The surprising part about Sunshine Manor is that each level introduces a new mechanic. What starts as a top-down, light survival horror game can be more action-oriented at times. None of the mechanics overstay their welcome, and the entire game is reasonably short. Visually, it’s quite nice, as it tries to invoke 8-bit era graphics. The good, spooky, sometimes tense music adds to the experience.

/i\ Slight spoiler for Rule of Rose.

Rule of Rose is, to put it politely, queer as fuck. While I feel it depicts that theme with decent tact and respect, ultimately, I can’t be the judge of that. Knowing horror games, I can see how some aspects can fall into harmful stereotypes. Another thing that gives me pause in this regard is that it’s a story about children made by adult developers, which always has a certain sheen of sleaziness. I do appreciate that, despite some supernatural elements, there are no ancient burial grounds or secret cults in sight, which is refreshing.

Your dog companion, Brown, is a very cool addition to the gameplay. He not only helps with notoriously awkward combat, but he is also an interesting in-game help system of sorts. You can pet him, too.

Regardless, the game is a hidden gem. Maybe a rough one, (the camera and aftermentioned combat come to mind), and perhaps not particularly hidden, but I very much enjoyed it.

What is a dragon, if not a dog with wings? And scales? And firebreath?.. Okay, I’m reaching. I wouldn’t call Drakan: Order of the Flame a horror either. Dark fantasy? Sure.

It’s a blend of The Legend of Zelda and Tomb Raider. Plus a dragon. And not a bad blend. There is mostly combat and not a lot of puzzles. While the technical aspects have not aged particularly well, they are not bad either. Flying can be disorienting, but it’s a neat addition.

It’s an old game, though. Some choices, especially in design of female characters, can be cringe-worthy. It also has a quick save for a reason. Expect instant death traps and enemies that can one-shot you. It’s the Dark Souls of its time (not really).

Tales of the TARDIS is great because it allows you to watch a sample of episodes from a previous era of Doctor Who and realize that you don’t want to watch any more. It has not aged well. Great scarves, though!

Maybe I just wanted something simple, but I enjoyed Goosebumps: Terror in Little Creek. It’s a pretty straightforward, lite version of Resident Evil. There are plenty of puzzles and stealth elements, as well as some combat. Nothing outstanding, just a good, spooky adventure.

The core of the Prime games is firmly present in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. The developers updated some features (most of my complaints have been addressed) to make it feel more modern without removing anything. It’s a good, substantial game that isn’t too long.

And that would’ve been that if we weren’t waiting for it basically from the release of the Switch console itself. To be honest, I was also among those wondering, for good reason, how they would change it. After the release of Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, everyone was thinking the same thing: open world? Open levels? At least more open, right?

The game we got seems to have been held back in some way. There is an openness, but it doesn’t add anything significant. NPCs, cutscenes, some other minor details also feel separate from the rest of the game. None of that makes it worse, far from it. It’s just a reminder that it got stuck on a bridge without a way to fully cross or go back.

Some puzzle games make you feel very clever. Monument Valley III and the entire series make you feel how clever the developers are. I don’t mean that as a bad thing, but it is less of a puzzle game. Still, it’s very neat, good-looking, and quite enjoyable!

The throwbackness of Terminator 2D: No Fate is not its only selling point. Despite being pretty short, it has a good incentive to replay its campaign and offers a couple of additional modes and achievements. But it’s also just a fun game.

I’m hesitant to say, if the story of Amnesia: Rebirth is good or not. I feel that it doesn’t fall into sensationalism; it simply does what it needs to do to tell its story. However, there are subject matters where it is not my place to judge. Other than that, it is a good-looking, atmospheric game with reasonable puzzles and monsters that you can turn off (which I did, no regrets).

As far as I can tell without playing them myself, all the games from that developer are interesting because they started with a lot of problematic elements but have been deliberately moving away from them. Again, I can’t be the judge of that.

They also keep making Picross games, those fuckers.

The story of Blood: The Last Vampire is pretty straightforward. It’s not bad, but it doesn’t bring anything new or unique to the genre. However, there are interesting things happening on the periphery. The most obvious example is that the movie clearly in a conversation with Western horror media. The visuals are striking, the pace is good, and overall, it’s not bad at all.

