If I lack the drive to play something specific, I use a randomiser to get through my backlog. Whatever it lands on, I play! It's funny I should land on Quake II right after playing a bunch of Half-Life games, because I feel Quake II lands at an odd transition point between the abstractness of its FPS predecessors and the representational qualities that made Half-Life such a pioneer.

The original Quake was incredibly abstract, owing in part to its bizarre development history but also to the standards at the time for the FPS genre. Quake was also fast and floaty, with instant weapon switching, high movement speeds, rocket jumps, and basically everything now associated with the tag "boomer shooter".

Conversely, Quake II reached for what Half-Life would soon after achieve: a connected and grounded series of environments that are representative of something that actually might exist, goals that are more involved than 'get to the end' and interact with the environment in believable ways, and slower, less precise movement and shooting to ground the player in the experience.

I'd be lying if I said the results were a home-run, even if I do enjoy the weird incongruence of Quake II. Every step it takes away from abstract boomer-shooter towards representational modern-shooter is better represented in Half-Life - the environments aren't quite believable, still holding onto Quake's abstraction to some degree, and they lack variety, each dominated by a brown, industrial aesthetic. Thus, every mechanical sacrifice made in service of the new artistic focus fails to return gains in equal or greater measure.

That said, I still enjoyed Quake II's main campaign a lot, almost as much as Half-Life. I like the weird incongruence, I think it produces a unique atmosphere. I also enjoy the shooting, which is chunky and heavy. But yeah, with my biases accounted for, I'd have to admit Quake II is a very flawed experience.

However, that's not the end of the story. When playing the original Quake I failed to do my due diligence and assumed all the expansions were released shortly after the original and probably not as good as the main campaign. While playing Quake II, I learned of the MachineGames expansions, official follow-ups to the main campaigns of Quake and Quake II. So back to the first Quake I went! While Dimension of the Past was just ok, it was short and inoffensive enough, and without as much production behind it. With Nightdive's remasters, we got the full, big ...of the Machine expansions... and oh my goodness!

Dimension of the Machine takes the abstractness of Quake and deepens the cult-horror, feeling very post-Dusk in its presentation. The art direction and level-design is so on point, it's crazy. Call of the Machine similarly understands what makes Quake II click and elevates it, feeling chunkier and heavier than ever. The enemies comes in hordes, giving the less precise arsenal of Quake II the impression of being a meat grinder, with chunks of polygonal flesh flying everywhere as you fire a chaingun into a crowd of enemies as deep, industrial metal music blares. The environments too succeed where Quake II failed, feeling more believable and aesthetically varied. Both campaigns falter slightly with their endings, but otherwise the ...of the Machine duology elevates both their respective games considerably.

Quake II would have scraped a 3.5/5 based on its main campaign, but with Call of the Machine I'm bumping it up to a 4/5. Similarly, the first Quake, which was already close to a 4.5/5 for me, I'm bumping up based on Dimension of the Machine. That leaves me with two official Quake campaigns to play, and three for Quake II. I'll leave them for now as I don't want to burn myself out, but I'll add them to the randomiser and play them when fate dictates.

25 years after the fact, Quake and Quake II have been made ever better by a totally different group of people. It conflicts with my view of a game and its rereleases/expansions representing a single, unified work of art, that many people over many years have contributed to both Quake and Quake II. It's a situation quite unique to the old id shooters, given how malleable they are, and I think it's beautiful. That people still care enough to put so much effort into these expansions that aren't even going to be sold separately, it's an amazing display of passion.

Just like Fear Effect and Dead or Alive: Extreme Beach Volleyball, Rumble Roses is a game I remember more for its marketing than any discussion around it. It's one of those games, where the jiggle physics is cranked all the way up, and any opportunity to sneak in a fanservice shot is seized upon with such ferocity you'd think some poor animator had on a collar rigged to blow if they don't fit in as much TNA as possible, like some pervert's version of Speed. Every print ad for games like this was carefully framed to tantalize the teenaged male demographic, with characters pressed together or caught in some compromising pose with "Mario Bros. doesn't have... BOOBS!" written in big blocky letters. Everyone who fell for one of those has a YouTube channel now.

