Portal's short length enables all of its elements to be fleshed out. The game utilizes the simple and intuitive portal gun to its fullest, then the game ends to avoid fatiguing the player. The puzzles progress consistently, without any major difficulty spikes or drops. The atmosphere is wonderfully lonely and artificial. GLaDOS is a perfect companion/villain, who both guides and belittles the player unintrusively. The unnerving electronic music enhances the atmosphere I mentioned previously, and anyone who reaches the credits will never forget "Still Alive". Portal does all this while being one of the best games to introduce people to video games, with its barebones first-person control scheme and focus on puzzles over combat. That accessibility pushes it over the edge to a 10/10 for me. I prefer Portal's lonely atmosphere over the comedic tone of Portal 2, so the original is my favorite between the two. If you have not played Portal, get the Portal bundle during any of Valve's sales for $2 total, and go play this iconic fun-sized puzzle game.

My new favorite 2D platformer. It's just a damn good video game. Each level features a unique theme and aesthetic that ties into the gameplay mechanics smoothly, leading to a more interesting game to look at than the bland New Super Mario games that Nintendo had also been releasing around this time. These levels genuinely challenged me, but when I died I blamed myself rather than bad level design. Aside from the forced shaking, which can be remedied via an emulator, the game controls wonderfully. It takes some skill to use, but rolling into a jump creates so much speed and preserves your momentum, letting you breeze through sections you have already completed. If you've beaten a Mario game before, DKCR is the perfect next step up in difficulty and complexity. I played this game throughout my first 2 months in college, when I had free time between classes, when I got all my homework done at the end of a night, and when I was overwhelmed and coped by playing Donkey Kong.

If you're looking to play this game, I highly recommend playing on Dolphin Emulator, so you can remove the shackles of the Wii's hardware. The game's visuals aged wonderfully when upscaled to HD or higher, and Dolphin enables you to add an HD texture pack to clean up those jagged HUD elements. Not only can you remedy the Wii's graphical fidelity, you can also take away the infamous shaking to roll. I played this game on both a keyboard and a traditional controller with a d-pad, and both control schemes were quite comfortable. For a controller, I suggest setting run to the left face button, jump to the bottom face button, movement to the d-pad, and shaking to the right bumper. As for keyboard, I liked using wasd for movement, j for running, k for jumping, and left shift for shaking.

Great game, in the process of 100% completion, and am excited to play Tropical Freeze.

I was very impressed that Super Metroid showed practically zero signs of being a nearly 30 year old game. The movement and shooting controls felt tight by the first hour. The combination of sharp pixel art, lush and biodiverse environments, and an otherworldly soundtrack, formed a beautiful and living world I immersed myself in while playing. The actual level design was fun and addictive. It felt like I was in a massive Zelda dungeon, which is great since dungeons are my favorite part of the Zelda franchise. I love that the game threw me into a massive continuous overworld with zero instructions and through subtle environmental hints, brief one way passages, and a lock and key structure for items, it guided me to the end with no help from the internet. Every collectible I grabbed felt exciting (even if it was the 20th missile upgrade) thanks to the catchy item-get jingle. I haven't even had the chance to do a second playthrough with the knowledge I gained from this run and some speedrunning tricks I saw online. I like the prospect of sequence breaking using the intended mechanics effectively rather than executing a sequence of developer programming mishaps. Overall, I am very happy I randomly decided to play this game, and will be playing more Metroidvania games in the near future.

Nintendo made 2D Mario exciting again. The levels are a lovely combination of Nintendo's reliable Mario level design, new enemies and level themes to the Mario franchise, and the wonder effects, which remove all guidelines to what a Mario level could be and radically alter the gameplay. This is my favorite 2D Mario to control, even beating Super Mario World, thanks to the midair spin to extend and correct jumps. This is also one of the prettiest Mario games to look at, with its expressive models and animations. The wholesome (but not cringy/annoying) flowers say some funny lines walking past. The flowers pair well with the lovely new Mario themes the game introduced. Badges should be implemented into every Mario game, and I wish there were more challenge levels utilizing the unique mechanics of each badge (Mario Maker 3 would go crazy with badge levels). I do wish the game offered more challenging levels to appeal towards long-time Mario fans. I now have faith that Nintendo will create a 2D Mario that alleviates those two missed opportunities I mentioned, because that may become my new favorite 2D platformer.

