On: Nintendo GameCube

Writeup can be found here: https://www.completionator.com/Stack/View/3244.

On: PC/Windows

The most recent of the Rusty Lake games that I was fully able to play and enjoy, as I didn't have anyone to play The Past Within with. There isn't much to say here, I liked playing through it as I think these games are interesting puzzle point-&-click titles with nice horror elements and story components. However, completing these always bums me out because it ranges from extremely cryptic clues that you had to obtain from an ARG you never knew about before to clicking on an object 40 times in a row. Not a lot of fun there. But I'm still gonna constantly jump into games like this as soon as they come out (or as soon as I learn about them), and this is no exception.

On: PlayStation

I completed this one for the first time a few years ago as a part of the Remastered trilogy that hit the PS4, but I definitely wanted to take another crack at the original version. And what can I say? I enjoyed myself just as much as I did the first time around. It was a fun one, even with the small hiccup of not having a fully functional disc. I wasn't able to take on the Blowhard level specifically, which kept me from getting to Gnasty's Loot at the end of the game. Had to get my disc fixed before I could engage with that. But it was a small think that I took care of, and I can't wait to dive into the other 2 PlayStation Spyro games in the near future.

On: PC/Windows

I totally thought that I had already owned and completed this one before, but sadly I was mistaken. It was the remake of Samsara Room that I was thinking of. This has a lot of stuff in it, each of the 9 Cube Escape games all bundled into 1 collection, and I honestly think that this is the best way to engage with this one. Each game has secrets, as mentioned before, and they connect between games. This can be a problem when it's 4 years between you playing the titles. But in the Cube Escape Collection, they're all hear in one bundle, so when I see a music puzzle, I can be sure that I'll be engaging with musical notes in another game and that'll work as a secret. Much easier to complete this one than something like Underground Blossom, even though it's ostensibly much larger in scale.

On: PC/Windows

I don't have a lot of extra bits to say about this one, as I've completed it once before. It is amazing still that there are so many missable achievements in this first outing, although I do believe they rectified this in the second game.

On: PC/Windows

Once again, completed this once before, just wanted to sojourn back into South Park once again. I was able to get through it pretty quickly though. I also didn't include the DLC this time, as those don't come with any perks or achievements for completion.

On: PC/Windows

MCPIXEL! I played this ages and ages ago when it came out, and I was a huge fan. That was on an old account, and I never logged it, so I decided to go in and complete the whole thing, all solutions, all puzzles, all DLC. Everything. And wow, what a mistake that was. This game was so funny when I was younger, not so much now. A lot of it is just that obnoxious "monkey cheese" humor that polluted earlier internet circles. And solving these felt like a chore at times too, because you need to find every possible outcome in the puzzles in order to get a Gold Mark, regardless of how stupid it is. And in a brilliant moment of "haha, we got you!" style thinking, some of the puzzles have a million things in the background that don't do anything just to punish completionists and force them to waste all their time systematically going through and clicking every combination of background nonsense item. I will say: I have McPixel 3 now, a game that came out fairly recently, and I mainly revisited this title to prepare for going into the sequel. Now having tasted McPixel once again... I don't know if I wanna go into 3 immediately, I think I'm just gonna wait a little bit.

On: PC/Windows

Also played this one before and completed elsewhere, just wanted to clean it up on Steam. I made it through pretty quick this time as well, but its amazing how many issues stuck around from when I played this a year ago and just haven't been fixed. It seems like they shouldn't take much to correct, but some of it is literally just incorrect string values for Daily Tasks, which makes it hard to figure out what you're actually supposed to be doing.

On: PC/Windows

I'll be honest I grabbed this one solely because I've been desperate for games in a similar style to "The Room" or "We Were Here" serieses. This didn't really deliver, as it's just a standard couple of attached escape rooms that involve solving obtuse puzzles to get out. I like Escape Rooms, but those are things that are best experienced in person. I find no joy in just playing through an escape room, because the puzzles don't really match the scope of the game, and there isn't a theme or style behind it. "The Room" and "We Were Here", for example, are both video game series that are oozing with style and atmospheric theming that go into the puzzle and environmental structure, and that's entirely lacking here. Oh well, I learned my lesson I guess. Or perhaps I didn't and I'll just make the same mistakes later, we'll see.

On: PC/Windows

Short horror experience that actually made me jump twice because of how damn loud the audio can be. There isn't a lot here, again it's just a 10-20 minute horror experience (depending on how lost you make yourself when wandering the woods), and it's just to create an atmosphere following Puppet Combo's style of PS1 retro-horror. I like this style, but especially so when there's actual gameplay behind it. This is quite literally a walking simulator, with a few achievements sprinkled in for good measure, though only one of them is a secret which requires you to drive into oncoming traffic, the other two you get for progressing more or less. I just wish there was more here ultimately.

On: PC/Windows

OK, I don't wanna be too hard on this one. I think I got it for free and I also think it was a student project or something? But not a lot here to go on, it's a really quick experience (especially to platinum), and it involves you jumping up platforms as they fall down. Don't wanna get crushed or out paced by the platforms, lest a might kraken take you down! But the real problem lies with how the game is set up. You see, you can't actually play this game for too long while having an active internet connection, or the whole game crashes. This has something to do with the server its accessing in the backend for the leaderboard, but it's horrendously obnoxious. You can at least turn off Wi-Fi or internet and play a bit (or at least until you get to the final achievement height) and then turn the game back on so that whatever you earned will pop, and then just let the game close itself by crashing. Frustrating, and it's been out a while so I really wish this would either be fixed or just taken down entirely.

On: PC/Windows

A creepy, at times unsettling little adventure game that leaves a lot to be desired. Once again, not a lot here, but the style and ambience of everything certainly brings it all together. Think Missing Hiker, which I also completed today, but with more substance behind it. This is something that I could easily have seen been expanded into a point-&-click adventure PC game from the mid to late 90's that would be lost to time, only for some Joe Schmo on Reddit to bring up on a page asking if anyone remembered a haunting game from their childhood. It isn't too complicated to get through, and unfortunately for me there aren't any achievements that can be tied to this particular game, but it isn't as if I regret my time with it at all. Just wish there was some more here to be fully digested.

On: PC/Windows

Was this a student project as well? I can't tell. I played a game that was pretty similar to this on the PS4 two years ago when I went through and completed 15 or so "easy platinums" on the PSN store, and it's just "get all these points and you get an achievement!". For this one, that involves flying around on a sword that's near impossible to control and crashing into mountains right before you get the orb that'll give you the last bit of points that you need to get the final achievement WHY?! So frustrating, a really frustrating experience, especially because for some reason the whole thing is timed. I went too hard in the beginning trying to grab the orbs that give you the most points, only to constantly crash. I just took my time in the end, grabbing the lesser orbs and occasionally coming across a higher value orb that was in reach without me bending the sword's path out of the way and into a mountain, causing me to start over. An exercise in futility for those that don't want to take their time. And trust me, you'd have to be insane to wanna take your time in this one.

