There's no denying that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a game that had an absurd amount of hype built in the years leading up to its release. Honestly, the dev team had a task so difficult after the revolutionary Breath of the Wild that I'm relieved I'm not one of them, and they did it, I'm impressed, the game is very good overall. Nevertheless, this is my personal opinion and I didn't have that amazing, perfect experience I saw many other people talking about. Firstly, the game strongly advises you to go towards a certain dungeon at the beginning of the game, and this dungeon is one of the worst in Zelda history, seriously, I was deeply underwelmed by most of the dungeons and that's something I expected to be improved since they weren't so hot on the previous game either. And I really dig the whole "Divine Beast" aesthetic that BotW had, which is completely missing here. The sky is interesting but that's another let down for me, there are only a few islands and you do basically the same thing in all of them, even the ocean islands in Wind Waker were more varied than this. Sure, the new abilities, Ultra Hand, Ascend, Recall and Fuse are fantastic and better than any of those in the previous game, however I was not impressed at all by the way the game utilizes them and they get old fast, especially in the game's Shrines. And speaking of Shrines, let's talk about them, they are also worse than those in BotW, and most of them are something like: use Ascend once, over. Use Recall once, over. Bring this crystal here, over. It got boring very fast for me, and in the end I was just doing it for the thrill of exploring and finding the Shrines than for the puzzles inside them. And now the building mechanic: It's cool but I'm not very into free building games, and most of the time I built the same plane or car over and over without any hints of variety from the game itself, maybe the problem is me. And this is just something that happened with me, but it affected my experience playing the game and it's worth mentioning here: I did kind of a sequence break that skipped a whole interesting section of the game and I had to look up in the internet how to do that because the game just told me to go ahead and I hated that I had no guidance from the game, is it open, linear or what? Identity crisis. Before talking about what I liked I want to say that I felt like Tears of the Kingdom threw enemies a lot at me, more than usual, and the combat isn't stellar and some enemies don't have an interesting set of attacks and just repeat the same two or three. I didn't hate weapon durability in BotW but it bugged me here, but that's the least of the problems, I also hated when I was exploring and I found the exact pieces of armor that were in BotW, I didn't feel rewarded enough. Let's talk about what I like so that this review doesn't sound so negative. The caves and the Depths are awesome to explore, I loved lighting up the Depths and figuring out its connection to the surface geography. The story is better told and the memories are more interesting to find now. The Gleeoks aren't as cool as Guadians were in my opinion, but they fill the "menacing enemy" role very well, the battles with them are very good. The artstyle of the game is still beautiful, I love to just take in the landscapes! And I liked to see some of those characters again, Riju's new design rocks and Sidon is so likeable! Shoutout to Penn too, he's very nice! And let's talk about the ending, that's so much better than BotW's and it really impressed me, it's very special! And let's all admire how great Ganondorf is this game please? Ocarina of time is still my favorite Zelda game and I loved all the references with sages, Ganondorf and et cetera. To conclude, the game plays very well and it's extremely well made and polished, I don't want to sound too negative about the game, I was still very addicted and played for hundreds of hours. I just think Breath of the Wild is more remarkable and rounds up better than this one. Thank you if you read all my rambling until here!

Bayonetta Origins is an incredibly unique game and this alone is a reason for this title to be celebrated. Its ideas aren't often seen in other games, and it explores gameplay ideas that are very satisfying to pull off. The visuals are amazing, the storybook aesthetic is charming and cute, I love the fact that we have a narrator. The relationship between Cereza and Cheshire has an interesting development, and the story pleased me as a whole. I love how I can't exactly fit the game into one specfic genre, metroidvania? Maybe, but it is also divided into chapters. Controlling both characters can feel weird at first but I tought I got better after some hours playing. The combat is fun and refreshing, exploration is rewarding as new skills are tied to it. Most of the Tír na nÓg, think of it as like Breath of the Wild's shrines but in this game, have really fun mechanics but I wish there were more of them that wasn't just another combat encounter. I also wish Cereza had some sort of attack other than binding enemies, but I guess this will be in Bayonetta Origins 2. And I must complain about the map, its very confusing and it's not helpful at all, the areas are too vertical and very confusing to navigate, I wish the map showed magic upgrades too. But all in all, as a huge Bayonetta fan I loved Origins, and I want more games like this!

