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Smashing Bottles (PC) by jp (May 30th, 2026 at 18:16:28) |
Heard about this one recently and got stuck playing the demo on itch (though it's also available on Steam) for a few hours until I got to the final (demo) ending!
It's an incremental game with some interesting things going on - you have a bat and smash bottles, but you have a limited time to do so (in seconds, like max 25 or so after all the upgrades?). When time runs out you can go again or go to the shop to buy upgrades. As expected you want to get more money from smashing bottles and there's ways to do that - spawn golden bottles, champagne bottles (when they smash the corks fly out and can smash other things), and even molotov cocktails (that explode, smashing other things).
There's a few things I thought where nice/clever:
a. The game has two distinct phases (once you unlock molotovs, everything changes, really) - the "you smash" and the "maximize money in the time allowed". In the latter, the game mostly plays itself as the molotovs keep everything getting smashed.
b. The "you smash" has rotating bottles, and since the smashing can take a few hits, there's some interest in smashing champagne such that the cork flies in a certain direction for more damage.
c. The champagne corks are pretty clever - since it gives you a reason to, in the short time you have to smash, choose what to smash a little more carefully. Go for golden or champagne hoping for a productive chain reaction?
Of course there's also a prestige/reset mechanic - from which you can lock a separate bat that smashes.
I'm curious how far things will go once the full game is out - and what the nature of the upgrades will be. I'm really hoping for more variety in the experience beyond the simple "number go up" - in that sense the molotovs seem like they're capping the experience in a detrimental way (even as they were super fun to smash when I first unlocked them.
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Donkey Kong Bananza (NSW2) by jp (May 30th, 2026 at 18:07:32) |
Still playing!
It has an interesting structure in terms of its levels and such - the core metaphor is that you're going deeper into the planet with each level, and they're both thematic and numbered. I got to a point where there's a bifurcation - go right into what I thought was "jungle land" or left into "snow land". I went right did a few more levels, cleared the boss (it was plant/poison land) and in order to continue going deeper I was then told to go back to "snow land"! There's a fast travel/teleport system involving giant worms that can move your around, so it was easy enough to do this, but I was surprised to learn that the fork was just a "choose what order to do these" situation... and also, the entire "fork" makes little sense thematically so I'm curious to see how it's explained and communicated in the interface - will it look like a fork in the "hole" going into the planet's core?
The titular ability (bananza mode!) was a bit underwhelming - you turn into a bigger DK and can now punch things you couldn't before - it lasts a limited amount of time. But, I've since unlocked a new one - DK-bird - where you can glide around (and after paying to unlock) and drop an egg on enemies. The gilding around was important/necessary in the plant/poison levels, and I'm expecting it to be similarly required in the snowy ones. We'll see!
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Hollow Knight: Silksong (PC) by dkirschner (May 13th, 2026 at 14:58:07) |
Kicking myself for not writing an entry when I was playing this 6 months ago. I am cleaning up my wishlist, backlog, and etc., and the FEELING I get when I see Silksong "in progress" is anxiety. I had jotted a few notes in December, as follows:
"It’s true, Silksong is hard. Like, really, frustratingly hard. Like punishingly difficult. I hit a wall at the end of Act 1 trying to beat the Last Judge. The game likes to place benches far away from boss fights, such that retrying boss fights involves slogging back through tough platforming and other sections of the map."
I did kill the Last Judge and complete Act 1. I remember that took a very long time, and that after the Last Judge, I died a few more times and, probably, with shaking hands and rapid heartbeat, said, "I can't do this anymore." Actually, it may have been in one of those rooms with waves of enemies. This innovation is new and unwelcome to Silksong, rooms that lock upon entering and spill several waves of challenging enemies at you. Yeah, I think that is what got me, just being pummeled over and over in one of those rooms, getting tired of exploring the maze-like map, tired of dying, tired of corpse runs, just exhausted. The game became a chore.
Besides that, I loved it, haha. I was definitely into it for a while. It was sublime until it wasn't.
