RadMaximilian
1999
A great horror game that mostly holds up to this day. Took me some time to get used to the tank controls, but it eventually became second nature. The game doesn't rely too much on jumpscares and lets the atmosphere do the work. However, it tends to pull some cheap shots on you with the enemy placements towards the later parts.
I prefer the second game in terms of story, but the very first outing in the town of Silent Hill still managed to impress me with its masterfully composed spooky vibes.
I prefer the second game in terms of story, but the very first outing in the town of Silent Hill still managed to impress me with its masterfully composed spooky vibes.
2007
This game oozes of charm, with its characters, art style and writing. My time with the game was rather short, but I enjoyed every second of it. Highly recommended.
This review contains spoilers
Path of Radiance has one of the most captivating plots in the entire series.
Ike is also one of the best FE protagonists, in my opinion. The fact that he isn't of royal blood, and that he doesn't know much about the world outside of his home nation of Crimea, makes him more relatable than most FE-lords and protags without having the need to give him amnesia or something.
Coming to this after only having played the 3DS games and finding out that Fire Emblem games can have more than only Rout the Enemy objectives was a real eye-opener as well. For example, there is a stealth mission which gives you the choice of either brute forcing your way through, or sneaking by unnoticed, which earns you some bonus EXP as compensation. My absolute favorite map in the entire game is the one where the enemy are using innocent, unarmed priests as meat shields. You can easily kill the priests in cold blood in order to reach the enemy, but the game rewards you with bonus EXP and items based on the amount of priests that are still alive at the end of the chapter.
The interesting map objectives and the plot makes this game truly shine, and this is so far my favorite Fire Emblem game.
Ike is also one of the best FE protagonists, in my opinion. The fact that he isn't of royal blood, and that he doesn't know much about the world outside of his home nation of Crimea, makes him more relatable than most FE-lords and protags without having the need to give him amnesia or something.
Coming to this after only having played the 3DS games and finding out that Fire Emblem games can have more than only Rout the Enemy objectives was a real eye-opener as well. For example, there is a stealth mission which gives you the choice of either brute forcing your way through, or sneaking by unnoticed, which earns you some bonus EXP as compensation. My absolute favorite map in the entire game is the one where the enemy are using innocent, unarmed priests as meat shields. You can easily kill the priests in cold blood in order to reach the enemy, but the game rewards you with bonus EXP and items based on the amount of priests that are still alive at the end of the chapter.
The interesting map objectives and the plot makes this game truly shine, and this is so far my favorite Fire Emblem game.
I tried clearing out a fort once because I wanted to see what was inside. A few dozen killed men later and I realized that they wouldn't stop spawning. Furthermore, my honor meter was as low as it could possibly be. I was basically Satan at this point.
Went to nearest town, said hi to a few pedestrians and noticed that my honor went up slightly.
Brilliant idea incoming.
I rode to Saint Denis and greeted every person I saw until Arthur was considered a saint.
Wonderful.
Went to nearest town, said hi to a few pedestrians and noticed that my honor went up slightly.
Brilliant idea incoming.
I rode to Saint Denis and greeted every person I saw until Arthur was considered a saint.
Wonderful.
2002
This was my first ever Metroid experience.
Going back to it, I dislike that the game holds your hand so much. Despite this, I don't think I would've finished this game all those years ago if it weren't for the game telling me where to go next, and then I wouldn't have wanted to try the other games in the series.
Thank you Metroid Fusion, very cool.
btw the bosses are not good
Going back to it, I dislike that the game holds your hand so much. Despite this, I don't think I would've finished this game all those years ago if it weren't for the game telling me where to go next, and then I wouldn't have wanted to try the other games in the series.
Thank you Metroid Fusion, very cool.
btw the bosses are not good
I can't bash this game too much considering it was short and free, but man am I glad that this wasn't a full-priced, 30+ hour long game.
The Short Message is a walking sim without the lingering tension of a proper Silent Hill game. The singular monster only appears during scripted chase sequences which you can see coming from a mile away, meaning that exploration felt like a leisurely walk in the park at all times.
The chase sequences themselves do a poor job of instilling fear, as you merely run down a set of corridors. The initial tension was quickly replaced by annoyance whenever I had to retry these segments.
The final chase sequence was especially horrendous as you are forced to run aimlessly down a maze of corridors to find "keys" in order to proceed, all while being chased.
This isn't how I imagine a proper Silent Hill game, and I sincerely hope that this isn't the direction the series will move towards in the future.
The Short Message is a walking sim without the lingering tension of a proper Silent Hill game. The singular monster only appears during scripted chase sequences which you can see coming from a mile away, meaning that exploration felt like a leisurely walk in the park at all times.
