This is the one 2D Metroid game you should play if you only ever had to play one. I thought people were just overrating this game for years whenever they would lament that the newer 2D Metroid games never recreate the same kind of magic. The short of my experience with Super Metroid is that they were right, and I even played it on the uncomfortable handheld mode for Nintendo Switch on their SNES emulator. It was still a blast going through it for the first time. Anyone who says Metroid Dread recreates the same feeling you get running through Super Metroid is either a sicko or just really wants to believe that it is.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence is my favorite single player video game. I won't endlessly gush about it, but you should probably play this one if you've ever played Metal Gear Solid and really enjoyed the parts where you're actually sneaking. To this day, I've played Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence so many times that I've lost count, but what I find interesting is that I always seem to discover something new about it every new playthrough, even if it's something minor. Overall it's just a very fun video game and a great entry in a series of some of the greatest bangers in video games.

Team Fortress 2 is my favorite multiplayer game. I would not be the person I am today without Team Fortress 2. I do not say this lightly when I mean that I would literally not know more than half the people in my life if not for the Summers I spent on my grandparents terrible PC, and later my terrible laptop, playing Team Fortress 2 on community servers. Say what you will about the game today, but this game was my gateway into everything because of how I was able to interact with the community. It was also just a really fun FPS back when Valve had less reluctant people updating it. Thinking back on Team Fortress 2 is much more enjoyable than actually playing it today, but it still gets the 5 stars for being one of the most important games I had in my formative years.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon might be the best Yakuza game ever made. It's not my personal favorite, but I have to give the game a lot of credit for reigniting my love of the series this late in. Ichiban Kasuga is the perfect main character to swap in for tired Kazuma Kiryu because, where Kiryu was the soul of the action brawling part of Yakuza, Ichiban is the soul of the light hearted and immersive part of Yakuza. I don't mean that Kiryu was never a good fit for the other side of Yakuza outside of the main story. If anything, it was way more funny seeing someone with the type of background and serious demeanor like Kiryu partaking in the antics going on in this simulation of real life in the seedy underbelly of Japan. Ichiban just feels like a much better fit given how willing he is even in the main story to help people out, even when he's going through some of the worst moments in his adult life. Side content now feels so much more engaging when you're behind the wheel of someone you can actually see going out of their way to do most of these said activities, and that's a big factor in why I think back on this game so fondly. I'll try and keep this review short like always but just know I also don't mind the switch to turn based combat over the 3D beat-em'-up Yakuza is known for. I think it works well and it's a good move for the series since I don't think combat has had the same shine to it like it did in previous entries. I love this game as a long time Yakuza fan and I think you can love it too even if it's your first one. They left the 7 off of this one for a reason. You might not get a lot of the inside jokes, but maybe it will encourage you to go back and take a look at the rest of the series.

Yakuza 4 is a modern retelling of Frankenstein's Monster. Dr. Victor Frankenstein (played by Toshihiro Nagoshi) creates a monster (Shun Akiyama) so powerful, the village (everyone developing Yakuza after Yakuza 4) had to destroy him to restore the natural balance. The moral of the story being that the greatest sin committed was not trying to create unnatural life, but harboring nothing but hatred for it, making no attempt to understand it, and seeking it's destruction.

The game is pretty good, too. The story is dumb. I love it.

Did you know that it is against the law to say anything bad about Bloodborne? It's true. If you ever even think about how it would've been better as an action game rather than trying to be like a Souls game, you'll see police officers outside your house. They'll say you have the right to remain silent and that anything you say can and will be used against you. But that doesn't scare you. You shriek as they drag you away about how it's not fun making a build for a weapon you only get after beating the final boss. As you're waiting in your cell, your provided attorney will try and work out a plea bargain, claiming that at the very least you did play the game for 300+ hours on your PlayStation 4, way more than the weekly amount that all PlayStation 4 owners are required by law to play. While on trial however, you lash out. You say that it's not fair that Bloodborne can't even be ported over to PC, and that not getting an FPS boost for PlayStation 5 is even more outrageous. The judge bangs his gavel. You've dug your grave. You find yourself some years later, serving a life sentence because you couldn't play ball and just have fun with your hyper Lovecraftian atmospheric action adventure game. Guards walk by your cell and wince, and your fellow prisoners whisper nothing good about you. They're intimidated by you. And not because you were so brave to say that Bloodborne has flaws. But because of the same repeated phrase you have carved all over your cell. A phrase that only says... “cummmfpk”.

