When I finished playing Watch Dogs 2, I had a list of games I wanted to cover next. But I didn’t feel right. All the games I wanted to cover were major releases. So I told myself I should find an indie game that I wanted to cover. The thing is, I don’t know if any of the games were right to cover fully in a single review due to how long it takes to make one.

But after playing some games I found four games I felt that deserved the time, I’ve decided to review each of them here and just give them a shorter review so they still get the coverage they deserve. They are, in no particular order, Oh…Sir! The Insult Simulator, Olli Olli 2, Replica, and Redout: Enhanced Edition.

I will also say I have not beaten any of these games, so while I do fully review the game, I have only completed Oh …Sir! And Replica on PC at this time.

Oh…Sir! The Insult Simulator and Oh…Sir! The Hollywood Roast

Insult comedy have been something I’ve loved for a long time ever since I saw a video of Don Rickles performing. It’s a guilty pleasure but when done right it can be extremely funny. I love roasts, watching insult games, and more. So I was curious how both Oh…Sir! Games would handle the topic, especially when insults aren’t exactly a direct competition.

Insult comedy is really hard to pull off. If you go in the wrong way, it’s just bullying. If you go the other way it’s just observation humor, but when an insult comedy performs, you’ll find he can cut the target just enough to be pure comedy and that’s brilliance.

So the question might be how does this work in the game. Well in both games you have characters, and sling insults back and forth. You form insults from a list of parts of sentences, mostly focused on subjects, actions, and conjugations. So you can form “Your Dad / looks like / your mom.” Of course, your target in the insult competition is also choosing from the same list. It’s easy to fill out a simple insult but the strategy comes in trying to repeat phrases, target your opponent’s weakness or longer sentences. The character weakness’ are particularly interesting, Marilyn Nomore gets particularly burnt harmed when you attack her age or beauty.

The goal is to make a more cutting insult. You also have some personal insults from your character, and this is really the only place the character’s personality comes in. The personal insults are funny and used quite often, but the core of each insult is the general phrases.

Not the best insult but can be scathing.

I do love building the insults and laughing at what I come up with. It’s actually quite witty, and I can even make myself laugh. It definitely would work better in a group or head to head than playing by yourself.

The downside though is that scoring is a bit of a variable, in in the sequel of the Hollywood Roast, where it shows how many points each combo is, it’s a little vague on how it decides how good that phrase is. Still, the insults can be quite nasty and the game systems are fun.

The other issue I have is that it takes a few playthroughs to unlock everything. While the game is relatively easy and takes less than about an hour to beat, the game works best in smaller bursts. The character I really wanted (the Deadpool looking “Wisecrack”) requires 3 playthroughs and by that point, I would be burnt out of the game.

Still, as a fan of Insult Comics, it’s entertaining, but I’m also aware that insult comedy isn’t exactly a mainstream thing, and if you aren’t a fan of that type of comedy you’ll probably want to miss this one. This is for the type of person who like Cards Against Humanity for its raunchiness.

I also would give the Hollywood Roast a bump because the characters are more interesting and that’s what got me more interested in the insults.

I give Oh…Sir! The Insult Simulator a

3/5

Final Thoughts: Great insult comedy simulator and uses classic comedy bits. It lacks longevity, but I still enjoyed my time playing this game and goes for a reasonable price.

Stats: 4.1 hours played 4/18 achievements earned

I give Oh…Sir! The Hollywood Roast a

3.5/5

Final Thoughts: A rather fun insult generation, though it wears off quickly, it’s quite humorous for bursts of an hour or two.

Stats: 2 hours played 4/20 achievements earned

Olli Olli 2

Olli Olli 2 was released on PlayStation Plus a few years ago and I ended up playing through on Ps4. I recently picked it up again on Steam, it’s everything I remembered and more.

I should confess, I’m a huge Tony Hawk fan, and I’m sad that we may never see another game like that. I’m hoping people will create something but the good news is that Olli Olli 2 already has done that, and yet almost no one knows about this little game.

Olli Olli is a 2d Skateboarding game, which allows players to skate through levels, and try to reach the end. But rather than just a platformer, there’s an entire trick system build in, including grinds, kickflips, and even more of that same gameplay you’d expect from a skateboarding game. There’s a push to perfectly timing landings and grinds, and it creates an interesting new take on skateboarding.

It also has the same style as Tony Hawk. It’s rather easy to pick up and understand but it becomes very hard to master. The good news is the game has a series of levels, five areas which are broken up into five levels for the amateur circuit and while these will get complex it’s not impossible for players to survive them.

However, for those players looking for a further challenge, there are five goals per level. Many of them are as simple as a score-based goal or a combo goal, but others are focused on specific paths or tricks through the level. Realize though, Olli Olli 2 actually will get quite complicated and that can be frustrating as you try to keep up with it.

Landed it!

On each level you complete all five goals, you unlocks a pro level. Pro levels have harder goals and much more complicated track layouts and will really push the challenge… perhaps too much. The Pro goals quickly become ridiculous and I’m sure players will be able to beat them, but that’s where the difficulty curve shoots skywards leaving most players behind.

