GIPTM: January 2026
- Ryan Zhao
- 5 days ago
- 19 min read
This is a monthly blog post in which I reflect upon and post micro-reviews for every video game I've beaten or otherwise concluded my time with in the month of January 2026. This includes both new and old releases.
Numerical ratings are purely subjective measures of my enjoyment of the game and are conducted on a full 100-point scale in which 50 means that I enjoyed it. Roughly speaking: 0 = hated it; 10 = frustratingly little enjoyment; 20 = seeds of ideas that were not adequately delivered; 30 = some interest; 40 = respectable effort but I didn't quite enjoy it; 50 = faint positivity; 60 = good; 70 = doing something uniquely well; 80 = great; 90 = very special; 100 = legendary.
Key: 🟩 = beaten; ⬛ = not beaten, but I will not be continuing; 🔁 = replay
LEGO Horizon Adventures 🟩
2024
LEGO my stego
Genre: Platformer || 3D platformer
Played on: PS5 via PS+
I'm a big fan of the LEGO games. I've beaten every one of the IP-driven platformers they've produced since LEGO Star Wars, and this game does what I've been craving of LEGO for a long time: taking a low-stakes swing at an IP that seems like a weird fit.
That said, the appeal of Horizon as a franchise and setting is the aesthetic juxtaposition of the robotic and the organic; technology and nature. It differentiates itself from Monster Hunter with its elegant and terrifying robots, shining in unnatural white against the beautiful backdrops of an again-unspoiled wilderness. When everything is made of LEGO, that distinction disappears -- everything is robotic and artificial. The machines don't meaningfully differ from their surroundings. The concession to the art style renders the choice of IP inert.
Overall, the game has good combat for a LEGO game, though its obligatory stealth mechanics are undercooked. Exploration is virtually nonexistent, though. Each level is oppressively linear, and the adventure as a whole is severely underwhelming. There are some moments of successful comedic delivery, but the Horizon IP is not distinct enough in its cast and identity to make for an exciting rendition in LEGO's Punch-and-Judy parody form.
Innovation the game introduces: Customizing not only the decorations but the color schemes of the various areas in the hub makes returning to home base between levels more of an amusing ritual than an interruption of the action.
What I'd like to see from future games: Using the streamlined simplicity of LEGO games to reinterpret the gameplay of other established series is a fun idea. Where’s our LEGO Dark Souls?
Score: 48
PowerWash Simulator 2 🟩
2025
Cleaning up these streets
Genre: Simulation || job simulator, first-person shooter
Played on: PC via Game Pass
Does this game justify its position as a full sequel instead of being a meaty DLC pack for PowerWash Simulator 1? Mechanical alterations are sparse, and graphical presentation is more-or-less in-line with what had come before. The few additional features and QoL adjustments are noticeable — soap is actually a useful gameplay mechanic this time due to some smart changes made to its mechanics, and the new omni-directional suspension harness is a lot of fun to use.
But I think the reason for the sequelization is to compel participation in its new upgrade system. The in-game economy is more intelligently laid out than it was in PWS1 and more flexible, as well. From the beginning, I had my eyes set on my trusted three-pronged trident sprayer from the latter stages of the first game. It’s an expensive purchase, but being able to pursue it right off the bat instead of it being progress-gated gave me a greater sense of agency in the construction of my “build” and made earning the sprayer more rewarding.
Alas, my beautiful trident is still almost too good, to the point that it upsets the balance of the game. It trivializes many other mechanics, like the brilliantly-reinvented soap, by being such a versatile tool in its own right.
Whatever kind of natural disaster or ingenious vandal is responsible for the state of the game’s small town — smearing mess evenly and equally across all surfaces, inside and outside — makes for satisfying gameplay but rather confusing worldbuilding. Perhaps a frivolous complaint for a meditative, lighthearted simulation game, but PowerWash Sim is a series that draws close attention to all of the details of the game world. Like hidden object games, it has the possibility of using this “close reading” posture of play to hide little jokes and environmental storytelling in the arrangement of objects and mess. While there are occasional gags, there exists a good deal more room to give more compelling evidence of life and stories in these spaces.
