A perfectly serviceable entry in the New Soup lineup, which is enjoyable to play but the main gimmick ends up rather confusing. It’s all about collecting as many coins as possible, but in the end all that does is having you get showered in 1-ups. What’s a hundred coins worth anymore when there’s millions all over the stages? When does the little ‘bling’ of collecting coins turn boring when you realise that the game does nothing creative with them besides giving you a ton more than usual? A shop to use your crazy amount of coins could’ve been nice, or levels that unlock after a certain amount of coins has been collected, but as it is, it’s a boring gimmick that doesn’t bring much variety with it. The game underneath that gimmick is about as good as any other New Soup game, but that’s not much to write home about.

Honestly, just wow. This was my very first Prince of Persia game, and what a banger game it turned out to be. I didn’t expect much from it, but on all accounts it surprised me and surpassed my expectations. The story, for example, was a lot more engaging than I thought it would be. Metroidvania’s are often gameplay-first, after all, but the characters feel well-realised and the dialogue well-written, without ever overstaying their welcome. Its mastery doesn’t lie in the quality of this all alone, but how it all stays very snappy. Never did I feel like a story sequence was dragging on, it says what it needs to say, says it well with bombastic cutscenes left and right, then launches you right back into the action. The gameplay has a certain flow to it, both in the combat and the exploration. It’s all about speed and zooming left and right, up and down with every upgrade essentially allowing for quicker traversal or more opportunities for complex puzzles. Said puzzles never really got that difficult, but never braindead either. The combat feels like a constant dance of long range, close range, parrying and dodging, ground and air, where all of these options work in harmony to allow you to juggle enemies in the air but with plenty of ways for them to bring you back to the ground if you get overconfident and just start button mashing. The bosses especially can be punishing, with one encounter in particular forcing me to rethink my play style to overcome it. I played on Hard, but no challenge felt insurmountable even though battles move at breakneck speeds sometimes. I even sometimes felt like with all the upgrades I got I could brute-force certain bosses a little, but not to a degree that hampered the enjoyability.

The music and visuals are also quite impressive, with a painterly quality to the visuals and especially the ‘time effects’ having a very distinct look and sound that I found particularly satisfying. Music is quality across the board, with every theme feeling fitting for the area, and a few standout tracks for bosses that got my blood pumping, even if admittedly nothing really stuck with me in my head.

Highly recommended for anyone who likes metroidvanias, I don’t think one needs to be a fan of Prince of Persia to enjoy this one, it’s a great time!

I absolutely loved the concept, figuring out the languages bit by bit and getting progressively better and faster at figuring them out, but it also feels like I could get away with guessing and brute-forcing it a bit too easily sometimes. I feel like this concept has so much more potential, but as it stands, this was a magnificent experience. I felt totally immersed in the world, the way you slowly grow to understand more about each layer of the tower and the people there... absolutely worth a look for anyone who is even remotely interested in the concept of a game about decyphering languages!

The characters always get praised so high, but let me be honest. These characters? They kind of take a while to grow on you. Many of them are either kind of dull, generic or straight up annoying (looking at you, Teddie) when they first get introduced and during the middle of the game. But there's a certain point in the game where the story really picks up, and I could not put it down anymore after that. The characters really come into their own, not every social link is a smash hit but many of them are at least somewhat enjoyable, and the story feels neatly tied together with some emotional beats that took me off guard.

I did not cry at the end of this game. I don't think any of the characters in this game deserve that strong a reaction with how insufferable they could be during some moments, or just walking anime tropes at others... but I do look back on it fondly.

Story aside, after playing Persona 3 FES, the rank 10 rewards and the fact social link give out new skills to use really made that gameplay loop that much more satisfying. Nothing to complain about there, even grinding for sidequests wasn't that much of an annoyance. So yeah, a hearthy reccomendation, but you'll have to stick with it to see it truly shine. There's some grime on this gold, but it's still golden.

After the lacklustre campaign of the base game, I had high hopes that this would be much better due to all the praise I heard for it, and I was certainly not disappointed! The story isn’t much, but the mysterious air around it all definitely elevated it. I’ve never really liked much of the splatoon cast of characters, and though I continue to be indifferent to them, Pearl and Marina are definitely a step above the squid sisters with more distinct personalities and just altogether more fun interactions. Where this campaign obviously excels is the gameplay, and it SOARS right past the base game’s quality to blow me away. The short duration of the levels, the challenge cranked up but never too high, all the cute lil mem cakes with frankly beautiful little poems attached to them, that final boss fight’s sheer scale… everything blends together so well that the campaign flies by and not a second of it was wasted. I had a blast from beginning to end, even as I had to retry over and over in some of the harder sections. (Especially the secret boss is a doozy, and though quite frustrating at first, beating it felt so good!) In any case, very glad I went back to Splatoon 2 after 3 to check this out, was absolutely worth it and I highly recommend.

ARMS was free to play as one of those NSO trial things for like a week or so, and I had my fill of it in that time. Beat the hardest difficulty of the arcade mode, fooled around online a bit, and that’s where my interest faltered and I felt like I had done everything the game had to offer, pretty much. It’s pretty fun, rather creative and in terms of presentation and personality, it has both down great! There’s just not much content to keep you engaged, so though I don’t regret playing it, the fact I had my fill during that trial period says it all.

The concept alone is still so wild, Mario jumping around from planet to planet in space. I got this at a bargain price for my Wii U having never played it when it originally released, and it had not lost any of it’s shine. I loved shooting from planet to planet through launch stars, I think Bee Mario is such an underrated power-up and the orchestral soundtrack with plenty of bopping tunes is still one of the best. Not many Mario OST’s that have music this grand and dramatic, haha.

It can be a tad gimmicky with its levels, but I personally didn’t mind these too much, and always had at the very least a decent bit of fun with them!

Funnily enough, the story and the atmosphere surrounding these story beats really pulled me in on this one. Yeah, story in a Mario game, who cares about that? I apparently do, and Rosalina’s little bedtime story as well as the ending to the game really left me quite surprised with how much more it immersed me in the game world, where Mario is usually full steam ahead with bombastic fun. Here there’s moments that are more subdued and calm, with even a slight melancholic tone to it, which felt oddly fitting for a game set in the vastness of space.

In either case, anyone and everyone owe it to themselves to give this one a go.

It might have been amazing back in the day, and it does do a remarkable job at bringing metroid from 2D into 3D... but compared to those 2D games, especially after Dread, it's so by the numbers that it's a bit of a snorefest. The 2D games do about everything better, so all I can hope is that the sequels improved upon the formula to add its own improvements to it. The high point is without a doubt the meta ridley fight, if the entire game was like that, I'd agree wholeheartedly with everyone else that this is a masterpiece. But as it is, that's a very cool high point in a game that isn't bad, but it's also not particularly good at anything, especially when you have the 2D metroid games hitting it out of the park in terms of snappy gameplay and atmosphere.