As someone who enjoyed BotW, I couldn't bring myself to buy and play TotK. Part of it is me missing the classic Zelda formula from the other 3D titles, but mostly because TotK just appears to be more of the same as BotW. I'm not sure if I'm ready to purchase this 60-70€ game and dive into another massive world that feels way too familiar. Instead, I decided to revisit one of my favorite franchises of all time and go back to its roots. I'm excited to finally explore the 2D classics I never had a chance to play as a kid!

It's fascinating to see how far the franchise has come. It has shaped countless childhoods and left a lasting mark on the history of video games. And to think, it all started here.

Having grown up with the beloved 3D titles and knowing how Zelda games have evolved over the decades, I think it's understandable not to be particularly impressed with this one. However, I can still appreciate it for what it is. Personally, I have severe fatigue from the BotW formula and wish Nintendo would reinvent it once more, as they have so many times before. Because Zelda deserves more than being just another bloated open world experience that seems to plague most modern adventure games.

"Remember me, and your true self as well, also that which you must become. The one who will lead us to Paradise with blood stained hands!"

I'm not a really big fan of survival horror games, or horror games in general, because I get scared easily, so I feel like I never get to fully enjoy these games and their qualities, mostly because I end up looking for guides and walkthroughs online.
Before the Silent Hill games that I played for the first time last summer, I had only played RE 2 and 3 remakes, and those were both games that i didn't like very much. Luckily,  that wasn't the case for the Silent Hill games, because I loved them. After finishing Silent Hill 2 in one day and loving it, I decided to play Silent Hill 3, which quickly became my favorite in the series, even more after playing Silent Hill 1. After one year, while watching my friend play sh2, I decided to replay sh3, and my opinion on it hasn't changed.
I think that Silent Hill 3 is the best game in the original trilogy for a different number of reasons, from the gameplay to the even more absurd horror elements and the incredible story and characters.

First of all i wanted to talk about how good all the different "levels" in this game were, they were all perfectly crafted and scary but fun to go trough, my favorite one was the hilltop center, mostly bc i really liked the change to the otherworld and also i feel like they are the most scary ones with the church, that is one of the best parts in the game with the recalls to silent hill one, the shopping mall and the subway were also good but in this replay i found them really fast to go through and didn't think much of them other than the fact that the mall is a perfect preview of what the game is going to be, then bookhaven hospital is in my opinion the least fun one because you already go through it already in sh2 so its a bit repetitive in its normal form; overall i think that every place visited is good in its own way and doesn't fail at making you feel scared thanks to the perfect sound design but also to its little eastereggs like the cutscene in the subway that always freaks me out.

The gameplay is also better than in sh2, thats because theres more types of weapons that make the gameplay more fun and engaging, also i love the ng plus weapons like the infinite flamethrower, the infinte submachinegun and my favorite one which is the beam saber. Also the costumes add to the game a lot of replayability thanks to all the different shirts and outfits that Heather can wear, even though in my opinion her original outfit is the best one bc its more iconic and particular.

I loved the cult story and how it managed to deliver an interesting and particular narrative, even though it can be considered more "common" than the one in Silent Hill 2.

My favorite characters were Heather, Douglas, and Vincent. The best one is Heather, who has probably become my favorite female character, she acts like a real person during the game by showing a wide range of emotions but also by her interactions with the world around her, and I love how she has her own unique personality, i also really liked Douglas because i think hes a really intricate charachter and i love how the game makes you hate him at the start but then not only he becomes a very important part in the plot, but he also becomes an important person to Heather, then theres Vincent which I really liked because of its contrast with claudia about their beliefs and their different view on the same religion.

The themes of the game are very delicate but at the same time very important to talk about, like unwanted pregnancy, abortion, and womanhood in general. I would love to talk more precisely about each one of them, but I think that since they are a big part of the game, I would end up spoiling something.

I can say that Silent Hill 3 is, at least in my opinion, the peak of horror gaming, and even if I don't play a lot of horror games myself, I don't think that there will ever be a game that surpasses the feeling of anxiety, terror, and also sadness that Silent Hill 3 gave me. This game is a must-play for everyone, even for the people who, like me, aren't really big fans of the horror genre.


PS:
Even though the review is finished, I wanted to share 2 of my favorite quotes from the game:
"Is every person here a mental case?"
"Monsters? They looked like monsters to you?"

