Look, I love the Kirby games. They've been a part of my life for basically as long as I can remember. They always look and sound great, have charm from here to eternity, and almost always play really well. They are, however, with a few exceptions, almost always a very solid 3-3.5/5 experience. They are extremely loveable, but I feel like very few manage to stay interesting and have enough unique ideas spread out over the whole game, which leads to them starting to feel a bit uninspired by the end (though never the final bosses, mind you), with me feeling sort of like I'm just going through the motions.

Planet Robobot should feel the same way. It's a fairly short experience, but it's still pretty clear that the game runs out of gimmicks by the last two worlds and doesn't really iterate on those in any particularly interesting way or even really upping the difficulty, rather just doing basically the exact same thing as in previous stages.

Thing is, none of this really matters when every component of the game is as good as they are here, but also thanks to the developers being extremely smart about always shaking things up at the right time, even if it means recycling something I've definitely done before (and often more than once).You have your regular stages that are standard Kirby, i.e. a fun, fast-paced time through a colorful (this is a beautiful game, by the way. Frame rate can't really handle the 3D at times, though) platforming stage with a good mix of action and actual platforming, and they're a good time since the developers at HAL have done basically the same kinds of stages since Sakurai directed Kirby's Dream Land way back in 1992. Not top tier in the genre or anything, but made by people who have a formula down that they'll always play well, and good enough art directors for every game who can make them feel distinct and fun. Feels like this manages to come up with a few more and more interesting stage gimmicks than usual, like the train or Waddle-Dee traffic. That might just be because the last Kirby I played was 64 , though, which is a 3/5 game I truly love (also loved the surprising amount of references to it in Planet Robobot), but also one where the levels barely have anything going on for almost the entire journey.

What really elevates the game from simply being another "fun, but unremarkable" Kirby game is its main gimmick, the Robobot itself. This era of Kirby had issues with their main gimmicks, especially Triple Deluxe's Hypernova ability which is cool once, but then gets less and less interesting as it keeps showing up since it's basically just a win button and a way to give the player a cinematic experience where Kirby just becomes an indestructible killing machine, which isn't really needed in a game of this kind. The Robobot feels so much more thought out, getting its own copy abilities and puzzles to solve throughout the stages, plus giving HAL an excuse to throw in vehicle stages where Kirby either drives in fast-paced, almost race-like stages, and shmup stages that gives something completely different from the rest of the game. It's not just walking in a straight line and killing everything in sight, but it actually builds upon the regular Kirby gameplay, and tweaks it just enough to always be a welcome mix-up whenever the robobot appears. The added firepower also does give it that satisfaction of something like the Hypernova, but it never really diminishes since I am always the one controlling the action rather than it feeling so scripted and more like a pseudo-interactive cutscene. Really impressed by the restraint HAL also showed, not constantly using the Robobot on each stage, but seemingly very deliberately giving one to you at just the right time, when I'm feeling "This sure is a Kirby game" the most.

The final boss is also among the most insane things I've seen in a video game, so, you know, even if the rest of the game had been pretty mid, it'd probably have been worth the playthrough just for that experience alone. No, wait, the latter half of the final secret stage might honestly be the highlight for me. One of the best power trip sections, like, ever in a video game and it's somehow in a Kirby of all franchises.

Rating 5.8/10 - Bad

Doom 3 starts off fine for the most part. You're in a mars station with little visual distinction between areas but the lighting and high quality models and assets (for the time) still make the place cool to look at. The weapons are mediocre and the shotgun is horrible but the enemy design is decent. The game isn't scary but at least manages to keep a consistent atmosphere.

It's not all bad... at the start. That's when repetitiveness settles in and the game's length turns this into a slog.

The more you play, the more the problems become apparent and the lack of enemy variety starts being noticeable, as well as the very clear comparisons to half-life and how this game falls short in comparison.

Doom 3 is a game I can only recommend to people who want to experience the history of FPS games or people who really want to try all Doom games. Otherwise, don't bother.

Gone Home was released August 15, 2013 by The Fullbright Company, designed by Steve Gaynor (who worked on the BioShock games) and built on the Unity engine, whose story starts you off with a brief voicemail from the airport (although actually featuring the airport would be too much work apparently) and finally, at the Greenbriar home. You play as Kaitlin Greenbriar, a twentysomething college grad who just came back from her trip to Europe, only to find the place completely empty, with boxes and the like scattered here and there with your name on them. Alas, you have gone home; but the developers also left anything of sentimental value like any form of linear storytelling at the door outside.

Playing through this game was a chore, at best. I kept on asking myself what am I doing as I walked through the decrepit hallways; struggling what to make of my predicament. As I went towards the bathroom sink to wash up, I came to the unpleasant realization that there was not a single mirror in this game. Is the Greenbriar family a bunch of a vampires, or are they just not very self-conscious? I think that sentiment might be the deepest thing about this game game.

Still, graphically speaking, the graphics aren't all that bad. A lot of things are high-resolution, and its refreshing to see an indie game that isn't retro for the sake of being lazy. Still, the graphics are by no means a groundbreaking use of the Unity engine.

And, since there are no mirrors in this game to tell you who you are; you're stuck living in the shadow of Sam and Lonnie's sapphic relationship, your parent's marriage troubles, and some other irrelevant shit -- like your aunt dying and that's why you have a mansion for a home. The only way I feel one can empathize is if you're going through a similar situation. Otherwise, its just a well polished house explorer, with a unnecessarily convoluted plot that masquerades as an avant-garde discovery thriller.

Take out that context, and Gone Home is merely a caricature, perfectly summing up how to not address LGBT representation, which at the time was still fairly nascent. It treats the attribute of being a lesbian as a convenient prop, ripe to be picked as an excuse for clever storytelling. Still, for this gimmick, gaming journalists will go wild to prove that indie games can also get 9/10 scores without the use of bribes. Beg to differ in opinion? Congratulations, you are now a sexist.

(This review was written about a decade ago and updated with only minor changes to the syntax/grammar)

This one started off really strong but then I lost interest as it went on. The game is a strange mix of vibrant and kid friendly silliness mixed with adult issues and body horror. I'm not sure it meshes very well, but it's a very interesting game nonetheless.

You catch Bugsnax and basically talk to other vibrant muppet type characters (grumpus's I think it was?) and solve their issues. These issues have a wide range too. From anything like marriage woes to "OMG I want to get buff" to "I want to eat a Fryder, go get me one." It's kind of jarring going from solving relationship and communication issues between folks to then just grabbing a silly Bugsnak for them to eat.

Then on top of that, as you collect Bugsnax, you find out that it changes the way all these muppet people look. You can change their arms, hands, legs, feet, ears and eventually even their body. AND THEY LOOK HORRIFIC! Having a guy walk around with potato chip ears and a sushi body was just...ugh.

No spoilers but I feel like if I saw the final boss of this game when I was a kid, I would've had nightmares. It's like the cutest foody-hellraiser inspired enemy you'll ever see. YIKES!

Anyway, the reason it gets old after a while is because after a few hours, it feels like you're just going through the motions. Catch a Bugsnak, solve an issue, feed them, repeat.

Also, the dialog at times goes on and on and on and on and on. And it's not really clever, it just feels like talking for talkings sake some times.