Super Mario World, which is supposed to be a five-hour game, has taken my wife and me ~12 hours so far. We're not even halfway.
On top of Super Mario World, I've been playing a few roguelikes/lites with friends.
We bought Barony, Abyssus, and Shape of Dreams.
Barony is an OG Doom-esque first-person roguelike. It's like a PvE Dark and Darker. To be honest, I haven't had much fun with it. It's brutally difficult, and there isn't enough loot variance to give you the occasional god run. To make matters worse, it's a roguelike, not a roguelite, so your runs aren't building to anything. Our best run to date ended when all of our players were separately trapped in rooms with no exits. The procedural generation needed additional tuning. It has 92% positive reviews on Steam, and I'll admit that I'm surprised by that. It's a 6/10 for me.
I've had more fun with Abyssus. Abyssus is described as brinepunk, which is basically a BioShock-inspired deep-sea setting. It's a bit Risk of Rain, a bit Borderlands. Because Hades was my entrypoint into roguelites, I have trouble with games with Abyssus. The gameplay loop is tight enough to make for enjoyable sessions, but I leave feeling hollow. I'd compare it to a bingey Netflix series. It's a fun way to pass the time, but not something I'll ever think about again. 7/10.
This leads me to the abysmally named Shape of Dreams. Shape of Dreams is a top-down hack-and-slash roguelite. It plays like a MOBA + Diablo. The gameplay loop is outstanding. The best part of roguelike/roguelite games is building to the god run. Well, Shape of Dreams isn't afraid to deliver. All of the characters feel like superheroes in their own way. It's easy to build something powerful, and doing so always feels good. 8/10.
I had a similar experience with another roguelite—Stolen Realm—last year. There's a point where a gameplay loop is so satisfying that the rest of the presentation doesn't matter. Story, art, voice acting, music, whatever. It's all ancillary. Games are a unique medium in this way. In a movie, it's almost impossible for great cinematography or story to overcome poor acting or set design. Games really sing when you're getting everything. Story, art, music, acting, etc. Those are the Hades or Expedition 33s of the world. But there's also a place for having a good time with the boys.
All this to say, while I've had fun with these games, outside of Shape of Dreams, they've left me feeling uneasy. As someone dedicated to experiencing as much great art as possible, I almost feel guilty consuming empty calories.
I dunno. I thought I'd talk it out.
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