So back when reviewing Aperture Desk Job for the steamdeck some people were surprised it was the first Valve game I had played. The thing is that I stopped PC gaming in the mid 90's and have always been a console gamer either through finances or where friends played but getting a steamdeck and joining steam's eco system really opened my eyes quite a bit. I even bought a gaming PC and have been venturing into it steadily. I still love my consoles and retro gaming but having more avenues to experience titles in different ways is never a bad thing.

With that in mind and the Aperture Desk Job link to Portal I figured I should finally play this well know piece of gaming history I have a blank on. Now I'm not really a puzzle gamer. I dabble in a few here and there but it's just not really to my tastes as I get impatient if that is all I am doing. Portal feels like it has a great balance of puzzles being both overly simple and challenging at the same time. I never felt I was breezing through but rarely felt stuck, at the minimum I could see what I needed to do even if occasionally pulling it off wasn't so easy.

Portal's gameplay is in it's very name. You create portals using a gun whilst going through test areas in the Aperture Science Enrichment Centre. Each area has different puzzles and sometimes multiple rooms to figure out to get to the elevator to the next area. It's a linear game and though your mechanics are limited to creating two portals that link and picking up boxes it's impressive how far Valve manages to inspire you to use them in different ways. Creating paths for energy balls to power up doors, getting into seemingly locked off rooms and my favourite, using multiple portals to get the velocity to launch yourself, or as GLaDOS your Aperture computer guide states:

"speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out"

Now if the game was just the puzzles I'd be a little luke warm about it being just kind of ok but the writing and voice acting do a lot of heavy lifting to pull Portal up to something more I feel. The only real voiced character is GLaDOS but her sarcasm, dry tone and implications as the game progresses are really witty and entertaining. Without her this would be a decent puzzle game but with her it's a great overall experience.

Glad I finally played it and have been dabbling with some of the extras like the advanced maps and challenges. The game is pretty short which to me is not a negative here. It's a game that knows not to wear out it's welcome while keeping things entertaining and I look forward to playing it's much lauded sequel sometime in the future.

Recommended.

+ Puzzles are balanced well.
+ GLaDOS is often hilarious and keeps the game from getting stale as you progress.
+ Just the right length.

booting up this remake for the first time felt like being a little kid during christmas again. paper mario the thousand year door is a game i have a very long history with. it was one of 3 console games that were in a set of the first home console games i ever owned alongside super mario sunshine and luigi's mansion which i got for my 4th birthday. afterwards, the thousand year door was my favorite game of all time for my whole life up until my late teens. in that time, i've played this game front to back upwards of 20 times with a few 100% runs sprinkled in there as well.
needless to say, i have a lot of history with this game and it's very special to me, so a remake like this is something i was going to keep my eye on, even as someone who's usually disappointed when a remake actually comes out. this time is different though. it feels like it harkens back to the super nintendo and playstation 1 days of when remakes actually cared about the art direction and intent of the originals, with the art direction finding a beautiful middle ground between the originals texture and sprite work and the papercraft aesthetics that were only hinted before on the gamecube but brought to life on the wii u and switch, and with that middle ground sitting very firmly closer to the original gamecube side. npcs are actually expressive this time around as well, making the world feel just a bit more vibrant and alive and i couldn't be happier. other than some indoor locations not having the best lighting and some screen rotations that were seamless in the original going to black screens instead i have absolutely no complaints about this game visually, especially when there's already 60 fps patches. audio wise might be a different story, though.
the music in this remake is redone, given a more "origami king" esque jazz band flare to it which i don't feel fits the game well at all. the soundtrack definitely leans into the more "boingy" sounding ost ttyd and super had and the redone ost is definitely better than the poor showings we got in trailers, but i still prefer the original soundtrack. there is a badge that restores the original soundtrack, but i've yet to test to see how it reacts to the new songs added for the remake and to be honest i'd really like to hear them this time around so someone else will have to let me know about that eventually lol.
even with its few minor flaws ttyd for the switch is a truly a masterful remake of a classic, and i can't wait to reexperience this cornerstone of my history with video games with this loving remake going forward. the new localization that makes things more accurate to the original while keeping much of the 2004 localization in tact alone makes me prefer this version until someone inevitably patches it back in to the original, but even beyond that they took a world near and dear to my heart and miraculously brought it back to life again more vibrant than ever and that is always going to be deeply special to me. this game is still a very entry level jrpg and the remake doesn't change that so i definitely can't recommend it to everybody, but to anyone who loves the mario series at all or wants to get into rpgs with baby steps this game, and especially this new version, is a must.

