I started a tumblr blog where I post my semi-annual video game reviews and other thoughts that I would've posted on twitter long ago. that blog

My semi-annual review posts, plus a list of games I didn't complete, are pinned on the sidebar. They're all ranked in order of my preference, not what I think is objectively the best.

The following list is my full collated list from when I started this project back in August of 2024.

1. Blue Prince - This might be the best puzzle game ever made, or at least in the conversation. I have pages of notes and dozens of photos leftover. I carry a lightness in my heart from the final puzzle. Every room and detail is so intentional, and the chaos and randomness is harnessed expertly. It really goes to show that the best thing you can accomplish in a puzzle is learning something new. Any frustrations I felt from not getting the thing I needed for one puzzle or another evaporated when I learned how to control it and see opportunities to pursue other puzzles, partially dependent on what the house gave me but also from my own decisions. I can't wait to replay this in 5 years when I've forgotten everything! PS, shout out to the wiki creators and their incredibly thoughtful hint system, I couldn't have done it without you.
2. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes - Undoubtedly my favorite game I've played so far this year, just barely edging out Animal Well. It is romantic, funny, and surreal. It somehow has a tone that's a mix of the mystery and intrigue of Poirot and the dread and tension of Resident Evil 2, a little bit melancholy and a little bit wry. For example, the antagonist (?) at one point says while you and he are dancing, "I dance with everyone before a project. Do you know why? When we begin to fight down the road, we know that once we danced together." In some ways, it's kind of like the polar opposite of The Witness, a game I have spent too many hours talking at friends about. Anyway, literally my only complaint is that I wish the interface for going to the next page of a document was more noticeable. I got stuck on a few different puzzles because I didn't realize there were more pages to the clue lol. It is on my Mt. Rushmore of puzzlers, and may be my favorite puzzle game of all time.
3. Tunic - The best adventure game I've played in a long, long time, and the reason this list exists. If you like zelda games, do not read reviews or look up a synopsis. Buy this and play it. Fear the eyes of the far shore.
4. Bugsnax - Kinda bug and kinda snack, try to catch 'em in your trap. Feed somebody and you'll see we are whatever we eat! What an experience, so much fun! I got the plot spoiled way back when the game came out and I still loved every second. I think it even made things more interesting! All the characters are so real, you feel like you're getting to know someone with depth of emotion and a history. As someone who has struggled with addiction, I saw something of myself in each one. My favorite was at the start, and still is, Beffica, and least favorite was Wiggle, but I ended up understanding where she was coming from by the end of the game. The gender and sexuality representation is also maybe the best handled of any game I've ever played, which is not something you'd expect looking at the surface. The actual gameplay of hunting and capturing the bugsnax is very engaging and never got stale. The tools you're given are so simple but each bugsnax has it's own personality that has to be figured out, and you have to use your environment to figure out the best method for each critter. Each bugsnak teaches you a little something new, and by the end you feel like a trapping master. And the bugsnax themselves! My favorites were Baby Cake Legs and Scoopy Banoopy, but Bunger is the biggest star of the show. I would believe that this whole thing started as a Pokemon parody, but the amount of heart poured into this project elevates it to something new. And for those in the know, I'm still laughing about the SnaxScope data for Tikkada Masala.
5. Book of Hours - What to even say? I don't even know if I like this game. It's like a mosquito bite that I just want to keep scratching. It has taught me a new definition of insanity. Playing this makes me feel the same way I felt when I first started playing Civ 5. It takes the concept of fun to strange, inscrutable places.
6. Animal Well - THIS is how you make a metroid-vania. I'm still reeling at how goddamn good this is. Just the densest concentration of puzzles and exploration, sick art style, perfect and thicc like a pound cake.
7. The Roottrees are Dead - This time, the hints are incredibly thoughtful and built in to the game itself! What a wonderful set of puzzles, intertwined in a genuinely satisfactory and pleasant way. Obviously designed by someone who loves puzzles in their free time, maybe more so than any puzzle I've ever played. This game understands how puzzlers think, and treats them with little surprises and humor along the way. Booyah!
