It's an insane, nostalgic thing to say, I know. This is my favourite Zelda. I think it's the best one. I have played LADX start to finish more times than I can count, but this is the first time I've done it since BOTW/TOTK came out. And those games are incredible, and my head would probably say they are obviously the better games, but Link's Awakening, Koholint, has my heart. I will never forget it, that memory must be the real dream world.

I reckon if I finally ever get therapy, I could spend a whole session talking about Link's Awakening.

My first Donkey Kong Country game was Returns for the Wii. I got it for Christmas the year it came out (that or it was 2011 I forget) and I remember being so excited to play it. While nowadays, I'm not the biggest Returns fan personally, I can't deny it started my love for the DKC series. Once I got into Super Nintendo games with Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island, I decided I wanted to play the very first Donkey Kong Country game since at that point I still only played Returns. I bought it at my local flea market I believe and really enjoyed it. I mentioned how Yoshi's Island always reminds me of the weekend, since I would play that a lot during that time, and the same applies here too. While I think the sequel does everything this game does but better, I still think the original is a really fun time.

The general gameplay of Donkey Kong Country is you run, jump and roll. Those are basics of course, as each level has other aspects that change gameplay up like barrel cannons you can shoot out of or ropes you can jump on but the general gameplay is pretty simple. The controls are basically perfect, rolling feels super good to perform, and if you know the layout of the levels it's very easy to just speedrun through levels since both Donkey and Diddy are relatively fast. Speaking about the characters, Diddy Kong's first appearance was in this game, and he honestly upstages Donkey Kong. If you get a DK barrel, you can get the other Kong along and they basically act as a 2nd hit. You can switch freely and this is helpful since they each have different attributes to them. Donkey Kong is slower but heavier so he can kill certain enemies that Diddy can't. Diddy just feels better to play as he's faster than Donkey and also has a smaller hitbox. Both are valuable, but Donkey is more situational and is mostly just used for one enemy type (and even then, Diddy can defeat them by rolling into them) so Diddy Kong is my much-preferred Kong to use.

As for collectables in the levels, you have bananas of course. The main plot involves King K Rool stealing DK's banana hoard and he must go after him and his baddies to obtain them back. I think the reasoning behind there being so many littered throughout the levels is he just dropped them or something but either way, they act as coins and getting 100 earns you a life. You can collect letters that spell out KONG and they also give you a life. You can also collect these animal buddy tokens, and getting three of a specific buddy lets you collect these stars, and every 100 you collect ALSO gives you a life. Besides all this, you can also find secret bonus rooms. These all contain all the aformentioned items, or just lives straight up, but these can be a pain to find. I wouldn't have an issue normally since these are optional bonus rooms so it makes sense they'd be really hidden, but getting every single one is how you get 101% in the game, so if you're a completionist you must find them all. The real issue then is, a good chunk of them are just kinda bullshit. You'll have some that are very easy to spot and are self-explanatory. But then you have ones that are completely hidden and sometimes even require blind jumps into pits. I know they wanted you to buy a guide or a Nintendo Power back then to find these locations, but I don't find random pit bonuses or random breakable wall bonuses fun ever. I used a guide for like 80% of these cuz I only ever 100%ed this game once before, so I forgot most of these. The sequel can be like this too, but it generally handled bonus room locations a lot better. Alongside all the collectables and bonus rooms, you also have animal buddies. These are fun as they change up the gameplay slightly. Rambi can kill usually unkillable (unless you have a barrel) enemies by running into them. Expresso can jump a bit higher and float over large gaps. Enguarde swims faster in water and has an attack you can perform. Winky...well Winky just jumps really high, tho he can also jump on usually harmful enemies too and he's honestly underrated. These guys appear enough where they don't just feel like one-off gimmicks or anything.

The levels themselves are generally well designed. They're simpler than the sequels, and I feel like there's generally more bullshit due to enemies suddenly appearing on screen randomly, but there's a nice flow to the levels. Visually, I think it just looks alright. The characters themselves looks good, I just think some of the backgrounds don't look great compared to others, and definitely compared to 2's backgrounds. I think it also doesn't help that the level themes aren't too interesting in this game. You have jungles and mines and factories and Mayan temples and some of these are more unique than others, but they don't exactly lead to very vibrant colors. When it hits, it hits. The one jungle level with the sunset is really nice and I like the ice caves. The factories are kind of cool near the end too, but overall, I think the level settings can be a bit bland here. Not like Returns tho, since that is very formulaic with its level themes but compared to 2, 1 is not as good in that regard.