The chase sequences themselves do a poor job of instilling fear, as you merely run down a set of corridors. The initial tension was quickly replaced by annoyance whenever I had to retry these segments.
The final chase sequence was especially horrendous as you are forced to run aimlessly down a maze of corridors to find "keys" in order to proceed, all while being chased.
This isn't how I imagine a proper Silent Hill game, and I sincerely hope that this isn't the direction the series will move towards in the future.
2023
I'm not sure what to think about this game.
The Earthbound/WarioWare/Mario RPG inspirations are apparent, and I was a fan of the combat at first, but it became more and more frustrating as time went on.
The concept of fighting and countering attacks using WarioWare-like minigames seemed brilliant on paper, but most minigames grew old fast. Not to mention that I was in a constant flux of feeling under-powered and over-powered at the same time. Fights tend to drag on a bit too long for comfort, due to the often low damage output from the player characters, the length of certain minigames, and most, if not all enemies act more than once per turn. Moreover, the minigames you play have multiple difficulty levels, which may be possible to beat unscathed at first, but become nigh-impossible to beat later on. This in combination with the fact that when you eventually fail these minigames and get hit by an attack, they hit like a goddamn truck, which further cements the feeling of constantly being weak. This issue can't be remediated by grinding either, since all enemies are static encounters that never respawn.
I did mention feeling over-powered too, right? Yeah, sometimes. The circle attack which is randomly selected among 3 normal attacks is more overpowered than it should be as pulling off a ridiculously high combo is way too easy. This trivialized the use of damaging skills entirely as these seldom reached the same damage output as the circle attack. There's also a super move that needs to be charged up passively that deals ridiculous amounts of damage. One use of the super move kills most enemies instantly and shaves off a great chunk of health off most bosses. The only downside is that it takes a really long time for it to charge. This becomes a problem during boss fights as it's seemingly expected that you're gonna use it at least once during the fight, due to the massive HP pools that they are given. This means that boss fights turn into a waiting game where you shave off what little HP you can while trying to stay alive until you can use your super.
So, I'm obviously not too happy with the combat, but what about the rest of the game? I'll start off with what I liked, and that would be the music and aesthetics. It has the general weird and quirky Earthbound feel, and I'm all for it. However, one quirk from Earthbound which shouldn't have been brought over is the limited inventory. It kind of worked in Earthbound without too much of a hassle, but it's just absurd here. I never bought anything in shops because I knew that I'd just have to throw whatever I bought away later to make room for something more important.
What about the story? I wish I could tell you about it, but it was such a mess that most of it slipped my mind. There's something something conspiracy, something something evil gang, something something solving the mystery, but I couldn't tell you more than that. All in all, it didn't strike a cord with me.
This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2023, and I'm sad to say that I almost quit on it halfway through out of frustration and lack of engagement. There's so much potential and charm here, but a lot of it falls flat on its ass.
The Earthbound/WarioWare/Mario RPG inspirations are apparent, and I was a fan of the combat at first, but it became more and more frustrating as time went on.
The concept of fighting and countering attacks using WarioWare-like minigames seemed brilliant on paper, but most minigames grew old fast. Not to mention that I was in a constant flux of feeling under-powered and over-powered at the same time. Fights tend to drag on a bit too long for comfort, due to the often low damage output from the player characters, the length of certain minigames, and most, if not all enemies act more than once per turn. Moreover, the minigames you play have multiple difficulty levels, which may be possible to beat unscathed at first, but become nigh-impossible to beat later on. This in combination with the fact that when you eventually fail these minigames and get hit by an attack, they hit like a goddamn truck, which further cements the feeling of constantly being weak. This issue can't be remediated by grinding either, since all enemies are static encounters that never respawn.
I did mention feeling over-powered too, right? Yeah, sometimes. The circle attack which is randomly selected among 3 normal attacks is more overpowered than it should be as pulling off a ridiculously high combo is way too easy. This trivialized the use of damaging skills entirely as these seldom reached the same damage output as the circle attack. There's also a super move that needs to be charged up passively that deals ridiculous amounts of damage. One use of the super move kills most enemies instantly and shaves off a great chunk of health off most bosses. The only downside is that it takes a really long time for it to charge. This becomes a problem during boss fights as it's seemingly expected that you're gonna use it at least once during the fight, due to the massive HP pools that they are given. This means that boss fights turn into a waiting game where you shave off what little HP you can while trying to stay alive until you can use your super.
