5/5 (12/11/2024) - The pinnacle of 3D Mario continued. Imagine Super Mario Galaxy with none of the fluff, and firing on all cylinders. Nintendo EAD basically stuffed all of their crazy ideas into one game that focuses on being the most pure 3D Mario experience imaginable. The result is even better than the original. Not sure what else to say, it's a perfect 3D platformer.
4/5 (11/11/2024) - A minimal yet focused Metroidvania with heavy emphasis on exploration and puzzle solving. Animal Well sports a unique retro visual style that juxtaposes simple pixel art with lush and high detailed environments. The lone developer made great use of shaders; watch as animated light sources cast shadows across the player character and the environment, or how translucent streams of water distort objects behind them. Not to mention an included CRT shader that's enabled by default! Animal Well reminds me of Portal in that its bountiful puzzles are so cleverly designed, that you end up feeling smart for solving them.
5/5 (10/04/2024) - Is this the pinnacle of 3D Mario? I'm not sure, but damn is this game good. Platforming is centered around the unique concept of orbital planets. As Mario, you can freely walk on these planets which all have their own gravitation pull, meaning you can walk sideways, upside down, and even jump from one planet's orbit to another. It was a risky idea considering how it can result in confusing input, but somehow the team at Nintendo pulled it off with finesse. The result is possibly the most unique 3D platformer ever made; some levels have you long jumping right off the edge of a planet and being pulled in by the gravitational force of another, before being launched across the map like a missile. Again, Nintendo shows that they're at the top of their craft when it comes to controls and gameplay polish. New mechanics are effortlessly introduced throughout the game, each one good enough that it can be its own video game. The soundtrack, while mostly MIDI, contains some instantly memorable soaring orchestral tracks that you will take to your grave. It's hard to believe that this game is 17 years old at this point -- if it came out today, people would still hail it as a revolutionary 3D platformer.
3/5 (09/24/2024) - Much like the sequel, Sparkster is a frenetic, brutally difficult, and cinematic arcade-like action adventure game. This time, Sparkster's rocket abilities are usable with a single button press instead of having to hold down the attack button, making the game a lot more faster paced. Additionally, Sparkster adds weapon bonuses, a nifty slot machine system, and multiple endings (I was not good enough to unlock the "true" ending, although the difference is minor).
3/5 (09/21/2024) - Very charming Genesis/Megadrive arcade style platformer. The spritework here stands out even if it looks a bit dated. The levels, bosses, and backdrops are all inventive; you can tell the designers were having fun with it. The game is very short (2h) but also brutally difficult.
#Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!
3/5 (09/17/2024) - An overall enjoyable platformer. Does not live up to the same quality as the previous two titles, but scratches the itch if you wanted more after Diddy's Kong Quest. This game does feature an open map that lets you tackle worlds/levels in whatever order you choose. Additionally, there are much more minigames and hidden secrets here than previous games. Bosses are "OK" at best in my opinion -- many are tedious slogs with funky (kong) hit detection. The soundtrack is OK, but doesn't match the grand cinematic or ethereal quality of David Wise compositions.
4/5 (09/02/2024) - A heartfelt story blending themes of existensialism, environmentalism, fate, and duality into an epic action RPG tale with combat that still mostly holds up ~29 years later. The translation is a bit all over the place, with obvious Western colloquialisms here and there, but overall the heavy-hitting emotional moments are still effective. Magic is never explained and is practically useless except for a few spells that provide QoL improvements. A few bosses are downright BS without grinding unfortunately, and this is made more infuriating by the games' funky hitboxes and unforgiving recovery time upon damage. Terranigma also has a series of fun townbuilding sidequests which make sense given this is a Quintet game (of ActRaiser fame). But whatever you do, don't vote for Louis. Sometimes progression can seem a bit obtuse, which was not rare in this era of Nintendo Power and exchanging tips with school friends. Overall, I really liked this game -- there are several tender moments that are rare to see in games even today, and the gameplay, while flawed, is still solid. Fantastic spritework and sprite animation, and a killer soundtrack also help carry the whole experience. I recommend Terranigma if you are at all interested in RPGs of this era.
