Lurking beneath the bright and beautiful art style of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is a much darker fairy tale containing the trademarks of all great fantasy—giants, rivers of blood, and supernatural nature! The game’s title pretty well summarizes its plot, and the novel gameplay mechanic of controlling one brother with each hand frustrates at first, but eventually becomes integral to the story. This game journeyed far beyond my imagination of what its narrative would be based on the prologue, conveying emotional depth with simple grunts and panta-miming; the affect cut deep for me. Nevertheless, I’m not sure how much of this game will stick with me in the long haul as its puzzles never engaged my mind enough to make it memorable.

I have an issue with metroidvanias, and though I love the classics and have always leaned more towards the castlevania side of things than the metroid one, I have found most of the games that are inspired by symphony of the night and super metroid don't really do it for me, as I would rather just play those games instead.

Hollow Knight shattered my expectations, and I would include it in the same breath as those two foundational games. A detailed world brimming with personality and interesting lore draws you into this game that radiates with the love you can tell was dumped into it by its creators. The bug theme is so clever, and I loved to see all the new enemy types. I thought I disliked the art style when I saw the games promotional material (it screams "hot topic" to me in the worst way possible) but damn was I wrong, this game looks stunning in motion. Worth the hype.

With the extra dlc this game feels about 3/4ths the length of a masterpiece platformer. Its fantastic but just ends a bit early. Also all the worlds just sort of end when you finish their story with no follow up past a small line at the final boss fight. They just cut off and its a bit jarring.

I thought mustache girl would be connected more to the rest of the game but its more she's there at the beginning and there at the end. That's it.

That's about all my complaints. The rest is just amazing, even the low points are really great. Dead Bird Studio, Subcon Forest. Such high highs. Here's hoping we see more from gears for breakfast soon.

9/10