When I played the Resident Evil 1 Remake I was so disappointed, the fixed camera and constant loading animations were such an obstacle to me as it made exploration that is usually seemless in the 3rd person games a complete chore and not worth my time, as well as the bizarre puzzles and almost everything so tedious that I had to follow a guide in order to complete it. This bad experience bled into my expectations for the other fixed-camera RE games, as I assumed that if I don't like the most recent fixed-camera game from the franchise then I certainly won't like any of the older ones either, and that whilst I can appreciate the ideas presented, they're not games I can willingly say I enjoy to play.

I really love the remake of RE2, so wanting to say I've at least tried it I went in expecting to feel the same as RE1, but didn't expect to really enjoy my time with it. However, I am both joyed and relieved to say this disdain for the old format has changed after playing the original Resident Evil 2. I can't really explain why I find this game better than RE1, it might be because I'm very already familiar with the general locations and puzzles in this game from playing the remake, and whilst they're hardly 1:1 recreations of each other, I think that once I get a key item that I recognised I could predict where I'd need to find more and where it needed to go. It's definitely also to do with the fact this game is a sequel, so everything in RE1 like: the convoluted puzzles; the need to constantly backtrack long distances; and the length being 5 hours shorter means the experience feels much tighter and not as difficult. Whatever my reason for liking the game doesn't particularly matter to me because the point is I had so much fun to the point where the tank controls weren't even a bother to me, and in my opinion that's all I want to come out with after playing an old game, just a fun time as if I was born during 1998.

I can confidently say that original Resident Evil 2 has been one of my favourite experiences in the franchise, and whilst I don't think it's as strong as the remake, everything here is so good and utilised much better than the first game that it's just a really strong game on its own and I look forward to replaying it in the future. I hope when I come to RE3: Nemesis I feel the same enjoyment as I did going from the Remake of 2 to the original despite all the changes to the Remake of 3, and that RE1 is just an oddity of a game which I unfortunately can't seem to get behind.

Way better than Mega Man 3. A lot of great ideas are present in this game, with the power-ups from the robot masters feeling more unique, and even the transport items being updated to being balloon and wire which wasn't a necessary but much appreciated change as makes them much more inspired. The boss fights were also made a lot better, as thankfully the only repeats this time being the robot masters, and the new ones being hard but still satisfying to beat.

Overall, Mega Man 4 was the game I was hoping it to be after Mega Man 3, as it cuts down a lot of what made that game feel bloated and instead provided a much more streamlined and consistent experience.

Mario Wonder is the game 2D Mario has been needing since the 90s, as every level is so joyously whimsical, and packed to the brim with creativity and charm that it's hard not to thoroughly enjoy yourself the whole way through. I think it's clear that when they were designing this game they decided to get rid of all the annoying tropes that we've seen over and over again like the timers, mid-castles, fake-out endings etc. and instead the team just let themselves do something different and the result is one of the best and imaginative Mario experiences. I hope this leads to an opposite effect of NSMB games where instead of getting more games in this style which are indistinguishable, we get more 2D games which take longer to make but instead are able to stand-out between each other and are equally inspired.

I wasn't really sure how well a Metroid game would translate into 3D, as it seemed like it'd be way more confusing compared to 2D games. Thankfully, Metroid Prime is an amazing game and made sure Samus had a great first time in 3D, with it feeling like Super Metroid but more modern and with a whole new perspective. The fact this is a GameCube game is very impressive, and apart from the few annoying save points and weird platforming, this could easily pass as a new game from 2023. I hope they remaster the other Prime games because getting to play those with these graphics would be perfect.

Simultaneously a better and worse sequel to the previous Mega Man games. Mega Man 3 has good additions with the ability to slide, Rush and Proto Man, but after the 8 Robot Masters the game feels really weak as it's an extra 22 boss fights that makes the game seem boated. If they'd removed the Robot Masters repeated fights I think it would help this game's problems as the other fights with Yellow Devil Mk 2 and the bosses from Mega Man 2 add more variety, but all these annoyances make sense once you find out the game was rushed and a lot of new ideas weren't added.