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Turnip Boy Robs a Bank (PC) by dkirschner (May 12th, 2026 at 17:20:35) |
I meant to quickly beat this back in April so I could have a "completion" for the month, but I got really busy after spending barely an hour one afternoon with Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, a bizarre little twin-stick shooter about a turnip...who robs a bank. The game builds off previous games in the series, which I have never played, in which Turnip Boy commits tax evasion and, according to this game at least, seems to have started a war. Work has slowed down for the first time in nearly two months, and while I wait for my next contract to begin, I figured I'd knock this out.
The whole game is silly. The world is populated by sentient fruits and vegetables. You are employed by a pickle / mafia gang leader to rob a bank of a garlic bulb / bad guy / killed your dad. You have a base, where you can get new weapon loadouts by bringing weapons from the bank (always try to return with something new or high-powered!), purchase progression items from the "dark web," and upgrade stuff at another vendor. You go on "runs" to the bank, which are timed (starts at 2 or 3 minutes, goes up to 5 or 6 with upgrades). Runs are over when you die or when you exit the bank. Die and you lose half the cash you accumulated in the run. Survive and you are handsomely rewarded. Upgrade stuff. Go back to the bank. It's a roguelite too.
The bank has a specific layout of rooms, but you'll encounter some randomized areas too, and enemies and treasure are somewhat randomized. Throughout the bank are tons of NPCs with little fetch quests that usually reward you with pictures (fun/ny to look at) or hats (fun/ny to equip). A blueberry might want you to find its wedding ring, a lime wants you to get divorce papers from her lemon husband, a scientist pineapple wants you to find a philosopher mango and ask it an ethical question about experimenting on fruits, etc. I had some good laughs.
In each corner of the bank is a boss. Boss fights were fun, but the most challenging were early on. Once you start upgrading stats, the game becomes easy. It definitely ends up being an "upgrade everything and go nuts on all the enemies!" type game, experience being overpowered.
I haven't played a twin-stick shooter in a while, and while this wasn't revolutionary or anything, it was fun and scratched the itch. I gotta get back to Divinity: Original Sin 2. I might have some extra time till my next gig, so maybe I can boot it up, remember what I was doing, and make some progress this week.
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Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS) by jp (Apr 27th, 2026 at 22:04:52) |
I got to that point where I hit a monster/boss that just wasn't that much fun, and then I got a bit lost in terms of where to continue making progress, and the backtracking started to get a bit tiresome...as I explored and searched for different paths. So, time to bail!
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GameLog hopes to be a site where gamers such as yourself keep track of the games that
they are currently playing. A GameLog is basically a record of a game you started playing. If it's open,
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if you got bored, frustrated,etc.) You can also attach short comments to each of your games or even maintain a diary (with more detailed entries)
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2323 registered gamers and 3358 games. 7895 GameLogs with 13390 journal entries. 5126 games are currently being played.
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Super Mario Bros. All Stars (SNES) by Mmalnox |
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most recent entry: Wednesday 20 February, 2008
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Super Mario Brothers is a platformer game. You are Mario, the main character and you move through different worlds and must rescue the princess.
Game Session 1: I definitely was excited to play Super Mario Brothers because it reminded me of my child hood. I am sure most people had some kind of Super Mario Brothers experience in their childhood that changed their lives at that time. The cultural impact this game already has on so many generations made me anxious to play. My goal here was to really analyze why Mario Brothers is so popular as a platform game. I noticed very quickly how much the game world creates the challenges. This platform game really utilizes the Platform to create a challenging environment. The first world is very simple. There are six levels in this world and each level has a different setting. There are colorful platforms you can jump onto as well as many blocks you can hit from underneath which hold prizes for you that make you stronger. As each level proceeds the game world gets more difficult. Level six in world one really forces the player to use the platforms as a tool to stay alive because there is no ground in this level only platforms you can jump onto which are in the sky, so if you miss one you die. An important element of this game as a whole, are the fun games you are rewarded with as you beat levels within the different worlds. Every world contains these games. One game you have to match a picture as three different sections of the picture move very quickly. Then there is the game where you must match the cards (very classic). Lastly there are mushroom huts which provide three chests and you can only choose one which reveals a special prize, most familiar are the mushroom, flower, and feather (which all allow you to have special characteristics. These fun games are separate from the levels and contain no enemies. I think this taps into children games and childhood. Most kids learn how to play card match at a young age and this definitely has a huge influence on the familiarity of the game in Mario Brothers. Every world contains a small castle and the big castle which must beat to move onto the next world. The small castles generally all have the similar design layout. There are enemies only particular to these castles. The main castle in the first world was very easy and gives you a feel of how the game will proceed. There are cannons flying around and the one characteristic particular to the main castle is that the screen moves and you are forced to move in that direction or you will die.
