Just so we’re clear. I have never played a Yakuza game before this one. And I also don’t usually like turn-based JRPGs. But Yakuza like a Dragon both made me a new fan of the Yakuza series, but also made me sit my butt down and got me hardcore invested in a good JRPG. And personally I think that makes this game pretty darn good. So if you’re someone who is usually indifferent to JRPGs in general, and want to get into one. This game might be exactly what you’re looking for. Below I’ve put my pros and cons of what I liked about this one, and the small parts I didn’t like about it.

+Battles are hilarious and I love them
The battles in Like a Dragon are… bum bum bum turn based. Now for a lot of people, myself included, this is a dealbreaker. Because most times turn based combat can be pretty boring and slow paced, or take a while to get interesting. However, Like a Dragon does a lot of things differently from other “traditional RPGs”. Basically the game is like Dragon Quest’s themes combined with a silly contemporary setting. All of the character's use classic RPG tropes but through the filter of a modern urban timeframe. So instead of fighting slimes and zombies. You fight the homeless, and gangsters. Your wizards and spellcasters are bums who breathe fire by doing whiskey belches, host and hostess who pop the cork on freezing wine and smash people with birthday cake. Instead of monks you have hitmen who are strapped with that thang on them. Instead of a sword wielding hero, you have a bat welding Yakuza. And all of your skills and abilities reflect this modern setting. Want to do huge amounts of damage, try the ultimate BDSM move (yes that’s real). Want to take out a large amount of enemies? Use the postmates app that’s like a final fantasy summon. But you summon a mentally insane knife man, instead of a dragon or whatever is in final fantasy. This makes battles very, very funny to watch. There’s something very cathartic about fighting a high ranking member of the Chinese Mafia using stuff like CD’s tossed like ninja stars, buckets of ice, and the move that literally just has your party member unload into an enemy with a glock. But it isn’t just you with these goofy ah attacks, your enemies are just as ridiculous. From the “Turncoat Titillator” to “Subjugation-kun”, and the “Twitchy Streamer”, oh, who could forget my personal favorite “Druggler”. This game has a sense of humor that makes the turn based combat really entertaining. And helps mitigate my issues with RPG combat.

+Character Building is really addicting
To add onto that, the way you build your characters is something I found especially good. Each party member who joins you has upsides and downsides. Some have high HP but low MP, others have bad magic stats, but great agility. But you can build your party members to be better than how they start out using the job system. Basically each character has their own “starting job” which is usually their best job. It’s the one that fits their role the best. However you can change a character’s starting job to one of many different jobs. Now changing to a new Job usually means losing temporary stat bonuses, however there’s an upside to this. Because every job has their own permanent stat bonuses that they award to the character using that job, as well as giving permanent abilities that transfer from Job to Job. This means you can train a character up in a certain job and shore up their stats in places they might be lacking in, as well as giving opportunities to change up a party member’s playstyle if you’re getting bored of it. I’m probably not doing the system justice but when I first discovered how it worked, I literally felt like an ocean of possibilities had just opened up in my playthrough. And I think that the variety and options it provides, not only makes the turn based combat all the more enjoyable, but it also gives the player something to always be working for. I genuinely wish more RPGs did this sort of thing.

+Great side content and sidequests
Now, I’ve never played a Yakuza game before this one. But I am familiar with how one normally goes. And in typical Yakuza fashion (i think) there’s a lot of side content. And personally I loved what I played of it. The sidequests are funny, and wholesome at times. I’ll leave finding those up to you, because they’re better when you don’t know what to expect. And the minigames are silly yet very addicting to get into. Like I didn’t think it'd get hooked on the Batting Cage for like 2 hours but… here we are. There’s a mini game where you do trivia in a vocational school and the math quiz took me like 9 tries because I’m an idiot. And the Go-Karting… OH MAN THE GO-KARTING. Is it better than mario kart? No, is it silly? You bet your sweet bippy it’s silly. There’s Karaoke, Golf, and Darts that you can play with your party members. It’s all great stuff. I think the way the game gives you the option to take a break from the dramatic story to just… play darts is… very unique. And something I like a lot. Heck, doing the business management minigame probably contributed to like a quarter of my playtime, so that should tell you how good the side content is… Because Good lord there’s no reason the bezos simulator should be that fun.

+/-The story has a slow start, but I found myself really invested in it
But this game can’t escape all of the classic RPG tropes, because the story has a very slow start. As someone who finished the whole game, I can say that getting through the first chunk of the story was worth it. But… I can definitely see how someone wouldn’t enjoy that as much. I mean quite literally my first 5 hours of gameplay was just doing the introduction segment with opening cutscenes and basic tutorial battles. And I thought that was a little excessive. But I think it’s worth sticking through because the story after that is, in my opinion, really solid. It’s got elements of crime/family drama. Silly anime battles that contain buff men ripping off their shirts to show how serious they are. And it has some genuinely touching moments of drama. I liked the story overall, and think that it’s worth getting through the slow beginning. To get invested in the payoff later on.

-The late game has a bit too much grinding…
Now my biggest issue with the game was the grinding. Now it isn’t a prevalent issue throughout the whole game, but you’ll definitely need to grind at least once or twice to beat some of the fights in this one. And good lord, you’ll definitely need to grind for the last few fights of the game. The rest of the game is well balanced but there’s this one fight at the end of the 12th chapter that’s just absurd! There is a huge difficulty spike around that point, and that unfortunately means grinding. I think throughout my whole playthrough I needed to grind like 3 different times. Now thankfully, it isn’t obnoxious to grind during these cases. Since there’s literally an enemy that drops a ton of experience and isn’t too hard to find. But grinding is still grinding, no matter what way you slice it. And regardless I think the absurd-ness of the latter fights could’ve been turned down a bit to avoid the grinding. Oh- and then there’s other grinding too besides just levels. There’s grinding for ultimate weapons, and job level grinding, and grinding for good healing items. And yeah… there’s a good chunk of grinding. Now I think it’s all manageable, if not a little annoying at times. But if you’re someone who just cannot do grinding in any sense. Then maybe skip this one. It’d be a sad reason to, since the game is really good other than that. But I wouldn’t blame you if that turned you off from the experience.

