Bio
Hello! My name is Mario. I have been playing video games for nearly my whole life. I play entirely on Nintendo and Playstation with some Xbox and PC experience. I love talking about video games and game design philosophies.

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Personal Ratings
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1 Years of Service

Being part of the Backloggd community for 1 year

Favorite Games

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Persona 5 Royal
Persona 5 Royal
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Red Dead Redemption
Red Dead Redemption

011

Total Games Played

000

Played in 2024

001

Games Backloggd


Recently Played See More

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Sep 16

Recently Reviewed See More

This is an extremely overrated video game and I genuinely do not like how so many in video game culture keep praising The Last of Us (both games, not just the second). I am not happy that Playstation keeps trying to mimic Naughty Dog's realistic, linear, story-based games. It is driving the "Hollywood-ification" of the video games industry. I really wish Sony would go back to making unique, design-driven games with charismatic characters like they used to in the PS2 era. Nowadays it feels like every video game protagonist is supposed to be either Nathan Drake or Joel and Ellie. The proliferation of "violent father figure learns to be less of an ass through parenthood" in video game culture is also really disturbing. I'm not sure what it says about gamers and game review culture that stories like Last of Us, Bioshock Infinite and God of War 2018 keep receiving the highest praise in the entire medium, but I don't like it. Surely there are better ways to tell stories and more to say about society than this!

As for the game itself, it's fine. It does a few things here and there that the Resident Evil and Silent Hill games have already done much better in terms of horror. It plays like a slower Uncharted and the stealth is nowhere near as good as Metal Gear Solid or even Hitman.

This game is the reason Assassin's Creed became Ubisoft's flagship AAA title. It inspired me to take an interest in history and Italian history specifically. I have this game to thank for introducing me to many friends and for inspiring me to visit Florence, Rome, Venice, and Milan a decade after I played it.

The problem is that Assassin's Creed II has not aged well as a video game. The combat is extremely weak, the stealth is too rigid to be passable, the character designs are incredibly ugly, the story is historically inaccurate and it endorses a lot of problematic conspiracy theories and Ezio is about as cliché for a protagonist as it gets. What really sells this game is the music and the environments. Florence and Venice are almost as beautiful and vibrant in this game as they are in real life, the rooftops especially. Jasper Kyd's music is the best in any Assassin's Creed game and I'm not ashamed to admit that I was listening to his score when I ran around Venice myself.

A lot of nostalgia for this title, even if I can't bring myself to play it anymore.

THIS IS THE GREATEST VIDEO GAME OF ALL TIME.

Symphony of the Night is one of those few games that is so lavish that everything is a marvel to behold. Alucard controls like a dream - they give you spells, subweapons, swords, shields, magic, summons, and every other weapon under the sun. It's a great Metroidvania for beginners (literally invented the term!) because the difficulty is not very high. The score is absolutely underrated and is probably the best out of any 2D video game ever - Michiru Yamane is a legend in video game music and her work reached its zenith here.
Likewise, Ayami Kojima's artstyle completely sets Castlevania apart from other Japanese-developed RPG's and I have multiple posters in my room.

Every serious gamer should experience this masterpiece at least once. Please do yourself a favor and play it!