Metroid Zero Mission, the expanded remake of original metroid from NES, released in 1986. While easily being better than the original, to no one surprise, it's not without it's fair share of flaws.
Pros:-
>gameplay being up to the modern standards of 2D Metroid games of that time & fast-paced & level design

>visuals, while may not be superior to Metroid Fusion's extremely varied landscape, it's still pretty great, which is ironic considering it's made on a modified engine of Fusion

>the "expanded" part of this remake, which is the new maps Chozodia, Chozo Ruins & Space Pirates' Mothership, which begins with Samus in her most vulnerable state, blue Zero Suit, where she has no choice but to avoid any confrontation with enemies & sneak her way through the areas to look for her Power Suit & escape, also adding more of her backstory lifted from the Metroid manga, which I found exceptionally cool.

the mixed:-
~the music, either hit or didn't. Most notable ones are Brinstar, Norfair, Kraid's Lair, Ridley Boss theme, Escape from Tourian & Mecha Ridley boss theme. Rest all are lacking either the creepiness & omnious vibe of Fusion or straight up trash

the bad:-
>the mini-bosses, all but one (Imago the giant bee stinger one) sucked balls, only added to increase the playtime just for the sake of it, which is baffling considering Metroid Fusion literally had more boss variety & are still memorable

>disappointed with new final boss mechanically (no pun intended), Mecha Ridley. While I understand it was supposed to be an unfinished prototype, it still should've put more fight. Rather, it was as easy as the first mini-boss of the game, Mua the One-Eyed Centipede, which is insane.

Final rating: 7.5/10

okay, finally talking about DS2, the "black sheep" of DS Trilogy, the "Dark Souls of the dark souls sequels", the "dark souls of soulsborne games" and whatever pun, meme you want to make about the game, the game is hella overhated (or used to be idk), many had good reasons, many were weird & many were just hate wagoning. But surprisingly (or unsurprisingly to many here), the game has many great shit to enjoy

the good:-
>Majula, best hub world ever, idc
>Yuka Kitamura 🧎
>very varied art direction, even tho some of which doesn't even make sense but it works in according to the lore of the land of this game
>In no particular order, Favorite Areas (in terms of visuals aesthetics): Majula, FOFG, Heide's Tower of Flame/Cathedral of Blue, Iron Keep/Belfry Sol, Shrine of Amana, Undead Crypt, Aldia's Keep, Dragon Aerie/Shrine Shulva the Sunken City/Dragon Sanctum, Frozen Eleum Loyce
>in level design: Shulva the Sunken City/Dragon Sanctum, Heide's Tower of Flame, Iron Keep, Brume Tower
>Favorite bosses (in no particular order): The Pursuer, Duke's Dear Freja, Sinh the Slumbering Dragon, Sir Alonne, Fume Knight, Burnt Ivory King, Aldia the Scholar of the First Sin, The Lost Sinner on NG+
>More fleshed out NPC quests, despite many of those "fleshed out content" being cut-content or reworked into something else entirely than what it was originally supposed to be
>extremely diverse roster of weapons, spells & armors, adding much more depth to "Drip Souls", urging players to seek them out & try them. Also, Incentivizes player to try out different armors which changes or gives buffs according to gender.
>best use of dual-wielding in the Soulsborne games (afaik) of any weapon type in the form of "powerstancing"
>the concept of "Bonfire Ascetics", it's just a cool ass mechanic not only for greater souls farming without going into NG+ the traditional way & quickly access the NG+ exclusive content & rewards whenever needed.
>reworked Covenants & their rewards, making them worthwhile to grind for
>Fast Travel & Bottomless Item Box available from get-go

