I've decided it's time to start actually PLAYING the many games wasting away in my backlog. I've put everything in a random name picker and we're seeing what comes of it! First up: Headlander.

My prior knowledge of this game came solely from it's brief mentions in the Psychonauts 2 documentary from earlier this year. I think I bought it in a steam sale at some point. And I think this game had some really cool concepts! The music was great, the art and aesthetic were super charismatic, the door that sounded like Michael Cera got a decent number of laughs from me- but I found the controls a little hard to manage, and ultimately just found myself putting it down after 2 or 3 play sessions and I have yet to feel any pull to pick it back up. But maybe someday!

This one sucked me in right from the get-go. It had such a great gameplay mechanic, and the world was interesting and full of humor. Exploration was fun, and I loved the entire premise.

But this game really didn’t know how to grow beyond its roots. The exploration became pointless - every secret is marked on your map and requires zero challenge to obtain. The combat is really annoying. The puzzles were mostly obvious. And the story really is boring.

I think this could have been much much better, but it kind fell flat for me.