Synchronise
1993
If you had asked me five years ago if I would have ever played DOOM, I would have said "no." I'm glad I'm not the me of five years ago. This was an incredibly fun experience that did not wear out its welcome and it's remarkable just how good and fun it feels to play.
I will admit that once I got the shotgun, I was hard-pressed to use anything but the shotgun, even if other guns were "better." It just felt that good to use.
This game also taught me that my internal map-making ability is absolute garbage. It was very easy for me to get lost, especially with some of the E3 stage mechanics. Once you run out of monsters to fill with lead, the levels can get dull pretty fast.
Everything can play DOOM, and everyone should play DOOM.
I will admit that once I got the shotgun, I was hard-pressed to use anything but the shotgun, even if other guns were "better." It just felt that good to use.
This game also taught me that my internal map-making ability is absolute garbage. It was very easy for me to get lost, especially with some of the E3 stage mechanics. Once you run out of monsters to fill with lead, the levels can get dull pretty fast.
Everything can play DOOM, and everyone should play DOOM.
1990
I played this and Kuru Kuru Kururin on recommendation from Transparency and had honestly never heard of these games or that they were related to Ghosts 'n' Goblins.
I went into this game with zero expectations and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed playing as Firebrand and navigating the stages and the overworld. The ending mechanically feels a bit underwhelming, but it also feels pretty suitable to be so powerful that the final boss quakes in terror. Recommend giving this one a try.
I went into this game with zero expectations and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed playing as Firebrand and navigating the stages and the overworld. The ending mechanically feels a bit underwhelming, but it also feels pretty suitable to be so powerful that the final boss quakes in terror. Recommend giving this one a try.
2000
This review contains spoilers
Late in 2022 I decided that for January 2023, I wanted to play Boku no Natsuyasumi one day at a time. January and August are the same length--31 days each--and escaping into the Japanese summer countryside while in the grip of the Swedish winter (a cold, dark experience where the sun is more a suggestion than a guarantee) seemed enticing.
So every day this month, usually after a long day at work and a short dinner, I sat down with my partner as spectator and I booted up a new summer day, taking on the role of Boku. Neither of us are fluent in Japanese, so we made liberal use of translation options, but much of the time I was more keen to just let the speech wash over me and try to catch what I could in meaning. I've been privileged to always have games playable in my native language, so this experience felt a lot like my partner's childhood gaming reality--playing games in a language you don't understand, doing your best to beat it anyway--and also never detracted from the overall experience.
I tried to play this game less as a game and more as a simulator. I did not reset (excluding that one time when the game froze) and I avoided looking things up as much as possible. This was, maybe, a chance for me to get back one summer of my childhood that I thought was lost forever.
I didn't actually get an ending. I still don't really understand why. But getting a specific ending wasn't really the point. The ending I really earned was a month of memories with my partner, a month of evenings (and a couple mornings) running through forests and fields, shouting "BIG!" whenever we caught a big bug, cheering when the kite cleared 120m, and dreaming about the many meals Boku tasted during his summer break.
I can never go back to my childhood, can never replace those memories, even as more of those memories slip from my grasp. But I can make new ones, and I made fantastic ones with this game. Play it if you can.
So every day this month, usually after a long day at work and a short dinner, I sat down with my partner as spectator and I booted up a new summer day, taking on the role of Boku. Neither of us are fluent in Japanese, so we made liberal use of translation options, but much of the time I was more keen to just let the speech wash over me and try to catch what I could in meaning. I've been privileged to always have games playable in my native language, so this experience felt a lot like my partner's childhood gaming reality--playing games in a language you don't understand, doing your best to beat it anyway--and also never detracted from the overall experience.
I tried to play this game less as a game and more as a simulator. I did not reset (excluding that one time when the game froze) and I avoided looking things up as much as possible. This was, maybe, a chance for me to get back one summer of my childhood that I thought was lost forever.
