It's nice to play a short but fun game for a little break. Kirby's Dream Land serves as the introduction to the Kirby series, and it shows, though that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The gameplay here is pretty simple, especially since it's not a gimmicky game at all, lacking things like the Copy Abilities and such, and it's very short, being completed in just under half an hour. I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing though, since the game has pretty good levels that are just fun to play. It's not anything groundbreaking, so I can't give it too high of a score, but to put it simply, it's simple and fun, that's all it really needs to be. Overall, a short and sweet game that serves as a good foundation for future entries in the series.

I mean it's alright, not an inoffensive game by any means but honestly I think this a little overrated. I heard a lot about how this is the best New Super Mario Bros. game and one of the best 2D Mario games but it's just decent at best. On one hand, it lacks a lot of annoying gimmicks found in the Wii game, but on the other hand the level design itself is either not as interesting or actually pretty tedious at times. I would like to compliment the game for it's boss battles though because those are easily the most creative 2D Mario bosses bar none. Like there's some creativity here, especially since it starts a new formula, but in all honesty, after playing Wii last year and having played 2 when I was younger, I just think the New Super Mario Bros. series isn't for me. For me, 2D Mario doesn't hit the heights I wish it did, and I doubt a replay of 2 or playing U for the first time will, as those are the last mainline 2D Mario games I need to log (unless you count Yoshi's Island, which seems pretty interesting and could possibly be as good as I've been hearing). Overall, just a pretty average 2D Mario experience.

I know I just gave the past two Mega Man games five stars and I'm doing it again, but I mean it when I say these past few games have been some of the most fun I've had with the series. I can compliment the same stuff here that I did with 9 and 10 so I'll focus on the new stuff here. I think these are easily the best Robot Masters in the series, especially due to the Double Gear gimmick of this game. Instead of short and difficult battles that could be ended very easily, the bosses actually take some time to beat, especially due to the phases they have. Each boss either activates the Speed or Power Gear, and as a result they become much more difficult due to either a transformation or an attack they do with these abilities. These fights become a lot more dynamic and memorable and some of my favourites in the series. As for the Double Gear gimmick, I think it's pretty fun to use, though the Speed Gear is the highlight for me, especially with the upgrades. I love the Speed Gear upgrade that let's you move at regular speed while using it, that was a great example of a new upgrade I really love from this game. I also think the shop system is much better here as there's not only a lot more upgrades, but a there's more than just 1-Ups and Energizers. You also get a lot of Bolts which lets you play around with these buffs (unless that's just Casual mode). The difficulties seem to be a lot more balanced as opposed to Mega Man 10 which made Easy have way too much hand-holding and Normal as the other option. After reading the differences, I found Casual mode to be the one for me and I loved the difficulty. It felt somewhat easy at times, but still had great platforming segments with a lot of difficulty, like in Wily Castle 1. The art style also looks very good and it's really pleasing on the eyes. It's unfair to compare the art style of this game to it's predecessors, but this game just oozes with personality and I love it. Speaking of personality, the voice acting adds so much to the characters and Robot Masters, and the best part is, it's not bad like Mega Man 8's! All the characters have pretty fitting voices and great voice lines for Robot Masters and Wily in their fights, making things more intense and adding character to the bosses. Overall, Mega Man 11 brings a lot to the table with new features and higher quality in every way, which easily let's this be my favourite classic Mega Man game.

While I don't really like 7, 8 was pretty decent and 9 and 10 were absolutely amazing and my two favourite Mega Man games as of writing this and I'd have gotten this for those two alone. I'm giving this collection half a point less than the first one because there's some features I really liked that were removed, such as the Rewind/Save State (now Checkpoint State, which is fine but 7 was tedious to get through), and the Database. I would've liked to see the descriptions of each enemy and Robot Master like in the first one because that gave it more charm and sometimes there were useful tips there. I'm happy the Museum is at least still there. Again, didn't dip my toes much into the Challenges tab but it's cool to have anyway. Overall, while I don't like every game in the bunch and there's a few features I would've liked to see, I still got a lot of great enjoyment from this collection and would definitely recommend.

