The Breath of the Wild sequel looks exciting, and the No More Heroes III reveal was a pleasant shock (please, please don't suck).

But for me, the most surprising E3 announcement was Spiritfarer, a game where you explore the world in a boat, build a miniature town, and have a pet cat. What I realized watching this trailer is that those three things - exploring, building, cat - are like ... my top three most-wanted game features. And I don't think they've all come together before.

(Keanu was great, but, no, the fact that Cyberpunk 2077 is hyped-as-shit is not a surprise. I know that it's going to be awesome.)

As a programmer, sysadmin, typist, and puzzle enthusiast, I have some vivid expectations for the ideal "hacking" game. Hacknet isn't it; but it's the closest I've seen yet.

Hacknet isn't as realistic as NITE Team 4, hand-waving gameplay concepts like local executables running on remote machines; remote code execution requiring cracks on multiple outward-facing services; or notes that use "megabytes" of memory for each line of text (the memory usage is really a thin metaphor for screen space).

But after the tutorial, the game does a good job of glossing over its shaky technobabble, and quickly dives into reading emails, browsing web boards, and exploring filesystems. And those things felt pretty real. By the game's end I'd mostly forgotten its bizarre architectural idiosyncrasies (well, except for text-note memory).

Unlike many other hacking games, Hacknet doesn't have an upgrade path for your machine, so you can't scale up to running cracks faster or using more of them simultaneously. I was dubious about this at first, but the simplicity really works to Hacknet's benefit: I was never insufficiently equipped for a challenge, and I never got distracted from hacking by watching a currency wallet.

Hacknet's UI isn't perfect, but gets the job done. It stands out that a few controls require clicking, and a few others require typing -- because most controls are both clickable and keyboard-able. Nice! (Having both graphical and text interfaces to all commands is in my "ideal" hacking game vision.)

Hands-down, the worst part of the UI is its node-map of discovered servers, which is impossible to organize and also way too small and crowded. Nodes can partially overlap other nodes, so, that's kinda bad. This would be worse if Hacknet's quests had more backtracking and made you search for long-forgotten connections, but since they usually just throw you at newly-discovered nodes, this UI element is merely an occasional annoyance.

An aspect that Hacknet actually nails, I think, is its balance between nerd culture and drama. Granted, the core story isn't very elaborate; but it's well-paced, following a technological plot without getting lost in the technical details. And it leaves plenty of freely-discoverable files that flesh out the world and its sense of humor, like audio diaries in text form, to be consumed or ignored as one sees fit.

Overall, Hacknet is good enough. The immersiveness is imperfect, the UI is just fine, and the puzzles aren't very ambitious - I was disappointed that the Decypher tool didn't require reverse-engineering its C# algorithm - but everything works moderately well, and it succeeds at stringing together objectives to be compelling, and fun.

Better than: Hacker Evolution, Hackmud, NITE Team 4 (the demo at least), Uplink
Not as good as: my perfect hacking game. ... maybe someday.
The internet-culture humor was amusing: but surely there are more sources than just bash.org? There have to be, right? (Maybe not.)

The now-archaic map navigation, the sometimes-confounding evidence solutions, the frustrating penalty/reload-savefile system, and the typos ... are no match for the intrigue, excitement, and charm of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy's later cases.

The Trials and Tribulations cases come out swinging with backstory-establishing flashbacks, building up to a final case that ties everything together in a bombastic and incredibly satisfying conclusion. The hours flew by as I was unable to tear myself away from reading, and clicking, through Phoenix's most thrilling case yet.

But even the Ace Attorney gang's most dire moments are punctuated by a certain light-heartedness. Man, the localization staff sure did have fun with these games.

Though I've only just closed the final case, and already miss Phoenix and the Feys; replaying Wright's early years is definitely more "sweet" than "bitter." I'm so happy that I got the chance to reacquaint myself with these long-past characters and cases.

