2021-10-13 12:33
No sense beating around the bush—I’m shutting down this website and moving on to do other things. I’ve been weighing moving on since December 2019 when some family emergenc… Read More
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Killa Penguin Blog
killapenguin.com
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Killa Penguin is devoted to game reviews, from old Super Nintendo games to current-gen, graphic-card-melting powerhouses.
2021-10-11 23:39
Final Fantasy VIII has always been an odd game to try and review. Despite being massively popular when it first released, it later became a popular target for criticism (some of which is rig… Read More
2021-10-08 11:24
I was asked to review OneShot by someone a while ago, and since I already owned it and all of my key requests had fallen through, I decided to give it a spin. There’s no denying that t… Read More
2021-09-27 08:57
Right after I reviewed the Ace Attorney Trilogy, I found myself hungry for more Phoenix Wright goodness. I remembered playing through the next game, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, in the dist… Read More
2021-09-14 09:46
It’s been two years since I first got my hands on Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG. Back then, the adventure began in the game’s largest area and it was difficult to tell w… Read More
2021-09-04 09:41
Lake is a peaceful, relaxing game where you drive around delivering mail in the Oregon town of Providence Oaks in 1986. It’s basically the amalgamation of Endless Ocean and Life is Str… Read More
2021-08-31 09:58
My original plan for the end of August 2021 was to cover the original Psychonauts, then jump into the sequel armed with the knowledge required to meaningfully compare/contrast. I didn’… Read More
2021-08-29 08:48
I hated the original Psychonauts when I played through a large part of it for the first time a week or so ago. The humor was inconsistent, the visuals were largely bland, the story spent too… Read More
2021-08-28 03:17
A couple of days ago, I received an email announcing the release of Speed Limit‘s “Penny & Dime” update and a 50% off sale. I’ve had almost zero free time this pa… Read More
2021-08-24 07:17
Welcome to yet another entry in the long-running, largely inexplicable series that is “that guy from killapenguin.com hates everything that is or ever was popular.” Of course, th… Read More
2021-08-20 02:18
First, a little back story—I tried Supergiant Games’ Bastion back in 2013, early in this site’s history, and it was one of the games that pushed me toward embracing hack-an… Read More
2021-08-13 07:04
Foreclosed is an example of a game doing everything a little wrong. Granted, it’s nowhere near as bad as it could be, but there are enough clashing design decisions to render huge part… Read More
2021-08-07 00:07
The Ascent‘s first patch came out earlier today, and it claims to increase the game’s performance in DirectX12 mode in addition to fixing a bunch of bugs. Now, performance improv… Read More
2021-08-03 03:35
The Ascent feels like two very different games. One of those games is an enjoyable aRPG in an over-the-top cyberpunk world where you find new equipment, upgrade your weapons and abilities, a… Read More
2021-07-31 00:11
Song of Farca is a game in which you play as a freelance hacker under house arrest who takes jobs for various people and organizations. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t dig into the de… Read More
2021-07-26 00:09
Cris Tales bills itself as an “indie love letter to classic jRPGs.” Instead, it so completely misunderstands what makes them great that it comes across like a creepy kidnapper le… Read More
2021-07-22 12:26
Part of the reason I so giddily dropped Bloodroots is that Cris Tales, a game that I’ve had my eye on for a long time, unexpectedly dropped on Game Pass. That saves me the trouble of w… Read More
2021-07-21 00:38
You know what’s frustrating? Getting a Game Pass key, being politely asked to cover something new, and then being totally unable to find anything new that’s good enough to say an… Read More
2021-07-17 04:53
Guild of Darksteel is an interesting mix between a cinematic platformer and rhythm game that’s developed by a one-man studio. Games developed by one person are always difficult to cove… Read More
2021-07-13 02:55
The first half of July has been super slow, and slow-release months are when I go hunting for Game Pass games that I was vaguely interested in but that never worked out for whatever reason… Read More
2021-07-08 23:11
Black Skylands is a top-down 2D action-adventure game developed by Hungry Couch Games (great name) and published by tinyBuild that’s releasing into early access tomorrow, July 9th. It… Read More
2021-07-04 05:09
Back when I was looking back at some of the review scores I’ve given out, I mentioned how rare it is for games to receive a followup article after being reviewed. It’s just not a… Read More
2021-07-04 02:51
Back in January, I started really digging into video technology, and this turned into a full-blown obsession with upscaling video. Ever since then, I’ve been recording almost all of th… Read More
2021-06-30 01:16
Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance tries so hard to be a game for everyone that it ends up being a game that virtually no one will be able to appreciate. Its design is riddled with flaws… Read More
