I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but there's something equally appealing and repellent about this. It's got the foundations of a great collectathon platformer. Clearly it's a spiritual follow up to Banjo Kazooie, and a lot of it what made those games fun to play is present, but I find myself hitting a wall after about an hour.

I've played this on and off several times over the last 12 months or so, with my immediate thoughts being that it's quite fun and I'm having a good time, but it's not long before I get fed up and I really have to fight the urge to turn it off.

It could be the ridiculous amount of tasks and things to do. Or the abilities locked behind Trowser snakes annoying conversations. Or that some parts of the gameplay feel slow and meandering. And some platforming areas being really fiddly and if you mess up a run you have to go back to the start. Or it could be that I'm not as into these types of games anymore (and if that's the case, why did you enjoy Tinykin so much?).

It definitely isn't the lovely visuals. Bright and colourful for the most part and everything looks great. And I do enjoy playing a lot of the sections. Maybe it's the way the game is structured. Lots of little annoyances accumulating into a big one.

I've tried, I wanted to stick with it. But maybe I should just play Banjo Kazooie again?

I think the high esteem this game is held in, maybe raised my expectations a bit too much, but this is a fun time. Maybe if I'd played this before the advance games I'd have enjoyed it more? It does seem like a lot of this is recycled in those games. Not just the game play, but everything from the areas to the bosses were very similar if not the same.

I liked the music, some of it was really good, I could've just left that particular screen on and chilled out. The voice acting is pretty notorious I suppose. What is a man etc... Pretty standard for the time I suppose.

Certainly one of my favourite types of game to play through in recent years. Not sure why I've left this one so long though, considering I've had it for ages.

I've had a fun time playing this. It would've been helpful if the DLC stuff was signposted as such, as I wanted to run through the initial base game, just to get used tonit and get all the relevant power ups needed, but that wee gripe aside, it's a good time. I'm still not a fan of rogue like elements, but this one isn't too bad. The overall gist is still there, but I hate losing all the shit I've collected.

I quite enjoy the Castlevania levels, and it's fun hearing the arranged versions or the classic musc, and bumping into the various characters from the series. Honestly, it's that crossover that got me back interested in trying Dead Cells in the first place. But much like those games and this one, I enjoy playing them, but I'm not very good at them. I am yet to beat any of the final bosses, despite having played this for quite some time, over the course of a couple of months.

I don't doubt I'll get there one day, but until then, I'll probably just jump in every now and then just for an hour or so of fun. A very entertaining game, but the constant repetition probably stops it from being an amazing one.