Recent reviews by Meat Clown

Deceptively simple, but very hard to master. Stardust Skate combines tight controls and undeniable charm into an endless runner that focuses on speed and performing bounces off of objects. More bounces mean more multipliers mean more speed and more points from collecting stars, which you can then use at the gacha machine to unlock new boards. Has the good old "one more run" feeling and for the price, it's a steal. Highly recommended!

I did not think I could possibly negatively review this game when I started playing - but after a few hours, I will go against the grain here a bit and say that while I respect the basic idea behind the game, it loses itself in meta-puzzles and ever finer grains to the point that even approaching 100 % completion is borderline impossible unless you just love to torture yourself, follow walkthroughs to a T or spend hours on obtuse puzzles. A few light spoilers ahead.

The basic premise of Paquerette is awesome - catch bunnies! They flee from you when you are at least two fields away until they hit the next crossroads, so you have to trick them into running into dead ends, lure them with carrots or snare them with cages. It's honestly really cool and for the first 5-6 hours, the game stays fun and fresh, slowly unlocking new tools for you. Then, you realize that some of the tools can be used to link levels with each other. Then, you realize that getting two bunnies together makes a baby, which also counts towards completion. Then, you realize there are literally hundreds of babies in the game you could get. And then...I lost interest.

I don't necessarily care about 100 % game completion - heck, I gave up Stephen's funny sausage game in World 5 or so because I knew I reached the apex of my (limited) ability. But it felt *good* to stop, because it was a simple matter of me not being smart enough to continue. But a lot of the progression in Paquerette is very obscure - even beyond some of the very hard main puzzles - because many of the baby bunnies can only be made by getting bunnies from one level to another, either by having them fall down the hole, or using your pickaxe to go through walls...combine that with the meta-aspect and hundreds of combinations and it lost it's fun for me very quickly after. You do unlock a computer eventually that keeps track of what babies you already got and the game says it will continue to be upgraded, so maybe, eventually, you get a more clear list of what babies you are missing and where secret puzzles can be found...but that doesn't make the act of getting to all of it more fun.

Even so, though, there are apparently over 700(!) babies, plus the main bunnies - a lot of work and tedium and not really what I was looking for in this game as that ventures far outside the main concept of "chase bunny" and into "how can you chase bunny specifically through map after map to arrive at the one bunny it did not mate with yet"? What makes it even more frustrating is that, to have bunnies mate, you have to release them back into the levels. Your overall percentage progress is kept, but it felt extremely demotivating and annoying to see all the bunnies I already captured put back into the levels, as if I never got them.

If the game would have just taken the basic concept, have it be refined through a few worlds with some twists and turns and be more "linear", I would have been perfectly happy. Granted, I get that this is not what Paquerette is going for and maybe I am just not the target audience - but, in my humble personal opinion, not every puzzler needs to be this big meta-heavy "secrets everywhere" game and it hurts in this case. Either way, how Paquerette sets up it's completion is just too obtuse and unfun overall and involves a lot of trial & error if you really want to find all those babies and secrets yourself - it ain't no Baba Is You, that is for sure. I personally believe that "Less is more" would have helped the game and can't personally recommend it unless you are extremely into finding obscure, twisted meta secrets and puzzle solutions more than just solving well-crafted, "intentional" puzzles - and if that *is* what you're into, I still believe that other puzzlers have that in more fun, fleshed out ways.

You peg, you pop, you perspire, and then numbers go up. Awesome aesthetics and a very satisfying dopamine rush, at least inbetween cursing Nubby for not bouncing the way I wanted him to. In a world of AAA games, this is an A game - it brings it's A game, that is. Highly recommended.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is described as having been made by "some of the key creative talent behind Donkey Kong Country", which immediately got me excited. The DKC games were some of my favorites growing up, and DKC Returns / DKC Tropical Freeze were amazing games as well. This game looks like them, and some of the hallmarks are there (good music, side-scrolling gameplay, detailed backgrounds, barrels!) but just doesn't come together. While I have not quite made it through the entire game before deciding to give up on it, the final challenge is particularly awful - your task is to explore the overworld, finish levels and collect bees on the way that protect you during that big, long final level which you can attempt at any time. Theoretically, the longer you play the game, the easier the final level will get.

It sounds cool in theory, but the final level (I played some of it and saw the rest in videos) is just too long (30 minutes or so), too drawn-out, too tedious and too punishing if you die because you have to do the entire level from the beginning with no checkpoints. Even with 40 bees protecting you, you will have a hard time unless you are a platforming god because the difficulty ramps up so fast and sudden, while the rest of the game is relatively easy (but made harder thanks to the slippery controls and really weird jumping feeling).