Speaking of YouTubers, my friend and current Xenosaga hype machine, TransWitchSammy, is the only person I've met in my entire life that has actually played Rumble Roses as a proper video game. I still wasn't very interested until she put me in a mandible claw hold and forced my compliance. I had to look up names of wrestling holds for that joke, by the way. I don't know anything about the sport, I just remember seeing Dean Ambrose bring a Coney Island hot dog cart he stole to a match once, and besides that it's periodic updates from Appreciations about what Cum Punk is up to post-WWE.

I am likewise just as uninitiated with wrestling games, but as I understand it, most of them are total garbage. I can't say how Rumble Roses stacks up against its contemporaries or even modern wrestling games, but in isolation, it's got more going on than I initially thought while still not having enough to sustain me beyond clearing 40% of the roster in story mode.

Much like fighting games, which I often describe in how "responsive" they are and how good the impact of landing a hit feels, I'm so much of a philistine here that I can't articulate the more technical aspects of how this game works. I'm no expert on frame timing, I can't count let alone perceive input delay, I navigate these games the same way I would a real fight, all elbows and open-hand slaps (see: button mashing.) But the specials in this game are ridiculous and bombastic in the way real wrestling techniques are, and they look just as likely to cause real, severe, long-lasting damage when executed by a non-professional, so I'd say Rumble Roses ticks the right boxes.

The story is also appropriately bonkers, and I've made several attempts already to describe it as a mashup of wrestling storylines and fighting game narratives but scrapped all that after realizing they're basically the same thing. Dr. Cutter is doing a whole sexy nurse gimmick, but she's also like, brainwashing wrestlers and turning them into heels in an effort to harvest them for her cyborg, and that's something that feels as ripped from the WWE as it does Tekken.

It's just a shame then that Rumble Roses does so little with the heel/face alternate scenarios for each wrestler. Though this does double the size of the roster, each character's second scenario is truncated, with fewer fights and threadbare narratives that amount to an opening and closing cutscene to establish and bookend their gimmicks. Reiko - a certifiable babyface and the lead character - joins a biker gang, and she is completely unconvincing in the role, like a child wanting to be taken seriously. It's really endearing and silly, but you get so little of it. Likewise, there's a real drought of interesting costumes, with each character getting a normal outfit and swimsuit and a single pallet swap of each. Maybe I'm spoiled on Dead or Alive, but I feel like this misses some of the pageantry of wrestling. I just... I wanna dress up the pretty ladies......... .

There are also only three rings to fight in, one of which being a mud pit, and several wrestlers share moves with one another, which resulted in the game feeling a bit long in the tooth after only a few hours of play. The "glass half full" way of looking at this is that my biggest complaint about Rumble Roses is there isn't more of it. This is apparently something Rumble Roses XX addresses, but I've also heard more divisive things about that one... I'd love to say that since I'm buying Xbox 360 games up already that I'd just grab a copy and find out myself, but that thing is 70 damn dollars on average. I like Rumble Roses but not that much.

Anyway, 3/5. Would let Dr. Cutter perform unethical surgery on me.

I don't think a game has done a better job at making me feel upset down to my very soul as effectively as this game. Which is nuts since this game treats itself like a joke more than half the time.

I really don't know what to say about this game but that it's very singular. I haven't played games like Hypnospace because they don't exist. It makes it way too hard for me to articulate the strengths of this game.

I will complain about the puzzles sometimes being way too obtuse though. Because the "web" is so big, it can be VERY easy to keep going around in circles if you don't check a guide for some things. The Sanwich file thing was something I'd never have figured out on my own.

Overall great game! I hope I can bring myself to finish it because wow it makes me feel so sad.

Best known as the publisher for Trails/Kiseki before being subsumed by Marvelous, XSEED Games have a wholesome publishing philosophy: they won't localize a game unless someone in the office really, really likes it. A quick look through their output proves quite eclectic - Corpse Party, Uppers, Unchained Blades, Zwei, Way of the Samurai 4, Ys, the Senran Kagura series. The one nibble of cohesion between all these games is this: they have personality.

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is no exception. It's a charming game about an entitled goddess cast down to earth, forced to subsist as a humble rice farmer. Alongside her are a bunch of humans who walked a little too close to the heavens. They are her only companions on an island plagued by all creatures ungodly. Sakuna must not only clean up this unholy plague, but also take care of her newfound friends.

