If I were to describe Hollow Knight in one word, it would be ambition. From the roots of its development to its release and eventually culminating into Silksong, Hollow Knight is an ambitious labor of love that can be felt in every detail of the game.

The map of Hallownest is gigantic, but designed intelligently. Each room feels distinct enough, whether because of the room’s contents or being visually distinctive, where navigation feels natural and intuitive. Each area feels balanced with map layouts that rarely feel empty or lackluster, and there’s almost always something to be found in each direction you can take. Secrets can be found everywhere in the map, and while the rewards for your search can be anticlimactic at times, there’s an added intrigue to your adventure as you might stumble into a hidden area. Hollow Knight’s ability to have a massive map that feels extremely well-planned out, filled with secrets, and consistently manages to keep each room visually distinct is extremely impressive.

Combat is simple yet satisfying, with fights rarely feeling luck-based. The Knight’s toolkit is small (your nail (+ nail arts), spells, healing, and movement tools), which makes it easy to pick up the basics of combat mechanics. However, mastering Hollow Knight’s mechanics requires a lot of skill and game knowledge, leading to boss victories feeling triumphant and satisfying. Hell, many fights feel similar to a dance as you learn how to dodge attacks, further aiding in the fantastic feel of combat. The game’s charm system allows for customizability in how you play, with some charms even being designed to synergize with each other and give added benefits (such as defender’s crest and spore shroom improving the damage of spore shroom’s damage cloud). There’s not one strict way to play Hollow Knight, and that’s a fantastic quality to have.

Hollow Knight’s combat system shines the most when up against the game’s bosses. And there’s a lot, 39 to be specific. Most bosses have interesting mechanics that make them fun to fight, and the majority of the bosses that don’t are designed for the beginning of the game and are purposefully simplistic. And while bosses are difficult, they never feel insurmountable and it always feels like you have the tools to succeed. Being able to have so many bosses and have the majority be fun, challenging, and well-designed is a major fear.

Artistically, Hollow Knight is stunning. Hallownest is incredibly atmospheric, with a world that feels alive and inhabited while also selling the feeling of being a ruined kingdom. The use of color further accentuates the world’s setting, with most of Hallownest being cool colors (primarily blue, but featuring a lot of greens, purples, greys, and earthy yellow), with the Infection contrasting the natural Hallownest by being jarringly orange. The use of color allows for the Infection to pop as something foreign, dangerous, and hostile. Hollow Knight’s soundtrack is iconic, with exciting boss music and soothing overworld themes. The game’s music subtly assists in making the world much better to explore and boss fights more engaging to fight.

And on top of all of that, Hollow Knight is $15 USD with 4 free DLC. Hollow Knight goes above and beyond, especially with its price tag and small development team. And it takes genuine passion to make a game as thoroughly designed as Hollow Knight is.

There’s a lot to say and love with Hollow Knight, a lot more than I can say here. Hollow Knight has had a major impact in the gaming sphere, both for players and for game developers. And for good reason, because Hollow Knight manages to nail so many of its mechanics and design choices and offers players so many directions and places to explore and interact with.

Hollow Knight is my favorite game of all time. And it has truly earned that title. It is a phenomenal game in so many ways

Actually goes pretty hard. Like, this is a genuinely really fun puzzle game, filled with so much charm and so many neat little interactions. And it’s honestly more fun than I expected.

I never played the original Snap, but I’ve heard a lot of praise for it. And I expected the remake to be good, but I was genuinely surprised by how much fun I had. And New Snap is GIANT, with a ton of areas to explore at different times of day and even POSTGAME areas! I didn’t expect the game to be as big as it ended up being.

The game is beautiful, which of course was the biggest thing Snap needed to get down. Getting to explore a new area was awe-inspiring and exciting because of how beautiful the game was. And getting increasingly better photos felt satisfying because the better your photos are, the more that the visuals of Snap are able to shine.

But Snap’s puzzles are also really fun. It’s really interesting getting to interact with the world like you do in Snap. From helping Pokemon out, to starting conflicts, to just getting to see some rare sights, Snap’s puzzles end up feeling satisfying to figure out. And not every puzzle or detail is a request, you can trigger special things to happen by being creative with how you interact with the world and it’s genuinely so cool.

