metal gear solid 2 has a much better gameplay loop than the first despite being relatively the same, it just feels a lot more refined and less like a tool to get the story from one point to another; there's still definitely improvements i'd like to see moving forward but this was definitely a massive improvement in that department.

the story was extremely solid too, it may have gotten a little hard to follow in the latter half but that's probably a dig at me more than the game itself. raiden grew on me and so did all of the new characters introduced, as well as some old friends. the note it ended on was way too real for a video game, man; some real existential shit thatwill stick with me for a long time. one of the most unique ways of conveying a point in this medium probably. generally a very solid game, definitely a certified classic. can't wait for snake eater.

this has been agent gigantopithecus, signing out.

it's alright, no clue if this was made for console or pc but the pc version felt kinda sloppily thrown together, shittily mixed audio, bugged animations, sometimes sequences would fail to start so i'd have to reset to the last checkpoint, was pretty annoying. the gunplay feels pretty nice and the levels were fun occasionally.

the narrative was a big whatever to me, felt like a decent call of duty campaign at best; feels like they could've done a lot more with the unique setting of the nazis winning WW2 but it kinda felt like a story i'd seen play out a billion times before, BJ is a really cool protagonist however.

i might play the new colossus but idk if it'd be any time soon, maybe if i'm itching for more fun action shooter stuff.

a great game that has been meticulously crafted to accommodate for many playstyles. i really like the methodical approach the game enforces, you can run in guns blazing but 9/10 times that won't work, and taking the time to think about how you're gonna approach a situation makes this seemingly basic game have a lot of depth.

that is... up until the last section of the game, which seems very unlike the rest of the game and was most certainly rushed - it lacked just about everything i praised the game for and wasn't fun at all. it almost made me consider giving the game 3.5 stars opposed to 4, but i think the first 90% of the game is genuinely really well put together and makes for a unique experience even if a lot of games tried to emulate what HL is at its core, a FPS game.

i am looking forward to playing HL2 soon as it will be the first time i've played it in about a decade. it is a crime i've owned a PC for all that time and never played this classic - if you own a PC, even if its a potato, play this game.

this game ain't nearly as bad as some people will try and tell you it is, i get the impression someone just said "yeah this game is endless and bloated" and people took that at face value without actually playing the game for themselves - sure it's got quite a lot of fat and even the developers of the game have said if they could go back they'd do things slightly differently, but that's ok, that doesn't mean the game is unplayable today, far from it.

donkey kong 64 is actually a pretty fun 3D platformer and it certainly didn't "kill the collecathon" genre, those existed on 6th generation consoles too lol. gaming simply shifted away from those and this so happens to be one of the later games in that genre.

so, should you play it if you haven't before? well, it's not as good as any of the original DKC games in my opinion but it slightly takes the edge on DKCR. if you don't care about DKC games, then let me compare it to another game that is very similar to DK64, banjo-kazooie. that game is basically the same game but with a smaller scope, with only 1 playable character, banjo-kazooie is definitely more digestible but i actually found myself way more burned out by the end of banjo-kazooie than i did with DK64. DK64 in my opinion, has waaaay more fun and memorable levels, whilst being designed almost identically to banjo-kazooie in structure and layout, the atmosphere of DK64 is unmatched, it is potentially my favorite atmosphere captured on the N64, supported by the fact the game famously uses vertex/dynamic lighting which really provides a pretty look for a game on one of the ugliest systems ever. (sorry)

despite the praise, the collectables ARE overwhelming, even if you're not going for 101%. i didn't go for 101% and ended my playthrough with 129 bananas, 25 hours, and 61% overall completion, that's quite a lot just to beat the game, and the requirement of the nintendo coin and the rareware coin was just pushing it man, i don't wanna have to beat 2 arcade games, 1 of them twice, just to beat the main game i'm tryna play, that ain't fun; but yeah, the bananas are placed poorly, everyone knows that, and it's not exactly fun to backtrack and stuff, even if people do greatly over-exaggerate just how much backtracking is required - i mean, seriously, there are tag barrels around every corner - the collectables still aren't excusable and underneath all of those collectables is a way better game.

the level-designs/themes are by far the strongest part of this game for me, and the characters and whatnot are all really fun too, lanky being my favorite. if i were to rank the levels from most favorite to least favorite, i'd do:

-frantic factory (such a fun concept)
-crystal caves
-jungle japes
-creepy castle
-fungi forest
-angry aztec (i just hate desert themes, dude)
-gloomy galleon (only thing worse than deserts is water...)

i guess DK isles and hideout helm count as their own levels, but i just wanted to count the main levels with collectables. DK isles and hideout helm are good in their own right though, i guess (although DK isles is probably my least favorite hub world in any N64 game).

overall, a pretty good with some big flaws, but still nowhere near as large as people like to make them out to be. play DK64 if you enjoy 3D-platformers. also the music's phenomenal, grant killed it once again. :)

in my opinion just as good as wild world if not slightly stronger, seasonal shit being present is always a bonus. villagers felt super real in this one, not just because they talk shit but because they have wants and needs and relationships with the other villagers and overall just have a bigger presence in your town.