4/5 (08/11/2024) - Bit of a weird one to rate and that would probably be of no surprise to Earthbound/Mother fans. This is another one of those "you had to be there" kind of games from what I can tell. In some ways, Earthbound is the first "post-modern" RPG, not in the sense that it has anything to do with the social/artistic movement of modernism, but in that it defied the constructs of both RPGs and videogames, and many conventions that gamers had come to expect to be omnipresent are turned on their heads here. Often it's for the sake of making fun of the medium. But even more often, Earthbound wants to make fun of you. But not in an irreverent or snideful kinda way; because Earthbound is also 100% sincere in its themes of friendship and banding together with weirdos or eccentric people to stop a malevolent metaphysical force that threatens existence. I think the designers just want the player to always be aware that they are playing a videogame (which makes sense given all the 4th wall breaks) -- immersion is not really important. After saying all of this, it may surprise you to find out Earthbound is a Dragon Quest-like turn-based RPG. Its most unique feature that's worth replicating in traditional videogames is probably it's rolling health meter which brings about a sense of urgency and timing strategies not usually seen in turn-based RPGs. But anyways, it's extremely charming. The writing is laugh-out-loud funny at times, the cast is lovalable and distinct, the visuals range from basic to psychedelic, and the soundtrack is top 10 on SNES. Before you play the hundreds of games that were influenced by or ripped off Earthbound (like the awful YIIK: Postmodern RPG or w/e it's called), just play this first. P.S. I highly recommend the Maternalbound Redux for balancing fixes, uncensoring, and the infinitely valuable RUN button.
5/5 (06/09/2024) - One of the most imaginative games I've ever played. Each world is a theme park filled to the brim with interesting platformer puzzle sections, challenges, and hidden rewards. The visuals, while a little held back by the Switch's hardware, are fluid, colorful, detailed, and lovingly animated. The soundtrack here is fully orchestrated and varied enough that it never gets uninteresting -- the game even includes a built-in music player so you can listen to whatever track you want no matter what level you're on (highly recommend the Forgotten Isle track; it has an odd time signature!). While Mario can be a little slippery at times, the controls are otherwise watertight, and coupled with Mario's new abilities, they give 3D Mario some of the most dynamic and creative platforming you can think of in a video game. Remember what Breath of the Wild did for open-world games? Odyssey does that for 3D platforming. This game also features tons of nostalgic fan-service that is never overbearing, and often sentimental. But anyways, I can go on and on. This game is near-perfect, amazingly well balanced, has an incredibly high skill ceiling while being welcoming to newcomers as well, and just chock full of GOOD content etc etc. You ever play a game that is clearly unfinished and half-assed? Think Ubisoft trash, or over-hyped early access shit; well, this game is the exact opposite of that. It's a masterwork of the craft. Go play it.
4/5 (03/07/2024) - The closest I'll ever get to being an actual time detective. And also 19th century insurance inspector for the East India Trading Company. Another game by Papers Please creator, Lucas Pope, Obra Dinn is essentially one game-long deduction puzzle wherein you must discover what happened to everyone aboard the ill-fated Obra Dinn. You do this using a magical pocketwatch that, when used on the remains of the deceased, will trigger a flashback to the moment they died. As you go along finding more bodies, it's your job as the inspector to deduce and record who is who, and how they died. The meat of the game is carefully dissecting these moments frozen in time, looking for clues that will aid in revealing identities of the parties involved. Sometimes you can do this by association and accents (some crewmembers are Russian, others Chinese or English), by affiliation, process of elimination, or simply guesswork. Eitherway, the game is incredibly engaging and I had a great time going back and reviewing events multiple times to see if I had missed anything. If there's anything bad I can say about Obra Dinn it's: having to physically walk up and down floors to re-watch events is very tedious; there are a few very deliberately placed red herrings; the ending is a bit of a let down, and I wish some of the motives were more fleshed out.
3/5 (02/03/2024) - A pretty good open-world adventure game that gives fans the Spider-Man game they've always wanted. By now you've heard how much fun it is to swing around the city in this game -- indeed, it's pretty fluid and amazing how good of a job Insomniac did in making traversal enjoyable in this game. Combat is similar to the Arkham games, although much more interesting thanks to the gadgets which remind me a lot of Insomniac's other games with weapon wheels like Ratchet & Clank or Resistance. The story is decent and features several classic Spider-Man villains like Doc Ock, Electro, Hammerhead, etc. Some great acting chops on the mocap and voice actor of Doc Ock. While this game does a lot of things right, it unfortunately is not greater than the sum of its parts. Too many missions are tiring "beat-up-50-baddies" setups bookended by cutscenes. The MJ levels that are supposed to provide a reprieve from the constant button mashing end up being entirely boring. The detective missions that have Spider-Man following an invisible trail are also a drag. The collectathons and endless copy-pasted missions are also not interesting enough to incentivize the player to do. Overall though, this was a good experience and an extremely polished game.
