Brume

[h1]Short Review[/h1] Brume is a cool little atmospheric action-adventure from Sokpop Collective that gets a lot of mileage out of its aesthetic and exploration, but it trips over some pretty frustrating design choices and bugs that hold it back from being an easy recommendation. The combat works well enough, and the vibe is pretty solid, but janky hitboxes, game-breaking bugs, a punishing checkpoint system, and an achievement list that forces multiple uninspired playthroughs add up to an experience that is rougher around the edges than it needs to be. Recommended, but don't expect this to be a polished hidden gem. [h1]Full Review[/h1] Brume is a short action-adventure from Sokpop Collective where you explore a foggy abandoned island, fight your way through knights, leeches, beetles, and ghosts, and make your way to a corrupted keep. It bills itself as a bite-sized experience clocking in around one to two hours (not to 100%, though). Going in expecting a tight little atmospheric adventure is the right mindset. Going in expecting a polished one might leave you a little frustrated. [b]The aesthetics and atmosphere.[/b] This is where Brume shines. The muted pixel art style leans int…

Hard to recommend this game. It just doesn't feel good to play. There are some interesting ideas, but it under delivers. Also cutscenes. Way too many cutscenes, and they're mostly just slowly zooming and panning around things you already see. Completely pointless; like the dev just learned how to do them, so crammed them in every 5 meters with no reason.

Underrated gem!

A very short, small game. A combination of basic attacks, blocks, and dodges to avoid getting bonked by one of the handful of varied bosses.

Jank: The Game

While I was getting all the achievements in this game, I think I came up with one of the most ridiculously stupid stories you’ll probably ever read in a review. Let’s imagine it’s 1994. We have a very young Hidetaka Miyazaki, creator of Dark Souls, and he has a concept for a game. He has a script, a draft, and he presents it to Nintendo. He wants to make a game for the Nintendo 64. "This is my concept and what I want to make". Nintendo tells him, "excuse me, Mr. Miyazaki, honestly your game seems too dark for our catalog. Please remember that we are a family game company. Please shove your project up your backdoor." So Miyazaki goes to PlayStation and makes the same offer. PlayStation tells him, absolutely, this will sell. But let’s imagine Miyazaki, in his youth, let’s say he was around 18 or 20 years old, wasn’t as experienced as he was with the masterpieces he made later, like Dark Souls, Demon's Souls, among others. So he creates a prototype of what would possibly become Dark Souls. He presents the first prototype. And PlayStation’s producers tell Miyazaki: this is very goofy. This is never going to be a successful game on the PlayStation. And we’d end up with this game. I…