One word: Wow. This might be my favorite game of the year.

Don't let the art style fool you- this ain't Scribblenauts. Patch Quest is a hybrid of lots of things: Twin-stick shooter, bullet hell, roguelike, metroidvania, and collectathon, to name a few. It does all of them well. What you've got here is a run-based expedition system with upgrades that reset after you die, where the grand structure of the map doesn't change between runs, but the contents of the rooms do. As a result, there's a very rewarding feel to exploring, because you permanently uncover parts of the map and can use that info when planning your next run. The map is a real maze, but there are a lot of shortcuts to unlock to make things easier on the next go. In fact, there's a lot of everything to unlock between runs- the meta-progression in this game is huge. You can collect bits of scenery and active objects (Pins) from the world, and every new pin you find gets you experience to unlock new permanent perks for your character. Then, they get sent to your base so you can trick it out however you like. You can also sometimes "plant" pins in rooms out in the world, to give you specific power-ups every time you reach those rooms in future runs.

A main mechanic is capturing monsters and riding them, and the system is really fleshed out. there are dozens of monster types, each with its own special set of skills to unlock. You can capture them permanently as pets, too, and set a few of your favorites to hotkeys to call while you're out questing. Plus, the monsters all have great designs and names.

There are so many different things to discover and collect over the course of the game, and they're all tracked and cataloged for you in a series of nicely-laid-out menus. If you like watching spreadsheets fill up and striving for the last 1% of a full library, you'll have the time of your life.

I just 100-percented the game myself, with about 45 hours of play time. I had a great time for the entire length of it. There's a whole menu full of extra challenges to attempt, and I haven't even begun digging into those. Overall I'm really happy with the game, and it's made all the more incredible by the fact it was made by a solo dev! Can't recommend this one enough.

It is a game you can play with your kid