A cool addition to the base game, but when by the end I was actively figuring out how to avoid certain game mechanics so that I didn’t have to deal with stealth sections that feel designed to make you fail over and over until it gets dull… well, let’s say it was far from the greatness of the base game, but it had some decent peaks at least. The ending kind of left me feeling more empty than fulfilled though. It doesn’t take away from Outer Wilds, but it also doesn’t add anything substantial or meaningful that the base game didn’t already do better.

It’s so intriguingly bizarre, with a simple concept that is just plain fun. Where it falters for me is in the controls, which are decidedly unique, but never really felt like I could get to grips with them because they feel rather unintuitive. When it’s not the controls, it’s me constantly getting stuck on things or getting bumped around. It ended up being a tad more frustrating than I imagined, but it was still mostly fun once I decided I didn’t care about 100% completion. I think that’s the best way to play this, too: don’t care about completion rates or percentages, just keep rolling and have a blast while doing it. I recommend it to anyone who’s curious, just go in with an open mind and strap in for a weird, weird ride.

Short, sweet and most of all fun! I played most of the game without even knowing the inputs for the transformations, so that could’ve been communicated better, but then you have the in-game manual that explains it and all the neat little extras that make this a surprisingly interesting dive into the game design aspect of this game. You can beat it in an hour and the base price is a little steep for what it is, but the shortness of the experience helps to keep it fun.

If I’m completely honest, the game itself looks great but the gameplay is quite unremarkable, nothing really leaves an impact besides the music which is very catchy. It’s fun in a rather similar way to the very first kirby. A very basic, simple but ultimately fun experience.

Cute, short, sweet and SO IMMENSELY FRUSTRATING because I forgot that climbing was a thing for a good hour and a half so I was making it so much harder on myself than was needed. That doesn't count into my score, of course, after I found out that you could indeed climb. The camera frustrations and floaty feel of the controls didn't go away though, but with it being a free little game just gifted to us out of nowhere, I can't be too critical of it. Nice lil trip that is nowhere near as good as Celeste, but it never tried to be, nor had to for a fun experience.

For a game built entirely around the satisfaction of sorting things in an aesthetically pleasing or logical way, it does hit that sweet spot quite well. There's just a few too many puzzles where it's less about how you'd organise these items to be satisfied, and more you asking yourself 'what does the game want from me here, exactly?' The hint system is pretty useful for that, but not perfect. The puzzles also get rather reptitive after a while and lose a bit of their novelty and fun to figure them out, but this didn't bother me terribly since it mixes it up just enough. The music didn't really hit the right tone for me to feel fully zen while playing it, plus the game seemingly centred around this cat that keeps messing up your sorting by the end feels a tad random. It's a fun, relaxing diversion, but doesn't have much of an identity besides that. Still, if the premise of satisfying sorting seems like something you'd be into, this is the game for you!

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.

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.