The overworld is a nice idea and so are the tonics that can alter the graphics or make the game harder/easier (but which also can't be used in the final level, so what is even the point?), but even aside from the final level, the game is just lacking some of the charm that can be found in other platformers like DKC. It looks like it, but doesn't play like it and I think it fundamentally misunderstands what made those games (and even the Wii / Switch titles) in the DKC series so fun. Momentum is weird, jumping is awkward, collectibles can be missed very easily by just missing a jump or bouncing off an enemy wrong and then you have to restart the entire level or from the last checkpoint, if you were lucky enough to have one close by - oh, and you have to die, because there is no option in the menu to just restart from the last checkpoint.

The game also has some weird (though this might be a personal issue) problems with what I expect to happen vs. what does. Holding A should let me bounce off enemies and platforms higher, but you have to press A exactly when hitting the enemy / platform, which feels wrong and doesn't feel good. There is a tail flutter move in the air that lets you glide shortly, but the animation looks like it should hit enemies and damage them, but it doesn't, which is extremely confusing. Clarity in these platformers is incredibly important, but the controls often don't come together well enough.

Overall, it just feels like tedium, slowly working towards solving a challenge that, in the end, you will only solve through brute forcing and pattern memorization, if that. I quit before I even got all the bees because I do not want to try smashing my head through that wall, but even if you have a lot of patience, the game has some fundamental control issues that make it less fun than other, similar platformers - overall, there are many ideas, some of which are good, some of which less so, but it doesn't make a cohesive, fun whole after the initial positive impression.

Severe controller issues, accuracy problems and a lack of clarity make the only precise thing about this "precision" platformer the guarantee that it frustrates you quickly with little to no payoff. I can't recommend Unlinked Mask, unless you like to punish yourself.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon has pretty much the same positives and pitfalls as almost every other Yakuza game up to this point. Combat is fun, up to a certain point and the new turn-based mechanic is pretty cool, but in the end it turns out to be pretty repetitive as you quickly identify your strongest moves to spam over and over against enemies that either die almost instantly or have way too much health, especially later in the game.

Most of the fights are not very challenging, but two or three bosses present huge difficulty spikes that are hard to overcome, especially with how uninsightful the stat system is (I still am not sure what Dexterity and Agility even do). Still, the battle system is somewhat interesting, has the usual Yakuza zaniness and is different enough to stay refreshing for most of the game.

That being said, the typical Yakuza charm smoothes out a lot of these issues and keeps you playing until the end. Ichiban is a new, awesome protagonist, there are a lot of familiar faces and new, cool characters and the story has the usual engaging twists and turns with a great finale. The substories are usually fun and trying out and discovering the different classes is pretty cool even with the repetitive combat.

The side modes are pretty well done this time around; in Management mode, you run a business, buy properties, hire employees and make money for a company with the goal to defeat rival stakeholders. Enemies are captured in a "Sujidex", which I am sure does not infringe on any copyrights. And Part-Time-Hero has you collect items and defeat enemies for additional goals and rewards. It all comes together very well and there are a lot more small things too, like growing flowers, watching movies or increasing bonds with your party members.

Overall, Yakuza: Like a Dragon is engaging to play and while (as usual) there are a few lulls here and there, it's well worth playing and finishing and you can easily spend dozens of hours doing the usual Yakuza activities of beating up thugs, amassing wealth and crying at the story. Recommended!

Mazaica starts out pretty interesting, but it just sadly isn't much of a logical puzzle game and very quickly becomes trial & error. The goal is to paint a field of tiles with different colors based on how many fields every color can paint. For smaller levels, that works just fine and the game is fun for the first few hours, but the bigger levels (coupled with the higher difficulties) give you barely anything to work with. You can scratch off a few colors here and there, but then you have a color that is supposed to take up 50 fields right next to some that take up 23 and 35, with not much of a hint on where what color goes. Later mechanics, like addition, make that even more frustrating.

Sometimes you can kind of intuit where which color needs to snake itself based on the patterns, but in other levels, you just end up being lost. I think the main problem is that all the levels are randomly generated - that is, where the color fields are and how they are distributed / how many hints are placed onto the levels depends on the difficulty and is randomized; only the actual level patterns are preset. I much rather would have preferred handcrafted, handtested levels where it is guaranteed that there is a logical solution you can follow, because that is definitely not the case as it stands for a lot of the bigger levels.