That said, jesus CHRIST the requests could be cryptic. It felt like a third of the requests were incredibly vague nods to a certain area without giving any direction on how to actually solve the puzzle. These types of requests made the game genuinely frustrating at times, especially without looking things up. That, and the scoring/points system is really poorly explained, which can make getting good shots more difficult.

But like, I didn’t expect Snap to be as thorough, detailed, and content-rich as it is. That said, Snap could also be REALLY frustrating, enough thar it dampened the experience for me. But when it wasn’t frustrating me, Snap was GOOD. Fun timekiller, and I can see myself getting on it to complete the various things I still have left over to do from my run.

A genuine masterpiece of a game.

Terraria has it all. Great combat, fun exploration, a lot of customizability, and so much to do. Terraria is massive in all departments, but not in a way that feels excessive or bloated. I don’t ever think to myself that there’s too many weapons or accessories, but instead that all the options allow for a lot of potential playstyles, even within the same weapon class. That variety also flows into Terraria having a TON of replay value. You can play melee in one run but then decide to play summoner in another run, and you’ll get two very different gameplay experiences. And Terraria’s gameplay as a whole leans a lot into being able to replay it, both because of the variety of ways you can play Terraria and because actually exploring a new Terraria world is engaging and interesting. Multiplayer Terraria is also a blast, especially since everyone can play different builds or focus on different aspects of the game.

Difficulty progression is smooth, never feeling too unmanageable. New bosses feel difficult but fair (the only exceptions being a small amount of bosses that are too easy, which is far less of a sin than too difficult in my eyes), and the bosses are just fun to fight in general. Combat feels great and well-balanced as a whole, even outside of bosses. Terraria feels really satisfying and clean to play.

Terraria’s biggest issue is that the game relies a lot on using a wiki. I don’t think the variety of items is a bad thing, but how to get items can either be convoluted (Zenith, Terraspark Boots, etc) or from rare drops (Rod of Discord, Slime Staff, etc). It can be daunting to enter Terraria without a guide, especially for things like class setups. And the low drop rate items as well, like Rod of Discord, can also result in Terraria being pretty grindy sometimes when just trying to get one item for an accessory or a weapon.

Terraria is a special game for me, and one of the games I will most highly recommend to people. It’s helped me through hard times and brought me closer to people I care about. I’m not a massive fan of sandbox games, but I’ve rarely ever clicked with a game as much as I clicked with Terraria. All the love and praise Terraria has earned across the years is beyond deserved, Terraria is incredible.

Before I begin, I want to clarify that while story mode is great, I’m focusing on multiplayer here.

I adore this game. Splatoon 3 is a blast to play with friends, with the game housing a strong community, creative art style, unique gameplay and a lot of weapon variety. Each game mode offers something fun and interesting while offering gameplay variety, and the number of different weapons with different play styles means there’s something for all kinds of people and most people can find at least one weapon they enjoy. but in fairness, a lot of that goes for splatoon in general. splatoon 3 added stringers and splatanas along with some new main weapons, but those points apply to splatoon as a whole.

But 3 builds on 1 and 2 in ways that make the game so much more enjoyable. Slight reworks to Rainmaker and Clam Blitz, for example (checkpoints and decreased clams needed for a football respectively), do wonders for the two modes. And on the subject of ranked, open ranked is a fantastic addition. It makes ranked easier to play with friends and allows for a less stressful setting to play ranked, without the higher stakes of series mode. Getting into ranked modes is so much less daunting in 3 compared to 1 and 2, and I think that’s a great thing. Salmon Run is also always open rather than the weird schedule system used in 2, which… okay, that shouldn’t have been a thing to begin with but still an improvement. Stylistically, 3 almost has a more matured look compared to 1 and 2 that makes the game look so much better than its predecessors. Squid rolling is such a nice movement technique that, for being just one new change, makes movement and gameplay feel a lot better when you know how to use it. And as a Range Blaster main I am obligated to point out that Intensify Action improving jump RNG is a blessing for blasters, it makes me so happy. This only scratches the surface of the great things 3 adds that make it so much fun to play.

