Pros: The graphics and animation in this are incredible, perhaps the best on the N64. The way the characters move their eyes and mouths, Conker especially, are so beyond what I thought the system was capable of. And fully voiced dialogue, with incredible lip syncing too. That alone make this one worth checking out. And there's tons of talking, tons, lots of inappropriate language too, and violence, and dumb movie references, and weird British humor all thrown into this odd mish-mash of a game. You play as Conker the Squirrel, y'know, the cute little bugger from Diddy Kong Racing and Conker's Pocket Tales for Game Boy Color. He's back, and he's doing what you'd expect, such as whackin cheese around with a giant frying pan. Okay, let's just skip to the best part of the game, shall we? The multiplayer. The multiplayer multiplayer multiplayer. Tons of different multiplayer modes, such as all out war, which is fun, Raptor, Heist, Race, and others. But the best of the best, the cream of the crop, and what makes this game still worth playing today, is a mode called 'BEACH', which is a asymmetric multiplayer mode where one team is without weapons trying to run to a base (the Frenchies), and the other team is trying to gun down these runners, up in a crow's nest style military camp that has a wide view of the land (these guys are the Tediz). This mode is a BLAST! It's surefire fun gunning down runners that are ever so close to passing through that safety door! But I preferred playing as the Frenchies, running away from bulletfire with wicked zigging and zagging moves, as I'd either be trying to get back to base, or taking a secret route to hit a button (a button that's in an area that makes you an open target to get gunned down easy), but if you do manage to hit the button, it blows up all of the Tediz! REVENGE! It's so much fun, and I still try to play it whenever the right company is in town.

Cons: The single player game can be a bit annoying, gameplay-wise. A lot of instances where you'll have to repeat some action over and over again that isn't very fun, and then you're rewarded with a dumb cutscene... and yeah, a lot of the cutscenes haven't aged well. They were edgy for their day, mostly fun for shock value of seeing a cartoony animal blow up to bloody bits or a paint can saying "fuck", but today, mmmmmeh.

What it means to me: I was in eighth grade when this game came out, which was the exact age group for something "mature" like this. It's the perfect middle schooler game, where someone of that age would find all this dumb shit hilarious. And I did. This was the South Park of video games.

Pros: An unsettling and strange entry in the Zelda series, but one of the most satisfying as well. It's essentially like the movie "Groundhog Day" but instead of repeating one day over and over again, you repeat three days, over and over again. Where at the end of the third day, the moon crashes into the earth, so you're constantly needing to play the ocarina to warp yourself back in time, to try and complete your mission to stop the apocalypse... It's pretty thrilling! And the story involving the puppet character of Skull Kid who has been possessed by the 'Majora's Mask' is a captivating one. With a whole new setting and cast of characters to experience too. They crafted the world of Termina in such a way that different events happen throughout the world at specific times on specific days, and your actions may even alter how those events play out. Dozens upon dozens of characters are involved with these events, where you help them out to complete tasks, earn new items or masks, and essentially help out their lives in significant and meaningful ways... Which, is also quite like the film, Groundhog Day... huh. It can get quite emotional! And to me, this is the meat of the experience, which is oddly enough, side content, but doing them is much more satisfying than any previous Zelda games' denizen interactions, and not just for the character and story developments, but also the rewards, such as several dozen different masks for you to collect that offer numerous functions.

And these masks are great fun! They have all sorts of different uses that help with standard gameplay or puzzle solving, some grant you abilities like faster speed, or give you attacks like blowing up on command. And also, they're just fun to wear, to change your appearance. But in part of the main campaign of this game, are the masks that transform you entirely into different beings, the Deku Scrub, the Goron, and the Zora. Each providing brand new toolkits and mechanics to experience the world differently, and tackle each of the four different dungeons with their unique gameplay. I love these transformations, it's exhilarating to roll around at the speed of sound as a Goron, or swim speedily through the seas leaping in and out of the water like a dolphin as the Zora. Essentially, all of these masks, transformations and non, provide the game with plenty of toys to play with, and are just entertaining in their own right. Standard Link is still of course your main mode of play, and this time around he's just Young Link, which is fine, he can also ride Epona, this time a young Epona, which is super cute and something I had wanted to do previously in OoT. All of the standard mechanics that made Ocarina of Time so great are back here, and feeling just as great as ever. Z-Targeting, a myriad of weapons and items, and another brilliant soundtrack by Koji Kondo (my favorite new song being the Astral Observatory, it's so heavenly). So there's enough there to where this still feels like a Zelda game through and through... However...

