Recent reviews by CMYKoi

Binary Domain is like a B-Movie with the ocassional cameo of an A-list actor or actress you love. If you can get past some initial cringe and poor directing, it can be worth your while. Besides, some people love campy fun.


+ Characters: Cain. Also a realistic Brit.
+ Audio: Great music, (mostly) good voiceacting.
+ Graphics: Slick shaders, bad hair.
+ Destruction: Satisfying robot injury system.
+ Narrative: Actually grabbed me by the end.
+ Scrapyard: If only the whole game was like it.
+ Progression: Let the good times upgrades roll.

- Tutorial: Cutscenes.
- Cutscenes: In-game assets, out of POV. Bad.
- Artificial: Intelligence? *I'll do this! Sits around forever.*
- Hordes: Except only until the cutscene ends.
- Obvious: "We're being ambushed!"...20 seconds after 20 robots walk in with the camera centered on them.
- Pause: For dramatic effect. Until sabotaged.
- Romance: I just met you, and this is crazy...but my Mom's a robot...

± Bonus: You get to play as buff Adam Sandler!


Hello and welcome to this review of Binary Domain! A game that's sure to convey mixed feelings. Starts off bad, some things stay bad, some things are great, and sometimes things get amazing for a brief moment.

Binary Domain is a squad-based third person shooter that generally consists of corridors and large outside areas or rooms filled with props that allow you to take cover and methodically gun down your opposition.

On the subject, your opposition is robots, and you can destroy specific parts of them for fun efficiency! When you hear that satisfying ding while their head goes flying, you can rest easy knowing they're going to attack their allies...or at least be a decoy for a few seconds. You can also shoot off their legs and watch them crawl at you. Etc.

Your comrades have specific loadouts, and you have a main gun, but you can freely take other secondary guns. Want to snipe? Go for it. Lug around a big RPG? You can! So this all sounds great so far, right? Fight hordes of robots with a variety of gun types and you get this neat injury system to boot? Well, it is! Except...well, it's not?

The game starts you off with a terrible tutorial riddled with cutscenes and dialogue that constantly take you out of the action. Also your first teammate is kind of a very stereotypical african american. Also, I mentioned hordes, and the cutscenes will convey that there are hordes, but then there will only be 4-8 robots (max) and usually from all directions with gunfire buzzing past you like annoying flies.

Much of the voice-acting is great. Except when it isn't (ie the clearly Asian characters that speak English but can't speak their native language correctly for the few words required, odd seeing as how there are actual Japanese voiceactors for other characters.) The story starts off as a very generic search and destroy mission but slowly blossoms into something far better. (Until the end when the typical Americans do the typical American thing.) Humor. In select situations and moments, it's really great. In others it totally falls completely flat on its face.

Last but not least, the boss fights. Almost every miniboss or boss fight in this game is terribly designed, or rather, the idea is good but the execution of the fight is terrible. For reference, enjoy getting pounded by a gorilla 20 times while you're supposed to be safely shooting it with a high calibre mounted gun...shame it can only turn in a half circle.

On the other hand, all the less than great parts serve to make the good parts shine brighter. And, the camp factor is kind of fun. The story actually does get interesting, even the generic characters grew on me by the end, and there's a good bit of variety in the environments. Towards the end, there's a boss fight or two that's actually good, and a few areas where you can actually fight endless hordes of a variety of the robot types and it is so satisfying to mow them down with your fully upgraded gun.

There's a lot to like about Binary Domain, and a lot to hate, so I guess the question of if you want to play it revolves entirely around if you can enjoy things that are fun because they are bad long enough for it to be fun because it is good, or if you hate anything cheesey.


The graphics in Binary Domain are a bit of a mixed bag. Areas and props kind of blend together all in all, but the level design for whole chapters at least has variety. The shaders and attention to detail is nice, yet I could never stop thinking about how bad most of the hair looked. Animations, especially facial, can be quite janky, not that portraying eye and facial movement realistically is easy.

There's actually some very striking cinematography employed, allowing for some reasonly impactful or emotinal scenes, moments, or screenshots to be had.

Be prepared for a lot of grey, and white, and clinical settings. The areas like the slums, outside areas at the start, or the dumping grounds near the end on the other hand are really great, and I think should have been utilized more for that mix of modern vs futuristic feel.

I think I've commented plenty on how the voice acting is at times good and at times terrible, so let me mention the music. Keep your ears alert, it's actually good. There's a lot of great trance, techno, and other electronic music that really adds some flair and gets your blood boiling for the fights, story climaxes, etc.

Also, again, that satisfying ping when you pop a head off. Most of the other sounds in the game are generic gunplay or explosion sounds, unfortunately.

If you're the kind of person who finds themselves enjoying silly straightforward fun, or wants to take a risk on if it is worth getting invested later on, I recommend Binary Domain:

On sale. In the $4-8 range. Its age is showing and it's been deeply discounted or given away a lot at this point, so there's really no point paying a lot for it. Also considering the oft-questionable design. Still, pick it up to enjoy the finer moments or laugh at the worse ones!

This endorsement approved by The Reviewers' Union,
providing better standards for reviews and reviewers.