A rock solid game which birthed modern Kirby. Plenty of cool copy abilities with interesting movesets to learn. The levels aren't too out of this world, but are still real damn fun to play through. The game's visuals look great when upscaled to 1080p in an emulator (native still looks good too). Multiplayer can be chaotic platforming through normal levels, but insanely fun when whamming on bosses (I played 2 players for most of the levels, but 4 players for the final world). Classic Kirby mix of bubbly music and hardcore final boss music. The game was lacking in Kirby sidecontent staples though, like a boss rush and bonus bosses. The cutscenes were unskippable, but looked funny with the weird filter applied to them. The game didn't blow my socks off, but it was well worth my time, especially when I played it with my buddy hanging out on the weekends after finishing homework.

Correction: I'm dumb and forgot the arena was a boss rush. woopsie

There are a few stages to playing Minesweeper.

1. Failing to beat medium mode
Most people who pick up this game get to this point while bored in class. They might not even know the rules of the game and just randomly click spaces. These players can beat Easy mode if lucky.

2. Can beat medium or hard mode in 999+ seconds
These players know the rules of the game and can solve simple logic based on corners. They don't know any deeper logic or patterns, but they can clear a board if given enough time.

3. Basic pattern recognition
After enough time, the player will recognize patterns in logic like a 11 on a wall or a 121, and will begin to clear boards significantly faster. At this point, minesweeper no longer is about finding the mines, but finding the mines faster than before. This is when minesweeper becomes a game the player may seek out to relieve stress.

4. Imagining minesweeper
Now you have visions of minesweeper while doing other tasks. The patterns just repeat themselves in your head. You can clear hard mode in under 150 seconds and are a speed demon with a mouse. Minesweeper has become a true flex to impress people with, although you will never have the opportunity to show someone your skills without looking like a loser. I'm at this point, and have been for years.

5. Leaderboard times
I haven't reached that stage, and I'm not sure if I ever will. It's possible I will never have the time available to dedicate time every day to hone my skills to the point of dominance over other players. I have incredible respect to the people who grind this hard on a silly little Windows pack-in title, but I'm happy where I'm at in stage 4.

A nice lovely 1-2 hour long trip around an island/campsite remote area. The dialogue felt genuine, as real people would talk. The art style was cute, but personally I turned off the pixel filter and enjoyed it better that way. All the characters looked like generic Animal Crossing characters, but the lighting and scale made them feel natural. The gameplay of walking around an island and interacting with everyone and aiding them with their small little interests was just a nice escape from after I finished my finals. The soundtrack on at sea level was lovely and calming, but heading to the peak, the piano made me reminisce over scaling mountains in Zelda Breath of the Wild. Reaching the top truly felt like I went on a journey, despite how short of a game it was. Also very fun to control the Claire thanks to how fast the stamina recharges and the simplicity of gliding.
Overall just a very well rounded and precise short game that filled me with the exact feeling it was trying to convey.