On: PC/Windows

Puzzles abound in this one! I played and completed about 10 games today, and this is by and large the best of the lot. It's simple, sure. Just a board with reflecting mirrors, and you've gotta reflect the lasers to the right spot. That's it! In fact, it actually doesn't really start getting difficult until level 20-ish, when they introduce combining two lasers to send another beam off at a diagonal angle. I don't think I've seen something like that in this type of game before. I was a huge fan. And you'd better believe I have Rayland 2 that I'm gonna give a playthrough in the near future!

On: PC/Windows

Another prime example of a bad game made better by playing it in a group setting. I had 3 college friends online playing this one with me, and although we only played for about 2 and a half hours, it was a wild, crazy ride! The problem with the game comes in a couple of different sections. The first of these is that there's a problem with the way the network connects, or the servers interact, or SOMETHING. We ran into problems where someone would randomly drop out, and because you can only play with 1 or 4 people (huh?), then you all get kicked out regardless of who's hosting. And there isn't a save feature really, you've gotta restart whatever chapter you were at. Eventually we got lucky and made it through a whole playthrough without any problems in that regard, but it was rough going. Then, the puzzles. Firstly, there really aren't enough of them. I was counting and for the whole game, there are about 3 actual puzzles to engage with. Everything else is running around with platforming mixed in. I can see what they were going for here, and I really did get some "We Were Here" vibes from the whole thing. But it needs to be a bit more polished, with more content added in, and utilizing the fact that the game can be multiplayer a lot moreso. There are classes that you can all pick, but two of them felt completely useless to the actual game itself, whereas the others (linguist and detonator) were absolutely necessary to make it through the game at all. Allegedly the developer(s?) working on the second chapter as we speak, and has been on it for over 2 years now. I really hope that when it comes out, it has it's issues taken care of, because there's a germ of an idea here that really clicked with us, and I'd like to pick up the sequel when it comes out.

On: PC/Windows

This has been over a decade coming, as I've started this game more times than I can count. It's gotten to the point where some of my previous playthroughs have actually led to me completing the DLC chapters of the game without making so much as a dent in the main story, there's just too much to go through. But, I finally got a wild hair and sat down to fully complete this game to the best of my abilities, and I think I accomplished that after multiple weeks of just playing this game in my downtime. This, of course, means the different DLCs, the main game, all of the achievements, and ideally all of the quests that I can get to as well. So, I did just that. I even ended up going the MapGenie route after a while just to make sure I hadn't missed anything. And it was a lot of fun, though it did finally burn me out on the Skyrim game, which is a shame since I have a few in progress playthroughs on different consoles. I think for those (when I finally get around to them), I'll just go the route of the trophy-hunter, given that the full completion experience took place on this PC go around. I can go about getting the trophies without being concerned about even going after the secret bosses (the Blackreach dragon, the Ebony warrior, etc.), and still feel fulfilled with marking things off my to-do list. I greatly enjoyed my time with the game, but for sure as I was getting to the end of it all wondering how much more of it I could take. This also has to do with the level-up system in the game, which I feel was implemented... poorly, to say the least. It's not based around accomplishing tasks or leveling up, but instead progressing on specific tasks, and I went the Destruction magic route this time (it took me quite a lot of restraint not to do another stealth archer build). Once you get to the end of that tree, you stop getting XP for that tree unless you reset it. And I didn't really wanna lose my progress with the skills I unlocked, so I found myself going into literally everything else while playing. Two-Handed, Restoration, Light Armor, etc. Certainly something to get a little bit of play with all the different tree sets, but it didn't feel conducive to the RPG experience. Not a big fan of that honestly, but if you aren't worried about that level of completion, you probably won't run into that issue, so it's hard to complain about.

On: PC/Windows

What a stinker. This is a terrible game made only slightly better by playing with a group of friends, which I was able to do. But even with multiple people running around and joking, you could feel the wind going out of the group's sails as we continued to press against an unforgivingly broken game. That final boss fight I'm still not sure how we actually were able to win, as it's not evenly remotely possible to play without taking damage, let along going down. So, it is without any shame that I say this is the first, and hopefully last, time that I used a Steam Achievement hacking tool. Yes, to my dismay (and the dismay of many others, I might add), this game has a number of broken achievements. And when I say broken, I don't mean difficult or cheeseable, quite literally they upgraded the game and multiple maps in 2017 and completely broke a lot of the achievements in the process. I wasn't about to let a game sit in my library that I couldn't complete due to someone else's mistake, so I forced the few remaining ones that I had to pop. And I don't care! Take care of your releases people, especially if you expect people to play for them. Oh well, I feel like I must digress, I suppose completion aside this game does have some things to offer by way of multiplayer experience, if only for the fact that outright terrible video games are some of the best playthroughs I've had with groups of friends. You can't rely on the content of the game to fulfill your desires, so you need to provide your own entertainment, riffing on the nature of the title or improv-ing or whatever you wish to do. So it sucks to say that this messy 1-star game will live in my memory as a fun time for years to come.

On: Nintendo GameCube

I found this in library solely by looking for another 3D platformer on the GameCube that I could play for my blog write-up series. Vexx is a game that I got a while ago, with no actual knowledge of it given that I blindly collect for that library, and it truly does appear to be one of the very few games for the GameCube that isn't first-party, licensed, or a part of a pre-existing franchise. Which truly is a breath of fresh air, as it seems the selection for the GameCube is at times solely limited to the aforementioned categories of titles. Vexx is fun enough in it's 3D romp, and the controls work to the games benefit as well. It's just... so strange and creepy at times that I have every idea as to why something like this didn't catch on. The lore is pretty generic, which isn't saying much for this genre of game, but when you get into the creatures and the world, it's such a gross color palette with unappealing monster design that at times I had no idea what I was even doing in the grand scheme of things. OK, so are we in a different world or another planet? What are these small mushroom things? Are the sumo wrestlers sentient, as they appear to be other species entirely. What the hell was that large goblin monstrosity that I kicked in the balls? All of these and more were questions racing through my mind as I completed this one. And the final boss fight was particularly bizarre (and frustrating to play), primarily because this game doesn't have any boss fights. Even the sumo wrestlers, while you could refer to them as mini-bosses, are more puzzles to solve than anything else. So you play through the entire game collecting these hearts and then you have an honest to God boss fight against the main villain at the end, and I felt like I didn't have enough experience using Vexx's abilities to translate that gameplay style into actual combat (you know, as opposed to just hitting something that's charging at you 3 times so it gets sent to the shadow realm). I feel like this could've been something more, but I'm not at ALL surprised it didn't take off, and now just exists as an oddity in the backlog of many a user's library.

On: PlayStation 3

I've completed this one once before, but not on PS3 so I was missing trophies! That was my only reason for going through this one again, and I'll likely do the same for KH2 on PS4. Gotta get them trophies!

On: PC/Windows

Don't have much to say here, I've completed this and written about it multiple times before. Just did this recent go on Steam as a part of the monthly bounty series. And boy oh boy, I'm getting super fast at completing this one!

