If you've been missing the good old platformer era, I don't think you can do better than Lunistice. Self described as "simple and affordable fun", I think it's a perfect description of what to expect and a glowing proof that simplicity in design can still trump gimmicks to deliver a better game. While relatively short in size, there's plenty to do in earning S ranks in every level and unlocking extra characters (with different movesets too). I might be biased because I've been finding modern platformers exceedingly easy, but I'll give special mention to the level design. It hits a sweet spot of being challenging without being overwhelming. Hana has her full moveset from the first stage and you're encouraged to explore options to overcome whatever the next stage will throw at you. It's a testament to how good the level design is that the game doesn't need to increase complexity in controls to maintain a perfect difficulty curve. You have 3D movement, a jump, and an attack. You can create unique interactions between these and that's all you need from start to finish without ever getting stale. All in all, It perfectly captures the essence of old school platformers in everything it sets out to do. The aesthetic is spot on. I missed the "floating blocks" design where things didn't needed to make sense why they're there as much as elevating the gameplay. The soundtrack is an instant classic. A hit on all sixes if you ask me.
Been on Gwent beta testing since closed beta, I've seen it high and I've seen it low, every meta was enjoyable to play, controlled RNG made it so your strategy while deck building and skill while playing matter, I'm a huge card games fan and I've never seen a game my input so important compared to drawing my win condition and the summoning cost. However, back at Midwinter the game took a direction I was not comfortable with. RNG ran wild, the UI was far too colorful and plain ugly, cards lost charisma, texts got butchered, even the amazing card art suffered, I had to stop playing soon after said update. Upon hearing they moved onto full release and the single-player Thronebreaker went live, I decided to try it again. Granted, it's definitely not the same game I first played in TW3, but maybe it's for the best. Matches now feel like my input matters, deck building requires a lot of ingenuity with the new cost system and card limitations, UI looks great, with an actual tavern game feeling, cards got their charisma back, and the new reward system is probably the best I've seen in a FTP game. Granted, all is not perfect, removing one row and limiting the cards per row is a change I thoroughly loathe, but maybe it's for the best as this was the biggest balancing problem back in the beta. Every card had to be carefully crafted to prevent infinite loops to breaking the game and three rows made it so a mobile release was never possible since you need a big screen to see what's happening. Overall the devs got my trust again, some things still need fixing, but they managed to bring me back after Midwinter disgusted me. It's very rare to see devs going making changes to bring old players back, I'm impressed and pleased.
