In what remains to be the only 3D Mario game to get a sequel, Super Mario Galaxy 2 remains one of the best 3D platformers ever made. Taking the same fantastic format of Super Mario Galaxy, and pushing it to the limit, with no level feeling underwhelming or uninspired.

The Galaxy titles are unique from other 3D Mario games for their more linear level design. Unlike Super Mario 64 or Sunshine where you would have wide open landscapes to explore and discover secrets, Galaxy typically has a very clear set path that will allow you to progress. Although this may sound limiting, it gave the developers the ability to perfectly control the flow of the gameplay. Their fantastic execution of this makes you never feel this constraint. You feel just as free as you did in Bob-Bomb Battlefield or Gelato Beach.

Another strength of Galaxy 2 is how Mario's abilities allow for so many fantastic level concepts. Unlike Sunshine, which was unique for the immense amount of abilities that FLUDD gave Mario, Galaxy has a fairly simple kit for the plumber. Mario's only real "special" ability is a spin attack, that allows for a bit of extra high during a jump, and the ability to knock away some enemies. But the real strength of this ability is when it's interactive with the level design. A perfect example of this is Flip-Swap Galaxy. This level is built around blue and red platforms that will alternate their position whenever Mario's spin attack is used. This creates a very fun yet challenging level where players need to both consider what platform they want to go to next, and whether or not they need to use their spin ability to get there. This creates another layer of depth when considering that Mario's spin ability can often save you from falling of the edge of a platform, but since you need to be careful with your spins, you may not have that opportunity to save yourself. This interaction between the spin ability and the level design is all over Galaxy 2, and it's what makes Mario's simplified kit still feel so expressive.

But just when you thought that Galaxy 2 couldn't possibly have any more types of levels, they add an entire new realm of possibilities with one simple inclusion: Yoshi. Although in previous titles, Yoshi was more of a glorified power-up, Galaxy 2 gives the dino several levels built for him and his abilities. Yoshi himself also comes with three power-ups that can create different types of levels. My personal favorite is the Dash Pepper power-up, which causes Yoshi to sprint as high speed until the power-up ends, creating unique levels where the player needs to carefully navigate with Yoshi as to not fall off the side of a platform.

I don't even feel like I need to explain the quality of the music of Galaxy 2, but just in case you weren't aware, it's amazing. The orchestral pieces of Galaxy 2 lend themselves perfectly to the feelings of freedom that the space setting creates. Every track in this game is just bursting with energy, and the game would not be the same without it.

Overall, Galaxy 2 is till one of the greatest examples of how less is more when it comes to 3D platformers, and for it, it remains one of the best 3D platformers ever made.

This is like those little games that your grandma has on her computer, except if your grandma was a huge fan of Doom and Mortal Kombat.

Buckshot Roulette is a simple, yet addicting game, with a gameplay loop that provides a level of fairness to ensure players never feel cheated out of a run, but also a level of RNG that succeeds in making the game feel tense.

The ability to earn another turn by pointing the gun at yourself and firing a blank creates a massive incentive to aim the gun at yourself. Taking a blank both means your getting closer to emptying the gun (and getting more items) and the chance to better your odds for your next shot. But of course your taking that risk that there could be a live in the chamber waiting for you. It's very nerve racking, and makes that one second where the gun is simply pointed at you very chilling.

Items also spice up what would have otherwise been a simple game of chance. Items give you different abilities that can turn the tides, and learning when you should use them can be challenging. Not to mention that the dealer always gets as many items as you, meaning you really need to understand what he's going to be able to do on his next turn, and how to survive it.

