Replaying Kirby's Dream Land made me realize just how ambitious the original release of Kirby's Adventure actually was. If you don't already know, I wrote a very negative review of that game. It was a miserable experience that mainly stemmed from its annoyingly frequent slowdown which made the game a lot harder than it was actually meant to be.

Dream Land is Kirby's actual first adventure, and despite only featuring 5 levels and being able to complete it in around 20 minutes, it's still a fun game. It's incredibly simple, with Kirby's now standard copy ability being absent here. This simplicity and almost non-existant difficulty, along with its short length, is the reason I don't rate it any higher. But still, let it be known that I enjoy it. If this game had the severe level of slowdown that Kirby's Adventure had, I have no doubt I would despise it. But it's made me very curious to give the 3D Classics version of Adventure a shot, since it apparently fixed the slowdown. Yes folks, there is hope yet for my sinful hot take on Kirby's NES outing.

But really, this was a nice game to wind down with before bed. Goodnight Kirby. I shall now enter my own dream land.

Well, this is awkward. I just beat Kid Dracula a couple of days ago and basically talked about how it is just a mediocre Mega Man knockoff. I had done a second playthrough of Mega Man 2 not long before that, so I had that fresh in my head as I drew comparisons. Now here I am, having just finished Mega Man 3 for the first time, and some parts of it made me wish I was playing Kid Dracula again instead. Perhaps this is just early on-set fatigue with this series. After all, I still have 3 more NES games to go through and it's already getting stale. But it's not so much the repetitiveness of the gameplay, but more so how a lot of things here feel like a step down from MM2. Still, there are some obvious QOL improvements here such as:

- Images in the weapon selection menu so you're not scratching your head on what the initials stand for
- Free control of Rush Jet
- Weapon energy gets refilled after each stage
- Slide mechanic

But these are just minor things and don't make up for its other shortcomings. I feel like this is when they started running out of ideas. Weapons are worse than in MM2. They just aren't as interesting. Stages for the most part aren't as good, either. They're still fun, but the second half of the game is a somewhat miserable experience. A gauntlet of boss after boss that leaves you praying that the next one will be the last. Seriously, why the hell are there so many bosses? Most of them are re-used, no less. We even get a variant of the Yellow Devil from the first game. It doesn't help that this game turned up the difficulty dial way up again. Sure, maybe I got spoiled with MM2, but hey, I beat MM1 without save states. I don't mind a challenge, but did the devs really have to make you go through this many hoops in the second half?

This game is still decent for what it is, but it's oversaturation of boss fights in the second half makes it drag more than it should. And I am aware that the "Robot Masters Revisited" stage is a recurring thing, but then they should have cut the part where we had to revisit all the MM2 Robot Masters. If MM4 makes me revisit the MM3 robot masters, I will have a stroke.

I've seen hell... and it's not red... it's blue...

Seriously though, was ZUN going through something when he made this? Why are there so many goddamn blue projectiles that you can barely see against some of these backgrounds? Stage 2, while fairly easy, is bound to accelerate my already deteriorating vision on subsequent playthroughs. The game's overall quite a lot harder than the last one, and as such, despite coming off my recent high of 1cc-ing LLS, I have no desire to even attempt it here. I still had a fun time, as expected. Overall, this is a pleasant way to end the classic era on, even if it's not my favorite of this gen.

I don't understand. I just... DON'T UNDERSTAND! Is it the wholesome vibes? The cute art style? Aesthetics alone do not make a game, in my opinion. So you play as a hole... and it gets bigger as you swallow up stuff. I guess it's like the Anti-Katamari in a way. But unlike Katamari, this isn't fun. There's no challenge. No real drive to proceed. The story sure as hell didn't motivate me. The only motivation I had here was that there was an easy platinum waiting for me at the end.

I can't even argue that it's poorly made or that no attempt was made. Sure, it's cute. I'm sure it appeals to some. But I just couldn't find much fun in such a simplistic idea for "gameplay." I sure was craving some donuts afterwards, though.

It's my understanding that the first game in this series is very rough around the edges, and you can tell just from looking at it. I've seen gameplay of the other PS1 games, and the difference is night and day. Still, as my first proper exposure to Ace Combat (outside of a brief stint with Assault Horizon on subpar hardware years ago), it's surprisingly competent.

