I was a LEGO kid. I love LEGOs, theres something about the act of building things that has resonated with some deeper part of my personality and greatly impacted my creative existence - and so its actually kind of surprising how few LEGO video games actually let you build something piece by piece. Builders Journey, in basically every way you could look at it, is a love letter to LEGO and what LEGO represents. Small building puzzle dioramas rendered in minimal and luscious fashion, sporting a simple but touching lil story of adventure and assembly, resembling the small box sets you might crack open on a quiet Saturday afternoon in August maybe 25 years ago, when a couple more unique parts for your own toolbox was just as important as whatever fun structure the instructions taught you how to make. It means so much that, while the puzzles are incredibly simple, their solutions are not always strict; you can still over- and under-build to your creative hearts content.

Most importantly: Its also kind of boring sometimes. Interesting in concept, austere in practice.

It's hard to put the experience of playing this game into words. It presents itself as a RPG anthology of sorts, where you have to choose between 7 different chapters which work in unique ways and tell distinct stories, which is a challenge in itself to present such different concepts and wrap them up into one sole product, but here it is. The combat gameplay is pretty much the same throughout the game, it features a chessboard where you can move your character closer or further from your opponents, in a Tactics fashion, and then you choose from a skill which has a different area of Effect and a time for it to be cast, but the game isn't that hard, making it very rare for you to reminisce over the nuances of each skill and whatnot. That said, I'll try to shortly breakdown each chapter in the order I played.

First of all, China: it plays a homage to old Chinese kung-fu movies, and does it well. It gets emotional early on and the gameplay features a basic RPG system, with a bit of exploration, combat and story featured together. The speciality of this chapter comes into the form of training your pupils, where you must use your skills on them, so later they can use it themselves in the battles they will wage.

Prehistoric: also featuring a classic RPG system, with random encounters and everything, it is notable for having a crafting mechanic with the items you find scattered in the world, and also the absence of spoken words, all the story is unfold with actions, figures and expressions, and the fact that it is thoroughly understandable from start to finish is truly a marvel in narrative design.

Present Day: this story is simple but memorable, in that it representers a brawler going up in a tournament, the story and ambientation feels VERY Street Fighter fitting, and the boss rush structure is reminiscent of both fighting games and Mega Man. Even the final boss is a lot like Sagat.

Mecha: this chapter unravels in the Near Future(well, nowadays its actually the present) and it plays HEAVILY into anime and tokusatsu genre conventions, conveying into a story that's unpredictable and engaging, even though it is a short story. The unusual mechanic comes from the fact that your character is a telepath, and can read the minds of any NPC, which can provide both comedic effect and a substantial nuance to the story.

Wild West: This one here just struck the gold. It obviously is a tribute to spaghetti western from the beginning to the end. Your anti-hero Clint Eastwoodian protagonist must unite with your rival to protect a town and rally its population in order to trap and get revenge on a bandit group that frequently raids the small settlement. It definitely sounds familiar to Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and Sturges' Magnificent Seven, and doubtedly isn't it intentional.

Edo Japan: now, this chapter is divisive among players, but I guarantee it does try to separate itself from the rest. It features a ninja trying to rescue a prisoner from the clutches of a Daimyo. The catch here is that you can do this is many different ways, such as just destroying everything in your way, being as bad as the villains, or just being a good guy and doing everything stealthily. It's harder to follow the principles of the latter route, but I think it is better to do so in order to distance itself from the other chapters, and also because the closing statement of the story fits better for a mercyful warrior than an assassin. It also leans on Japanese history and you will meet characters that existed and are important to the country, so it's imperative to be aware of such in order to be really impacted by this arc.

Future: this chapter is the most different of them all and it is better played at last. It features no combat(aside from a completely optional minigame) and it relies solely on exploration and narrative. It is a story of a robot in a spaceship, which has to accompany your human crew and survive through the horror and disaster that befalls your comrades. It has no songs but a noise in the majority of the chapter, trying to build a suspense that echoes Alien and The Thing movies, which fitly developed characters and a story which is not willing to spare anyone.

