Author Topic: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!  (Read 367640 times)

kashell

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!
« Reply #420 on: August 15, 2026, 08:59:36 am »
57. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book - Bewildered Bird

I'm guessing there's a lot of extra content, so I'll just dub this the normal ending. Initially, I was not feeling this game. Especially after doing a fresh playthrough of Yoshi's Island. But, once my way of thinking shifted and I understood the game lacked urgency and had its own pace, I had a much better time. I would go as far to say it's better than Wooly World and Yoshi's Story. Some of the tasks necessary to fill in Mr. E's pages were ridiculous but they were few and far between. I really liked seeing creatures from Yoshi's Island getting their time in the sun and "learning" more about them. I was able to name the creatures and I, of course, went with a theme. The theme was "names of people I met in real life that I thought had goofy names." Time to continue filling in those pages!

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!
« Reply #421 on: August 15, 2026, 09:41:37 pm »
31 - Captured 2 (PC 2026) - BEAT - This was a nice sequel, where the first game feels kinda like any other indie horror game that you come across for like 5 bucks, this feels more like its own thing abit more.  You get a character to be, some story, it's not amazing, and I think they don't embrace it enough, but it's fine.  I think it slightly undercuts the gameplay as it felt like stuff was more obvious with this one than before, and there's abit more padding where you have like Backroom areas you have to do.  I both like and hate those, because they are just straight up the Backrooms, with one being the yellow ugly office rooms, another being a waterpark, etc...You can do kinda weird liminal stuff without just copying Backrooms stuff.

Entities were abit more improved, they are still silly and over the top, but they at least overall look better than the ones from the first game.  Overall, I liked it, it's nothing amazing, but I got both this and the first one for a 9 dollar bundle and I'm getting my monies worth out of it as an experience.  I'm gonna do Hard next which is the only other major difficulty and that'll probably be it.

kashell

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!
« Reply #422 on: August 18, 2026, 05:14:46 pm »
58. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book - Moon

I have a few more things I need to collect before this is at 100%, but I saw the true ending and the credits roll. The variety in this game was through the roof even after finishing the first part of the game. Again, some of the discoveries took either too much effort, took too long, or had obtuse instructions. Still, it was an overall enjoyable experience and a great palette cleanser. It'll be tough going from this to something else - I have some heavy RPGs coming out soon and a few in my backlog I'd like to start before October (reserved for spooky games).

dhaabi

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!
« Reply #423 on: August 20, 2026, 01:33:46 pm »
31. Heavy Rain || PlayStation 3 || 08.08.2026



Despite having owned Heavy Rain for almost as long as it's been released, I hadn't ever really considered actually playing it. And I was surprised too, because it very much seemed like something I'd enjoy experiencing after watching a few video reviews for it. So after spending a short time deliberating whether or not to begin a playthrough, I decided to start Heavy Rain.

Now, it's not as if Heavy Rain has been entirely unfamiliar to me all this time. Despite earning positive reception both critically and commercially, it's simultaneously a game that's had its fair share of being laughed at for various reasons, and it's not totally undeserving of those responses either. The game's opening sections in paricular can come across as entertaining as players are introduced to the father protagonist named Ethan whom players can control to be especially goofy, and it's made more apparent by his appearance and lingering camera shots too. But once players move past the opening hour, the game dramatically shifts in tone from its more lighthearted focus on family to something far more sinister: the introduction of the Origami Killer, a serial killer who kidnaps young boys whom ultimately die a few short days later. Needless to say, Ethan's son Shaun has been taken captive as the most recent victim. However, their deaths aren't certain. Soon after each victim has been taken, the opportunity for fathers to save sons is presented, and it results in the ordeal being a series of arduous tests of self-sacrifice to see to what length they'll go to prevent a tragedy.

With that said, the story presented is not Ethan and Shaun's alone. In fact, there are four central protagonists whom the player assumes the role as over the course of the story's events, each with unique roles: a father, a reporter, a private detective, and an FBI agent. And for better or for worse, each character controls the same without any individual play characteristic. One specific character does possess a tool to aid them in their efforts that sets their gameplay segments apart to some small degree, although it still abides to the same control scheme nor elevates this character's sections in any meaningful way. But despite their efforts all being the same—primarily to save Shaun—these four characters are largely removed from another until the story's finale with their experiences all interconnecting into one overarching thriller mystery narrative. Primarily presented as an adventure game, Heavy Rain is strongly dependent on player performance across the hundreds of actions that ultimately may be either achieved or failed, and these combined outcomes dictate story details. So, scenes will vary across each playthrough with added or removed segments and completely different outcomes. There are almost always various action paths to take, something that also includes whether players decide to engage in an action or not at all, and this all comes together to provide an experience offering a considerable amount of replay value.

