Liv

At a Glance: A simulation game that puts you in the position of a one person construction crew (without all of the real life complications), and allows you to clean, renovate and sell houses.

Story: House Flipper features a series of structured jobs, depicted through emails to the player, in which they have to fufill criteria and provide clients with the house or garden of their dreams. There's also the ability to buy and renovate houses freelance, and while this might sound mundane, it's incredibly relaxing. If you've always liked the house-building aspect of the Sims more than the life simulator than this might be the game for you! Story takes a backseat to personal creativity and mechanics, but there's humorous moments hidden throughout the game's emails, including a troublesome ex-boyfriend who's stolen all the radiators in his former partner's house, the ability to take a flamethrower to pesky weeds, and references to well-known houses.

Style: House flipper while not the prettiest game, more than makes up for style with quantity, and concept. The older items look comparatively dated, but this hasn't stopped fans from making some truly incredible houses, and seven years after it's release, there's still a huge following (and some very active reddit forums). House Flipper features a great deal of freedom, whether you want to make luxury apartments or fast, budget accomodations, and it's slated for a remaster in Winter 2025, which will include all of the previously unrelased on console DLCs, a fresh graphical remaster, full voice acting, over 800 new items, and plenty of quality of life updates. Despite the creation of a sequel, many users still prefer the style of House Flipper 1, and although I find the mechanics frustrating (and a bit jerky), there's still plenty to enjoy.

Characters: Characters are not the focal point of House Flipper. The most you can see of your player character is their arms, and the cilents are only heard from through emails or in the comments they make as you renovate houses. House Flipper 2 expands on this, and adds the ability to have conversations with clients, and branching dialogue. Despite the lack of deep characterization, it does little to detract from the overall gameplay experience, and relaxing, sandbox-style atmosphere. There are also buyers you can interact with, but they're more annoying hurdles than anything, else, and trying to sell to all of the buyers at least once is a much more complex task than it first seems.

Music: Well, it has music. There isn't anything terrible about House Flipper's music but it isn't going to break any new ground, and it's main draw is that it's subtle enough to be easily ignored after spending hours designing a house. I usually don't like listening to different music when I'm gaming, prefering to listen to in-game tracks, and dialogue. HF1 (and 2) are some of the rare exceptions to this rule, and I usually listen to gaming youtube channels instead (or multi-task, and listen to documentaries in the background.) It's not a huge detractor from my overall opinion of the game, but there's a bit of missed opportunity too, and something like the original Sims music would feel right at home in HF, and further enhance the experience.

The Good:
-Great replayability, and open-ended building/reselling modes encourage creativity
-Very relaxing, and easy to lose time in--if you're like me, set a timer!
-Friendly, supportive community makes asking for advice feel much less daunting, and can help a lot with some of the mechanical intricacies
-Art style, while a little simple, is also not unappealing, and allows for a lot of really stunning builds
-Very inspiring in terms of real life decorating as well, I've found both House Flipper Games to be excellent for planning spaces.

The Bad:
-Mechanics can be downright fussy, especially on the Switch. I haven't played the PC port, but the PS5 fares a little better
-Longggggg load times-DLCs can be buggy, play at your own risk. I had the pet DLC corrupt itself and ended up having to restart my file. They're fun but not worth the chance of your hard work disappearing
-Game engine tends to putter, aside from longer load times, movement and mechanics are sluggish. While not unplayable by any stretch, it's more noticable in House Flipper 1, than in 2

Final Consensus and Rating: Overall, House Flipper is both relaxing and creative, all the best parts of interior design, with none of the downsides, and with a supportive, friendly community, there's plenty of fans to share it with. 9 out of 10.

At a Glance: An idyllic game where you can live out your vacation fantasies as a cute little animal, enjoy the relaxed pace of island life, and maybe solve a mystery or two.

Story: Hello Kitty Island Adventure does feature a overall storyline, but story takes a backseat to exploration, and casual side quests. Because certain quests are gated behind friendship level requirements with specific characters, the pacing is a bit slower than one might expect, but I didn't find that it negatively impacted the experience. There's little mysteries to solve, although they don't feel high stakes.

This may be a good or bad thing depending on personal preference, but I found the chance of pace enjoyable, especially as a way to relax. The twists and turns are perhaps a bit expected, but you probably aren't playing Hello Kitty Island Adventure for shocking revelations, and life or death scenarios. While not heavy on intense story, it's heavy on charm.

