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As We Know It

by Jaime Scribbles Games, PMscenarios

Price (US): $14.99

Included In: Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality

Genre: Visual Novel

Pitch: Can love bloom in an underground bunker?

My expectations: Most of the visual novels I've reviewed have been extremely light on player input, so it's heartening that five of the 14 screenshots along the side of the Itch listing show some decision being made. They've also included a screenshot of the settings screen, which is a baffling choice. Did they envision a potential customer thinking, "I don't know. This game looks pretty good, but I'm not reaching for my credit card until I see visual proof that it has separate sliders for music and sound volume."

The developers asked for $2,500 on Kickstarter and ended up with closer to $3,000, which isn't that much money for a six-person team, but it's a heck of a lot better than your typical indie visual novel budget.

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as long as we're together: magical girls sweet & pure

by cloverfirefly

Price (US): Name your own price

Included In: Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality

Genre: Visual Novel

Pitch: Bad magic is making good magical girls fight each other. The only thing that can save the day is the power of friendship!

My expectations: I super don't care about magical girls anime, and I'm feeling a bit grumpy this morning. Good luck, as long as we're together. The game was first published four years ago and is still listed as "in development," which doesn't inspire a great deal of confidence. I'm curious about how much visual variety there will be. The Itch page shows two screenshots in a row featuring the same characters in the same poses, but they're wearing different outfits in each picture.

#JakeReviewsItch by Rating

Every 2/5 review for #JakeReviewsItch, roughly sorted from best to worst. I'm not overthinking that, and you shouldn't, either. You can also sort by name or genre.

See this month's ranking, or check out other reviews by score: 1/5 2/5 3/5 4/5 5/5

🧡🧡🤍🤍🤍 And Yet It Moves After the first station A Dance of Fire and Ice 2d flight simulator 8 Bit Space (ZX Spectrum Inspired Platformer) ART SQOOL 1977: Radio Aut Arlo The Rabbit Annwn: the Otherworld Anodyne Abomination Tower 10mg: Sealed Estate An American Werewolf In LA As We Know It adjacency 12 Labors A Day In the Woods 4-LEGGED-HEROINE // Down to Earth // Absolute Blue Air Dasher Antistatic ARGH-P-G A Kishoutenketsu in the countryside 10 in 1 game-a-week bundle! a completely normal dating simulation that is definitely sweet, innocent and normal Adventures of a Radish Alone With You After The End: The Harvest An Airport Game Ambidangerous 10 Flights of Ballooning AIdol A Game of Changes 1365 All Haze Eve The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human

#JakeReviewsItch by Name

Every review for #JakeReviewsItch, sorted alphabetically. You can also sort by rating or genre.

# A1 A2 B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

a completely normal dating simulation that is definitely sweet, innocent and normal A Dance of Fire and Ice A Day In the Woods A e r o c r a f t A Forgetful Loop A Game of Changes A Good Snowman Is Hard to Build A Hole New World A Kishoutenketsu in the countryside A Light Long Gone A Lullaby of Colors A Magical Tale: Cavern Crawler A Mortician's Tale a new life. A NIGHTMARE'S TRIP A Normal Lost Phone A Planet of Mine A Short Hike A Sketchbook About Her Sun A Snake's Tale A Wish Upon a Star

Week In Review - 3/26/23

#JakeReviewsItch Week In Review Archives

This week's reviews:

🧡🧡🧡🧡🤍 Angry Video Game Nerd I&II Deluxe 🧡🧡🧡🤍🤍 Animal Lover 🧡🧡🤍🤍🤍 Annwn: the Otherworld 🧡🧡🤍🤍🤍 Anodyne 🧡🤍🤍🤍🤍 Anomalies 🧡🧡🧡🧡🤍 Another Lost Phone: Laura's Story

Hoo. Remember the days when half the "games" I reviewed were junky, half-finished projects, thrown together at weekend game jams? This week's line-up was big and involved, which is why this seems like an appropriate time to discuss burnout. We'll also look at exciting game news and reporting that came from other writers this week. But first, make some time for our...

Game of the Week

This week saw two new games rank among this site's top five. One is a powerful empathy-generator, a game with an important message and the power to change lives. The other is a Mega Man-like with poop jokes.

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Annwn: the Otherworld

by Quantum Soup Studios

Price (US): $14.99

Included In: Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality

Genre: Strategy

Pitch: A resource-management, horror-stealth, strategy game about perspective in a 3D space? It's, uh...rather abstract.

My expectations: The screenshots made me think walking sim. I was pretty taken aback when I saw the word "strategy."

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Animal Lover

by Trainwreck Studios

Price (US): $9.99

Included In: Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality

Genre: Visual Novel

Pitch: A Frog Prince story. Lots of kissing. Lots of cute boys.

My expectations: The Itch page boasts, ">150,000 words!" which sounds more like a threat to me. There's no way I'm reading all of that in time for a review. Another choice quote from the description: "No furries! Don't let the title fool you!" If you're concerned people are going to be misled by the title, maybe dig into your >150,000 words for a different title, rather than hoping they'll click on the game and look for clarification.

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Angry Video Game Nerd I&II Deluxe

by Retroware

A review in two parts.

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Alt-Frequencies

by Plug In Digital, Accidental Queens

Price (US): $4.99

Included In: Bundle for Ukraine

Genre: Interactive Fiction, Puzzle

Pitch: Pitch.

My expectations: From the developers of A Normal Lost Phone? You have my attention.

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All Haze Eve

by xrrawva

Price (US): $2.99

Included In: Bundle for Racial Equality and Justice

Genre: Adventure

Pitch: A trick-or-treating simulator where seeking candy is just an excuse to kill people? Except you have to do adventure game puzzles to break into their property, so I don't know what it is. A hazy premise for a hazy game. It's all haze, baby!

My expectations: Looks Halloween-y, without anything resembling horror. The download is just 33 mb, so I bet it will be short and uncomplicated. Maybe just talking to a few guys; possibly some fetch-quest puzzles? There's only one screenshot on the Itch page—grayscale except for a demon skeleton's glowing eyes. I dig the art style.