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!

There's something unique about the very first Mario Party game. You get the feeling that the game hates everyone who plays it. So many weird bullshit decisions were made with this one. Why are there singleplayer minigames? Why are there 1v3 minigames, where the team of 3 can't win anything? Why does Wario's Battlecanyon even exist?

But all of that gives Mario Party its weird own quirks. It provides a sense of stupidity and enjoyment unlike any other Mario Party game. As long as you can play it with friends, you can be mad at everyone. Your friends, the CPU players, heck, even the game. But that's exactly what makes Mario Party fun.

Breath of the Wild is a very special game to me. I connect it with hanging out on Discord with my internet friends, obsessing over every new discovery we made while playing. It was as if I was back in elementary school, sharing rumors and discoveries on the playground during recess. I will forever cherish the memories this game gave me. The feeling of exploring this vast open version of Hyrule, being able to go wherever I wanted and always finding something new and interesting just tickled the exact itch I was craving. What a god damn masterpiece.

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.

This is an improvement to basically every single aspect of Breath of the Wild. Seriously, I don't think I'll ever be able to play BotW again after having played Tears of the Kingdom. And yet it lacks one thing:

The impact.

Okay, to be fair, this is not the game's fault. BotW just came out at a different time and a sequel like this just doesn't hit quite the same way.

And that's alright.

Because this game is still loads of fun, there are so many ways to interact with the environment, it's crazy. I'm not nearly creative enough to actually utilise Ultra Hand to its fullest potential, but I appreciate its inclusion nonetheless.

I also wish the game leaned more into the creepy spooky vibe that the very first teaser gave off. And I also wish that there would be more to do in the underground. Overall, it really is BotW, but bigger and better. At this point, it's impossible to go back. But nevertheless, this game wasn't able to give me the memories of wonder and discovery that BotW gave me.