1 button to rule them all

The 1-button gameplay is not just a cheap gimmick here. JailBreaker is a competent precision platformer first and the constrained movement makes the routing of the levels an interesting additional challenge. The game isn’t easy but the controls are very tight and dying is very forgiving: the levels are short and you can jump right back in. With about 2 hours of playtime, the game never overstays its welcome and the nice 1-bit art style is just the perfect addition to the 1-button gameplay.

This is a gem for puzzle lovers!
There is a lot to love about this game honestly. First of all, it is really charming. It's full of interesting characters, it's funny, the animations are just amazing (silly at times, but so full of character) and the interactions with the dog are so lovely. The whole pirate/Caribbean vibe is really cool, too.
But the core of the game is the many many puzzles. And I found them really well done and very satisfying to solve. They are not just variations of puzzles you've seen a hundred times already. They are really clever and if you like puzzles and exploration, this is the game for you!

I really like the idea, but the execution isn't very well done in my opinion. The snake moves automatically at a somewhat slow pace, just like in the Nokia game Snake. But this clashes with the game's somewhat open exploration and puzzle-solving of the temple so much. On one hand, it is too slow when you just want to go from one part of the temple to another one. On the other hand, it is so frustrating when you accidentally make a wrong move and the game resets to a previous part and you have to do the same thing again. Additionally, it is often not so easy to clearly see where you can and can't slither to without bonking your head.

What could have been a good investigative Cyberpunk game about big corporations was ultimately a very dull experience for me. The game consists of basically two modes of play: one where you hack into buildings to gather information and one where you interview people to present them with said information. The information gathering is unfortunately very repetitive and gets boring rather quickly. Talking to people isn't helped by the generally bad writing and the annoying protagonist in particular. As one of the characters in the game fittingly puts it: "My god, you are tough to talk to". The game is based on you making choices, but I was constantly presented with the choice of being an asshole or being an asshole.

I’m gonna make it short: I think Tears of the Kingdom is better than Breath of the Wild in almost every aspect. And especially the creative freedom in solving puzzles and traversing the landscape feels unprecedented. Unfortunately, however, I did not enjoy the dungeons and I think Nintendo still hasn’t figured out a way to marry the player freedom with satisfying puzzle design in the dungeons. Visually they are impressive, but mechanically they are just bland. Speaking of bland, the underground is another huge region that I never really enjoyed going into. Which brings me to my actual problem: the game is just way way too big. 85 hours in I have seen about half of the map. I mean, it’s great and it’s fun, but I have a life, Nintendo!

Signalis is, in my opinion, an audio-visual masterpiece that creates an intriguing sci-fi world, but can't hold up this level of mastery when it comes to its mechanics. I had my fair share of problems with the combat, and the limited inventory space created more annoyance than tension. On the other hand, I really enjoyed a lot of the puzzles and the many ways the game incorporated its frequency mechanic.
The atmosphere and story sucked me right in, and the game touches on many interesting topics. Much of what is happening and has happened in the world of Signalis is up for interpretation, but in the end, the game doesn't want to be understood, it wants to be felt. And feel, I did.

Usually, I don’t consider a game’s age for my rating. I only care about how much fun I had playing it. And personally, I think that later entries in the series are better in virtually every aspect. By that standard, I could not give this game a perfect 5-star rating. However, there are two reasons why I did it anyway.
Firstly, the more games from that time that I play and replay nowadays, the more I realise how far ahead this game was, especially in terms of fluid controls. And I really don’t know how Nintendo pulled that of, since this was basically their first foray into 3D.
Secondly, because of the game’s ongoing popularity, I have found a huge fascination in things like attempting some of the speedrun tricks and following the progress of the ABC challenge. Non of which has to do with the game itself, but these aspects cement this game as a masterpiece for me. If not simply for its quality, then at least for its huge influence on the gaming world.