[Average Reading Time: 9 Minutes]

I don't deserve to eat this well.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is one of those games that I was fortunate enough to grow up with back when it was out on the GameCube. It wouldn't be for some number of years down the road that I would actually beat it (kid me didn't really know how to strategize and couldn't beat the final boss), and since then I had always had an itch to return to it.

When this remake was announced late last year, my jaw hit the floor. I froze. Couldn't move for 40 minutes. Here it was, my #11 favorite game of all time getting a beautiful remake, and I would get to play it! For years, Paper Mario fans have been dying for this game to escape the GameCube, and I believe that with this remake, it escaped elegantly!

The first thing I want to mention are the visuals. This remake goes above and beyond with how characters are presented to you. Not only do they look stunning in HD, but they're so much more lively now! There are new animations for everyone, allowing for them to further express emotions and let their personalities shine through.

It's not just the main cast, either! Almost every NPC has new poses that they enter as they speak, giving a lot more life to their interactions. It was always a joy talking to NPC's I've interacted with in the original and seeing them bursting with life as they tell me about things like how they're crushing on their coworker or how them and their sisters are travelling the world. Absolute eye candy with the characters here!

Of course, the world itself got a major visual overhaul, as well. They strived to aim for the more paper craft inspired style of the newer Paper Mario games here. Personally, I always enjoyed the visual direction of the newer games, despite their varying levels of quality as games as a whole. Seeing The Thousand-Year Door adopt these visuals was a welcome treat for me.

If I had one minor nitpick about it, though, it would be just how reflective surfaces are. Most floors in the game are super shiny, like someone just waxed them before Mario and co. came in and started running around. For some areas it's fine, but it's a little jarring in others. For example, the first chapter starts in a grassy field. Despite this, Mario has a reflection in the grass as he runs through it. Once again, it's nothing deal-breaking by any means. It's just weird.

Along with the visuals, the music and sounds also got some reworks! All of the songs from the original game have been recomposed and are fully orchestrated. As someone who enjoys revisiting older titles using modifications to replace the original soundtracks with orchestral rearrangements (read more about those here if you're interested!), hearing these new takes on older tracks was a treat! Of course, music is subjective, and some tracks may sound better to you than others, but personally I had no real complaints about the new score here. They also add in completely new tracks to spice up cutscenes, which I enjoyed greatly.

It also helps that they went above and beyond with the music by giving each chapter its own remixes of various themes heard throughout the game! As soon as I realized this was happening, I just said to myself "Oh man, they're so smart this is SO GOOD!" This includes battle music as well as music used in specific cutscenes. It made visiting each chapter even more exciting for me, since it meant I would be hearing more new arrangements of these songs I knew so well growing up!

It's also worth noting that if you miss the original score, there is a badge you can acquire early in the game very easily that will allow you to listen to the original soundtrack as you play. Personally, I didn't use it, but it is there for those of you that would rather hear the original soundtrack. Thankfully, you'll be able to hear the new tracks made specifically for this remake with this badge equipped, so you won't have to worry about missing out on any of the new content with it on!

When it comes to the sound effects, a lot has changed here. A number of sounds from the original have been replaced, and while I'll miss them, I'm not going to lose sleep over them being gone. They did retain the sounds Charles Martinet recorded for the original release, which is welcome. Speaking of character voices, every NPC has one now! It basically amounts to being Banjo-Kazooie style grunts as text pops up, but I think it's a fun addition. Some of the sounds are a little weird, but for the most part I think it did a great job making the characters you meet feel more alive, allowing for me to get a better idea of how they sound when speaking in my head (Grubba will always be Foghorn Leghorn to me, though).

Along with cosmetic changes, a number of things were done to improve the quality of the gameplay experience as a whole. First off, you can collect up to 9,999 coins instead of 999 now, which is a massive game-changer since you won't be worrying as much about making sure you aren't sitting on too many coins at any time, especially when you invest in somebody's business venture.

They also added a dedicated party member wheel button. Players of the original will remember having to hit a d-pad button to bring up the party screen and then having to scroll over to the party member they want out on the field. It was simple, but far from snappy. What they added here is basically a party member quick select menu that's super easy to use. This simple addition improves the pacing a lot, especially when you enter later areas that have you swapping out party members often to solve puzzles.