Storyteller is a wonderful and unique game I must say. While I liked it a lot, it has some problems I'd like to get out of the way first. I tought the stages were pretty strict in judging wether my story met the requirements or not, and I expected more creativity especially with the long development cycle the game had. It repeats some ideas and it doesn't mix and match the different characters that much, something I expected the game to do. Aside from that, the game is very well made, I loved the book UI and the art and characters are charming and cute! The music really sets the mood too. I'm not too good at puzzles, but I made an effort and I could finish it. If you're stuck I recommend you take a break from the game and come back later, then you'll have a new perspective on the puzzle. I'm definetely going to play this game with my students sometime, I think they're gonna love it!

Like it or not, you can't deny the importance of the original Resident Evil 4, but one thing I did not agree with was the narrative that it was "perfect" and didn't need a remake. Yes, the original game is very good but it didn't exactly age very well in my opinion. And having finished the 2023 remake, I think it surpasses the quality of the original game, maintaing its essence while improving in every way. Just walking in this game feels very good, I played on PS5 and I could sense Leon's weight and feel every step. Shooting also feels very good, that feeling of pulling off a parry or a melee attack is amazingly satisfying. The addition of new puzzles and gameplay elements really pleased me, it's very fun to upgrade your weapons and explore to find treasures and items. The side contest appealed to my completionist side and I couldn't leave any sidequest behind. Ashley is amazing is this remake, I didn't like her that much in the original, but remake Ashley rocks! The story being more fleshed out is exacly what I expected from a remake. I want to replay this several times more in the future. And please give me that Separate Ways DLC. I wonder what Capcom will do with Resident Evil next.

Marvel Snap is a surprise for me in many ways. I'm not exactly a fan of card games, but the lastest I've played I liked a lot. As a Marvel fan the visuals of the game are really interesting to me, upgrading the cards to frame break and 3D is an awesome idea and keeps me involved in the game. The simplistic gameplay is very well designed, easy to understand, and addictive. The card effects can create cool combos and sinergize with others to create unexpected strategies. The snap mechanic adds an unique tension that left me amazed. The matches are so quick that they won't take much time of you day, it's perfect for playing in your smartphone. The constant flow of new cards you get open new possibilities for building a deck and season passes bring new content constantly. I'll continue playing for sure and I hope they keep adding new cards and maybe even new game modes.

Sonic Forces: Speed Battle really captived me with its simple yet engaging gameplay. The matches are quick and short and great to play on mobile, even though the gameplay is a simple runner, competing against 3 other players online really adds to the experience. Using items is fun, and the variety of characters pleases me a lot as a Sonic fan. I just wish it had a little more depth with its mechanics, maybe by adding more systems outside of battle. I really like to play a couple matches every day to get some cards, and more characters are added frequently, even my GOAT Gamma got in, I hope they keep supporting this game, its simplicity impresses me.

God of War Ragnarok really delivers an amazing sequel to the 2018 game. It's more expansive than the first one, I appreciate the things they added. Let's talk about what I disliked first: the camera when combat has multiple enemies. I understand that those yellow and red arrows are supposed th warn you when an off camera enemy is attacking you but it just doesn't work for me, especially in bosses. I really love the characters, I could connect very strongly with Kratos and Atreus and the message of accepting your past instead of ignoring it really resonates with me. I won't go into spoilers but I loved the new gameplay and story bits they put in this sequel. The siquests are very good. The plot has some loose ends that makes me think they will make a DLC for this, please be real.