On: PC/Windows

A fun video game based around a particularly nasty habit. I get that the whole idea of it is that the characters are "kissing" one another, but honestly it just looks like their actually spitting on one another. The puzzles are interesting because it reminds me a lot of Super Meat Boy solely in the way that the spit globules slide around on the walls. There are a number of unique ideas set forth here in as far as the puzzle solving goes, but particularly the obstacles that get in your way. The impediments of the game are the most interesting for sure, and presents a challenge in as far as solving the puzzles themselves go. But when you get right down to it, the difficulty of the games itself isn't really there. In so far as the game operates

On: PC/Windows

This was a fun little experience to go through. Great ambience put forward by the music and art style. I can't say that I was able to piece together any semblance of the story that the game seems to be suggesting is present. But it was fun, nonetheless, if a bit simple. Not too much to say on this one. Even the achievements are easy. Play through the whole game and be sure to activate every "wisdom token" in the game before finishing it.

On: PC/Windows

There's absolutely nothing to this one, it's just a game where you run around and shoot zombies and that's it. The main draw of this game for those that like to achievement hunt, is that it's essentially an achievement dump. There are ~1100 achievements to be gotten here, and because of the way they're set up, you can get them all within an hour. Just fire up a sandbox version of the game, make sure some bosses will occasionally show up, and start blasting. I think achievements pop after every 5 kills or so, but they drop 5/10 at a time, so you'll be constantly unlocking these as you play. The boss enemies are required for a handful of them, which is why you should enable those, but it's a bizarre setup for a game with no depth whatsoever. And the achievements themselves are nonsensical, as they're all named for various streamers and Steam users that... I don't know, supported the developer's endeavors? Or maybe the developer just likes them? I don't rightly know, and at the end of the day I also don't really care.

On: PC/Windows

This one feels broken, there's a specific level that I couldn't get through for the life of me because I firmly believe it to be broken, and the ONE person that's uploaded a guide online for it just zips through it as if he has some sort of console command active. Like, actual glitching through environment stuff. So, that level remains incomplete. Thankfully, that isn't required for achievement completion, so I was able to set out and complete the game to the best of my possible ability. I hate it when I encounter stuff like this though, where the game was seemingly thrown together as babies first program, and then uploaded to the Steam Workshop just because. Either keep that stuff to yourself or share it with friends or something, but this is just sad.

On: PC/Windows

Nothing more fun than time trials when completing a game, I can tell you that much! Jokes aside, I do like the structure of this Candleman game, and the time based stuff actually wasn't nearly as frustrating as it could've been, but that didn't make me any less worried going into completing it. But a puzzle-platformer built around the mechanic of preserving your ability to see is something I adore, and I can't believe I didn't consider an entire game based around the concept sooner. Of course the idea has been done before on smaller scales (Crash Bandicoot comes to mind), but I don't think for a full game. And the integration of the environmental obstacles was well thought out too, with the integration into the stages providing all the tutorial actually necessary for the game. Letting the player learn as they go is a tricky feat to pull off, as if you go too hard into it (or don't do it correctly), you run the risk of ostracizing those playing your game or leaving them completely stranded. But when you do it right, the player naturally performs actions that have consequences in real time, which teach them about important mechanics before the hazards become a problem. For Candleman, the main thing that comes to mind is using your light to wither vines holding these spiky destructive plant-balls. You learn you can do this before you actually have to worry about it just by progressing and observing your surroundings as you play. Genius!

On: PC/Windows

I had completed this one a while ago, but when exiting out of the game on Steam, I saw that they had more DLC projects scheduled for spring 2024. And so, I placed this one on the backburner until I could more thoroughly complete it. But this one's a hoot to play through, after all of those We Were Here games, I was really jonseing for more escape room style games. And this one certainly fit the bill, though with a visual novel slant. There's a lot going on with interpersonal relationships between different characters here, in a static DeviantArt-esque style that drives that visual novel feeling home. As usual, this one is better played with a friend or family member to collaborate with. The game is designed so that you can easily make it through and solve all the puzzles yourself (so not EXACTLY like the structure of We Were Here), but still solving puzzles with another person is so rewarding, and usually gives each person ample opportunity to shine.

On: PC/Windows

This one has plagued my memory for a long time, because back before I had my own Steam or YouTube account, and therefore no means to buy my own digital games, I saw snippets of this in a YouTube game and it piqued my interest. I ended up forgetting about the game, only to recall it very vaguely about a year ago. I remembered so little of the game, however, that I wasn't able to find it until about a month prior to my completion of the game. I can't even remember how I stumbled onto it, I think it was some form of compilation video, but I immediately leapt to Steam, bought, and downloaded it knowing that I wouldn't let it get away again. Sure enough, I liked the game as much as I thought I would, with the meta game design aspect melding well with the open world vibes put forth by the gameplay. And bonus points, because one of the first voices I heard was James Urbaniak, and I had a second joyous freakout from that alone! A great game I had a great time with.

On: PC/Windows

I was a bit spoiled on this one going in, at least in so far as the story and general vibes are concerned. I wasn't aware of the actual puzzles themselves or the solutions that went along with them, so that remained a pleasant (and at times frustrating) surprise. I long for these types of isolated puzzles games where you're thrown into an environment that requires you to interact with the environment to solve mysteries and progress along. Like one of my recent favorites of modern years, The Witness, Myst provides this in spades, and it saddens me that I didn't pursue playing this one much sooner. The upside to all of this is that I also have the other entries in the saga on Steam, as I grabbed them all at once as part of a pack, so I'll be playing Riven after a while! You know, once I've also completed the other versions of Myst available in the pack while the puzzle solutions are still fresh in my head.

On: PC/Windows

There's nothing new here from the previous game except for a graphical overhaul and some quality of life improvements. But boy oh boy, those QOL bits are fantastic. Usually I would advocate for the more rigid movement scheme of the original title, but give how obtuse Myst can be, I think some of the more hidden areas or pieces of the map benefit more from the free roaming capabilities presented. I will say, though, that most all of the FMV pieces being replaced by CGI models was largely unsatisfying. I think this was a mistake, as that's where a lot of the charm of the original came into play. It may be easier to see things without the wash of gray gradient coating all of the environmental objects, but with the videos cutscenes that still holds some charm to it (maybe because it doesn't impact actual puzzle solving at all?), I don't know ultimately. Still, I liked going through the game in this way, and I think that a VR version of this would be received pretty well.

Edit: I have since discovered that there IS a VR Myst game that I actually own on Oculus (I don't remember buying this at all), but I may need to play this at some point in the future.

On: PC/Windows

Third verse, same as the first... but with Rime! Yes, this version of Myst that I played wasn't as easily completed, because while I now have all other Myst puzzles memorized in my head, that doesn't apply to the new location of Rime. You might just come across a book on the floor that will teleport you to the Rime age, with constellations and crystal combinations that can be used to discover a secret: a brief look at Myst's sequel, Riven (which I'll certainly be playing at some point in the near future). So it's fair to say I struggled quite a bit here. Because boy oh boy, that crystal puzzle is a tad obtuse. And, kinda flat out wrong? There are papers nearby that explain what the proper combination of shape and color of crystals is required, but the solution I eventually looked up was basically saying I had everything right except for one shape and one color, which didn't match the paper at all! Pink vs. purple, for instance, should be easily identifiable. And it looks like other people have complained about this too, so I know at least I didn't miss anything. Aside from the Rime age, there are additional achievements here not associated with the first go through, but so long as you know how to save in the appropriate locations, then you won't have to worry about actually completing the entire game multiple times through. Especially since, you know, I've already done this a ton of times up to this point.

