this shit is so good on some aspects, SO GOOD it's actually bad. It's like reverse nanar

im scared about this existing out there

i hate knowing what homestuck is, i hate to know how bad it is
i hate to know how good it is

A game for which his legacy's much more than all the unfair shitty platformers we got after its release. A legacy of the cultural impact it had on the internet indie game freeware and flash gaming scene, as well as the die & retry and 2d platformer genres as a whole.

I genuinely consider IWBTG to be a brilliant package of level design and creativity when it comes to 2D platformers. Passed the frustration of the first unfair screens, I would say from the first Boss of the game, through each main zones, IWBTG keeps us surprised with clever ideas of subverting its die & retry nature to the point that, the game is like
fun y'know; and pretty funny too

And sure the controls are clumsy, with the eaten double jump when you fall from the edge of a platform even for a frame; the often glitchy hitboxes and awkward sprites works of stolen assets. But I think the game comes from a good spirit and a sincere willingness to create humorous scenes, and tends to be an often tasteful tribute to retro games.
The game is really ahead of its time, too. As an indie passion project that inspired so much of the soulless unfair clones of the early 2000's as well as many smart and fun 2d platformers of the era, I think we don't give enough credit for the sparse of creativity that this game bringed. Just look at the hundreds of surprisingly good fangames.

I don't think the game is unfairly hard at any point, actually it's pretty baffling how people saw this game as the 'pinnacle of difficulty' at the time, when in reality playing it as of today doesn't feel much harder than games like meatboy or celeste, and the game is much more generous with checkpoints in the lower difficulty than what people tend to say.
It's surprising how well designed the whole structure of the game is, especially when looking at its difficulty. Because while some bosses can be a huge spike of difficulty, not a single time was I in a situation where I was lost, couldn't figure out the right solution, or just felt stuck because the game was too difficult. It always stayed on the perfect line between challenging but not too hard to beat, and frustrating but not too frustrating that stepping on a new dumb trap that instantly kills you does more than amuse you at the moment. Especially because the game has so many ways to kill you in much more clever ways than the apples of the 1st screen. So great in fact that I just don't want to spoil it.

I think the worst aspects of it is how dated some of the jokes are, it really is a product out of the 2000's internet era with his overly toxic masculinity and 'gamer' jokes, among other tacky things. But honestly that tiny bit of jokes feel more than forgiven for all the much more charming aspects of its um funnyness.
Really that's about it, the game still feels fun to play nowaday and the impact of IWBTG cannot be understated. I'm glad the active fangame scene and the spirit of the genre is maintained and honored through all the indie platformers of the last decade or so. I can only wish I convinced you to try it out or even replay it years later because it's a sweet little gem that definitely gave me a lot of love and appreciation for the games it transpired to.

As a passion project and a FREE game that runs on any computer, with 4 different game modes, a powerful chart editor to create your own beatmaps and an active community; this sure is a great way to get into rhythm games.

For a game genre as elitist, and with very restricted access to truly appreciate due to hardware limitation, location, etc.. I don't think we give enough credit for osu! to exist in the first place.
Easy to skin, many QoL features, well optimized with very few bugs and even an online multiplayer.. we never had any PC rhythm games coming even remotely close to how much osu! achieve (maybe with the exception of Etterna for 4k VSRG), and such since almost 15 years now.

I find osu!STD to be incredibly satisfying to play regardless of the devices used, with such a large skillset to master and a difficulty range that beats most other PC rhythm games, without too unbalanced of a learning curve for me. The many playstyles that developed, the types of beatmaps created by the community over the years etc.. makes it my favorite rhythm game to play alongside pop'n & maybe DDR, but definitely the one I played the most.

