Just so people know, this game's development has been abandoned. The publisher laid off the entirety of the dev team. Apparently, the game's early access release didn't meet sales expectation, despite it selling really well for an early access release from an unknown and new publisher.

Gameplay-wise, it was a pretty solid side-scrolling roguelite. Controlled well, had some decent build variety, and a fair amount of content. The art was also fantastic and what drew me to the game in the first place. The localization was rough, but this was a great beginning for an early access roguelite.

But none of that potential will be realized now. The devs got to make one update and then within two months, the publisher fired everyone.

F-Zero GX hit everything I wanted in a racing game all at once! The gameplay, the controls, the course designs, the music, the sound effects, everything just felt so damn perfect! It's almost humiliating the way one of Nintendo's own franchises reached such a level of brilliance by the likes of SEGA!

I adored every ounce of this game, most especially how intense and difficult the racing became on higher-difficulties, asking you to hone every single essence of your elite racing skills against bot racers with an endless supply of rubber bands! The tight feeling of driving your car and every teeny-tiny movement you'd make aligning with it was incredible. This game asked for surgery-levels of precision and air-tight focus above all else.

While F-Zero X felt just right with its heavy metal vibe, the hard-hitting techno in F-Zero GX fit neatly in this futuristic hell of tall buildings and industrial venues. Looking back almost 20 years later, it's still unbelievable how well this game aged and how much of it holds up. I sometimes don't need to wonder why they haven't made a legitimate successor to this, it's basically impossible!

Metroid Dread is truly the game we’ve been waiting for for more than a decade. The whole trackage screams quality, from the stunning environments, beautiful animations, and smooth gameplay.

In fact, yes, let’s just say that Dread is the most fun Metroid game to simply move around in. All the tools you have to use make getting from one place to another fun in of itself, and speedrunning is probably a blast cause of it.

And the boss fights take advantage of this, expecting you to use all you have at your disposal or else. It incentivized me to be more creative with how I used my items, and made taking out these tough bosses even more of a treat than usual.

Dread doesn’t overstep the boundaries of past games in story, but the presentation of said story carries what little it has and makes certain moments more powerful for it. MercurySteam handled Samus well as a character, and I think most fans can say…that’s all we really needed at this point.

Until Prime 4, I’ll be happy just knowing that both facets of Metroid are being worked on, all while looking forward to whatever these devs have next. God, I love this series.