I'm tempted to hold off on review because I hear the postgame is so robust, but I have to many thoughts, so here I am after hitting credits. I apologize for the unstructured ramble; I'll update this review when I've done postgame stuff.

Metroidvania is the genre that I think I like way more than I actually do like: I used to call it my favorite genre, and I STILL have plenty of games I consider favorites and replay over and over. But in truth, I feel like I'm in love with an idealization of the genre that rarely gets met by any game not called Super Metroid: Sequence being only a suggestion, with alternate paths and sequence breaks accomplished not just by glitches and wall clips, but mastery of mechanics and their nuances to master the environment. For whatever reason, the whole genre seems to have collectively decided that abilities, a persistent map, and collectibles are all that matter, with most of them feeling like tightly linear affairs pulling you on a string through a world that feels like it's begging to be truly trekked through, but disallowed by the developer for a myriad of reasons that I probably understand but think are silly.

Animal Well is Super Metroid 2. Not the only Super Metroid 2, but certainly one of the rare ones. (I would not be surprised if the solo developer was VERY inspired by my favorite Super Metroid 2, by the way. I'll leave it unnamed and see how many people guess it. Hint: It's not even a real metroidvania.)

The atmosphere? Moody. The ability upgrades? Unique to the point that I'm not sure I've seen a single one of them in another metroidvania, AND most of them with multiple hidden uses. The handholding? Nonexistent. The "intended" sequence? Hell if I know; I legit could not tell you how much of what I did on my one run so far was the path of least resistance or a sequence break.

There's just so damn much in this game that encourages you to get creative with what you have to see what works, and chances are if you can logically conceptualize something working within the bounds of the game's rules, it will, indeed, work (with or without tons of retry and maybe some luck). The result is the best metroidvania I've played in an absurdly long time, meeting my idealization of the genre in a way almost no others do.

And the fact that what I describe seems to have been a near-universal reaction among people playing it, that this game that doesn't tell you anything and expects you to get creative to progress is based? Man, oh man, I really hope metroidvania developers take note.

What a charming little game, a globe-throtting adventure through the lens of a child's arts and crafts project.
It's not the most mechanically demanding game, however its unorthodox physics-based control scheme and level design is unique enough to warrant a visit, even in its current stripped down state.

Of course that was never the main selling point of LittleBigPlanet as an experience, this was once a game with an ungodly amount of possibilities for self-expression - nearly every mechanic exists in the context of allowing you to customize everything around you, including the levels themselves.
It was kind of the perfect game for kids at the time, a place that allowed you to create your own ways to play and share them with others, both as hubs for them to experience by themselves and as things you can show to the people playing with you at that very moment.

I still enjoy going back to the game's campaign from time to time, it's very cute and charming, but nothing will ever quite match the heights of playing this with friends near and far on a summer afternoon.

STOP DOING ARPG ELEMENTS
ITEMS WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE GIVEN RANDOM STATS
YEARS OF GAMES yet NO REAL-WORLD USE FOUND FOR +3.5 Water Resistance
Wanted to do more damage in an action game? We had a method for that: It was called "GETTING GOOD"
"Yes please give me -4% Backstab Damage Taken. Please give me -8% Quick Attack Ki Usage"
-Statements dreamed up by the utterly deranged
LOOK at what gamedesigners have been demanding your Respect for all this time, with all the computersoftware WE built for them
"Hello I would like +3.8% Yokai Close Combat Damage"
They Have Played us for ABSOLUTE FOOLS...

My apologies, but I have a heaping plateful of nostalgia for this one. Played through it together with my sister & a longtime childhood friend of ours & thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The NSMB formula didn't feel dull at this point & introducing 4-player co-op, even if it can get messy sometimes in terms of gameplay, was a fantastic move. Great new additions too including Yoshi & a slightly more involved world map. NSMBW, especially in co-op, brings a fun change of pace to an already fun franchise.