1. ACA NeoGeo: Cyber-Lip (Switch eShop)
2. Pengo (Atari 2600)
3. Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii)
4. Knights of Xentar (PC)
5. Hoshi o Sagashite... (Mark III)
6. Dead Zone (Famicom Disk System)
7. Samurai Sword (Famicom Disk System)
8. High School! Kimengumi (Mark III)
9. Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom (NES)
10. Sindbad Mystery (SG-1000)
11. Steins;Gate (Vita)
12. Champion Boxing (SG-1000)
13. Squidlit (Switch eShop)
14. Skyblazer (SNES)
15. Tokyo Dark: Remembrance (Switch eShop)
16. Bubble Bobble (Famicom Disk System)
17. Steins;Gate Elite (Switch)
18. Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Joe and Mac Returns (Switch eShop)
19. Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Express Raider (Switch eShop)
20. Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle (Genesis)
21. Sword of Vermilion (Genesis)
22. Steins;Gate: My Darling's Embrace (Switch eShop)
23. Oink! (Atari 2600)
24. Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa (Famicom Disk System)
25. Super Castlevania IV (SNES)
26. Phantasy Star Online (Dreamcast)
27. Chaos;Child (Vita)
Let's get one thing out of the way. Chaos;Child is not Steins;Gate. It may share the same developer. It may (loosely) be a member of the same series. It may even share the same stupid semicolon. But while Steins;Gate was a taut thriller, an absolute nail-biter of an adventure, Chaos;Child is an abject mess: confusing, seemingly contradictory, comically overlong, and utterly bizarre in terms of both plot and designs. It's also quite good, in spite of itself.
Chaos;Child was originally released in 2014 on the Xbox One, of all places, as part of the Science Adventure series. It was subsequently (heavily) ported, with some releases hitting the West (this particular Vita version arrived in 2017). While the game contains some cutesy passing references to Steins;Gate, Chaos;Child is more importantly a continuation of the story told by Chaos;Head, the first Science Adventure title. This presents a small conundrum because, as of this writing, Chaos;Head has not been officially localized or released outside of Japan. That said, Chaos;Child contains an entirely new cast of characters. And while the writing does acknowledge the events of Chaos;Head, Chaos;Child manages to work as a standalone experience.
This visual novel blends two genres that all VN fanatics have become accustomed to: mystery and horror. Set in 2015 in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, a series of inexplicable murders are occurring, the bodies all staged in disturbingly elaborate fashions. The murders appear to be emulating, and even share dates with, another string of killings committed six years prior, which occurred around the same time an earthquake leveled Shibuya and left a generation of young people destitute and alienated. The "new" murders -- soon dubbed the "Return of the New Generation Madness" -- are accompanied by groups of grotesque two-faced "Sumo Stickers" left on-scene. Detectives are on the case, naturally, though the game's protagonist is one Takuru Miyashiro, head of his school's newspaper club and one of many "Chaos Children" whose lives were upended by the aforementioned 2009 earthquake.

The characters are an interesting bunch. Takuru, perhaps the first and only VN protagonist to live in an RV, is a compelling hero. He's the prototypical "channer" type: an internet fiend who's extremely confident in his own breadth of knowledge (literally referring to himself as a "right-sider") but also perpetually unsure of how to speak and act when confronted by any number of real-life social situations. Hellbent on getting to the bottom of the recent killing spree, Takuru's joined by his club pals: his wisecracking buddy Shinji Itou, and an assortment of, you know, "the ladies." This cluster of female characters is reminiscent of those gals from Muv-Luv, with ludicrous unnatural hair colors/styles and somewhat "trope-y" personalities: the "big sister" girl, the gaming/otaku girl, the spacey airhead girl, the hyperactive girl with the little fang tooth. All are adorable and uniquely charming (Arimura Hinae is "best girl" by the way). The additional side characters are, for the most part, rather intriguing. One of the detectives is actually a middle-aged woman, which is a refreshing change of pace.
Production values are extraordinarily high. The backgrounds are gorgeous, with the artists delivering one grimy blood-soaked scenario after another. Character art is colorful and well-composed, if not a little generic when stacked up against the likes of Steins;Gate. There's an abundance of unique "stills" to uncover, as well as some very brief animated sequences. Voice acting is additionally exemplary. This is especially true of the protagonist, whose perpetual fear and hesitation is palpable. As for the soundtrack, it ventures into dark ambient territory quite often. There are plenty of slow moody pieces to accentuate the game's gradual unraveling, in terms of both story progression and the withering sanity of the protagonist. The OST is also, however, perhaps a touch overindulgent at around fifty or so tracks -- some are only heard once or twice throughout the journey.
As for the story itself, it seems to function best when it's not trying too hard. The overall presentation of Takuru is rather peculiar. He's explicitly said to be "delusional." The game presents him as a bit of an unreliable narrator and, perhaps taking a cue from the likes of Higurashi, occasionally tosses him out the driver's seat in favor of third-person narration or the viewpoint of a compatriot. The core murder mystery is incredibly engrossing. Clues are pieced together slowly, some kept while others discarded in favor of new information. Deaths are gruesome and (fortunately?) shown and described in explicit detail. Some specific scenarios are unbelievably tense, especially those initial "trespassing" incidents where Takuru and his crew take it upon themselves to sneak into a hotel murder scene and sealed hospital ward.
Gameplay is mostly made up of clicking through text, though Takuru's delusions are integrated into the plot as well. At pivotal moments, the player is given the option to activate a "positive" or "negative" delusion for Takuru, or bypass both options to chug along in the realm of reality. "Positive" and "negative" are relative terms here, as all delusions are quite strange. Most positive options involve fan service among the female characters, where they'll spontaneously choose to embrace, kiss, or grab their respective bosoms. The rare positive delusions that don't involve the girls are arguably even more out-there. In one, Takuru proceeds to give a male rival a hoedown ("pantsing" if you're not from my part of the country/world). Negative delusions are comically varied: some are predicated on simple rejection by a female, while others involve alien invasions and homicidal frogs. There's some additional player agency in the form of a map hung in the newspaper club's meeting room. Various photographs and notes must be tacked up and rearranged as the investigation progresses. It's an intriguing way to summarize the case details at various moments, though the whole thing also can manifest as a vaguely annoying "how well were you paying attention?" quiz.

