Like many of my favorite games, I knew from very early on that Ghost Trick was something special. I put off playing this or even really looking into what it was for years of hearing that it was great just through a misunderstanding of what it actually is. It's actually a very unique game, but if you were to try and describe it to someone unfamiliar, the closest fit is probably a mix of a visual novel and a point-and-click adventure game, two things I am very much not fond of. The recent remastered release caught my attention, and I'm very glad it did. I've tried to avoid any spoilers in this review, but really if the game already has your attention and you haven't tried it, let this be a recommendation to just stop reading and play it. I was very skeptical that it could live up to its reputation, and throughout the game I was still half-expecting the story or gameplay to fall apart by the end, as good as they were. I can say now that it definitely doesn't do that, and it's a game I think everyone should play.

The game's charming presentation is one of the first things you'll notice and goes a long way towards making a strong first impression. It feels high quality in so many ways, and that extra effort really pays off. I've seen similarly structured games with a lot of dialogue like this where characterization is done entirely through text and character portraits (which there are often a real lack of, with characters only having a couple of faces or emotions). There's still a lot of that here, and it could probably get by with the great dialogue writing and wide range of expressive character portraits, but the animations and presentation of scenes outside of that visual novel format really add a lot. Even if they're smoother in the remake, I'm shocked these animations came from a DS title. I think this is a big part of what helps the game go between serious subjects and comedy effortlessly. Comedy is very hard to do well in games, and I laughed a lot while playing this. More often it came from visual jokes with the character animations than from dialogue. This doesn't fall into the trap of detracting from serious subjects in the story though, and both aspects feel respectful of each other.

Another big part of the presentation is the soundtrack, and it's fantastic. One of my favorites I've heard in quite a while, it has a very unique sound to it and has enough variety in tracks that none of them feel old even with some reuse. The remake has a new arranged version of the soundtrack as well as the option to use the original, which I'm really glad they included. I played mostly with the original version, and have listened to the arranged version afterwards. I think I have a slight preference for the original, but both are great, it's hard to pick a clear winner so it's very nice to have the choice there.

The core gameplay is a very unique twist on classic point-and-click adventure games, which feels like a natural evolution of that genre, and was very enjoyable even as someone who dislikes most of those. You play as a ghost who can hop between nearby objects and interact with them. You're very limited in both range and strength, making puzzles into elaborate chains of actions to achieve simple tasks. It never feels like the puzzles get too complex or open ended, but they do a good job at making you feel smart for figuring them out.

I do have some small complaints with the gameplay. The puzzles take a little too long to ramp up in difficulty, and it feels like the game is feeding you a few too many hints for the first third or so of the runtime. It's not too overbearing, but it does hold your hand a little too much. When the puzzles do get harder it's mostly very fun, but getting stuck can be a frustrating experience that I think they could have easily alleviated. Checkpoints are a little inconsistent, sometimes being there when you don't feel like you need them, but sometimes feeling like you have to redo a little too much each attempt or listen to the same dialogue after each restart in some spots. There's an in-world reason for how the checkpoints work, which could excuse this, but a lot of that reasoning starts to feel a little flimsy for some of them anyways, so I feel like it wouldn't have been too hard to place some of the checkpoints better. There's also a lot of timed elements to puzzles, and a fast-forward feature would have been appreciated. You're never waiting for too long at once, but it can add up if you get stuck for a while on a puzzle with a timing element. The game is also very eager to give you hints at the start of a puzzle, but there were a handful that I got stuck on and it never gave more hints or any help, I think there could have been more stuff like that for the later puzzles that only shows up after a certain number of retries. This is all just nitpicking really, the flaws are very easy to overlook in something so unique, and the pacing between gameplay and story sections is excellent and makes it hard to stay frustrated when the game gives you something else to focus on for a bit after a difficult section.

As neat as the gameplay is, the story is pretty clearly the main draw here, and I was shocked from start to finish how good it is. The basic setup is that you've died and lost your memory, and you have to use your ghost tricks to help yourself and others along the way. In addition to manipulating objects, you're able to replay the moments of death of the recently deceased, and interact with the world in the minutes leading up to that to try and change their fate. In doing this you get caught up in a much bigger plot with a wide cast of characters across a variety of locations. It's often unclear how these threads are connected, both to each other and to your character's story, but against all odds the game manages to wrap it all up in a very satisfying way. Each character in the game has a depth to their personality and attention to detail that you really don't see in other games, and it manages to make even the most unimportant seeming side characters endearing. The story has a lot of twists and reveals, and on top of these being excellently paced and spread throughout the story, they all do make sense within the narrative. Some pretty wild stuff happens, but the writing does a great job of making it all make sense within the game's world, and also addresses every concern I could think of, even if some of the explanations are withheld for a while. I really didn't think the ending could possibly wrap everything up while also addressing some of the minor criticisms I had with the story's logic, and I would have been happy with just a good ending, but it's an amazing one. Everything comes together perfectly and things are addressed in ways I never could have seen coming but make perfect sense. The way the story is put together just feels masterful, and it belongs on the very short list of game stories that I think only work in this medium.

