kinda tricky to get running, but worth it. extremely replayable and even more charming. not sure how many creative liberties were taken with the translation, but I thoroughly enjoy the dialoge here. oh, and the character sprites are also on another level, really great stuff. don't want to go into too much detail because the game seems better enjoyed on a blind play-through, but if you enjoy this era of Square games, I highly reccomend checking this out. the game takes under an hour to beat, but becomes more rewarding the more times you play and the better you get at optomizing routes.

Definently underrated. I came into this game as a fairly experienced Metroid player and didn't really have any problems with navigation, but an in-game map still would have been appreciated. The secrets all feel great to find. The fights with later stages of the Metroids get a little annoying, but I love the way that less creatures are able to survive the closer you get to the Metroid nest, and just love the games themes overall. The game didn't feel too unforgiving either, plenty of save states, I didn't even worry about having to resort to save scumming (played on 3ds). The game hasn't aged perfectly, but I still had a really good time with this one.

My favorite part of this game was naming myself Rei and my rival Asuka. The rival's character just fits Asuka's so well, I would read out their dialogue in Asuka's voice and it was just like watching the show. This was my first Pokemon game, played it last year (2022) at the age of 22. I had been putting off Pokemon games for a while, and maybe I missed the age where the charm of collecting Pokemon is its strongest. I will say that by the end of the game I had a few new favorite Pokemon and can understand exactly why everyone has their own (mine is Pineco lol). Team building was fun, but the battles just do not compare to other rpgs of the time, like Chrono Trigger, FF7, Earthbound, etc. I didn't realize Chikorita would make the game more difficult, but I still didn't struggle too much, nor did I really ever have to grind for levels. I still need to finish exploring the Kanto region, but I think I got the grasp of Pokemon from beating the main story.

Easily my favorite way to play Minecraft. There is something so personal about the classic world size, kind of a similar sensation to an Animal Crossing village. Hosting servers with friends is so simple. Once people get comfortable with the world it is always so fun to expand the world size by 32 tiles around it and see how people would rush to explore and claim the new part of the world. Something about how finite the resources are adds to the experience as well, not everyone is going to be able to get full diamond armor, unless one person uses a fortune pic and shares with the rest. At the end of the day it is Minecraft and no matter what version I am playing it on it would be hard to give it below a 5.