4/5 (10/08/2023) - Metroid Prime, but more refined. In almost every technical aspect, this is better than the original. The visuals have aged incredibly well. Environments are impeccably designed with little details scattered throughout. Retro also liberally used bump maps throughout, which normally look like crap after being scaled to high def resolutions, but actually look pretty tasteful here (running on Dolphin at 1080p). Sound design and soundtrack as usual are fantastic; the main theme is probably the best theme on the GameCube. Prime 2's biggest weakness is, again, the backtracking. Somehow it is worse in this one than the original due to the dark/light world mechanic. Get ready to see the unskippable cutscene of Samus transporting herself to the dark/light world at least a hundred times (which I understand on GC, this was a hidden loading screen). Hunting for the Sky Temple keys was probably the biggest F.U. to everyone who ever complained about backtracking.
4/5 - The first time I saw Cuphead, I was like "ok this just looks like a bog standard 2D run n gun like megaman or one of the million that released on Super Nintendo 30 years ago". And to some degree, that is true. Gameplay wise, Cuphead isn't anything special. What makes Cuphead so special is its fine tuned difficulty. And of course the visuals. But mostly, Cuphead is a lesson in boss design. The game is certainly beatable by the average video gamer, even if it seems impossible at times.
0/5 (08/07/2023) - I don't know where to start. This is one of the worst games I have ever played. I've played plenty of technically incompetent games that were bad, but Borderlands 3 is more offensive because it is actually technically competent and it was clearly very expensive to produce. It feels like a game designed by committee. It completely fails at being engaging, the script very well could have been written by ChatGPT with a prompt like "write me a video game that appeals to millenials", the gameplay is braindead tedium, every firefight has zero stakes, guns are boring to shoot, 99% of items are useless, quests are the same dumb "kill 3 goons" that were boring in 2004 when you first played them in WoW, none of the characters are likeable, and the visuals somehow look like a late generation PS3 game.
4/5 (06/12/2023) - When this remake was announced, my first reaction was "that game doesn't need a remake." I still stand by that. But is this remake actually good? The answer is, yes. Is it better than the original? Absolutely not, but, it doesn't matter because this is an entirely different game, so playing one does not equate playing the other. RE4 Remake is more deliberately paced, with a greater focus on realism, a less comic tone, and weightier combat. Most of the silliness of the original is absent here (no laser dodge sequence, no Indiana Jones boulder chase, Salazar is notably more muted), although Leon still has a few cheesy quips and the merchant is as charming as the original. Combat has been rebalanced to be more of a tug-of-war; your knife can be used to parry, but now it breaks; melee is not as exploitable, and ammo is now scarce, but you can collect resources to craft items/ammo. The end result is a game that feels significantly more survival-horror than the original. Visually, Capcom is at the top of their game here. The voice cast is all stellar with the exception of Saddler and Ada's unfortunate recast.
4/5 (05/20/2023) - GameCube's flagship "first-person adventure", this was the Metroid's series first foray into the 3rd dimension. Against all odds, a small studio in Austin, Texas pulled off the first translation of a Metroidvania to 3D, and they boldly chose to make it in first-person. Anyways, it paid off. Exploring Tallon IV in 2023 is still one of the more atmospheric things you can do in a videogame. I played this via Primehack, and the game is vastly improved by mouse+keyboard controls. Still, lock-on is essential for dodging and also focusing in on impossibly tiny enemies. The graphics somehow still hold up even after 21 years, a testament to good art design and the technical skill of the folks at Retro Studios (and also to the Unreal Engine 2). I subtract one point for the backtracking which gets tiring quickly. Also, don't play on Hard/Hypermode, it's just tedious.
4/5 (05/11/2023) - The legendary and slightly overhyped JRPG that set the standard (along with FFVI) for enormous, character driven role-playing adventures. I think Chrono Trigger is a very "you had to be there" kind of game. Regardless, it has aged like fine wine, and introduced or refined a lot of concepts that we now take for granted in modern RPGs. Side quests, multiple endings, lack of random encounters, active time based combat, and an unheard of time travel mechanic. The latter of which makes for some clever quest design, and also gives way to some very emotional moments (which one of us can truly say they wouldn't want to change something in the past?). All of the characters are diverse and lovable, and have their own dedicated side-quests as well that develops them further. I'm giving this game a 4, but it can easily be a 5 with another playthrough. Stop reading this and give it a shot. By the way, the soundtrack is top 5 on the SNES.