I think 3 has a lot of double-edged swords though. For one, 3 has a whopping 19 possible specials for a weapon to have. On one hand, it means there’s room for a lot more kit variety, but in execution it means that specials end up being way more limited since fewer weapons get each special, and sometimes a special will go several seasons without getting a new kit. While I think the variety is great, there’s just too many specials. This problem is made worse by the other big double-edged sword for me of seasons. 3 does big updates every three months, adding new weapons, gear, and stages. There are some ways where this is cool, it makes updates feel more exciting, the catalog that comes with each season is fun to fill, and it’s fun to get together with friends when a new season drops to mess around with the new weapons and stages. In execution, however, I despise seasons. Updates feel way slower, and it ends up feeling way worse when a weapon you were waiting to see a new kit for has to wait another three months before it has a chance to get a new kit. Not to mention, the amount of weapons released each season has dropped a notable amount each season compared to launch, which has made weapon releases feel even slower than they already are.

And for the straight up bad, jesus christ Splatoon 3 stage design is just not good. There aren’t many truly great stages, and many of the really good stages from earlier games became worse in 3. They’re smaller, often lacking flank routes, and a lot of maps end up being completely shut down by snipers who can reach the majority of the map without leaving spawn. And there are some maps that are genuinely atrocious in certain modes, like Hammerhead Bridge in Clam Blitz. Maps in 3 shouldn’t be for every mode, because some maps don’t translate well into every mode, and need to be bigger and offer more flank routes and options. There’s also some balancing decisions (AHEM zero startup lag for Trizooka) that just… don’t feel great to play, especially as a casual. And for the weapons themselves, Nintendo seems to want to balance the game around shooters being the best class, and they also really like to make gimmick kits for weapons?? Like, Undercover Brella's base kit is designed around the gimmick of being a spy, but the kit is absolutely atrocious for the weapon. It's... not a great balancing philosophy.

There’s a lot more I haven’t said for both Splatoon 3’s strengths and weaknesses. Like I haven’t even touched on Splatfests and Salmon Run all that much (especially Big Run oh my god there’s a lot of praise I can sing for Big Run). Splatoon 3 is a big, complicated game. And I adore it to bits. While Splatoon 3 is certainly one of my favorite games and is a 5/5 in my heart, the bad map design makes me lower my grade if I look at the game objectively. I just adore this game a lot, and it means a lot to me. The game’s issues aside, 3 is fantastic and is a very important game to me.

I think Pokemon Red and Blue are fascinating games, honestly, especially with how they aged (which is sorta poorly, spoiler alert). This was my first ever run of a gen 1 game, and it was… fine? just fine.

I’m gonna put the glaringly obvious talking point aside for a moment to say that, for being released on the goddamn Gameboy, gen 1 is impressive. These games pushed the Gameboy to its limits, making a relatively (to other Gameboy titles) massive game with a bunch of different items, moves, types, locations, and Pokemon. I wasn’t alive in the 90s, I never grew up with Kanto, but honestly I get why these games were so huge. i get why Pokemon had so many playground rumors surrounding it. I get why Pokemon Red and Blue received such high praise. These games deserve respect, they're important games even outside of being a cultural phenomena in the 90s and for birthing the Pokemon franchise. They were a major step for gaming as a whole.

With that said, what the hell were these games cooking?

Look, some of what I critique is an unfortunate byproduct of the size of RBY, that’s why I wanted to mention how hard gen 1 pushed its console. But JESUS CHRIST gen 1 is a mechanical mess. I tried to avoid glitches I could manually trigger in this run, but like holy shit Missingno’s existence is crazy. Immediately glitching into the Hall of Fame is crazy. Whatever the fuck the other gamebreaking glitches are doing, because there’s a lot, is crazy.

It’s the smaller details, like individual moves or mechanics, that are the most wacky to me though. To give a few examples, Focus Energy quarters your crit chance instead of raising it (and crits work based on speed??? does the game ever fucking explain that???), Great Balls are better than Ultra Balls, X-accuracy outright REMOVING the accuracy check, THE FUCKING 1/256 GLITCH TO MISS A 100% MOVE??? Even PURPOSEFUL design choices are so often weird as hell. Freeze is essentially a knockout, since you can only dethaw if you use or are hit by a fire move (or use an item), the aforementioned crit mechanics where it relies on speed for some reason, this stayed in gen 2 but Wrap being a fucking stun move was just fucked up, and there are SO MANY OTHER EXAMPLES. Sure, it gives gen 1 fights a lot of charm because of all the weird little quirks in gen 1’s mechanics, but let’s be honest with ourselves it’s not a good thing from a design perspective.

