During the recent Saskatchewan provincial election, I was back in a traditional office environment for the first time in 5 years. I expected that the intense election environment would be taxing in unexpected new ways. Yeah, I ran into an unexpected one, all right: I actually had to put my work down when I left the office, and I found it very difficult to cope. It turns out my glamorous work-from-home lifestyle involves a lot of, well, nearly constant work.

To cope with those long evenings with no GIS projects to nervously pick away at, I decided to start catching up on random indie games published for my Nintendo Switch (which I only bought in 2023... you couldn't accuse me of being with the times). Here are my opinions in approximately chronological order. As usual, they are infallible AND inerrant.

Dungeons of Dreadrock (9/10)

$2 puzzle game. Great value for a very minimal price!! This was a Reddit recommendation that tipped me off to the fact that I could buy Switch back catalog games for cheap.

Super Mario Wonder (7/10)

The game that made me realize my money might be better spent on $2 puzzle games. A HUGE improvement over New Super Mario Bros U, which I would give a 4/10 or a 5/10. But it's too late, I'm just kind of tired of the 2D Mario game formula at this point in my life. By the way, I love the typography in this game, the UI looks really good and crisp.

Fez (10/10)

Since I haven't played any indie games for 10 years, I decided to stack the deck by looking up the all-time classics first. I happen to really like puzzle platformers, so this one was a shoo-in.

Apparently I've become an iPad baby since I was in grade school, because it was very jarring to realize that this is a game best played with a blank sheet of paper in front of you... you know, like how EVERY game used to be?? Get out your notebook from the beginning and I think this would be even more of a fun game to play blind, I would confidently say that it's possible to get to 64 cubes (100%) without a walkthrough if someone just tips you off at the start that there are intense puzzle elements.

Braid, Anniversary Edition (10/10)

Another all-time puzzle platformer, very smart and fun to play. Fez distracts you with a bunch of conventional platformer levels, so you can go a long time without realizing it's a puzzle game (or maybe this is just me? I'm not necessarily smart). Braid has fewer distractions, so you have to get good fast! I only had to look up 2 puzzles (and regretted looking up one of them, the other one WAS totally bullshit and the solution I had been trying was better).

This one is famous for its dense narrative, which made the mistake of assuming that gamers can read.

Donut County (8/10)

My kind of game. Not much playtime but the ukulele soundtrack and low poly aesthetic really stuck with me, definitely worth the experience.

I will play any Katamari-like so please recommend me obscure ones.

Superhot (7/10)

Wanted to play this one forever since my friend wouldn't let me try. Plays exactly like how it looks in video, I really liked the minimal aesthetic and precise strategy element. I found the plot jarringly mediocre, which I probably shouldn't care about in a gameplay-focused puzzle shooter, but the "less is more" design philosophy is otherwise so well applied that the solidly regular narrative seems out of place.

Katamari Damacy Reroll (9/10)

I never owned a PlayStation and Katamari was probably the franchise I was most disappointed about missing out on. The Switch port is everything I ever wanted!! I found the pacing and difficulty to be surprisingly well-polished, it's a ridiculous game but I found the gradual mastery of the gameplay and the storyline to both be very solid.

We Love Katamari Reroll (7/10)

The actual levels play better than the first Katamari, but it's obviously a sequel that was just thrown together because a sequel needed to exist. The level of disjointed ridiculousness exceeds what I find credible, even for the Katamari series!!!

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (8/10)

Very beautiful game

Disco Elysium (10/10)

What if you were in Quebec? Being divorced adds a new dimension to the immersive narrative of this game, I recommend it.

Picross S9 (Cognitohazard)

This shit is dangerous. I have stayed up until 4am with this damn game multiple days this week. Please do not recommend rote, content-heavy puzzle games to me if you value my personal wellness. There are EIGHT MORE??

Games I Didn't Really Give A Fair Shake

You're reading MY blog, so I can still review games that I found uncompelling enough to not finish. I still paid for them, damn it. Start your own blog if you don't like it.

Bridge Constructor Portal (4/10)

Seems like decent value but it's too much like a phone game.

Grapple Dog (3/10)

Looks cute but it didn't hold my attention.

Teslagrad Remastered (2/10)

Does not look cute. This art style has not aged well. Did not hold my attention after the first technically difficult jump.