2021-06-28 02:50
Xbox has a relatively new thing that I first noticed around a month ago where you can request keys for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. This is an ideal situation; downloading a title from the servi… Read More
2021-06-22 02:27
Minute of Islands is something like a cross between an adventure game, puzzle-platformer, and walking simulator. What makes it truly interesting, though, is that it combines an unlikable mai… Read More
2021-06-18 06:24
Tactical RPGs are my favorite game genre of all time, and I’ve become a bit of a snob about them over the years largely owing to running this site and playing through numerous fantasti… Read More
2021-06-12 01:07
I’ve been preoccupied with some other work lately, but fortunately, I’ve kept Octopath Traveler in my back pocket for an occasion such as this. It’s telling that I actually… Read More
2021-06-08 06:17
Right now, there are two main ways I get my hands on game keys. The first source is through middlemen websites (primarily Keymailer) that require digging through lists of upcoming games and… Read More
2021-06-04 00:02
Until We Die is one of those games in the Kingdom/Neverliria/The Bonfire mold. You know the type—side-scrolling games that force you to juggle resources and NPCs to ward off nightly mo… Read More
2021-06-03 01:04
Yesterday, Biomutant‘s first patch came out. It was something like 20-30 MB and took approximately 100 years to install for some reason, but it was totally worth the wait because of ho… Read More
2021-06-01 00:01
For some reason, it feels like I’ve played a million games like Control: Override. Part of the reason for that is how it reminds me of the indie passion projects you’d sometimes… Read More
2021-05-28 01:55
Biomutant is a strange game, but its value isn’t derived from its tendency to submerge itself in affable weirdness; instead, this is a platform for major highs and lows that could clar… Read More
2021-05-25 22:15
I got my hands on Biomutant one day before it released, so I’m only around 4 hours into it right now. Based on that relatively narrow slice of gameplay, I was very much looking forward… Read More
2021-05-22 22:43
I love noir, and Lacuna is noir to the bone. A troubled detective with a past relationship that haunts him. A conspiracy that only gets bigger the more he looks into it. Countless (optional)… Read More
2021-05-20 01:11
After a little over a week away, I’m finally back and getting back into the swing of things. When I announced that I’d be gone for a week, I mentioned that it wasn’t likely… Read More
2021-05-07 23:58
I hate this game’s name with a fiery passion. Both the space and dashes in the title will cause the title to get broken up into multiple lines, and all for a stupid pun. That encapsula… Read More
2021-05-07 08:38
When covering the release of Neurodeck‘s patch 1.1, I mentioned that it was going to receiving additional patches that further refine the gameplay. One month later, we’re already… Read More
2021-05-04 01:03
Legend of Keepers released into early access a little over a year ago, and I liked it. The final version is even better; whenever you see the name Goblinz Studio, you know that regardless of… Read More
2021-04-29 23:36
I picked up three months of Game Pass about two and a half months ago, and I’ve utterly wasted it. The entire point of purchasing it was to spend my downtime working through games that… Read More
2021-04-29 01:10
Lately, the main way I acquire game keys is to have them sent to me randomly by devs and PR people. That saves me the trouble of digging through lists of upcoming games, figuring out which I… Read More
2021-04-26 07:19
Mamiya is described by its store page as a “captivating, dark visual novel” about young men who are struggling against existential dread before the end of the world. This game wa… Read More
2021-04-17 05:44
I was confident that Rain on Your Parade was going to be an enjoyable game based on its adorable visual style and the inherent fun of games where the goal is to cause destruction, but I didn… Read More
2021-04-15 07:09
It’s kind of uncanny how every time I finish playing something that burns me out and find myself in need of something light and colorful to remind me why games are good and not a whale… Read More
2021-04-13 02:19
You know that point in the breakup process where you don’t miss the other person anymore but can’t help but regret losing the entire world of possibilities you created for the tw… Read More
2021-04-10 02:31
And now, continuing coverage of “every game I’ve ever covered has decided to release a substantial update in the same two-week period.” Children of Morta is an excellent ga… Read More
2021-04-08 02:39
Psychology-themed deckbuilder Neurodeck is currently sitting at a “mixed” 58% rating on Steam, which is about where I pegged it with my 6/10, but patch 1.1 that released yesterda… Read More
2021-04-06 01:38
I briefly touched on Genesis Noir‘s flicker—which I described as “subtle background flashing”—when I reviewed it, mentioning that the developer Feral Cat Den wa… Read More
2021-04-02 01:48
There are several game prospects I have my eye on in April (as well as a couple of early access games either releasing or planning a substantive update), but I’m also making a point to… Read More
2021-03-30 07:09