Nowadays, gen 1 is really hard to go back to. Not just because of the mechanics, but because of the lack of quality of life features. Limited storage was genuinely frustrating for me, for example, especially because useless key items would take up that storage space. Also frustrating was the lack of a move reminder or deleter, so HMs were PERMANENT. And, while gen 1 shouldn’t be faulted for this, features like natures, abilities, held items and the extra types added in later gens (especially the dark and steel types added in gen 2). And while Pokemon games are still INCREDIBLY BAD at explaining its mechanics nowadays, gen 1 is the worst offender of failing to describe how the game's mechanics work, it's genuinely hard to get a grasp of gen 1's mechanics if you don't know them already. My point is that modern Pokemon has improved MAJORLY since gen 1, and while improvement is objectively a good thing, it makes it really hard to replay gen 1, especially since I don’t have any nostalgia with the game.

My playthrough was… fine. The game was surprisingly short relative to other Pokemon games (my run was 10 hours), but not in a bad way. Red was a Pokemon game. A weird, very outdated Pokemon game. But Pokemon nonetheless. But if I played Red back in the 90s (in a hypothetical where I was alive in the 90s), I might have a different opinion. Gen 1’s greatest strength is how much it pushed the Gameboy, how bold and deep the region of Kanto was. But that’s also its greatest weakness, as a lot of bugs, weird design choices, and inability to add quality of life resulted from it. Playing Red for the first time in 2024 is much different from playing Red for the first time in 1998. Red and Blue are not timeless games.

Red and Blue are important games, but I don’t think they’ve aged well. I’m glad I played them, but they’re not games I see myself being eager to replay or go back to.

My opinion of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon is… complicated. Let’s get something clear, I try not to let other games influence my reviews, but USUM is a special case where a lot of my issues either stem from or are made worse by Sun and Moon. However, USUM’s biggest issue is how little it changes compared to the original Sun and Moon, and I find that to be the most important subject for what I have to say about these games. I really like USUM, but this review is going to mostly be negative because of how I’m focusing on USUM’s existence compared to SM.

Don’t get me wrong, USUM makes SM’s gameplay better. There’s a lot of extra side quests added (that are actually pretty fun and charming), an expanded dex, and Rainbow Rocket to touch on some aspects. But USUM is afraid to do something more with SM. I think this is most evident with USUM’s story: 90% of the game is the same as SM and the changes made to the plot are bad, especially compared to SM.. Lusamine had what I’d say is the worst character assassination in the series, Ultra Recon Squad are unremarkable, and most of the changes made to USUM end up hurting the cast. USUM’s story feels like they were too afraid to make major changes to the characters introduced in SM, but wanted to take said characters in a notably different direction. It leads to USUM’s writing feeling confused as it tries to find a halfway point between two completely different ideas for its cast and plot. That’s why I can’t avoid bringing up SM, because the issues with the story and gameplay stem from the groundwork of SM and how not enough was changed.

USUM is indicative of an issue with Pokemon that, in fairness, did get rectified slightly by the swap to DLC rather than improved versions of games as well as arguably Legends Arceus and Scarlet/Violet: the steps forward Pokemon takes can often be underwhelming and Pokemon is afraid to make big changes. USUM is held back by being too afraid to deviate from SM. There are steps taken forward and the games in some ways are getting better, as mentioned USUM has better gameplay than SM does. But it doesn’t do enough to stand out, and it ends up feeling like SM with a worse plot. USUM’s meta flaws are made even more egregious because it was split into two versions rather than a singular “definitive” version like Crystal, Emerald, and Platinum. Even then, USUM doesn't fix SM’s biggest issue: the sheer bulk of cutscenes. Hell, the problem is WORSE than in SM because of Ultra Recon Squad! The prior “definitive” versions of games would always improve on the previous game’s faults (eg. Platinum improving DP’s pace), while USUM leans into the problem more.

