The best Metroidvania I've played that's not either namesake of the genre (I count Bloodstained as a Castlevania) Lost Crown manages to nail pretty much everything about getting the genre down right. The combat flows so well and as someone who usually doesn't like parrying in games the parry window was forgiving enough where I actually enjoyed doing it (Not to mention that you’re not forced to use it to actually beat bosses; this game and how great it is really me reminded me of how much I hated Metroid Dread). The movement and platforming is fast, responsive, and smooth. Moving around the world feels great and there’s enough well-placed warps where backtracking never feels like a problem. Exploration is rewarding with useful upgrades and items to discover and collect. The moves you gain also feel good too and have all that growing power and variety a quality Metroidvania should have. The game also manages to make you feel powerful as you progress through the game but still demands a good engagement with the mechanics on Normal, i.e. bosses are a great mix of requiring you to know how to play but never feeling like a slog. The main antagonist especially, who is clearly Vergil, Judgement Cut and all, is a great example of this. I’m also real glad that the only thing this game cribbed from Dark Souls was the estus flask system because man I am really sick of so many indie Metroidvanias shoehorning in Souls mechanics when they don’t really work all that well with the genre; I liked Hollow Knight in spite of that, but Lost Crown doesn’t have that problem at all. A few of the side-missions are a pain in the ass though so I didn’t bother with them, but overall I did most of them and they were real fun. Ubisoft Montpellier really proving they’re like the only part of Ubi making fantastic passion projects like this instead off AAA slop anymore. Lost Crown definitely going to be one of the must play games of this year and it’s already one of my favorites.

Another quality installment in Digital Eclipse's series and a neat historical look at the UK computer scene of the 80's through Jeff Minter's experiences, especially for me as an American who had little knowledge of it; but man just like with Karateka I just don't like the vast majority of Jeff Minter's games in this collection. A good chunk of them are obnoxious sensory overload that go way too fast and/or are overly complex to a trollish degree. Also didn't change my opinion that Commodore games just sucked. Tempest 2000 is cool though and I definitely can see why it was the only reason to get a Jaguar. Funny thing is I felt Jeff's visualizer programs were more of an interesting topic when it came to his games because even if I wasn't totally into them Jeff had a clear passion for them as well as an ambition that was ahead of his time with them. Just as with Karateka, Llamasoft is a great historical piece but I just wish they could cover games that are mostly fun to play. Regardless I'm completely locked into with this series and definitely will be Day 1 once again for the next installment.

Real fun monster collector RPG that while clearly emulating Pokemon in style feels more like Mega Ten mechanically in some ways. The game starts off rather slow in how your MC doesn't have great movement but once you get the ability from the fire bullet beast you start moving around at a good clip. The game is also pretty open too allowing you to battle gym leaders and boss monsters in almost any order you can choose around the world map. Most beasts seem pretty viable too and I had fun collecting most of them. Overall just had a great time with it.