The bosses in this game are kind of a joke. All of them, besides King K Rool, are incredibly easy and just feel like a slightly tougher regular enemy. They could've easily had no bosses and it would've been fine so I guess it's not like they detract from the game too much, however 2 did bosses way better.

This may be my hottest take though. I don't love the OST. A big reason for that is most of the OST was in Returns, and so I had always felt there was an identity crisis with this game which is not the game's fault and is more a me thing because I played Returns first. Even outside of that, some of the songs I just never really got into...but objectively the OST is quite solid. There are still bangers like Aquatic Ambience and Gang-Plank Galleon of course. Also a shoutout to Fear Factory, that one's nice too. Even though I don't love the OST, it's still good overall, I just much prefer 2's tbh.

I've kind of been complaining about things here or there despite praising the gameplay. Something else I'll praise about this game tho is its Rare charm. Animations are very charming between characters. Donkey and Diddy both get terrified when you're at the edge of a cliff. They do a charming celebration whenever you defeat a boss or complete a bonus room. Diddy Kong throws his hat down and stomps on it when he loses a bonus room. The dialogue between the other characters like Cranky or Funky or Candy are very charming too. There's a fake-out Kremlin credits that happens when you get halfway into King K Rool's fight, and the actual credits have humorous cutscenes between characters. Not only is this game charming as hell, but it also created all these well-known characters too. We wouldn't have Diddy Kong or Cranky Kong or Funky Kong if it wasn't for this game. We wouldn't have my man K Rool either, he's such a memorable villain. The Kremlins themselves are very memorable and cartoony. I think besides the actual gameplay, the best thing DKC1 does is the worldbuilding and charm. Before this, we just had DK and DK Jr. It's all thanks to Rare, that we have as many memorable characters as we do now.

I may have some issues with this game, and I think 2 fixes them all pretty much, but this is still a classic for a reason and is staple Super Nintendo game. I was honestly thinking about dropping this to a 7, even up until writing most of this review, but it wasn't until the paragraph before this did, I really ponder and think about how many staple characters this game created and just how charming this game is in general. It's very important to entire DK series as a whole and is a very fun platformer at that! However, as I've said several times in this review, 2 is better in every way and I'm going to be replaying that soon so stay tuned for that review!

When I was a kid I was bullied a lot and had no friends at school. But what I did have was Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. That game made me feel brave. It made me feel less alone. I was the Hero of Time. It was a much needed escape from the hardships of my elementary school social life.

Tunic is a blend a lot of things, but mostly it's a love letter to Zelda, a series very near and dear to my heart. Others my age who grew up influenced by Ocarina of Time are now making their own games, and it's an encouraging sight for the future of video game artistry. Tunic made me feel like a kid again in the most wholesome way. I felt excited when discovering something new, triumphant when beating a difficult boss, and even felt brave when overcoming the spooky bits.

Tunic features one of my new all-time favorite "tutorial" systems which was the Instruction Booklet. I think this is worth talking about because it's so freakin' cool. It plays on the nostalgia while also being a puzzle in itself; there are many secrets to find within the guide. I love the little details like notes written in it. It also never felt meta or 4th wall breaky to me, more so it just felt like I was a kid again reading the manuals to help me beat Temple of Time.

The presentation was also wonderful. The music slaps (I've been listening to Memories of Memories on repeat for 4 days straight) and there was some really fantastic visuals (shoutout to the awesome skeletal shop vendor creature, he was so cool looking).

However... very unfortunately, this game was not perfect. I really do not like Soulslike gameplay tropes and this game had its fair share. A few systems I did not like:
- When you die, you lose all your consumables. This made boss fights annoying because if you wanted items you'd have to go grind coin to buy more.
- Enemies respawning whenever you rest. It's just annoying.
- There was some enemy minion designs that I just despised. Like they were annoying just for the sake of being annoying.
BUT! even with these frustrations I still adore this game, which to me just speaks volumes about how much the game excels in its other areas. They were, however, annoying enough to make me want to skip bonus content. And really, I can't even call all of the gripes I have sins since it's mostly just personal preference.

