Aesthetically speaking, a roller coaster is a pretty stark thing. Disney, for all its terrifying power, needs an entire platoon of chain-smoking Imagineers and millions of dollars to make you forget that you’re only looking at 1) a bunch of supports and 2) the thing being supported. The original RCT1 and 2 are unique among sims of the era: Maxis games of the time have similarly endless warrens of detail for the devoted player, but Will Wright’s verve pales in comparison to Chris Sawyer’s knowledge of what elements ought to be spotlighted or relegated to the background. (Sawyer hand-coding RCT in assembly language will remain a top 10 technical achievement in video games for decades to come.) Years of refinement by modders have only made Rollercoaster Tycoon more of what it’s always been: nothing more than a bunch of supports and the thing being supported, more than enough to dominate the skyline.

i cant think of another game that feels the same way as animal well. thick atmosphere, gorgeous environments, and supremely satisfying puzzles, exploration, and items make up an extremely tight and well designed metroidvania that begs you to explore every inch of the map.

teeming with secrets, eerie creatures, and haunting ambiance, animal well had me engaged for its full runtime and past that hunting for little secrets and trying every tool and technique i could to find that next area of collectible. playing on ps5 as well, i love the use of haptics, and the light bar changing with each item as well as being able to scroll the map and fiddle with the environment on the touch pad.

go and explore this beautiful and thought provoking world yourself, and experience the genius design and surprises that await !

The first time I ever got hyped up for a new release was when Pokemon Gold/Silver was announced. The wait for this game was agonizing, and I passed the time by absorbing as much Pokemon related media I could. I replayed Red and Blue to death, went hunting for Missingno and screwed up my saves in the process (which only meant getting to play the games AGAIN!), I recorded the show religiously, played the board game, and begged my mom to get me every one of those stupid gold cards at Burger King. A friend of mine at the time was fortunate enough to have both a computer and an internet connection, and while staying the night I got online and printed out a full Pokedex, wasting 150 sheets of paper and an untold amount of his parent's toner. I was fully swept up in the Pokemon craze.

Looking back, I think it would have been good to learn a lesson about buying into hype at a young age, but Gold and Silver not only lived up to my expectations, they exceeded them. It is then a little odd that I never played Pokemon Cristal, Gen 2's "enhanced edition." I suppose even back then owning three copies of the same game was a bit gauche, or maybe my parents finally put their foot down on all this Pokemon crap, I don't really remember.

In any case, I figured the best way to revisit Gen 2 was to pick up Cristal and finally give it a shot. And you know what? Holds up better than I thought! It certainly helps that Game Freak went all out with the second generation. It feels like a solid step forward for the franchise, introducing a slew of new features that would go on to become series staples. Breeding Pokemon, hatching eggs, held items, the day/night cycle, and "shiny Pokemon" were all new here, and while none of these mechanics are particularly deep on their own, the abundance of new features gave players plenty to chew on. I'm also a pretty big fan of the new Pokemon introduced in this generation. The franchise's art style has changed considerably over time, but the new monsters in Gold and Silver blend in perfectly with the original cast. I think I might actually like Tyhplosion more than Charizard, and Smeargle is easily in my top 5 favorite Pokemon designs. Just look at that little freak. What are you even painting, you idiot?

What blew my mind the most of all was clearing the Elite 4 and finding out I was only halfway through the game. Almost all of Kanto from Red and Blue is present and explorable as "post game" content, allowing you to earn the original eight badges and take on Red as the game's final challenge. I don't think any other Pokemon game has ever rivaled Gen 2's scope, and it's really impressive just how much content they managed to cram onto a Game Boy cart. Upon revisiting this generation, Jhoto does seem smaller than I remember, and the game sends you flying through those first eight gyms. It's easier to understand now how they got away with it, but it's still pretty damn impressive regardless.

Unfortunately, Cristal and Gen 2 doesn't break free from some of Pokemon's more fundamental problems, namely it's dull battle system. As much as I want to like this game, I need to take a dangerous amount of No-Doz to slog through some of this crap. The first eight gyms differentiate themselves from Kanto's by relying on elements not repeated in those gyms, which does present a more interesting challenge in the early game, but upon revisiting Kanto the gyms become far easier to take on. It's a nice victory lap of sorts but given how hard it is to get invested in Pokemon battles, I found myself disengaging this time around. I'm also just not a fan of roaming legendaries. It's the one feature from this generation that can eat me. I get what they were going for but finding one of these assholes and having them run immediately is a lot more irritating than fun.