After finishing all of these chronicles, you will be presented with a new chapter, the Medieval one: it is a Dragon Quest-esque chapter, which plays on the generic tropes and clichés of the genre, just like the other ones did, but then it spins itself into something absurd that makes sense not only to this chapter, but to the whole other stories that came before.

Finally, you will be given a experience that aims to give closure to everything that happened until now, and it features a bit of a grind or some optional dungeon exploring, but other than it, it's very straight to the point for you to beat the game, which I shouldn't spoil here.

Other than that, I'd like to comment on the soundtrack, it's really amazing the far range of instruments that this game encompasses, like banjos and the Jew's harp in the Western arc, Koto harps and Shakuhachis in the Japan story and even drums and nature sounds in the Prehistoric one, ALL of the chapters are sure to immerse you with the songs, courtesy of Yoko Shimomura, which already worked in Street Fighter and Final Fight games(note this when playing the Present Day chapter) and went on to work on the Kingdom Hearts series, which is undeniable proof of her talents.

One thing to consider is that, your experience may be hampered by the short development for some of the characters. Since it plays a lot of unconnected stories and people, it is understandably difficult to develop them all fairly as if this was an epic 50-hour long journey with the same characters to bond, like a Final Fantasy would do. Altough, personally, the idea behind LaL pays off, it's important to keep this is mind when starting your experience with this truly timeless title.

It's even funnier the second time!... sometimes...

The Ratchelor may have been a simple web-browser dating sim parody but godDAMMIT was it fun; I enjoyed it quite a lot and found every single of the interactions with the rat-weirdos both adorable and charming. Looking back, the fact it was, and it still is, the first and only parody-dating-sim game I played probably was a big factor in me loving it, but that would also be taking a lot of the credit from it. This is the game where one of the rats is three lizards in a trench-coat like disguise and the best character by a long shot is a mole. AND IT STILL IS PEAK RAT GAMING HOURS.

Following that line, Season 2 is basically the exact same thing but with a completely new roster of rats, which is basically all I was expecting in a game called The Ratchelor Season 2, so in that sense I cannot complain at all… but I’m an annoying bastard and I’m gonna find something to rant about anyway!

Season 2 hits some of the same charming highs as the first one and in some cases it even surpasses the original’s funny factor, especially in the epilogues which some of them are now a riot, but at the same time, I kinda feel it has also lost most of the general impact the first one had; in the original Ratchelor, every single of the possible options for rat soul-mates is memorable and has at the very least one line that I found remarkably funny. Here, I’m struggling to think about characters that stuck out aside from the ghost, the funny ‘’EMPATH’’ guy and the epic unit that is Le Pix. Other than those, they are all… fine? Not bad, not particularly unfunny, but they also didn’t click or were as interestingly silly as the previous game’s faces, they were still silly, but not the special kind of silly, y’know?

Now I’m feeling like I’m speaking gibberish and like a downer, but I’m just trying to find the best way to say that this one just wasn’t as fun and entertaining as the previous one, and I’m also left with much less to say about it because of that.

It’s still a good time— I feel like the day a Ratchelor game feels like a waste of time will be the day hopes and dreams will die—, and I’m sure that most people that liked the original will find equal entertainment with this one, I just… I wasn’t expecting more, just maybe something a bit more creative and funnier with its interactions and dialogue.

Le Pix is still very much the GOAT of this game tho, I adore that fucking gremlin and no other rodent matches them in pure coolness… maybe Eggsalad…

Streets Of Rage 3 will always be seen as the black sheep of the series. It will always be hated for being different, and for being too hard. I was just like those people too, but i've seen the light. this shit is PEAK

Since this will prob be my last review on any SOR game (unless i somehow beat this on hard) , I feel I need to mention how the bad ending song is fucking perfect. There's no catchy music, or any message telling you there's still hope, no. You fucked up, and now you have to pay for it. When the music started playing during the bad ending if you don't defeat Robot Y in time, and the text started talking about the 1000's who died in the explosion? Literal chills, man.

It's been over 10 years since I played Bioshock Infinite, and I thought that since I've played Bioshock + Bioshock 2 for the first time this year, I should also give this a replay. It's definitely aged poorly in some ways compared to what I remember, but it's also stronger in some ways as well.