Overall, this game was absolutely wonderful. I wish I felt a little more emotional weight at the end, but I also just learned there are two endings and I got the "bad" one (was only missing 4 pages, dang it). I always love when a game can bring back that childlike wonder out of me and this game did just that.

i owe you an apology miyazaki, i wasnt really familiar with your game

i have learned to love dark souls. the atmosphere is great, the way the world is connected is amazing, and i love the combat system. almost everything is amazing, except lost izalith which is the worst shit ever.

o&s and gwyn are awesome. pretty much every boss is. excellent game.

So after playing Mario Wonder and generally enjoying it, I wanted to replay my favorite 2D Mario. I wanted to see if it was total nostalgia that was keeping me from not liking Mario Wonder as much as this and well maybe it still is? Either way, as I did with my other playthroughs, I had an absolute blast playing this and still consider it peak 2D Mario and one of my favorite platformers ever.

I think the main reason I really love it, is there's just so many secrets to find. There's 96 different exits in this game and like at least a third or more are secret exits. They're everywhere and they're really fun to find. Some of them can be quite tricky for newcomers, tho I've played this game so much that I know where everything is. Finding a secret exit in a normal level and then finding a secret exit in that secret level you just unlocked, man it's just so cool. Every single time I start a new playthrough, I always go to the star world really early, it's super fun.

I also love just how weird and wacky this game is, a lot of the stages can feel very dream like with how out there they are. In general the level design is very fresh and there's new ideas thrown out you even until the very end of the game. The game is also chock full of brand new enemies, even ones exclusive to this game that never returned to future titles.

The general gameplay is more slippery than Mario 3 and while some players may dislike this change, I enjoy it. It takes a little getting used to it at first but once it clicks, it feels great. It's more skill based but also never frustrating at least for me. I also think the game as a whole is never super frustrating (well maybe some of those special stages lol) but also never a walk in the park. I think this game has a perfect difficulty curve, it can get a bit challenging in certain levels near the middle and end. Though you could also easily get 99 1-UPs from that one level with the immense amount of Koopas lole.

I really love the OST, it's very simplistic with how it's just different renditions of the same song for most of it but it really works. I absolutely adore the end credits theme too. Another awesome thing this game did was give Mario a lot of personality. Whether it's his hat bobbing up and down when he jumps, to those really wacky cutscenes that play when you beat a castle, this game is full of personality.

Even though I've played this game many times, I still have trouble with it at certain points. I had a really rough time trying to get the secret exit for Cheese Bridge Yoshi-less, and then some of the special stages (specifically Tubular and Mondo) always give me a hard time. Some castle levels also trip me up sometimes too, I don't think this game is super easy like I've heard some people say idk.

So in the end, yeah it may just be nostalgia talking but I truly think this game is peak and definitely peak Mario, at least for me. I love this game so much man.

The first Gameboy game I ever bought for myself was this. My dad had passed down his OG gameboy along with Tetris and Kwirk, but Kirby's Dreamland was special in it was the first one I got of my own volition. I still remember buying it for $5 at the flea market back in the day. I still remember first discovering I could play original Gameboy games on my GBA because of this game. In fact, this might've been my first ever Kirby game period (it was either this or Return to Dreamland). I've played this game several times prior to this, and even now, it was still fun.

The game is quite short, only taking around an hour or less to beat, but I think that's actually really nice with a game like this. It does not overstay its welcome and if it was way longer, idk if I'd like it much. This is the first Kirby game and so it's super simple. There's only 5 stages in the game, with a boss at the end of them. It's really not that hard of a game at all, that's what Kirby is known for and it applies to his first game as well. Copy abilities weren't a thing at all until Adventure, so the gameplay in this is super simplistic. But like I said, it's short so I don't really have much of an issue with it.

For a Gameboy game, this has a super nice soundtrack. Every single song is memorable, though maybe that's also because I've played this several times, but I think a big reason for that besides them being good is the fact they get reused a lot in later games. I think the only song I haven't heard in later games is the spicy curry theme, all the rest are iconic whether it's Green Greens or the invincibility lollipop theme or Dedede's theme. Kirby has been known to never have a bad soundtrack and yeah it applies here too.

Something I'm not really much of a fan of is extra mode. I tried it out a bit again here but I still can never get far. I've never beaten it before but it's because instead of being a bit harder, it goes full into bullshit mode and not only do I not find that fun, it doesn't feel fitting for Kirby. Kirby's known for easy main playthroughs but hard side content but it's too much in this game I feel.