I didn't actually get an ending. I still don't really understand why. But getting a specific ending wasn't really the point. The ending I really earned was a month of memories with my partner, a month of evenings (and a couple mornings) running through forests and fields, shouting "BIG!" whenever we caught a big bug, cheering when the kite cleared 120m, and dreaming about the many meals Boku tasted during his summer break.
I can never go back to my childhood, can never replace those memories, even as more of those memories slip from my grasp. But I can make new ones, and I made fantastic ones with this game. Play it if you can.
2014
Better than 2048.
When I was a child, our family rented a Sega Saturn every now and then so that my dad could play NASCAR '98. I think if I had not already been introduced to Nintendo, I would have become a Sega kid, and my score attack game of choice would have been NiGHTS instead of Star Fox 64.
This game was surprisingly tough for me, but it always felt tough in a way that made me think "if I played this a LOT more, I could be really good at it." Which is just the right kind of tough to me.
I still sometimes wish I could be NiGHTS; the character designs in this game captured me as a teen and still interest me now. Plus the game is just SO colorful. Absolutely stellar art direction.
This game is a dream. If you're at all a fan of games like Star Fox (or any score attack game, really), definitely give this one a go.
One final note: my partner spectated and when we spotted Naka's name in the credits, we both said "He's in jail!" at the same time.
This game was surprisingly tough for me, but it always felt tough in a way that made me think "if I played this a LOT more, I could be really good at it." Which is just the right kind of tough to me.
I still sometimes wish I could be NiGHTS; the character designs in this game captured me as a teen and still interest me now. Plus the game is just SO colorful. Absolutely stellar art direction.
This game is a dream. If you're at all a fan of games like Star Fox (or any score attack game, really), definitely give this one a go.
One final note: my partner spectated and when we spotted Naka's name in the credits, we both said "He's in jail!" at the same time.
Even if later games in the series are improvements over the concepts first laid out in Kingdom Hearts, the first game will always be special to me. It felt like a game tailor-made for my particular brand of weird as a young teen and now, as an adult, I still smile through all of the cutscenes, like I'm greeting old friends after a long time away.
This was my first time playing the Final Mix version, and I largely consider this version to be a downgrade in comparison to the original NA/EU release. There are many new "gimmick" Heartless introduced that have specific conditions attached to them, and they all have an exclusive drop item that will only drop if those conditions are met perfectly. This on its own wouldn't necessarily be bad, but the Synthesis system has been retooled to require these items for at least one recipe at every group level. This was the point where I decided I wouldn't 100% this version of the game. (I did do enough to get the Special Secret though.)
I'm also just picky about the Heartless color palette swap. Not a fan! But it's pretty minor overall, except for that infamous Trickmaster recolor.
And yet...it's still pretty much the same game, with the same flaws as before. It's still, mostly, how I remember it twenty years ago. And I still love it so much.
This was my first time playing the Final Mix version, and I largely consider this version to be a downgrade in comparison to the original NA/EU release. There are many new "gimmick" Heartless introduced that have specific conditions attached to them, and they all have an exclusive drop item that will only drop if those conditions are met perfectly. This on its own wouldn't necessarily be bad, but the Synthesis system has been retooled to require these items for at least one recipe at every group level. This was the point where I decided I wouldn't 100% this version of the game. (I did do enough to get the Special Secret though.)
I'm also just picky about the Heartless color palette swap. Not a fan! But it's pretty minor overall, except for that infamous Trickmaster recolor.
And yet...it's still pretty much the same game, with the same flaws as before. It's still, mostly, how I remember it twenty years ago. And I still love it so much.
2012
Uninspired music combined with timing problems means that the core of this game is already flawed, no matter how it’s dressed up in nice visuals. Honestly a shame that the gameplay is so poor.
1994
This review contains spoilers
You haven't lived until Shiori Fujisaki has given you chocolate on Valentine's Day.
...I really liked this game. I didn't feel compelled to do all the Gamer Things of collecting all the lost kids/litter/etc. but I did enjoy them when I stumbled across them. ... Also? One of the best in-game hint systems out there. Much love to my in-game mom and dad for helping me out. Worth checking out.
