When this game was announced, I had very low expectations for this game. Mainly because of one of the main developers of the game being Arzest (who is mainly known for making minigames in Wii Play Motion, Hey! Pikmin, and co-developing Balan Wonderworld), not having the greatest track record. After playing the game with two other players, the game is really fun. The characters are all very different from one another. Speed and acceleration are the same, and the ability to spin dash. Sonic can use the drop dash, Tails can fly, Knuckles can glide and climb walls, and Amy can double jump. Kunckles and Amy can also break big rocks. There is another character that is unlockable that also has a double jump and climb walls. Levels are well-balanced, with all five characters being able to comfortably get through each stage. Although the co-op part of the game actually seems more like an after thought. The camera has no idea who to focus on during gameplay, and it leads to a lot of players out running the camera, and getting reset back to another players position. Bosses really suck this time around, since they are very slow and can take up to 3 minutes for each boss. If they were an active challenge, I would have like them, but they keep players from attacking by making them wait in between attack cycles, which once again bring the game to a halt, when the game is fast paced in the normal levels. If you have friends to play the game in local co-op, then I would say give it shot if curious, as we did have a great time with the game. Single player, on the other hand, I'm not really sure, especially at this price point. I would wait for a price for those who are curious about the game.

Phantom Liberty and the 2.0 update are the two things that I had been waiting for ever since it was teased last year. To lightly touch upon the 2.0 update, the game has been completely changed. The biggest change is how the skill trees work with the game, and it gives the game more varied play styles than the original skill trees gave. The game overall feels more premium than it did the year before I had played the game for a third playthrough, as the aiming on controller and the driving feels so much better. Moving on to the expansion, Phantom Liberty is what I had expected when the game originally released. Without giving spoilers, the story and characters of the expansion are fantastic. Once I got about an hour in, finishing the first big mission got me hooked on the DLC. I was very surprised to see how they had incorporated story changing choices into the main narrative. The new area, Dogtown, is a great new area of the map, and serves as a good contrast to its neighbor Pacfica. If you have played the game before this update and wanna try it again, or just hopping in for the first time. I would heavily consider getting the expansion.

The Music Box is like a visual novel and Resident Evil had crossed paths. The game is very well written with the Mario cast and a set of characters made for the game having great character arcs and storybeats. The mansion itself gives off a very spooky vibe, while also keeping the player wanting to explore more of it as to help Mario find a way out of the mansion. The main part of the gameplay is going around the mansion and exploring every nook and cranny for clues to make progress in Mario’s escape. There are also very many choices that a player can make to to help Mario progress forward in the mansion or get one of many death scenes that are present in the game. So be sure to save often. Despite being an RPG maker game, I could only count two times where a fight would occur. While that would bother me in other games, The Music Box actually brings up tensions during its normal gameplay and uses the two fights to amplify that tension (as they are both placed near two different endings). For a game made in RPG maker, this games visuals are very impressive. The sprite work and lighting are fantastic for this title and really helps in selling that unsettling feeling. Having hand drawn pictures to show case certain scenes and paint a better picture of the surroundings. There is also the music, ranging from very atmospheric, emotional, and that boss fight feeling when it needs to be. My favorite being V.S. Alice, as it is a upbeat/haunting piece to listen to during that encounter. Overall, if there was ever a thought about what a Mario horror game would be, then this game should be tried. Even without the Mario characters I feel that this game could still stand on its own. Shouldn’t need to be said at this point, but at least give it a try.

Honestly, I started to play this game as sort of joke at first. But the more I had played this game the more I got sucked in, and started to enjoy the mechanics that the game has. For starters, the dungeon crawling is the meat and potatoes of this game. While it is very basic, as it is just walking down corridors looking for the exit, I really like the environments that these dungeons take place in along with the music that plays within them. The battle system is also something that gets a lot of heat, and I personally think that it is interesting. I like the idea of having to set up your party in a way, so that most or all of their attacks can hit the enemy. While it is fun, to figure out the battle system, once the configuration for the party is found, there really is no reason to change it again. I really like the story in this game, as it is a lot more darker than that of games later in the series. While the characters are nothing deep, they service the story very well.

The wait for this game was agonizing. After being slightly disappointed with Pikmin 3 (Campaign was ok, Challenge mode is where the meat and bones of that were), I was expecting more of that game as that was the game that most people ended up liking. When I played the demo for the first time, I was a bit skeptical of the game and its heavy use of story and dialogue. I just wanted to get into playing Pikmin. When release day hit, all of those worries went away as they had taken everything that made the last three games great and stuffed it into one amazing experience. The game itself is split into multiple gameplay styles that all service the game very well. Ranging from the normal area and cave exploration, there are also dandori battles and challenges which pit the player up against another captain or the clock to complete objectives. Then there are the night missions, which are a hit or miss, as the tension with this, just aren't really there until the end of the game. Nevertheless, this game is amazing, I can't go on writing about this because I have so much praise for this game. Please, play this game.

