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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,
you still consider yourself to be playing the game. If it's closed, you finished playing the game. (it doesn't matter
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)
for that game. Call it a weblog of game playing activity if you will.
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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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Katamari (PS2) by dreamalot2007 |
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most recent entry: Saturday 26 January, 2008
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Summary:
Katamari is a single player puzzle like game. It is very unique in that it has an adventurous feeling but is more of a puzzle in that there is very little conflict. The goal is to roll the katamari around the level in order to reach a certain size. In the higher levels there is a time limit. The player can only pick up objects based on relative size.
Gameplay:
I was very annoyed with Katamari. Very Very annoyed. It was too easy to get stuck and not be able to fix the mistake in time. The player needs to feel like it’s still possible to win up until the very end otherwise there is less incentive to play. I also found the music annoying. It was a nice score but the addition of words to the music made it seem that much more repetitive. Were there no lyrics I would have really enjoyed it.
I enjoyed the story a lot. The actual storyline wasn’t extraordinary, though it was original. What I really enjoyed about it was the dialogue. There was a lot of it and I’m sure that after a couple times playing this game it would start to wear on me, but it was funny and held my interest long enough to read all of it. This definitely deserves applause as most gamers, myself included are in the game for the action, not the introduction.
I liked the animation in the game because it was simple. The characters were mainly shapes without a lot of intricate detail. Their movements were basic and predictable. Sometimes in-depth animation can be very visually aesthetic however it can get in the way of playing the game. In Katamari the characters were simple but very cute, helping the player to identify with them, but not become overwhelmed by them.
Gameplay:
I was much less frustrated this time as I played my way through a few levels. I definitely mastered the controls more and was able to steer more accurately as a result. However, now that finishing a level was actually a dim possibility it was more frustrating when I didn’t make it.
The story was less involving this time and I became more aware of the puzzle aspect of the game. In that way everything looked less foreign but also less intriguing. I still enjoyed the game but it felt as if I could have been playing any other puzzle game and it wouldn’t have made me miss Katamari.
Design:
The game has a very simple concept by design. The makers therefore made the navigation of the game easier and the actual completion of the game harder. This is a quality of a puzzle game. The effort is more mental. Remembering where certain objects are and how big you have to be to pick them up. In this way the game is more systematic than challenge requiring mastery of difficult skills very quickly and randomly. This is a very effective game design because it makes it playable for all levels of gamers. They don’t have to spend a lot of time training after which they lose interest in the game itself. Instead they can jump straight into the game and let the levels improve their skills.
What’s interesting about the game world is that like most videogames it gives the illusion of many choices and lots of open space. However they very carefully control your movement by only letting you pick up objects relatively smaller than you. So at first you spend your time in the area with the small objects and then move progressively into the areas with the bigger objects. Without even realizing it the makers are guiding you through the game. They very effectively simulated a choice for the player.
My main objection to this game is the view at which you sometimes see the game. When going under a table of behind a pole you lose sight of the katamari and the character. I know that this creates more of a challenge but I see this as unnecessary. By keeping the character and katamari in sight at all times the game makers would cut out a lot of the frustration that first time players could become discouraged by. If this were cut out it would not change the difficulty of the game drastically but it would lessen feelings of ill will by players just trying to make it through the lower levels.
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