(more in-depth review on my neocities)
(more in-depth review on my neocities)
2024
I was predisposed to love this game. I've been playing poker for a long time now and love the excitement of putting together a winning hand with just enough finesse and more than a little luck. The big advantage of Balatro is rather than having to rely upon sussing out your human opponents' inner thoughts and bluffs, you can just get mad when the game throws an absurd Boss Blind at you. Get mad, and then, hopefully, get planning.
Even when I'm not playing Balatro, I'm thinking about Balatro. Thinking about my favorite Jokers and which ones would possibly pair up in a way that would lead me to victory, thinking about how much I hated certain Boss Blinds, thinking about the pain of discarding over and over only to never hit that exact hand I wanted... The game has a real way of getting in my head.
It took me a lot of attempts to get my first victory, but it was so worth it. I look forward to picking this up again and again to try to unlock Challenge Mode and fill out the collections.
Even when I'm not playing Balatro, I'm thinking about Balatro. Thinking about my favorite Jokers and which ones would possibly pair up in a way that would lead me to victory, thinking about how much I hated certain Boss Blinds, thinking about the pain of discarding over and over only to never hit that exact hand I wanted... The game has a real way of getting in my head.
It took me a lot of attempts to get my first victory, but it was so worth it. I look forward to picking this up again and again to try to unlock Challenge Mode and fill out the collections.
2022
I come away from TUNIC feeling a bit sour that it wasn't exactly what I was hoping it would be. Or what I expected it to be based on the opinions of others. The combat and world exploration just don't do it for me, but they are held up by some really enjoyable puzzle-solving and the incredible use of the in-game instruction booklet.
For being a game so many compared to Zelda 1, it shines its brightest when it wants the player to do one of the activities that personally helped me the most during Zelda 1: taking actual notes with pen and paper.
(more in-depth review on my neocities)
For being a game so many compared to Zelda 1, it shines its brightest when it wants the player to do one of the activities that personally helped me the most during Zelda 1: taking actual notes with pen and paper.
(more in-depth review on my neocities)
2019
This game made me feel like a genius and like an utter dullard, sometimes within just seconds of each other. Immensely satisfying, funny at times, and the occasional frustration stemming from the difficulty of following the game’s logic.
2001
Both this game and Gargoyle's Quest I played on recommendation from Transparency. I had heard of this game before but had never had occasion to play it due to it not being released in North America.
Much like the game itself, I'll keep this short and sweet. I had a lot of fun "solving" each stage, though I wasn't terribly concerned with "perfect" runs or getting the fastest time. I could see myself going back to this now and again.
Much like the game itself, I'll keep this short and sweet. I had a lot of fun "solving" each stage, though I wasn't terribly concerned with "perfect" runs or getting the fastest time. I could see myself going back to this now and again.
2022
This review contains spoilers
I've been playing Pokémon from the moment I unwrapped copies of Blue and Yellow as a child. As an adult, I think a lot about how Pokémon, a game supposedly created for the purpose of giving the Link Cable a reason to exist and thereby encouraged playing together, is a series that I enjoyed mostly solo for the first three generations.
Considering where I grew up (mostly rural-suburban America) that is not terribly surprising. There's a lot that makes up the "core" of Pokémon, but playing with others wouldn't happen until the fourth generation. From that point on, Pokémon was an experience to be shared with others.
Pokémon Sword and Shield were a fine first step into actually letting people play together in the same world, and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet take the next step into allowing players to explore, catch, and battle together in the same world. So much of my joy in this game is directly linked to running around Paldea with my partner, taking silly screenshots and yelling every time we spotted a shiny Pokémon. That happiness combines nicely with the joy of delving into every nook and cranny of this game (dude, we got some real good caves this time around) as well as BLJing into the Crater only to find it wouldn't load and then marveling at how a Garchomp flies around. For these reasons alone, while they are not at all the best Pokémon games (and I would not give "best" to any title after Black and White), they have become my favourite.
