Sonic the hedgehog is a game that was truly ahead of its time. The music in sonic 1 is so iconic, whenever you hear it you know what game it's from. The same can be said for the sound effects, whether it's collecting rings, finishing a level, or almost drowning. Each sound is truly iconic and special in its own way.

Another thing about sonic 1 that's amazing is the level design. The levels are full of spaces to explore and different routes to take. It really does baffle me how on Sega's first try they managed to get everything so right.

Sonic the hedgehog 2 improves upon the first game to the point where this is a perfect game. All of levels are fun and memorable, the music is even better in this game than the first somehow, and the bosses are absolutely perfect.

On top of this, the level design is much better than sonic 1, there so many more routes to take and the world's just feel SO much bigger. Also, every boss in sonic 2 was very fun to beat, especially the death egg robot. I was stuck on this boss for an hour at least, you need to fight two very hard bosses back to back with ZERO rings, so it's a little hard.

Although despite it being extremely challenging I would be lying if I said that this boss wasn't one of the best in all of gaming history. I highly recommend this game to anyone and everyone, I hope sonic 3 continues this trend of being better than your predecessor but after playing this I highly doubt anything can top this.

I have starred at a blank screen for several minutes trying to think of what to say to show my love for this game. Unfortunately trying to describe exactly what makes me feel the way I do about this game is hard to pinpoint without just saying this is a masterpiece that excels in every area a video games can. But in my opinion this truly excels at every level. Character progression, relate ability, replay ability, story, production, sound tracks, visuals, combat, exploration, vast hour syncing beautiful locations, heart breaking emotional moments, genuinely hilarious moments, so many fun mini games that it feels like you could sell it’s as a Final Fantasy version of Mario Party, you want it in a game it’s probably here. Also did I mention music, character progression, and story because these aspects aren’t just top notch for Final Fantasy, they are top notch for the medium.

I don’t know how Square pulled it off but they made one of the most well liked classic cast of characters and made them 100 times more deep, real and relatable. This goes for every party member but two stand out. First is Yuffie. In the original game Yuffie is optional so they didn’t really give her character much more character than “I love materia.” Here she is fully fleshed out, deep, loveable character just as much as everyone else in the party. Secondly is Cait Sith. As much as I loved the original cast I loathed Cait Sith with my entire being. All of my friends I knew that played this game also hated him. But in this game they did the impossible and took him from my one of my very least liked characters made him into an upper tier character. He goes from a legit joke to an amazing, funny, clever, loving character. To me the remakes did more for him than anyone .

The story was magnificent albeit with a some pacing issues. There were so many side quest thrown at you in between small chunks of the story. Outside of that though it was damn near everything you could want. There is some divide between fans on the last chapter but I think it sets up the potential of part 3 extremely well. I want to talk story much more but don’t want to spoil a thing but just know I thought is was S+ tier.

The music was a delight as songs were brilliantly remixed and sometimes used at beautiful or tragic times. This is one of the best Final Fantasy sound tracks, sooo elite of the elite. Two songs that surprisingly were way more catchy than they had any right to be were “bow wow wow” and the Chocobo songs when racing.

The gameplay is by far the best in the series imo with only XVI and Remake coming anywhere close. Everything felt smooth and customizable. Building each character to your unique play style was enjoyable.

The only two downsides I can even see someone arguing against are the final chapter playing out differently than they hoped and the pacing due to side quests. However as someone that thinks the final chapter will be a good springboard into part 3 and wants as much (good) Final Fantasy content that Square can put out these were bonus/non issues for me.

I could legitimately go on about this game for several hours but I don’t want to ramble. I recommend this game 100% and believe it is one of the greatest video games of all time!

Even though I am not the youngest of gamers I have recently started expanding my gaming horizon by getting into turn-based JRPGs, a genre I neglected in my youth. I have finished a small handful of these games in the past (the Mario & Luigi games, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IX, Persona 4 Golden, Dragon Quest VIII), but I still consider myself a total newbie to the genre. I used to be bad for starting one of these games and never finishing it, usually because the difficulty got too high (Final Fantasy IV DS), I encountered a game breaking bug (Final Fantasy X), I became discouraged by the game's length (Final Fantasy XIII), life got busy (Bravely Default), or most commonly I got distracted by a game in a different genre. As such I have mostly avoided these types of games as I rarely expect myself to finish them.

However, after seeing footage of Dragon Quest XI (DQXI) I knew I had to play it, despite the fact that people said it could take over 100 hours to finish it. The turn-based combat looked fun, the art design looked beautiful, the story sounded interesting enough, and the cast of characters looked incredibly charming and fun. I put off playing it for years because of that long estimated completion time, but earlier this year I found the game for a great price and decided to give it a shot.

To start things out, I really enjoyed DQXI's story. The general premise was a bit cliche (the main character finds out he is the only one who can put an end to the darkness that has descended upon the world, and he must build up a party to defeat the baddie and return peace to the world), but I found it to be well-paced and entertaining throughout, and there were enough twists and surprises to keep me engaged throughout my 89-hour play time. The companions that joined me on my journey had very unique personalities and back stories and I really liked each and every one of them. I genuinely cared about each one of them throughout my long journey.