On: PlayStation 4

I first started playing through all of the Uncharted games for the first time back when the movie was coming out in theaters, I started about a month prior with the intent of completing the games all before the movie made it to theaters. I... beat all the games. But completing them was more complicated than I initially had thought. So they've all remained on the backburner... until now! I picked the first game up again and fully reveled in the horrendously difficult Brutal and Crushing difficulties, as well as the various trophies relating to speedrunning about. I can't even begin to delve into how many times I played through the story mode on this one, but it was at least to the point that I started picking up speedy techniques for cutting corners across sections and skipping baddies to save myself some time. I really like this game! It make me a little frustrated in myself having grown up with a majority Sony consoles, because I never gave post-Crash Naughty Dog the time of day. I can't wait to go back into the other 3 and complete them. And who knows, maybe I'll even pick up that "Lost Legacy" game as well. I already have it purchased, just a matter of installing and playing.

On: PC/Windows

I finally marked this one as done, although technically it's in early access and likely will have some changes to come for certain. I haven't gotten this enveloped in a game for quite some time, but the itch this one scratches for my organizational nature it's crazy. I actually have been playing this one in another lobby with friends as well (from time to time), and the way they play is crazy. Conveyor belts going every which way and wires knotted up like tangled Christmas lights. But that's just what I love about the game. While they go about setting up systems to process Computers and Plastic and whatever else, I'm behind them cleaning things up. Walls everywhere with glass ceiling tops, labeled tube systems that transport us to our different factory locations, wall mounted cable systems that connect to the appropriate machines without getting in the way so as to present an open floor plan. I've gone crazy in this end of the game, to the point that it's taken me way longer to generate the necessary materials in my own game because I'm still trying to perfect the system that makes silica for more glass roof construction. But I love it, and I'll keep playing here and there to perfect my systems and stick around for whatever new systems and materials are introduced in the future.

On: PlayStation 5

This was a nice little exploratory romp that I don't know that I would've ever picked up had it not been for the Completionator bounty system. For TOEM, there are next to no stakes and it's a breeze to get through, with the game focusing around puzzle solving through photography. The environment is blocky with objects made to look like storybook cutouts, and you can find hidden items and areas by using the R stick to rotate around the static areas in a similar vain to a game like Fez (without the mind-bending reality puzzles). Segments that require you to find specific critters or set up a tripod to snap a pic of a shy monster creature are nice in that, even if you mess up, you can quickly reset what you're attempting and try again. The logic behind some of these puzzles is unique and rewards you for not only thinking outside the box, but taking a photo of quite literally everything you come across. I was stuck in the second large area for what seemed like ages because of three quests I couldn't figure out, one of which was a whistling critter that didn't know what to whistle. I took a pic of an old man that occassionally had musical notes above his head in a completely different portion of the map, and this turned out to be the picture I needed to show the whistler. He liked it, gave me a mix-tape, which I then played for the guitar player behind the other quest so that he was pleased. He then gave me yet another mix tape that I played to get a large whale to clear, which was the final quest I was missing in the area. 3 quests went unsolved, solely because I kept missing the musical notes above this old man's head. This should be frustrating, but the character design and the musical aesthetic and the lowkey nature of the game kept me playing through, and like I said, I completed the whole thing (plus DLC) in about 4 hours. Not bad, not bad.

On: PlayStation 5

As a longtime fan of The Talos Principle and a recent fan of it's sequel, I was happy (though not surprised) to see that a sequel had come out. And it delivered a lot of the same that I'd come to expect. The mind-bending puzzle capabilities of the original and the dialogue and more cinematic story elements of the sequel. It all worked pretty well hand in hand, spread out across the three different sections of the DLC. The first of these provided some twisted challenges for sure, whereas the second section was a lot slower paced (although that final cube puzzle took forever!). The final section... oh boy, that really ate up some brain power. I felt smart accomplishing some puzzles like 7 and 22 on the first try. But for some of them I spent up to 30 minutes practically staring at the screen not understanding what I was meant to do. The name of the game with most of these puzzles in the "Into the Abyss" section of the DLC is laser interruption. You have to position lasers to interrupt the beams of other lasers, and that's probably my weakest area to tell you the truth. When it's two or three stationary beams, that should be fine (though I'll probably bust out a pen and paper and take notes about where to place things). But when you have three lasers, one anti-laser, one combination laser, and they're all spinning on a big wheel, well you might as well just shoot me because I don't know WHAT'S going on! The hidden sections of this DLC are at least lenient, just finding a couple of holograms, because they could've been much more evil if they'd wanted to. I am ever grateful that this DLC is off of my plate for now, and I'm off to take some aspirin.

On: PlayStation 5

A free DLC of this scale is pretty amazing, especially for a AAA game, as I usually associate those with trying to milk every little bit of money possible out of their customers. but nope, completely free, and it's structured like a rougelite as well! It's funny that probably one of the most apt comparisons would probably be Hades, which with it's Greek mythology sort of fits into the sleeve fairly well all its own. But here were are. An enjoyable experience, if not all that difficult. I thought I'd have more trouble with this one just given how roguelites are generally structured, combined with the fact that I had forgotten all the controls. But I only actually died 3 times total, and the first one of those you're expected to die because you have all these debuffs on you. It was fun exploring the various zones, unlocking materials to upgrade myself as I would go in and out of the Valhalla dungeon, but still I wish the difficulty spike was more real. Hell, I only died to the final boss fight of Valhalla once, and it wasn't even in his final form (it was because I had to go into the fight with almost no health and no resurrections stones :/). But is there much for me to complain about with a free DLC that's as meaty as this? It gave me a good 12 hours of extra God of War gameplay, so I consider it an honor.

On: Nintendo 64

I've tried completing this so many times, and I've never gotten past the first world. Not necessarily because it's super difficult, but I had a hard time controlling Glover and understanding some of the rules. Not to mention the secret areas and hard to reach locations for these collectable card items. But I committed this time around, and I had a decently fun time. There are interesting locales that make up for a lack of imaginative creature designs and music tracks that grate on my every nerve. The worst bit is likely completing the bonus stages, by which I mean the very first bonus stage. It's like Frogger, but you don't move on a grid, so it's easy to slip around and slide off of moving lilypads and logs. The antithesis of a well constructed Frogger game, honestly. But I liked most all of the other levels! I swear!

On: PC/Windows

What a stressful puzzle game this turned out to be, solely because I quite literally never knew what was coming. You can be thrown into a small environment where everything is exactly as it was before, and yet you're skulking around and analyzing every scentila of your surroundings just to be sure you don't have to start the whole game over again. When there is a difference, it's usually a misalignment of lights or a slightly different poster on the wall. Or, you know, there can be a man portruding from the wall that grabs and screams at you when you get too close. So yeah, lots of unnerving material here if you don't know what you're getting into. But it's a pretty breezy completion, just make it to the end a single time, and then after that all you have to worry about is locating all of the anomalies. And once you spot an anomaly, you can be guaranteed it won't show up again until you've seen all the others the game has to offer. Which is a neat idea! The game WANTS you to complete it, because that is akin to experiencing it. I only wish more games of this length or style would employ similar tactics.