Yet while Heavy Rain features adventure game elements, it's simultaneously defined by its action, albeit in an unconventional way. In subtitute of more traditional action gameplay, what's instead presented as the game's chief characteristic is its extensive use of quick-time events (QTEs). While at first it seems like QTEs are overly present, it doesn't take long to notice that the game's opening sections in particular serve as tutorial stages for players to become accustomed to gameplay. Six types of QTEs exist in total, and they're regularly used in combination with another to great effect that attempts to replicate on-screen action: button prompts, staggered button holds, button mashing, joystick rotation, slow joystick movements that require precision, and motion control performed with either the Sixaxis controller or PlayStation Move controllers. It can also be difficult to quickly deceipher what's being asked and perform the incorrect input that results in wasted time. That being said, errors are permitted, but too many will trigger a poor outcome. And as the game progresses and more high-stakes situations are encountered, QTEs naturally reflect this rise in tension. They'll not only appear on screen but sometimes float around in a way that replicates racing thoughts, or the camera shot may transition to some other perspective, and these aspects reinforce the time-sensitive and chaotic nature of each QTE itself. This extends to more basic choice options especially which are sometimes ambiguous in translating what they'll do. Needless to say, the QTE is quite in-depth, and it's made abundantly better by the game's difficulty settings that dictate QTE frequency and complexity.

With all that said, there is more to the game than its gameplay. Fortunately, the game is divided into a few dozen narrative scenes that allows for players to revisit them freely from the main menu. So should a mistake be made, players can always retry. However, the means to create multiple save files would have been ideal so that anyone interested in exploring the game's varied endings can accomplish that more easily. Meanwhile, Heavy Rain is a game that makes thorough use of motion capture technology. Visuals generally appear fine when adjusting one's expectations to account for its presentation, and I find all of the motion capture to be impressive for the game's time of release. These are some of the game's more positive feats, though. Oppositely, dialogue and vocal performance are not some of the game's strongest qualities, as dialogue can be stiff and even sound broken due to the majority of central actors being non-American yet acting as American characters. Perhaps the worst example of poor vocal performance is the abundance of mispronounced instances of "origami," a word that's used often but never spoken consistently. Narrative also suffers to some degree due to plot holes resulting from plot changes late in development. In fact, the more one thinks about certain details, the worse the project altogether appears, but first-time and especially casual players—or anyone who's merely playing to appreciate the general tone—can easily look past these omissions.

Now that I've played through Heavy Rain, it seems strange that it's taken me so long to give it a try considering that I've enjoyed a lot of other adventure games with player performance dictating outcomes. While it's far from a perfect game, its focus on mystery thriller elements are easy to maintain player interest, and I do still greatly recognize the effectiveness of how QTEs are implemented, which I find to be the game's strongest accomplishment. I don't own any of developer Quantic Dream's other games which are similar to this one, but that may change in the near future since I'm now curious about playing them too.

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!
« Reply #424 on: August 23, 2026, 12:52:28 am »
51. Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite (PS4)

I remember the months leading up to Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite's (MvCI) launch in 2017. I was a massive fan of most previous Capcom Versus games prior to Infinite coming out, and even though I wasn't a massive fan of 3, I still had high hopes for a new entry in this series. Unfortunately, as more and more info on the roster got released, I found myself becoming less and less interested in getting the game at launch. I eventually opted to skip the game when it first came out all together due to a combo of my lack of interest in the character roster as well as the mediocre and negative reviews this game got around that time. Months of holding off on getting MvCI eventually turned into years, until several years ago I picked the game up for like $10 from somewhere. I figured for that cheap I'd still be alright even if the game ended up being colossal letdown it was made out to be at launch. Still, despite all that, I still was hoping this game would surprise me and be a misunderstood gem that was maybe unfairly compared too much to the games that defined the heyday of the Capcom Versus series. Now that I've finally played MvCI fairly extensively, I can safely say the reviewers were absolutely right about this game nearly a decade ago.