Is it fair to say that live action adaptation is worse, though? I have to say so. Whether you like the way it expands the story or not, it just add galring flaws, from poor character mativation, to bad monster design. It ramps up the action in a “more is better” way and fails. The pacing suffers as well. It’s not all bad, it could have been worse, but it’s hard to say that it’s worth it.

I wasn’t inspired to explore that franchise further.

The whole autumn was full of things that I either didn’t finish, that don’t fit the themes of this blog, or both. One of those things, I guess.

I’m pretty sure that this month, I set a record for the number of games I started but didn’t finish for one reason or another. Nevertheless, here is a list of three free spooky ones:

• A is for Aliens After Ava, a runner with nice, stark graphics.
• B is for Ballads at Midnight, a romantic visual novel that can get pretty dark.
• C is for Curyeux, a platformer. A bit dark, or just serious, I guess, but not a horror.

I’ve also been tinkering with this blog. If you don’t notice any changes, that’s a good thing. If you notice any changes, hopefully they are positive ones. And it should look even better in NetSurf, the famous and popular web browser.

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Fossify Launcher

Lawnchair

Neo Launcher

As Nova Launcher is dead, I would like to find a replacement. To explain what I would consider a replacement, I should explain how I used Nova. It had a variety of customisation options, but most of what I did falls into three categories.

Firstly, I have several tabs in the app drawer. The Main tab is an inbox of sorts; the Background tab contains all apps that I basically don’t use but need for one reason or another. Then there’s another tab that has a bunch of store and payment apps (we live in a capitalism, after all).

Secondly, I have five folders: Phone, Web, Media, Games and Tools. I try to keep them neat and minimal, with six apps per folder being ideal and nine being a bit much.

Lastly, there is the desktop with, currently, only two screens, some widgets, and those five folders. I don’t use a dock, a search bar or anything else. I do use gestures, but not many.

The phone is great for swiping and tapping (i.e. gestures and tabs, and folders and widgets). It is not good for typing though, so I’m not even going to consider all those search-based launchers that are popular for some bizarre reason. Phones don’t thock (mechanical keyboard joke)!

And Nova was great for all that! You can create folders and tabs. You can put folders in tabs. You can put the same folders on your desktop and customize their appearance. You can customize basically everything!

Before trying to replicate that in other launchers, I would like to narrow the search to only open-source apps for an obvious reason: I don’t want another Nova accident.

At first glance, the launchers that should be in the ballpark are: Fossify Launcher, Lawnchair and Neo Launcher. Can they do what I want?

Fossify Launcher

I love Fossify apps! I use several of them: Calendar, Camera, Clock, and Gallery. However, their launcher is so basic that it’s unusable.

Lawnchair

I hope that the death of Nova will inspire other launchers to improve. The release of a new version of Lawnchair may be an example of that. Then again, maybe I’m reading too much into it. Regardless, it is better than Fossify, but still a couple of steps away from what I want. However, those steps can be achieved! I’m keeping an eye on it.

Neo Launcher

It’s not one-to-one, but I managed to replicate my Nova setup. The drawer has tabs or folders, so I chose tabs.

Then, I created five folders on the desktop and hid those apps from the drawer. It’s clunkier that way: you can’t customize (rename, change icon) the hidden app. Maybe putting all the folder apps in a separate tab that I would “forget” about would be a better solution, I don’t know.

The desktop remains largely the same, including gestures and widgets.

Sadly, but not surprisingly, there are drawbacks. Let’s put it this way, I want:

• tabs and folders in the app drawer;
• the ability to put those folders on the desktop;
• to assign an icon to folders;
• to be able to customize hidden apps;
• better handling of icon labels (the text rarely fits, even with multiline and a small font);
• the ability to use any image as an icon;
• a couple more gestures;
• customizable desktop bubble (a pop-up menu that appears when you touch and hold the desktop).

And last, but not least, the assurence that it’s not dead. Launchers don’t need frequent updates. In fact, it’s better if they don’t, so you can set it and forget it. There seems to be ongoing development, but a stable release from a couple of years ago feels scary.

It goes without saying, but I can change my opinion if something changes. I bet we’ll see other launchers – existing or brand new – trying to replicate Nova’s features.