Overall like a dragon is a really solid JRPG, with some of the trimmings. But I would be wrong if I said I didn’t love it. I think that if you can tolerate RPGs then you’ll really like this one, like I did. But if you’re someone who hates these kinds of games, you might want to try the other Yakuza games.

Personally I loved it, an easy 4.5/5

An adorable remake of the absolute classic from the SNES. This one is honestly one of my favorite Mario RPGs that Nintendo has released. And this remake does wonders at not only retelling the original's story, but in some ways surpassing the original in quality and gameplay changes.

+The Battle System has been improved for the better
The way you fight feels just as fluent as the original. The Mario RPGs have always been the “anti-button mashing” RPG and Mario RPG is a perfect example of that. Every attack, every dodge, every input in battle is player involved, and I think that’s one of the things that makes this game stand out, even today. The action commands are simple, yet always challenging to master. Making it so you’re spending most of your time in battles learning how to best optimize your timing, rather than just “getting through another battle”. But that’s just stuff that the original did, because the remake packs in a bunch of new battle features. The ability to switch party members on the fly was incredibly nice! It made battles more dynamic and added new levels of planning. That new mechanic in combination with the “action command meter” that would fill up as you gained a combo of action commands really made efficient battling rewarding. That in further combination with the ally super moves that changed depending on your party layout was just… The new system of battling far surpassed the original in terms of quality.

+The graphics look stellar and give the game a fresh new look
When I first saw the new art style in trailers I wasn’t quite sure if it was going to work or not. But after playing through the whole game. I can definitively say that the new style is a boon for the game. Rather than a curse. Everything, from the adorable cutscenes to the remake sprite animations to that cute little level up dance is just… GAH ADORABLE! It’s all ADORABLE and I love the style for this game!

+The remade soundtrack is very high quality
I wouldn’t say that it suprasses the soundtrack for the original. But it definitely served as a moderate replacement for the most part. The remade tracks all had good instrument choices and it didn’t sound “weaker” than the original. It all landed really well in my opinion.

+Geno
Geno. 12 year old me who was obsessed with Geno being in Smash Bros would be very happy to know that Geno got acknowledgement in 2023. I still love Geno and it was very cool to see him alive and acknowledged.

-Frame drops and performance issues
For some reason there were quite a few frame drops that I experienced. Which was a little surprising considering that this game was made for the nintendo switch… Areas like Marrymore, The Sunken Ship, and a few others had small lagging issues. And I experienced lag a few times in battles as well. It wasn’t awful or anything, just a small issue in the grand scheme of things.

-Can’t Dodge Makes my blood boil
I guess this is an issue with the endgame mostly. Basically certain attacks instead of giving you a chance to dodge they’re basically undodgeable. And just display the text Can’t Dodge and give you guaranteed damage. Throughout most of the game this isn’t too bad of an issue. It’s used sparingly and the attacks never deal too much damage. But once you get to the last few areas of the game the bosses start having multiple of these “Can’t Dodge” attacks at one time. And instead of doing moderate to small damage like before. These attacks that you can’t see coming or predict, nor can you dodge. Start doing like 150 damage at a time. And idk man, when attacks that you can’t predict or try to see coming start dealing that much damage it starts feeling unfair in some ways.

I did have some small issues but overall I liked the Super Mario RPG remake. And I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a new, simple RPG to try. Or to anyone who wants to relive the classic in a brand new way.

4.5/5 A wonderful game, just not perfect.

I recommend Risk of Rain Returns. You should play it. It is one of the most satisfying roguelikes I’ve ever played. It’s fantastic.

But good lord does it have a learning curve. Like one of the steepest learning curves in any roguelike I’ve ever played. I’ve introduced 2 friends to this game and their very first piece of feedback is always. “This game is hard!”. And I’m not mocking them in any way, because that was my first reaction to this game as well. Compared to ROR2 or really any roguelike I’ve ever played before. This game demands attentiveness to enemy attack animations, avoiding groups of enemies, and constant movement to avoid projectiles. And if you don’t meet the game’s demands? Then you will die. Lots, and lots of times. But a steep learning curve can also mean a satisfying learning experience. And ROR-R delivers on a very satisfying “get good” experience. Throughout my almost 30 hours of gameplay I sat there dying, learning, and improving at this game. (and also getting carried many times by my friend who’s way better than I am at this game). I finally got my very first solo victory. And you know what? It was satisfying! I felt very accomplished, and I got to that point because I learned, adapted the way I played, and overcame. So if that’s something you enjoy. You should give Risk of Rain Returns a try.

Compared to ROR2 the road from the beginning of a run, to the end boss. Is way more fun in ROR-R compared to the sequel. The final boss proves to be a great ending challenge for all of the skills you’ve practiced during your run. And plus, Province is just way cooler than Mithrix. Speaking of which, ROR-R does a lot of things that I prefer over ROR2. For example, the way you unlock most survivor alternate abilities is through the “province trials”. Which are little challenges that serve as mini tutorials for the new abilities that you’re about to unlock. Cool idea, and it’s sometimes well executed. But there are also a good few challenges that just… aren’t fun. Like all my homies hate highway robbery. But overall I enjoyed the trials because they were a more streamlined way of unlocking abilities. Rather than ROR2’s system that I’m personally not a huge fan of. On the subject of things I dislike from ROR2 that ROR-R does better. The teleporter events are like 100x better in this game than they are in the sequel. The teleporter events in Risk of Rain Returns feel more like “big boss spawn with opportunities to loot” instead of Risk of Rain 2’s teleporter event which is “Stand in this box and punch this big guy for a while and get 1 item”. I think Risk of Rain Returns does a much better job making the teleporter event feel like something I look forward to, rather than something I just have to do to move onto the next stage.