I first heard about How to Win: Season One in a PR email that was unremarkable save for a short message about how the author’s favorite game was also Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. The cav… Read More
2021-03-28 09:31
There’s this old Key & Peele skit called Dicknanigans where two performance artists continually kick each other in the business while topics display on the screen behind them. Much… Read More
2021-03-26 09:00
Spacebase Startopia is a real-time strategy/simulation game inspired by (but not directly connected to) a quirky 2001 game called Startopia. After trying to wrap my head around the rights si… Read More
2021-03-23 00:59
I’ve been absurdly busy lately working on a bunch of side projects not related to this site or gaming (though I have hopes that some of these endeavors will eventually make it easier t… Read More
2021-03-18 05:38
Neurodeck claims on its store page to be a “psychological deckbuilding card game to challenge your fears,” which basically means a deckbuilding card game where your opponents are… Read More
2021-03-15 02:50
As any site regulars could tell you, I take strategy/tactical-RPGs seriously. My favorite game of all time is an sRPG, and I’ve played and reviewed a whole bunch of them. I’d go… Read More
2021-03-08 02:16
Neurodeck is a deck-building roguelite published by Goblinz Publishing where the cards are life events/attitudes and your opponents are phobias/potentially harmful personality traits. That w… Read More
2021-03-04 05:00
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante begins as one of the best choose your own adventure-type games I’ve ever played, striking a perfect balance between MS-DOS game Alter Ego‘s e… Read More
2021-02-28 08:04
The exact moment I knew that I had to play Viola: The Heroine’s Melody was when I noticed that it lists Lufia first among a number of jRPG inspirations. That’s unusual given its… Read More
2021-02-25 08:59
I was playing through Viola: The Heroine’s Melody, fully expecting to review it next, but it glitched out at the very end and now I’m probably going to have to play through it al… Read More
2021-02-21 08:07
All right, I’m back from my trip out of state and have already started digging into Viola: The Heroine’s Melody, but first I need to rage about some games on my phone that proved… Read More
2021-02-16 11:11
I’ve been preparing for a trip that starts tomorrow, and I didn’t even notice that the game I was rushing my way through was still in early access. Sometimes early access games s… Read More
2021-02-08 21:33
There was a nonzero chance that I’d be so completely engrossed in Speed Limit‘s special blend of “just one more try” masochism that I’d forget to put up a revie… Read More
2021-02-03 02:12
The Waylanders released into early access on June 16th, 2020, and while I was interested in it, I was in the middle of moving when it first came out and didn’t have access to anything… Read More
2021-01-31 09:42
There’s only one story right now worth talking about, and it’s Gamestop. If you’ve somehow missed the 20 billion news stories attempting to explain what’s happening… Read More
2021-01-24 05:56
It’s been an outrageously slow month as far as review stuff goes, but I’ve been chugging away behind the scenes, testing out the mClassic on a variety of Playstation 2 games to d… Read More
2021-01-18 08:42
I don’t think that I’m being unreasonable when I expect games to have a reason for existing. Some justify their existence by telling a fantastic and memorable story. Others have… Read More
2021-01-15 05:45
Okay, okay, fine. I’ll review some games instead of obsessing over video quality and gaming-adjacent tools. For now. I have one game in the pipeline right now and Mists of Noyah is sup… Read More
2021-01-13 22:27
This is primarily a game review site, but I get burned out by that pretty much every December and start wanting to do something else. Then someone sends me a nice email or something and I en… Read More
2021-01-08 09:11
About a month ago, I posted an article in which I used DaVinci Resolve (a powerful program with both a paid and free version) to upscale video from Nintendo Switch games from 1920x1080 to 38… Read More
2021-01-04 04:53
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is a tale of thirds. The first third of the game is a dream that improves on its predecessor, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, in virtually every way. The seco… Read More
2020-12-29 01:48
My first 10 or so hours with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla were promising. The 20 or so that followed were arguably even better as the combat and mechanics evened out and opened the door f… Read More
2020-12-22 03:10
I didn’t expect to be covering Assassin’s Creed Valhalla right now since the original plan was to spend most of the month with Cyberpunk 2077, but the self-destruction of the lat… Read More
2020-12-18 04:27
In a rare sign of the karmic justice that’s been all too rare throughout 2020, Sony has pulled CD Projekt RED’s Cyberpunk 2077 from its digital store while promising refunds to e… Read More
2020-12-16 02:32
Remember when I said December would be dead if Cyberpunk 2077 didn’t pan out? Well, welcome to the darkest timeline. Nothing else has panned out thus far, either, so I guess there&rsqu&hell…Read More
2020-12-07 22:27
