I’m such a completionist when it comes to video games that I hate not finishing any games that I start but I have to throw in the towel for this one. I bought this because I thought my flightstick was getting too little use and this is a well known game series that I’ve never dabbled in before. As it turned out, this is so much of an arcade game that the regular gamepad works better so I switched to it. I also very quickly discovered that this is the kind of game that really wants to frustrate the player and force you to make multiple attempts every mission just to find out what you need to do and what to bring. The missions are winnable, no doubt, once you know what to bring and you’re prepared for what’s going to happen, but this game is just too much of a pain for me to deal with.

So I don’t really care about being way late to the party for games but it does feel wrong to play this one-trick meme game so long after it first became popular. It’s an ultra-cheap game that blew up in popularity and spawned countless clones. It’s easy to understand why too: it makes you feel ridiculously powerful as you wade through screenfuls of enemies dolling out death yet it’s such a simple game to play that it takes no real effort. Some people have racked up hundreds of hours on this to unlock everything, which is just insane. For me, about a dozen hours was enough to experience all that the game has to offer. It feels addictive, sure, but it’s still a very shallow game.

Videogames that are adapted from movie properties have a reputation of being so awful that they’ve become a meme and I’ve always avoided them. So it’s quite a shock to come across one that bucks the trend so much that gamers go out of their way to recommend it. Having to shoulder the baggage of being a well-known Marvel property, this game has steep hurdles to climb. So I’m pleased to report that it actually exceeded my expectations. The mechanics are only average and there are some annoying bugs. Yet the story is absolutely top-notch and I daresay better than any of the films are that part of the MCU trilogy. This game is clearly influenced by the movies but it uses none of the familiar stars. It draws instead from the wider comics universe and doesn’t hesitate to use original characters of its own to create a fantastic story.

This game was never really popular and it was made by Zen Studios which is known mainly for making pinball games. I bought it because I liked its circus theming and due to its turn-based gameplay, I knew I wouldn’t have a problem finishing it. The steampunk circus theme is every bit as fun as I’d have hoped and the art and animations are great too. Unfortunately the story is an unappealing family drama and while the game mechanics are solid, they’re not interesting enough to hold up through so many battles that are more or less identical. It’s an okay game but should really be shorter than it is.

I’m playing this partly because I got it for free and partly to give my old joystick, a cheap Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, a workout. It’s been ages since I last pulled it out of storage and I wasn’t sure if it still worked. Plus it’s always fun to relive old memories of playing X-Wing and I was one of the unfortunates who never got around to playing TIE Fighter. Back then I didn’t own a joystick either so being able to fly a Star Wars starfighter with one sounds like fun! This is also really a multiplayer focused game but as usual I will only play the single-player story mode and in any case, I don’t think the multiplayer scene for this title ever really took off.

I loved Slay the Spire, so it was only a matter of time before I got around to playing this deckbuilder game that was clearly inspired by it. It flips the theme around so you’re playing as the forces of hell fighting against good but the story hardly matters in a game like this. It modifies the formula so that you’re deploying monsters to defend a number of distinct battlefields for example. On the whole, it’s very similar however so those who loved Slay the Spire should love this as well. I’d say that the design here isn’t quite as elegant as its inspiration and it’s also a more forgiving game. Yet combined with its better production values, I found myself playing this a lot more than I’d expected.

Genshin Impact has been out for a few years now and though I have little interest in it, its cultural influence has been undeniable. It’s crazy how the AI chat sites are full of characters made by kids from this game. It’s also fascinating that this a China made game but seems to be trying very hard to come across as Japanese instead. They’ve calibrated its appeal very precisely to sell it to the worldwide market. Since it’s famously free to play, I thought I’d at least try it out briefly just in order to be able to understand what it’s all about.