kiiviews

[kiiviews]

ooh I've finished Dead Plate and I absolutely loved it! screenshots from the itch.io page because I got too wrapped up playing it and forgot to take many;;

it is primarily a horror game, so be warned and check the specific warnings first! but what you'll be doing most of the game is waiting tables in a light version of diner dash. This is fun, gets just hard enough that you need to work to keep on top of it, and makes your true goal (talking to the Hot Yet Ominous Chef Vincent every day) a bit of a challenge.

I won't spoil anything but I think the art, story and music all complement each other really well to make a unique and engaging little game. It takes probably over an hour to run through, but you can get all endings on one save if you do it correctly! I would suggest a first blind run, and making a new save every day, so you can go back to whatever point you need to with the ending guide to pick up and see the rest. I liked this game so much that I got the bad end yesterday, did not have a good save, and then wanted to see the other endings so much that I started over completely to see them all.

There are a lot of other little touches everywhere to build the mood and story, the dialogue is great (I enjoyed getting to pick 'flustered himbo lying badly' for many choices) and all of the cut-in art pieces that I won't spoil were visually great.

If I were to critique anything, the table-waiting controls are a little finicky and I would give my life to be able to say, carry two plates at one time, but it's fine. It's not BL if you, like me, somehow got that impression, but it's wonderful, I loved the horror, I liked every ending, and also it's free? It's so free and so good. Definitely recommend this!!

[kiiviews]

Sheep in Wolf's Clothing is a short but incredibly cute little game! You play as a tired shepherd trying to recover his missing sheep in a small dungeon, while the demon that stole them tries to keep them away from you. There are light RPG elements, but mostly this is one to enjoy for the art and the story, both of which are So Cute.

The limited palette looks great all game and really suits the style (I love the demon boy's True Form as well). I was expecting the door-opening puzzles to get harder but they never do, but the game's so quick nothing gets tiring. Just a game about collecting sheep, and one sheep-boy! Flawless.

[kiiviews]

stop burying me alive, beautiful is a game that I was really excited for based on the itch.io page - I looove the thumbnail/header image, the art is just wonderful, so vibrant and expressive and moody. The opening is really interesting and I loved Girlfriend Karina immediately; but, uh, I didn't find it that fun to actually play!

it's a shame because it's such a pretty game, and I always want to support Weirder Stories, but there were a couple of things putting me off; the first is that you have to keep bapping rats so they don't eat you, and the rats will interrupt your conversations and make you go to another screen; the second is that the underground girl keeps making you play a card game that is 100% chance and so not especially riveting.

but of course my real disappointment is that I got rat queen Remie's ending, when I was trying to engage with her as little as possible, and not Karina's; and I was really trying to get Karina's, every time I picked an option I'd check the other two to see if they landed better, but her responses were usually all dismissive! So I am not clear at all what I did wrong, and I don't want to sit through more cards and rats to try and get to more of the story. That said, it's short, free, so beautiful!! and definitely worth a look.

[kiiviews]

mingle is a cute, teeny tiny little game about 'mingling' in this big crowd of shapes and letters, trying to find your match. It's the kind of game that gets easier as you go on, as there are less shapes to deal with the more you've matched.

It's 100% style though; these little guys mutter and squeak and run around, their eyes go huge, or shady, so even if it's only a few minutes long it's fun to play!

[kiiviews]

therapy with dr albert krueger is the peak of a very particular aesthetic

it's very stylish, with the music and colours and pixel guro jumpscares. You play as Taylor, receiving dream therapy - therapy while dreaming - from this extremely charming and trustworthy man. The game has a great sense of humor, and even if some of the horror is a little predictable by now, I'm a fan of the style; I always love to see someone's face get weird, or 'normal' little tests follow obvious and terrible escalations.

I think it took me about an hour to get all three endings (I lost a lot of perfect runs to the shell game) but really enjoyed my time with it, it's fun and self-aware, and very easy to like. it is a horror game, though, so avoid if you don't like jumpscares!