The big draw of this DLC is the inclusion of more playable characters in the form of Tails, Knuckles and Amy. I was curious as to what they would do to differentiate them from Sonic. The main difference in comparison to Sonic is how each of their jumps work, where Tails can fly, Knuckles can glide and Amy is rocking a triple jump and float after the third jump. While that is the biggest change I can name, there are other changes, such as Tails being the only one to not have a homing attack, and they are not as fast a Sonic. The story content is what I hoped, how the base game would have ended, as the final boss is much more challenging and interesting than ending the game with a sh'mup. Speaking of challenge, this is the most challenging Sonic content in a very long time. The last one I remember having a hard time with is Sonic Advance 2. The Master King challenge is main reason why this game is really challenging, on top of making parry harder to use while on the hard difficulty, so I can only imagine how hard this is on extreme.

As a long time Sonic fan, the wait between this and Forces was dreadful. It's good to see that a lot of love and attention into making this game. The open world itself is a great base, but I definitely feel as if though it can be expanded upon (such as making the levels and open world area into one area, so that it is more seamless). While it may seem daunting at first with all of the collectables, players will eventually find out that they do not need to collect every single icon on the map. Combat in this game just feels like a natural evolution of the series and I'm honestly surprised that it took them this long to have this system in place. Control has been a big topic in my friend group, while I think that the controls in the over world are good enough (movement in the air still feels extremely stiff), the control in the levels are absolutely terrible. Trying to make the smallest movement, even when not boosting, is the hardest thing to do. Levels in this game are hit and miss, while they are re-treads of older levels, some are really fun to play in and some are either too short or just too bland. Music in this game is also, weirdly enough, a hit or miss as well. I am glad that they had brought back the lady that sang in some of the tracks in Sonic Forces, but where she isn't I think that other music for the levels are very forgettable. The over world music and the boss themes though, are an absolute joy to listen to. So calm to listen to for the over world, and the boss themes really get the blood pumping. They really help set the mood, and I love them for that. The writing in this game is phenomenal, I love all of the callbacks and references to the older games, it really just goes to show that whoever that they got to write the story this time knows what they are talking about. I am also happy to report that the games story while nothing crazy is very entertaining this time around, with everyone having well written dialogue and delivery. Other minor nitpicks are stuff like upgrading speed and ring capacity takes way too long, menus are a little too slow to navigate, and the pop-in on the overworld is VERY noticeable. Overall, I think that this game is a must play for Sonic fans. Even if you aren't a big Sonic fan and have been looking to try the series Frontiers is not a bad starting point.

The (maybe) conclusion of the Atelier Ryza Trilogy, and the new future of the Atelier series. This game serves as both a great conclusion to the first two Ryza games and a showcase as what the Atelier series is striving to be in its future titles. Much like with the first two Ryza games the crafting in this game is king, although there are a few things that I would change to make the process of getting new recipes a little more stream lined. They can keep the skill tree to unlock more recipes, that is not the issue with getting new recipes. About half way through the game there was an item that I had needed to make for a side story but I didn't have a recipe for one of the ingredients, so I spent about another fourth of the game working my way to that recipe I needed because I went I went in every direction on the tree other than the one that I needed to get that recipe. The easy solution to this would be to show the entire skill tree at the start of the game, so that players can gauge where they can put their skill points. Moving to the writing, it is great this time around as well. After having two games of watching these characters grow, it is amazing seeing how these characters interact with each other and the situations that they are put into. My personal favorites being Bos, Lent, Ryza, and Empel. The newcomers are also given plenty of screentime, and I ended up liking them just as much as the rest of the cast, as most of the original cast makes a return except for Clifford, and Serri from the second game (bring them back). One of the main points that the developers made in the initial trailer for this game was that the gameplay in this title was going to be the future of the Atelier series, and it was obvious that it was going open world, as oppose to the open level design. At first I was skeptical, could the team really make an interesting enough world to warrant exploring every nook and cranny? For the first attempt at this type of formula, it was a very good attempt, but there a couple of complaints that arise when playing the game. But before getting into the negatives, if what they were trying to do was translate the Atelier exploration gameplay to a seemless open world, they did a great job. These negatives are just mainly more on the polishing side of things, starting with getting rid of the need for invisible barriers in areas and when in higher elevations, to combat the higher elevation issue they could have a glider or wind shoes that allow for gliding as well, as there is already wind shoes that allow Ryza to slide down inclines at fast speed. Adding minigames to some of the gathering tools would also make the exploration more exciting in some areas, such as giving fishing a quick little minigame (kinda like the fishing present in Fire Emblem Three Houses or Sonic Frontiers), and give the player just a tiny bit more items for doing the minigame. Lastly is the size of some of these maps, while they aren't really all that big in comparison to other open world maps but some areas are not treated as well as others, with some being more barren than others. But as a whole package this game is great and an amazing send off to the Ryza trilogy. Much like with the others in the series, for those looking for a relaxing game to sink their teeth into, they should give this one a try.