The game's story is broken into 3 acts. Act 1 has the main character exploring the game's world, building up his team of companions, and making his way towards the game's main villain. Act 2 takes place after the events that conclude Act 1 (I won't spoil that here) and has you exploring the game's world again in preparation for a large battle. Finishing Act 2 provides you with the game's ending credits, and at this point you can start the game's "optional" Act 3. Act 3 is DQXI's end game, giving players access to a lot of additional content and the game's true ending. I say Act 3 is "optional" as some people online say it is okay to stop playing after seeing the Act 2 end credits, but I feel that if you stop playing at that point you are doing yourself a disservice. The content in Act 3 is some of the very best in the game and I do not recommend missing out on it (unless you didn't really enjoy the main game - then it is probably okay the call it quits at the end of Act 2).

Unsurprisingly for a Dragon Quest game, the combat in DQXI is what you'd expect from a traditional turn-based RPG, so I won't go in depth on that here. The combat here was fun and engaging though, and each character had enough unique spells and abilities to keep them feeling quite different than the other members in the party. Griding for XP was generally enjoyable too and it felt fantastic every time I leveled up. HP and MP were refreshed at each new level and new attribute points were earned and points that were used for unlocking new abilities from the skill trees. Honestly, each new level made such a difference in battles. I didn't find it necessary to grind too much to reach the Act 2 end credits, but it felt pretty darn necessary when playing through Act 3 (thankfully there is a handy little exploit which lessens the grind significantly - search Google for Hallelujah & Electro Light levelling). Some of those later bosses hit darn hard, but they were all a really fun challenge.

One element of DQXI that seems pretty minor, but I feel needs to be highlighted, is the game's forging system. I typically avoid crafting in games (I generally can't be bothered to grind enemy kills or perform repetitive tasks to get the materials I require), but the one used in DQXI is the best I have seen to date. Early in the game you are given a 'Fun-Sized Forge', a crafting table that goes with your party wherever you go and can be used at any time you are outside of combat. At this forge you can craft weapons, armor, and accessories from recipes which you find throughout the world. After selecting the item you want to craft you are presented with a list of required materials. This is all standard stuff, but where this system sets itself apart is that if you are missing any of the required materials you can simply choose to buy the items for gold right from that menu, eliminating the need to leave the forge and hunt down those missing materials (though it should be noted that some late game high-level gear does require specific ingredients that you can't buy this way). This feature really takes away the tedious grind found in other crafting systems and makes it so much more enjoyable. The gear you can craft is generally more powerful than what you can buy from shops too, making the forge a pretty essential tool throughout the entire game.

One of DQXI's greatest strengths is its visuals. The game has some of the best graphics I have seen on the Switch, and throughout my playthrough I was consistently surprised that this portable console from 2017 could handle something like this. The world was beautifully designed and filled with a good variety of interesting and varied locations to visit, weird monsters to battle, and NPCs to speak to. The character design was top notch and the art style used made everyone so expressive and full of life. The game had some truly stunning pre-rendered cinematic cutscenes too. There weren't enough of these, but damn did they ever look good!

I guess the one place I could fault DQXI is its soundtrack. Don't get me wrong, the orchestral soundtrack was a real joy to listen to, with songs that were catchy and memorable, there just wasn't enough of them to support a game of this length. I never found the repeated tracks annoying enough to turn them off, but I imagine the lack of variety could be bothersome to some gamers. That nitpick aside, the game's remaining sound design elements really shine - especially its excellent voice acting. The main characters were done extremely well, and the voice actors did a fantastic job of bringing these characters to life. There were some NPCs that were not very well acted, but they didn't detract from the experience at all.

Dragon Quest XI was an incredible experience and is likely my favorite game on the Switch. The portability of the system made such a difference as I likely never would've finished this game without that ability. I loved the game's traditional turn-based combat (with some nice quality of life updates to make it feel modern), its expansive world, and its charming cast of characters. I highly recommend this game to those new to turn-based JRPGs or veterans of the genre. This is one heck of a great game, and it shouldn't be missed by anyone.

Dragon Quest V is a traditional JRPG through and through, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. The story was quite good and there were several twists that genuinely shocked me. The characters were pretty one note though and I never felt overly attached to any of them, not even the main character.

The turn-based battles were exactly what I expected from a Dragon Quest game, and they were fun for a while, but I eventually grew tired of the frequency of the random encounters. The boss battles were also a bit disappointing as they felt more like battles of attrition (the need to keep my HP and MP up at all times) than a real challenge. I still consider myself a pretty big JRPG newbie and I finished the final boss on my first try (though it did take 45 minutes).

I had a genuinely good time with Dragon Quest V, despite my complaints, and I especially liked the story and its unexpected twists. Had the random encounter rate been less frequent and the boss battles been more challenging this would have been rated a bit higher. Still, this was one heck of a good JRPG that was well worth playing.