I never found this game amazing at all but I have fond memories with this one. It's one of the better Gameboy games I've played for sure. I plan on going through every Kirby game eventually now so consider this the start of my Kirby reviews cuz yeah I'm gonna review most of them. Don't expect it to be like my Mario Kart marathon tho since there's way more Kirby games and I don't wanna get burnt out lol.

Edit: Bumped up to a 7

DISCLAIMER: This review is not a review, it's a bumbling, messy rant I wrote at 2 AM. I apologize in advance for any grammar and spelling errors, as well as the occasional nonsensical sentence.

It has truly been some time since a game has so fully captured me to the degree that Little Big Planet has. There is something truly special about this game that is only shared with some of the best I’ve ever played, in fact, the last time a game was able to make me feel anything like this would have been my first playthrough of Super Mario Galaxy. I don’t Think I can ever truly, properly put it into words, but I'll certainly give it a try.

Before the actual review I’ll start by saying that I don’t have any nostalgia for this game, In fact, my first time ever playing would’ve been the day before writing this review. All of my opinions stem from very freshly playing through the game and experiencing everything it had to offer for myself.


This may be a fairly generic statement, but I think everyone can agree that today’s world has more than its fair share of misery. These past few months for me it's felt like on a global level there have been historical levels of suffering and wrongdoing happening all at once, and there is nothing I can do about it. When combined with the smaller stresses of simply living your life, it can be easy to accidentally start to live with a dark cloud over your head. This is not to say that I’m a miserable person or anything, It's just that I feel we sometimes forget how important it is to smile. I am of the opinion that we need more ways to spread positivity and happiness in the world, and that is exactly what Little Big Planet is. Little Big Planet completely counteracts everything negative I just mentioned on a personal level in nearly every way. It feels so purely created with the sole intention of bringing childlike joy and wonder to the faces of all who play it. From the animation to the music to the gameplay, everything feels so lovingly, passionately created to be the absolute best it can be. One of my favourite things about all forms of media, be it traditional books, comics, movies, tv, or games, is that they can give you such intense emotions that you would normally be unable to experience in ordinary life. Through Seething anger or incredible sadness, I’ve been affected by many of the things that I have watched, read, and played, but there is one thing even the best of movies and games are often not capable of, something that makes them truly stand out above the rest if they can accomplish it, and that's them being capable of transmitting pure, unfiltered joy to the same degree that they can other emotions. Throughout my whole playthrough, Little Big Planet had me grinning ear to ear. It's the first time in so long that I’ve been so completely invested in a game, that I’ve spent so much time in a game all at once, that I’ve been willing to give up doing anything else to actually find time to play, and since I’ve had my love for video games so overwhelmingly re-ignited like this. For all that alone, I will likely forever remember Little Big Planet and consider it one of the all time greats that I’ve played, But there is still so much more to discuss here.

Before even discussing the gameplay, there is so much to appreciate about Little Big Planet. Everything feels meticulously handcrafted, because it literally is. This game at its core is a level editor that all players have the ability to use, and the developers truly mastered everything about that level editor and managed to produce levels for the story mode that wouldn't feel out of place if they were found within a real, purely 2D triple A platformer. Within these levels there are representations of cultures from all over the world that are so obviously lovingly represented, and they have great humor to go along with them. This game genuinely made me laugh a few more times than I would have expected. The sackboy that you explore the Levels with is also an incredible addition to this game. Each sackboy exhibits so much personality and is so excellently animated. Something about their expressions just makes their emotions feel so real. The Developers really went above and beyond when it came to allowing players to fully express themselves without even speaking.

Speaking of player expression, the one part of this game that I’m really devastated I’ll never get to experience is the online. Exploring an infinite amount of community made levels with my friends and other people while being able to fully express myself and have fun at the same time seems like it would have been an absolute dream. I get hit by a little wave of sadness everytime see the crossed out online buttons on my screen, but even without them I had plenty to love about the game.

The campaign mode is spent helping numerous troubled characters throughout the earth in any way you can. Often just seeing how the developers had crafted characters and made them feel so alive through the crude level editor was enough to make me laugh, but it was also very charming. Every step of the way you are offered encouragement and witness so much creativity it's hard to not just constantly smile. Alongside just being fun to play through, these levels feel like they would be excellent inspiration for anyone who would have tried to truly dedicate themselves to the level creator as well.