And at the same time, I eagerly look forward to more Ace Attorney on PC. Come on, Apollo! Everything is going to be fine!

Better than: Analogue: A Hate Story
Not as good as: ... you know what, nostalgia aside, I do look forward to the "real" puzzle gameplay in the Apollo Justice, Dual Destinies, and Spirit of Justice installments.
Come on, Capcom!: Just give me the chance to re-purchase more DS and 3DS games. I'm game if you are.

Moving forward in the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy collection shows incremental mechanical improvements (the psyche-locks in investigation phases), and highlights lingering mechanical shortcomings (navigating a map with more than four destinations) -- but mostly reinforces that the strength of these games isn't mechanical.

It's the quality of the writing and localization that makes Phoenix Wright's cast of wacky characters so engaging and entertaining. More than merely a vehicle for cartoony comic relief...

... Phoenix's stories build drama, in our attachments to their characters, that gives real gravitas to the dire situations they face in court.

Much of the credit has to go to the original localization staff. It would be easy for a straightforward translation to unintentionally ruin a character's personality; but the consistency with which we can "see" characters like Maya, Gumshoe, and Phoenix himself, as they deal with personal and professional crises, makes them feel real.

(And it's clear that the localizers had fun, too.)

It's the "real"-ness of their characters - and the music, of course the music, which I still regularly listen to - that makes the Ace Attorney stories resonate so strongly. Even as 10+ years of distance makes me forget the details of solving cases... I still fondly remember some of their biggest moments, and seeing them again is a real treat.

Progress: Finished episode 2 of Trials and Tribulations

Not many 20-minute-long games impress me, but What Never Was did.

It takes place in a single room, and there are only three puzzles. But! It strikes an excellent balance between environmental storytelling and gameplay pacing.

The puzzles felt organically integrated into the story's easy-to-understand premise, the interactive elements tantalized me with their background-story flavor text, and the ending - while abrupt - was a really intriguing teaser for whatever follow-up the developer has in mind.

(I did skip through much of the spoken dialog while reading through the subtitles. So maybe the writing was a bit wordy.)

This little freely-downloadable passion project shows incredible potential for a full-fledged puzzle adventure game.

Better than: The Room (the puzzle game, not the cinematic masterpiece)
Not as good as: Mandagon
Less content than, but arguably on quality par with: Gone Home

Cube Escape: Paradox is a weird, spooky, inventive, and mostly satisfying convergence of point-and-click adventure games and an escape-room puzzle.

Its creepy atmosphere is thoroughly executed, between scattered and mysterious symbols, the crow-headed dude in the painting, and moody background music. I would argue, though, that it uses too many jump-scare moments; especially since they're fairly neutral on the "scary" scale -- really just sudden, startling movements.

The puzzles are good! There are some hidden objects to find, some obtuse hints to decipher, some logical dots to connect. Some of the puzzle types are really clever - plotting a route on the globe/map is one I found really memorable - and I was impressed at how well the game re-used its tools (like the typewriter or the TV set) in new and creative ways.

Unfortunately, there were one or two clear examples of "adventure game logic" that turned me off a little bit. Like, you must combine some items by looking at yourself holding them in the mirror. Huh? And occasionally there's no clear connection between a puzzle's solution and your "next step" -- after finishing a puzzle, you just have to search around the room for something that wasn't there before.

It's also a bit worrying that Chapter 1's ending suggests Chapter 2 still takes place in the same room setting. While I appreciate the variety of puzzles that were packed into that room so far, by the end of the chapter I felt pretty "over" it. The prospect of investigating the room yet again feels like it would be a chore.

The first chapter of Cube Escape: Paradox was a neat diversion, and I'm really glad that I tried it out. But I didn't enjoy it quite enough to go paying for more.

Better than: Puzzle Agent
Not as good as: Oxenfree
Thematically distinct from, but arguably on par with: Detective Grimoire

Progress: finished Chapter 1 (the free part).

