FIFA for the chronically silly. It's a bright new day for Mario and friends but they're being real smug about it. Charged has just enough to be considered good and, shit, it's missing a stray gamemode with excellent replayability as the condiment, because the ingredients are all there and far from the expiration date to boot. Better take yo sensitive ass back to FIFA if you can't handle big Luigi stepping on you.

Good enough transition (Birdo reference) to touch upon power ups. In Mario Kart fashion, Strikers has leftover stock for the silly goobers to use. If only a few of them, but that's not all! You have this "megastrike" as the kids say. It's the ultimate fuck you, and the key to victory if your opponent's wii remote is broken. I know I be eating some balls when the CPU thinks he confortable with me. I could have eaten a player's balls but the people I asked to play with me weren't available. Maybe my wording was not convincing enough, what do we know.

I'm obsessed with that Bowser stage in space. Those stages look really rough. I'm talking aesthetic here, genuinely well done stadiums. The first Strikers had neat stadiums and all very classy but it's war Goku ain't no time for that 🤓 you're playing football on trashy waste garbagio and would dare tell me it's not a good game? I won't be fooled. Monty Mole and Petey Piranha also make this a not so boring cast. And the goalists. How did DK even convince K. Rool to lend his infantry? Now I wan't K. Rool megastrike 1440p.

Came for the twins, stayed for the Kingdom of Elgado!

Monster Hunter Rise is often compared to its very popular predecessor MH World and I don't think a comparison between those two games is fair, as it's really just a case of apples and oranges. For the sake of explaining it, I'll give a rundown of the differences between the two entries though.

First of all, this game was designed for the Nintendo Switch in mind. Given the portable nature of this hybrid console, Rise streamlined the gameplay loop a fair bit in order to make it more accessible to a pick-up-and-play gamestyle. This includes faster hunts, monsters being instantly shown on the minimap, increased traversal options with the Palamutes and the ability to pause the game anytime when you're not playing with others - a very nice feature to have (which was missing in World)! As a tradeoff, it doesn't have the expansive ecosystem or the tracking of monster footprints from World, so it's less immersive in that regard. But those gameplay changes aren't necessarily bad, they're just different. I for one appreciate the fast-paced and direct nature of Rise; it's a welcome change after spending hundreds of hours with the slower gameplay of World. Rise's combat specialises in the usage of the wirebugs, they serve as a mechanic to either perform special skills (similar to the ones in Generations) or can be used for easy movement as a grappling hook. Getting used to these little fellas can feel weird at first, but once you know your way around them they're just a ton of fun to use and can totally change the way you approach certain monsters. As an example, the flagship monster Magnamalo inflicts a special debuff that can only be cleansed through wirebug usage, so you need to keep the bar in mind and use the dash whenever you want to cure the ailment. Alongside Magnamalo, most of the other newcomers in Rise are great to fight aswell! Goss Harag is probably my favorite new addition, love his Yeti-inspired design and the fight in general. Looking forward to many great fights in Sunbreak too!

The Village quests ease you fairly well into the game, even though the first set of ranks were quite boring for someone acquainted with the franchise. Still a good introduction for new hunters and even allows you to skip the entire Low Rank of the Hub quests. Speaking of the Gathering Hub, it's rather... desolate these days on the PC port. Atleast there's the Better Matchmaking mod, which removes the Region Lock and helps you find matches a bit faster, but having to rely on a mod for something as basic as worldwide play is quite a bummer. Note that this is not an issue with the original version of the game on Switch and was only added to the PC port for some strange reason, so the game itself can't really be blamed for this. Another cool mod I can recommend is RiseTweaks for removing the framerate cap on cutscenes - another thing that should have been in the PC port from the start! Anyways, finding multiplayer matches over join requests isn't that hard for key quests (good luck finding a partner for event quests on PC though) and you should be able to reach Master Rank in no time. I can't really comment on the Master Rank content yet, as I just started Sunbreak yesterday, but it's pretty amazing so far!