Cons: The timer... man, the timer adds a bit of a stress to this game that I feel conflicts with the spirit of adventure and exploration that Zelda is known for. And while, yes, adventure and exploration is all still here, and in spades, that ticking tock makes me less relaxed and feeling free to do so at my own pace. What's worse, is that this game provides so many fun new toys to play with, the aforementioned masks and transformations, but no sense of time to get to enjoy them to their fullest. So many new ways to play that could've been so much more enriching and satisfying... But, in addition to the stress of a clock, there's the world design, which feels far more restrictive. Yes, it's fun to roll around as a Goron, problem is that the overworld is so small, just a little ring surrounding the main town, and that's as big of a sandbox to play in as you're gonna get here. So rolling around, which would be fun in a massive traditional Zelda overworld, becomes less enjoyable when you can only spin around in a dinky donut shaped landmass... And same goes for the Zora, so much fun to blast through the waves, but, the sea you're able to swim in, is such a limited space, that I can never feel like I can explore like how I want to. It's an odd mix of extremely well made mechanics, but a limiting world and sense of time that keeps them from being the best they could be to me.

What it means to me: This was the first Zelda game my brother and I purchased (OoT was always a rent prior to this), so we were finally able to sink our teeths into a meaty Zelda experience. The immersion factor for this one is through the roof, never had a game's world felt so alive, as we'd keep up with the many different citizens of the land. And upon getting to that final boss, and collecting every mask to earn the Fierce Deity transformation, man, we were pretty satisfied! What an epic moment that was. Initially, I was pretty bummed adult Link from OoT wasn't in this, so seeing Fierce Deity essentially being the Adult Link of this game, was the ultimate goal... a little disappointing you could only play as him in boss rooms, but still, I NEEDED it, hah!

A very enjoyable co-op experience. This game didn't bore me at any point. The gameplay was superb and so much more varied than I was expecting. The story, although it didn't take any risks, it was still good and tugged at my heartstrings at times (especially the Cutie scene. If you played the game, you know which one). I will recommend this to anyone who has at least one friend with no hesitation. Only one person has to own the game anyway thanks to the friend pass, and it's even on the xbox subscription, and it's currently on sale for 75% off during the time of writing this. You're doing yourself a disservice if you skip this one.

Horay a new Silent Hill game which is obviously inspired by P.T. and it has been leaked years ago and its free but it's not. Wait what? Yes, Sony marketed this as a F2P game but decided to hide it behind a PS+ subscription paywall, at least in Germany they did. It's like saying "You can watch Stranger Things for free on Netflix" without mentioning the fact that you need a subscription for it. Or saying the stuff in the game pass is free, no it's not. 'Cause you are paying for the subscription.

I have started playing the SH games just a few years simply because you can't just buy them on Steam or PS4/5. What I liked about Silent Hill The Short Message are the set pieces which we're very beautiful and interesting. The design of the Cherry Blossom Monster from Masahiro Ito was awesome and hearing the score from Akira Yamaoka in the background was also great. Good to have them both back. But that's about it tbh. The storytelling mostly through notes which I'm not a fan of because it's the laziest way of storytelling. Dubbing in the live action scenes was also not the best and why including them in the first place ? The gameplay is pretty much none existing, you walk through a building collect notes and there is a chase sequence after every 20-30ish minutes. These chase sequences are just trial and error until you find the right order in which you have to go through the doors. Sadly the Facial expressions are pretty bad and the performance is terrible.
Overall this game did absolutely nothing for me, the storytelling is too much into your face for a SH Game and on top of that the monster was more annonying than scary not. Also how is this set in Germany? This looks nothing like Germany, it's just America but not Germany. But I can see why some people like it. I'm still really excited for SH2 Remake.

Games I finished in 2024 ranked

I don’t really understand what the point of this was? It’s free, around 3-4 hours, there’s little to no actual survival horror gameplay, which I can’t really complain about for what amounts to a short narrative experience. Theres one puzzle and it’s a super basic “find the code for a lock” puzzle, which implies to me that the devs actually wanted the gameplay to be engaging? Like if you’re going to include puzzles maybe include more than one? One section of the game has you going around trying to find these “memory pages”, if you will, all while being chased by this monster. This section was really tense and scary aesthetically admittedly and reminded me a lot of Silent Hill 1’s imagery which uses a lot of industrial design. But the problem with this section was that it was really maze-like and you couldn’t really understand where you were going or how you were keeping track of the pages. This leads to a tension between trying to find the pages and frantically avoiding the monster, but it feels cheap, due to how the level design is misleading.

The story concerns this girl, Anita, basically blaming herself for the suicide of her friend Maya and for the guilt that her other friend Amelie has for Maya’s suicide. The story tries to be profound but I don’t really think it said anything other than “seek forgiveness from people and yourself” and it just felt very surface level. Idk. It’s just really mid, and I don’t understand why this was made. For such a short experience, and for it to be kind of half walking sim and half horror puzzle game, it doesn’t really come together in the end, and doesn’t justify its existence.

i had to put aside my biases and play this despite the fact that it's blatantly ripping off lego fortnite's gameplay mechanics. My thoughts? It's really early access. It's less buggy than i'd expect and honestly has more content than i'd thought, but the gameplay loop is honestly pretty lame. The pals automating the work in your camp is a really cool idea and i can see it becoming self sufficient and satisfying lategame, but in terms of being an actual open world pokemon game it leaves some to be desired. Like, sure the designs are good and it's real time combat and its fun and everything, but you don't control the pals. You attack alongside them which is badass but i'm trying to catch this pal so i got him at 1hp and my pal just does the killing blow without me asking. Sometimes the pal won't attack at all. The AI is busted and janky and i'm honestly not sure if they'll stick with this long enough for it to finish early access and become good. I did manage to catch a human in a pokeball which is f#cking hilarious. I named him kenneth awesomepants (after my iconic baldurs gate 3 character) but he did no damage and couldnt do any camp work so ironically he was the mascot. Has potential. Wait til full release.

