What an insane improvement over base XCOM 2 man. While I have grown a begrudging respect for that version after playing it on Rookie difficulty, I still heavily dislike how it plays on Veteran and above. However, War of the Chosen rectifies most of my major flaws. The new classes help combat the insane difficulty curve (particularly the early game) and are generally fun to mess around with. Using combat AP instead of chance for new soldier upgrades was ingenious, and some of the new story missions are dope as hell. Actually being able to play on Veteran mode without wanting to kill myself was a huge bonus as well.

Some minor criticism regarding this specific version of XCOM 2 is that the Lost (while incredibly cool in the first few encounters) can become a bit tedious in later missions, and I'm not sure if adding resistance members to Terror missions was the right call; they end up taking up a lot of time just to deal chip damage.

Lost 30 minutes of gameplay because a bench just refused to show up and dropped it immediately after.

I'll admit I haven't given this game the fair shake I usually give games (I normally only review a game once I beat it), but with the mediocre gameplay, unengaging story, bad (female) character design, enemies respawning every time you go through a door, boring combat as well as how unsatisfying it is to collect new spells or weapons I just could not be bothered to continue playing.

Others seem to like it though so don't let this review discourage you from trying it out; it just is not for me and that is fine.

The first few worlds are amazing and really kick this game off to a fantastic start. If the game was just the first few levels and the last few levels this would indeed be the 5/5 stars game people hype it up to be.

Unfortunately the middle chunk of the levels has a lot of stinkers and quite a few stars are incredibly vague in their description.

Lots of good ideas and fun levels and I can see why the speedrunning community adores it but as a casual game it has it flaws. Overall a great starting off point for 3D mario I wonder where they'll go next!

Oh. Oh no.

My final thoughts on Super Metroid are a bit complicated because i think up until finding Crocomire this game is peak but from then until ridley’s lair it is a really frustrating experience without a guide because some of the crucial items or pathways are kind of ludicrous to find/figure out. You can even accidentally heavily sequence break by using the wall jump in areas that were meant to be discovered once you get the space jump which led me to explore entire areas just to be hit with a dead end because I did not have the one item I needed to progress, leading me to spend hours backtracking and trying to find the hidden area with the next important item. Especially Maridia is super unfun in this regard. And this is not helped at all by the map which at some point becomes pretty much a grid of squares and have fun trying to figure out which rooms link into which. If you get it wrong have fun backtracking for 15 min to guess again. But then when you reach Ridley’s lair it becomes peak again.

I appreciate this entry a lot but after spending as much time running around in Maridia and Norfair as I did with the rest of the game its hard to give it higher than a 7.5-8.0

Side note: the final boss is fantastic. I was very worried when i saw the exact same layout as mother brain’s fight in zero mission (which is horrid) but it was a very nice subversion.

Would be a 2-star at most without save states, also Mario bangs Daisy in this one?!

Generally a fun game, with mostly decent level design. Short enough to the point where it doesn't overstay it's welcome or becomes too frustrating. But being a gameboy title following the 'arcade approach' takes away a large chunk of my goodwill towards it (AKA deleting all your progress if you go game over to artificially extend the time it takes to beat it). Also the final boss having a fun second stage pleasantly surprised me.

Also world 4 has some strange vibes; why are we fighting actual human beings in what can only be described as a chinese-themed level? There are no other humans we fight in the game so it really sticks out.
[UPDATE: having done some more research it seems they are supposed to be 'Pionpi': Zombie-like creatures from Chinese folklore. Vibes are improved.]

Not sure if I would recommend playing through the game in 2022+ outside of a general interest in older games or being a huge Mario fan but I enjoyed my time with it (thanks to save states.)

Would've been a comfortable 4 star had world 5 and 6 not existed, you really start to feel the rather shallow and repeated level design while the original designs they do offer are just bloated, lifeless and annoying platforming.

The other 5 worlds are genuinely enjoyable despite the rather lackluster level designs. The game is cute, copying abilities is an inspired idea and the animal companions are a genuinely welcome addition to the series. Some really well-made bosses too for a Gameboy title, especially World 5's Mr. Shine and Mr. Bright come to mind (so I suppose some good came out of world 5 after all).

Kirby's Dream Land 2 is a impressively inspired sequel that, despite it flaws, just inches out the original for me (which feels like a 3.25 when this is in a comfortable 3.5-3.75 area).

