I am a sucker for 3D platformers. I adore them, eat them up, and Sackboy: A Big Adventure feels like a combination of all the last 14 years of platformers crammed into one game.

This game looks beautiful. When I originally got it on PS4 it blew my mind how real it looked (I got it alongside Doom Eternal so it should’ve been the other way around but somehow it wasn’t lol). The locations look beautiful and while the art direction is nothing that noteworthy unlike the original Little Big Planet trilogy it’s still pretty. They were going for a different thing compared to the original games and I’d say it works.

The controls feel great, I genuinely don't understand where people are coming from when they say they're bad. Sackboy controls perfectly and it's fun to just fuck around with his move set.

The customisation for him is also very expansive which is in line with the rest of the little big planet games. I made some of the coolest outfits I've seen in a game, alongside some outfits that would violate the Geneva convention because they look so bad (gotta keep my childhood tradition of making awful outfits alive). Having Zoom Zooms come back was also dope, overall customisation is standard with the rest of the franchise, which means it's great.

The level design is good as well. There's no time where I felt it was unfair or bullshit but also no real draw dropping levels. The music levels were dope though. The abilities you get are fine, but honestly they're nothing special. Special stages were decent though and I liked the Knitted Knight trials, they were cleverly designed (especially the one where you have to run away from the finish line) and were challenging to beat.

They gave Sackboy a voice for some reason, I don't know why. I preferred in the previous games when he was speechless and it would be cheaper to just have him be voiceless but no. Did you know in the credits there's like 4 people voicing him? I suppose that's one for each player but I don't know. I'm not complaining, I just think it's an odd change.

The multiplayer in this game is AHHHHHHNHHHHHHH- I mean it's entertaining. This game is targeted towards kids so obviously online would be filled with them but playing online was pretty funny. I was in a full lobby trying to do this one level when some 7 year old kept on griefing me and another one kept dropping the thing needed to progress. I was just rage laughing? (I guess that's the term, I mean laughing because of how everything's going wrong, that's what I'm trying to describe, idk if there's a word for it). Overall you can’t really complain about the online for being as it is, kids will be kids and that’s a good thing.

Overall this game is actually great. I enjoyed it a lot and would definitely consider getting the platinum for it. I don’t get why people hate this game, sure it’s not a Little Big Planet game but it’s not trying to be one, instead it’s just trying to be a competent 3D platformer which it succeeds massively at.

System Shock 2 is bullshit. It has bad design, too little resources for the player to survive and a story that the player is discouraged to learn about. System Shock 2 is a masterpiece. It has some of the most revolutionary in a game I've ever seen, terrifying moments that feel like you're bearly getting by with what you have an atmosphere and monster design that's genuinely terrifying and makes the player want to learn more about the story and world. This game is so weird, so counterintuitive that I think it's THE BEST horror game ever made.

I didn't know this game was a horror game going in. I thought it would be more like the first Bioshock where there are horror elements and does have a lot of dark subject matter but doesn't try to scare the player with it. I was wrong. I was so fucking wrong. When you're in that one section on the cargo bay and those robot things start running up to you and chasing you I was genuinely scared shitless, it then hit me that this game was a straight up horror game. This moment was topped by others like when I was being chased down by a few creatures and I turned to my left and there was a rumbler colliding right into me that came out of nowhere. That genuinely made me pause the game and go "yeah I think I had enough for tonight". Or the second last chapter of the game, that part is disgusting and gross and I fucking adore it. The horror in this game is so good, which is helped by the monster design. To the lifeless pounds of flesh of the rumbler to the soulless eyes of the midwife's nearly all the designs are unsettling and scared me shitless while playing. This is helped by the absolutely phenomenal environment design. Literally since the second I started my playthrough all the way to the end it felt like I was in the abandoned and eire halls of the Von Braun. It's genuinely the most immersed I've felt in a game, which is crazy because this game looks like an N64 game. I'm not one that thinks graphics can determine a games quality or are that important, but I did think before playing this game that realistic graphics are required to make a game immersive. I was wrong, and I'm so happy I was. I love that this game looks like an N64 game, it give is so much charm and actually helps with the horror. I personally don't like this wave of horror games with N64/PS1 graphics that's been going on as I think that just mixing nostalgia with horror isn't scary, but this game proved that you can just make a game that will scare you shitless via good enemy design and other clever game design elements that also looks like (well in this case more or less is) a N64/PS1 game 21 years before that whole craze went off, I just wish more game developers went back and played this game to understand that.