Highly recommended addition to the series with some caveats:
1: The story starts off generic and boring, don't worry, it won't stay that way, and it will escalate. Requirement: Patience.
2: The gameplay starts off extremely easy. This only especially escalates near the end. Requirement: Interest in story and universe.
3: You have also acquired the DLC, which beautifully tie in the first game almost perfectly. Requirement: Burial at Sea 1/2 (Note, stealth combat in Burial at Sea Episode 2 isn't very good. Requirement for Caveat 2 applies.)


+ Story: Like BS1, it takes time to get going, but man does it go places once it does.
+ Visuals: Gorgeous, with better variety.
+ Controls: Convenient, simple. (Even with controller)
+ Hacking: Not present. Related:
+ Economy: More reasonable.
+ Enemies: Not spawned constantly as you explore back and forth.
+ Elizabeth: Useful, reasonably cool.
+ Characterization: Growth happens!
+ Gunplay: Most of the guns are dramatically better or more convenient. (-BaS2)

- DESIGN: Many of the mechanics and design features/ethos do not work together. In Bioshock, many of the features go well together or complement each other, or perhaps just give you options. In Infinite, they fight each other, and seem to have been thrown together for the cool factor.
- Vigors: Not as powerful or cool as Plasmids. (Until near the end, one of them is amazing.)
- Combat: Skyhooks suck.
- Navigation: Skyhooks REALLY suck.
[Have you ever thought I want to quickly aim at this thing, get shot while getting to it, then have to quickly aim at a different version of the same thing, miss, and end up on a DIFFERENT version of the same thing? Then die for my trouble? Me neither!]
- Level Design: Opposed to the style of combat. Too open, enemy spawners surround you, too many objects act as obstacles, closed doors that look usable, etc.
- Lockpicking: Serves as a reason to backtrack, explore more than necessary, potential to temporarily lose access to safes by playing the game can cause you to forget they exist, Elizabeth can be busy, etc.

± Optional: I didn't like the (admitedly few) optional sidequests, but others might.
± Repetition: Game will be much better in subsequent playthroughs than on the first.
± Story: Certainly still has some cliche moments.
± Zero Shades of Gray: Mostly black. Not such a bad thing in the context of Infinite's story.


Hi and welcome to this review of Bioshock Infinite!

So if you somehow aren't aware, in Bioshock Infinite (and franchise) there is always a man as the main protagonist. In Bioshock you have a pretty even choice between using guns or superpowers to do your bidding. In Bioshock Infinite you are mostly going to be using your guns, which get progressively better throughout the game. Most of your other time will be spent exploring the map for things to restore your health, salt aka mana, or generally make you more rich or provide further lore. Why would you want to do this? Well...

The Bioshock series has a heavy focus on story, and since Infinite has objectively terrible combat due to the level design and mechanics often fighting each other, Infinite has an even higher emphasis on story.

Why put up with the design flaws just for the story?

Story is where Infinite shines...just not at first. If you are patient with it, Infinite will reward you with twists, mind-benders, feels, and sweet sweet closure. If you were at all enamored with the world of Rapture, you owe it to yourself to play Infinite and immediately continue on to Burial at Sea 1 and 2. It not only expands upon it and ties Bioshock and Infinite together, but you also get to revisit Bioshock in the beautiful splendor of updated graphical glory.

Infinite has a great narrative, and much of the game is dialogue, visuals, and characters coming together to provide you with a great one. You should probably view the combat and general gameplay as a vehicle, obstacle, or break so as to not make the narrative too overwhelming or constant.

So how is the gameplay of Infinite? Well, terrible. Although at times passable, even approaching pretty good, and...this kind of works. The frustration, struggle, and then eventual satisfaction upon seeing what could have been goes well with the movements of the story and gives you an appreciation for things done well while also giving the satisfaction for getting through the things not done well to arrive there.

Also, it will be better the second time.

The graphics in Bioshock Infinite are absolutely stunning, no two ways around it. Models, textures, environment design, etc. are all very well done. There is a high attention to detail everywhere.

On the other hand, a lot of NPC models are repetitive, or sometimes downright bad. The gorgeous environments are often constructed in a way that make knowing where to go next confusing, and there's also little in the way to make various paths and areas visually distinct enough. Well, Infinite is a flawed gem, after all.

The Bioshock franchise has always had exceptional voice acting, a reasonably distinct set of characters with interesting voices, and great sound design in general. Almost every action you can take or encounter has a very specific sound, which will either be not unpleasant, or unpleasant on purpose. Many of the sounds are psychologically satisfying, and well...I don't really remember the music much at all in the main campaign. So take that for what it's worth. I want to say it is a nice mix of not bad, beautiful, and too in the background or repetitive or overwhelmed by other sounds so as to not stand out.

Also, like in Bioshock 1, and perhaps worse...the enemy NPCs will not stop talking over each other and babbling randomly and making it very hard to hear the story among other things.

If you are a fan of the series, buy it. If you are a diehard fan of Bioshock 1, buy it in spite of the worse game design for the story. If you didn't like Bioshock 1, give it a pass. For people who read the review and think the game will still interest them I recommend Bioshock Infinite:

Around 20-30$ for the game with DLC, OR:
30-40$ for the whole franchise including DLC.

This endorsement approved by The Reviewers' Union,
providing better standards for reviews and reviewers.

This is a tough one. Anomaly is a bit of a hidden gem...but also my brain hurts. Also some of it is a bit clunky. Also the graphics and presentation aren't always on point.

So TL;DR of a TL;DR: Buy it if you are okay with a slight lack of polish in exchange for a fairly beautiful brain-busting 3D rotation-based puzzle solving platformer experience.