5/5 (02/10/2023) - An ambitious modern indie survival horror game and one of the best survival horror games to be released in the past decade, with its only true rivals being Capcom/Shinji Mikami titles. SIGNALIS combines the best parts of Silent Hill and Resident Evil to create a tense and often unforgiving gameplay loop of resource management, exploration, and puzzle solving. Some of the best puzzles I've seen in a game, survival horror or not. The soundtrack is a top-notch Yamaoka-inspired ambient landscape with a harsh cyberpunk edge. The visuals are a fifth-generation throw back, complete with jaggies and an optional CRT mode; however, it never looks dated, and the developer did an amazing job of applying post-procesing and lighting effects to seemingly 2D objects. Story-wise, SIGNALIS is known for being a mind-melting existentialist thriller/love story. Sometimes the writing comes off as a bit heavy-handed, but there's enough rich world building, intrigue, and heart in all the ambiguity to keep it compelling for the entire playthrough (which is meaty at over 10 hours).
3/5(11/23/2022) - Miniature Metroidvania for Gameboy Advance. Overall, a solid game. Imagine minimal Syphony of the Night with far less loot and no equippable items. Most of the magic in this game is in the form of "DSS" Cards, which are cards that are randomly dropped. Combining two cards allows for a variety of abilities that consume MP. The map design in CotM is very basic, and the bosses range from easy to straight up bullshit. (Un)fortunately, bosses are easy to cheese, especially with summons. Potion droprate is hilariously low -- prepare to grind for MP potions.
4/5(06/24/2022) - A Contra clone, but a good one. An amazing imitation of a 16-bit era game, with tight controls, awesome character and enemy design, and challenging but fair difficulty.
4/5(03/05/2022) - While a dramatic improvement upon RE7, admittedly, Village does strip back the survival horror elements a tad and reverts to a more action-oriented gameplay loop. Ironically, RE7 was seen as a return to roots for the franchise, and here we are doing a return to roots of RE4-era Resident Evil. That is to say, there are still strong hints and stretches of survival horror gameplay (think scarce ammo, one-shot enemies, creepy corridors, puzzle-solving, haunting ambiance, etc) but a bulk of the time is spent crafting and shooting at hordes of enemies. Speaking of, enemy variety is much more improved from 7, and certainly more creative (no spoilers). The Duke is a goofier version of the merchant of RE4. Production-wise, it's hard to say RE has ever looked this good; character models border on photorealistic without entering uncanny valley, and the audio design rivals the best parts of REmake.
3/5(02/14/2022) - Resident Evil gets a first-person horror makeover, and it mostly works, but has plenty of hinderances that hold it back. To start, RE7 gives in to many of the survival horror tropes that became popular during the 2010s -- annoyingly dark camera, scripted first-person sequences, plenty of post-processing effects including the cliche VHS camera treatment, and to top it off, an awfully monotone color palette. I haven't seen a game this brown since PS3. Bosses have interesting designs, but often end in long scripted sequences. Enemy variety is also virtually non-existent. On a positive note, the RE formula was actually very well translated to the change in perspective. The areas are mostly open and free to explore. Hidden items are everywhere and are actually possible to find using some in-game powerups. Voice acting and character animation are solid throughout, although the dialogue is at times non-sensical, and the plot is reduced to "evil demon child" by the game's midpoint. Also, Zoe's accent is terrible. RE7 also rides this strange uncanny line between highly reaslitic and cartoony, and this is made even more apparent in the DLC (wherein you can PUNCH enemies to hell, which, btw, is a lot of fun).
5/5(01/21/2022) - A near-perfect re-imagining of the original while maintaining truly faithful survival horror gameplay. One criticism I do have is to allow players to use typewriters for saving on difficulties lower than Hardcore. Even then, I highly recommend playing this game on Hardcore mode for a more authentic experience. Visuals, voice-acting, and sound are some of the best I've seen in a video game to date.