This immersion and horror is helped in part by the game design. There is no pausing in System Shock 2, everything your character does is in-game, and that's terrifying. You ALWAYS have your guard up whether that's to heal, research something or to listen to audio logs. Enemy spawning is often unpredictable. I remember I was in the engineering deck and out of nowhere a cyborg midwife spawned it and it genuinely made me jump, but on the other hand the enemy spawning can be unfair, sometimes the game just goes "you know what fuck you were spawning in 10 rumblers and if you don't like that you can suck my dick". Having the game spawn in hoards of enemies like this is scary but ultimately unfair and sometimes left me more disheartened than scared. Another thing that left me this way is with resources. Resources are scarce in System Shock 2, but too scarce. It's hard to find stuff to heal with and ammo and nanites is limited. I remember once I got bit by a spider and I had to run back two decks just so I could kill some hybrid so I could die to get revived without a toxin level because I had no detox patch. This lack of resources led to me cheating during the final 3 ish parts of the game by using the console, by the time I was done the phrase "summon_obj medical kit" was practically muscle memory lol.

Remember earlier I said that you had to listen to the audio logs in game and you could pause the game to listen to them? Well I think that's a MASSIVE flaw. Since this game is a survival horror game you have to keep alert at all times, so by having the audio logs only being listenable in game it does keep the immersion but at the cost of actually listening to them. Usually when I try to I get caught up either fighting off an enemy of there's some really loud thing going on that makes me have to read the thing instead of listen to it. Don't get me wrong, I love the story of this game, it's disturbing and disgusting and all that jazz, but I think the game trades off having a story that's easy to get into for immersive design, which is a shame because whenever I could actually listen to what's happening I felt more immersed in the story.

The music of this game is weird. It starts with this breakcore cyberpunk esque sound before halfway through the game they must've ran out of money or something and decided to stop making music. I guess it could be to help with the immersion but honestly why have music in the first place? The music that's in the game goes hard though.

The ending is a masterpiece. 'Nah" has to be the funniest line I've seen in a game, and the goofy ahh Photoshop edits they had on shodan made me loose my shit. Aged like a fine wine. Also the credits are adorable and should've played after the final cutscene instead of just booting you back to the main menu.

Overall, System Shock 2 is a masterpiece held back by some questionable design decisions. If this game got a remake like the first one that tweaked or changed some design elements I think people would rediscover it and say "Damn, this game is a masterpiece."

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a fine game. It looks good, plays well and has no glitches but it's overrated as hell.

[Also note I haven't played the original game so this review is from the perspective of someone who had only played remake and knows nothing else about the ff7 lore or whatever.]

Combat is fine, it's very simplistic and
you can usually get by by spamming square and ATB moves. There were a few instances where I had to strategize what to do and character placement to win but that was few a far between.

Midgar is probably one of the most distinct cities I've ever seen in a game though. I love the blue and cyan/green look of the city and how the city is designed. The city and its world building are pretty well done and concepts like mako and the running of Shinra are done really well. The only game I've seen out do it is probably the Bioshocks and System Shock 2, but i am irrational games biggest meat rider so that's to be expected lol. They should just make a game where you can drive around midgar and interact with things.

The characters are fine. None of them are written as real people and instead feel like tropes. Cloud is written to act like an emo teenage boy, Barret is written as a hothead turned dumbass, Wedge is written as the obligatory fat guy that loves food. This way of writing characters technically works (although some of the dialogue made me cringe for lack of a better word), but I much prefer when characters are written as real people that act realistically.

The character design is weird. The main and secondary characters have distinct outfits and are highly detailed, but the NPC's just wear normal clothes which creates a weird whiplash between the culture of midgar. Don't get me wrong some of them work and feel natural, but others (COUGH COUGH TIFA COUGH COUGH) just look like eye sores.

The story is also fine. It has its moments and I'd say 95% of the things that happen aren't filler but there's little to no impact on the characters which is weird. Sure, a few of them die but that doesn't move any of them or make them grieve. The closest there is is when sector 7 gets RKO'd but after that's all said and done the destruction of Seventh Heaven is mostly forgotten. I think the story's at it's best when it embraces the absurdity of its writing (that one part where you're on a motorbike with Jessie and that guy on the motorbike comes in was fucking stupid and probably the best thing in the whole game) or slows down to reveal things about it's characters and so you can take in the environment of midgar. I also think certain elements of it are clever like having Areith being able to communicate with the spirits in mako.