Majora's mask is weird. For Nintendo to follow up their success of OOT with a weird, otherworldly, unconventional game such as this, I respect it a lot. In many ways this game is bolder than OOT, immediately noticable with its premise. I'm not going to repeat the story exactly here, as this game has been talked about to death, but the fact that ganon isn't here, we aren't in hyrule, we're only playing as young link, there is no Zelda in this game (minus one small flashback), I mean this game takes a lot of risks with its plot. Aesthetically this game stands out the most compared to other zelda games. There is a really dark art style here, but one that is at the same time, colorful. It's playful but at the same time a little rugged and creepy. The giants, for example, feel alien compared to giants you would normally see in medieval high fantasy settings. This also extends to the NPCs (who are overall borrowed from OOT), wherein you can feel a very old japanese influence. Other than the visuals, the atmosphere is also created with its haunting music. The song of healing is one of the most harrowing pieces of music I've heard in a game; it feels anxious at the beginning of the song, but once it hits the bridge, it starts to feel a little hopeful. What a perfect song to encapsulate the main gameplay motivator: the time limit (counting down to the crashing of the moon onto termina).

The time limit is not something that is used as a cheap gimmick to make you feel stressed. Most NPCs in termina are working on the clock. They have set schedules, many of which are required for you to recognize if you want to grab any extra items, or for many main story events throughout the game. This mechanic (plus lots of unique time-specific dialogue from NPCs) help make the world feel much more alive than OOT was.

Masks in this game are also very different in this game, most of them amounting to just using them for one instance, but a lot of them act a lot like gameplay buffs like the blast mask and the bunny hood. The main 3 though, add a lot gameplay-wise and allow you to kind of choose exactly what you want your playstyle to be during combat. It's neat to see a simple, early attempt at creating more variety in traversal, in this way. It really makes the puzzles that more interesting to try and solve, where you not only have the unique item that you found within a dungeon to use, but you also have these masks at your disposal.

The main 4 dungeons are extremely fun and very rewarding. Minus some cryptic game design in a few spots, I thought these dungeons aged very well. For some more confusing gameplay moments, you can still understand what the developers were intending for the player to do. One example is the "Dexihand" enemy, which normally is supposed to grab you and throw you off course, being used in the Stone Temple dungeon to throw you onto a ledge you wouldn't have normally been able to get to. This is a fun, clever use of existing game mechanics, but wasn't as obvious to me that I could do this. I can recognize that this was a clever puzzle but I also recognize that the game didn't push me towards that conclusion. Which is fine. With a lot of older titles in the 3d era, I can look past puzzles like these only because they were still figuring shit out.

Most of the uniqueness of this game compared to other zelda titles comes from its weirdness. Majora's boss fight is very fun yet very strange. Majora starts fucking moonwalking and doing a Cossack Dance? I didn't know he was chill like that.

The weirdness of this entire game aesthetically I think adds a foreign, otherworldly aspect to the world, which I believe is intentional. It feels like if I just walked onto an alien planet. Things are familiar, there is an order to this world that is here, but I don't know the full picture yet. It's a lot like star wars in that way lmfao

Majora's mask becomes a living, breathing game as a result of all this. No other zelda game really comes close in atmosphere honestly

In my search for more unique rhythm games after Hi-Fi Rush to broaden my horizons cause i'm not typically a rhythm game guy and this shit caught my eye after hearing 5 seconds of the legendary theme.

Now i'm gonna keep it a buck this game is insane on the balancing like i'm not great at rhythm games but this game had insane difficulty spikes specifically once you get to the mech level.

However this game does make improvements from the ps2 version with letting you pause to heal your carpal tunnel syndrome and the rail guide thing has an indicator on how close you are to the center this all makes this game a bit easier for me without making it feel like a bahbee mode. The gameplay is really satisfying but it can be overwhelming with the button sections to the point where I felt like just pressing all buttons worked better than genuinely learning. Still a huge fan of the core concept but some specific stages i was bent over man.

I'm saying all this to tell you the rest of the game fucking rocks dude the simplistic childrens book-esque designs, paired with a story on the simpler side message-wise but packed full of character and cute moments, its a great pair it's something I already wanna revisit.

The music specifically man some tracks are fucking killer, my favorite song hands down is The Legendary Theme, perfect for U-1's whole character arc and the riff is so fucking beautiful, but that's not to diminish the rest this ost has RANGE. It can go from insanely funky to the coolest guitar riffs, there's some forgettable tracks no doubt but the highs are super high it's that noteworthy.

This game has so much charm and personality it felt like a children's book in a good way despite it's rough edges it kept me hooked no matter how hard it got. Not for everybody but was a great experience for me.