Played one of the PC ports of the 1980's PAC-MAN. This isn't the first. nor the last time I'll be seeing it. That's for sure. Some unsorted thoughts...

It's PAC-MAN! It feels so distinct and interesting even quite some years later. Sure after it we'll see many games like it, many that try to copy or improve on how it feels...but nothing is quite like that original.

Having originally played a flash version of the title waaay back it's interesting to return to the game now many years later. Some things I notice now: The loud grainy sounds of the pacman such as that of eating the little dot and the 'sirens' were probably made that way to break through the walls of sound reverberating within an arcade setting. Even the music has that kind of high toned nature.

I also think the reason the game ends up working so well is that it is an amalgamation of great signals and indicators. The sirens are a great way to signify danger and pressure, it turns pacman into a kind of Cops and Robbers game. But of course it isn't exactly that. I mean PAC-MAN is eating after all. So this is the first contrast between elements, the loud sirens as though the ghosts were cops (they are not) the eating of pacman as though he were collecting gold to steal on the street (level/stage) (he is not stealing, merely eating) These contrasts are what makes the game so distinct feeling. There are a lot of signals we get from the machine and these signals are each clashing with eachother to create a unique experience.

There's also something neon to Pac-Man. It's loud primary colors in a mostly blacked out screen with blue borders give out this distinct look.

While the main core of the game is to 'capture point' and 'don't get caught' with the way it builds interesting signals around this point, distinct antagonists who go after you, each their own personality, it stands out among the rest and can still be enjoyed today. Sure you might not feel the will to put multiple hours in it but i'd imagine nobody in the arcade was constantly putting hours into the game.

I'm glad to own a digital version so I can open it up every so often, but a few 'coins' in and give it a go :)

Honestly a pretty big jump from the first game in quality and I had a lot more fun reading this one. Making it a kind of more multi-media-esque experience by leading you outside of the game itself is really fun and dynamic. Also the fact we now have two characters to talk to, sometimes at the same time ends up making the game a lot more interesting and enticing, are you gonna be able to keep up with the timer conversations?! It really feels like an improved version of the original through these changes of the game its structure.

Great!

Blasphemous is a really thrilling and enjoyable game, I must say it also made me really curious about looking more into spanish expressions of Christianity and what Christianity meant to the Spanish in that time period. It is because I found the aesthetics of the game so absolutely pleasing, the extract of its ultimate religious expression so daring and gruesome that I feel like maybe reading into it a bit more. I can't say I know all that much about that kind of stuff.

Ill say though I really do think the bosses feel a bit easy, don't get me wrong I don't mind a smooth ride and I think some games should be a smooth ride. But I expected a bit more bite on the gameplay side. As in your finding the malformation of various relgious ideas and figures, literal mythical figures. But certain bosses will be super easy and the fight will be over just like that. Like for how grim and overpowering the art direction is some of the fights generally feel really weak for these climatic moments. Like Expósito is so lame. The bosses could have been so much more memorable.

I like a lot of the room designs though and I really liked all the back and forth traveling. (Metroidvania things) multiple item quest and just enjoying walking around the whole of Cvstodia. The soundtrack is beautiful and the mixing feels like it has this kind of echo in it, like it could fade away at any moment but it still there.

Also I feel that the way the game was designed as a 2D metroidvania with pixely and crunchy art even in the animated bits was a great choice especially considering a lot of the background art ends up feeling a lot more punchy with the hard edges of the pixelyness. Just a match made in heaven in that way.

Good stuff, malformation because of the pressure of an all encompassing religion that is believed without question to the highest extent and how it influences the world around it within the game and the people in it. Reading all the little bone fragments of how people came to their ends because of it was very cool and a neat way to convey ingame lore

Thumper is...a missed opportunity.
An absolute droning game. I stopped enjoying it around level 5, but I pushed onwards. Now I drop the game right at the end boss of level 9.

It's an on the rail action music game, with visuals that remind me of the Metalheart aesthetic. It gives Thumper a very surreal and distinct look from other games.

The most positive part of thumper is some of its little gimmicks to make levels more interesting. In particular, the one unlocked in level 8.

Thumper is cohesive, but because of this, it is also incredibly boring. A lot of level patches end up being repeated. Feeling the same. It doesn't help that the same hitsounds are being used throughout the entire game, which honestly ends up boring the living hell out of you by the end of it. You could tell me certain levels from 7 were in 6 and I would believe you. It really isn't much of a difference.

This will of "holding together a cohesive style" ends up damaging every corner of the game. Whether in sound effects, level compositions or visual style.

The biggest crime Thumper has is making it more difficult by just speeding the gameplay up. I feel that is incredibly cheap for a "rhythm game". It would have been much better to tone down on the speed but make more complicated levels. (in general, some actual good music would be nice.)

I think Thumper is a very disappointing game where the original thrill of the first levels never comes back after they are completed.

Thumper lacks better levels, better music and better visual design. You have such a cool aesthetic to work with yet most of the levels end up feeling too similar. When the gameplay feels boring, you atleast want some dynamic visuals to enjoy. But alas.

In conclusion, the game and its gameplay mechanics have potential. But it falls very short of even reaching that potential.

Maybe this game is more fun on VR. I have no clue.

I'm coming back to this game after a very long time of being away from it. This is partially a replay as much as it is an original visit for me. Why? My first play of Super Mario 64 was actually when the DS remake of it was released.

