Just a really fun and solid game that is just more Katamari gameplay. For me, I don't have too much to say on it, it didn't do too much more than the original title apart from adding more cosmetic options and a bit more variety how you roll things up, but not too much or anything. I think I prefer the original solely because it was more original being the first game in the series and it being pretty short, this game also isn't very long but after 7 hours, the gameplay loop felt like it overstayed it's welcome. Overall, fun sequel that I feel should be played in small bursts, but worth playing none the less.

(Minor spoilers for the game) At the start of the year, if you asked me what game I thought would be my favorite game of the year, I would've told you Tears of the Kingdom. However, on release, the prevailing word that I would use to describe the game is simply disappointing. Tears of the Kingdom isn't a bad game by any means, but it certainly doesn't live up to it's processor. The game feels way too safe, failing to really do anything incredibly new like every Zelda game before it. Going into Tears of the Kingdom, my expectations were that similar to a Majora's Mask type sequel, being a very quickly made sequel that uses the original formula to add new and interesting elements to the game and take risks. The game really doesn't do this at all. To find why I feel so negatively about the game, the first place to look is the back of the box with it's three main features "Explore," "Discover," and "Create".

Let's start with "Explore," mainly highlighting the addition of the two new types of areas to explore in the game: the sky and the depths. As these are good additions to the game, they aren't huge new features like the lead up would have you believe. The sky area isn't very expansive and there's a limit to how many islands you can explore before there is literally no one to get to any others and you just need to explore the ground to then get to other islands. The depths have a very similar issue with only chucks of the depths being able to be explored before having to go back to the surface and explore there more to find more holes, but it's also completely dark in the depths, making the entire design philosophy of BOTW of turning a corner and seeing more areas to explore, non-existent in the depths. This isn't great inherently in my opinion, but it gets even worse when you realize there is virtually no reason you should be exploring the overworld apart from finding different ways to explore the over sub areas, as the open world is literally the same as BOTW, which is BY FAR, the biggest issue with the game. The overworld is also a lot less interesting to explore with the lack of one key enemy type, guardians. Guardians made BOTW really fun to explore since these dangerous enemies could pop out of nowhere and just entirely fuck you up, but nothing like this exists at all within ToTK.

The issues with the overworld really fall more under the "Discover" aspect of the box since you really aren't going to be discovering anything. The overworld, which is the main area you are exploring through the game, is not new. Sure, the developers alter it slightly but it's the same layout with the same collectibles and same exact towns. Most of the weapons and clothing and shields are from BOTW, yeah there are some new ones, but me and my roommate literally counted and only like a third of the items are actually new.

Finally, is the "Create" part of the box, which can be described very easily as a janky mess. The overworld and systems in BOTW weren't created for random machines to be used to explore them and it makes it more awkward than anything to use them. Not only that but actually creating items in the game is really fucking annoying as even the slightest piece out of place or the machine being placed in a slightly wrong area will just make it so your machine simply doesn't fucking work correctly. It's so frustrating and this is the big new selling point.

Quickly going other issues I had with the game is how the systems overall are just way too overcomplicated compared to BOTW, with all the new abilities being also very clunky and not as simple as in BOTW, mainly is fuse which is a fun idea, but having to navigate menus to do anything really interesting with the ability and pulling out items just kills part of the enjoyment of fusing. Finally, as much as I'm sucking BOTW off in this review, it isn't a perfect game, but none of the major critiques of BOTW are really addressed. Starting off wit dungeons, sure, they are better than BOTW's but like, not much at all. The dungeon themes were better but the designs were just about the same, the next game better at least go back to the key dungeon design of the prior Zelda games. The other major critique of BOTW is the rain effecting climbing and making exploring basically impossible in the rain, and TOTK addresses this a bit with the frog suit, but it barely does anything and takes most of the game to even fucking get it.

This review has been more of a rant than anything at this point but I didn't outright hate the game, there are some positives of the game. The ending section was a lot meatier and overall just better than BOTW with entire fight sequence being really fun and well designed. The fusion system had it's issues but it was fun to fuse weapons with items you scavenged to make even more powerful weapons. The recall ability was also really fun, had a lot of interesting uses and led to some cool and inventive puzzle solutions. The towers were also better in ToTK with more interesting ways to unlock them apart from just climbing. One of the champions was really really cool and was fun to screw around with. The story was a bit more interesting than BOTW's, even if it fucks up the entire Zelda timeline for no reason.

After 6 years of waiting, overall, Tears of the Kingdom was very disappointing for me, being a safe sequel that really fails to understand what made the original so great.