I recently purchased a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K to round out my photography experience with new videography challenges, and all of the company’s cameras come with the full ve… Read More
2020-12-07 02:32
When I went to check Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light‘s store page while writing the first part of this let’s play (I think it was when I was making sure that… Read More
2020-12-05 06:44
It’s December 4th, and that means that Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light, Nintendo’s thoughtlessly low-effort method of celebrating the series’ 30th anniv… Read More
2020-12-02 07:47
When first beginning a new game, I usually dip my toes in for 15-30 minutes or so, just to get a lay of the land before starting in earnest. It’s telling, then, that I ended up playing… Read More
2020-12-02 07:00
First off, this isn’t a zero-damage guide. It could probably be used to work out a strategy for beating bosses without taking damage, but I played through Morbid: The Seven Acolytes as… Read More
2020-11-29 18:58
I’ve worked through an entire soulslike game since the last review I put up, but that’s embargoed until December 2nd, so I’m mainly putting this up to mention that stuff is… Read More
2020-11-24 03:03
Rune II was originally an Epic Games Store-exclusive sequel to 2001’s Rune that was released into early access on November 12th, 2019, but developer Human Head Studios announced the st… Read More
2020-11-21 02:37
Back in the old days of home gaming when the industry was still transitioning out of the arcade mindset of “break the player’s bones so that they have to keep putting quarters in… Read More
2020-11-19 03:20
Sometimes, genre standards exist for a very good reason. Paw Paw Paw is an adorable beat-em-up about an animal resistance fighting against a king insistent on getting everyone in his kingdom… Read More
2020-11-16 09:33
It’s been well over a year since I last used this “gradual impressions” format, but I’m bringing it out of retirement because I’m pretty sure that The Skylia Pr… Read More
2020-11-16 02:36
Rune II: Decapitation Edition is an odd game; this is a project originally developed by Human Head Studios and released as an Epic exclusive in early access, only for them to abandon the gam… Read More
2020-11-15 08:06
When the well-produced opening narration for beautiful beat-em-up Paw Paw Paw revealed that its central conflict centered around a benevolent king being influenced by (potentially evil) spac… Read More
2020-11-12 09:30
Every review I’ve written for this site since its founding in 2012 has had a screenshot section, so I’ve been able to keep track of how many I’ve written over the past eigh… Read More
2020-11-07 08:34
Carto is a puzzle game that tasks you with rearranging map tiles in order to solve puzzles, and it reminds me a bit of Tengami despite my complaints about the two being entirely different. M… Read More
2020-11-03 05:30
Keymailer has received an update of sorts since the last time I put up one of these “finding games” things. Now, the vast majority of games releasing more than a week from whenev… Read More
2020-11-01 02:19
There’s a very wide chasm separating reviews and gameplay streams. One requires carefully playing through a game and experiencing as much as possible before sifting through what works… Read More
2020-10-26 23:35
The tactical RPG (also commonly known as the strategy RPG thanks to the line separating the two being super murky) is one of my favorite genres, so when Ikenfell purported to combine tRPG ga… Read More
2020-10-22 23:29
Fallen Angel is a weird little gem of a game. It plays like a cross between ITTA and Lucah: Born of a Dream and allows you to play as Lucifer as he rebels against God. Or something to that e… Read More
2020-10-20 02:39
Every so often, a game comes along that I don’t particularly care for but feel strangely attached to anyway. Puzzle-platformer Batbarian: Testament of the Primordials is one such game;… Read More
2020-10-16 21:53
Batbarian: Testament of the Primordials bills itself as a “snarky action-adventure puzzle game,” which is an incredibly accurate description of what you can expect. In it, you wa… Read More
2020-10-15 02:08
Foregone is one of the rare games that I fell for during its early access period, and there’s no denying that its full release—which coincides with a release onto the Nintendo Sw… Read More
2020-10-12 08:28
Ikenfell—which I have an uncontrollable urge to call “Ikenfall” because it feels so much more natural—is a tactical RPG that arguably has more in common with old-scho… Read More
2020-10-09 05:32
There’s a demo-centric Steam festival or something like that going on right now. My inbox has been blowing up with messages about this game’s demo and that game’s demo, and… Read More
2020-10-05 23:23
I was planning on covering Foregone today. It was supposed to release today. I stumbled across its release out of early access (which is documented here) while digging through upcoming games… Read More
2020-09-30 21:59
I’d love to pretend that I’ve spent the past week making lots of progress in a number of different games, but that’s not even remotely close to the truth. Instead, I spent… Read More
2020-09-23 23:35
When I first started this site, I had a kind of unwritten rule: don’t cover mainline Mario games. Squaresoft’s Super Mario RPG was fine, and enough spare time might someday appea… Read More
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