Overall Mega Man 3 is a pretty fun, short time like the other games, but the fact it feels longer than it should be definitely removes the want to replay this for me unlike the first 2 games.

Phantom hourglass was a lot more enjoyable of a game than I expected, and doesn't deserve the hate it gets at all. At first when I found out that the game was only controlled through the stylus it put me off continuing to play game, as it seems very tedious and I was looking forward to this being another 2D Zelda game but with Wind Waker's world and graphics as I haven't been able to play that game yet, but thankfully after an hour or so I got used to it pretty easily and found it was a creative albeit unnecessary way that makes this game standout and is a great method to make the player use all of the feature that's included in the DS, with this probably being the first game on my 3DS that's had me use my microphone.

Apart from the stylus controls, everything else is what you'd expect from a 2D Zelda game, and I found the characters, locations and method of traversal was good but much easier and more compact due to being on a DS but it probably made the experience more streamlined so I didn't mind too much. The only real negative I have to say about this game is having to return to the Temple of the Ocean King, as you have to go there 5 times, and the fact you have to redo some sections feels like such a waste of time even though new items you acquire does make the process faster. I feel like if they'd made it into one big dungeon that you go to at the start and then return to at the end would remove this problem entirely, as you'd still feel the satisfaction of finally being able to kill the Phantoms, but remove the painful experience of going back and forth several times in a pretty uninspired dungeon.

Overall, Phantom Hourglass was a fun, smaller Zelda story and definitely is overhated, as whilst I do agree this game would've been nicer if it had used the d-pad and the 4 buttons, Nintendo decided to try something different and I feel for the most part it worked. Also Linebeck is one of the best Zelda characters.

The Hitman trilogy has given me experiences no other game has ever come close to. The stealth, immersion and sense of badassery these games provide are next level, and I still remember how painful the wait for Hitman 3 was for me because I was so excited to play the new levels, but it was so worth the wait. Usually in trilogies there's always one weaker game that doesn't live up to the others, it always seems bound to happen, but miraculously Hitman stayed great for all 3 games, and it's impressive how the only 'bad' thing that happened was not having proper cutscenes in Hitman 2. I think that's a great example of the quality of games these are, where instead of one game being bad, it's instead each game getting better.

This trilogy will always be one of my favourites, and although I already had access to all 3 of these in one game since 2021 due to owning the previous 2, I'm glad people can now conveniently experience all 20+ locations in one package, as these games deserve to be played and praised as some of the best and simultaneously silliest games from the past decade.

Such an awesome sequel to the first Mega Man. From the very beginning with the title screen you can tell this game is such a step-up from the first, the slow build-up to Mega Man standing atop of the building with the wind blowing through his hair is such a cool and memorable opening, and still works over 30 years later. Almost everything in Mega Man 2 has been significantly improved: the graphics, level design, use of weapons, everything feels more fleshed out and it's definitely because this game was made in the developer's free time, so it came from a place of care and wanting the game to be an overall better experience.

Whilst I've only played half the Mega Man games that have released on the NES, I can confidently say Mega Man 2 is one of the best games on the system, but until I play the other 8 it's hard to say whether this is my favourite Mega Man game.

Considering how usually the first game in a series that first released on the NES ages quite poorly and doesn't really need to be revisited as the sequels vastly improve on the ideas introduced in the first game (this is very evident in the Mario, Metroid and Zelda series) I think Mega Man 1 is still a fun and short time and for the most part it doesn't really feel outdated, although that's likely because 8/11 of the Mega Man games all share the exact same NES graphics. There are definitely frustrating parts which can make this game feel outdated, but in my experience of playing Mega Man 2 and 3 they are equally as frustrating at times, so I don't think that's a problem with the game and more a product of the time where games were generally harder.

Overall, whilst I can see why people may not like this game too much as it's a bit of a clunky NES game at times, I think it's a good introduction to the Mega Man series as it presents the general idea of what you'll see in a Mega Man game, as well as providing very catchy music and it's short enough to where it makes me want to continue over to Mega Man 2 where they start to improve on the ideas in this game.