My final thoughts? Rise is another wonderful Monster Hunter game and I had a great time with the base game on PC despite the aforementioned strange issues with the port. Liked it so much that I got the Sunbreak bundle on Switch as well, so make of that what you will. I think you'll get a great experience on any platform, just pick between the eye candy version (PC) or the one with the thriving playerbase (Switch). Can't go wrong here!

This happened to my buddy Christian. He defended himself wielding one of the clerks. I actually have an history with the IKEA business myself. Our class went through hoops to convince people that a class trip to IKEA would be a great educational experience. We will be going on March 20th and I will not keep yall updated.

Steam calls this game "massive" -ly multiplayer but hardly anything about this game is massive. Our days are numbered and we spend those last moments beefing with eachother, not a life worth living. Bold of the devs to make a matchmaking system when nobody gonna matchmake with nobody else. You familiarise yourself with the other players and it's endearing in a way, if nothing else. It be like learning about the staff by being a regular but this is about to be a bloodbath. I misremembered this as being between loyal customers but you are in the shoes of a minimum wage citizen, fellas.

I don't know where this takes place, if it was the USA every weapon would be a gun and the lack of alcohol crosses out half of the Europe. Oh well. You'd think "IKEA battle royale" would have turned more heads, but I guess this wasn't the case. Keep the fight for these goofy ahh games alive, my friends. More soldiers to join the ranks of shovelware down the line, we aren't the generation that starts to think about the welfare of the future ones for no reason!

After my October Horror games fest I did I had played this and my older brother happened to try to play it and fell in love with it just as I did. I was so excited to talk to someone else about it. Not long after we happened to find a Co-op mod someone had been working on which got us really hyped as I got to experience everything again with him together. This time instead of being a coward and running away getting Ending E we managed to conquer the second part of the game and get the "All Gods Ending". Such a unforgettable experience and the amount of lore this game has and how interesting it was made me love this even more. Even with two people with two separate parties this game still whooped us and is a relentless beast. The Co-op mod is a work in progress it seems as we ran into a few crashes that would be triggered in certain circumstances, but we were able to get through it to the very end together and so glad someone made this! After seeing some reviews and talks about Termina and coming across one of the creators saying how they will be making another one as well has me really excited and I may jump into Termina very very soon! Again, this series is surely not for everyone with its very bleak and dark tone with a lot of viewer discretion advised. Even so, I love this shit and if you are like me with a deep love for rpg/horror games then this will certainly be your new addiction.

There isn't a lot I can say that hasn't already been said, but as someone who loved the original I absolutely adore this version too.

Even the best remakes are usually pretty hit or miss, but this overall was fantastic. Especially the music, I don't think there's a single track that was worse than the original, everything is on par at least. The addition of a monster list and the scrapbook are greatly appreciated. There's a lot of new QOL stuff, like fast travel and being able to heal in the field. The cinematics look fantastic. All the characters and enemies look fantastic as well. The game is definitely a bit easier with the addition of triple attacks and splash damage, but fights can still get rough quick if you aren't prepared. There's also dedicated postgame content now which is definitely harder.

In short: you can tell the team had a lot of love for the original and whether you have or haven't played the original, this is still definitely worth a play!

It isn't Rewind Time...?

Mega Man 2 felt a lot better to play than the original game, but it also came with its own set of glaring issues. The new stages look pretty (for NES standards) and the toned down difficulty compared to MM1 definitely helped my enjoyment too, as I no longer had to rely on the Legacy Collection's rewind feature as much to progress through the game at a normal pace. However this is still a Mega Man game at its core, which means you can't just have a good time like that.

In the case of Mega Man 2, my main complaints come from two stages, two bosses and the insane amount of flashing lights thrown into your face whenever you beat a boss. Heat Man's stage revolves around a gimmick forcing you to guess where an invisible block will pop up next, causing you to proceed with trial and error until you eventually manage to land on such a block, just to repeat it over and over. Not a problem with the rewind feature as you can just "know" where the next block will pop up, but this was NOT the case for the players in 1989. A pretty frustrating trial-and-error experience in theory, even if it didn't affect me badly because of my ability to rewind. Next stage complaint, Quick Man's stage has a cool concept with the level closing in on you over time, so you're supposed to rush through the level. While it does sound cool at first, Capcom's vision for this idea were insta-kill lasers, so now instead of shifting the focus on the speed of the level, it's now all about how precise you're about to control through these lasers (and the timing for some of these falls are really relentless).

