Gortiamas
What happens when you remake a middling game? A really wonderful second chance at a story.
Although they're not all apparent until the final act of Journey Into Lost Memories, the parallels between the characters and stories in both halves of this pair of stories are fascinating, and I encourage people to play this game just to get these characters and their experiences into their heads.
While the actual gameplay in this collection is just serviceable, the writing can feel awkward at times, and the voice acting wavers in quality, I loved my time with these games. To borrow common parlance, the vibes were on-point. I loved all of the character descriptions and their gradual updates throughout each story, I enjoyed the newly-developed puzzles, and I liked most of the character redesigns (although I kind of wish Ashley's dad hadn't received such a drastic change). Really just a great experience with plenty of likable characters and decent production value (at least outside of grassy fields). I pray for Hotel Dusk and Last Window to get similar treatment, and I also hope they'll do a great job of preserving those games' rotoscoped art style.
Although they're not all apparent until the final act of Journey Into Lost Memories, the parallels between the characters and stories in both halves of this pair of stories are fascinating, and I encourage people to play this game just to get these characters and their experiences into their heads.
While the actual gameplay in this collection is just serviceable, the writing can feel awkward at times, and the voice acting wavers in quality, I loved my time with these games. To borrow common parlance, the vibes were on-point. I loved all of the character descriptions and their gradual updates throughout each story, I enjoyed the newly-developed puzzles, and I liked most of the character redesigns (although I kind of wish Ashley's dad hadn't received such a drastic change). Really just a great experience with plenty of likable characters and decent production value (at least outside of grassy fields). I pray for Hotel Dusk and Last Window to get similar treatment, and I also hope they'll do a great job of preserving those games' rotoscoped art style.
2023
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Undertale Yellow. A great effort by a devoted team of fans.
2022
I had a great time ruthlessly destroying my friend for half an hour over the span of a week.
Really enjoyable open world, but it's missing a certain something from the originals.
2014
These are a lot more fun as a small part of the game.
2018
Been playing this on-and-off for the past few months with a friend. Fun in short bursts, but it gets pretty repetitive and playing the dominant strategy is mind-numbing.
I hated the introduction of this game to the point that it killed my interest in the rest of the experience.
2011
It's Minecraft. Even 12 years later and after countless worlds with myriad groups of friends, I still love it, all the time we've spent together, and all of the memories we've made with one another in it.
Gave this game another try since I could get it for a song, but I came away feeling much the same as I did the first time I played it. Return to Dream Land is the game that started Modern Kirby's descent into mediocrity. It has all of the problems of Triple Deluxe, Planet Robobot, and Star Allies, but they're not as pronounced.
My major issues with the game were:
1. Kirby feels really stiff. It's amazing how SLOW Kirby is in this game. Coming to this after the GBA or DS titles and feeling how rigid the controls are is just disappointing. It's like going from an SNES game to an NES game.
2. Some collectibles are placed in such a way as to force you to retry the room entirely (by throwing yourself at minor enemies) or even the level (if you need to bring a certain copy ability which is only in the previous room).
3. You have very little freedom in which copy abilities you can carry with you through the game if you want to collect every gear. If you see a miniboss, you'd better take that power, because 19/20 times, you're going to need it in the next room. If you see a mega ability, you'd better take it. It's the only way into the void where the doomers lie.
4. This might be controversial, but I feel like many of the copy abilities are a little too strong- both in terms of damage numbers and hitboxes. I would like it more if more abilities required you to play in different ways. As it stands, you usually just stand about one Kirby length away from a boss and spam your standard attack (or up attack in the case of flying bosses) to handle them quickly.
5. Finally, I don't like the trend of mid-level transformation abilities that the Kirby team have been so big on since Epic Yarn. They're overly-gimmicky and wind up leaving very little replay value. The saving grace for this game's implementation versus other Kirby games in the past 13 years, is that you're able to skip the power-up if you want, and that gives you something of an alternate route through a stage, but they're always inferior afterthoughts.
At least the music's good and the art is cute.
Although what did they do to Dedede? I think they need to hunt for another design. The original wasn't great, but this one is just weird.
My major issues with the game were:
1. Kirby feels really stiff. It's amazing how SLOW Kirby is in this game. Coming to this after the GBA or DS titles and feeling how rigid the controls are is just disappointing. It's like going from an SNES game to an NES game.
2. Some collectibles are placed in such a way as to force you to retry the room entirely (by throwing yourself at minor enemies) or even the level (if you need to bring a certain copy ability which is only in the previous room).
3. You have very little freedom in which copy abilities you can carry with you through the game if you want to collect every gear. If you see a miniboss, you'd better take that power, because 19/20 times, you're going to need it in the next room. If you see a mega ability, you'd better take it. It's the only way into the void where the doomers lie.