The level design though is good, and the game is mostly fair, though takes a lot more skill than I’ve been able to muster. I still vastly enjoy my time here, it’s a reasonable price, and this is a game that makes me want to be a better gamer just to continue to beat all the smaller parts. Even if players think this is relatively easy, there’s a final mode that requires perfection in everything to complete, and by that point, you will have already mastered the game.

As a Tony Hawk fan, I really like Olli Olli 2. It’s a fun interesting game and honestly one I keep thinking about. Maybe we will see a true successor to the Tony Hawk Franchise one day, but until then Olli Olli 2 is going to continue being one of my favorite skateboarding games, and almost definitely after that point as well.

I give Olli Olli 2 a

4.5 / 5

Final thoughts: A 2d Tony Hawk style skateboard game focused on tricks and speed. Well designed, great levels, and tons of fun, but it becomes extremely challenging.

Stats: 5.3 hours played 12/27 achievements earned.

Replica

Replica has an interesting premise. You are given a phone and go through it trying to gather information about the owner. It’s one of those questions that leaves a lot of possibilities open to the developers.

In Replica, the player is being told to do this by a government who has imprisoned our main character along with a number of other people. The player is given another prisoner’s phone and told to break it and get information.

The first major challenge is trying to break into the user’s phone. On the lock screen, the player is forced to unlock the phone and after a few failed attempts they hopefully will come up with the lock code. It’s about the only four-digit number the game hints at that point.

Replica has a number of puzzles like this and it’s rather wonderful with how its puzzles are designed. I’m actually pretty impressed because I was interested in going through the phone.

There’s actually a number of ways things can go in the game and there are multiple endings, which leaves quite a bit for the player to do in the game.

Sadly this is also the biggest problem with Replica. Each time you find an ending the game restarts from the beginning, the codes are all the same, but you have to go through the same process to unlock certain pieces of the game and it’s extremely repetitive depending on how far you’ve got the first time. Doing this four or five times really destroys the enjoyment.

It doesn’t help that there’s not a lot to Replica. The game really only has enough content for a couple of hours depending on how fast you figure everything out. It’s not deep.

There is some text messages that left over on the phone.

The worst part is that chasing down those same endings will have you repeating the same process at least 12 times as that’s the number of endings. Worse, the story isn’t very interesting. You never really get a good shocking reveal or more information. The biggest “twist” I saw was that the government didn’t release you from jail but instead makes you break other phones because you show an aptitude for it. Ehhh… I mean I guess it’s a twist, but not really an interesting one because the game ends, and thus the story is over, plus it’s rather obvious.

Overall Replica has good moments, but it’s just that, moments, maybe a few great minutes, but not enough to really recommend. I don’t loath Replica, but that’s about as good as Replica gets and it’s not good enough for me to recommend.

I give Replica a

2/5

Final Thoughts: An interesting concept but not a long one. While the puzzles are interesting there’s just not enough here to recommend.

Stats: 1.7 hours played 6/8 achievement earned

Redout: Enhanced Edition

In 1995, Wipeout was released for the PlayStation and it was an incredible game. But it’s one that I’ve missed since moving to PC. There’s a number of futuristic racing games, but Wipeout combines, speed, combat and more in one fast package.

I keep hearing “Redout” has everything that made Wipeout great, and as you play it, you get that same electronica soundtrack, that same style, same outlandish futuristic design to the ships, similar controls, and same gameplay that I am just terrible at.

I love Wipeout, and I love Redout in a similar way, but I can’t help but admit, I’m pretty terrible at these games, they go too fast, and perhaps I’m getting older or I don’t have the right vehicles or setups in the game, but I struggle with these games way more than I think I should.

Yet Redout is just as enjoyable as Wipeout and on every platform so everyone can enjoy it no matter what you play on.

Redout has some flaws, the difficulty and speed is really high even when changing the difficulty level and I find the ships a little hard to control, there are abilities to help you with that but it’s a trade-off from speed, and I find that speed is still critical in the game, so I’m not sure if I’m playing it poorly, or if the game is just too challenging.

I got stuck at the end of the “Class 1” races and ran out of money. I needed 30,000 dollars to get a new ship and had to grind that for a bit, about five to ten races, and an easy special offer popped up that made it simple after that. The lack of money made it hard for me to try out more than the ships I started with.

The interface is a little confusing. There are upgrades to your ships that I completely missed for a long time.

Blazingly fast.

But yet, Redout is still fun. Yes, I might be negative about a few things, but if you remember Wipeout or F-Zero fondly and want a game where you go entirely too fast, and have to maneuver away from walls at the last second, or slam into them damaging your ship… Redout is for you.

It’s really well made, reminds me of everything great about “Futuristic racers” And is a lot of fun. Just don’t expect me to master this one.

I give Redout: Enhanced Edition a

4/5

Final Thoughts: An amazing take on the Wipeout formula, and available on more platforms. Redout clearly knows what it’s doing and just pushes speed, speed and more speed at the player. Though perhaps too much.

Stats: 5.1 hours played 8/34 achievements earned.