Style: Hello Kitty Island Adventure features a 3D over-the-shoulder point perspective, and also includes a first person photomode. Although there are options to adjust angle and zoom of the player view, it can sometimes lead to awkward camera angles when pieces of the landscape obscure your view. I encountered this occasionally while trying to fish or catch insects.

Despite the challenge with certain angles, the style works very well for the game, and the cheerful colors, and vibrant environments invite exploration. The houses, characters, and items are also well-designed, with a dedication to aesthetic, and polish that I wasn't expecting. You'll also be able to find hidden gudetama's (a sleepy, anthropomrphic egg), all over the island, and it's a highlight discovering where the little guy is hiding next.

Characters: I can't review this game and not mention how CUTE the characters are. I loved Hello Kitty as a kid, and this game was the perfect fuel for that nostalgia. The characters are kind, quirky, and sometimes irreverent, but it fits well into the universe that's been established. If you want morally gray characters, and gripping drama, this won't be the game for you, but sometimes a little optimism is refreshing. You can also customize your player character, and unlock different clothing and color palattes for them. Ever wanted to be the animals instead of a human in Animal Crossing? That is exactly what Hello Kitty Island Adventure lets you do!

There's several different animal species to pick from, and several body shapes for each, as well as eye shapes and patterns. Although the characters are almost unfailingly helpful, and friendly, there are a couple of surprising jokes that might go over the heads of younger audiences, including one referring to cakes snakes on a plane. You're rewarded for befriending characters, not just with new quests, but different perks as well, and the ability to give multiple gifts a day makes befriending characters feel more like a gentle progression and less of a tedious slog.

Music: While never annyoing, the music in HKIA often fades into the background for me. It could simply be nostalgia talking, but for me, I could use a more varied soundtrack. It makes me miss the Animal Crossing music, and is hard not to compare the two games, especially when AC has created so many ear-worms. There's nothing wrong with the soundtrack and a couple songs were quite enjoyable, but I wouldn't necessarily remember the names of them.

The Good:
-Amazing aesthetic, the cute, exaggerated proportions of Sanrio characters make a perfect match for a game like this. While not photorealistic by any stretch of the word, it's polished and looks like care was put into designing it
-The house customization is easy to navigate, and there's a decent range of styles too
-Collecting items is easy, and the item caps per day don't feel like they hold gameplay back. There's also ways to send helpers to forage for you, or get perks to make getting items easier
-Refreshingly kind characters and lack of drama might detract for some, but I found it to be incredibly relaxing, and a bit of wish fufillment, where the biggest worry is trying to decide where you want to explore for the day
-Pacing is relaxed, and there isn't a huge time commitment necessary

The Bad: Controls feel a little laggy on occasion and slightly unresponsive. This could just be me playing a lot of House Flipper 2, and being accustomed to my objects flinging themselves into other dimensions, but it was definitely noticeable
-The lack of map pins makes trying to return to treasure chests very hard, especially for how often you run into chests without having the special keys they need
-Because the game does have some real time components, there's a limit to how much you can do everyday, at least in terms of gifting and quests. If you want to binge a game for hours, a day, this probably won't be the game for you--I didn't mind it but your milage may vary
-Occasionally wonky camera angles, especially when fishing or creature catching
-Prompts to give gifts, craft and talk with characters is mapped to different buttons so it's easy to accidentally start a conversation when you meant to build something or give a gift--which can get tedious if you're used to "just hit 'A' to interact"

Final Consensus and Rating: A laid-back life-sim that lets you explore your surroundings at your own pace, and customize your experience. Cute characters, and open ended enough to keep you coming back for more, 8 out of 10.

At a Glance: An open-world adventure set in a mysterious kingdom. Friends, foes and animal companions await!

Story: While Disney Dreamlight Valley does follow a main story, as well as featuring additional story-heavy DLCs, it's focus is on open-world maps, and the ability for the player to determine their gameplay style. Whether a focus on side quests, home and character customization, completing collections, or creature catching, there's a bit of everything. There is a farming aspect, but it's not the focal point of the game, so don't expect Stardew Valley or Coral Island, and is primarily used to make recipes and as material for crafting. It's also a good way to make money, but I found that farming gems is even more efficient and easy to grind.

