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52 Games Challenge 2026!!!
supremeusername:
11. Skullmonkeys | 1998 | PlayStation 1 | 2/25:
Continuing from Ghost in the Shell, we have yet another one-of-a-kind PS1 game completed: Skullmonkeys. Off the bat, art direction gets a 10 out of 10 from me. This is actually a sequel to the point-and-click adventure game The Neverhood, released two years prior. You can absolutely tell the same team worked on this one just by artstyle alone: claymation that's been all hand-crafted and worked into most of the game's assets -- from the backgrounds, to the enemies you face, to the stop-motion cutscenes that play every couple of levels. How cool is that?!
As for the actual gameplay, it's kind of ehh. In the beginning, you have a nice balance of difficulty and fairness as you get used to the game's mobility and mechanics. However, the game becomes exceptionally brutal once you meet the bug enemies. These levels just start to feel monotonous as you're stuck in the same environment, dying to the same enemies over and over. It doesn't help that each level to start with features different types of enemies and vistas (snow, industrial, above the clouds, etc.), while these 'YNT' levels all have gloomy environments with these bug enemies that punish you with their hit detection and speed -- and there's four of them, IN A ROW!
There's one thing I've noticed with some of these enemies: the standard ones that walk back and forth have no predictable movement cycle. For example: the non-flying bug enemies will stand in one spot until they scratch their heads, which means they are about to move in the opposite direction they're facing. Sometimes, the head-scratching animation will play halfway or not at all when they decide to move. Sometimes, they move the length of an entire platform or move only halfway before they stop dead in their tracks. So for a platformer that requires minimal room for error, you have to face enemies that give you no way to predict when they're going to move and how they're going to move. This harkens me back to some of the problems I've had with Tomb Raider II: where some of these deaths are in no way your fault because you have no way of predicting them. It's worse in this game however, because at least if you replay Tomb Raider II, you will know what to look out for in terms of traps set up to troll you. I have no idea if my jump in Skullmonkeys will allow me to stomp on an enemy or I end up a couple of pixels short and get blown up because the enemy decides to abruptly stop.
Forewarning: this game is part platformer, part inventory management sim. There are parts in later levels where it feels like you HAVE to use power-ups to make it past. You have a finite number of power-up items that's earned in levels. When you lose all of your lives, you spawn at the start of the section where you died instead of the start of a level. This is very nice of the game to do something like this, expect for the fact that every power-up you've collected over the course of the game is now lost. You may as well start over from the last password save instead.
Everything outside of the gameplay is intriguing (in a good way!). You get this bizarre but memorable soundtrack to jam out to, with the kind of humor you would expect from a LucasArts point-and-click adventure sprinkled in. You knock your head into an upper platform and you hear a bonking sound. You jump on top of a skull monkey and their body parts will explode towards the player's camera. You have funny cutscenes of your character, Klaymen, eating beans and getting into shenanigans with the skull monkeys. This game is marvelous to look at, just not as fun to play.
Grade: D+
bikingjahuty:
--- Quote from: kamikazekeeg on March 04, 2026, 02:23:35 pm ---
--- Quote from: bikingjahuty on March 03, 2026, 03:23:58 pm ---I decided to jump back into RE2R after beating RE9. I haven't beat it since early 2020 and never as Claire. It's still a phenomenal game.
--- End quote ---
I literally did the same thing, I'm kinda casually playing that while trying to do some challenges in RE9 I still have, because I played through Grace's section and it gave very big RE2 vibes, so I think I'm gonna do a chill run with infinite ammo through it lol
--- End quote ---
Because of my experience with RE9, I'm kinda on a RE kick right now. I'm playing through Claire's campaign in RE2 currently, but am considering going back and doing a lot of extras in RE9 after I'm done with RE2. When I actually want to go back and do extra stuff, that's the mark of a really good game imo.
telly:
Game 4: Subnautica: Below Zero (PS5) - 35 Hours - Platinum
Subnautica is one of my favorite games of all time, so I was itching to dive in (haha) and play this midquel before the sequel comes out later this year. I will say that this game, while still bringing it with the mixture of tense survival and delightful exploration and discovery with an amazing atmosphere, is a little lacking in other departments. First, the arctic setting feels a little superficial. Once you go underwater, the lush greenery and diverse aquatic life makes it feel like you're back in a tropical locale like the first game. No, the cold weather is really used for a new dry land segment, which while fine to traverse, doesn't really feel all that exciting compared to the underwater portion. I found that the story lacked the original tight focus like the first game. Your first mission is to find your sister, then the story takes kind of a 180 and instead you’re trying to resurrect an ancient alien – but neither of these plot points can match what the first game was able to do as a perfect mix between gameplay and story.
