I know intuitively that people from hundreds or thousands of years ago are just like us, just governed by different (or not-so-different, as it often is) systems and levels of technology that make them behave in different ways. Pentiment has made me feel that more than any other story. Partly this is because this time period is not the setting I tend to gravitate towards in any media, but its more due to it its exhaustive research - which it is effusive about showing you at all times - and being able to chill in this town for several hours, meet its people, and see how it changes over the years. Pentiment is a game about how everything that happens today is built on what came before, how history never stops, and how sad it is that one's role in life and the actions available to them are dictated by class and social status. All of these were true 500 years ago, and they remain true in 2023.

It's Mario 64 dude! Super happy to finally fill this gap and the game holds up really well. Once you get the hang of his slippiriness, moving Mario around is a joy and the levels are so tight despite having multiple paths and types of challenges. It's all about efficiency, and Nintendo nails it here. Mario Odyssey tried to go back to this style of level design but it has too many moons, too many gimmicks, too much perfunctory bullshit and rarely challenges you - Mario 64's challenges by contrast are nearly always just the right amount of demanding (the odd opaque mission description or secret star notwithstanding). I had a blast playing this game on-stream with people who grew up with it.

This fan-made PC port is highly customizable and rules. I was able to get a texture pack that stayed true to the original game's visuals but just crisped them up (something Nintendo bafflingly did not do on the Switch port) and also had full camera control. I'd recommend it! People who think Mario 64 is dated are wrong!

Cool concept, loved the weekly release schedule, outstanding voice acting, really striking scene blocking and cuts, and from a production standpoint I was really impressed with the corners they cut (this sounds like a backhanded compliment but I promise it isn't, games are hard to make).

Unfortunately despite how strong the package is the actual content is just sort of boring. I think the developers expect us to love these characters because they're stylish and quippy but there's so little real drama throughout the game that it's hard to get really attached. As a story of twenty-something uncertainty, everything's too light and fluffy to have any weight; as a story about the music industry, it doesn't feel lived-in. I have a million nitpicks about its portrayal of industry life but the biggest one is this: the characters don't start referring to themselves as a "band" until episode 3, and up until then their actions never feel like there was an expectation of them being a band in the first place, to the point where I would be really surprised if anyone playing this game really felt like they were watching one come together in those first couple episodes.

They released this like a TV show and it's framed as such in-game too, and that is not just an affectation - picking a save slot shows a Netflix-ish UI and asks "Who's Watching", and that is exactly the level of interaction you can expect. I have a very broad definition of what games are, and I have no issue with games that are input-simple, but this stretches the definition basically as far as it can go. You are mostly going to be sitting there with the controller on the couch watching scenes play out, occasionally picking dialogue options that lead to nearly identical responses. You can't even skip dialogue, so a lot of the game is looking at an unmoving image of a character while a texting conversation slowly unfurls in front of you. The exception is the playable music videos in every episode but the control on them is really squirrely and it never feels like you're being asked to do very much other than randomly waggle your stick around or hold down a button.

The thing is, once you make something so TV-like, with so little player input, it's hard not to compare it to actual TV shows. In that respect, We Are OFK is closest to one of those Netflix shows that pops up every couple weeks, which is perfectly digestable, but there's no real pizzazz and every episode is at least 10 minutes too long. It's a shame because there are cool ideas here, and the music is at least solid (though I actually liked the background music more than the proper "OFK" tracks), but it just ain't it.

Would probably be a 5 star rating if it had a "return to checkpoint" button and the endgame was a bit cleaner. It's wild that it took them this long to put Kirby into three proper dimensions but they nailed it, and put in some fun new mechanics at the same time. Mouthful mode rules and it's always exciting to see how the standard powers upgrade (and especially what new cute form they'll take). Does that perfect Kirby thing where the core game is really chill and easy but there's tons of more difficult side stuff to engage in, which is well worth doing. Not much else to say really, like all Kirby games it's just really playful and creative and good!

This game rocks - popped off multiple times per session even when I was actively frustrated while playing it. A game that changes genre every 2 hours, linked by a broad, mutable battle system and a commitment to showcasing what's possible with just the SNES soundchip, a head full of genre fiction, and a few good sprites. The battle system is too slow (thank god for emulation speed-up functions) and getting the proper ending is grindy and esoteric, but its worth it to see Squaresoft in the middle of their golden years, giddily showing off the possible futures of the genre in which they were consistently head-of-class.

Better than anything it influenced. It's mechanically boilerplate and full of friction, from its low inventory limit to its high difficulty. But while I was often frustrated, it felt purposeful; after all, this is a game about children on an overwhelming journey. When the game turns around and acknowledges that the path has been arduous, it means something because it's true, and it's so saliently childlike in its perspective and tone that it conjures up my own memories of those first exciting and terrifying steps towards independence with my friends - walking to the mall to see a movie, going camping in the backcountry, traveling across the country for a music festival. Sometimes, Ness gets homesick and loses the will to attack in combat, and the only thing that can fix it is to call home. That's childhood, and adolescence, and sometimes adulthood, even when you've spent so much time dreaming about a different life.