Strange Horticulture is a big surprise for me, I never imagined it would be so interesting and enticing to play. The gameplay is both interesting and innovative: you've inherited your late grandfather's plant shop and must go on with its business. This involves identifying plants and searching for new ones, all while an intriguing plot is developing behind the scenes with each gossip you hear from custumers. The puzzles are very fun and incredibly well designed, many things might leave you in awe when you realize the solution. I recommend this game to everyone, go play Strange Horticulture.

This game is pretty lukewarm, it doesn't bring anything new to the Mario series and it came after NSMB 1 and NSMB Wii, on top of that it released just six months before NSMB U which seems to improve things a lot. The game really gets better later, but generally level design is just standard and plain most of the time, with some interesting stages in the latter half. Bosses aren't good in the majority of cases, bringing back the rhinos from Super Mario World for every fortress wasn't a good decision. Go play Super Mario 3D Land instead because this one is really amazing. I hope a new 2D or 3D Mario comes out soon. All those Mario movie trailers got me in the mood for the games.

I liked Splatoon 3 even though I expected more new content and not just what we got for Splatoon 1 and 2 again. Story mode is kind of a letdown for me since they showed some different camera angles on previous trailers and it ended up being the same thing as the previous games. The best story mode in Splatoon is still Octo Expansion. It's hard for me to really criticize Splatoon 3 because it's a very fun game and very well made, but for the third entry in the series I really expected more shake-ups to the formula, it's good but it's not interesting since we're seeing this for the third time. I hope updates and DLC improve this.

After waiting a long time for a new mainline Sonic game, I was quite excited to play Sonic Frontiers. And even though there's still a lot of rough parts, I enjoyed Sonic Frontiers. I think the physics system and lack of momentum is bad, they need to change how speed works for the next game, this was fine for Sonic Unleashed, Colors and Generations but it's simply weird for an open zone game like this. Sonic stopping out of nowhere is really weird and it bugs me. Exploring the islands and collecting tokens while running fast feels really good and it's the best part of the game, the cyberspace stages pleased me a lot too despite being too short. Getting the Red Rings is no longer something very difficult to do. The redesigned combat system is good and I had fun with it, but the parry not being based on timing is just stupid. The minigames are definetely the worst part for me and they're required for progress in the main story, the different types of gameplay these minigames bring just aren't refined enough and bring more frustration than normal. I liked how the story is made for fans and full of references, and also fishing with Big the Cat and having a fishpedia is awesome. The bosses having Super Sonic back is one of the coolest parts for me, please do Super Sonic justice from now on after ignoring him for many games. The music is AMAZING, this part never lets down in a Sonic game. Overall, Sonic Frontiers is an improvement after Forces being a massive disappointment, there's is still a lot to improve but it is a step in the right direction. I'm looking forward to what comes next.

This game is so me. After a long wait, I'm very happy with Bayonetta 3! The game is extremely fun, and I think it's the best package between the three games on the series. The exploration is the best without a doubt, you can actually find and complete the extra verses without backtracking that much like the other games, and I loved finding the collectibles. The combat is amazing overall but summoning the demons is a bit slow and this takes away some of the heat of the action. Some boss battles are a drag to complete because the game doesn't control that well when they try to do a lot of different types of gameplay. The story and the ending aren't good but I don't care that much about it, some of parts of the game are wonderfully weird to me, the variety of weapons and demons you can use is amazing. The game has its problems and it's not perfect at all, but up to this point it's the game I enjoyed the most this year, I'm definitely coming back to 100% it. A fantastic experience overall. I want Bayonetta 4 fast! Battleship grade: B10.

I liked the visuals, the music and the mechanics of this game but it's FUCKING HARD. I just couldn't complete the later worlds even when activating third try and bigger time freeze. that beging said, the design is great, the worlds don't repeat mechanics and there's always something new to discover. Like I said, I enjoyed the first worlds better than the last ones because of the difficulty. But it is an overall interesting game that we don't see many of this type. I don't expect you to understand battleship grades but I'd give this game a D8.