Okay, so these two stages have some trial-and-error, but did you know there are also actual roadblocks in Mega Man 2 if you don't meet certain conditions? I'm talking about the Stage 4 boss of Wily's Castle and the final phase of Wily himself. The boss on Stage 4 is a glorified puzzle, you need to use the Crash Bombs at specific locations in order to take down multiple turrets in the boss room. The thing is, if your Crash meter isn't full enough, you won't be able to beat this fight - every other weapon gets deflected from the turrets and some are guarded by walls. As for Wily in his final phase, for some reason he's completely immune to all weapons except Bubble Man's bubbles. Same issue as with the Stage 4 boss, if your meter is empty you can't win the fight. I feel really bad for everyone who played this back then, got to the final boss and couldn't beat him because of this laughable restriction.

Nonetheless I did have a somewhat good time with Mega Man 2, as most levels are big improvements over the ones in MM1 in terms of gameplay and design, but the aforementioned issues make it hard for me to give this game a higher score. Atleast I have heard many good things about Mega Man 3, so I'm looking forward to playing that one in the upcoming days!

It's raining. Storming. I hear the murmur of the rich elite. I can smell their perfume.

I’ve got my earpiece in. Auction house in sight.

I'm the case-man. My crew is backup.

Circling to the left of the house, unnoticed. There is a metal detector in front, after all.

An inside man has placed a ladder here. I can get onto the second floor without being spotted.

Mask up.

Inside the auction, I need to disable the alarms.

There are two boxes. I turn the corner and wait for the patrolling security to pass.

Snuck into the first room. Immediate bingo, I get to hacking. Everything is going smoothly.

Second box, I get greedy and try to get this over with. A guard is alerted to my presence.

My gun is silenced.

I answer his radio. "Nothing wrong here, control."

The vault is at the bottom floor. Not wanting to risk it, one of my gang will have to sneak in.

The loud sirens of panic fill the air as I forgot to tell my crew about the metal detector.

The loud sirens of… sirens fill the air as the metal detector go off.

Within 30 seconds, 1000 fully armed swats siege the building like zombies.

It's ok, I throw a molotov at my own feet and nearly burn to death. My speed increased.

With my speed my reflexes increase, I am capable of dodging every bullet shot my way whilst running through the halls.

I pull out my heavy duty LMG. It’s silenced. Has no recoil, perfect accuracy. One shot, one kill. Just as the weapon class suggests.

My friend has been drinking alcohol and is shooting up the office with a quad rocket launcher to defend the drill. Its done. He hacks the laptop.

A third crew member is holding out near the vault to keep it secure. Of course, he convinced 2 police officers to back him up in the middle of the firefight. Invaluable allies.

A bomb squad member comes into the room. He is carrying a minigun and tears my teammate to shreds. He is bleeding out.

Luckily I’m on the floor above him. I shout through the floor that he needs to get the fuck up. He does.

A second chance, he takes out the bomb squad member.

The vault is almost open. My friend in the office comes down to help us secure the loot.

A Ninja had been hiding in the shadows, drop-kicking my friend to the floor and beating him unconscious. In a blindfire he had shot 3 innocent partygoers. It would take us at least 1 minute to get him out of custody.

Me and my crewmate hold down the vault until the police decide to regroup. This is where our invaluable police-allies come in. We trade one of them to make up for the 500 we have killed. They release our friend, he is back in the fray with all his weapons reloaded.

We bag the loot. A black tablet holding the secrets to Mayan immortality.

Signal the chopper and fight our way through 200 more swat soldiers.

We made our escape.

