2017

An absolute waste of time and energy. Coming back to this game after years of quitting was a mistake.

Love the procedural generation spin on the immersive sim, but I didn't really enjoy it that much and found it pretty repetitive.

Mooncrash feels like an attack on my favorite things about the original Prey: taking my time, exploring, immersing myself in an engrossing environment and experimenting.

You know you messed up when you shoehorn a new character so badly, it stops a newcomer from playing and makes them want to play the original instead.

As it goes with every rogue-lite, I play it for a bit, admire what it's doing, have some fun then stop playing. They just never seem to succeed at hooking me the way they do with others.

Hand-holding and too much over-explaining/commenting progressively soured an otherwise interesting experience.

What an absolute surprise this game was. It gets so much right that I couldn't help but smile all the time while playing (well, except for that two-minute gauntlet. I love it, I think).

The first thing you'll notice about this game is how good it feels, from the get-go, no need for upgrades. They nailed the movement system here. Taking influence from games like Celeste, SOTN and fighting games, this recipe was guaranteed to give a buttery smooth movement system.
By the time you have all the powers, there's no denying that this has the best movement I've seen in a metroidvania. You'll be running, dashing, flying, teleporting– it's a joy.

Something else that this game excels at is its boss design. It strikes a balance between challenge and fun spectacle.
The game doesn't try to be overly difficult with its bosses. They want the player to feel in control while also not making it feel like a walk in the park.

The platforming sections were really satisfying. They range from basic and fun to more complex and difficult, never feeling unfair. The game has a good number of them but I actually wish it had more.

The map was much bigger than I expected. The level design was good enough. Areas ranged from being a bit bland (the early areas) to really good (the raging sea and pit of eternal sands).

The music suits the game, albeit with no stand-outs to me.
The story and characters are there. Didn't really care for them.

There's a lot more I can talk about. I really liked this game.
I hope it does well so we get a sequel or at least a DLC. A DLC where we get to play as Vahram would be rad.

Pure unadulterated videogame joy. Few games manage to achieve this pure state of gaming fun (Katamari Damacy comes to mind).

Hi-Fi Rush succeeds at basically everything it set out to do. I genuinely hope we get more games like this in the future.

Trite, contrived, mediocre, milquetoast, amateurish, infantile, cliche-and-gonorrhea-ridden paean to conformism, eye-fucked me, affront to humanity, war crime, should literally be tried for war crimes, resolutely shit, lacking in imagination, uninformed reimagining of, limp-wristed, premature, ill-informed attempt at, talentless fuckfest, recidivistic shitpeddler, pedantic, listless, savagely boring, just one repulsive laugh after another.