I guess 90s RPGs are just built different, I think the RPG boomers are on to something with this one
Of the very few Final Fantasy games I've played, this is undoubtedly one of my new favorites; I can definitely see why the fandom flocks to this one when trying to call FF7 overrated. It just gets so much right. It's got a very engrossing story, an interesting world, charming characters, engaging character progression and party building, super variant party diversity, deep and fun exploration, simple yet effective combat; this game has it all, and it's easy to see why this game gets the sheer love it does.
The two biggest knocks against it are, One: How dated it is; this game definitely feels like a 90s game, complete with extremely cryptic side, and even main, quests that only a walkthrough would know on their first try, and a deadly allergy to quality of life features that many modern RPGs have, beyond boosting resource gain and auto-battling to cut down on grinding, because it's a remaster, and remasters of old RPGs really need that stuff (looking at you, FF10). Two: how braindead easy it is, the entire way through. I never once struggled in this game unless I was actively handicapping myself, and frequently hit the damage cap on most attacks late in the game, despite being deliberately underleveled because of how little I was struggling. While it does cut down a lot on time spent grinding, it comes at the cost of making 90% of the boss fights super anticlimactic because they just die in 5 or so hits; the few that don't are either super frustrating (I hate the Magic Master holy shit), or are, you know, the final boss.

Pulled all the way through this time after initially running out of steam around world 6 about a year ago. The fundamental gameplay alone is certainly a home run, but the playful music and atmosphere further enhance things and give the game an oddly comforting and familiar feel for me. It might be that it's very reminiscent of games I'd download free trials for off Nick Arcade as a little kid (such as SpongeBob SquarePants Obstacle Odyssey). Either way, really good stuff all around. I can see myself coming back to this several times in the future.

It's not without its hiccups, though. Launchers and Arthropod, for example, are insanely egregious and difficult for the first half of the game's standards, creating a really weird bump in the otherwise smooth, steady difficulty curve. Similarly, in the last world in Story Mode the design philosophy completely changes and noticeably becomes totally obtuse. They're not even necessarily harder than the levels in the previous two worlds, but it's a very jarring shift that doesn't really result in any enjoyable levels out of those last ten.

Would very strongly recommend this game, but definitely don't let your guard down. It gets a lot harder than it initially lets on.

This was the cooler one out of these two games when I was a kid, but coming back to both I enjoyed it less than the first. It's definitely easier, which is good for kids I suppose, and I can't really say if it's an improvement or detractor honestly. The character models are also markedly better, and there's more levels overall. However, many levels are just reused from the first game, and the new levels are not particularly engaging at all. Music is also weaker, sound effects are frankly terrible.

The Monkey Ball-esque aesthetic is done away with here to make way for the time travel theme, but it definitely doesn't look as nice in my opinion. The "Beginning of Time" levels have this sand texture which just looks more like a shitty carpet than anything, and while the Middle Ages and Future levels look better, they're still rather bland compared to the original's vibrant colors.

Still passable overall. If my experience is anything to go by, then it's great for kids. Or, was, at least. Sites like Nick Arcade and Shockwave aren't super viable anymore these days from the looks of it, with the latter being totally gone outside of Wayback Machine and such. I suppose it makes sense, with the huge shift over to kids' mobile games in the 2010s, but you don't really see stuff like this now and it's kind of unfortunate. Maybe it's the nostalgia talking? Who knows.

played with C_F via fightcade

Pretty mediocre, really. We fed so many credits that I don't think I ever really grasped what was taking place, similar to Konami's TMNT game the previous year. I did feel that the controls were quite limited, and the sfx were a little grating (especially on death, which happened a lot). Looks quite nice for the time, though.

Either way, as a whole Aliens doesn't deliver much and gets beaten out hardcore by some of Konami's other run and guns. It's quite hard not to notice with the masterful Sunset Riders releasing only a year after, but in addition the already existing Contra ports for home consoles were much more enjoyable as well.

I read somewhere that this was slated for a Genesis release in 1991, but it failed to materialize. Probably would have felt redundant anyway with Alien Storm releasing for the console that same year. I would definitely replay Alien Storm over this.

Really don't like his tongue on the box art here. Is it usually colored green? Put that thing away.

The game itself isn't so great either. Looks really garish and it's hard to ease into due to Hulk's predictably sized hitbox in tandem with irritating enemy placement. The music is pretty funky though, not very fitting but definitely one of the more memorable aspects. Certainly doesn't carry the game up any notches though, and thus it is still thoroughly subpar.

Here's what Spider-Man would look like running on a Game Boy Color!
Now we wish we had a handheld version of Spider-Man...

"I was the lead programmer on this game. Man, those fucking birds. I am very sorry."
-Matthew Conte

Zombies Ate My Neighbors basically had me at the end of my rope yesterday. I was annoyed about ditching it so close to the finish line but I really don't think I could take anymore. Instead of taking a break like a normal person would and should, I figured I should replay something I know I enjoyed, and it turned out I played the first Donkey Kong Country so long ago (january 2021) that the ROM wasn't even on my current computer. My memory was hazy, it was on the GDQ schedule, and I figured now would be a good time to check it out again.

I think I appreciate it more this time. It's got bad screen crunch at times, the bosses are humdrum (all of them), and a lot of enemy models aren't near as appealing as the more detailed ones like Donkey's and Diddy's, but that's really all I can think of for negatives. It's a lot more fun than I remember and also a lot better looking than I remember, and with greater knowledge of the SNES library than I had three years ago, I can now further appreciate its significance both overall and for the time.

The soundtrack remains the true highlight in my opinion, though. Everybody loves Aquatic Ambience of course, seriously incredible for a game OST back then, but my personal favorite makes its debut a few stages later, in the form of Life in the Mines. I have a lot of silly memories relating to Simian Segue as well due to its inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which I owned as a kid and made lots of joke levels in the stage builder with my brother that used aforementioned song. We thought it was funny as fuck back then for some reason.

DKC1 is great stuff all around. I vividly remember 2 being better, but I'm very glad I revisited this. Definitely revisiting 2 soon as well.