alttp is always constantly being talked about in reference to super metroid, both being action adventure games in which you explore an open world, slowly unlocking items and keys to open up more and more of the map unlocking more and more dangerous areas, in a way that's very fun and interesting. i love super metroid to death, but alttp doesn't scratch the same itch.

obviously, super metroid had an extra 3 years of polish, learning lessons taught not just by alttp, but by itself from metroid II, released the same year as alttp.

i won't lie, the light world dungeons and exploring the light world exclusively was very fun, everything was fresh, the world was fresh, that fun dwindled over time in the dark world, where all there was to do was dungeon after dungeon after dungeon... super metroid lets you off in a similar way, but i think the fact that super metroid blocks off a lot more of the map via item restriction then alttp makes exploring more fun, since you don't have to tread through the entire game to find an object of interest, just a small portion. and i'd argue it makes it more rewarding.

some of the design later on was pretty frustrating and tedious, the game doesn't do difficulty too well? like, the fucking boss 1 rematch in ganon's tower is harder than ganon, save for the random ass required item for the ganon fight that's not needed anywhere else in the game.

i still enjoyed my time with it, it's incredibly interesting how much of this game's dna seeps into the general zeitgeist of game design, but a lot more was learned post alttp. it's just not my cuppa joe.

utterly insane what a couple years of foresight and a couple years of polish will do for a game franchise as static and formulaic as "mega man". shovel knight isn't just a love letter to megaman, although it has it's dna written all over it. it's a love letter to every game made before the 3d era of games. covered in campy dialogue, beautiful animations, incredibly tight and fluid level design, and a story simple enough yet absolutely brutal in it's climax, with the music and presentation and implied story going on?!??! it's truly a beautiful game, and is pretty easy to see why it had so much impact on the indie scene at the time.

i'm truly tempted to give it my rare 5/5 of approval, i remember in middle school playing the FUCK out of this game, but i played treasure trove, not shovel of hope exclusively. this shit alters your brain chemistry

super metroid is just fucking GOOD. my thoughts on metroid mirror the games nonlinear and circular nature, but super metroid truly is a unique piece of work. few games are brave enough to let the player totally loose to explore the world, even metroid itself shyed away from it with fusion and dread. it's a shame, because that overwhelming feeling is sheer bliss. playing metroid is so liberating in your movement, yet still oppressive and dark to explore. it's a lame ass thing to say but it truly puts you in the shoes of a space explorer charting alien territory. it's also such a potent feeling that it confuses me why metroid insists on pretending it's an action franchise (in between other M's rt beat em up combat and sr/dreads counter system). few things also feel as liberating as breaking the intended sequence of the game with built in tech. To a skilled player, super metroid practically becomes an open world game, KPDR be damned. I pray the devs of metroid 6 recognize the few things that made super better than dread, and the things that made dread better than super.

more fun than the real games by leaps and bounds. Dozens upon dozens of gamemodes, teambuilding so easy a child could do it, 0 downtime to get into a match, and it's all free in your google chrome browser. Not to mention all of the quality of life that's actually in showdown compared to the in-game battler, like moveset recording, damage numbers, and the ability to call your oponent slurs over text chat. pokemon is a pretty horrible game to get into competetively but showdown is an incredible way to get started, and a beautiful platform to stay on.

The biggest complaint I have is how showdown is inexoribly tied to pokemon, and how "ou", standard play, is inexoribly tied to tiering policy that can't fix fundamental issues with pokemon (sleep clause, powercreep, kingambit, etc.). i'd love to see someone with power take a more constructive approach to making a meta with real patch notes, rather than a council of wizards unanimously obliterating all sleep moves ever.

I think I'm too jaded for games like these anymore. This game eludes me; it doesn't do anything WRONG, in fact it does an overwhelmingly large amount right. It's vibrant and colorful, wonder flowers are super creative and breathe life into every level in a great climax, the controls are slick, ripped straight outta nsmb (this is a good thing, btw). But when I play, my face is utterly numb, going through the motions of a level. Those little synapses of dopamine stomping a goomber or finding a coin fail to land any imprint on my soul. I am a corpse.

