An enjoyable and cathartic top down action game dripping with atmosphere and adrenaline that's let down by being half baked in a number of small-yet-crucial ways. A lack of voice acting in cutscenes cripple what's already an otherwise threadbare narrative and setting. An inconsistent, busted scoring system ultimately sucks the fun out of learning (and experimenting with) the game's various mechanics. A general sense that the game was hastily scaled down from 'Cyberpunk Diablo' to 'Devolver Digital 4 hour romp' that leaves a hubworld barely visited and underutilized...

...But even then, I still found myself with plenty to love. I'm absolutely blown away at how gorgeous the visuals are, both in terms of fidelity and in art direction. This is punctuated pitch perfectly by one HELL of a soundtrack, with the highlight being 'Island Door (Paranesian Circle)' by Susumu Hirasawa of all musicians. And yeah, I'm ultimately a sucker for this type of 'Devolver Digital 4 hour romp', blood, gore, ethically questionable narrative and all.

It's yet another game, then, that I'll recommend when the sales start again. It's a damn shame, while also being a damn good time, too!

(...Dunno what all the Puppy Play shit's about tho, put a leather dog mask on the MC and get it over with lol)

Not usually a fan of the sort of things this game pulls off (one hit deaths in a spike riddled obstacle course full of enemies that you have to avoid because you're also defenseless, that sort of thing), but it makes such good use out of it's level gimmicks that I didn't mind so much. The way the latter levels play with momentum and timing in particular was really fun to figure out! I probably would've liked it to have gone a bit more complex with it's ideas, but as is, it's still relatively engaging without being too obnoxious.

The writing's a bit naff though, like in that Modern Paper Mario, self aware & ironic way. Makes the titular dad seem like more of an asshole than the developers intended? It'd be a pretty cute little family story if it had landed, but alas, I kinda get why his kids kinda ran away from him...

A fun way to kill 2 hours, in the end. I wonder how the sequel's turned out...?

A fun, exhilarating Luftrausers-like that could do with a bit of narrative trimming and a control scheme that didn't hurt my hands. Sometimes less is more when it comes to a story, especially in an action game, so having constant interruptions before, after and during missions winds up disrupting the pace more than accelerating it, especially with writing this flat and overconfident. Feels more like a TVTropes page come to life more than the 90's anime it wants to be...

But who's actually playing this for the narrative when you have dogfights this chaotic and boss fights this imposing? Adding a dodge function and a more traditional heath system to an already solid base makes for some truly tense and amazing missions to scrape by in, and coupled with risk/reward upgrade modules and a ranking system that actually explains itself logically, you've got one hell of a game to try and master! That is, if your hands don't give out after about 20 minutes of play...

Yeah, this is the other big problem, which isn't easy to explain and might just be me? But it genuinely impacts the replayability of the game in a negative way.
There's too many vital functions tied to the shoulder buttons (the biggest culprit being the left bumper, imo), which leads to a lot of uncomfortable moments where you're holding down too many buttons at once and it all starts cramping painfully.... It's a shame, too, because there's so much content to get through (NG+, Arcade Mode, just SSS-ranking all the missions without losing health, etc.) for those who love this sort of thing!

The New Game + seems genuinely interesting though, in a Nier/Ico sort of way, but I think I need a break to properly appreciate it. For now, though, I enjoyed what I played of it, and look forward to what the team puts out next! Might go grab the OST at some point too, because damn, that's some good Math Rock...

More or less the same as it ever was.

I really do wish this was a Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze situation where I'd come out of this replay with a newfound appreciation, but unfortunately, I'm still not too keen on Super Mario 3D World. It's been a decently relaxing and fun playthrough, don't get me twisted! But there's still a lot of particulars that rub me the wrong way...

While I understand why it controls the way it does, I don't really jive with how limited and stiff it feels to play (Well, compared to the other 3D Marios). While the shift from full analogue to 8 way movement severely hampers Mario & Co.'s more complex moves, it does make the flagpole jump and special zones a cinch to pull off. Nobody wants to fail these climactic and joyful little moments just because of a slight twitch of the thumb, right? What I can't justify is STILL how awkward it is to start sprinting, especially when the 2D games had it all figured out in the 1980's! It's like driving a car with a spluttering engine with how stop and start it feels, in sharp contrast to the the smooth speed gradients of the rest of the series. I'm not naive enough to have expected them to fix these things, but it's the main reason why I kept my distance from this port for so long...