Next, I want to bring up the changes they made to chapter shortcut pipes. In the original, you weren't able to access any chapter shortcuts until clearing chapter 3 at the earliest, and by the time you're at the endgame, you'll only have shortcuts to 4 out of the 7 major chapter locations in the game. All of this has changed in the remake. In the remake, you can access chapter shortcuts as early as after finishing chapter 1! Not only that, but there is now a shortcut to every major chapter location in the game. One pipe for each chapter up to chapter 7. This means no more having to run over to the blimp and taking that to access chapter 3's location, for example.

Also, all of these pipes are in one room and are properly labelled. This isn't even the best part. The best part is that now, you can access this room from a pipe that connects directly to the center square of Rogueport! Using shortcuts has never been simpler than it is here. This also helps immensely with a specific scenario in chapter 7 that now turns from a tedious nightmare into a simple task thanks to the addition of these pipes!

There is one last major quality of life change I want to mention. We need to talk about chapter 4's structure.

Chapter 4 of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is very infamous for the absurd amount of backtracking it asks of the player. You're constantly going from one end of the chapter to the other, over and over to progress the plot. Chapter 4's structure is easily one of the most complained about parts of that game, and it is a strong deterrent from those who think of replaying the game.

I am glad to say that they fixed chapter 4. At one point during the chapter, you gain access to a pipe that connects between both ends of the area. The way they did it makes perfect sense, too, as you unlock it at a point where there would be no major difference to how you approach the trip gameplay wise. My jaw dropped when I realized what they did, and I could not be happier about their decision here. One of the biggest issues with the original game is now completely gone, and now I can revisit this title without groaning about certain parts of it.

There are also some extra goodies hidden in here for explorative players. By finding all of the Shine Sprites (items that upgrade party members) in any given chapter, you unlock the ability to listen to the music from that chapter from the pause menu! You also get rewards for collecting all of the Star Pieces (items that can be traded for badges) in any chapter in the form of concept art! Playing this remake was the first time I went out of my way to collect all of the Star Pieces, and I am happy I did as the artwork you unlock is stunning, to say the least!

With all of these changes and additions out of the way, it's time to ask the real question: how does it play? When I realized this game would be running at half the framerate of the original back when we were getting more trailers, I was a little worried that it would have a strong negative effect on my muscle memory when it came to pulling off stylish moves and super guards.

Once the game started proper, I got into my first battle. My muscle memory kicked in. My super guards and stylish moves all went off perfectly. I was back.

Needless to say, my worries about the framerate were immediately put to rest. The game feels great to play as it is now! Of course, if this game gets an FPS boost on the Switch 2, that would be very welcome, but as it is now, it's more than playable, so if you were worried about the framerate, I can assure you that it's not a major issue that will hold you back!

As for how my playthrough went, I can say it went great! For this playthrough, I did something I never truly did before: I opted for a danger-focused build. I got a small taste of it back when I played Paper Mario: TTYD 64, a Paper Mario hack that you can read more about here. Since then, I wanted to see how well it would go if I focused a build solely around that, and boy, did it serve me well!

For those unaware, in the Paper Mario games, when Mario is at 5 HP, he enters a state that shows that he is in danger, prompting the player to consider healing him. However, there are badges that take advantage of this "danger" state. There's one that reduces the amount of damage you take while in this state, for example. There's also one that raises your evasion, causing enemies to miss their attacks more often.

There is one badge, however, that shines above the rest, known as Power Rush. This badge raises Mario's attack stat by 2 when he is in danger. Sounds pretty small on paper, right? Only 2 damage? Why is it a big deal? Well, there are two things about this badge that make it stand out. One is that it is relatively cheap to equip, only requiring one badge point. The other thing is that there is no limit on how many of this badge you can equip.

Let's do some math. There is a badge in this game that raises your attack stat by 1 at the cost of 6 badge points. If you instead equipped 6 Power Rush badges for the same point cost, you'd raise Mario's attack by 12! This is an absolute game changer, and a popular build for a reason. It's also helped by the fact that there's a character in the game that can reduce your max HP to be 5, allowing you to remain in a danger state permanently.

Doing this was an absolute thrill for me. I was facing some of the toughest enemies in the game and erasing them from existence with ease. This is easily the most powerful I have ever felt in any video game. I was able to do something I have never done before when playing this game, which is clear the Pit of 100 Trials, which is an optional dungeon with enemies tougher than anything you'll fight in the main game. I went in there with this build and emerged with barely a scratch on me. I felt so strong, and I loved it.

Now, as much as I love this build, I highly implore those who have not played this game before to not think about such things as they play. Enjoy the game casually and do what feels right to you. Tune your build your own way and save the special builds like this one for later runs. As powerful as they are, the game kind of becomes a joke if you do it, so you lose out on a ton of the impact that certain boss fights can have on you when they appear before you.

