Slay the Spire is the gold standard for me, at least. I haven’t played Monster Train – it doesn’t look that appealing to me, but I’ve heard good things.
It’s very similar in some ways in the surface, but pretty different in essence. I like both. STS is more hardcore and “strict” and choices matter more, MT is more chill, relying on a single good combo usually, but with very high ceiling for broken fun things. I prefer MT more to unwind.
You say that, but I never made a spreadsheet to optimize my Slay the Spire runs. Balatro is way harder and more random.
Still fun though. I’m 50 hours into Balatro and loving every minute of it. Just made a hand calc spreadsheet last night as I’m pushing into blue stakes and need to optimize every move to keep the numbers going up.
Playing on the gold stake, I think I don’t make it past the first ante like 80% of the time. I might be too greedy or just bad at the game, but in StS I can make a decent run on ascension 20 at a much higher rate.
You should be able to play Flushes, Straights, or Full Houses and win in the first Ante without any buffs. Does the -1 hand size from Gold Stake really hurt that much?
Supergiant might not be 3 dudes in an apartment, but it’s still an indie studio. They do put an impressive amount of effort into their games though, I agree on that
I have to upvote your upvote. Subnautica is one of the greatest games ever made. Gave me serious Mal de Debarquement Syndrome when I finally pulled myself away to go to bed.
When games like Duke Nukem 3D or Quake were out, Boomers were what? 30 to 50 years old?
You mean, like most of us Millennial gamers are now (30+)? The youngest Millennials, born in 1996, will be 30 in 2 years.
These games clearly took inspiration from 90s FPS games, which 👌, but they were played mostly by Gen Xers and Millenials, not Boomers.
I’m a middle-Millennial (1988), and Doom was well before my time as a gamer. I was 5 years old in 1993. Halo (2001) was more my generation, just barely. The oldest Millennials in 1993 were 12 years old, which was not the target age group for Doom.
GenX? Sure, they played Doom, but Boomers were by far the larger age group playing “Mature” games at that time. Video games have never been just for children.
I ran across a metroidvania called Feudal Alloy set in a medieval world where you and all the enemies are low-tech robots with fish bowls as heads. There’s an interesting mechanic where swinging your sword generates heat and if you’re overheated you can’t attack temporarily. You can upgrade different parts of your body to fit the situation or your play style (more armor/damage/health, slower overheat, faster cooldown, etc), and the art is nice.
Felt like a lucky find for me because I just found out about it last week from an old vid on one of the yt gaming channels I follow (Let’s Game It Out if anyone likes watching a dude try to break games by essentially QA testing the hell out of them), and when I checked the steam sale this week it came up for under 2 bucks.
Controls felt a little janky to me, but I loved the game. I would recommend it to anyone wanting a shorter Metroidvania experience, especially if the art style is appealing to you.
Obligatory Undertale mention. I know it’s the cliché answer, and it’s fan base is…a lot, but it really is a great game.
Also, very happy to see FLT FTL get a couple of mentions here. Hardly any of my IRL friends have even heard of it, but it’s probably the best Star Trek game ever made (even if it’s not actually a Star Trek game).
Ended up grabbing Jupiter hell and wizordum. Jupiter hell is a Doom adjacent top down turn based rogue like. Wizordum is a retro fps of the hexen variety. Both games evoke nostalgia in different ways for me.
Jupiter Hell was okay. I absolutely LOVED doomRL, and felt the jump to Jupiter Hell, not certain why it didn’t click. The controls are interesting. And would still support the dev.
Pony island is a hoot! I knocked it out in a couple hours.
I SAVORED The Hex though. After 50-some hours of Inscryption I thought there’s no way The Hex could compare… I have a lot more play time in Inscryption, but overall I thought The Hex was fucking brilliant. Hard recommend to anyone who likes Mullins’ games.
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