The gameplay here feels like a large step back from the first two games. The fact that you're only allowed to carry two guns is baffling to me, since part of the fun of the previous games was being able to switch on the fly if you needed to and experiment with different guns without constantly needing to pick up + drop them. I wasn't a huge fan of the abilities (vigors) here compared to the previous entries either - I ended up sticking with only 1 or 2 since they were the most helpful, and the others just didn't feel as fun to use.

Infinite felt a lot more linear than I remembered. It's cool being able to explore Columbia, but it often felt like you were shuttled from one combat arena to another without the ability to explore too much. The beginning of the game is strongest when it comes to introducing you to the world and allowing you to get a sense of it; the rest of the game feels confined in comparison.

I remember playing this 10 years ago as my first Bioshock game and thinking it was a fun enough shooter with cool powers and a weirdly complex story that I don't think I fully grasped. Now that I'm a bit older I can appreciate the game's narrative for what it is, and I do have to give it props this time around. Although the story as a whole isn't as strong as its predecessors, it still manages to be thought-provoking and just crazy enough to come off as interesting, although it does feel needlessly complicated in the final 3rd. The ending is the strongest part of the story, and I completely forgot the twist until right before it happened. I don't think the game's themes around racism and white supremacy have aged particularly well - I'm sure this felt like it was pushing the envelope in 2013 but feels dated and heavy-handed a decade later.

Elizabeth as a companion character is excellent and is a major high point of the game for me. She's up there with Atreus (I know he gets a lot of shit but I genuinely think he's a great companion) and Ellie as one of gaming's best. She's well characterized and has a really solid arc, and her ability to find you ammo and money is a great touch. I think the game would've been a lot less fun if you just had Booker monologuing to himself.

All in all, Infinite is a good game but my least favorite in the series. It's a competent shooter that lacks the same intriguing atmosphere that the first two games were characterized by, but I also recognize that Infinite is its own body of work and I respect that. I appreciated the complex story and really do give props to this series for having some excellent twists. Elizabeth is one of the stronger characters I've seen in a game in a while, and while the gameplay left something to be desired, it felt fun enough to get me through the game. I never got to the DLC when I first played this so I'm curious to see how it expands on the story.

A fantastic game with a brilliant setting, characters, and world. There is so much to like about Final Fantasy VII, and I can see now why characters like Cloud and Sephiroth are so iconic. The gameplay is also fun and engaging, when you think it is getting way too easy you are faced with an enemy that forces you to fall back and restrategize. The story is great and engaging, providing plenty of time to get acquainted with the characters. Although it felt at times like there was too much filler. I can't wait to play the next one, to see how the story continues.

Cryptmaster: I beat this one, but only after running out of steam yet stubbornly persevering. It's a bummer, too, because I think Cryptmaster has a really strong opening -- but within 20 minutes you've seen just about everything you'll see across the next dozen hours.

I liked the premise of both its puzzles and progression. In order to learn more moves in combat, you needed to find “letters” that would fill in blanks on the bottom of your screen. Guess the word as early as you can and you either learn a new move or some backstory, which is essentially experience that once enough is garnered the character gains another hitpoint. Advanced combat moves require souls, and the fun way of getting those is by solving riddles you'll encounter on the journey.
This was all good, but you'll get this before you even finish the tutorial area. It's literally all in the demo of the game. New levels and areas hardly even look very different thanks to the game's achromatic visual style which definitely becomes grating (you can add some color in the options but it's clearly “wrong”, if that makes sense). Everyone you meet is kind of annoying and you want to spend as little time with them as possible. Sure: when asked to defile a statue and you type in “masturbate” and it works, you'll probably laugh a bit. “Shit” even makes a fart sound and you can do it any time. That's neat, but is it really going to keep you around? It probably shouldn't.

