A pretty tedious and sometimes frustrating puzzle platformer buoyed by the strength of its aesthics and atmosphere. The game's bleak black and while world is really evocative, and is just teeming with danger in a way that sets the mood really well. As a mood piece, the game is great. However, the puzzle platforming feels just shy of mediocre, which makes things harder than they should be. It's also slow, tedious and full of trial and error. The atmosphere can't make up for that entirely.

While I never loved the 2 minute timer goal based gameplay of the original Pro Skaters, I'm still really fond of this entry. Based on what I've seen of the first two, this is where they got the knack for building parks. The parks here are really well designed, memorable and fun to skate on. The game also introduced the revert, which is the last absolute essential move for the combo system that was introduced. This game is really fun to dink around with to this day.

A higher fidelity version of the NES beat em up that, unfortunately, doesn't have the gameplay variety the original had in spades. The arcade release is just a lot of reasonably decent brawling that at least is nice to look at. There's a bit of platforming in there as well, but most of that is just walking between beat em up fights. While it's a good thing the game doesn't have massive difficulty spikes anymore, it's just a lot less interesting than the original overall.

A really inventive and experimental game that's also a total throwback with a lot of nostalgic appeal. The structure is extremely cool, with basically all the dungeons open from the start and all the items available to rent right from the jump. The non linearity rules, and the risk reward that comes with renting items until you die adds a lot of tension. It also has great production values. It's a fantastic 2D Zelda that successfully broke new ground while also being a great throwback to LttP.

A really great bite sized version of inFamous. The main addition here is the ability to turn into a swarm of bats and fly around whenever you want, which whips a lot of ass. It gives you a ton of mobility, which makes getting around very satisfying. Also great is the progression which, since this is a small scale game, proceeds at a blistering pace which is exhilarating. Obviously the game doesn't last long, but while it does it's extremely satisfying and extremely fun.

I found this game much too aimless to really get into deeply, but at least it is is an immediately fun game. Running around the world and stabbing at enemies works pretty well, so it's pretty easy to have just a bit of fun with it before getting lost and giving up.

One of the best values packs in all of gaming. Even at launch it was a phenomenal deal at a dollar a game, many of which are some of my favorites of all time. Even the older games which are more hit and miss are fun curiosities to look back at, and the framing of the collection is very fun, charming and full of additional content such as achievements, challenge modes & making of content. It's a very well put together collection full of games that should not be missed. <3

A brilliantly streamlined RPG that's super fun and jam packed with charm. I especially love the combat. Since the health/damage numbers are low, it makes it really easy to do napkin math to figure out the absolute best ways to tackle battles. I wish more RPGs worked like this. The game's 8 chapters take you to a nice variety of fun locations and there's a nice progression of upgrades/partners which lets you deal with tougher and tougher foes which is rewarding. Power Plus best badge! <3

Fun little metroidvania, though I think it locks you into rooms to fight waves of enemies a little too often for my tastes. It's also a bit short, I burned through most of it pretty quick like. Still, it looks great, has some personality, and a fair amount of neat upgrades and moves to find. It's plenty good!

A very weird game, kind of game where you want to understand so you keep playing in the hopes that one day, it will make sense. You pray on smaller animals and eat the square panels that make up their bodies. It's a very neat game, hunting and growing is a nice slow burn. It's really cool to get new forms, gain additional panels, and so on. It's really strange and clunky, but satisfying.

Wonderful adventure game with a perfect time travel conceit. Being able to rewind lets you retry conversations and redo major decisions, which lets you figure out the best choices by trying out the alternatives. Plus there's loads of clever ways the game makes you use it, it's really just a match made in heaven, rewinding and adventure games. Beyond that the game has really great writing, plotting, pacing, loads of personality, fitting music and big big moments. Great from start to finish! <3

This game is impenetrable to me. Even if you punch in a code you have no will always have no map, and you will always start with dick all health or ammo. Even if you could in theory push past this, the game is full of some truly loathsome trolly design, like the way forward being hidden behind invisible paths or random breakable blocks that you have to find with trial and error. To say this game aged poorly is putting it mildly.

There's a lot to like about this game, like how it's non linear, or how the point of each level is really to retrieve the treasures within and return safely after triggering some infernal device. These things make the game feel like one big treasure hunt, which suits Wario extremely well. Wario's moveset is also quite nice, and is used well with lots of little puzzles being built around both basic moves and forms he can take. This game is just jam packed with good shit.

A charming 3D Platformer built around a physics engine, which is sometimes a bit janky but that just adds to the charm. Like in the first Banjo-Kazooie, each world can be completed in one go, which is always satisfying. This game does have hints too, which could help you finish up a world. The physics system can make the platforming a little sloppy/chaotic sometimes, but I think dealing with that is part of the fun. Overall it's one of the best platformers on a console famous for them.

While at the time the sheer scope of the game impressed the hell out of me, over time I have soured on this game. The levels are huge, but also full of a lot of repetition, and the character swapping gets annoying fast, especially since most of the character differences are on the superficial side. To top it all off the basic gameplay is pretty bland, making it a bit of a slog. Still, I don't hate it. It can be mildly fun to this day to collect a bit here or there.