While I didn't find Infinite to be a horrible game, it's certainly not a good one either. Immediately, the first major issue I noticed with MvCI is...well, it's a bit bland looking. The character models and many animations look like some sort of demake that each character was ran through before it was added to the game. I realize due to licensing issues, the Marvel characters had to look different than their established MCU counterparts, but my god, they look just as flat looking and uninspired as the Capcom side of things. Stages are fairly cool I guess, and while I did just rip on the animations, not all of them are as meh looking, but they're not that far off either. Overall, this is jist a fairly unattractive game considering when it came out. Hell, I'd say with no hesitation that even MvC3 is a better lookin game, and that was released a whole console generation prior.


The audio in MvCI doesn't fair much better. Music is kind of this generic super hero music most of the time, none of which really catches the player's ear and mostly just feels like white noise most of the time you're playing. Voice acting isn't great either, in fact some of the performances are awful. Like so bad, it wouldn't surprise me if you told me Capcom took a page out of Working Design's voice acting hiring practices and literally gave a Janitor or a random Door Dash delivery person $100 just to say a couple dozen lines for a character in this game. Some character's like Chris Redfield so retain their voice actors from previous games they were in, which is nice, but enough of the cast is just not great to where it does actively weigh this game down.


I wish I could let up on criticizing this game some, but unfortunately I haven't even talked about what's arguably the worst part of Infinite, it's gameplay. Unfortunately, MvCI's gameplay is not that great. I feel like the best adjective to describe would be half baked. The fluidity of the combat, the combo system, the Infinity Gem system, the controls, the character balancing, all of it, just feel very unpolished and kinda sloppy if I'm being honest. I still found myself having fun at times while playing, but they were certainly outweighed enough by frustratingly fighting against CPU characters that defaulted to block spamming during 2/3 of the match. And despite the occasional fun I found myself having, I was never really blown away or impressed with anything during my entire time with MvCI. That's a real shame since most of its predecessors are games I've loved returning to over and over again for most of my life.


Following my experience with MvCI, I really have to wonder, what the hell freakin happened here? 2017 Capcom was a solid studio; they weren't in the middle of some massive slump period that most gamer's remember as the dark ages for the company, and they definitely knew how to make good fighting games during that time, so it begs the question why they released such a bland, poorly made, and kinda bad looking game? There may be an answer to this question floating around the internet, but honestly I don't care enough to look. What I do know is that this is without a doubt my least favorite game in the Capcom Versus series and it really isn't even close. (8/22/26) [22/50]

kashell

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!
« Reply #425 on: August 24, 2026, 12:01:45 pm »
59. Shovel Knight - Switch

I fear this game hasn't aged as well as I and fans would have liked. Back then? Great. Nowadays? Fine. The market is so oversaturated with these throwback style games now that do a lot of things better, so playing Shovel Knight lacks that nostalgic oomph and it reminds me of all the issues from that era. The most specific thing is the knock-back. This happens way too much in this because every enemy (once again) wants to bum rush the poor digger. 99% of my deaths were from getting knocked back into a pit. Oh well. It was fun to replay it. I needed something quick and easy to get into and this fit the bill. I might check out the other games in this Treasure Trove edition.

telly

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!
« Reply #426 on: August 25, 2026, 04:38:49 pm »
Game 19 - Katamari Damacy Reroll (Switch) - 4 Hours

Katamari Damacy is one of the pure geniuses of game design. The simple concept of rolling stuff up in a ball to make it bigger and fill the sky with stars is such a simple yet beautiful and original concept. It's such a thrill to start by rolling up small pieces of candy and thumbtacks. to then rolling up buildings, cars, and trees with almost no loading screens to interrupt your experience. On the surface, it’s very easy to pick up and understand, but this game offers a lot of complexity that makes it a very difficult game to master. The gameplay requires you to take in a lot of the subtleties of the level design, which I think come through the most when you are given some of the games more off-the-wall challenges. For example, the level where you’re trying to roll up the biggest cow possible, which means that you can't just indiscriminately roll up everything in your path. Again, if you really want to play optimally you have to know exactly the progression path to take and what objects to pick up and how to navigate each level and so it can offer a very meaty challenge, which I can appreciate on the second go around where I've already played the game once.

Outside of the gameplay, this game has such a wonderful combination of quirkiness, and oddly terrifying themes, combined with the poppy snappy soundtrack and the cutesy visuals. The story is simple but effective, capped with this hilarious king caricature that just adds a lot of flavor to the overall experience. There really isn't that much negative I can say about this game - the only thing really is that this game ideas get expanded on a lot more in the sequels and so returning to the original makes it feel a little bit basic by comparison. But that's not to say that this game isn't still fun and doesn't hold up. It's still a stone cold classic.

