Now were getting weird again with these three titles.
I Am Mayo
There seemed to be a late 2010s trend of trying to out do each other with terrible sounding game ideas with I Am Mayo being the top of the list, you literally tap a mayonnaise jar until you run out of dialog or get all the achievements whatever comes first, easily a joke for your average Youtuber but hardly a game suitable for any normal gamer.
F-Tier Game
Mr Massagy
By the same developers, you play a buff dude named Johnny (who is not Johnny Bravo) who is gifted at massaging but terrible at dating, your job is to help him get through a date with a bunch of weird partners including a werewolf, a breedable alien, a cow, a sock puppet, mayonnaise from I am Mayo and even Johnny's Gender Swap Popeye Body Pillow among a couple of random girls, even if the date is a total mess, getting one heart is enough to win. Just as weird as I Am Mayo but at least has something to grasp gameplay wise.
D-Tier Game
Smash Boats
Using a bunch of novelty boats, the object of the game is to sink all the enemies that spawn in the bathtub using the weapon you possess while collecting stars, this game would be incredibly fun if only it had multiplayer, as it is, it's very limited in replay ability, a decent playthrough can be done in one weekend, even a more ham handed player can finish it in a week.
D-Tier Game
We're going from all levels of popularity today.
Rocket League
The only pro game I'm actually half decent at, Rocket League is what you get when you have to go both to soccer and RC racing club at the same time and discover a new sport; you have five minutes to win a match literally throwing your car around the arena to score a goal and win, simple and easy to pick up, somewhat chaotic thanks to a free to play format, due to it being a multiplayer title and a game that relies heavily on team work to win, there's more luck involved in finding players who will work together long enough to win rather than just drive into you for shits and giggles or try and steal all the glory, there's also the fact that it's too easy to quit a match, I'm also not a fan of epic games free to play model.
B-Tier Game
Sissa's Path
Despite the crappy title, Sissa's Path is just a simple puzzle game of moving and sorting cat toys, maybe because it's my weird way of thinking but I managed to clear every puzzle unaided, the game is balanced the same as every other puzzle game of it's type and can easily be played on a rainy day.
C-Tier Game
Going Under
You play Jackie Fiasco in a roguelike beat em up mirroring Power Stone style gameplay where you start as an intern and fight your way to the top to save your colleagues from turning into monsters following termination by the parent company that is basically Amazon, come on, the final boss is Jeff Bezos!
Other than being an unsubtle dig at Amazon in a world not too out of place in old Nicktoon Doug, you get to see the other businesses based on other failed ventures including Dating apps, Crypto schemes and Zero contract employment schemes.
Fun if you enjoy Power Stone and immensely satisfying for any adult who's had history with any of the enemy businesses, definitely worth a shot.
A-Tier Game
After a pretty damning episode on a crappy visual novel, it's time to look at silly games again.
Unpacking
Over a span of 20 years, we watch the growth of the owner of the objects in each house you have to sort onto shelves and drawers, it's unusual to have a game where you essentially tidy and organise a room but what makes the game work is building a narrative from the many objects you organise, the effort for such a simple game is plain to see.
A-Tier Game
Moving Out
From a calm moving sim to a more chaotic one in Moving Out, taking more than a few design choices from Overcooked, the normally Co-op game of moving out household objects plays like a crazy kids gameshow from the 90s, what makes this work is the spongebob like enthusiasm of it's worker characters, the only thing missing from this game is online Co-op.
B-Tier Game
Salamander County Public Television
Imagine if Jackbox Games made Warioware, you'd probably get something like this, you work for a public access TV station in Salamander County where the shows you broadcast are a selection of wacky mini games, some highlights include running a car on mushroom wheels, launching an orange with a banana, mitosis bowling, Christmas decoration cannon and water balloon volleyball with fish to name a few, your goal is to get at least one medal per game while uncovering the mystery of Salamander County's disappearing populous over the course of the month, some of the writing could be better and some of the games could be less janky but I see potential in this silly little game.
C-Tier Game
I think it's time to bring up the game that made me quit achievement hunting, it's the third entry on this post.
Frog Detective
You play as the 2nd best detective, Frog Detective as you solve G rated mysteries with a side of sass and salt, I'm probably more shocked that this isn't a children's book first as creator Grace Bruxnor could easily pass as a children's author, daft and clearly self aware this game made me smile the most.
A-Tier Game
Project Starship Series
Leave it to East Asiasoft to make a space shooter that gives you epilepsy, I kind of admire how amateur the game is designed as it adds to the crappy charm with it's crayon drawn graphics and paint splat direction the art went, kinda makes the sequel all the more polished when all the money made from the achievement hunters can give the developers a decent art program, I expect next gen graphics higher than Cyberpunk for the 3rd game please.
C-Tier Game for both titles.
Beautiful Sakura Surfing Club
This is the game that made me stop, not the 5000G cheap games, not the press start to wins and certainly not the powerwash simulators, it's this visual novel. Normally I don't mind a visual novel as for every bad one I find I can usually get a more beautiful story about 1 out of 5 attempts but this really is the worst game I've ever played, simply put, you are a high school kid choosing between two sisters, the surfing club element is non existent and it has the audacity to end on a cliff hanger and expect a sequel for a game that can be 100% in less than 3 minutes, even if I paid attention to the story, It would barely register as an episode length of a sitcom, I'm glad I pay with reward scheme money as the price tag is insulting at well over $10, I regret ever having played this game and I made my frustration clear on the official review of it on XBox, it was shit enough to make me stop.
Trash-Tier-Absolute Rotten Piece of Shit of a Game.
Procedurally generated is a dirty word in indie gaming, if you can't be bothered to create a carefully crafted difficulty curve, let the game decide for you instead and the other dirty word is roguelike where literally starting again is a gameplay feature so let's look at three of them.
Robo Quest
A young hacker girl finds a robot guardian in the middle of the desert, he gets fixed up and sent into battle to find out what on earth happened to humanity and why robots are hostile, of the three games, it's the simplest to get into and easiest to adapt to as you'll find yourselves making progress in no time.
A-Tier Game
Gunfire Reborn
If you took the Monster Hunter Cats and give them guns, you'll get something along the lines of Gunfire Reborn, there's less story to work with but the mechanics are tighter despite being the harder of the two FPS titles. It also has some of the best looking guns in the genre.
A-Tier Game
Neon Abyss
A 2D arena Roguelike where you defeat hell like carnations of modern era issues, the game tasks you with being more resourceful as every run requires you to build your character's arsenal from scratch with little to no permanent perks, the controls are a little awkward and the game is great at screwing you over at various points, despite it's faults it's a solid game.
B-Tier Game