Overall, I loved my time with this remake. It was everything I imagined it would be and more. Personally, I feel that this remake completely replaces the original for me, thanks mostly to all of the quality of life features they've added to make the game snappier. I cannot recommend this game enough. Whether you're new to Paper Mario or a series veteran, you'll find plenty to love in this game!

Paper Mario is a series that will always be very special to me. Paper Mario 64 specifically was the game that really got me into RPGs as a kid and even 20+ years later RPGs are still my favorite genre of games and I have Paper Mario to thank for that. While Paper Mario 64 will always be the most nostalgic and sentimental for me, Paper Mario TTYD is undeniably the best in the series because it takes everything 64 did and improves upon it in every way imaginable.

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door follows the iconic mustached plumber himself who receives a treasure map from Princess Peach after she's gone missing which leads him on an adventure to a mysterious unnamed island away from the Mushroom Kingdom and on this island is the town of Rogueport, a den of thieves, con-men and gangs and underneath it all is a complex sewer system which leads to the ancient Thousand Year Door, said to house a legendary treasure inside. The only problem is to open up the Thousand Year Door you need the 7 Crystal Stars which have been spread across the land, so Mario embarks on a quest to find both the Crystal Stars and the Princess as well.

While most of the story beats land in familiar Mario territory there are moments that will genuinely surprise you. Let's just say I'm surprised this game doesn't have a E10+ or even T rating because of some of the themes. However where TTYD truly excels is at its character writing. All of Mario's companion characters are exceptionally written with tons of personality and charm alongside their own various motivations and goals like Goombella an aspiring archeologist with a sassy attitude or Koops an insecure koopa who strives to be brave like his missing father, every one of Mario's companions have defined arcs and real character development throughout the length of the game making them memorable and among some of the best characters in the entire Mario canon.

Another thing The Thousand Year Door and Paper Mario as a series in general excels at is its world-building. Every area from the town of Rogueport to the Glitz Pit and Twilight Town are all just bursting with life and detail from the various races based on iconic Mario characters and even ones that were made just for TTYD which inhabit the areas as NPC characters that you can talk to and area bosses that are slowly built-up through the lore of the world and help the world feel so much more immersive and alive than your average Mario game something the Paper Mario series hasn't been able recapture in this way in the more recent titles.

The gameplay of TTYD is a natural evolution to that of Paper Mario 64 which was an evolution of Super Mario RPG. The battles are in a strategic turn-based format where instead of being lined up side to side they're in a row so positioning is more important and having one character behind another could save them from getting damaged as easily. Mario can attack by jumping or whacking an enemy with a hammer and in the middle of attacking there are action commands like pressing a button or flicking the joystick with proper timing for an increase in attack power and Mario's companions all have different attacks Madam Flurrie a wind spirit who can blow enemies off the screen to Yoshi who can eat enemies and spit them back at each other. There's also an audience that reacts to how Mario and his companions perform in battle which helps build up your star power gauge faster by pulling off stylish moves and bosses will even sometimes interact with the audience as well. On top of all this Mario gains experience for every battle fought and upon leveling up Mario can choose to increase his HP, FP (Flower Points which act as mana) or BP (Badge Points) allowing Mario to equip more badges which unlock powerful skills like being able to jump on all enemies or throw your hammer at a flying enemy as well as modify Mario and his companion's attack and defense. These badges give the game tons of diverse build options suitable for all different play styles.

Paper Mario also has excellent exploration and dungeon design with plenty of creative and clever puzzles spread throughout that have to be solved by using your companion's unique over world abilities like Admiral Bobbery who can blow up and destroy cracked walls or Koops who can shoot his shell to hit switches that are too far away to normally reach. Mario also gains paper-like abilities like turning into a paper airplane or rolling up his body allowing him to reach areas he couldn't previously reach making the world have a bit of a metroidvania-like progression and giving extra incentive to backtrack and find special treasures like Shine Sprites that power up your companions and unlock new abilities for them. A great quality of life improvement is the party ring which allows you to switch to any of Mario's 7 party members with the touch of a button making exploration and backtracking easier than ever before.

The Thousand Year Door might not be one of the most graphically impressive games ever made, but it makes up for it with an incredibly stylish and beautiful papercraft presentation giving its world a pop-up storybook aesthetic and this new Switch version looks better than ever making the textures even more crisp and detailed. The OST has also been remixed to sound more grandiose and orchestral and I personally found the remixes to be very good, but if you aren't a fan of the new tracks there's a special badge that allows you to listen to the OG OST without taking up any BP.