Perhaps more soul crushing is that the art direction is still as depressingly sauceless as ever, especially so after Odyssey's overabundance of style. I do genuinely love the work that went into the character and enemy models, but it's hard to appreciate them when the level theming is so, so general in nature. Nothing links them together in any meaningful way, and (outside of lazy gestures to the wonderful stage theming of SMB3 and the half-assed geometrics of SMW), the overworlds are baron wastelands that clinically represent some sort of environmental climate and very little else. Killing Miiverse, in effect, also gutted this game of a large part of it's original identity, like a government body scrubbing away layers of graffiti for a block colour paint job. There's no real heart behind any of it, to push it above being anything other than 'decent enough', despite aging incredibly well on a technical level, you know?

But hey, at least the music, in direct contrast, is still the best a Mario game's ever sounded? Not really sure what happened at the company that allowed their musicians to completely pop off during what's otherwise an aesthetically void period of their catalogue, but I'm all ears for it! And while I haven't said too much about the gameplay as a whole (it really is just 3D Land 2 in oblique projection), it runs a little faster now and collectibles are less of a hassle to collect, making it a smoother experience overal- Well, outside of the touch screen sections, but that's just the nature of porting a Wii U game, isn't it...

I initially thought it was a little strange that they bundled this with Bowser's Fury. Wouldn't you want the bold next step in Mario's journey to stand on it's own? But yeah, no, it totally makes sense after playing them back to back. They're both moderately fun experiences hampered by a lack of strong artistic and conceptual direction, settling instead on a generally high quality level of polish more than anything else. For the gamers, this is honestly what matters most, but as someone with a critical aesthetic eye, I can't help but feel underwhelmed that they'd return to something so... plain.

It's still fun regardless, but alas, it's more or less the same as it ever was.

A great puzzle platformer a la Wario Land 3 and Donkey Kong '94! The regular enemies and boss battles are more annoying than complimentary, but ultimately the core challenge of figuring out any given room's solution with your surprisingly robust moveset more than makes up for it. There's plenty to get through, too, with 10+ large-ish levels that encourage replays via a ranking system, time-to-beat and hidden coins to find. Fantastic graphical presentation as well, like everything's so fluidly animated and colourful and expressive, more like a Neo Geo Pocket game than anything on GBC! Can't say the OST lives up to it, but it's still fitting enough.

Kinda shocked this one isn't talked about more often, even with a recent English patch! It's well worth looking into, especially if you want something to chip away at over time (helps that the game picks up at the exact room you turned the game off, nifty feature that).

XINGISKAN II (if you know, you know)

...And for everyone else, a wonderful little arcade style game that's easy to pick up and smooch your way through. Unlocking the 'true ending' is a little tedious, due to RNG, but that same RNG is what helps keep the game entertaining on regular playthroughs, so it's not thaaat big an issue. Not with such a such a charming, cheeky presentation! The music in particular's gonna be stuck in my head for months to come, I just know it...

Overall, it's an easy recommendation for those who want to play something simple & sweet (yet slightly saucy) between larger games. Another Onion Games classic!

An early 3D shooter that, while a little clunky to control and very brisk in length, more than makes up for it by simply being a joy to play. Nothing quite matches the thrill of waiting nervously for the lock on to line up on your target while you're either:

A. Being shot at;
B. Flying a bit too close to the ground for comfort;
C. All of the above;

and nailing it, cheered on by the enthusiastic whoops of your copilots and big 'BINGO!' text across the screen! I really like how you use your 'score' to buy different planes, each with their own unique stats, that also double as your 'lives'. It's a clever way of being arcade-y while adding a risky bit of depth to difficult missions. Just wish there were a few more to play!

P.S. Namco once again kills it on the OST front, this time pairing some fantastic guitar licks to only the finest synth instrumentals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGR9gv1KHTQ