This feels like a wonderful combination of all the best parts of every pikmin game with so many new ideas and changes that it creates an extremely fresh and consistently fun time.

The normal above-ground action is great here. Exploring the large maps with their great variety of settings and tons of stuff to find was consistently fun, and using the captain and oatchi in tandem is interesting. Having two distinctly different captains is a great dynamic, and I look forward to mastering it in repeat playthroughs to see how quick I can beat it.

Caves are drastically better this time around. While in 2, they encouraged taking your time and not multitasking. They also took up the largest chunk of the game by far, and got old quick thanks to repetitive level design. This time around, the mechanics are far more interesting and having time continue to pass encourages you to keep it quick.

I love variety, and Pikmin 4 is packed with it. From aboveground, to caves, to battles and challenges you find while walking around, to the 2 hour bonus olimar campaign, to night expeditions, your core pikmin abilities are tested in so many different ways that it stayed exciting the whole way through.

Unlike 3, 4 feels very content-packed and ends at just the right point. It didn't end too fast, nor drag on like 2 did. The pacing was perfect.

My main complaint is the tutorial. It's too long, and pretty boring. Once you get through that first hour, it's great. Just had a rough start.

Yeah, this is the best pikmin game to me. I had so much fun the whole way through.

What started as a fairly standard megaman-like really grew into something unique as I better understood it's mechanics and got good at going fast. The combination of using a short-range punch and a long-range but weak grapple is a fun set of tools to work with, given that the grapple can grab weakened enemies, who can then be thrown into enemies to instantly weaken them, which results in a great sense of flow. You can go on a tear, taking down enemy after enemy and it feels great. Music's pretty good, visuals are sharp and impacts feel good. The level design and secret hunting have a good deal of variety. All in all, extremely solid.

Not quite as strong as 2, but a fun game regardless. The new stuff that's here is fairly enjoyable, and the conclusion is one of the best parts of the whole series and is a perfect sendoff to the trilogy. My problems come with how this feels like a different version of 2, and retreads far too much familiar ground while 2 was a completely fresh experience. 2 felt larger and grander, with tighter pacing and more creative level design compared to 3, which just feels a bit worse in just about every aspect. Again not bad, but having played 2 right before playing this really showed how little 3 innovated on the formula.

Zero 2 is an excellent example of a sequel. It's not content to be an improved version of the first, instead adding so many changes to the gameplay and structure that it feels entirely new.

Starting with the sidescrolling action, the controls feel a bit tighter. But the biggest change is that the environments are far more varied in the obstacles they present, and have some very clever use of hopping in and out of the tank.

Top-Down action is far improved as well. The new counter option makes combat more dynamic, and one of the counters is a dash move that makes moving around more fun. This added on top of improved weapons, far better boss fights, and more interesting gimmicks makes these a huge highlight compared to the slightly dull sections present in the original.

The structure is now about flying through space to different planets, which results in a much faster pace and greater variety. It's about the same length as the original, but feels twice as long thanks to how much more stuff happens here.

The story has seen an uptick as well. The stakes and goals are more clearly defined, and the new characters are a fun addition. Jason and Eve's dynamic gets a lot more time to shine, and they stay a very likable protagonist duo.

Music and visuals are improved, although a bit less obviously. Jason's sprites are much better, and his new design features a cape that gives his movement a bit more visual interest. Some sequences, especially near the end, are given a lot of visual flourish that really sells it.

All in all, a shining example of a great sequel. Taking the solid base of the original and cranking up the speed and complexity makes this one of Inti Create's best.

Revisiting this was a bit disappointing. It's a fun time, but comparing it to my memory of 2 and 3 makes it hard to want to go back to this one. The combination of top-down and side-scrolling is novel, but there's a general feeling of sluggishness with how slow Jason moves when out of the tank, combined with some clunkiness with the tank's controls. Backtracking can be pretty obnoxious, which really doesn't help the pacing problems. Also it just randomly wastes your time occasionally, for what seems like no reason.

Being a sort-of remake of the original Blaster Master holds it back, with some systems that feel dated and not as interesting as they could be. However, the visual style and music is great, and feels authentic. Story's also really simple, but surprisingly nice. It's not deep, but somehow the plot of blaster master being a romance story works.

In short, fun game with some serious pacing problems and dating design. Doesn't overstay it's welcome either, but far from being one of Inti Create's best 8-bit games.

With having sunk 15 hours into world tour and 40 hours into playing online with friends and grinding ranked, I can comfortably say that SF6 rules. There are some caveats here and there, but this is a content-rich and excellent fighting game that oozes effort and personality.

Starting with world tour mode, it's alright. Exploration can get tedious and wear the experience down, but there's enough cool stuff in there to make experiencing it satisfying. Getting to interact with the game's characters in a new context is great, the minigames are pretty fun, and the unique bossfights and fanservice were consistently entertaining. A solid singleplayer that I could see turning into something really great with some iteration.

