Played in co-op on original hardware. Being the first Luigi's Mansion game I actually beat, it was an interesting experience. As far as rail shooters go, it's pretty neat. The vacuum controller in terms of shape (plus the way the controller shakes as you vacuum in coins or whatnot) helped bring about a sense of physical immersion - though the controller also felt a bit small, like it was intended for a kid to hold. The way you alternate between using the light and sucking enemies into your vacuum was pretty neat, and I liked being able to vacuum the environment for coins in between enemy encounters.

All in all - not a revolutionary experience by any means, but I'm not necessarily looking for one, either. It's a fun, solid 3-level game to play around with at the arcade.

did a 1CC clear after first beating the game.

Lester the Unlikely is a very peculiar game. It feels kinda like a midway point between cinematic platformers like Another World, and more traditional platformers... at times kinda feeling like the worst of both worlds, lol. The story is nothing special, it has some questionable narrative/presentation choices, and the gameplay is incredibly trial-and-error focused (it took me 11 Game Overs before I finally beat the game. No save states here). But, all things considered, it's not thaaaaaat bad a game. I was able to get some degree of enjoyment out of it.

The best thing I can say about Lester the Unlikely, is that it is a remarkable example of featuring a protagonist, who grows and develops as a character, over the course of the game. I don't just mean in terms of narrative, but even as far as gameplay is concerned, Lester changes as a character. He starts the game off being afraid of everything, but gradually becomes more confident, and that shows through in both the story, and the game design. Even his sprite changes, reflecting his better posture in the late-game. This is something that many games of today don't even do, let alone games from 1994.

To be clear, Lester the Unlikely is not a great, or even good game, by any means. But it's an interesting curiosity, and I do think it has something going for it. If you wanna check it out - go ahead, lol.

It's a pretty decent game. Overall I do think No One Lives Forever 2 is a better experience than the first - I appreciate the ability to upgrade your skills over the course of the game, and it rewards you for taking the time to explore environments to find notes and files and side-objectives to complete, so it's a pretty solid gameplay loop in that regard. Also, being able to lean is an incredibly welcome addition - not sure why leaning wasn't a thing in the first game.

That said, this game still has some rough spots - the Ohio and India stages in particular are really a pain to deal with, and kinda lower this game in my eyes. If you can get past those parts however, then there is fun to be had, here. The last few stages in particular I think are strong, and the game finishes out in a good way. I'm glad I finally got to knock this game off of my "to-do" list, after years of it sitting there unplayed.

Oh yeah - be warned that this game kinda behaves in weird ways on modern computers. One particular chase sequence in India, would break for me, unless I did the unusual workaround of recording my gameplay via OBS as I played. lol

(beat main game on August 5th; finish post-game/100% achievements on August 20th)

I'm really satisfied with Trails into Reverie! I was feeling kind of ambivalent about the Trails series after Cold Steel III and IV had bummed me out, but Trails into Reverie helped address some issues I'd been having with the series as of late, and I came away from it looking forward to what the future of the series holds once more.

At this point, I'm thinking Reverie is pretty high up there, as far as my favorite Trails games go. Currently deliberating on whether it would enter my top 3 or not - it has steep competition, but nonetheless, I really like this game! It's quite good. (also it was my first time beating a Trails game on Nightmare, so that was neat)

Really good cinematic, narrative-driven experience. It kinda makes me think of cinematic platformers like Another World, though thankfully this lacks the trial-and-error frustration of games like Another World. I did unfortunately had a couple parts of Brothers spoiled for me, years and years ago – but I still ended up really enjoying it, nonetheless; I ended up crying a bunch. The way this game interweaves its storytelling with its game design is incredibly effective; the latter elevates the former, to great effect. Glad I got to finally play it.

Kinda curious now about A Way Out and It Takes Two.

I think this is one of the worst Nintendo games I've ever played, easily. I'm struggling to think of anything positive to say about it. Terrible pacing, clunky combat that lasts way too long for its own good, overworld traversal that feels like a chore, a perspective that's too zoomed in for a low-resolution Game Boy Advance display, a ton of tedious minigames that contribute nothing to the overall game - and also maybe the worst escort mission I've ever experienced in a game. I'm astounded by how awful it is.