mossmoth
2017
Odyssey provides a fantastic first playthrough, but it's possibly the least replayable 3D Mario. It's got great level design and music, but the moon collection concept doesn't quite feel as rewarding as collecting power stars or shines. Moons reward exploration more often than platforming challenges or completing bosses. This is fantastic on your first run, but when you already have explored everything the moons lose their impact. Probably the second most tedious 3D Mario to 100%, behind Sunshine.
2024
Beat all the tower bosses and collected all the pals in singleplayer, rarely touched the multiplayer side. With a LOT of polish, this could genuinely be a great and respected survival game on its own merit unrelated to the drama surrounding its release. The gameplay loop is addicting and I loved optimizing my base with better and better pals. I felt a closer connection to my bootleg Pokemon than any real pokemon game, which goes to show how far Pokemon has fallen. The pals are integrated not just into battling, but exploration and construction. However it has a grind at the end to collect ore and repeat boring dungeons that brings the game's captivating loop to a screeching halt. Despite this, Palworld has TONS of replay value due to its very flexible custom difficulty settings, which I recommend tweaking liberally for keeping the game interesting when it reaches an undeniable grind towards the endgame (only really applicable in solo of course). It's in early access, so hopefully things are ironed out in the future, but for now I'm satisfied with what I've done and can confidently put it down until major content patches are out. I much rather have my fun with a game and never touch it again than play mindless live service garbage, so this isn't a complaint at all. I hope this game going forward gets the love and attention it needs.
2021
The BEST gameplay and story in the series. I've completed it 100% on Hard mode, and I can't say that any other Metroid game has had me desperate for more content. The music is the only lacking part of the package, but can be easily overlooked as you explore masterfully thought out labyrinthine areas and fight awesome bosses. The sequence breaks are still here, I did a handful on my first playthrough and it felt like the game was rewarding my intuition. The final boss is probably one of the best of all time without exaggeration, and a fantastic sendoff to this arc in the Metroid series.
The best overall 2D Mario game. So much content and so many different twists keep this game fresh even when completing it 100%. It lacks any real bosses, but I would argue no 2D Mario has truly innovative bosses by modern standards. Wonder is not very replayable after experiencing every wonder effect, resulting in World and 3 feeling infinitely more replayable. But for a first time experience, I had more fun playing Wonder than any other 2D Mario.
2019
A lifechanging game for people like me who needed to hear the messages the game was trying to send. If the story doesn't convince you that this game is a masterpiece, it has the best turn based RPG combat I've ever experienced to top it off. A must play.
The gameplay tops BOTW but the story is somehow even worse due to the lack of commitment in the end to a major plotpoint. I still believe it is the better game however, as it is more FUN to play which is what really matters. Ultrahand gave me dozens of hours of fun on its own, which is not what I could say about any abilities in BOTW.
The first exprience playing this game is unlike any other. It's very easy to get into, and very addicting to complete. It's story is great, but told in a order that really ruins the dystopian feel it was trying to achieve.
2022
My first souls game. I wouldn't have it any other way! I'm definitely the kind of person to bash my head against a wall to kill a boss but I enjoy the freedom that the game gives to just go explore somewhere else that is more my level. Makes it perfect for choosing how difficult I want the game to be at any certain point very organically. I can't think of any flaws, aside from the story feeling pretty barebones. But for an open world game it does it better than any other, so I can look past that for now.