Pikmin 2 is a great entry in the series that fixes a lot of issues with the original game but sometimes fixes aspects that weren't really issues and doesn't replace them with anything better. The worst offender of this is the lack of time limit or urgency with collecting the treasures. They removed the 30 day time limit in the original which I personally really loved and the game's systems were clearly built around, but didn't replace them with anything else like the juice system in 3, so it ends up leaving me wonder why there's even days in the game at all. This is even further exacerbated by the addition of dungeons, which when you're in them, time doesn't pass at all. The dungeons are fun additions though which have you go through them and collecting different treasures on each floor, they're a really fun addition, especially cause that's like 90% of the gameplay, just wish the time of day went down in them too so add some sense of urgency. The best addition to the game has to be the improved Pikmin AI cause holy shit they were bad in 1, and it's completely night in day in comparison. I also love all the treasures as collectables, they're probably my favorite collectables in the series since they're all really fun and add a lot of charm to the game. Finally, the new Pikmin types are also pretty cool and add a bit more strategy and verity how you go about exploring the worlds and collecting items. Overall, 2 is not the magnum opus of the series but still a solid game overall with a lot of positive improvements on the original game.

One of the most tightly designed games I have ever played that just oozes charm. Every part of this game is just so finely crafted, it's insane. My favorite aspect are the controls, they're so finely crafted and it designed to make the player which wanna go as fast as possible through the level based on just how fun it is alone. This helped by incredible level design that not only pushes the player to speed around the level, but at the same time to keep an eye on collectibles AND each level has their own fun and unique gimmick, no level was bad or had a bad gimmick, all were used insanely well. The cherry on top of the fantastic gameplay is everything else about the game, the sprite work is so well done and the animations are super cartoony and gives every character, enemy, and level their own personality and charm to them. The music is also fantastic, from fast paced tunes that just add to wanting to speed through a level, to slower paced chill tunes for a level. All of these aspects also reflect the weird, cartoony, and overall goofy personality the game has. Overall, I would highly recommend this game to anyone who loves tight and fast paced games, it's honestly a must play.

It was definitely worth the 10 dollars I payed for it, it was a fun little racing game that feels like if gourmet race from Superstar was more fleshed out and it's own seperate game. The main gameplay loop is really fun, the racing portion followed and mini games are all really fun and well designed. Plus the customization options are all really cute and fun. However, idk why there's such a big focus on online play, especially since no one is playing it anymore. I mainly played it couch co-op, which was fun enough, but it's really stupid that you can only play two players on one switch, a game like this would benefit a lot from being the full four players and there's no real reason this is a restriction apart from money. Overall, idk pick it up if you want, it's like 15 dollars.

Snipperclips is a cute little puzzle game with a fun gimmick that is used incredibly well. The clipping gimmick was really fun and led to interesting puzzle designs with a good amount of variety in the types of puzzles. My main issue was just how easy it was to brute force the puzzles, me and my girlfriend got through not all of them, but a good amount of puzzles without even having to cut each other and got through them easily. Overall though, it's a fun puzzle game that if you're looking for a two player co-op game with someone, I would highly recommend.

Octopath Traveler II not only surpasses the original game, but improves so much that it makes the first game seem like a proof of concept. The combat was definitely the best part of the original game and that's the thing that is arguably changed the least, but that's not bad at all! The shield break system remains one of the most addicting and fun system in any turn based RPG, on the same level as Shin Megami Tensei's press turn. It's even better than the original with fixed balancing and the addition of character's talent gauges that give each character a unique meter move, some I used far more than others but they were all very interesting.

The major improvement on the original is the stories and characters, the original had good stories but pretty generic fantasy tropes. The stories are much improved now with different chapter structures, less obvious stories, and a better cast of characters than the original. There's also a lot more traveler interactions than in the original with the major contributor being the cross paths chapters between two travelers, all really fun that build relationships between the characters. The XP gain was also a massive fix than the original, with A LOT less grinding required which is a welcome addition since the game still took me 75 hours to beat.

The visuals also are a MASSIVE improvement over the original, I thought the original looked nice but HOLY SHIT this game just ups the visuals even more with my full and complete environments. The visuals are also helped by more variety in areas and more unique areas to explore, goes from generic area types like grass and snow to old western desert, European folklore inspired forests, Feudal Japan, and literally just fucking London. This also applies to the dungeons and battle backgrounds, which repeat themes a lot less and some are actually notable now. Also, worth mentioning the music still fucks hard, like there is no bad music track in the entire fucking game.

(SPOILERS IN THIS SECTION) My only real complaint is the final chapter, not that it was bad or anything but some characters from the main story were just randomly evil the whole time and it didn't feel natural at all.

Overall, Octopath II is one of the best turn based RPGs I have ever played with fun gameplay, stories, characters, visuals, and music and any big fan of the genre should pick up this game immediately.

An incredibly inventive way to combine rhythm games and classic jrpg combat together to create something unlike anything in either genre, plus it has final fantasy music so that's already a major plus. The song selection is great, with my only real complaint is there's way too many final fantasy 7 songs but that's hardly surprising considering the series. Every game in the series is covered from your mainline games to tactics to mobile spin offs that are dead as hell. I kind of wish I waited till I played a few more Final Fantasy games before playing this, but it was still a fun game I will definitely keep going back to. Only other complaint is why is there multiplayer in this game when Final Fantasy players don't have any friends?

