Love the Squaresoft vibes it has, edgy while maintaining the Toby Fox humor and antics. Definitely prefer the classic Final Fantasy perspective for the battle system over Undertale's more SMT/Earthbound perspective, Kris' fingergun animation never gets old. The graze mechanic during the bullet hell battle sequences also, add a layer of spice and risk/reward where you earn TP for ability use when executed. The Jevil secret boss fight could easily raise my score, overall it's a good introduction, just doesn't do enough to make the chapter transcendent media for me, even if it gets close.

A certain VTuber, Deltarune, and my increased experience and appreciation for bullet hell/shoot 'em ups got me wanting to get into this series again. Not exactly sure if this is my favorite installment, it's one of the tougher games, but it definitely pleased me from beginning to end. Has some of my favorite tracks in the series, love Yuugi Hoshiguma and Utsuho Reiuji's designs too. Honestly glad I decided to return to this, I've been playing these games ever since I was in my teens and coming back as an adult, I'm able to recognize so much more to love than just the music, gameplay and characters. I guess I just find aspects of Touhou in its entirety to be very comforting to me and if a game can give me comfort while also providing so much more than even that, well I think that says enough about its value to me.

This game kind of rules, it was made at the early period of The Simpsons which gives it an even more uncanny vibe. Bart has a blue shirt, Smithers is a lot more maniacal than his calm/collected demeanor in the series, and the game explores whatever it can of Springfield with this chaotic childlike glee. The game oozes charm throughout and surprisingly had Treasure staff on it before Treasure became a thing, I like to look at it as another Dynamite Headdy predecessor like McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure. It genuinely has that fever dream vibe McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure shot to the moon with and Dynamite Headdy pierced through the heavens to reach the peak of weird. This was one of the earlier soundtracks composed by Norio Hanzawa who went on to compose for Gunstar Heroes, the aforementioned Dynamite Headdy, Alien Soldier and Sin & Punishment: Star Successor, it is the cherry on top in conveying the chaotic spectacle of it all.

The gameplay is a lot more methodical than most beat 'em ups, it's not the most in-depth or technical, but the feedback in the animations makes it satisfying for me. The hit detection can be finicky at times and the enemy AI has an invisible chance of countering that makes not getting hit pretty tough, which is a big issue with this game and probably the classic Konami beat 'em ups in general except maybe Turtles in Time? Don't take my word for it though it's been a while since I played them. Since, I played the game alone I didn't have the opportunity to utilize the team attacks, they seem to add an interesting dynamic to the gameplay. There's so much love and attention to detail put into this game, the slight frame of Marge getting her hair caught in her vacuum cleaner during close-range attacks, especially charmed me. I'd definitely recommend The Simpsons Arcade Game if you have some friends to play with, you're a Simpsons fan or like video games with off-beat vibes.

I'm conflicted with HellSinker... You might not like it too much at first, give it time, try out the tutorial or just continue to brute force it. It's one of those games that wants your attention, to learn everything it has to offer, enticing you to give it another go even if you might have found out you hate it or find it frustrating.

When I play, there's this feeling I get, "maybe this isn't for me", "this doesn't feel right", "actually I love this" "oh, that's how that works", "I should do this to prevent that". This constant learning process that genuinely captivates me, helps that the game has this obtuse nature of explaining itself or providing its information, gives the same air of mystery and strange allure, that made the predecessor Radio Zonde so appealing. It has so much that works for me, mechanically, visually, musically, I think it's just gonna take some investment for it to really click. I don't want to give up on it, not yet...

EDIT: It clicked...

I appreciate this game for actually giving content warnings at the start, but I don't know, it wasn't as hard to digest as I expected even with the numerous warnings, not to say that it doesn't tackle tough subject material, it just wasn't that heavy for me. Being a trans woman myself it didn't make me emotional either, I fuck with the visuals in this and I adore how it utilizes the Game Boy, it genuinely spooked me at one point because it's a mostly silent game and the atmosphere is honestly isolating and claustrophobic. It's a really cool way to explore being trans and it tackling sex work is a very appealing aspect, I can see myself replaying it for anything I might have missed or just to take in the aesthetics again.

Chop Suey was like playing that lost childhood game that I always meant to play and finally being able to as an adult. When I was nearing the end of my playthrough, I made sure to revisit certain moments that I enjoyed and listening to that tune again from that familiar scenery, I got emotional and when I quit the game and the credits played, I got emotional once more. That an obscure children's game for girls from the 90s was able to give me a fleeting, yet magical experience at a time where my life feels like a living hell, I'm going to cherish it with all my being. I must thank Theresa Duncan and company for giving a girl a semblance of pure joy, even for this brief moment in time.

I had a decent amount of racing games on GBA and F-Zero: Maximum Velocity was one of the first ones I got besides Lego Racers 2. I didn't think this one was too bad, I think the original characters are a decent departure and the machine designs are pretty cool too, the gameplay is basically like SNES F-Zero, it's definitely far from being the worse racer on the GBA, but I don't think it stands out either. Still, I have a soft spot for this game, even though I prefer GP Legend, I played it a lot during car rides.

Before the arcade game, before the Simpsons Game, before the Simpsons Movie, before I actually got into the series seriously, this was my go-to for Simpsons consumption. The GBA port of a Crazy Taxi inspired game that actually retained the Crazy Box mission madness from Crazy Taxi, but also had the Sunday Drive mode unique to this game which allowed you to explore the levels without a timer that I vibed with for hours, that shit was magical for me when I was a kid. I really enjoyed how the GBA had so many games that played with 3D visuals and this one definitely stood out to me with the size and variety of the levels.