One of the greatest elements of the game is it's sound design. The sound design of Buckshot often lends itself to creating this tense atmosphere that the game strives in. One of the best examples of this is the gun's two firing sounds. A blank being fired can either be one of the most relaxing, our most tense sounds you hear, depending on who's got the gun. If you point the gun at yourself and you hear the blank sound, it's like such a relief of tension and a huge invitation to let you stop holding your breath. However, aiming at the dealer and hearing that blank go off is such a big "oh fuck" moment. Not only have you better the odds for your opponent, you've also just ended your turn, and that pathetic click of the blank firing is the most disappointing way for it to end. The dealer firing a blank works the same except vise versa. If he aims the gun at himself and a blank goes off, it creates rising tension, as he can shoot again with better odds, but if he aims at you and fires a blank, I feel like every player gets a big smirk on their face. Look at how dumb the dealer is (ignoring how many times you've put yourself in that same situation).

Double or nothing was one of the most simple, but perfect updates to the game. The ability to essentially create a high score system is very fun, and keeps me coming back whenever I have an hour I need to kill. If I had any complaints about this however, it would be nice to have the option to customize the mode, like choose how many items per round and things like that.

Overall, Buckshot Roulette is a simple, yet amazing game to play if you're bored and just need an hour to disappear. The games aesthetic does a fantastic job as creating a tense environment, and despite how much the game is based around RNG, it always feels fair.

Octodad remains one of those games from my childhood that will always make my smile. The game has simple cartoon graphics, a charming and simple story, but a gameplay loop that takes some getting used to. Octodad's control scheme is very clearly meant to be "rage-inducing", as was popular in the early 2010s. This was usually accomplished by taking a task that in most games would be fairly simple, and just making that task far more tedious (other examples include "I Am Bread" and "Surgeon Simulator"). Octodad's control scheme is slippery as the player needs to navigate the games levels by manually controlling each of Octodad's legs as he wildly swings around. The tasks are usually simple actions such as making hamburgers or buying a pizza, but Octodad's weird control scheme make these tasks daunting and hilarious.

I've tried to put my thoughts on this game several times, and each time I find myself overexplaining why I love this game so much. This was absolutely my Game of The Year for 2023, hell it was the reason I ended up coughing up the money to buy a PS5! Everything that worked about the previous entries in the Insomniac-verse is amplified and the few issues that those games had have been ironed out. The web-swinging is faster and more engaging, the combat is perfectly balanced and the story is deep and heart-gripping. The increased amount of multi-part side missions also does wonders fleshing out the world, as we see conflicts that don't pertain to the main story, such as Wraith's conflict with The Flame, or the community of Harlem and it's relationship with music. The game's single part side missions are also fantastic! The Howard mission was genuinely so touching that once I completed it, I sat there for a few minutes, too stunned to move as I sat at my desk crying. I know some people didn't enjoy the Hailey mission, but I found it charming. I felt like it's unique factor of having essentially no sound (Hailey is deaf) and simple gameplay made for a much needed reminder of what Spider-Man is fighting to protect.

However the game is not without it's issues. Once you've 100%'d, there's basically nothing to do except swing around and stop the occasional crime. Spider-Man: Miles Morales let you start a crime whenever you wanted, let you replay enemy hideouts and even replay entire missions. Spider-Man 2 for some reason lacks all of these features, which is extremely disappointing. I'm sure we can expect this with the upcoming New Game + update, but at this time we don't know when to expect that, and it feels as though it keeps getting further away.

Despite it's drawbacks, Spider-Man 2 is absolutely worth your money, and remains my favorite game to be released in 2023.

This is quite possibly the worst BanBan game, and only serves to further my personal belief that these games are being designed to just be long enough to avoid Steam's 2 hour auto-refund policy.

There are several points in this game that feel poorly explained, unnecessarily tedious and overall frustrating. I was going to write a longer review where I went into examples, but most of the game is so boring that I could only really think of 2 parts of the game that I recall specifically frustrating me.

BanBan was a funny joke the first few times, but at this point, the punchline is getting old. What the EuphoricBrothers really need to do is take what profits they HAVE made from their previous works, and invest it into a longer project with more time for fleshing out the concepts, instead of releasing a terrible game every few months. I do not think that they understand how fortunate they are to be in their position, and to see them waste that potential is extremally sad, considering how many developers would kill to have the attention that they have.

Please just spend your 10 dollars on something better.