TL;DR: Despite its simplicity, Pikmin Bloom is one of the better AR games on mobile. A more relaxed alternative to Pokémon Go, it focuses more on simply walking around and later checking what you found on your daily journey. No stressful, constant tapping on the screen while walking so you can get all of them pokeymans, Bloom is more about incentivizing your personal fitness goals and collecting some tiny little dudes on the side.

Pros:
+ Great character designs return from the mainline series to make this game feel authentic and worth playing
+ Daily and weekly goals are incredibly satisfying to complete, and the overall presentation is clean and nice to look at
+ There's not a single item you couldn't get by just playing the game, instead of buying microtransactions
+ Original flower models and other assets look incredibly crisp and downright beautiful even on a small screen
+ Completing different challenges and tasks with friends and random strangers are extremely gratifying and create a strong sense of teamwork
+ Weirdly enough, the game's world map is somehow easier to read than many built-in mobile maps, like Apple's iOS Maps and Google Maps (with default settings)
+ No ads

Cons:
- Quite possibly the first glaring flaw I noticed was how you can't send any helpful gifts to friends that have just started playing, except for specifically curated microtransaction boxes, of course
- While there are no ads and nothing about the game is blocked behind a paywall, all cosmetics and even storage upgrades are prohibitably expensive and don't properly match the amount of coins you could ever earn planting flowers. You'd have to walk over 20 000 steps each and every day to ever be able to purchase a significant amount of things in a timely fashion. (Just as an example, I've played for approximately 3 months now, walked around relatively often and can still only afford three cheap clothing pieces or the cheapest storage upgrade available.)
- This game might just have the worst player/community support out of all of Niantic's AR mobile games. No major updates in ages (even with Pikmin 4 having been released with new pikmin that definitely should be in Bloom, too), and there's no button in the settings to suggest new areas to add points of interest to, like there is in PokéGo and Ingress.
- Lack of PoI variety is also a problem, as points of interest are always just nearly useless Big Flowers (large flowers that you can make bloom to drop flower nectar by planting flowers around it alone or with friends), and different sizes of mushroom (where you and your friends can send your pikmin to attack them. Many players have vocally clamored for any kinds of original enemies from the Pikmin games that you could try and beat in some kind of timed minigame modes or otherwise, yet Niantic has remained characteristically (nearly) radio silent on the matter.
- A game-breaking bug that seemingly the entire veteran community knows by now: if you try to sign up with your Nintendo Account, your game freezes during the tutorial and won't let you progress even if you reinstall the game and continue with the same account. You have to sign up with any other account option instead, which will let you play the game. Insane how such a fundamental part about the game hasn't been fixed yet

TL;DR: Being one of the best games of all time, you might be surprised why I've only scored it a 4/5. Well, it should be a 4.5, but I had to retroactively lower my score due to how well Tears of the Kingdom expands and improves upon basically every single little thing in Breath of the Wild. That'll be its own review, but this doesn't mean Breath of the Wild doesn't have its place in history, it does. And I'll treat it as such in my usual pros and cons below.

Pros:
+ One of the most interesting and content-filled open worlds in the entire game industry
+ Very engaging gameplay focused on experimenting with the physics and how Link's abilities work with them
+ Combat is multi-faceted in the way you can approach any given enemy encampment or encounter, as you can whack around the items close to a camp, or strike them head-on, or even lure some bees close by or drown them in a river. The possibilities are nearly endless
+ Amazing atmosphere and artstyle
+ Mostly great side quests
+ Tons of great shrine puzzles littered across the world
+ Underrated soundtrack that is mostly ambient but knows when to make a great entrance
+ Some of the coolest glitches - especially movement exploits - in the franchise
+ One of the best first playthrough experiences you could ever have with a game

+/- Even though I prefer the ideas for the Champion abilities in Tears of the Kingdom, Breath of the Wild's counterparts are much better executed, even if I don't really like how overpowered they are
+/- Honestly some underrated temple puzzles in the Divine Beasts as well, they just get a lot of deserved scorn for their simplistic, bland and repetitive art style

