Man, what a game this is. Right as the God of War franchise was looking like it was about to fall by the wayside like so many PlayStation IPs before it, it came roaring back with this masterpiece of a video game that proved that Kratos is Sony's equivalent to Mario and Master Chief.

I feel like enough has been said about the game's amazing combat and fun exploration over they years, so I'd like to focus my review on the spotlight element of this game: the story, which in my opinion is possibly the greatest ever told in the video game medium (my apologies to RDR2). The Nordic fantasy setting perfectly complements the deep, mature narrative about the complicated nature of parenthood and the mistakes and successes one has while raising their child. At its core this is the tried and true "old guy who's seen some shit has to take a twerpy kid on a big adventure" story we've seen before in stuff like Up, Logan, Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Sony's own The Last of Us, but I think God of War is my favourite interpretation of it. Kratos has been transformed from the male power fantasy avatar he was in the original trilogy into a deeply flawed father figure who is now completely exposed and vulnerable if only because he finally has something to lose in his son Atreus, meanwhile Atreus has found himself frustrated and alone due to the death of his mother forcing him to forge a relationship with a father he believes never wanted him. It's a truly complex and often beautiful relationship, made even stronger by intrinsically connecting Atreus to the gameplay loop. When he's being disobedient you feel the same frustration as Kratos when he doesn't do what you want him to do in combat, and in the few times of the game where he's missing entirely it almost feels like the square button has fallen off your controller and you feel a sense of urgency as you quest to get it back. In the end the narrative is pitch-perfect for a video game. It's heartfelt without feeling overdramatic, it's funny without robbing the weight of the emotional moments, and it creates a world steeped in lore and history without overwhelming the player with backstory or losing sight of the narrative's emotional core. Plus if you've never played the original games, it's the perfect place for newcomers to jump on, while still creating several moments to clue them in on Kratos's past and pay respect to long-time fans.

I think no one has truly delved into why this game is amazing quite like the YouTuber Good Blood did in his video "Untangling God of War", so if you're interested in hearing more I'd highly recommend giving it a watch, it's the best video on the game I've ever seen and does a deep dive on how it adapts and subverts real-life Norse mythology. Heavy spoiler warning though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yegRHiaao7U

Bowser's Fury is a very fun add-on to the 3D World package. I don't really get why everyone wants the next 3D Mario game to be an expanded version of this though considering this felt like a significantly smaller version of Odyssey. It does get a bit repetitive towards the end (you can only complete so many find the key or collect the blue coins missions before they all start to feel the same), but the last 30 minutes or so is where the game truly shines, when Bowser's fury reaches its peak things get really tense, and that felt great. It's short enough that it can be beaten in just one or two sittings as well, so it definitely doesn't overstay its welcome. A great palate cleanser for those done with the main game of 3D World.

I'm one of many people who just found this game to be a complete waste of time at launch. It felt bland, uninspired and worst of all, representative of everything wrong with the Mario franchise and Nintendo as a whole in the Wii U era, and since then I've been first in line to criticize 3D World whenever it comes up. But after the internet insisted that 3D World has aged much better now that we have a new true Mario 3D platformer in Odyssey, I fired it up on Switch and investigated.

It took until the end of World 2, but something in my head finally clicked and I saw this game as the hidden gem it truly was. I think once I stopped comparing it to Galaxy and instead started viewing it as the next evolution of 2D Mario sidescrollers I finally realized what Nintendo was trying to do with this one. In the end, 3D World was the wrong game at the wrong time for the franchise, but nowadays it can truly be respected as one of Mario's best.

If the levels in Galaxy were built like small versions of the worlds from 64 and Sunshine, the levels in 3D World are built like small versions of the levels in Galaxy. Each is a more or less self contained platforming challenge with a clear beginning, middle and end. They aren't super memorable but all are well-designed and a blast to play through. The real fun part comes from searching for the three green stars in each stage, which can be used to open up certain levels. Searching for them was my favourite part of the game, which is funny considering I remember having levels being locked behind green star counters being one of my least favourite parts of it when I played it back at release. It's just such a satisfying feeling finding the green stars, especially if you can nab all three in one go.

There are still a few things that bug me, though. Not having the ability to switch characters after you die is a pain, especially since you really have no idea what's coming in a level beyond a title and a small 3D image on the world map. If you enter a level as Mario and find it'd probably be easier playing as Peach, you have to quit the level and start from the beginning. Depth perception was also an issue, there were many times I was sure I was gonna make a jump only to fall just short. It was frustrating to lose so many lives just because I couldn't figure out where I was in relation to the camera and the rest of the stage.

3D World is no masterpiece, but I loved it anyway. If you're like me and you didn't like it when it came out but loved Odyssey, I implore you to give 3D World another chance, it really has aged gracefully under the lens of the next evolution of 2D Mario instead of as the replacement for a true next-gen 3D Mario.

