Super Mario Land 2 is such a delightful game. Something about this, and it's predecessor, feels so different from the NES & SNES Mario games. There's a kind of unhinged creativity in the game's design. There's a few familiar faces here like your classic Goombas and Koopas but in terms of most of the enemies, environments and gimmicks this game marks a pretty significant departure from the look-and-feel of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World.

I mean, you've got a Halloween themed area full of vampires, cyclopes, witches and even little guys wearing Jason Voorhees hockey masks. How awesome is that?!

Some of the level gimmicks are pretty cool as well and add some nice variety to the platforming. I enjoyed the honey that you slowly slide down in the Tree Zone and the floatier jumping in the Space Zone in particular.

Just a very charming game overall!

Castlevania is a game I can appreciate but it's one I struggle to truly love.

Like many NES games, Castlevania is a short experience and can be beaten in less than half an hour. Seemingly to counteract this, the game is incredibly challenging and demands to be played dozens of times to master. Every level has been carefully curated so that EVERYTHING, from the smallest enemies to the most modest of jumps, poses a massive threat. The combination of Simon Belmont's sluggish, stiff movement (an intentional design choice, forcing the player to attack and jump with absolute precision) and the devilish enemy attack patterns make this game feel overly difficult at times but I appreciate just how well crafted every level feels. Absolutely everything feels intentional, not a pixel feels out of place.

As much as I respect how tight the gameplay feels, I had to rely on save states to get past some of the trickier sections. Some of the bosses, for example, are nigh impossible if you didn't happen to pick up and keep the right weapon from the preceding level. Without the modern convenience of save states, I'd probably have given up playing halfway through.

Ultimately the best thing about Castlevania is the atmosphere. It's genuinely impressive how much of a rustic, spooky ambience the game has, considering the technical limitations of the NES. The game uses the limited available colour palette wonderfully to bring the enemies and levels to life, it's surprisingly gorgeous at times. The soundtrack also helps tremendously. It's one of the NES' best. Each track imbues it's corresponding level with a slightly different vibe from adventurous to eerie and unsettling.

On a final note, I was first exposed to the Castlevania series by YouTuber James Rolfe and I have to parrot one of his takes. This first game was so evocative of classic, gothic horror that it very much reminds me of old Hammer horror movies. I can't help but feel it's a shame (though true to the original Japanese intention, I suppose) that Castlevania projects are now always tied to an anime aesthetic.

This is one of those games that reminds me just how amazingly far gaming has evolved from it's primitive beginnings.

Moreso than Tetris, this was my go-to Game Boy game. A svelte, tight experience that (if played again-and-again to master it's jumps) could be completed in a breezy half hour. It's a game that really shows how much fun can be had from the simplest of graphics and gameplay mechanics.

I still like the catchy tunes, the bare-bones visuals and the responsive controls. It doesn't look like much by today's standards and you couldn't really release a game with this little content these days but it's incredibly fun and I know I got my money's worth out of it.

The Witness is a devilishly simple game. Taking place on a luscious, deserted island, you're tasked with exploring and solving a seemingly never-ending series of maze-like panel puzzles where the goal is simply to draw a line from A to B, meeting certain criteria in the process. The premise is simple and it's addictively fun.

Crucially, none of the puzzle parameters are ever explained. It's entirely on you to play around and make sense of the increasingly complicated mechanics, sometimes through sheer brute force as you try possible solution after possible solution. That is, though, what makes The Witness so fulfilling to play; that feeling of discovery and conquest feels totally earned when you find and finish a new area of puzzles without any help from the game whatsoever.

Not every mechanic works though. Most are based on logical thinking (like drawing a line from A to B while dividing squares by colour, for example) but there's a string of sound-based puzzles where you have to interpret bird calls and map them to a route through puzzle panels. I found these sections to be a nightmare but they didn't ruin the game.

For context, I actually played The Witness as a couch co-op game. Me and my best friend threw out possible solutions to each other, scrawling out the puzzles madly with paper and pencils. I think it's probably the best way to play and experience the game because it makes those 'Eureka!' moments, where you finally crack a tricky puzzle, all the more satisfying because you've got someone to share the victory with.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles is what Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was meant to be all along before prolonged development and a looming McDonald's tie-in forced the game to be split and released in two parts as Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. Individually, both of those games feel a little short and unsatisfying but when combined they result in the best Sonic game bar none. I think this is a fairly common opinion, especially for Sonic fans of a certain age, but I wanted to try my best to write about exactly why I happen to share that view.