8. Crypt Custodian - I had middling hopes for this one. The art style is cutesy, the movement is floaty, and the story seems silly right off the bat. I could not have been more wrong about everything. The combat is so crisp and reactive. It's a wonderful balance between forgiving enough that I never felt like I was being cheated, but difficult enough that I never one-shot a boss or even beat one without taking a hit. The world is vaster than I imagined it could be for a game of this scale, but fast travel is easy to come by. Even in my initial playthrough I never felt like I was being railroaded or having to backtrack and comb through areas again and again to figure out what my next step would be. Instead of a New Game+ or something there's a built in randomizer. Why is this the first game I've ever played that thought of this! Lastly, the story isn't really a story like a linear game would have. Each zone is an illustration of each of the characters, and they all fit together to paint a picture of what the afterlife is for our pets and other wild animals. An absolute masterpiece.
9. Hollow Knight - Danny DeVito "I get it" meme, I see why people are so tied up in knots about Silksong. if I were 14 again and couldn't afford to buy games, I'd want this the most out of everything on this list, just for the depth and challenge.
10. Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye - It finally felt like it had been long enough since Tohru died for me to revisit this game, but I still thought about him the entire time. Nothing has really come close to how good the base game is, and this DLC captures 95% of that magic. The only flaw is how it's meant to slot into the main game rather than stand alone, so for someone like me who was just revisiting it to play the DLC, the ending didn't entirely work for me. Still, I get what they did and how they did it, and they made the right choice. I dreamt a happy dream about this game the night after I started playing it, and beat it the next morning.
11. Chants of Sennaar - This game was made for me, specifically. I wish the last couple levels were much longer, but partly because I just wanted to be in this world more. I really hope the creators of this do more with this style, and damn I wish there were more linguistics-based games out there. Banger soundtrack too.
12. Balatro - Honestly the soundtrack is the biggest selling point, which is weird to say but what they do with it is kind of incredible. I get why it was the year's hottest new thang, and I totally got sucked into it for a good long while. At the end of the day it doesn't replace STS for me, though. Too mathy at higher levels, not vibes-based enough to jump in and have a fun run. I wish I had bought this for my phone instead of on Steam.
13. Case of the Golden Idol - Absolutely blew me away, such a cool way of telling a story. Like, what if Where's Waldo committed a murder and you had to figure out not only how and why he did it, but also the occupation and favorite food of the victim's niece. Very Obra-Dinn: dark, funny, and precise. It's a little weird though, I played a bit of the demo of the sequel and it felt like diminishing returns, but I'm optimistic I'll enjoy it once I get around to buying the full version.
14. The Rise of the Golden Idol - I still need to do the DLC! It's odd for a sequel to be right at the same level as the original. Looking back I think they nailed it in the first one, then went on to make a few QoL changes to the UI, twist the formula here and there, and manage to not fumble on their second outing. I can't wait for a third outing from this team, but personally I'm hoping it's not related to the Idol at all and we go back in time again.
15. The Zachtronics Solitaire Collection - This is a collection of 8 alternate-reality re-imaginings of Solitaire made as little side-games for larger Zachtronics games. I've never played or even heard of them before buying this. I wasn't really a fan of Sigmar's Garden or Cribbage Solitaire, and Proletariat's Patience and CLUJ were cool ideas but didn't have much replay value. Kabufuda was really neat take on Free Cell, and I LOVE the adjustable difficulty on it, but parsing out the patterns gave me a headache after a couple games. Shenzhen, on the other side of things, plays very well but is just too easy. This leaves Sawayama and Fortune's Foundation. Sawayama makes the slightest adjustment to the classic Klondike but completely changes the strategy. It's astoundingly good. However, the real gem is Fortune's Foundation. It's a lot like Crescent Solitaire, but instead of two decks you have 1 regular deck and a tarot deck. Every move is impactful and could cost you the game. All the information is face-up at the start of the game, so it is truly a test of planning and strategy. You also get a little fortune from the final tarot card played, so that's a neat little bonus!
16. Talos Principle 2 DLCs - Another game specifically made for me. DLC 1 felt like a great little happy ending tying up the loose ends from the main story. DLC 2 was such a fun chill island vacation, felt like a victory lap. DLC 3 has some of the hardest individual puzzles I've ever experienced in a video game, but I'm proud to say I beat every last one without any outside help. If you think you can get down with Portal but with the humor swapped out with philosophy, this is that game.
17. FTL - I've played FTL a ton in the past, probably since launch, but I never really felt like I understood what I was doing or did the heavy lifting needed to understand the systems. My strategy before this year was to rush invisibility and pray nothing too unfortunate happened. After pouring through guides and analyses I feel like I know a lot more and am more comfortable in the game's universe. I haven't unlocked every ship or defeated the flagship with every ship, but I'm close!