Innovation the game introduces: Purchasing furnature for the home base sees new purchases arrive absolutely filthy and in need of a washing off. It’s a fun extension of the gameplay loop into the between-stages times, and it paints an amusing picture of the absolute bottom-of-the-barrel customer service our cleaners get from whomever sells furnature in town.
What I'd like to see from future games: Dirt coats every surface in this game relatively evenly which feels unrealistic and misses opportunities to use the patterning and distribution of dirt for the purpose of effective worldbuilding. Let’s see the mess more meaningfully applied.
Score: 75
The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- 🟩
2025
A familiar Dangan-romp
Genre: Adventure, strategy || visual novel, turn-based strategy
Played on: PC, Steam Deck (key received for free)
This is a wildly-ambitious visual novel (with turn-based strategy elements); a 160+ hour tome of a video game and a collaboration between the creators of Zero Escape and Danganronpa. The VN to end all VNs. As exciting as that concept might be (to real VN freaks), it also represents putting a lot of eggs in one basket. This is essentially ~six games' worth of content spread across multiple timelines of the story resolving in 100+ endings. Is the basic premise and cast of characters strong enough to support such a colossal project?
At this time, I have completed my first playthrough only. For a game that boasts about 100 endings branching from many player-driven choice points in the game, I was surprised to find the first 30+ hour playthrough to not involve any choice. It tells its story "straight" at first so that it can introduce variations in its timeline-hopping "replays". So what I've done so far is essentially the table-setting for the variations yet to come.
The basic story is fine -- less compelling in its own right than the Danganronpas or either of the first two Zero Escapes (it outshines Zero Time Dilemma already). If the base-line "straight" playthrough was all that was included in this package, I'd give it a tentative recommendation, but only when the creators' previous works are exhausted first. Naturally, the test of the value of the game will be seeing how effectively its variations capitalize on its structural promise.
And that's a big ask. 30+ hours will give you a "good-not-great" visual novel, and the "real" game begins after that point. That's a lot of time to invest in table-setting and pattern-learning. I love artforms based on variation and and riffing on known material, so I recognize the importance of establishing a strong base from which to work, but it's a hearty investment before it starts paying out.
As I understand it, the different story paths radically alter the story's genre and themes, and I'm excited to see where it goes. I've started timeline hopping a little bit at this point, and I've found myself partway into a story that I don't care for tremendously; I find it breaks some of the load-bearing conventions of the story. But it's too early to pass judgment; I will circle back in future months when I have achieved more endings.
Turn-based strategy battles break up the VN reading, and they're pretty good. Again, I don't see myself recommending the game if they were the sole draw, but they're certainly more than an afterthought, and the characters' combat abilities synergize nicely with their personalities in the VN portions. Following in the footsteps of Fire Emblem and 13 Sentinels, the change of pace is appreciated, and the difficulty level of battles never overwhelms those who are primarily interested in the story.
Innovation the game introduces: For such a choice-driven game, it shows restraint to disallow any choice-making in the initial playthrough, establishing a “normal” playthroguh from which the deviations driven by player choices in “replays” can meaningfully deviate. Like riffing on jazz standards, you have to know the archetypal standard before you can appreciate the variations. Holding player choices back for over 30 hours shows an impressive dedication to the game’s unconventional structure.
What I'd like to see from future games:
Score: 79
Please, Touch the Artwork 2 🟩🔁
2024
Paint-and-click adventure
Genre: Puzzle || hidden object
Played on: PC
A hidden-object game based on the paintings of James Ensor is an interesting idea, particularly since it was released for free and funded by an educational grant. With that context, though, I had expected the game to be more educational than it ended up being. Though we are exposed to many of Ensor's paintings and compelled to look closely at them with the hidden-object gameplay, the lack of any in-app context-setting or further reading let down its educational ambition.
While certain characters play parts in multiple scenes of the game, I don't get a sense (from the game alone) for what reoccurring motifs and symbols mean in Ensor's work and how it informs his grander philosophy. Despite the deliberate focus on one artist's oeuvre, it still feels like a rather shallow introduction.