4. This might be controversial, but I feel like many of the copy abilities are a little too strong- both in terms of damage numbers and hitboxes. I would like it more if more abilities required you to play in different ways. As it stands, you usually just stand about one Kirby length away from a boss and spam your standard attack (or up attack in the case of flying bosses) to handle them quickly.
5. Finally, I don't like the trend of mid-level transformation abilities that the Kirby team have been so big on since Epic Yarn. They're overly-gimmicky and wind up leaving very little replay value. The saving grace for this game's implementation versus other Kirby games in the past 13 years, is that you're able to skip the power-up if you want, and that gives you something of an alternate route through a stage, but they're always inferior afterthoughts.
At least the music's good and the art is cute.
Although what did they do to Dedede? I think they need to hunt for another design. The original wasn't great, but this one is just weird.
2023
Such a fantastic remake, and one with so much character! I just wish that there were more of it. The game is chock-full of tiny events, but it still feels so small.
The Talos Principle 2 is a game which begs you to abandon cynicism. It desperately wants you to take a chance and believe in humanity and what we can do when we work together. While its story is much more one-sided in its presentation than the first Talos Principle, ought it not to be? It's only through cooperation and trust in others that this game, let alone our great technologies and cities came to be.
Though I was disappointed by the dearth of easter eggs in this game and thought the puzzles trended easier than the first game, I still had a great time playing through it and taking in the magnificent, digital vistas of the island while engaging in conversation with the superbly voice-acted members of my expedition & New Jerusalem.
While I don't think The Talos Principle 2 achieves the greatness of the first game, it is still a wonderful experience which urges the player to truly think about the themes, situation, and argument at play, and I love it for that reason. While many of The Talos Principle 1's debates were extremely well-realized in the form of text messages with Milton, in this game, I found myself repeatedly arguing with myself, even when not playing the game, about what it was that I believed and which way I should direct the future when the critical moment came to pass. I think that speaks volumes about how much The Talos Principle 2 gets you to ponder about "the big questions" if you engage with it, and I really appreciate it for that.
Though I was disappointed by the dearth of easter eggs in this game and thought the puzzles trended easier than the first game, I still had a great time playing through it and taking in the magnificent, digital vistas of the island while engaging in conversation with the superbly voice-acted members of my expedition & New Jerusalem.
While I don't think The Talos Principle 2 achieves the greatness of the first game, it is still a wonderful experience which urges the player to truly think about the themes, situation, and argument at play, and I love it for that reason. While many of The Talos Principle 1's debates were extremely well-realized in the form of text messages with Milton, in this game, I found myself repeatedly arguing with myself, even when not playing the game, about what it was that I believed and which way I should direct the future when the critical moment came to pass. I think that speaks volumes about how much The Talos Principle 2 gets you to ponder about "the big questions" if you engage with it, and I really appreciate it for that.
2004
It's like having your teeth pulled. Only fun if you're a masochist. But at least you can keep the piece of yourself that you lose in a jar.
This game really rocked my socks! First beat-em-up I've ever really liked, if I'm being honest. The RPG mechanics really helped me to stay engaged and I loved the soundtrack by Anamanaguchi. There are a lot of cheap hits and some obnoxious bits of platforming due to the perspective and controls, but they never really impacted my enjoyment of the game. I just wish your characters' movesets were the slightest bit more fleshed out at the start of the game. You're basically slapping the same buttons over and over for the first quarter of the game.
I played through as Kim for my first time, and I'm looking forward to playing it again as another character. Maybe Wallace or Knives next.
I played through as Kim for my first time, and I'm looking forward to playing it again as another character. Maybe Wallace or Knives next.
Woo baby, that's the best 2D Mario of this century!
One of the best Mario games. Everyone talks about the art and the music but nobody talks about the mechanics! It's so much fun to have to negotiate around the intricacies of how every enemy interacts with Yoshi's eggs & his various states. The physics are also to die for- that level with the spinning logs where you can launch yourself into the air? And they give your flutter jump the boost that you get from landing on an enemy? Just brilliant. So much control is given to the player via slightly obtuse moves and controls, which allows for a lot more evolution in play style & therefore expression of player skill than you would usually see in a Mario game. Just a great time from start to finish.
My only gripe with the game is the method for unlocking the bonus levels in each world. Having to find every red coin is a slog. I think needing to get 90 points per level (or 700/800 or whatever threshold that isn't all-level perfection) would have been a much better choice and allowed more lenient routing for some of the more labyrinthine levels.
Glad I finally got around to beating this one.
My only gripe with the game is the method for unlocking the bonus levels in each world. Having to find every red coin is a slog. I think needing to get 90 points per level (or 700/800 or whatever threshold that isn't all-level perfection) would have been a much better choice and allowed more lenient routing for some of the more labyrinthine levels.
Glad I finally got around to beating this one.