On: PC/Windows

Certainly a step up from The Exit 8 as far as scares and tense situations go. The scariest event in the original would probably be the invisible man or flood anomalies, just because of what they represent. But here, there are little girls, giant hands, glitchy woman, blackouts, rising water, etc. etc. I do feel like some of the nature of the first was lost, as that felt like an investigative puzzle game and this strays a little bit from that. But that doesn't mean its bad, in fact you could just say it's a branching form of the same idea. Numerous Asian cultures have forces and entities that you can only fight or fend off by knowing of a sticking to a very specific set of rules, and that extends to this game. If you don't know exactly what to do in a given situation, you're screwed. And plus, I choose to believe that this subway ride is just how folks living in Japan go about their day to day lives, treating a giant eyeball outside of your car as being in the mundane.

On: PlayStation 4

Another slog of a game to complete, so much so that I put it off for about a year after initially finishing it. Not only do you have to fully level up/rank every class of character, but you need to accumulate no less than 100,000 rings total. Seems like it wouldn't take much effort, but I did the math and even if you went through all the stages a perfect 3 times (30 total), and somehow collected the maximum amount of rings on every stage (999), you wouldn't even be halfway to that goal. It's such an unnecessary grind for a simple task, and that's just sort of the purest distillation of what's wrong with all this. I haven't even touched on the goofy-ass character design stuff, which is a neat idea that isn't really worked to it's fully capabilities. I don't know, I feel like I'm just agreeing with everyone in existence in saying it's terrible.

On: Nintendo GameCube

This was so unbelievably fun for the first little bit, but then the completion curse reared its ugly head, and suddenly this was the most irritating ride of my life. I made it through the Beginner mode and EX stages with no trouble at all, and the Advanced stages and the like only took me about ~5 tries before I made it through without dying. Expert Mode, just as when I was a child, was the most incredibly terrible experience I've had playing a game in a long time. The controller for the GameCube really has never felt precise enough to me to handle stages built in this way, but it's really stage 7 that makes me tear my hair out. Getting over that hump takes a lot of work, and then I can proceed to blow through a ton of earlier stages without problems. Now do all of that without using a continue so that you can make it through the EX stages. Ok, NOW go through the EX stages also without using a continue so you can make it to Master. But wait! There's more! Because if you die in Master, you have to go through all of that over again. There isn't an unlocked Master Mode like for the other 3 modes, so if you die in Master, well then it's time to head back into Expert Mode and deal with stage 7 again and not using a continue and I hated this! I love the game, I really do, but this isn't something that warrants completing to that extent. Just rack up play points to unlock all the minigames and garner unlimited continues and you can consider that completion. The rest just isn't worth it.

On: PC/Windows

Writeup can be found here: https://www.completionator.com/Stack/View/3244.

On: PC/Windows

This is a game about clicking in the truest sense of the word, and it thankfully has a price tag that adequately represents what the game is all about. There are tons of games that just involve "clicking", so it's about time someone packaged the idea into an unsettling 40 minute experience that also brings to the forefront unnerving thoughts regarding sexual proclivities and suicide. All while just clicking, clicking, clicking away... I honestly wouldn't mind just small little experiences like this one, especially when they're sort of taking the piss out of a gameplay mechanic that we all know about (bonus points if it's an obnoxious one like mindlessly clicking).

On: PlayStation 5

Writeup can be found here: https://www.completionator.com/Stack/View/3244.

On: PC/Windows

This game really shouldn't have the price tag that it does. It's a fun and interesting experience, a puzzler that relies on your interaction with the environment and willing to play with items and settings that you've already done before to progress the story. A game with multiple endings, sure, but layered on top of each other so that if you complete the game, you just end up progressing through all the endings one after another anyways. Where the game really falls apart are the shifted endings. Once you start going towards the 3 "colored" endings, the game gets incredibly obtuse and timed out in a way that doesn't make sense. No logical reasoning exists for some of these, with the last ending kinda being discoverable through decoding some mathematical formulas on sheets of paper, but even still it's confusing in a way that doesn't track in my mind. The specific standing around and timing just doesn't sit right with me, and the "reward" doesn't work either. The entirety of the game, while having a trackable story, is meant to be vague and thought provoking in how it meads out its answers. So, when you spend so much time trying to decipher a secret in the game only to be met with middle school level "what is reality?" type postulating, you have to wonder why you even bother.

On: Nintendo Entertainment System

My first time playing through Castlevania. Not a fan, really. It's punishing for difficulty's sake, for sure, with the first couple of areas actually being semi-enjoyable as I grew to know what to expect out of the title. By the time I got through the Frankenstein's monster boss though, I was fed up. Those little hopping nuisances are really what ruined all enjoyment for me with this one. Everything else I was able to plow my way through with a sort of "live and learn" mentality, growing as I moved on and adapting to the difficulty curve and the tells of the enemies. Not with these hunchback menaces though. I might as well have not even been playing when these creatures were on the screen, as I spent my time trying to chart out methods of running away as fast as I could so that I could avoid them at all costs. By the end of the game, I doubt I killed more than 10 of them because I didn't even want to bother with it. Oh yeah, the game can be fun when not dealing with these things. Even the bosses weren't too bad once you know what to expect.

On: Nintendo Entertainment System

I've actually completed this one before, but since the bounty was up for it I decided to give it another go, but this time solo for the first time. It's amazing how difficult the initial stages are constructed to be, with the pseudo-3D stages having some of the harder of the bosses in my opinion, with the projectiles being harder to dodge (due to the perspective change, perhaps?). But that last level is still a complete joke. There's no trouble getting through it at all, and any weapon upgrade you could possibly get can take care of the final boss in no time flat. It doesn't really DO anything except dispatch a handful of alien enemies that you've already killed numerous times prior to reaching this boss phase. I can proudly say that Contra might be one of the few NES games that I'd consider myself to be GOOD at at this point in my life.

On: PlayStation 4

I've tried to complete this a handful of times (mainly pertaining to the last couple remaining trophies that I had sitting around for raid bosses), but given I was doing it solo since my friends were no longer playing this game, I would get frustrated with the grind and put it down. Now, with the "Borderlands" movie having come out, I sat down and decided to once and for all complete this one and get it out of my backlog. And what a chore of a grind it was. The raid bosses themselves all took different tactics and weapon loadouts, and I took advantage of what chest keys I was able to obtain, as well as a couple of XP grinding spots to get myself up to a decent level. This doesn't include the grind I had to go through in the final released DLC to get the last effervescent weapon I needed for THAT particular trophy. What nonsense. But, I can't complain too much I suppose. I mean, even when it comes to those remaining bosses, they were called RAID bosses for a reason. And I don't mind a grindy experience if I can listen to a podcast for a bit and mindlessly pluck away at the tasks in front of me. This was just a particularly slow slog of a grind, that at a certain point I almost considered putting it on the backburner once again. I'm so glad I stuck with it and got it out of my queue, now I can rest easy.

