inside is a game i was curious about for a long time but never enough to actually try it, i liked limbo well enough on vita but i didn't love it and i'm just generally not into platformers, both cinematic and otherwise so the gameplay was a bit of a barrier for me getting excited to play it, but with the short length and wanting something spooky to play i ended up trying it and it was okay.the game did deliver on spooks first off, some of the ocean areas scared the heck out of me and the mermaid enemies were terrifying, there's a real sense throughout of danger and it keeps you on edge, especially in the darker underwater ruiny areas in the middle of the game that make up its highlight. there are some things it excells at that make it worth playing if they sound at all appealing, the graphical style is pretty minimal looking but the background details are amazing, i loved noticing things in the BG and it did a great job of doing worldbuilding in a game with no real dialogue, every aspect felt mysterious, this mystery is one of the other things it does well, the world feels genuinely scary and way bigger than you and parts of it (though not all, many later segments are a little bland and there are def highlights, like the water segments and some of the ruins) are just amazing to explore, there's even secrets to find in areas with extra background lore and can lead into a secret ending if you know what you're doing, i actually prefer the secret ending too because the one that's normally here is really just not great, it's a big tonal shift in a way i just didnt vibe with and it was just goofy and hurt the games mysterious vibe a lot, this combined with how much i didn't care for the gameplay led to me coming away a lot more lukewarm on it than i would have hoped, it's good! but it's not a game i think i'll think about a lot.

after this i had went back and played their other major game again, limbo, i played it on vita and had a better time than i did with inside i think. the atmosphere in limbo is just a lot stronger and i think how unique it looks plays a good part in how much more memorable it was to me vs inside, its just a lot more striking and original feeling, especially playing it back then when it came out, it helps that limbo is also shorter by about an hour or so, so while inside outstays its welcome a little, limbo feels much more well paced and easier to finish for me, it was also a lot scarier, the spider especially was actually terrifying, sure it doesn't have the mystery of inside but the rest more than makes up for it for me, it helps that its also just an easier game with more simple puzzles to it so the fact its a platformer doesn't bother me as much as it did for inside, the shadowy graphical style also helps just for readability on what is and isn't a puzzle object which is an issue that i had big time with inside, things just blended in a lot, it's a good game anyway, less mysterious than inside so if thats the aspect you want then maybe go for inside over it but if not, i'd rec this over it, though if you go for the physical copy of inside you'll get both anyway so its kind of a mute choice anyway, either way its a perfect one sitting game if you do decide to play, maybe even alongside inside if you feel like it because you can easily beat both in about 2 and a half hours.

the last thing i've also been trying is the new my hero academia game, the battle royale beat-em-up ultra rumble, i kind of went into this just because the idea sounded a little weird but i ended up having a lot of fun! it's a character based BR with one map and a BUNCH of varied characters each with their own quirks and movesets, though i mostly played for dabi, because he's hot (i dont need a reason beyond that). it plays like a licenced beatem-up but a little more basic, each character has a combo string, 3 cooldowns and a unique ability which can range from a grab for shigaraki to a powered up mode for denki, you also have an ultimate plus ultra mode that gives you full shields (you have shields and health) and lets you go on a rampage with increased damage and durability, one time i managed to take out a full team of 3 with just denki in this mode! it's a lot of fun, the team dynamic works really well though it does mean that it's very difficult to do well alone without sticking with them. the character unlock system is a little weird too, you got about 20 heroes and villains to chose from, though mostly heroes because rn there's only like 4 villains, and you have a few for free on each side, dabi and shiggy for the villains and some like deku and mt lady for the heroes but most are locked, you can play 3 free rounds with anyone per day and then after that its just whoever you have unlocked, i was able to get 2 already though, denki with my unlock and i got kirishima in the gatcha but it's not clear how to get everyone, some seem to be gatcha and others seem to be with tickets? but it's not very clear and i wish it was just more upfront about it because theres some like himiko i want to unlock but im really just not sure how!

the game is a lot of fun though! you get a lot of pulls upfront and you do get enough variety in characters to work with, some of the free ones are even a little broken like shigaraki, i do wish there was more than one map but it does have a lot of variety, every zone has cool terrain to get around and some even have unique gimmicks like the survivors to save (or terrorise as a villain) or dome you can drop down from, the games style makes all the areas look amazing too, it's all so bright and colourful and it matches the anime's style perfectly, same with the music! i do wish we had some of the vocal tracks here though. personally i've been maining dabi and denki mostly, dabi has ranged attacks, a trap he can place and a AOE attack thats really fun to use and denki has a ranged attack that can spread around a little, an even better AOE than dabi and a cool dash that's very useful for escaping encounters, i'd love if we could get midnight though, she'd be another main of mine just like in the fighting game! i think i'll be sticking with this a while because it does just feel like a fun licnenced beat-em-up on a larger scale and i really like that, i also want to see what new characters we get and a few new maps could really help for the longetivity, but what's here is a really good baseline, a better one than FF7 first soldier had anyway, which was the only other BR i'd played before this.