Majora's Mask, a game created off re-used assets from Ocarina of Time, and in record time of less than two years. I really wonder how a masterpiece of the highest caliber such as this only took them such a short time to make.

Majora's Mask starts with Link on Epona going through a fog ridden forest searching for "a beloved and invaluable friend". Now who exactly this is, the game never specifies, but considering the subtle hint you get from a well placed sound effect, you can probably guess. We're not even past the introduction and this game is already making great use of small cues to give you information. We see two fairies of opposite colors appear to be watching Link stroll through the forest. All of a sudden they ambush Link by spooking Epona by bonking her, causing Link to fall off and go unconscious. We then meet our main antagonist of the game, Skull Kid. Skull Kid proceeds to loot off poor Link, and finds his Ocarina of Time, which he was entrusted with by Zelda as a parting gift when he left Hyrule. Link comes to, and gives a hilarious facial expression of disgust, Skull Kid is surprised and attempts to hide what he stole behind his back. Link lunges for him, but Skull Kid dodges him, steals Epona, and rides deeper into the forest, with Link giving chase.

This to me is one of the greatest openings to a game I've seen. In just a few minutes, we have our protagonist, his goals, our antagonist, what links them together through the theft of the Ocarina, and a good idea that Skull Kid is a trickster of sorts. These concepts are only further expanded upon later, especially with Skull Kid, Link doesn't exactly develop as usual, but literally every other character makes up for that. Another small, but amazing detail to mention, this particular Link is the same as Ocarina of Time, meaning he's time traveled and has been an adult already. It's never pointed out, but Link as young as he is, same age he started out as in Ocarina of Time, has the mind and skills of an adult. Acrobatic, proficient with the Hyrulian shield, something he couldn't even wield before in Ocarina of Time, as well as other tools and weapons we only saw adult Link capable of using. I love this detail so much, and they use all of its potential in this game so perfectly, this Link is runner up for my favorite besides Twilight Princess Link.

Now the actual story of Majora's Mask is unique for Zelda, but overall is just another point A to point B, complete these dungeons and find items to progress experience. If that's all the game had to offer, which it does not. Majora's Mask adds tons and tons of new additions and mechanics that really only show up in this game period. First, the big mechanic, the time system. Majora's Mask is a game that gives you a time limit, which is three in-game days, which is about fifty four minutes in real time. Each new cycle of the three days, everything resets, and Link will lose all of his consumable items and rupees upon resetting. Not only do you need to manage your time well, but so much of this game is time specific for certain things to happen, it really makes the land of Termina feel very alive and every person has their own schedules they conform to. It's even better that these people's disposition or location will change upon whether you decided to help them or not. Add onto the sheer pressure and anxiety you're given by having that clock on the bottom of your screen slowly tick away until your demise. The game does grant very relieving options to make it far less stressful, such as slowing down time considerably, giving you much more time to do things, as well as being far less punishing to getting to time-specific events. On top of this, if you're waiting around to finish a specific time specific quest, you can skip whole twelve hour intervals with the song of double time, cutting down a lot of just standing around and waiting, very thoughtful game design for the time mechanics here, really makes things a million times easier.

The other defining aspect of Majora's Mask are... well, the masks! Masks in Majora's Mask have all sorts of cool effects and gimmicks, which makes them all memorable and awesome to use. And there's plenty to find and use, but most of these masks are your rewards for the side quests. This is where Majora's Mask becomes a masterpiece, the side quests. Termina is filled with people who need your help, and it's all completely optional if you want to take the time to do so. Every single side quest in this game offers some of the most unique scenarios and gameplay I've ever seen in Zelda, even now. I don't want to spoil any of them, because all of them are so much fun. The best side quests though are the ones with characters who have the most unfortunate circumstances surrounding them. I can't go into detail, but there's some very tragic questlines here, and a lot of them hit me very deeply emotionally, since it all conforms and contributes to the already grim and rather depressing atmosphere Termina seems to have. Being able to help these people find peace before the end of the world, seeing how they deal with it, their resolution to it, it's inspiring, and it never strays from the themes, it's honestly perfect, there's absolutely nothing here that I find bad or wrong, or out of place.