I know in my last review (Mega Man 9) I said that was my new favourite Mega Man game since 6, but this one absolutely takes the cake for me. A lot of what I can say about 9 can be said here. I love how creative these levels were with their gimmicks and it added so much to the regular Mega Man experience. Most of these stages had really cool visuals like the backgrounds or unique Robot Master designs like Sheep Man, Strike Man, and Nitro Man. These Robot Masters are also a lot of fun to fight too. They don't feel too easy, but most of them put up a pretty good fight while feeling fair. This also goes for the weapons, none of them feel overpowered or too situational, but I needed to switch between them every so often since they all had pretty good uses. The Wily Castle stages also feel difficult, but not overbearingly hard like Wily Stage 2 in 9 for instance. I would say this game is definitely easier than 9, but it has a lot more going for it in terms of gameplay. Plus, the multiple playable characters and difficulty settings are a pretty nice touch, though for the run I did for this review, I stuck with the default Mega Man on Normal difficulty. Overall, I'd say this game has tons of great levels, great bosses, and other great aspects that make it one of my favourite Mega Man games out of the 10 I've played so far.

Mega Man 9 going back to the NES roots was something I knew about, but I didn't think I'd like it as much as I do. I honestly think this might be my current favourite Mega Man game since it checks off all the boxes and provides an experience that is both unique while staying true to the formula of Mega Man 2. As someone who adores Mega Man 2, it's easy to say the same for this game. The weapon roster is really fun to use, with the situational weapons feeling a lot more useful and enjoyable while the others felt really good to use if I wasn't feeling the Mega Buster. I'm a little sad that the charged Mega Buster and slide were removed, but I understand the intention and it provided some difficult platforming. Despite reverting to Mega Man 2's style, it still has features from other Mega Man games like 7/8's shop, Rush and Eddie from Mega Man 3, and Beat from Mega Man 5. The platforming and levels are also really difficult, but they feel fair and aren't riddled with many moments that I would call stupid, just difficult. Despite having to redo Wily's Castle since I didn't spend my currency prior, I still found it to be pretty fun and gained more of an appreciation for Wily's Castle in this game. Overall, I would say while this game is one of the more difficult games in the series, I find it to be one of the most fair games in terms of its difficulty and it becomes a lot of fun to play as a result.

This is easily the weirdest Mega Man game so far. There's a lot of aspects I like and don't like, but I think overall I like a lot of it more. For the bad, I think the voice overs kill a lot of intimidation I'd get from the Robot Masters and almost none of the voices fit the characters, If I saw Tengu Man without that goofy voice I'd actually be a little scared to fight him. Also this is a personal dislike but I don't really like the art style too much in this game. I think Mega Man 7 had a much cleaner style but was held back by how cramped the game felt and as a result there were moments where I couldn't predict what was coming. This game has much smaller sprites so the only sections that ever felt unfair since I couldn't see ahead well were in some of the gimmicky levels. However, the art style to me just doesn't really fit what I envisioned for Mega Man and it feels sort of jarring at times. I'll at least take the fact that it mostly feels fair to play over an uncanny art style though. The parts that felt a little unfair were when they brought back the gimmicks seen in one level for the Wily Castle, which were the board section in Frost Man's stage (JUMP JUMP SLIDE SLIDE) and the flight section in Air Man's stage (where you hover on Rush and the others can assist you with more projectiles). I think those were fine in those levels, but in the Wily Castle it felt a little cheap, mainly the former. Anyway, the onto the good. The levels in both visual design and level design are pretty well done here. A lot of levels have pretty fun gimmicks, like Clown Man's stage and Sword Man's stage. There's also things you can interact with using different weapons, like being able to swing off hooks with the Thunder Claw, which made levels more interesting. The shop system was much better here as well, I liked being able to upgrade my Mega Buster or other useful perks like using less energy for my special weapons. Difficulty felt pretty fair too, it did feel a lot easier than 7 (which is nice because 7 was exhausting), but it didn't feel too easy. The only real difficulty spike was in Wily Stage 1 due to how weird the board gimmick felt to control but otherwise the game felt pretty fair. Overall, I found this to be a much more enjoyable experience than the previous installment, but I do think there's some aspects of this game that don't let it live up to the heights of most of its predecessors.