There are contemporaries who do these Terry Gilliam-inspired classic art riffs better. Joe Richardson's series of Four Last Things, The Procession to Calvary, and Death of the Reprobate are all more appealing and (indirectly) educational experiences, and Pentiment, though not always grounded in specific artworks, is a much more compelling exploration of a period in art history and is much more generous with its educational context.
As it is, PTtA2 is neither a great hidden-object game nor a great educational tool. It stands out because of how rare games based on real paintings are at this point, but there is room for improvement in making the worlds and themes of the paintings seem more vital and relevant rather than just pages on top of which simple plank-collecting minigames are played.
Innovation the game introduces: Integration of an on-screen avatar in a hidden-object game is a new idea, though not wholly successful. It positions it more as a simple point-and-click adventure. Since there is little "adventuring" to be done, the on-screen avatar only ends up getting in the way of the environment we're searching through, potentially covering up objects we're seeking.
What I'd like to see from future games: Greater in-app educational context would draw out more of the interesting patterns and history that inform the paintings. We’re looking at them so closely already; why make players leave the app to learn about the game’s subjects?
Score: 33
Mondrian Simulator 🟩
2020
Modern art, classic puzzle
Genre: Puzzle
Played on: PC
Interested in other video games that have explored the paintings of Piet Mondrian in my research for the Please, Touch the Artwork issue of the Cane and Rinse podcast, this simple puzzler came to my attention. There is something satisfying about assembling Mondrian's aesthetically-pleasing shapes, but it doesn't make for terrific puzzle gameplay.
Innovation the game introduces: A puzzle in which the pieces are "context-free"; there's no continuing picture or interlocking jigsaw teeth to hint at where each piece might go. In fact, any piece can be an edge piece. It makes gameplay a bit more trial-and-error, but it remains solvable.
What I'd like to see from future games: Principles such as aesthetic balance could be a useful "hint" for games like this. Mondrian was careful to make sure that his paintings were "balanced" -- colors that felt "stronger" were given smaller spaces or placed closer to the center of the frame than lighter colors, so as to not upset the balance. This could be integrated into the logic of these puzzles.
Score: 28
Please, Touch the Artwork 🟩
2022
A picture's worth a thousand taps
Genre: Puzzle
Played on: Android
A pleasant puzzler based on the modern art paintings of Piet Mondrian. Includes three gameplay styles: a color-changing puzzler, an order-of-operations line puzzle, and a PAC-MAN-like maze runner. Each is pleasant enough, but there is room for improvement in the demonstration of the logics that inform the composition of these paintings.
The Boogie-Woogie and New York stages do a reasonable job of "explaining the visual metaphor" (though, for modern art pieces, they are rather literal in their composition already), but the De Stijl puzzles (while the most successful as puzzles) do not feel strongly informed by the logic that underpins their composition; they are, rather, puzzles built on top of the artwork instead of compelling us to think like the painter and gain greater insights through play.
Such orderly modern art as Mondrian's De Stijl paintings is an exercise in the aesthetic joy of rules and logic, and it would be reasonable to define games in the same way. It seems, then, that games are in a unique position to draw out and make personal that aesthetic appeal of rules. This game does not fully engage with the logic of these works (though it gets closer than most other examples; I don't mean to imply it has fallen behind its peers!). There is greater opportunity to gamify the experience of "reading" and understanding abstract art.
Innovation the game introduces: Mondrian's paintings are game-like in a way that had not previously been recognized quite to this extent. Adaptation of De Stijl and Boogie-Woogie styles to puzzles is successful.
What I'd like to see from future games: Gamification of the logic that guides the composition of abstract art is a fertile field, yet under-explored. I would love to see more of it.
Score: 67
Frogun Encore 🟩
2024
For frog the bell tolls
Genre: Platformer || 3D platformer
Played on: PC
I like pared-back, lo-fi 3D platformers; we're in a golden age for that particular niche. I did not like the first Frogun as much as I expected to, though. I found it rather stiff and unpolished, and I walked away more frustrated than entertained. I saw the sequel played during GDQ and was ready to give it another chance.
