Twelfth GOTW finished for 2022. Really had a good time with this game! Only took about an hour or so, but was quite challenging at the later levels. You need to make rows of animals, monsters, and icons horizontally, diagonally, or vertically in order to clear a constantly filing space on the screen. If the space completely fills, it's game over. After a set amount of time, a timer countdown starts and you have that amount of time to clear as many on-screen items as you can for points, and then you're on to the next level. It can feel a little dull, as you're basically just sorting with no background music or anything playing. However, the further along you get the more frantically you are trying to clear these icons before they fill the space, so you don't really have the time to notice since you're constantly moving to clear these kreatures.

Third GOTM finished for July 2022. Mixed emotions on this one. The PS4 remaster looks gorgeous, but it still feels like a PS1 game in a lot of the controls. The PS4 version is more difficult across the board (which I didn't know until after I looked up why I kept getting my ass handed to me), and the game felt like a beautiful, frustrating mess at the beginning. Once I got the broadsword the game opened up quite a bit, but it was a little frustrating again at the end. Ultimately glad to have it off the backlog, but coming in with no nostalgia for this game made the flaws stand out that much more.

Oh boy, this game. While this has been the shortest SMT I've played to date - less than half the length of SMT and SMT II - it's also been the most frustrating. The guardian system isn't necessary for your primary character (I made it through to the final boss without one at all) and VITAL to your partner since they have no magic without one. The difficulty spikes come fast and hard, and in a game that bases your stats and skills on how long you go without dying to get a more powerful guardian that can be a brutal death spiral. It had some neat ideas, but paired them with some of the most purposefully frustrating dungeon design (looking at you, Sloth Domain...) and a mouth-frothingly annoying final boss. Might potentially come back to this one for the Akira route, but not for a long, long time.

Eleventh GOTW finished for 2022. Started out thinking I was going to hate this game. The controls and attacks were a bit confusing, and it just didn't click. Came back to it after a bit, and burned through the whole game in a tidy 1.5 hours. You play as a sorceress who shoots lightning, and you have a small selection of beast companions with different abilities that accompany you. The game is pretty hard, but the upgrades to both you and your beasties help it feel a little more fair. The platforming sometimes felt a bit clunky, but it's an older Genesis game. Didn't hate it by the end.

Oh yeah, and Yoshimi Kanda of Gainax fame was the Game Designer.

Ninth GOTW finished for 2022. It was neat seeing characters like Kamen Rider, Ultraman, and Gundam in an old-school platformer, but the difficulty in this game is cheap. All enemies stun lock, including the mooks, and they often appear out of thin air. It can feel purposefully cheap. Once you beat a level (there's 8) it stays unlocked even if you die, so it's not CRUEL, but without save states I doubt I would've finished this one.
The powerups are cool, and each character has their own style of attack (short-range or long-range), but until you get used to what they look like it's vague what you're going to get and you can sometimes end up with a character ill-suited to the level or it's boss. Speaking of, bosses can be brutal, but at least have a relatively predictable pattern if you're willing to try again and again. I didn't hate it, but I doubt I'll play it again.

Did not play as part of GOTM or GOTW. Super gorgeous little Game Gear game. Baby's first tactics, with little in the way of complexity or scaling difficulty, so perfect for nearly anyone to play with little trouble. Element triangle is really important in this one. You're not doing much damage against enemies going against the triangle, and you'll do a ton going with it. Some elements, like unit promotion, are not explained at all, but it's a simple enough tactics game that it doesn't really change much if missed or not utilized fully. Overall, a great little game that was fun to play!

I feel that it simply didn't carry the impact that SMT did when I played it. In comparison, SMT2 was easier, the upgraded graphics and demon designs were nice, and the story was arguably an upgrade. However, certain changes were simply baffling. The Terminal animation and demon fusion animations took much longer, it felt like there was a LOT more backtracking, and Magnetite became detrimentally scarce for a large chunk of the game. Also, if you chose the Law path (like I did), you were in for a much harder experience with less story and level opportunities come endgame. Overall, it just lacked the fun I felt when playing SMT. I enjoyed my time with this one, just maybe not every one of the 30+ hours it took to beat.

Second GOTM finished for June 2022. I'm kinda surprised by how much I enjoyed this game. It wears its desire to be Zelda on it's chest, much less its sleeve, but I still found it really charming. The music is pretty catchy, and while it can sometimes look like a flash game the graphics were fun and bright enough to keep my attention. The game got easier as you played, due to various weapons and power ups, but the speed and difficulty of some of the enemies early on can be a little frustrating. Regardless, I enjoyed my time with this little game. Crayon Shin-Chan in Western Zelda!