While it's graphically very plain, I'm not one to complain much about that, especially since the gameplay still holds up fairly well, even considering the lack of analog support. And despite its short length, Air Combat certainly turned me onto the series and I'm looking forward to checking out the rest of the games, which I have no doubt will be generally much better.

By the way, did anyone really play test the final mission here? Absolute bollocks.

It's literally just pinball with heavy fanservice. I can't even recommend it to fans of the series, because there's barely any content to dig into. The story is pretty much non-existent and completely nonsensical, with the same basic set-up being rehashed several times so that you can play through it with each of the 5 girls.

The gameplay itself is fine for a few minutes at a time, I suppose. It's just pinball. The game's gimmicks don't really make it anymore interesting and there are much better pinball games out there. Skip it.

I understand where a lot of people stand with this game. It shows its age, yes. As the first game in the series, it was bound to be a bit rough around the edges. The thing is, that doesn't really matter to me. At the time of writing this, this is the only Mega Man title I have finished without save states, and as such, is the one I am most familiar with.

I played this a ton when I was a kid. I also died alot. Was it masochism that drove me forward? I can't say for sure, but I put in a great amount of effort and hours into beating it. This was on the Wii, mind you. Beating this game without save states is still my greatest personal achievement in gaming. I have no doubt that Mega Man 2 is an objectively better game, among others. But I have a soft spot for this one thanks to nostalgia. I probably wouldn't willfully subject myself to another legit playthrough just because it's so tough. But it was a fun challenge while it lasted.

Fans really be out here hating on MM1 for being too difficult but put MMX up on a high pedestal.

???

I don't know, most likely another "git gud" moment at my expense, but a lot of things in this game just rub me the wrong way. Some background, though: I first played this when I was younger (maybe 14?) and I remember enjoying it for a bit and then losing interest. The only other MM I had played at that point was MM1. Anyway, I couldn't remember exactly what it was that made me stop playing, but I figured that revisiting it anew would help me gain some appreciation for it. Nah, I was wrong.

For one, I do not particularly like the new upgrade system, which as far as I'm aware, seems to be a staple of the X series, which makes me somewhat hesitant to jump into the others. This game wants you to find every single upgrade, because without them, it's just way too difficult. The Maverick stages become a lot more manageable with these upgrades, which gives you a false sense of relief, because once the Sigma stages start, I just wanted to break my monitor.

You have to fight like 3 or 4 bosses in these Sigma stages, often with some annoying enemies in between with horrendous respawns. Dying here before reaching the next boss gate means you'll have to start from before the previous boss. Even with save states, some bosses took quite a few attempts and thinking about beating this game without them just gave me a migraine. Sigma Stage 1 with all upgrades felt like I was playing with 0 upgrades. It's that bad.

The Maverick stages themselves also left a lot to be desired. This is something that I just can't describe. The levels just weren't that good, personally. Though, having certain stages change based on the order you tackle them is a really cool concept. For example, going through Flame Mammoth's stage after I already beat Chill Penguin meant that the lava in the stage was completely frozen, which made it easier to traverse. It's something that definitely gives it some extra replay value, but it's not enough for me.

It's a shame I feel this way, because the core gameplay is actually quite competent. Wall jumping is a great mechanic, and the dash ability is fun to spam. I kinda wish this game kept the slide mechanic I got so used to with MM3-6. But new series, new changes. I get it. The point is, movement feels great here. Something must be said about the soundtrack as well. Absolute banger. It's probably one of my favorite soundtracks of the 16-bit era. The level selection screen music in particular has no right being as good as it is.

But at the end of the day, I just didn't have all that much fun with this one, and it kind of bums me out that I don't see in it what many others do. Maybe in another few years I can revisit this game and it will suddenly click with me, but even if that doesn't happen, at least there's plenty more MM games to check out.

I can't help but feel like this game is just setting me up for disappointment. This is the 8th Kirby title I've played, and after not really loving the others (and downright hating a couple), this game was a breath of fresh air. In a somewhat ironic twist, I wasn't even aware of this game's existence until a couple of weeks ago when I watched a couple of Kirby series rankings videos on Youtube — both of which placed this at #1. Well, that settled it. I had to try this one next.

