Feature: Nintendo Life eShop Selects & Readers' Choice (May 2024)

Animal Well is the first game I have finished in a while without drifting into other games for a bit. Straight through. Only then, of course, to find out that that is not really the end

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes not getting the love it deserves. What a shame. 😕

On the plus side, what a surprisingly great month for indies! Maybe June will give the time needed to catch up!

Animal Well is the best Mexican jumping bean simulator published by the creator of Bowser's Big Bean Burrito ever made. No contest.

Man, I loved Braid then, and still love it now, the Anniversary pack is awesome with all the extra stuff, but Animal Well is just perfect. The graphics are beautiful and the sound design is bananas, that game blew me away!

Surprised that not only has 1000xRESIST not been mentioned but also hasn’t even gotten a review on Nintendo Life. It’s a fantastic dystopian set game that’s close to a visual novel but does have more game play and exploration. Somber, beautiful and one of the best games of the year so far for me. It’s also reviewing very well elsewhere (9/10 IGN, 9.6 Paste, 100 GamingTrend).

Hope NL reviews it soon!

It's interesting that the public score for Animal Well is a couple of points out of step with the critical one here. I am an avid gamer who usually loves Metroidvanias but I've played Animal Well and have to say I...just don't get it. It's perfectly alright, but honestly that's all it is to me. It's so odd to see the gaming press absolutely fawning over this game the way it has.

@Solomon_Rambling Based on 3 readers, so doesn't tell you much. Some people have a bone to pick with the creator which might be it.

Animal Well will likely be my GotY. I doubt even Elden Ring DLC can top it. Only Silksong will have a fighting chance.

@Rooty Do you typically agree with the gaming press?

My favorite was little kitty big city super cute and fun 💕😊

Fair options. LCBC is trash and lacks any depth it's pathetic cuteness wins. Yay............. sigh.

Braid for those that haven't played is fair. The others not sure as only heard about a few of them and nothing to say on those heard of or no idea about.

@somnambulance I think it's because cuteness wins over making a good game. Most people care about the world or some cute characters it's why I just block it out. I think the game is safe and boring. To me I've played better games or seen better Indies but game design doesn't matter to most people.

Even seeing a gaming setup with 'cute' as the only factor wow what wasted money on looks then brains or just painting it themselves after getting the main parts not wow looks/branded editions.

Then again people that miss social features, this is why gaming sucks. As eh as the Xbox One was to me social systems over tech progress just makes me sad. Also Miiverse it had a place but man I don't miss it at all neither did I touch it as I got the Wii U/3DS once it was dead. But I don't need 100+ talking platforms to care. No wonder people are Xbox 360 voice chat trash talking nostalgic because reasons....

I can tell because when I see open worlds with holiday destinations then a playground game design they sell well when to me they are bland and boring. Why would I want to play as a boring moveset character in a boring recreation of some place when I'd rather play in a world with gameplay interactivity potential to do so many things.

For casuals sure I get it but for a gamer you know what you want in worlds, characters or gameplay. Or in most people's case I assume gameplay is like 10th the thing that makes a game 'a game' (not that story/reading is bad) and everything else is 1st to 9th.

People have different priorities. It's also why when I seek game design or different settings, like when getting say formulaic shooters or racing games. So instead of as average as Aveum is we see more historic war shooter Indies. As if the 7th gen period of gaming never happened and that's how stereotypical the genre is. XD Sure the few SWAT games I've seen is something but the rest straightforward stereotypical direction as far as I can tell from what I've seen.

Or instead of mechanics we get tire rendering in racing games. Wow I so care about the tech used that way, boring business models and candy car rewards with new effort giving or need for them then working for them in gameplay and yet I get more fun out of a car builder or region discount/region restriction or modes we don't see anymore like touge or hillclimbs, or VR having dual wielding where PS3/360 shootters used to have them but not anymore (like people do on YT to make their own custom challenges in old racing games) system. Not because it's about cars to me the cars are characters just like in any other game but I mean if a car builder is like making an RPG character's brain or intestines having some intelligence or eating apples gives you some special health/mana benefit (then going survival game deeper logic, also sorry if a bit graphic to think about) is the different cars parts instead (then just visual character customisation) but it's like playing a platformer or adventure game you want to have new moves or cool items to use on your adventure. So no matter how linear they were the next item you get and set of mechanics were fun to play around with.

I mean to me the cat moveset or the goals could be way better. I mean 5th gen games had more crazy fun ideas as animals then LCBC does. The cat could have so many abilities but is just 'a typical cat' wow it's like playing as average joe and they do the most boring rescue a cat from a tree type missions. Sounds so fun. There is a reason I care about super human characters or characters that offer special items they use in games. Not because of the superhuman/hero role play it's because they have something superhuman or hero like fun to do in the game.

I mean to me Zelda games are just fun for the items you use combat or puzzles which is why when I see other open worlds (unless playground like of Sunset, Gravity Rush or Infamous) I find many holiday destination, average moveset and boring RPG missions insert here to be just a joke. Spraying paint in Infamous Second Son was more fun then doing other role play stuff or generic RPG mission insert here in other open worlds. The shrines as fun puzzles in BOTW or Immortals Fenix Rising.

Kind of like many Indie games I find to be nostalgic rip offs and get away with it but audiences are too blinded by nostalgia and it just makes me sad (many trash racing games I've found that fit that description or fair platformers but just aren't fun enough to me of their movesets but do stand out with their worlds I just find them mechanically dull, the racing game rip offs are so blatant and get a pass by most people I just look away).

But Nintendo Life blocks my comments because reasons if I talk about LCBC because they love it.

I've played 5th gen games with more depth and fun in it yet it's fine to have a Stray/Goose game type game with a cat yet the types of tv shows it is comparable to are more exciting then the game.

To me as much as Goose has of ideas to it to me people play it for different reasons not the game design. While I can't not look at game design and go that's fair but as most people want a world/characters/vibe not gameplay I just go eh whatever I'm a minority gameplay focused gamer like it matters.

Nobody is wrong in what they seek to play it's just when games of certain types appear and cuteness as an example comes up I just facepalm and go what happened to gaming and why it's just so sad these days.

Same with skins, visual/emotional appeal over game design because who cares how it plays we get to be a cat, we see cuteness or cool skins. Like the simplicity of some people just makes me sad and it's why I find some tv shows (if drama is done well to justify itself but most times I find it forced emotional triggers that make me yawn and not effective)/games just so baffling people get easy money over the simplest things in life.

@Nontendo_4DS For the most part, yes. Animal Well just isn't clicking with me. There are both better Metroidvanias out there and better puzzle platformers out there in my estimation. Heck, Braid is one of them.

@Rooty Animal Well didn't seem brilliant to me at first, either. But how far into it have you gotten? It gets more clever the further you go.

@RygelXVIII @somnambulance Regarding Braid, I don't have any negative impressions of Jonathan Blow, and his game The Witness is one of my all time favorites. But Braid I bought several years ago and it just wasn't fun for me at all. Felt like a really creative idea that wasn't actually an enjoyable game. To me, it feels like the definition of an overhyped game just because it did something innovative. But that's just me.

My kids are in love with little kitty big city. So if you have 9 and or 7 year old daughters, it’s worth it