Semantic Nonsence: Keep Calm and Carrion

Carrion review

I get to call this one a review rather than an impression because I actually finished it first. I also get to do it in short form instead of its own post because it came out a year-and-a-half ago.

Carrion is a game in which you play as an alien(?) biological monstrosity that escaped containment and must Metroidvania its way across a facility, absorbing new skills from other biological samples in order to escape into the world.

While the premise reminded me of Inside (in practice it feels more like the The Swapper), it’s much, much more colorful. What with the player character being viscera incarnate and all. This game wouldn’t be out of place on Angela’s stream.

Movement takes some getting used to, as you’re not so much platforming as you are sludging around walls, floors and ceilings. It also takes a little while to gte the hang of swinging your tendrils around purposefully. But once you catch on, it’s a delight to grab enemies and slam them around the room until they become still. In a nice game design touch, dispatched foes don’t leave behind health pickups; instead, you drag their bodies toward your mouth to recharge.

The game isn’t very long; I was able to 100% it in about 6 hours. There are a few tricky puzzles and tough combat sections along the way that might take you a bit to work through. However, the real time killer would be the rather disorientingly designed map. You encounter each sub-area through a one-way entrance and work your way toward an exit that connects back to a hub world you don’t quite realize you’re in until the very end.

For me, the game was well worth playing to completion, but there’s not a lot of content to be had here. Rent it for Switch on Gamefly, or pick it up on sale.

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Gingerbread Cookie Kit Kat review

Tis the season to eat Kit Kats.

While I’m still very bitter that the traditional Mint Kit Kat is still as dead as Marley, at least Hershey could be bothered to come out with a new Christmas flavor this year instead of passing off the Mint/Dark Duo.

The Gingerbread Kit Kat has a strong and accurate flavor throughout. While I normally dock the grade of a Kit Kat that doesn’t differentiate between the flavor of its wafer and its coating, there was really only one flavor to use here. No foul.

That said, the confection had a richness to it unbecoming of ginger. While the flavor was solid, there is an added sweetness that is simply cranked to high. That’s or I’ve eaten enough of these to become pre-diabetic.