Let's break things down. For starters, I think that the graphics reached their apex in S3&K. Sonic and co have enjoyed a slight redesign that makes their sprites slicker, the beautifully evocative backgrounds compliment the diverse array of levels you explore and Robotnik's machinery looks even more mechanised and industrial. I mean, how much cooler does this game's Mecha Sonic look compared to the one in Sonic 2? The sound design and music is also the best in the series for me. I'm particularly fond of the tracks made by the Michael Jackson team (Carnival Night, Ice Cap and Launch Base) because they sound so...different. I love the lonely minimalism of Ice Cap's music, the off-kilter spookiness of Carnival Night's and the tropical urgency of Launch Base's which simultaneously cheers the player on while calling back to the Caribbean-sounding Angel Island Zone music. The graphics and music go hand-in-hand to make S3&K's levels impressively immersive.

I also enjoy the many small tweaks to the core Sonic formula that S3&K introduces. Nothing quite as dramatic as the spin-dash has been added but Sonic's insta-shield is a satisfying move to pull off to blitz through otherwise impenetrable enemies and the three new elemental shield power-ups are fun to play around with. Also, the Special Stage 'Blue Sphere' mini-game is a lot more fun than what Sonic 1 or Sonic 2 offered up. The Special Stages are now entered via giant rings hidden in every zone which offers an incentive for players to explore every inch of every zone.

Of course, S3&K also adds Knuckles to the mix. An antagonist-turned-ally, Knuckles can glide, climb up walls and break through barriers that Sonic isn't able to. Knuckles is not as fun to play as as Sonic but, admirably, Knuckles can traverse totally different paths through most zones than Sonic, adding a layer of replayability to the game. There are some really wonderful little details in Knuckles' campaign that might not even register the first time you play it. The ghosts in Sandopolis Zone Act 2, for example, are already loose. That's because Knuckles' campaign takes place after Sonic's already been there! The Knuckles playthrough is full of neat little moments like this and speaks to the delightfully subtle way S3&K's narrative unfolds.

The level design philosophy of S3&K is quite different from Sonic 2's. Sonic 2 put an emphasis on different branching paths through each level, with upper paths rewarding skilled players with easier and shorter routes. S3&K levels are a little more about trying to strike a balance between wowing the player with cinematic set-pieces, encouraging some light exploration to scour the zone for Special Stage rings and asking the player to interact with level-specific gimmicks. I think S3&K succeeds in striking a good balance that makes the levels endlessly replayable. A few of the gimmicks really don't work, like the Carnival Night barrels, but plenty do and take the Sonic formula in new directions. Shockingly, I love Sandopolis Zone Act 2's gimmick of forcing the player to keep the lights on or face the wrath of vengeful ghosts. It makes the zone one of the hardest in Sonic history but it creates an amazingly tense atmosphere. For a series which is generally pretty easy, the little difficulty spike feels quite welcome.

As you can tell, I really like this game but the one element that pushes it into GOAT territory for me is the way the game's narrative unfolds. Through short cutscenes, little level transitions and environmental details a wonderfully intrepid, Indiana Jones-style adventure unfolds and it's such a delight to experience. It's truly a game that is greater than the sum of it's parts. The improved graphics and sound combine with the solid Sonic gameplay and the little narrative moments to create an unforgettable experience. S3&K is, probably, the game that really made me fall in love with the medium of video games and helped me to see the storytelling potential videogames had.

SEGA had a lot of hardware misadventures in the 1990s. The 32X add-on was one of them; a little device that you plugged into the top of your Mega Drive that granted you access to a slim library of 32-bit games. In my opinion, the most notable 32X game was Sonic spinoff Knuckles' Chaotix.

