A neat game that marries a lot of bangers to create something special of its own. Didn't really hit for me!
Definitely recommend playing on a lower difficulty, the higher levels cause the movement to really show its blemishes.

Excellent game. Drips and oozes style, the fights are bombastic, the music kicks, it's playing in an anime in the best ways possible.
There are some annoying collision issues with wall spikes during precise platforming segments which bother but don't break the experience.
Fast travel should be mapped to trees, not statues. And Ubi shouldn't have locked a collectible tracker to a premium edition!

Music absolutely bangs. Cannot say it enough. Had two original songs with vocals in my spotify repeat through the end of the year.
Characters are neat. I love companions having their own storylines, I didn't love progressing a single companion, getting loads of battle benefits then going back to square one to advance someone else. It really limited how much I was able to fuse or leverage high level mechanics. It's difficult to onboard party member options in RPGs like this. The ranger captains all rock, world aesthetic is wonderful. Loads of weird little guys that I really enjoyed seeing, collecting, battling with and as. Fusions rock, fusing everything rocks.
The type chart is informed and inventive, mechanics of buffs and debuffs rather than super or ineffective is great.
Progression stutters and feels very limited at times. I just had a lot of issues playing through the game at times. I love the attempt and want more things like Cassette Beasts (but it speaks for itself that I wasn't compelled to touch any DLC content after rolling credits)

2021

Do not play Sable on the PS5. It runs too poorly!

I had been following the Shedworks team for year leading up to Sable's 1.0 release, and porting over to consoles. I previously played a couple hours through gamepass and fell out of it, before returning for a platinum run on the PS5. (See opening note).

Sable is a BOTW-like whose greatest strength is its writing quality, and that's not meant as a dig at any core mechanics. The exploration, climbing and overall intrigue of the world are intact and high quality.
Sable suffered for me as it ran abysmally on the PS5. I wanted to appreciate the color palette used to define each distinct region, and the options to turn on color blind modes and toggle line weights. I eventually gave up with any of it as it caused the game to run substantially worse.
I couldn't appreciate the intentional decisions by the devs to have Sable and other character models move at a lower frame rate than the world for an intentioned look, which never came off because the game never ran at a smooth frame rate of any kind.
Fishing compounded all of the game's issues. Inputs would be lost, it was a tremendous pain.
Sable commits the sin of having a day/night cycle in game with quests and other events occurring at times throughout the day, but no ability to advance time.
It bums me out to leave what could've been a genuinely profound and moving experience on such a sour note. There's a very quality game in here with better optimization and some quality of life improvements.

2023

Tren rips. It's a game of pure fun that never gets in its own way, constantly throwing new ideas at the player that never tire.
The amount of traversal options, genuinely clever levels and everything was such a joy. This is a can't miss!

One of gaming's all time great trilogies. It doesn't get much better than this!

Pikmin 4 is smooth and addictive to perfection. What a treat!

Games don't get more complete than this. Tears of the Kingdom is an ante up in every possible way. I've never played anything like it. The abilities and world systems lend themselves to some of the most inventive and unique gameplay I've ever had the pleasure of tooling around with. I was captured in the world. The story melted my heart.
Several heavy shortcomings hold it back from being a perfect game!

2023

Tchia's New Caledonia influence is more than a tagline for advertisement, it's something that's felt the whole way through. I haven't had a game experience quite like this one.
The loop and sheer number of collectibles can get a little exhausting, and it is a bit clunky to swap between the map for navigation. Though the experience remains very enjoyable throughout

Don't sleep! High quality Housemarque

OlliOlli World is incredible, and a game I'd highly recommend for anyone to try out.
My only gripe is that the sweat level ratchets up intensely by the third or fourth world, which really put me off of striving for completion of the game. I am not interested in beating every level in single combo!

This game is excellent! A lot of fun with a friend.

Do not sleep! Incredible game that constantly feels smart and begs you to reinvent your play style. The story and setting are very fun, the characters are a great time. I have a couple gripes that bring it down a bit and outnumber my positives, but that’s only because the strengths are simple and span the entire game.
Though it’s written to be intentionally cringey, it’s still cringey and becomes unengaging at some points. Violet especially. The side quests are the weakest missions of the whole game, adding heaven and hell rushes compiling those is not for me! The boss fights aren’t great, and any levels that exceed ~1 minute in length can feel tedious and drag compared to the high speed of the game’s remainder.

Sonic Frontiers is fun to play. The open world format works well but that's where things stop. The large set pieces you're meant to work towards never function in the intended way, especially the boss fights which end up just being grueling. The voice acting recasts are heartbreaking, no one feels like the original sonic team characters. Huge bummer.