+ Graphics: In the second half of the game, where individual light sources are carefully placed, there's a real beauty and variety.
+ Audio: Simple satisfying sounds, some pretty decent music, and nothing bad to speak of.
+ Story: At what cost does one value freedom at? Is freedom the end goal?
+ Controls: Functional, rotation happening separate from the controls with 3D triggers in the world was a good call.
+ Dialogue: Ano's initial reactions and curiosity to everything is very cute.
+ Puzzles: There are multiple solutions, and the game really ups the difficulty by the end.

- Graphics: The first half of the game is primarily only blue and has more of a flat world lighting feel with fewer particle effects and other sources of different colors.
- Story: While the execution is decent, and the story is more of a reason/backdrop for Ano, the premise is fairly generic.
- Controls: Never before has rotating something 90 degrees the wrong way been so easy! (This isn't 100% the fault of the game)
- Dialogue: Stop or something bad will happen! Okay, wait, NOW something bad will happen...I'm warning you!
- Puzzles: The puzzles in much of the first half to 3/4th of the game are a bit too easy once you grasp the mechanics.
- The End: No, not the ending of the game. The part where you think it's the end...then you have to do more platforming through a long hallway for no reason at all.
- Tutorial: I like a game that doesn't hold your hand overly much, explains through show, not tell, and action. On the other hand, I thought my game was broken for a while because it doesn't indicate in any way that it is normal at first to not be able to understand the dialogue/language on the walls.

± Holes: Not necessarily plotholes, but after beating it I want more explanation...or more appropriately, exploration of the story's characters and lore.


Hi everyone and welcome to this review of Anomaly 1729!

So Anomaly 1729 is a hidden gem, albeit perhaps a slightly unpolished diamond. If there was ever a sequel or a reboot in the far off future, let's say it is a title with a lot going for it that could easily be capitalized on. In Anomaly you are a humanoid...robot(?) with a very natural curiosity to explore the world around you. You quickly find that the world, however, has other ideas. It wants to keep you where you are, with your freedom and curiosity intanct. Or maybe it only wants to keep you away from the truth?

Well, the world does this by changing all around you, at first against your will. Doors close as you clear areas, new passages open, and you're often maybe not quite sure where to go first or if it's possible to get there. This makes an interesting parallel with Ano, as you the player has to have a natural curiosity to see more to drive you forward as forward is often...not forward, but in any number of places, and in all places. So the question in Anomaly, is where do you go first to progress when you have to go everywhere anyway? It's nice, because you are often left free to explore the areas that seem most interesting first.

As you progress in the game, you slowly get more ability to control the world. You can stop or start moving platforms, rotate them, or make something push instead of pull. Eventually this results in you rotating whole rooms and floors to your brain's utmost dismay. It's absolutely beautiful, but hard to keep track of. What was just the ceiling is now the floor. What is now the floor is now again that wall to the right in the room. And all of it so that you can get through that door in the left side of the room that needs to be the floor. Welcome to Anomaly 1729. The game that asks: How badly you want to get to the end while challenging you, teasing you, and inviting you in for more with it's intriguing story, simple and effective graphics, good music, and openly oppressive world ready to be conquered.

The graphics in Anomaly 1729 are simple, and I would argue effective...just not at first. Blue, blue, and more blue, with perhaps a touch of gray. Eventually you get to darker blue. To be fair, in that stage of the game, things are simple and you are learning by doing and too much variety would detract from your ability to do so. It also works well with the story, as you are early on in a more innocuous area. I challenge you to bear with it, though, as once the game opens up the graphics really start to shine, literally. Textures that were repetitive get broken up by more individual feeling light sources, there's objects and particles everywhere, the level design becomes complicated, convoluted, and labyinthine resulting in a much more diverse and beautiful experience. Later on, it even becomes more obviously thematic. The visuals do a great job of representing the state of the world and its characters. Word around the block is that it makes for a gorgeous VR experience as well, although I wouldn't know personally.

Okay, I'll come clean here: I absolutely love the sound the dialogue makes. I don't know why. It's just deeply satisfying for no other reason than some odd biological imperative or psychological effect/manipulation it was possibly designed to have. Moving on, though, there's not a whole lot to the audio of Anomaly 1729. The sounds are understated, concise, crisp, and then over. Again, this works well, as it leaves you free to think about the challenge and the world before you. That's not to say the audio feels empty or barren, although you may find yourself thinking that at a few points if you get stuck, as the music feels very dynamic and appropriately engaging if you pay attention but zen if you don't. The strength of the audio of Anomaly 1729 is that like the world, graphics, characters, etc. it all blends together to create a cohesive experience focused on solving the challenges and getting to the end of the world. So, how badly do you want to find out what's at the literal end of the world?

I am hesitantly recommending Anomaly if you want something that challenges you at:

Half price if you want a fun 4-8 hour experience that may leave you scratching your head or:

Full price if you are a diehard puzzle game fan, like gravity/rotation puzzles, are addicted to games like Portal/The Talos Principle, etc.

But for either category you fall into, don't expect Anomaly 1729 to have quite the same level of polish or big budget value. Anomaly does, however, very much make up for it with it's raw and free design that clearly has some heart and soul poured in.

This endorsement approved by The Reviewers' Union,
providing better standards for reviews and reviewers.