Tunic effectively combines the Zelda aesthetic and Souls-like combat with a unique form of puzzle solving. I am a long time fan of the Zelda franchise, who has never played a Dark Souls game or game with similar combat, and I think that showed in which parts of the game I particularly enjoyed.
For the main story content, the game gave enough hints to challenge me with its large overworld navigation puzzles so I did not resort to looking for answers online. I did not 100% the game, A: because I'm running through 1 month of Xbox Game Pass, and B: because the hardest secrets were too much for me. Acquiring new items feels as good as it does in a classic 2D or 3D Zelda game, although there weren't very many in Tunic, which bummed me out.
The combat was a tad too difficult for me at times. I turned on the easier combat option for two of the fights, which does make me a wuss, but it also enabled me to enjoy those combat sections without spending an extra 2 hours per battle. Maybe the resemblance to 2D Zelda brought my old habits, but I never fully got the hang of the combat system of dodging and potions.
The game visually looked gorgeous with its lighting. The isometric viewpoint hides many secret pathways that you discover as you return back to previous areas, to speed up your travelling later in the game. The game manual also feels very much like a game manual from the NES and SNES era. The music matches the visuals well, but didn't stick with me after my playthrough.
I keep on comparing this game to the Zelda franchise, which I tried not to do while playing, but occasionally thought of. Tunic is not trying to replicate the Zelda formula, and it succeeds in making its own distinct form of puzzle. I recommend anyone who likes the dungeons of classic Zelda games to play Tunic. Overall an A+ game that introduced me to Souls-like combat, and hooked me on a style of puzzle solving I never knew would be so cool.

I wanted to like Limbo more, but a couple puzzles towards the end and one towards the beginning stumped me (so I went to the internet). The game's black on gray visual style pairs well with the background ambience and music to make me feel like I'm stuck in Limbo. The interactions with the spider all felt creepy, until you move its dismembered body which splats on spikes, that was a nice scene. I felt like the game could've been a tad shorter, but if you've got Xbox game pass and need something to play, this 3 hour experience is a good use of your time.

Celeste is an insanely well crafted 2D platformer that I wish I had more time to dwell on, but alas one month of free game pass means I must move forward.
This might be my favorite 2D game to control, with main character Madeline moving so intuitively and naturally that it took me maybe 10 minutes to get accustomed to the controls of move, jump, dash, and climb. I personally played using my 8bitdo Pro 2, and this game plays incredibly well with a d-pad.
The friendly checkpoint system made me feel welcome and encouraged me to try repeatedly to get a few extra strawberries. I like that towards the beginning, the game tells the player not to worry about strawberries and collectibles, and to take it easy on themselves. Every interesting mechanic that each chapter offers is fully fleshed out within that chapter, then set aside for the next chapter's mechanic.
If I had more time to play this game, I would've attempted 100% completion, however with the limited time I had I only grabbed the strawberries I found initially and only completed one b-side, which I did enjoy.
The visuals and music are peak indie game. Excellent usage of pixel art that doesn't feel cheap or janky, but rather fluid and crisp. The music was very encouraging to help me progress throughout the whole journey, but the summit really hit hard. I like that the b-sides have alternate versions of the tracks, literal b-sides.
For a 2D platformer, I didn't expect the narrative components to be so well written. I really cared about Madeline's attempt to understand that part of herself and enjoyed all the dialog between the small cast of characters. The positive message of the game was very uplifting to me who just had my wisdom teeth removed.
Highly recommend to anyone who likes 2D platformers. The tight controls and quick respawns made even the toughest rooms seem beatable. I will be picking this up after my Xbox Game Pass runs out.

I enjoyed the first 30 minutes of Unpacking, and its simple gameplay loop of placing items in a world with some cute music, but a few things kept me from finishing it. Firstly, the game has some irritating restrictions on where you can place items. It forces you to do things such as keep certain items off the floor or in cupboards, which bugged me. I want to keep a mug on the kitchen countertop, and the game wouldn't let me, which broke my relaxed state while playing. Secondly, the amount of rooms to unpack for was too overwhelming for me. It sounds really silly that having too much to unpack is a turnoff for a game about unpacking for me, but it's true. Too many choices on where to place items and too many items available overloads my senses and I go and play a different game.
I can tell the developers put a lot of love in the game, and aside from those two nitpicks, the game was charming and relaxing, but I cannot finish this game. I would still recommend this game to most other people though.

