the most mid pokemon game to ever mid
Gameplay Rating: 3/10
At the core of the game, it's still Pokemon. It's a GIGANTIC downsize compared to USUM, and the Dexcut has sent Gamefreak down a horrendous slippery slope where they know they can get away with doing less. Any argument in support of Dexcut has been proven completely wrong by Gamefreak's incompetence.
As for the actual game itself, the new pokemon are all just fine. You've got some real stinkers like Carkol and whatever the fuck the fossils are, but you've also got some good mons like Centiskorch, Drednaw, Dottler, etc. In general, there's more good mons than bad, but the bad ones reek rotten.
Route design-wise, it's generally fine. One memorable highlight is the route where you can see Falinks march around, that was pretty cute.
Story Rating: 2/10
this shit atrocious bro
Hop is like, fine. Marnie's stuff is all locked away behind an obscure mechanic nobody knows about. Bede's stuff is half-baked.
The whole Two Heroes parallel with you and Hop is lame, and the motivation for the Darkest Day is also comically stupid.

Colorblind Test: B+
Shinies that are barely visible turn into even more of a pain.

Daniel Mullins' third game of "Satan gets into gamedev", and probably his best work thus far. It's hard to underestimate how big of a success Inscryption must have been to Mullins after Pony Island.

Gameplay Rating: 10/10, 6/10, 8/10
Inscryption is split into 3 different Acts (technically 4 but Act 4 is pretty much a victory lap).
Act 1 is the main Act people play and get drawn to. There's a lot of unique combinations you can do and the fact that the game even encourages you to break it makes it an incredibly memorable experience. All the mechanics (such as Bones) gradually get introduced as you go and it really eases you into it without making you ever feel lost. In addition, the Escape Room-feeling of the cabin makes for stellar atmosphere and you slowly figure out what to do and how to actually beat the game.
Act 2 is a shocking change of pace, and probably turns off a lot of people from playing further. The card-collection aspect of the game is weird to play around with, and it feels like it throws too much at you at once unlike Act 1, which can make people feel lost when it comes to the Mox and Energy cards that get introduced; ultimately making the player decide to stick with what they already know (Blood and Bones). While the gameplay for this chapter can feel gimmicky and slow, it's a fine Act otherwise; but it poorly prepared the player for Act 3.
Act 3 takes a mixture of Act 1 and 2, and it now forces the player to get used to Energy and Mox. If the player didn't know how to use these cards, they're in for a rough awakening as now they're forced to learn. What Act 3 now fails to do is to let the player tinker around with the mechanics. Act 3 is incredibly punishing if you make bad deckbuilding choices, and the worst part is that you'll be STUCK with your bad deck unlike Act 1 where every death meant a new deck. This punishing behavior can really make Act 3 a pain to go through if you don't know what you're doing, even when crutching on Ourobot.

Story Rating: 9/10
It's a very interesting store; sentient games are nothing new if NES Godzilla has taught me anything, but this game is a lot more immersive if you played the prior Satan gamedev installments (Pony Island and especially the Hex). I've personally seen one too many theories about the game from people who didn't play the other games and it's a little painful truth be told.
Anyway tangent aside, the little politics and intrigue in the game that increase the more you go through the game is probably one of the more charming aspects of the game, and the finale is actually pretty sad.

Colorblindness Test: A
The only concern I think one would have with the game concerns the Act 3 Mox, but they're already tied to a symbol so it's not a big issue. Overall, no big issues here.

Revisiting this review after playing both Sonic 1 and 2.

Just to preface this review, I am HORRIBLE at platforming games. Downright atrocious. I barely touch them and I can count how many I've actually finished on one hand.
After playing through some of the prior installments, I can appreciate this game for two things.
1) The bonus stages in this game are way more tolerable than Sonic 1 and MOST DEFINITELY better than Sonic 2.
2) No bottomless pits means I know I probably won't die if I speed off to my death.
I can also appreciate little subtler things like the camera moving in front of you when going fast. Much nicer to know where you're going instead of just running into an enemy.
Overall, if I had to replay a Sonic game, it'd probably be this one.

Colorblind Rating: B+
Sometimes there's certain stage assets that can get blurred between actual platforms and background decorations, but it's nothing that ended up really impairing me.