Luckily, the game does have built in hint functions that mark tiles for you or even solve an entire color, but the bigger the levels became, the more I found myself relying on those almost exclusively instead of bashing my head against the wall. If you don't want to use them and still solve all levels on all difficulties, you will have to guess, no two ways about it, and that just isn't fun when you realize that something doesn't work 15 minutes into a level and the only way to untangle the mess is to restart. Maybe the mentioned random level generator that distributes the colors into the pregenerated field patterns is broken, but either way - Mazaica quickly becomes an exercise in frustration and guesswork, which just doesn't mesh with what is supposed to be a logical puzzle game where you unravel the solution color by color. I can't recommend it at all, and that is upsetting because I played some Hamster On Coke games before, and they did have handcrafted puzzles that always remain logical.

Just like the first LightRay, LightRay Wayfinder is all about top down laser puzzles, this time with a few new mechanics and additions. This time, they also center around the WayFinder mechanic that has been in a few of the developer's ReThink games; triangles that move along a predetermined path and have to reach their goal by using the lasers to open up paths or activate teleporters.

The game is mostly on the easy side, with just the last ten presenting a larger challenge with the addition of reflective mirrors. Just like all of Yaeko's other games, this one is a huge recommendation for puzzle lovers!

As a Boomer Shooter, DUSK is really good where it counts. The movement is tight, shots are accurate and taking down enemies feels satisfying. There are many different weapons, from normal pistols to exploding rivet guns, and many enemies like Wizards, Wendigos and dogs in rolling cages. Another strong point of DUSK is the atmosphere; every level feels dank, oppressive and foreboding, and it almost never lets up. And the rocking soundtrack is the cherry on top - it's really good.

DUSK does have a few weaknesses though. Hit feedback is a bit weak, as is the weapon feel. There is not much weight behind shots and the accompanying sound effects, which isn't that important for a boomer shooter, but could still feel better. Level design is generally pretty good, but it follows the traditional "find key in one part of the level and use it in a different part" pattern of Hexen, Heretic and so forth, so if you are bad at memorizing level layouts, DUSK may frustrate at times - a problem that is made worse by the fact there is no TAB map for the levels. In my opinion, though, most of the levels are small and compact enough that it only rarely becomes a problem.

Even so, DUSK has its heart and most of its body parts in the right place. As someone who has learned to enjoy Boomer Shooters in recent years, DUSK is definitely one of the best I have played so far, and secrets, achievements and endless modes lend some replayability for those who seek it. A definite recommendation!

I am giving Ghostrunner a cautious recommendation, but it is important that you know what you're getting into. Ghostrunner is equal parts fast-paced platforming and frenetic fighting. The former part is actually really fun - zipping around the levels, running on walls, grappling and activating switches with projectiles fluids together perfectly and those moments were my favorite part of the game. The fighting, on the other hand, is flawed, mostly because the encounters are more puzzles than they are actual battles.

What that means is that there are clearly "right" ways of tackling battles, and trying anything other than what the developers intended you to do will quickly lead to death. You die in one hit, and so do enemies, which just reinforces that puzzle structure. First take out this enemy, then take out that next uncovered enemy, and so on. It *sounds* cool in theory, especially with the fast-paced movement, but especially later in the game there will be encounters where you will just die over and over until you puzzled out the exact correct way of going about the 8 enemies firing or dashing at you from different directions.

It gets rather frustrating, but there is usually a way to make it easier on you by baiting enemies into certain directions or reflecting projectiles by equipping one of the unlockable modules that give you certain bonuses. You also unlock abilities over time, but the resource to use them takes a long time to refill, so I only used them rarely. Still, they can make combat a bit easier if you use them well.

The visual design of the game is very good, as well as the soundtrack. The story is nothing to write home about, very predictable and serves as nothing more than a backdrop, but it's fine. There are collectibles to find, an optional DLC I did not try and also a Hardcore Mode you unlock after playing through the game once, but that I will stay far away from.

Ghostrunner is also surprisingly short; it only took me about 6 hours to play through the main story, with some AFK time. Overall, I wish the game leaned more into the fast-paced platforming and less into the combat, but both are here with equal measure and if you only like one part of the game, you might get annoyed with the other. Still, it is a very stylish game with a lot of love put into the environments and animations, and it's definitely worth a playthrough if you know what you're getting into.