May Monthly Round-up
Everything I've written everywhere
If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been experimenting with content. I created a vertical called “The Daily Demo” that’s serves as a means to check out new games of all kinds. I’ve been tracking open rates for these emails to determine whether I should keep sending them daily or post them exclusively to the site and send a less frequent email about what I’ve discovered. I’ll continue to iterate on this idea and in the coming months, I’ll be changing or adding new content for you to enjoy as well as soliciting feedback about what you would like to see.
What I wrote
Newsletters
These are newsletters I wrote for GamingTrend. These will require a free registration.
Xbox memo didn’t inspire much of anything
Mixtape: A boss fight in the “is this a game” foolishness
So much freedom outside the zeitgeist
Reviews, Previews, and Impressions
What I wrote for GamingTrend
Forza Horizon 6 review
Super Bomberman Collection review
Void Breaker’s mod system makes it one of the more interesting roguelite shooters
Daily Demos
Demos I discovered and wrote about. Daily Demos for May will be paywalled June 5. They’re short, so read on!
A roguelike city-builder all about creating the largest combo
Would you guess that a game called Combolands is actually a city-builder with the goal to harvest resources in large chunks? In that regard, it’s misnamed, but in terms of it’s gameplay, it’s entirel…
Wildblue Skies needs wild new originality
So many of us want a new Star Fox game. We’re finally getting one. It’s a remake of Star Fox 64. Or is it Wildblue Skies? If you squint hard enough, you might be able to see a difference. Wildblue Sk…
Enigma Heart could be charming, but it needs more love
Enigma Heart is an odd RPG, fashioned after Zelda II: Adventures of Link. It’s charming, but some of the design choices are dumbfounding.
Fluff Up helped me realize my limits with difficulty
A game like Fluff Up challenges my rationale of what a reasonable difficulty is. The developer says this precision platformer is “brutally” difficult. They’re right. Its physics are tuned to be preci…
Lucky Shot is hitting its target
Lucky Shot reminds me of when I started playing Overwatch. The only FPS games I played before the hero-shooter were Halo and TimeSplitters. I didn’t grow up with a PC other than a Commodore 64, and I…
Penguins vs Seals doesn't capitalize on its potential whimsy
One of the most unoriginal concepts a game developer can do is create contrived animosity between animal species and have them settle their differences with human weapons. That’s Penguins vs Seals. D…
Corporate Climb is another example of indie demos gone wrong
Trying out making The Daily Demo free for a limited time. Enjoy!
Chicken Must Fry would be better as an idle auto-battler
Trying out making The Daily Demo free for a limited time. Enjoy!
Brigandine Abyss isn't capturing that Fire Emblem magic
Brigandine Abyss reminds me too much of Fire Emblem. My feelings made sense once I checked the website and saw the highlighted developers who’ve worked on Nintendo’s turn-based strategy franchise, as…
Warhammer Survivors translates well to the Vampire Survivors formula
Warhammer Survivors answers my question of what happens when you take a game and stamp it into another franchise. This is Vampire Survivors with a different skin and a couple of other bits.
The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales looks like it will be a magical journey
The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales follows an orphan named Elliot who grows to be an adventurer across the vibrant and dangerous land of Philabieldia. He’s a jolly fellow, totally aware …
Koko's Cafe could use a shot of something
After playing the Koko’s Cafe demo, I checked the Steam description to see if the voices were AI generated. No mention. Developers aren’t obligated to disclose if they’re using AI, but the main chara…
Rogue Breaker is a cool concept with intolerable design
Roguelikes typically include mechanics that are purposefully troublesome. Rogue Breaker has a insufferable quirk where the game briefly stops after hitting a block, and I can’t I can’t tell if it’s m…
That’s it for this month’s round-up! Thank you for reading and subscribing. Replay Value continues to evolve and I appreciate the support.
See you in June, the month of Summer Game Fest!