On: Nintendo Entertainment System

I don't really get much of the hate lobbied in the direction of this game, it isn't outright terrible. It's just cryptic, honestly. Once you know where to go and how the attacks here work, it's actually a pretty forgiving game. But 100% NOT something that you can easily get through without a strategy guide. Crouching to wait for a tornado or talking to a ferryman only with a specific item equipped aren't things that you would easily understand, even after talking to townspeople and hearing their "hints". But there are tons of places for healing, items to collect that allow you to shield and see hidden items. This feels pretty revolutionary for the time, and I enjoyed myself more with this than I did the first Castlevania. I think this one is definitely over hated, that's my diagnosis.

On: Nintendo GameCube

I loved this game for no particular reason growing up, and the rose-tinted glasses sure have fallen off a great deal. I do think there are a lot of good points here that other licensed games could pull from, particularly the upgrade/move shop system that allows you to vary up your gameplay just enough from keeping it from being repetitive. And there's a level near the end that takes your collectibles as currency for special battle attacks! I love it when the collectables are more than just random items scattered around (although this game does have those as well). This could be better, but for what it is (and the surprising amount of terrible things I've experienced in revisiting my childhood), I'm glad I can mark this one up as alright.

On: PlayStation 4

LEGO games are trouble for me, they take an exceptionally long time to actually complete, and it gets worse and worse every year. The games are fun enough and mechanically are sound and always improving. But at their core they've turned into fandom fairgrounds that revel in exploring every facet of a franchise's history. This is no exception, with multiple cities spanning two planets and a ton of unlockables. The rosters are always getting larger and more unwieldly as well, and I only hope that we can find a better way to make games like this. I just... don't enjoy them anymore. This is probably made clear by the fact that I took 203 years off from my playthrough of this one because it just got so tiresome.

On: PC/Windows

Writeup can be found here: https://www.completionator.com/Stack/View/3244.

On: PC/Windows

Held off on this one for a little bit after having finished it, mainly because I dread "stalking" sections in games like this. And it really seemed like most, if not all, of the achievements I had missed would place me back into those sections where the Projectionist or Ink Demon are walking around and trying to hunt you. That type of multitasking is where my real worries start to seep in, and here is no exception. But some of the bigger headaches came from the saving mechanic. The game is still pretty broken after all this time, as it frequently just... stops saving your game. Even if you go up to one of the manual save machines, the Bendy head will just flash in the bottom right indefinitely until you close out of the game. And the Chapter Selects don't allow you to save, so if you're hunting for the Tommy Gun for example, and you DIE in the middle of your hunt, you're starting that whole Chapter again! Unless you're backing up save files of course, which I ended up doing and (wouldn't you know it) once I started backing up my saves is when I no longer needed to worry about it and got it in a single attempt. Woof, well on to the Dark Revival I guess.

On: Nintendo GameCube

Getting prepared for my GameCube Spooktober fest early this time! So that I don't miss my blog post write-ups ;) I think since I'm writing posts for the GameCube completions, I'll stop writing about them here in my stacks. Just read the blog post! I'll still mark them up as I complete them here, for completeness, but I won't do a full write-up.

On: PlayStation 5

Not much to say about this one really, I already wrote about it when I completed it on PC. I just happened to see it on PS5 and wanted to go through it again (also figured it would be a quick platinum)!

On: PlayStation 5

Writeup can be found here: https://www.completionator.com/Stack/View/3244.

On: PlayStation 4

What if we took Pac-Man and made it a horror-themed Metroidvania? Well, you'd get Infernium, a pretty difficult and confusing romp across the afterlife. At least I think it's the afterlife? Officially, it's the "Infernium", not that you can get much from that. The game is hard, and I mean HARD, and some of this can be attributed to its permadeath system. You have a limited amount of retries, and can "purchase" others with the light that you collect, but other than that if have what you've got. And these ghosts and weird light skeletons are pissed about it for sure, they don't want you collecting light or harvesting fingers and will chase you down to the ends of the Earth (or Infernium) to stop you. I've started and stopped this multiple times over the years just from getting frustrated with it, and for good reason. Hell, once I made it to the Beach, which is the endgame with no enemies in sight, and I died just because I didn't know what I was supposed to do. Turns out, that area is timed to allow you to get the good ending, which took me even more attempts. Completing this one wasn't too hard, it was just beating it in the first place so that I'd know what to do. Figures that once you beat it once, you consider yourself a master of the game. Then New Game+ comes along and throws more enemies at you. Damn, glad this one is off my plate and out of my backlog for good.

On: PC/Windows

I love these games, sad that it seems I'll be running out soon. This one goes back to the true horror essence of the first two games, this time everything being themed around first person shooters specifically. And they're fleshed out a great deal! Probably because there's a few less games this time around. But there's a ton to each of them, to varying results. I was a big fan of Axis Mundi and The Fruit, just the atmosphere and the way they were structured. Then there were others like Rose of Meat that just took an eternity to get into. I really had a problem figuring out some of the mechanics, though maybe that was my fault for ignoring the Dyk character. I thought he was an enemy so I was ignoring the Rose symbol by his name! Regardless, I liked the collection, I have one more left to go and we'll see how it holds up!

On: PC/Windows

This is one of the weaker entries in the Dread X series I think, just being that the titles themselves felt like less thought went into them. I really liked games like Vestige, Rotten Stigma, and Huntsvotti, but most of these left me feeling either "meh" or sort of upset that I had to engage with them at all. Maybe that's unreasonable, but it's how I felt. The entry that left me with the most empty feeling was probably Dread X III, but after The Hunt (Dread X IV), I thought they were bouncing back a bit. This feels like a bit of a step backwards, primarily because there wasn't too much variety in the games provided. At least it didn't seem that way, I like the entries that allow for creative interpretations of the prompt that allow different styles of gameplay as you go through the collection. I will say I liked the set piece of this Sci-Fi pizzaria with a creature stalking you all the while, that was one of the more involved since Dread X II I think, with the variety of minigames and size of the space provided to you.

On: PC/Windows

This is the most fun I've had with the Toree franchise I think. It's purely indicative of a Sonic title, which I know was the main intent, and the collection aspect kept me playing the 3 available levels over and over again to make sure I could do things right. These games have a way of pulling you in to keep going, striving for full star collection or an S Rank on the speed for the stage, something that Sonic has been struggling to do in it's 3D entries for years now. But hear, it doesn't feel clunky. It doesn't get in the way of enjoyment of the game. And it certainly doesn't turn what should be a fun running platformer into stages that are 8 minutes in minimum length at a time. The one strange thing here is that the game seems to diverge a bit from the horror feeling I got from the first Toree game. I also felt like that disappeared a tad from Toree 2 as well, maybe they want to appeal to a wider audience?

On: PC/Windows

Of the three games in the "Toree Panic Pack", this is the closest to the original 2 entries. There isn't much to say, aside from the fact that I think the levels are WAAAY to long here. Sort of the opposite feeling I had with Toree Genesis, these go on interminably to a point where I didn't think there was any benefit to S Ranking the stages aside from the single character unlock. But by then, do you really want to go back and play these levels again? For my money, this is the weakest of the three "Pack" titles.

On: PC/Windows

The hardest I feel Toree has EVER been, this was rough going. Especially the last group of levels, all of which have a giant skull chasing you. One that gradually increases in speed, I might add. The difficult thing about these missions is that they aren't necessarily just about making it to the exit. Some of these levels have defined goals, like kill all the enemies or collect all the stars before the exit will even reveal itself to you. Others are as simple as making it to the end, but they've ramped up the difficulty by making levels with backwards boosters to propel you back towards an ever approaching skull, or say a level with no ground to speak of, just vertical boosters that you have to move between in order to climb the sky to the exit... also while a skull is chasing you. I played this with a controller connected, and I thought I was gonna break it by the end of this. Difficult for sure!