It almost goes without saying that Knuckles' Chaotix has some really nice graphics and an exemplary soundtrack; that's almost a given for Sonic games of this period. What makes Chaotix interesting is it's central premise. You play as two characters at once, joined together by an elastic band-style tether. You can use the tether to, amongst other things, launch your characters up a ramp and into the air with a speed and velocity that makes Sonic's spindash look sluggish in comparison. This tether gimmick has a lot of potential and, when coupled with each Chaotix members unique moveset, makes movement in Knuckles' Chaotix a fast-paced, hectic thrill-ride. That's really how Sonic it feels like Sonic games SHOULD be designed.

There is an issue, however. Despite how fun the game's central shtick is the level design lets the game down. Thematically, all of the game's levels are quite samey and not particularly distinct. The careful level layouts of Sonic 1, 2 & 3 is replaced with more of a big 'playground' approach to level design. The levels are huge, to make space for the new form of movement, but they're forgettable and feel quite empty and aimless. In a sense then, Chaotix is similar to Sonic CD; the level design is a step down from Sonic's best efforts to try to accommodate a new gimmick.

There are moments when Chaotix's potential does shine through and, I have to say, I adore the Chaotix cast. They're some of my favourite Sonic characters in terms of design and character (though a lot of the credit for my enjoyment of them goes to the Fleetway comic series) and earn the game an extra half star. Chaotix is a game that I enjoy but it's one that has some glaring weaknesses. Well worth a play if you're a Sonic fan though.

Nope. This one is too hard for me. I enjoy difficult games but everyone has their limit and Ghosts 'n Goblins is mine.

The difficulty starts with the movement. The hero of the game, Arthur, has a static jump arc which makes everything, from platforming to avoiding enemies, so difficult. This isn't unusual for a game of this era but the ultimate kick in the teeth is the cruel randomness of Ghosts 'n Goblins. I think that's what sets it apart from Castlevania, Contra et al.

As early as the first few seconds of the game you'll notice the red-haired zombies seem to spawn in random locations, making even the first level impossible to brute force via memorisation. The flying demon enemies are the worst offenders though; they have such a shockingly nefarious attack pattern and feel like a gigantic, undodgeable homing missile. When you combine this unpredictability with Arthur's shockingly stiff jump it makes for an absolute headache of a game where even the simplest of enemies can become an unavoidable hazard.

Playing Ghosts 'n Goblins feels like digital torture and I'm not much of a sadomasochist, so I'll pass.

On the plus side, the music is iconic, elevating the game up a half star in my estimation.

Help me, I'm addicted to Balatro! This game is so much fun.

While the central premise revolves around you playing poker hands to meet certain score thresholds for monetary rewards, like any good roguelite the most important aspect of the game is the shop. Here you can level-up your hand-types, purchase cards to add to your deck and, most significantly, purchase joker cards that offer buffs and power-ups of all shapes and sizes. Jokers add to your chip count, score multiplier or offer you extra goodies for playing a certain way.

The devilishly genius thing about Balatro is that every joker card is contextually useful. The only other roguelite games I've played have been action-oriented (i.e. Hades) where some power-ups are evidently superior to others but that's not really the case here. Some jokers are immensely helpful early game but quickly drop off and need replacing later while others really bolster your late game but take a while to kick into gear. Making the judgement call about when to swap and change your joker stack (you're limited to 5) is a massive and satisfying part of what makes the game so addictively fun. RNG plays a massive part in any given run but being tactical about how you upgrade your deck and which jokers you choose plays a big part in a successful run too. When you pull off a great build you're rewarded with huge scores, a little dopamine rush for all of your strategizing and risk-taking. When you sell a joker and your run goes sour, you're punished for making a brazen but ultimately wrong decision.

I am absolutely loving Balatro thus far and find the gameplay loop scratches a very specific itch that no other game has for a while.

It's worth mentioning as well that the presentation is entrancing too. The graphics and sound design are minimalist but the sprite work on all of the cards is lovely and the music loop is seemingly endlessly relistenable.

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine is an 'Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog'-themed reskin of Japanese falling block puzzle game Puyo Puyo and it's a heck of a good time.

The premise of Mean Bean is simple but addictive. Pairs of beans fall from the top of the screen and you have to join them together in batches of four or more to pop them off your board. When you do, it makes a rock appear on your opponents board so by clearing your own board you're simultaneously disrupting your opponents. Crucially, you can build your board up patiently and then get rid of an epic amount of beans in a chain combo, which in turn, creates an avalanche of rocks on your opponents board.

