I played through Erma: The Game. I haven't read the web comic it is based on but imagine the girl from the ring with a mix of other horror tropes but in an an ultra cute child friendly world. It is a very easy short adventure game with a couple of minigames (two arcade ones and two puzzle ones). I highly recommend it if you want to play something fun with a minor. It is reminiscent of games like Pajama Sam, a fun interactive experience and I guarantee it will put a smile to your child's face. Cute graphics galore with fluid animation. Can't say though it is educational but it could be a starter kit to the horror genre for children if you want something like that. Just some mildly spooky staff

Still playing Melon Head by Wavey Games.

This looks incredible - so original and strange!

Glad to see people take notice!

I've reached one of the three endings. I'm going for at least one more; out of curiousity, enjoyment and to give my thoughts some time to crystallize.

I went on a quest. What an adventure. Great soundtrack, wacky at times, but clever (great bass lines, rhythm), fun sound effects as well. I really enjoyed the puzzles. Each character has personality, especially Nettleboo - I liked her journey as much as my own.

Glad to see more people appreciate Melon Head. Playing through it on release was such a great experience because there were no walkthroughs or hints available online so I had to figure out everything for myself.

This year is off to a great start in terms of playing through my backlog. The only issue being so many great new games I want to play are releasing as well. But speaking of Wavey Games on to the games I completed in January:

1. Celestial Coffee Quest (2026): Latest Wavey Games freeware point and click release with a great EGA aesthetic made in AGS. It has pretty straightforward puzzles outside of the text entry one. Recommended
   
2. Barn Runner: The QTE Affair (2025): Extremely short game in the long running Barn Runner series of freeware games, primarily made in AGS. If you've never played a Barn Runner game before I would not recommend starting with this one, the first game released back in 2003 is the correct starting point from a timeline perspective. I've only played a handful of the almost 20 games, but if you like sci-fi and humor and don't mind a lot of writing about sex and scenes with nudity then you might enjoy this series too. Recommended
   
3. Carol Reed Mysteries 21: The Final Chapter (2026): This is the first Carol Reed game I've played, so I don't know how it compares to the previous entries. I get the feeling that they might start feeling quite samey after more than 20 entries in the series, but if they do feature different locations and puzzles then I'm even more impressed with what the developer has accomplished. I want to visit Norrköping in Sweden so bad after this game. I wish more cities had games like this made for them. The scenery is beautiful and the puzzles are very addictive. I didn't really care so much for the plot or characters, but the gameplay loop is top tier. Highly Recommended
   
4. Treasure of Nadia (2022): This is an adult game with many explicit sex scenes, so don't look it up if you're not into that. There are environment and inventory puzzles so technically it could be classified as an adventure game. Think of it like a harem porn version of Tomb Raider. I liked the game at first, but I think it suffers from an issue a lot of adult games suffer from where they are funded through Patreons and they update regularly with new chapters to show off new sex scenes, but then the plot becomes a convoluted mess. I'm glad I finished it, but I don't think the writing is strong enough for me to want to play anymore games from the developer. Recommended with some big caveats
   
5. The Drifter (2025): I don't have much more to add beyond what has been said by many others at this point. My only real complaint is that I didn't enjoy the fast pace as much as everyone else seemed to since I ended up enjoying the more slower paced section in the lab the best. I liked being able to take my time appreciating everything that was going on instead of feeling rushed to complete a puzzle section to avoid dying. Overall though, it deserves all the praise it has received and Powerhoof are great developers and I hope they have time to put out another chapter in The Telwynium this year. Highly recommended
   
6. Eternum 0.9 (2026): Eternum is an ongoing free sci-fi adult visual novel and the latest chapter released last month. There's a reason this is the top rated game on itch.io and it's not just because of the sex scenes. The writing, plot and characters are all top notch. Yes, it's still a harem game at heart, but to me it's the humor and sense of adventure in the non-sex parts that won me over. I know a lot of people have no interest in these types of games, but to me the fact that the game is unfinished is the only thing preventing me from putting this up in the top tier of visual novels and maybe even top tier of video games. Highest recommendation (for people open to visual novels with adult content)
   
7. Life is Strange: Double Exposure (2024): I put off playing this game due to the initial negative reaction and tried to set my expectations accordingly. So I was pleasantly surprised with how much I was enjoying the start to the game with Safi being an interesting new character and the new mechanic showing potential for interesting puzzles. However, the game really went off the rails in that last chapter and ending up leaving a bad taste in my mouth. And now with Reunion coming out next month, it looks like they made the Chloe ending canon. I don't have a lot of faith that Deck Nine will be able to turn things around. Not recommended
   

Played through the remake of Black sect 2 that I learned from kamineko in the forum. It has Amstrad style graphics and reminded of my childhood (I used to have an Amstrad 6128 with green monitor). A challenging at times relatively short game, I must say really impressive for its time (and an Amstrad originally exclusive) and the remake kept it dead end free. A couple of pixel huntings downgraded the experience but it was nice. I remember lots of 8-bit exclusive graphic adventures for the Spectrum and the Amstrad Computers. Especially Amstrad which was really popular in France and had a lot of French only releases (like Black sect 2). I wonder what else I can play through emulation, remakes and fan translations today. I will research a bit

I just finished TR-49 by Inkle Studios. Wrote a blog post about it:
https://the-point-n-clicker.blogspot.com...tr-49.html

It's been a while since I wrote here. I finished Shadows of the Afterland and The Dark Rites of Arkham. The first had really interesting art with a nice use of colors and crisp animations. Story was original with a very satisfying conclusion. Although it was really short and the gameplay extremely linear and simple (expect a couple of hours) so it felt a bit flat. Dark Rites on the other hand is an investigative game with progression akin to games like Kathy Rain or The case of Serrated Scalpel, so it has a much bigger length. Areas on the map gradually open to the players after gathering information and solving puzzles. Speaking of puzzles, I found the puzzle design to be weak. For the most part the puzzles were formulaic and forced, not really tied to the story, only existing to artificially hinder your way. There were really simplistic and not interesting enough to be engaging. The pixel graphics were impressive and moody, with characters, monsters and  backgrounds being eerie and creepy. Story progression was interesting and I didn't mind the absence of speech with occasionally some uneven info dumps, especially in the start. Conclusion on this felt kind of abrupt and anticlimactic. Now I am playing and enjoying the new Gobliins game