Cons:
- As expected for a Switch launch title, the performance is choppy and really could've benefited from a few patches down the line. Nothing awful though, it's still extremely playable for the most part and nowhere close to more recent atrocities like every single mainline Pokémon game released on Switch
- While I personally don't dislike the weapon durability system itself, I would definitely prefer if all weapons had at least double the durability, even more so for rarer weapons like the Champions' replicas
- Despite being a cool new addition to the franchise, the cooking system is sorely lacking in usefulness and depth it's faster, easier and more rewarding to just throw hearty food in a pot and instantly get full hearts. There also should've been some kind of restriction on when you can consume items during combat encounters
- A slightly weak story, and even weaker voice acting for most characters (specifically Zelda herself)
- Quite possibly the absolute lamest main boss designs in the entire franchise, with the only real standouts being minor ones like Stone Taluses and Lynels
- Lots of filler items that don't really have a use unless you use them as Master Cycle Zero fuel in the DLC

One of the most artistically meritful video games I've ever experienced during my mortal lifetime. The graphics are cutting-edge, the gameplay is riveting and the voice acting is impeccable. Truly, no game will ever reach the height of J3SS1C4 again, I'm afraid. This title instantly improved my life in every measurable and immeasurable way, including curing my cat, paying for my uncle's medical expenses and doubling my student debt and giving it to the next person.

I promise you, if you ever decide to play through this masterpiece of a game, you will have the time of your life, and an experience you'll never forget, rivalling the feeling you get from a blind first playthrough of Breath of the Wild as a 13-year old in 2017. J3SS1C4 really can't properly be described, it's an event that you have to go through in your life to really absorb its deep meaning. It's short but extremely sweet, just like how mama used to make.

TL;DR: Easily one of the best Flash games out there, Super Mario 63 is jam-packed with both revamped and original content, masterfully combines gimmicks from across multiple 3D Mario games and is genuinely one of the most fun 2D Marios to play.

It's only dragged down by some unironed bugs and the web-browser, Flash-based limitations of its time. Some Mario 64 courses have also not adapted perfectly to the 2D style, but it's all forgivable due to the amazing overall experience that Runouw managed to create with this fangame.

(Side note: I've added this to my journal as having played on May 1st, 2013, as I'd assume I was approximately 9 the first time I did so. Also, since it's been so long since I last played it, I couldn't in good conscience write a full, serious review.)

TL;DR: While not a perfect game by any means, TRON: Identity is a must-play for any hardcore TRON fan, and also a formidable visual novel in its own right. While the story progression itself may lack in depth of gameplay, it makes up for it in sheer visual spectacle and the interesting puzzles.

Pros:
+ Absolutely phenomenal visuals, music and overall presentation
+ Really good writing for both the characters and the general narration
+ A few really intriguing characters that represent the different perspectives of differing kinds of programs in the Grid, with standouts like an administrator who idolizes the Users, and a young nonbinary program who cleverly challenges the binary concepts of the world
+ The puzzle gameplay is well-built into the gameplay story-wise, and is also fun in itself, which is why it's good that they've included a standalone mode for playing it with great customizability
+ The game's story (and lore specifically) has some huge and exciting ramifications for the future of the Grid, which I genuinely hope is utilized or at least hinted at in future movies and other media
+ Title screen is great (TRON fans will understand why)
+ In general, definitely a worthy addition to the TRON mythos

Cons:
- I don't know how long visual novels are usually supposed to be, but this one sure feels like it's way too short. It really feels like Bithell might've bitten more than they could chew with this one, so they had to squeeze their existing budget to a relatively breezy experience.
- While the single tower - where the entire game takes place - does have some fairly diverse and unique locales inside of it, it feels quite restrictive with there only being like 6 major rooms to go into.
- Very little replayability for a few reasons:
• First, the only two things you can "collect" are clickable lore nodes during dialogue boxes, all of which are very easy to get on your first playthrough, as well as the different fates for each character. At least you're forced to get those during multiple playthroughs - which isn't really an issue since the characters are so fun - but when some only have two different narrow paths to follow, it doesn't really add much more depth.
• Second, you get basically no rewards for playing through the game, and none after replaying it. You're just playing for fun at that point, something which the standalone puzzle mode is much better for.

