I think I’m going to continue making a habit of starting these off with an “announcements” section. Partly because I don’t have anywhere else where I let people know about what’s going on behind the scenes, and partly because I feel like that level of transparency is required when you’re ostensibly working for a public audience.

Anyway, April went mostly to plan. Roottrees Review? Check. Hades 2 article? Check. Mini Motorways Guide? Check.

In fact, the only thing that I wanted to finish writing, but didn’t, was a second article about Hades 2. The particulars are how I was really impressed by the inclusion of 2 different run types in Hades 2, and I compare some of the differences and advantages that has over the previous game. The guts of the article are there, but it’s a lot of disconnected paragraphs at present. I felt like finishing my review for StarVaders on time was a little more important, so that’s what stole my focus away in the back-half of April. Well, that and StarVaders being incredibly fun to play.

Speaking of StarVaders – actually no. I’m getting ahead of myself.

Here’s the highlights from what I played in April:

StarVaders

Okay.

Speaking of StarVaders, some folks involved with the game reached out about reviewing it in early April. I’d already enjoyed what I played of the game’s demo during a Steam Next Fest last year, so I happily agreed.

To no one’s surprise, I loved the game. It sits at the intersection of 2 of my favourite genres: deckbuilding, and turn-based tactics. It wouldn’t be unfair to say that StarVaders feels like it was made specifically for people like me, which (I believe) is part of why I was offered a review key.

Either way, you can read my full review for a complete breakdown of what I liked about, and why I think StarVaders is such a special game. It feels very fresh thanks to the inclusion of turn-based tactics gameplay in a genre that is otherwise overrun with copycats who want to be the next Slay the Spire, or Balatro.

Also, if you happen to be reading this, and have already played StarVaders: who is your favourite pilot? Mine is Hali. I find her incredibly easy to play thanks to her Coral ability doing passive damage to nearby enemies as she repositions around the battlefield. This usually sees me racking up fairly consistent combos with her even when I draw a bum hand in the early game. She also has access to several of my favourite cards (Slice, Cleave, and En Passant) since she pilots the Stinger mech.

Mouthwashing

Now, for one of the most deeply upsetting games that I’ve ever played: Mouthwashing.

For those who aren’t familiar with the indie Horror cult-hit of 2024: Mouthwashing is a game about the final days of a stranded space delivery crew. They crash mid-flight on a several year long-haul delivery across space, and discover that their cargo hold is filled with nothing but millions of bottles of mouthwash. It’s 2.5 hours long, is largely a walking sim, and many of the scenes are presented out of order. Mouthwashing is the kind of game that you think about while staring up at your ceiling at 3 AM.

I feel like I don’t need to say anything more about Mouthwashing. Most of you will know if the game is something you want to put yourself through based on my description above. For what it’s worth, I think Mouthwashing is worthwhile even though it’s a largely uncomfortable experience.

Also, it’d be remiss of me to not mention, and thank my buddy Alex who recommended Mouthwashing to me. We ended up chatting about it after I finished, and I think that helped to round out my experience. There were a few subtle details that I missed, which Alex clued me into that helped me to connect a few of the events that seemed otherwise unrelated. 

Plus, we were able to share our interpretations of certain scenes, and talk about how it feels to experience art. That’s not something I get to do a whole lot since I’m perennially surrounded by math and tech people thanks to the majority of my adult friends being people I met at college, or working in technology. 

Regardless, I had a lot of fun discussing Mouthwashing after the fact with Alex, so y’all might see more recommendations from him in future articles.

Haste

I’m going to keep this one shorter because I already wrote out the bulk of my thoughts on Haste in a review.

For those not in the know, Haste is an infinite runner where you build, and maintain momentum while running towards the end of a level. You do this by launching yourself into the air, and descending back down again to the ground at the correct angle. It’s incredibly simple, but equally fun.

However, Haste feels very incomplete, or it did at the time when I reviewed it, so I ended up not recommending it for the time being.

I didn’t mention it in the review, but it feels like developer Landfall might’ve rushed Haste out the door. They’ve made a bit of a name for themselves releasing a new game every April 1st for the past several years, and Haste was no exception. That might explain why Haste has so many polish related issues that the team has rapidly been ironing out across several patches following the game’s release.

Either way, Haste is very fun when it works, but I think it needed a lot more time in the oven before it was released. As previously mentioned, Landfall has been aggressively patching it throughout April, so it might eventually get to a more complete state. I’d need to re-evaluate the game in a few months time to know for certain though.

Leap Year

I’m not sure that I’ve ever mentioned the Sokpop Collective before, though I’m fairly certain I’ve reviewed 1 of their games.

Either way, there is a group of indie developers who put out small releases every couple of months (kind of like Landfall now that I’m mentioning it) called the Sokpop Collective. Most of their games only take about an hour to finish, but they always showcase some unique concept, or mechanic. The entire game is then built around that singular unique thing.

That’s what Leap Year is – it’s a platforming game where you take fall damage. Sadly, the default arc of your jump puts you too high to land without taking fall damage, and perishing. Thus, Leap Year is really about figuring out how to maneuver through each level so that you won’t take fall damage thanks to some clever puzzling while you platform.

Leap Year is short, but it’s an absolute delight to play through. I highly recommend it, especially if you want to play something very different for an afternoon.

Cataclismo

Finally, Cataclismo.

Some of you may recall that I played through Cataclismo last year during its Early Access period, and had mostly positive things to say about it. The game released 1.0 in March, so I decided to return to it and replay the whole thing.

Oh boy.

In general, I still think Cataclismo is neat. Having more involved construction mechanics for your base’s defenses is really cool, and it gives the player a lot of opportunity to create a variety of customized structures to hold enemies forces at bay.

However, after playing the second half of the game’s campaign, I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t a little disappointed. There are very few new ideas presented within the campaign’s back-half so it ends up feeling very samey. This is only exacerbated by how many of the missions are longer, so things really start to drag out towards the end.

Furthermore, there’s still a few lingering balancing issues that weren’t addressed over the Early Access period. This includes an unusually large difficulty spike for exactly 1 mission in the middle of the campaign, and many of the early game units being entirely useless beyond the sixth or seventh chapter of the 17 mission campaign.

None of these things in isolation are deal breakers, but together they made the experience of playing (and finishing) Cataclismo’s campaign to be largely unenjoyable. I think a wider variety of different mission types, or limiting which units you had access to might have helped to alleviate a lot of the monotony that I felt while playing the game.

Obviously, my opinion is a bit of an outlier if you’ve read any of the reviews on the game’s Steam page. If you’re still interested in Cataclismo, then more power to you. However, I think I’m going to change my overall assessment of the game from being a strong thumbs up to a thumbs down. 

And with that sour note, we’ve wrapped up April. Sorry this was a couple days late – I was dealing with some family stuff, and I was attending my first in-person fighting game event yesterday. For those who’re curious: I did about as well as I could’ve been expected to at the event, but I think most people were just happy to see me attend. I also got to meet some of the OG folks from Toronto, which was fairly rad.

Anyway, thank you for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one.

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