Ghost Trick is such a standout game in every aspect, and while it's not perfect I've never played anything else quite like it and doubt I ever will again. A story this good in a video game is something I've only seen a few times ever, and it's definitely among my favorites. I've been recommending this game to everyone I know since well before I finished it, and it nailing the ending as well as it does only reinforces that. You really owe it to yourself to play this, it's a very special game.

A Game More 50/50 than Tony Khan’s Booking.
Original Score Before Backloggd Rounding: 5/10 (Mediocre)

AEW: Fight Forever is a game I’m conflicted on. A real mixed bag. On one hand, games like WWE All Stars and TNA Impact! are some of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had in a wrestling game, and much like this one, they were more arcade-like in their approach, and focused much more on fun, fast paced, high octane action, than being a 1:1 simulation of the product. The lack of content in that regard is more an annoyance I’m used to with games like this than a deal breaker. The WWE 2K series has the benefit of hundreds if not thousands of assets to recycle from entry-to-entry, while Fight Forever had to be build from the ground up. However, that does not excuse the state of this game. AEW: Fight Forever is a game that is intentionally held back, and not just due to budget or time constraints, but to emulate an N64 title that I personally never experienced, and hold little nostalgia for, and to focus on aspects of the game that I would deem unnecessary. In the end, I think taking more elements from the PlayStation 2/GameCube era of wrestling games, or modernising the old formula of WWF: No Mercy and really doing something new with it, anything would have been better than what we got, and ultimately I find myself disappointed (as you would when you were expecting the next truly great wrestling game, and you end up with a kneecapped end product).

As I mentioned, Fight Forever feels stunningly close to WWF: No Mercy, for better or worse, but it does very little to actually build upon or modernise the tried and true formula that fans have been begging to see return. I'd actually argue in some ways that it's worse. While it possesses a solid foundation, notably the core wrestling gameplay, that is sure to only improve through further updates and downloadable content releases, as it stands now, the game is lacking. While this title may have been a labour of love for Kenny Omega and AEW Games, and I have all the respect in the world for them and what their goal, their dream was, not enough was done to make the game as great as it could have been ahead of launch. Whether it needed a bigger budget, more time in the oven, I can't say. AEW: Fight Forever is lacking in several areas, including but not limited to its poor creation suite, lack of match commentary, match types, and single-player content, which again I let slide in games like TNA Impact! and WWE All Stars because of how darn fun they were. But even those games felt more polished and complete, especially with their single-player offerings.

While AEW: Fight Forever may improve over time, it’s hard to recommend or justify buying at its current full price, no matter how fun the base wrestling gameplay is. It feels more like a budget, digital title than a full fledged retail wrestling title. If you are interested in playing this game, I'd recommend waiting for a sale, and to see how dedicated to their future content plans they actually are. I can’t help but feel a public playtest beta would have done wonders for this game, but what’s done is done.

Take the core formula from the original Slime Mori-Mori and throw in the tanks, and you've got Rocket Slime. Off the bat, there are already a ton of quality-of-life improvements, especially regarding the dungeoneering. All the trains cars/cargo floats now have a max capacity of four items (including yourself if you want to make a quick getaway while holding three items), so no more waiting around or meandering about to offload your goods! There's also no time-limit present in the dungeons anymore, so feel free to explore as long as you want while keeping in mind the day-night cycle that can affect enemy spawns. While there are still some instances of needing to carry around Bomb Rocks to blow up barriers or collecting other assorted objects to imitate totems and unlock doors, there's definitely a lot less of the former and the latter is simplified since objects are now located within nearby rooms instead of having to travel across the whole map. I also appreciate that much of the slower-paced platforming from the original has been replaced with movement-oriented obstacles (such as using the Rollerdash to traverse steeper slopes, or using cannons to both destroy sand castles and shoot yourself across fast-moving water), and that unlike the original, all destroyed and interactable hazards stay destroyed for good upon return trips (looking at you, Plob Balloons). The boss fights are every bit as ridiculous as the original: my personal favorite here has to be Pot Belly, who you must defeat by catching the materials he throws out of his magic urn and then chucking them back at him as he romps about. Finally, the transition from the GBA to the DS has not been missed: the visuals have gotten a nice bump with the DS's higher resolution, and there's a satisfying "YEEEEEOWWWCH" cry every time you slam into an enemy with the Elasto Blast. Just considering the basics that made the original so memorable, I can conclude that the sequel absolutely does all that and more.

