Video game talk, anyone?

Crypt Custodian rules. It's a combat-focused isometric metroidvania made by the one-man development team behind Islets and Sheepo, which are also both very good. This is his best game to date, and I'd say it's a must play for any fans of isometric action games like Bastion, Hyper Light Drifter, Unsighted, and especially Death's Door. What Crypt Custodian has on all of these games, even absolute classics like Bastion, is the feel of the combat. Movement feels so good in this game. I love how you get both a jump and a dodge, and both can be used to avoid strikes and projectiles. I like its approach to the "charm" system. This feature, a stock standard in indie action games today in which you have a wide selection of unique doodads to equip for bonuses and abilities, but you're limited on the number you can equip, either by total slots or a total charm "value" (like Hollow Knight). Crypt Custodian's is exactly like Hollow Knight's, except you can buy additional slots/points, for cheap, and with no limit. If you want to grind the cash and put in the time, you can eventually equip every charm at the same time. It's fun. I'd say the game is player friendly like that just in general. Some tough bosses, a couple bullet hell sequences, but generally much more chill than this genre tends to be (on Normal difficulty). It's just a good time.

Game completion time: 14 hr, 85% completion.

Here's a trailer. I really can't recommend it enough.

I do NOT recommend The Plucky Squire, even though I think it's a cool game, and I'm glad to have played it. 

I think I land about the same place as the game site reviewers have, only for different reasons. I've seen myriad complaints about the game's limited scope (agreed), linearity (agreed), and iffy controls (disagreed, the game plays just fine), but weirdly I haven't crossed paths with the most obvious complaint that I, a 40 year-old man, have with the game: it's too kiddie. From the story to the creature designs to the simplicity of the puzzle solving, I could never get past that back of the head itch that this was a game for kids. Not "all ages", the way a top-down Zelda game with a similar art style and mechanics somehow manages to be, but specifically for kids. I'm going to introduce it to my two for sure.

Tell you what I DO recommend though: Minishoot' Adventures.

This is a top-down bullet hell twin-stick shooter metroidvania in which you pilot a little spaceship and explore a dangerous planet in search of your friends. It wears the MV label proudly: you almost always have access to multiple paths to explore, but true progress is ultimately gated by your abilities. You can't get through those rocks without the powered up cannon, you can't get over that gap without the dash, etc. And while those gates do exist, I'd say the openness is one of the game's strengths. It's not a huge map or anything - the game is overall slight, I bet I could complete a second play through in under 4 hours - but it is riddled with secrets and hidden passageways, and you often feel rewarded for taking that time to explore, for saving the required progression for last and investigating the crannies first. More currency, more upgrades. It's also pleasantly light on story. It has one, but it doesn't spend a lot of time talking at you. You get right into the gameplay, and that's where it keeps you. The game has character, but it doesn't have any characters. It's "president kidnapped by ninjas" level storytelling, and that's great!

Mechanically it feels fantastic. The ship is responsive, and it really delivers on the raw twitch satisfaction of shmups and bullet hells. I'm positively terrible at bullet hells, so I admit I played on the easiest setting, and I'm happy for it. I died a few times, but I didn't struggle. It also has some great quality of life decisions that I wish all metroidvanias would adopt:
- Loot/currency is collected automatically from any distance. You don't have to equip some kind of "magnet" ability.
- You can respec infinitely and at any time, even mid-battle. The only thing that's kinda weird about this one is that it kinda trivializes the races, for which you can quickly and freely respec to all speed and boost, then back to weapons after you've won the race. But ... that's good! That's just you playing video games.

- For later game, you can eventually buy an item that shows you the general location of everything you've missed, for the 100% hounds out there.

Needless to say my review is glowing. I loved this game. I will play through it again. Not expensive, not super long, just a nice way to spend a couple sessions.

(For some reason this trailer shows a ton of racing footage. The racing is a really small, optional part of this game.)