Platformer roguelikes are pretty rare, and it's rarer still to find one that punishes mistakes as hard as this one. Every single second is about threat recognition and assessment, and while it can sometimes be frustrating if you're feeling out of it to keep losing too much health in the first couple levels and restarting, a focused run is an excellent

Some of the most moment-to-moment fun I've had in games. I like that it's a fairly pure expression of player ability -- no player has much inherent advantage over another through loadout or matchup or role or whatever, you just play your hardest and win or lose. Any improvement you make in this game comes through getting empirically better at the game, and that's extremely satisfying when it pays off.

My personal pick for best Civ game. I played Civ III growing up, and this feels like a very strict upgrade over all that game's systems. I've had fun with this game while tryharding against high-difficulty AI, while wiping up short games to farm achievements, and while playing long-form political games with friends.