There's something so delightful about this game after playing Tears of the Kingdom. The new open world Zelda games are completely overstuffed in a world that's incredibly vast. In contrast, A Link Between Worlds takes about 2 minutes to get from one side of one of it's maps to the other. It's a compact, cozy open world that respects your time and isn't littered with repetition. You get the joys of doing things in your own order and striking out on your own path to do whatever objective strikes your fancy, while still having well-crafted linear dungeons as well as an engaging story. See, Nintendo? You can do an open world and still have a game that satisfies someone wanting a traditional Zelda, the blueprint was here all along!

It's a good entry in the series but a bit overhyped. People say this is the best MH story and I was expecting something really mindblowing but it's nothing major. It's just not utterly terrible like the other games, but still extremely generic and boring at most points.

But anyway, people don't play this game because of the story (and neither do I). Gameplay is pretty fun and the village progression is great. Weapons and armours look sick.

Most of the late-game fights are pretty bad, though. And even some early ones like Rathalos and Khezu. The monsters do the "combo you to death" too much in this game. Dying to your own fault is fine, but dying because of the relentless AI or jankyness of the fight is frustrating. Savage Jho, the metal raths, the Khezus, Brachydios - they're all terrible fights in this game. But I suppose every MH has their share of bullshit fights...

i do think this game can be a lot of fun and has great platforming and i tried to play as many levels as i could no warp whistle or anything. i was thoroughly enjoying myself from like worlds 1-4 because the game just genuinely felt a lot of fun to play. but god by world 5 and onward there were just some levels that took a lot out of me and made me wanna stop playing for a little because of how annoying they were to play, especially when they love doing the puzzle levels that go on forever because you cant find a single block with a p switch or the right door to walk through because the level has 15 to choose from. there were still good levels from that point in world 5 and on, and i know i could have just skipped levels that werent required that i didnt like, but i felt like trying to experience as much of the game as i could. it just felt like at a point for every 2 or 3 levels where i was having fun there was one level that drove me insane whether it be because it was a puzzle level or just something with enemy placement or level design or whatever that i wasnt a big fan of

I love driving in this, I love the graphics, I love how it made me more interested in cars. The obvious problems with the game are progression based, its the always online , the roulettes giving the lowest thing every spin (I've must've spun over forty times at least, and I can only recall once getting something above the bottom tier: stack of coins). The micro transactions are on Fortnite levels as in $27 and you can have Kratos, its expensive to get in-game currency and its a long grind once the campaign is complete. This all being said, I got lost in hours of gameplay. The races can be tough, and some demand upward of twenty minutes of perfect execution with just enough accessibility options to not let you fail, and even with all of it turned on, you must keep your engagement. It is a phenomenal balance of challenge. I constantly find myself leaning toward my television, this is fun, and somehow has found a way into my heart despite all the negatives I listed. The devs cared about this, cars feel unique. Parts feel unique, the weather system is quite breathtaking from time to time. And I loved the campaign structure of collecting cars to progress through the story. Even the ending made me laugh out loud, probably wasn't the intention, but it made me admire it more. The car customization is extensive and has a sticker search engine which gifted me opportunities such as making a Communist Seinfield Mustang. (Flag of china across the top, Seinfield logo on the hood, with blends of green and red across the vehicle. In case you're wondering), People put lots of fun IP into this online database, and I found myself laughing my ass off to what I could come up with. I'm still playing to this day, and will happily continue to.

EDIT: They have improved the rate you make money, and I found that if you wait a day or so the raffles produce better results (Although I think thats a problem still), I have also found the addictiveness of both the online matchmaking and the license centre, the demand it has for perfection, perfecto. The game has earned a half star ;)

I think I hate Baba is You. Or, I love Baba is You but I hate what it asks of me. Or maybe I adore Baba is You but with the major asterisk that I used Baba is Hint from time to time because some times the things Baba is You asks you to come up with on the spot are fucking asinine, and require such liberal guesstimate reads of the fundamental mechanics that extend well beyond the rules presented that you genuinely will sometimes just accidentally guess the right answer after three straight hours on the same puzzle then have to reverse engineer how the solution you got even makes sense.

Baba is You is a game about love, I think. You move around in this four by four grid with this cute little critter named Baba, and you push around blocks that manipulate the rules Baba works by. You are a kid playing with metaconceptual Legos, and as you play you discover, and as you discover you learn, and as you learn you explore, and as you explore you find new ways to play. There's a zen here, I think, don't quote me on this I don't know zen philosophy at all, in the quiet meditative peace of just seeing what the game will allow you to do, trying different solutions.

If there's an "optimal" way to play Baba is You, which i think there isn't as a facet of its nature, it's in finding new and better ways to fail faster and harder. How can you try different ideas without restarting a level, how many different ideas can you throw at a solution, how do you act when nothing you're trying is working. Maybe the most frustrating part of baba is you is how little it judges. You won't get feedback on whether your idea is right or asinine, whether your play is open or restrictive, whether you've even beaten the game or not. But I think there's something beautiful in that too- I finished Baba is You but it's more accurate to say I walked away from Baba is You, put it down like the bell rang for recess and it's time to go back to class and tomorrow I will pick up my toys and play with them again

DeAndre Cortez Way’s 2009 critique of Braid is well known for how it pioneered games analysis on Youtube, but it’s even more famous for its assertion that the game lacked central purpose. While entertainment is generally associated with some degree of pointlessness, there’s also expected to be some degree of enrichment, whether that be through the merit of competition, mastering challenge, or constructive escapism. If the audience is left without a lasting impression, the experience may as well have never happened, so it’s important for games to construct purposefulness, regardless of how artificial it is.

I started reevaluating this concept when Roll called me up as I exited a dungeon, mentioning that I must be getting hungry, and that I could have a slice of the apricot pie she baked as soon as I got back to the ship. The line is completely pointless. The subject never comes up again, it doesn’t build into any new characterization, and the game would be functionally identical without it, but even so, they went to the trouble of writing and recording a voice line for it. Similarly, while Roll is established as your mechanic, she’s not the person who saves your game and heals you, it’s a small robotic monkey that constantly does The Monkey like Johnny Bravo, and I can’t fathom why. That is to say, I can’t fathom why it’s constantly dancing and I also can’t fathom why it was included in the game at all, but there it is. The more I looked for it, the more I noticed how Legends is completely saturated with pointlessness, including its plot. The stakes are incredibly low, you’re simply trying to find a treasure before the Bonne Family Pirates do, but they’re such a loving family of good-natured criminals that you wouldn’t mind them winning. In multiple cutscenes, MegaMan seems like he wants to communicate to the Bonnes that there’s no real reason to fight, but they keep doing it because they love it. Details like these give the game a totally unique atmosphere of joyous pointlessness, like the developers themselves were building the game in ways that made them laugh, regardless of how much sense their design actually made. The game feels like a celebration of doing things entirely for their own sake, and not getting too caught up in finding a grand purpose. I wouldn’t exactly call it The Myth of Sisyphus for kids or anything, but at the very least it’s a perfect example of how pleasant it can be that there ain’t no point to the game.