After playing the first level or two of Mario vs. Donkey Kong -- a modern remake of the GBA classic -- I thought there'd be no chance I'd make it all the way through. I'd just finished playing Mario Wonder, and there is a STARK difference in the controls, and especially the movement, between the two. It was pretty jarring at first. But, once I started to get the hang of the timing, the jump distance, and what I was really supposed to do, I was hooked.

I ended up not only getting gold stars ("Perfect" rank) on all 8 of the original worlds, but after rolling credits, I got gold stars on all of the Plus levels AND the Expert levels, too (though, admittedly, I bumped the difficulty down for the Expert levels bc I was kinda ready to move on to something else).

In short, this game does a lot right: the bite-sized levels on Classic difficulty come with a nice balance of push-and-pull as you make your way through each world; the world/enemy variety is nice and no gimmick seems to wear out its welcome too quickly; the boss fights were OK given you're just fighting DK over and over, but they do spice it up a little at times as they become more challenging (if you're going for the "Perfect" rank). And, most importantly, it was just a flat-out fun time for 95% of my 15 hours with it.

Sure, there were moments where I wanted to pull my hair out because the platforming wasn't always precise, and the story (like most Mario games) was pretty lacking -- I still have no idea why DK's so obsessed with these little Mini Mario toys and why he needs to steal an entire factory's worth??? -- but, overall, I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would and would absolutely consider this an under-the-radar drop from Nintendo this year.

CLeM is a short little indie puzzle game with a dark atmosphere where you play as Sackboy's smaller cousin and get bossed around by a little girl obsessed with bugs and alchemy. That's what it is on the surface, anyway. As you dig deeper into the story, you get themes of grief, hopelessness and nostalgia and it all comes together really nicely in the end (depending on the ending you get).

CLeM's gameplay isn't anything to write home about -- it's essentially a point-and-click game w/ some genuinely tough puzzles -- but putting together the overall narrative by collecting notes and other items was really fun. I also rarely needed a guide (definitely atypical for me in these kinds of games lol) and whenever I did solve a seemingly challenging puzzle, it always felt rewarding. This will likely go down as one of the best hidden gems of the year for me and I'm happy I got to play it!

I've seen some "hate" for this game, with a lot of people saying it doesn't hit as hard as the first one, but I couldn't disagree more. TB Robs a Bank is a perfect sequel to TB Commits Tax Evasion, switching out Zelda-inspired gameplay with a bite-sized roguelite experience that I thoroughly enjoyed. The same ol' humor is there that made the first game so lovable, but this one adds more tasks to complete, combat that's a million times more fun, and a lot more customization that breathes some fresh air into the series.

I'm not even necessarily a roguelike/lite fan, but this one was easily digestible, had no real repercussions for dying (besides losing your weapons & any money you made that run), and switched up the gameplay from the first one in a refreshing way. There may be a few issues with the ending sequence (iykyk), but aside from that, this sequel absolutely SLAPS.

*P.S. the Dark Souls-inspired easter egg is my way-too-early frontrunner for Best Thing of the Year