A big step up from 1 mechanically… but structurally? Caves are a good idea and can be REALLY fun and tricky, but are just as often tedious and ugly. I'd still say it's better than 1, but 100% completion sounds like torture and that's a bummer for a game like this!

What a lovely little game! Just a small, gorgeous world to explore framed around a simple but human story with a great soundtrack to boot. (Call me crazy, but if they ever make another top-down Zelda, this would be an awesome template for the overworld design.)

No idea why this took me months to finish because it's SO damn good. Like most cinematic first party Sony games, the puzzle design and exploration are kinda weak, but the COMBAT and WORLD and STORY are all sooo interesting! Excited to eventually play Ragnorok.

Shares a lot of issues with the other two Dark Matter games—namely, the arbirtarily hidden secrets required for the true ending—but a big step forward overall. The presentation and copy abilities were fun enough to keep me going until the end.

Really enjoyed this! Janky-ass start to the series but the cleverness and charm are still there. It's very funny that THIS became a Nintendo mainstay and wasn't just a one-off you hear about it in listicles, because it has ALL the makings of a Cubivore or Doshin.

Playing this with a little sister is a very rewarding experience, highly recommend. Her reactions to the climax were priceless. Still an excellent game.

Cute claw machine-themed physics game! Didn't enrapture me but also had some pretty fun puzzles. I don't have much else to say besides that HAL is amazing at designing these adorable mascots. I don't know how they do it.

Cute bite-sized search action that didn't do a ton for me design-wise. The visual style is great in a vacuum but occasionally hard to parse in practice, and the world was too small to leave much of an impression, but it's overall fine.

While DX is more artistically compelling, the remake is definitely more accessible and pretty. It's mostly held back by the additions just being... Stuff™, y'know? Padding. It weakens the vibe. The two games are an 8/10 when looked at together, but a 7/10 on their own.

In some ways, I prefer DX over the remake. The unique level design and tone hit SO different here… but god, two buttons are NOT enough for this genre. The original 100% wins in vibes, but the remake is still the better way to play.

While easier, less original, and obviously less important than its predecessor, I actually love it a little bit more? It's well-designed, replayable, has a sweet ending, and makes me miss 2D Zelda so much. It's been 10 years...

Big improvement over the NES original. The overworld is accessible and fun to explore, the dungeons actually feel designed, and the combat- well, that's pretty boring, but beyond a few REALLY annoying moments, it's still a fun game!

One of the best games I've ever played in my entire life lol.

An ambitious but somewhat disappointing sequel to one of my favorite early Switch games. While there's still a lot to like, a mixture of feature bloat, unbalanced gameplay, and inconsistent tone resulted in a game that's good! …but not great.

I must be a Xenoblade fan with bad taste, because I skipped the second game in this series for some reason. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure why I own Picross S1 and S3 but not S2. I wonder what deep lore I'm missing. Nonetheless, it fun.