(Read on for the full review!)


A masterfully crafted work of art that is challenging, fun to play, deep, thematic, and beautifully executed; The Void is a game that I think everyone should have in their collection.


+ Graphics: While not technically impressive anymore, the consistency and quality of execution leaves The Void aging well.
+ Atmosphere: Not only the visuals, but the audio, themes, and gameplay work together to make you feel sad, lost, and scared.
+ Class: On the subject of themes, tasteful nudity is always a plus for me.
+ Depth: The void could perhaps best be summed up as a resource management game. The ability to manage these resources well, however, takes a lot of thought and care.
+ Lore: I love the lore. It is deeply entrenched, subtle when necessary, and leaves many distinctions up to the player to work out.
+ Clever: Quality design decisions leave the player feeling how they should, and playing how they should, albet perhaps after a few failed attempts.
+ Difficult: If the previous statement wasn’t enough to let you know, the game is difficult. It is entirely possible to back yourself into corners.
+ Glyphs: Any game where you can draw glyphs and shapes and such to execute actions is cool to me.

- Saves: In a game where poor play can mean having to start a whole new campaign, I wish there was a more navigable save system.
- Do Not Pass Go: This game takes a good bit of figuring out. You may want to look for a guide or comprehensive let’s play starting out.


± Adult: Unless you are relatively progressive, there’s a very adult nature to The Void that makes it very not kid-friendly. On top of the nudity, you have something often extremely melancholy and at times horrifying.


Hello and welcome to this review of The Void, something of a first person exploration and resource strategic management game. Great design, however, doesn’t make it feel like all you’re doing is managing your resources as if in a spreadsheet.

Get ready to dive. In The Void, you are a lost soul. There are Sisters, 10 Sisters in all now. Each Sister has a Brother. The Sisters require Color to live, as do all entities in The Void. The Brothers, however, worship Color and are efficient in their use of it, providing for the Sisters, who in turn help to keep the Void alive. You arrive at the perfect time, while the Void is dying, you bring with you new color and life with the help of the first Sister who provides a heart and mentorship to keep you alive in a confusing new locale. It is now your job to be an interim Brother, revitalizing the dying Sisters, rousing the Void from its apathy, and dealing with the warped mentality of the Brothers. Grow and harvest Color to survive, provide, and fight!

So, the management of color goes something like this: You find Color, harvest it into your Lympha, your Memory as it were. You can then fill your Hearts with Color, which is not only necessary to sustain yourself when actively in the Void, but converts it to Nerva, a Palette of Color to be used at your discretion. From your Nerva, you can grow more Color, allowing you to either store excess for later, or increase your reserves as an investment.

Using the right Colors for your current Realm is key, as well as utilizing it minimally to progress. If you, for example, have a full Nerva, Heart, and Lympha, your excess Color stored in your Heart will have nowhere to go; unable to be converted back to Nerva from your heart, unable to be metabolized into Lympha, spilling into the Void, damaging the Realm you are in. Having Color in your hearts can provide significant buffs, crucial to progressing in the game without starving yourself. Namely: Silver and Violet. Silver reduces the effects caused by the use of color. Violet increases the efficiency of color during actions such as growing trees. Also important is Gold, but for a more singular purpose; filling the Sisters’ hearts with less Color because of the trustworthiness it imbues in you increasing their receptivity to your Color.

So, now you are on an adventure where you bring Color to the Void, responsibly, wisely, and stealthily. You must lay low until you can deal with the Brothers, slowly buidling up your power, health, and reserves, carefully sustaining, planting, and harvesting the whole while. Good luck!

Just refer to the Pros section, or a video. A screenshot would only do it half justice. The art is consistent and atmospheric, it ages very well.

The music, sound effects, and voice acting are top notch, adding much immersion.

Everything in this game is satisfying and crafted deftly, I recommend The Void at:

Any price.

This endorsement approved by The Reviewers' Union,
providing better standards for reviews and reviewers.

(Read on for the full review!)

Are you four years old? Full grown adult? Old man? Doesn't matter, just buy this adorable, fun RPG by Monomi Park!


+ Graphics: Lush, adorable pixels everywhere.
+ Audio: Simple, cute, not super repetitive.
+ Gameplay: You ranch the cutest things ever. Come on.
+ Economy: The plort exchange is a cool concept.
+ Progression: Upgrades galore! Addictive!
+ Developers: Transparent, nice, stick to roadmaps.

- Micromanagement: Auto-feeders will release more food than necessary, gardens need constant mindfulness of harvests, plort collecters will fill up very fast with favorite foods. Slime science can alleviate much of this, but only so much.

± None.


Hello and welcome to this review of Slime Rancher, an adorable FPS RPG about corralling slimes and stealing their poop for sweet sweet profits! Let's get started.

So the meat of Slime Rancher is in its gameplay, where you explore, discover, and...ranch slimes. You can corral them, free-roam ranch them, or let them hang out in their preferred areas and clean up their droppings to your liking.

So first off, there are small slimes that are manageable and come in a simple variety, larger slimes that are a combination of more than one, and giant stationary slimes you have to feed to break apart and get rewards from. Apart from the giant slimes, Gordos, you get plorts from the small and large (Largo) slimes, which are their magical poops that feature a wide variety of uses in technology and are considered quite valuable. As a slime rancher, you collect slimes and feed them so you can collect their plorts.