18. Leap Year - At 96 minutes played, this might be the best single $1 I have ever spent on Steam. A definitive triumph in precision engineering. An absolutely microscopic masterclass in the exploration platformer genre.
19. Yoku's Island Express - What if a metroid-vania was a tropical-themed pinball table? So cute and innovative, a delightful little 10-hour adventure that never felt like a slog or back-track city. One of the funniest sequel-bait endings ever; I hope they make one!
20. Tametsi - It's very easy to recommend this game. If the words "Custom Minesweeper" do anything for you, you're already convinced.
21. Celeste - Best, snappiest, and most precise platformer since super meat boy. An 8-way controller is a must though, I got so mad at my x-bone controller so many times that I stopped playing halfway through the B-sides, but that's not really the game's fault.
22. Transistor - Still my favorite Supergiant story after all these years. A tragedy for the ages. No other game does what this does with combat and encouraging you to switch up your gameplay. I spent hours in the Sandbox just trying out different combos and options. I think some reviews at the time disliked gating story elements behind your gameplay choices but in my opinion that's the point. The game isn't that hard and you don't need to play in a style you dislike for very long. Oh, and get the Sea Monster at Junction Jan's.
23. Ori and the Will of the Wisps - Not as good as the first one, but damn near close. A little more combat-focused, a little less platformy and movement-based. Much fewer escape-sequences, which is a huge relief, and I loved the new central hub. Felt like they had a really good thing going on with the first one that just needed some cleaning up and polishing, but they wanted it to be more like hollow knight or something and went too far in their tuning.
24. The Forgotten City - Kinda like if the Talos Principle and Outer Wilds had a lil baby. A little short but nailing the true ending is pretty satisfying. The less said about it the better, to keep its secrets, but it's essentially one big time-loop puzzle that's solved through talking to people and exploring this little Roman town. Absolutely loved the implementation of Galerius giving you the option of not having to redo things you've already unlocked or allowing you to go back and do things a different way. Like, for instance, one of the people is poisoned and dying, and you have the antidote. At the beginning of each loop you can give Galerius the antidote to give to her, run over and give it to her yourself, or let her die. The best part is, each of these three choices has a real impact on what happens that day, and what dialogue and information is unlocked.
25. Chicory - Lovely little adventure, good puzzles, top notch exploration, sick-ass boss encounters. I can't imagine how annoying it would be if you were only playing on controller without a mouse, though. Cute furry world where everyone is named after food. I was named pierogies.
26. Myst - A classic for a reason, there was a ton in here that I forgot about. Very rough around the edges but that's like its whole thing y'know.
27. Hyper Light Drifter - One of those games that introduced the whole genre of Metroidvanias to me. So glad I revisited it and finally beat the last boss after 8 years. It's funny how much smaller it is than I remember, but the qol is on the money and the combat is as tight as it ever was. Just a fantastic game that I'd rate way higher if I wasn't already familiar with it.
28. Nubby's Number Factory - VERY SILLY ALERT!! I am very nostalgic for the HTML era (yeah I have Dreamsettler on my wishlist), but I don't get any cynical or pandering vibes from this. Nubby genuinely loves the absurdity of geocities clipart. However, the gameplay is a devilishly sharp contrast to the bright colors and funny "3D" models. Last year I bounced off of Balatro early on because I didn't vibe with the difficulty. I just didn't get it. Since then I've gotten way more into Balatro, and I understand more how the game is built on small, crucial decisions to take on quickly scaling obstacles. Nubby is incredibly similar and has been an enjoyable challenge. I only wish the stars system scaled faster! Kinda feels like a slog sometimes when I just want to unlock more playable characters.
29. Death's Door - Absolutely killer worldbuiilding and soundtrack, the vibes are almost completely perfect, and for the most part I loved the unique boss encounters. There are many weird or untuned things that bugged me, though, like getting completely stun-locked in corners and the weapons and upgrades being largely unnoticeable. The Gemsbok just did a video on this game, and it made me realize my biggest problem with the game. Past the first time you see each zone there is no sense of adventure. You walk (or mash the roll button) through a zone, clear out all the enemies, and find there's nothing to discover other than collectibles only accessible via a power you'll get later on. Literally only 1 of these 24 collectibles have a puzzle attached to it (and that being the only real puzzle in the game), so it felt like half my playthrough was spent roaming around The Overgrown Ruins looking for one more secret to check off my to-do list.
