While I happened to play this first over the span of a couple of weeks, this is absolutely a larger improvement on the dev's first project, Crowtel.

I do appreciate the more refined focus of welcoming core gameplay and wrappings, but allowing for a stronger, much more challenging post-game and completion. It admittedly is not for me, but I do think what is here will appeal a lot to fans of Cave Story and older PC indies that aim to emulate more arcade-y trappings.

I don't have much criticism on it - it could be longer, but I actually feel like it stays its welcome perfectly. There could be more "weapons" to pick up, but I feel the game is at its strongest as you learn your chosen character's attributes against levels you practice against over and over. I will say the "good ending" requirements are a bit much for me, but that's a tiny wrinkle in what is a incredibly delightful package most people should give a proper shot.

It's really nice I finally played this classic, even if it's both more and less polished than the original. This remake holds up the art direction of the original amazingly well - but small bugs like the screen tearing and slightly weird textures always kept pulling me out of the experience.

That said, the gameplay itself still holds up great - the 360 degree firing mechanic makes this feel way more interesting and fresher than Star Fox has in some time and makes me only more excited to play the sequels.

Tweet Opinion: https://twitter.com/EmperialDonut/status/1358646866553012232

Randomly went through the game with Axel in one sitting + tried a bit of Survival Mode.

I was really enamored with the game on release but never finished it for whatever reason. I'm so glad I went back and cleared it - a perfect blend of SoR excellence, but also repurposing it from a modern difficulty and feature approach. I've always worried with some beat em up titles of a "well, what next" thought once you finish the main campaign, but this is one I can envision myself revisiting just as much as the classic 3.

This is the first time in a really long time I've played something that absolutely counts as a hidden gem. It's got some flaws and it's way too short for the price it would have been around its release, but boy is it such good fun.

Akin to something like "Stuntman, but as a heist film", Felony is an interesting approach to an arcade-like racer. It feels like a wild take on driving in the same way Outrun felt for its time. I loved the theming, the distinct setpieces and car choices and I think the car handling is actually pretty good too! The handbrake in particular felt great to use while driving the Mini Cooper. However, 3 levels that take around ~5 minutes each is criminal, especially when the replay value hinges less on making split-second driving decisions and more on route memorization.

Absolutely a game everyone should give a shot if they find themselves able to, and a gameplay style and theme I wish another game tackles better.

This game was so incredibly down my alley. I was already excited for it beforehand, but it ended up having the right mix of complexity and ease of play that felt perfectly at home for a new beat 'em up paying homage to the Konami titles. In fact, there's a good chance this tops the two arcade titles for me.

My only issue is that for all the excitement I had for 6 player co-op, it's rather unplayable. It's not only incredibly tough to play with a solid connection online, but even if you have that (or play local) expect the chaos to be incredibly hard to follow properly. I can only hope something similar to SoR4's Mr. X Nightmare mode comes to this, as it's such a lavish title and experience.

An incredibly charming experience through and through. There's such an incredible amount of care and intentional design put towards its transition to 3D levels and platforming, that it feels incredibly natural and you'd think Kirby games always played like this.

My main (but very minor) gripe so far would be the ability roster in this title - while the Ability Upgrade system is one of the best additions to the series easily, it doesn't make up for still feeling like 10 abilities (+ Crash and Sleep) is somewhat short for a Kirby title. While probably not my absolute favorite Kirby game, I can absolutely put this in my Top 5 without reservations.

I'm sure there's strategies to be found and it would end up being a really rewarding 1CC, but god what a frustrating arcade run. I feel a bit sad it's a beat 'em up that took me this long to get to, but finally playing it solidifies all the reasons I enjoy the Streets of Rage series and other lesser known games from the genre over it. Beyond its difficulty, it just feels rather stiff and sluggish at moments, in a way that feels brutal when trying to maneuver against a crowd of enemies.

That said, for something that was a pioneer, it's amazing how much it does get right than wrong. Frustrating difficulty doesn't change it from feeling really satisfying to play from the get go.

What an amazing game and soundtrack. The highlights of the entire experience are the boss fights for sure, but the short bits of everything else in-between did feel the tinest bit lackluster. After coming off other music games, the timing for music notes in this feels kind of annoying to nail, but it's not trying to be a music game in the way Beatmania or Taiko is, moreso a musical experience that has some challenge to overcome. Absolutely worth a purchase and a playthrough.

Tweet Opinion: https://twitter.com/EmperialDonut/status/1371625502109224961

I want to like this so bad, but geez does the visual clutter make playing this so much harder than it needs to be.

There's bits of issues that pop up throughout, like the partner design (the first unlockable partner feels far and away your best) and unfortunate bugs blocking me from experimenting much with the Armory system. At its core however, is such a good feeling run-and-gun.

There's tons of other nitpicks that I could go on about but what ultimately makes this less than 5 stars is just not being able to see enemy bullets in chaotic firefights. This is always the core problem to make sure is a solved quandary when it comes to the genre (and shooters too), but I don't feel like this one got it 100% there.

Tweet Opinion: https://twitter.com/EmperialDonut/status/1404249791220039680

Severely underrated kart racer, one I wasn't expecting to be as enamored with its driving physics as I did. The learning curve is absolutely rewarding in a way that you don't really get out of Mario Kart 64 or Diddy Kong Racing.

That said, it's still marred by some really uninteresting items (not awful since the racing's great but still), the game's slower CCs being painfully boring to play after increasing difficulty and some really rough rubberbanding. Absolutely still worth a playthrough if you have the time though.

I was curious about this at its launch but never got around to trying it - knowing it was such a short experience made it prime weekend-play material!

While I definitely wouldn't have minded the multiple No! types and reactions being used more strategically, the humor and style of the game is just too charming to get caught up in that. The moral of the story is literally in the title, but I also really adore how everything came together near the end.

I liked it for a ton of reasons, but also it makes me wanna play Muscle March again, so top marks.