After years of making Mario Parties that ranged from bad to "good but not as good as the old ones", NDcube finally realized they couldn't beat the old-schoolers at their own game and decided to just give us the classic boards and minigames we wanted back. The result? The best Mario Party since 8. I do wish they had at least one more board and that the roster wasn't limited to just 10 characters, but overall it's hard for me to complain with this one, it's genuinely just a great party game. The online is a dream come true as well, aside from some very minor slowdown I had no issues at all with it, and it's a ball playing Mario Party without needing to gather friends or going up against CPUs.

Boards ranked
1. Horror Land
2. Space Land
3. Peach's Birthday Cake
4. Yoshi's Tropical Island
5. Woody Woods

Guardians of the Galaxy had a tough pre-release. Coming off of Square Enix's first venture into the Marvel multiverse with last year's misguided Avengers, people were reasonably hesitant when yet another Marvel project appeared on the horizon.

The good news is that this game is fantastic and will likely go down as one of the surprise hits of 2021. Square's Guardians of the Galaxy is, ironically, the antithesis of Square's Avengers: a no-frills single-player campaign with excellent writing, fun combat and. best of all, no microtransactions.

The story is absolutely great. You can tell that these writers truly loved getting to play in the Guardians toy box and that they really understand what makes the core five members of the team tick. There is so much dialogue in this game that I only ever heard repeated lines during a few of the longer boss fights, and it never gets old. Several of the game's one-liners really made me crack up. There are some serious heartfelt moments too, this game never loses sight of it's emotional core and towards the end there are a few parts that really tug at the heartstrings if you get attached to the characters like I did. There's some real surprises in here as well. I do wish Gamora got as much time to build her character as Rocket and Drax get to build theirs, she has a few moments here and there but unfortunately they do feel a bit like afterthoughts. Maybe on a different playthrough there's more of that because the story can change depending on the dialogue choices you make.

The combat is the real star of the show here. While you can only play as Star-Lord, you can indirectly control the other four members of the group using Guardians Mode. Each of the other Guardians have their own abilities and specialties in combat: Gamora deals high damage, Drax helps build finisher bars, Rocket has AOE attacks and Groot specializes in defense and support. All four Guardians are absolutely necessary to optimize combat, and when one isn't in your party because of story reasons you really feel their absense.

And of course I'd be remiss not to mention the best part of the game, which is the Huddle. As you fight you'll fill up your Huddle meter, which when filled allows you to gather the Guardians for a pep talk. Choose the right dialogue option and everyone will be buffed, and Star-Lord will play a classic 80's tune on his Walkman for everyone to enjoy. The songs are randomized, so you might be treated to some hair metal, a power ballad, and for some reason Don't Worry Be Happy. It's hilarious how some of the songs either energize you to fight like crazy or completely defuse any tension in combat with a particularly silly choice.

There are a few qualms, like some minor bugs like text getting stuck on screen or once spawning out of a cutscene that do force a reload (thankfully the game autosaves frequently), and they made the collectible costumes for the Guardians way too hard to find, I was actively keeping an eye out for them during my playthrough but I only found three out of the over thirty included. In the end though these are very minor gripes.

Guardians of the Galaxy isn't just Square's redemption for Avengers, it's genuinely the best game I've played this year. It's a must-play for Marvel fans, or anyone who's looking for something great to play over the holiday season. Check it out.

TL;DR - I am Groot.

A game with a campaign so short even Wario couldn't believe it was already over. I'm usually not the kinda guy to compare and complain about game prices, but $60 is a pretty big ask when you can see pretty much everything Get It Together has to offer in under 4 hours.

Despite that this was a lot of fun, it was my first real WarioWare experience although I'd dabbled briefly in Smooth Moves and DIY in the past. All the different characters were very fun to discover and use, all brought to life through delightful artwork by Ko Takeuchi. I do think that there were maybe a few too many playable characters, as some just felt like better versions of others and one or two had abilities that hindered more than they helped. All the microgames were entertaining, with 9-Volt's Nintendo-themed section being the clear standout as usual. I just wish there were more of them.

I don't think I can recommend this at $60 for anyone outside of hardcore WarioWare fans, but if you can find it on sale definitely give it a try, it'll make for a fun afternoon at the very least. And even if you don't play it you should still listen to Penny's Song because it's a certified bop

This was good but kinda underwhelming. They went way too overboard with the long cutscenes and annoying overworld puzzles in this one, it felt like you couldn't go from room to room without encountering one or the other. Plus the storyline from this chapter kinda just felt like Chapter 1 with a new coat of paint, and some of the jokes got a little too repetitive.

That being said, you can definitely see the work that got put into the combat mechanics over the last few years, playing pacifist doesn't mean Susie and Ralsei are just defend and heal machines respectively like they were in Chapter 1 anymore and there are a lot of different ways to approach battles just as there was back in Undertale. And as always the bullet hell combat and music are just as amazing as you'd expect from a Toby Fox game.

Overall I definitely think Deltarune Chapter 2 would've benefitted from being packaged with later chapters as originally planned, this felt more like heavy lifting being done to set up plot points for later instead of it's own standalone thing. Of course that's what it's meant to be and it's hard to judge something that's clearly part of a bigger story (and was given to us for free!) but for what it is it's still really good. If you like Toby Fox's work, you've probably already downloaded it so there's no real point in me recommending it to you.