And finally, the soundtrack is great. Like they got Chris Christodoulou on this, it’s going to be fire. What else were you expecting? The visuals are also very pretty too. The pixel art is genuinely beautifully done, every single sprite and background is bursting with color. And they included these animated cutscenes that I am personally a huge fan of.

I mean I could keep promoting this game to you but… You should just buy it. It’s super fun, super hard, and super hostile towards your organs. And I mean that last part in the best way possible… I think? This game is exactly what Risk of Rain should be. And as gearbox moves forward with the series, I believe they should take notes from this one, as well as risk of rain 2.

A very confident 4.5/5

WARNING! IF YOU CHOOSE TO PICK UP THIS GAME. DO NOT PLAY IT ON HARD DIFFICULTY! I ALMOST RETURNED THIS GAME BECAUSE, LIKE AN IDIOT, I STARTED PLAYING IT ON HARD MODE. THE HARD MODE IN THIS GAME ISN’T VERY FUN, ALL IT MAKES YOU TAKE MORE DAMAGE AND THE BOSSES HAVE MORE PROJECTILES AND HEALTH. WHICH MAKES THE GAME LESS FUN TO PLAY. PLUS THERE’S LITERALLY NO POINT PLAYING IT BECAUSE IT GIVES YOU NO REWARD. NO ACHIEVEMENT, NO NOTHING. DON’T DO IT. NORMAL MODE IS ACTUALLY FUN.

Ahem, anyways.

Gravity Circuit is a fun “mega man like” game. That is unfortunately held back by certain poor design choices. I definitely feel more positively than negatively towards it. But there were a few parts of this game that really made me question some of the design choices during development. Nothing ruined my playthrough or anything. But there are things you should know about this game before you buy it.

+ The Good & The Bad -

+ Great Graphics, Music and Aesthetics
It has that graphical aesthetic that games like Shovel Knight do. Where it’s “retro but not so retro that the game looks bad”. The game’s pixel art is genuinely very appealing to look at, the graphics on display in this game are very striking to look at. Everything pops to life within the world, and nothing ever feels like boring filler. Additionally the music is pretty darn good in this game! I mean nothing that I would listen to outside of the game. But very fitting for the actual game. It’s all eurobeat (i think? don’t sue me please). And it all sounds really well put together and fitting for the game.

+ Controls are Satisfying, but hard to learn.
At first I had a really hard time getting a handle of the controls in this one. The way you’re supposed to move around feels very “light?” compared to most other 2D platformers I’ve played. But once I got a hang of how the game handles I was really enjoying myself. It feels like a faster megaman game mixed with some of its contemporaries like Ninja Gaiden. And I really enjoyed how it all felt by the end of my playthrough. There is one small issue with the controls, but that more has to do with a different issue the game has.

+ The level design is serviceable
The levels were all fun in their own ways. I think the aesthetics and theme of each level worked really well and made it exciting to hop from mission to mission. And the actual design and layout of each level definitely made each one stick in my brain. There’s a lot of little secrets within each level that you can find, and they all give you rewards which makes them worth looking for. Again there’s a small issue with the level design, but we’ll get there.

+/- The “Burst” mechanic is cool
As you defeat the game's bosses you get their “bursts”. Basically think of the boss weapons from Megaman. But they’re super moves, and you can equip 4 at a time. I wasn’t sure if I felt positively about this mechanic, but I think overall it was entertaining. I mean there’s like one gripe I have with it. That being, not all of them are worth using. There are a lot of ones that are just straight up trash. From my personal experience, there are still a good amount worth using. But there are also a good handful of them that just aren’t good to use at all. And unfortunately there aren’t any uses for these “bad abilities” as boss weaknesses either. So there aren’t even 1 uses for them, which is a real shame. But like I said. This mechanic is more good than bad.

+/-The Bosses didn’t quite click with me
I mean they aren’t bad, just not my cup of tea. They all have basic movesets, no weapon weaknesses. So you just kinda walk in and beat the crap out of them and leave. They’re fine, they serve their purpose. Just nothing to write home about ya know?

-You have to use an ability slot to double jump?
This game’s worst problem is the fact that the double jump isn’t part of the basic moveset. In fact there are several parts of your moveset that aren’t in your “basic moveset ''. Instead, there's a system within Gravity Circuit where you can purchase passive upgrades and bonuses and equip them to your character. Stuff like “Take less damage from hazards” and “Pay less for healing” ect. But one of these passive perks is “Gain the ability to double jump”... Now, you only get 3 slots for these passive perks at a time. So… WHY WOULD I EVER GO WITHOUT THE DOUBLE JUMP??? Like if I have the option to jump twice and constantly make platforming easier for myself… Then why wouldn’t I do that? And this isn’t the only moveset change that is locked behind the “chip” system. Things like: Grappling to enemies, Wall clinging, and an attack range increase are all tied behind passive perks. I’m not saying this is necessarily a bad idea. Rather, these “moveset extending” chips outshine all of the other passive perks. I don’t think this would be a problem if these were permanent upgrades that you unlocked by progressing. Because then it would let the passive perks shine. Instead all of the passive perks are outshined by… The ability to jump twice. And the ability to double jump hurts the level design, because without it, the level design feels waaaaay more unforgiving than before. And additionally the game’s controls feel so wrong without a double jump. Like genuinely, the platforming feels way worse without the safety that a double jump grants the player. If the perk weren’t here at all we wouldn’t even be talking about this. But because it is, it genuinely confuses me as to why it’s implemented like it currently is.

I recommend this game if you’re a fan of retro 2D platformers, or 2D platformers in general. I think there’s a lot to love here if that’s your cup of tea. But if you’re not a fan of the genre, I think it’ll be a tough sell for you. But honestly, for its price tag, I think it’s still worth a shot. Especially if it interests you from the get-go like it did for me.

4/5 Great! But it has some problems.

