I’m doing reviews this year! I used to do these back when Star Wars movies were still coming out (no, the other ones) so it’s a pleasure to get back into it again. Some introductory notes/caveats (NB these have been updated since I finished my reviews!):
• I added transcripts for many of the parser games, including notes I made while playing (marked off with an asterisk).
• I marked spoilers, but I’m not always the most fastidious about such things, and my goal with writing reviews is to be interesting to folks who played the game rather than as a guide to which ones to play. So maybe be careful about reading reviews for games you haven’t yet played if you’re sensitive to such things!
• It’s easier to write criticism when referring to a notional construct of “the author”, as opposed to “Fred, who’s sitting right over there”. So despite the fact that we’re all right here, I tended to use the depersonalized “author” – it’s nothing personal, just helping me get past my hangups!
• I don’t use numerical scores, because I am not a monster.
• There isn’t really a name for my approach to reviewing. I don’t do the traditional buyers-guide thing, nor the “travel writing for imaginary places” of the New Games Journalism. What I like to do is to bang on about a game at length while looking for opportunities to talk about myself. We could call it “logorrhetic narcissism,” maybe? Has a ring.
I managed to review all the games in the comp, which is a lot, so I thoughtfully I stole this formatting for a table of contents from Mathbrush’s thread if you’re looking for one in particular. If you’re just browsing, I’d say there are a couple of my reviews that are maybe more interesting and/or funny than the rest (note these were not necessarily my favorite games), which include Accelerate, Fight Forever, A Catalan Summer, For a Place by the Putrid Sea, Chorus, Electric word, “life”, A Rope of Chalk, Saint Simon’s Saw, and Vampire Ltd.
"Adventures in the Tomb of Ilfane”
“Incident! Aliens on the Teresten!”
“Terror in the Immortal’s Atelier”
#VanLife
(s)wordsmyth
Academic Pursuits (As Opposed To Regular Pursuits)
Accelerate
Alone (I beta tested this game)
Amazing Quest
The Arkhill Darkness
Ascension of Limbs
At Night
Babyface
Big Trouble in Little Dino Park
The Brutal Murder of Jenny Lee
BYOD
The Call of Innsmouth
A Calling of Dogs
Captain Graybeard’s Plunder
Captivity
A Catalan Summer
The Cave
Chorus
Congee
The Copyright of Silence
Creatures
The Cursed Pickle of Shireton
Deelzebub
Desolation
Deus Ex Ceviche
Doppeljobs
Dr Ego and the egg of Man-Toomba
The Eidolon’s Escape
Electric word, “life”
The Eleusinian Miseries (I wrote this game)
Elsegar I
Entangled
Equal-librium
Ferryman’s Gate
Fight Forever
Flattened London
For a Place by the Putrid Sea
Ghostfinder: Shift
Happyland (I beta tested this game)
High Jinnks
How The Elephant’s Child Who Walked By Himself Got His Wings
The Impossible Bottle (I beta tested this game)
The Incredibly Mild Misadventures of Tom Trundle
INFINITUBE
Jay Schilling’s Edge of Chaos
Just another Fairy Tale
The Land Down Under
Last House on the Block
Limerick Quest
Little Girl In Monsterland
Lore Distance Relationship
Lovely Assistant: Magical Girl
The Magpie Takes the Train (I beta tested this game)
Minor Arcana
The Moon wed Saturn
Mother Tongue
Move on
A Murder In Fairyland
Passages
Phantom
The Pinecone
The Place
Popstar Idol Survival Game
Quest for the Sword of Justice
Quintessence
Radicofani.
Red Radish Robotics
Return to Castle Coris
A Rope of Chalk
Sage Sanctum Scramble
Saint Simon’s Saw
Savor
Seasonal Apocalypse Disorder
Sense of Harmony
The Shadow In The Snow
Shadow Operative (I beta tested this game)
Sheep Crossing
Sonder Snippets
SOUND
Stand Up / Stay Silent
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
Stoned Ape Hypothesis
Stuff of Legend
Tangled Tales
Tavern Crawler
Tombs & Mummies
Tragic
Trusting My Mortal Enemy?! What a Disaster!
Turbo Chest Hair Massacre
The Turnip
Ulterior Spirits
Under They Thunder
Vain Empires
Vampire Ltd (I beta tested this game)
The Wayward Story (I beta tested this game)
What the Bus?
Where the Wind Once Blew Free
You Couldn’t Have Done That
You Will Thank Me as Fast as You Thank a Werewolf