One other thing about this version of the game was that the English voice actors aren't present, which made me disappointed.
« Last Edit: August 31, 2026, 02:30:12 pm by telly »
Currently Playing: Tales of Graces f Remastered (PS5)
Exophase | My music collection | My Backloggery

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!
« Reply #427 on: August 26, 2026, 12:40:46 am »
32 - Donkey Kong Bananza (Switch 2 2025) - BEAT - I'm gonna be honest on this...I'm a little mixed on this game.  Broadly, it's a fun time.  Tunneling is cool, there's fun mechanics, lots of colors, music, silly characters, there's a lot here as a game to do, it is a solid 3D platformer, it's good stuff.  That being said, it sorta does some of what I didn't love with Super Mario Odyssey (This is the same team, where instead of each level having like...10, maybe 20 distinct collectibles like how things were back in the day, each level has anywhere from like 30 to I think 60, and there's nearly 800 in this game, just like Odyssey.  After awhile, the grind to find them starts to get fairly tedious and this includes things like the Fossils, which are used to buy cosmetics, so there's a TON to find here.

It's not poorly handled compared to like Donkey Kong 64, but I realized by a certain point, I think it's abit over halfway through the game, that I was getting abit burnt out finding everything.  You spend so much time just spamming R1, because it's the sonar clap which will show banana's and fossils buried around for you to dig or maybe find a way around, so much is just spamming that and you want to upgrade that as fast as possible along with terrain strength so you can find things better. 

It didn't help that the bosses are kinda lame.  They look cool, but nearly every single one is really easy.  They also re-use a number of the bosses fights twice, with one even getting used a third time.  It's like halfway through they gave up on bosses, it's very unsatisfying especially when they are super easy.  The finale section of the game perked me up, but it was such a weird turn I did not ever expect, it's kinda baffling, kinda fun, I don't know, it's weird.

Game needs some optimization too, like real bad.  It's generally quite smooth, but effects heavy levels like the Ice Layer, and Storm Layer, and then certain boss fights and things where lots of explosions happen cause serious frame drops, like going from 60 to 30 or something, it's bad.

I don't know, I'm generally on board with open world 3D platformer games and I did have a good time, this a good game, but I hit a point in the last third of the game I kinda just wanted to get through the story and sorta pushed my way through.  I have so much to do and collect and there's decent post-game content added also, this is a hefty as heck game.

Also screw that one Rambi racing level, it's objectively the worst level and feels awful to play lol
« Last Edit: August 26, 2026, 12:30:41 pm by kamikazekeeg »

kashell

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!
« Reply #428 on: August 29, 2026, 08:25:33 am »
60. Signalis - False

It felt serendipitous that this popped on my radar not long after finishing Crow Country. I did find myself unfairly comparing the two. Signalis has a better story, vibe, and atmosphere. Crow Country had better gameplay. (When I write a review I promise I won't be constantly comparing them.) Despite getting the worst ending and despite it requiring multiple playthroughs for all endings, I recommend this. I think my biggest issue with Signalis was that things just got insane near the end in terms of enemies and their placement. Those things combined with the tiny inventory space and the small field of range/vision made exploring fascinating areas tedious.

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!
« Reply #429 on: August 30, 2026, 06:21:49 pm »
33 - FNAF World: Refreshed (PC) - BEAT - Redoing this as it went from "Dropped" to "Beat", because i found the one thing you apparently need, which is a special chip that gives a temporary shield of some sort that you can only find in a glitched version of the overworld that you can't actually know about normally, because it requires you to run into a random stump for 2 or 3 seconds, which sends you into the glitched world, to then grab the item.  It's dumb lol

This is a fan rebuild of the original game, which was a very awful game, admitted to by Scott himself, which takes the game and makes it more tolerable.  I wouldn't say it's good, it is every bit the cheap little free indie game release it is with lots of jank, clunk, and far too much horrible visual spam, and this is coming from someone who play Vampire Survivors lol The fan rebuild just makes things more functional, smoother, more options, but it's not great.  Everything needs to load when you go in and out of battle, buildings, or menu's, the map is convoluted and has lots of just random guesswork, it's a rough time.  It's horribly balanced with some fights just forcing you to cheese through them with the abilities, like the last boss went from not possible, to possible, with that shield chip.