This is the best single player roguelite game I’ve ever played in my life. And if you’ve never played one before, you should play Hades right away. But if you’re a fan of the genre and you’ve never played it before? Then what are you waiting for exactly?

If you’re still looking for a reason to pick it up then here’s a few.

The best part about Hades for me personally is losing… Yes I’m serious. Losing in Hades doesn’t hurt like other roguelites or roguelikes. In basically every other game within the “rogue” genre I’ve ever played, losing a good run is always the worst part of playing. It makes me very frustrated when I lose runs in roguelikes/lites because it usually means I just… start over. But Hades doesn’t let runs end for nothing. Hades always gives the player something to do after a run has been lost or completed. Such as upgrading your character, picking new weapons and build options, and most importantly interacting with characters.

The Characters in Hades are the best part of playing the game. During a run you’re interacting with the game’s colorful cast, from olympian gods to lowly punished souls. And when you die? You get to interact and get to know more characters. The bonds that you forge throughout your many runs of Hades make you feel like you’re progressing [i]narratively[/i] as well as progressing physically. So as you improve in your gameplay, you’re also growing closer to the world and its inhabitants. So even when you lose a run you don’t feel like you want to quit, because there are forces within the game encouraging you, interacting with you, or in some cases scolding you for failing or doing something wrong. But it always feels alive, which makes your runs feel alive

Also, the gameplay is just genuinely fun. It’s a hack and slash roguelite where you beat the crap out of things. It’s satisfying to get good at, I mean take it from me. I spent almost 100 hours getting good at it. There’s a good amount of build variety and a lot of fun customization options to try out. It makes replaying again, and again actually fun.

The soundtrack is really good. Just actually banging. The best way I can describe it is “Greek Medieval Metal”? You just have to hear it to enjoy it if I’m honest. Darren Korb is a goat, and his music proves it.

This game is fantastic, even if you just play till your first win and put it down. Or you spend tens or hundreds of hours playing it. It is amazing. And truly one of my favorites of all time.

(5/5)

At the end of the game (I’m not spoiling anything I promise) there’s a message that asks the player “How did this game make you feel?” And my only answer is… content. I didn’t need this game’s message about the nature of death or anything like that. Nor did it change my life. It just made me feel really content. Which is something I really appreciate. And it also has a really fun combat system. The combat of Everhood was truly one of a kind, it’s simple in its idea, but its execution is very complex. It leads to very interesting battles that I was always invested in. In short if the combat looks fun to you. You’ll like it… probably.

The only objective problem I had with the game was the amount of flashing lights which almost made me refund the game. Thankfully there are ways to mitigate this, there are settings to adjust to make this less of an issue. A more subjective problem is that the replay value that this game offers isn’t necessarily something I enjoy. Lots of “Do this fight but without getting hit” and stuff. Those sorts of things don’t personally interest me.

BUT DON’T LET MY FEW NEGATIVES DETRACT YOU FROM BUYING THIS ONE

Everhood is a delightful game that made me feel content with its story and the role that I played in it and… Maybe it made me feel a little content with myself too.

It’s worth your time. I promise you. 4.5/5

As someone who is a fan of Jet Set Radio and as someone who has been following the development of this one since its announcement. I’m really happy to say that this game is really good. Not perfect, god no. But definitely a worthy successor to Jet Set Radio. And it also stands as a pretty great game on its own. But it also has a lot it does right and wrong. With so many good and bad things at play here I decided to make a pros and cons list. So if you’re unsure if you’ll like this one, here’s what you need to know.

+ Controls are wonderful +
Wayyyyyy better than Jet Set Radio’s controls. They’re a lot more snappy and responsive in general, and the moveset is a lot more diverse. The movement isn’t just about getting to your destination. It’s about doing it with style and it was easily the highlight of the game for me. You know it’s good when I went out of my way during the story to pause and just mess around with the trick system. It’s loads of fun. I would say that just because of how fun the trick system can be in this game. It might be a good reason to pick it up.

+ The Graphical Style is Spot on +
There’s this sweet spot when it comes to games that replicate a certain retro style. That sweet spot is where the graphics capture the style that they’re trying to replicate without sacrificing the graphical capability of the game. Basically “making the game look like garbage because the old game looked like garbage”. Thankfully BRC uses the artstyle to its benefit, nothing ever looks undercooked or bad. It’s all genuinely eye candy and I love it. I mean some of the character designs are bad. But there are more wins than losses in my opinion.

+ The Story is Serviceable +
While I didn’t adore the story, I definitely liked it more than JSR’s story which was really just a means to an end of going from level to level. BRC cares a lot more about getting the player invested in the story and what they’re actually doing within it. And I really appreciated that. The best word I can use to describe the story is “Serviceable” because it does its job with no real problems.

+ Map Design is mostly good -
I’m very conflicted with the map design in this game. I’m more positive than negative about it. Like… Do I like how the maps look aesthetically? Yes. Do I like how the maps play? For the most part, yes. Did I have a good time exploring the maps up and down for secrets and getting large combos on them? Yes. My major gripe with the map design really just comes down to missed potential. Like all the maps are interconnected via loading screens, but there’s no unity between them. It feels really bizarre to have all these maps that are really cool, yet nothing to unite them. I feel like there was a slightly missed opportunity to make this a semi-open world. Where all of the maps are interconnected. Though I guess that’s more unrealistic expectations rather than actual critique. But I feel like there is something to be said about the maps being fun and serving their purpose. But not fitting together as an entire world.

Speaking of missed potential a lot of my issues with BRC came down to missed potential. That and also weirdly anti player design in certain parts. I’m going to go through my complaints from least to worst

- Weird Anti Player Mechanics/Various small gripes -
I’ll just kinda rattle these off here because these are weird things that wouldn’t be surprising if they were patched out in the future.
-Fast Travel sucks and is very rarely convenient. More spots would be nice.
-You can’t change your character at your “homebase” but you can change your ride style (Skates, Skateboard, BMX). So that means if you want to swap your character and your style you have to make multiple trips for something that should just be one trip. It’s silly.
-You have to enter an outhouse to get the police counter to reset and you can only do this once per police encounter. Which is fine until you consider that you can’t change character while Police are active. And you wouldn’t think that this would come up as much as you’d think. But you’d be wrong.
-Some of the character designs are god awful. The ones I’m talking about are playable characters. Giving you no incentive to go out of your way to unlock them.
Most of this can be patched and I hope it does.


