There is no game I've wanted to give 5-stars to more than The New Colossus. From its incredible (and incredibly timely) story to the ferocious creativity in its world building, level design (okay, Manhattan is a bit ponderous) and characterization, The New Colossus was a titanic achievement of feel and style.

I mean, I played 18 hours of this, the campaign portion practically straight through. I earned my first trophy just after Noon on November 5th, my last trophy (of the campaign) just after 2PM on November 6th, then dabbled in toe Übercommader stuff for about a week and walked away. That's fucking DEVOURING a video game!

Unfortunately, it doesn't always feel great to play. The previous game had a heavier dose of stealth than this does, but those roots are still lain and thus at times this game incentivizes anything other than laying waste to Nazi scum at the most brusk pace possible. I get it, the Nazis won and are very dangerous - I still would rather feel like a lawn mower than a field mouse! Speaking of danger, the A.I. itself isn't particularly robust, but this game has a hard time communicating damage as well as its source, leading to many frustrating deaths wherein you can't be entirely sure you were actually playing the game poorly.

There's a side of me that says, ah whatever, this has syphilitic Hitler, pregnant women double wielding uzis, weird secret Jewish space tech, character deaths* just as shocking as anything on Game of Thrones and one of the single most empowering, feel good endings to a video game there's ever been.

If anyone's ever told you that The New Colossus can be a frustrating experience, believe them! After two of these I'm actually not entirely convinced MachineGames are excellent video game designers. But they are certainly some sort of visionaries, daredevils beyond measure, and I really hope we get to hear from them again soon.

Man I get it but I just dont get it. As far as I'm concerned the only things that hold up are its aesthetics and the whole sequence breaking thing. While the game looks and sounds good and sequence breaking is cool in theory, at the end of the day you have to play Super Metroid.

Super Metroid, for its nearly unrivaled pedigree and acclaim, is one of the worst playing and feeling games I ever played for so many reasons. Let's list them! Samus has weird crap acceleration
Jumping is slow, floaty and destroys your momentum
Dash being a "B" button prompt fucks the ENTIRE button layout
Scrolling through missiles/bombs/whatever by mashing select
Walljumping is designed for sequence breaking in future playthroughs which means it's incredibly obtuse to perform without looking it up
Consecutive space jumps have a weird timing window that's less consistent than walljumping that doesn't add meaningfully to the gameplay
Quicksand gets an honorable mention for being egregiously heinous

Take all this, and add that there's no real fast travel option and a map that doesn't tell you what rooms are actually connected and you just have a lot of wasted time running around with these awful controls and my patience just thinned and thinned and thinned.

Real shit, if this game ever gets remade with GBAesque controls and changes to its button layout the game it'll probably be Actually Good but until then two playthroughs of this shit is enough for twelve lifetimes.

I've spent most of my summer so far playing the DK Country series, and I've unfortunately met the end. If a game series has made me change my profile picture, then it means that it has had a great impact on me. I've enjoyed each game as much as the other but Tropical Freeze definitely stands out...

It takes the DKC formula and expands upon it in all kinds of ways, such as the accompanying of Diddy-, Dixie-, and Cranky Kong which changes up the gameplay and lets you find secret exits which lead to new undiscovered levels. In most levels, you get the chance to choose which Kong you prefer to suit your kind of playstyle. I found that Dixie is the most utilizable character as she hovers like Diddy and has a jump boost like Cranky. (DD + CK ≈ DX)

The level design is incredibly well done and I got pleasantly surprised by each level I played. My favourite being 'Grassland Groove' (3-1). It's an overload of love put into the level, I love the African theme and setting, and it fits well in the DK Country universe. A diverse set of giant-sized paper puppet animals and the song playing in the background with authentic African singers makes everything just incredibly convincing.

10/10 Baby, bye-bye!!

The only complaint I have is the controls which does not actually matter that much when it's as fun as it is. Pure joy with amazing music that got me to bob my head through my whole playthrough. Some of my favorite tracks are - The Moon and the Prince, Katamari Mambo, Que Sera Sera and Cherry Tree Times.

Fun and varied co-op mechanics simply can't make up for awful writing, characters and a poor message about divorce.

I had been interested in this for some time as I am always looking for co-op games with friends. Being a fan of the studios two previous titles Brothers and A Way Out I thought this would be an easy slam but having finished it yesterday I was left disappointed with the overall experience.

The story is about an arguing couple whose daughter wanting them to stay together accidently curses them into becoming a small doll and clay figure thanks to a magic book. This book is an animated character itself forcing the couple to overcome obstacles in their way in a toxic view on divorce. This book Dr. Hakim is also the worst character in gaming. He speaks in a way that just comes across as slightly racist in his forced (Spanish?) accent and every. Single. Moment. with him on screen I want to stick hot knitting needles through my eardrums. The problem is every character in it is terrible, the couple May and Cody are both insufferable and while I get that's the point it makes playing a 12 hour game with them just agonizing.

The game is far from all bad though, the visuals and art style are fantastic. I really like the character designs and it runs super smooth on PS5. The split-screen way the game works even playing online is actually really cool in tandem with the way most of the puzzles are designed. The co-op mechanics are really good with the game constantly introducing new abilities for sections of levels and they never outstay their welcome.

The problem is every time I started to have fun there would be some annoying dialogue or cutscene to sabotage it every time. Still if that doesn't bother you like it did my friend and I you'll have a lot of fun here. It looks good, it plays well and has a decent amount of gameplay to it for a dozen hours or so.

+ Good visuals and performance.
+ Varied mechanics that don't out live their welcome.

- Awful characters.
- Terrible writing.
- Toxic view on divorce.