A stellar game that holds nothing back and revels in it. The story is a creative rollercoaster that deftly balances humor, tragedy, an earnest dive into the concept of love and absolutely unashamed perversion. Compelling dialogue and situations are presented at a refreshingly brisk pace and rarely did I ever feel like I was forcing myself to get to the next enjoyable moment, though I will admit to making liberal use of PPSSPP's fastforwarding in battles. The evocative imagery puts most other games to shame despite the limitations of the PSP and the soundtrack, much like the first game's, is top notch.

I did find the combat notably less enjoyable than I did with the original like a decade ago but I still don't think it's as bad as everyone makes it out to be, and I really liked how it never felt like the devs wanted to just make a VN instead since they made constant efforts to mix story and gameplay in creative ways.

The characters from the first game are used exceptionally well and show up with a lot more charisma with even a side character like Gatou becoming a highlight. The new characters are also great additions and emphasize the game's themes while having interesting stories in their own right. Being a Sakura chad and getting not one not two not three but FOUR Sakuras is a level of pandering few gamers will get the chance to experience and I pity you all. Also naturally getting to team up with Gil is amazing and makes the mostly-unchanged 2nd playthrough entirely worth it.

I like boobs.

Despite the repetitive, shallow combat and poor optimization, I was actually enjoying this quite a bit. It doesn't look great but it's surprisingly well-animated. The hammy voice acting and script do a great job conveying the charm of a super robot series and there's a real sense of this being a passion project. Unfortunately I ran into a game-breaking bug in the Tokyo stage that stopped my enjoyment in its tracks and even after the game was patched this apparently common bug went unfixed. Real shame.

Has one of the better antagonists and endings in a Yakuza game but is otherwise a side game in every sense. Going back to playing as Kiryu after Yagami is a sharp downgrade and the story is really padded out by bland sidequests that don't even meet the average for the series. Yakuza 6 might have not been a great game overall but it was a great ending for Kiryu so I'm kinda bummed they felt the need to make this game at all. That being said, it is nice to get a few more personal moments with Kiryu after a whole series of his character taking a backseat to political struggles and schemes. Wasn't necessarily bad, but definitely underwhelming.

A charming and heartfelt VN that, despite appearing unremarkable on the surface, hits all the right notes. It's the full package with likable characters, nice art, and a SOULFUL soundtrack that really engrosses you in the atmosphere of young love. There's a surprising amount of routes and while they do vary in quality, the girls are all cute and quite a few of them managed to get me at least a little emotional. The main character's aversion to women can feel inconsistent at times but it opens a lot of opportunities for good scenes with the supportive characters like Yuuji and Tamaki and it lends to a real feeling of growth in the MC and his relationships. My only real complaints would be Ruri's screeching harpy voice, the MC being far too dense in certain instances, and the placement of sex scenes being occasionally jarring. I also accidentally shot myself in the foot by doing Manaka's route first because it is by far the best and I had to spend the rest of the VN comparing every girl to my wife/class president/goddess Manaka Komaki.

Like the first game it does an excellent job at making you feel like spiderman and I really had a blast just filling out that checklist of side missions and collectibles. I'd say the story was not as impactful as the first game's but it does a very admirable job considering it doesn't get the benefit of being the first great spiderman game in a long time. Switching between Peter and Miles with their own unique attacks and interactions was really fun and dynamic and I think they both showed up pretty well throughout the campaign with their own decent story arcs. Kraven and Venom are also cool villains that made for some enjoyable fights and setpieces. They really do a great job of making you feel the power surge when you use the venom abilities and edgy Peter is always a fun time. The MJ missions were pretty lame as usual but at least they were short.

Something that distracted me regularly throughout the game was this realization that Spiderman 2's NYC has exactly 2 kinds of people: criminals who are out for blood and saints who live to serve their community, save the environment and absolutely adore going to work at 6 in the morning because they want to make the world a better place. The whole script is just permeated by this jarring forced positivity that I guess is meant to make you want to protect the civilians but to me it just made them feel artificial. Don't get me started on the "Danikast" with the girl telling everyone to watch out for spiderman and hug their wholesome pupperinos while drinking 8 glasses of water a day.

Honestly I don't remember the other 3 games super well but I enjoyed this one enough to somewhat confidently say it's the best one. I really like getting help from and upgrading my fuzzy friend Oatchi and the treasure-collecting was really addicting. Stuff like the night levels and dandori challenges, while less enjoyable than the core gameplay, offer fun enough breaks between excursions and I never really got tired of the game even throughout its surprisingly plentiful post-game content which is pretty rare for me. PLEASE stop saying dandori.

It's a good game. There's not a moment I was playing where I wasn't having fun because the platforming just feels great and the stages have a lot of fun gimmicks sprinkled throughout them. The badges are a fun addition as well though I'd like for the extra elevation spin jump to be a core part of Mario's movement since it feels so good I didn't want to switch badges most of the time.

Unfortunately I'm left feeling like I'll forget 95% of the game a couple months from now. The game is extremely easy aside from the special levels and there's not many levels in general so it's easy to blast through the game in no time. The wonder flower sections, rather than instilling a sense of wonder, always just made me go "hey that's a cute idea" and didn't leave much of an impression. 2D mario games have never really had good boss fights but capping off each world with uninteresting bowser jr. fights is pretty lame and some worlds just didn't have a boss at all. Also the elephants are gross, stop that.

Overall I had a good time, but it felt like that was more due to how intrinsically good Mario is and not because they succeeded at their mission to provide a whacky, novel experience.

As a big fan of both Layton and Phoenix Wright, I found this to be a pretty enjoyable experience. The trials are generally weaker than the average PW game and the puzzles are generally weaker than the average PL game but it still ends up being a solid combination with a compelling mystery and fun interactions. The introduction of magic in the court trials puts an interesting spin on the usual formula and the original characters fit well with the styles of both series. I held off on playing this game for a long time because I had only heard that it featured the most absurd plot twist of all time, which ended up being pretty accurate. This is pretty standard fare for Layton games, so I don't think it should ruin the game for anyone and personally I found it very entertaining.