I have a lot of love for Chunithum. Sega has continued to make some of the most innovative and delightful rhythm game controllers to wrap your head around. Hitting an Air-Justice feels cool as hell and nothing Bemani has done will compare. Unfortunately Sega is not letting their team actually design the whole game. In maimai and Chuni both, there's just a bunch of songs and they hope you figure it out on your own nerd.

Where the Bemani sound team can effortlessly compose your climb through the ranks to more or less equip you for next big jump in difficulty, Chuni displays some of the weirdest gaps in patterns and general hand placement expectations I've ever had to stumble though. You'd think by the twelfth entry they'd work master notes in earlier but I guess not! The gatcha style character and skill system further muddles any attempt the game could make at describing your progress. In what feels like full combo-ing in Bandori with a C clear, I hopped into this game immediately getting AAA-S on sight read for 10-12s, but I'll still fail maybe every 2 in 3 songs while trying to experiment with skills.

I can't understate how joyous it is to use this controller, but the feedback of the game as a system beyond slipping and sliding and smacking the air creates so many deeply unpleasant moments.

PREQUEL PERFECT PAYOFF PERFORMED
COOL CHARISMATIC CHARACTER CAST
THEATER TALE OF TRUE TEARJERKING
RYUNOSUKE'S RESOLVE OF RAW RESOURCING
SO
SEKI
NAT
SUME

After all these years, Cave Story has cemented itself as a legend and titan of the indie game scene. This must've set a hell of an example back in '04 as a type of game that AAA was moving away from (that we appreciated was still being made), and as something truly accessible to anyone with a computer, while being consistently quality throughout. A one-man passion project that somehow manages to hold its own in a fair few ways - the music slaps, the gameplay is solid and has cool ideas, the theming of the game is cute with a lovable cast... who knows how many creators this inspired. It being free ensured that so many people were able t- wait shit this isnt that one. yeah fuck there's a + on the end of the title lmao i goofed hard. uhhh lemme fix that rating real qui