I guess my first suggestion for improvement would be to drastically shorten the game as I don't think there's enough going on here to justify its length. I wish the “letters” system worked a bit faster as by the time I beat the game, I don't think I even had half of any character's total vocab unlocked – and this was with me solving almost every single riddle tossed my way (for more letters, combat only gives you a measly one as loot). I also wish the attack cooldown was shorter on my characters as a lot of the combat was just me sitting there waiting out a clock.
Lots and lots of work went into this game and it shows: the number of words you can type and have the Cryptmaster respond to is shocking, but was it needed? I don't think so. Sometimes it was nice, like when one time I said “rivers” but the intended answer was “water”, the game gave it to me. Cryptmaster is actually quite forgiving in its combat, too, as enemies won't respawn in challenging locations and you can go back to an altar (which revives/heals) at any time with a teleport. The Cryptmaster will also offer to solve riddles for you if you're obviously stuck.

I liked it until I didn't yet played on anyways and I regret that choice. I wish I just played the demo and forgot about trying this.
I do not recommend Cryptmaster. It's a cool concept but it definitely drags on too long and it's an adventure more likely to reward you with a headache than anything else.

guys wouldn't it be really fun if we made you grind really early and lock an exp share behind a gym that you need to beat in order to get access to the exp share?
Which leaves your starter and every other pokemon you catch at a massiv power gap?

i think that'd pretty fun ngl

PSA: Everybody is completely allowed to like this game. I just didnt vibe with it in the beginning. I'll prolly come back one day to actually progress lmao. I'm just being stubborn :p

[Average Reading Time: 9 Minutes]

I don't deserve to eat this well.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is one of those games that I was fortunate enough to grow up with back when it was out on the GameCube. It wouldn't be for some number of years down the road that I would actually beat it (kid me didn't really know how to strategize and couldn't beat the final boss), and since then I had always had an itch to return to it.

When this remake was announced late last year, my jaw hit the floor. I froze. Couldn't move for 40 minutes. Here it was, my #11 favorite game of all time getting a beautiful remake, and I would get to play it! For years, Paper Mario fans have been dying for this game to escape the GameCube, and I believe that with this remake, it escaped elegantly!

The first thing I want to mention are the visuals. This remake goes above and beyond with how characters are presented to you. Not only do they look stunning in HD, but they're so much more lively now! There are new animations for everyone, allowing for them to further express emotions and let their personalities shine through.

It's not just the main cast, either! Almost every NPC has new poses that they enter as they speak, giving a lot more life to their interactions. It was always a joy talking to NPC's I've interacted with in the original and seeing them bursting with life as they tell me about things like how they're crushing on their coworker or how them and their sisters are travelling the world. Absolute eye candy with the characters here!

Of course, the world itself got a major visual overhaul, as well. They strived to aim for the more paper craft inspired style of the newer Paper Mario games here. Personally, I always enjoyed the visual direction of the newer games, despite their varying levels of quality as games as a whole. Seeing The Thousand-Year Door adopt these visuals was a welcome treat for me.

If I had one minor nitpick about it, though, it would be just how reflective surfaces are. Most floors in the game are super shiny, like someone just waxed them before Mario and co. came in and started running around. For some areas it's fine, but it's a little jarring in others. For example, the first chapter starts in a grassy field. Despite this, Mario has a reflection in the grass as he runs through it. Once again, it's nothing deal-breaking by any means. It's just weird.

Along with the visuals, the music and sounds also got some reworks! All of the songs from the original game have been recomposed and are fully orchestrated. As someone who enjoys revisiting older titles using modifications to replace the original soundtracks with orchestral rearrangements (read more about those here if you're interested!), hearing these new takes on older tracks was a treat! Of course, music is subjective, and some tracks may sound better to you than others, but personally I had no real complaints about the new score here. They also add in completely new tracks to spice up cutscenes, which I enjoyed greatly.

It also helps that they went above and beyond with the music by giving each chapter its own remixes of various themes heard throughout the game! As soon as I realized this was happening, I just said to myself "Oh man, they're so smart this is SO GOOD!" This includes battle music as well as music used in specific cutscenes. It made visiting each chapter even more exciting for me, since it meant I would be hearing more new arrangements of these songs I knew so well growing up!