Back in 2018 I said that I was "really not interested in replaying" Red Spider: Vengeance, and that leaves me in an awkward, confusing spot with its prequel Red Spider 2: Exiled. Because the opening minutes of this game are filled with character names and relationship references that I don't remember anymore.

Like, I remember that "Fatso" was a person in the first game. Was he a good person or a bad person? Was Lau supposed to be a crime lord, or big-wig in the police ... or a dirty cop?

It feels a lot like Red Spider 2 takes that pre-existing character knowledge for granted, because after only a few minutes I was totally lost. I didn't know which lines of dialog were moving the plot forward, and which were lies from a character covering his tracks. I didn't know what the plot relevancy and stakes were when someone referred to another character or a family name.

I'm not saying it's a bad story, but it is badly introduced, and failed to hook me 'cause it made no effort to re-familiarize me with its setting.

Progress: about 10 minutes.

Grapple Force Rena is an odd combination of old and new. Its core grappling-hook mechanic is pretty cool in action, while also feeling "simple" in a way that may actually have worked in a Sega Genesis game. Its flavor text is fun and irreverent, without dominating the flow of the game.

Sadly, that flow is also "simple" enough to be at home in a 20-year-old game. Aside from the grappling, there isn't much gameplay going on in here; that's Rena's only attack move. Enemies have some varied patterns, but are universally dumb and easy to out-wit. The levels feel too maze-like, and there's no map.

Then there's the game's soundtrack, whose instruments sound suspiciously familiar to Genesis chiptunes. And in the demo's third level, I could grapple Rena to attach to a lady with a jetpack, then fly around -- no, not just like when Tails flies with Sonic. This is a jetpack. Totally different.

Grapple Force Rena doesn't just feel overly simplistic, it feels overly attached to mechanics and constraints of a bygone era. I guess I can appreciate the intent for nostalgia, but aping decades-old games isn't a substitute for contemporary design (like a map!).

Progress: Played the first three demo levels.

Yoku's Island Express is a charming, pretty, and mechanically-solid spin on the Metroidvania concept. Actually, a more direct comparison would be Toki Tori 2+, as this is a similarly open and interconnected map of puzzles to solve.

The difference is that Yoku's Island is full of pinball puzzles.

It's a really neat idea. And the seamless thematic integration of Yoku's dung-beetle rolling ball with the game map's pinball mazes feels great.

If I wasn't so terrible at pinball, I would probably love this. Unfortunately, I just can't flip flippers with the physics precision necessary to make this mechanic fun.

Progress: Finished the demo.

Hold it! Has it really been almost fifteen years since Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (NDS) first showed me how fun the law could be?

The Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy package presented a surprising, and exciting, opportunity for me to revisit all those fondly-remembered cases from early in Phoenix's career. More recent installments like Spirit of Justice have made me wonder, are the original games really as good as I remember?

So far, the answer is... mostly. I remembered there were some frustrating instances of dialog-tree "pixel hunting" in Phoenix's early cases, so running into those hurdles again wasn't too disappointing -- but I had forgotten how inconvenient the out-of-court sequences could be to navigate, sometimes taking five or more click-throughs to get to a particular scene.

Most importantly, though, the writing of Ace Attorney's characters and plots feels like it's aged just fine. At least to me, the balance between "mystery-solving realism" and "bizarre cartoon humor" still seems good. (Granted, I may still be biased by nostalgia.)

As for the trilogy collection's visual facelift, it's a bit mixed. At its best, the new high-resolution art is a solid match for my rose-tinted memory of what the DS games "might have" looked like. Occasionally, though, a character will have awkward shading on their face or a weird mouth shape, and watching them talk doesn't ... totally look right.

It's not so bad that it distracts from the still-great storytelling and case-solving, though. And even when I'm replaying a scene that I still remember vividly from 10-15 years ago, becoming re-acquainted with Phoenix's friends and stories is a joy.

Progress: Finished episode 1 of Justice for All