There's just so much about this game that also disappointed me. The Gym "challenges" started off so strong, but after the first two or three gyms, they lose all of their charm. This is one area where Sun and Moon excelled, even if I ultimately think the Totem Pokémon fights are not that engaging (give me something more than just "hey let's buff the snot out of this thing, good luck"). The character customisation that had done nothing but improve from X and Y has taken a massive step backward by severely limiting clothing options, and while I love how much more we can customise our character's appearance, it's just far less fun than all of the clothing choices we had in Sword and Shield. It's very well-known at this point that the games show their seams and just straight-up crash more than previous entries, and while I think no one believes Game FREAK is a paragon of perfect programming, I question the management decisions that have resulted in Pokémon sticking to a three-year release schedule when the complexity of the games only increases.
Small aside: I can see ILCA's fingerprints across certain parts of this game, particularly in menus, and to be perfectly frank, I think ILCA has been one of the most detrimental additions to Pokémon. Even in Pokémon HOME, I cannot get away from the feeling that the effort is slapdash and at times downright ugly (I really, really dislike the weird artwork used in HOME. Sorry not sorry.)
And yet there's so much good here. The story is average-to-good until one hits the final chapter, at which point it is by far my most favourite Pokémon plot to date. (Also, the music here? Absolutely incredible stuff.) Koraidon and Miraidon are imbued with so much personality and I could not help but fall in love with them. The wide cast of characters has lots of intriguing standouts (Arven is talked about a lot, but I actually have a huge soft spot for Nemona, and the teachers are so cool. Big heart eyes for them all) and there are some truly incredible Pokémon designs this time around. If I had to pick a single design to call out, it would be the simple, effective, stunning design and naming of Tatsugiri. Absolutely next level.
I haven't talked about Terastallizing or Tera Raids, but in summary: I hope Game FREAK keeps experimenting with battles and I appreciate how hard Tera Raids can be...but they are, sometimes, a bit TOO hard. Please bring back Dynamax Adventures. Thank you.
Since the jump to 3D, I struggle a lot with how to recommend Pokémon to a first-timer to the series. The QOL changes that happen from generation to generation make it very hard to recommend earlier games, while Pokémon as a whole has just lacked the kind of polish it once had in 2D. I can't even necessarily recommend Legends Arceus, because while that is an utterly fantastic game, its gameplay is just enough removed from what we think of as "core Pokémon" that it wouldn't set good expectations for the series as a whole.
So would I recommend Pokémon Scarlet and Violet? I don't even know if I'd recommend Pokémon at all. It's a series that survives on a fanbase that both loves and abhors it. Generation IX isn't quite "as good a place to start as any," but it's a pretty good place to start. Just find someone to play with; I can't imagine ever playing this series alone again.
Considering where I grew up (mostly rural-suburban America) that is not terribly surprising. There's a lot that makes up the "core" of Pokémon, but playing with others wouldn't happen until the fourth generation. From that point on, Pokémon was an experience to be shared with others.
Pokémon Sword and Shield were a fine first step into actually letting people play together in the same world, and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet take the next step into allowing players to explore, catch, and battle together in the same world. So much of my joy in this game is directly linked to running around Paldea with my partner, taking silly screenshots and yelling every time we spotted a shiny Pokémon. That happiness combines nicely with the joy of delving into every nook and cranny of this game (dude, we got some real good caves this time around) as well as BLJing into the Crater only to find it wouldn't load and then marveling at how a Garchomp flies around. For these reasons alone, while they are not at all the best Pokémon games (and I would not give "best" to any title after Black and White), they have become my favourite.