[kiiviews]

a coincidence, but another game by the same dev, a pet shop after dark is a little point and click horror game!

tragically/hilariously, i played this game a while ago, and wanted to replay it quickly to refresh my memory for this kiiview, however... for narrative reasons, the game remembers you, and won't let you start again :^) and I'm not sure if it's up on itch.io anymore so I don't want to risk uninstalling! so this may be a little more brief than the game deserves.

it is! a cute and funny and slightly spooky, meta little puzzle game. I really enjoyed my time with it; I found the puzzles very engaging, and I like the kind of lateral thinking required to solve them. the art style is very, very simple, but the story and characters are compelling. definitely worth checking out!

in terms of replay value though... you're forbidden ;)

[kiiviews]

one night hot springs feels kind of like a classic at this point! I played it years ago, but revisited it for this - I can never keep track of my games, that's the whole point of kiiviews :D

this is a game around a trans woman in Japan going to a ryokan with hot springs for her friend's birthday; obviously a challenging situation for her. it's written from a deeply compassionate place, and centers on Haru, on what she feels able to deal with at certain points, on the way that the situation is difficult even when the people around her are well-meaning.

Even though there isn't any overt transphobia, there's the death-by-one-thousand cuts kind, especially given the cultural context and Japanese law. But, the game comes from a kind place, and Haru generally has a nice time :) it's thoughtful and sweet. I look forward to eventually playing the other two stories!

[kiiviews]

is it that deep bro is an adorable little game about watching a movie with your bro!

it's very short (like, less than five minutes) but worth playing for a few different endings. The depiction of Not-Brokeback-Mountain is cute (the ass glinting in the firelight...) and the minigames are perfection for this concept. Can you slide your hand away from your bro's before he notices you were touching?? can you keep your eyes on the screen?! can you make a joke that doesn't sound too gay? (no homo)

oh no he caught you watching him -- wait is he blushing too?

just an absolutely impeccable little experience, free in browser, very worth checking out.

[kiiviews]

beglitched is a cute pastel little puzzler, themed around taking down hackers inside a computer!

It took awhile for the game to click for me; both the exploring-the-computer stage (which is a little like minesweeper, nodes only informing about their neighbours), and the 'combat', a bewjewelled-y type game where you have to first locate your opponent hacker before you can blow them up!

once the game clicked, it was a lot of fun. I love triangulating locations in any game so efficiently using direction and radius is always a good time for me. I do think the game could have explained itself a little bit better, but I got there eventually!

the style is cute, I love the menus, I love that these hackers call each other 'leftclickers'. It feels quite polished, though I didn't go too deep into it. Just a neat little puzzle game!

[kiiviews]

Blooming Panic is a dating sim/VN set in the discord for a fictional webnovel and I LOVED IT

I just think it absolutely nailed the discord-flavour writing. Most of the game is chats in server, and fights and emotes and flailing, with multiple channels and chill background music and it's great? it really works?? I feel like it's unfair I did not make real friends playing this game, I spent all this time chatting with them??? it also has a 'pause' button even though obviously the game won't progress until you input your option and it's such a great button, real discord stresses me out with the onslaught of messages but in the game if you want more time to catchup and read while 'people' are 'typing' you can cause it's so good they've made a great engine

it is definitely an otome game! I changed up my pronouns between runs because y'know sometimes you're vibing different ways, but if you go for a he/him then you are roleplaying a very soft boi indeed. The MC types how I type (so validated to get 'Ye!!' as a dialogue option) but is not how I would project for a male char lmao. these dudes are also all head-over-heels in about 7 days which is a lil quick for me but Otherwise cannot complain

I also found all the bad ends dark in a very realistic way - if you have ever seen anyone spiral online, it feels very real in a way that's both super well-written and also very sad - I found them very memorable and fleshed out for the characters (it's also still funny to me that after getting the good ending you always go back and start gaslighting these nice men who are so welcoming to you by suddenly being rude, mean and disinterested, to get the other route lmao)

anyway it took me about 6 hours to 100% it, but there's so much work and love in this game (lots of text of the fake novel! fanart! a whole zine gets built! there's voice acting and nice pics and a CONVENIENT GALLERY for ALL the pics I'm howling honestly)

super loved it super recommend

[kiiviews]

Etheral is a very pretty little puzzle game; its flow, colour, sound and the way it introduces new mechanics are all fantastic. You are a little dot flowing and jumping and solving puzzles in this big abstract space, both very tightly constrained in terms of where you can go, but also easily able to swing in just about any direction, if you can find a path there. The level of polish is wonderful; I love especially whenever I pass a string of musical blocks that play as I run by. It's not the kind of game that compels me to master it, but it's a very pretty little distraction.