Side note: I'm also incredibly glad they ditched the arcade style 'game over and lose all progress' gimmick to pad out play time. Who knew losing progress wasn't fun?!

Ratchet & Clank at its most formulaic so far.
The game does nothing to set itself apart from its predecessors, nor does it have the charm or storytelling to stand out either. The villain Emperor Tachyon is basically just as lame as Emperor Otto Destruct but more annoying.
The weapon selection is mostly boring as well, with only the tornado gun really standing out.
I don't know, it's fine? There are far worse things to play out there obviously, but I suppose I just expected more from one of my favourite franchises.

I've gone incredibly back and forth on giving this game 3/5 or 3.5/5 stars, but I think i'll settle for 3 stars.

The good stuff first: 3 player co-op is always great to see, especially with more tactical games like this. The campaign is a great length and the slow but steady unlocking of new classes and events makes it feel like you are actually becoming better and stronger.
Classes are fun to mess around with, and the campaign progression feels constant and rewarding.
Finally, the main ideas around which the game are built are incredibly solid. I think this plays a large part in keeping the game fun despite it's many, many flaws.

The many, many flaws:
- Enemies getting to attack you before you can do anything (especially annoying in caves/dungeons)
- Enemies randomly dodging moves (i wait 5 min to make a move just for it to do nothing)
- Damage rolls consisting of ~3 rolls which usually average around 70%-80% accuracy.
- All of the above made worse by the way too many different status conditions, of which most lower your already low stats, sometimes to crippling levels (f.e. getting your attack cut in half at the beginning of a cave without being able to do anything about it🥰)
- Crits and pierce rolls being impossible to predict.
- Random events or encounters that you cannot predict which can just straight up have a ~10% chance to kill you.
- And finally, this point isn't really something to do with RNG but certain enemies that you haven’t fought before that just kill a run out of nowhere due to having weird moves/mechanics. [f.e. the Kraken, like really? Would’ve been funny if we didn’t just spend 3 hours on that run...]
- And i could go on. I don’t mind rng hitchance that much (I'm a big Fire Emblem and XCOM fan) but For the King is just RNG stacked on top of RNG, and a whole lot of times you have to deal with shit that you could not prepare for at all.
Playing with 3 people, while definitely the ideal way to play, also makes every turn take years, ignoring the fact you can lose your move to random encounters/your weapon breaking/ randomly getting ambushed/ etc. making you have waited for nothing.

[Keep in mind that many of the issues mentioned became even more prevalent and evident playing through 'Journeyman' difficulty.]

There are really great ideas here, and I wish I could give it the score I want it to be, but too often it just falls into the 'frustrating to play' category, leaving it up to the players to just kind of try to ignore the flaws and still have a good time.

What Remains of Edith Finch is a wonderfully told narrative about generational trauma, loss and grief.

The house itself is a wonderful metaphor for the pain the Finch family was in; it's broken state with the closed off rooms representing Dawn's unwillingness to face her past and the disarray the family was in, while Edie and Edith use secret passageways to remember and learn the family members' stories respectively.

The game, despite consisting of mostly walking and listening, has a surprising amount of little gameplay sections and differing art styles which really help set each family members narrative apart.

I think in a lot of ways this is a 'perfect' game, or as perfect as this genre can get. However, I can't quite give it 5 stars as the game didn't quite hit me the same way emotionally as for example it's contemporary RiME did. Nor does the ending really surprise of leave particular impact (though perhaps all it needed to do was tie a neat bow in the story).

In conclusion: What Remains of Edith Finch is a beautiful small story about a family and their tragedies, and this game is, and rightfully should be, a hallmark of the genre for a reason.

First off: Borderlands has always had crass and insensitive 'jokes', but calling tribal enemies "savages" is downright insulting and disrespectful towards the mocking and suffering indigenous tribes have faced.

Regarding the actual DLC content: It's pretty decent. The first area feels taken right out of Dr. Zed's Zombie Island, but everything else has a distinct feel to it and the new enemy types are welcome additions.

It does not overstay it's welcome, but it does suffer from issues other DLC's have (abrupt ending, lack of interesting new ideas, some bad sidequests). However, it's a pretty enjoyable 3-4 hours.