It feels like a relic from a time when Nintendo was still figuring out how to do 3D-level design.

It's a hard game to judge, compared to the other 3D Mario's, its reputation is split down the middle. Some people love the setting and its ambitious nature, and some can't stand the awkward camera and the hit-and-miss level design.

If you have any sort of interest in 3D platformers, it's worth trying, simply because of the weight Mario has in this genre, but it's a 50/50 chance if you will enjoy it.

It has aged quite a bit on the Gamecube, the new version included in Super Mario 3D All-Stars for the Switch is a solid upgrade and the best way to play this, with better controls and clearer visuals.

Evil West hurts itself in the last few hours, as it starts to spam combat encounters with large mobs, it becomes slower and the satisfaction of ripping through enemies goes away.

And it's a shame, the combat in the game is excellent. The story is comically bad, the game has a lot of animation issues, and it has weird jarring transitions from cutscenes to gameplay, but the combat itself is excellent. It is a very well-made system that shows the developers' qualities.

But the tanky nature of the later enemies and how it throws encounters at you over and over without any breathing room means that it presents itself at its worst towards the end.

It's a complicated experience, on one hand, the world is immaculate, the massive school itself and the surroundings are fun to explore, and the gameplay is well done, but on the other hand, half of the missions are identical (go into a cave and fight spiders and goblins), the world is crammed with mediocre sub-quests, and the story is so easy, predictable and long-winded that it loses your interest half-way through.

It's not that easy to do combat in a game like this, and for the most part, they pulled it off well enough. Even if once you get the timing down on the dodging, you are almost impossible to beat.

I also found it to become almost like a button masher, where I would have my trusty four spells and just dodge and smite the enemies. The game wants you to combo spells and use the weapon wheel as much as possible, but I used the same spells for half of the game, just mindlessly dodging and blasting over and over with my same four spells without really thinking or caring.

The characters talk slowly and over-explain everything. And the main plot about Isadora and Ranrok is way too easy to figure out. The main narrative sorely needed some juice. The mission where you walked around in that pen-and-paper world was great, but I barely remember any others.

The Merlin trails and side-missions are filler, reasons for the player to explore the world, and they are mediocre at best, and bad at worst. But I liked flying around on my broom so much that I spent a good amount of time doing it. The well-made world made it alright.

The castle is big, and it's fun to look around and recognize stuff from the movies. I thought the game was a bit slow and took too long to open up, but I heard that many liked all the classroom stuff in the first few hours, so I guess it's a point of contention.

It's long and drags a bit, and there is so much they could do to improve it, so you end up with a slightly sour taste perhaps, but at the end of the day, Hogwarts Legacy is pretty damn good.

The game landed hard and had way too many technical problems, but it's the best-selling game of 2023, and it would be absolute madness if they weren't working on Hogwarts Legacy 2. Hogwarts Legacy is gonna be a massive franchise moving forward.

Talos II offers a lot more story than I anticipated. It's well thought out and offers plenty of moral and philosophical questions. Considering the subject matter I was impressed with how they handled it.

I found the first game tells a better story overall, but this one has a lot more of it and is a lot more ambitious. There is even a robot city of all things.

I find the puzzles in the Talos Principle games to be deeply satisfying. I don't know exactly what it is. I suspect it's something to do with the 3D nature of it, as most puzzle games are 2D, or it may have something to do with the laser beams being put in order that scratches an itch, a feeling that you are constructing the answer. I can't tell.

The game has a lot to say, and I found some issues with the combination of the constant articles and the large spaces. A lot of the story is optional, but I wanted to get into all of it. If you play like that, be prepared for a lot of time away from the puzzling.

One of the brilliant things about Balatro is that they retained the chance and luck of Poker.

The run you are on is completely dependent on finding the right cards, if you don't get the right joker with the multiplier you need, your hands will suffer.

This is what makes it work, if there was a set logic to it, you would figure it out and all the fun would be lost.

It's an awesome game, and in some ways, it reminds me of Papers Please. A small game with some smart rules that make it highly addicting.

A great third-person shooter that has aged a lot. I loved it when Ubisoft was in its golden age of tactical/stealth games. From Ghost Recon, to Splinter Cell, to Rainbow Six Vegas, these games required you to assess the situation before you rushed in, and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 1 and 2 were some of the best games of their kind.

Sadly, the AI struggles, and on consoles it's so dark there are times you can't see shit. The UI is messy and it feels like you are controlling a tank with the way the aiming works.

But it's still highly satisfying to command a squad around and find the best position to engage the enemy. You can get taken out fast if you just rush out, so taking cover and making sure the coast is clear is important.

This sort of tactical third-person approach is not that common to see in games anymore, so I have an appreciation for these types of games.

The first big release of 2024 delivers. The combat is impressively deep compared to other Metroidvanias, and the platforming is great too. I am also impressed with the soundtrack.

It was longer than I anticipated and harder than I anticipated. The balance is generally fine but they are certainly aiming at more hardcore fans of the Metroidvania genre as I can guarantee you that a lot of people will bounce off some of these bosses and drop the game.

I think this game will be like Hi-Fi Rush, a game that over-delivers and will be remembered fondly at the end of the year.

The only thing I didn't like was the extreme dependency on checking the map. I know this is normal in this genre but towards the last 5 hours, I felt like I was checking the map every 6 seconds.

And, while this might be a small complaint, I found the menus, character art, UI, and fonts to look like a mobile game. Everything is a little too big.

Still, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a great game that gets a lot of things right, it's one of the best Metroidvanias in years. Here's hoping for a sequel (even if that, unfortunately, seems unlikely given the poor sales).