There's a lot to like here, despite the game only having been in early access until October 31st, when the servers closed. Bad Piggies 2 introduces more than enough interesting stuff to warrant me getting back to it whenever the dev team feels like they've got a finished product to drop on the App Store:

+ Lots of different kinds of challenges and ways to play, including the return of the beloved Sandbox mode
+ After each world's first few tutorial levels, all of them are pretty fun to play through
+ I wasn't initially sold on the weird new 3D style - especially for the piggies, since they gain additional limbs - but it definitely ended up growing on me. It also means that if your vehicle breaks, the separated parts can slide into the back- and foreground so they're not in the way of the rest of your vehicle, like in the first game.
+ No microtransactions had been implemented at the time I tried out the game, and they undoubtedly will be in the future, but the existing mandatory "daily" chest (in brackets since it's actually available every 2 hours) was good to have.
+ The game has already some kind of currency system in place, and each level takes up a bit of these hog coins to play - or to get more retries - but it's really not the issue it may sound like since you get so much more money from the chest and beating levels that you won't really ever run out. Hopefully, in the full game, they'll stick to cosmetics and other things that could be purchased in a relatively non-grindy way with the extra coins you save up. (It could also be cool if you could buy specific vehicle parts with coins to help you beat an especially difficult level.)

Not saying too many bad things about this game, since it was still very much a work in progress when I tried it out. No music had been implemented, many sound effects were laggy or straight up missing, and a few levels were fully unplayable, only giving a "connection error". Hopefully this doesn't imply you can only play the full release with an Internet connection. Nevertheless, a few points:

- Some of the physics are sketchy, especially when it comes to vehicle durability. Some seemingly sturdy builds crumble by the slightest touch, but if you just place a single spring on it it's practically invincible, sometimes even if the spring isn't the part that absorbs the impact.
- Some of your controls get relegated to a second tab that you have to separately open up if you placed too many interactables in your build, which is definitely an issue with later levels that require a lot of nuanced movement. I'm pretty sure in the original game they simply stacked the controls on top of one another instead, so they could all be simultaneously on-screen, which I personally would prefer. Though they could maybe make it a toggleable control option, if you require more visibility in your game.

Overall, not a bad foundation at all, despite the game's name. I can see the ideas they're going for, now Rovio just has to execute them.

A really good Metroid game on paper, Samus Returns unfortunately suffers from trying to reinvent the original game too hard, up to the point of focusing on making a MercurySteam Metroid instead of staying true to the actual Metroid II. While the game is really fun to control (aside from the touchscreen shenanigans) and has some exciting abilities and the combat is some of the best in the series, it lacks the charm and nuance that Return of Samus had already perfected on the Game Boy, and which AM2R still somehow improved upon.

Nonetheless, Samus Returns is a very fun - although occasionally mindless - metroidvania action romp, with more emphasis on the action, rather than the exploration. I would only recommend playing this after gaining an appreciation for the franchise as a whole, though. If you just want to experience the best version of Metroid II, play AM2R instead.

Pros:
+ Great combat, a few genuine standout bosses here that rival even those of Dread
+ One of the best depictions of Samus out of any Metroid game, as well as an excellent story setup to Dread
+ Some pretty great bosses
+ Actually a better implementation of Aeion abilities than in Dread
+ Really cool and unique new upgrades in general
+ Solid environmental puzzles, especially some that use the Grapple Beam in interesting ways
+ Using the Grapple Beam isn’t as bad as people make it out to be since it automatically switches on without the touchscreen when aiming at a grabbable object/enemy
+ Some of the best graphics the 3DS had to offer

+/- While pretty much all the non-Metroid II remixes included in this game are pretty good, some even surpassing their originals, it's unfortunate MercurySteam didn't try composing more of the game's songs themselves, as most of the ones they've borrowed from other titles feel woefully out of place here.
+/- While most Metroid fights are good, some take you on a frustrating trip across multiple rooms that is fun and novel for the first few times, but starts getting repetitive real soon. There's also a weirdly large amount of Alpha Metroids almost up until the end

Cons:
- Doesn't really surprise you in any major way. This is just Metroid II again, if they'd tried to improve nothing about the locations' blandness or linearity, published by a second-party studio 23 years later
- Completely misses the point of the original's drab worldbuilding by oversaturating each area, making them even less distinct and cramming every empty or silent part of the game with enemies. Somehow the original Metroid II conveyed more nuance with literal shades of gray on a 100 x 144 screen.
- Incredibly linear despite having a much more interconnected world unlike Metroid II, and there's very little reason to backtrack, wasting the genuine leaps in the new ways you can find items with abilities like the Scan Pulse
- Minimap icons are often hard to read even with modded increased resolution
- Aside from the aforementioned color differences, every area feels extremely samey and has the exact same theming of cracked rock and ancient structures. There's little variation in their apparent purpose, as most just look like shapeless temples and hallways, aside from a few standouts like Area 3's waterfall distribution center that leads to the tower.
- Some incredibly obvious level themes are also just downright missing. Metroid hive designs bleed into the surrounding world design so gradually that you often don't even notice you're in one.
- There is no specific fire area stand-in (i.e. Norfair, Magmoor, Bryyo), so heated areas are just messily placed all around the map with little logic to it all. The Magmoor Caverns theme is also used in said hot areas so obsessively that it's literally the only song that is able to play there, and can even override Metroid boss themes when they’re supposed to appear in said areas
- Fusion Mode is locked behind an amiibo

A fun little romp across SR-388’s biomes, designed for anyone who was pissed off about not being able to kill the Septoggs in AM2R.

No but seriously, this is a great game for destressing, and an excellent April Fools’ prank on Team Fusion’s part. It’s short but sweet, and the only thing that I’d like to see improved upon is a level select feature. There’s also a mildly frustrating bug that makes your last Missile in each magazine not exist, so in effect you never actually have full ammo but actually full ammo minus one. Regardless, this is a great game! The improvised box art isn’t half bad either, its creator must be very handsome.

Easily one of the best video game trilogy collections of all time. I don't have much to say about this version specifically, so please check out my review for each individual game instead:

- Metroid Prime (2002): https://backloggd.com/u/Francca/review/678380/
- Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2004): https://backloggd.com/games/metroid-prime-2-echoes/
- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007): https://backloggd.com/games/metroid-prime-3-corruption/


I have also reviewed Metroid Prime Remastered (2023), which can be found here: https://backloggd.com/u/Francca/review/879459/

TL;DR: A pretty fun but flawed game, Tetris 99 is great at what it does, but not much else. The battle system is really unique and works surprisingly well, the gameplay is the snappy and precise Tetris we know and love, and the different collaborations for new themes and music is a great touch that makes the game interesting enough to fire up again every once in a while instead of some other version of Tetris. The two major problems are that
1. You barely get anything in regards to tangible rewarding if you don't place 1st or at least the top 5-10, and
2. Almost everything aside from the game's main mode is paywalled behind a 10€ DLC. I'm not getting that, I'd rather get a full Tetris game on sale for that money!

A solid game to try out if you have Switch Online though, it can't hurt either.