[kiiviews]

Hidden Folks is a cute little hidden-object game, like those old picture books you used to play with! but unlike books it's got the key advantages of Technology - you can zoom in and out, click things open, clear obstacles out of your way, as well as generally bother the residents of these tiny hand-drawn worlds.

Some levels are very simple and some are huge. You don't typically have to find every item in a level, but I'll admit I gave up when I was down to either finding a single banana or a single truffle in the scene above. possibly I just wasn't ready to sink into The Hidden Object Zone tonight, but I bounced off it faster than I thought it would.

I got this as part of a bundle, but whether or not you want to pay $12 for it normally depends on if it looks like your jam or not; very much what you see is what you get! It's cute and funny and well-made, but it's also a pretty simple little scavenger hunt.

[kiiviews]

Flufftopia is a cute little clicker; as you do the idle game thing, your friend Happy will tell you little facts about Flufftopia and the fluff economy. Like, how forcing everyone to work in mines might not be the best, actually? Cookie clicker lets you destroy the universe in the name of cookies but these little fluffs want healthcare.

There's two endings, it's very short and very likeable, though I would recommend anyone playing any kind of idle game gets an autoclicker! no point wasting away your wrists as well as your time

[kiiviews]

GNOG is a very cool little puzzle game modelled off real life toys, i.e. there's lots of stuff to twist, press, poke and fidget with. Super strong visual design, really funky music, I haven't played with anything else like this before and it was really interesting!

The puzzles are fairly simple (except for the couple that are very obtuse) but the Point is more to Play With This Thing -- I mean look at it, don't you want to poke at it? it's fun and responsive and musical. That is most of what you do with it though -- it's a very polished toy, but not much of a game!

I spent about an hour with GNOG and finished it completely; I got it in a bundle but it's otherwise $10 which is either a good price for a cool and unique artistic experience, or quite a lot for a game without much game. Hard to say! I really really enjoyed it, but know what you're getting.

also if you are freaked out by big staring faces this is not the game for you!

[kiiviews]

Cosmic Express is an adorable, and very difficult little puzzle game about helping aliens in a space colony get home!

You have to plot a path so that every alien can get into their specific home, and then get to the exit; often huge, serpentine paths designed to cope with your limited passenger numbers and the effort of leaving enough space to leave the colony afterwards.

Of the levels I played, a few stumped me for a good few tries; the ability to play the level (and fastforward the train) to see your solution in motion was really helpful for considering other options! And the level select is branching, which I really liked - you can follow a puzzle theme down a branch, and jump to much harder versions of a single puzzle type, if you think you're up for it!

It's cute, it's colourful, it's simple but very polished. I got it as part of a bundle, but it's $10 otherwise. But there's plenty of levels so if it looks like your jam, give it a go!

[kiiviews]

Roulette Knight is a Russian-Roulette inspired game where you try not to get shot, while levelling up and learning spells to help you dodge (and heal, if dodging didn't pan out)

It sure is luck-based! That's the whole point, but getting shot slashes how much exp and money you get from the rest of the level you're on, which means a bad run on the first level will put you at a big disadvantage. On the other hand, if you get lucky and get the gun with 10 chambers early on, you'll have a nicer time!

this much luck does make it a little frustrating to actually BEAT, but it's fun and quick to play, and I had a great time with it!

[kiiviews]

penguin cafe is a teeny tiny little -- I guess you'd call it a dating sim? With two endings, that takes a couple of minutes to play.

It's definitely cute, but also uhh Painfully Awkward haha I think it's a little shallow because so much of the dialogue is awkward stammering, there's a bit more personality in the text messages! Still it's chill, the music is nice, and there's even part of an idle game optionally attached? in case you want to break up your VN experience with some frantic clicking!