19*. Gori: Cuddly Carnage (hard difficulty)
Okay, this one may be cheating a bit, because I already beat Gori: Cuddly Carnage for the first time earlier this year on my Steam Deck. However, I really freaking love this game. Like, this is probably a top 5 game of all time for me, I love it that much. I won't even argue it's one of the most impressive games ever or anything: it's just the perfect game for me. Wacky, insane, campy over-the-top action. I loved it so much that I bought it again in physical form for the Nintendo Switch (which I had to get from Japan). And now on Switch, I've beaten the game again in hard difficulty, so I figured I might as well add it.
This game is part platformer part beat-'em-up/hack-'n-slash. As Gori, a cat, you zip around on your foul-mouthed hoverboard to traverse levels and slice up zombie unicorns and other monstrous toys. Controlling Gori feels great, both in platforming and in combat. The combat can get insanely hectic, to the point you can barely make out what's going on, but I can still feel what's happening, if that makes sense. I can compare it to Smash Bros.: once you learn to see through the chaos to process what's actually going on, it becomes an entirely different experience. The combat is all about zipping around your opponents, and knowing which enemies to take out or stun at which time to optimally take on the crowd. The toy-based enemies are beautifully imaginative, and just as grotesque as your takedown animations in which you make them explode in splatters of blood. I never get tired of pulling those off.
The only thing I'll say about the Switch version is that I encountered a couple of glitches. Twice I had to restart from a checkpoint because I glitched a required enemy or the boss out of the stage, and once the game crashed on me. Thankfully the game has a good checkpoint system so this was never a massive deal, but I do not remember this happening during my playthrough on Steam Deck/GOG. So that may be something to keep in mind. (Also, I played this on Switch 2, so I don't know if performance on Switch is different and/or worse.)
But still: I freaking love this game. It's crazy, campy over-the-top action, exactly how I like it. Especially coming from a small indie studio, this game is hugely impressive, and I cannot recommend it enough. Please go check it out. This game deserves a lot more attention than it gets and I need to see a sequel someday.
(Bonus fact: this physical Switch version also came with a poster of the main character Gori (again: "a cat on a hoverboard fighting [zombie] unicorns") flipping you off, which is now proudly framed on my wall.)