And yeah, it's pretty great. The whole mech-suit gimmick is actually pretty well-utilized and makes controlling Kirby an absolute blast. I especially loved the stages that turn into a side-scrolling space shooter section. Oh! And the stages where your mech transforms into a car and you can speed through it. There's just a lot of creativity going on here which I adore. And I know that's not necessarily exclusive to this game. Even with the early titles, there was indeed some noticeable thought going into the level design. This is just the first time I play a Kirby game where that creativity feels fully realized and in-sync with an enjoyable gameplay experience.

But as I said earlier, I can't help but feel like I'm being set up for disappointment; because if this is truly the peak of the franchise, then I may be hard-pressed to ever really consider myself a Kirby fan. It only took me about 5 hours to get through the game casually. It certainly doesn't overstay its welcome, but I was left wanting a bit more. But that may just be a "me" problem due to the sheer amount of 2D platformers I've played over the years. At the end of the day, this is just a really solid "pick up and play" kind of game and nothing more, but that's to be expected of the series (and Nintendo 2D platformers in general for that matter). I'll be sure to check out the bonus sub-game "Meta Knightmare Returns" at a later date. In the meantime, I do hope I wasn't spoiled and that I can come across plenty of more games in this franchise of similar quality or better.

I knew it would be bad. Everyone said it was. And yet, what is it about surefire disappointment that allures me so? I've been really getting into the Tales series, and after recently finishing Zestiria and really enjoying it despite its glaring flaws, I was feeling a little quirky. I think it's not so much that Tempest gets a lot of bad rep, but just so the fact that not many people outside of Japan played it. Anything to join an elite (but useless) club just for a small sense of trite accomplishment. Was it worth it? Well, sort of.

This is a truly fascinating game. I mean, just the fact that it manages to be a whole lot of nothing. I just finished this game, and I honestly couldn't even begin to properly summarize what happened despite its ridiculously short length of only 10 hours. The most I got from the story is... SPOILERS: MC's dad is a furry.

True story, that is. Outside of the generally uninteresting story, the characters rarely get a chance to develop, especially with the absence of skits, which is a crying shame in a Tales title. Some of the older titles excluded, characters are a big part of what makes the series so enjoyable, and skits really enhance that aspect. Tempest sort of has a replacement in the form of "campfire breaks" that only really happen at specific moments in the story, and a few optional ones when using a tent at certain points, but none of these are very interesting, either.

Story is a bust. Characters are also a bust. Well, how about gameplay? It's surprisingly OK! And by that I mean it's not terrible enough to put me to sleep at least. It's a fairly simple battle system, but it gets the job done, I feel. The main issue here is the godawful encounter rate that makes getting from Point A to Point B a slog half the time. Oh, and the whole game save for the final boss is extremely easy. Just have fun dealing with the stupid AI which refuses to heal you half the time you need it.

All around, everything about this game is kinda stinky. Even the UI for the menus is terrible. Clunky and unintuitive navigation makes switching out gear more tedious than it needs to be. Still, as I said earlier, finishing this was sort of worth it. It was kind of cozy to play. Brain off. Right thumb mashing that attack button. Laughing at the jank and the insipid story; especially the two hilariously dumb plot twists that occur later in the game. The game was short enough that it didn't overstay its welcome (too much), and it was honestly pretty cool to check out this obscure piece of Tales history in the spirit of getting more into the series. It's not an offensively bad game, just boring, and definitely not worthy of being branded as a "Tales of" title. After all the negative reception it garnered, it makes sense why they decided to reclassify this as a spin-off.

I'm so done listening to the popular opinion when it comes to established franchises. It's not about being a contrarian, but it just so happens that there have been multiple instances of me finding enjoyment in games that others seem to dislike to varying degrees. Let's see, there's: Final Fantasy XIII and Type-0, Mega Man 1, Tales of Zestiria, Need for Speed (2015), Corpse Party: Blood Drive, etc. Add this to the list of games I think don't deserve the hate.

"Play Dawn of Ys instead." I mean, I will, eventually. I wanna get through the entire Ys series eventually, but I already had a SNES emulator ready to go so I played this one first. Despite the general negativity surrounding this game, I went in with no expectations and I came out pleasantly surprised, and frankly a bit saddened to know not many people like it as much as I do. Ys I + II provided the framework. Two very solid games that mainly suffer from some obtuse map design and the occasional bullshit boss (if you know, you know). But Mask of the Sun does away with most of the annoyances I endured in those games and provides a more straightforward adventure with what I think is a slightly more competent plot. The bosses are for sure a lot weaker here, though.

