stef

End of February Update

 
This is definetely not late.. nope….
 

Big Thinkers Kindergarten

2.8 hours, no achievements

"Hello there! How are you? It's great to see you here! I'm Ben… and I'm Becky, let's start off with a cheer!"

Big Thinkers Kindergarden is an educational game for toddlers to young kids. You follow the two hosts (Ben and Becky Brightly) as you play minigames and learn things like colors, numbers, spelling, etc.
I played the demo of this in Elementary school so when this got picked for my PoP, I just had to ride the nostalgia train and relive a part of my childhood. Overall its a very cute and fun little game that teaches kids beginner level education.

I don't have much to say about it being an adult and all, so I thought it might be funny to write a review on each minigame for dramatic effect. So here we go!

Time Telling: In this game you learn how to tell time. Ben's head will turn into a clock and the player has to turn the hands to match the time that Ben gives the player. Do this three times and you win! This game actually made me wonder, will telling time be a useful skill to learn in the future when most clocks are digital?

Measurement and Estimation: You and Becky explore the kitchen fridge where you will learn how to estimate height. Becky will turn into various things (such as a cat or rocket) and then ask you to stack food items next to her that match her height. For examples, how many olives match Becky's height. Since Becky tells you what items to pick and has you stack them next to her, it's not as challenging or educational as it should be, even for the chosen demographic. It does do good at teaching counting though.

Thinking Skills: This is one of those puzzles where the picture is jumbled up and you have to move the tiles around to fix the image. When the picture looks as it was intended to, you win! I wish I practiced this skill as a kid. I'm terrible at puzzles. Especially those sliding picture ones. ughh they are the worst. Thankfully Big Thinkers Kindergarden made me feel temporarily smart :P

Art Creativity: This one is fun, and exactly what it sounds like. Ben jumps into a painting and allows you to use him as an art experiment. You can drag different facial features on him like different mouths, noses, eyes. You can paint on him and change colors. It's your basic art minigame, but who doesn't love being creative.

First Letter Identification: We've moved onto the playroom now and were jumping head first into the fish tank. Ben and Becky turn into fish and ask you to finish the word at the bottom of the screen. You have to choose the first letter that will finish the word. For example the word is -at. You can choose either an "L" to make the word "Lat" or an "H" to make the word "Hat." I remember the spelling games being my favorite as a kid. Overall, great game for learning how to spell.

We've been having so much fun inside, but I think its about time to head outdoors…

Spelling and Phonics: We head out into the forest (not the safest idea, but okay..) but no worries because we run into some friendly talking squirrels and a big tree. This is the perfect time for Ben to empty his Tardis pockets that contain 12 items. He throws them on the tree and asks you to pick which items begin with the letter he gives you. For example: Which items begin with the letter Z. You would click on Zebra and Zipper.
I really enjoy the animation on this one. Once you get the correct items, the squirrels vaccum up the other items. The whole game is just cute and fun.

Geography and Directions: Were back in the safety of our backyard when Ben decides he wants to play hide and seek. Ben we just got back in one piece! A map will appear with locations you can click on. Becky will give you clues and you have to choose where you think Ben is hiding. This game humbled me. I took way to long to find Ben. Way… to.. long.. It was definetely Becky's horrible clues and not my problem with directions :P

Garden Maze: I don't remember which category this one falls under. It's start off simple enough and gets more interesting. You start off in a garden maze and you have to lead Ben to the exit. Then in the next maze there is food blocking the path. What are we gonna do?!? Luckily Ben has the power to temporarily turn into an animal. You are given a choice of two different animals and you must match the animal to the food. For example: Horse eats hay or monkey eats bananas. This is like a two for one game. You solve the maze while also learning about animals.

