The idea of a “solvable game” is usually reserved for competitive games, particularly board games. But then there are adventure games and Subsurface Circular.

It’s hard to deny that Gris is nothing short of a fantastic game – and I don’t mean that in a “review-score” way, but more in the traditional way; that it’s gorgeous, poignant, and transportative. Unfortunately, its myriad positive points in that field can feel compromised at times by Gris’ seemingly-obligatory affordances to its format.

As my post history should make fairly apparent, I love role-playing games, and the more role-playing-y, the better. Naturally, this extends well past just video games – probably my longest and deepest exposure to general role-playing is in the form of play-by-post forum RPGs.

I love me a good puzzles in a game, especially in an adventure game, but it’s entirely possible to just… stumble through most of these. Minit strives to solve this – and it does so admirably.

I don’t believe that the recent God of War would be anywhere near as well-regarded nor widely-recognized if it wasn’t prepared to disassemble its own foundations and leave reams of material on the floor in favor of what makes it really work.

One of the very quickest ways to kill my interest in a game is to railroad me into a tutorial. Conversely, the fastest way to get me on board is to display trust in the audience. But Pan-Pan just takes it to the next level on top of that.

Obviously, I love looking back at movies, games, shows – darn near anything under the umbrella term “media” – and celebrating what makes it so memorable. Heck, that’s effectively the mission statement of this blog. Awards shows seem custom-built to do that, so in theory I should be completely and totally on-board with them. Not so much.