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Lil Gator Game (Switch): COMPLETED!

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Imagine a game where a little alligator plays at being Link with his big sister. Only she’s grown up and busy with college and so doesn’t want to play any more. So Lil Gator’s (ever increasing group of) friends decide to help them by turning an island into a make-believe World of Zelda complete with plywood baddies and quests and powerups and a glider.

Lil Gator wants to make the game the most awesome game because they think it’ll coax Big Sis out of her studying, and you, as the actual player, wants to play the game Gator and friends are playing because it’s a sweet little kids-roleplay-as-video-game-characters game.

There are references to Zelda game-like tropes such as pointless fetch quests, lots of fun characters to befriend and do quests for, and a load of areas to explore – especially if you’re going for “killing” all the baddies and helping all the friends. And you can glide and slide and climb like Link does in Breath of the Wild.

It’s short, there’s no peril, but Lil Gator Game is really cute and funny and really feels like the sort of make-believe world kids would play in.

Little Inferno (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

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Is this the third platform I’ve played and 100%ed this on now? Probably. It’s still great. I suppose I’d not realised before but Little Inferno is really “just” a simple clicker game. You buy things to make money (by, er, burning them), with which to buy more things. Which you then also burn.

There’s a checklist of combinations of two or three things to burn together for extra kudos, and a story about the world getting colder all the time, but it’s just the silly but relaxing nature of Burning All The Things which keeps me coming back to it. That and the music. Little Inferno just for me!

Pokémon Scarlet (Switch): COMPLETED!

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Well, completed insofar as the story is done. Actually, there are four stories – three “paths” to take, then a final story available once you’ve done all those.

As with other recent Pokémon games, getting to the “end”, beating the Elite Four, then completing the story and defeating the final “boss” was all very, very easy. Yes, you need suitable Pokémon for each part, and yes, they need to be sufficiently levelled, but I was totally overpowered by the time I’d done 5 or 6 gyms and was a laughable 15 levels higher than every opponent for the rest of the game.

With that done, though, I realised that I was closer to completing my Pokédex than I’d ever been in any other mainstream game in the series, so I think, for the first time (Arceus doesn’t count!) I might actually try to catch ’em all. I’ve about 50 left at the moment, with around half (I think) easily obtainable from just evolving other Pokémon I have already, and most of the rest available from my daughter’s copy of Violet.

Later Alligator (Switch): COMPLETED!

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Alligator New York, the setting for this game, is like Real New York only everyone is an alligator instead of a human being. If I were an alligator, I’d probably struggle to wear human clothes, drive human cars, and use human tools, but apparently instead of alligator things, human things work just fine. And alligators can have moustaches and hair? Of course.

As a mysterious alligator, decked out in a 1920s Speakeasy-going suit, you’re convinced by paranoid young alligator Pat to discover What is Going Down later on. He’s pretty sure The Family are going to Take Care Of Him, so the game is for you to talk to all the alligators, most of which appear to be related to Pat, and figure out what really is happening that evening.

It’s bloody obvious about five seconds into the game, but still. It’s about the journey!

Interacting with many of the quirky relatives triggers a mini-game of some sort, which, if completed, makes them reveal some more about what The Event is. These games are generally standard mini-game faire – a slide puzzle, Towers of Pancakes/Hanoi, a UFO catcher, matching pairs, etc. but they’re nicely presented and some have unusual rules. The pancakes, for example, are on a toy train’s carriages, which drives around a track while you try and move them.

It’s not a tricky, or especially long game, but it is very funny and you really want to talk to all the bizarre characters as you play. There’s a great art and animation style, and the music is excellent – especially the alligator who plays the guitar (although the music is actually brass!). There’s also scope to replay, as time passes in the game and you don’t get a chance to visit everyone or everywhere.

A silly little game, but well worth playing if you like point and click adventures, silly little games, or alligators.

A Building Full of Cats (Switch): COMPLETED!

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This is a little “find the hidden cats” game. You literally just have to click on all of the cats, of which there are about 300, and then you “win”.

Some are hidden in drawers or behind curtains. A few move and have to be found several times. Some blend in with the wallpaper, some don’t actually look much like cats, and some are tiny.

But it’s a nice, quiet little game and passes the time, and sometimes, that’s fine.