A 3 out of 5 is probably as good as a mainline Pokemon game is ever going to get from me. You can feel Game Freak's excitement and ambition in almost every part of Gen 2. They had some fresh ideas, most of them good ones, and really set out to make the best possible Pokemon game they could on the Game Boy. It's sad that the company quickly devolved into a perpetual Pokemon content machine thereafter, with attempts to branch out into new IPs often being met with failure. I think the writing was always on the wall, however, as everything outside of the mainline series even pre-2000 was focused on producing as much content as possible regardless of quality. More products = more money, that's just how the machine works. But, hey, that doesn't take away from the fact that every time I turn on Gold, Silver, or even Cristal I'm able to go back in time to a moment where Game Freak was just as passionate about Pokemon as I was.

Absolutely fantastic. Crack cocaine in video game form. It's hard to even explain what makes this game so fun, it's just so hypnotic and addicting. Watching all the crazy items and effects compound on each other and exponentially build your score while the sound effects keep rising in pitch and the fantastic interface design dances and shakes and wiggles...god it feels so good. Like I've laughed out loud at this game on multiple occasions because of how completely ridiculous it can be. It's a true roguelike too, each run is wildly different and leads to you themeng your builds around random, tiny aspects of the game (clubs, two pair, even numbers, tarot cards, etc.) It's hard as balls and it's got a lot of stuff to unlock, so it'll keep you (and me) busy for a long time, which I definitely needed. Keep in mind, I'm someone whose eyes immdiately glaze over at the mention of a deckbuilder game, and I had this praise to levy at this game.

That being said, there are a few minor grievances I have. RNG has a tendency to screw you over, which isn't out of character for a poker game or a roguelike and it's something I wouldn't ordinarily complain about, but it gets particularly annoying with the boss fights, who can sometimes completely invalidate your entire build with no real means of counterplay, which has killed many a run of mine. The game only has one music track, which, while phenomenal, can tend to drive you mad after several hours of playtime. And, while the user experience is generally phenomenal, I am outright BEGGING, PLEADING ON MY HANDS AND KNEES, for the developer to add another method for selecting cards, like the drag box on a computer desktop. I don't have arthritis or carpal tunnel but even my finger starts to hurt from mashing the left mouse button to select my hands, so I can't imagine what it must feel like for people with weaker joints.

Overall an incredible game with only a few small issues that I can recommend to anyone, even people who hate card games.

Splatoon, but singleplayer, and you're a cute Pomeranian instead of a squid!
Doronko Wanko was a really fun but short game, good way to blow off steam. You get mud all over your owner's house and destroy stuff, and as the house gets dirtier you unlock more items to increase your efficiency. It's a blast! There are basic achievements too, and they are pretty easy to get while still being fun to hunt for.

Oh, and you can get a mud machine gun for maximum destruction.
Enough said. Go play this. It's free.

Played a TON of this at release and climbed the ranks using the ultimate badass: Crustle. If your team doesn't have that nasty motherfucker you might as well surrender.

Look, they'll kill me for saying it, but I fucking love this doofy ass game. I love a MOBA that doesn't require hiring private tutors to grasp (DOTA 2) or a MOBA that doesn't require you be on the sex-offender registry (League of Legends) to play.

What I think I like about it in comparison to other MOBAs is that the cast hasn't been infested with Anime Badass Action Heroes. Because it can't. Because it's Pokemon. All the Pokemon are so visually distinct that you always know who you are up against and what to look out for, instead of every League character becoming a variation of "Shonen Hero" who has 12 different abilities and can't die and also his ultimate is always off cooldown.

Hey, speaking of that. Is there a character better designed than Blastoise? Like, visually, how did they nail that? The original designer probably was nervous to show it to his boss because he was certain that Blastoise had already been thought up, I mean, he HAD to have been. I fucking love Blastoise.

Basically, if I can play as Blastoise I will play your game.

Much has been said about the historicity of Tetris and its many iterations, but I find the very original text-based graphics version from 1984 to be the most charming. If I was committed to grinding this as a pseudo-sport, to improve my logic center and simple problem-solving speed, I'd likely opt for one of the later titles, probably Tetris 2000 or something based off of that for what little I know; but I don't really care to, it's just an extremely fundamentally well-made puzzle game with a background that frequently births inspiration. Bored, and a few lines of code later... Tetris!

You can play a recreation of this 1984 original here,, as well as Tetris Holdings' tribute to the original. I prefer the presentation of the first here, but the second is good too.

Featuring Knuckles from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles!

I love Sonic 3K, and I can see why it's widely regarded as one of the best games in the series, it really feels like the full package of 2D Sonic (...and Knuckles).

