CrossCode is a beautiful homage to the SNES era visually, but a modern masterpiece mechanically and narratively. You play as Lea in the game world of Crossworlds, a fictional MMORPG that serves as the entire setting of CrossCode. A little confusing to write, but it makes perfect sense while playing. What's important is that CrossCode is an action RPG with some MMO-like elements due to its setting like respawning mobs, side quests, and raids.

One of the first things that's apparent when jumping into CrossCode is how smooth the combat is, and gaining access to new moves and elemental attacks throughout the game only improves the experience. The elements of combat are pretty straightforward: ranged and melee attacks, dodging, and guarding. Nevertheless, I always had fun blasting away enemies and more nuanced abilities become clear over time like perfect dodges and guard counters.

In between roaming the many environments the game has to offer are the highest points of the game in my opinion: the dungeons. Dungeons are rooms upon rooms of fun combat encounters and satisfying puzzles, usually all tied together by the new element that you are granted inside. The game has several of these that get longer and more complex over time, and they are easily my favorite part. Of course, there are other ways to distract yourself in the world including but not limited to side quests, of which there are a significant number.

Finally, I'd be remiss not to mention the story. It takes a while to pick up as the game pulls the amnesia card early on, but once you get into the meat of it about halfway through it becomes an important aspect of the game. I was honestly surprised about how much I ended up caring about the story, especially in a game where I was perfectly content to grind away side content just for gameplay's sake.

CrossCode is a very special experience that I have trouble comparing to many other games and I'm very glad I completed. If you want to give it a try however, just beware that you're in it for the long haul to reach the end.

Neon White proposes the ultimate dilemma: will you shoot gun, or discard gun to use a sick parkour move?

The level design and movement in this game is incredibly satisfying, and grinding times down on each stage is super addicting. Some levels are cruelly simple and force you to perfect your movement and aim to improve your time, and others are broader with tons of potential to find shortcuts.

The story exists and does its job of keeping you chugging along through the missions, but ultimately games like this I don't play for that. It's just a nice bonus that there's a handful of fun characters with their own side missions and dialogue.

If you like movement shooters, give Neon White a try. I don't think it will disappoint.

RGG takes a new direction with their storytelling in Judgment, following a detective's journey to pursue the truth. The main story is a compelling and interesting tale, with a fairly solid cast to support it. Given that you play as a detective, RGG decided to inject some gameplay elements tailored to that such as examining crime scenes and tailing suspects. These activities are half-assed and repetitive, though, which makes me wish they weren't there at all most of the time.

The rest of the gameplay should be familiar to anyone that's played a Yakuza game though. Beating down thugs, eating half the menu in one sitting at the hotspots of Kamurocho, and capping it off with a round of Blackjack or Mahjong. Returning minigames in Judgment are polished, and some new ones enter the fray. Combat itself can feel a bit clunky at times, but overall is good enough to not get too stale. Plus, Yagami has a more acrobatic style than Kiryu which allows for some new moves.

Perhaps one of Judgment's greatest strengths is it's side content, which mainly comes in the form of side cases. Nearly every side case leaves you with an interesting story to reflect on, and some even open up other opportunities in-game which helps the world feel more connected. Some side cases even open up romance opportunities upon completion, which I found to be a much more organic way to handle relationships than the cabaret clubs of the Yakuza series.

Metal Gear Rising lives up to the memes and then some. It's an iconic title, chances are even if you think you know nothing about it you have seen footage from the game. Memes are the DNA of the soul, after all.

The story is the Metal Gear sweet spot of appearing to take itself seriously but also managing to be ridiculous enough to stick with you. Musically, it's a gem. You'll have metal banging in your ears while chopping cyborgs into dozens of pieces, and it works so well. If you're unfamiliar, just look up and listen to A Stranger I Remain.

The most mixed part of the game is the gameplay. It has incredible highs, moments where you feel like a total badass slashing up tons of enemies in true Platinum fashion. The biggest strength of the combat is the free form blade mode, which also happens to be quite a pain to control when you need a precise cut. Hacking and slashing feels good, but there are a number of mildly frustrating elements that keep the combat from being top tier. Blocking and parrying with the same button you use to swing is perhaps the most confusing decision, it just narrows the skill window of the combat and leads to some pretty frustrating moments when you do the wrong action. Ninja running, or auto-parkour sprint mode, is cool in concept but is often janky on different kinds of terrain. Finally, the sub-weapons granted to Raiden on his journey do provide interesting ways to approach certain situations, but are ultimately hindered by how clunky they are to use.

Metal Gear Rising is definitely worth a playthrough, but stay for too long and you might start to see the cracks. Oh, and don't bother with the DLC episodes.

Sable did not hook me in right away, but over time I did come to enjoy it quite a bit. When the game's intro sequence concludes, I found myself frustrated with the lack of interesting things to discover in the world. However, I was stopping to turn over every stone, when Sable's world lends itself much more heavily to exploring each landmark location thoroughly and traveling in a straightforward fashion from place to place. Once I made this shift in mindset, I had a lot more fun playing the game.

It isn't a perfect experience, though. Personally I was not really into the art or animation style, although I can see the appeal. The game goes down another peg for me due to the technical issues. I understand that a small team is responsible for Sable, but the frequency I encountered performance issues or UI/menu bugs became annoying at a certain point.

A decent experience. The mystery of the narrative is compelling enough to keep you playing, and the house that you explore is quite pretty and interesting.

However, it is chiefly a puzzle game, and the puzzles are the most lackluster part. Very few were satisfying to solve and some had solutions that were downright stupid. Not in a difficult way, either.

Overall, a nice short experience, but nothing to write home about.

Ok yes, I did decide to play this game because of the memes and its outlandish presentation. And yes, Bunger is a national treasure.

However, I actually enjoyed Bugsnax very much. It's packed with charm and I was always excited to see new areas with new snax to discover and catch. It has a neat story with a cast that, while made up mostly of exaggerated tropes, is pretty fun to interact with and learn more about.

Other than that I'm not entirely certain why I enjoyed it so much, just hits all the right notes for me I suppose. Definitely at least worth a try if for no other reason than how unique it is.

Kind of a hidden gem. An interesting and somewhat deep combat system paired with a cliche story.

The most unique part of the game is the way progression works, you age with each death and you have to reach the end before getting to a certain age. While this was cool in theory, I feel like I would have enjoyed the game more if the progression was more standard.

Either way, it's priced pretty steeply for what it is but probably worth a play on a sale.

Edit: Bumped it up to a 4/5 after I decided to go for the platinum. Mastering the combat system is really satisfying.

This one didn't really click with me. I found many of the game's systems to be pretty tedious like the world tendency and upgrade paths. The bosses also did not provide the rewarding challenge the series get its reputation for; many of them were trivial if you could figure out their gimmick.

That said, the game of course earns points for its remade visuals, which are stunning. The environments are fun to explore for the most part, and the item and weapon variety helps replayability. I also enjoyed the linear nature of the areas, but some people may prefer the interconnected-ness of later souls games.

An enjoyable experience through and through packed with charm and hilarity. The sheer amount of characters, collectibles, and environments in this game is impressive alone, but playing through the entire story of all 9 films was awesome too.

The gameplay does get repetitive at some point, but it's better than many other Lego games due in part to this game's slightly more interesting combat system and character mechanics. If you don't like Lego games this one probably won't be any different, but if you do then this is likely to be one of your favorites.