House House, makers of the delightful Untitled Goose Game and Panic, makers[1] of the fascinating Playdate, have teamed up again to release Big Walk. It's a game where you "hang out and get lost with close friends in a big world." And the trailer makes it look cozy as heck. For most of my gaming life I have been a solo gamer, playing mostly various flavors of (J)RPGs, (Action-)Adventures, and Platformers. Notable exceptions are Rock Band(s)[2], Mario Kart(s)[3], Super Smash Bros.(s)[4], and Final Fantasy XIV Online, all of which I have collectively put thousands of hours into. Those notable exception games are all in the "better with friends" category but none of them are in the "friends required" category. And to be clear, much of my time in those seires was with other people (because I was young once). Final Fantasy XIV Online, an MMORPG, only became attractive once I learned you can play the game almost entirely solo. Big Walk is a "friends required" game. My problem isn't that I don't have friends; it's that I don't have time. Or rather, I don't have the same time my friends have. Finding time to game at all can be quite difficult and complicating it by having to work around a second (or third, or fourth) set of work/family/life schedules when I have an insanely long list of perfectly good solo games in my backlog already is not an exciting proposition. Though it is no less frustrating to feel like I'm missing out. The barrier to entry is relatively low (for anyone who already has hardware and basic gaming skills) at $15 $20, so maybe I'll be able to wrangle a handful of people into giving it a try. And while I'm at it, I should probably write a review of Split Fiction, assuming I ever manage to finish it... "Makers" but not "sellers" because the damn thing is out of stock constantly. Not that I need more gaming hardware. ↩︎ Expert, all instruments. ↩︎ Gold, 150CC, all cups. ↩︎ I was ok. ↩︎