In terms of actual gameplay, this is definitely the weakest part of the game, but still fun. It controls like a standard 2D platformer, with the sole issue being that sometimes sackboy feels a little bit slippery to control, putting you in the occasional situation that will feel a little unfair. Otherwise though the level design is so clever that the game never gets old. There are so many gameplay concepts and ideas featured within them I almost wish there were more levels so I could have seen them more fully explored. The game does get more difficult towards the end, but even with the slightly awkward controls I never felt it was too unfair, despite having to redo some levels a fair few times. What it really shows is that this game's potential for level design is more or less unlimited, something that would have made it all the more amazing when the servers were still up and running.

The music (partially composed by the guy who did spiderverse btw) was also a key factor to my enjoyment of this game. Almost every track is so uplifting and happy it felt like it was directly planting energy into my soul. Somehow these songs make me feel nostalgic despite having literally never heard them before yesterday. There are just so many different instruments and styles of music that all collide together in this game, making it one of my favourite gaming soundtracks of all time. Maybe I’m just weird but there were even 1 or 2 very oddly nice tracks that even made me tear up a bit.

In conclusion, Little Big Planet is just kind of a perfect video game to me. The combination of its endless creativity, interactive community, fun gameplay, and amazing music gives me the impression that it was lovingly created with the sole purpose of spreading Joy throughout the world, something we can always use more of. It's very rare that something is able to make me feel the childlike wonder I experienced while playing this game, and I'm so grateful I just randomly happened to check it out. Everything about it feels so human; you can clearly see the overwhelming passion behind the game poured into every nook and cranny within it, something I’ve only really been able to notice in a very small few of the best games I’ve played. In my opinion, more games should strive to be as joyous and as pleasant an experience as Little Big Planet. I definitely feel like this is a game everyone should try playing at least once in their lives, because if for some reason it strikes the same chord with you as it did with me, you’ll never regret it.

I'm marking this as Mastered because fuck the figures, I literally did everything else, and I really don't feel like sitting by those stupid gotcha machines for a couple hours just to get some baubles. It counts, I swear (don't hate me).

I've loved Kirby since I was young. Nightmare in Dreamland on the GBA was my jam, and I think I must've beat it over a dozen times over the years. The novelty of the copy abilities when I was little slowly evolved into an appreciation for the game's design and the fun I had finding all its hidden secrets and beating its final secret boss.

So it's no surprise that I really liked Kirby and the Forgotten Land. It takes so many elements from Nightmare in Dreamland that weren't always greatly executed in later entries, and beautifully realizes them in a full 3D game. Like Nightmare in Dreamland, I had a blast combing every level for its secrets, finding all the hidden goodies, and rescuing all the imprisoned Waddle Dees while also just enjoying the main content as well (fuck the figures though).

It helps too that the game does an excellent job making all this feel rewarding. The Waddle Dee town that serves as your home base becomes frequently more populated as you rescue more Waddle Dees and reach certain points in the story. I loved being able to hop back to town (which the game makes very easy to do anytime and anywhere in the overworld) to see what new stand or minigame had been stood up. The variety of side activities to do here was surprisingly varied as well, and I had fun with most of them (Tilt and Roll can tilt and roll itself off a bridge with those motion controls). The development of the town alongside other goodies like pictures on the walls of Kirby's home and special figures (fuck the regular ones though) really made me feel like I was doing something relatively productive with all the different optional content I was completing.

What this game also excels at is utilizing the full novelty of Kirby's copy ability. Yes, there are less regular abilities overall than in most Kirby games, but the devs got around this by adding the ability to upgrade your abilities! Now your Sword ability can be upgraded to add more combos, Cutter can have its projectiles bounce off walls, Fire has a longer range and further burn status effects, etc. These abilities in their base state are already well utilized in how they interact with puzzles, the environment, and combat, but these upgrades add further utility, variety, and just fun by expanding Kirby's arsenal as you acquire these upgrades.

