While I was mostly carried into a win, this is still a really fun loot shooter roguelike. There's a lot of UI jank that gets under my skin (it absolutely feels like a game that had controller UI support on the backburner, among other small things), but it doesn't get too much in the way of the enjoyment thankfully.

All the guns and characters are really fun to explore and work into builds, although I don't have much interest at all about the storyline. Definitely a good multiplayer game to run with people for sure.

I admittedly grew up during the Genesis era so there's a large amount of Master System classics I've never gotten to - Wonder Boy III being one of them. I am so glad I got to experience it through this remake however - what an incredible title, with the original deserving to be up there as one of the all time greats.

It plays well, it has just the right amount of difficulty, with the remake only making it look and sound even more incredible. My only small issue with it was that using Mouse-Man in any combat encounter was an incredibly miserable experience, but it still was a small wrinkle in otherwise a stellar action platformer.

This barely gets a star, solely cause there's the makings of a good soundtrack (not in this state though) and Winter Park is kind of a neat theming for a classic Sonic zone.

Otherwise, this is absolutely one of the worst Sonic games I've ever played. Sonic 4 Episode 1 was definitely flawed, but here there's multiple instances of terrible level design decisions built on top of the initial ones, with the intention that they're improvements. It just makes for such a miserable experience. I tried to give Episode Metal a shot after out of curiosity but just felt too listless and dead inside to continue past the initial 10 minutes.

I always felt most FMV games were kind of hammy and silly, not really worth time for playing now. This one however felt surprisingly tense and was great fun. It's surprising how much 4 inputs and timing well to the video does so much. Major problem for me is the same as any other FMV game - trying to predict what to do next without enough lead time or with short input windows gets frustrating, but thankfully most of the game is pretty lenient. Only the last level gets to the level of a quarter muncher, but man is it such a great finale.

Really fun to play, amazing animation and a killer opening theme is probably all I could have asked for from this and it's what I got.

There's so much disappointing with this the more you think about its setup. Sure, the original Season Pass approach deserves to be derided, but even removing it this game feels sparse in a way that it shouldn't. 9 tracks (with some slight variant extras) is entirely too little to release a kart racer with. The game sometimes feels like it fights against trying to even teach you its systems. Despite the great improvements made on Chocobo Racing's Magicite item system here, these changes only make the tournament mode only feel more frustrating throughout the waves of lag.

I want to like the kart racer with a cute story here a lot. I also genuinely think attempting a season model to a kart racer is a great way to keep a community active and alive for it. The combination of things in this exact title makes everything feel like an incredibly miserable experience.

I've been meaning to get to this one for years now. Glad I finally sat down for it, it's such a gorgeous curio.

Its themes and tone is incredibly captivating, equally paired with possibly the most exceptional scale of puzzle difficulty I've seen in a while - I don't think I ran into anything that I both could solve immediately with my given knowledge at the time nor found myself stuck at for hours on end. Absolutely a title I'll consider coming back to after I've had some time to forget the solutions.

A perfectly fine enough platformer. I won't give it too much hassle since I played it under not the best conditions (i.e. via two layers of monitor delay) but the charm still shone through. I do think some of its platforming is a bit more jank and demanding than its actual momentum asks for, but it's never enough to completely stop a playthrough.

I kind of wish the game either played more with the somewhat interesting ways to clear enemies (scaring the dinos with the phone is cute!) or lean really far into the humor and have the small one-off moments be more dialogue heavy. Still worth a play as it's around 30 minutes to complete the main story. (or an hour if you're taking your time and dying a ton like me)

It's been quite some time since playing a puzzle game has made me feel bitter. I want to love Klonoa 2 so much for what it is and how much complexity it crams into a single GBA cart, but it can be such a chore to play through entirely.

Feeling like a true evolution of Empire of Dreams' concepts - taking the console Klonoa experience and putting it to shorter handheld levels with a heightened puzzle focus - is awesome and I love all the new puzzle piece additions added here, whether new or pulled from Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil. It doesn't look bad, plus the story's charming as well. Everything else is a heavy burden though.

I didn't find myself as down on the underwater levels as others seemed to, but the alternative level types - the boarding and auto-scroller levels - are miserable. The game also decides to ramp up its puzzle difficulty much higher than the previous title ever does. The game designer in me lauds how amazing intricate some of the puzzle designs are here, but actually playing them leads to constant frustration and solutions that sometimes feel non-intended. (or maybe I'm just getting old)

For all the enjoyment I had throughout the first two and a half worlds, I let out the loudest possible groan when exploring the final puzzle platformer level in this game - which maybe tells all you need about the experience of what's only a 2-3 hour playthrough.

I initially went into this game really soured on it - for its asking price, it doesn't feel like "enough". However, after a chapter or two in, its charm completely wooed me.

Its puzzle difficulty is feels just right, and it has a bit more length to it than I was expecting as well. Its visuals are stellar and its soundtrack is amazing, immediately something I want to listen to over and over.

Really, the only issue I can fault it for is not picking a stricter lane with its narrative and direction. I don't think it needs to have a defined narrative like Unpacked (in fact, I think it's better for it), but with the later levels leaning a bit more surreal, I really wish I saw that earlier in the game. It would have elevated the existing whimsy of the title that much further.

Absolutely give this a playthrough on a weekend if you grab it in a sale or play it through Xbox Game Pass. It's a bit tougher to sell at full price, but if you enjoy light relaxing organization puzzles, it's absolutely worth it.