I’m torn between a 2.5 and a 3 here, but since I’m not the biggest fan of 2D platformers quite like this, I’ll give it the benefit. It’s clearly full of life and charm, but the gameplay didn’t quite hit the mark with me. The most fun I had was revisiting levels to find new paths and items (Shocker coming from the big Metroid guy) but other than that I was just getting to the end.

However, I’m excited to play the other shantae’s just so I can experience these characters again, listen to the fun music, and See the cute art style.

It’s everything I could’ve hoped for… well almost everything. The one thing I wish was here was a comprehensive co-op like Pikmin 3. But even that is a small thing.

Overall this game took every good aspect of the first three and perfected them here. It was truly an amazing adventure. My favorite franchise continues to be the most under appreciated franchise in all of gaming, but I’m hoping this games sales turn that around, and I won’t have to wait another ten years for Pikmin 5!

Still, I’d say this was worth the wait!

I know this game is a bit on the controversial side when it comes to the series, but I had the best time with it out of the three that I have played.

Yes there is a difficulty issue, and I also had a few bugs to where I couldn’t 100% the game, but the bosses and the interconnected map were definitely my favorite part of the series this far.

This one truly felt like a metroidvania, where the other shantae games are kind of hovering between the lines of a metroidvania and a true 2D platformer. This alone makes me like it just enough to place it at the top of the series.

Also, it has a pretty rad anime type opening!

My wife and I have been looking forward to this game for so long now and I’m kinda bummed it’s already over!

It is definitely an entry point if you want to get into metroidvanias, and watching my wife play her very first game of the genre was super fun! The artwork and animation is also extremely charming, and there were quite a few funny moments as well.

The star of the show apart from Mickey and friends is the movement. Once you get all the abilities, the movement is so seemless and limitless. I honestly loved exploring the map and quite literally gliding around looking for all the secrets. Speaking of, there are a ton of secrets to find and collect, which is something I’m always down for.

All in all this is a very fun, very easy entry point into metroidvanias and I hope we see more from this series!

I had no idea what to play after the last game I beat and it just so happened to be on the day the monthly PSN games were revealed. I saw this and thought why not give it a try?

I’m so glad I did! I wasn’t expecting myself to enjoy this game as much as I did, but the art, story, and music are sooo good. Specifically the music, I could listen to some of these tracks alllllll day.

I enjoy all the secrets and exploring, the combat is fun enough (especially since it offers different weapon types) and the characters are great.

I’m so glad I picked this game up!

This game is soooo weird, but somehow makes so much sense?? Why wouldn’t Samus be a pinball lol

I grew up playing the free pinball game on older windows computers so I’m somewhat fond of it. Slap on some Metroid paint and I’m completely bought in. They really nailed the areas, the music is fantastic, and the mini games you unlock while playing are pretty fun and in line with what Prime is all about.

The best part about this game is that they somehow make in all boss fights a thing, and it works! It’s super fun to fight the bosses from Metroid Prime in this strange way, and I look forward to each time I advance to one of their stages.

I haven’t “beaten” the game yet, but I can see myself becoming addicted to the point where I have to. It’s just a matter of having a good enough run to collect 12 artifacts (just like in MP!)

I feel kinda bad giving this game a 2.5 after all the things I just said about it, but at the end of the day it’s pinball. A super weird, super awesome Metroid version, but pinball nonetheless. I personally find this to be a great game to pick up and play whenever you’re bored or just want to play a mindless game pretty quick, and as far as pinball goes it’s the best version I’ve ever played, but I can’t say I’d recommend to everyone.

I have so much to say about this game, good and bad.

Let’s start with the good. The story parts are beautiful. This game shows so many aspects of life and death like love, loss, anger, and grief. Each of the huge and colorful cast of characters deals with their own issues and comes to terms with their death in their own meaningful way. Seriously, a couple of these characters were tugging on my heartstrings by the time to say goodbye.

