The Puss in Boots (duology) of the Metal Gear series: Distinct from the main series in tone and structure and features a selection of comical villains. Really fast gameplay, strong visuals and high energy bosses. I would say the story is a bit weak and not as many jokes when compared to snake eater or bayonetta 1, and I find Raiden a little more interesting in MGS2 than here. If it was longer and had a more story in the middle to develop the side characters this would be a perfect experience. But for now it's still a fun time. Also I played parts of Prayer Of The Refugee during the final boss and it synched up perfectly near the end. Will get back to peace walker eventually.
Oh and shoutouts to the previous owner of my copy who kept the Gray Fox download code unused

Despite spending almost two hours on the final boss I didn't hate this game. Obviously nowhere on the same level as mania but It's distinct enough from Sonic 4 (mostly), and there's some levels with semi interesting elements. I'd recommend playing sonic 3d blast saturn music over certain levels though.
If sonic 4 was an unrelated standalone mobile game (like how it was apparently meant to) and this came out in 2013-14 after Generations it would have probably fared alot better. Will my score change should I play the trip and last stories? Maybe, but for now I can sleep easy knowing I waited for a price drop and had two gift cards with enough left to reduce the price down to a euro.
EDIT FROM A FEW HOURS LATER: Lowering my score by half a star because Trip sucks

November 2004 really decided to gift the world with a banquet of peak served on a golden platter.
I don't know where to begin with this one. Everything with this game works. This is like every great part of the past two games enhanced. The exploration is fun, the new mechanics work, the cobra units are intriguing, and story is so entertaining. Even when there were parts I kept muddling up it was still fun. And Naked Snake is up there with John Marston as among my favourite gaming protagonists.
There's just so much entertaining parts to it all.
I don't have a PS3 so I can't play MGS4. But that's more of a movie than a game anyways so I don't need to buy one for it. Will look at Peace Walker at a later date.

Also everytime I heard Ocelot spoke I just kept picturing Spectacular Spider-Man lol

Didn't click with this at first. Don't get me wrong it is still a fun game and thinking on it more I decided to bump the score half a star. But there are a few parts I think the first game did a little better.
The gameplay is rather tight and much more fluid than the first. Though I found Shadow Moses a little more fun to traverse.
The story is entertaining, though it does starts to feel like watching a really long movie than a playing a game. Not entirely a bad thing but just a point of note. Raiden did grow on me, and the select scenes with Snake and Otacon were good, though characters like Vamp and Fortune I didn't find as interesting of antagonists as the members of Foxhound. Also the way Ocelot got possessed by Liquid is exactly how Homer was possessed by Snake in Treehouse of Horror 9.
The final act and its themes are really interesting and ahead of its time. There are parts my 17-18 year old self would have resonated with more at the time.
Great game that I'll likely love more on a second playthrough. But for now, onto Snake Eater!
(And since April 30th 2009 landed on a Thursday there's a likely chance Rose and Raiden watched an episode of The Office that night.)

If I had a nickel for everytime I played the GameCube version of a 1998 game that's considered inferior to the original but still decent, I'd have two nickels (three if half life 1 came to the system).

So a little backstory: I got this in 2017 but I didn't click with it right away for me and there were other games I was playing that interested me more going into 2018. After a brief bit in 2022 I decided that this would be the year I'd truly play it.

Where to begin: First off the I found the controls were a bit off initially. I got used to it and enjoyed it more
from Gray Fox onwards but It's something that I'd probably enjoy better gameplay wise on a repeated playthrough. Fun bosses and level design though some of the backtracking with the key device near the end bored me a little
The story is entertaining and though the added over the top matrix moves and dramatic camera zooms were unnecessary it didn't affect my investment in the story. Getting to experience the well known moments like Psycho Mantis and the disc swapping was fun.

While I wish I hadn't neglected playing this fully years ago I'm glad I've gotten to play it now since I'm at an age where I'd fully appreciate it (similar feeling with Breaking Bad).

Looking back, I'm kinda surprised how little MGS has appeared on Nintendo platforms since Twin Snakes. You'd think with Solid Snake's inclusion in Smash Bros they would have considered porting Sons of Liberty to Wii. And if Wii U 3rd party support wasn't so weak Phantom Pain might have worked on it.
And yeah once I see the hd collection on 360 damn well I'm gonna buy it.

Mario Wonder can feel like such a fresh game. So many new enemies, colourful ideas, the wonder flower really shakes things up. Playing some of the harder levels, you can tell the designers got inspiration from the fan levels of Mario Maker. So much energy back to back. The final boss is rather fun. And the new voice cast (except maybe Daisy's) is rather solid.

However, there are some parts for me that hold it back from being perfect. Small one out of the way: I wish you could use more than one badge per level. Yes they'd have to remap some buttons for that to work but imagine the combos you could do when combining two or three.

Now for the two big ones: after the innovative boss fights seen in 3D World and Odyssey, we're back to NSMB-DS with Bowser Jr being the main reoccurring boss. How does NSMB-DS have more original bosses than this? And while most of the world themes feel different it's still the same grass, desert, jungle, lava, etc format we've seen too many times. The last area is the only original one and it's fairly short.

I still had fun, it's still feels more new that the past two "New" Super Mario Bros games, but if there were more levels per world, original locations and bosses this could have easily been the 2D Mario equivalent to Odyssey: something that shakes up the formula and breathes new life into the familiar gameplay format.

(Also I turned off the talking flowers two levels in not sorry.)