This is an absolute masterpiece when it comes to the FPS genre. If there was a game that I wish I could forget all memory of it just to experience for the first time again, it would be this game. Amazing narrative and gameplay rolled into one. I am very thankful that Valve made this free for a short while for people who hadn't played it yet to experience it. I myself played it many years ago, but you owe it to yourself to play this game if you haven't.

The DS version of this game restricts how many objects are on screen at once. I have no idea why they did this, they're lines. It shouldn't be that graphically demanding. The story mode essentially turns Line Rider into a puzzle mode, which is interesting at first but gets kind of boring pretty quick. The style of the game itself isn't great either and the CGI cutscenes are dreadful.
This game overall doesn't do much different from Line Rider at its purest form. I was really excited about it as a kid, but that was because it was something familiar.

I think this game is a fairly good game. It's one I don't see myself coming back to (although I did play it TWICE, once on the 3DS and once on the Switch). I think the allure of it was quite honestly what Tomodachi Life was all about too, which is putting in people you know into the game as characters and seeing how they interact. The interactions in this game compared to Tomodachi Life however are very basic, so this ends up being a very status quo RPG with a few changes to the basic formula/mechanics of the genre.

I am the owner of a local group that meets every month to play CS:GO on LAN. The reason I do this is because Counter-Strike as a game goes beyond the client and servers. This game has forged decade long friendships, rivalries, and memorable matches that still stay in my mind to this day.
The game itself is a thing of beauty where it is easy to pick up but hard to master. I am still learning new nade lineups and strategies to this day. Teamplay is huge in this game and positioning in 5v5s makes up much of the gameplay, as well as how you are taking positions. I could and have written enough on this game to fill an entire novel, so I want to keep it brief here- this is by far my all-time favorite game, hands down. I enjoy this game so much I had to intentionally not play it while getting my degree, because if I did play it, I would have done this and only thing.

What an amazing game! I would rate it slightly below F-Zero X, which is an unpopular opinion, but after completing the story mode and almost all of the Master Cup races with Mr. EAD, I still maintain my viewpoint that the mechanics in X feel more fun to master than in GX.
This game has some of the most difficult challenges in any racing game that I have ever played. Unlocking all of the extra content requires a deep understanding of the game because some of the requirements are things such as playing the already challenging story mode on the hardest difficulty. While there's no randomly generated cup in this game, the gameplay alone makes up for the lack of tracks. Different vehicles feel much more different to play in comparison with X.
Custom parts feel a bit weird in this game. Most of the vehicles I make, which I intentionally make sure aren't heavy by using weaker parts, still seem to end up having poor handling and will play like it has E grip even if the stat itself is C+.

There's a reason why Super Monkey Ball got a sequel. It did extraordinarily well on the GameCube, and this essentially acts as a deluxe version of the first game. It even has a story mode, but story mode was effectively a training mode for challenge mode/main mode where you clear levels sequentially and have a limited number of lives. The party games/minigames are also very engaging in this game. I am giving this a perfect score because this may actually be one of the best GameCube games you can get. Although this game might not be in my personal favorites list, or at least not within the top 20 or so, I think it deserves the praise it gets. It's a very simple to understand game but has increasingly difficult stages that require tons of focus and dedication to master.

Out of all of the storage apps (and you NEED to go in knowing that this is a companion app and not a full on game), My Pokemon Ranch quite honestly was the most quaint/fun one. This app has a built in regional Pokedex checker that allows you to see if you are missing Pokemon in Sinnoh, and you can catch it. The Pokemon all have interesting actions that they can take just by watching them. Some will use their moves that they know, others may be shy- these are all determined by their natures. You can get additional interactions through daily objects. Back in its prime, you could even visit other peoples' ranches via the WiiConnect24 feature, which as of writing has been offline for exactly a decade.
Unfortunately this game does not have compatibility with Platinum which is a shame because Diamond and Pearl are super slow. Japan got Platinum compatibility alongside some exclusive event Pokemon.

Really not that good of a game. The actual gameplay on this is super repetitive and not at all that engaging. The saving grace is that you have a TON of custom stages due to the GBA slot transfer function, but other than that this game is really lackluster. Ambrella had a very bad track record with spinoff Pokemon games and this one really is no different.

It's the first Pikmin on the Switch. Interestingly, I never got around to actually beating the game on any other platforms, but I never owned it to be fair. I completed the game, which is telling since it was only released a few days ago on the Switch. It's short, but it's really fun. There's a challenge mode for the five levels for growing as many Pikmin as possible. If you are going in blind to the series, I can see how it might be a challenge. I was able to get all 30 parts in 23 days, but I have a lot of experience with Bingo Battle in the third game. The game looks really good too, but not remaster levels of course.