2/5(01/08/2022) - Dreamcast-era Resident Evil. Impressive visuals (for the time) that finally bring true SEGA arcade-quality graphics to the RE series. Code Veronica is the first RE game to feature fully 3D-rendered environments. While I'm a big fan of the beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds of previous titles, I think the dynamic camera is definitely an improvement. This is the final Resident Evil game to feature pure, tank-controls RE gameplay. After CV, the series becomes even more action oriented. Still a few jumpscares here and there; environments are varied enough to not make backtracking too awful. Like RE3, one of the more average of the series. Bosses are almost non-existent and the ones that are there are boring.
3/5(11/28/2021) - One of the more average games in the franchise. The most noteworthy additions to the formula are the branching paths (although they are pretty superficial) and the dodge mechanic (which is often unreliable). Nemesis creates an interesting and nerve-wracking dynamic because he is the first RE enemy that can follow you past zones. Content-wise, this game is slim. The sections with Carlos were far too short and samey. Overall -- play it if you're really dying for some more RE action.
2/5(10/09/2021) - A survival horror game with PS2-era survival horror controls and quirks. Controls are floaty and imprecise; Henry often slides or turns awkwardly, and the auto lockon frequently has you pointing in unintended directions. Most of the items/weapons are completely useless -- in fact, the best way to play this game is to completely avoid all combat despite the designers regularly packing corridors with hordes of enemies. Aside from the garbage combat, Silent Hill 4 has some real nice visuals that have aged quite well. Some stunning art direction and genuinely spooky imagery. Sound design as usual for this series is impeccable (aside from some of the goofy enemy grunts). The unique premise of a man trapped inside his apartment gives way for one of the more interesting plots in a Silent Hill game.
3/5 - A difficult game to rate -- Anodyne 2 shares a lot of the same mediocrity and tedium of its predecessor, but I can't help but be impressed by the final product. Whether or not you enjoy this game depends on how much you like the vibe. Overall, gameplay rarely ever exceeds "OK". Too many of the puzzles are far too easy, too many of the (2D) levels are not fun to explore, too much of the dialogue is a slog to read and too much of the humor falls flat. However, its art direction is entirely captivating; the 3D environments, while mostly empty, are interesting to explore. The soundtrack is one of the best ever seen in an indie game, with its brand of ambient/electronic/field recordings complementing the levels of the game perfectly. When it comes to atmosphere, Anodyne does an amazing job, and as weird as it sounds, I'm going to miss inhabiting its world.
2/5 - A short, cute self-described "Zelda-lite". Both in looks and gameplay does Anodyne feel like a GB-era Zelda game, probably most similar to Link's Awakening, but with less combats & items. Gameplay centers around dungeon exploration, puzzle solving, and platforming. Anodyne leans a little too heavily on the platforming which is mediocre to awful, with weird collision detections between the player and enemies/hazards. Overall a decent, if unrefined experience. Music is great though, sounding much like Harry Hosono's early ambient work.
3/5 - Overall a pretty great modern Metroidvania (especially for the price) that makes obvious nods to the Souls-likes and roguelites of the modern era, while remaining refreshingly original artistically. Where Hollow Knight falters is in a few areas where its clear the devs made deliberate design decisions. Hollow Knight is, when it comes to Metroidvanias, remarkably simple; even compared to Super Metroid, the upgrades you attain are straight-forward, un-flashy, and also much less in quantity. This simplicity negatively affects the introductory hours of the game wherein -- since you still lack many of the upcoming upgrades -- your mobility is severely restricted in a map designed with an egregious amount of environmental hazards... which reset the player's position with a grating fade-to-black transition upon contact. The result was a mind-numbing slog until I finally gathered the dash and wall-hop abilities (cleverly ripped from Megaman X). A few other decisions (the map purchase system, usefulness of charms, funky hitboxes, use of abilities related to combat) had me scratching my head throughout a mostly enjoyable experience.
4/5 - Faithful to the original and just as polished. DKC2 is considerably more difficult than the original, to the point where the hardest parts of DKC1 look like a cakewalk in comparison. Sometimes, the difficulty verges on straight-up BS. Level design is considerably more vertical in this entry, and this is enhanced with the added mobility of Dixie Kong who, while a tad slower than Diddy, has the invaluable glide ability.
3/5 - A solid Sonic entry, and a flawless PC port by Christian Whitehead. More in line with Sonic 1 & 2 than 3 & Knuckles. Has some really impressive animations and sprite work, as well as the best music in any Sonic game.
