168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Blue Prince has rocked up out of nowhere and blown 2025’s Game of the Year discussion wide open. It’s the hit indie game everyone’s talking about, even though there was very little buzz prior to its release. Almost exactly one year on from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Animal Well’s launch, the hype around Blue Prince, and how it has escalated out of nowhere, reminds me a lot of Shared Memory’s breakout hit, but that’s not the only comparison to be draw🔯n between the two.
It’s a good place to start, though. Unless you worked on Blue Prince or received a review copy, you probably weren’t thinking about it much. However, it was that pre-launch buzz from those who were playing, combined with the confirmation it would be coming to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:PlayStation Plus day one, that put Blue Prince on my radar.
Blue Prince also launched day one on 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Game Pass, but that was not the case for Animal Well.
Since it would be on PS Plus, and the hype was building, I figured I’d check it out. It was the sa🦩me thought process I went through ahead of Animal Well’s release. Worst case scenario, I play it for a few hours and I don’t like it. That was not the case with Animal Well. It quickly became all I wanted to p🦋lay whenever I had time, and all I could think about when I didn’t. I am now experiencing that all over again thanks to Blue Prince.
An Indie By A Small Team That Makes Me Feel Equal Parts Frustrated And Smart
I've Played This Game Before
So many people trying it out and then raving about it despite a lack of hype pre-launch is only part of the reason Blue Prince and Animal Well feel so similar. It’s the game itself that has had me reminiscing about my time with Animal Well, remindiജng me why it was one of the best games of 2024.
Both are indie puzzlers made by very small teams, and although they look entirely different and have very different gameplay mechanics, each has been designed to look simple but is actually incredibly complex. Even when describing them, they sound like so much less than they are. Animal Well is a 2D pixel game in which you seek o﷽ut items to make it deeper into the game and unlock new areas, while Blue Prince is a puzzle game where you move from room to room, deciding which type of room to draft every time you open a new door.
Like I said, both very simple premises when stripped down t🍸o their base components, but incredibly complex when you begin to scratch the surface. It’s figuring out how each of those items can be used in very specific ways that makes Animal Well so challenging. As for Blue Prince, working out how those rooms must be combined to💟 reach the elusive Room 46 gives it more layers than you could possibly imagine. I wish I could say more, but I don't want to spoil anything.
I refuse to believe anyone discovered you can ride on the An🤪imal Well frisbee on purpose. Everyone stumbled on that discovery entirely by accident.
The way each game makes me feelಞ, both good and bad, adds to why they’re so similar. Countless times playing Animal Well, I would leave the game in frustration, completely lost as to what to do next. I’ve had the same feeling multiple times playing Blue Prince, usually at the end of a fruitless in-game day. With both games though, my cogs keep turning in the background. Even when I’m not playing, something will click, and I’ll rush back to test out what I ♛think I might have figured out. Or, in Blue Prince’s case, to go on another run after figuring out the meaningless number I found 20 in-game days ago now fits somewhere I only just stumbled upon.
You Can't Recommend These Games To Others With Words Alone
You Need To Show Them
The simplistic description/complex gameplay balance also makes both Blue Prince and Animal Well incredibly difficult to recommend. In both cases, the only way I have been able to sell the games to others is by showing them. I’d watch my wife’s eyes glaze over as I talked at her about Blue Prince, but two days ago, she was in the room as I played, and I saw something click. She’s now pla🌞ying it herself and becoming just as obsessed as I am.
She’s also asking me questions and I’m refusing to answer. She ne🔜eds to figure out how to get the lights back on in the Dark Room by herself, just like everybody else.
Just like Animal Well, while everyone is raving about Blue Prince right now, some so much that the puzzler is being labeled a Game of the Year contender, I can see it dropping off slightly come voting time. Especially when you consider some of the games still to come in 2025. When picking the best game you’ve played this year, the triple-A blockbusters launching throughout the summer and into the fall will be the ones on everyone’s mind. Blue Prince will be there, for sure, but probably in the middle of the pack rather than standing shoulder to shoulder with the likes of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mario Kart World and GTA 6.
I’ve saved the biggest similarity of all between Animal Well and Blue Prince for last, and that’s what happens once the game is “complete”. I haven’t hit Blue Prince’s credits yet, but⭕ I have been reliably informed I will be far from done with the game even after I have found Room 46. If so, it really will win 2025’s Animal Well crown. Animal Well is also a game loaded with secrets, many of which are kept hidden until after you’ve beaten its final boss. If you left the game there, you really should go back and play some more. Not before you’ve played a lot more Blue Prince, though.
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168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Blue Prince
Systems
- Top Critic Avg: 89/100 Critics Rec: 96%
- Released
- April 10, 2025
- ESRB
- E For E🌠veryone // Alcohol Reference
- Developer(s)
- Dogubomb
- Publisher(s)
- Raw Fury
- Engine
- Unity
-
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168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Animal Well
Systems
5.0/5- Top Critic Avg: 89/100 Critics Rec: 98%
- Released
- May 9, 2024
- ESRB
- E▨ For Everyone Due To Mild Fantasy Vio൩lence
- Developer(s)
- 𒆙 Shared Memory
- Publisher(s)
- Bigmode
- Engine
- Proprietary Engine
Shared Memory's Animal Well is a Metroidvania with exploration, puzzles, and platforming. Billy Basso's game takes place in a dense labyrinth filled with animals.
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