Pros:
+ Very engaging, difficult and surprisingly lengthy gameplay for its price point
+ Many dozens of different color palettes to collect
+ Has a genius option to tilt your screen vertically on Switch so you can play on a single Joy-Con while utilizing the entire screen for this vertical action-crawler
+ Gameplay has extremely satisfying nuance that you'll just have to experience yourself
+ Many weapons and lots of items to play around with
+ Simple but tight controls
+ Final boss and its reward adds even more replayability to an already fun arcade game

Cons:
- After collecting the few dozen color palettes, there isn't much else to do but complete the game again just for the sake of it
- Some more added music could be nice
- At least on Switch, the game has a weird feature where it always tries to connect you to the Internet for a while when booting up the game, so it can directly save your score to an online leaderboard. To my knowledge, this can't be disabled in any way, meaning that if your Internet connection is weak or you don't even have one, one of three things will happen to the game: it stays as a black screen for multiple minutes as it tries to connect, it might even softlock or then you can just expedite the process and skip the leaderboard signup by putting your Switch in Airplane Mode. Don't get me wrong, this doesn't happen that often, but when it does, it drags the experience of a quick arcade game down quite a lot

Pros:
+ The perfect Mario Kart game in almost every way
+ Easily the best when it comes to
• visuals
• ease of access (controls)
• item balancing
• stage gimmicks
• vehicle customization
• amount (and arguably also quality) of stages
• music, which is also some of the best Nintendo's made, in general
+ Nearly all of the retro tracks are direct improvements from the original
+ Most nitro tracks memorable and really interesting, some specific highlights being tracks like Mount Wario and Big Blue

+/- the fact that many antigravity sections are so fluid that you don't even recognize that you may be driving on the ceiling is simultaneously really cool but also kind of lame, as there is no huge difference to driving in those sections. The only thing I can think of is that you can get small boosts from bumping into others' antigravity tires, but otherwise the physics are identical, which is some missed potential

Cons:
- A pretty lame character roster, with it missing classics like Diddy and Funky Kong, as well as the Koopalings and baby and metallic variants of characters littering the screen. Thankfully the Booster Course Pass is bringing back interesting characters, but it'll get a review of its own when it's finished, so I won't be getting into those here
- While MK8DX does have one of the better online services out of Nintendo's games (especially at the Switch's launch), its restrictions and connection issues can still get frustrating. At least you're not massively punished for getting disconnected during a game, like you do in Splatoon
- No Metroid DLC track :(

Pros:
This remaster masterfully improves upon practically every single visual aspect of the original, as well as adds some new, very welcome tweaks and fixes.
+ Easily the best looking game on Switch, as of July 2023 (yes, better than Pikmin 4 in my opinion)
+ Insane lighting, textures, environmental effects, water physics, enhanced HUD elements and so, so much more
+ Buttery smooth and consistent 60 fps
+ Includes new control options, ranging from a beginner-friendly dual-stick setup, to the Trilogy version's motion-controlled option (my favorite!) and even the original's classic tank controls
+ Dedicated Spring Ball button from Trilogy is also back
+ While often overlooked in other reviews, I absolutely loved the change to Metroid Prime Hunters' shooting style, meaning that you always shoot 3 shots (or 1/2 if the Beam weapon is slower) before charging a Charge Shot. This means that you A. don't have to mash as frequently, and B. in compensation, Charge Shots themselves are much quicker to charge
+ Ignoring those, Metroid Prime is still the good ol' masterpiece it was over two decades ago. That can be to its benefit and to its detriment.