Chaos;Child is fond is twists, which is quite the double-edged sword. The route that leads to the killer is undeniably a winding one. Expect to revise those hypotheses several times throughout. The murderer's "big reveal" is one of the most captivating moments of the whole experience. The very nature of this individual is terrifying on an existential level, and sets the tone for the many hours that follow. It effectively splits the game in two: the mystery and the fallout. There are some peripheral accomplice villains to be unearthed as well, though these are integrated rather poorly, with motives that seem either totally capricious or "nihilistic" in that stereotypical "JRPG final boss" fashion. Many of the game's twists fall flat because (unlike Steins;Gate) they aren't foreshadowed appropriately and don't manage to be integrated into the narrative cleanly. Rather, they often manifest as "gotcha" moments -- what you thought was X was actually Y, mwuahahaha! There's also an emphasis on betrayal: good characters that are really quite bad. These sudden about-faces also rest on a shaky foundation and are often more vexing than convincing.
What's additionally disappointing is the localization. It its core, it's "okay" -- all the character dialogue appears to be translated properly and the game is readable overall. But there are serious drawbacks that can't be ignored. Spelling and spacing errors are too numerous to count. Then there are the specific oddities. For instance, characters are often labeled as "unknown" when first encountered, until their true nature (and name) is deciphered. However, this name acquisition was overlooked in regards to one notable female character, one who has her own character routes and endings, who's simply labeled "unknown" throughout the entire game! Poor kid. The map in the newspaper club room remains untranslated, which is fine until one reaches a specific scene (on one of the peripheral ending routes) where the objective is to identify given neighborhoods properly lest they be stuck with a "bad ending." Most egregious of all: some of the briefest of (voiced) cutscenes have no subtitles, including the one that concludes the game!
While I'm piling on the negativity, it needs to be mentioned that the game often has issues with conversations among the lead characters. They're excessively long, predicated on descriptions of things that could have been shown. In fact, due to the "static" nature of VN graphics, said descriptions often contradict what is displayed onscreen. Like, a girl who's ostensibly sleeping staring at the player with their giant wide open baby blue anime eyes. And, this is very specific, but the characters are rendered breathless and speechless far too often. They sigh, they grunt, they stare at each other blankly, they have entire back-and-forth conversations consisting of nothing but "..." exhalations. Seriously, there needs to be a "..." count taken, there must be hundreds of these.

As with most non-linear visual novels, Chaos;Child offers up a plethora of endings. However, the "ending structure" is downright baffling. A brief pivot to Steins;Gate, as that game did things properly. Steins;Gate features a "true ending" that's the most difficult to achieve. On the way to the true ending, via trial and error, the player is likely to see the additional side endings first. Thus the true ending functions as a final reward that wraps up everything nicely. Standard procedure. Chaos;Child takes a more controversial approach. First, there's the common route. The player is locked into this on their first run. The killer's identity is solved here and there's a grandiose (and rather lovely) "final boss" battle similar to that of Muv-Luv Alternative. Only after this common route is completed can players chase after the heroine routes. These vary in terms of quality, though all help flesh out the motivations of the leading ladies. But it's a jarring experience -- with the common route done and the mystery (mostly) solved, it's like the player is supposed to "forget" about key events as they play through the heroine routes, which naturally start back at square one. The denouement comes in the form of a long-awaited true ending, blessedly isolated as its own standalone chapter. It's quite good, and a bold attempt at metafiction. But the point still stands: the common route ending, seen at hour 25 of 50, is the game's apex -- everything that follows oozes strong "in case you were wondering..." vibes. For the record, the events of the true ending (cryptically) reveal why the writing follows this path, though the plot could have been tweaked ever so slightly for the sake of coherence. As for achieving various endings, this is dependent on which delusions are chosen once the player begins an additional playthrough. There's no way to parse out which delusion choices will lead to which pathways so the advice I dispense is simple: use a walkthrough. Best to avoid those extraneous "bad endings" as well, which are corny and don't contribute to the player's overall progress.
Oddly enough, I've read multiple reviews of Chaos;Child where the reviewer complains about the game at length and then paradoxically rates it highly. Which is exactly what I'm going to do here. The 8/10 is meant to be taken literally. 80% of the game is impressive, while the remaining 20% (an admittedly sizable chunk) could have been excised altogether, or at the very least heavily modified. As a pure "detective" story it succeeds in weaving a hypnotic yarn, replete with an oddly lovable cast of teenage misfits. Whenever the narrative stumbles it, somehow, manages to redeem itself in subsequent scenarios. Anyway, I can't help but shake the feeling that this is all supposed to be an allegory anyway. Much in the same way that Evangelion and Muv-Luv are about "aliens" but are actually about alienation and insecurity, Chaos;Child is actually about isolation, dependence, maladaptive daydreaming, and the hidden chaos that lurks in all of us. And van dwelling. That RV looks awfully cozy.