the mixed:-
~while DS2 has the best NG+ out of the FromSoft's soulsborne, it doesn't really do much with it apart from adding more elite enemies or replacing old enemies with other ones, and adding just few more extra items in some places. There's no changes in 4 primal bosses either, apart from Lost Sinner, & 4 new Great Souls they drop, which are direct references from DS1
~locking "infinite enemy respawn" behind a Covenant is also kinda mixed bag for me. It should have been in the game altogether from get-go, like previous entry
~extremely ambiguous consumables, effects & buff descriptions, while it works in few cases, most of the time it's just ???
like it works in the case of Vendrick's Blessing, which doesn't specify at all what it does, until you have any of the 4 crowns equipped & then die, then you get to know it's effect
and then it doesn't work in the case of the base buff the same crowns provide, they are never mentioned nor explained to players, like Crown of the Ivory King works same as Ring of Restoration, but it's even stated nor hinted at it
~level design of Eleum Loyce feels exhausting for first bit (from 1st bonfire to 2nd) when you get to explore it for 2nd time after new pathways open up, primarily becoz it's too big with annoying new enemies
~Brume Tower just being "an extended Iron Keep", instead of standing on its own
~weird implementation of one of the old ideas of DS2 i.e., "players getting stalked by some of the bosses around the map or in specific part of the area before/after facing them", like Duke's Dear Freja appearance just little further after first Bonfire in Brightstone Cove Tseldora from NG+ onwards, or the Pursuer stalking throughout the Lost Bastille immediately after fighting him in FOFG and then disappearing for good until appearing again in Iron Keep for one last time in first run
the bad:-
>the whole execution of ADP
>Frigid Outskirts as a whole. An area so dogshit, big & having 0 bonfires, and your reward from going through all of that shitshow? A reskinned duo boss fight which you just did at the beginning of Frozen Eleum Loyce
>Same with case of Iron Passage, although the area is considerably shorter than former, and less bs, in the end, you get rewarded with reskinned bossfight
>Same in the case of Cave of the Dead, instead it's shortest of the 3 & you don't even have to do it as the only notable reward in their is Brightbugs, which you can get pretty early on in that area
>Belfry Gargoyles, just Bell Gargoyles from DS1 but 5 of them & worse
>Brightstone Cove Tseldora's level design in the 2nd & 3rd Bonfire area (where Weaponsmith Ornifex resides), it's just poorly made, no issues with enemies
>Shrine of Amana's entire existence, Bed of Chaos tier idgaf what others think
>The Gutter is just Blighttown 2.0 but bad & underutilized, also content being removed from there which would've made the area stand out apart from Blighttown
>probably a nitpick but using the same optional mini-boss Guardian Dragon from Cathedral of Blue as mandatory boss at the end of Aldia's Keep is just reverse reskinning
>cut content of Emerald Herald, which would've made her story bit even more coherent & also would've filled the gaps of questions left in the opening cutscene and throughout the narrative
>3/4 of total bosses being forgettable as fuck, more so than DS1 imho

Final review: would've given it a surprise 8 but those bad really put a bad taste in my mouth so
7/10

despite the meme-posting & all of that, Sekiro does feel like a rhythm game 95% of the time, in a good way becoz I really don't like rhythm games
Game's length is just perfect, short to medium length, straighforward & to the point, a welcoming change of pace from their usual Soulsborne formula which started all the way back with Demon Souls

Pros:-
>goes without saying, art design & sound effects are top notch
>Voice acting is also top notch (JP dub, the only one which matters)
>main story boss fights, personal favorites are Shinobi Owl & Father Owl, Isshin Ashina & Sword Saint, Lady Butterfly, True Monk & Demon of Hatred
>story & characters
>gameplay loop, just never gets old imo. Plain old test of skills
>peak endings

Mixed thoughts:-
>mini-bosses/optional: I get it that it's a short length game with considerably shorter developmental cycle but they should kept the "repetitive" nature of the mini-bosses short
only memorable (and fun to some extent) ones are O'Rin of Water, Juuzou the Drunkard of Hirata Estate (1st variant), Long Arm Centipede bosses & Sakura Bull of the Palace
>Great Serpent(s) should've been a bossfight instead of QTE & gimmicks imho
>Demon of Hatred should've been a mandatory bossfight & not an optional one becoz its one of the crucial part of the game's story but I can understand why it's optional becoz of it's difficulty

Cons:-
>no sequel game or story DLC, why even live
>Blazing Bull, absolute trash gimmick mandatory miniboss, even more than Headless, becoz you can at least skip all of the headlesses in any playthrough, not this stupid bitch
>music: this might be controversial, but I actually do not remember more than 90% of Sekiro's OST becoz they are so forgettable, which was unexpected from FromSoft

final review: Overall I very much enjoyed it & will return to do Gauntlets of Strength someday
8/10