It's also worth noting that if you miss the original score, there is a badge you can acquire early in the game very easily that will allow you to listen to the original soundtrack as you play. Personally, I didn't use it, but it is there for those of you that would rather hear the original soundtrack. Thankfully, you'll be able to hear the new tracks made specifically for this remake with this badge equipped, so you won't have to worry about missing out on any of the new content with it on!

When it comes to the sound effects, a lot has changed here. A number of sounds from the original have been replaced, and while I'll miss them, I'm not going to lose sleep over them being gone. They did retain the sounds Charles Martinet recorded for the original release, which is welcome. Speaking of character voices, every NPC has one now! It basically amounts to being Banjo-Kazooie style grunts as text pops up, but I think it's a fun addition. Some of the sounds are a little weird, but for the most part I think it did a great job making the characters you meet feel more alive, allowing for me to get a better idea of how they sound when speaking in my head (Grubba will always be Foghorn Leghorn to me, though).

Along with cosmetic changes, a number of things were done to improve the quality of the gameplay experience as a whole. First off, you can collect up to 9,999 coins instead of 999 now, which is a massive game-changer since you won't be worrying as much about making sure you aren't sitting on too many coins at any time, especially when you invest in somebody's business venture.

They also added a dedicated party member wheel button. Players of the original will remember having to hit a d-pad button to bring up the party screen and then having to scroll over to the party member they want out on the field. It was simple, but far from snappy. What they added here is basically a party member quick select menu that's super easy to use. This simple addition improves the pacing a lot, especially when you enter later areas that have you swapping out party members often to solve puzzles.

Next, I want to bring up the changes they made to chapter shortcut pipes. In the original, you weren't able to access any chapter shortcuts until clearing chapter 3 at the earliest, and by the time you're at the endgame, you'll only have shortcuts to 4 out of the 7 major chapter locations in the game. All of this has changed in the remake. In the remake, you can access chapter shortcuts as early as after finishing chapter 1! Not only that, but there is now a shortcut to every major chapter location in the game. One pipe for each chapter up to chapter 7. This means no more having to run over to the blimp and taking that to access chapter 3's location, for example.

Also, all of these pipes are in one room and are properly labelled. This isn't even the best part. The best part is that now, you can access this room from a pipe that connects directly to the center square of Rogueport! Using shortcuts has never been simpler than it is here. This also helps immensely with a specific scenario in chapter 7 that now turns from a tedious nightmare into a simple task thanks to the addition of these pipes!

There is one last major quality of life change I want to mention. We need to talk about chapter 4's structure.

Chapter 4 of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is very infamous for the absurd amount of backtracking it asks of the player. You're constantly going from one end of the chapter to the other, over and over to progress the plot. Chapter 4's structure is easily one of the most complained about parts of that game, and it is a strong deterrent from those who think of replaying the game.

I am glad to say that they fixed chapter 4. At one point during the chapter, you gain access to a pipe that connects between both ends of the area. The way they did it makes perfect sense, too, as you unlock it at a point where there would be no major difference to how you approach the trip gameplay wise. My jaw dropped when I realized what they did, and I could not be happier about their decision here. One of the biggest issues with the original game is now completely gone, and now I can revisit this title without groaning about certain parts of it.

There are also some extra goodies hidden in here for explorative players. By finding all of the Shine Sprites (items that upgrade party members) in any given chapter, you unlock the ability to listen to the music from that chapter from the pause menu! You also get rewards for collecting all of the Star Pieces (items that can be traded for badges) in any chapter in the form of concept art! Playing this remake was the first time I went out of my way to collect all of the Star Pieces, and I am happy I did as the artwork you unlock is stunning, to say the least!

With all of these changes and additions out of the way, it's time to ask the real question: how does it play? When I realized this game would be running at half the framerate of the original back when we were getting more trailers, I was a little worried that it would have a strong negative effect on my muscle memory when it came to pulling off stylish moves and super guards.

Once the game started proper, I got into my first battle. My muscle memory kicked in. My super guards and stylish moves all went off perfectly. I was back.

