Fury Bowser is an interesting concept. It isn't one that I wouldn't want to see carried over for an entire game, but I can see one act of the next Mario title featuring a similar system.

I do hope that the next Mario game does attempt to refine the structure found here. Placing linear stages inside of an open area is really cool! I just think that it requires better levels! The ones found here are mainly ok, but some are underwhelming, and none of them hold up to the repetitions that this game asks for.

Super Mario 3D World's greatest strength is it's consistency. When I think back, it very well may be the most absurdly consistent game, taking into account it's quality and length. That doesn't sound like an exciting strength, but when it's applied to the level design of a platformer, it's incredible.

Not including side stages (Captain Toad and enemy blockades mostly) this game has 93 levels. Somehow, the level designers managed to make every single one of them good. They are all fun to play through, have unique mechanics, and develops those mechanics well.

That is insane.
Absolutely insane.

The only criticism I have is the theming. To me, strong theming is what takes a great platformer and turns it into an all timer. It isn't enough to make a good one all on it's own, but it can act as the final push. 3D World follows in line with most Mario games of the time in having pretty standard themes. It's not terrible, there are some unique ideas here. However it means that I view 3D World as more of a great pack of levels, rather than a full cohesive package.

(Played via the Switch port)

Signalis is immaculate in it's presentation. I was so floored by the first room in the demo during steam next fest, that I immediately closed the game so I could save the entire game for it's full release. Hallways are dripping with atmosphere, the lonely dark corners of this game's locations begging for exploration.

It's a surprisingly long game too, not in terms of length, but in distinct chunks of content. I assumed that one segment was the final one, but it was followed up with another full stage. Well worth the time!

The premise for Rollerdrome is absurd on the surface, but it is actually incredibly indicative of the game's design philosophy.

Rollerdrome, simply, is the most unique interpretation of the movement shooter that we've seen yet. Where most games in the subgenre (Doom Eternal, Quake, Ultrakill, etc.) rely upon similar modes of transport, Rollerdrome flips the script. Instead of iterating and expanding upon FPS controls (a movement shooter), it brings shooting to the base of skating games (a movement shooter).

The entire game is so tightly designed from start to finish, and you can see all it has to offer within a few hours. The game then leaves the decision on whether to push the combat to it's limits up to the player. It's a killer game in every way.

Halo 3 brings a unique innovation to the Halo series, consistently engaging level design! Halo has always nailed the combat design, but now the full game is actually fun to play!

Even the flood is cool now! The FLOOD! Easily my favorite so far.

I honestly wasn't loving the middle chunk of this game. The tanker was fun, but for the majority of the plant I wasn't really feeling it. Once you hit the final segment of the game though?

Oh man.

Oooooooohhhhh man dude, easily one of the best final segments ever. I get it now.

(Played via the HD version on PS3)

Ragnarok improves upon the 2018 game in a lot of really strong ways. Enemy variety is way more pronounced, loot rarity has been removed so that the RPG mechanics are allowed to breathe, and the plot has a stronger forward momentum.

However, this only goes to show how the foundation that this game was built upon was rough. The combat is better, but the camera is still a constant issue. In most cases, I found it to actually be worse than in 2018. Additionally, the games lack of any meaningful gameplay outside of combat makes the campaign much harder to fully experience. Eventually I just got bored and turned down the difficulty from hard to normal.

All in all, this games achievements outnumber it's missteps. I'm sure that part of my struggle of finishing this game was because I started near immediately after replaying the first. In the end though, I think it was worth the time I spent with it.

I was repeatedly told that playing through this on heroic would be a mistake. "No worries, I played Halo: Combat Evolved on heroic! I'll be fine," I said, unaware of the cosmic horrors that would await me inside. However, despite my hardship I have navigated through the valley of death, and I have achieved inner clarity.

Playing this on heroic was a mistake.

(Played via anniversary on the Master Chief Collection)

Sifu definitely has it's issues, but it's a game that I ultimately had a great time with. You can read about most of the common issues in any other review of the game, the progression is underwhelming, the camera has issues, etcetera.

However, one thing that I wanted to highlight that really stood out to me was the games presentation. Sifu is visually gorgeous. I love how the game plays with color, each stage having a very distinct color scheme that it play around with. The stages also have wonderful set design. I think that the museum stage is absolutely the standout.

Just a great time overall.

I had a feeling that I would enjoy this, and it turns out that I was right! Tunic is a wonderful experience, and its quality seeps into every fiber of the game.

The combat has seen a good deal of criticism, and I honestly didn't really have any issues with it. I really enjoyed how the enemies and bosses pushed me to use all the items that I had access to, and practicing good spacing so that I didn't waste any stamina on blocks and dodges was also fun.

The manual is absolutely the star of the show. It takes a really good adventure game and turns it into something really special. The entire game feels extremely well considered, one discovery I made in the late game made me entirely reconsider the structure of the game, and how linear it actually was.

I'm going to be thinking about this one for a long time.