Last year I played through all of the 2D Metroid games (Metroid Zero Mission and Samus Returns instead of the original games), which was a good amount of fun. After finishing them I wanted to play through the 3D games in the series, but I had no good way of doing so. I was understandably hyped when Metroid Prime Remastered was announced at a Nintendo Direct earlier this year and was instantly excited to finally see how this series translated to the first-person perspective.

Right from the very get go I was impressed by what the game had to offer. The graphical overhaul from the original game was extremely well done and made this 20-year-old game feel brand new. The sound design was good throughout too, with a strong (albeit a bit repetitive) soundtrack, and sound effects that worked well for the game world. The game's controls also worked better than I had anticipated they would. The gyro aiming was an appreciated addition and the ability to lock onto enemies with the press of a button made the combat considerably more satisfying than it would have been otherwise. Samus's movement was also very fluid which made exploring the world a lot of fun. Lastly, I felt there was a good variety of weapons and gadgets to unlock too. It was always exciting to add something new to my arsenal, especially when it allowed me to reach previously unreachable locations in the game's expansive landscape.

I liked a lot about Metroid Prime Remastered, but it wasn't without its faults. The biggest annoyance to me was the lack of any brightness settings. I played this entirely in handheld mode, primarily in public places, which caused a decent amount of glare on the screen. As many of the game's environments were very dark it often became difficult to traverse the world, even leading to a small handful of deaths because of it (for example, I fell into a pit with toxic water and was unable to find a low ledge to jump up to due to how dark the area was). This wasn't game breaking by any means, but it certainly hampered my overall enjoyment. I also felt that the game's combat was so-so at best, and it became rather tiresome after a few hours. I eventually started to avoid battles whenever possible as I felt there was no real reason to see them through to completion. Some sort of XP system or other reason to defeat enemies would have alleviated this issue, in my opinion.

Overall, I had a good time with Metroid Prime Remastered. The graphics were great, the sound design was solid, the world exploration was a lot of fun, and the controls worked perfectly. The lack of brightness settings and the mostly hollow combat lessened my enjoyment a bit, but I still really enjoyed my time with it as a whole, and it was great to finally play one of the 3D Metroid games. I will definitely be checking out the sequels once they are released.

It has been a long time coming, but I finally made it through Celeste! Over the past few years, I have started and stopped this game multiple times. I first started playing it on PS4, got to Chapter 3, then gave up on it. Months later I picked it for the Switch, where I slowly chipped away at it but never dedicated myself to making any sort of meaningful progress, but eventually got to the end of Chapter 3 once again. I never felt that the game was too hard or unfair, I just kept being drawn away to games with more depth than a platformer. A few weeks back I decided to set my focus strictly on finishing Celeste once and for, all and I am really glad that I did. When I immersed myself fully I was finally able to see why this game is so beloved.

The art style in Celeste is beautiful. The graphics in the platforming sections have a simple but nice look to them, looking like an upscaled or more modernized retro game, which I felt worked really well for this gameplay style. Each chapter had its own distinct look and feel to it too which kept things fresh. I also really loved the portraits that were used during the dialogue segments. These were incredibly charming, and the artist did a wonderful job of imbuing the characters with a great level of personality and emotion.

The sound design throughout Celeste was great as well. The sound effects were fitting for the gameplay and the noises used in place of voices for the dialogue segments worked surprisingly well. The soundtrack was very catchy too and I almost always got a track stuck in my head after a play session.

I really enjoyed the story in Celeste, too. I won't go into it in detail here as I feel it is best to experience it yourself, but I found it to be well written, engaging, and pretty touching, too.

Where Celeste shines brightest is in its challenging but never unfair level design (though I have yet to attempt the B-sides so I can't vouch for their difficulty just yet). I died a lot in my playthrough (almost 1500 times), but these all seemed fair as it was my error that caused me to die, not cheap or poor level design. I always felt that the tough areas were made this way to test my skills and to push me to improve, not to punish me. It helped that the game's world is broken up into individual rooms, with each death resetting you back to the start of that room. This greatly reduced the feeling of frustration whenever I died and made it easy to keep on trying time and time again until I finally made it through to the end. It was such an exhilarating and satisfying feeling to make it through a particularly challenging room after so many failed attempts.

For how simple the gameplay was (jump, dash, grip), the gameplay always felt fresh, mostly because of clever level design, but also because of new mechanics that were introduced in each chapter. Most chapters were also concluded with a boss battle of sorts, which generally required quick reflexes and mastery of the chapter's new mechanics. I wish there had been more of these in the game, but the ones that were there offered a nice challenge and were incredibly satisfying to get through.

Celeste was an incredible experience. It was a very challenging game at times, but the feeling of satisfaction that I felt when overcoming a particularly tough section made it worth any of the stress and frustration. I died a lot, and I didn't find all that many of the collectibles (90/175 strawberries), but I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this game. I'm unsure if I will ever go back to finish the B-side levels, but I probably will return from time to time to gather a few more of those missing collectibles.