Ever since dropping this a month ago I've tried figuring out what didn't work for me this time around, I still don't fully know! On paper Dread is a really great time- movement and combat feel nice, the EMMI zones genuinely scare me (especially after hitting the pen...), the art direction is pleasant and the sound is fantastic. And yet almost all my enthusiasm vanished towards the end of my playthrough, after forcing myself to continue for a bit I realized the joy wasn't coming back and cut my losses.

I feel that Dread is hindered by two key elements. The exploration can be hyper-linear at points; after a while a lot of your time spent with the game will be trekking from one teleportal to another, almost every path that strays will be gated off by an ability you don't have yet or an environmental hazard that prevents progress. It doesn't help that you don't spend much time in any of the areas either, the game hurries you from set piece to set piece which reduces the environment’s impact to “the ice place” and “the big water room.” My other point of contention is with the EMMI zones. I like the EMMI's! I think they're scary and do a good job of keeping you on your toes. The zones however aren't fun after the first few, I came to loathe being forced to halt all progress so you can repeat the same start-and-stop "stealth" segments that you did with all the previous ones. I hate to engage in armchair game design but I think it would’ve been way more interesting (and scarier!) to have 3 or 4 EMMI’s lurking around the map at all times. I’ve never played RE2 but this is what I understand the Mr X stalking mechanic to be, imagining what Dread could’ve been with this approach makes me sad at the lost potential. It probably would’ve resulted in a completely different experience, but it’s not like we’d be losing anything exceptional. If only…

Aside from these specific gripes I still found a lot of the initial charm missing, it’s a bummer to have so many of Dread’s strengths rely solely on being novel. After feeling tepid on Zero Mission and finding Super Metroid’s traversal too stiff to enjoy I’m questioning if I even like the 2D series that much anymore. Wouldn’t call Dread bad, I had a great time playing it upon release, but it’s certainly misguided. Still stoked we got a new 2D title though, let’s just hope the next entry (if we even get one) learns more from its genre contemporaries.

Liked it a lot overall but Pikmin 4 is nowhere near the best of the series. Nicely polished with super charming visuals, but the complete lack of challenging multitasking and a true mission mode (the two aspects of Pikmin 3 that kept me playing for 60+ hours) left me feeling tepid. Some of the new changes are a welcome addition, riding around on Oatchi and upgrading with raw materials was fun, but the flaws became so glaring by the final ending that I can't imagine I'll pick the game up again for a long while. Would be a fantastic experience if it weren't for the auto lock-on and constant dialogue interruptions, but even though they suck (an understatement, honestly) I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to just about anyone. I'm thrilled we have a Pikmin 4, here's to hoping 2033's Pikmin 5 will be a little better :)

Was slightly intrigued at first by how earnestly terrible this is, but the little charm it had quickly wore off by the end of the first episode. I can almost excuse the grating combat, but its "satire," never funny and beyond overplayed (even for the era), fails so unremarkably that I imagine even a high schooler would find it pedestrian. Between this and Control it's clear Remedy likes David Lynch a lot but understands none of what makes him interesting, Control can at least make up for it with compelling gameplay. The one cool thing Alan Wake does is make me realize I should be playing Deadly Premonition instead, and for that I am grateful to this otherwise completely unmemorable experience.

If Katamari Damacy is the Andy Warhol painting of video games, We Love Katamari is "The American Supermarket" of video games. Any new Katamari gameplay guarantees a good time, but this entry goes above and beyond in creating a bigger, bolder, more varied experience that pushes beyond the scope of the original. The endearing candy-colored satire/commentary continues in this entry, rightfully earning its place alongside the first in the Pop Art canon. While the new Royal Reverie content is a big disappointment (I wouldn't call any of the stages great, some are pretty bad even), the base game and its abundant remastered improvements 100% warrant a perfect score. I ♡ Katamari and I promise you'll ♡ it too

What's there to say that hasn't been said? A perfect game, the pinnacle of platforming (a genre I don't like all that much too!), rightfully hailed as one of the best games of the 2010s. Didn't find the narrative moments about anxiety or queerness particularly noteworthy, but as someone who is both anxious and queer it's probably just subject burnout (it's harmless nonetheless, never distracting or annoying, I just didn't quite feel what others felt). After Towerfall Maddy Thorson proves lighting CAN strike twice

If you can't make video games into art, make art into video games...
I have long held the opinion that the vast majority of video games are toys you play with while shoving popcorn in your face, the likes of a James Cameron film at best and degenerate slush at worst. Little throwaway experiences that aren't worth thinking about beyond liking or disliking the time you spent with them. "Not art," if you will (not that Cameron films "aren't art," Avatar rules). Cuccchi didn't make me completely reconsider that opinion per se, I do still think most of the medium doesn't deserve the merit it's given, but it did show me how silly and shallow it is to try and define capital A Art.

Describing Cuccchi is difficult. An interactive tribute to Enzo Cucchi? An arthouse first-person adventure game? To try and encapsulate it is to miss the point entirely, but you have to convey some sort of idea to your friend who you’re begging to play it. Still, I don’t really care to. I had no formal introduction, just a feeling that I wanted to see what exactly was going on. Cuccchi fell into my lap while perusing the eShop recent releases tab one day, the cover was intriguing so I decided to check it out. I had no clue about the experience I was about to have, the world that was about to be unveiled to me.

If you've never heard of Enzo Cucchi (I hadn't before playing) that's ok, the game is a phenomenal introduction to his work. You are thrusted into an explorable space with little direction, all of its mechanics are left for you to make sense of. I can see how some are turned off by this, your set lives and unclear enemies can feel frustrating at first. Cuccchi is not your run-of-the-mill DevolvApurna “prestige” indie game, it often feels unconcerned with your understanding or enjoyment of the experience. But just because it feels careless doesn’t mean it is, so much love and detail is poured into the game, its adoration of the semi-titular artist is clear (and infectious). I admire Cuccchi’s trust in you to figure it out, the enemies add a sense of looming risk while meandering through its worlds, further explanation would distract. Why explore a painting if you can’t feel its living presence?

Like many I loathe the term “liminal space,” at this point it’s a label slapped onto any eerie uninhabited built environment. I’ll spare you the whole define-a-word-for-emphasis shtick and just say Cuccchi frequently occupies the liminal. A hazy forest fades into a corn stalk labyrinth. A slurry of hailing brushstrokes becomes a small farmstead. Despite its leveled structure your traversal is never halted, your playthrough is essentially one long transition. One way in and one way out, Cuccchi is fundamentally an art exhibit, one unlike anything you’ll ever experience.

Upon finishing the game for the first time (a nearly effortless task, it can be seen in as little as 45 minutes) I realized my previous notions of the medium had been directly challenged. Here was an experience that impacted me as much as my first trip to an art museum. I was actively feeling my horizons being broadened, my black-and-white outlook growing grayer. Cuccchi was an instrumental work in growing my late-teenage art nuance (LTAN, I like to call it, patent pending), comparable with Duchamp’s “Fountain” in that it points out the frivolity of categorizing art from not-art. Sure, anything can be art, but is it even worth discerning? I have played this game four times and hope to play it hundreds more, my gratitude to the devs and to Cucchi himself is infinite. If you want something more out of video games, something that blurs the line between physical and digital mediums, Cuccchi will be here- waiting to show you a space you never knew existed.