There's a lot of exploration in Slime Rancher, with 4 huge areas and many sub-areas and passages between them. There's also a lot of content. While the game is simple to play and the goal is simple, there's all manner of upgrades to unlock from teleporters to health and jetpack efficiency increases. You can upgrade your corrals and farms and coops to make things run smoother, too.

Not everything has to be purchased though. Fruit and vegetables grow in the wild, and there's boxes with random goodies and treasure capsules waiting to be discovered, too!

I don't want to say too much, as this is a wonderful and magical feeling title and I'd hate to spoil that for anyone, but it's a great game that's fun even though a lot of the gameplay boils down to sucking things into your vac-pac or shooting them out. This is a case where even though what you're doing may be a boring action, the way you do it and the reasons for doing so make the game a real treat.

So the graphics. My god the graphics. This game is gorgeous, from its great execution of the realistic turned cartoony style to it's crisp design and great use of vibrant and varied color. The whole game is a visual treat full of varied VFX and unique areas with distinct identities. Oh, and did I mention everything everywhere is freaking adorable? Absolutely anyone can find something to enjoy here, gameplay and graphics-wise.

The audio in Slime Rancher is fantastic. Each area has its fair share of unique ambience, but since so much of the game involves the wildlife, each area gets its own sort of unique sound through the foreground noises it produces also. Most sounds are concise and satisfying, and have the feel of a happy birthday celebration. Streamers and confetti shooting off, joyous laughter, plants and wildlife being spit out of the ground with a fun popping sound, plorts clinking around, etc. The music is just as happy, and just as stellar. Maybe after 10 or 20 or 50 or 100 hours you'll get tired of it, depending on your tastes, but until then it's a blast.


So if you somehow didn't see this coming, I can safely recommend Slime Rancher at:

Full price.

This endorsement approved by The Reviewers' Union,
providing better standards for reviews and reviewers.

(Read on for the full review!)

Dungeon of the Endless is an exceptional roguelike with high quality design and polish, variety, challenge, and fun.


+ Aesthetic: Gorgeous pixel art, animations, and visuals.
+ UI Design: Extremely appealing and functional.
+ Audio: Great music, great ambient sfx, and crisp clean UI sfx tie in with the visuals perfectly for great immersion.
+ Gameplay: Strongly prominent elements of resource management and tower defense in a roguelike dungeon crawl? Yes.
+ Variety: With no expansions 21 characters and 5 pods give you plenty to look forward to, experiment, and play with.
+ Online: Being able to play and coordinate with friends locally or from around the globe is a nice treat.
+ Developers: Special shoutout to a devteam that has spent many an hour supporting, expanding, and patching their game well after launch.

- Progression: Feels like later floors conspire against you; making you spend a lot of resources to get few back, making the last couple of floors feel like a mad dash.
- Friendless: When playing alone, there's a micromanagement aspect that can make the game more difficult for you.
- Endless Inventory: Just kidding, it's limited, so if there's no shop, you're probably going to be sacrificing.

± Nothing: There's few cons, let alone neutral aspects to DotE.


Hey there and welcome to this review of Dungeon of the Endless; likely the first roguelike of its kind, fusing together elements of tower defense with direct hero control with a healthy dose of resource management and dungeon crawling!

So, as stated, prominent features are direct hero control, resource management, dungeon crawling, and tower defense. So in order:

Direct Hero Control: You can have up to 4, and you right click to move, left click to select. Attacking or opertating (increasing efficiency of a structure at the cost of staying in the room for successive turns) is automatic, but requires you to be parked in the room you want to do it in. Most heroes have at least one active ability, which will display under their avatar at the top right of your screen. Click them anytime you feel they are best used. Various mechanics such as operating, the ability for your character to spawn block enemies in unlit rooms, and more make it so that you will often have to keep very active tabs on who is where, doing what, and when to change it. This can make the game much more friendly to those playing with friends, as you won't have to keep track of 4 heroes, their abilities, where they are, where they need to be, and constantly select different ones.

Resource Management: There are 4 main resources: Dust, industry, science, and food. Dust is for powering rooms, allowing you to make your path through the dungeon safe, or unsafe, at your choosing. Dust is the single most valuable resource going forward, as unpowered rooms can spawn enemies when you open new doors. It is also required to keep rooms with machines functional, so if you want to keep getting your resources from your generators every turn, they have to be powered. Industry is used as a resource with which you build things, so I would say it is of second highest importance because if you can't build new generators on each floor, you won't be able to get many resources at all. You either have it or you don't , pretty simple. Science is used for research, done in specific rooms if you discover them and spend the science to research from one of the available options, which can differ from naturally found research pods. Last comes food, an important but often dismissable resource that enables you to not only feed your character to heal them in an emergency, but to level them up. While doing both of these at times can be critically important, not having food isn't always the end of the world.

Dungeon Crawling: So every floor has a random amount of rooms, which can be powered or (mostly) unpowered, have heroes for hire, additional resources, shopkeepers, and various other surprises. As you explore more and more of a floor, you will require more dust to power important rooms while also trying to balance powering the most inconvenienent places for enemies to spawn in on you. Dust can come from newly explored rooms, machines, and killing enemies. There are also items and passive as well as active abilities that can increase your dust gain. There is an emergency generator machine that you can build to power a room and help with gaining dust, so research this technology asap if you find it. As you explore more of a dungeon, you will find yourself having to make decisions and sacrifices. Do you keep the sword for that awesome character you hope to find and unlock or the healing item for an emergency? Do you keep the piece of armor that protects you more, or lets you gain more dust? Can you afford to let that hero operate this machine, or will that place you in jeopardy? Essentialy, the dungeon crawling aspect of DotE is about quickly responding to new discoveries and how they may alter your priorities. If you can't tell, DotE is a very tactical experience.