There's just so much about this game that also disappointed me. The Gym "challenges" started off so strong, but after the first two or three gyms, they lose all of their charm. This is one area where Sun and Moon excelled, even if I ultimately think the Totem Pokémon fights are not that engaging (give me something more than just "hey let's buff the snot out of this thing, good luck"). The character customisation that had done nothing but improve from X and Y has taken a massive step backward by severely limiting clothing options, and while I love how much more we can customise our character's appearance, it's just far less fun than all of the clothing choices we had in Sword and Shield. It's very well-known at this point that the games show their seams and just straight-up crash more than previous entries, and while I think no one believes Game FREAK is a paragon of perfect programming, I question the management decisions that have resulted in Pokémon sticking to a three-year release schedule when the complexity of the games only increases.
Small aside: I can see ILCA's fingerprints across certain parts of this game, particularly in menus, and to be perfectly frank, I think ILCA has been one of the most detrimental additions to Pokémon. Even in Pokémon HOME, I cannot get away from the feeling that the effort is slapdash and at times downright ugly (I really, really dislike the weird artwork used in HOME. Sorry not sorry.)
And yet there's so much good here. The story is average-to-good until one hits the final chapter, at which point it is by far my most favourite Pokémon plot to date. (Also, the music here? Absolutely incredible stuff.) Koraidon and Miraidon are imbued with so much personality and I could not help but fall in love with them. The wide cast of characters has lots of intriguing standouts (Arven is talked about a lot, but I actually have a huge soft spot for Nemona, and the teachers are so cool. Big heart eyes for them all) and there are some truly incredible Pokémon designs this time around. If I had to pick a single design to call out, it would be the simple, effective, stunning design and naming of Tatsugiri. Absolutely next level.
I haven't talked about Terastallizing or Tera Raids, but in summary: I hope Game FREAK keeps experimenting with battles and I appreciate how hard Tera Raids can be...but they are, sometimes, a bit TOO hard. Please bring back Dynamax Adventures. Thank you.
Since the jump to 3D, I struggle a lot with how to recommend Pokémon to a first-timer to the series. The QOL changes that happen from generation to generation make it very hard to recommend earlier games, while Pokémon as a whole has just lacked the kind of polish it once had in 2D. I can't even necessarily recommend Legends Arceus, because while that is an utterly fantastic game, its gameplay is just enough removed from what we think of as "core Pokémon" that it wouldn't set good expectations for the series as a whole.
So would I recommend Pokémon Scarlet and Violet? I don't even know if I'd recommend Pokémon at all. It's a series that survives on a fanbase that both loves and abhors it. Generation IX isn't quite "as good a place to start as any," but it's a pretty good place to start. Just find someone to play with; I can't imagine ever playing this series alone again.
1992
Despite owning Final Fantasy V Advance for many years, I somehow only ever played the two better-known--and better-loved--Final Fantasy entries for the Super Famicom. I don't know why I never tried it out; I suppose at the time I just couldn't bring myself to play much of anything, much less a multi-hour RPG.
Boy did I miss out. This game is a delight. The story never reaches the heights of Final Fantasy IV or VI, but it has some standout moments that at least elevate it above the likes of Final Fantasy I or III. Same goes for the characters as well, though I will say I love Faris with all my heart.
No, Final Fantasy V shines on its Job System and the amount of customisation one can do is simply sublime. This series has become very well-known for its narrative elements, but I always appreciate when they bring something mechanically interesting to the table, and I found immense delight in planning out and executing on specific builds for each character. There are certainly things I would do differently on a future playthrough, and there's always the Four Job Fiesta...
In short, definitely play this one.
Boy did I miss out. This game is a delight. The story never reaches the heights of Final Fantasy IV or VI, but it has some standout moments that at least elevate it above the likes of Final Fantasy I or III. Same goes for the characters as well, though I will say I love Faris with all my heart.
No, Final Fantasy V shines on its Job System and the amount of customisation one can do is simply sublime. This series has become very well-known for its narrative elements, but I always appreciate when they bring something mechanically interesting to the table, and I found immense delight in planning out and executing on specific builds for each character. There are certainly things I would do differently on a future playthrough, and there's always the Four Job Fiesta...
In short, definitely play this one.