A short and very fun take on Celeste in a 3D environment. The N64-esque presentation is charming and the level design feels well thought out. There's even a small amount of speed tech to utilize within the physics engine even if the skill ceiling is much lower the the original game. I do think the controls could use some fine tuning, one or two of the berries are a little too obscure, and the lack of any substantial plot-line is a bummer. But considering it was developed in a week and released for free, it's easy to overlook a lot of these issues and have a great time. Hopefully we can get an expansion of this into a full game after Earthblade comes out.

Final Stats:
🍓 x 30
đź’€ x 142
⏱️ 1:07:11.167

The best version of UNO with a fine amount of added strategy and the most fun I've had trolling people. It gets stale relatively quick, but is a ton of fun in short bursts with the right group.

Despite lacking in overall difficulty, Super Mario Bros. Wonder managed to stay engaging and fun through it’s unique, zany level concepts and massively upgraded presentation. The game is filled with small details that enhanced my experience. From animations of elephant Mario barely squeezing into doors and pipes, to the facial expressions within the DKC-esque silhouette aesthetic, to the feeling of discovering a new badge, the game always had surprises right around the corner to keep things from getting stale.

Speaking of the Badge system, I was a bit skeptical going in that the badges would just end up feeling like level-gimmicks, as opposed to being versatile and organically included throughout the game. I’m happy to say that that wasn’t the case and each of the main badges do a good job at feeling like a natural extension of Mario’s abilities. They also don’t overlap abilities with power-ups, leading to a bunch of unique badge/power-up combinations that can completely change how a level is tackled and add some good replay value. Especially so when using some of the Expert badges that can be incredibly powerful in the right situations despite their large trade-offs.

The game is not free of flaws however, as is typical of the Mario franchise, the game feels a bit too easy and most boss fights are pretty underwhelming. With the exception of the final boss, most fall easily to the standard 3-hit boom boom technique. Airships have the worst of it however, with “bosses” being reduced to a small corridor with a switch at the end and minimal obstacles that can be passed in seconds.

All in all though, these negatives aren’t nearly enough to outweigh the very largely positive experience that I had with Super Mario Bros. Wonder. I see myself coming back to replay this game with friends and family often for years to come. While DKC: Tropical Freeze still remains as my favorite Nintendo platformer, only time will tell if Wonder takes the Crown for best 2D Mario game from SMB 3. Easily the best game in the franchise since Yoshi’s Island.

This franchise did not need a story mode.

Still a fun and creative rhythm game, but coming from playing fever first, this feels like a step down in both music and gameplay. Also, not the biggest fan of holding the DS vertically.

With more enemy variety, a new weapon, and faster gameplay, the combat feels like a noticeable step up from the first game. Unfortunately, the pacing of the narrative is a complete rollercoaster with some sections that drag on for way too long, and an ending that feels so rushed it actually could have justified a third game. Overall, the characters and combat are still great, but I can't help but feel a little underwhelmed considering how much more I enjoyed the story of the first game. Also I was planning on getting the Platinum trophy for this, but just couldn't find the motivation to do so in the postgame.

After weeks of playing and seeing all of the mixed this reception this game has gotten, I had a pretty hard time deciding how I feel about this game. However, despite the numerous performance issues I’ve encountered and one of the worst level curves in the series, I can’t deny that Pokemon Scarlet is probably the most fun I’ve had playing a Pokemon game in almost a decade.

The grounded story, the lively characters, the breadth of exploration, the stellar soundtrack, the Pokemon designs, and the competitive accessibility features are all some of the best the series has to offer that made playing through the game a blast. Because you have the option to explore almost everywhere, smart use of the battle mechanics makes it possible sequence break unlike almost all other entries. It was especially satisfying for me to take down later gym leaders or Titans earlier than expected even if it accentuated the problems with the level curve even more. The ease of getting candies for leveling and ability changing capsules through raids make it the quickest it’s ever been to make a competitive ready Pokemon. Also, this is largely subjective, but I think this is the best set of new pokemon designs we have had since the 5th generation, with this game being a first in almost all of my team’s slots being filled by new Pokemon. The climax of the story and the entire last gameplay sequence is definitely the best the series has put out so far.

I do want to mention that it does feel like a couple steps back were taken from Pokemon Legends Arceus. The catching system, crafting system, animations, and speed of battles were all significantly better in that game and are sorely missed here. This is definitely because the games were in development at the same time, but it doesn’t excuse that it is still worse.

Regardless of if you had issues with the linearity of the past Pokemon games, I think the gameplay and story provide a lot to love here if you can look past the performance issues.

Despite having a generic open world with stage assets thrown in, reused level design and aesthetics for the Cyberspace levels, and one of the most disappointing endings I’ve experienced in a video game, Sonic Frontiers somehow manages to be a good game that is the best 3D Sonic game we’ve had since Generations.