Encore is certainly an improvement -- a big step up. It feels much better to play, and the wider camera perspective suits the design of its levels. Fewer unfortunate interruptions, such as accidentally triggering dialogue sequences when trying to move around the game world. It still feels like a lesser peer amongst its contemporaries, but now a solid option I would be more likely to recommend.
Innovation the game introduces: Parallel and optional goals for each level, such as finishing each level under a certain time limit, without dying, or having collected all of the coins, encourages replaying each level with different play styles and strategies. It illuminates how each level is well designed to suit both slow, methodical play and speedrunning. These kinds of parallel goals (as seen in the Lonely Mountains games) give you the sense that you're always working toward some kind of goal; very well-implemented.
What I'd like to see from future games: I'd like to get rid of the "leaps of faith" in which you make a jump before you're sure the frog-gun's tongue can extend as far as you need it to.
Score: 61
Drawer Simulator 🟩
2019
Opening up can be difficult
Genre: Simulation || physics, fumblecore
Played on: PC
You play as a stuck kitchen drawer. Something inside is keeping it from opening correctly, as the only thing you can do is wiggle it until it comes loose. For such a short and simple game, there are a lot of interesting choices in here.
The persistent four-panel framing, giving you four perspectives on your drawer, only marginally helps the playability of the game, but it presents a very interesting experience of “being” within the game world. If we “are” the drawer, it’s both engrossing and alienating to see ourselves from different angles at once — from outside and from within. The redundancy of viewpoints gives the game allowance to dedicate a panel or two to more daring and pleasing (but useless, play-wise) angles that are only suitable due to the game’s Ang Lee Hulk-like perspective excess.
The “reward” for breaking free from the countertop is that the mechanics keep “working” outside of the boundaries for which they were designed, so the player can easily wiggle herself off of the ground and into the air, clumsily flying around the room in which the game takes place. Whether or not the physics-defying denouement was intentional, there’s something satisfying about not only overcoming the designed challenge but also the boundaries of the simulation’s representative believability. I am drawer and I am free of the world of man and god.
Innovation the game introduces: The reward for beating the game is making a plaything of the physics engine working against purpose. It's not a "glitch", but playful presentation of unintended engine behavior feels just naughty and against-purpose enough to be quite an appealing reward.
What I'd like to see from future games: Hard-body physics puzzles in mundane, everyday scenarios is an under-explored and promising field for a thematically-domestic WarioWare-type game.
Score: 67
Bang-On Balls: Chronicles 🟩
2023
Balls to the walls
Genre: Platformer || 3D platformer
Played on: PC, PS5
I don't mean this back-handedly or derisively at all: I like messy, inelegant platformers, and that's exactly what Bang-On Balls sets out to be. Levels are expansive and open, and avatar control is imprecise and chaotic. Follow the flow of action, combat, and movement rather than carefully planning your route. (Literally) bash your head against the obstacles in your path. The messier and stupider the solution to the problem, the better.
It's a lot of fun! The expansive worlds are full of little jokes. The placement of balls wearing particular costumes in particular contexts gives a lot of opportunity for sly movie references and cultural nods, and it always feels like you're witnessing something funny occurring when rolling into each new scene, similar to how much of the humor is created in Katamari Damacy.
The game has puzzles, but they can often be circumvented, and finding the most creative route to the solution (even if it bypasses intended challenges) becomes the most rewarding part of play (similar to last year's Donkey Kong Bananza). It's a platformer full of "I don't know if I should be able to do this, but let's trick off of the level geometry to get what I want", and that encourages highly expressive and individualized play. In that sense, I place this alongside games like Orbo's Odyssey.
Innovation the game introduces: Its open worlds are bound by genre (western, Japanese, space race, pirates...) but the looseness of boundaries within those genres gives it more of a feeling of a theme park than a sensible, contiguous space. Does it make sense that the game's modern Tokyo with J-pop concerts and drift racing sits alongside shogun-era samurai battles? No, but the transition between the zones is gentle enough that it feels like crossing from Adventureland into Frontierland.
What I'd like to see from future games: Gex proved this, but movie sets make for great excuses to rapidly shift between broad genre riffs.