3/5 - The prequel to Symphony of the Night, Rondo of Blood is the final "classic" Castlevania title before the series ventured into the exploration-focused Metroidvania design. Not to be confused with Dracula X, Rondo of Blood is very similar to Super Castlevania IV although with a few notable improvements and extra features, including multiple playable characters, branching paths that lead to unlockable levels, and fully animated cutscenes. Maria is much more fun to play and less rigid than Richter, although that comes at the cost of making the game a bit too easy at times.
4/5 - An imperfect classic, I can clearly see how many of SOTN's flaws were overlooked on release and for years following its release. It is one of the most influential games of all time, and is far more ambitious than most of its contemporaries. Some of the best spritework I've ever seen.
3/5 - Unparalleled atmosphere meets antiquated platforming. Castlevania 4 suffers from a lot of the same platforming woes of other games of its era; in an age where Super Mario Bros. is the single most popular game of all time, how could you not have platforming in your videogame? Although C4 is far less stiff than its predecessors, it can't be denied that the platforming is still clunky. Simon moves as gracefully as a bag of sand. You can't jump while on stairs. You fall directly through stairs. For some reason, inputting left + up will still move you up the stairs even if "up the stairs" means going right. Putting all of this aside, Castlevania set the bar for action platformers at the time, and its music, visuals, and gothic flair have aged remarkably well.
3/5 - What was supposed to be the second half of Sonic 3 ends up feeling like a collection of cuts that didn't quite make it instead of an equal half. S&K starts out pretty strong, but starts to falter as the game struggles to the finish line. Some bosses are questionable (the first phase of that last boss?) as usual in Sonic games. Knuckles is a great joy to control and makes level traversal far more interesting. My suggestion to newcomers is to just start with the Knuckles campaign.
#Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (Classic Review)
5/5 - The gold standard of tactical role-playing games, and the Matsuno/Sakamoto/Yoshida trifecta in full force -- masterclass art direction, music, and combat design. Branching story paths and multiple endings that are radically different, where team composition and story choices have real and dire consequences. PSP remake highly recommended.
#Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (Classic Review)
5/5 - About as perfect as 2D platformers get, with arguably the best level design seen in a Nintendo game. Everything here is Miyamoto/Tezuka/Kondo at their absolute peak. Plain masterpiece.
2/5 - Fantastic combat and art direction. Frustratingly imprecise and tedious platforming, which unfortunately, makes up for most of this game's challenge. Most of the bosses, while fun, are far too easy (except for that final boss... holy shit). Recommended if you absolutely love punching your TV.
3/5 - A ridiculously fun mod and twist on the original DOOM Engine games. I played most of Ultimate DOOM with the Brutal DOOM mod using GZDoom. While I loved almost all of the new additions, the level design of DOOM 1 has not aged the greatest. Having been designed with aiming restricted to a single axis of motion, most of the levels feel frustratingly flat when compared to modern shooters. Even with auto-aim turned off, I found it surprisingly easy to mow down enemies until their HP levels got comically high in what felt like artificial difficulty hikes. Otherwise, highly recommended.
5/5 - Donkey Kong Country is not a perfect game, but it nears perfection so often, I can't help but heap mountains of praise on it. The pre-rendered sprites have aged remarkably well, due in part to some impeccable character and level design by Rare & co. Despite rumors that Miyamoto was bitter about DKC and Rare's handling of his beloved franchise, the opposite is actually true; Miyamoto played a crucial role in DKC's production and gave his blessings to the British development studio. And you can tell -- Donkey Kong Country is distinctively a Nintendo platformer. The soundtrack by David Wise is also an ambient/synthwave masterpiece.
4/5 - 2D Sonic at its best on the Genesis. The level design guides the player and actually encourages exploration and for the player to slow down. Roller coaster sections are less frustrating and filled with much less cheap deaths & enemy placements. Level transitions are a great addition, and the OST is significantly better than the previous two entries.
3/5 - While it suffers from a lot of the same issues as its predecessor, Sonic 2 is much more accessible, entertaining, and diverse than the original. The levels are much more forgiving and receptive to players who just wanna "go fast." The OST is also significantly improved. A couple of awful levels (Sky Chase Zone) and boring (easy) bosses. Multiplayer is a welcome addition, if not, barebones.
2/5 - Sonic the Hedgehog contradicts itself regularly. Sonic is supposed to go fast, but the screen is so tiny, this results in the player regularly running into spikes or enemies, or a gap where you fall to your death. Fine, Sonic wants me to slow down for some precise platforming. Or maybe not.. because Sonic controls so slippery and the jumping is floaty as all hell. The music is also all over the place. There are probably three good tracks on here, while the rest ranges from forgettable to downright obnoxious. This game has not aged well, to say the least.