I did start the game not liking it much, this was my like 3rd attempt at the game, but after the first like half hour, I was getting into the swing of things.  I do love the art, the chibi 3d models are really fun, and it is colorful with some of that weirder vibe.  It's just a very janky game I can't really recommend to anyone who isn't super interested in FNAF, because of things like you could get stuck in chat loops because the same button you have to press to leave a conversation is the same to interact, and the chat boxes don't automatically go away, so you have to turn before hitting space again to not interact, it's dumb lol

It's nice to get my chance with the game as I've played most every official game at this point, even if this is technically an unofficial version of the original game, but the original game is REALLY bad lol
« Last Edit: August 30, 2026, 10:58:21 pm by kamikazekeeg »

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!
« Reply #430 on: August 31, 2026, 03:00:30 am »
31. Grand Theft Auto III [PS5] - Finished July 17th, 2026



THE YEAR OF GTA

Between San Andreas, This, Vice city stories and soon to be IV and shit.... 6???   It's a big year with my favorite franchise. What's crazy is I've grown up with these games but never beaten them. Until now.


Sometimes it is understated just how important Grand Theft Auto III was for gaming and in the same breath it is also easy to understate just how far we've come in terms of design. GTA III is a beautiful little failure.  A prom queen that beats you every change she gets. The game is both a technical achievement to the highest regard. Like let's put that much in perspective.  It was the first.  Literally FIRST to bring

Isolated panel removal damage in vehicles

3D open sandbox world states with enemy territories and NPC with memories (even if primative)


Continuity within an open world through a series

Voice acted scripted dialogue.

And the list goes on and on.  The game had to use special technology such as off scene map shading, draw distance. Lots of nerd jargon but there is a neat video about it.  This game came out like 3 weeks after 9/11.  With all that in mind.  We have to tip our cap.  This game is essentially a WW2 veteran in game form.  We dont have Watch dogs, sleeping dogs, saints row, call of Juarez, games like just cause and mercenaries and its on and on and on.  You also dont have the empire Rockstar manifested on PS2 without the catalyst and in many ways? It is one of the most charming games of all time.   Vice City was almost entirely built off it's engine and layout.  And the rest is history.


It drips aura.  It doesn't take itself seriously which is a gta staple. It is cliche like a playable goodfellas.  Yaluza, mafia. I kinda miss the super Eminem, Beavis and butthead, comic style of Rockstar.   From "eat till you explode" signs as you plant a car bomb in a fat Italians car. To tropes and gangsta bling rap from new York.  It feels sentimental. It paces itself correctly and it's also more concise then later entries with playthroughs about 8 to 10 hours.

But.... it's also a tainted piece of shit lol.   It's a sick cruel abusive ex.  Filled with design choices that were essential at the time but not so much now.  Back then. The PS2s GPU could only handle so much information at once. So the devs came up with "clever" ways to make the map render easier as you speed through. One of which is clipping distant buildings in and out. Which on PS5 no longer remains. The definitive edition is pretty.  However. Devs in 2001 also found out they could slow playtime and aid computing by intentionally making npc traffic take 90 degree angle turns instantly into you as you speed down highways. Dart accross. Shoot shotguns at you. Pedestrians intentionally jumping in front.  It is with no exaggeration the worse traffic in any game ive played. Its like being placed into a blender with other cars and shaken up. It's insane. Just pure abysmal.  Some of the missions have a "what on earth were they thinking" vibe. Such as one where you have to shoot a moving airplane with a bazooka in a 1 second windows from a stationary boat and somehow clean up the mess without getting shot or damaged with a 5 star wanted level.  Like come now Ethyl. 


The game has clunky movements.  Claude essentially cant run.  Cars flip like patties on spatula.  The whole thing is a floaty, hectic, and poorly aged mess.


But its also such a sweet arcadey blast that somehow makes up for it all.  Its raw.  It's what it is.  It's like a manual muscle car. Hard to contain, hard to handle. But so unadulterated badass


Outside of gameplay mechanics. It has some cool timed missions and some epic memorable moments and for what it did for gaming and the 3D landscape of PS2.  Its foreger immortalized.


90/100





Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!
« Reply #431 on: August 31, 2026, 03:03:26 am »
32. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Not 3, possibly 6) [PS5] - finished July 25th, 2026




Despite the namesake being of garbage origin, deliberate abandonment of it's campaign glory and being extremely flawed require multiple post launch patches that still havent restored the barracks.  What COD MW III was for me was what COD is always meant to be.  A pick up and play reflex testing, adrenaline dumping, see it in your dreams addictive comp shooter. And with that? I had a honky donkey good time :) 


The multi-player maps range from reimaginings of modern warfare classics such as Dome. But also new explorative maps.  Aside from a handful, I didnt find many maps to be bad at all. It was like riding a bike getting back in the saddle.  The lobbies, customization options are both stellar as always with the franchise. And contrary to popular belief. Its pay to slayyyy. Not pay to play. Meaning almost all the purchases are cosmetic.  Prestiging this game was actually really fun.  Graphically its solid but not much can be said outside of. Its COD and its a fun one.


