josiephine
2017
Great combat, music, and extras marred by deeply mean-spirited presentation. So much love went into this game, all wasted on a teenage boy's fantasies about women, violence, and violence against women. Play literally any other modern brawler instead.
2022
Addictive gameloop, tight controls, beautiful music, gorgeous visuals, and the best story in Sonic's career. Speed stages feel seriously underbaked, but that's the only major knock against it. And yet.
GOAT.
2022
An excellent beat-em-up that's soured by a less focused story, reliance on reused assets from RCG1, and really long load times. I enjoyed it a lot, but I'm ultimately let down by how much more it could have been.
We're absolutely feasting with great Sonic fan projects lately. Gorgeous presentation, with an artstyle and cutscenes that will make you gush from cuteness. OST worthy of the franchise. Level design sometimes gets a bit too busy, though.
2022
I like challenging retro platformers a lot, and I tend to replay ones I've fallen for frequently. Infernax hits me right where I live. Like "Hollow Knight", it wears its retro Metroidvania influences on its sleeves. Unlike "Hollow Knight", Infernax isn't a 60 hour marathon to the end, but instead packs a retro game length paired with its difficulty. Like "Shovel Knight", Infernax augments its short main campaign by packing the game full of reasons to return to it. Unlike "Shovel Knight", these 'other things' aren't extra campaigns and modes, but new ways to replay this one, with several endings to find, and new playable characters to uncover. In this tale of three indie knights, Infernax stands above the rest, when it comes to crafting a game you'll be unable to put down until you've squeezed every last bit of nectar from it. Frankly, it's a masterpiece, and any fan of retro platformers and metroidvanias owes it to themselves to play this game. And replay it, several times.
This fan re-imagining of the only GG exclusive mainline Sonic game looks, plays, and feels as good as the best work Sonic Team ever did. If you want a Mania 2, here it is.
I used to never finish Metroidvanias because they lose me in the first few hours. But something about this game's level design, hud, visuals, music, it got it's hooks in me and I couldn't put it down until I saw credits. Now I love Metroidvanias. So, thanks for that.
2020
An interesting, if somewhat light on content, take on the Diablo formula. I want to love it more as the core gameplay loop is as fun and addictive as any Diablo title, but it's way too short, with too little to do, for it's price tag.
Take everything great about Turtles In Time's visuals and gameplay, then apply polish until it shines brilliantly. This is a perfect video game. No, really. If you love arcade brawlers, say hello to your GOTY.
2019
This oldskool brawler asks the question- what if the SOR cast were all unlikable bastards? ok maybe not on purpose but all the same. This is a perfectly Okay Rage-like that mostly suffers in comparison to SOR4. I adore the arcade-y visuals tho.
A remixed mash up of previous 16-bit turtle games for Sega kids. Short, poor Dash implementation, and unoriginal. But it's biggest crime is not being Turtles In Time. Still a damn good time, though.
Totally tubular, dude. Stands shoulder to shoulders with the Beat-Em-Up GOATs. Just mess with the options first and put sprint on Manual, and give yourself some extra lives.
2022
Wildly addictive survival game, that's fun alone or with friends. Even now when it's only in early access, there's 100+ hours of chill viking Roleplay to enjoy. If you like crafting and battling monster, this game's for you.
One of the best looking SNES hacks I've ever played. SMW physics are untouched by irritating ASM, allowing them to really shine with level design that's a cut about Nintendo's own from 1991. The best 2D Mario since SMB3.