Hollow Knight hit so many marks on things I love about video games, and playing it has been one of the best times of my entire time playing games.
I loved the magnificent 2D artwork and the various colors seen in each different area. Those colors combined with an excellent usage of depth in the backgrounds and foregrounds had me fully immersed in a 2D world, something no other 2D game had accomplished. A sense of melancholy droops over the whole world. Melancholy happens to be one of my favorite aesthetics, so of course I vibed hard with the decaying settlements and all the spirits scattered around the world. Melancholy bugs. Everything is bug or fungus or an fungal infected bug, and that idea is fully fleshed out. I love being surrounded by beetles, spiders, mantises, flies, larvae, eggs, bees, grubs, and other creepy crawlies stylized in varying environments in a massive underground labyrinth. The music is the cherry on top with exciting, sad, creepy, majestic, and of course melancholic themes filling the caverns and ruins. I will be adding Hollow Knight to the list of game soundtracks that I will listen to while studying.

That was all just aesthetics, but Hollow Knight also featured a great evolution of the general principles laid out in Super Metroid. Tight controls paired with challenging bosses form a simple but satisfying combat system that made me seek out finding all the bosses. I do think many of the soul based attacks and nail techniques get overshadowed by the simple nail techniques though. They're still fun to use, but dashing to sneak in nail strikes and going Scrooge McDuck on bosses is too much fun to use any other option.
Exploration is the same utility based progression in which you backtrack to previous areas with new abilities to unlock new doors that I loved in Super Metroid. Hollow Knight however does not litter the map with a bunch of missile upgrades, and instead features charms, a system like the badges from Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door. I LOVE BADGE SYSTEMS. Finding a new charm gives the same simple joy a missile tank would, but makes each item unique, which adds more joy to your discovery. Then you head over to a bench and get to test out the new charm and look for any combos or synergies to see what new playstyle you can create with the charm. Plus, as you obtain more charms, you can buy more notches to equip more charms providing even more combinations.
Hollow Knight not only has lots of equipable upgrades (charms), but it also features a bunch of fun permanent movement upgrades to form the Metroidvania style progression. I particularly enjoyed the dash because it is versatile in combat, platforming, and speeds up navigation. The double jump makes a nice way to make slight adjustments to jumps. Finally the super dash is a big shinespark-esque giant zoom and I always love boosting on walls. The platforming segments were genuinely fun thanks to the tight control over the Knight and the aforementioned upgrades.
The lore I'm gonna be fawning over for the next few weeks because of all the slight hints scattered throughout the world. Hollow Knight is a game that doesn't directly explain its plot through major story moments, and instead forces you to learn the lore alongside the playable character. If I had more time outside of the 1 month of game pass, I think I would've gone and explored the entire map just to analyze the messages left behind.

Multiple times in The City of Tears I just stood there awestruck by the world. I will be purchasing this game after my Xbox Game Pass ends, because this was an excellent experience that just happened to click all the buttons in me that make me tick. If I come back to this game and still love it in a second playthrough a few months from now I will put this game into my top 5. My new favorite Metroidvania now I guess.

I heard a lot of good things about Jusant, but after the first chapter I just wasn't hooked on anything. Keep in mind I did play this the day after I beat Hollow Knight, so perhaps I was anticipating the rush of energy that game's mechanics brought me, and since this game doesn't have that it didn't mesh well. Perhaps the climbing mechanics needed some more time for me to adjust to, but I didn't find any interesting emotion while climbing. The world looked pretty, but the letters didn't have me wanting to figure out what more there was to the story. I still would recommend playing if one has Xbox game pass, but I'll abandon this game and maybe come back with a different mood.

A solid 4 hour long isometric puzzle game about spheres containing worlds you can enter. The first third of the game's puzzles weren't too special and felt like going through the motions, but the remaining two thirds were genuinely engaging puzzles that made me think. The boss fight segments were at first interesting, but having to retry the whole boss off of one mistake didn't add to difficulty or thinking, and just wasted my time and bugged me a bit. The isometric visuals and the background music were well made, but didn't stand out in my mind. I can tell there is some further symbolism or theming with the idea of worlds in the spheres, but I am not gonna bother figuring it out myself.
I would definitely recommend this game to anyone who likes puzzles, especially since it's a fairly short game in Xbox Game Pass