Matthew Pollesel

Ottawa

330 games reviewed
72.6 average score
75 median score
48.8% of games recommended

Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! is the kind of game you can play over and over again as you try to uncover all the different twists and turns you missed the first few times around (and given the sheer number of possibly story combinations, you'll need to play through the game several times and several ways to see everything). Much like inkle's other, later games, Sorcery! is highly replayable and an essential experience for anyone who's even kind of interested in adventure games.

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Sep 8, 2022

Pure Crosswords is a very good take on the genre. I mean, it doesn't reinvent what people have been doing with pencil and paper for the last 150 years, but it also doesn't need to do that. It just needs to approximate the pencil and paper experience on a Switch screen, and it does just that.

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Sep 7, 2022

PAC-MAN WORLD Re-PAC may not be one of the greatest games of all time being brought back for a new generation to discover, but it's still a decent enough 3D platformer that lots of people -- myself included -- are going to enjoy.

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It's still not a complex game, obviously. And you're still likely to eventually get bored by its relative simplicity. But it's a mark of how enjoyable Bit Orchard is that you'll almost inevitably find yourself getting sucked right back in.

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Please, Touch The Artwork is a nice-looking puzzle game that leaves you awash in good vibes.

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Aug 30, 2022

If you've ever wondered what Portal would be like if it had an ancient Egyptian theme, wonder no more. It would probably look somewhat similar to Hourglass.

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Even if Blossom Tales isn't all that original, that doesn't make it any less fun. The world is fun to explore, the puzzles are fun to solve, and the story is engaging and enjoyable. It may not make you forget its obvious influences, but at the very least, it does right by them, and tries its best to live up to their sterling reputations.

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Aug 25, 2022

Two Point Campus is basically a perfect management sim. It's filled with content (with more likely on the way, if Two Point Hospital is any guide) and it's absurdly accessible, and it's worth picking up no matter your usual interest in the genre.

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The controls are so bad, in fact, that they outweigh whatever good or interesting or intriguing things Pendula Swing may be trying to do here. There's a lot going on, and there are all kinds of ideas, but the only way to experience any of it is by dealing with constant frustration, and in the end it doesn't seem worth it.

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The First Cases is a good tribute to one of the classic characters of fiction, and anyone who likes to curl up with a good mystery should find this to be to their liking as well.

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Aug 19, 2022

Severed Steel doesn't exist in a vacuum. It exists in a world where Neon White (to say nothing of Max Payne and Superhot) not only also exist, but are much, much better options if you want this kind of gameplay. With competition like that, Severed Steel doesn't quite match up.

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Aug 18, 2022

Cursed to Golf is designed to challenge you, frustrate you, and punish you -- and even if real golf does that, this game takes it to a whole other level. If you're the kind of person who doesn't usually give sports games a second glance but loves difficulty ramped up to an insane degree, this should be the one sports game you make an exception for.

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Aug 17, 2022

Digimon Survive is a talk-heavy game that expects you to spend a lot of time reading, and a little bit of time fighting. That may not be the most enjoyable thing if you just want a Pokémon substitute, but as visual novels go, it's one of the better ones.

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I don't foresee Sword and Fairy: Together Forever garnering the kind of following here in the west that it has in China, but if you just want to kill lots of monsters and watch lots of dialogue, it may be worth your time.

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Aug 10, 2022

Summertime Madness doesn't last long, and it can easily be finished in under two hours. But it's also not the sort of game that needs to go on forever, either. It's a challenging, engaging puzzle with enough plot to last through its runtime, and that's enough to make it well worth a look.

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Aug 9, 2022

This game is terrible in every way. Whether we're talking major aspects of the game or simply minor little details, everything about it is awful.

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Aug 8, 2022

It's not going to blow you away, and unless you're really into the genre it's probably not something you need to play, but it's decent enough that if you're a fan of Silent Hill and Resident Evil and all their descendants, then it's definitely something you'll want to at least check out.

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D - XEL
Aug 2, 2022

XEL isn't a great game. It's not even a mediocre game. It's a half-finished mess that shouldn't have been released in this state.

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Aug 1, 2022

If I'd gone into Coromon blind and someone had told me that it was a Pokémon game, the only reason I'd have to be suspicious is that there's no Pikachu in sight.

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Jul 29, 2022

Blackberry Honey is pretty harmless and inoffensive. It doesn?t ask anything of players and it probably won't stick with you for very long after you finish it, but if you're in the mood for reading something long and unobjectionable, you could probably do worse.

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