Antal Bokor

There’s a part of me that associates video games with platformers and shooters, despite the fact that I spent a chunk of my childhood playing narrative-heavy games like OPUS: Prism Peak. Prism Peak, on the other hand, deals with a very human journey while incorporating spirits and Japanese folklore elements to tell its very earth-grounded story.

While MINOS isn’t exactly the "Balatroization" I was hoping for (that’s a real word, I swear), it is a competent tower defense game with roguelite elements and some synergistic fun.

I don’t want to be too hard on developer Calibus Creations. I’ll admit that I sometimes judge indie games on a bit of a curve. I’ll let things like production value go as long as the gameplay is good. Ember Island doesn't really have that going for it. There’s a lot of 'okay' there, but not much good, and nothing I could qualify as “great.” It doesn't just lack polish; it lacks a soul. It looks exactly like the uncanny video an LLM spits out when prompted to generate a "retro platformer"