What really add much more meat to the game, however, are the tank battles. It cannot be understated how much depth this adds to the core loop: in the original, materials sent back to town could only be used to repair the town (for aesthetics and to unlock some mini-games) or were to be sold for money. This time around, materials harvested from dungeons can now be transmuted with the magic urn once you've gained the corresponding recipes to produce more valuable material that you can use as tank ammo. Additionally, kidnapping monsters becomes much more valuable: send back at least 30 of any species, and you'll create a Bronze statue of that species in the art museum, allowing you to recruit that monster as a crew member for your tank. It's much more worthwhile as a result to forage about the dungeons and send back everything you find, knowing that it'll contribute to improving your tank warfare in some fashion. The tank battles themselves are the perfect mix of controlled chaos: you must fire upon enemy tanks in real-time, managing both the upper and lower cannon while fighting off any invaders trying to infiltrate your own tank and stealing ammo/destroying your interior. While most fights aren't particularly difficult, there is an element of strategy from figuring out exactly what to fire and when (ex: should I use shields to block off an entire line of enemy fire, or should I use carefully placed Kaboomamite instead to create a temporary wall of explosions while firing with the top cannon instead?), and if all else fails, you can just infiltrate the enemy tank yourself and blow up all their machines for the kicks. It never gets old engaging in these over-the-top fights, and the materials gained both for the fights and as a result of winning the fights makes the game's centralization around the tank battles that much more rewarding.

I've played hours upon hours of this game, both in my childhood and recently, and the only pertinent complaint that comes to mind is that the game is a bit too easy. In particular, most tank fights can be cheesed by infiltrating the tank via destroying the door/immediately shooting yourself out of the cannon and landing in the opponent's cannon room, and then just guarding the enemy cannon room to prevent anyone from firing at your tank. It doesn't take much more than a pulse to do so, since enemies can take a while to react to your Elastoblast and killing enemies will put them out of commission for a solid minute or two. I think this could have been alleviated if there were more fights that didn't rely on an enemy crew to fire or if there were more solo fights involved (i.e. just you as the only crew member vs someone else). Regardless, Rocket Slime is an incredibly entertaining and cozy experience that is every bit as charming as the original with tons of upgrades, and while there isn't much post-game to be found outside of the Tank Masters Tournament (which does at least have some entertaining tank battle variations, in fairness), I can respect a game that draws itself to a natural close and never outstays its welcome. It's even better if you can find a friend to play against via local multiplayer Wi-Fi so you can really get a taste of how crazy and complex tank engagements can become. Though, maybe don't pull out the Chili Pepper + Vulcan Bullets strategy if you still want to be friends afterwards. I learned that the hard way.

Slightly prefer to the original - I don't have any problems with the OG's level design, but I never quite appreciated it as much as many people seem to. The more wacky, sometimes gimmicky levels of Doom II, while obviously less tight (and occasionally just... not good), always had me at least excited to see what would come up next. Many new enemies seem redundant on paper, but the sheer added variety (and chads like archvile) are worth it to me. Doom was satisfying but I can't honestly say I'd play it for mechanics alone. This is the sort of game where novelty is worth it, and it's often enough done well - or at least inoffensively, with some obvious exceptions

decided that i was going to sit down and beat this game today, with almost no guide (i ended up using one near end to get the 3 hearts i had missing before i went into dungeon 9) but other than that i did! i have a whole handmade map made with a pen and paper. check it out, here's mine. share yours in the comments. i wanna see your zelda map. if you don't have one, and you allegedly beat this game, you are a CHEATER and a FRAUD!
anyways this game sucks, i've noticed a pattern in third generation game structures. start is okay, middle is the peak of the game, which is usually also at best just fine, and then after that it rapidly goes downhill. i actually do not believe anybody at nintendo was actually sitting down and playing their games the whole way through after they were done. there's nothing as bad as like the metroid final boss, but they need to learn the human eye isn't supposed to fully focus on and track like 13 different things at once. there is an inordinate amount of cheap shots, especially by the goddamn wizrobes which can fuck off. especially when one hit gets rid of your most powerful weapon. i have no clue who decided that but its such a backfire that it's actually insane. getting more hearts makes you WEAKER because it makes it harder to get back to max, thus making it harder to get the sword beam back. what the hell were they thinking? imagine if you could only run in mario when you had a mushroom. anyways i could complain all day but this game stinks dont play it, unless you wanna play then play it.
anyways i'll leave you off on this tidbit, or a call for help or whatever. can someone PLEASE tell me what these hints mean. i have no clue.
"eastmost penninsula is the secret."
"there's a secret in the tip of the nose."
"10th enemy has the bomb."
"spectacle rock is an entrance to death"
"eyes of skull has a secret."
i have no idea what any of these were supposed to mean. so if someone could tell me it would be much appreciated just so i dont wonder for the rest of my life.