I can acknowledge the good of this game, but in my experience playing, I found that good to be so minimal and the bad to be so noticeable that I can't stand this game at times. Starting with the good, I think the music in this game is pretty good, which is pretty expected for Mega Man but I think it sounds much better due to the soundchip. The game visually also looks really great and much more expressive, which is surprising considering they only developed it in three months, pretty impressive. However, the sprites feel so much larger in relation to the screen size, making this game feel really cramped unlike the previous games. It feels hard to see what's coming at times and it can get pretty frustrating. What's most frustrating are the levels, which feel full of gimmicks and death traps that make the game so much more annoying to play. I found the levels got much worse the further the game went on. I wasn't feeling it with the first set of Robot Masters, but the second set didn't have a singular level I liked and the Wily Castle was even worse than that. The Robot Masters either felt boring to fight (Spring Man, Junk Man, etc) or really cheap and annoying (Shade Man, Slash Man, etc). The worst offender goes to the final boss, which is both. The Wily Machine 7 is such a boring and long fight and you need to do it every time you die to Wily Capsule 7, which is easily the hardest and most annoying boss I've ever fought in a video game, easily my least favourite boss of all time. I spent almost three hours on just that boss alone when I intended to finish this game a lot earlier, but unfortunately for me I had to suffer a lot longer than I'd have liked. The weapon selection is kind of decent, but there are some that I really don't like and quite a few that feel gimmicky and as a result I never found a use for them. I hate that Wild Coil was the weapon they expected you to use to beat Wily Capsule 7 because that weapon doesn't feel suited for that boss at all. There's also the hidden collectables in the stages, but even though 5 and 6 had these as well, I think this is the worst way to implement them. 5 had a few bosses weak to Beat, which you get from finding the hidden letters in the stages, but not having Beat wouldn't screw you over, while 6 doesn't have any boss weak to Beat but it's a nice little reward for finding the hidden paths to the boss room. 7 has hidden items that feel almost mandatory in order to beat the game. I say almost mandatory as I didn't have some items like the Rush Adaptor, but it felt like I needed it in the Wily Castle stages at almost all times and had to make do with the Rush Coil. Hidden collectibles shouldn't be mandatory at all, which they aren't here, but I almost gave up so many times because of how poor the design in those levels are. As much as I'm complaining about it, I don't think I could put this game any lower than this score, which is the same score I gave Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, fitting as I see these two games to be equally annoying and just not fun to play. Overall, I find this game to be really frustrating and while this game has some good elements that stand out moving away from the Classic SNES games, the bad aspects make this game almost unbearable for me.

I knew I'd love this game after watching so many videos and streams on it. As someone who adores indie games and loves the platforming genre, I found this to be just as, if not more pleasant than I expected. This game oozes with charm, from the random old cartoon art style to the insane gimmicks and level design. Each level offers something new and unique and keeps the game fresh but it never really gets annoying. I think "Don't Make A Sound" was the only level I actually found somewhat annoying but even that level I can appreciate especially as an endgame level. There's so many good levels I could mention, such as Bloodsauce Dungeon, Wasteyard, GOLF, R-R-Freezerator, and WAR. The bosses are also really fun and while they're pretty difficult, they're also a fair difficulty and I beat most of them in a few attempts at most, with the first boss being the only one I died to a lot (mainly because I kept holding down sprint and as soon as I realized that wasn't a good idea I beat him quickly). The OST is also really damn good, a lot of the level themes have really great music that fits really well and the boss themes are a highlight here as well, along with the popular song "It's Pizza Time" which well deserves its praise. I love the high speed platforming and while it can be difficult to grasp at first, when you get those moments where you go super fast and react quick enough, it becomes really satisfying to play. Overall, I'd say this is a consistently fun high speed platformer with lots of fun gimmicks that keep things interesting and fresh, providing an amazing experience from start to finish that I'd highly recommend.

