Metal Slug is a run-and-gun from the arcade era, and it's pretty straightforward. You run, shoot, kill enemies and collect special weapons. It's farily short too, I finished it in about 1 hour, but it's also fairly challenging, so if you like this kind of game, it will certainly give you a few hours of fun. The pixelated graphics are really good, animations are smooth, and the music keeps you pumped up and ready to kill. I played it on linux and it worked flawlessly. The game does slow down at some points when there is a lot happening on the screen, I believe this is intentional, to emulate the feeling of playing it on the original arcade machines, where it also slowed down, but I understand people being annoyed by it, even though it doesn't bother me personally. You can always play it on another emulator if that does bother you.
This is a direct sequence to the original Shantae for GBC, it's an adventure platformer where you explore Sequin Land in order to collect itens to prevent the villain from being able to use them to unleash a powerful weapon. It can be enjoyed even if you didn't play the original, and it improves on it in almost every way. The music is upbeat and fits the environment very well, just like the original, and some of the tracks are modified versions of the ones from the first game, which made me quite happy to hear them again. Graphics are incredible and create a gorgeous scenario that just feels great to explore, props to the artists of this game, they did a fantastic job. The story and characters are simple but charming and engaging, and will probably give you a laugh or two. The gameplay is where is stumbles a little. It is still a solid metroidvania with many areas to explore, and it does a great job at slowly opening up and integrating newer areas of the game as you get more powerful and unlock new itens. The bosses feel more challenging and fun to play, with new ideas for boss fights in comparassion to the first game, which is a very welcome addition, since I felt the original game's bosses felt a little lackluster. However, the game in general is easier, because healing itens drop more frequently and are super cheap to buy, you could easily cheese any boss by stocking up on potions for very little money. Granted, the original wasn't super hard either, but still, this one's even easier. It is also shorter, I finished my first playthrough in ~7 hours, collecting all the itens and thoroughly exploring the areas, but personally this doesn't bother me. If you liked the first game and/or like metroidvanias in general, and don't mind a shorter playtime and lesser difficulty, I think you'll have fun with this game like I did. Also, it worked great on linux through wine 7.12, other than the fullscreen which doesn't work for some reason, but I had no issues otherwise.
Hypnospace Outlaw is about moderating the internet of the late 90's for people breaking the rules and reporting them. Exploring personal webpages is its main focus, and the game did a great job of recreating the look and feel of the old internet when everyone had their own html page, customized to hell and back, sometimes to obnoxious degrees, but always with a charming touch of creativity. You'll find edgy teens, cranky old people, corporations, scammers, religious extremists and everything in between. If you grew up on the internet and remember and the mess it was in its infancy, when people were still figuring it out and creating things just for the fun of creating them, you'll defintely enjoy this game. You might even feel sad for some of the people you meet there, even though the only interaction you ever had with them was reading their stuff online, not having ever seen their face. The devs even made an old-looking website for the game (hypnospace.net), and I'm surprised isn't listed here. While it recreates the old net beautifully and faithfully, the moderation itself could have been done better. You have to hunt down the violations assigned to you in puzzle-y manner, and sometimes the tips aren't very helpful, which could lead to frustration due to being unable to progress, especially later in the game as the cases get harder to figure out. If some puzzles had better tips on what to do, I'd have no complains. Overall, it's a good game and I had fun. If you like the aesthetics of the early internet and don't mind some slightly hard puzzles, I think you'll have fun as well. Though I'd personally wait to get this on a promotion. Also, it worked great on linux for me, which is always good to see. However, I did see people saying that the TTS fucntionality had problems on linux. I didn't use it, but do to keep that in mind if you intend on using it. Maybe this guide will help you. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2813025897
