Hey Pikmin is very well-made, polished game which wears it's Pikmin charm on its sleeve, but unfortunately the game is dreadfully boring. It's very pretty, the little Pikmin interactions you get throughout the game are adorable, and it feels surprisingly good to throw Pikmin by tapping the 3DS screen, but still the game put me to sleep everytime I played. it. Its just incredibly slow paced, and for the most part what you get at the beginning of the game is the entire game. The game does add some stuff as you, but not much that really changes the game in any meaningful way. The game ends up feeling like nothing more than an easy-to-make game, made only to sell games to Pikmin fans, not a game made to actually have fun with.

Signalis is a must play for any fan of psychological horror. It plays like a top-down Resident Evil, where you wander around a monster filled environment picking up key items and solving puzzles. Where it sets itself apart from RE is all of the abstract psychological horror it contains. This game is oozing with aesthetic, it's lore and world are captivating, and the puzzles are incredibly inventive. My only real complaint is I think that 6 inventory slots is far too low. It was just really annoying having to go back to the inventory box time and time again to drop off/pick up key items, and switch the one gun I have equipped. But yeah, play Signalis, it's great!

This game does a brilliant job of making you feel like a detective. It consists of about 11 murders you need to solve, which are all part of an overall narrative. This structure works better for me than the obvious comparison of Obra Dinn, since the mysteries are more compact. You aren't watching the same scene 20 times with hopes of gathering a little bit more info like the last so many people you have figure out in Obra Dinn. This way you are consistently trying to put together what happened, which is way more fun to me. (Not to say Obra Dinn is worse, that game is also 5/5 for sure)

I also love the mechanics of give you a bunch of keywords and making you piece together the mystery through those words, and the various template they give you. For example earlier cases make you determine the names of each of the characters, and tells you when you get all of them right, but you still need to solve the murder after you get all the names. It gives you a helpful stepping stone to solve the overall mystery, without really giving anything away.

I also want to say I love how this game forces you to learn it's universe. There are supernatural elements you need to learn the rules of, and various political and cult groups you need learn about as well. When everything is put together, it is not only very satisfying from a puzzle-solving perspective, but the narrative you unravel is super interesting as well.

This game is an easy recommend for basically anyone. When I first was recommended it, I wasn't very convinced since the art-style looked repulsive. But trust me, you will learn to love the art-style if you give this game a chance. Oh, one last thing: the music of this game goes so fucking hard. It's so weird and creepy, but fits the game so perfectly. Definitely one of my favorite games of the year.

Are you disappointed at the lack of Silksong at the 2022 Game Awards? Are you tired of putting on your clown makeup everytime Nintendo has a direct? Well then boy howdy do I got the game for you! It's Haiku the Robot!

This game is a Metroidvania that is a whole heck of a lot like Hollow Knight. It's not just a ripoff of HK though, as it definitely has it's ideas and identity. For example, your "magic meter" is replaced by a heat gauge, which fills up whenever you do certain actions. I just kind of wish there was a bit more to the game as it is pretty basic. Combat is very simple and doesn't really change much throughout the game. The abilities you unlock are for the most part pretty standard Metroidvania stuff too, though they are quite fun to use since they let fly through pretty quickly.

Overall, this game is a very enjoyable Metroidvania, that didn't really ever surprise me in any way. Wish it could've been more, but it's still pretty fun the way it is.

Holy shit! They made a Geometry Wars game for the DS? Man, Geometry Wars was the first game I got on Xbox Live Arcade, and what a game it was. Nothing but pure arcadey fun. And the DS version is more of that on a handheld device. Honestly, for a twin-stick shooter on a device with literally zero sticks, this version is surprisingly solid. Yes I would much rather use two sticks, but the touch screen control method is actually pretty sufficient. The game also isn't as flashy looking as the original, but that doesn't hold it back much.