On: PC/Windows

I'd been itching to get around to this one for quite some time, having watched a playthrough of the earlier version of the game on YouTube a while ago. The game has undergone quite an overhaul since then, with multiple endings and prolonged chapters being available that provide a lot more scares, horrors, and puzzles to dive into. It does make the story infinitely more confusing, however. I remember the earlier versions of the creatures in the game being unnerving from the second person gameplay sections, but at the end of the game resembling little more than a mannequin-ized Mothman analog. Not here, they are flesh mountains that resemble Cronenberg-bug horrors that make it all the more terrifying when they come upon you. I like the PS1-likes that have been getting made in the past few years, from the likes of puppetcombo for example, but very few do it right. I think the overall aesthetic here works and I can only hope that we get more the resemble the likes of this and Murder House before the trend is finally waned.

On: PC/Windows

Yeah, I don't care much for this one. I completely understand that it's sort of the first of its kind (in an accessible way, anyways, there were similar obscure titles that came before it), but it didn't do much for me in the end. And that primarily comes down to the completion. If this was like Gone Home, where it was exploration of a large space that could inform the story but you could do it at any rate, then fine, whatever. But the walking pace, which was a deliberate choice, and the completion aspect of it as well just drove me completely mad. I had to play through the game twice and then go through chapter select to hear all the wonderful dialogue that was presented, as well as the developer commentary tracks, which are at least more enjoyable because they don't feel overly pretentious. At the very least: the environment was nice to look at.

On: Nintendo GameCube

Be sure to read my spooktacular blog post on this one when the time is right!

On: Nintendo GameCube

Be sure to read my spooktacular blog post on this one when the time is right!

On: PC/Windows

There's a fun idea here, and it's simple enough to go through and complete in a short amount of time thankfully, but the combat REALLY drags after a while. It's a good thing the game is as short as it is, because the costumes and battle stamps don't diversify the monotonous RPG battle system enough, and I could see that really getting on my nerves after just a short while.

On: PC/Windows

Writeup can be found here: https://www.completionator.com/Stack/View/3244.

On: PC/Windows

Not much to say, I've completed this one before on console. But I am amazed that, even though it's been so long since I touched it, I can just plow my way straight through with little to no trouble!

On: PlayStation 5

I'm a fan of the Silent Hill series for sure, and I was with plenty of folks on the fence when BlooberTeam had been announced as the developers behind this particular remake. And I was mostly proven wrong, which I'm very happy to report. I don't hate Bloober, they've made some games that I've liked well enough. But I've never known them for games with actual embedded gameplay, and Silent Hill 2 translates very smoothly to this modern generation and all of its sensibilities. My main complaints are mostly handled thanks to the extensive Accessibility settings, which they really didn't need to include so that's a relief. The primary bit here is that the health meter in the Inventory screen was removed in a traditional sense, in favor of that "blood around the screen" thing. Thankfully, this can be turned off and you can just rely on the overall color of the inventory screen to let you know about your health. Even still, that kinda sucks hard. I don't know how other platforms handle this (if at all), but I played on PS5 and this was mitigated through the color of the PS5's sensor lights which is a GODSEND. I love this feature, and it's one of the many MANY small details embedded in the Silent Hill 2 remake that make it a way better game than a remake really has any right to be.

On: PC/Windows

What if a "Dead By Daylight" style game were single player and still just as terrifying? Well... that wouldn't be Harvest Hunt! There are a lot of components that are similar between the two titles, and Harvest Hunt is scary and stressful the first couple of rounds, but it stops being horror a bit after that once you know what you're doing. The monster doesn't vary aside from it's powerful mutations, and you're always sort of alerted to when the creature is near via screen tear or your mask getting jittery. But is it engaging? I think so! The game has a lot of variety due to the random powerup cards and fortifications you get during a round, or "Harvest Season", and there are even more random elements that pop up in each match to help and hinder you. So there's at least some replayability here. Though I can't help but feel if they introduced some form of multiplayer component it wouldn't have so much more to offer!

On: PC/Windows

These were a bunch of fun little morsels of games, the kind of thing that has a pre-defined solution each time, so speedrunning and achievement hunting are made easy when you go back into it. What if the point of the Escape Room was to lock yourself in because of some sort of monster or plague or something? That's what these games posit, and they're plenty of fun to just screw around in with minimal commitment. Apparently the 4th game, not included in this pack obviously, is a bit bigger in scope, so I'm not sure how that handles. But I'll give it a try.

On: PC/Windows

There's so much potential here, what with the charming artstyle and the mysterious story elements and all that. And the game DOES succeed in a number of these areas for sure. My main problem is that the title feels impossible to traverse at times. Metroidvanias that require exploration and constant backtracking with secrets to discover are fairly common place, and I think we know what that landscape entails for the most part. But introducing multiple planes in a 2.5D setting with the added complexity of all of these secrets and everything... yeah, this game needs maps BAD. The overworld map does not suffice, even if it does look pretty cool. It's a testament to the work put in by the team that I enjoyed it in spite of all that, because I think I missed the horrendously messy launch, if the Internet is to be believed. It's just the tracking of the quests and collectibles through the environment as I'm wandering around confused and lost that bums me out.

On: PlayStation 5

This game is rotten. Devoid of any actual horror and structured ina truly bizarre way that makes it feel incredibly short and interminably long at the same time. It has a good core to it though, that in more capable or patient hands could've been something. It's essentially a stealth title based around avoid sharks at a research facility. That's cool! And could lend itself to a decent enough horror title, but the game is way too short, way too easy, and doesn't have enough actual gameplay behind it to justify it's existence. Hell, there are a ton of items in the game and I only really knew what a couple of them did, the others never seemed to have any relevance, so why bother with that kind of experimentation?

On: PlayStation 5

Puppet Combo releases short, fun little PS1-like horror games that scratch a much needed itch, but don't overstay their welcome. This certainly fits into that mold, and I hope they continue making these games well into the future as well. The corny voice acting, retrograde visuals, and over-the-top violence is all icing on the cake of presentation. I still have one more big one that I need to get to on the PlayStation specifically, "Nun Massacre", and I hope I can get around to it next year.

On: PlayStation 5

Not too much to add to this one, as I completed and wrote about it last year on PC. This was just a console go of it so I could gain more trophies!

On: PlayStation 5

Writeup can be found here: https://www.completionator.com/Stack/View/3244.

On: PlayStation 5

Finally getting around to this one, what I've been told is a glorified walking simulator and... yeah, I do see it. But not quite like a "Gone Home" or "Dear Esther", because there are actual aspects of this one that take critical thinking and puzzle solving. At least every now and again. Most of the title is actually just going to different areas of the house, reading a couple of pages of something until you're transported into another narrative, but you will need to fly a kite in just the right spot or locate a hidden key to access another area of the house. It really does try its best to keep you invested and engaged with as little actual gameplay going on as possible. And I like that.

