My friend said he was going to buy me Balan Wonderworld but hit me with this instead, so if it's a trick or a pleasant surprise that's for you to decide.

Tunic has some really interesting ideas that, should you dare go for completion, will really demand you work your brain for it. I think the Instruction Manual is a brilliant concept that cutely made and several times as I flipped through it I thought "damn, they're probably selling this for money they'd make a killing". I got the standard ending because eventually the demand for guessing what you input at the secret input spots for so many puzzles got too much for me (I likely would have been more interested had I known earlier, but I only found out near the end of the game). Mid-Late game collecting the keys and the dungeon after was where it peaked for me, unraveling more of the world as I explore and clear dungeons, now that's my kinda game.

I also think the bosses are pretty fun, the Librarian getting a special shoutout. Some bosses like the final boss and Scavanger Boss can get stuck in a loop trying to dodge as they're against the wall which lets you combo a good amount before they get unstuck. Combat is all around solid although not knowing what items did kept me from experimenting with a few of them.

If you have a giga brain (or a cheater but that goes against the spirit of the game) you'll enjoy the puzzles, if you have an average brain like me I think going for the standard ending is sufficient enough, even if the endings felt a little simple. Better than Balan most likely as I can see me genuinely recommending this to some people.

This is an improvement over the NES game, because it's actually a beat 'em up for most of its runtime this time! Your move set is still rather limited with no defensive options outside attempting iframe abuse but hey, the bulk of the game isn't instant death traps now! The sprites are very expressive and the Toads are filled with personality. I will say that the extreme violence like blood spurting out and decapitation don't fit with the vibe I got from the NES game, but it's definitely a remnant of the style at the time. Extreme Violence and cartoon physics don't work at their best here. Grabbing a giant rat man by the dick and repeatedly punching them in the balls is definitely...a decision. I also like the shmup level, but I don't think it should have been the final level, as placing that right at the end betrays all the skills the player has been using up to this point. I'd add one more level with the Dark Queen since you don't face her here.

Just because it isn't the NES game doesn't mean Battletoads Arcade isn't relentlessly hard. Too hard in some spots I'd say, getting hit will wombo combo you and the finale of the game doesn't use the skills you learned and requires a completely different skillset. I imagine it gets easier with multiple players though.

Better than the NES game still.

It's Super Monkey Ball 1 on the Gameboy Advance. There's a lotta pop-in, but the mad lads at Realism actually did it, it and it's impressive it for the most part works and everything is recreated faithfully. Even the minigames, Monkey Fight is still stupid fun.

Digital Control with Monkey Ball's camera absolutely kills this game (instead of speeds based on how you move the stick, you can adjust your acceleration rate with A to increase and B to decrease), it's not bad until some of the expert courses which really demand you work with the much more limited monkey. That one part of Expert 7 with the slope killed me so many times just because it was asking a lot to align my monkey and the camera with the slope. It's like Mario 64 DS but a generation earlier and with a less popular IP so no one's really defending it.

They worked with what they had, which is really impressive from a technical standpoint that they got this much Super Monkey Ball to work in 2002 on the GBA, but I don't think the GBA was ready for Super Monkey Ball. Unless you like the one level with the realism name, I'd stick to the console releases of SMB1.