The big addition this version has is a new mission mode they Galaxies. It's nothing to write home about, but it does add a lot of content to the game, and allows them to put in a lot of unique ideas to a pretty simple concept. At the end of the day, it's Geometry Wars on a handheld. Probably better versions of that these days, but if you got ds, it's quite fun!

God of War Ragnarok is a straight up continuation of the 2018 game. This isn't like Last of Us Part 2 which was a VERY different game from the original. The point it serves is to wrap up the story of the 2018 game, and hence it ends up being a very similar game. The first game was incredible so of course this game is as well!

While there are a lot of ways this game is better, this game feels a lot more bloated than the original to me. I found myself constantly wishing the game would just get to the frickin point. There are so many things they could've cut so that game didn't just drag on. Aspects of this game also feel a tad dated. There is so much Uncharted climbing and squeezing through cracks, which I really hoped we would've moved away from in this generation. But alas, they are still making these for PS4, so we are still yet doomed to slowly squeeze through cracks.

That said even when the dragged on, it was still largely enjoyable. There is a lot of fantastic spectacle and the combat is pretty gratifying. Probably the best parts are when Thor and Odin are on screen though, as their voice actors are so frickin' good. It's just unfortunate that you barely see them in the first 12 hours or so of the game. So yeah, Ragnarok is a pretty easy recommend for those who play 2018, but probably not for those who haven't.

This game is nothing more than a cash in on the popularity of frozen made as cheaply as possible. Most levels take like 10 to 30 seconds to beat. They try to extend the length of the game by encouraging you to collect all the collectibles they randomly throw out through out the levels, but it's such a chore. Ignoring the collectibles, most of the levels are beat by just walking forward and jumping whenever the terrain rises or there are spikes in the way. It's incredibly lazy and dull. The little girls who love Frozen deserve better than this.

Donkey Kong Country Returns is a fantastic reboot of the DKC franchise from the SNES, but it is a bit hard to see this game as nothing more than Tropical Freeze's lesser predecessor. This game captures what made the original games so good, but differentiates itself through Donkey Kong's weighty jumps, and way more cinematic level design. Seriously, one of the first levels is one where you jump between pieces of wrecked ships while a giant octopus is destroying them. The major issue with this game is that this doesn't quite go all in on the theming and level design like Tropical Freeze does. There are incredible levels like the one I just mentioned, but there are so many others that are just unremarkable. There are of course other things I could pick on like there being only like 5 bonus rooms all of which are boring, the lack of animal buddies, or putting so many dandelions everywhere for Donkey Kong to blow on (like really? they thought making the big ape stop to blow on dandelions was a fun idea?), but I think the core issue is the level design. This game is still quite good though, it just isn't as remarkable as Tropical Freeze.

Just want to say a couple things about the 3ds version: It's good! It runs and looks pretty fantastic honestly. In fact I would say this is my preferred way to play since the game fits a handheld really well, and I don't need to waggle at all.

Bottom line though: Play Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze. It's so good.

This ~15 year old holds up surprisingly well! The combat is really satisfying the crunchy. The action/horror balance is done extremely well. The enemy design and guns are all really awesome. I especially love cutting the limbs off the enemies. Super cool twist on a third-person shooter. Honestly, a remake feels wholly unnecessary when the original holds up so well.

It's not perfect though of course. The game gets kind of repetitive by the end, as you go from samey looking hallway to samey looking hallway, battling hordes monsters every other room. If it was a bit shorter or if there was a more interesting variety of things to do (just not more of the dumb cannon minigame) that would help the game a lot. Plus, the story just kind of sucks. You can tell they tried, but I just didn't care at all. Last thing is a bit of a nitpick, but the 3D map sucks. They really should've just ripped off Metroid Prime, instead of creating their own map system.

Anyways, good game! Hope the remake is going to be more of a reboot though. Just making the game more pretty would be a serious waste of time.