Overall Final Fantasy 7 remake is a fine game, I like it's worldbuilding and it was entertaining, but it's not anything that special outside of that.

Back in the year 2018 this game was in PS Plus. Being one of the only games that wasn't rated above 16 young me decided to redeem it and add it to my library. I got up to the desert level where then I stopped playing it, I forget why, probably was grinding fortnite lol.

But this year I decided that I was going to clear 50% of my backlog, so I decided to give this game another playthrough and by god this game is a hidden gem.

The characters of this game are engaging. I cared for everyone in the cast and was invested in all of the plot twists and story beats that happened with them. I loved the dynamic between Mina and Elro. Agent Black was a good antagonist to the story and the twist that happens on the rocket is honestly heartbreaking and adds a lot of depth to her character. I loved Elro as well, the part where you have to fight the ivory infused bosses and having Elros being more or less a representation him killing what his old life philosophy was sent shivers down my spine.

The story is great as well. It's very character driven which is a personal preference and everything feels like it serves a purpose. I adore the lore of this world. How the One Concern run the place, how they take people and put them in ivory chambers to create superhumans built to serve them, how they raid the pirates for their natural resources, it's incredibly interesting and downright disturbing at times keeps me engaged with the plot.

The gameplay is great. Robin controls really well which is more than I can say about some other games (COUGH COUGH HOLLOW KNIGHT COUGH COUGH). It's satisfying to ground pow on enemies and to use the guns the game gives you. I adore that one gun that lets you switch places with objects or enemies. It feels like a mechanic that would be perfect for a portal type puzzle game and everytime you use it in Iconoclasts you feel like Albert Einstein, it's great stuff. The world design is great as well, I think I only got once once or twice which is amazing as I usually get lost quite a bit in Metroidvanias. The puzzles are great as well, they're all fairly clever and I don't think I had to search up any answers which is kek. I adore the bossfights, especially the ones against agent Black, the ones against him feel so impactful and emotional they're genuinely fantastic. Overall the gameplay is really solid and fun to play (except for that one stealth section, fuck that one stealth section)

The music is also great. I find the quiet tracks to be the best ones (tbh I think it might just be the nostalgia talking lol) but it sounds great.

Overall Iconoclasts is an absolute hidden gem of a Metroidvania. If you are even a remote fan of the genre I would 100% recommend it. It's emotional, horrific and has A LOT of subtext. Great game, please play.

You know those Scratch games people make where they convert other games into 2D platformers? Well this game feels like a really good one of them.

The gameplay is basically a regular 2D Mario game with a paper Mario flair to it. You use partners for different abilities, items can heal you and damage enemies if you do the minigames attached to them and you can rack up combos by jumping on enemies heads. It's fun to play but it's not as interesting as other platformers like Celeste or Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze. The only thing that carries the average and at times annoying level design is the locations and characters. Every world is a unique place with different memorable characters. It's the writing of these worlds and overall and how the characters act and behave that save this game from being mediocre.

The story is good as well. It's not like god tier storytelling or anything but the writing is fun and makes you care for the characters. I love the ending and how it all culminates together in this big finale where everyone is involved. It's not as funny as the other Paper Mario games but it is charming.

Flipside goes so hard. I am an absolute sucker for games with a expansive hubworld set in a small town (very specific, I know) and flipside doesn't disappoint. It feels like everywhere you go there's people to talk to or secrets to find and it's all do fun to explore and see what's there. Also finding flopside was probably one of the coolest moments I've had exploring a hubworld, period. Definitely a highlight from the game, I wish the newer Paper Mario games brought back the style of hubworld from Super Paper Mario and TTYD.

I fucking hate the sound that plays when you're near death though. The ERER ERER sound. Whenever I hear it I want to pick up my Wiimote and aggressively slam it against the TV. I can't fucking stand it it's so annoying AHHHHHHNHHHHHHH.

Music is good as well, it's not as good as Origami King's soundtrack but I like it a lot. Especially the final boss theme.

Overall, Super Paper Mario is an average platformer carried by the elements it takes from the Paper Mario series. Imagine if this game was made after Miyamoto went all "PAPER MARIO NEEDS TO BE GENERIC". People would despise it so much.