KalKeg
BACKER
1988
Twentieth GOTW finished for 2023. Sure it's campy, broken, and funny, but it's also unfair, not very enjoyable to play, and that final boss can eat my whole asshole.
2019
I quite liked this one, but it's certainly not without its faults. I was extremely happy to see large open spaces, and mostly fluid transition scenes, as opposed to a myriad of small connected rooms. The action felt great, and the extra power afforded this game via the PS4 made for fantastic visuals and spell effects. The game is probably one of the easiest in the series. The "Disney Ride" attacks did a great job of taking any seriousness and chucking it out the window, and didn't feel like they fit in with the rest of the game. The story in this one also isn't that great, what with being a) all over the place, and b) going to Akira Toriyama levels of "lol don't worry, nobody really dies". Had a good time with this one, but there were more enjoyable ones earlier in the franchise.
1990
Nineteenth GOTW finished for 2023. Way more RPG than I thought I'd find in a NES beat 'em up. Kept me more interested than I thought. Lots of varied paths, builds, options, etc. Lots of repetitive levels, awful platforming/jumping, and hard-to-determine navigation kept this one from being a lot better, but I recognize a lot of that was probably limitations of the system. Really neat little game, but more excited to play some newer versions of this series than I would be to come back to this one.
1993
Eighteenth GOTW finished for 2023. It doesn't even have the theme song. That should tell you enough about how unfun this game is. Quite hard - not due to clever platforming or devilish bosses, but because enemies and traps spawn out of nowhere and the controls and platforming feel clunky. Variety of gadgets to use was neat, but I honestly only ever used two and didn't know what half of them did. Not great.
1998
Extremely surprised by how much I liked this game! The combat was unique, though moving Aya would sometimes feel like trying to drag a feather through molasses. The music was killer, and the crafting/tooling mechanic was satisfying if a bit confusing. The body horror in this game was sooo good, even if the overall fear factor wasn't terribly high. The story was pretty nonsensical, with some ridiculously silly science, but you needed the specific premise in order for certain events to play in the space. The game has some other small detractors that are more due to it being a 2000s PS1 game than anything else, but my overall experience with this game was very fun.
1992
Seventeenth GOTW finished for 2023. The music was pretty good, but not much else memorable here. There was no point in using the spell/bullet attack, as the broom attack was much better, directable, and more powerful. The biggest thing is that the difficulty in this game was nuts, definitely a quarter-snacker.
2019
Sixteenth GOTW finished for 2023. I'm going to reserve the right to change this down the line as I unlock more of the endings, but easily stated this is really incredible for a homebrew game. Game Boy does not lend itself well to horror games, despite some great effort on this game's part, but it's certainly been interesting so far.
2012
Third GOTM finished for April 2023. I have mixed emotions. The flaws are obvious; plodding character and army movement, unnecessarily convoluted and frustrating selection-within-a-selection menus and UI, and some wildly inaccurate hit percentages aren't great. However, this game just clicked with me. I enjoyed hunting for randomly-appearing Pokémon with a greater than average link percentage with certain warriors, the limited move sets that forced me to carry certain Pokémon into battle, taking the time to level links and evolve every Pokémon I came across, the theming and character/castle designs, and how it was all wrapped in a comfy isometric tactical viewpoint. This game could stand from several QOL improvements, but at the end of the day I spent over 40 hours on just the main story by choice. That says a lot about how I feel towards this game.
Fifteenth GOTW finished for 2023. One character playthrough is really short, but there's a bunch of characters to start with and a surprising amount of depth for a two-button fighting game. Simple but cutesy art. Always fun to get a little NGPC gameplay in here and there!
1998
Second GOTM finished for April 2023. The racing itself was pretty standard, with limited customization and upgrade options and a decent variety of tracks. However, that soundtrack absolutely SLAPS and fits the aesthetic the game developers were obviously going for with this one.
Fourteenth GOTW finished for 2023. Is this what happens when Sonic goes slow? If so, it's dreadful. Easily the worst 2-D Sonic platformer I've played.
First GOTM finished for April 2023. Pretty standard beat 'em up in all regards, helped by the license behind it. If you've got nostalgia for the show, you'll enjoy seeing the characters and the music. Level variety was fun, looked great, but otherwise pretty standard Konami fare.
1989
Thirteenth GOTW finished for 2023. A cheap but relatively neat shoot 'em up quickly gave way to one of the most obvious arcade coin-guzzlers I've ever played. All balance and fairness went out the window once the water world started. At least the music was catchy.
1999
Third GOTM finished for March 2023. Was surprised with the level of fun I had with this one, considering how much I disliked Choro Q 3. This felt more like a CaRPG, what with finding the upgrades in the overworld instead of purchasing them, and the music was absolutely banging. Just like any Choro Q game, the physics can get a little wonky and sometimes you have to be ultra-precise to even stand a chance, but this game felt more forgiving both in the difficulty of it's NPCs and their inconsistent placements in the Grand Prix races. Overall a fun romp, glad this one got translated!
I was completely taken by surprise with this game. I didn't like the Pokemon-esque interactions with the Spirits, which was a focus early on, but that quickly gave way to the fun and exploration of the Flowmotion system. The worlds are pretty big in order to adapt to the parkour-ness of the Flowmotion system, but traversing the worlds felt kinetic and enjoyable. Also, it didn't feel like DDD was retreading the same old KH worlds as we've seen time and time again. Instead we get Fantasia, Musketeers, and Hunchback of Notre Dame! Also, The World Ends With You characters show up for some reason? All these new characters, combat styles, and worlds helped spice up some of the tedious retreading of older Kingdom Hearts games. The story was pretty nonsensical, but became important in that last 2 or 3 hours of the game. Overall, I had a blast with this one!