All in all Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door has a reputation for being one of the most beloved Mario adventures to date and the Switch remaster is the same game you know and love now with improved graphics and sound featuring a great narrative and world filled with life, color and personality alongside a fantastic cast of characters, a fun battle system with plenty of strategic depth and stylish presentation and an incredibly composed orchestral remixed OST alongside some much needed quality of life improvements that make some of the more outdated elements of TTYD less tedious making Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door 2024 the definitive version to experience one of Mario's most legendary adventures.

12 years on from the strange, incomplete original, DD2 is more of the same, uneasily sitting between the uncompromising Souls series & more conventional narrative ARPGs. At times evoking a desolate offline MMO, DD2 is at its best when out in the wilds, the sun setting at your back & two or more beasts landing on the path ahead, all Arising out of dynamic systems.

The main questline unfortunately does not play to these strengths, with much of Act I confined to the capital & some really dull writing. Fortunately, writing does not maketh a game, and side-quests that take you out into the unreasonably huge map are much more interesting, and really need to be sought out in the crowds and corners of the world. Keeping track of these with the bizarre quest tracker is uneven and obtuse: you’re either reading the landscape and tracing clues or just beating your head against a wall figuring out what the game requires of you.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is singular, not quite fully realised, a beautifully rendered physics-heavy oddity. The art direction is profoundly generic, but so deceptively understated it at times resembles a Ray Harryhausen film, full of weight, movement and character. DD2 makes you feel like you have friends, albeit stupid friends, who'd throw themselves off a cliff for a view of yonder.

Parkour in video games will never not be incredibly fun.

It's disappointing that only the Uncharted and Tomb Raider reboot series offer such a rich blend of action-adventure and platforming elements, as they are such a joy to play. As a kid, I loved jumping straight into a game and being greeted with immediate, thrilling gameplay—no bloated opening cutscenes or overlong tutorials. While I do enjoy cinematic games that tend to prioritize graphics more than anything else, it's also nice just to dive into the spectacle of pure gameplay. The Uncharted series nails this with its exciting parkour mechanics that keep you constantly hooked on the screen.

I'm so happy they took everything from Uncharted 2, one of the best in the series, and enhanced it in every conceivable way, delivering yet another action-packed, over-the-top experience. The visuals and environments are stunning, and you can truly feel the passion Naughty Dog poured into this game.

While the story and characters in Uncharted 4 are phenomenal, the combat falls a little bit short. The gunplay never felt better, and it's fun to shoot enemies, but at certain points, it started to feel more like a chore rather than something I was actively excited about, mainly because it became a bit too repetitive. Luckily, the platforming and traversal make up the vast majority of the game.

At its core, Uncharted 4 offers a perfect conclusion to the Nathan Drake adventures, delivering entertaining gameplay that is truly the spectacle of the game and proves that cinematic games can be more than just good graphics. This nearly 10-year-old AAA game is more enjoyable than many cinematic €70-80 games that forget to prioritize fun nowadays.

So no shade to The Last of Us, but I hope Naughty Dog's next game—hopefully not another remaster or remake—will actually have fun gameplay again.

"Your friends...
What kind of... people are they?
I wonder...
Do those people...
think of you... as a friend?"

Majoras Mask is one of my favorite games of all time, but even though I say this, my opinion on it was very different at the start. When I first played the remake on my 3DS last summer, I completely hated it. To this day, I don't really understand why I didn't like it. Maybe it was the time limit or the confusing start, or maybe even the fact that to fully enjoy the game, I had to complete all the sidequests (I don't really like to 100% games), but after giving it another try in September 2023, again on the 3DS, I realized that all of these "negative sides" were actually the best part of the game, was when Majoras Mask became one of my favorite games oat.
But since i had always heard that the n64 version was better, i decided with the new recompilation project to get all the masks and finish the game for a second time, and i can say that it was one of the best decisions i made because this playthrough helped me fully realize how much i apreciate this game, so much that i even grabbed all the fairies in the temples!
The temples are one of my favorite parts about Majoras Mask, and I think that they are some of the best in the whole series. Even though Twilight Princess has the best ones, imo, if I had to rank them, I would say that:

-Snowhead was probably my favorite one since I love how it uses the goron's mask abilities and also how it looks, which, in my opinion, is the second most creepy after Stone Tower. The OST also sets a perfect tone for how it looks and feels while playing.