Replayed to prepare for Chapter 2 tomorrow. It's kinda hard to judge this game considering it's just the first part to a much greater story that we haven't experienced yet, but I mean, it's Toby Fox, creator of Undertale, one of the greatest games of our time. Of course it's awesome.

Although Deltarune boasts the same artstyle and hilariously quirky sense of humour as Undertale, it's pretty different. I do find Deltarune a little less rewarding to revisit since it does feel kinda railroaded compared to how open Undertale is, but it's still a great time full of secrets and adventures to be had. Whereas Undertale's whole thing is about breaking down and examining old-school RPGs, Deltarune is much more focused on building it's characters. Susie and Lancer are very fun characters that grow a lot over the short playtime, and although Ralsei doesn't really have an arc they're a very fun companion character. I like that Kris, your player character, is an actual character rather than the blank slate Frisk from Undertale was, although they're still very much a silent protagonist. There's a lot of interesting setup involving them that I can't wait to see play out in further chapters. That final scene tho

Moving onto the gameplay, again it does feel stricter than Undertale (if you're going for a pacifist run the game more or less tells you what options to pick for 90% of the encounters instead of Undertale's more puzzle-based combat) but that's not a bad thing. The fun bullet hell style mechanics are still here of course, and there's a lot of new and exciting mechanics here that weren't in Undertale. The final boss is especially fun.

I think the most interesting thing about Deltarune is how it follows up Undertale. By Toby Fox's own admission you probably shouldn't play Deltarune if you haven't completed Undertale, and the reason for that is because the biggest trick he pulls out of his hat here will do absolutely nothing for you if you're unfamiliar with his magnum opus. You know how I've been talking about how straightforward and railroaded Deltarune is compared to Undertale? That's entirely by design, and it's Toby's masterstroke in making even the most seasoned Undertale experts feel out of place. Right from the first moments of the game you are given the illusion of choice only to have it wrenched away from you, leaving you at the mercy of the game's whims. While on one hand this is an awesome subversion to those expecting another game with Undertale's freedom, it does unfortunately make Deltarune feel blander and less of a stand-out in the RPG genre as a result. There are a few minor things that change in the ending if you decide to spare or kill the monsters but ultimately this story plays out the same way every time. Only time will tell if this idea gets added onto in following chapters (the symbolism used in the final scene here is especially interesting considering this idea) but here in Chapter 1 it's very clever even though it has a few caveats.

I think I'll only truly decide how I feel about Deltarune when we have the full picture of it's scope and all the chapters are released, but Chapter 1 is a great add-on to one of gaming's greatest. Is it better than Undertale? No, but no one's saying it needs to be.

This was fun, I always like when a company makes an online multiplayer shooter that isn't Manly Military Blow 'Em Away #4572. Didn't hold my attention for long but I enjoyed my time with it. Of course because it's EA you have to pay extra for all the cool costumes and aesthetic stuff even though the game costs 20 big ones so that sucks. I'd recommend checking it out on GamePass if you have it or waiting for a sale but if you wanna play it you should probably do it soon, I'm pretty sure the community's already dying

This was just delightful, an adorable and super addicting farming sim starring a wide variety of slimes. This is the kind of game that you sit down to play for an hour and then you look up and your entire day is gone.

I loved discovering and taking care of all of the different slimes and plants, growing my farm, earning money, the quicksilver slime race minigame, experimenting with slime science, exploring the world and finding keys to open up new areas, it's all done so unbelievably well. The highest praise I can give this game is that it feels like something Nintendo would make.

It's not all perfect though, unfortunately. Fast travel is annoyingly limited, resulting in long walks back and forth from places. The final area you unlock is pretty barren and disappointing. And this might be personal opinion but the story did nothing for me, I think this is a situation where voice acting could've made it a bit more interesting. These are all minor gripes though.

If you're a fan of games like Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley or Viva Pinata, you owe it to yourself to play this game. Don't miss it.

I mean, what else is there to say about one of the great games of our time? Mario Galaxy is a masterpiece, with pitch-perfect platforming, visuals that still look as beautiful today as they did in 2007, a stunning score that might be the best in all of gaming, and a surprisingly touching storyline for a Mario game (the franchise famous for never even having a storyline), there's just nothing in this game to dislike. Even the stuff that doesn't work, namely the rolling ball and manta ray stages, are little more than minor gripes in the grand scheme of things. This was my first time ever completing the game, and while I need a bit of a break before I dive back in as Luigi, I can safely say this was an amazing experience that I'm glad I went through. Although my favourite Mario game is still Odyssey, Galaxy will always have a special place in my heart.

Oh man, this one took all my willpower to see it to the end. A collection of minigames that somehow all manage to either be too long or too short, many of them featuring broken controls and wildly overcomplicated rules that would frustrate even the most patient of kids. The soccer game can be chaotic fun if played with friends and the campaign has a cute story (and is thankfully saved by a mechanic that allows you to skip specific events if you fail the mission enough times) but I'd never recommend buying this over a Mario Party.