Borderlands 2: The Video Gaming Experience is a slightly acquired taste - but there is an undeniable flow here once you figure it out. With the Diablo influence finally finding its feet, the game walks the line between Zany and Serious in both its combat and narrative in a way thats riveting and compelling. The sad truth is: Gearbox will probably never write a character as good as Handsome Jack (or most of the cast) ever again.

In fact (hot take) it was probably essential that Borderlands 2 was written with a largely comedic lean, because the unserious attitude helps you feel less seriously about the games cheap feeling gameplay. The games looter-churn means youll be obligated to use guns that suck in a game where the shooting already kind of sucks, the artstyle is pretty but also very poorly assembled and buggy - it all feels less irritating (key word being “less”) when the world is already absurd and illogical.

Maybe one day, you’ll remember this place…

A Link to the Past starts on a stormy night...

I actually never have beaten any 2D Zelda games until now, for reasons that are a story for another time, but I have played an tried quiet a ton of them, some until the half-way point or even a bit after that, and the one thing they all share in common is how well they sell this larger than life epic, an adventure with its silly moments, but that it still feels consistently ‘’grand’’, and the menace of evil looming over the heads of everyone in Hyrule. This isn’t a complain, not in the slightest, and that isn’t the reasons I didn’t see any of those games to the finale, is just a part of their identity, like the dungeons, vast worlds opened by upgrades, and Octorocks…

Link’s Awakening begins on the quiet coast…

…But Koholint Island felt different. It still has the many dungeons with their bosses —some being not that great to be honest, at best they end too soon and at worst they are slow or overly simple—, it still has the usual items and upgrades, it has a TON of Octorocks ; in many ways, it still has the mark of 2D Zelda…only instead of feeling like an epic , at times it feels closer to a fairy tale.

Mist forest filled with secret passages and tricker raccoons, songs of fishes and frogs that give new life to what has been gone for a really long time, and what’s perhaps one of the funniest side quests in any game that’s essentially just an item-trade hunt, but it goes on and on across the entire island and your final reward is basically getting two items and scammed, it’s amazing!

There’s a joy to be found in the island, be it the in the little chats with the weird folk or the great search for the color dungeon; even when you aren’t at one of the incredible dungeons, which from a design perspective are the most fun I’ve had with 2D Zelda ever, I never felt like I was losing time or getting side-tracked. The little things like walking a Chomp-Chomp around and playing a crane machine feel just as important as getting the fabled legendary instruments, so mundane but at the same time so mysterious, so fun, so dream-like.

The diorama comparison was also completely on purpose, the toy-like feeling the remake offers is nothing short of amazing, everything feels made out of plastic and clay in such a purposeful way I got nothing but praise for it, and playing through this world reminded me of the tales I made while playing with my tales, distant memories flourishing amidst a world full of wonder and shells.

It sucks that it comes to a price; the game’s frames tank… a LOT, sometimes in the dungeons, but mostly out in the open, and it’s pretty noticeable. I understand that running a completely ‘’open’’ island with such wonderful visuals would have its consequences on performance but I would lie if I said it sometimes felt a lit too much, and I’m left wondering if maybe a bit more time in the oven or a patch or two would have helped things, ‘cause as it is it can feel jarring and take you out of the dream.

It's honestly a bit of a weird remake at times; the fact the jump item isn’t immediately binded to a button permanently boggles my mind considering just how essential jumping is for the whole adventure, especially the scroll sections; that plus how cryptic some enemies’ weaknesses can be compared to others which are pretty much clear as day, I’m left wondering, more-so than after playing any other remake, how the original holds-up and if maybe it can feel more consistent. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still in love with the visuals, and things like the Telephone Hint Huts and are a godsend for people like me, but I feel like I’ve missed something by not playing the original… or maybe I’m just searching excuses to return to the island.

You have no idea the mental strength I’m putting in to not talk about every single interaction and moment, ‘cause Link’s Awakening feels special, like a dream, yes, but also like a pas memory, memories of spending summers at the beach and waling along hills, memories of thinking of adventure and meeting strange yet lovable folks, scattered memories from a distant past or even a completely different Goomba-infested reality, memories of songs so far away they are beginning to echo…

I feel like I’ve been missing something incredible by not playing this sooner, yet I’m happy to have finally clicked with one of Link’s adventures, and especially this one. It’s fun, it’s carefree, it’s exciting… and beautiful in its own particular, amazing way, to be honest…

…and then, it’ll become real.

Final Fantasy Origins is an impressive little collection that bundles the Wonderswan remakes of Final Fantasy I & II for the PlayStation, with a slew of quality-of-life improvements that make Final Fantasy's earliest entries more accessible to new audiences without cheapening their "old school" difficulty. About the only impressive thing Final Fantasy Chronicles does is introduce intrusive load times and slowdown to Super Nintendo games in the year 2001 and with the full space of dedicated CDs at Square's disposal. Astonishing.