This is the central risk reward matrix at the heart of Mean Bean's gameplay and adds a delectable layer of tension. Do you build up a monstrous combo and leave yourself vulnerable to enemy rocks or do you try to overwhelm your opponent with a continual string of smaller combos?

It's a formula that's easy to grasp but takes time to master and the single-player mode does a good job of testing out your skills. I always found Mean Bean's single-player mode hit a sweet-spot with it's difficulty curve. Every robotic opponent has a distinct playstyle but they get progressively tougher to beat, pushing you to continually blast through your own perceived skill ceiling in an effort to get further. It's the type of game I find endlessly replayable and satisfying to best.

For what it's worth, I enjoy Mean Bean over the original Puyo Puyo because of it's AOSTH inspiration. It's so much fun to see the goofy enemy portraits change from smug grins to desperate, sweating faces when you turn the tide in your favour. The tense Kraftwerk-inspired music and excellent use of well-placed sound effects (an exuberant YIPEE sounds off whenever you pop a quad of beans) only add to the satisfaction when you've got Dr. Robotnik or one of his lackeys on the ropes.

By just about every metric Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a superior game to it's predecessor. This is the game where SEGA leaned into Sonic's speed and cut out a lot of the clunkier gimmicks and design elements that slow down parts of Sonic 1. Thanks to the new, genius spin dash mechanic and the vast, multi-layered levels (with lots of thrilling ramps and loop-de-loops that aid in building momentum), the game feels satisfyingly fast to blast through.

Despite the emphasis on speed, there's a real sophistication in the way Sonic 2's levels are constructed. The best of the game's levels have multiple branching paths, with each level's upper route generally being shorter and easier than it's lower route. You can see this design philosophy really come to life in Aquatic Ruin Zone, for example. Skilled players can avoid the watery sections entirely by taking the upper route but are punishing for any missteps they make as they descend down to the more punishing underwater segments. It's Sonic level design at it's best and it begs the player to replay the game to find the optimal path through each level.

The run of levels, starting with Emerald Hill and ending with Mystic Cave, is unbelievably fun and the peak of the game. My only gripe is that I always felt it dropped off slightly and descended into an anti-climax towards the end. Sky Chase through to the end of the game is a bit of a slog, particularly when replaying the game, but the majority of the levels are top notch.

The brighter, bolder graphics feel like a step up from the first game and I think the soundtrack is better too. There are no misses, every tune is great. The addition of some little extras (a second playable character, a nice little competition mode, a treat for collecting all of the chaos emeralds) is just the cherry on top. In short, it's a textbook example of how to make a good sequel.

I played this game because, as a fan of cheesy sci-fi B-movies, it boasted an aesthetic that I've never seen a game explore before. Visually, The Deadly Tower of Monsters does a wonderful job of recreating the feel of an Ed Wood-style production because it's full of enemies in terrible costumes, enemies who fly onto the screen aided by some easy-to-spot string and enemies who move in stop motion. Some of the visuals really hit the spot and the game hits a homerun when it comes to emulating that low budget movie feel.

The central conceit of The Deadly Tower of Monsters is that you're watching a director provide a DVD commentary over his own movie and, it has to be said, the writing is actually quite funny. The fact that the voiceover DOESN'T get annoying is a welcome surprise, it's fun.

Beyond all of that window dressing though, there's not much more to it. This is a game that nails it in terms of the art directions but falls flat in terms of the gameplay. It's a basic Diablo clone with extremely repetitive combat and no other game mechanics to speak of. The combat isn't particularly impactful and gets pretty boring, which is a shame because the style alone screams potential. It's a nice looking game but it needed a bit of extra spice in the gameplay department.

Originally released for the Mega CD and PC, for the first decade of it's existence Sonic CD had an air of mystery about it. It was considered something of a 'lost' Sonic game because so few fans had played it. I first got the chance to boot up the game when Sonic Gems Collection released in 2005. After over a decade of hearing about, but never being able to play, Sonic CD, my expectations were sky high.