So, I'm obviously not too happy with the combat, but what about the rest of the game? I'll start off with what I liked, and that would be the music and aesthetics. It has the general weird and quirky Earthbound feel, and I'm all for it. However, one quirk from Earthbound which shouldn't have been brought over is the limited inventory. It kind of worked in Earthbound without too much of a hassle, but it's just absurd here. I never bought anything in shops because I knew that I'd just have to throw whatever I bought away later to make room for something more important.
What about the story? I wish I could tell you about it, but it was such a mess that most of it slipped my mind. There's something something conspiracy, something something evil gang, something something solving the mystery, but I couldn't tell you more than that. All in all, it didn't strike a cord with me.
This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2023, and I'm sad to say that I almost quit on it halfway through out of frustration and lack of engagement. There's so much potential and charm here, but a lot of it falls flat on its ass.
The Metroid-esque progression system is what really sold this game to me. The exploration of the castle is this game's real highlight.
I would like to say that I found the combat to be clunky, but that wouldn't be 100% honest of me. I do find the melee combat to be somewhat slow and clunky...
HOWEVER, the game throws so many options at you that this basically becomes a non-issue. Many enemies go down with a few melee hits, but tougher or out-of-reach enemies can be overcome by the use of either spells and/or sub-weapons.
Initially, I wasn't a huge fan of how spells are utilized in the game, as they are executed by performing button combinations often seen in fighting games. I often found myself messing up the commands during critical life-or-death moments which could lead to some frustration. But I gotta admit that it is a neat way to use different special moves without having to switch between them Mega Man-style. The fact that you can use any spell at any time without having to open the menu to switch out your active spell(s) won me over, despite my complaints.
Another neat thing is that all spells can be utilized from the start, if you know the proper commands. The game sells magic scrolls, which teaches you how to perform these spells, which means that you can save your in-game cash in repeat playthroughs.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. It dragged on a bit towards the end, but I would consider this a must-play classic that I wish I'd played much earlier.
I would like to say that I found the combat to be clunky, but that wouldn't be 100% honest of me. I do find the melee combat to be somewhat slow and clunky...
HOWEVER, the game throws so many options at you that this basically becomes a non-issue. Many enemies go down with a few melee hits, but tougher or out-of-reach enemies can be overcome by the use of either spells and/or sub-weapons.
Initially, I wasn't a huge fan of how spells are utilized in the game, as they are executed by performing button combinations often seen in fighting games. I often found myself messing up the commands during critical life-or-death moments which could lead to some frustration. But I gotta admit that it is a neat way to use different special moves without having to switch between them Mega Man-style. The fact that you can use any spell at any time without having to open the menu to switch out your active spell(s) won me over, despite my complaints.
Another neat thing is that all spells can be utilized from the start, if you know the proper commands. The game sells magic scrolls, which teaches you how to perform these spells, which means that you can save your in-game cash in repeat playthroughs.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. It dragged on a bit towards the end, but I would consider this a must-play classic that I wish I'd played much earlier.
2023
The remake manages to tone down the goofyness of the original without making it feel like it has lost its identity. The counter move is a great addition, and the fact that Ashley no longer has a health bar makes her much less annoying to escort. I can honestly only think of positive changes and additions that made a game that was already good even better.
If I ever want to revisit RE4 again, this is the version I'll be playing
If I ever want to revisit RE4 again, this is the version I'll be playing
Mario Wonder is probably the most stylish and creative Mario game to date.
The game oozes with charm from its bright colors, adorable animations, and creative stage gimmicks. There are however some setbacks that take away some points from my personal experience.
The Wonder-mechanic is obviously the game's biggest draw, but I feel like the overall level design suffers somewhat because of it.
The stages themselves are usually not that interesting until you reach the Wonder Flower and the crazy stuff start to happen.
The bosses are surprisingly few and far between, and none are particularly good. Although, I do prefer having fewer bosses if it means that we get more stages. Bosses have never been particularly amazing in Mario games, so having less of them is more or less a non-issue.
It seems evident that the game tries to make itself more accessible to younger, or less experienced players, which is fine, but as a veteran player, I couldn't help but crave more of a challenge. There were a couple of stages that were challenging, but most 5-star stages felt like a walk in the park. This includes a large chunk of Special World stages, which was a bit disappointing, since the bonus world is usually where the tough stages can be found. Furthermore, I wish the game had more secret exits and hidden stuff to find overall. It would've been awesome to find entrances to the Special World through secret exits à la Super Mario World. Instead most of these entrances are found behind a somewhat tougher stage placed in each world. A couple of other entrances simply require you to enter the final "stage" of a world which houses the Royal Seed a second time.