Gameplay itself is fine-tuned perfectly from Ocarina of Time. Link controls great, as well as his transformations. Transforming itself is snappy with no load times in-between, which is astonishing to be honest. Link's arsenal of tools is the most expansive it's ever been, with masks and equipment this time, Link feels the most diverse and capable in Majora's Mask. It is always a blast to use every single one of these items as well, the dev team really got creative with what sort of stuff Link can do this time, and what he has. Combat feels great, and there's a ton of ways to approach fighting enemies, either from range, or get up-close and wail on them, it's up to your preference. Dungeon design is spectacular this time around, there's only four major dungeons, but they're all designed very thoughtfully and play into their themes great. But what's great about them is how unique their theming for Zelda specifically is, you'll never see anything like them again potentially, and that just makes them even more special. None of them feel too long or have puzzles too difficult to figure out, though do be careful when you enter these dungeons. That time limit is still going inside these dungeons, so make sure to set aside an entire cycle to tackle them, unless you're really confident. If you get to the boss room at just the last second, not to worry, just enter the boss room and reset. Once you return to the dungeon, there will be a glowing platform you can stand on to warp straight to the boss, such insightful game design for sure. There's plenty of minor dungeons to sink into as well, most of which are for side quests, however there are one or two you will need to do to progress the main story as well, and they're loads of fun to go through. That to me is what stands out the most, every time I replay a Zelda game, there's always that one dungeon or area you really dread doing, or don't want to do again. I don't feel that way at all about Majora's Mask, everything is fun to do, and nothing feels like a slog to go through for me either, and that's rare, and very commendable once again.

Graphics, somehow aged better than I ever would have expected. This game still holds up to me, the atmosphere of the game alone is so prevalent, and I find the older style to just enhance that feeling so much more. It's unsettling, it's got a much darker color palette than Ocarina of Time, and the areas you visit just continue to hammer home this concept. I will never look at Majora's Mask especially as a game that aged poorly, since that's literally what makes it so good in the first place. There's a certain uneasiness about old games, I mean just look at Super Mario 64 and all the horror stories and concepts that have come from that game alone, it's not a coincidence that Majora's Mask had the same thing happen. Unlike Majora's Mask though, Super Mario 64 doesn't intentionally try to give that impression. Majora's Mask does, and takes full advantage of it, yet another reason I find Majora's Mask to be a masterpiece.

Music, this is a big one. Majora's Mask has a beautiful soundtrack. Song of Healing is all I need to express how perfect this game's soundtrack is, but let's go further than that. Clocktown itself is a song that changes the further in the cycle you're in. The first day, Clocktown is pretty cheerful and calming, it's very catchy and has that great happy town mood you come to expect. Then the second day rolls in, and now it's almost an octane or two lower than before. Not only is this off-putting, but also reflects the current mentality of the people living in Clocktown. First day, no one seems to pay any mind to the coming catastrophe, but now people are starting to worry, taking it more seriously, and start leaving Clocktown. Then Day Three, dear lord, Day Three. The music goes from calm, to unsettling, to frantic and horrifying, the music speeds up in pace, telling you to hurry up and do what you got to do and reset. Once again reflecting the feelings everyone is probably having by now, they're scared, the fear of death is starting to settle in, and a lot of people have begun to even lose their minds, unable to handle their looming fate. And that's just one example of why Majora's Mask music is incredible to me. Dungeon music is also great, incorporating ambient sounds to the themes of the dungeons is brilliant, just like Ocarina of Time. Enhancing their setting and vibe tenfold. Thankfully, Majora's Mask has some genuinely calm and happy music as well, it's just a much rarer occurrence than any other Zelda game, so make sure to take a step back and relax to it when you can, because there's not much opportunity to do so. I always found myself stopping in my tracks to listen the music constantly, it catches your attention all the time, and I was so hypnotized every time, and I almost always felt some sort of emotion from each track in this game, sheer brilliance.

