Fnord

This really is the short game month for me! Several more games beaten, all of them super short!

Rituals

1 hours, 7 of 7 achievements

More

Rituals is a short point & click adventure, where you move through a stylized low-polygon world. The game has a very clear environmental message, but sadly, like so many other games that tries to have a message, it does feel far too "on the nose" about it, it lacks subtlety and nuance. I would have appreciated what this game was trying to do had it not basically been spelling things out. (Then again, the Starship Troopers movie was heavily criticized for being pro-Fascist at launch, a movie that kid-me found to be too a bit too obvious about its anti-Fascist/authoritarianism messages, so maybe you need to be this obvious….)

In Rituals, you're an employee at a company, a person who goes through your daily rituals, not really thinking about what the company does or the greater picture. But then one day something weird happens….


Dark Quest

8 hours, no achievements

More

I'm going to consider this one to be beaten, even though in actuality I ran into a bug that prevented me from progression. It felt like I had seen everything the game had to offer.

Dark Quest is basically a single player HeroQuest, where you control the entire party of heroes. You fight your way through dungeons, and hope the dice don't let you down. The game does feel a bit less punishing than HeroQuest did, and enemies taken multiple hits to kill, but the basics are the same. Were it not for the bug, I would say that this is an alright, but not great game.


Detective Grimoire

2.2 hours, 7 of 7 achievements

More

Detective Grimoire is a rather nice, if very easy, point & click adventure game, where you're a supposed to solve a murdery mystery. You do this by collecting clues, talking to people, and using the knowledge you have about the case to piece together information.

This game would make for a great introduction game for anyone who's new to the point & click genre. It's quite, funny, and really easy. For anyone with a bit of genre experience it will seem trivial though. It's also far too obvious who the culprit actually is. The game basically tells you what to look for right away.


Dollar Dash

2 hours, 2 of 20 achievements

More

Dollar Dash is a dead multiplayer game that you can still play against bots. You're playing a thief, who wants to steal as much money as possible, and there are other thieves trying to do the same. So you fight over the money, using weapons that drops on the board. This would likely be quite fun with others, particularly after a few drinks, but against bots, it's rather dull.


Beat the Game

0.7 hours, no achievements

More

Beat the game is a weird, kind of artsy, point & click game about someone collecting sounds (hence the name of the game). You're playing this strange looking lanky person, who collects items and listen to sounds, and that's basically it. There's one small map that you move across, and you can switch between day & night.
I'm not the target audience for this game, but it was not an unpleasant thing to play. I enjoyed the weird visuals and the games offbeat sense of humor, but being a person who does not really enjoy music, I did not like that portion of the game. Still, if this game looks interesting to you, then pick it up on a sale, it's probably worth it!


THE LAST BLADE

0.3 hours, 1 of 10 achievements

More

THE LAST BLADE is a classic 2D fighting game that was originally released in the arcades back in 1997. I'm not great at judging fighting games, as I've got limited experience with them, but THE LAST BLADE seemed fine. The pixel art is outstanding, and even as a novice player, I was able to pull off some impressive-looking moves, which felt rather satisfying.
As this is am arcade game meant for vs. play, don't expect the campaign to offer much though. It's really short (less than 15min), and there's just a token story in there.


Crystal Picnic

0.2 hours, 2 of 10 achievements

More

Crystal Picnic is kind of an RPG, mixed with an action/platformer. It's got some cute pixel art, and seemingly a cute story as well. But sadly the game falls short in the gameplay department. You move across the map like in a JRPG, and when you encounter enemies, the game switches to a 2D side-scrolling mode. And this is where the game falls apart, you've got foreground objects that obscures enemies, and you can appear right on top of enemies, which causes unavoidable damage.