I had this game as a child, I 100%'d this game as a child, multiple times over. It became something of an every-other-year ritual, having played it and platinumed every subsequent HD remaster or re-release, and they're all perfectly fine versions, but my most recent replay was on original hardware, using a cheap crappy scaler box. I 100%'d the game in two sessions, and this game's hold on me has never wavered in almost 22 years.

Is it as technically impressive as other first-party platformers for the PS2 like the Ratchet or Sly series, or even its two sequels? Certainly not. Does it have an amazing storyline? Not particularly, but it's a good story told with just the right amount of levity to make it feel like a great start to Jak's overall journey through the main trilogy, as well as a great standalone tale.

I understand it's by no means a perfect game and all, but it's still a meaningful game to me, and I can excuse some issues, like its nature as a collectathon meaning you can very easily find yourself trawling a single level multiple times over for a single fucking precursor orb, purely because of that.

I replayed this recently through Switch Online and was worried going back to it after playing Dread would feel like a downgrade, and yet it really does not.

This game's pacing is absolutely on point, at no point does it feel like the game is wasting your time or turning the gears until you hit the next plot point... not that any other Metroid title really has me feeling that way, but it was regardless a pleasant surprise to return to a favourite from my teens and have it be just as good as I remember.

Picross 3D's my favourite "take" on the number-based picture logic puzzle subgenre that's particularly popular in video games. Round 2 improves upon an already stellar concept of chiselling away blocks to produce a simple 3D sculpture by having you paint the blocks either blue or orange, with blue representing a normal cube, and orange representing a piece that's shaped. This makes for more challenging puzzles, but also more rewarding puzzles, with the end results looking like wooden toys for children.

I recently replayed this and was blown away by how it's still the most addictive of Nintendo's own picross/puzzle titles, and honestly the lack of a Picross 3D 3 on the Switch is proof that somebody, somewhere is slipping.