On: PlayStation 5

This is totally an example of a horror game that works well on a first playthrough where you know literally nothing about what you're getting into, and then subsequent playthroughs after that (which are usually needed for completion) don't have as much staying power. An added benefit of the "Plus!" version here is that, on console, you operate in a sort of makeshift terminal on a fake work computer so that you can properly access all of the files and make even further discoveries of your own. This pseudo-ARG element kept me more engaged after the core game had run it's course, and I think that was a brilliant decision on the part of the developers.

On: PlayStation 5

I really wanted to enjoy this more than I actually did, and for what its worth the game actually functions as a game, which is the first biggest hurdle for anything that's licensed. But its clear that this was just built off of the back of Bikini Bottom Rehydrated, with plenty of reused assets and backdrops, even many (but not all!) enemies and tikis look exactly the same and it can come across as a bit soulless. It doesn't help that the game is beyond infatuated with SpongeBob "lore" (as much as you can call it that) and meme culture that doesn't come together into a cohesive whole. Hell, there's a Spongebob gross-out closeup (originally a Ren & Stimpy gross out closeup) in every single chapter, but there are no sound effects or noise or anything accompanying these shots outside of Patrick making a weird gasp and the regular level music blaring on. At least add a damn foghorn sound effect in there, come on! Don't be so lazy, it doesn't mean anything if you don't go all the way. This whole game works as a game, but it feels very surface level patronizing to anyone with a passing familiarity with the property.

On: PlayStation 5

Writeup can be found here: https://www.completionator.com/Stack/View/3244.

On: Sega CD

Writeup can be found here: https://www.completionator.com/Stack/View/3244.

On: PlayStation

A favorite of my childhood, one that I played countless hours of and actually managed to complete back in the day, is now part of my recorded completions on the website: at long last! Part of what kept me from going back to this one is just the fact that I hate time trials, and having to beat both N. Trophy AND N. Oxide on every track was not appealing to me. And yet, my intense experience with Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled reignited my love for the Crash series and the original CTR in particular. And you know what, maybe its just because I completed the remake to death and back, INCLUDING all of the time trials, but I had absolutely no trouble with the game this time around. I collected everything, I entered the code for Penta Penguin, unlocked the Scrapbook, I even just beat all of the cups on each difficulty just so I could have all of the stars displayed next to them on the menu. I fell in love all over again. And it certainly helps that CTR has the best drifting system in a kart racer to this day, bar none. Take that, Mario Kart franchise!

On: PC/Windows

I first started playing this in 2022 and I really enjoyed it! But I put it aside for something else that had come out and this one just sort of... fell to the wayside. And I'm really embarrassed about that, given how much fun I was having with it at the time. But I went back, wiped my save to start fresh, and I made it all the way through. Twice! Because I very stupidly removed my first save file after getting the secret ending thinking the file was a duplicate. So yeah, I found all the manual pages and got the secret ending, deleted my save (still stupid!), and went through it all again to defeat the boss the proper way. The sense of learning and discovery that goes into this one is the real reason to play, as there's nothing wrong with the gameplay but it isn't innovating too much. The fact that the in-game "hints" to the world and progression come to you in the form of the game's own instruction manual written in another world's language is entirely fascinating, and I want to see that type of idea expanded upon for other games in the future. Not that EXACT idea, mind you, that would just be stealing. But something in that realm of creativity is always appreciated.

On: PlayStation 5

I played through this one with a friend and it was a short, wacky ride. I realize that outside of a couple of puzzles and the occasional retro-styled minigame, there wasn't much to actually play here. Much of the game is walking around and debating ethics and morals. At least the game is short and wild with visuals and narrative twists that will have you questioning what exactly you're witnessing, so your attention doesn't falter as you wander around a village looking for where to place a ladder. And thanks to the level select and brief nature of the game, completing the title and getting all the trophies was an easy feat as well, so no complaints here! If I had to make a wish, it'd just be that there's more to actually... DO in "Indika".

On: PlayStation 5

This is a very enjoyable narrative experience for a single run or two, lots of interesting path divergences, fun art, and comical parallax scrolling to keep you engaged as you play. If you are into the "completionist" aspect of things, you'll quickly find yourself in your own nightmare. Playing through and finding out how to get to each individual route to deliver unique hearts is one thing, but if you strive to complete the gallery then you'll find yourself save scumming and revisiting paths again and again and again. There's one aspect that I tried to get numerous times over and over again, only to find out that you had to get to that route in the game from a different path so that you'd have a unique voice in your head, so the branching paths also occasionally meet up as well. This applies to other items in the gallery as well, but once I learned my lesson experimentation was much easier. I just can't honestly imagine going through and completing this again on another platform.

On: PlayStation 5

I got an opportunity to play this on PC when the indie jam version launched, and I thoroughly enjoyed. A short 1-2 hour experience. The full version following the positive reception of the smaller game almost stealthily launched this year, and I just barely squeezed in a completion of it at the end of 2025. It has more of what I liked from the smaller version, with plenty of puzzle solving and logic puzzles as you attempt to save the lives of all of these townspeople. I wish I had known about the completion requirements, because as usual that's where the slog sort of comes from. I actually made it through and everyone survived the first time, I was very proud! BUT, I also needed to do this run in under 4 hours for one trophy, and then do another run where everyone dies to get that trophy, and that's where the brunt of my playtime came from. Given how dialogue-heavy this game is, there's no capability to skip scenes and you need to be present at your desk to make certain decisions, even when you're doing the all kill run. So it can be a bit of a slog to get through, and that took it down in my estimation a bit. But still, another example of a prime, great game to play for a smallish experience, especially if you have no intention on going back and completing it as well.

On: PlayStation 5

This is EXACTLY how these deep, mysterious puzzle games should be structured. There are deeply embedded secrets hidden throughout the well that your character finds themselves in, and a series of layers define exactly where you are in the stages of completing the game. The first is beating the Manticore and reaching credits, while the second involves finding all the hidden eggs and "escaping" the well. Past that point, things become truly obtuse and occasionally involves going outside the realms of the game into the open internet to find what you need. The secret rabbits, which I did include for my completion, has a handful of easily obtainable rabbits once you get different items and find certain secrets in the game. Others are quite literally impossible to find without collaboration with other players (in particular the rabbit billboard), but I pulled through and got the special wings. Outside of that, there are secret instances of wingding messages, cryptic messages that don't seem to lead anywhere, and probably a bevy of other secrets that only the developer knows about. I don't know if or when I'll revisit Animal Well, but I hope by then the more dedicated followers of this type of things have uncovered more for those less talented to witness.

On: PC/Windows

I've currently completed all of the games put out by Harvester Games, and I've enjoyed them all to varying degrees. This is right up there, in the fact that there are light improvements overall, but the actual content and core gameplay is exactly what I expect from these. The weirdest thing about this particular game is that some of the facial models are a bit too detailed... I don't know. Some characters have lip flaps that are pretty basic and static, which is how these games generally go, but others seem to have updated mouth charts that don't sync up with the rest of the game. Maybe I'm just imagining things? But for the sake of completion, I had to complete the game twice, so I feel like that's not so likely as I kept noticing it with certain characters. Still a good game though, excited for whatever they do next.