4/5 - A story-driven puzzle/adventure detective story that weaves together themes of mystery, poltergeist, time travel, and the love between owners and their pets. Surprisingly heartfelt for a goofy, anime detective story, but about as contrived and convoluted as you'd expect from the director of the Phoenix Wright games. All of the puzzles (with the exception of 2 of them...) are clever and satisfying to solve. The characters are all distinct and likable in their own respects. The ending -- while it certainly threw me for a loop -- made me want to hug my cat.
3/5 - I know I'll be tarred and feathered for this -- I honestly believe this game to be one of the most overrated games of the 16-bit era. I commend Treasure for the spectacle and exhilirating gunplay of Gunstar Heroes, not to mention the fantastic visuals and music. But this game is greatly hindered by a frustrating control scheme, and weird imprecise inputs. The levels are laid out Megaman-style, but vary greatly in difficulty. Some of the boss fights and level checkpoints are just flat out unfair. Better enjoyed with a second player.
4/5 - DOOM is pure video game. Great fun, good challenge, nice visuals, cool music. Some sections are confusingly long-winded, and some of the platforming can feel unnecessary. Otherwise, a perfect revival of a classic.
4/5 - Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a flawed game, but it's a game that wears its flaws on its sleeve. The first chapter can be a slog, and the amount of players in your party affect the experience greatly. Combat, while difficult from the onset, lures you into a false sense of security midway through the game before the difficulty curve spikes in the penultimate chapter to the point where you're wondering if you can even finish the game. So while DOS2 is still a messy, unbalanced, unforgiving Eurogame like its predecessors, its polish, clever gameplay, and sheer ambition make it shine above other modern RPGs.
3/5 - A good follow-up to the influential Mega Man X, albeit, as formulaic as you'd expect from a Mega Man game. What makes X2 more interesting than the original is the addition of the mid-air dash ability, which dramatically changes X's mobility and thus the pace and approach for every boss fight. Highly recommended.
1/5 - While the art and music complement each other nicely, Sayonara Wild Hearts feels like a videogame created by a music video director for the sole purpose of being featured in award show trailers and E3 show reels. It looks and sounds amazing, but at its best plays like an awful REZ ripoff, and at its worst (which makes up for most of the playtime) plays like an on-rails, QTE-laden, endless runner with flimsy rhythm game elements that ultimately don't really matter unless you really want to chase high scores. Perhaps this is a great game to show to friends and family who have passing interest in videogames, only for the fact that it's so flashy and visually appealing.
2/5 - Cool style, cool art, good job mimicking the psychological horror style made popular by games like Silent Hill. I get strong Yuri Norstein vibes. Story is pretty boring and uninteresting. Characters are not fleshed out enough to care about. Overall a decent, short adventure game experience.
2/5 - ABZU is a beautifully stylish visual experience. The gameplay, however, consists solely of opening doors, and it's as boring as it sounds. Character movement only begins to become fun during the last 15 minutes of this 1.5 hour journey.
3/5 - A very fun and short indie platformer/bullet-hell shmup. Bleed 2 continues in the tradition of the original with responsive controls and super fluid & hyperactive gameplay. The story mode can be completed in about an hour. Bleed 2's story mode is forgiving with checkpoints, so I recommend playing on the hardest difficulty. Nice retro graphics and a slick visual style, although with some questionable artistic decisions in regards to character design.
2/5 - Kirby's Adventure is a fantastic platformer that released near the end of the NES's lifecycle. It has great level design, sound design, gameplay, and arguably the best visuals & art design of any game on the NES -- they are so good, that this game still looks great to this day. However, the poor NES could barely handle the sheer amount of enemies and effects going on at once. As a result, if you're playing this on the NES or a cycle-accurate emulator (like Mesen), the game will suffer from horrendous slowdown which in turn causes button inputs to be dropped entirely, making the game massively frustrating at times, to flatout unplayable during the most chaotic sections. Kirby's Adventure was remade in 2002 for the Gameboy Advance as "Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland" without the slowdown or performance issues. While I do prefer the visuals of the original NES game, I'd recommend the GBA remake based on my experience with the original. Or you might better off playing using a romhack or different emulator that solves the input-dropping issues (I used Mesen). If not for these performance issues, this game would be an easy 4/5.