the music is divisive i think, a see a lot of love but also a lot of hate for it, maybe some people find it to be too quirky but i love the music of population growing, it gets so fucking weird at like 2AM and i love it - the game's just like "bro why are u awake". the vibes are truly there and they reach a level of animal crossing that i'm not sure has been quite met since. (although new leaf's ost is phenomenal)

i do come back to this game every so often but i recently played for about 2 weeks straight and had a good time with it. just as fun as i remember it being, if not more so. one gripe i have is it takes far too long to unlock the tools in nook's cranny so i just used a code to cheat 'em in because otherwise there isn't much to do in one day.

i also used cheat codes to play NES games which is super cool. (nintendo should do that again with GB games or smth) overall a really fun package and a great first entry in what is now one of nintendo's staple franchises. probably my 2nd favorite AC game, just behind new leaf which i do plan on properly playing at some point.

good game but tries to dump too much shit on you resulting in a game that feels awkward to control at least in my experience - the double jump shit worked like half the time and like every bumper being utilised to shoot out a different thing was hard to keep track of, the emmi units were fine at first but gradually got more and more tedious to deal with, it was more or less the same but they would gain abilities that felt bs to deal with, although the stealth aspect was much appreciated and i think that cloak shit was really cool.

the boss fights themselves were by far the strongest part of this game, rarely did they miss and when they did it felt like more of a me thing than the game itself - although the fight against raven beak had a really awkward 2nd phase that lasted kinda long since it relied on you parrying his 1 attack he would only do every like 30 seconds.

but enemies that weren't major bosses were so jarring man, they were fun the first time but i think you fight like 9 chozo warriors or some dumb shit by the end, it get soooo monotonous. i don't see how it's excusable to repeat the same fights over and over in your game to pad out time. luckily, they weren't the hardest fights in the world but upon entering a room and seeing the same guy i just killed 15 minutes prior wasn't a fun experience, and it only seemed to multiply towards the end of the game; you eliminate 2 of the 7 emmi units in the span of like 10 minutes.

music was also kinda bland but i don't think that's an unpopular opinion. mercurysteam should hire someone else to do their music because music can elevate a particular scene or atmosphere tenfold.

the game still had a lot of merit though, the exploration was really fun and well thought-out, the map had a lot of backtracking but it was very cleverly designed. like, the game doesn't give you the morph ball for a hot minute but when you finally get it, you gain access to whole new crevices and stuff which you didn't before. i didn't get lost too many times unlike the 2 other metroid games i've played (prime 1 and prime 2), but there were some instances where it felt kinda random... like ok i had to shoot that wall in the top left corner of this room bro, cool. but those moments were really far and few between and it didn't take away from the overall experience of the game.

the story was pretty compelling and definitely carried the latter parts of the game for me. i think it could've been dispersed better but it wasn't awful. definitely intrigued to see where the series could go from here. overall this game is very fun and i recommend it, although i do think it is overhyped slightly. pick it up if you haven't already, a good introduction to 2D metroid for me. i think zero mission is next on my agenda.

it's not awful by any means but all of the yoyo controls being bound to like 1 button made it kinda jank to control - i wanna break something but then i accidentally tap X one too many times and fly off the map, it seems like i could just be more careful when pressing X but still, seems like an oversight.

and with the art style being the way it is, not getting 60FPS on switch seems ridiculous, i bought it on switch and then swiftly pirated it on PC once i found out the switch version is locked at 30FPS lol.

character/world design is pretty cute however, even the UI design is cute and bouncy, similar to mania. it's got a lot of charm, i just think the levels aren't super fun to run through and the lil side quests weren't engaging and the collectibles weren't very well dispersed.

when the controls work, they feel fun but momentum dies really fast which can result in pretty unsatisfying movement. also, again, everything yoyo-related being bound to like 1 button really soured the experience for me. would recommend to people who really really like 3D platformers, otherwise there's not a lot of reason to go out of your way to play this imo. i don't see myself coming back to this ever, really.

i mean i saw the credits roll so by my definition i did "complete" it. i did play both the beginner and the advanced courses but the expert ones kicked my fuckin' ass.

the inclusion of lives, which the later games in the franchise removed, was kinda jarring as it meant i had to beat like 50 courses in a row on a limited life system. shit was NOT easy. not bad per say but it definitely felt too extreme, i think monkey ball 2 found a better balance.

overall it's a fun game but i think there're a couple changes they could've made to differentiate it more from its arcade counterpart.

painfully average mario experience; probably his worst 2D outting. this is by far the blandest of the new super mario bros. games and makes sense considering it's a wii title. this one, unlike every other new super mario bros. game, has basically nothing going for it besides the simultaneous multiplayer, which is ... questionably implemented at best. the levels when playing singleplayer are just massive and empty, there isn't a good balance. music is pretty much ripped from the first game too but they removed a couple bangers.

despite this, it is still a mario platformer, and they're never too bad. everything feels fair and whatnot.

definitely the most prettiest and modern of the new super mario bros. games.

it does some things right and is definitely an improvement over new super mario bros. wii, but people were very much fed up of this formula by this point and even playing it today that rings true. it is quite bland and definitely hard to go back to after games like super mario bros. wonder came out. still a fun platformer in its own right though.

i do appreciate them changing up the OST though, that overworld theme from 1, wii, and 2 was getting kinda old.