A horror beauty and a gold standard of what a remake should be, retain everything that made the original wonderful and then add more to it...something no other remake in this series has done so far (wheter they're good or bad, it's no secret they took out or shuffled around some story beats, while this remake at worst shuffles the puzzle order, doesn't mess with the story anywhere near those do). Only other remakes I played to keep the same philosophy as this so far is Pokémon FireRed, Metroid: Zero Mission and AM2R. Frankly I'm sick of the bringing back fad and constant remakes lately, many of them feel like mediocre / inferior echoes of the past when I could just replay the same game instead if I really wanted to, but I wish if they were to remake shit, they'd atleast make it on the same quality as this...but guess not, just give me more proper ports and / or remasters please, WITH KBM support if its on PC, since I have to spell that out appereantly

One arguable downgrade with this remake is that the gore is a bit toned down in some places, usually on game over animations, while I see the bruh in that, it's not a huge deal breaker for me

To end on a positive note, bloody game looks gorgeous

I do not understand all of the hate this game received. I hear it’s because people were expecting it to be more like Dead Space. Not being like Dead Space is one reason I really enjoyed it. That series is overrated. It was surprisingly fun to telekinesis enemies into spikes repeatedly. It was cathartic to just stomp a defeated enemy that annoyed you over and over. I thought the story did some interesting things, but there are some things that could have been better. The stealth mechanics were only ok. The game did not do a great job of communicating the correct direction, so there would be times I wanted to explore and accidentally advanced the story.

A good friend of mine was raving about this game to me a couple weeks ago so I decided to try it out again on the Switch. I finished it on the Wii U years and years ago but I remember it being pretty mediocre, so I was definitely more into it this time. I appreciate the addition of Yoshi and the baby yoshis with powers. I think it might be the most polished of these New Super games, but it still doesn't really differentiate itself enough for me to truly love it. It is still solid to play though so I enjoyed my time.

Deluxe is a package you can't really go wrong with. It has two good games (even if one is essentially a harder level pack) along with some post-game challenges that are there if you want to tackle them. And all of that is multiplayer

U is a good game that tries to do some new things, but also remains boringly predictable. You know exactly what you're getting which isn't bad, but I wish they were more willing to go crazy with the level design and variety. There's some good stuff in the middle of the game and post-game, like the painterly level in the poison swamp world, or any of the unique level configurations in the bonus world. Most of the game is stock-standard though, often playing it too safe. The acorn power-up isn't too interesting of an addition.

I think I actually liked Luigi U more than base-U. The shorter, more challenging levels were a breath of fresh air, and they were much more willing to create some unique levels. Luigi isn't as easy to control as Mario, but that control also offers new gameplay opportunities and challenges.

While the NSMB series is fine, I'm glad they're shaking things up with Wonder. It's looking like it's taking the best parts of the NSMB games and also introducing loads of new ideas to make 2D Mario fresh again. The NSMB games don't really have much personality, while Wonder looks to be bursting with it.

TL;DR:
Good game, tired formula. I'd still recommend it, but it's really interchangeable with any of them beyond the fact it's the newest and therefore the most accessible

Infinity's Trash and I don't know what I expected.

A painfully bad action RPG that walls story and gameplay off in two seperate worlds. Infinity Strash retells the story of a Dragon Quest anime in the worst way possible- by turning what is no doubt a well animated show into a Microsoft Powerpoint, and splicing in one of two types of combat missions. You either walk through a series of linear rooms filled with slimes and drackies that can't fight back, or fight one of a few bosses that repeat over and over.

There's nothing 1.5 star about the tedious mission design and terrible approach to telling the anime story alone though, this is one of the stiffest, least responsive action RPGs I've played in years. It has been outshone by Valkyrie Fucking Elysium's thoughtless button mashing and particle effects. Dodging is delayed. Parrying gives no time to punish, and regular attacks hit like a paraplegic first grader. So instead of pulling out sick combos like DMC or even a mediocre anime 3D brawler, you just wait. Wait for your specials to slowly chip away at a health bar. Then you win because enemies don't have any dangerous attacks.

Your reward? Some generic 8% mana boost cards and another slideshow of an anime filler episode. It feels like a mobile game, and instead of having cooldown timers, you have to grind cards in the Genshin Impact tower so you can beat the boss in less than a 20 minute war of attrition.

For 60 dollars, is it too much to ask for something akin to DBZ Kakarot or One Piece Odyssey? Or hell, something with online like that Demon Slayer thing? After 10 hours of boring fights and cutscenes worse than the driest lectures, I'm not afraid to call Infinity Strash what it is.

The modern DBZ Sagas.

Sonic Frontiers, Saints Row and Monark are neck for the worst game I've played this year. I don't think Frontiers is mid, I think it's bad. Platforming controls loosely, the camera is terrible (can't remember the last time I had THAT issue), the world is devoid of fun tasks as well as later maps being horrible to navigate (Level 3's constant jarring shifts to 2D is a failure of game design) the puzzles are brain dead simple and the art style is one of the worst I've seen yet. Slap a Sonic model in Unreal and put hideous ill-fitting grind rails everywhere.

Its not Sonic Boom, it's just boring and unengaging open world pig slop with zero polish. How Sonic fans can put up with this crap is unbelievable. Yes, its better than Forces...but thats irrelevant.

If you're a Sonic fan who likes all of the games, this review is irrelevant since you already played it at launch, so no point getting mad at me. This is targetted at the people who are like me, thinking: "Did Sonic Team finally make a good game? It has good reviews for Sonic standards." The answer is NO. There is not one moment in this game that I liked, aside from smiling when I realized the "puzzle" was completed before I even processed it.

Now I'm playing Psychonauts 2. Its like going from a slum in India to a 5 star Dubai hotel.

Dont know why this game got such harsh reception. It met my expectations and I honestly loved the combat. By no means is it a masterpiece but like, its super polished, fights are exciting, pacing is good and it makes good use of the Dualsense.

On the flip side, the characters are dull, and the ending throws way too much at the player and answers no questions. So yeah, it ends on a sour note. To make matters worse, I dont really see how the story could realistically continue unless the gameplay is totally different. There's surely room for a brief DLC, but not a sequel.

The question is will a short 8 hour linear game with fun gameplay satisfy you for 70 dollars? Probably not. There's not much replay value. But in a year when this game is 20$? Its a good horror pickup. Side note, horror games lost their ability to frighten for me, as much as I like being scared, so I cant say how scary it is.

I think its a solid 4 stars for just being fun and satisfying sci fi romp with no bullshit padding. Not like the first Dead Space had a good story, either. If violently beating melty face zombies with a bat until their arms pop off sounds fun, strap in.