[PROTECT THE WORLD, EVEN IF THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD IS UNCERTAIN.]

[THE POWER OF ESP. ONE WHO HAS THE POWER IS DESTINED FOR TRAGEDY.]

[DESPERATE CRIES ECHO. THE SCREAM OF ANGER SHAKES THE EARTH, AND YOU DISCOVER THAT IT CAME FROM YOUR SOUL.]

Extremely sick, and very easy to pretend that this is a Mob Psycho shmup. Love how much character is built from the five-second long introductions for the cast, and the rollercoaster of psy spectacle keeps ramping up until the final moment.

(played Sega CD version)
The hardest I've been impressed with the visuals of a game in years, some of these stages and their tunes are absolutely exhilarating. That sprint across the beehive maze space station ooooh mama. For real implore anyone to dive in blind if at all possible.
What drags Silpheed down is the lack of boss variety, as you're facing up against increasingly annoying variants of the same three ships ad nauseum. Lots of projectiles that get camoflaged by the background and damage that rarely ever feels fair, made worse by the weird 3D tunnel boundary you're supposed to navigate. The final boss is insanely demanding and I respect the nerve of it all.

Love revisiting this amorphous blob of skinner box contente every hundred-or-so days to see it take on a whole new form, almost unrecognisable to the one I experienced prior. The closest I'll get to channel hopping custom maps in TF2.
On one hand this fuckin game is an embarrassing heap of licences, brands and monetization. Stealing content from internet creators and selling them as pristinely packaged Emotes N Skins, gentrifying the culture of the moment into what is essentially a 33gb Nerf Gun advert.

On the other, there's a relative level of generosity on the user level that strings me along in a way that I need brain correction to effectively fight against. I bought one (1) season pass back in 2017 and have been able to afford every subsequent one through their rewards scheme. When the nefariously intended FOMO kicks in I still know they have my back to keep me a regular. The island of Fortnite goes through drastic changes with a suspicious enough regularity that I'm assuming the devs are crunching nonstop to keep the ship afloat. Entire mechanics and equipment can be introduced to the pool only to be removed without fanfare a few weeks later - They flooded the island and made a Waterworld season because why not. Should also be noted that Fortnite has a history of stealing unique mechanics from competitors hacking them in for themself.

This frustratingly enjoyable mid level engagement is kind of peculiar for me because my preference will always be single-player games, and I think Fortnite accommodates people like me, without a competitive bone in their body, by orienting a good three-quarters of the quest system around things that aren't related to combat. My sticking point with most of these games are that they just don't know when to chill, look at all the challenges on Apex or something, they're all different flavours of "deal xxx damage with x weapon". I throw on a movie or podcast and carve a path across the world map gathering materials, speaking to NPCs, doing environmental puzzles and prop hunts and finish a match in 3rd place under two rival streamers hopped up on GFuel haunted by the spirits of great architects, and still gain enough exp to unlock a handful of Battle Pass rewards. I unlocked Lara Croft by ringing doorbells until they broke. Help!!!!!!!
Also I know this will be contentious but I just straight up like the way the game looks. Any skin that isn't default is so meticulously modelled and textured it blows me away, the lighting as the day/nite cycle rolls over the trees and fog in the marsh and the autumn trees and the lakes and!!!!!! i could eat the screen and it'd taste like skittles. Anyway im logging this as mastered because i got 10 kills on the board right now.

Low brain capacity podcast chic (children's game). Genuinely impressed by so many aspects of this game and glad most of my apprehensions were subverted.

I think seeing a screenshot of a Total Collectables screen years ago filled me with primal dread and put off trying this right until now. What really helped ease me in was learning that most of the pickups (the eggs, Red and gold feathers) are all charitably spread around the levels and act as infinitely replenishable resource pools. The hunt for Jiggies was exhilarating because they're never earned through the same means twice, demanding of a level of mastery or attentiveness to the little details of the densely designed highly interactive maps, and rewarding you with pure variety.
Genuinely love this hulking monolith of a central hub world that is cumbersome bullshit to navigate, the quality of the subtle character animations, the "na-na-nananah, you can't catch me" playground taunt for the invincibility jingle, Big Jinjo.