While Sonic 2 rewarded speed in the level design, 3K emphasizes exploration again in a similar fashion to Sonic CD; the player needs to track down hidden large rings in a level to gain access to the special stages, where Sonic navigates across a maze-like board to activate blue orbs, while steering clear of red ones. Simple in theory, but certainly tricky at times. I would absolutely recommend going out of your way to do these special stages, because you'll unlock the ability to transform into Super Sonic after getting all seven Chaos Emeralds, and blazing through later levels in the Super Saiyan form is a joy. That's enough talk regarding the special stages though, as the actual main level design is the meat of the game.

With over a dozen different levels with multiple acts, Sonic 3K is the longest entry from the classic 2D games, and it's very nice to see how consistent the quality remains throughout its runtime. I'm not going to bring up every stage here (like in my Sonic 1 review), as I don't have extensive thoughts on all of them. There will also be a bunch of inevitable comparisons to other (Sonic) games, as I bear the curse of only recently becoming a fan in 2024 and those games just happen to be fresh in my memory.

Angel Island Zone is an amazing opening level, as it introduces the player right to the design philosophy of 3K and has many easily accessible special stages and multiple of the newly introduced elemental shields. For those who don't know, the elemental shields replace the shield power-up from the previous games and all are special in their own way. The lightning shield allows Sonic to double jump and attract rings, the bubble shield provides a move similar to Bounce Bracelet in Sonic Adventure 2 and allows him to breathe underwater (so the bubbles aren't required), while the fire shield gives immunity to fire (including lava) and a mid-air dash. In Angel Island Zone no shield is particularly better than another, so it's a good place to try their abilities before using them in later levels which make extensive use of their specific traits. One of those levels is Hydrocity Zone, which follows directly afterwards - here the use of the bubble shield is encouraged, as the bubble placements in the levels are only at certain spots and the ability to freely navigate underwater is very important if you actually want to explore there to find special stages without a rush. Marble Garden is arguably the longest and most confusing stage in the game, but it's still enjoyable in its own way. Carnival Night is plenty of fun to rush through too and has some nice underwater segments, while Ice Cap Zone is one of my favorites in the game with the snowboarding intro and overall satisfying level structure - this is particularly cool, because I was already very fond of Ice Cap in Sonic Adventure 1. Meanwhile, Flying Battery Zone is the result of "what if we made Wing Fortress Zone but actually good", taking the airship aesthetic of that level and making it more fun and sightreadable and Sandopolis is an innovative desert level, where the second half reminded me a lot of Pyramid Cave in Sonic Adventure 2. Afterwards follows Lava Reef Zone, which felt very reminiscent of Celeste's Core to me, but also stood out from the rest with its more vertical level design and great soundtrack, causing it to quickly become a favorite. Everything is rounded off with the Death Egg Zone, which gave me huge SA2 vibes again, as the atmosphere felt quite similar to the ARK levels in that game, same with the gravity switching mechanic. The final boss for 3K was also surprisingly fun compared to the other classic 2D entries, and Doomsday Zone is a great bonus for players who got all the Chaos Emeralds. Man, I love Super Sonic, no matter how basic the idea behind him is.

Sonic 3's soundtrack is an interesting one to discuss, as I completed the game through Sonic Origins, which uses the prototype versions of a few songs, as I believe the licensing for Michael Jackson's songs ran out (don't quote me on this). I don't think those prototype versions are as horrible as some make them out to be, and I actually prefer Carnival Night's prototype rendition to the original. Can't say the same for Ice Cap though, the original song is iconic for a good reason and I love how it ties in with the snowboard section at the beginning. The prototype version just sounds a bit too upbeat for my taste here, considering the original track conveys the gloomy feeling of an icy cave perfectly fine. Putting the differences of MJ and prototype songs aside, some other songs I thoroughly enjoy are Angel Island Zone, Hydrocity Zone (Act 1) and Lava Reef Zone (Act 1).

Even 30 years after its original release, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles managed to provide me with a surprisingly good time and I hope that many more people will continue to play it over the years. I really wish I would have grown up with the Sonic games in my childhood...

Not only this game is absurdly bad, but it also gets even worse when in comparison to its predecessor.
If the first game is a surprisingly polished and well-made adventure, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 throws it all off the window, with one of the worst level designs I've ever seen; poorly made bosses which you'll most likely defeat with luck; 2 usuless characters that are just supports, and pretty much defenseless on their own; and they even managed to make an irritating soundtrack.
I dragged myself through the last 2 stages just to get this beaten, and there's absolutely no chance I'm doing any of the other episodes to the true ending. You can tell me to git gud, I don't care, to me, this game sits alongside Castlevania Judgement as one of Koji Igarashi's worst works.