It's probably THE most Fire Emblem game to Fire Emblem. This game is pretty emblematic of what the series is.
I technically played a ROM Hack dubbed the "No Redundancy" patch, but I still feel like I got a good feel of what the game is like.
That being said, some issues here and there.
Gameplay Rating: 7/10
Biggest issue: the AWFUL, AWFUL hitrates in this game mean you're going to be missing a lot of your attacks even if you're exploiting Weapon Triangle advantage.
The other issue: Ambush Reinforcements. Holy shit it can be brainmeltingly draining to be flanked with no warning and BOOM there goes your Healer. Awful, awful game mechanic. i hope this mechanic never sees the light of day again.
Apart from that, yeah, it's Fire Emblem. Cool weapons, awesome and charming animations, interesting maps, the whole package. A few more nitpicks here and there could include how you can't use stat boosters at base.
Story Rating: 8/10
It's damn solid for a Fire Emblem game. It's nothing that makes you lose your mind but it's a story and it's cohesive. It's like a prototype of Tellius in a way; this game sort of paved the road for those games, and they feel a little similar in that way.
Colorblind Test: A+
Nothing horrible to see here. The GBA's colors pop a lot so there's not a lot of problem when differentiating colors.

Short game, lot of fun. Literally a dollar, so it's worth buying.
Gameplay Rating: 9/10
It feels unpolished in a way, but it's charming in that way because it allows you to experiment with the game's systems and, more importantly, speedrun the everloving shit out of the game.
Story Rating: 7/10
Story's not the strongest suit of this game, it's comedy, and it does good on that. Overall, it's fine. Nothing egregious.
Colorblind Test: S
The protagonist is colorblind like me. I feel so seen.

Mullins' second installment in the "Satan gets into Gamedev" saga.
Essentially, the game is a mixture of different games into one semi-cohesive but detached story. One moment you'll be playing a platformer, then a fighting game, then a whole turn-based RPG; all with meta commentaries throughout (using YOUR Steam friends!).

Gameplay Rating Average: 7.5/10
A lot of the gameplay sections are a little basic, but it really shines in it's diversity. Every section takes a little getting used to, but once you do figure it out, it becomes pretty satisfying; this is especially true for the latter half of the games, so I'll give a review on each section of the game.
Super Weasel Kid: It's a basic platformer game, clearly based off of Mario, Sonic, all that. It's pretty ok, gets worse as it goes but that's intentional. 8/10
Combat Arena X: Feels really gimmicky and clunky, much like a flash game fighter, but still janky. 7/10
Secrets of Legendaria: It's a fun RPG and there's a surprise gimmick that makes it pretty cool. 9/10
Waste World: An SRPG that's basically modded to have a cheat engine; so you have to carefully balance your cheat use to go through every level. 9/10
Vicious Galaxy: THE highlight of the game. A top-down shoot-em-up that suddenly has a pretty damn impressive twist and fun puzzle sections. 10/10
Walk: It's meant to be shitty but... it's a little too shitty. 2/10

Story Rating: 8/10
It's super intriguing, but man is it a pain in the ass to explain. It's best to play Pony Island prior to this, since it provides a little bit more context (and I mean LITTLE). I don't want to spoil anything about the story, but it's not bad at all.

Colorblind Test: A
I don't recall there being an issue with being colorblind in this game; maybe a few switches in Vicious Galaxy but the wires are indication enough.

Overall, yeah, good game.

When you've become accustomed to swimming in vile sewer shit and subsisting off of it, the moldy rotten pear with maggots crawling out of it will suddenly seem very appealing.
That's what this game is like after Sword and Shield.

This game splits into three stories. It just so happens that one is actually good, and the other two are some of the biggest examples of Gamefreak's incompetence when it comes to writing anything.
Let's start with the only good story: Titan's Path with Arven. It's very simple, you feed a dog some sandwiches until it gets better, but you really get to know Arven through those little interactions. They're humble conversations about an estranged man who's only ever been able to confide in his dying dog. Truth be told? It's actually quite sweet, and if I was just ranking his path, it'd be an honest-to-god 5/5.

But then we've got the other two elephants in the room. Starfall Street and Victory Road.
Let's go with Starfall Street first. As a native Spanish-speaker, there is NOTHING more that infuriates me than people trying to pander to me by making stupid characters randomly insert Spanish into their sentences. Unfortunately for me, this game does that a lot for this path. If that was all, then it'd be a big whatever, but boy does the fucking writing nosedive when you get to this path. Gamefreak is DYING to make you care about these characters, they are on their hands and feet. But guess what? You just kind of nod along the dialogue and forget about the characters. You want to know why? It's because Gamefreak fails at the simplest fundamental of writing, "show don't tell". Every single time you go to a flashback scene with a Team Star leader, it's always them STANDING IN A CIRCLE AND TALKING. That's literally it except for the VERY LAST FLASHBACK that's more-less better. What frustrates me even more is probably Eri's, where her classmate comes up to you AFTER THE FLASHBACK and says something that should've been SHOWN to us IN THE FLASHBACK. They could've shown them experiencing the injustices they faced at school that made them form Team Star, but instead we get to see them circlejerking. It's horrible writing, and if I'm being hopeful, a result of Gamefreak's ridiculous Pokemon game-churning cycle.
And then there's Victory Road. The gym leaders themselves? Fine. But then there's Nemona.
In my opinion? Nemona's WORSE than even the fucking XY "rivals" that are literal pieces of cardboard. I went over most of my opinions in this Tumblr post, so I'll just copy and paste my grievances with how shit her character is.