(Played whatever version is on Gamepass)
The game equivalent of being a child running through the aisles of Toys R Us and looking at all the products, being hypnotised into complete silence whenever an unskippable ad for some expansion pack starts playing on a kiosk. Completely barren of personality with thanks to how flawless and glossy the presentation is, but the appeal of Forza for most likely isn't going to be how it postures itself like a car dealership.

Honestly very fun for the first session or so! Gives you a huge lovingly rendered Edinburgh simulation and lets you carve whatever routes across it you want. It scratched that blessed Burnout Paradise itch for a while and I can see the appeal of an endless ball of yarn of procedurally/community generated racing content, but the monotony set in for me very quickly. No finely-tuned progression and reward systems in the world will ever be as satisfying to me as crashing a car and watching it wrap itself around the lamppost like a snap bracelet.

I believe the first Bravely Default game to be localised for the west was an updated and fine-tuned version filled with rebalances, extra features and manicuring - and oh my god, I can't play this any more until they bring out the toolbox and go to fucking town in a similar fashion. Genuinely smacks of a low-AA tier JRPG (I Am Setsuna, Lost Sphear) in early access. Embarrassing load times, missing features present in the previous entries, microscopic font, UI delays and an all-around undercooked presentation. How do you accidentally make a cast THIS BLAND I don't get it!!!! Even the unlockable classes you can switch between feel weirdly "empty", stripped of identity and utility because of how overly balanced BD2 feels.

First Sega CD game I've ever played! I'm hardly familiar with the hardware or the CD expansion, but I'm still absolutely blown away by the production quality of the cutscenes in this. Fully thoughtful employment of a limited colour palette that never feels restrictive. I have a soft spot for 90's fantasy OVAs and Popful Mail is essentially a playable one of those. Which is to say, it's not GREAT, but charming and short enough to never outstay their welcome. Respect the absolute fucking nerve to just not bother with invincibility frames if nothing else. Can't sing praises for what feels a little too bog-standard as sidescrolling action, but I'm always here for a goofy powerhouse of production talent making something that feels uncompromisingly corny.

If u like Popful mail check out these OVAs if you haven't already!!;
-Mahou Gakuen Lunar! Aoi Ryuu no Himitsu
-Ruin Explorers
-Armored Dragon Legend Villgust
-Record of Lodoss War
-Dragon Half
-Ozanari Dungeon

I can't help but feel as though I owe a lot to the first PixelJunk Eden game. In 2008, it was the first arthouse title I'd ever bought; it played no small part in easing me into becoming more adventurous with the games I try - and what better game to do that than one where a goblin cultivates and expands their worldview to reach new heights.
This sequel doesn't do a lot to shake up the original formula, but features a greatly improved control scheme that allows the greenthumb audiovisual serenity to take centre stage, where it would originally fall victim to frustrations and lost progress. It has been pretty emotional skipping through these floating lantana fields while hearing familiar remixes to tunes I consider formative!
My sticking point would be my suspicion that this is essentially just a repackaging of the mobile game Eden Obscura, which brings to the forefront far too familiar to the mobile territory progression systems and clunky UIs. Where there was once a central hub that grew around you to connect to new garden zones is now a Level Select filled with gems and exp and skins and uuuuugh. It doesn't ruin anything of course, the encroaching shadow of The Phone consumes the best of us.

There's a point near the very beginning of the game where you climb on top of a high up vantage point to mark points of interest onto the map. Suffice to say that Immortals' colour palette is beige at worst and orange at best; those said points of interest are only made noticeable by their video gamey red glowing aura - wisely chosen to pierce through the duststorm and not be swallowed by the monotony of its visual design. You then spend the next few minutes cataloguing these red lights one-by-one as new UI waypoints are revealed. Every single one of them is made immediately apparent to be different flavours of collectable. The title card quite literally hasn't even dropped yet, and you're surveying the land with the same adventurous spirit of a warehouse worker doing a stock check. It's an Ubisoft game, by the way.

Just kind of a pathetic game, honestly. Breath of the Wild coattail rider with all of the charm and creativity you should really expect from the French videogame machine with a clot of coal where its heart should be. Between this and Genshin Impact, it's sad to grow so weary so quickly of the type of open-world Breath of the Wild vitalised. It may not have gatcha, but it boils the wonder of exploration into a skinner box of chests, collectables and distractions strewn scattershot around an environment in a way that feels completely dispassionate and built only to addict. This awful dialogue is such a waste of good greek accents.