This isn't the type of game I thought I'd ever say this about, but the presentation is absolutely outstanding here. I've been following this series for quite some time (I think I came across it on Sonic Retro) and they're all very solid mechanically compared to a lot of the mediocre 2D platformers that end up on Steam. I always appreciated the musical and visual variety but this newest entry is on another level. Each level has its own song, all of them bright and cheery electronic that's a bit reminiscent of old video game jams if they were made with 90s analog synths.

Love is a very simple game in every sense of the word. The game has a trim color palette of one color for the level, black for the background, and white for the player and obstacles/interact-ables. The series was a bit confusing at first with communicating the difference between "hazardous white" and "helpful white" but the design language evolved in the second game and here things are more clear than ever. But the real impressive stuff is the level visuals. Each level really captures the imagination in representing spaces in these strict limitations, in ways I never would have expected.

Each Love game comes with more stuff and features the older games included. This one lets you go down memory lane with the new features and animations, or switch the style to be more classic if you wish. It's a great value proposition and also lets you appreciate how much these games have improved over time. But it also shows how solid the design always was. For a game trying to capture a fantasy history in which old PCs had platformers as smooth as the consoles of the time had, Love 3 nails that "rose tinted glasses" approach with such grace that it's convinced me to give more time and attention to the throwback indie movement I've been neglecting for a while.

For those who have yet to play or hear about this, I recommend one blind playthrough before you ever look anything up about this. Great stuff.

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This game is a masterclass in horror pacing. The house is a strange beast that changes the more you wander about, eventually giving way to many strange and interesting places one might expect to find in a horror game... but also some surprises as well. This is as good as it gets with this style of "walking simulator" adventure game, but as a completionist experience it leaves a bit to be desired for me.

There are multiple "points of no return" when it comes to locations to visit. For the most part I don't mind this but I've spent hours redoing the first half of this game over and over again trying to get the one artifact at the end of the bathhouse. "Git gud" me all you want but the amount you have to redo after a small slip up like that is a bit ridiculous in my opinion. Not a dealbreaker for the game itself but I am hard pressed to get the "true ending" in this one.

Not really a "video game" in the traditional sense, "walking simulator" is apt though I don't like that phrase to describe a type of adventure game that existed long before 3D graphics and mouselook. If you don't want to play a game like that, this isn't for you. If you're still reading, this has some of the best dialogue and voice acting I've ever experienced in a video game period.

It's short and extremely heavy and dense with characterization. I went back to try different dialogue options just to hear everything, knowing it wouldn't be much. I went to get all the achievements, I roleplayed my character in the scenes because I was so invested in what was happening. Maybe it's because I didn't know what was going to happen, or maybe it's that I knew exactly what was going to happen. There is a certain pain, an emotional truth of life itself this game captures so beautifully.

I first was introduced to this game because I read the writer's pieces on Medium (those are great too) and I expected this would be something I would like. What I didn't expect was the voice acting to be so amazing that I'm probably gonna struggle to take the drama heavyweights of the games industry seriously for a bit. If ANYTHING in this sounded like it's interesting to you I URGE you to try this one. Truly incredible stuff. Half a star deducted for the bad cooking minigame lol

Extremely solid collection for the time. The interface is sleek and Gamecube marketing-esque, with a nice remix of the series theme and artwork and a blurb to describe each game included. Emulation is good but not great, but N64 on Gamecube so shortly after those games were new is a sight to behold. Though it feels very strange to jump from Zelda II straight to Ocarina, as a kid I only later heard about aLttP (and I guess I didn't watch the series history video included on the disc)

All the cool kids with platinum DOL-001s grew up with this and spent an absurd amount of time in the Wind Waker timed demo. Shoutout to those who loaded the dungeon save and walked backwards to get 20 minutes of the Dragon Roost Island theme.

Sad to see the series' last hurrah (at least in the classic sense of Ridge Racer) be such a hollow retool of what already existed in 6, 7, and 3D. The music is great as always but there's no real campaign. You're asked to race with the only progression being that you get more car parts and higher speeds after some (???) races. Visuals are nice but not as impressive as Ridge Racer PSP for the time, and performance leaves a lot to be desired. If only the Vita was just a year or two later with nicer hardware...