Miles Morales improves on the 2018 game in every way. It tightens up the open-world bloat and tells a more compelling and better paced story. I have always found Miles Morales to be a great character and focusing on him feels fresh. I love the winter setting as well. Just a phenomenal game overall - I sincerely hope this sets the standard for superhero games moving forward.

My biggest and only real complaint is that it shows a lot of deference to police, which feels extraordinarily tone deaf considering the cultural context this game was released in and, you know, the actual actions of the NYPD. It feels doubly weird when this game otherwise makes a lot of great decisions w/r/t diversity and representation. From the constant praise of Miles' heroic cop father to a mission where you literally use police facial recognition technology to identify and subdue criminals, it feels jarring and it's not something that would typically throw me off. The 2018 game was way, way worse about this in retrospect, but it feels egregious in this game because it's clear they put so much care into crafting a vibrant and diverse cast of characters. I think this is something the games community needs to take seriously moving forward if games are actually going to become more diverse in a meaningful way.

Copaganda aside, this is one of the most fun games I have played this year.

Shigesato Itoi's ending to the Mother series leaves off on its strongest messages to take home. I'm of a family of brothers and sisters, but most importantly I have a twin brother of my own. That made the story around Lucas and Claus that much stronger and poignant to me, not to discredit that the writing in general isn't already incredible.

From the slow corruption of Tazmily village as it conforms into a capitalist society that comes with less pros than it does take away familial strengths and bonds within the community, to the surrealist hero's journey of the seven needles, Mother 3 fantastically paces itself out and keeps the core message of family ever so strung through the whole thing.

The characters, while not so much riveting examples of three dimensional characterization, each found their way into my heart as I played through. This is a game where, though it has its lows, had a profound effect on my life for a very long time. Even when you dig to its core, to where you find that it's simple in scope and works off of a fine tightrope of emotional beats, I still think it's a shining example of video games I've ever played. I can hum most of the soundtrack to this day.

The combat may not be riveting, it taking up a huge percentage of the time playing the game and just barely good enough thanks to some great boss design, some solid enemy encounters, and the cohesive rhythm system. But still, I never lost my engagement for a single moment. I was gripped until the credits rolled and the game came up and told me that it wants the very best of my life as I did the characters at the end. And I think, I wish everyone here the best too, and that maybe if these words find you that you also play Mother 3. (10/10)