- The Combat is embarrassingly undeveloped -
While this isn’t exactly a huge issue. It’s something that was slightly disappointing. Combat in BRC is incredibly disappointing. Fighting officers and armed guards literally amounts to pressing one of three buttons and slapping them around like a wet noodle until they die. Before another one quickly respawns and takes their place. Considering how fun the trick system is. It confuses me how this slipped through without any TLC. Like no combos? Nothing at all? This makes things like the police really trivial because you don’t even want to fight them. Rather just run away from them like obstacles. Like the combat doesn’t need to be there. They could’ve just done what JSR did and tie it to graffiti. So if you’re going to change it, then why execute it so poorly?

This one is going to surprise some people or make them very mad. So please take this with a grain of salt. As this is definitely a personal gripe.

- The Soundtrack is good… But it gets really repetitive -
This comes down to 2 things 1. The song selection and 2. The song implementation. The song selection is good! But it’s shallow compared to JSR. There's not a lot of songs that are wildly different from the rest. It’s kinda all hip hop, new wave, techno, stuff you’d expect if someone was like. “I need a good OST for a skating game”. And boom there’s your OST. There are absolutely standout tracks. (I Wanna Kno, Funk Express, Next To Me, and all of Hideki Naganuma’s stuff were my personal faves and get a high recommendation). But the tracks didn’t vary wildly from each other. Not a bad thing, until you hear how they’re implemented. The simplest explanation I can give is that you can’t pick the music from the start. Instead each chapter the game plays a mix for that respective chapter. This mix usually has about 4 songs in it and goes on for about 10+ minutes before it loops back to the beginning. And that’s it. So basically each chapter which goes on for about 2 hours or so. Has about 10 minutes of music on loop. And it can get tiring. ESPECIALLY if there’s 1 or more songs in the mixtape you don’t like. Good LORD does that suck. Every Chapter had at least 1 song I didn’t like or was indifferent to. Again not awful, but it’s the amount that it’s overplayed is the problem. It just made my dislike of some of these tracks even stronger. Some of these songs are just straight oversampled garbage. And it got really bad by the end of my playthrough. Even songs I liked were starting to get old by the end like JACK DA FUNK and Next to Me. Now you can play songs individually by finding their respective hidden music tracks around the world. Now that’s neat and all but… It’s really annoying when you just want to listen to something else besides the mix for that chapter and you FINALLY find a music disk. Only for it to be “precious things” and you suddenly want to die. And even when you do gather a large amount of disks it basically just becomes a glorified sound test. With no feature to shuffle or skip. The way the music was implemented felt very anti player? It was really strange, and it ended up hurting my enjoyment of the OST as a whole. (Small detail but when you beat the game the same mix places every time you enter a new area and it gets really frustrating really quick. Because it will cut off whatever song you’re listening to.)

- Price to Gameplay -
This one is definitely the only concern that isn’t “personal preference”. The game is really short for its $40 price tag. Just to get through the story it’s 9 hours, which is (by my personal playtime record) only a little bit longer than the original jet set radio. My personal playtime was a little over 17 hours and that’s because I went for basically everything. All achievements, characters, all except for every costume and music. Which would’ve only added an hour or 2 of grinding. So I’d say I did all of the meaningful content in the game. While no, I don’t feel like I wasted my money or anything. I had a great time with BRC. But if I hadn’t waited so long for this game $40 would be a lot more to pay. And for such a small amount of content, It’s a little disappointing. Again, it’s a great game. But like… $40? That’s a lot for what you’re getting. Even $30 I think would've been acceptable. But $40 feels a little steep for this game. Even if it is a fun experience.

But even though I have problems with the game, it doesn’t mean I hated it. In fact I quite liked the game all considering. It definitely lived up to its hype and I don’t feel let down or disappointed. Do I feel like there is missed potential? Yes, but that’s what sequels and patches are for. I loved my time with this one even if it has flaws.

4/5 I still recommend it, regardless of its flaws.

No jokes, no bits, this is genuinely one of the best and most well crafted games I’ve played in my entire life. If you’re wondering if this game is worth your time, then this is your sign. This game is worth both your time and money. If you’re a fan of platformers, this is worth your time. If you’re not a fan of the genre. I think it’s still worth it because it’s a great experience to have. It’s not too long, only about 6 hours to get through the game’s content. And those 6 hours are incredibly entertaining as a casual experience. Worth the money, and time. It has an amazing soundtrack, funny visuals, one of a kind level design that never gets repetitive or old. All of the elements come together to make a platformer that both stands as a great casual experience and a blast to 100% complete. This game is wonderfully executed in every single department. It literally doesn’t miss. Especially in the gameplay. It’s fast, it’s fun, it’s hard to learn and master. But once you understand it. It’s hard to put down. Like every single element of this game works together perfectly. We’re out here creating the video game equivalent of Exodia the forbidden one… LIKE WHY AREN’T YOU ALREADY PLAYING THIS GAME?

You should play Pizza Tower. The question isn’t if it’s worth your time. Because it is, no question. The question is… Are you good enough to out-pizza the tower? Because as someone who has out-pizzed the tower. Doing so is one of the most fun and addicting gaming experiences in my life.