In addition to the regular abilities though, are special Bigmouth abilities. Kirby can now stretch himself real wide to partially suck up things like Cars, vending machines, traffic cones, and more! These abilities, which are usually relegated to limited parts of the levels added even more variety to what you'll be doing just within the levels. Some of these are a bit one note, but are still fun to use regardless. Others get much more varied use, and the team got really creative later on (without spoiling anything, the "shape" of the object becomes important which was a super cool twist I wasn't expecting).

Where these abilities shined the most though, were the boss battles. The bosses in these games are seriously excellent. They're not all difficult (though they get MUCH harder in the post game content), they are consistently fun. Now in full 3D, I love how the developers gave each boss varied movesets that force the player to really learn each boss and dodge, run, or block accordingly before taking advantage of openings to attack. As memey as it is to say these days, it feels slightly Dark Soulsian though it really is just a 3D implementation and evolution of elements already present in the 2D Kirby games. In 3D though, it feels so much more dynamic. Bosses have wonderful designs, excellent animations that look cool while also properly communicating to the player, and each one has a great toolset to deal with the variety of abilities you the player could possibly bring. I loved replaying and rematching the bosses with different abilities as I tried to go for their optional missions and seeing how I had to change my strategy for each boss based on if I was using a short-range ability like Sword, Hammer, or Needle versus using longer range options like Fire, Ranger, or Cutter. As I alluded to above as well, the post-game bosses, which I won't spoil here, do actually get to a fairly challenging level. I died a few times on a secret boss in particular, and being able to learn, strategize, and overcome these tougher challenges was all the more rewarding.

This curve of difficulty can be applied to the main levels as well. Most in the main game won't be much of a challenge for anyone experienced with games, though that doesn't hinder the fun of exploring and conquering each level for the aforementioned awards. These do ramp up in the post-game but still aren't anything ridiculously formidable. The biggest challenges I found in the level design came from Treasure Roads, side levels that give you a specific, time-gated challenge with a single ability. A few of these gave me quite the run for my money, requiring me to try multiple times to hit that Target Time for an extra 50 coins. A couple were just annoying (anything Bomb related was a pain to get through as the implementation of that ability's moveset doesn't really allow for clean, consistent use for a speed run style challenge) and the combat trials particularly got a bit stale (oh boyo, beat these enemies and mini-bosses in a strict amount of time), but most were very creative and fun to beat.

All of this is wrapped up in a presentation that overall can be summarized as fine. The graphics are inoffensive if unexceptional, and they're mostly helped along by the bizarre but engaging post-apocalyptic theme running throughout the game. The game runs very smoothly, so technically it's sound outside of a bit of a short draw distance which sees enemies off in the distance looking a little low fps in their movements. The UI and art design is expectedly well done with simple, colorful designs that match perfectly with the vibe of a Kirby game while providing a mostly smooth user experience. My only UX gripe would be with the item shops, where you have to restart the dialogue every time you buy a single item. This makes buying multiple items at a time, like say buying a Maxim Tomato to heal now and one to use later, a bit tedious, but it's a minor complaint. Animations are charming and lively, giving a comforting warmth to the game as a whole, and music is well done, even if the main theme motif is a bit overused with not enough variation. There isn't much of a story though you can find some interesting lore in the figures (but really, fuck the figures), and without spoiling anything, this game does the usual Kirby twist very very well and even carries it over nicely into the post-game content.

Overall, this game isn't anything revolutionary. It doesn't necessarily do anything particularly inspired for an action platformer. However, what it does do well is execute on what a Kirby game should be. This is easily one of the best Kirby games, at least from what I've played, and if you're a fan or just interested in the series, I highly recommend it. It's very short if you just blast through the main story, but if you go for even some of the additional content, it really does provided a full, rewarding experience.

Chants of Sennaar is a creative, inventive, and beautiful game all about translating "languages" and using them to solve puzzles. It provides a fun, cerebral experience that challenges the player while staying logical and reasonable in its puzzles all while providing an exquisite audiovisual experience on top of this.

You play as an unnamed, red cloaked translator who wakes up at the bottom of a tower and must make there way to the top. As you climb, you'll encounter multiple peoples who speak different "languages" you must learn to progress.

I put quotes around "languages" because you're really more learning the scripts or alphabets of these "languages" as well as a couple grammatical quirks. It's about as close as you can get without having full voice acting and actually creating multiple fully spoken conlangs. That's not a knock against the game, just a technical caveat. That being said, how the game tasks you with learning these scripts is incredibly captivating and fun.

