sway instead of just remaining static. I truly don’t know what it is, but there really is just something about the characters that looks phenomenal.

I wish I could say that 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim inspired me to play more visual novels. Unfortunately, the boredom valleys were too frequent and too long for me to truly say I loved the game. While there are some truly great twists, turns, and interesting characters, it’s buried within dozens of hours of trudging through tiresome dialogue. If you are a fan of visual novels, the story and approach to weaving 13 characters’ plots together is certainly unique and commendable. It is for these reasons I give 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim a 6/10. I’m not a fan of the genre, and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim didn’t do enough to change my mind.

A Short Hike (2019)

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It’s not often that I play a game which causes me to reflect on how I perceive life. In a world where handheld dopamine hits are almost always available, it can be difficult to just appreciate the tranquility that comes from a simple walk in the park. It’s apt that a simple game like A Short Hike has reframed the meditative nature of moment-to-moment life for me. For what may appear to be an unremarkable game, there are some lessons to be gleaned about taking the time to appreciate what’s around you. At the very least, A Short Hike is a fantastic cozy adventure guaranteed to boost your mood.

Like the title suggests, the goal of A Short Hike is to reach the peak of a mountain by hiking through some trails. The route is straightforward, and the objective is obvious. But it’s difficult not to stray off the path to explore and indulge in the homey island and converse with its wholesome inhabitants. You play as Claire, a young bird on a nature vacation. Gameplay consists of walking, jumping, climbing, and gliding to reach Claire’s destination of Hawk Peak.

The trek to the summit is meant to be taken at your own pace. A Short Hike is certainly not a difficult game. Aside from some light platforming, gameplay almost entirely insists of exploration. I found myself consistently deviating from the path to experience each area of the island. There are secrets, mini-games, beautiful views, and charming characters to converse with. I quite enjoyed the laidback nature of the game. My favorite aspect is that the exploration is almost entirely driven by the player’s own motivation.

While there are Golden Feathers to be found which act as additional stamina, I was far more interested in spending time in this adorable little world than rushing to the peak. If you really wanted to you could easily dash up the mountain, collecting only the requisite Golden Feathers and ignoring all the other extraneous activities. But I would find it sacrilegious to bypass all the alluring goings-on of Hawk Peak Provincial Park. I loved assisting the characters, playing the made-up game of Beachstickball, going on treasure hunts, or just gliding and taking in the sights. And it all culminates in a heartwarming conclusion.

While A Short Hike is by no means a revolutionary game with an abundance of new and groundbreaking ideas, I love it nonetheless. Other cozy and wholesome games such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Spiritfarer are often driven by extrinsic motivation such as unlocks and rewards for completing tasks. A Short Hike relies almost entirely on intrinsic motivation, the satisfaction from doing something just for the sake of doing it. There’s an important lesson here that is paralleled in real life. Not everything needs to be tied to rewards or immediate gratification. It’s often imperative to slow down and enjoy the scenery, literal or metaphorical.

When I downloaded A Short Hike, I expected a quick jaunt up a mountain. What I didn’t anticipate was the profound reminder to appreciate life’s simple pleasures. I was prompted to slow down and just enjoy things for the sake of it. While A Short Hike is assuredly not innovative, I cannot recommend it enough. It’s a refreshing, cozy, and heartwarming adventure that everybody should experience.