5/5 mamma mia

This game feels like a game design smoothie to me… Okay hear me out. It’s sorta like Hyper Light Drifter in its art style and world design. But it lacks the interesting combat and intrigue that its world had. It’s has light survival horror elements but that definitely should be taken with a grain of salt. Because these elements felt less and less present as the game went on. It has a world that feels like hollow knight’s world. But with less intrigue to dig deeper or lore that makes you ask questions about the nature of your quest. And it feels kinda souls-y? But without most of the depth that souls-likes bring. Not to say that this game is trying to blatantly copy other games. It definitely has its own identity and has plenty to enjoy. But throughout my playthrough I found myself drawing a lot of comparisons to other games. And finding that other games accomplished some of the ideas at play here a little better. Not saying anything was abysmally executed. Far from it. It’s just that there’s a lot to love. And a lot to be indifferent about.

But starting out with negatives doesn’t really do this game justice. Because there’s a lot to like on display here. The artstyle is definitely the thing that I enjoy most. Everything from you to monsters is shaded with blacks. And it’s only offset by vibrant colors in the background and on the sprites. It’s a super neat style that I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game do. The pixel art is beautiful. It makes the game feel really alive and lived in, by townspeople and aliens alike. And the soundtrack, while not outstanding, always fit the mood super well. And set up every area to be its own thing, and to have its own identity. If you choose to pick this one up because of its artstyle. You will not be disappointed. However the game’s other elements I find a little bit lacking. The combat is very simple and not super interesting. You get a melee option and a ranged option. You can find different weapons throughout the world so there’s variety at least. But the enemies aren’t satisfying to beat. The weapons aren’t satisfying to use. It’s very… bland… And the game is super short. Now this isn’t too big of a problem on the surface. But the fact that I beat it in a little under 4 hours and have no reason to jump into “new game plus” is a problem. There’s little reason to replay the game. The only thing that wasn’t accessible was a few weapons. Which didn’t bring me back in because the combat was very lacking. And while the adventure itself was fun for one playthrough. I have 0 interest in going back to this one unfortunately. So for $20 you’re getting about 4 hours of game time. With not very much replay value, which is a shame.

The price tag is my biggest holdback but I don’t dislike the game as a whole. It’s a fine, very pretty, and challenging souls-like with a neat world and awesome artstyle. I paid $16 for this one but I’d wait for it to go for a little cheaper. $10? $12? Something in that ballpark. But I can still recommend it, because I enjoyed my time with it despite its flaws.

3.5/5

Metal Gear Rising is basically like those educational videos you see on Tik Tok with the subway surfers video slapped below them. But Instead of education videos it’s war politics. And instead of the subway surfers it’s buff cyborg men beating the crap out of each other. And you know what? It’s great.

But not a masterpiece. But I also don’t think it’s overhyped either, not by any means. The plot alone makes the hype I’ve heard about it worth it. But I definitely wouldn’t call the game perfect because it has a few flaws. My biggest one is that the combat itself isn’t super deep. Like it’s not bad for ‘Hack and Slash’ standards. But I’m not really itching to jump back into combat or anything. It can get a little repetitive at times, with enemy gauntlets that are just made up of standard enemies and a few interesting baddies here and there. I think you were supposed to use stealth to get by them. Because I got an achievement for beating the game by getting noticed a lot. But come on. I don’t play games like this to put on a cardboard box and be patient. I play them to beat the crap out of things! So maybe take my complaints with the combat with a grain of salt. But overall it does its job and it can be very fun when the game puts itself into a position to let the combat thrive. Some of those times are the boss fights which are all a treat. They’re all bombastic, memorable and super fun. I can only think of one I didn’t like. And that was because I couldn’t quite grasp the mechanics behind it for a while. But if I only disliked one among a cast of 7 bosses. That’s a pretty good score all considering. And the boss fights led to those moments being the highlights of the game. Besides the ‘plot moments’ and I’ll get to that. But these bosses are accompanied by their own respective tracks. And WOOOOO BOY. The soundtrack really lends to the amount of fun I had with the bosses. It’s hard to understate how awesome beating things up to music is. And any game that pulls it off well deserves praise for it. One small thing I’m not a huge fan of is the game’s length. Like it’s supposed to be replayed, I get that. But my playthrough only took 5+ hours. And I didn’t really find a reason to go back through it. There are other weapon options but… You’re still fighting the same enemies on the same levels. To me that’s not much replay value. Not to complain and say that my time overall was wasted. The game does plenty for its runtime BELIEVE ME. But idk I wish it had a little more replayability than what’s on offer.

Personally though the smoking gun for this game for me was the plot. I mean, christ almighty what is even going on here. MGR tries to be a political commentary about war but in the least subtle way possible. Like the game is basically beating you over the head with “WAR IS BAD GUYS KILLING IS WRONG UNLESS YOUR RAIDEN WHICH IT’S OKAY I GUESS” constantly. Basically, the characters will just say their motivations while beating the crap out of each other. “YOU CAN’T JUST MAKE YOUR CHARACTERS SAY HOW THEY FEEL THAT MAKES ME ANGRY” I hear you say. But this leads to the funniest, most serious, not played for jokes game. That you can’t help but laugh at. In my opinion the game doesn’t fail at delivering its message. Like I can see what they were going for. But it doesn’t really get me to listen. I’m laughing more at how insane it all is if anything. And how the game doesn’t at any point acknowledge how insane its tone really is. This works for the games benefit mostly but… I can’t really say a game has a good story if I’m not interested in it for the right reasons. If that makes any sense.

But do I recommend this game? Yes. Screw the rating I’m about to give it. If you haven’t played this game. Do it. Especially if you don’t know what to expect. That makes it even better. But speaking objectively this is a fun hack and slash. That can get a little repetitive.

But this game should remain as an object lesson. Let more insane people direct games. Cuz then you get stuff like this.