Alphabet Skills: In this game Becky and you take to the sky and land upon a fluffy looking cloud. Becky presents you will three letters and asks you to put them in the order that they appear in the alphabet. After that, you can click on any letter in the alphabet and Becky will tell you what the letter is. Then she'll turn into something that starts with the letter. For example: If you click on a B, she'll turn into a balloon. Then you repeat the same two segments again and again. This one is straight to the point and very helpful when looking letters. There is a different animation for each letter so it's neat to see them all.

Reading and Sentences: We excitedly run to the library and find books! So many books! You open a book thats containers a beginner level story. There are some words in the story that are highlighted green. If you click on the green word, you can change it to a different word! When you change the word, the image in the book also changes to match the word you chose! Each time you play its a different story with a different title and image. This is such a creative game and it's probably my favorite.

Counting and Computation: Alright so in this game, we are in space on what looks like one of those board games where you have to move your pieces forward to win. Each space on this path is a different color and Becky wants to get to the end of the path. Ben will spin and give you two random colors. You have to choose which color will get Becky farther on the path. So if the path has a red, blue, grey, and yellow spot and Ben spins a grey and blue, you would choose grey since its farther then the blue on the path. I explained it badly but you are basically picking the color that will get Becky farther on the path. Once you win with colors, the same game is played but with letters. The letters are not in alphabetical order so it takes some thinking. Although it sounds easy in theory (especially for a grown adult) the way the game is set up is pretty advanced for young kids. I appreciate that they threw a harder game in here to challenge the player.

Environmental Science Were back in the forest, but were here on a mission to do good! Some nasty people left a bunch of trash in the forest, so Becky and Ben turn into a trash can and a recycling bin. You then just have to figure out which pieces are trash and which you can recycle.

Music Creativity: We head into the music room. Yes they have a music room…
I want to know more about Becky and Ben. Where do they work? Who are there parents? Are they from this world? Anyway, the three of us have a jam session. You pick an instrument for them to play and then you can choose how fast or slow they play it. You can have them both play at the same time to mix and match your music. There is a concerning moment where if you pick violin, Becky fuses with the violin. She stretches her upper half and her neck becomes the neck of the violin. They do this with other instruments as well, but its not nearly as creepy. I'm still trying to get the human/violin hybrid out of my head.

Sequencing and Patterning: This is a shape and color pattern puzzle. There is a pattern above Ben's head of shapes and colors. For example: a blue circle, a yellow triangle, etc. It may be my hatred for math (which I think this falls under) but this felt more like work then fun. I think there wasn't enough creativity in this minigame to mask the educational part of it.

Counting and Computation: Were still doing math, but back outside. Birds will land on Ben and Becky's arms and you have to count how many birds there are in total. This game is all about adding or counting, no subtraction. Easy stuff and there's cute little birds.

We just completed all 15 games… that can only mean one thing….

WE ARE A BIG THINKER!

I'm not sure why I spent so much time writing this out but if you are a teacher, parent, babysitter, etc, I think this is a good learning tool. There is probably more up to date educational games out there but this really provides that level of nostalgia and wholesomeness. It's just here to teach and it does a fairly good job at it. Now if they decide to make one of these for adults then I'm all in.


Chicken Police

6.9 hours, 16 of 31 achievements

I'm not gonna lie, I wrote out a big review for this game and then everything crashed and I lost it. So I'll be more breif and to the point.

Chicken Police is a noir style visual novel following detective Sonny Featherland. Everyone in this world is an animal, including Sonny, who was once part of the famous (maybe somewhat infamous) chicken police. After taking on a new case, Sonny must recruit his former partner while being careful not to get entangled in the crime and mystery that surrounds clawville.

This game could have easily been a gimmick, but it perfectly encapsulates the Noir style. Everything from the atmosphere to the dialogue and characters are what breath life into this game. Every voiceline is fully voiced and every single character has a unique voice. The voice acting is wonderful and no matter what you click on, it has dialogue attached to it. Even revisiting locations will earn you new dialogue. The characters are so interesting that you want to learn more about them and the story follows the Noir genre to a T.

