Got the "layer 2" ending, with some admitted help from a guide on some of the trickier eggs. This is a really well crafted exploration game and I think it's truly genius about teaching you its mechanics. The items you get are unique for the genre too, which leads to a lot of fun discoveries and novel ways to solve puzzles.

Had an enjoyable time, but I will say there is something holding it back just a bit for me, a lack of escalation or truly pushing some of its later game items to work in tandem with each other to make more complex puzzles (I think both endings fall pretty flat as well which doesn't help that search for something a bit more satisfying). There are some extremely complex puzzles here, but they're more in the vain of ARG super freak codebreaking than getting the game's core toolset to interact in interesting ways. If you're a fan of the ARG type stuff though, it probably would go up a lot in your estimation.

Also shoutout to some absolutely stellar sound design.

I think what really threw people about this was the combo of the controls absolutely having a huge learning curve combined with Platinum's "the first playthrough is the tutorial" style design, you do both at once and the average player is going to be left with a horrible first impression. That said, even when you get over that hump there isn't a ton here. Moments of greatness with some genuinely fun bosses and setpieces hampered by a lot of middling levels and mechanics that don't feel fully fleshed out. Also the fact that this is ANOTHER Star Fox retelling is extremely lame and yes I will blame Miyamoto for that one

A pretty good time with some heartfelt moments and a lovely HD-Wii aesthetic. A lot does feel pretty low budget but for the most part (other than some really noticeable lack of proper sound effects/mixing in cutscenes) I found the presentation charming. The pacing sometimes struggles especially in Another Code R however, and I can't help but feel that the stories being told here didn't fully connect with me. A story that leaned much more heavily into the messiness of family memories, idealization of parents, etc. I think would have been a home run but this pulls its punches a bit too often for my liking. Still I watched those credits with a big smile on my face so this did manage to end up endearing me to most of its characters by the end.

Edit: Upon looking up more about the original games, I think this remake actually needed way MORE hardware gimmicks. I liked any time the remakes forced some gyro controls for puzzles, but other than that things are pretty straightforward, and it really seems like one of the original selling points of the first Another Code was in just how many creative ways it used the DS. I'd almost have liked it if they just forced you to only play in handheld mode and used the touchscreen for more puzzles like the DS game, or hell the IR sensor on the right joy-con as well.

A game that I just could not help but root for even when it was doing things I wasn't a huge fan of. John Johanas is really going places, between this and Evil Within 2 the guy seems to really know what he's doing. This is insanely polished and focused. Really dug the artstyle and the character designs are great as well. Funny enough I think the audio mixing by default leaves the music a little quiet.

Despite being pretty alright at both action games and rhythm games, something about the way this works here never quite clicked in my head, though I acknowledge that's likely on my end. The fact I saw this through regardless is a testament to how good everything else is. That said, I do think that a lot of the finer points of character action design were not quite nailed here - optimal play seems to be spamming your assists whenever they get off cooldown while hammering along to the beat, and having some enemies designed to be invulnerable to all but one attack that is on a cooldown, even if a short cooldown, I find kind of antithetical to how games like this should work. Excited to see what Tango and specifically what John Johanas ends up doing next.

One of the best "Journey-likes" since Journey, easily. The climbing mechanics here are so well thought out and realized, getting the hang of them felt extremely satisfying. Great atmosphere as well. The story as found in the notes I was far less into and it felt overwritten. I also thought the ending could have really stood to do a bit more with all of the mechanics introduced so far so it felt a bit on the weak side for me. But wow, I'd honestly love to see more games take the piton/rope system here because it felt like a revelation in this game. Did not know Dontnod was capable of making something like this.

A very solid game that has been overrated just a tad by the Gen X crowd. Personally love all the visual and audio enhancements in this remake (the SNES version is actually pretty fugly, imo and has not held up as well as other games from that era) and at its core this is just a pleasant adventure with good vibes and great pacing. Packed with a ton of great little secrets as well.

The story is really bog standard and doesn't do much of anything, to be honest. Mallow is great but Geno for as hyped as he is by fans doesn't end up very interesting. There are a few cute moments but it doesn't build into much and I find the Smithy gang to be throwaway antagonists.

The action command system is the weakest of maybe any Mario RPG here, it feels like the timing to press the button for better attacks is really unclear and not intuitive on a ton of the different moves. I suppose some people would like that more as it makes it harder to get better at it, but it feels like it's just hard because it's not intuitive which I'm not a fan of, and the feedback on what you need to change timing wise when you get it wrong is not as clear as later Mario RPGs either.

So basically it's a good time but it's no Thousand Year Door. But hey, what is.

...what is...