Having that out of the way... I completed this one with 70 stars! Some courses I attained all the stars...others not so much. But I had a lot of fun revisiting this title. I ended up growing warm towards the camera angles. Why? I think certain areas are particularly designed to use this function for its platforming. (such as getting the red coins in tick tock, stage 15) Through that I felt warmth towards the function because it was inherent to the game overall design rather than a limitation.

Though why i choose to give this game a 3.5/5...? Well I just don't like certain things. I think the bowser fight is a mediocre feeling and pales in comparison to the actual level the fight is placed in. I know Mario games have never been particularly good at boss fights but man...I really disliked those fights lol. I did enjoy the fact that the third stage of final bowser ends up destroying a lot of the island space into a star shape. That was a proper difficulty increase strategy.

Also the flying... I just can't. I had a similar problem in skyward sword. This may be a skill issue problem but my god it gave me so much trouble. Tough to control. I did however like how the swimming felt! incredibly relaxing.

Even if I think the red coin placements/levels were cheap. I did think in general that every level within a stage is able to show the whole stage in a natural way. I ended up exploring much more through those specific quests. So through the different quests the whole level became more stronger embedded into my mind. My love for them grew. I especially loved unique dynamics such as stage 15 and stage 13.

New Super Mario Bros. 2 is very weak.

The coin system, as many other users have noted is really one-note and undynamic with other systems of the game. It could have been integrated better. Like in a shop. Or that coin collecting unlocks levels.

The koopalings are mostly uninteresting and their boss stages as well as the actual boss fights. Iggy and chomp is fun though. They are shockingly bland bosses compared to the first New SMB.

There are some stages that really leave a sour taste in my mouth. The stage in star-4 is one of the worst auto-scroll levels in SMB. Or the snow level in world 4 is also pretty bad because unless you have the fire flower you are screwed.
There was one stage that stood out. 6-2. A very good auto-scroller.

The inclusion of the tanuki suit is one I dislike because the power-up ends up killing a lot of the levels in the game because unless you force yourself not too you can just skip over most of a level by jumping well, keeping stamina in check. The 'silver/golden tanuki suit' is also bad. It appears if you die often. It is an easy way out, level skipper. Tanuki just kills the core of the SMB game. The exploration.

When you hand an item like that to the player, of course their going to make use of it to the best of their abilities.

I want to note the really boring aesthetics. As a number 2 in the NEW SMB series I expected a shift in art direction. I expected that for the whole series. Time shows that...that didn't really happen. It's really frustrating.

I don't really enjoy this game.

P.S. Do not try to get 90 starcoins. It's not worth the effort.

I can't say I'v 'Completed' the game yet in a true sense. This is because R button in my 3ds is busted and I need to get it replaced. However, even though i havent been able to play the 'true final' of the game due to missing the toad starcoins I can say for sure this is a very fun 3D platformer.

With my expectations being in the absolute pits of hell for this game after experiencing NSMB2..I was completely shocked by how good this game turned out to be. Really fresh, interesting and fun level design. The worlds don't suffer from the tropey stretching games like NSMB2 and to an extent NSMB like to apply. Every level is its own self contained fun adventure that extends its ideas across the world and finally ends it off with a difficult challenge based on some of those ideas.

The difficulty curve is very well done, a slow increase in difficulty across 1-S8 that feels genuinely gratifying as you feel your skill in the game improve. Some of the more difficult sections like the rhythm game platformer bits, the turning twists of s7-5 and the like are some of the hardest in the game but its so damn good even so. The difficulty increase never feels to spite the player.

I still really don't agree with adding the golden tanuki leaf and the level skipper in the normal worlds. Thankfully these are removed in the Special levels. I understand why they are there. But I dont agree with them. Like last game im again having a bit of a headscratcher with these bosses. While the actual level is very enjoyable actually fighting the bosses feels very repetitive even when they start shifting their positions or combining the two in one singular ship. Really can't stand it. It's probably 3D Land's weakest point.

Though aside from some of its flaws I think the game is still really fun and can see myself returning to it in the future! Not often I feel like digging into newgame+ but this game really had me thrilled. One might say the controlled camera is annoying but I personally didn't mind it too much. Even the auto-scroll levels were really fun even if i usually hate those kinds of levels. Some of that enemy placement in the special levels is cruel but i gotta love it.

Iv played this game for ages, sometimes stopping for months sometimes grinding for months. iv at least played this game actively for 6 or 7 years now.

It's incredibly fun with its 4 different game modes with an absolutely humongous amount of beat maps to play from (thats also continuously growing because of a very active community). Right now I'v mostly been playing a game mode I had previously not touched on. Which is Catch the Beat. Its great, its kind of meditative moving and dashing from fruit to fruit. It also has something the other modes don't have which is a great conversion mode. Through this you get the base amount of maps in catch the beat + the maps from the standard mode, leaving you with an absolutely massive collection of maps to play in contrast to taiko and osumania where maps beyond 2 and 3 stars in convert are just shit.

Besides that while going through all these maps you can communicate in the very charming #ctb channel in which you can rehearse all existing numbers, the roman alphabet and of course shout random fruit and vegetable terms into the void. It's very fun and goofy and I usually get a good laugh opening the chat in between playing.

Another thing I want to point on is that improvement in CTB is very smooth and fun usually leaving me completely without rage or spamretrying maps. Its honestly refreshing to not feel frustrated at this game and to just chill and have fun lol, I always had trouble with that on standard and mania (even if I played the living hell out of those modes)

Either way, I strongly recommend checking out osu! and specifically the catch the beat. Fruit catching doesn't get old as quickly as you'd think it would.

fruit/fruit score