You'll learn each "language" by speaking to locals and observing what's around you, whether that's signs, murals, games, books, drawings, etc. Every "language" is hieroglyphic based, so you'll eventually be able to parse out what each character means. This all comes with a handy journal menu that adds any characters you see and allows you to guess at each one's meaning before you've confirmed what they mean. This way, you can get a step ahead and figure out parts of the "language" before the game has confirmed anything. Once you reach a point where the game believes you have enough context clues, the journal will add two new pages of sketches where you can mark what characters mean. You have to get them all correct though or you won't be able to confirm any characters on this set of pages.

This is where my only real nitpick of the game comes in. Sometimes these pages can feel a bit obtuse. I was able to figure out everything by the end, but some sections of each "language" took me a bit longer as there'd be one or two sketches that I wasn't sure what they were. A couple of these I even just got past by trial and error, which is frustrating. For the most part though, rundisc did a good job at making each part understandable. It was far more often that I would have an ah ha moment with some of these sketches rather than be frustrated by them. This is also just a super subjective part of "languages" that you're never going to fully get around. What I think of as "fear," for example, may not be exactly how the developers portray it in that character's sketch.

The best part about this game though, is it doesn't stop at its "languages." Learning each script enables you to progress through the OTHER puzzles that are more adventure style. Getting different items and keys, figuring out recipes or formulas, learning how to navigate certain areas. All of this is enabled by learning each "language," and it feels really fun to become fully "fluent" in each level, allowing you to pass through with ease. It leads really to one of the most satisfying feelings I've had playing a puzzle/adventure like this in a long time. Even more so than my recent playthrough of the masterful Cocoon! I think the reason why is because you have to put in the work not just to solve each puzzle, but also to learn the "language" that allows you even to engage in the first place. It felt like I was really exploring these cultures and immersing myself in them.

The other major gameplay element is the stealth. Some sections have hostile enemies or will just present areas you're not supposed to be. Here, you'll be challenged to navigate rather simple areas with some cover walls, patrolling guards, and the odd pile of rocks to throw to distract said guards. It's all quite simple but elegantly done. The cover system sometimes acted a bit goofy in terms of me "aiming" to where I wanted to go next, but this was a small issue that didn't matter much as I never felt in a rush to navigate these. I will also mention, this is probably only an issue if playing with controller like I was. With mouse and keyboard, you control the character point-and-click style, so you can just click the next cover to go to.

I will say though, gamepad controls work excellently otherwise. There are definite benefits to mouse and keyboard, particularly being able to type in your guesses in your journal with an actual keyboard, but if you're like me and like the immersion brought by "walking" the character around yourself, a controller still works great.

As I mentioned above, this is all wrapped in a wonderful presentation package. The graphics, while technically simple, are beautiful, largely due to some excellent art design. It reminds me of a comic, like an avant garde French comic or something. Maybe I'm a bit off there in terms of actual influences, but the result is simply beautiful. Bright colors and cel shading make each level stand out, and the designs of characters are wonderful as well. The score here is beautiful too, adding needed atmosphere to the different areas effectively while giving some memorable themes at key moments. It's definitely a soundtrack I want to revisit on its own.

There is a story as well, but predictably, it is pretty subtle. That's not to knock its quality though, as themes I won't spoil here become very apparent as you progress and tackle some other optional puzzles and quests. By the end, and especially if you go for both endings, the picture becomes pretty clear, and I have to say it ended up being pretty satisfactory.

All in all, Chants of Sennaar is a fantastic game that I think really should be praised more. I remember first hearing about this game through some YouTube videos and the odd Polygon best of 2023 article, but this really deserves to be a more highly touted indie release from last year. Highly recommend this, especially for other linguistics nerds like me.

I loved this game from beginning to end. It has a great battle system and unique enemies. First time completing, i only tried the original. One huge thing i can’t ignore tho is the completion length, VERY short. I understand this was a first for Mario and they probably tried to make it easily digestible but it’s just so great i wish it had more, especially on the Switch version for the price. Some levels and stars just flew by, even as i was defeating every enemy i saw on screen. Difficulty is flexible, as with other Mario RPGs you can put “limiters” on yourself, adjust party, don’t use new special moves and that is needed for a challenge up until after star 5. That’s when the game really gets good and you can go all out as i did. I’m impressed matey!

-Jonathan Jones