I've got my fair share of mario street cred from smm2. It's a very different game, but the stakes of smm2 pvp puts into perspective the very lethargic and easy pace of wonder. Another game I feel I can safely say I didn't like because it's really not for me

(logging all 3 chapters)

faith is a very niche games with very niche goals, and executes them all flawlessly. I would have thought a horror game based on the atari would not only have the downfalls of emulating The Worst Console Generation, but it wouldn't be scary because of that, but i was dead wrong. faith uses it's 1 button 8 direction controls flawlessly, and varies it up enough to truly be terrifying. sections like the apartment descent or the candy tunnel are truly mortifying

If there's one major complaint, i think the insta-death mechanics detracts a bit from the horror. the sections without combat or anything were usually the most terrifying, although i did like the darkness sections at the end of chII.

i'll be replaying this just to get the endings and stuff, but since a lot of the fear is based off of the unknown, i don't think it will be very replayable

"game looks bad! :yum:" lol

pokemon scarlet and violet is a fucking smear in the face of triple a gaming, and the near perfect track record of first party nintendo games during the switch era. a broken, buggy mishmash of game elements inbred from decades of stagnation in the series. it almost reminds me of how megaman failed to innovate from entry to entry, but megaman always had a solid foundation for gameplay and knew what it was good at. pokemon has similarly lost it's luster in favor of... i don't know... cool sounding lines on the back of the box?

i say a lot of harsh things, but this game has an audience. children will be astounded by the games sense of scale and mystery, and longtime fans of the series will enjoy seeing their favorite critters walk around, but no more. outsiders to the series will find the flaws too numerous and the strengths too weak or too few to truly enjoy it from start to finish. i've been in touch with pokemon my childhood, but the short amount of time from alola to paldea was enough to let me grow out of the series

i should talk about the open world, the game's strongest aspect. despite being able to tackle any midgame challenge in any order, an open world doesn't benefit this game too much. there simply isn't enough to keep most players interested in actually exploring. pokemon are fine, but in s/v, they're signifigantly less fun to catch than in legends thanks to the different engine. gimmighoul coins only do anything after 1k of them, same with all of the stakes. tm's will only occaisionally benefit your core party, same with other floor items, and tera raids are... not fun. I avoided them a third into my playthrough.

This really only leaves the main quests of worth doing. I'll give the game some credit, these aren't... horrible. Even when overleveled or underleveled, i still had fun creaming or getting creamed by the gyms, titans, or bases. The combat still lacks a considerable amount of depth, leaving all the cool competetive mechanics (alt tera types, evs, items, egg moves, hidden abilities) to the postgame. Postgame or requires such ludicrous grinding it isn't fun anymore.

the plot is fun and charming. i'm disillusioned and i feel this would have had an impact on me more as a kid (hence, why i recommend this game to younger people). it's a little clear the writers had no room to move, as the final questline, when all of your friends are in your party, has by far the best dialogue in game. this is because they don't have to talk to you, the silent charisma vacuum.

this leads to a mediocre experience, one that i would rank as 2 stars on my scaling. what i feel tips this game from mediocrity to distasteful is the performance and qol. the game lags constantly, doesn't look good, and doesn't allow you to skip any animations or cutscenes. i felt like i had to drag myself through the worse performing areas of this unattractive game.

i think i might have grown out pokemon, which breaks my heart. no one wants to make a bad game, and this one almost certainly needed a year or two extra in the oven before it should've came out. i hope they improve on the combat, plot, and exploration int he next one, as opposed to throwing out all interesting aspects to chase old money. i'm rooting the best selling franchise in the world to make a good game.

this game makes me a little sad. all of it's flaws are so discrete and so obvious that it could have been the best in the series, but it's not.

i'm beating a dead horse. the chip system is awful. over my first playthrough i obtained 3 recipies and completed 1 of them, for a total of 1 chip. compared to zero 3's extremely accessible chip system that rewarded an insightful player with most chips, and an experienced player with ALL chips, it pales in comparison. im sure in 2005 game guides could already be obtained on the internet for free, making it the only way you'd be able to interact with the system. it sucks and they should've kept it z3 style.

what else... the zero knuckle was lame. a lot of people liked it but i found it mediocre. the megaman formula already struggles to make every weapon important, but now you can only use specific weapons in specific levels after killing specific enemies and has specific ammo limits. okay? i just resorted to using my saber and buster, which get evolved through the ex skills, and i intimately know the arcs and hitboxes of. there's hundreds of weapons, but it really felt blegh.

i've played the entire megaman series up to this point on keyboard. it's the most accessible, it works perfectly, and it was what i want to use when i bought this collection. the zero zx collection will only let you use a few keys on your keyboard to play these games. this does not compensate for the way i want to play

i cannot configure my controller settings on a collection designed to make these games accessible

i've wasted 25 bucks and will proceed to play these games on emulator