Nemona's dialogue often comes off a lot like the fake positivity one would have to put up with while being pressured by someone else.
– "But that's part of her character! She's so good that she pushes everyone else away so the player is her last chance at making an actual rival!"
Her basically, for lack of a better word, grooming the player into being her rival feels off-putting. Especially when you consider how much she keeps showing up, and how little she seems to respect normal boundaries.
In fact, her obsession is so comically exaggerated (ex. she lets herself into your house, makes several "hey fight me fight me you wanna fight right", and often brushes off whatever you say if you pick a negative option to her) that I was expecting her to have a development that maybe she shouldn't be so forceful. Maybe a moment where she has an epiphany and realizes "maybe pressuring others just because of my loneliness isn't the way to go", and tries to start again on the right foot. Maybe she'd also get the Silver treatment and have a friendship evo evolve when she reached this epiphany.
But no, that never came. If anything, her habits become even worse, they become even more obsessive and self-indulgent. They're played for laughs, but it only makes me roll my eyes even harder.

I think the absolute worst moment she has, the moment that turned my dislike of her into disdain, happens in Area Zero.
But before I get into that, imagine the following scenario:

You have a dog that you love very much, let's call him "Fido", Fido has been with you ever since you were a child, and he was the only one who was ever truly there for you in life as you had very absent parents. When you laughed, he was there for you. When you wept, he was there for you. When you slept, he was right beside you.
Now imagine you've grown up and decide to take Fido out for a walk, as you do. However, as you walk across the street, a drunk driver in a pick-up truck barrels towards you, and you only manage to live because Fido shoved you out of the way in the nick of time.
After that, the drunk driver speeds away and now you're scared shitless because you're not sure whether or not Fido is alive or not. You can't possibly imagine a life without him, so you do the most reasonable course of action. You take him to an emergency vet and have them try to do anything to help Fido. When he comes back, he is essentially crippled, and the vet says there is nothing more they can do.
You're fucking devastated. The only friend you've ever known is teetering on the edge of death and there's nothing the people who are supposed to save him can do.
So you go out and try to find the solution yourself. You finally make another friend in a strange new classmate. With their help, you're able to slowly, but most definitely surely, help Fido recover.
And sure enough, you do. Fido makes a full recovery, and you feel the greatest relief you've ever experienced in your life.
But the trauma still remains. That sort of shock doesn't leave your body, and it's not unlikely that you gained some sort of trigger as a result of the event.
Now imagine you go back to that street, and your friend has brought two other people with them; one of which you don't get along too well but they're friends with your friend, so whatever.
You begin to talk about what happened in that street. The memory is still fresh in your mind about what happened to Fido. And how you still remember seeing Fido's body covered in blood, not sure if he survived.

And then this friend has the utter audacity to say the following:
"HAHA WOW THAT TRUCK SOUNDED PRETTY BIG, I WONDER IF IT WAS A CHEVY OR A FORD"
Do you understand how fucking sick it is to say something like that?
Do you understand how fucked up it is to say that to someone explaining a traumatic event they went through?
Well that's pretty much what Nemona said to Arven after he explained that.
Intentional or not, it made me feel DISGUST towards this character.
I don't know what the fuck Gamefreak was smoking when they made that dialogue.

So, tl;dr: game sucks except for when arven's there, go play black and white instead

Bungie-tier netcode makes any PvP match incredibly frustrating due to constantly trading with the enemy you just killed. Servers are also horrible.

That being said, Salmon Run is a fantastic horde mode to play with friends. It's so utterly hectic and the callouts can get messy, but it's great fun. Just wished the rewards for the King Salmonid weren't so piss poor.

The story mode for this game is mostly just fine. It's just taking the Octo Expansion model and running with it in a slightly worse manner.