Cons:
- Most of the game design flaws from the original version persist. To find my thoughts on those, check out my review for Metroid Prime (2002).
- To compensate for the fact that the game has to run at a consistent 60 frames per second, it is capped at 900p in docked mode and only 612p in handheld. The difference, though - as opposed to 1080p and 720p, respectively - is genuinely so negligible that I probably never would have noticed it if I hadn't looked into it
- It's kind of a missed opportunity to not include a more accessible way to find items that you're missing. The only way to detect them (outside of directly seeing them, or scanning your surroundings) is through a tiny hum they make when you're close to the item in a room. It could've been interesting to add some scannable object to all the Pirate bases in each area to reveal that region's items' rooms, or if that's too complicated, just make that be a reward for scanning Tallon IV's planet model in the Phendrana Labs' Observatory.
- Almost no one reading this review actually cares, but it is still important to note that since this remaster is based on the Trilogy version of the game, it's missing some of the bigger speedrun glitches and exploits. It does have many others of its own, however, as it is still built upon the same engine

Pros:
A huge improvement over its predecessor in almost everything. Better...
+ control options with the new Squid Roll
+ weapon balancing
+ matchmaking and online
+ main story
+ Salmon Run stages, bosses, submodes and rewards. Really a complete overhaul of Salmon Run, as you can now also spend Scales you earn playing it in Salmon Run's own store system, and playing the mode isn't limited to a dumb schedule anymore

Splatoon 3 also adds
+ A completely new, fully interactable lobby where you can train while waiting for other players and do other fun things
+ Lots of new modes and modifiers to existing Turf War and Ranked modes
+ Tricolor Turf War, a three-team special match which you can play during Splatfests' final day
+ Tableturf Battle, a board game-like minimode where you can play specific cards to fill more space on the board than your opponent
+ A much bigger hubworld

Cons:
- One of Splatoon 3's only big misses is most of the stages' design, which has somehow degraded noticeably into samey Tetrimino-like shapes with usually very little verticality
- The first few Splatfests just had slightly modified versions of the usual stages, though the Triforce Splatfest thankfully marked a return to specifically tailored Tricolor battles at least
- Some online options are still missing, like the ability to just play specific stages with random people instead of just going through the schedule
- Big Run was slightly disappointing, as it doesn't permanently change stage layouts like many had hoped. The game mode is still fun, though, and Eggstra Work is as well!

Pros:
+ Still some of the best shooter gameplay on consoles
+ New weapon classes - especially the Dualies - are fun and interesting
+ Music, atmosphere, theming and characters are all awesome
+ Splatfest maps were amazing
+ Sound design is impeccable
+ Salmon Run is excellent and one of the most entertaining zombie/horde modes in any shooter I've played

Cons:
- Doesn't necessarily innovate so much over the original, but is just slightly better in pretty much everything
- Nintendo really insisted on the scheduled game modes - and still does in 3, though to a lesser extent - meaning that you can't even play Salmon Run a lot of the time
- Had very little side content on offer aside from the scheduled Salmon Run and a paid DLC story campaign (though from what I've heard, Octo Expansion's pretty good)
- Not much reason to go back to playing outside from challenging yourself in Octo Expansion

Pros:
+ Really unique concept for a metroidvania
+ Some good potential for speedrunning
+ Atmosphere, aesthetic and music are all on point
+ Pretty good story for a small indie game, and the cliffhanger leads well to the sequel
+ Fun and memorable characters
+ Excellent and reliable autosave system
+ Unlike its sequel, ores are a bit more randomly generated which makes subsequent playthroughs subtly different

Cons:
- Apart from the aforementioned, there isn't much interesting to say about replaying the game
- Quite short and is dragged a bit by sections where you have to manually climb back up the mines to empty out your inventory
- Due to the game being short, the upgrade system feels a bit wasted since you get quite a lot of extra money just in case you die and lose resources
- Extremely small hubworld/open-air region
- Final boss' origins aren't ever really properly explained
- Unless you're really a fan of the franchise, there's really no reason to come back to this game as its direct sequel does practically everything better. If you want to try Steamworld in general, Dig 2 and/or Heist are the best games to do that!