Tower Defense: So yes, I'm sure you now have it firmly in your head that you can build generators to spawn resources every turn (door opened) but that doesn't cover the wealth of options. No, not just that emergency generator you need to find and research immediately, but also a shop for the shopkeeper to be relocated and operated, and various offensive and defensive pods that can be used as traps or buffs for your heroes that will be fighting in specific rooms. There are many otions here from direct attacks, slows, disables, health regen, offensive ability increasing pods, etc. You have to plan ahead and not place these wastefully, as you are not only limited in amount, but the landscape of the dungeon may change unfavorably as you open more doors, leading to a hole in your defenses you can't patch either due to lack of industry or lack of dust to power a room.

So. Can you utilize your resources and cunning to keep your heroes and structures safe as you uncover the whole floor? Do you make a mad dash for the end, knowing you no longer have the ability to sustain yourself? Or do you ultimately run out of options as you slowly die, trying to hold on for hope of a lucky find that will save you and let you get to the end and escape the dungeon?

Good luck!

The graphics in DotE are absolutely beautiful. From the sharp minimal UI, detailed pixel art, fluid and distinct animation, great color palette or beautiful digital paintings that serve as loading screens that may become some of your favorite new desktop backgrounds your eyes will always be entertained and enthralled. Seriously, the bar has been set high.

On the other hand, the audio is just as good. Haunting music and crisp decidedly placed sound effects tie together very well with the graphics and gameplay to create a cohesive whole.

Just buy the damn game. Unless you hate challenging games, roguelikes, or the stress of micromanagenent, you'll love this.

This endorsement approved by The Reviewers' Union,
providing better standards for reviews and reviewers.

(Read on for the full review!)

Thoth is a twin stick shooter with elements of platforming, a dynamic environment, and varied colorful minimalist graphics. While a bit hard, it is fair, if frustrating. Definitely worth checking out for fans of the genre or people who like short bursts of gameplay.


+ Graphics: The aesthetic are a treat.
+ Design: Great sense of difficulty progression.
+ Audio: Also minimal, but still effective.
+ Difficult: Yet reasonable.

- Explanation: There is none. Menu may be confusing at first.
- Limitations: Controller only.

± Power: No powerups can make things mildly stale on repeat attemtpts. Which there will be. Speaking of which...
± Repetitive: Not the gameplay, but the levels. You have to reach a checkpoint level to save your progress, and I have mixed feelings on this. One the one hand, it's annoying, but on the other it ensures you have a good grasp on the mechanics and your skills.


Hey everybody and welcome to a short minimal review of THOTH!

You shoot colored squares, they become hollow, empty space. You still can't touch them, but this is where the mechanics will build from. Later, there will be things like chains you can't touch connecting the squares you can break by destroying said squares and ever expanding black holes. The game knows this, too, slowly building on the mechanics and introducing them to you by showing, not telling. This is a great choice for people who like a game where it feels like the environment is dynamic, and pursues and reacts to you. THOTH has elements of platforming and puzzle solving, as well, with barriers that switch on and off as you kill enemies.

That's about it, really, it's a very minimal twin stick shooter, but very hard, very engaging, and very fun and satisfying to progress in.

Minimal, but an ever-changing color palette makes the graphics feel fresh while giving the level sets a sense of identity and individuality that allows them to be memorable and also compartmentalized in a 'thank god I beat that' vault all the same.

In an interesting twist, the audio in THOTH mostly revolves around sound effects, that phase together to create something resembling music. If you're not shooting or killing enemies, you mostly get an ambient rumbling bass. It has a space horror movie kind of feel to me, especially with the 'silent not-quite-a-scream sound' or harsh crashing sound the enemies make upon dying.

THOTH might be minimal in nature, but the execution makes everything feel vibrant and alive. It is challenging, but fun, and makes you want to play just to play the game, progress, and conquer.

I recommend THOTH at:

Full price.

(Since the price point is very reasonable to start with.)

(Read on for the full review!)

Secrets of Grindea is a fantastic homage to the golden age of RPGs with a lot of modern comforts mixed in. It is very much feature complete and well polished for a game in early access, and not just features relating to gameplay mechanics, but actual activities you can occupy your time with. Campaign, a roguelite arcade mode, and co-op make for a healthy bit of longevity. Presentation is great, with good graphics, animations, and sound.

Pick it up!


+ Graphics: Clean sprites, animation, and backgrounds. Fun colorful palette.
+ Audio: Music is nice, sound cues are all reasonably distinct, excluding skill sfx.
+ Story: There's enough humor baked in to make it less pointless, albeit hit and miss.
+ Grind: Permanent buffs through card collection, tons of items, skills, etc.
+ Design: Satisfying level design, puzzles, dungeon length, progression, etc.
+ Heart: Some definite love has been poured into this product.

- Waiting: It's not finished, yet.
- Balance: Some playstyles fare better than others, but that isn't to say they aren't viable.

± Binds: Controller binding slightly limited.