This is a lovely game. Sakuna does not gamify the task of rice farming; it appreciates it so that we, the players, do so too. You don't click your way through planting and harvesting while virtual numbers go up - you care for your crops. You till the field, add fertilizer, manage the water level, and harvest and hull your crop manually. All from a beautifully stylized third-person view. During your time in the paddy, you can also interact with your makeshift family, eating meals and conversing as the sun sets on your little home. Then dawn arrives, and it's time for work: clearing out demon infestations in side-scrolling combat exploration.

This latter portion makes for a servicable action platformer, marred by a few glitches and weak enemy AI. The farming, however, is the undisputed highlight. Sakuna's homey charm during your time in the rice paddy is unmatched. Yet I do not believe it would be this perfectly achieved if not for the combat sections, feeble as they are. Like garnish on a steak, they complete the package, and give Sakuna the comfortable vibe of the work-life balance we wish for in reality. Highly recommended.

I first played Link's Awakening on my 3DS years ago. I got it on the eShop one day after a Youtuber I liked was let's playing it, and seeing as I was a Zelda fan at this point, I figured I'd enjoyed it. I think I got up until Eagle Tower and dropped it? I at least don't remember ever beating this game. Fast forward to the beginning of 2022, I had just gotten the remake for Christmas and was excited to play it. I actually beat that version this time and had a great time. Now with this marathon, I can finally beat this version of the game. I think overall I might prefer the remake, but this version is still good and Link's Awakening is still a good game overall.

Also quick note before the review: I was originally going to play the three CDI Zelda's next but decided against it so I'm skipping those. I also know this is the DX version, and that technically released after Ocarina of Time, however the majority of this game is still the original Link's Awakening which released 5 years before OOT so I just decided to play this first.

Anyways, Link's Awakening. This released 2 years after A Link to the Past and compared to that game and even the Zelda games before it, this game's plot and general atmosphere is very different. The story this time around is pretty simple. This is the same Link as the one in ALTTP and he regularly goes out to sea to train in other countries in case of further threats. One day, a storm destroys the boat he is on and he is washed ashore on Koholint Island. This girl named Marin finds him and brings Link to her home where he wakes up to see her and her father Tarin. Link leaves the home hoping to learn what this island is about and how he can get off of it. Along the way, he meets an owl that tells him to escape this island he must get the 8 instruments of the sirens and wake the wind fish (who resides in a giant egg) with them. Halfway into the adventure however, Link finds out that the entire island may just be a dream created by the wind fish. Whether that's true or not, Link continues to gather the instruments so he can wake the wind wish and get off the island. It's a simple plot but the first thing you'll notice is that it's WEIRD. I did not mention Zelda because she is not in this game. No Triforce or Ganon either. The big staple characters aren't in this game, instead it's an entire brand new cast. You have Marin and Tarin, the other villagers of the town they're in. There are many animal NPC's through out the world, there's even and animal village too lol. The villagers eventually can't recall how long they've been on the island. Throughout the game you even start seeing things from other Nintendo games like the many different Mario enemies, a girl gives you her photo and she looks just like Princess Peach and there's even an enemy that looks and acts like Kirby. This along with the general plot gives this game such a weird, dream-like atmosphere. That's kind of a joke but it's true, they really did a great job at making this game feel like a dream. This is honestly my favorite aspect of this game; just how weird and different it feels from other Zelda games.


The general gameplay is similar to ALTTP, tho it's not quite as linear as that game. You're still going through dungeons and what not but they aren't marked on your map. It can be a bit cryptic at times, trying to figure out how to get into each dungeon, because now you have to find each dungeons respective key to unlock it. Besides that, the overworld itself is pretty fun tho it can get a bit tedious to backtrack through. There are a couple warp points throughout the world you can warp to, but I think there should've been more because even with them, backtracking is plentiful and it's not super fun in this game. The reason for that is, and it's the game's biggest issue, there's only two item slots in this game and stuff like the power bracelet and even the sword takes up a slot. I know this is a Gameboy game, so there was only A and B to work with but having to constantly switch between items to explore can get a bit tiresome. That plus when you don't have an item, needed to clear an object, equipped, an unskippable message appears every time to let you know you need that item. So, whatever you do, don't touch any rocks without having the power bracelet equipped. Like I said, this is my biggest annoyance in the game and while I still enjoyed the overworld despite this, it can be annoying due to these issues.

