hexxter
2023
This game genuinely makes me angry. Soulless cash grab meant to capitalize on the mascot horror trope in a desperate attempt to go viral. Then it actually goes viral because of memes. There are so many fantastic indie games that go relatively unnoticed while shit like this blows up because it's "funny."
This is probably the best piece of fan-made content I've experienced in my life. The amount of love, care, and passion felt at every corner is indescribable. Yeah, the game's janky and has some design quirks that I disagree with, but that's not what this is about. It's truly a testament on what a group of talented and passionate fans can do when they work together. I spend every waking hour of the day looking forward to what the devs have in store for the future.
2014
This was a shockingly fun and content-rich RPG back in the day. Only held back by the amount of microtransactions. Take a wild guess what Rovio did to it's app store page. I'm just desperately waiting for the day that this game gets a modding scene so we can have a PVZ2 Reflourished-style mod that fixes everything.
1987
Surprisingly decent for an old 8-bit MSX game, but still very dated
Surprisingly good game. It's aged shockingly well and has a better story than even some modern AAA games. I unironically like this game more than MGS1.
I fucking love this game's title
2003
Wario
Everyone's been saying "Best 2D Mario since Super Mario World," which honestly isn't that high of a bar to cross (it pretty much just means... better than New Super Mario Bros. Wii?), but I will say this is the first 2D Mario in 3 decades to be able to COMPETE with World. This game is an absolutely magical experience that should be seen by everyone. It's so great to finally see Mario be able to set an example for the genre it created once again and see people finally give 2D platformers the respect they deserve.
The only complaint I can give is that the bosses aren't very good and there aren't many of them. but that's a drop in the bucket compared to the fantastic level design we see across the rest of the game.
I beat the game in a day, but I can't wait to start going for 100%.
Update: After 100%ing the game, I have a few more comments,
Postgame was kinda disappointing. Mostly just a special world with 1 stage for each world and a few final challenges. Better than the NSMB games, but nowhere near as good as 3D World's post game.
Not a fan of how small some worlds are. Worlds 1, 2, 4, and 6 are all incredible while Worlds 3 and 5 are basically half-worlds and they suck.
I really like how the wonder flowers are mostly optional. Some levels feel very different if you play them without touching the flower and it makes going back to collect the flower coins much more fun. I honestly kinda want to go back and do a no-wonder-flower playthrough just to see how it would go.
Overall, I wouldn't call it the best 2D Mario, but still a great game. It's probably neck-at-neck with Mario 3D World for me, and I love 3D World.
The only complaint I can give is that the bosses aren't very good and there aren't many of them. but that's a drop in the bucket compared to the fantastic level design we see across the rest of the game.
I beat the game in a day, but I can't wait to start going for 100%.
Update: After 100%ing the game, I have a few more comments,
Postgame was kinda disappointing. Mostly just a special world with 1 stage for each world and a few final challenges. Better than the NSMB games, but nowhere near as good as 3D World's post game.
Not a fan of how small some worlds are. Worlds 1, 2, 4, and 6 are all incredible while Worlds 3 and 5 are basically half-worlds and they suck.
I really like how the wonder flowers are mostly optional. Some levels feel very different if you play them without touching the flower and it makes going back to collect the flower coins much more fun. I honestly kinda want to go back and do a no-wonder-flower playthrough just to see how it would go.
Overall, I wouldn't call it the best 2D Mario, but still a great game. It's probably neck-at-neck with Mario 3D World for me, and I love 3D World.
Angry Birds, but back before they bloated the game with mediocre content, ads, and microtransactions. Glad I bought the game before it was removed from the store because it was cannibalizing sales from their other, worse games. Would have loved if we got this for their other games, but apparently that's asking for too much. Man, isn't mobile gaming GREAT?
This game traumatized me as a kid. 10/10
2019
I love talking trash about this game and it's hard for me to call it one of my favorites, but the truth is I spent over 100 hours beating it, so clearly they did something right here.
This game has not aged nearly as well as people say. It's made needlessly frustrating through poor hitboxes, enemies that hit way too hard, and obscure mandatory secrets, making this one of my least favorite Zeldas. Not a bad game at all, but I'm probably not playing it again.
I've beaten this game 4 times without save states. Why am I like this?
2006
The only video game ever to almost make me cry. 10/10
This game is genuinely really good until you get to the last 2 palaces.