Matthew Pollesel

Ottawa

339 games reviewed
72.6 average score
75 median score
48.7% of games recommended

An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs is far better than it has any right to be. It's a lot deeper and more touching than its title suggests, so it's worth keeping an eye on it, waiting for a sale, and then grabbing the when the price is right.

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Jan 16, 2023

Session: Skate Sim is true to its name: it's a true-to-life skateboarding simulator, so if that's all you want to do, it'll more than deliver.

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C+ - Aka
Jan 13, 2023

Aka clearly has its heart in the right place, but it doesn't have anything that goes a little deeper or that asks anything of its players, and without that it just feels like a cut-rate version of Animal Crossing.

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Jan 11, 2023

It's really too bad that the gameplay doesn't come anywhere close to matching the inventiveness, because, as I said up top, Paper Cut Mansion is just brimming with ideas. There's a huge gap, unfortunately, between coming up with something cool and making it work, and unfortunately it's not a divide that this game is able to bridge.

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Jan 9, 2023

Windosill is a difficult game to judge. It's gorgeous and it's fun...but it's also very, very short, it has zero replay value, and it's $10 on the Switch. And to top it all off, the game originally came out in 2009 as a web browser Flash game.

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The key attraction here is that if you've ever wanted an entire game that combines some of the more intense parts of the first Jurassic Park movie -- specifically, the kitchen scene, and the one where Ellie is trying to turn power back on in the bunker -- this delivers on that.

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Dec 30, 2022

Maybe the makers of Time on Frog Island just figured they could get by on a cute premise and general aesthetic. To be sure, in some cases that may be enough, but in this case, it just means you have a game that has the right tone but none of the right content.

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Dec 29, 2022

Lil Gator Game is exactly what it looks like on the surface: a sweet, adorable game that never feels like it's trying too hard to be either of those things, but that's guaranteed to win you over all the same.

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Dec 27, 2022

I think many more people will love Foretales if the give it a chance. It's an interesting take on a formula you'd think would be played out by now, done in a way that shows there's life in the card-based genre yet.

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Dec 23, 2022

Wavetale is an absolute joy. It's a game where you're exploring the watery ruins of a post-apocalyptic world, but it makes that exploration so much fun that you can't help but get swept up in the sheer fun of it all.

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Dec 20, 2022

If you just want more Portal, that might make The Entropy Centre enough for you. It's not much more than that, but it also sticks so closely to the formula that it doesn't do anything crazy that would make you dislike the game, either. It's a well-worn path at this point, and The Entropy Centre never once strays from it.

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Dec 19, 2022

It doesn't take long for Midnight Suns to show that it's a different game than those other Firaxis titles entirely. Sure, it's a tactical RPG, but the mechanics here aren't at all what you'd find in those other games.

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Dec 6, 2022

The bottom line is that Super Kiwi 64 is an enjoyable 3D platformer that brings its influences to mind without ever feeling like it's just a copy-paste of older, better games. Add in a pretty decent price, and it makes Super Kiwi 64 difficult to resist.

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Dec 2, 2022

Retro Goal is just a really fun game all-around. It captures not just the spirit of the sport it's trying to emulate, but also the essence of what makes a great soccer game. It may not look like the new standard for soccer games on the Switch, but if you pick it up, you'll soon find it makes a very convincing argument.

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Seriously, this is an amazing game. It may not last that long, but it also never comes close to wearing out its welcome. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is an excellent sequel to an equally excellent game, and now that it's out on PC, it's absolutely worth your time (even if that time is over far too soon).

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Nov 23, 2022

Playing Sonic Frontiers on the Switch doesn't just mean enjoying the good parts of the game and enduring the annoying parts. It also means putting up with one of the ugliest games I've ever played on the Switch.

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Nov 22, 2022

When A Little to the Left works, it works very well. As I said, there's pleasure to be found in a bit of neatness and order, and A Little to the Left appeals to that specific part of the brain. But it doesn't do it consistently enough to make the game worth playing, unless you like having a bit of frustration mixed in with your cute and cozy puzzles.

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Nov 21, 2022

It's hard to recommend Alan Wake Remastered when it means suffering through such a terrible port. Unless you're a Switch-only gamer, you'd be well-advised to ignore this altogether, and playing the game on any of the many other systems this is available on. And if your only option is the Switch? Maybe skip this one and just trust everyone who says it's a game well worth playing.

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If you're okay with that uncertainty, and really okay with crazy hyperactivity, I could totally see why someone would love RPG Time: The Legend of Wright. It's a love letter to gaming -- as in, a love letter to almost every genre you can think of -- and it's designed to look like someone drew it up in a notebook, which only adds to the charm. It's all over the place, but if you want something unlike anything else, this is the game you're after.

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