Final negative thing before I move on to the positives; the music leaves a bit to be desired. They do the Super Mario World thing where there's a leitmotif present in most songs, which makes them feel extremely repetitive towards the end. The fact that there aren't that many songs present in the soundtrack doesn't help either.
Despite all of that, I had a ton of fun with Wonder. The game may not have excellent level design, but it excels with its memorable moments. Most of the Wonder Flowers bring something new and unexpected to the table, for example by introducing mechanics that flips the concept of the entire stage on its head.
I also want to give praise to the voice acting and overall sound design. This is our first Mario-game post Mario 64 without Charles Martinet as the voice of Mario and Luigi. I figured I'd have a hard time adjusting, but Kevin Afghani manages to do an excellent job as a replacement. There are some lines that feel a bit off, but some others manages to sound spot-on.
Meanwhile the sound design brings a unique flavor to the game by giving all sound effects a more acoustic feel. The characters also have unique jumping sounds now, which I think is cute.
In conclusion, Super Mario Bros. Wonder leaves a bit to be desired for me as a veteran fan in terms of difficulty and level design. However, it more than makes up for it with its aesthetics and overall charm which makes this entry the most interesting Mario's ever been in 2D since Super Mario World probably. Highly recommended.
The game oozes with charm from its bright colors, adorable animations, and creative stage gimmicks. There are however some setbacks that take away some points from my personal experience.
The Wonder-mechanic is obviously the game's biggest draw, but I feel like the overall level design suffers somewhat because of it.
The stages themselves are usually not that interesting until you reach the Wonder Flower and the crazy stuff start to happen.
The bosses are surprisingly few and far between, and none are particularly good. Although, I do prefer having fewer bosses if it means that we get more stages. Bosses have never been particularly amazing in Mario games, so having less of them is more or less a non-issue.
It seems evident that the game tries to make itself more accessible to younger, or less experienced players, which is fine, but as a veteran player, I couldn't help but crave more of a challenge. There were a couple of stages that were challenging, but most 5-star stages felt like a walk in the park. This includes a large chunk of Special World stages, which was a bit disappointing, since the bonus world is usually where the tough stages can be found. Furthermore, I wish the game had more secret exits and hidden stuff to find overall. It would've been awesome to find entrances to the Special World through secret exits à la Super Mario World. Instead most of these entrances are found behind a somewhat tougher stage placed in each world. A couple of other entrances simply require you to enter the final "stage" of a world which houses the Royal Seed a second time.
Final negative thing before I move on to the positives; the music leaves a bit to be desired. They do the Super Mario World thing where there's a leitmotif present in most songs, which makes them feel extremely repetitive towards the end. The fact that there aren't that many songs present in the soundtrack doesn't help either.
Despite all of that, I had a ton of fun with Wonder. The game may not have excellent level design, but it excels with its memorable moments. Most of the Wonder Flowers bring something new and unexpected to the table, for example by introducing mechanics that flips the concept of the entire stage on its head.
I also want to give praise to the voice acting and overall sound design. This is our first Mario-game post Mario 64 without Charles Martinet as the voice of Mario and Luigi. I figured I'd have a hard time adjusting, but Kevin Afghani manages to do an excellent job as a replacement. There are some lines that feel a bit off, but some others manages to sound spot-on.
Meanwhile the sound design brings a unique flavor to the game by giving all sound effects a more acoustic feel. The characters also have unique jumping sounds now, which I think is cute.
In conclusion, Super Mario Bros. Wonder leaves a bit to be desired for me as a veteran fan in terms of difficulty and level design. However, it more than makes up for it with its aesthetics and overall charm which makes this entry the most interesting Mario's ever been in 2D since Super Mario World probably. Highly recommended.
I've been itching for a mystery game like this since I finished Obra Dinn, and The Case of the Golden Idol certainly scratched that itch.
I plowed through this game with a couple of friends, and sharing the aha-moments once all the pieces were starting to fall into place was fantastic. A large part of the mysteries can be solved with enough trial and error, but we tried to challenge ourselves by only placing names that we were 90% sure were going in the right spot.
Looking forward to the sequel!
I plowed through this game with a couple of friends, and sharing the aha-moments once all the pieces were starting to fall into place was fantastic. A large part of the mysteries can be solved with enough trial and error, but we tried to challenge ourselves by only placing names that we were 90% sure were going in the right spot.
Looking forward to the sequel!
1990
I enjoyed Mega Man 3 up to the Doc-Robot stages where it felt like the game took a turn for the worse. The robot master stages of this game are great, and finding out the optimal boss order by myself felt rewarding. None of the robot master fights felt like BS, at least with the correct weapon in my arsenal.