Game Session 2: As I proceeded to World Two I noticed the variety of the enemies but most important the variety of how the platforms and enemies interact to create conflict. This is what really makes Mario Brothers a great platform game; timing and platform elements combined with enemies among these platforms creates a great challenge. The second world introduced new enemies. Enemies consist of turtles which you can stomp on and use as a weapon yourself (very clever), mushrooms (flying ones also), turtles throwing boomerangs, fireballs, ghosts (only in castles), etc. The new enemy I would like to mention that was introduced in world two are the jumping blocks which are camoflauged with the platforms you jump onto. This is a very great game element move on the designers’ parts. What are the elements that make a great platform game? Mario Brothers really captures this because the platforms are used as tools to survive, as enemies that can kill, and they even have prizes stored inside them. These blocks have little mushrooms inside them and they try to jump on you when you get close to them. You are forced to use platforms and avoid them depending on the situation. As the worlds proceed the mini castles get harder and again the use of platforms to create conflict arises. In this case there are spikes on top and on the bottom of the platforms and the platforms are moving up and down. So you cannot let them touch you. This brings in another amazing element of Mario Brothers; timing. Not only can you run out of time on every level, but timing as you actually play is important. At times there are platforms that are in the air moving and you must jump from one to the other right on time in order to not miss it. Also, there are times when enemies are very close to your only way out and the platforms you are on or under cause a little bit of difficultly for you as you try to avoid enemies and get to the end of the level. There are also water levels as well as water worlds. The water levels contain their own challenges. The tunnels that you can go into are now used as obstacles to get past because they shoot bubbles out and force you down while you are underwater. There are jellyfish and water plants that can kill you also. They are usually stationed near prizes you need. This creates a challenge. There are levels which combine platforms above water but there is water below with fish and flying fish trying to kill you. As the levels get harder the platforms are more difficult to interact with because they are moving quickly while more enemies with stronger characteristics are surrounding you. Overall, Mario Brothers is a perfect example of a great plaformer game because of the many different states the platforms are in, how you can interact with them, how the enemies interact with them, and the timing you must have at certain point in order to stay alive.
Game Design: The game design of Mario Brothers fits into my Game Session paragraphs very nicely. The level design of a platform game is going to strongly depend on the platforms themselves and how these platforms create a challenge. The graphics in Mario Brothers is very basic but what makes this game fun to play is the design of game world. The levels are designed for the player to really utilize action such as jumping, flying, and running. The game is very colorful and attracting. Platforms are different sizes, shapes and come in different forms. Some are not even large platforms but skinny and thin sticks that stay still for a few seconds, then spin very fast to knock you off. The platforms are set up at different heights and this is very important element in Mario Brothers. This allows the player to get to places very high up in the game world, thus providing the sense of a spacious world to explore. There are not just platforms but other object you can interact with, like the tunnels. There are platforms that you cannot get to unless you obtain a feather and fly up to them. These design elements are what make the game fun and this attracts people to keep playing. The design never gets old because there is so much variety in the level design, I cannot even discuss all the elements because as you proceed in the different worlds, one cannot imagine the many different varieties that the platform actually take. Mario Brothers has definitely proved that a platform game can be taken into so many generations and so much gameplay can come out of it, all because of the different states the platform can take.
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