The zombies operates on a sort of Royale, loot drop, open world vibe. Think Saints Row but with zombies?  It's terrible and worse than liquefied zombie pubes. 


80/100





Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!
« Reply #432 on: August 31, 2026, 03:06:38 am »
33. Saw [PS3] - Finished July 30th, 2026





Going into Saw the video game without ever having seen the movie was quite the larf. I went in half expecting a fan service gore fest with minimal mechanics outside of that.  What I was instead greeted with is some of the most clever, fun and quite frankly brutal puzzles, contraptions and games in my history with the genre of survival horror. It is an A1 game.


JIGSAW'S SHENANIGANS


The game is riddled with fun puzzles that are true to the movie from what ive been told. Things like heroine needles in toilets, fuse boxes where you need to connect say 4 circuit paths to restore power to a door, pipe connection mini games and memorizing patterns. It's brilliant.  Some of these puzzles are timed and lengthy leaving minimum or no room for error and I miss when a game was a hand you your ass kind of experience.


The Jigsaw himself is savagely cruel and almost mentally antagonistic, deplorable and filthy.  Ultimately the game ties into the movie well.  Where Jigsaw uses his god complex to sort of play supreme judge and executioner of your past sins while simultaneously not adhering to that said rubric for himself consistently. He's zany, odd and most of all intimidating.


The graphics are great for its time.  It is ultra dark with not many options to alter it properly but this only makes it hard to see which makes some of the sections harder and scarier. Id say thats a net win for a survival horror game.


Enemy combat is decent. You hit people with blunt objects.  But where the combat gets creative is setting traps. Like collecting materials with resource management to build contraptions to shotgun someone in the head from a trip wire.  You can even curb stomp a mofo like Derek vineyard from American history X style. Which is barbaric.


Overall the game piss and shits in your fish and chips. And id highly recommend it. Its one of few fan service gsmes that service more than just the fans.  Going in blind. It still was a load of fun.

88/100
« Last Edit: August 31, 2026, 03:26:40 am by marvelvscapcom2 »





Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!
« Reply #433 on: August 31, 2026, 03:09:45 am »
34. Donut Country [PS5] - finished August 7th, 2026



CHONKY RACCOON BOI

I love BK. He has quickly become one of my favorite characters.  A trash addicted worm hole creating racoon.  The game explores the psyche of a racoon through the lens of some sort of LSD trip.  The "donuts" in question are wormhole that suck your city and neighbor along with their homes down into a abyss area below donut country.  The games premise exists as a "cozy game" a sub genre of sim adjacent games that seem to be popular especially with a female mid 30s gamer demographic.  I love these types of games. This one in particular is cute.  You control wormhole that grow in size the more they swallow.  Ultimately it's easy but it does have one boss fight. It's relaxing, therapeutic and the dialogue between BK our beloved racoon and Mira.  A girl who kinda antagonize him can be hilarious. It's very tongue in cheek dry humor mixed with fun and off the wall sinkhole physics.  Very easy and concise how I like them and I think the overall plot of using a donut delivery service to get neighbors to agree to give themselves a sinkhole. Trash obsession. The racoon king! Its just so awesome. I loved my time with donut country.

It does good with its soundtrack to set mood for each level as well. .it's a treat.

91/100





Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!
« Reply #434 on: August 31, 2026, 03:11:28 am »
35. Aeero [PS4] - Finished August 20th, 2026




Aeero is pretty cool. You play as a unnamed phantom spaceship that hovers along Lazer lines that contain the musical elements of indie and pop alt dance, dubstep and Edm tracks.  While simultaneously firing at enemies and the multi tasking fun that comes with that.  I initially beat this game on XB1 in like 2018 but decided it needed a PS4 vibe with limited run games. 


The controls are smooth and there is fluidity. Some of the sequences include boss battles for example sliding down the esophagus of a giant desert centipede by riding waves of electro club music is bonkers.  And songs like BASS CANNON make you feel like you are tearing the screen apart with these rides.  The game has a good steep difficulty curve. A easy game to pick up and play. Hard to master. 

You are also ranked on percentages of how often you stay within the lines snd are given a star score based on that performance. 

It's like a sexier zaxxon.


80/100