The gameplay is nothing out of the ordinary for a visual novel. There are parts where you can put the evidence together, but the game doesn't allow you to continue unless you have it correct. So its less like you're solving the story yourself and more like you're figuring it out as the story progresses. There is gameplay where you can question the suspects, but I'm not sure if it changes the story or not if you fail. I've always done pretty well on those parts.

Overall, the atmosphere, dialogue, characters, and voice acting carries the game in all the right ways. If you enjoy the Noir style, you may really love this game. It just depends on if thats your cup of tea. If was picked for my Challenge Me and I'm very glad it was!


Suits: A Business RPG

4 hours, 14 of 35 achievements

The final game I played in February. This one is a bit of a two parter review.

Suits: a Business RPG is a hand-drawn rpg-maker game. To review this game, I need to go back to the roots. The inspiration behind the whole thing. Suits is heavily inspired by the game OFF by Mortis Ghost. OFF was an rpg-maker game that was released in 2008 and popularized in 2012 when it was translated into English. Suits shares a common theme, artstyle, and character design. Plus you can find the Batter from OFF in Suits if you explore the rooms.

Suits is a fun little game. I like the simple hand-drawn art and the fact that it's short. The jokes were very hit or miss. A lot of it random and some political. It was a unique little game that felt more like a fan project if anything. I did run into a game breaking bug towards the end that required me to rename a file to fix. I'm pretty sure that will pop up for everyone who plays so I wish the developer would fix it. The ending was abrupt. I thought there might be multiple endings but when I watch others play it, everyone got the same ending. It felt very incomplete.
The story didn't make much sense anyway. It's $1 and probably a very small team so I don't mean to be harsh on it. I really wanted to see how it stacked up against the game that inspired it.

I just got done replaying OFF and although it is old, it's still a fantastic game. The art, the sound design, the music, the characters, the story, everything. It throws you into this strange and surreal world where you piece together the story as you go. It has so many unique elements and the ending absolutely sticks the landing. I haven't played the game since 2012, but replaying it still left me with that uneasy feeling. If you've played it you know what I mean.

Compared to OFF, Suits is a bad imitation that misses on everything that made OFF unique. Both are fun little games, and although Suits is $1, OFF is free. With the game breaking bug and the ending, I probably would not recommend Suits, but I do appreciate it for convincing me to go down memory lane (again).


In other news, I finally got a steam deck! It was a birthday present. I played all of these games on it and had a blast. Here are some games I’m currently playing. The games I decide to play always change though so who knows what I’ll play next. I hope everyone has an amazing day

  • Not For Broadcast

    2 hours playtime

    6 of 63 achievements

  • Disney Dreamlight Valley

    7 hours playtime

    no achievements

  • This Is the Police 2

    18 minutes playtime

    0 of 12 achievements

  • DEATHLOOP

    5 hours playtime

    1 of 58 achievements

  • Inscryption

    7 hours playtime

    10 of 40 achievements

Jekofob

Congrats on the steam deck :) I’ve been playing much different since I got mine :) how well do you think Dreamlight runs on it?

Also thanks for the review in Chicken Police, since I just got it :)

stef

Thanks! Dreamlight runs really well on mine. I haven’t had any freezing and the controls are nice!

Trent

Happy belated birthday, Stef! :D
That is probably the most thorough description/review of Big Thinkers Kindergarten in the history of Big Thinkers Kindergarten. :>

Edit: You may now be ready for this game. ;-)

stef

Thank you!

I didn’t know they had more! It might be to advanced for me :P

skanda

You’re not late, I’m late! (Wait, what…)

Happy belated birthday!

stef

Thank you!

franplants

That’s really interesting about Suits, I didn’t know it was inspired by another game! Where can I find OFF?

stef

There’s some Download links on the wiki page here. Just make sure you download version 3!

If you play it let me know what you think :)

franplants

Thank you! Will definitely let you know :-)