Awful controls, terrible conveyance, an annoying glitch that softlocked me twice in the course of one playthrough. The presentation does have some redeeming qualities, but this stands out as a particularly bad game even for a licensed title.

A playable but unremarkably bad game pretty much through and through - could have been a lot more in the right hands!

Doesn't rank lower because even a terrible fighting game can still be kinda sorta fun for a couple rounds in vs. mode. Definitely had potential, but very weak in execution.

Had a really cool blocking mechanic that gave the gameplay a rather unique feel. However, its stiff handling and lack of "oh, cool!" moments mean it doesn't do enough to really stand out from the many beat-em-ups of the time.

Gave it another spin on NG+ and my opinion is the same: very good battle system with lackluster dungeon and enemy designs, and one-note meta humor that isn't enough to carry the narrative. Decent, which by default puts it above most Christmas-themed shovelware, but not much else.

My second run of the game was still pretty good fun but given that I had done a lot of it before it felt a lot more like a chore in parts. I might still come back to it after a few years, but it really needs either less tedious quests or stronger writing across the board.

Classic arcade games aren't generally my favorite genre but this stands out as one of the better ones for me. The gameplay is fun, and collecting the items while avoiding Bluto's deceptively good AI is an exciting challenge.

Puddle-deep but nice to look at and fun to play. The presence of co-op attacks means this is an especially fun one to play with friends.

Played a bit of this to end off 2022 and it was addictive enough that I kept coming back through the year to try and better my high score - one of the best infinitely-scrolling launcher games around for sure!

So many people say this aged badly but I enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting to. The usual old-game-jank was mitigated by how stylish and slick everything was.

This tabletop RPG dressed up in a rudimentary video game UI is opaque, kinda ugly, and full of old-game jank. But the writing is good enough, exploration rewarding enough, setting fleshed-out enough and missions imaginative enough that it's well worth a play!

Revisited this having not played it in many years, and I'm still pretty good at it. Not bragging, it's all thanks to the game itself; the enemies had such smug shit-eating grins that I was so motivated to beat them, so all the proper patterns to set up big combos are burned into my subconscious. Difficult, unfair, and very motivating, if you want to get good at color-matching games this is the game I'd recommend practicing on.

Excellent game that really nails the collaborative feeling of D&D. Each character class brings something unique to the table, making this one of the best arcade beat-em-ups to play with friends. The single-player experience suffers a bit comparatively, but is still plenty solid.

Somehow captured the sense of imagination and wonder of a Mario game despite unorthodox mechanics and, you know, not actually being a Mario game originally. Not as good a pure platformer as the first SMB, but a good game on its own merits and another highlight of the NES library.

This is the game I kicked the year off with - it's sustained my interest for 6 playthroughs now. Fantastically robust job system, and unfortunately also about as balanced as the Tower of Pisa.

Replayed as part of a limited job challenge on fourjobfiesta.com; fantastic remake of a fantastic game. Preserves the epic scale and sense of discovery of the NES original while adding much-welcomed QoL features, extra content, and improving on its already-excellent balance.

Played (again!) as part of the "Let's Overcomplicate FF7 With Jobs" challenge on fourjobfiesta.com. This is my 6th time through and repeated playthroughs have revealed some blemishes like clunky combat controls and bullshit minigames. Still, its strengths shine as bright as ever - the countless ways to customize characters, the immaculate pacing, epic cinematic quality and the story that manages to hit hard despite the hideous translation.

This was always high up on my list of RPGs but not quite this high - but replaying it this year with Near's (RIP) immaculate translation really catapulted it above some of the more popular RPGs (like FFVII). More than just "that NTR game with dragons", it's a complex morally-grey tale about growing up, the shittiness of life, loss, and love in all its forms.

One of the formative experiences of my gaming life. It's polished to a near-mirror-sheen; the presentation, controls, difficulty, exploration all near-perfect in every way. Streamlined enough an experience to be a must-play for everyone.

This is probably the game that jumped the most positions in my personal ranking on replay - it's leapfrogged FFVII into 2nd place on my all-time list of FF games thanks to its imperfect charm. It's messy and flawed, but does so many things - soundtrack, setpieces, script, character work - so exceptionally well that I have no choice but to love it.

Another 12 playthroughs this year, bringing my total to 65. I'm sure I'll eventually get bored of this game, but I'm not sure whether it will happen before or after the eventual fall of civilization.