Score: 79
Banjo-Kazooie 🟩🔁
1998
I came from Alabama with a Banjo on PC
Genre: Platformer || 3D platformer
Played on: PC (recompile)
One of my favorite games of all time, I've played this game in all sorts of ways. I was excited to see the recompile project pop up, and happy to say that it works very well! Out-of-the-box, it solves problems that emulators have had with the game for decades, and the smooth camera movement and increased framerate are game-changers.
The recompiled port also reintroduces the 'note saving' feature from the Xbox 360 port; leaving a world or dying within a world no longer resets the notes you've collected within that world. Not to the taste of every classic Banjo player (the setting can be toggled in the recompile menu), but I think it positively affects the experience. Though I tend to like to maximize what I can do in each level before moving on, the game nudges you to hop between worlds (by requiring ability unlocks in other worlds) in a way that has always been at friction with the note reset.
I've always been disappointed that Rare Replay never got a PC port; the wonderful collection is stuck on Xbox One (and Series) consoles, having released seemingly moments before Microsoft made its grand cross-platform push (now nearly all first-party Xbox games release on PC). Though I still long for proper PC versions of other games in that collection like Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo: Elements of Power, Viva Piñata, and Nuts & Bolts, this recompile goes some way toward bridging the gap.
Innovation the game introduces: I appreciate the game’s utterly demented textures, from the skillful blending between unlike surfaces to the eyes and faces that peer out from the walls of Gruntilda’s Lair, like the evil cave had absorbed the souls of the hundreds who ventured into it before. It’s a creepy and memorable choice.
What I'd like to see from future games: There aren’t many areas that are used for only one purpose. Most rooms and surfaces are relevant to multiple challenges, which allows denser design than many of the 3D platformers that followed it. So many games fall into the trap of “we need a race; let’s build a racetrack” instead of considering how the challenge can integrate into the world and props that already exist.
Score: 100
MIO: Memories in Orbit 🟩
2026
Hologram Knight: Siliconsong
Genre: Platformer || 2D platformer, Metroidvania
Played on: Xbox Series X via Game Pass
An elegant and pared-back Metroidvania, similar to Phantom Spark's back-to-basics distillation of the racing genre. You always have just enough unexplored territory on the map to push forward without ever getting too stuck, and navigating from point-to-point is relatively frictionless (a pain point in many Metroidvanias in which traversal or combat is challenging enough to discourage traversal to distant points to try out new abilities unless you're sure you need to go there). This gives the game a nice, curiosity-led feeling.
The game looks great, using a very disciplined pallet of pastel colors with a pleasant pencil-lines shader, giving the game the aesthetic of a classic sci-fi comic.
Bosses are well-designed with readable patterns and good fight-pacing. Some combat encounters and platforming sections (particularly those that end up being optional) are quite demanding but rarely wholly overwhelming. Challenge can be mitigated, though only marginally, by some intelligent assists, and these are assists of the best kind: those that might seem like interesting gameplay alterations whether or not the player needs a reprieve from the difficulty, such as a one-hit shield that recharges when the avatar has spent a few seconds in contact with the ground (enough to give you additional chances at challenging platforming sections, but rarely able to recharge during active boss fights) and an incremental assist that weakens bosses with each failed attempt (which is either a very minor assist or may not work at all in some scenarios).
There are some terrific moments, such as stargazing in one of the uppermost sections of the map.
The only real misstep is the currency system. It has good foundations: enemies drop a "liquid" currency when defeated, and that currency is lost upon avatar death. The liquid currency can be converted into solid currency at special checkpoints. Either currency can be spent at the game's one shop, but most purchasable items require a third currency: a limited collectable found off-the-beaten-path. As such, you will always have too much liquid and solid currency and too few of the limited collectables, rendering the first two currencies mostly meaningless. You will always have enough of the first two, so why include them at all?