Needless to say, my worries about the framerate were immediately put to rest. The game feels great to play as it is now! Of course, if this game gets an FPS boost on the Switch 2, that would be very welcome, but as it is now, it's more than playable, so if you were worried about the framerate, I can assure you that it's not a major issue that will hold you back!

As for how my playthrough went, I can say it went great! For this playthrough, I did something I never truly did before: I opted for a danger-focused build. I got a small taste of it back when I played Paper Mario: TTYD 64, a Paper Mario hack that you can read more about here. Since then, I wanted to see how well it would go if I focused a build solely around that, and boy, did it serve me well!

For those unaware, in the Paper Mario games, when Mario is at 5 HP, he enters a state that shows that he is in danger, prompting the player to consider healing him. However, there are badges that take advantage of this "danger" state. There's one that reduces the amount of damage you take while in this state, for example. There's also one that raises your evasion, causing enemies to miss their attacks more often.

There is one badge, however, that shines above the rest, known as Power Rush. This badge raises Mario's attack stat by 2 when he is in danger. Sounds pretty small on paper, right? Only 2 damage? Why is it a big deal? Well, there are two things about this badge that make it stand out. One is that it is relatively cheap to equip, only requiring one badge point. The other thing is that there is no limit on how many of this badge you can equip.

Let's do some math. There is a badge in this game that raises your attack stat by 1 at the cost of 6 badge points. If you instead equipped 6 Power Rush badges for the same point cost, you'd raise Mario's attack by 12! This is an absolute game changer, and a popular build for a reason. It's also helped by the fact that there's a character in the game that can reduce your max HP to be 5, allowing you to remain in a danger state permanently.

Doing this was an absolute thrill for me. I was facing some of the toughest enemies in the game and erasing them from existence with ease. This is easily the most powerful I have ever felt in any video game. I was able to do something I have never done before when playing this game, which is clear the Pit of 100 Trials, which is an optional dungeon with enemies tougher than anything you'll fight in the main game. I went in there with this build and emerged with barely a scratch on me. I felt so strong, and I loved it.

Now, as much as I love this build, I highly implore those who have not played this game before to not think about such things as they play. Enjoy the game casually and do what feels right to you. Tune your build your own way and save the special builds like this one for later runs. As powerful as they are, the game kind of becomes a joke if you do it, so you lose out on a ton of the impact that certain boss fights can have on you when they appear before you.

Overall, I loved my time with this remake. It was everything I imagined it would be and more. Personally, I feel that this remake completely replaces the original for me, thanks mostly to all of the quality of life features they've added to make the game snappier. I cannot recommend this game enough. Whether you're new to Paper Mario or a series veteran, you'll find plenty to love in this game!

This is one of the most creative and clever point-and-clicks I've ever played. Unfortunately, there's a large portion lampooning pay-to-win idle clicker mobile games, and the game's commitment to the bit turns that segment into a bad time, though the game recovers and ends quite strongly.

As the title states, there is no game here! Nope. Just a locked-down title screen. But while you're there, you might as well mess around to see if you can find something to do.

If you're a fan of classic Lucasarts or Sierra adventure games, and if you enjoyed the meta humor and story of The Stanley Parable, you should definitely go into this game without learning anything else! The story is fantastically clever and engrossing, and the whole thing is only about 4 hours long. I waited for a sale ($9 instead of $13) and I honestly feel stupid for waiting that long to save 4 dollars. This game is absolutely worth it at full price, though you can get it for $5 on mobile. Since the experience is mostly comprised of clicking and/or tapping, it shouldn't be an inferior experience on a phone. Just be ready for a tedious middle segment (in which the tedium is meant as a joke) that overstays its welcome a bit, and trust that the ending will absolutely be worth it.

Little Samson is one of those games where getting a Game Over and being sent back a bit isn't annoying. It's always fun no matter what, and it's not too hard either (maybe cuz i was playing on easy), which makes it a great start to anyone wanting to get into the NES library. Easily a Top 5 game for the system.

fuck the final boss though, it's not that it's hard or anything, but the 2nd phase reminded me of the yellow devil, and remembering the yellow devil gives me physical pain. FUCK THE YELLOW DEVIL ALL MY HOMIES HATE THE YELLOW DEVIL