-my second favorite is the Stone Tower temple, the ost is amazing, i love how it reverses when the temple is turned around. Also, it's amazing how it combines all the things you learned in the previous temples in this sort of final test before the fight with the skull kid.

-Great bay temple was also amazing but kind of confusing in my opinion. I loved how the zora abilities were used since it was my favorite mask in the game.

-Woodfall temple was also very good for a first dungeon, I loved its ost but unfortunately, it is overshadowed by how good the others are.
Another thing that i love about Majoras Masks are the masks, they are all so cool, and i love all the different uses they have. My favorites are probably the zora mask, the bremen mask, the bunny hat, and the captain's mask. The ost was amazing, and it compliments the game's atmosphere and vibe so well. My favorite tracks were the Astral Observatory, the Song of Healing, and the Termina Field.
The most particular thing for me is that this game isn't afraid of talking about more mature themes like death, loss, grief, and most of all, the concept of masking your true identity, and I like how these themes are not forced into the game but instead are represented in a very natural way through its characters and their quests.
Majoras Mask is, in my opinion, one of the best games of all time, and even if its gameplay loop and mechanics may not be liked by everyone, I think that it's one of those games that needs to be played at least once in their lives since there will never be something like it again.




EDIT:i forgot to say that destroying Majora's with the fierce deity mask was one of the best feelings i've ever had while playing a videogame, imo getting all the masks is worth just for that alone.

Speaking as someone who actually didn't mind the Northern War anime, this is absolutely horrible. Honestly a genuine insult and mockery to my favorite series.

First of all it's one of the most generic auto-battler gachas I've ever seen right down to the UI. On the surface it tries to implement the same gameplay as the actual Trails games, but it does a horrible job of it and makes it extremely grind heavy to get both gacha pulls and just advance in the 'story' of the game too because of how much it inflates the attack power of even the weakest enemy. Speaking of the 'story', the 'story' of the entire game is just a retelling of the anime, right down to the 'cinematic cutscenes' being literal scenes from the anime. There's nearly nothing added here and it just makes the anime worse because the translation is literally a broken machine translation which has a ridiculous amount of grammatical errors like spelling 'Thors' as 'Tholz' and just downright mistranslating character bios and names ("Du Barry of the Iron Cavarly" instantly comes to mind).

The game also has some of the worst monetization I have ever seen in a F2P or Gacha game with 4 different individual battle passes you have to purchase and single character purchases being the same price of an actual Trails game and of course there's a PvP Arena mode so you know that's going to instantly become P2W.

Even if you're a die-hard Trails fan, there's literally no reason to ever give this game your time, let alone the egregious amounts of your money that it asks you for as well. One of the laziest and saddest excuses for a 'game' (If you can even call it that) I've ever seen.

It has become almost tradition for me to start every Gradius review discussing it's naming conventions as nearly every one of them is almost an enigma. This game, Gradius II which should not to be confused with Gradius II is no exception but having the same name as a completely different game in the series is the least of it's problems. For a start this isn't even a sequel in the first place but a remake of Gradius: The Interstellar Assault. Technically that one was the second Gameboy Gradius game and was called Nemesis II in Europe and Japan so I suppose that makes more sense than calling this Gradius III but as it was released in Europe in a Gameboy Colour compilation pack I doubt anyone had a clue about it anyway.

Naming curiosity and trivia aside how is this game? It's still pretty decent but does feel like a step down from it's original in some ways. If you have played a Gradius title before than you will know what to expect with the basics. It's a horizontal shoot em-up where you pilot a ship known as the Vic-viper. At the start you can choose a basic load out of weapon types your ship will have available to it from a choice of three variations. Initially your ship will only have a basic weapon but you can collect power ups from defeated enemies you can then either use straight away or store to move along a row of options activating when you choose. The options include things like speed up, missiles, shields as well as other main weapon types like lasers etc. It's a rewarding and tactical system but dying and losing it all can be brutally punishing.

Gradius II still retains the more interesting level design of being chased, attached by a tractor beam descending through the atmosphere into a planet surface that sparked my enjoyment of the original it's based on. It plays extremely smoothly and the usage of colours do make the game more vibrant obviously as well as some of the objects clearer to see. At the same time however it loses a little something. The original game's black and white visuals had a gritty feel to it allowing for my imagination to picture the spaceship graveyard more vividly for example. Where as having it with a bright pink background with objects in solid colour actually detracts from the whole atmosphere. There are other small changes here and there in the design as well like one of the bosses that was a traditional Gradius design had volcanoes out of it as tribute to the series is now missing them for a more standard ship design.