I don't care that this game isn't as robust as Animal Crossing: New Leaf, or even that the new QoL changes come with just as many backsteps that they still haven't changed in it's first year of being released. I was looking for a pink durag to go with my house cleaning outfit and Fauna just gave me one within 5 minutes of playing without me ever even saying it out loud. This game reads my mind harder than my phone listens for when I name drop products I'd buy. Giving it anything less than 5/5 stars could mean that I'll be killed in my sleep tonight. Stay safe everyone.

Resident Evil Village is the "I wish I was playing Resident Evil 4" of Resident Evil games. This feeling was so strong throughout my entire first (and only) playthrough of this game that it almost feels like the developers intended it. The game shallowly tries to recreate the camp that made Resident Evil 4 an all time classic without ever really wearing it on it's sleeve the same way Resident Evil 4 does. It's a shame because some of the segments that go for a more action set piece can actually be really engaging in how you try and manage your ammo cache versus how many dudes you have to smoke. But the same magic just isn't there, yet you never lose that feeling like the game is genuinely trying. It's like watching someone do flips exclaiming that they're Spider-Man, but you can plainly see the price tag they forgot to take off their costume just as they face plant onto concrete. It's sad, and you just want to go home.

Resident Evil 4 might be one of the best video games ever made. The reality is that most people already know this, so I don't have to say a whole lot. This game excels so much in being just an incredible ride from start to finish. After I was thoroughly disappointed by Resident Evil Village, I booted this up just to wash out the bad after taste. It worked, and I was amazed that my ability to play the game on a DualShock 4 translated over perfectly from when I played it on GameCube and Nintendo Wii controllers. This game is incredible, but don't make the mistake in thinking that Resident Evil 4 is what Resident Evil as a series is all about. It's an absolute banger on an entry, but it took a risk in changing up the identity of the franchise up to that point. A risk that I think did pay off in the years to follow with similar formatted Resident Evil games (Resident Evil 5 and 6 are good and you should feel good about liking them).

Katamari Damacy is my new happy time game. Whenever I've had a bad day at work, I can always look forward to rolling into my bed and then rolling up a bunch of objects into a giant ball that I can shoot into space.

In a way, rolling up the katamari is the perfect stress reliver if you're not bothered by the nonconventional control scheme for moving it in the game. The Prince and, by extension, the player really have no concerns for anything that they're rolling up. And yet the game is much less violent of a way for you to virtually vent your frustration than mowing down pedestrians in Grand Theft Auto or throwing around cars in The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

I can derive satisfaction in the giant katamari I've created for The King of All Cosmos, who always appreciates my work more than my boss at my job can really ever express.

I also just want to add that I love how The Prince waves you goodbye when you turn the game off. Little gestures of kindness like that after a long day at your job that you hate can really keep a person going, and more games should be so delightful as this one.

Curse of the Moon is a game that I really like, but I get this feeling that the game doesn't like me. On one hand, I LOVE that you have multiple characters you can swap between in a party that you unlock as you play the game. My favorite character to play as is definitely Gebel in how simple his bat attack and transformation are, but for giving me that small feeling that I now get to play as Dracula. On the other hand, every time I lose a party member because I misjudged a jump over a death pit, I want to curl up into a ball and cry.

The game itself isn't very difficult on Veteran, but I'll be damned if I'm going through the level the long way AND going to miss any secrets because Gebel scraped his knee and died.

I'd probably like this game a lot more if I could make it more difficult without losing a character every time I die, but that also ties into the challenging aspect of the game that I don't think is replicated enough in a lot of modern games these days that try to go for a classic Castlevania style. I want to love you, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. I suspect in time, I will. I just wish you would love me, too.

It's difficult to put into words the ringer this game put me through. If Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is a game that you can play 100 times and learn something you didn't know the last time with each playthrough, Spelunky 2 is a game where you can die 100 times in completely different ways and then learn nothing.

The magic to most of those deaths is that, most of the time, you'll realize it was entirely your own fault.

Died to a long drop? Check how far down it is next time.
Dart trap? Just use your eyeballs, nerd.
An elevator going up and down that you were just a tiny bit too close to one side and got crushed when passing by a wall? Yup, that's also your fault.

This game gets 5/5 stars because I loved bashing my head into this wall. It's a very hard game to put down once you've gotten far enough in. And having multiple paths that lead to a few different zones and endings made my drive even stronger. I still play this game on occasion just because getting in a run just fills time so efficiently. I love this game, and it easily makes it's way into my top 5 of all time.