I love this game. Eversince I first saw my brother play Isaac in 2013/2014, it intrigued me. I wanted to play it myself so badly. When I finally did in 2015, it was unlike anything I had ever played before. An infinitely replayable roguelike with hundreds of items and secrets to uncover, filled to the brim with weird details. It spoke to me on a deeper level. In the years that followed, I continued to play Isaac every now and then. Each DLC and update caused another spike of play time spent with this game for me.

And then Repentance released.

After all these years, it was as if I experienced Isaac for the first time again. Everything was new, the enemies, the new floors, the new items, details, endings, secrets, characters, synergies, EVERYTHING. I couldn't get enough of it. Repentance is clearly created with so much care that playing it felt as if I rediscovered my love for a special someone.

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...

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.

I really thought I'd like Environmental Station Alpha. The graphics and gameplay looked simple, yet intriguing. A metroidvania that focuses on the essentials of the genre, it seemed exactly like the kind of game I needed.

But playing it myself just felt exhausting. I got lost constantly and while I enjoyed the challenging enemies and gameplay, I never felt as if the game actually rewarded me enough for the struggles it made me go through. I've had my fun for the first two hours but after that, the frustration outgrew the enjoyment.

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.

God I loved this game when I could still play it... I've had so much fun with all of the different characters and maps, even though I usually never play MOBAs. It was pure and simple fun to me. The presentation was top-notch as well, Gigantic looked and sounded amazing! Life was good, when Gigantic came out...

It's really weird that we live in a time where games like these can just... die out... Even if you payed for it, it's gone now. There may just be a lesson to be learned here about the fleeting nature of time and... things.

No one can play Gigantic anymore and it makes me so sad.

BANGER SOUNDTRACK, OH MY GOD!!! What a god damn jam.

Oh and the game itself is nice too xD
I loved the movement and the crisp pixel graphics. The Messenger also features stellar writing that actually made me care about dialogue boxes in a 2D platformer - how crazy is that?! I really enjoyed the first traditional platformer half of the game, but the linear nature of most of the game's areas are also a reason as to why I am a bit split on the Metroidvania part of the Messenger. Long linear paths just don't synergise well with an open Metroidvania progression. That's why I feel like there should be more quicktravel portals, as it got pretty annoying by the end to go through the same linear paths over and over again.

Metroid Dread proves that Metroid deserves a place in contemporary gaming culture. For far too long, people were only able to look into the distant past to find out, how Metroid defined a genre. Now, Metroid is back and while I still think the formula could be improved (I would appreciate a less rigid order of upgrades like in Hollow Knight), Mercury Steam managed to create a Metroid game that feels modern. Gone are the clunky controls of the past games, Samus finally feels way less clunky to control.

I was a bit scared that the E.M.M.M.I. sections would kill the game, because I usually strongly dislike stealth sections in games, but they are always short enough to be challenging without being frustrating. Speaking of which, Metroid Dread absolutely nails its difficulty. I also really liked how the game tries its best to prevent you from getting too lost, without explicitly telling you where to go. You still need to explore the map yourself, but there are far less of these moments, where you are searching for that ONE spot in the world that the game now expects you to visit.

Metroid: Samus Returns crawled, so that Metroid Dread could run. You can see that many of Dread's elements were tested here. I really enjoyed the modernised controls, but unfortunately, Samus Returns is held back by the structure of the original Metroid II. The overall progression is super linear, meaning that there is no reason to backtrack, except for finding upgrades which the game withheld from you, because you simply didn't have the right upgrade yet. This just feels artificial and arbitrary. However, I really enjoyed how Mercury Steam expanded the areas of Metroid II. Now, every sub-area of Samus Returns is kind of like a mini-Metroidvania in its own right. That was also true for the original, sure, but there, the areas were far too small to actually get lost in.

Super Mario Galaxy is a special game to me. It may have started the trend of linear 3D Mario design that everyone seemed to despise in the first half of the 2010s, but the level design is all the more creative because of it. Seriously, every Galaxy feels different, unique and equally fun to explore.

And the ATMOSPHERE, oh my god!!!

This game has a fantastic soundtrack that never fails to give me goosebumps while I play it. The space setting just hits different. Super Mario Galaxy made me fall in love with the 3D Mario games.