Too bad I can't say the same for the Doc-Robot fights. Bosses with unavoidable patterns are the bane of my existance, and the Air Man fight is a prime example of this. Dying and having to go back to the start of the stage for trying to experiment with the optimal weapon to use, merely because the tornadoes decided to form an unavoidable wall did not feel great at all.
The final boss was a disappointment as well. It was just bad.
This was however the first NES Mega Man game I've finished without the use of save states, and I consider that to be a great personal achievement, so yay!
Too bad I can't say the same for the Doc-Robot fights. Bosses with unavoidable patterns are the bane of my existance, and the Air Man fight is a prime example of this. Dying and having to go back to the start of the stage for trying to experiment with the optimal weapon to use, merely because the tornadoes decided to form an unavoidable wall did not feel great at all.
The final boss was a disappointment as well. It was just bad.
This was however the first NES Mega Man game I've finished without the use of save states, and I consider that to be a great personal achievement, so yay!
1993
I haven't managed to beat the final boss without save states, but the rest of the game is so brilliant that it really doesn't matter because I had a blast.
Yay: Dry humor
Nay: Moon logic
This somewhat unhinged game kept me entertained through most of its runtime. I was not ashamed to have a guide handy, and neither should you be if you check it out.
Nay: Moon logic
This somewhat unhinged game kept me entertained through most of its runtime. I was not ashamed to have a guide handy, and neither should you be if you check it out.
1992
Not sure if I'm getting better at Mega Man or if Mega Man 5 is the easiest game in the series as of its release.
The game is surprisingly generous with its 1-Up drops, and a majority of the bosses are a complete joke. Like, why is there a post-Robot Masters boss whose only attack pattern is walking back and forth? Mega Man 5 also has the easiest set of Robot Masters as of yet, with only a few of them posing a considerable challenge, at least when you understand their attack pattern.
The game has a few cheap "gotcha"-moments within its levels, but I honestly thought that the level designs were all-around pretty good in this one. A bit on the simpler side perhaps, but they were nice to plow through. Gravity Man's stage was a real highlight with the gravity flipping mechanic.
There was only one optional upgrade this time around in the form of Beat the bird. Collecting letters in each stage in order to unlock him was not as compelling as trying to find hidden routes like in Mega Man 4. Most of the letters are placed in plain sight, while the one in Stone Man's stage was hidden behind a breakable wall. I honestly wish that all of the letters were hidden in a similar manner, but oh well.
However, I didn't find much utility in using Beat -- or any of the unlockable weapons for that matter -- which was a bit disappointing. One of the great joys of a Mega Man game for me is discovering how the weapons and upgrades can make my life easier during a stage or a boss. I tried to experiment with my new weapons, but ultimately came to the conclusion that they were more effort than they were worth, and that the Mega Buster is simply better 90% of the time.
Mega Man 5 is simply more Mega Man, for better or for worse. Nothing major is added, but nothing major is lost either. It's a fine game, and I think I would recommend this one as an entry point for people who are curious about the classic Mega Man games. However, I personally prefer 4 over this one.
The game is surprisingly generous with its 1-Up drops, and a majority of the bosses are a complete joke. Like, why is there a post-Robot Masters boss whose only attack pattern is walking back and forth? Mega Man 5 also has the easiest set of Robot Masters as of yet, with only a few of them posing a considerable challenge, at least when you understand their attack pattern.
The game has a few cheap "gotcha"-moments within its levels, but I honestly thought that the level designs were all-around pretty good in this one. A bit on the simpler side perhaps, but they were nice to plow through. Gravity Man's stage was a real highlight with the gravity flipping mechanic.
There was only one optional upgrade this time around in the form of Beat the bird. Collecting letters in each stage in order to unlock him was not as compelling as trying to find hidden routes like in Mega Man 4. Most of the letters are placed in plain sight, while the one in Stone Man's stage was hidden behind a breakable wall. I honestly wish that all of the letters were hidden in a similar manner, but oh well.
However, I didn't find much utility in using Beat -- or any of the unlockable weapons for that matter -- which was a bit disappointing. One of the great joys of a Mega Man game for me is discovering how the weapons and upgrades can make my life easier during a stage or a boss. I tried to experiment with my new weapons, but ultimately came to the conclusion that they were more effort than they were worth, and that the Mega Buster is simply better 90% of the time.
Mega Man 5 is simply more Mega Man, for better or for worse. Nothing major is added, but nothing major is lost either. It's a fine game, and I think I would recommend this one as an entry point for people who are curious about the classic Mega Man games. However, I personally prefer 4 over this one.