Did you ever wish there was a game where you could just sit around and fish, collect, craft, fight, dungeon dive, level up, and more as you choose, with each element being satisfying, but ALSO you wanted it to be similar to games like The Oracle of Ages/Seasons in the Zelda series? Secrets of Grindea is for you! If you don't want the last aspect, go look at Stardew Valley.

Gameplay in Secrets of Grindea is simple. Interaction and weapon/skill use are on separate keys. With a keyboard, skills can be rebinded to specific keys. With a controller, skills can be swapped out inside of specific binds, you can't change the binds for shield and weapon use. Essentially, you're either interacting with an NPC, moving around, or fighting with your weapon and skills of choice. The fun comes from how many ways there are to execute these actions.

You can fish, which involves keeping a bar lined up over an icon, horizontally. It's relaxing, satisfying, and you can even fish up equipment from time to time! You can use ingredients and even previous armors and weapons to craft new armors and weapons. Talk to NPCs for fun, or quests (many of which reward skill or talent points.) Refight bosses with ease and convenience whenever you want. Fight mobs with specific spawn zones whenever you want. Respec your build and play a different way. Redo your hair and clothes, including colors. Progress in the campaign, solving puzzles and completing challenges to complete dungeons. Kill monsters and critters to try and complete your card collection, which grant permanent buffs. Capture specific critters/monsters as pets, which can be used to boost your stats. Amass wealth by selling drops you farm. Try your builds in the roguelite arcade mode. Play alone. Play with friends. Play with strangers.

No matter who you are, I maintain there is something to like in Secrets of Grindea...

Except those annoying bees.


Oh, did I mention you can do all of this while being immersed in a cute colorful world with gorgeous sprites, backgrounds, and simple fun animations? Because you totally can do that.

The screenshots should speak for themselves.


So the sound in Secrets of Grindea may be the one weak point of the game. That isn't to say it is terrible, but simply that the rest of the game is so good, it has a bit of trouble keeping up with its current implementation. You won't find yourself buried in 100 different sounds blurring together and deafening you like some games, but at the same time, the diversity of sound applied to skills and actions can be a bit unsatisfactory. If all the skills had more distinct, appealing, impactful sounds that gave them more individual identity, the game would feel a lot better, as your character would then be something more individual you can be more attached to as well. Now, all that said, you probably won't be muting the game or anything, and the music is nice, although you may end up muting that if you hang out in certain hubs a lot. On the other hand, I found myself muting the music less often than other games, because it is appropriately relaxing and/or fitting for the areas and situations they go with.


Secrets of Grindea is an RPG about variety and freedom. Oldschool gamers, adults, kids, casuals, and hardcore players can all find something fun here. I recommend Secrets of Grindea at:

Full price.
2x Full Price.
3x Full Price.
Maybe even 4x Full Price.

This endorsement approved by The Reviewers' Union,
providing better standards for reviews and reviewers.

(Read on for the full review!)

If you can excuse the lack of netplay, Megabyte Punch remains the best brawler for the PC with its fluidity, customization, destructible environments, and stylized graphics.

+ Graphics: Vibrant, smooth, unique.
+ Audio: The music and sounds are exceptional.
+ Style: A multitude of parts allows you to play your way.
+ Local: Sometimes, online functionality is difficult to code. Sometimes, any delay will ruin your experience. This is more in the latter category than the former.
+ Support: Plug and play with more than just a 360 controller.
+ Polish: Rumor is during post-production the finest grit sandpaper was taken to the smooth surface of this gem.
+ Fluid: Level design and encounters are consistent and fun.
+ Frenetic: You will stay on your toes.
+ Variety: A plethora of unlocks and enemy types will keep you engaged.

- Input: The game likes to keep player 1 controlling the other characters at startup.
- Online: If it could be done, at worst it would be a dead mode.

± Specials: It can be very frustrating to get a new part and not be able to utilize the attack you want, potentially having to prioritize a swoop or convenient move.


Hello and welcome to my review of Megabyte Punch, since everyone ever knows what Smash is, and MBP is a triumphant attempt at bringing SSB to PC, let's just get into it.

In Megabyte Punch you are a Megac on a mission with an energy shield, a pelvic thrust to break shields and stun, a jump, a regular attack, double tap to dash, and five special attacks. You utilize these abilities to get through the story and your enemies to beat the game, which starts off basic and easy. As you beat enemies, you collect parts, which can boost your abilities or give you unique attacks. There's a large variety, and enough overlap that you can pick and choose based on aesthetic and still get the bonuses/moves you want.

As you encounter more enemy and move types in more challenging levels, the game becomes progressively more fun and engaging. The story is sparse but actually relatively decent for its type. Still, for the most part the aim of the game is to beat things up, and I'm here to report to you that it excels at this, being just as fluid and fast as Smash while adding its own innovations, and keeping a great sense of balance with the cooldowns on the various attacks, be they big and satisfying or short and sweet. There are mid-range, long-range, and close-range options, with a roughly 40/60 split between ranged and melee variants. You can stack parts providing defense, offense, jumps, ranged/melee attacks, or more for specialized or fun builds, so the gameplay promotes a lot of individual technical skill while retaining a lot of fun. Basically, I'm telling you to buy it if you for some reason haven't already!