The gameplay has some really fun aspects as well! The map is HUGE and everytime I found a new island I was excited to explore it. I would get a rush of determination everytime I found a new material and thought about all I could use it for once I got back to my ship! Speaking of, discovering new blueprints and designing your ship to your own preference is also super fun!

Now comes to bad. If you decide to do everything in this game get ready for a grindddd, literally. I wouldn’t necessarily call it “grinding” in the traditional gaming sense, but there is so much back and forth traveling for each and every thing you want to do and build. I was very careful to collect every resource I could every time I saw them, and there were many times I was still very short on some of them, which was very frustrating.
Especially if that particular item only had a few places it could be, then you would have to wait for it to respawn which takes a fair bit of time. Somewhere, a little bit past the halfway mark of the game, I just felt like I was completing endless tasks just for the hell of it, and it wasn’t near as satisfying as the beginning.

I also felt like some of the quests pacing was a bit off? My very last quest of the entire game was one where you had to wait 2 in game days before you could continue, so I was left with nothing to do except wait for the time to slowly tick away.

Also, some of the “mini game” building that were used to process your materials were flat out non enjoyable from the jump, whereas most of the lost their charm as I kept returning to them time after time.

I really think I screwed myself by going for 100%. If it weren’t for that, most of my issues would have been greatly diminished, and I would have rated the game higher. If I just stuck to the story bits, not worrying about every little detail and side quest, I would’ve got more enjoyment out of the parts that make this game so damn charming.

Spiritfarer is beautiful, and for those who have dealt with death up close know how many ways people cope with it. At the end of the day, we are here to help each other along the way.

Game number 350!!! I knew I had to do something big/special for this occasion, so why not play my first ever Castlevania, half of the namesake of my favorite genre.

There’s so much going for this game, and also a bit going against it. But I don’t want to be negative at all on my 350th completed game so I will stick to what I loved about it.

The RPG elements work so well here! Leveling up, designing your own load out to play how you want to play, and all the upgrades are awesome to find. Many of the weapons I really enjoyed using, and exploring the castle, both normal and inverted, was super fun.

The art, combat, and music are superb!! I have been humming various tracks from this game for the past week! On top of that, although the voice acting is not good at all, I found it hilarious so that’s a plus!!

Although it is not and will never been as good as my beloved Metroid games, I can see why people love this series so much.

Here’s to the next 350!

I’m so disappointed that I spent a gift card on this game. The only reason it is getting more than a one star is because the art and music are pretty good. That’s the only good things I can say about this game.

The negatives vastly outweigh these things. Frame rate issues, boring gameplay, infuriating movement and controls, and the fact that this game is 15 dollars are just a few major issues for me.

The thing that made me most mad about the entire game is that the coolest section, or what would’ve been the coolest section, is just an auto scrolling chase sequence in which you have literally no control. It would’ve been fun to escape yourself during this section, but instead you just watch it happen, and it sucks.

I don’t recommend anyone buy this game unless it’s price is heavily discounted to 3 dollars or less.

What a fantastic little metroidvania!

And boy I do mean little, going for 100% on my first play through took a little more than 3 hours, but what a fun 3 hours it was! Everything including the collectibles, movement, enemy variety, and music was absolutely awesome. While not a huge fan over the art style, the collectible palettes that let you change the the games two-toned colors to a different variety were an awesome and welcoming touch!

Though not many, the boss fights were very well designed but not difficult as long as you took time to learn the patterns, and varied greatly!

This game reminds me so much of Metroid: Zero Mission, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they took inspiration from that game. The sections where you must go without your mech is so similar to the zero suit section from that game, and though frustrating at some points, left me with a smile on my face.

The only downside to this game besides it being so short is the ending, which goes so quickly I was wondering if there were multiple endings and I somehow got the bad one. Even so, what can I expect from a game where you are a saw cat who is controlling a mech suit?

I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes metroidvanias, anyone who wants to get into them, and really anyone that enjoys 2D platformers!