More of a minor quibble, but another point I didn't care for is a navigational "twist" towards the end of the game that I'm sure feels very clever on-paper but, in execution, ends up feeling more disorienting than anything. To spoil the minor twist: it is revealed that the map loops around itself, such that the eastmost portions of the map connect directly to the westmost passages, and vice versa. It's an elegant design flourish, but it makes the map difficult to read after it is revealed, as the map becomes a continuous scroll of the world repeating itself over and over, left-to-right. Because the map is sparsely decorated, I can only "anchor" my understanding of where each area is based on its relative position in the world ("Metropolis is west, bell tower is northeast, etc.). When the map repeats itself, it's harder to get you bearings on where the eastern and western edges of the maps are.
Movement feels great, and new abilities gained throughout the adventure significantly alter the way we interact with the world beyond just passing lock-and-key obstacles. Despite multiple additions to the game's moveset throughout the adventure, it retains its sense of simplicity and elegance.
Innovation the game introduces: Specific points on the map that can "bank" the at-risk currency into a permanent variety is a nice spin on the souls / soul items mechanics of the Dark Souls games.
What I'd like to see from future games: The moments of low gravity were surprising but sparse. More frequent alterations in these basic properties of being in the game world could make for interesting alterations in the pacing.
Score: 85
DOGWALK 🟩
2025
Bow wow wow yippee yo yippee clay
Genre: Adventure || exploration adventure
Played on: PC
You're a big dog leading your tiny human around an open, snowy campsite in order to find the missing items necessary to complete his snowman. It's a cute (and free!) exploration adventure with delightful, hand-crafted visuals (using a mixture of stop-motion claymation models and paper cutout foliage) and a cheery storybook atmosphere.
Gameplay-wise, the connection between the characters is well-communicated. Both are tethered together by a leash, and the human child can generally keep up with the dog unless the dog steers him into a plant or obstacle which sets him off-balance and can cause him to trip and get dragged behind the charging dog! Dragging the child doesn't interfere with locomotion, but I feel compelled to stop and allow the child to regain his footing, causing the dog to nuzzle up to apologize for the tumble. It's a nice system that encourages empathy and makes it feel more like a shared experience.
The scavenger hunt is fun; each item ends up being a roundabout substitute for what you originally intended to find. One particular object gave me trouble, as I didn't realize how specifically I had to position the boy to retrieve it.
Innovation the game introduces: Showing videos of the human design that went into the game — from concepting to clay modeling to animation to programming — reminds us of the human inspiration and effort that goes into games. Breaking the artifice to remind the player that they’re partaking in a work of deliberate creativity endears me to the game to a greater degree!
What I'd like to see from future games: The physics and logic of the leash were well-implemented, but they weren’t incorporated (in any above-and-beyond way) into any of the puzzles. I’d like to see puzzles that take advantage of this tether.
Score: 71
MARVEL Cosmic Invasion⬛
2025
Days of future past
Genre: Brawler || progressive beat-em-up
Played on: Xbox Series X via Game Pass
The legacy of Capcom-produced Marvel Comics side-scrolling beat-em-ups is extensive and has a well-known look-and-feel, particularly since many of the sprites developed for those games were reused in Capcom's Vs. fighting games. This game is an homage to those older brawlers but with wholly redrawn sprites. The new artwork retains some familiar design choices and animations but gives everything a slightly more cartoony, squishy appearaance that looks and feels great in motion.
I have never really gotten on with side-scrolling beat-em-ups. I find the combat options to be relatively shallow compred to the fighting games with which they share so much DNA, and the challenge of judging depth in the 2.5D field has always felt more annoying than enjoyable (I constantly watch my characters plant their feet and punch imperceptably in front of or behind their intended target). I've just never really gotten into the flow of these games, despite having a lot of appreciation for when the genre transitions into 3D (character action, musuo...) or top-down (Hades, Bloodroots...). Unfortunately, this game did not overcome my specific hangups with the genre and win me over.
Innovation the game introduces: It feels like we're re-emerging from a period of licensed Marvel games in which Disney was overly-concerned with characters popular in its movies. Several projects (Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite chief amongst them) felt hampered by a too-protective Marvel making demands. This game gets into obscuro-weirdo Marvel again, and it's great to see.
What I'd like to see from future games: I wonder if this game could follow a similar trajectory to Capcom's previous work and if we could see these beautiful sprites reutilized in fighting games.
Score: 49
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