Shadows of Rose is a pretty solid though short expansion to RE: Village. It's not terribly special, and definitely isn't nearly as good as the main game, RE7, or RE2, but it is certainly enjoyable. The story isn't as interesting as I would like since you are just going through some memory world where anything can happen. The enemies that you shoot are pretty boring honestly, and Rose's powers are underwhelming. Honestly the second chapter is what really saves this DLC from mediocrity. It is genuinely pretty creepy, and unique for the RE games.

As a kid I had the GBA remake of this game and I hated it. It wasn't anything like Super Mario World and it was weirdly hard. However, later in life I realized I missed something about Mario 2... I didn't know you could super jump. I literally thought the only way to beat level 1-3 was to play Luigi. Well, armed with this new powerful knowledge I decided to finally beat this game that gave my 10 year old self so much trouble, but this time the NES version emulated on the 3DS... because why not?

Well happy to say I came away liking this game quite a bit actually. I respect the very weird and different take on Mario, and of course it's great being to play as Peach, especially with that float ability. There are some really creative levels and ideas on display here. Being able to drop a door to some mysterious dark dimension and finding a mushroom is really awarding. I love the little mask that chases you around when you carry a key, adds so much extra tension with just one extra enemy. The levels where you have to ride on something to across big gaps are also really fun. It starts simple with a magic carpet you can control, but eventually you end up having to ride one of Birdo's eggs across a big gap. Which by the way, they get so much mileage out of the Birdo fight. The first Birdo fight is already pretty good, but the number of ways they come up with to keep the fight fresh is really impressive. That main theme too... it goes sooo hard.

That said, the game still isn't quite as good as the other Mario games. Centering the game around picking up turnips is a cute idea, but there is definitely a reason Mario 3 or Mario World didn't bring it back. It just doesn't feel as classic or fun as stomping on a Goomba. It ends up slowing the pace down quite a bit, so you can't sprint through the levels like you can in most Mario games. Also, some of the extra mechanics they add to the throwing/picking up mechanic just don't really work. Digging is really annoying, and blowing up walls with bombs is just too slow for a Mario game imo.

Overall, I enjoyed my time Mario 2. Even though it's nowhere near my favorite Mario game, it holds up surprisingly well. It's also a refreshingly unique game in a series who's last 4 games (New Super Mario Bros) are practically all the same game. It's almost as if.... this isn't actually a Mario game? Hmmm.... Meh. I'm probably just being paranoid.

The latest RPG focused Assassin's Creed games are all bloated, pretty repetitive, and kind of janky. Yet, after coming away from Odyssey with severely mixed feelings, I came back to it in the form of Origins. And while the a lot of the issues of Odyssey are here, I liked this game. Why? Well it's just a supremely cozy game. It feels great moving your character, and climbing on shit and what not. Plus you get to do that in one of the coolest vacation spots, Ancient Egypt! I love games that really challenge me like any competitive multiplayer game, Elden Ring, or Baba is You for example. But sometimes I just want to play a game that demands almost nothing from me. Heck this game doesn't even demand I pay attention to the story as the story isn't super interesting and not terribly complicated. It's the perfect cozy game.

I also just want to say that AC: Origins is probably the best of the three RPG heavy games, as it wastes your time the least (though I have admittedly not play Valhalla, just heard things about it). In Odyssey, battles would go on for way longer than they should, because you literally couldn't out-level your enemies, and the enemies all ended up being bullet-sponges. That isn't an issue in Origins. The world is a bit smaller (even if I really liked exploring Ancient Greece), and you don't have to do as many side quests to complete the game. Though I think the side quests are the for most apart quite a bit worse than in Odyssey. Odyssey had some bad side quests, but it also had some gems in the mix, which Origins really doesn't have. Plus, stealth is actually an option in this game unlike Odyssey.

That said... why do I have to carry so many grown ass adults in this game???? Most of them aren't injured at all, and yet they demand I pick them up and carry them out of the enemy base like they are a frickin' child! They just lay there on the ground till you pick them up and put them down outside the base, then they immediately stand up. Why didn't you just walk my dude?