Despite its issues I have a ton of respect for this game, it attempts to bring the best things from both of the games preceding it while adding some new stuff on top. It’s not perfect but the fact that they actively listened and responded to most feedback kinda feels like a miracle for a Nintendo game.

It brings back the idea of portrait ghosts from the first game and while they aren’t quite the same, they’re really special in their own way and come with a lot of personality. Their fights are also quite fun too with one on each floor. Most of the time they feel more like extended flashy puzzles than fights which is a perfect match to the game’s strengths.

Dark Moon’s additions come in the form of the game’s toolset and variety in settings. This game feels much more cohesive due to the dropped mission structure but sections of the game are still split into separate floors outside of the first handful.

There was clearly a ton of time and love put into this game, there’s so many cool little details and secrets to dig for through levels and it’s by far my favorite part of the game. Every single level no matter how big or small is densely packed with cleverly hidden collectibles and money to find and it’s always fun to find it all. The toolset you’re given let’s the developers hide stuff in a lot of clever ways and it leads to a lot of fun “aha!” moments as you’re exploring.

There’s so many visual gags and awesome details no matter which floor you’re on, just walking through them and taking in the atmosphere of each one is a joy and the way Luigi and other characters animate during gameplay and cutscenes brings it all together so perfectly. It feels like a living breathing world more than either of the games did before it.

For as awesome as the exploration and attention to detail in this game is, the combat feels super underdeveloped in comparison. Before I rip into the combat I should note that it’s deemphasized compared to the first two games, with enemy encounters taking up less time and boss ghosts utilizing puzzle solving skills over what little depth there is to fighting. With that said, there’s only three main enemy types which is bad in and of itself since you’ll be fighting them the entire game but what kills the combat more than anything else is the slam mechanic. The entire system feels like it was reworked from the ground up just to implement this move and while there is some novelty to it at first, you’ll quickly realize it trivializes combat by stunning enemies over and over allowing you to infinitely chain them. No matter what cute little tools the ghosts are given to try and counter your moveset, the slam is too powerful to ever put you in a situation where you could actually come close to dying or even challenge you a bit. It’s honestly bad enough to destroy the appeal of this game’s combat all on its own and it’s a modern Paper Mario tier battle system suicide.

The first two games were far more thought out in this respect. The first game’s intense tug of war chain is always challenging and satisfying to pull off and Dark Moon’s charge mechanic really encourages you to play risky and combo as many ghosts at once with a flashlight stun. They’re both appealing in their own way and reward you for challenging chains, I really hope the developers recognize this flaw and rework the combat into something more enjoyable next time around.

Outside of the combat I’m not a fan of the backtracking and the ending sequence feels rushed (the score ranking based on your money is also way worse than before which is a shame when the exploration is so fun) but those issues feel pretty minor in comparison.

I’ve been hard on the game here but I wanna emphasize that this is a quality game that’s absolutely worth your time if you like digging through every nook and cranny for cool secrets and collectibles or expressively animated games with beautifully stylized visuals. There’s a lot of really cool details I didn’t even get into like how certain themed floors in the game are still incorporated into the hotel setting despite being really crazy ideas, it’s hilarious seeing how they actually made some of these ideas work within the building. Before I spoil too much I’ll just say Next Level Games did a great job here and I think they’re super close to perfecting this formula. Just polish up that combat, cut the filler, fix the scoring system, and you’ve got an incredible game.

Uh, so my only Kirby experience to this point was the excellent Super Star Ultra. I'd kind of assumed that its breadth of transformations, iconic antagonists, and nutty otherworldly endings had taken time to develop. But... nah, Kirby was slapping hard out of the gate, with all these elements present and accounted for. I'm sure Kirby's Dream Land was a relatively limited mechanical base to build on, so Kirby wasn't quite fully developed out of the gate, but for the first console entry in the series it's fair to say that Kirby's Adventure is extremely impressive.

The lack of polish and balance that DEFINES the NES era is rarely seen here, with an excellent degree of control and a healthy difficulty curve. Everything is presented with such a degree of visual clarity, and the sprite-work is incredibly charming.

I don't know man, I didn't expect this to be so good. Definitely check it out if you can. It's easily available in the Switch's NES library, just be sure to grab that warp star after the final boss' first phase quickly, or the game crashes!

Playing Hollow Knight and coming out of it saying: "Uh, yeah, it's like, Metroidvania Dark Souls dude." is a take so shallow that a mere glance at the store page's screenshots would prove that to be the case. Yet, after finishing the game it's also the most glowing compliment I can give it, as it marries the components of both styles in a remarkably elegant way.

The moment-to-moment gameplay is Castlevania, the environments Metroid, the level progression and music both at the same time! Add to that the atmosphere typical of a dying world, as well as elements like recovering lost resources after death, and you should already know where this sentence is heading.

The atmosphere of Hallownest is one of the densest, thickest and most engrossing you can find in gaming, where all characters, the warm and hospitable, the engimatic and elusive and the outright hostile, give the world a feeling of being lived in and a life and identity of its own. With the compliments out of the way, I would also like to vent about the size of the map. It is way too dang big, to the point where traversing it is a chore and I found myself constantly praying for quicker traversal tools.

Where the game should have taken less from Dark Souls is the main story (which is the only part of the plot I can discuss, having not bothered with the add-ons). That one is too much like FromSoft's seminal work. But we're getting into spoiler territory.

Another point of contention I have with Hollow Knight is its spells and nail techniques. The former feel a bit useless if you're willing to grow a spine and face the enemy head-on, locking eyes and unleashing a storm of attacks. Normal attacks that is. I rarely ever used the special nail techniques, since they are situational at best. Why would I want to charge up special moves when the additional effects they have aren't worth the effort compared to a simple string of normal attacks?

All things said, the game really is a cute little gem and i see why people like it so much, but it just didn't blow me away. I've seen a lot of (overblown) praise from my friend circle about this, so my expectations, as with any game which receives too much hype and acclaim, were somewhat let down. But it speaks volumes that a game I only played because it was in a bundle and gave me something to talk about with some nerdy girls at a party kept me going way after the day of that celebration.

I opened this game again today after having beaten it a while ago, I cried at the opening. Im a mess. But then I realized I never wrote a review for this, so here it is. I can list a dozen if not two dozen problems i have with this game, but god damn it this is one of the best gaming experiences I have and probably will ever have. The style, the story, the characters, the music the literally everything just oozes sexy on a level I can't even describe. I still overall prefer the quiet town vibe of Golden, but these two games capture the near perfect video game experience for me despite all their numerous flaws and I dont think any game could ever top it. I just can't let anyone on the internet know I like it lol

This would probably be my favorite game if it weren't for the mind-numbingly stupid final cutscene in the new true ending. + akechi and maruki overrated tbh