I'd played fighting games in the 90s on Super Nintendo and in arcades, and while I enjoyed many of them, I never cared enough to devote the required time and effort to develop a mastery. That all changed when I played Soul Calibur at a kiosk in Circuit City and my goddamn brain melted. I immediately sold my N64 and all my games to a close friend, which got me a little over 50% of the required funds to get a Dreamcast (with Soul Calibur and a VMU obviously). The rest of the funds were sourced from a loan with quite unreasonable terms and condition from my brother. I didn't care. Booting this thing up at home was one of the formative experiences of my childhood. It didn't take long before I'd mastered every fighter in the game to the point where I had a hard time convincing anyone to play against me. I had a carrying case with my DC and I'd bring it with me to every friend's house on the off chance that someone would be up to the challenge. No one ever was. I was the SoulCalibur king of that one particular Colorado neighborhood during a glorious run at the turn of the century.

You can't fucking review this game (or any game) in a vacuum. Games don't work that way. 5/5.

I couldn't beat this game without the strategy guide because I was like 11, and some of the game's puzzles would be overly esoteric for me even today. But still, my willingness to parse a confusing unofficial (non-Prima) strategy guide to unpack this confounding and achingly beautiful world simply made this masterpiece accessible to me, and thus changed my world forever. Thanks to that strategy guide I played through this game five or six times, each time in a single unbroken sitting. Oftentimes on my dad's laptop in the back seat of the car on long road trips. It was, in 1997, the most effective escape into a strange world that I knew of. One that didn't require me to be good at anything other than reading the instructions.

Pros: Art direction and cohesive sense of style, uber-precise controls, fun skater customization, chill soundtrack, colors that explode off the screen (especially on the Switch OLED), easy to pick up but tough to master.

Cons: Lots of load screens, slowdown on Switch during many of the later complex stages.

Overall: 4 stars on the Switch, easily 4.5 stars on every other system. That being said, playing this in handheld mode is still a total delight in spite of the technical hiccups. The small analogue sticks make it easier to pull off insane combos. It's one of those games that's easy to pick up and enjoy, but features an extremely high skill ceiling for those willing to put in the time. The extreme challenge might be off-putting for some, but for me I'm good at quitting once I know I've reached my natural limit. Putting in some headphones and just vibing to this game on a sleepy afternoon has been one the highlights of 2023 so far.

This is fucking peak Pikmin.

As good as the previous games in the series are, Pikmin has always lived in my mind as B-tier Nintendo. Great but not quite to the quality of their best work. That's changed with Pikmin 4. We finally have a game that fulfills on the promise of its premise and embraces what sets it apart from other strategy games. Throw in some extremely welcome quality of life additions and a generous campaign and side activities, this is about as good as one could expect. The only quibble I have is the lack of true co-op, which would've put it over-the-top.

At 185 hours this game is significantly longer than any other single player open world game I've played. While there may be nitpicks, the shear amount of wondrous moments, emergent gameplay, the feeling of being in a sandbox of endless possibilities, and the number of activities the game gives you to really dig into its systems, make this easily one of the biggest achievements in the history of gaming. It also relies on the gamer to meet the game in the middle. Your fun with the game from a moment to moment basis relies heavily on your ability and desire to tinker, goof around, try new things, and embrace a certain degree of chaos. And for that, I would imagine that people's mileage may vary. I can see many gamers, especially new gamers or ones with a more rigid mindset, struggling with the overwhelming open-endedness and who may benefit by having parameters to feel like they have permission to have fun. For me, this game is at its best when you turn off any compulsion to explore and "do everything" and just learn to embrace the game's natural cadence.