Artistically, Sonic CD blew me away when I played it for the first time. It has, arguably, the best soundtrack in Sonic's illustrious history (the Japanese variant specifically, though the American soundtrack is also excellent) and beautifully realised levels that bring back the weird, slightly abstract visual design of the first game. The levels all look and sound great and that's all the more impressive considering Sonic CD's central time travel gimmick. You can visit a Past, Present, Good Future and Bad Future version of every level and it's truly wonderful to see each level's evolution (or devolution).

To get the game's best ending you're encouraged to travel to the past in each act of each zone, find a Robotnik device and destroy it. Doing so creates a 'good future' for the zone while failing to do so creates a 'bad future'. On paper, it's a pretty cool concept that adds an extra layer of agency to Sonic and the player but the time travel conceit completely changes how Sonic CD's levels are designed for the worse. The levels are all more maze-like and sprawling than previous instalments. They're built this way to encourage you to explore and find the devices but it doesn't make for a particularly fun experience. The central issue with this is that if you're playing casually and ignoring the exploration aspect of the game, the levels feel somewhat short and underwhelming. But even if you invest the time to scour each level for the Robotnik doohickeys, the level design doesn't suddenly shine, instead it feels convoluted, frustrating and confusing. Stardust Speedway is probably the best example of what I mean. It's not a terrible level. It has a bold design and looks fantastic but it's far too easy to blast through and poses no challenge whatsoever if you choose not to explore. If you do spend some time exploring, however, Stardust Speedway is a maddening labyrinth of loops, ramps and spring with no memorable set pieces or routes. It's literally a spiderweb of high-speed paths and ends up giving me a bit of a headache if I spend too long looking around.

Over time, and after investing the time to actually find most of the Robotnik devices (I've never taken the time to 100% the game, mind you), I have grown to appreciate the interesting direction the game takes classic Sonic gameplay but I still feel the attempt to innovate here was somewhat botched. I quite enjoy playing Sonic CD casually, taking in the sights and sounds and largely ignoring the time-travel mechanic. For me it's the weakest of the classic Sonic quadrilogy.

Sonic the Hedgehog (the game, not necessarily the character) feels like a lost relic from the past.

Sonic games are known for their blistering speed but Sonic 1 only allows players to experience high-speed gameplay in bitesize chunks, sandwiched between slower zones that require more precision platforming and patience. It's an approach later Sonic games would stray away from, for better or for worse.

Sonic the Hedgehog kind of peaks immediately. Green Hill Zone is a summery playground that lets players get to grips with everything Sonic can do. Sonic's momentum is showcased wonderfully as you're encouraged to reach (and maintain) a fast-paced run to make it through the level's now iconic loop-de-loops. Most of the other levels, however, have significantly more sedated moments.

I think the worst offender may be Spring Yard Zone. There's a few moments where, when ascending moving platforms, you just have to wait around for a gap to let you move from platform to platform. It feels like padding and brings the game to an immediate halt. Marble Zone and Labyrinth Zone are often pilloried for their lack of speed but I think that's a little unfair. Not all 'slower' sections are just slow for the sake of it and I enjoy the tense challenge of Labyrinth's sluggish underwater movement and Marble's moderately challenging platforming.

I've played the likes of Marble Zone and Labyrinth Zone enough to have a soft spot for them but I can empathise with younger fans who might visit this first instalment and wonder what all the initial hype was about (this game was, after all, highly acclaimed on release) because I do prefer the pace of the game's sequels.

Even if we admit that the Sonic formula needed a little refining, this is still a brilliant starting point. Sonic controls so smoothly, the kooky graphics paint a world that's fun to explore and the soundtrack is one of the Mega Drive's best. There's so much to appreciate here if you don't get hung up on the game's weaker moments.

A Sonic pinball game, on paper, makes sense. Casino Night Zone is often cited by fans as one of the most memorable levels in Sonic 2 and that had plenty of flippers and bumpers that were a lot of fun to interact with. Casino Night Zone was also one of the easiest, chillest levels in Sonic 2. Surely Sonic Spinball will take a page out of it's predecessors book and bring us a game with that same breezy atmosphere and gameplay as Casino Night Zone, right? Well....not quite.

Sonic Spinball is like a less friendly, no-nonsense approach to the pinball genre that is punishingly hard, easily the hardest Sonic game I've played. This is, if you'll excuse the expression, the 'Dark Souls' of Sonic games.