The graphics in Megabyte Punch are downright gorgeous. They retain a vibrant blocky style that would be at home in a NES Zelda title but they don't rely on pixels or take any shortcuts to look good. There's a very good spread of variety to the levels and environments, and plenty of skin colors to unlock and you can definitely make some great looking megacs to dish out the beatings with.

The music and sounds while perhaps not universally appealing are all very high quality. Well produced, sensible, and satisfying.

While I still wholeheartedly recommend MBP as a solo experience, if you have even just one friend that you can couch party it up with, I can confidently recommend you buy Megabyte Punch at:

Full price...but it does go on sale and in bundles frequently.

This endorsement approved by The Reviewers' Union,
providing better standards for reviews and reviewers.

Key supplied by developer for review.
(Read on for the full review!)

Moonshot is a glorious space tank romp for up to four players, I promise you will have fun, and you will have many laughs with your friends. It's a bit like if the Worms type genre and SSB had a baby. The developer is responsive, nice, and considers ideas and feedback from the community. You can't really go wrong with a purchase here!


+ Graphics: Simple but detailed with a vibrant color palette and good effects.
+ Sound: Fun sound effects match up beautifully with the attacks and animations.
+ Variety: Multiple maps, gamemodes, and offline/online play to keep things interesting.
+ UI: The menus are actually quite beautiful.
+ Gameplay: Frenetic and beautiful. I've had SO many unexpected laughs.
+ Diversity: Multiple playstyles are possible, from aerial bombing, siege mode bombardments, flying rushes, and vanilla missiles.
+ Multiplayer: Seems reliable, have run into few to no latency issues.

- Controls: I find it quite strange that the buttons to enter and exit a game versus continue an exit an existing game are reversed.
- Controls v2: Moving around with a control is so much easier, with an analog stick. WASD is clumsy because it's only A and D, and I am used to using them respectively, IE: A to move down/light when on the right side of a planet.
- Menu: Currently can't access invite friends button with a controller. (Will be fixed.)

± None.


Hello and welcome to this review of Moonshot! A game where you pilot tanks in space, attempting to repeatedly kill your opponents with missiles and bombs. Moonshot has a simple concept and simple gameplay, with some added elements and great execution to make it really shine, so let's talk about how it plays.

There are several gamemodes planned for Moonshot, and a few already present with Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Last Man Standing. With two other potential gamemodes I know of in the works, Online/Lan functionality, and AI matches, you'll have tons of options for how and who you want to play with.

In terms of actual gameplay, once you get the controls down, you have a flying tank that can fly in the direction you point it, drop 3 aerial bombs once you have been flying long enough to transform, shoot targeted missiles while on the ground, and siege mode while on the ground. Siege mode allows you to charge missiles faster, allowing them straight and fast flight, and a recharging shield that can take 3 hits before going down.

So to reiterate you can fire charged missiles straight and true, arc less charged missiles, bomb in the opposite direction you are facing, artillery strike in siege mode, or perhaps try to quickly fly to an opponent, land, and hit them with a missile. If this sounds to you like there's a lot of options for taking your opponents out, and like there will be many missiles flying everywhere, you're right!

The result is a beautiful frenetic chaos full of explosives and death, and I've never had so many laughs just playing with one other person before, and I'm sure you can imagine, looking at the trailers, how crazy a 4 player match is. Network mode is newly arrived, and improving to feature parity quickly. There are some extra features in gameplay like solar flares, item/powerup drops, gravity of the sun, planets, and asteroids all thwarting to send your tank into the sun or asteroids to blow it up, etc. If your tank gets blown up, it isn't the end! (Unless you flew into the sun.) You will now become a pilot, and have a chance to evade your opponent's attacks to reland, giving you a renewed tank, albeit at the cost of your opponent getting some points. (If they are the reason your tank blew up.)

Keep in mind that when you are flying, you have a limited amount of fuel, so if you get going too fast and use too much at the same time, you will likely find yourself dying off the edge of the screen.

So this is what Moonshot boils down to: Blow up your friends, laugh at unexpected things constantly, feel like a badass when you pull off awesome kills. The presentation is great, and while the gameplay is simple to execute, the resulting chaos and skill ceiling introduced from the different forms of interaction will keep you on your toes, laughing, and challenged.

On an ending note, the controls are a bit strange when using WASD, because you only use A/D to control movement of your tank, W and S to fly/brake. With a control, you get a better feel, since left analog acts more like a universal "go where I tell you" movement option, however, it will be much harder to quickly aim missiles. I haven't found a good remedy to both of these issues, but it isn't too hard to adjust the m/kb controls, I just find it worth mentioning a controller may be more comfortable if you aren't playing super competitively.

To sum it up breifly the graphics in Moonshot are simple, very stylized, and very beautiful. The UI is a wonderful treat, beautiful and thematic, and elegantly proportioned ... if just a touch clumsy to navigate currently due to the controls.

The sounds are fairly distinct, and do not lack for the feel of impact or satisfaction, but I do still find myself feeling like something is somehow missing, but I can't put my finger on it. Maybe it's just that I want my tank to sound like a fully fledged spaceship when hurtling through the air, but either way the music and audio in general is very serviceable, and you won't even notice it much anyway over the voice of your screaming and laughing friends.

Moonshot is worth your time, especially if you like party games, or can only play with your friends online. Both are very rewarding experiences. If you have friendships you need to repair (or break) I recommend Moonshot at:

Full price.

It actually feels fairly generously priced at its current total of $8.00.

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