Interesting little game where you (and a friend) walk around a randomly generated map in search of Toe Jam and Earl’s ship parts so they can go home. You will be avoiding enemies by just moving out of the way, or using various items either found out in the world or through the shop. It is actually very hard to die in this game as if any character falls off the map they just go down a floor and then they can climb back up all the same. I really liked that this game had the ability to let players walk wherever they wanted even in two player by splitting the screen when they drift too far apart. The only real complaint that I have about the game is how slow it feels to play, although it only took about two and a half hours to finish. It felt much longer due to how slow the walk speed is, but I guess the slow walk speed is there to encourage item use. Overall, a good time to be had with a friend who is willing to play with you, I would not play it in single player.

AI: nirvanA Initiative was a very welcome surprise when it was first announced, to a game that I thought would not get a sequel. Before the game had come out I was wondering what kind of direction that they would take the game as I feel like the original AI had a definitive ending to it. As to not potentially spoil the plot of the game, the major twist of the game is something that I did not see coming. Most of the returning cast of characters are all still great, although some of them do feel a bit tacked on such as Moma, Ota, and Hitomi. New characters such as Shoma and Gen are welcome and have some great moments throughout the game. The main appeal of the gameplay from the original AI, the Psyncs, make their return in this title as well having been much expanded upon in this title. Although I will admit that most of them are much easier than the original, although there are some puzzles that had me scratching my head trying to think of the solution. This also goes for the times where you would be out gathering intel for the case, some of these puzzles really had me thinking. In this title, there are two playable protagonists this time around, Ryuki (a new character) and Mizuki (from the first game). One complaint that I had while playing this was that I feel as if though they had taken Ryuki away from the spotlight a little too early, and I got the feeling that his arc was never really completed unlike every other character in the game (but maybe that is for another title?). Overall, great game if you are looking for a good murder mystery, with some great characters and great music to listen to.

Being the sequel to the excellent Raiden IV, I had expected it to be more of the same. Great levels, weapons and music. While Raiden V is a great game in its own right, it does fail in some areas that make it pail in comparison to its predecessor. To get the positives out of the way, the levels are all great, they have great set pieces and enemies are also toned down while also still feeling like they put up a challenge. The weapon selection this time around is actually amazing. Tripling the amount of weapons that the player has access at the start of the game, is great. I had tried at least 5 of 9 different weapons across my two playthroughs of the game. There is also health for the ships shields in this game, as oppose to being one-hit in the previous games. Along with the bombs, to help do major damage and destroy bullets, there is also the cheer system (which is a meter that fills up over time, and allows the player to call in a partner ship for a limited time to boost fire power). As for the two major flaws that this game suffers, one is the way to progress through the stages and the second is the dialogue. To progress through the stages, the player has to have to have a high enough accuracy to get high enough ranks to progress to the right stages. While that doesn't really seem all that bad, it really forces the use of the lock-on laser so the accuracy doesn't go down all that much during stages (unless players get good with another weapon). Now for the bigger problem, the dialogue that happens in between each stage. As I mentioned at the beginning, music is usually a big plus for the games in the series, and I am fairly certain that of the small bits that I had heard from the breaks between dialogue that the praise for its would have been carried over from the other games as well. Unfortunately, due to the constant talking between characters they completely talk over the music and make it hard to hear it. On top of that the dialogue itself is extremely hard to hear due to how it is mixed with the rest of the audio. The obvious solution would be to go into the audio options and turn down the voices either really low or just turn them off but there is no option to do that, so players are just meant to play with the dialogue on. Having an option to have minimal dialogue option or just have the ability to turn them off, would go a long way, as it is really hindering of the experience. Overall though, the game is more Raiden action, and has the best gameplay of the series. If only there was an easier or more understandable way to know how to progress to specific stages and have the ability to shorten or be rid of the dialogue.