Taking a game I already loved and remaking it with new content and improved quality of life is a recipe for a perfect game, that being A Link Between Worlds. I love A Link to the Past, but I had a few issues with it that stopped it from being a perfect score, such as how obscure some things can be, such as needing the Fire AND Ice Rods for the Turtle Rock boss. How do they fix this? Well, the items you need for each dungeon are shown in front of the entrance, so you just need to bring that item and you can do the dungeon. Okay, so I just need to figure out which dungeon each required item comes from so I know what order to do them in. Nope! Instead, all the items you need can be rented or bought from Ravio's shop, meaning you can fast travel there, rent or buy the item, and go back to the dungeon. The only instance of a dungeon being required to access another is Thieves' Town before Desert Palace as the latter requires the Sand Rod, which the Sage you save from the former has. Other than that, the dungeon order is completely free in Lorule, which not only adds to replayability, but allows for more freedom than A Link to the Past did. The renting system is also just a great idea in itself, and you get tons of Rupees per dungeon so you'll be able to buy quite a few items and rent the rest as you go. The dungeons themselves are also just really interesting and fun to play, I love small things that they changed like Turtle Rock having the shape of an actual turtle instead of a different layout. I also think the Merge gimmick is one of the best gimmicks I've seen in gaming because of how unique and creative it is and what it allows this game to do. The game makes a great usage of it's camera to hide certain areas but has a map that allows you to find said areas. Even annoying gimmicks like the Dark Palace needing you to switch the Lantern on and off still makes for pretty good content and fun puzzles that keep me invested and I think there was only one or two dungeons that I wouldn't put in A or S tier because of how high the bar is for good dungeons and puzzles in this game. There's also a bit of story which isn't anything super crazy but it's a lot more fleshed out and sort of acts as a bit of a continuation from A Link to the Past which was really neat, but while it's still a pretty basic story, it adds quite a few elements that make it actually pretty engaging rather than just a regular quest. I'm not trying to say A Link to the Past has a bad story because for it's time it was pretty good, but this game gives the story a lot more meat on its bones that make it more interesting and better. The characters are pretty great here too, I love that the Seven Sages are all characters you meet on your journey rather than rescuing seven random girls we've never seen before that are important. Ravio, Hilda, and Yuga especially are the highlights (as they should be) and it's pretty easy to like them. Also, the final boss of this game is really epic and the final shot of the Bow of Light was really cool. Overall, I would say this game is worth checking out for both fans of A Link to the Past (and Zelda itself), and the general public as this game has quite a lot of quality of life changes from its predecessor while giving a great challenge to its players as well.

Considering this is a fan mod using what I believe to be the worst Sonic game as the template, this is surprisingly really well made! It's not perfect due to some of the issues that come along with Forces, but unlike it's source material, it's actually fun to play. There's a few bugs I had and I feel like some of the levels don't have visual clarity since there were some parts where I died and felt like I couldn't react well to some of the scenarios well. This is strengthened by the fact that some parts of certain levels require the Boost but they don't give many Wisp Capsules to allow for Boosting, which I thought was strange. Even so, that's the worst I can say for this mod. Everything else excels pretty well, from the fun levels with lots of branching paths for replayability, difficult but satisfying to earn S-ranks, amazing OST (which is worth mentioning as A) This is a fan project and B) Forces has one of the worst OST's in the series), and the decently lengthy levels (good because most Forces levels end before they can do anything good). Also I'm so glad Classic Sonic isn't in the game. It wouldn't make sense with the story but I found Classic Sonic to be the worst of the three and considering they don't change how Modern Sonic and the Avatar control, this is a really good decision as Classic Sonic doesn't even control properly. Overall, really solid mod and exceeded my expectations, though there are a few issues I'd like to see improved on, whether or not they release a patch or release a future project (though if they don't, that's totally fine because this is honestly really impressive in itself).

