Super Kiwi 64 absolutely captures the feeling of being a slice of a long lost Nintendo 64 game. The aesthetic and music are nailed but, more importantly, Kiwi is such a well realized mascot in both design and movement that you end up wishing they were in a long running series. Not that everything is perfect, there are a few actions missing sounds in a distracting way, but most other criticisms don’t feel helpful given the scope of the project. If you have any love for the 64 era, you will probably find some love for the Kiwi too.

Pentiment is perfect. It is beautiful, well written, well researched, and impeccable in the little details like giving notes in the page margins and fixes for spelling errors. A triumph in creating the very particular experience the developers aspired to.

I could gush about this game for far too long, but three main things stick out. The first is that Pentiment portrays its time period sincerely. You play as and interact with people in and bound to the moment, not as a future person slyly commenting on how backward everything is to you. And the game is far better for it.

The second is the nuance of the problems presented and how you can affect the world. Elaborating would spoil too much, but it is rare to know how your actions will actually affect the future, yet in a natural and not "gotcha!" kind of way. Further, Pentiment does an amazing job of coaxing you towards difficult decisions without telegraphing them or even really giving you a moment to consider what is actually being asked of you until the moment is passed. By the end, there is a lot to think about in terms of what your character has actually done.

Finally, Pentiment allows you to be genuinely kind. This was surprisingly affecting to me. Your choices are not between paragon (heroic) versus renegade (villainous), but rather generally kindness or being a jerk. And there are a variety of moments of subtle kindness in the game that are moving. Moments of true interpersonal light and beauty in bleak times.

Pentiment is an experience that keeps revealing a myriad of ways to admire it even after the credits roll. What could be critiqued feels insignificant in light of all the ways it exceeds the medium's status quo. It is an experience like no other that is absolutely worth trying if its niche pitch seems appealing.

The chamber orchestrated soundtrack, art direction, and absolute faithfulness to the source material does a lot of heavy lifting for the remake of Link’s Awakening. Everything feels like a Game Boy game brought into the future as a lovingly crafted diorama.

But everything remains scoped like a Game Boy game too, which can feel a little thin and restrictive if you go in with modern expectations. It also carries with it the obtuseness of a game made 30 years ago meaning you will probably end up looking at a guide.

That said, it is a generally affable experience that really shines if you pull up the original to see how the developers interpreted the source.

This is a fascinating package in that 3D World gives a glimpse of what Mario’s transition to 3D could have been like and Bowser’s Fury casts a vision for what a 3D Mario game could yet be.

And, for the most part, it’s a delightful package with Bowser’s Fury being the, albeit short, stand out piece. Unfortunately, both fall into the trap of being somewhat forgettable (3D World being egregiously so with its lack of establishing a sense of distinct personality to any of its areas). Bowser’s Fury ultimately doesn’t escape this either, but the broad strokes of its open world mechanics make up a lot of ground and give the whole experience memorability.

Even so, they are both fun Mario games in different ways and certainly worth experiencing. Just don’t expect them to touch the gold standard Odyssey upholds.

Chaos, heroics, goofiness, and skill, all churning together at a staggering scale, make Chivalry II a sight to behold. One moment, a hoard of players crest a hill striking terror into those left standing. In another, you are running around bonking people from behind in the head with a hammer. You can go from making a final, desperate push to take a point at the last second to stealing pigs and presents as your next objective. It refuses to be taken seriously, yet cannot help but be epic. It rewards skillful play, but leaves an abundance of room to hardly interact with its systems at all. But overall, it is true-blooded chaos that should be experienced by anyone with a remote interest in it.

Bloodroots scratches the itch of full lizard brain dependancy as you rapidly and fluidly progress through levels and commit your path to muscle memory. You will die a ton, but it rarely feels unfair and you respawn instantaniously. All the while, the game nudges you towards an optimal, but not required, path. Bloodroots has a wonderful variety of weapons and ways to shake up encounters, stays for just as long as it should, and has a great artstyle. It is absolutely worth giving a shot, especially before it leaves Game Pass.

Ynglet is the rare, perfectly iterative experience. The platforming adjacent gameplay is impeccably tuned to always feel good and the difficulty always perfectly balanced to offer achievable challenge. Couple this with the hypnotic art style and mesmerizing soundtrack and Ynglet becomes something special.

Yet, perhaps Ynglet’s greatest attribute is its frantic iteration on its core mechanics. Every level plays with what you assumed you could do and adds its own twist. And then, after a couple hours, it’s done, having fully investigated the ideas it was playing with.

I can offer no suggestions for improvement. I cannot recommend it enough. It is, perhaps, the one of the most surprising and delightful ways to spend five dollars.