Week In Review - 04/23/23

#JakeReviewsItch Week In Review Archives

This week's reviews:

🧡🧡🧡🧡🤍 Antecrypt⚡ 🧡🧡🤍🤍🤍 Antistatic 🧡🧡🤍🤍🤍 The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human 🧡🧡🧡🤍🤍 Arachnopunk 🧡🧡🧡🤍🤍 Arcade Spirits 🧡🧡🧡🤍🤍 The Arcade Tower 🧡🤍🤍🤍🤍 The Archives of Evil Dr BA 🧡🧡🤍🤍🤍 ARGH-P-G 🧡🧡🧡🤍🤍 Arigatou, Ningen-san! 🧡🧡🤍🤍🤍 Arlo The Rabbit

Thanks to my unexpected hiatus, this is more like a Week-and-a-Half In Review. What does that mean for this column? It means there are 10 nominees for Game of the Week, but beyond that, it's going to be business as usual. Oh, actually there's one other difference today. Usually, I write both a Week In Review and a new review on Sundays. It's a lot of writing! I'm skipping the review today, just to see how that feels. Later in this post, I'll share my thoughts on former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé's business memoir. A few weeks ago, I came across a 2021 presentation by Meghna Jayanth that raises fascinating questions about the default structures and values in game design.

Game of the Week

This crop of games contains so many that were almost onto something, but there's no question which one was best.

#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 Rating

Every 1/5 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

🧡🤍🤍🤍🤍 1,000 Heads Among the Trees An Outcry, prologue The Alabaster Donut Farm A Magical Tale: Cavern Crawler ACIDTRIP as long as we’re together: magical girls sweet & pure A NIGHTMARE'S TRIP Above: The Fallen Adventure for a Bit The Archives of Evil Dr BA Anomalies A Lullaby of Colors 6 pack of craft games A e r o c r a f t

March 2023 Game Awards

#JakeReviewsItch Game of the Month Archives

You know how this works: Every day, I review an Itch.io game, and on the first day of each month, I give prestigious awards to the previous month's games. There is no reason we need to acknowledge that I've been on hiatus for more than two weeks. We can just pretend that everything is normal. This month's award categories come courtesy of Steve Kim, whose Tweet was the first hit when I Googled, "1 like = 1 game". Thanks, Steve! He also has a long-abandoned Tumblog, which is pretty fun if you want some silly goofs about things that were happening on Giant Bomb 5+ years ago.

#JakeReviewsItch by Genre (Page 2)

Every review from #JakeReviewsItch, sorted by genre and arranged alphabetically. Genres provided by developers/publishers on Itch.io. A lot of developers/publishers seem very confused about what kind of game they've made. You can also sort by name or rating.

See Page 1 for: Action / Adventure / Card Game / Educational / Fighting / Interactive Fiction / Platformer / Puzzle / Rhythm Genres on this page, alphabetically: / Role Playing / Shooter / Simulation / Strategy / Visual Novel / N/A (No genre tag)

Role Playing

6 pack of craft games After The End: The Harvest An Airport Game

Shooter

// Down to Earth // 1993 Space Machine Absolute Blue ACIDTRIP Alfal's Grove And All Would Cry Beware! Angry Video Game Nerd I&II Deluxe Antecrypt⚡

Simulation

2d flight simulator 2 9 0 1 / / FREELANCER A e r o c r a f t A Planet of Mine Airships: Conquer the Skies Anomalies

Strategy

9 Till Void A Planet of Mine Airships: Conquer the Skies Annwn: the Otherworld The Archives of Evil Dr BA

Visual Novel

12 Labors 2064: Read Only Memories a completely normal dating simulation that is definitely sweet, innocent and normal A Mortician's Tale a new life. A NIGHTMARE'S TRIP Adventure for a Bit AIdol Amelie Amethyst Hearth An Outcry, prologue Animal Lover

N/A

4-LEGGED-HEROINE 10 in 1 game-a-week bundle! 1977: Radio Aut A Light Long Gone

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Angry Video Game Nerd I&II Deluxe

by Retroware

A review in two parts.

February 2023 Game Awards

#JakeReviewsItch Game of the Month Archives

Like a lion, March is here, and that means it's time to celebrate Itch.io games I reviewed in February using award categories stolen from another publication. As is tradition. This month, our template comes from the latest issue of Game Informer (Vol. XXXIII / No. 2 / Issue 353; Resident Evil 4 remake on the cover), mostly because I idly flipped open a copy last week and landed on the "Best Dork" category.

2/26/23 - Week In Review

#JakeReviewsItch Week In Review Archives

This week's reviews:

🧡🤍🤍🤍🤍 Adventure for a Bit 🧡🧡🤍🤍🤍 Adventures of a Radish 🧡🧡🧡🧡🤍 The Adventures of Elena Temple: Definitive Edition 🧡🧡🧡🧡🤍 Aerannis 🧡🧡🧡🧡🤍 Affinity 🧡🧡🤍🤍🤍 After The End: The Harvest 🧡🧡🤍🤍🤍 After the first station

Later in this post, we're looking at Game Boy from a different angle and shining a spotlight on games you're not likely to see on Switch. But first...

Game of the Week

The start and end weren't so hot, but that was quite a run in the middle of the week, wasn't it?

#JakeReviewsItch

The Adventures of Elena Temple: Definitive Edition

by GrimTalin

Price (US): $4.99 (Free demo available)

Included In: Bundle for Racial Equality and Justice

Genre: Platformer

Pitch: A two-button exploratory platformer, presented as if it's a re-release of a monochromatic Mac game.

My expectations: I've already played quite a bit of this. I completed at least one of the three dungeons. By design, it's rather basic, but its puzzle design, platforming challenges, and light exploration successfully scratch their respective itches.

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Adventure for a Bit

by JUSTCAMH

Price (US): $3.00

Included In: Bundle for Ukraine, Care Package Bundle

Genre: Adventure, Interactive Fiction, Visual Novel

Pitch: A short story about striving to procedurally generate a perfect world.

My expectations: The first line on the Itch page is about an AI named Bit in a procedurally generated world. My first thought is, "Sounds like a game designed by a programmer." Solo developer Cameron H. has 21 "tightly designed games" on his Itch page. At the bottom of the page, he's included Adventure for a Bit in a list of his eight best games. I'm skeptical of this big talk, but I dig his confidence.