Now for actual fighting, the drive system is an excellent combat system that is a really jarring shift coming from SFV's limiting V Meter. instead of needing to build up a meter to do your cool stuff, you get meter right away, but need to carefully use it to not put yourself in disadvantage. Where I'm at in ranked (platinum currently), I've had so many fun back-and-forth battles of trying to push the opponent into burnout or desperately avoiding it myself. On top of that, it adds layered defensive options, combo extensions, ways to start pressure, everything. Managing it has been extremely satisfying.

It seems like every character has a lot of tools and creativity to use, but I've only played Dee Jay. Not that I mind, because his tricky tools and stupid mix-up options is some of the most fun I've ever had in a fighting game. And it feels like I've barely even scratched the surface of what he can do, not to mention the dlc characters I eagerly anticipate.

Also, big fan of the presentation. I've had some performance issues here and there (mostly world tour) but other than that it's a dang good looking game, with great character designs and redesigns for returning characters (once again, Dee Jay). The style for the UI and drive moves is great as well. The music can be a mixed bag, but a lot of it works really well in the context of the game.

Maybe some of this overwhelming positivity is coming from the game being new and exciting. Although I really doubt that. SFV was a game I really enjoyed, through all it's faults. And here comes 6, cleaning up just about everything to make something I can't wait to get better and better at.

Tunic is a very unique experience, that almost felt like two different games packed together. The first game is a loose adventure game, that lets you figure out everything on your own and has some really satisfying exploration and combat. The manual system is great as well. On top of a wonderful atmospheric soundtrack and a memorable visual style, it's a great game.

The second is a complex puzzle game that requires a lot more brain power than I have to offer. There were certainly moments of this section I was able to solve, although to see the true ending required an unfortunate amount of looking stuff up. Through this and Obra Dinn I've learned that cryptic games that require scouring a lot of information aren't exactly my thing, even if I can appreciate them.

It was a smart call to put the cryptic stuff after being able to get an ending, since dumb idiots like myself can at least get some closure. Anyways, cool game.

I mostly really enjoyed re4 remake, as an avid fan of the original. There were a lot of moments where it felt like it managed to outshine the original, giving the action a new layer of skill with parries and ducking out of the way of enemies. Yet other times it felt needlessly bloated or missed some of the charm of the original. Don't get me wrong, the new versions of Ashley and Luis are great, and have much more depth when compared to their original counterparts. Krauser was also really well done, and his speech during his boss fight was very entertaining.
Salazar and Saddler felt a bit restrained in some ways when compared to their original counterparts, which was a bit unfortunate.

The combat was mostly great, although I had some frustrations. Note, I was playing on hardcore difficulty. Some areas felt unreasonable, but others felt like a very fair challenge. I might recommend standard difficulty over hardcore for veterans of the original, as it gives a bit more leeway for learning the new intricacies of the remake. The Salazar boss fight was needlessly frustrating, and Krauser was okay. The windup to his fight was more satisfying than the actual fight. However, Saddler's fight was fantastic, as was Mendez. The regular combat encounters really varied from fun but hard, to annoying.

One last note is the general personality. The writing and story changes are good. They explain some loose ends from the original and fill a few holes. However, the original is much more over-the-top and dumb, which just inherently appeals to me more.

All in all, game's good. It's hard to compare to the original because of how familiar I am with the first. I will certainly come back to this game in the future, and maybe it'll rise to the same level as the original for me in due time. We'll see.

Despite being a huge pokemon fan as a kid, I've found it difficult to enjoy the series much as an adult. Every time I tried to play the games, I just couldn't be bothered to see the credits.

HOWEVER, something about gen 5 kept me hooked. It wasn't braindead easy, but it wasn't obnoxious either. Several gyms posed interesting challenges, and the elite four were a fantastic series of fights. The pacing is great, never wasting your time or rushing through anything. A lot of the environments are fun to explore, and can be a challenge to get through while keeping your resources in check.

Presentation is great, with good character designs and a crunchy pixel style that appeals to me a lot. The music is great, with an excellent soundfont. Also I love the new pokemon, darmanitan is the coolest.

This feels like near as good as pokemon can get. Every element here works really well.

For a game I've heard almost no discussion about, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The arwing sections feel fluid and fun, and the on foot sections are fast paced and exciting. These are somewhat let down by the janky landmaster controls and some annoying enemies, and some later missions ran on too long. But I still enjoyed these. Presentation is good, with sharp visuals (although character animation is noticeably weird.) The orchestrated soundtrack is excellent, and adds a lot of excitement to the main stages. The game did feel a BIT short, but it doesn't overstay it's welcome. It was a fun time.