With that said, USUM is so goddamn fun. Gen 7 as a whole breaks the usual formula in a (mostly) good way, with totems being a fun alternative to gyms and with ride Pokemon being a really good way to remove HMs from the games while still allowing for the same exploration that HMs brought. Alola is a BEAUTIFUL region, filled to the brim with culture and atmosphere that helped make the region and people of Alola truly shine. The newly added totem stickers also helped with exploring Alola, incentivizing exploring Alola more deeply to find them all. Unlike SM’s Zygarde cells, they weren’t time-sensitive and most of them stuck out a LOT, so the vast majority of them didn’t feel cheaply hidden or weirdly obscure. As well as totem stickers, there were a lot more sidequests and small activities you could do in USUM compared to SM. You’re able to get a deeper glance at what’s happening in Alola and can get more opportunities to spend time with both random NPCs and even characters like the trial captains. And god, the writing of characters when they’re not involved in the plot is great. There are so many small moments where both notable characters and random NPCs say a funny line or share a touching moment. What USUM excels at compared to SM is how you can independently interact with the region of Alola when you aren’t in cutscene hell, with a lot more small activities to do, more opportunities to learn about the characters, and a better system to incentivize looking around the region. USUM is better than SM is, without a doubt.

USUM should’ve either come out as a singular game and been a third version to SM, or SM should've released as USUM. USUM are great games, if you’re going to play a gen 7 game you should play USUM, but their biggest flaw is the existence of SM and the ways that USUM fails to deviate or improve upon their predecessors. As a result, USUM exists in a weird position of being games I REALLY enjoy and would recommend, but that also feel greedy and, in some ways, disappointing. The meta issues with USUM didn’t affect my enjoyment of the games very much, but they definitely can harm or even ruin USUM for someone else.

Forgotten Land is REALLY good, holy shit.

Kirby works extremely well in 3D, especially with how much the game took advantage of the move to 3D. The world is packed to the brim with secrets and things to explore, making exploration super fun. The addition of objects also allowed for a lot of interesting and cool ways to interact with the environment. There were so many areas and moments that were really exciting and memorable to find and explore. Forgotten Land absolutely nails the core aspect of its gameplay, the world and the experience of exploring it.

The copy ability upgrades are so goddamn fun. They make a lot of the game a total joke, but Kirby games aren’t trying to be difficult anyway. The power increase from a copy ability almost always felt good, and the designs each upgrade had were charming and fun. It also didn’t feel like the upgraded copy abilities utterly trivialized bosses either, who were all fun and dynamic in their own way.

With that praise in mind, I have a burning hatred for treasure roads. They’re cool in that they teach you the mechanics of a copy ability and help build mastery, but oh my god there were so many of them. It felt excessive how many there were. They felt like a chore, something I dreaded having to deal with, even when going about them in small chunks. As well, some of the side missions in a level felt bullshit to figure out on a blind run without the game’s hint once you finish the level without finding a side mission. I know the idea was to encourage level replays, but I didn’t like that sometimes I’d be asking myself how I was supposed to figure out that the game wanted me to do something until it told me.

For being Kirby’s first venture into 3D (I think), Forgotten Land knocks it out of the park. Really excited to see how the groundwork Forgotten Land sets is expanded upon.

Well, Pokemon X sure was… a game. X was better than I remembered, because the Kalos games have always been kind of boring for me, but it really wasn’t anything special.

I respect X and Y for what they introduced to the games - 3D models, character customization, mega evolutions, the fairy type, and other details. But a lot of what I like about X and Y are more just the steps forward for the series that X and Y introduced. That said, XY’s soundtrack rocks, Kalos feels like it has its own culture and really touches on its French influences, and XY’s trainers are overall the most stylish with their clothing options imo, even though customization is more limited in these games.

However, details like the writing being poor (which I understand is an issue with Pokemon as a whole but still), the games being COMICALLY easy, the beginning of the problem of heavy pandering to gen 1,
hell even the roller skates and how awkward they felt to use especially in a game still practically functioning with a tile system make it hard for me to get INVESTED in most runs I start. This is the first time I’ve beaten XY in years because I’ve consistently had a hard time keeping with a playthrough. And I definitely could feel that drag in this run, where I just… wasn’t feeling the game at all at certain points, less in a burnout way and more in a “this game just doesn’t work for me” way. Hell, I dropped this run for a few months because of how XY can struggle to hook me.

Overall, not bad but not spectacular either. X and Y were important for Pokemon as a whole and I respect the games for the steps forward it took, but the game itself feels weak for me personally.