All of the minor annoyances from the first game were not changed in Below Zero which was also disappointing. Truthfully I didn’t find the monsters nearly as much as a nuisance as the first game so the lack of non-violent deterrents wasn’t that big of a deal this time around. However, I still don’t understand why you can’t have just a basic map that you can mark out places of interest or that shows places you’ve been to. You’re telling me I can make a nuclear power plant with a device the size of a hair dryer, but I can’t have a map??
If you put those things aside, Subnautica Below Zero still provides a great experience even if it’s a step down from the original.
supremeusername:
12. The Song of Saya | 2003 | Director's Cut | PC | 2/28:
Well, where do I begin? This game is an experience, and I don't say that lightly. This is one of those games that you have to go in blind and be fully immersed by what the game gives you. And this game will not only give, but put you through a lot within its 6 to 8 hour runtime. It's unapologetically grotesque & deranged in its presentation, yet never feels over-bearing. It can feel overly nihilistic at times, yet beautifully written with a lot of thought and effort. For every shocking moment, there's respite (yet somberness looms in the atmosphere). There's not a moment of waste in The Song of Saya.
The 'visual' in visual novel is clearly presented here. Outlines of buildings covered in guts and entrails parade the streets in a nightmare world where the sky is endless black. The nasty gore of background environments isn't drawn but created from early-2000s CGI, which feels even more unsettling and uncanny to visualize. This is juxtaposed by moments of real life: pictures taken from everyday places, filtered to look like faded, nostalgic slices-of-life, making up environments for the game outside of the nightmare. There's plenty of unique CG art shown as well; way more than a short VN like this should have. You also have the fantastic soundtrack, with wildly shifts in tone & mood: from something as simple & serene as "Sabbath" to the roaring drone of guitars and distant wails of agony in "Schizophrenia". There's a lot to Song of Saya that makes it feel complete, unrelated to the actual story.
Speaking of which, let's get into what rounds out Song of Saya for me: the story-telling -- specifically the shifting of perspectives. You start as a victim involved in a tragic accident that has completely changed his view on life, and you see all the disturbing details that he sees from his perspective. Later on, you start to see the story unfold from other viewpoints and foreboding horror starts to occur. I'll try my best to explain a scenario from the game without spoiling anything: there's a scene of murder involved, but to show or even explain the person getting murdered is very taboo in the land of video games. So, this game decides to dehumanize them by showing you the perspective of someone that can't see them as human. Elements of the real world are heavily altered in their point of view. You can make out some remnants of the outside world's humanity as the spectator of the story, but the person you are spectating cannot because they are filled with fear. So you witness and hear the sounds of a tragedy taking place from their muffled POV, but you know the exact context of the crime occurring if the veil were to come off. It's an absolutely fucked-up display of horror, but it doesn't come off as cheap or in poor-taste because of the clever writing and mixed-perspective presentation.
I'm baffled that this came out in 2003. There must've been nothing like it then and it's still captivating to this today. Apparently, Japan agrees because they're still pumping out all kinds of merch for this game: Posters, figures, plushies. There's also vinyl records of the game's OST, with some colored variants aptly named "Meat" and "Rot". Not bad at all for a 23-year old visual novel with no anime or manga adaptation. Anyways, I'm getting off-topic. This game is really not for everyone and even for the people that its for, opinions are polarizing compared to the other classics of this genre. Most of the "Director's Cut" content I used my arm as a censor bar, but I appreciate it for making the game even more disturbing to read. I don't think there's any correct way to experience The Song of Saya. I'm glad there's options to blur the abhorrent scenery in this game for those that can't stomach it, but still want to engage in the story. I did however, experience this game as any Japanese person would back in 2003 and I did not regret it one bit. This is a work of art in the same vein as games like Pathologic and Deadly Premonition are: completely and utterly its own thing; no sugarcoating it or compromise to appeal to the largest audience. It may not be my favorite game of the year when everything's said and done, but it will probably be my most memorable.
Grade: A
supremeusername:
Updated: March 29th
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