I guess Pride really is a deadly sin, because for some unknown reason I decided to also go back and complete this game. And honestly? I don't completely regret it. Now I know everyone knows the bad, so I'll list the good. The levels have really unique themes that actually still kind of feel good to play regardless of the issues, such as White Acropolis and Radical Train. Now of course, the level design isn't perfect because levels like Flame Core and Dusty Desert exist, but a majority of levels have good themes and music like Kingdom Valley and Aquatic Base. So do I hate the levels overall? Not really to be honest, but the game still plays horribly so this game can't go higher than the current score. The story is really good for Shadow and it's his best iteration in my opinion, though Silver's is decent because it has issues and Sonic's is just boring. The story isn't perfect though since the time travel is really situational, such as with Omega's role in Shadow's Story which made no sense. Not all the playable characters suck to play, Rouge and Knuckles for instance are fine, but Silver especially is awful to play and he has a whole campaign. Everyone should've expected this but the OST is absolutely amazing and probably a top 3 Sonic OST with Unleashed and Adventure 2 (maybe Frontiers instead, need to listen to that more). That's about it for pros though, the cons are overwhelmingly noticeable such as Silver's levels, bosses, glitches, lag, etc. The game still sucks, but I'm glad I could find some good in this. Overall, I'd say this game is mostly what you'd expect, a really low quality product, but it has some merits to it that I can't completely write it off and even dare say I like it more than some of the other games in the series as I appreciate the ambition in this compared to others such as Lost World and Forces.

Very solid and fun collection of games, the only one I didn't rate a 4.5 or 5 was Mega Man 3, which I thought was disappointing. I already made a review for all six of these games, but some of the features in the collection I love a lot such as the rewind feature, which made playing through these casually so much easier but still fair, and the Database and Museum you can access before each game. I love those two in particular because the Database shows you enemy stats, weaknesses, and strategies to beat them while the Museum shows stuff like official art and concept art which is really cool to see. There's also challenges which I admittedly haven't dipped my toes into too much, but I plan to go back to those on my own time, I just want to review this collection as a group of six games. Overall, I would say this collection is really worth getting because you'll get a solid collection of six strong games (even Mega Man 3 is pretty good even if it's my least favourite) and a lot of content for a pretty good price.

Finished this on the same night I beat Mega Man 5. I wanted to finish the first Legacy Collection since I realized how short these games really are, but man are they such a blast, and that goes for this game too. I didn't know what to rate this one at first so I slept on it, and honestly, I think this is my favourite of the NES series. What makes this stand out to me are the Robot Master themes, I love that the tournament they were going to hold consisted of four Elemental and four Warrior robots. It made the game all the more satisfying because I started with Wind Man and when I beat Plant Man I thought "the Elementals are down, now for the Warriors." Something as simple as that really put a smile on my face while I played it. Also, the levels here are really good, especially since some of them have diverging paths, and going to those diverging paths in the Warrior Robot Master levels unlocked Beat if you did them all. I honestly didn't use Beat too much, but I thought he was a great addition to Mega Man 5 so I'm glad he returned here. Anyway, the weapons you get from this game are probably my favourite of the bunch, mainly because there isn't a singular niche weapon here, closest being Centaur Flash, but that's only really niche because Wind Man is the only boss that takes damage from it. I'm okay with Centaur Flash as opposed to other niche weapons because of what it does, where it kills enemies on the screen and can ignore enemies that have shields, but this can freeze Mega Man in place. I also actually found a use for this weapon as opposed to something like the Gravity Hold in Mega Man 5 where I just thought it'd be better to save it for later if I ever needed it (like in the Boss Rush) since the Mega Buster already did a lot of damage and I could rely on that better. The other weapons are all really fun to use because most of them are really simple to use and the energy of each weapon feels fair for what they do, most of them not using too much up so I could really get a good use out of each weapon instead of worrying about saving it. There's also the Rush Adaptors, which I really love, especially the Jet one. The Power one is really fun to use because you can charge up punches or go one at a time and I feel like a big brute which is really cool, but Jet is super useful and I love how it controls compared to some of the other Rush mobility options in previous games. I don't know if they'll bring it back for Mega Man 7 or any other game going further, but if they do, that would be a very welcome addition for the future games in the series (I don't know anything about 7-11). Overall, I would say that in my opinion, this is the best NES Mega Man game, since it has a lot of content, great weapons, fun stages and bosses, and a great new gimmick.