Animal Crossing New Horizons is a very weird case. It came out exactly when the pandemic took over the world, which greatly changed how I experienced it.

I was so happy to finally have another Animal Crossing game to sink my teeth into. I loved the comfy, cozy vibe this game emits. There are so many new options to customise your island, it's insane. And thanks to the patches that this game received in its first year, there are a lot of fun activities to do.

But do you know what they didn't patch? The villagers (or islanders, I suppose). There are few things that make me feel as dead inside as talking to the islanders of New Horizons. Seriously, they feel like a hollow shell of their previous glory, which is such a shame, because interacting with the villagers was my favourite part of New Leaf and Wild World. This aspect is way more important to me than, say, customisation. You'd think that the devs had more options to make these islanders feel alive and real with loads of interesting dialogues, but it seems like the islanders have less things to say here than in any other Animal Crossing game. The whole experience feels very superficial to me because of it. Like the islanders are just there to look nice and nothing more.

I will never forget the fun I've had with Overwatch. My best friend introduced me to it. Over the years, I occasionally played some matches with him and as long as we stayed in casual modes, it was a blast. Later on, the insane amount of characters decreased my enjoyment considerably with insta kill abilities and op character combinations, but I wasn't playing to win anyways. I was playing casually.

Competitive rounds are a completely different story though. Since my friend was really obsessed with Overwatch, of course he played a lot of comp. So after some time, he asked me to join comp matches as well. I lost so many rounds because I was super stressed. Turns out, I really dislike playing games competitively. I remember one day in particular where I lost like ten games back to back. It completely ruined my day. And if a game mode ruins your day, it's probably a sign to stop playing it. I went back to casual and the simple fun was back on!

The Stanley Parable is one of the most unique games I have ever played. It's so bizarre in its nature, goofy, yet serious to a scary degree.

The Stanley Parable can make you laugh over the silliest jokes in one moment, only to make you consider profound questions of game design in the next. And yet it barely qualifies as a game. You mostly just walk around through what appears to be a boring office. Nevertheless, it achieves to be one of the most memorable and weird games I have ever played.

The Ultra Deluxe content fits right in with the rest of the game with plenty of weird new scenarios. It's clearly the definitive way to play the game.

I love Smash Ultimate. As of writing this, it's by far my most played Switch game. The simple act of playing for fun with friends is just... fun. It's just fun, man. Seriosuly, it's so damn satisfying to control, the level of detail they put into Smash Ultimate to make it feel just right is insane. They truly perfected the formula.

And there is just so much content to enjoy here, allowing for countless hours of fun. So many stages and characters to choose! In fact, I often don't know which character to select and I end up choosing random more often than not xD

Whenever I meet up with friends, this is the game we can all agree on.

Sonic Mania makes me understand the appeal of 2D Sonic games. It makes me want to go through the whole series (except Sonic 1, because no) and play through all of them. Sonic Mania looks stunning and at its heights, it feels insanely satisfying to blast through the levels. To think that this level of polish was achieved by FANS?! Wow.

But Sonic Mania doesn't completely get rid of all of the awkward moments that you know and love from the other Sonic games. You know, slow paced sections and boss fights that can take a while. But I guess these are necessary to make the faster sequences feel more fun and rewarding. It's a double-edged sword.

When I played Crash 1, I had a lot of fun. I thought it was a fun, challenging platformer. Can't go wrong with a challenging platformer.

But then I started Crash 2, and it started to annoy me. Don't get me wrong, I still got some enjoyment out of it, but it just started to feel tedious with weird sections and gimmicks that undermine the simple platforming gameplay of the first Crash game. It was just so frustrating. And I've heard that there are even more weird vehicle sections in Crash 3, so I really didn't want to bother checking it out...

When I saw gameplay of Hades in 2020 all over the internet, I thought I wouldn't like it. I didn't like the setting or the heavy focus on precise numbers (percentages etc).

And then there's the cross-run progression. I have a difficult relationship with that mechanic. On paper, it sounds great: You always make progress, whether you are actually winning in a run or not. But to me, it always feels as if the reason for winning then isn't that my skills are getting better, but that my stats simply increased enough to make the game easy enough for me. Sometimes, you gotta lose a bunch of progress in a rogue-like to make the victories feel all the sweeter.

But then, I actually played it two years later in 2022. And, well, sure, the points I mentioned hinder the experience a bit for me, BUT it's still a lot of fun. I really like the characters, the soundtrack and the general game feel of Hades. However, Hades feels a bit too streamlined for me. A bit too much like a rogue-like for the people who don't like rogue-likes. Because I like them, but as a consequence, this game doesn't quite feel like it's for me.

This game is filled to the brim with JoJo characters, it's actually insane how many they were able to put in here. If you are a JoJo fan, you'll enjoy this game just because of how much it respects its source material. Nevertheless, I think they could have chosen better stages as the choices made seem a bit questionable to me.

However, it's still a pretty normal fighting game in its core, which is alright if you're into that. But personally, that kind of Street-Fighter-esque gameplay was never something I enjoyed a lot. Sure, I'll give it a go with friends, but I am never really getting into it, the gameplay just feels a bit stiff to me and I never quite get the hang of it. To me, these types of games are always "fine" - no more and no less.

Hollow Knight came to me in a time where I thought that Metroidvanias are not my genre. It kindly showed me how wrong I was.

While playing it, I started to become obsessed with the world of Hollow Knight. I wanted to know more about this strange abandoned kingdom and it inhabitants. I generally love abandoned places lol.

I love the soundtrack, the visuals, the controls, EVERYTHING!

But what I love most about Hollow Knight is its structure. In the first few hours, it's pretty linear and you go where the game wants you to go. And just when I got bored by the uneventfulness of the game's early progression it just... opens up. After a certain point early in the game, there is no single right place to visit anymore. I stopped exploring because the game wanted me to and I started exploring the places I wanted to, BECAUSE I wanted to.

More Metroidvanias should allow for this much freedom, it's truly liberating and satisfying. It feels like you are carving your path through this hostile forgotten kingdom.

However, there is one gripe I have with Hollow Knight. It's pacing is really slow. The game takes a bit too long until it finally lets you loose and there can be many situations where there are several hours of playtime between upgrades. However, this slow pacing makes these upgrades all the more satisfying.

Hollow Knight made me understand the insane potential inherent in Metroidvanias.

This is a really unique and weird Metroidvania. But it couldn't be more different from the two genre defining franchises, as it features a comfy island setting & soundtrack with a whimsical, carefree atmosphere. Oh, and PINBALL MECHANICS?! Who came up with that?! It works a lot better than I expected and navigation is a lot of fun because of it. It was an enjoyable experience, but I didn't feel motivated to do any of the side content and focused on the main path for some reason. It didn't quite catch me, which is a bummer, because it hits a lot of the right marks for me.