bounced right off the original back in 02 but this was a pretty fun time. i played this with a walkthrough as i wanted to experience the vibe without having to worry about keeping track of routing and completion. maybe that makes me soft but i think it helped this games strengths shine through. they really nailed the whole isolated, space anthropologist-with-an-arm-cannon feel of metroid, and the unforgiving and sometimes janky difficulty was just present enough to be nostalgic instead of frustrating.

visuals that got a genuine 'wow' out of me and good music but almost everything else is beyond bare bones. the setting, such as it is, is a lot of alice in wonderland and surprisingly, coraline (did anyone else clock that?). i could easily see this game captivating an 8- or 9-year old and eventually leading to other action rpgs with a little more depth.

it's easy to overlook a lot of this game's shortcomings but one actively got under my skin: as pointed out by another reviewer, your attacks make exactly one sound effect. by the end of the game you are hitting enemies 5-15 times and it's just that same sound effect over and over. i also have thoughts about the typography (cococucumber hire me to do your typography)

Nintendo doubles down on the movie with this delightful, inspired take on 2D Mario, using a relentless parade of new ideas, mechanics and environments to bring back the original series' (particularly 3 and World) feeling of joyous exploration and discovery. This is the next-gen 2D Mario that we've waited 30 years for.

I've seen people doing discourse about the diffculty, but I don't want to hear a word until you beat the final final level. The last bit of the optional endgame is the toughest, most hardcore Mario this side of Maker. I got all the medals except the standee one-I should have started working on that earlier but alas.

A deeply odd mishmash of graphical styles, character designs and storytelling styles—but it's a very charming mishmash. This game really expanded the characterizations of mario, peach and especially bowser and set the table for the next 30 years of the entire mario franchise. hell, even the movie relies on some of the track laid here.

i played this game only once before (in 2002 or so) so i don't remember it vividly. the remake looks great and captures that very specific Donkey Kong Country-esque graphical style. didn't really care for the music with a few exceptions.

I'm always saying I want something different—and this was quite different indeed. A really lovely experience of exploration and solitude with a unique movement mechanic that puts a welcome twist on the 'explore and read letters to get the story' genre. The environmental allegory is a little on-the-nose but still carries an impact. As someone who gets shaky climbing up to the roof of my one-story house, I found the scale of this game exhilarating and the setting was so well-realized that I had a tough time not blowing through in one sitting. Yet another decisive Game Pass victory!

it's still a sluggish, heavy-feeling 3D platformer with a fair amount of jank but with much less of those things than in the first game. it's a huge level-up from fallen order, with way more player freedom, areas to explore and shit-talking stormtroopers to dismember in increasingly creative ways.

like fallen order, this game makes spectacularly effective use of the star wars IP. you get the grimy, rusted mystery of the OT (some exploration areas utterly captured my imagination despite being completely unrelated to the progression or story) alongside the goofy humor and grandiose bombast of the PT. the music and sound are a huge part of this–no surprise since they were exceptional in the first game as well. and i can't mention the music without bringing up the excellent cantina soundtrack. altin gün just knocked it out of the park- their songs are perfect. perfect!!

about 3 hours in i switched this to the lowest difficulty level and my enjoyment went through the roof. i dont mind a challenge but i'm not going to bang my head against a wall to fight 2 stormtroopers or a group of space chickens when i'm trying to live out my jedi fantasies. it was really fun to get through most bosses the first time and get swept up in the momentum of the story, which was... pretty good! nothing groundbreaking but i understood where they were going thematically and i was surprised at the affection i had for characters like greez and cere by the end. i enjoyed the cameos from well-known characters, although i was a little surprised that there weren't more, but it's not a major issue since that tendency is something i don't appreciate in other SW content.

i spent way too much time customizing my lightsaber, outfit, facial hair, blaster and bd-1. hours! hopefully this is something that will be even more robust in the third game.

since it's new years', let's do an in/out list for the third game.

IN:
• Emotional Speeder Bike Chases
• Just walking around vibing with Merrin
• Stormtrooper dialogue
• Pitchfork-worthy space jams on the cantina jukebox
• Wall-running on a Coruscant billboard
• Stacked voice acting ensemble. Hearing DiMaggio, Tatasciore, Mercer and Horovitz brought a smile to my face many times.

OUT:
• Battling creatures
• Swamps/mud planets
• Inexplicable adam sandler references
• Singing children