This may be the best game from the most iconic rhythm game series of all time. This game is the only socially acceptable form of blasting J-pop in public. While I would rate the platforms the same and have played both, I played this game on the PS2 which has an entire mission mode called Stellar Master Mode. This changes up the game even more to be even more challenging and more than just trying to go for a high score. This goes without saying, but I was using a dance pad and not a controller. Most pads these days are very well worn, but mine worked well enough.
So yeah, it's good music and fun modes. Can't hope for much else for DDR. I shouldn't have to explain what DDR is to people, right?

This game of what I would say is one of my favorite games is something of an anomaly, since the original iteration of this was a free mod called Black Mesa: Source. Then again, a lot of Valve official games started off as mods, so this must have started off on the right foot, right?
Well yes, but also no. Later levels are much more well polished for what Black Mesa intended to do, which was to offer up a fresh way of playing HL1. Xen is evidence of this as Xen was beautiful and fun in this game as opposed to the source material. The earlier levels, which were first thought through before this became a standalone game really don't have that reimagined feel and just feels like to a certain extent that someone ported up Half Life Source with better quality models and textures. That's not a bad thing; I think the first few chapters didn't really need that much revision, but it still feels odd to see that departure about 30% through the game.
Since this game is not on GoldSrc and is a re-imagining I feel it is unfair to grade it solely on that, especially when the gunplay and AI is so different in these games compared to how the AI functioned in Half-Life 1. I don't think they had pieced together voicelines for better or for worse, and I also think that the weapons don't fit the gameplay as well as they did in HL1. There are many more long range angles that the AI can chip you in due to hitscan but you have guns that just seem to not be as accurate, which can cause some unneeded stress. Out of all of the things to be faithful on, I don't think the guns should have been one of them given certain areas of the game. Most areas however play amazingly.
If you have a friend who has never played HL1, recommend this instead of HL1. Having achievements, a physics based engine, those funny carry this item through this entire section of the game areas, and most importantly streamlined less-technically inclined gameplay means that this should appeal to a wide variety of players not interested in bhopping through the game and would instead like to take in the atmosphere of the Black Mesa incident in a way that the original dev company approves of and even gives their graces for.

Staff, CEO, and dated writing aside (there were a lot of people that actually LIKED the writing/jokes when this came out), you will find a very fun co-op game with a lot of customization for your character available for you and a lot of ways to play. I really liked the Berserker class from the first game, and in this game they have two classes that are very similar but utilize the game mechanics in a well thought out way. Looting and doing giant firefights in this game is a very fun thing to do, especially with friends. There were countless times where there would be answers to certain enemies for me but not for someone else and vice versa, so the co-op aspect of this game really shines through. The higher tier items and endgame equips make a lot of the game pretty easy, but overall I would say between the slaughter arenas, all of the missions in the base game and the DLC and the endgame/secret bosses, you may have one of the best co-op games ever created.
The reason this gets a 4.5 from me is because I can't rate 4.6/4.7 and the writing/voice acting does get a bit bothersome. The game is very fun and that is what matters most.

GTA V is a pretty good game I have played through multiple times and in a vacuum it's very good, but there are some decisions with it being a live game that irk me as well as the game sometimes being a parody of itself.
GTA as a series always had some questionable characters who seem to be pretty much invulnerable to repercussions in a very stylized but still realistic world. GTA V takes that to the extreme with the character of Trevor. I am glad that Steven Ogg is as tired of Trevor now as I was after playing this game. This game really should have been just Michael or Franklin as the storyline and the multiple character story mode pretty much does nothing to serve the main story in a meaningful way and only really seems to be in place to make sidemissions make more sense for different characters.
The focus on multiplayer DLC to me is not great. There were many things that a potential actual DLC for GTA V could have done but just didn't in favor of GTA Online microtransaction sales.
But with all of that being said, I had fun with this game regardless and think that to some it is an absolute blast. For me, I don't think I got more value given the budget for this game than say San Andreas or IV, even though I haven't completed either of those games.

Very fun game with a plot revolving around the end of the Wild West. A lot more game-y and similar to GTA than you may think, but the dead eye targeting and little things in the environment like the various bars in towns, cottages out in the middle of nowhere, scenic views, and the wildlife and hunting aspect gives it a charm of its own. I haven't played any other game in the series, but the Red Dead series is probably the closest you can get to a cowboy game. I really enjoyed the Undead Nightmare DLC in this game because it kind of flipped the established gameplay on its head to a certain extent.

This is a free game on Steam that was made in RPGMaker. The entire allure of it is that you have to walk around a dreamscape (or nightmare-scape) to collect effects that allow Madotsuki to change how she interacts with certain things within the worlds inside of her dreams. It's a very fun game and a very artistic game that has a cult following related to the various dreams and how they may or may not apply to certain things within her own life. The developer of this game is intentionally very secretive which may add to the allure of what this game is saying, if anything.
This is a very surreal game but it does essentially equate to a walking simulator that you can interact with minimally with things. I think for me to rate this higher, I would have liked to see more events/interactions and maybe a bit more symbolism for plot points. Subjectively I would rate this higher, but I can't ignore the fact that objectively it is a very passive game and many of the effects simply do nothing worthwhile.