Everyone knows Mario is cool as fuck. But who knows what he's thinking? Who knows why he touches flowers? And why do we think about him as fondly as we think of the mystical (nonexistent?) Dr Pepper? Perchance.

I believe it was Kant who said "Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play." Mario exhibits experience by tushing flowes all day, but he exhibits theory by stating "Lets-a go!" Keep it up, baby!

When Mario leaves his place of safety to grab a flowey, he knows that he may Die. And yet, for a man who can purchase lives with money, a life becomes a mere store of value. A tax that can be paid for, much as a rich man feels any law with a fine is a price. We think of Mario as a hero, but he is simply a one percenter of a more privileged variety. The lifekind. Perchance.

Man I can't remember the last time I felt this conflicted about a video game that I liked

There is a visceral coming-of-age story here about identity, defiance and actualization, the locales are some of the most lovingly crafted I've seen in the genre both in terms of feeling lived-in as well as absolutely grotesque when necessary, the gameplay feels simultaneously more intuitive as well as demanding what with the enemy variety and lack of resources, and Heather's demeanor is a constant treat that perfectly fits the story's themes

At the same time, a literal half the game is spent meandering around with almost zero motivation until the plot shows up and shovels itself into your face with no subtlety, the enhanced action focus punishes you for engaging with enemies by making later boss fights absolutely insufferable, all characters being connected to Heather in one way or another takes away from that signature uncomfortable feeling of finding another human in Silent Hill, and a good chunk of the game being a repeat dungeon from SH2 just exhausts me despite its Otherworld being spectacular

But, but, but then, so much of this plays in thematically with what they're going for!! It's turbulent, things feel overwhelming, everyone expects shit of you that you couldn't care less about, I don't wanna give birth to God I wanna listen to Blink-182!!! Every major opposition ends up getting actively mocked by the main character to the point that this often feels like an RE game in terms of tone, and as jarring as it can be after going through SH1&2, it makes perfect sense. Heather killing God with her own hands, cracking a quip like she always did, and then following it with a bout of such intense, sincere grief is an incredible way to tie together a character in a game that had a very limited time to tell its story. Acceptance of suffering as a fact of life followed up by a ditzy joke about blondes is the essence of Silent Hill 3 and I cannot think of a better way for it to end

I'm gonna be thinking about this one for a while. I hope subsequent playthroughs don't turn it into one of those games I'd rather reminisce about than actually replay

Yeah sure very solid movement and rope physics for the time but what I kept getting impressed by was this game having such creatively evil level design more than a decade before the "rage game" genre got popular. Like, Umihara Kawase was never a household name or anything, but it has to have laid the groundwork for SOME form of kaizo nonsense in the future, right?

But despite the game clearly reveling in these sadistic setups, it rarely feels like actual bullshit. In fact, you can beat most of the later stages on your first try if you're observant and have sufficiently mastered the movement system, which feels super satisfying despite occasional jank like the Small Protruding Ledges From Hell. Nothing beats running into a section that seems borderline impossible and then turning it into a joke within the hour, despite the experience of getting there occasionally feeling like pulling teeth.

Most of the actual criticism I can target squarely at random enemy spawns (which ARE bad but never enough to ruin the game for me), boss fights (lol) and the presentation. I get that it's an old low-budget indie game made out of scattered assets with the excuse of being "set inside of a dream" but the color palette and enemy designs make it look more like a nightmare. The dreary monochrome photo backgrounds are the worst part, this shit is sometimes one degree removed from looking like Umihara's obituary. The cutesy soundtrack does a lot of heavy lifting for this not coming off as a horror game

Holy shit dude. Game doesn't have an original bone in its body but oh my god the movement, the combat, the moment to moment flow, easily the punchiest 2D action platformer I've experienced in like a decade. Old Inticreates basically did most of this game's entire homework for them (down to several story beats too lol) so I can't give anything here TOO much credit but grabbing dudes mid-jump, chain-chucking them at each other and piledriving bosses out of their special attacks is something no Megaman clone I know of does better than this so I can safely say they nailed that part. Wish the hookshot was utilized a bit more in stages and some of the abilities are flat-out better than others, but I'm already looking forward to doing a no-upgrade playthrough so they definitely got the important parts right. Capcom what are you fucking doing

In the production of the Season 7 Episode 8 of South Park, "South Park is Gay!", creators Matt and Trey brainstormed the ending for hours, before coming up with a completely goofy out-of-the-blue third act that barely tied into the entertaining initial premise and have since referred to the episode as "one of their worst" due to this random reveal dragging down the entire setup; yet despite that, fans at large seem to have found the ending hilarious and have professed great enjoyment of Crab People.

The last two seconds of Iron Lung are the horror equivalent of Crab People.

It looks and sounds as if you got ran over by a 70's hippie van and got isekai'd into the illustration on its side. No complaints on that front! My problem is that the writing is absolutely droll - purposely, I understand, but it feels like a waste for a setting like this - and plays just a smidgen too clunky to be consistently engaging. There's a reason why when you look at most of the discussion on Hylics, it tends to involve unwavering praise of the aesthetics without much comment being given to... anything else? The first game was already a sort of vehicle for Mason Lindroth's art and music with gameplay and story taking a low priority, which is why it's strange that the sequel still feels like that despite the monumental strides in enhancing the experience of actually playing it. I'm all for art being as personal of an experience as possible but it comes off less to me like this overworld platforming, unbalanced RPG combat and dry storytelling was the dev's True Vision™ and moreso like something he felt necessary to tack on so that it's a more "realized" video game. You already have Chuck Salamone on the soundtrack, I think adding a few folks to the writing staff/programming/Q&A wouldn't really hurt the frankly incredible amount of self-expression already present in this. It's neat but I wish it had more going on

Ice skate movement and dodging physics, clipping through walls, breakdancing by turning around, asset store kitchen sink visuals, more particle effects than textures, ugly smudgy AI art in menus, contrived inclusion of Balkanese terms and iconography, pointless stealth mechanic, obnoxious mounting mechanic, tutorialising obvious things, making important systems unnecessarily vague, platforming sections, floaty mess of a combat system, stolen animations, and this was just the first five hours of the game.

I'm glad my fellow countrymen hit it out the park immediately with this. Bleak Faith? No, Peak Faith. I have to keep playing just to see how deep this rabbit hole goes. I feel like I'm witnessing history here, an emerging genre - Montenegrin Kusoge.