I have so much more to say, but I think I'll conclude my review here. I was honestly kind of worried tackling a game like Majora's Mask, since so many people including myself love this game, and I wanted to give it a review worthy of its stature. Still such a shame this game seems to still not get as much attention as it deserves, but I'll forever recommend and praise this game being one of my favorite experiences in my life. Not even as a game, or entertainment, just as a life experience, this game means so much to me, and always will. You can get Majora's Mask on Nintendo 64, and is on the Nintendo Switch through the Nintendo 64 game collection for Expansion Pass members. You can also get it on Wii U for a good price. You used to be able to get it on the Wii Shop Channel, but not anymore. Finally, the 3DS remake... oh boy, so I can't recommend this version of the game unfortunately, I played it myself, and thought it was... okay, I do think the enhanced graphics, new additions, and changes were for the worst, and ruined a lot about why Majora's Mask is such a good game. Do yourself a favor and play the original, but if you absolutely cannot stand the graphics or gameplay of the original for whatever reason, the 3DS version is fine. No matter what though, please experience this game for yourself, it truly is one of a kind.

Halo Reach is a special game to me. As a kid, I got an Xbox 360 far later than a lot of my friends in school. When I did get my Xbox, it came with two controllers, some Xbox Live memberships, and this game. I would spend hundreds of hours playing the campaign, firefight, and multiplayer with my friend every weekend until Halo 4 released.

I won't be writing a super long review for Halo Reach, but I enjoyed the campaign a lot. An amazing origin story for what would set in motion the rest of the series. Even if you know what the conclusion of the game is, and the fate that befalls the planet of Reach, the story does a great job at the theatrics of it all, making you want to fight tooth and nail for this world as Noble number six. I've completed the campaign on Heroic, and I'm by no means good enough to play on Legendary or even with skulls, but I played the campaign at least five times in my life, it's just solid fun.

Multiplayer is usually what I played the most as a kid, and I ended my Reach career right before they shut down the servers for it on the Xbox 360. I was a "Legend" by the time I finished, which is very high up, but not the highest. I would play every game mode you can think of for hours on end, my favorites being Team Slayer, SWAT, Big Team Battle, and especially Invasion. Started getting heavily into Griffball, Oddball, Infection, and Capture the Flag later on. I loved most maps this game had to offer, save for a few forge maps I thought were too small, or just boring. Highlights for me are definitely Swordbase, Countdown, Reflection, Boneyard, and Spire.

My favorite part of Reach was the progression though, constantly getting credits to level up and buy new armor in the store is a sort of magic I don't think Halo ever recreated again, and I really miss it. Seeing the small credit gains you get for every medal you earn in a match, the slot machine, and challenge completions was so satisfying. I always distinctly remember grinding an entire summer just to get the Inclement Weather armor effect, since I thought it was awesome and super unique to an FPS at the time. While I think some weapons introduced in this game aren't amazing, I loved the Sandbox of Reach. Armor abilities... not so much, since after going to Halo 3 shortly after reach due to Halo 4 just disappointing me, I realized that armor abilities, especially Armor Lock, kind of ruin the pace of gunfights to a crawl, and Sprint while controversial, I was pretty mixed on as a whole. Jetpack and Active Camo were whatever, and the dodge roll was super fun to use, and could remove plasma grenades off of you, so it was interesting, but still a tad overtuned. Overall though, I loved the game, and found it very addicting and engaging, bloom also really didn't bother me as much as it did others, which again, I understand coming from Halo 3.

The rest of what Reach offers I only dabbled in here and there, loved the sheer amount of options you had for Firefight and custom games though. I always remember getting into full lobbies just playing whatever the host had in their folders from browsing, and I'll fondly remember those days. Forge was the other big mode for me, since around this time I was also heavily into Minecraft. Forge was always a great time, my friend and I would always play fortress battles where we had thirty minutes or less to build a stronghold and then just play Capture the Flag. They're memories and moments I'll never forget, and that's why I love Halo Reach the most.