Disney Dreamlight Valley follows the well-known trope of the player character who's lost their memories. They begin as an effectively blank slate, and the branching dialogue options allows for some degree of personality to come through. While not having a huge impact on your relationship with other characters, it's fun to have some snarky options (as well as some genuinely evil ones.) Even if you're saving Dreamlight Valley at the end of the day, there's no reason you have to be nice while you're doing it.

The first character you meet is the wizard, Merlin, and despite serving as your introduction to the game, and tutorial, he also features heavily in other storylines. Overall, while the main story isn't incredibly long, it's well-written, especially for a game that tries to connect with younger audiences. You do meet characters that are villians in their own media, but it's treated as a sort of alternate universe, which may feel immersion breaking. It's fun if you don't think too hard about it, and the villians ended up having some of the most interesting quests (in my opinion).

Style: I was admittedly apprehensive about the art style, at first. 3D cozy games can sometimes straddle the line of pretty and uncanny valley for me, and DDV had enough customization that it ultimately ended up being a good thing. The environments, while not the most complex were plenty fun to explore. While I didn't have any "WOW" moments during the base game, the DLCs push harder in terms of unique places, and feature some of the prettiest locations. DDV pushes customization the player character, environments, and houses, and it's fairly well fleshed out, even if the controls feel a little fussy at times.

There are a few graphical bugs, but they felt more funny than game-breaking, and I have some screenshots that are nightmare fuel incarnate (including one where you can see Mirabel's eyes and teeth floating in mid-air, definitely took me by surprise the first time it happened.)

Characters: DDV manages to strike a balance between wanting to make characters feel true to their original iterations, while also allowing them to exist in the same world, and co-exist more peacefully. Although there's still conflict, it's much less fraught than the original media. Another surprise was how well written some of the dialogue was. I went in expecting something that was very much geared towards children, and while it's certainly child-appropriate, it's enjoyable for a range of ages, and features complex subjects, written in ways that younger audiences can understand them.

Characters struggle with anxiety, depression, and not feeling good enough, and rather than ignoring their struggles, we get to see them grow, and are given the message that it's okay to rely on your friends, and the importance of community. Some of the dialogue is also genuinely funny, and it didn't feel like it tried too hard to make jokes stick. I was expecting juvenile, and was pleasantly surprised!

Music: Meh. Although not offensive, the music in DDV gets repetitive FAST. Luckily it's easy to ignore, and fades into the background, with how much time you'll be spending in your house or looking for characters (or grinding for specific gemstones). There's a couple standouts, including the instrumental Beauty and the Beast and Frozen tracks, as well as the starting area in the Storybook Vale, but other than that, it's mostly forgettable. Granted the licensing for Disney songs are likely complicated but it's one of the best parts! It leaves me missing all the amazing Disney music, and frankly you're better off just playing the game on mute, and listening to a playlist of your favorite Disney songs.

The Good:
-Lots of content, especially with DLC packs, and more is consistently being added-Surprisingly robust character creation, and the ability to change body shapes, and save various character presets, genuinely cool clothing designs as well!
-Map that shows you where characters are (which is great when it works properly)
-Lots of furniture and house customization options-Heartfelt character interactions, that are quite well-written, and feel like more than just empty side quests
-Well balanced money system, and grinding for gold never feels like too much of a slog (which is good, because you'll need A LOT)
-While microtransactions are present, they don't feel at all necessary to have a full and enjoyable game experience. The DLC contain more content, and I'd recommend them over the items in the cash store.

The Bad:
-Some of the materials are TEDIOUS to grind for. I never want to search for clay ever again. Certain fish are also gated behind rainy weather, which makes it irritating to have to wait a month in real life, because it won't rain in your game.
-Music falls a little flat. It's not terrible but not as good as it could be
-MOST of the characters are well voice acted but, I don't ever want to hear Vanellope speak again in my entire life, same with Daisy and her ear-splitting shrieks
-Searching for Mist deserves it's own mention. In what was probably an attempt tonot have players blow through the DLC too quickly, farming Mist is so incredibly boring, and I only got through it by playing with my camera off during lectures.

Final Consensus and Rating: Overall, a solid experience, even if you're not usually a huge fan of disney, with fun character and house customization, and good writing. 8.5 out of 10