How I Rate Games

The main goal of this site is to inform you, the reader, about media that I think is worth your time. While most reviews come with a short description of what I did and didn't like, I also make sure to include a star rating to help you quickly understand how I felt about a game.

My rating is a grade between 4 and 1 stars. A high score indicates a strong recommendation, the middle two are "yes but" and "no but" respectively, and the lowest is reserved for games I absolutely couldn't stand.

Rating games with this method can be tricky. There are plenty of popular games that don't do it for me, or widely panned games that I love. It's important to remember that my rating is not a measure of something's objective goodness; it's whether I thought it was worthwhile and think people with similar tastes will as well.

It's also worth noting that my ratings skew high: I get to choose what I play and I tend to choose things I think I'll enjoy. Keep that in mind when you see how many things earn a 4. It's a very different grade than a perfect 10 on something like IGN's rating system.

With that out of the way, let's go through what exactly each score means and provide some concrete examples!

: Yes!

A 4 star rating is both my highest and my most common score. Games in this bracket can be recommended emphatically. They may not be perfect, but I never felt bored while playing them. A 4 usually means that a game excelled in multiple areas and the result is more than the sum of its parts. Another way to earn a 4 is to succeed so highly in a specific area (such as gameplay or overall concept) that any concerns are dropped by the wayside; they didn't stop my enjoyment.

If you want to see the absolute cream of the game crop, you can check my list of games that were been the best thing I played that year

Here are some recent games that earned 4 stars:

Rollerdrome

It's Tony Hawk meets John Wick, which works better than it has any right to. The motion is fluid and the gunplay is just as simple as it needs to be. It got a little harder than I was interested in, but the game let me tweak the difficulty exactly how I wanted (infinite ammo, damage taken reduction). Zipping around and blast things with occasional tricks was a blast and half. Being able to turn the game into the exact experience I wanted was a pleasant surprise.

The Rise of the Golden Idol

Takes the great formula from the first game and improves on it. I liked the increased scope and level of detail that we got from being able to see the characters in so many situations over their years. Increased puzzle variety was welcome (not just putting names to faces, but assigning people to houses, building timelines, etc). Some genuinely tricky puzzles, too. There are more missions so the story feels a little more padded than before, but not so much that it's not enjoyable. I especially liked piecing together the larger narrative across an achronological story. A fitting follow-up to one of the great detective games.

Citizen Sleeper

A top-tier cyberpunk narrative wrapped in just enough interactivity. I loved the depth to the characters and the complex motivation behind everything they did. Actual gameplay is light - mostly reading. But you get a certain number of actions each day and what you roll affects what you can do and how fast things progress. It evoked the "choose your own adventure" vibe of tabletop RPGs in that regard. Everything gets too easy in the late game and I would have liked a little more variety in the way you used actions. Nevertheless, this definitely feels like a hidden gem.

: Yes, but...

Most games that earn a 3 could have been a 4, but something held them back. Maybe it was a plot that didn't quite line up, poor pacing, or unnecessary papercuts in menus. Whatever it was I was annoyed enough about its shortcomings that I have to qualify this recommendation with a "I liked it, but wish they hadn't done XYZ".

Here are some recent games that earned 3 stars:

Forward: Escape the Fold

There's beauty in this game's simplicity. You can see all the possible outcomes before every step, making it easy to understand the ramifications. I also liked that enemies' health is also their attack damage, making offense a viable approach for defense. There are a lot character and abilities combinations, so there are plenty of ways to approach runs. But ultimately, there weren't enough items to really draw me in; I saw a lot of the same options in every run which made it more repetitive than I would have hoped. But it would make a good game to play in short, occasional bursts.

The Plucky Squire

Absolutely spectacular art direction. The 2D sections are straight out of Hilda and the 3D made great use of lighting to make the cartoon elements really pop. Story was surprisingly meta and fun. Music was top-tier. Really the only thing lacking was the gameplay itself. It started basic and never really went anywhere from there. You get a couple of moves, but you fight the same standard enemies the whole game and nothing puts up a fight. The puzzles range from "too simple" to "decent", but never higher. There's also a ton of (blessedly skippable) minigames that get old eventually. I think it's great for what it is, you just need to set expectations around challenge level and simplicity going in. I enjoyed my time with it overall.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau

Great platforming and traversal abilities. Story was good and explored themes (death, grief, family) that are less common in games. The setting felt unique as well. Loved the vibrant color scheme- felt very PS2 era in that regard. Decent, if repetitive combat. Low enemy variety and fights get a little too hectic late. Is technically a metroidvania, but the map isn't super compelling and there's not much backtracking. I wish we got more time with each ability, cause there are some fun ones.

: No, but...

Welcome to the bottom half! Games that earn a 2 have more hits than misses, but there are redeeming qualities. It can also mean I would have scored it higher, but I was so put off by something (such as boring gameplay) that I couldn't rate it higher. If you're a fan of this genre you might still find the game worthwhile, but I'd start elsewhere.

Here are some recent games that earned 2 stars:

Youlogic

Some good puzzle concepts. Lots of solutions require careful timing and precision, which are more frustrating than fun. Controls are ok but the UI is cumbersome to navigate. Virtual assistant is very weird.

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical

Had a lot of potential but didn't come together. Its gorgeous, hand-drawn art and murderer's row of voice talent were great. But, for a game all about music, none of the songs felt melodic or especially pleasant to listen to. I liked the dialogue writing and some heavy topics were handled with care. The story itself was ok and there are a lot of potential branches (and romance options), but the core mystery was quite underwhelming.

Balatro

Fun concept (build your own luck) but the gameplay just felt bland. Chancing into the perfect set of jokers between rounds is fun, but the actual gameplay is a mix of "Play", "Discard", and a bunch of luck. Other deckbuilders have more interactivity where you get to choose targets and ordering, but making poker hands (even if some of them are super high scoring) got old fast. I had a couple of super long runs where everything came into place, but I also had a bunch of duds where I didn't get anywhere. I feel like the "bad" runs in other roguelikes are still fun, but the ones in Balatro were just drags.

: No!

The lowly 1 is my rarest rating. Because I mostly play things I (hope to) enjoy, for something to earn a 1 it's got to really fail across multiple areas. As long as a game has reasonable plot, gameplay, or artistic direction, I'll usually find enough to like about it that it earns a 2. Earning a 1 means I feel bad for having spent time on this game at all.

Here are some recent games that earned 1 stars:

Nour: Play with Your Food

Sort of an interesting little physics sim, but the physics are all floaty and gummy. Has sort of a goose game / katamari chaos charm, but lacks enough cohesion to make it particularly worthwhile. Some funny interactions, but not something I needed to spend more time with.

Far from Noise

This stretches the definition of "game"- it's more of a guided meditation with dialogue choices. Unfortunately, not something I'm looking for...

The First Tree

While the environments look ok, the fox doesn't control well and the dialogue is pretty poorly written. It attempts to pull at heartstrings, but is more frustrating than compelling.