If you're a Souls-like guy or girl looking for more of the same, then this is probably a solid experience until the next big thing by Fromsoft or other studios. Thymesia is very focused on parry mechanics and has a neat little life system in which you first have to break the shield of an enemy until you can attack its real health bar. Unfortunately, while the combat is solid enough, it is let down by being very inconsistent with its hitbox, way to spam heavy with enemy attacks, and generally having low enemy variety. The bosses are good, though!

Metroid Prime is less about the fast-paced combat from modern 2D Metroid's. Instead, it is more about slowly exploring every room you're presented, searching for every last detail and secret that the developers hid from you. In my opinion, it really nails that feeling of being on an unknown planet filled with dangerous flora and fauna. I also think a fast travel option or another way of travelling through the map quickly would benefit the game a lot. Now release Metroid Prime 2 and 3 on Switch you cowards!

Overall, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones has aged incredibly well from the perspective of someone playing the trilogy for the first time in 2023. The platforming is very precise and the presentation, music and setting hold up even by today's standards. I also like the change of being able to stealth kill enemies, just because combat is its weakest part, and every tool that helps to minimize combat made the game more enjoyable to me. The bosses are absolute garbage, though. I played the entire trilogy on Steam Deck, and it played really well with community controller layouts.

Pokemon Heartgold holds up quite well, but ultimately it's the little things that kept me from thinking this is a great game instead of just being good. The level curve is for example one thing that is often criticized, and I agree with that, but also the low variety of Pokemon until you reach Kanto, the slow battle system and the lack of some of the quality of life changes in modern Pokemon games. The sheer amount of content is incredible though, and it captures the feeling of the original games perfectly while still having some of the best sprite designs in the entire franchise.

Timespinner is a very solid Metroidvania that threw me back 15 years ago with its nostalgic feeling that is all around it. Its most unique aspect is that it has some light RPG mechanics in the form of different weapon types that you can mix and match to your liking, a leveling system and companions. Considering that it is quite short, I did enjoy these little additions to your standard Metroidvania. I didn't catch much of the story, it obviously involves time travel, but that felt more like it was included to jump between the same map at different times than to have a deep story or characters.

This game speaks to me on an interdimensional level. It definitely has some major flaws, like the shallow combat system or the not so consumer friendly DLC practices. I could totally understand if someone came up to me and said "Asura's Wrath is trash" but to me, it is really unique. Describing it as over the top is an understatement, and I love that about it. The spectacle is something beyond anything other in the video game world. I hope this will get some love in the future in the form of a remaster on modern platforms, but that is probably not going to happen considering that it sold pretty badly.

While I still like Dark Souls 1 more because it has higher highs, Dark Souls 3 is a return to form after the more disappointing second entry in the franchise. My experience with it felt much more consistent in terms of level design, combat encounter design and boss design (though there are still some that fell flat for me). The visual and sound design is just as good as always, and locations are very distinct from each other so that I never felt lost even without a map. Bosses are, as always, the highlight and enjoyed those a lot. This also seems like the best entry point for new players, as some mechanics that were a bit clunky were streamlined. I'm definitely looking forward to experiencing Sekiro and Elden Ring when I have the time.

If I had one word to describe my experience with Xenoblade Chronicles it would be tedious. The combat is basically going through a menu and pressing the A button, then waiting until the cooldown is gone and repeating. The enemies take forever to kill, even on lower difficulty, and there is no skill involved at all, it's basically just a stat check. Also, enemies look different, but everyone plays exactly the same from start to finish. The story is mediocre at best and plain stupid at worst. The only positive sides to this that I found are the music (which is by far the best part of the game) and that it isn't as anime-like as Xenoblade 2.

Cassette Beasts proves that a game inspired by Pokemon can be its own thing with an original identity. I fundamentally enjoyed every part of this game such as the monster designs and the collecting, the story and characters as well as just exploring the world looking for the captains, train stations, new monsters, fusions or chests. If you're even remotely interested in the creature collecting sub-genre, I strongly recommend you to give this game a try. I'd have to write an essay to give this game the love that it deserves.

Prodeus is a fantastic Boomer Shooter that excels at most of the things that make these types of games so addicting. It is fast-paced, has great weapon variety, good gunplay, and, most of the time, good level design. The best and worst part about it is that when you blast an enemy, their entire body blows up, leaving only their remains and a ton of blood everywhere. While that looks freaking amazing, I often found myself not seeing anything through all the VFX. This led to a little bit of frustration on higher difficulties.

Unpacking is a great cozy game about moving to different places. The way it uses this premise to tell a story without ever saying any dialogue is honestly phenomenal. The sound design is great too as it responds to your actions accordingly like moving a bowl on tiles and then on wood which makes entirely different but believable sounds. The only things that I disliked were that sometimes it's hard to identify an object, which lead to a lot of moving back and forth until I found the right spot for the object as well as the fixed camera perspective that made it hard to see and interact with things (especially smaller ones, that often just disappeared behind bigger objects).