Exploring the overworld, you'll find many optional secrets just like ALTTP. Like that game, there are caves all throughout and you'll usually need a dungeon item to get whatever treasure is inside. The puzzles in these might actually be more complex than ALTTP's, either way it's good that they're back in this game. You'll also find those weird NPC's throughout the world as well. There's actually a long trade quest in the game, that you would think would be optional due to how long and exploration based it is but it's not. It's required at several points to progress and also the reward you get at the end of it is too. It's not the worst thing in the world but I had forgotten how to do parts of it so I had to look some of it up online so that might stump new players.

Next I want to talk about improvements this game makes compared to past games. This is a Gameboy game so obviously I can't compare its visuals to ALTTP but for a Gameboy game this looks super nice and compared to the first two Zelda games, this also looks nice than them. They did a great job with all the pixel art in this game and I can see why some people prefer this version of the game compared to the remake, based on the art style since it's super charming here. This game also improved on stuff from ALTTP as well funnily enough. You could collect items with you sword in Zelda 1 but not ALTTP for some reason, luckily, you're able to in this game again. I also found the Pegasus Boots better in this game due to you not needing to press and hold the item button again and again when you want to dash constantly. You just need to hold it and Link will start to dash on every screen he's on now. Something that's kinda weird compared to past game is the rupees. Every rupee that spawns in the overworld from cut bushes or defeated enemies is a single rupee. The only way to get more than that at once is with chests and they can give you 20, 50, 100 or even 200 rupees. It's an interesting change but probably a needed one since this was a Gameboy game and this game was already probably pushing the system to its limits.

The dungeons in this game are actually really solid. They're not as vibrant or as memorable visually as ALTTP dungeons however they're full of puzzles, maybe even moreso than ALTTP. That game has a bit more of a focus on combat, and I still might prefer that games dungeons just because of the aforementioned visual memorability. But even still, very good set of dungeons that even stumped me a bit at times. The items you get in these though are pretty solid. You have the aforementioned power bracelet, the magic rod from past Zeldas, the hookshot from ALTTP as well as the flippers. A lot of these are just older items but the standout item, and the one that actually makes the game more fun to play in general tbh, was the roc's feather. When you equip this, you can jump. That's it but it makes a world of difference in how you can play and can absolutely just destroy some bosses super-fast if you're skilled enough. If I didn't need any item to progress, I just went with my sword and the roc's feather. That was my go to set of items. There was an annoyance I had with the items. Since there's no way to speed up text, you'll be seeing the same dialogue for the map and compass over and over again. The map is fine since it's so short but the compass is like three times as long or something and they decided to let you know there's a new sound that plays whenever a chest is in the same room as you. That's cool...you don't have to tell me every time I do a dungeon tho! The bosses at the end of dungeons might also be an improvement from ALTTP. They aren't as flashy of course but they also don't require red/green potions sometimes to defeat, they all have dialogue this time which gives them more character and they're also just really weird or goofy which fits the setting of the game. I'd say they're overall maybe simpler to fight than ALTTP's bosses but simple doesn't equal bad. The final boss tho, had several different phases that took the form of bosses you fought in past games, and it also made use of several of Link's items. Because of that, it was easily the best boss in the game.

The soundtrack in this game, even tho its a Gameboy game, is really melancholic at times and is charming as hell. The signature Ballad of the Wind Fish(I sent Marin's version is easily my favorite song in the game. Mabe Village,Tal Tal Heights and the Ending Theme were my other favorites. The whole soundtrack is good however, and something else this game had over ALTTP is the fact each dungeon had their own unique theme. Now I can't say I prefer any of them over the two ALTTP had but they're still mostly solid here.

While I did have some issues that held this game back from being better than ALTTP, this is still a really solid Zelda game and one that is unique in the story it tells and the atmosphere it provides. It must've been amazing having a game like this on the go back in the day. Like I said as well, I do prefer the remake just because of the some of the improvements it made. I'm kind of known as the original game enjoyer, so for me to prefer a remake over the original is very odd. We'll get to that game way down the line but even if I like that one more, it doesn't stop this version from being good. It certainly has its own charm as well.

I think I'm going to take a small break in between this game and Ocarina of Time. I'm thinking maybe my Plants vs Zombies replay is next? Either way, stay tuned for that and then Ocarina of Time after in the near future!