Overall really great dlc that is a perfect ending for the franchise on so many levels. The story and characters are all pretty fantastic overall, not surprising for this series but hey, definitely the best part of the game. The ending especially, holy shit, I don't think this franchise has had anything less than a great ending so far, and this is no different. The combat is also slightly tweaked to fit more with the short (for a jrpg) length, which they were fun changes, but I do still prefer base game's combat overall, but glad it isn't just a copy paste job fro the base game's either so, welcome change. My main issue however, comes from the leveling, a lot of the time, the game asks you to be a lot higher level than you currently areare story sequences, an issue I did not really have with the base game or even 2, even as someone who only selectively does side quests. It was pretty frustrating towards the end, especially since the last main area of the game isn't very fun either, road blocking progress based on materials. Honestly, wouldn't had been that much oif an issue if this game didn't launch like a few weeks before ToTK and I was in a bit of a rush. Overall, fantastic game that is slightly held back by it's level gaps, but perfect ending for the franchise and really fun for big fans of the franchise like myself.

A fun little Zelda spin off that blends rhythm elements and traditional Zelda elements seamlessly to create an incredibly unique game in the series. It's really cool to see how an entirely new developer does with the Zelda franchise, not an unpopular opinion by any means, but Nintendo needs to give indie devs an opportunity like this more often. The game itself is incredibly fun and addicting, everything is dictated by rhythm and so every action you take needs to consider how it lines up with the beat on top of the action you want to preform. The music and sprite work in this game are both beautiful and really add to the game. I do have a few issues however, mainly with the addition of the roguelite elements, I don't usually like roguelites but even then, they felt kind of forced into a game that didn't need/ wasn't designed for them. The dungeons all being randomly generated, as not bad, are disappointing since having traditional dungeons with rhythm elements would had been really cool to see. Overall, the game is really good but it leans too far into roguelite elements for my liking, but the core rhythm and Zelda aspects of the game are incredibly fun.

Untitled Goose Game is a charming fun little with little flaws but does little to blow you away either. It's a game unlike any other game I have played, being a stealth puzzle game. All the puzzles are a lot of fun to figure out, a few even have multiple solutions to them and require some thought. My main issue with the game comes from the multiplayer, which is mode I played most recently as of writing this review. The game very clearly isn't designed for two players in mind, and a few puzzles feel trivialized when you have two geese which one can easily distract nearby npcs and the other can easily complete the task. Also, the second player geese isn't that different appearance wise to the first players, which had me and the person I was playing constantly mixing up our two geese. It was still a super fun and charming game on multiplayer, but I would recommend first playing on single player since that's where the game really shines.

Overall really fun game but had a lot of issues that holds it back to be as good as other games in the series. The main issue is the game not really being designed for multiplayer despite it being pushed heavily: a lot of challenges are trivialized, it's a bit hard to keep trap of what to do, players not playing as Kirby can't do certain actions such as the main gimmick of the game with the super coo abilities. However, the game is probably one of if not the best looking switch game, the mini-games are awesome, and the main story is a fun time with friends despite it's flaws. Not worth the 60 bucks but get it on sale or something if you get lucky idk.
However, the side modes are fantastic, the mini games are all a blast and the new epilogue is better than the base game, brought it up half a star overall for me.

Short game that introduces a lot of very interesting concepts and ideas, but is overall pretty flawed. Firstly, the core gameplay loop of strategizing around a 30 day time limit to get 30 parts is super interesting and leads to a lot of interesting situations where the player needs to plan out what they do in each day very carefully and take more risks to complete the game quicker. The Pikmin concept is also very solid, controlling an army of little guys to get items and defeat enemies is pretty unique and very fun. However, the game has one INCREDIBLY glaring issue that knocks the experience down a few pegs, the AI. The Pikmin are so goddamn stupid that controlling them sometimes is more difficult than strategizing becomes so much harder. Most of the time when walking to a destination, I'd lose a few Pikmin to just fucking off and doing their own thing or drowning, it's super infuriating. It leads to unfairly difficult situations out of the player's control and never feels very good. The package overall is a great game though, even with it's major flaw, it's a fun time and would recommend trying it out cause why the hell not.

Cute little puzzle action game, doesn't do anything horrible but neither anything too stand out. The dungeon design is really good but the main issue was how short the dungeons were, if there were fewer dungeons but longer I would've personality liked that a bit more. As I do like how each item is mapped to it's own button, it reduces how unique each dungeon item could be, but to be fair they do make up for it by making each item have more uses than your typical Zelda item. The game also looks fantastic and got some great tunes, with the exception of the first grass area which looks and sounds dull. Overall fun game, if you're looking for more Zelda like experiences then I highly recommend.