(4/5)

When it came time to put a score on Majora's Mask I struggled a lot. Because I genuinely believe it’s a 5/5 game. But it’s not absolutely perfect game. I’d be lying if I said that absolutely everything in this game is perfect. But… This is one of my favorite Zelda games in the series. Not my absolute favorite, but man it’s up there. This is one of the Zelda games that truly stands in an aesthetic league of its own. I have a hard time talking about it as a whole because… It’s incredibly special to me. The thing that makes Majora’s mask unique is the time system. Which was easily the part I loved the most coming back to this one. I haven’t played this one in like 7 years? And when I played it back then I hated the time system. It stressed me out so badly that it made me sit in front of a walkthrough the whole time just so I wouldn’t panic. But this time around I found the time system super fun. What it accomplishes is using more with less. Less dungeons? That’s fine. Less time to do them. But that’s not to say that the game overall is less. Or even that the Dungeons are lesser than other Zelda dungeons. Because everything in Majora’s mask is so tightly packed. There’s a point to every room and a spot for everything. And all within the game is tied together via a giant moon that’s going to kill you! It’s a wonderful time. The reason this is a 5/5 is because I love this game’s execution. The vibe, the writing, the themes, the gameplay. It amounts to a great adventure and I believe it stands on its own. And stands as one of the best in the Zelda pantheon of games.

Not overhyped. But it hasn’t aged super well either. Personally I feel like this game shows it’s age after playing it for the first time, the combat especially. But what’s here is still a decent, if not flawed Metroidvania. Graphically I still think Super Metroid holds up. It has a fantastic art style which I love. And there’s a reason that people copy it now. It’s because it fits, and it’s very versatile in its application. Leading to areas matching a feeling of alien caves to machine fortresses. The graphics hold up super well looking back on this game. And the music too, it really helps set the mood of each area. But tracks like the boss music? Not as good. I really only tended to enjoy the ambient tracks, which are both calm and full of life. Rather than the more intense tracks. Which always comes off as cheesy sci-fi background stuff. However the thing that I think holds up the worst in this game is the combat. Jeez dude, if you’re someone who likes combat in your adventure games like I do then you’ll be very frustrated with this one. Dodging attacks is guesswork, hitting shots doesn't feel satisfying. The combat is so weak and it made the bosses feel less like challenges and more like… Flesh walls? Yeah, sure. I’ll go with that. Just something you fire rockets into over and over until they die. It’s extremely boring. I don’t think combat was the overall focus though. Most of the abilities are based around platforming and puzzle solving, which is fine. But the problem is the controls of the platforming abilities have aged like milk. The grappling hook is difficult to use because of how the screen scrolls, and the space jump feels so unresponsive. It’s like I’m trying to tell someone else to jump for me. Leading to both the combat controls and the platforming controls to all be… Bad. Just kinda bad. And it makes a large majority of the game feel bad too.

If I’m thinking about the experience overall. Most of the individual parts of this game just don’t work for me… I mean I respect the game as a whole and what it did for metroidvanias and adventure games as a whole. But taking and comparing it to what’s out today? There are better metroidvanias out to play nowadays. Now I’m all for judging games based on what they did back then instead of comparing them vs what can be played now. But personally I don’t think old games get free passes for being amazing just because of when they came out. And because I’m choosing to judge this one based on what I’ve played now… I can only recommend this one if you want to experience a game that helped start the metroidvania genre.

3/5

This is the first Metroid game I finished from beginning to end. And I really enjoyed my time with it. It has some flaws that hurt the experience in my opinion. But if you’re a fan of adventure games or Metroidvanias as a whole, then you’ll definitely love your time with it. Hands down my favorite part was the way combat flows. Samus herself controls great. Combat is fun and switching to different things in samus’ arsenal felt really fast. Allowing for platforming and combat to flow incredibly well. The flow of combat made the bosses feel really fun to fight against. All the bosses had parry windows and weaknesses that lead to interactive cutscenes where you get to keep attacking the boss. And that made the bosses an absolute joy to fight. My only small problem is that the bosses did feel a little bit like trial and error. But that wasn’t the end of the world for me, and they never went out of the way with the difficulty so I didn’t mind. Dread looks really good in the graphics department too. The 3D graphics in a 2D perspective worked really well. Allowing the game to still look great without sacrificing the series 2D identity. Also it ran incredibly well, like I only experienced 1 frame drop in the whole game. And based on modern Nintendo standards a game that both performs and looks good graphically should be praised.

My 2 main issues with dread are with its world design, and story. I’ll start with the story because my problem with it was how simple it was. It just didn’t do anything captivating. It was just like: “here is bad guy, escape bad guy, here is why bad guy do bad thing, here's a lame twist, fight bad guy, beat bad guy”. And then the credits roll… To be fair, it didn’t ruin the experience. I wasn’t really playing the game for the story, I was in it for the gameplay. But I wished it had a lot more substance to it. And secondly I felt the world design was slightly too linear. Maybe it’s just me but there wasn’t really incentive to backtrack with new abilities. Unless you like more missiles and health tanks. There isn’t much reason to go back. The game signposts very clearly where to go at most times making exploring not as fun as other Metroidvanias. Like Hollow Knight. Which is really my only other comparison, but I feel like it works here.

But my issues with dread were very small. And the game as a whole works super well. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

4/5

If I’m being completely honest I didn’t think that I would enjoy New Vegas as much as I thought I would. The way I imagined things would be that I would start the game and just… stop playing it as I got bored of the game’s content. But New Vegas ended up being one of the most well put together games I’ve played in awhile. Which is kind of insane considering it came out over 13 years ago. Like, it makes other RPGs look embarrassing when you compare them to New Vegas.

