Dandori today... Dandori tomorrow...
I didn't play Pikmin for the first time until 2020, but I feel like it's a very underrated Nintendo series. It feels very unique in its identity with not a lot of similar games out there.

Pikmin 4 feels like the ultimate Pikmin game. Caves return to give a bit more depth to the game, there are tons of areas and interesting situations to navigate using your silly little guys. Dandori battles and time challenges were a good way to add some difficulty because the game is quite easy.

My only gripes with the game were that the soundtrack didn't go as hard as past Pikmin games and that it was a bit long to the point of feeling repetitive. I didn't quite 100% it, but was very close, and I just couldn't be bothered to go back in and get the 4 treasures I was missing.

Also I'm very happy that this game is currently sitting at 4.4.

I could barely finish this game. Performance is really bad, people aren't exaggerating. This is probably one of the buggiest games I've played since Skyrim. Beyond that, the open world and story of the game just isn't very fun. It feels like a very lifeless map with items and trainers just tossed onto it haphazardly. The scale is weird, the textures look awful, storming villain bases is a painful chore, hunting Titans and battling gyms offered no challenge. There are some pretty good Pokemon designs in this generation though to be fair. Unfortunately, I think this will be the last new Pokemon game I play unless there are drastic improvements to the series.

I really enjoyed this game for what it was. It felt kind of like a Metroid Primeish Roguelite with really great art direction and atmosphere. Not to mention the sound design is incredible. The mid game twist was really clever and I had an audible wtf moment with how well the story beat played into the core gameplay element. I think my only gripe would be that some enemies felt kinda of cheap, namely enemies that had giant tracking melee attacks from really long range as well as the enemies that would shoot constant purple lasers. Though I guess that's what gives the game its bullet hell feel.
Also, I feel like this game is the best example of using the Dualsense controller tech to its max potential. Alt firing with the haptic triggers felt so good and the HD rumble was so detailed.

Hi-Fi Rush never misses a beat. From start to finish this colorful, rhythmic world will pull you in and keep you there. I don't think there was ever a span of more than 5 minutes where I wasn't head bobbing or toe tapping to the beat. The combat is really tight and rewarding when you string together combos, parries, and dodges. It's a technical marvel too, almost all animations in the game sync up to the beat of whatever is currently playing, regardless of what you are doing. Even Chai's idle and run animations will follow the beat. As a game developer who works with sound, it's just a really impressive game. It's incredibly polished and well paced, has genuinely good writing and humor, and even weaves in some fun pop culture references along the way. I would call this GotY if it weren't for the absolute stacked year we're about to have with games. This game is still a banger and a must play, it's short and sweet and constant fun. One of the best games I've played in the last 5 years easily.

This game really didn't click with me. I've played a couple other Yakuza games and enjoyed them, but nothing seems to be working well in Yakuza 7. The first couple chapters are kind of intriguing as you meet your party members and get your bearings in the new city, but soon after I felt like I was just going from cutscene to cutscene with some random fights mixed in. It also seems like the characters talk in circles sometimes, stating the same thing a couple times over in different ways. The underground dungeon was an absolute slog, and seemed to be the turning point where I started losing interest. It took quite literally an hour and a half of just running through identical looking hallways fighting bland enemies to clear.
I don't really know how this game is sitting at 4.3 on this site and mid to high 80s on review aggregates. I guess it just isn't for me, which is a shame because I typically like Yakuza games.

This is a really solid remaster of an already great game, however it could have used some QoL updates like placeable map markers. Too many times the way forward involved backtracking to an area where there was a spider ball track or grapple hook tucked away somewhere. Also, maybe I missed something, but there were 4 Chozo Artifacts that you weren't given hints for and I didn't even attempt to find them on my own. Other than that, it's a great game with some nice QoL improvements like modern FPS controls among other things.

Incredibly polished art direction and animation. Sound and music are on point. New guns are fun to mess around with. Story was decently interesting, if predictable, though the dialogue itself was pretty fun. The game makes amazing use of the haptic feedback in the DualSense controller. A technical marvel too, load times are quick and jumping into side content was effortless to the point that it made me actually want to do most of it. Honestly one of the best "hacking" minigames in the glitch levels." I think if I had one gripe it's that the game felt a little too... safe? Not sure how to describe it. There were plenty of interesting mechanics but there were no memorable moments that I think will stick with me.