Pros:

+ Some of the best visual fidelity out of any Wii game
+ Concept is interesting, following Samus directly after Super Metroid but before Fusion. I think there is a story to be told there. Same with the 3D platformer perspective as opposed to the Prime games' FPA approach.
+ Combat is idiotically simplistic, but admittedly still kind of fun
+ The origin/evolutionary line the game gives for Ridley's species is absolutely excellent. I love the idea that the huge, spiky space pirate we know and love from the other games was originally a tiny, white-colored and furry Little Birdie. This minor factoid is literally the single best thing about this entire godforsaken game, and that's saying something.


Cons:

- Level and world design is repulsively bad. I'm no stranger to linear hallways in 3D Metroid games, Prime 3's my favorite Prime game after all, but the way Other M does it is especially horrid. Environments are rarely - if ever - interesting-looking, with seemingly all depth and detail having been sucked out of them. Each area in the game is basically just a circular road (with little to no crossroads) you shoot through rather than an interconnected world. It doesn't even make sense in the context of being inside a Federation research vessel. Why are all of the doors decorative instead of actual shortcuts? At least Fusion's linear areas still had interesting theming, and Prime 3 especially so. Prime 3's linearity was also alleviated with the fact that you could call your gunship to different parts of the world and cut on the backtracking. Other M's seemingly infinitely generating hallways are so bland, that you couldn't describe or discern any different traits about them without looking at the map.

- I'll mention the core upgrades later as part of the story breakdown, but the rest of the item progression is also very bad for seemingly non-story-related reasons. The specific location of Energy Tanks and Missile Upgrades are directly shown on the map so the linear hallways don't even have the benefit of fleshing them out by housing secret upgrades in interesting spots. There is almost zero reason to backtrack, ever. It's effectively not even really a metroidvania other than by name.

- For some reason, the game's director decided it would be a good idea to design the game to be played with a single horizontal Wii Remote. The outcome is as you'd expect: a game focused on fast-paced combat and precise three-dimensional movement makes you use a tiny D-Pad and three other main buttons on the controller. Yoshio Sakamoto claimed this would improve the developers' creativity in designing around the controller's limitations, but what it actually did is force the developers to make the rooms so narrow and dimensionally straightforward that you basically just keep running forwards and occasionally turning left or right. Perhaps the most hilarious part of the controls, however, is the fact that to increase your missile ammo you have to lift up your Wiimote, and to precisely aim those missiles you have to start aiming the usually horizontal Wiimote at your screen. Absolutely bafflng.

- While the combat feels fun, it's also moronically easy. You can just spam dodge moves that automatically charge your beam to full, so you're never in a bad situation except when against specific bosses with huge attacks or multiple unreachable enemies shooting projectiles.

- I mentioned earlier that the game's graphical fidelity is high. I chose those specific words, because its actual designs are dog water. The lighting and polygon count looks impressive, sure, but there is no inspiration or detail in any of the characters, environments or backgrounds. Samus' suit is one of - if not the worst - in the entire franchise, with its smooth edges, minimalistic depths and lack of any striking elements (aside from its color) making it look like a generic mecha suit from a B-tier anime from the early oughts.

- Following the uninteresting visual designs, Other M's music is also either forgettable at best or offensively bad at worst. It's so bad that Smash Ultimate didn't even bring any of its music over from Smash 4, where it was used for the Pyrosphere stage inspired by Other M.

- Other M is extremely derivative (light-to-medium spoilers incoming). It's full of fanservice, got barely any ideas of its own and even when it does, they are executed horribly. The game has a fake Ridley that fails to explain Neo Ridley's existence in Fusion (because lore accuracy was never the point, the developers just thought that they need a Ridley in the game). It has a Queen Metroid, a "Mother Brain" and even a Phantoon, just because they're bosses that people would recognize from previous Metroid games. The game even has a sequence referencing the Zero Suit Samus section from Zero Mission's ending, because the developers didn't know how to properly finish up the story. The entire game incoherently mashes up uninspired retreads of previous elements like this, trying to fill up the holes left open by its embarrassingly unengaging narrative and gameplay.