30. Viewfinder - Cait is the bomb and we love her. The puzzles are fun, the world is beautiful, and the gimmick of the game is inventive and fresh. It's obviously loving crafted and executes its new ideas perfectly competently. After the game was over, though, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, even though there's certainly nothing wrong with it. I really, really wanted to like this more than I did. The closest comparison I can make to Viewfinder is Dredge. It was fun and I don't regret buying and playing it, and would generally recommend it, but it didn't resonate with me much at all. My hopes were just way too high.
31. Naissancee - The final scene is such a letdown, and the fan and insanity levels are neat ideas that aren't very fun. With that out of the way, this game is incredible, horrifying, haunting, thick and palpable. And the music! A complete package of experimental, immersive dread.
32. Stray - There are so many good things about this game. It is a visceral, sentimental, immersive, and fully realized cyberpunk world. I don't even mind the railroading for the most part. Unfortunately I think it's strongest element is also it's biggest downside: The Slums. There are so many interesting characters and things to do in The Slums! I feel like I spent half of my gameplay there happily running across rooftops. Other inhabited zones, while just as beautiful, have much fewer side-quests or things to explore, and feel rushed. I'd still jump at the prospect of a sequel.
33. What Remains of Edith Finch - When I got to the cat segment, I said out loud to myself, "Oh so it's this sort of game." Then I got to the swing-set, and the photo timer, and the packing plant, and I thought, "Oh, it's this sort of game." Affecting is an understatement, but I think I'll put this in the "Media I don't want to experience again" pile. I'm glad I played it once.
34. Myst 3 - Coming off of the mind-bending difficulty that is riven, this felt like a day at a theme park. Great puzzles, totally immersive and inventive worlds, short and sweet, if a little silly at times.
35. Peglin - What if slay the spire was a Peggle? It can be fun and a challenge, but so, so annoying when one bad bounce that was out of your control ruins the whole run. I guess STS has that too, when your deck gets a bad shuffle and there's nothing you can do, but it feels like it happens way more often on the pegs. Also, a lot of the bosses can be totally steamrolled without too much thought, which is a little bit of a letdown since it doesn't really matter what your build looks like. As long as you keep in mind how you're going to beat a couple bosses like the painter and dragon, any other boss just doesn't matter.
36. Dredge - VERY fun fishing game, honestly doesn't even need the cthulu stuff. Doesn't overstay its welcome, and the ending is satisfying and earned. The most fun I had was just the first 3-5 hours rolling around, making money and upgrading my boat. There was a point where it felt more like a slog than a fun time, but I pushed through it and realized it wasn't that big of a push. Still, that's not exactly what you want.
37. The Sexy Brutale - It sells itself as a grand time-loop puzzle thing in the vein of Forbidden City or Outer Wilds, but it really isn't. Yes, everything takes place in one big mansion, but there's no exploration to be had here. I originally wrote this when I was a little further than halfway, 5/8 through the main story missions. Having finished it now, each of the cases is in a discreet wing of the mansion that is only unlocked once you've solved the previous one. It is intensely linear in a way I was not expecting. Don't get me wrong, it's lovingly crafted, and each puzzle feels unique, creative, and rewarding to solve. But between the checklist vibe of the progression gating, the rocky and sometimes clumsy controls, and repetitive animations, the game largely falls flat. A base hit.
38. Little Inferno - Cute and fun, a neat little 2-hour experience. There are some surprisingly deep themes that poke in every once in a while, but ultimately it's little more than a bedtime story. A small mark against it, apparently I had already played and beaten this years ago when it came out and had no memory of it whatsoever.
39. Cave Story+ - Oddly enough another comparison to super meat boy in this list, it looks and feels like exactly what it is, a flash game that somehow got developed into a full-ass game. Surprisingly good though! I did not care for a lot of the humor that felt very lolrandom reference-based, but i guess that was just that era.
40. A Short Hike - Short is correct. A busy little furry island to chill out in for a few hours. Good dialogue and characters. Don't try to just beat the game, that's not the point. Do all the sidequests and talk to everyone, and take your time.
41. Dorfromantik - If they made A Quiet Year into a video game it would be this. Extremely chill, way too chill for me, but I could imagine how someone would get super into this.