I'm sure there's worse ways to play these games. I know my ears wouldn't be able to tolerate a full playthrough of Final Fantasy IV for the Game Boy Advance, at least, but Chronicles is still less than ideal. I didn't tear into the technical aspects of the game in my review of FFIV, but the amount of slowdown here is agonizing. Scroll through your inventory mid-battle and watch it tick by like molasses slowly pouring from the tap. I also encountered a somewhat frequent bug where Rydia's summons would appear for a couple of frames and then vanish, taking any ensuing effects or damage along with them. Granted, I have no (contemporary) frame of reference to say whether these problems are unique to Chronicles or simply part of the FFIV experience, but it definitely hampers the experience of playing this release regardless.

Chrono Trigger is a game I don't currently have the motivation to sit down and fully replay, but I did mess around in it for a while just to get a sense of what the Chronicles edition was like. Bad, it turns out! The load times are so disruptive to the pace of the game that I can't see myself bearing it for a full play in the same way I can FFIV. You do at least get a nicely animated FMV intro, but hear me out: you can just watch that on YouTube before starting an ill-gotten SNES ROM up in your emulator of choice.

Final Fantasy IV also gets an FMV intro, but uhh... uhhhhhh.... Square was respected for the quality of their CGI cutscenes during the PlayStation era, so what happened here? Was all their money tied up with Spirits Within?

There are simply better ways to play these games, and the only real value I see in Chronicles today is if you're trying to fill out a PlayStation 1 collection and are still in the "I don't want to spend a lot on old games" phase of what is sure to be a mounting problem that will ultimately lead you to financial ruin, like it has me. It starts with this and then the next thing you know you're eyeballing copies of Ehrgeiz and Xenogears and contemplating taking out a loan. I'm writing this review on a Chromebook from the back of my 2003 Toyota Avalon, which I live out of now because i bought too many video games, please donate to my patreon i need to eat i promise i won't spend it on Suikoden II thats not who i am anymore i've changed!!

I really, really wanted to enjoy Harold Halibut more than I did. Harold, our protagonist, is a fish out of water: an autistic-coded janitor slash jack-of-all-trades, whose daily grind involves doing various tasks for the mostly warm but slightly stuck up crew of scientists and venture capitalists aboard the marooned spaceship, The Fedora. The game is underwater, so there's the expected Bioshock-esque critique of capitalism run riot, presented with a more dry, wry sense of humor. The game makes a strong first impression, with several mysteries piling up alongside the slow reveal of this artful, beautiful world. I particularly loved how you get around on The Fedora via a salmon cannon that shoots the people from hub to hub (for a nominal fee, of course).

And, c'mon, the art! I know it's not the most technical game running under the hood, but this game is a sight to behold. Each interior is handcrafted and rich with detail, but then digitalized and animated so that the puppetry has no strings. Even though the gameplay is light, I found myself mashing the trigger on the controller to zoom into each interior and soak in as much of the ambiance as I could. The soundtrack, too, is subtle but evocative, fading in and out when the player enters certain locations. Tremendous stuff.

During its introductory moments, I thought this game might be another Night in the Woods-esque narrative game, one that took a story and set it across many days so that you could build relationships and be rewarded for meandering from the main task routes at every turn. And, for a while, it was. I would get invited to dinner by the former pilot, or pore over love letters from decades past with the postman. And each character, lovingly designed and voice acted, always had something to say about life's meaning, or the dulling effect of daily jobs (and the threat of debtor's prison) in an alien, water-logged world.

But my return visits to the various wings of The Fedora yielded less and less surprise, or even change, as the days went on. By midgame, Harold had stumbled upon a seemingly huge reveal, with widespread implications for him, his shipmates--maybe even the human race--yet our daily tasks consisted of slow runs to the pharmacy with almost no diversity of content. It felt like we were being forced to play out an extended montage, a pain that only sharpened once the weeklong scenario ended with a literal montage.

Repetition in videogames is part of the act, of course. It can be gameplay, the ritualistic dance of combat that break up FPS campaigns, or the return trips of roguelites that build repetitiveness into their DNA to build familiarity and as a means of player progression. But Harold Halibut seems to say..."God, isn't capitalist bureaucracy boring and awful?" Yes, it is. And it's especially boring and awful when it's hammered home in a world as lush and gorgeous as Harold Halibut.

There is a payoff, and the narrative eventually does get going. But the jarring pace and tonal shifts never really go away.

I'm glad this game exists. And it's clear that there's a huge amount of work that's gone into this game and realizing its vision. Unfortunately, Harold Halibut isn't able to successfully navigate the choppy waters separating sincerity and comedy, and ends up splitting the two in a way that challenged me to go on.

In the end, Harold Halibut is way more niche than you might expect. Its messages on capitalism, and humanity's tendency toward resource drain, even in the face of assured calamity, are all vital and integrated well into the story. I just wish the game, like its main character, was a little more self-assured.

honestly feel like i should preface this with an apology but ff9 is kind of exhausting to me. it feels like going to a shift to work at a theme park; it's pretty and sweet, it's whimsical, and it has nice atmosphere and sometimes you even see your favorite characters walking around, but at the end of the day it's still a day of work to get through. going to just chalk it up as this one not being for me until a few years down the line where i yet again try to beat my head against this game until i like it

It's fine.