The sense of speed and movement Sonic has, while not primarily momentum based, makes it fun to traverse the landscapes and break puzzles when utilized well. The addition of settings to turning speed and bounce height as well as a slight nerf to the boost among other things help to mitigate some of the shortcomings of the Physics. Although I’d much prefer a traditional momentum based system in a game of this design, this is the best controlling Sonic we have had in the Boost-era.

The writing is commendable too. With the addition of Ian Flynn to the staff (a well regarded Sonic comic writer) we now have the best characterizations of Sonic and Co. since the Adventure games. Dialogue is also littered with references to various titles in the series that fans will enjoy. Although the plot isn’t anything to write home about, it is engaging, expands the lore, and still a major improvement from what we have got in the Boost-era.

All in all, Sonic Frontiers feels like a good first step in the right direction for 3D Sonic after the limbo the character has been in for the past 15 years. If you are a Sonic fan, you will enjoy this game. If you aren’t but are a fan of platformers, pick it up when it gets a price drop.

Fun for 20 seconds, you lose, and then you realize there are much better repetitive games than this poorly designed grayscale filler.

Both the gameplay and mechanics seemed fun and I could see the depth, but the lack of single player content, production values, and a quality soundtrack hold the game back for me. Don't see myself playing this over smash anytime soon.

Interesting, short little indie game. The world design and atmosphere are fantastic and do a really good job mixing Tim Burton-esque elements with horror. I found the story as a whole and puzzle design a little lacking however. I think it’s fine when games leave some elements up to interpretation (and it works well partly in this game) but I wish I got a tad more context about the world here. Worth your time if you like horror games and have it on gamepass or get it via a sale.

Got really lucky with pulls and ended up having a pretty fun time. Battle system was enjoyable and the correct way to water it down vs what GO ended up doing imo. Sadly, the story mode is incredibly basic (albeit with some cool interactions) and due to the gatcha nature of this game I have a hard time giving it any higher than a 3/5. Open it once, spend all your gems, and if you get nothing good delete the app.

This review contains spoilers

While the Messenger was a fun, unique experience, the lackluster story and poorly integrated genre shift halfway through makes the game feel inconsistent and incomplete.

In terms of the gameplay, the weapon and enemy variety was basically nonexistent throughout the whole game, with only a new weapon in the form of a hidden upgrade for collecting everything which will barely get any use outside of the last area. The base gameplay is fun but does get repetitive after a couple of hours. By trying to mix a 2D platformer and Metroidvania, it feels like the level design leaves something to be desired. The level design in first half felt basic to me and the second half, while feeling better due to additional movement upgrades, could have benefited from a few more portals to alleviate backtracking. In comparison to other games inspired classics, it felt also like there were more instances (while small in number) of cheap level design here as well.

The aesthetics, character dialogue, and music were all great with only a few duds in the soundtrack imo. The decision to be able to switch between 8 and 16 bit artsyles at specific points during gameplay, while reminiscent of Guacamelee, is very cool and different enough here to feel unique. I did my best to try and listen to the shopkeepers dialogue whenever I could as almost every tale and piece of info about the world that they had were gems.

I can’t say the same about the story however. While a few moments like the character interactions and reveal of the true nature of the messengers at the tower of time were cool, the lore dump near the end of the game felt like it would have been better to be dispersed between music notes to help pacing. Furthermore, with the strength of the writing being it’s characters I was at least expecting a montage of them during the credits showing what they are doing after the story instead of the joke ending we got. The devs even call it out in the achievement as “The fake ending was better” but it feels more irritating than charming.

All in all, despite the numerous flaws, the decent core gameplay, funny character dialogue, and beautiful 8/16-bit aesthetics add up to make the messenger an enjoyable experience that I think is worth your time if you can get it at a discount or via a subscription. I don’t see myself ever going back to this game though.

Fun little action game that isn’t too long to complete. Some of the environments and enemies can blend together and feel a bit generic, but the set-pieces and humor are paced well to balance it very well. Gunplay is definitely simple, spammy, and basic but is still fun in short bursts. Also the final boss is pretty cool even if it is a bit easy. Definitely worth checking out if you have PS Plus Extra or $10 to spare when it goes on sale.

Despite being short, I had a good time playing through bowser’s fury. It felt significantly more engaging to me than 3D world, with the need to strategize when and where to get suns so you can time your positioning with when Bowser wakes up. Surprisingly, the bowser boss fights, especially the true final fight, is actually one of the best bowser battles in the franchise. Hopefully we get to see this formula expanded and fleshed out in a future installment because I really enjoyed it and think that the open world w/ power-ups setting for Mario has potential to be fantastic.