4/5 - An excellent and much needed reimagining of Metroid II in the style of the GBA-era Metroid games (Zero Mission, Fusion). As a fangame, it near perfectly matches the official Nintendo titles in level design, bosses, and audio/visual values.
3/5 - (Co-Op) A third-person shooter/RPG hybrid that is often associated with the "Souls-like" subgenre. I would only call Remnant a souls-like superficially. There are the equivalents of bonfires from Dark Souls/Demon's Souls; boss fights are preluded by fog doors and have multiple phases usually triggered by HP thresholds; you have a refillable health-regen item that you can upgrade with items found in the world. There are other smaller similarities, but otherwise, this game is completely different, with combat that is very standard, generic third-person shooter-fare (without a cover system, which was an odd exclusion in my opinion). Character builds are based on item/weapon bonuses & perks upgraded via "Trait" points. Bosses and environments are nowhere near the quality of Souls games. In particular, there are only 3 environments in this game, 2 of which are painfully underwhelming visually. Campaigns and Adventure modes are semi-procedurally generated with scalable difficulties. There is replay value here, however, this game is meant to be played co-op. Single-player is a bore.
3/5 - (Co-Op) A 2D metroidvania-lite action platformer with a distinct visual style influenced by Southeast Asian mythology. The character abilities are all rather generic for this brand of game, and the enemy variety is severely lacking. This game's primary gimmick is its mix of platforming with the polarity system and bullethell style of gameplay, pretty plainly lifted off Ikaruga. Overall the game is challenging enough to be satisfying, especially with another player. Note that online multiplayer suffers from noticeable input lag.
3/5 - A hack-n-slash/bullet hell boss rush with a French-anime art style that hearkens back to cyberpunk samurai cartoons you maybe watched as a kid. The mixture of parry-centric swordplay with bullet hell works very well and makes for some exhilirating combat. Some of the bosses have a few poorly designed phases, but overall, the game has good focus and delivers what it promises. The acid-house/synthwave electronic music also complements the gameplay fantastically. The writing and "cutscenes" are typical anime dreck.
3/5 - An interesting (and free!) take on interactive horror that pays homage to first person shooters of the early 00s, and the all too common experience of revisiting a once beloved online multiplayer game, only to find that the servers are completely empty. The concept of haunted digital spaces inhabited by some tormented cyber entity is not a new one, but No Players Online does a great job of inspiring player curiosity and meta-commentary of just what this game actually is. "Completing" the game involves taking part in a kind of scavenger hunt ARG for clues, some of which involve downloading a completely different itch.io title to progress, and calling a phone number (that is now inactive, although the prerecorded message is now on Bandcamp).
2/5 - Another RPG Maker cult favorite that is unrelenting in fulfilling its author's vision. A tough one to place; uses the bog standard out-of-the-box RPG Maker turn-based combat, even keeping the included stock sound effects. The game is translated from French, and at times it felt the translator was leaning a little too heavy on a thesaurus (specifically for the Judge character). The visuals are particularly inspired, being highly surreal and carrying with them a street art-like quality that reminds me of the schizophrenic line art and harsh contrasting colors of Jet Grind Radio. Some confusing use of overly compressed public domain art. OFF seems to relish in its own weirdness a little too much at times, and the gameplay and puzzles suffer for it. An interesting exercise in world-building (which is fitting, given the game's plot).
2/5 - A game about swords and corporate greed. But mostly a cute indie game that minifies Majora's Mask time travel mechanic to a mere 60 seconds. The gimmick is stretched thin quickly and the game barely does it any justice aside from extract tedium from it. The monochrome graphics, while an obvious stylistic choice, are grating to look at. Decent chiptune music. Fortunately the game does not outstay its welcome.
4/5 - A fantastic modern platformer that is at times brutally unforgiving. The story presents a nice message but without much subtlety, and is sometimes excruciatingly on the nose. Great soundtrack.
5/5 - A landmark in open-world 3D game development. After over a decade of sticking to a proven formula, Nintendo took inspiration from the series' roots and reinvented the series whilst making bold innovations to the genre.
3/5 - A 2D adventure reminiscent of Limbo. Bleak, haunting presentation with glimpses of a more personal message, tied together with fun puzzles and enjoyable physics-heavy platforming.
2/5 - A classic 2D JRPG that influenced a decade of role-playing games to come. Charming dialogue and world-building, undercut by turn-based gameplay that has not aged well, and a ridiculous need for grind.