I think 3 things really make New Vegas work. Options, intrigue, and believability. New Vegas’ options start from the moment you start creating your character. There is a ton of variety to the way you build your character, from skills which are all useful, to perks which can range from convenient assistants to literal game changers. The game's options continue in the best ways possible. With the story progressing based upon which factions you decide to help and which ones you choose to screw over. It’s not just the main quest that lets you have freedom though. Basically every quest lets you go about completing it in more than one way. These different ways are dependent on what skills you choose to level up and how you want the quest to go. The quests in this game are really refreshing. They aren’t all “go here and grab this thing for me” and when the game uses more straightforward quests they’re all treated with nuance. Never once did I want to skip a quest, I always wanted to see how it ended. This is because the whole game is just incredibly intriguing to explore and experience. Not only does it set up an amazing post apocalypse world. But it does so in a believable way to where I could see people doing the things that they do in this world. But the game also doesn’t take itself too seriously, it lets itself have fun with some of the factions and locations. While still letting those factions have interesting motives, and letting the locations you explore have a compelling story to tell. On the note of the factions… Man, they work so well. Most games would only have a good faction and a bad faction to pick from. And siding with those factions would amount to only the “good” choice or the “bad” choice. But New Vegas creates factions that are all morally grey, not in the way that none of them have believable or supportable motives, but in the way that all of them have goods and bads. It’s hard to make a decision on who to side with during the main story because every option has its positives and negatives. Even the sides that are supposed to be good have downsides. And you can hear about how the world perceives these factions based on the NPC, and companions that you meet throughout the story. Letting you in on how the world as a whole feels about the factions. Allowing for your choices to have a greater weight on the world as a whole, driving a greater feeling of immersion.

The combat is basic but incredibly satisfying to get good at, it has a lot of variety in weapons and options. It’s not the craziest combat system in the world, far from it. But every fight I encountered was fun, so it never really reached a point of being excessive or annoying. There are systems in the game that help the combat stay fun. Like V.A.T.S which lets you target specific limbs on enemies. This also shows a slow motion replay of the action you just took. And lemme tell you nothing makes combat more fun than blasting someone’s head off with a 50. Cal in slow motion like you’re John Wick. And finally the soundtrack was one of my favorite parts. The game has a built in radio system which allows you to listen to in-game radio stations. Not only does it play crooner classics straight from the 40s-50s but the show it hosted by Mr New Vegas who gives tips on where the player can look for quests. It’s one of the most fun ways of implementing a soundtrack in any game I’ve ever played. And the music selection is absolutely impeccable. (maybe not johnny guitar but whatever)

Fallout New Vegas is one of the best RPGs I’ve ever played. Definitely made my spurs go jingle jangle jingle. And if you decide to bring some mods along the way, well that’s up to you.

An easy 5/5

And as a bonus I’m gonna quickly rank the DLCs. They’re all worth getting because they add more content to an already great game. But here’s my personal ranking.

Dead Money 2.5/5 If I see another bear trap I swear to god
Honest Hearts 3.5/5 Oh boy I love the systematic killing of minorities! Oh and Joshua Graham is cool too.
Old World Blues 4.5/5 Better than a lobotomy most days
Lonesome Road 4/5 LIKE A DRIFTER I WAS BORN TO WALK ALONE!... Yeah it’s a good conclusion to the DLC

Hi-Fi Rush isn’t a 10/10 masterpiece but it is genuinely a really great game. Easily the best I’ve played this year. It has some shortcomings in the performance and gameplay department. But it isn’t everyday that you see a game that just tries to be fun first, and not get weighed down by the problems that plague modern game development. Because Hi-Fi Rush’s biggest strength is that… It’s just a great game. It tries to be fun and unique as its main goal. And sticks to that vision throughout the whole experience. The game combines both high speed action and the precision and flow of a rhythm game. The combination of these 2 ideas seems like on paper that they would be at odds. But thankfully they work together in a wonderful way. The action mechanics perfectly compliment the rhythm ones. And it creates a combat system that feels fresh yet familiar. Adding extra mechanics to the mix such as partners to call as well as a parry and dodge system. You get an amazing battle system that was always a treat to fight in effectively. And as someone who frankly sucks at rhythm games, the skills that you need to play aren’t anything that can’t be learned in a matter of a few stages. Plus there are many forms of assistants that the game gives you that can help those who struggle with keeping rhythm. My only issue on the gameplay front is that… While the game wants you to respect the rhythm based battles and be as creative as possible. It doesn’t punish you for not using the rhythm mechanics. That was slightly an issue for me while I was playing. Because using the rhythm mechanics makes battles more fun, makes the battles flow better and move quicker. I just wish the game encouraged you to use them more on lower difficulties. On higher difficulties the game pushes you to use them a lot more. But on my first playthrough of Hard I didn’t feel like I had to use the rhythm mechanics. I chose to use them more because they were fun. So you really have to respect the game’s mechanics in order to have fun. And if that isn’t your thing you probably wouldn’t like combat in this one. Or you could turn up the difficulty. Because on Very Hard and higher the game very heavily pushes you to learn the mechanics. One other small gripe I had was the lack of bosses. There’s this huge chunk of the game where you just… Don’t fight any traditional bosses. And it’s super bizarre. But it’s not a huge issue because what bosses you do fight are a real treat. But the strange lack of bosses really puzzles me. Other than those small gameplay problems, the rest is genuinely incredible. The game looks stunning and vibrant throughout. Going for a comic book-like aesthetic that uses cell shading. I think it looks stellar… Though I am slightly biased cuz I love cell shaded games to death. The writing is really entertaining. It genuinely got some great laughs out of me and it was super enjoyable the whole way through. Some people may find it a little childish but I had a good time with it. The game sets up a really loveable cast that interact really well together. The soundtrack is really good, and it really makes the rhythm side of the game work. They even licensed some songs for it and it really helped highlight key moments. And it also introduced me to some absolute banggers, so I appreciate it for doing that. I did have an issue with this game’s performance but this will vary from person to person. At first it was small. Sometimes when I would boot up the game it would crash. Not that big of a deal. But after I beat the game and opened it up the next day the game experienced a fatal crash and I lost all of my progress because my save was corrupted. This didn’t hinder my review too much, this is mostly just a warning to everyone to back up your save… It was a major bummer to lose all my progress because there was a ton of post game stuff that I was really excited to check out. But I’m sure I’ll replay this one soon so it didn’t affect me too much.

Even with my small issues I loved Hi-Fi Rush. It was a great game with a pretty art style. Not a perfect life changing experience but it’s a really fun time. Definitely worth your time.

4.5/5