42. Minit - If this was a free flash game it would be one of the best. I beat it in 1, maybe 2 hours, and had some fun, but I'm glad I got it off of Epic's giveaway
43. Monster Train - I feel like it's deep enough to make better decisions than I'm currently making. However, I've been able to brute-force my way through all but one pairing. I kind of feel dizzy when I play this. Like, I'm enjoying the decision making, and it's all fine and good to feel like I'm making progress, but it feels a little too hamster-wheely to me. I don't know how to quantify it. It's extremely well made and feels balanced, but I don't think I'm having fun.
44. A Good Snowman is Hard to Build - I had a wonderful snowy day doing all of the puzzles, making my way out of the garden, and enjoying all the names and fun outfits for each snowman. Then I discovered I was only halfway done, and haven't touched it since! Maybe someday I'll complete it, but it feels a little tedious and I'm not champing at the bit to 100% it. Still, a delightful set of original puzzles in the first half.
45. Peak - I played it once and had a great time! Excited to get more experience under my wheels :)
46. Dead Cells - I guess I "beat" the game? Feels like I barely scratched the surface! I would rank this right up there with Hollow Knight in terms of sheer density of stuff to do and unlock/explore. Like I said about Hollow Knight, if I was 14 again and could only afford one game, this would be a perfect option. I much prefer a bespoke world to a randomly generated one, but this is done really well and has felt fresh every time. The randomness that weapons are given to you just adds to this. Trying out new fighting styles and builds has been consistently fun. My biggest bounce has been fighting with the timer, though. I just hate timers in exploration games. I don't know if I will end up going back and start chipping away again to be honest, but I had a really fun weekend with this and can certainly recommend it.
47. COCOON - There's something slightly wrong with COCOON, but it wasn't until finishing the game that I think I figured out what it was. Visually, the worlds in this game are beautiful, each of them unique in design from each other and from anything I've ever seen before. That alone is quite an achievement. The sound design is horrifying and I was completely immersed throughout 100% of my playtime. The puzzles are exactly what I would expect from the lead designer of Limbo and Inside, nothing too obtuse, but certainly engaging and complex enough that I was never bored. And the main gimmick of "world-leaping" as they call it is fresh and demands some out-of-the-box thinking! The thing that prevented me from fully appreciating this game was that I never knew why I was doing anything that I was doing. That very well could be why you are modeled after an insect in the game, going about your tasks without questioning why you're doing it. If it is the case that you're not supposed to know what the story is until you're done with the game, that is certainly an interesting and creative idea, but it kind of makes the experience feel hollow and superficial. I don't know, maybe I just didn't get it and I missed out. I definitely have a history of focusing entirely on the puzzles and sidelining the story completely (looking at you, Riven), but I really think COCOON's story is intentionally obfuscated as a larger puzzle for players to figure out.
48. Islets - Feels like a rough draft of it's successor, Crypt Custodian, except as a sidescroller instead of top-down. That's ok, though, because I love Crypt Custodian! Some of the more frustrating aspects are very off-putting, though. If I didn't already have a fondness for the dev team I would've ranked this a little lower. I'm glad I took on this game as a look back into their history and didn't play it first, sort of like Cultist Simulator. Still, I was entranced by the world and each zone, and gladly hunted down all the collectibles.
49. Crab Champions - What a goofy, frivolous game based entirely on a meme. Balance? I think I heard someone mention that at a party once. Exponential growth? Let the players figure that out, enemies don't need to trouble their little heads. Still going to unlock every weapon and have a blast playing multiplayer? You bet your ass I did. There is one thing about it that I don't think I've ever seen another rogue-lite do, though. In most rogue-lites, you grind out dozens of runs to unlock everything, incremental upgrades and all that. In Crab Champions, you only need maybe 3-5 really broken runs to unlock everything. Prove that you understand the game and it's completely opened up to you. After that, you play to beat increasing difficulty and rarer cosmetics. What a great idea!
50. Raccoin - First off, I completely understand that this is an early-access alpha build and they're still adding new features and everything. This feels right in the same vein rogue-lite as Balatro & Nubby, and if I were more cynical I'd call it a cash-in to ride the wave that Balatro started. However, in the mid- to late-game, and with the right build, your scaling quickly changes the game into an auto-battler! There's so many flashing lights and bells and whistles once you start rolling that decisions outside the shop stops mattering. I'm not sure if I even like it, but I can't call it unoriginal. Overall, the experience gave me a headache, but I will be checking back in with the game once they drop the ill full release.