Of course, I can't pretend that the game isn't somewhat janky with its gameplay. For one, you can only move in four directions, which took some getting used to after having been accustomed to the fluidity of Ys I + II. The hitboxes are kinda messed up too, but I barely noticed it save for a couple of specific enemy encounters. Bumping into enemies still felt good and the typical grind-fest that is known of these early Ys games was therapeutic here. And yes, the final dungeon is still a somewhat confusing/tedious maze but, give me this over Ys II's Solomon Shrine any day.

I think Mask of the Sun is an unfortunate case of being undermined by its more well-known and popular sister game. It's a really short game (like most of the early Ys games), and I believe that alone is a fair excuse to check it out, because I really do think it's nowhere near as bad as people say. It's a hidden gem among the vast Super Famicom JRPG library and makes for a fairly compact palette cleanser in-between much longer JRPGs.

I'm pleasantly surprised with this one. Unlike Episode I, there's not much in the way of cheap death traps and annoying level gimmicks. Sonic also no longer feels like such a brick with the terrible momentum physics of the previous episode, making for a more fast-paced experience, as it should be. Visually, it's also a nice step-up, with the character models no longer looking like cheap, low-res PNG files.

New to this episode is the addition of Tails, which allows for co-op. Not like anyone would play this with me to try it out. But mainly, the addition of Tails adds new gameplay mechanics where you can use Tails to fly you up to otherwise inaccessible ledges and platforms or roll up and become a super-powered roly-poly duo to break through obstacles and peed through levels. Admittedly, this kind of slows the pacing at times, especially in a few levels where you have to do it multiple times, but I don't mind much. Takes me back to my 'Sonic Heroes' days...

While I'm not counting it as part of my rating, I figured it's worth bringing up the bonus "Metal Episode." 4 acts where you play as Metal Sonic which is supposed to tie the story of Sonic CD with Sonic 4 (not that there is much of a story). It's basically a rehash of Episode I's fucky level design, especially with Act I having those terrible death traps. The other acts are okay, but really not up to par with Episode II's level design, which isn't great in and of itself, but it's fun enough to qualify it as a decent game in my eyes.

The soundtrack is still balls, though.

If you do enough research, you'll actually find no shortage of praise for this game from various corners of the internet. A lot of this praise seems to be directed at its hardcore nature and inclusion of atypical mechanics for its era. Even Hideki Kamiya cited Super Hydlide as an inspiration during the production of Scalebound. Yeah, Scalebound. Makes you wonder, huh...

Look, credit where credit is due. The game was for sure ahead of its time with its gameplay. A 24-hour day/night cycle, a weight system that accounts for everything you carry (including money), and the survival-lite mechanics in the form of having to eat and rest after a certain amount of time has passed. On paper, these sound like cool ideas, and they would certainly come to be used more effectively in future RPGs, but they only serve as a major nuisance here. They contribute to this game being jank incarnate, and between your character not even having a fluid walking cycle, and the main environment fluctuating between a vomit green and piss yellow color scheme, it's not a very pleasant game to even look at, much less actually play.

But to explain more in-depth what makes this game suck, I'll cover those so-called "far-thinking" mechanics a bit more in-depth.

24-Hour Day/Night Cycle - What could possibly be wrong with this? Well, apart from dawn turning the environment into the aforementioned piss yellow gradient, staying up for too late will eventually exhaust your character, which makes you weak to the point of not even being able to kill the easiest of enemies, so you're forced to sleep at an inn. Make sure you don't head towards a dungeon before catching some much-needed ZZZ's.

Weight - As I said before, everything you hold in this game holds weight. Realism my ass. How does a dagger weigh twice as much as a club??? Leveling up allows you to carry more weight, but the early game is especially brutal as a result. Holding too much weight slows you down significantly, and increasing the speed isn't really an option because it also makes the in-game time speed up, which means you'll probably need to head back to an inn before you even get a chance to kill a handful of monsters. But hey! There's a bank where you can deposit all that heavy money in! That's cool, I guess...

