nidhogg is a simplistic fighting game released for basically every modern platform, but i mostly played it on the ps vita and a little on the ps4. both of these versions work great, the vita version even lets two people play on one vita! (it works great btw) the game is very simplistic but a ton of fun, it's mostly based on sword duels to get to the end of the level with you running to the next screen inbetween kills, you have 3 different positons for the sword, the ability to throw them, a roll and a jump kick or you can take my strategy and just, get a single kill and sprint to the end of the level with zero care for violence, it's fun! it's chaotic! it's a perfect party game! it's got a nice simplistic art style, some good music when it's available (the cloud stage especially) and it even has some single player content with an arcade mode to run though and evem here the gameplay shines, it's just so silly to jump kick someone and throw your sword at them before sprinting at full speed to kill them again and again and it's super emergent with the levels kind of lend themselves to that, you end up with funny stories and moments that you'll remember for how dumb a death was or how cool a run looked, it's simple and fun and i would reccomend it if you need something to play with some friends! but if you want there's enough here to be worth a play just to see what the game has to offer, even one run of the arcade is enough to really understand why this game is so fun.

it would be followed up several years later with a sequel and a brand new, far more divisive art style. the art is really the main sticking point for 2 when it's brought up and i get why, the game is intentionally ugly but i think that takes a lot of confidance and i respect it a ton, that said, i hate the art style! it's well made in its uglyness but it's just such a vicerally "not for me" style that it was a little offputting when i was initially starting to play because i do think vibes and aesthetics in games are a major point of enjoyment for me and this just wasn't it, the game does however have much more appealing environments, lots of detail and variety with some stages being very remenicant of ones from the original. the game also has a lot more variety than the original, over double the stages with more gimmicks (like grinder traps) and you get a few extra weapon types to use like a claymore, a dagger (which i found not all that useful) and a bow and arrow which was the most fun to use with my cowardess playstyle. the new weapons add a lot of depth but i find the gameplay is a little less fun overall, the characters feel more weighty as well as looking it and it just feels a little more sluggish. the OST is still chill though, but this time nothing really stood out as much to me, it's more consistant but a little less interesting overall. the game is so similar overall that its hard to massively reccomend it over the original, the variety is much nicer but it's also just a little less fun, so i would just reccomend getting whichever sounds better to you from what i've said.

the last game i played was the tetris effect. a mild vent first: i had ordered this game over a year ago from limited run games alongside a copy of bill and ted's retro collection and it's been over a year with a no-show, while i've had bad wait times before this is the worst one yet by far and i ended up just playing it on ps plus just so i could finally actually play it, i'll still play my switch copy when it arrives but this is just a real shame that i had to play a digital copy when i paid for a physical one. the game is really special though, it's made by the people over at monstars and resonair and it has some massive names attached like Tetsuya Mizuguchi, who has worked on games like rez, lumines and meteos and similar to those game's its a very immersive musical (and the music is amazing and super dynamic with your movements and changing and effecting the song in real time) experiance especially in the vr mode, it does just such a good job of immersing you in the beautiful and varied landscapes and music while you clear rows in the journey mode and it's a very emotional experiance at times and had me tearing up a little more than once when the main theme kicks in, it's just tetris yes but it's also a very special kind of tetris and the visual and audio presentation really make it a one-of-a-kind experiance that you just can't replicate anywhere else, though CDI tetris is still my favourite tetris ost. the uniqueness extends to the rest of the game too, there's a PVE co-op mode in the connected version of the game that has you and 2 others sharing a board and takind down AI bosses and it's a really cool experiance that does, like the title says, make you feel connected in a way very few puzzle games can and there's enough there to keep you connected. tons of modes, unlockable avatars and customisable ways to play (including a retro mode similar to the NES game) that you can seriously spend a ton of time here as your go-to tetris game, though the journey mode itself which is the main reason i 100% reccomend getting this is fairly short lived but this brevity helps it i feel.