I do admire the game's ambition. The levels are designed to be more interesting than your run-of-the-mill licensed pinball game; sprawling in scope with visuals more akin to a contemporary platformer game than a flashy pinball game. The whole experience is framed as a frantic climb up Robotnik's lair, which is cool. The first level, Toxic Caves, is admirably murky looking and satisfying to vertically scale...but the difficulty starts getting ridiculous in Lava Powerhouse, the game's second level, with some very finickity jumps and some brutal bottomless pits. I've never completed the game without the help of modern save and rewind features. The final level is an absolute beast and I was never able to beat it as a kid. It's a fun game but perhaps a little too hard.

More than anything else though I have a soft spot for Sonic Spinball because it's design is informed by an American perspective and it's the only game in the series to incorporate elements of the SatAM cartoon series (Princess Sally and co make cameo appearances), which is pretty rad. Honestly, the soundtrack slaps hard as well. That distinctly grimy, industrial sound the Mega Drive sound chip was known for works perfectly here and compliments the slightly grittier style of the game's graphics.

In the long history of discourse around Sonic Adventure, what's often forgotten is that Sonic Adventure wasn't just a mere game: it was designed as a Dreamcast system seller and tech demo. Several key development decisions (such as having a water-based villain in Chaos) were informed by SEGA's desire to show consumers what the Dreamcast was capable of. If anything, it feels to me like this approach made SEGA TOO ambitious and, as a result, the game feels a little bloated. For every good thing about Sonic Adventure there's something bizarre, janky or disappointing to mention. There's just so much going on and that lack of focus makes this a very mixed game. Let's discuss more in excruciating detail.

First, the game definitely lives up to the 'adventure' moniker. This is where the Sonic series morphed into a kind-of shonen anime with an elaborate story, plentiful cutscenes and questionable voice-acting. To be honest, I enjoy the dramatic cheesiness of it all. This epic yarn of a narrative sees the player take control of six playable characters with Sonic being the most prominent and having the most stages to play. Sonic's action stages are generally pretty good; they're fast and full of flashy set pieces but there's also subtle calls to experiment with the game's mechanics and thoroughly explore the levels. The exploration aspect is easy to ignore but the levels are built with a scope that does feel like an honest-to-goodness decent attempt at porting classic 2D Sonic level design into 3D. In short, I think Sonic's levels are a lot of fun.

However, there is a core issue that bugs me about Sonic Adventure. It feels like Sonic's movement hasn't translated into 3D very gracefully. Sonic feels too fast and a little slippery, as if he's constantly walking on ice. Sonic thrashes all over the place and it's a bit of a struggle just to run in a straight line. When you couple this slightly gammy movement with the constantly-changing, fixed camera angles you've got a game that doesn't control very gracefully. It's far from a game ruining issue but, if you contrast Sonic Adventure with Super Mario 64 for example, Sonic feels a lot less responsive than Mario to control.

Outside of Sonic, the other characters are a bit hit-or-miss. Knuckles' treasure-hunting stages are decent but they feel underdeveloped and would get much better in the sequel. E-102 Gamma's run-and-gun levels are way too easy but as a character he's saved by a cool design and a compelling storyline. Amy's slow movement is tedious and her levels are a drag. Tails' levels are uninspired (just Sonic's levels all over again) and Tails also suffers from annoying voice-acting and a new, obnoxious personality.

Then there's Big the Cat. Big's levels revolve almost entirely around fishing. Why fishing was stuffed into the game's main quest instead of, say, added as a cute little mini-game is baffling. SEGA would eventually release a fishing-rod controller for the Dreamcast (which, ironically, wouldn't be compatible with Sonic Adventure) and I can't help but wonder if this was perhaps the reason for Big's playstyle? I'm not sure but yeah, the fishing isn't thrilling.

There's also an overworld that links the game's action stages together. It's something I enjoy exploring more each time I play the game and over time I've gained an appreciation for the NPCs and their cute little subplots. Station Square is a bit of a vibe.

I feel like this review has gotten a little messy but there's so much ground to cover with Sonic Adventure. I have a nostalgia-tinged appreciation for this game. I like the story, the overworld, Sonic's action stages, the music, the graphics and so much more but I can't deny this game is monstrously bloated and is weighed down by a lot of bad inclusions.