- Next are some story spoilers, which you don't have to read through, but rest assured, you would not have fun with the core gameplay of this game even if you completely ignored the horrible narrative tying it all together.


(FULL STORY SPOILERS are next, please don't scroll lower if you want to experience it for yourself, for some reason. I don't usually do this for games I review as I like to keep them spoiler-free, but so much of why Other M doesn't work is directly tied to its lore that I can't not talk about it.)

Cons regarding story:

- As mentioned above, Other M fails to create a story that follows any logic or canon, even contradicting itself during the course of the game. I'm not a person who usually cares for a deep story, but Other M fails in its narrative so incredibly badly that it - for once - actively hurts the experience of the game, and even the entire Metroid franchise in general. It's so indescribably bad, that I needed to write this entire separate section of my review.

• Firstly and worstly, Samus' characterization. It's all over the place, and definitely not consistent to this or previous games. She is written to be way more submissive, dependent on outside (male) help and generally being nothing like the silent badass she appeared as in previous or later games. Even her suit reflects this deep misunderstanding of her character: it's sleeker, presents more feminine, and is stripped of any of the general and menacing androgynous efficiency that her previous iterations exhibited. The most egregious example of the butchering of Samus' character undoubtedly comes in the form of her having a PTSD trigger attack when she sees Ridley again at roughly the midpoint of the game. This makes zero sense, and proves the developers did not care to follow any logical consistency.
Even if you only account for the 2D Metroids that occur prior to this game's story, she has met and defeated Ridley three times already. If you also want to include the more canonical Metroid Manga as well as the Prime saga that had released at the time (as you should), she's fought Ridley at least 7 times. And seen him without fighting him even more often. It makes less than zero sense that she is having a PTSD attack right now, in Other M.

• Adam isn't how he is in Fusion, either. Fusion's AI Adam is cold-hearted, calculative and logical, sure, but it's implied that's just because he's a computer. He softens at the end of that game and Samus also describes him as a caring commander when she still worked for him directly. But not in Other M.
The Adam players see in Other M is not the same person. He's rude, commanding, unimpressive as a role model and even genuinely stupid. He exhibits none of the traits Samus gushed over in Fusion. I wouldn't even have a problem with Samus idolizing Adam in this game if he actually reflected the description that Samus gave of him, but he's just not a likeable character. Not even in a flawed, Tony Stark-like way.

• The biggest issue about Adam also relates to one of the biggest issues with the entire game: the upgrade authorization system. With respect to the developers, they actually tried to explain why Samus loses all of his upgrades at the beginning of every game. Too bad their explanation is horrible, and the lore is genuinely better off without it. Samus apparently has all of her upgrades already downloaded onto her suit or something, but she chooses not to use them. When we meet her at the beginning of the game, she's using her Power Suit for some reason. This makes zero sense if she was just flying around alone, then being summoned to the Federation's ship. When Samus meets Adam, she's ordered not to use her upgrades, for... vague, incomprehensible non-reasons. Adam says he'll only "authorize" certain upgrades if Samus seems to need them and he feels like being nice. My three favorite, worst examples of this authorization system in action go as follows:
1: Samus is in Pyrosphere, an area of the huge ship with a dangerously hot climate. She's been in the insulated areas for now, so it hasn't been a problem, but she could've already received her Varia Suit earlier to protect her from possible heat attacks, but isn't given it earlier for whatever reason. The point where she's "authorized" to use a life-saving suit modification is when a monster destroys the tube she's running through and she's already in a molten environment. Adam sees Samus' health already getting drained by the elements and at that point chooses to allow Samus use the Varia Suit.
2: In another part, in Cryosphere, Samus is trapped in a glass box by her enemies. These enemies can shoot her through the box's walls, but Samus can't shoot back to disable the trap. Only after multiple seconds of evading attacks does Samus finally get authorization to use the Wave Beam so she can shoot the enemies through walls. Amazing.
3: Finally, close to the end of the game, Samus is about to fly out of a vacuum hatch in the ship, literally being meters away from getting sucked out into outer space. Adam is unresponsive in her pleas to authorize the Gravity Suit, so she activates the suit upgrade herself. Samus has had the ability to authorize the upgrades herself all this time, but chose to threaten her own life to enable Adam's weird and idiotic power fantasy.