Colorblindness Test: C-
For being a game so heavy on the use of colors, the Turf War colors tend to be sufficiently different from each other that I don't usually have a problem with it. I believe the Ink Lock also makes ink colors the default Splatoon 1 ink colors, which work well enough iirc?
In any case, it just works.
EDIT!!!!
Well, looks like all the goodwill this game has accrued just went down the drain. Splattercolor Screen is, uh, not great. Especially when the colors look similar enough; making it even harder to tell them apart is just a more miserable experience.

Trippy game. It has an extraordinarily strong start and the pseudo-science that's classic to the Zero Escape series is still everpresent in this entry. The ending does kind of get a little weird and some shit gets retconned. Oh well.

Colorblindness Test: F
I am not afraid to admit I played this game with a guide in the back pocket, but there's two that mainly stick out to me: the billiards and the dart puzzles. Since they involved color, I was kind of fucked and either had to look at the guide or just brute force the right colors. I know it's pretty much impossible to accomodate for colorblind people when it comes to these types of puzzles, so in the end it's mostly just a shame.
What really gets me is the bracelet color mixing for the Chromatic doors. I liked to keep some notes while playing the first game, and this game was no different. Except that colors were a chore and a half to keep track of, so I ended up just using a guide for that.

In general, good game. Sucks to be colorblind though.

Step aside, Three Houses fans, this is a REAL Fire Emblem Game.
Jokes aside, I don't think Fire Emblem will ever hit the peak it had during the Tellius series.
Gameplay: 10/10
Being a Fire Emblem game, it's pretty easy to get into. Path of Radiance has a smooth difficulty curve that should ease the player into it's mechanics, but also offers a Hard Mode for veteran players.
The great part of Path of Radiance is that almost none of your units at the start feel like they're dead weight. They all have an important role to play, and you make damn good use of them, especially in the siege chapters like Chapter 5 and 8.
Another great part of the game is that, if you like a character but feel like they're falling behind, you can utilize your Bonus EXP to give them a boost. BEXP also acts as a great motivator to not just turtle all your units and slowly chip away at the enemy, as you lose BEXP for taking too long.
One thing I will note is that the enemy phase animations do take a bit fo time, so it may be beneficial to turn off combat animations, which I think is a fine speed for the game. That being said, if you're impatient or have ADHD or something along those lines, this game can wear down on that.
Story: 10/10
Ike's story is about an underdog mercenary's journey as he develops into legend, it is masterfully paced.
No playable character feels like they are just a flat PNG thanks to the Info conversations at bases, giving you an interesting look at their characters, along with their Support conversations.
It is an understatement to say this game's characters are excellent. They are by far some of the most interesting and well-written characters in the entire franchise. Apart from Ike, both Soren and Jill are huge standouts in the cast due to how fascinating their writing is.
Colorblind Test: A+
This game's perfectly fine if you're colorblind like my dumbass.

If emulating's not a concern, I'd definitely try this game out.
way cheaper than buying a physical copy good luck with that shit LMAO

The best out of the 3 Fates games, but that isn't a particularly high bar to begin with.
Gameplay Rating: 9/10
Conquest offers some actually challenging and (mostly) well-designed chapters, and it's left it's mark with Chapter 10's famously excellent siege map (although Radiant Dawn did it better).
It has some ups and downs, but for the most part the challenge feels damn well balanced and will punish you if you play sloppy.
Story Rating: 3/10
Ah, yes. Both sides of the war are "all fighting for what they believe is right" when one side is actively committing war crimes in neutral territory. Makes sense to side with the very-obviously-evil side. Mhm.
And then there's the fact your character is pretty much absolved of all sin because why have your character actually question their morals about killing innocents when you can just say "oh well ackshually corrin harmed them all nonlethally and they just magicked them away and pretended they were dead" and call it a day.
The writing is atrociously bad.
Colorblindness Rating: B+
With Fates, they introduced a new Weapon Triangle system. While most are familiar with the traditional Swords-Axes-Lances core, Fates added the Tomes-Bows-Dagger core. In order to signify this, they added a red-blue-green/yellow background for each to convey a Pokemon-esque core of fire-water-grass. However, if you suffer from Deuteranopia or Tritanopia, the background colors do nothing but possible confuse you if you confuse the red background for green and get it backwards.
It sounds specific, but it happened to me so I figured it'd be good to note here.

In general, Conquest is a fine 3ds title with the best "MyCastle" out of it, 3 Houses, and Engage, and the customization you can do is pretty fun.
Unfortunately, the mantle of "bad story, good gameplay" has been taken by Engage, so I doubt many people will want to play this anymore.
I can't really say that's a shame because the story for this is atrocious.