Overall these small design changes and colours do mean if I ever wanted to play these again I would just choose the Gameboy original of the two but if this is your only option it's still a decent little title that can be beaten in 40 minutes and has more unique level design than a lot of the rest of the series.

So not my favourite game in the series but certainly an interesting curiosity. The cover art though as usual is absolute fire.

+ Fun short little remake of Nemesis II.
+ Level design still stand out as more unique from it's bigger brothers and sisters.
+ I still like the weapon upgrade design.

- Colours actually detract from the overall atmosphere of the game from the Gameboy original.
- Some design changes also are for the worse though they are minor.

this went by really fast. its a complete breeze, yeah its a little linear and some bombable tiles blend in with the rest of them, but it's okay. Combat was snappy and cool, the animations are also really awesome (U can hold onto the ledge and aim and shoot. Tell me that isnt the most badass thing ever!! :D) The movement options are pretty fun but i never really got a hold of them lol. I also think this is the first instance of a stealth part of a non stealth game that i actually really enjoyed. Also wanted to give a shoutout to the metroids for being insane in this game. In metroid prime they're not much other than a nuisance but in this they're genuinely terrifying and intense when you fight them. More than one? omg. And then there was one part where i messed up and I had 5 on me at the same time? and I CAME OUT ALIVE!! WOOHOO!! it felt like doom eternal down there man. Yea, fun game and i am prob gonna play am2r next. cus the other options are either old or i have to go to a store and buy a 3ds game... yuck

Nothing complicated here, Zero Mission was just a joy to pick up and tear through, blasting missiles and lasers in quickfire run and gun while maneuvering a tightly packed planet filled with careful and precisely placed powerups. It's no Super Metroid in terms of level design (no "Geemer crawling out of the wall" moments of discovery, at least), but the map is solid and with enough tinkering and studying, you'll basically be able to figure out exactly where to go and how to progress as long as you remember what goes where, since the map will mark collectibles/destinations but not specific color-coded obstacles for the correct powerup. Hell, I was even okay with most of the extended stealth section, since getting caught was not an instant reset as long as I stayed on my feet to quickly outrun and avoid the pirates, and it was super satisfying to scrape by the skin of my teeth at times. My biggest gripe is that I do think the boss fights feel less memorable than those of Super Metroid; a bunch of scattered fights vs giant worms and larvae and a Mother Brain fight where I got pinballed by a million projectiles while trying to escape the lava to get back onto the platform can't compare to the likes of Phantoon's ghastly spectacle or Draygon's underwater confrontation. But regardless, it's a nice and snug package of a Metroidvania with classic GBA visuals and upgraded 8 bit tunes of the original with plenty of abilities to exploit over the course of a few hours while picking up a few tidbits concerning Metroid lore and Samus's past, and I'm happy to say that it's basically comfort food for me at this point.

This was the last 2D Metroid game for a long time. This is a remake of the original Metroid in the GBA style of Metroid Fusion. While this is absolutely the definitive way to experience the original Metroid story, I feel like a lot of the design and environment has been misused/lost. As I said in my review of the first game, the best thing NEStroid has going for it is its environments. The hard colors and eerie music make for one of the most unique feels in all of the series. This remake completely fails to deliver even remotely what NEStroid achieved. Another thing that feels weird is a lot of the design. The game was pretty faithful to the original, and a lot of rooms have the same layout that the original rooms did, and sometimes that really doesn't work here. With such standard themes, the scattered blocks and collectibles laying out in the open thing comes of as uninteresting here. This also feels way more linear than Fusion did, despite the fact that this environment is more geared towards exploration. The original games map is really not that big, it is just hard to completely explore because of how hard the game is. Even with this one adding two more areas to the game, it still feels really small due to being so easy. All that being said, this game is still great. It massively cleans up the problems of the original just by being made with the same engine as Fusion, and provides one of the easiest Metroid games... until the end. Beyond the Mother Brain fight, Samus gets pursued by the space pirates and comes down in their mothership, stripped of her power suit and left with just an emergency pistol. This stealth mission part of the game is easily the most unique, interesting and fun part of this remake, making it to where you cannot kill the enemies, but instead, you have to outrun them and hide along the way to reobtaining your powersuit. This is absolutely a warranted remake, I am really glad it exists, because I know a lot of people would not experience the original Metroid story without it.