It's not to say the game is beneath any criticism, and osu! has been considered as the black sheep of the genre for years so I'd like to address some of the criticism put onto it, especially from other people of the rhythm game community.
Obviously the game is not for everyone, some even argues its very nature as a rhythm game because of how prevalent the "aim" aspect the game has, and how streams and heavily burst oriented maps can feel very different from the typical notion of rhythm within the genre. To that I would respond that's perfectly fair; It's all about feelings and the aim aspect does take over the sense of timing sometimes, although I invite you to try and beat me without typing the keys to the rhythm. At the end of the day, contesting this very aspect of the gameplay as not similar enough to other VSRGs you like, making it "not a rhythm game" tells you more about the fact that maybe it's simply not for you.
We don't question hand placement and such meta mecanics very present within Jubeat or maimai's gameplay as "not rhythm-gamey enough", so I don't think the aim takes away the feeling of music timing that defines the genre for me.
Lastly, I should mention some nerds love to remind people how much better the original osu tatakae ouendan ds games are to this "shitty clone", which is hilarious and insane. I don't think I need to get onto why this is stupid as anyone who played both games at least an hour would not take this comparison seriously, but I would strongly invite you to play both the originals and the PC port, as they're both great albeit fundamentally different experiences.

As for the other game modes, I'm not very experienced in any of them outside a bit of osu!mania 4k & 7k, but :
Spit all you want on the scoring and ranking systems for mania or taiko, but osu! is still the most efficient and accessible way to create and play rhythm game charts on PC currently, which in and of itself should be acclaimed rather than spitted upon. It's something to criticize the game's mecanics fairly and highlights its problems, but It's an other to completely reject the game and it's players. As a community, we should be glad to see a point of entrance for new players to the genre, instead I've met countless bemani players, EVEN keyboard VSRG players belittling osu! players, gatekeeping their games from them (of course I'm talking about the 10% of toxic elitists, they're not representative of their respective game's playerbase); Which I find to be one of the main factors that makes osu! thrive while many other games are slowly losing their community over the years.

To me, osu! absolutely deserves its success; I also hope osu!lazer will manage to become a better version for everyone without alienating it's own players, and will motivate even more people to get into it.

The chess of videogames (goofy aah comparison)

Probably the game concept that's the closest to perfection. It is abstract to critically put into words how good it feels to play Tetris, as its core gameplay to me is simply pure genius; from its immense addictiveness and such a large range of mastery based on very simple set of rules.

The couple of defaults I would address to this version are coming from the fact that this is a Nes game from 1989, not modern Tetris; Which is to say there's a lot of highly polished versions to play Tetris out there that I would consider to be better in every aspects from TETR.IO, puyo puyo tetris, The Grand Master series... to name a few
Although I'm conscious that's a largely different subjective experience since a lot of people still play classic tetris, both competitively & for fun;

After all it is one of, if not the most important game in video game history.

The second worst in the franchise storywise (most of my enjoyment came from the wackyness of it), not the most interesting setting or environment, the dialog wheel is god awful and the plot and sidequests get way too absurd sometimes..
but damn this was still very fun to play for me

Just from the way the crafting elements works, the settlement construction system, the mecha suit etc.. makes it a decent to good experience on its own at least for the first hours, but as usual with Bethesda titles the mods are what make this game something worth putting time into.

I don't think we'll ever get a fallout game as smartly delivered as New vegas, or a game that immerse me as much as Fallout 2, I don't have the nostalgia factor I have with Fallout 3 despite its now obvious weak points, so I'm at least glad I get to enjoy the sillyness of this title.

Something tells me this might be the last time I enjoy playing a Fallout game.

fuck gacha games and i hate what this game represents in regards to the future of the video game industry;
and yet a fun, pretty and addictive experience that really surprised me and took over my life for dozens of hours, without having to spend a cent on it.
Still, a pretty weak and messy story at first, with a LOT of dump lore (which is to be expected from this kind of games), & still lacking in endgame content. With of course, all the usual gacha elements i tend to despise.

So a decent to good experience that i think would've benefit from being a more traditional singleplayer Action-RPG without all the excessive ingame purchases, but it probably wouldn't have made a bajillion dollars

I'm very fond of the indie RPG horror scene of the late 2000's and early 2010s. You can find some truly beautiful and creative projects that served to display great talents of composition, illustration, writing, etc..
Ambitious ideas both narratively and gameplay wise, despite the often limited tools.

And also of course a lot of badly made games, often from kids who wanted to make the next hit game or simply to share their ideas for their (not so) awesome story. But there's something really innocent about this era. An era where anyone could make their own horror experience and hope to see it become popular; everything was not so great about those games, but it pushed lots of young people to learn how to create things. It inspired a generation.
All those games, they really tried to be... something, anything. And although they often failed at it, I respect that.

This game didn't tho lmao
might be the laziest game i've seen from this time it's truly a shame it became that famous ngl