Certainly not as long as some of my other reviews, but my thoughts on Reach are very simple, and I don't really see it in the same lens as other games, but that's not a negative though. This was my introduction to Multiplayer First-Person-Shooters, and the start of my undying love for Halo as a franchise. I revisited and played every Halo game before just because of Reach, so I thank it for that. I'd love to hop back on this game on MCC in the future just for the nostalgia, and heard it was a good port now on PC, so that's nice to hear. I don't think this game is as good as Halo 3, but it's damn good, and has a lot that helps it stand out.

My first exposure to Bayonetta, as I'm sure is the case with many others, was through her addition to Super Smash Bros. on 3DS/Wii U. I was lucky enough to find a 360 copy of the game at GameStop very shortly after the fact, and I picked it up excitedly. Keep in mind, this was back in... 2016? I was a dumb little kid back then, with absolutely zero experience in the genre of hack n' slash. Yet I loved it! I absolutely loved the game back then, as awful as I was at it. Unfortunately, that love could only get me so far. Dumb child wheatie made it all the way up to Chapter XIV, before reaching an absolute barricade. I could not, for the life of me, manage to beat Jeanne that final time. A couple years later, I wound up selling that Xbox 360, to be replaced by a PS2 due to my growing interest in its absolutely stellar library.

It wouldn't be for another few years that I'd even learn the first Bayonetta was on PS4, and even then I was little skeptical after hearing the horror stories of the PS3 release. After some research, a bit of convincing, and the necessary funds to buy the game on sale in its 10 year anniversary bundle with Vanquish, I was once again in possession of Bayonetta... and then I put it off for another 2 years.

But hey! I finally did it! I managed to make my way through its entire campaign over half a decade later, and I'm glad to say I still enjoy it just as much as I did back then. Potential new record for the longest it's ever taken me to finish a game, if you don't count Wall-E for the DS.

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Bayonetta follow a very simple philosophy. If you don't get it, you will get fucked. Similar to the Devil May Cry series, it heavily encourages replay value not only through unlockable difficulties, but through absolutely brutal encounters, whether it be with regular enemies or actual boss fights. As weird as it sounds, I really like stuff like this. It might be the fighting gamer in me, but I love the feeling of improvement a substantial amount, and that's what games like Bayonetta want. What might seem like an impossible task thrust upon you in your weakest moments, can be turned into a remarkable turn of the tables with proper knowledge and adequate experience. Bayonetta achieves this fantastically, and knows how to make it feel even better.

yhea here she goes again Accompanied through each and every battle is some of—and I mean this—some of the greatest songs of any video game I've ever listened to. To the point where I cannot begin to describe it in any more words than beautiful. Even outside of battle, it holds one of my favorite tracks (combined with one of my favorite settings in general) in Rodin's otherworldly bar, The Gates of Hell. One of the few games I can happily include in my regular playlist, I just wish I could include more of it (i lub u fly me to the moon).

I do wish, more than anything though, that I could've gotten more into the boss fights. A very large majority of them tended to boil down to waiting for the big Angel Monster to throw down their hand, dodge, wail on them for a few seconds while they're slowed down until they pull back to repeat the process. It's why I can say I enjoyed all the Jeanne fights the most, since they were some of the only ones where I felt involved and active all the way through. To add to this, frankly too many times does Bayonetta include a short little cutscene in the middle of its boss fights, that are abruptly interrupted by a Quick Time Event that will 95% of the time catch you completely off guard, and kill you in an instant. While I did praise the game earlier for incentivising replays and improvement, it can still get a bit frustrating taking such a hit to your ranking not due to being bested in your fight, but simply by not having the split second reaction time that is asked of you so often.

It's still peak though. God, it's so peak. It was so fun playing those first 14 chapters again, reminiscing on everything I could still so vividly remember, even after all these years. While I wasn't the biggest fan of everything what came after, I still enjoyed every minute of this game at least a decent amount. If I wasn't already looking forward to its sequel, I would love to just do it all again in hard mode while it's still fresh on the mind. What a cool game. One of the greatest of its kind, and I've heard even better of the second.