This game will always be important to me. Black was my first ever Pokemon game and the first game that I fell in love with. With that said, rating BW is tough, because Black and White 2 takes the groundwork set by BW and improves it by tenfold. BW has a very close relationship to BW2 in its design and storytelling that’s futile to deny, but it’s not fair to rank BW based on what BW2 does. For the most part, I’m only focusing on BW without mentioning BW2, but for aspects like story it’s kind of difficult to not blur the line there.

Firstly, BW introduced a lot of QoL that was lacking before, most notably infinite use TMs that allow you to build stronger and more interesting teams. Black and White were also the first games to really step back from required HMs, with the only required HM being cut for one singular tree in Striaton City, and I don’t think enough people appreciate that. The game’s visual and musical style is GORGEOUS, with the OST and spritework still holding up even now and being a big part of what makes gen 5 so iconic and nostalgic. This along with small details like seasons make BW feel so fun to explore despite its linearity. And BW’s postgame is MASSIVE, giving the player a lot to do once they beat the main game.

That said, the strictly new Pokemon dex can definitely feel limiting, especially on replays. While interesting at the time of its release due to the dex being entirely new and unfamiliar Pokemon, 10 years later it’s really not aged the best. Many of these pokemon also evolve at late levels, such as Bisharp, Mienshao, and especially Hydreigon. Level grinding SUCKS, being limited to Audino grinding or the stadiums in Nimbasa if you fall behind for whatever reason. Past games have been worse (HGSS comes to mind), but BW are almost infamous for being annoying to level grind in for a reason.

And while this isn’t required, musicals are the worst feature in any Pokemon game. They’re confusing and poorly explained, you don’t even get awarded for doing them, and coming off the heels of gen 3 and 4’s contests which had dynamic and involved gameplay, musicals are boring. The fucking musical theme genuinely began to feel condescending after a while of trying to get every prop. Don’t do musicals. They’re bad.

As for the story of BW, I think it’s good but gets into that difficult territory of almost relying on BW2 to really shine. On its own, BW’s story is fine, but not spectacular. N is a standout character, but the story the game tries to tell about the relationship between humans and Pokemon struggles to get to the depth that the writer’s wanted it to. That said, BW’s story feels like a strong prequel to BW2’s story, setting the groundwork for how the world will evolve. BW doesn't feel like games whose story is meant to be on its own, which is fine, but still hurts the story of BW on its own.

There’s a lot more I can say about these games, but I’ve already been here a while. BW are far from perfect, especially when looking down the line at BW2. But god, these games are still fucking fantastic and have a special place in my heart, rose-tinted glasses acknowledged. They have a special place in my heart.

FANTASTIC game. i never played the original prime, so remastered is my first experience with the prime series, and GOD i had a good time.

the gameplay feels tight and satisfying, the graphics and music are great, and the game's consideration of small details about the world (like the biology of EVERY ENEMY) made the world of tallon iv feel like a living ecosystem. the overall design of prime as a game is really well done.

it's not perfect, i think fast travel would've been a really nice qol feature due to backtracking being tedious at times (ahem, magmoor), the static effect from some electrical enemies would honestly cause me some sensory issues (ESPECIALLY in those narrow caves with sentry drones in the research headquarters, where it felt like you literally couldn't make enough space to avoid the static), and there's a couple other small issues. but holy shit, this game blew me away.

glad to see metroid has been getting more love recently with both dread and remastered. definitely interested in playing prime 2 and 3 now.

va-11 nails what it's trying to do, showing humanity and the ways that people can connect.

the game nails everything it had to nail, primarily the cast. even the people i hated i came to appreciate the arrival of, sometimes even coming around to liking them. you get to know all of valhalla's regulars. jill's story of coping with and learning to move past loss and her past was emotional, the ending wrapping up her story in a way that really stuck, and outside of her own story jill was a fun character to play as.

the other aspects of the game, notably bartending and meeting jill's needs, are definitely secondary to the character aspect of the game, so they're understandably weaker and i can't bring myself to dock points for that. that said, the bartending part of the game can show even more depth to the cast, seeing the types of drinks people order and why. the bartending part of the game is really well done in that way.

it's a short game (i just took my time with it), but extremely fulfilling and memorable.