• The main villain of the game is Mother Brain, or Melissa Bergman, or "MB". She's the titular "Other M" in the title, as in another M, another Mother Brain. I know, very clever. Apparently the Galactic Federation preserved a version of the original Mother Brain as a human scientist, who then went rogue on the Bottle Ship and employed all of the different enemies to attack the Federation so MB could take escape and take control of the Metroids once again. To accomplish this, she changed her name to Melissa Bergman (maintaining her initials for whatever reason) and blended in with the scientists so she could enact her plan. Unfortunately for her, she was caught. Now, if this plan and character sounds idiotic to you, rest assured, it is.

• All of the supporting side characters are also mostly very bland and uninteresting. The game has no real deep themes to be had, despite seeing itself as a serious piece of media. For whatever reason, the developers actually thought this material was good enough to warrant a "Movie Mode" in the game, which just plays all of the game's cutscenes in order.

• Most of the dialogue is simplistic, thesaurus-filled fluff. The director doesn't know how to write believable characters, so half the time Samus is just monologuing about how the baby Metroid saved her at the end of Super Metroid.


TL;DR, don't play this game. Trust others when they tell you it's bad. Sometimes your psychological wellbeing has to go above the principle of playing a game before criticizing it.

Pros:
+ Nice little party game to play with friends
+ Lots of customizability and easily joinable public lobbies
+ Good sound design
+ A great team working on all the updates and adding meaningful and/or requested stuff in each one (take notes, Mojang)
+ One of the only videogames you can successfully play with more than 8 friends at a time
+ One-of-a-kind concept
+ The new item boxes are fun to 100%
+ The Switch version has some really good controls for the crewmate tasks

Cons:
- Just not that engaging after a while, doesn’t really speak to me that much anymore even though I recognize the novelty
- No side content aside from the main game, which is acceptable on the free mobile version but not so much on the others
- While it’s nice to have the option of customizability, it’s also a kind of barrier to entry to figure out the rules each time someone wants to change them when you’d really just want to play and get it over with
- Only really fun enough with real friends

Pros:
+ Literally the only turn-based RTS I’ve ever been interested in trying, and it was worth it
+ Great gameplay, the movement and overall experience is way more fast-paced and filled with different unique options than you would expect from a turn-based game
+ Really fun characters and world
+ Lots of different weapons and cosmetic hats to collect
+ Simple fun while still being really challenging at times
+ One of the best OSTs in a game I’ve ever heard, having been composed by steampunk band Steam Powered Giraffe (and you can even find them in-game in the space bars!)
+ After playing SteamWorld Dig 2 a few years earlier, its events directly and faithfully lead to this game and I wasn’t disappointed

Cons:
- So short for its genre :( only around 20-25 hours even if you 100% the game
- New Game+ doesn’t change the game substantially enough
- While it’s great that most levels are procedurally generated, they could have more different themes. They’re effectively all just differently colored spaceships with some different hazards. Maybe there could be one where a station is built on an asteroid, for example?

Pros:
+ Pretty fun with both pro and casual players alike, even years later
+ Surprisingly deep strategizing and gameplay
+ Great stages
+ Solid music
+ Decent story mode with some fun bosses (except the second-to-last one is absolute bull with its weak points and downtime duration)
+ Konami’s other Special-class characters add some interesting variety
+ Lots to unlock from stages to accessories for your characters

Cons:
- It was 50€ at launch 💀💀💀
- Not that fun alone
- Money takes forever to grind even with the fastest strategies. It should’ve been rewarded from matches depending on how long they last so you got more of it passively while playing with friends, for example
- Can get boring pretty quick if you don’t switch between other party games