This game is a huge leg up over Spark 2, which I did not enjoy very much. While Spark 2 had open ended levels where it was easy to get lost, this game has amazing level design where it is always pushing you forward along with side routes filled with hidden collectables to find.

Cities, forests, factories, an airport, volcanos, beaches, and even levels in space with lo gravity this game has incredibly fun creative levels. Along with the usual Sonic Adventure style stages it also has challenge stages focusing on each ability, missions where you have an open area and need to find coins, time trials, and even come car and helicopter stages. The game also feels so good, the movement is speedy but easy to control with the addition of the wall jump/run and homing attack.

The combat is much improved, giving you the ability to perform combos and buy upgrades. The boss fights are also a lot more creative than they were in Spark 2, though this aspect of the game is still my least favorite. It is not a huge negative this time at least. I have nothing to say about the story, I accepted half way through that I had no idea what was going on so I just gave up on it...

All in all a great ending to this Sonic inspired trilogy!

Surprise, surprise, Nintendo makes another banger game.
BotW wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but I went into TotK with a fresh head and ready to take it on. Out the gate this is a vast improvement on what BotW brought to the table. I don't love open world games, but the additions here made exploration and grabbing stuff as I meandered the world worthwhile. I didn't 100% it, and don't expect to come back to do so, but I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent here.
Gameplay is rock solid, music and visuals are the best they can be for the switch, and the story is serviceable while not being what I had hoped it'd be upon that first reveal trailer. Overall, not a perfect game but has so much good stuff going for it that I think it's an absolute stellar game that should be experienced if you own a Switch.

I mean, look, ok, I'm not against the ideas of Westerns. I loved Deadwood, and Cibola Burn was my favorite book in The Expanse series, ok. I get it, they're all about slow pacing, fucking wide shots of landscape, immersion or whatever. That all works when it's passive media, but PLEASE do no expect me to entertain myself for 80 hours of your 160 hour game. I can look at the game while I'm playing, sure, but I'm just looking at the same thing over and over. Like literally the same thing. The pixels don't change, you know what I mean? I wish Rockstar would grow a pair and just make more cutscenes. No I don't want to have to pay attention to riding my horse while you also do exposition at me. I guess people like the writing in this game too? I don't know, I didn't care for it. How am I supposed to listen to people and ride my horse at the same time? Like sometimes they get far away from you and you can't exactly hear them, so now you're trying to read subtitles and ride your horse at the same time. Like, what? Just let me put the controller down, my hands hurt and I probably have carpal tunnel at 26 years old. You know, I think I really just don't like games that are about "systems". Why is there so much stuff going on? There are so many things you can do in RDR2. How much of that stuff do I have to do? None of it I guess, like none of this matters. No, I don't want to grind out hunting squirrels for a new wallet, or whatever. And yet, my lizard brain makes me feel bad when I see the check boxes for all the things I have to do, so of course I go out and hunt the squirrels like an idiot. Then I don't have fun and, oh god, is this the whole game? Is this what you do in RDR2? Do you really just ride your horse around while half paying attention to the story, then like, hunt wildlife for a check list, and sometimes shoot people? It's horrifying. Imagine if RDR2 was Half Life 2 instead, and it just told a story and didn't have this giant checklist of shit. Do people actually 100% these games? I'm sure some do, but I bet the vast vast majority of people don't. I bet most people don't even see the end because they get scared of the checklists and all the other shit. Like me. I bet like, people memorize all the stuff in this game. Like they know the best hunting spots, they know what towns sell what guns, they know how to craft things. I don't know those things, and I don't want to. Like how do you even craft things? I think you give stuff to the cook. But you're also supposed to donate to your camp? I was never really sure what that did. It's probably written somewhere. There's a lot of stuff written in this game. It's not very good, really. Like it's just not interesting. I think I got to the point where I unlocked weapon mods, saw another checklist of all of those, then uninstalled. You know what's strange, is like, you have your guns right? I don't know how that works. I don't understand the inventory for your guns. Where are they all? You have like 50 of them on your horse, but if you drop one during a mission it's gone forever, I think. Like I had a unique gun (I think it was unique), and then I dropped it because I couldn't find ammo for it, and I was like "oh, it'll be on my horse later", and then it wasn't? Ok, I guess I don't need the gun anyway. It doesn't matter. Death Stranding is a better western anyway.

THE competitive game, in my eyes.

It is a purely skill based game, the more you put into CS the more you get out of it. You are facing against players purely on skillful aim battles, positioning, utility. It's clean and simple to watch competitively.

There is no other game that can kill it, Valorant tried but now it's problems have bubbled up with Hero drops and new mechanics that clutter and mess with the game.

This game you have the same amount of resources as the enemy, don't have to think about what Hero they are playing and their abilities shooting you through walls across the map. You coordinate with your team or just fuck around.

This is way more of a recreational sport than any other competitive game, it never gets old.