I LOVE MOTHER 3

A Xenoblade to surpass Xenogears. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 resonates with me to the core.

The subtitle is as good as devoid of meaning: 'tis but the same shallow, contrived mess the original was, the substance of which rests on the shoulders of the true Xeno series titans, for this game's can't stand on their own feet. Its breathtaking beginning and stunning setting get you hooked into an ultimately vapid odyssey which could've been the classic of the genre fanatics oversell had it been rewritten so as not to appear as vacuous as it does. Shulk's blade did not cut deep enough at all.

The base game's character writing left so much to be desired they had to make an epilogue to give much-needed closure to its only decently-poised (no offense to bestest buddy Reyn, that's my boy), now fully fledged character, by means of a plot and cast that, unlike the main narrative, don't do the appropriately different themes a disservice along the way. The nod to Xenosaga is pretty neat, but future instalments in the series wouldn't be predestined had the base game truly been definitive.

This game literally began building the house from the roof, no foundations whatsoever

I dumped 900 hours into Ultimate when this game existed

A gorgeous and fluid game which, at least in its first half, fixes many of its prequel's most detrimental flaws. I say in its first half because I went for sequence breaks whenever possible and ended up unknowingly softlocking my playthrough about halfway through the game. I'd say it's a joy to play, but the inexcusable performance issues prevent me from wholeheartedly doing so. Despite the constant stuttering, I was very immersed in the game and trying to go for 100%, so it was a real letdown.

I wanted Byleth to make it in eventually and their reveal was so bad it still managed to upset me

If Rex doesn't make it in I'm breaking my Switch in half

Purposeless amalgamation of Melee and Smash 4 mechanics. Balance is pretty good for such a massive cast, although that doesn't mean much when gameplans are so bare-bones and samey across the board, not that balance has a significant effect on my enjoyment (or lackthereof, because it's clunky as shit) anyway. Gameplay aside, it's a mind-blowing crossover, but even if everyone is here, some characters (especially veterans) exist as shameful representations of their original selves and games.

This game tries to give the Zero Mission treatment to the least Metroidvania 2D Metroid, consequently falling flat at both remaking Metroid II and transforming it into an actual Metroidvania. No better proof of this failure than the implementation of the teleport stations, brazenly forcing the issue, and I'm not even going into detail as to how bad they fucked up the original's atmosphere.

Captures notwithstanding (most of which are bereft of adaptable applicability), Mario is limited to the same (albeit lively) jumping manoeuvre for the whole game

Expedition is the name of the game. Monolith Soft had already developed a more expansive open world game than Breath of the Wild 2 years prior to the latter's release. Even though I'm only about halfway through the game (just got my first Skell a chapter ago) and the scattered main quest appears to be very arbitrarily detached from the natural flow of gameplay, when it comes to unadulterated reconnaissance of a vast 3D world not a single game I've played beats it to the punch.

This game introduced me to arena fighters. I find Phase Shifting unsatisfying even if I believe the idea had potential and I do derive some level of gratification from the rest of the gameplay. Sceptile main.

Takahashi, Saga and company the -GOATS- for this one. So original yet so timeless, so overambitious yet so well-realised. A real piece of work, so much so they've been using it as a blueprint for the last 20 years and counting, the more down to Earth Xenoblade Chronicles 2 being the Omega to this Alpha of a game, and all the better for it.