I have a soft spot for arcade-style throwbacks, and I think this is a good one. Raindrop Sprinters feels like a more fleshed-out interpretation of Helmet, an old Game & Watch LCD game where you earn points by running from one building another while avoiding falling objects (or raindrops, in this case). This game adds enough mechanics to that formula to keep the game interesting for more than 5 minutes (in the way most G&W games feel to play nowadays, to be honest).

Such mechanics include the ability to slow the falling objects down, badges that give you extra bonuses and abilities after you unlock them by doing specific tasks within each run, and a 50% point bonus for reaching the goal without stopping once you cross the starting line. That last one seems small, but it significantly affects the way you end up playing the game, especially early on when raindrops are easier to avoid. There are also multiple modes to unlock over time that can massively change the way the game works, so there's a good amount to do for a game where the average run is probably about 90 seconds.

For me, this is a very good "Thing To Do With My Hands" kind of game. It's just a nice little game to mess around with while watching videos or streams, or when listening to music or a podcast. It's a type of game that lends itself well to this since there is little going on to distract me beyond the act of playing the game. A lot of old arcade games and puzzle games (in the Tetris sense, not so much the Myst sense) fit this bill for me as well. It's good to have a new one of these to throw into the rotation.

I'm very conflicted about this one. As much as I liked Donkey Kong '94, I feel like playing this made me realize one way in which both that game and this one could be better.

In general I think these games would lose nothing but some unnecessary frustration if lives weren't a thing. In '94, progress is only saved after every fourth level. This ends up being considerably more punishing than in Mario vs. Donkey Kong, where progress is saved after every level, but because nearly half of the levels have two parts to them, you can be forced to start back in the first part of a stage if you run out of lives in the second part. This can be frustrating at times, as some of the later levels can be much harder or take much longer to complete the first part than the second.

Running out of lives in the two-part stages can be somewhat frustrating, but the boss fights and the back half of the game are all singular levels where running out of lives means absolutely nothing beyond seeing the game over screen for a couple seconds before jumping back in. This also makes the bonus games where you get a chance at extra lives if you obtain all three presents in the level (just like in '94) feel more tedious here, because they just don't matter all that much. While I feel like both games would be better off doing away with lives in general, at least in '94 the lives feel like a more deliberate choice, if not a good one.

I have a few minor gripes with some of the mechanical changes and additions in this game (like how they took out rolling to avoid faceplanting from long falls), but overall I could maybe recommend this game for those who like Donkey Kong '94 and just want More Of That. That is the mindset I had going into Mario vs. Donkey Kong and while the game massively outstayed its welcome, I still had fun with it for a while. I suspect that replaying '94 might have been more rewarding, however.

Also the art direction in this game sucks ass.

Sometimes I get on a big tactics kick, and this game really scratched that itch. No frills, not really much of a plot all told, but that's all okay as it lets the tactics gameplay take front and center.

The progression system for your units works pretty elegantly, by having experience unlock new classes, which you can then earn experience on these new classes to unlock more classes. As a plus, the experience on classes you don't plan on using long-term still has value as it lets you earn points to upgrade base stats such as HP, MP, and weapon/magic proficiency, and the abilities you unlock can still be used thanks to subclassing. It lets you get a good idea of what options are available to you pretty early on, and shows how how vast the possibilities are when it comes to team composition.

Also this is a small thing but I do like some of the environmental interactions this game has. There's some stuff that can affect combat like tiles with water on them can arc lighting-based attacks to other adjacent wet tiles, but I also really enjoy the (mostly) out-of-combat interactions. You can cut down most plants with a standard attack as long as you're using a bladed weapon, or chop wood with an axe, which can then be used to replace the steps on a rope bridge. Just little things like that are just kinda cool and not the kind of thing you see in a lot of turn-based games.

There are also naval battles in this game, which can be a fun thing to do from time to time but they definitely lack the depth of the standard battle system. Thankfully one thing you can due in naval battles is board enemy ships and take out the crew in said standard battle system. Granted, you can only stay boarded for a limited time before your ship's turn ends, so it's not something you want to do without first softening up the enemy ships (and their crews by extension).

That leads into another slight downside, which is that sailing from place to place can get tedious due to how large the map is and how wind can affect your ship's speed on the map. If you're just exploring the map and going into whatever caves or groves you find to break things up, then it's not too bad. It does become a bigger drag once you're in the late-game and you're just trying to play the trade economy and you have most of the map already explored.

While I do wish that part of the game would go a bit faster, it's not the end of the world. What the game does well, it does really well. While I do enjoy a good Fire Emblem or XCOM, I appreciate that this game exists for when I want to play One Of Those without being concerned about the involved story of the former and the stressful consequences of failure in the latter. Funnily enough, Horizon's Gate's straightforwardness what sets it apart.