Hunger - This is probably the dumbest mechanic, and this is totally bias, because I'd often forget to buy food rations and it screwed me over quite a handful of times. I'll be in the middle of a dungeon when I suddenly notice my health draining. Well, shit. Gotta backtrack to a town with an inn. Except I made sure to learn the "move" spell early on which lets you teleport to an inn. But even this wasn't an option a couple of times, because I'd either run out of herbs to refill my magic or I'd get magic sealed... by an enemy? The game doesn't even tell you this, but that's what I imagine happened to me a couple of times that I couldn't use magic for seemingly no reason. If so... seriously? No status effect message or indicator for that?

I got a little sidetracked there, but there really are a lot of issues I have with this game, many of which lead to other problems. So many in fact, that I don't even feel like bringing anymore up. This may seem like a half-assed review, but that's okay. Half-assed games deserve half-assed reviews. Well, it's more of a mini rant than anything.

Despite all that, I still think it's worth a playthrough out of curiosity alone. I would have never gotten through it without a guide and without putting on albums in the background while I grinded and suffered through its horrendous dungeons and cryptic progression. But at that point, it really did become a sort of cathartic journey. It's an awful game, but an interesting experience, nonetheless.

When it comes to this series, XV should have taught me to remain... cautiously optimistic, at best. As I directed my metaphorical gaze towards Square Enix, I proudly proclaimed, "You cannot... will not, get me to buy the deluxe edition! Not again Satan!" And I didn't. Though, part of me still wishes I had. See, it's been nearly 7 years since we got XV, and I have learned. Unlike that game, XVI had all the surefire signs that it would deliver, and all these factors lead back to one, uh, thing: Yoshi P.

The lead up to this game's release had me so hyped that I actually tried getting back into XIV, and I ended up getting hooked. I already knew, but this just further cemented it: Kino was upon us. Sure, in hindsight, perhaps my expectations were still too high (I guess I didn't learn enough). But, does it really matter? CBUIII still gave us the gift of a complete and quality product. XVI is stylish, it's dark, and most importantly, it's fun.

There's a question that likes to get thrown around a lot during discussions of this game: is XVI a real Final Fantasy game? Personally, the series has always been about experimentation. Besides some usual trademark staples like chocobos and moogles, there's not really a concrete foundation for what makes a FF game. As far as I'm concerned, this series is a great sandbox for SE to play around with new ideas and bring something new and interesting to the table - hoping that of course, it lands.

Devil May Cry-lite combat mechanics? Sure, why not. Gore? Knock yourself out. Scenes that would make your parents blush? Might as well.

Yeah, XVI is for sure a very radical departure from what most have come to expect from the series, and it's a very divisive title as a result. But again, I'm usually one to embrace change, and it's something that I have come to expect in a series that's been going strong for nearly 40 years. This game may feel like a AAA western action "blockbuster" more than a "proper" JRPG, but I could care less when the game is this good.

Cons? I can list quite a few, actually:

- Low difficulty
- Combat mechanics aren't as deep as they could have been
- Lots of MMO-ish side quests
- Padding and weak pacing later on
- Terrible loot
- Dungeons? What dungeons?

All of these complaints amount to very little in the grand scheme of things. The fact of the matter is, in the 48 or so hours it took me to get through my first playthrough, there were many moments of joy, of awe, and of pain that I would gladly experience all over again for the first time if I could. I'm so glad this game exists, and I'm thankful to Yoshi P for making it happen. Mainline Final Fantasy is so back.

Oh, and the Eikon battles were pretty badass, yeah.

Let me get this out of the way first... breathes in... - THEY ADDED AN ACTUAL WEAPON SELECT SCREEN! I don't know why that excited me so much, but it did. No more dumb initials on the lower half of the screen. A full screen menu with actual weapon names this time. Anyway, moving on...

I'm happy to report that MM3 was not just simply a case of series fatigue, but rather just a case of subpar level design. MM4 doesn't feature as much innovation, but that's okay, because the level design here is pretty darn good - maybe even surpassing MM2's for me. I like how the second half was divided into two castle stages. Sure, it's still a test of endurance, but unlike MM3, I really liked the bosses in these castle stages for the most part.

This game features the addition of the upgraded Mega Buster, which allows you to charge up a more powerful shot. This was pretty helpful for taking down a handful of bosses more quickly if you happen to run out of energy on another weapon. But there's actually one thing I wish they had kept from MM3... free movement with Rush Jet is no longer a thing. Terrible. Disgusting. If I was a spiteful person, I'd take away an entire star just for that. But I digress, this is a great game. Definitely has similar replay value to 2, but overall this is the better game, I feel.