This may be the best Mario Party to date but there are a couple glaring issues from preventing me giving it the title for best. Nintendo for who advertised this as a celebration of the series only did what Nintendo is really good at recently and only do the bare minimum and have a small selection of boards and characters to choose from and keep content light for a full price $80CAD game.

While there are so many mini games here from basically all of my favourite games in the series as someone who grew up playing the GameCube titles, there could be even more mini games too. The fact this only launched with 5 boards and only 10 characters is a shame and Nintendo really could get away with never adding anymore since this probably sold enough copies already to net a profit. Where are boards like Faire Square from Mario Party 6? or Toy Dream from 5? Boos haunted mansion from 4? or anything later then Mario Party 3. This should have launched with more content with at least 10 boards and more then 10 characters and almost every mini game should be here. There's really no excuse except for Nintendo would never go and make the essential version of a Mario Party collection because no one would ever buy one after that.

It sucks because this is a vast improvement over the previous incredibly underwhelming and bad Super Mario Party. Superstars is a really good party game I had friends over to play this with and we couldn't stop playing it and had a bunch of good laughs and its the first time in years I was reminded how impactful this silly fun series was on me growing up when having friends over to stay up all night screaming at each other for stealing stars or playing with siblings and we'd all get mad at each other. If this gets any DLC in the future it better be free and it better be a good amount of support because wow this feels like a step forward and huge step back. Its somehow lazy while also finally recapturing what made this series so much fun to begin with.

One of my very favourite games and important ones too, I played this sometime back in 2012 near the time it released and this was right after when a new wave of indie games/devs exploded like Bastion, Super Meat Boy, Fez, Binding of Isaac, Inside and many more. some of those games got me into Indie games but this game in particular was completely mindblowing to me 10 years ago and still is now.

The Presentation of Hotline Miami to this day is viscerally astounding, blending the Neon drip of a NWR film fused with the nightmare elements of works like David Lynch and Gaspar Noe. Gameplay that is unforgiving to the player when first experiencing because it doesn't hold your hand and expects you to make quick dirty and violent decisions on the enemies swarming you through each door.

A deconstruction and commentary on video game violence without ever explicitly saying you literally commit horrific acts of murders and executions in a hyper kinetic ultra violent neon filled rhythm like surreal nightmare into the criminal underbelly of a 1989 Miami with political conspiracies a foot. With one of the greatest soundtracks in gaming that makes every levels one hit challenge of brutal massacres a thrill.

Not many other games have come this close to capturing the feeling that this one still makes me feel from having a total blast going No Russian mode on every gangster in this game to then when finishing a mission looking back at the horror of each scene I made with that droning ambient music that showcases what atrocities the player made.

This game is incredibly special to me for so many reasons and its gory neon pixelated madness has held up exceptionally well.

Bullet Hell meets Doom and Metroid on steroids, I really hope for more games like this in the future from Sony first party that takes risks like this one. This is a beautiful evolution of Housemarques style of games while still incorporating their DNA of who they are as at their core and probably the best game they've made yet. Incredibly addicting gameplay, haunting and beautiful atmosphere and level design that always had me exploring, taking risks and hitting me with surprises good and bad constantly on each run. The best gunplay I've experienced in a game since Doom Eternal and the moment to moment gameplay is incredible. Boss fights were exhilarating and one had me winning by just the skin of my ass. I didn't die as much I was expecting to but regardless this game is not easy and requires shoot, move, run and ask questions later and one simple mistake can fuck everything up and I love it.

There's so much to love about this game and experience for me from the amazing audio sound design that actually works to your advantage if your on top of your game to even a story narrative that had no business being as conceptually terrifying and hauntingly good as it was with a great lead performance from actress Jane Perry and the best audio logs in a game I've heard in sometime. despite maybe some RnG elements that maybe I'm just not use to because I haven't played many Rougelikes but Housemarque has delivered the best PS5 exclusive so far for me and I can't wait to see what they come up with next.

Far from perfect, it wasn't grabbing me at first like the previous two but damn it won me over in the end. Sudas style and presentation is just such a treat and hard not to enjoy. This game is pretty much a love letter to his games and indie games. The Gameplay is definitely its worst aspect but it gets better in the second half and co-op definitely made it a much better experience but its real tedious and repetitive here. But regardless the game is fun and loaded with style, a great soundtrack, and funny writing. Can't wait to play NMHIII and the rest of Sudas catalogue whos easily become one of my favourite game devs now.