When folks decry Super for being a blasphemous take on the tried-and-true formula of Classicvania with it's eight-directional whipping, they're absolutely justified in their thought. It takes away the strategical element that made us love the thinking person's aspect behind the careful movement. An entire sub-system becomes a complete afterthought, with them only being convenient at hyper-specific instances rather than something that was there to truly compliment our whipping prowess to help with entire courses and encounters. Taking a death becomes less threatening as losing a sub-weapon essentially turns into a very minor slap on the wrist at worst, as an empty sub-weapon box may as well had been what it felt like the entire time we had been playing.

It's an ordeal that can't be simply ignored in a self-imposed challenge like the charged mega buster in every NES era Mega Man past the third game, and you're left with Simon being able to skillfully twirl his whip better than any other Belmont before or after him. Perhaps Simon was always meant to be presented as the most headstrong and bullish of the family? Characterization through mechanics? It remains to be seen if that was the intent, or if it was supposed to be an "evolution". An evolution that no doubt would've made this entry an even bigger target of contempt, especially if the stage design would continue to fail to compliment the new system beyond smattering a few bats flying down from odd angles, and if we could still easily thwart Axe Armors from below the floor they're standing on. Luckily for all of us however, this would be the only time such a new take would be used, and instead of being a deplorable turning point for the series, it is in fact unique and now it's own experience.

A retelling of the original that shows Simon's entire journey from beyond Devil's Castle, braving the horrors that crept from the onset of the horrid manifestation of Dracula's power within what was once a peaceful forest accompanied by strings of a violin within a purple and grey console. A walk through the caves with beautiful woodwind arrangements, and mesmerizing illusions brought upon by the seventh mode conjured by unknown forces presumably under the control of the dark lord himself. The approach to familiar scenery from the beginning of our original story of the legendary quest partnered by intimidating percussion for nightmares to come. We make our way through the retold portions of Simon's tale, and upon completion hear echoes of our past one last time before we must move on to beginnings of a new generation. The slow haunting keys of an organ cue the entry of Dracula to the main stage. Simon's Theme of which signaled the entrance of the hero at the very start, returns once again at the final moment the Count is nearing his defeat to build the audience's tension to the epic conclusion of the adventure. The orchestra plays to the agonizing death of the villain, and rings in daylight's victory over the darkness.

The fabled saga, retold and reimagined with added flare of chilling drama and suspense. Not to replace the original, but to remember it through a more cinematic lens. Forever immortal.

Back in 2018, I wonder to what extent people were seriously discussing the scalability of live service projects like Next Up Hero. I suppose there was an angel investor who was wooed enough by the idea of this humdrum roguelike's ability to capture an active playerbase, but with the benefit of hindsight it is quite clear this game never even had a chance.

Nothing about this strikes me as something that should require an online connection to play. The Epic Games Store client doesn't let you set a username or anything- it just calls you "PlayerConnection_1" which suggests there used to be some sort of account functionality that was abandoned by the devs with the rest of the game. Regardless, the online connection means that the game has noticeable loading times. Not something I want in a game with Flash-esque graphics and tiny procedurally generated arenas.

I have recently started to feel more reticent about posting negative reviews. It is easy to talk badly about games, and I know making them is hard. No doubt the team behind this game had grand ideas for what it could become, but it ultimately all feels like an ill-thought out decision. One that would have been much better served as an offline experience, or something with p2p connections. Next Up Hero feels worth discussing because of how sad the live service model is. In a few year's time, this server will be taken offline and Next Up Hero becomes digital ephemera outside of IGDB and MobyGames. Even if I don't personally find this game appealing, that pains the archivist within me.

Unpacking is an interesting idea. It's essentially fairly freeform puzzle game of 8 levels unpacking boxes of someone moving into different houses. It follows an unnamed woman's life through her first room as a girl, through college house sharing and relationships to a middle aged adult.

The game makes use of environmental story telling to push what is happening along, moving in with their first partner, the lack of space or compatibility etc. Without meeting or hearing about this woman you can piece together the events of her life and interests. It's a really neat idea and I liked seeing the small changes to belongings from location to location or items she has taken with her through most of her life. It does wear out it's welcome after a little bit though as I don't feel it gets quite clever enough with it's items to progress that story as it could. There are only so many piles of the same books and socks I can unbox and put on shelves or in draws without feeling like the idea ran stale. There are also some sections where the simple music just stopped leaving an odd silence as I decided where to put the yoga mat under the bed again in the next bedroom.

Still I really appreciate what a neat idea and unique game this is. I would have preferred more interactive items, close up's of photos to show things our nameless protagonist had done, new hobbies or even problems in her life to flesh it out more. What I really took from this though is if someone unpacked my things for me if I moved house what sort of person would they think I am? So much of what we own, decide to keep and how we keep them at home speaks so much about us as people. For that alone I am grateful to this short and cute little game.

+ Interesting use of environmental story telling.
+ Unique game idea.
+ Nice pixel art style.

- Runs out of steam a bit in the last couple of levels.