I remember trying Space channel 5 Part 1 and thinking it was a good time, but nothig that mindblowing in my head..... the I tried the sequel out of curiosity.

Legit one of the best Rhythm experience you can have: SEGA at it strongest delivering a title that works perfectly as a great rhythm game, a musical, and a Michael Jackson coreography (Yes he is in the game)

It evolves on the first game in every single aspect: the premise is one of the most hilarious things in a videogame, that is able to keep you entertained and even going incredibly hard especially in the final act with an bombastic epic ending.
Music and presentation are so varied and have an energy so pompous and crazy that you can’t help but laugh for the whole experience.
While the first game I feel was kinda okay interms of the gameplay, Part 2 adds the option to HEY between the CHU CHU CHU and DOWN DOWN DOWN, something simple that adds a lot of spice to a gameplay that can otherwise feel a bit too repetitive.

Absolutely incredible rhythm game, one of the best: play it especially for Ulala and Space Michael (he has a bigger role here compared to the first game). I suggest this to literally everyone!

I love when really promising concepts gets butchered by the greediness of their "parent companies".

Imagine creating one of the most promising crossovers for a fighting game by taking the deep and great character from some amazing series of the Arcsys catalogue, and combine them in a balanced MUGEN like experience appealing for both veterans of the respective series, and more casual players....
Seems like a clear slam dunk. What could possibly go wrong-OH? What do you mean over half ot the cast is locked behind DLC for no reason? And not only that, but most of the "free" characters mostly uses quick reused assets from other Arksys titles and don't blend well together?

In my opinion, these factors alone drop the quality of the title immensely, from both veterans and casuals alike: casuals that will buy it because they are RWBY or Persona fans will immediately find out that literally half of the main cast for the respective series is locked behind a second paywall... while competitive players coming from Blazblue or Undernight will find their mains "desaturated" and with a big loss of moves and gameplay options in order to appeal to a more casual audience.


This could have been one of the best Arksys works, but the decisions surrounding its launch and the unbalanced amount of content available drags it down a lot.

Like, I am not even the biggest RWBY fan (I thought the show is kinda just okay at best), but how the heck you put those characters as one of the main selling point, only to not add the "Y" and the "B" or "RWBY" at launch?

Still an enjoyable fighting game with a decently fine combat system and presentation, but I am sorry to say that there are better crossover fighting games on the market.

Super Mario Galaxy is the game that made me love video games.

It wasn’t the first game I played, or even the first Mario game (that honor goes to Mario Kart Wii), but it was the first to make me see games as an art form. It’s been over 15 years since I first sat down to play it at the tender age of 4 years old, but that first play session is burned into my brain. The transition from a quiet, somber storybook into a joyous festival instantly invokes a sense of childlike wonder and turns the remotely interested into the completely invested. Then, Bowser’s attack on the Star Festival and Mario’s defeat lets veteran Mario players know this adventure will be something special, while also making the basic elements of Mario clear to new players.

Speaking of basic elements, Gateway Galaxy is a fantastic tutorial. The Star Bunny segment seamlessly introduces the game’s gravity mechanic, as well as the concepts of bushes, pipes, and craters. Rosalina’s introduction introduces a sense of mystery and quiet contemplation, and the next few planets establish the game’s phenomenal sense of epic adventure and even more gameplay elements: spinning, crystals, Launch Stars, Star Bits, enemies, Black Holes, Star Chips, Flip Switches, and electricity. And all this culminates in the rescue of the Grand Star, giving 4-year-old willn46 his first chance to save the universe and make it back home to the beautiful Comet Observatory.

But even beyond its importance to me, Mario Galaxy is simply an incredible 3D platformer. Right from the outset, Mario controls like a dream. Every input is immediately taken into account, with jumps, ground pounds, and everything in between being perfectly tuned to just feel good to use. But I’d be remiss not to mention the crown jewel of Mario’s moveset: the Spin Move. Not only is it a fantastic use of the Wii’s motion controls that feels both significant and unobtrusive (unless you have a disability that renders the controls unusable for you, in which case I am incredibly sorry), it’s also an incredibly versatile tool that’s easy to use, but has nearly limitless potential. First and foremost, the momentum-halting midair jump lets players easily recover from mistakes and adjust their positioning on the fly, giving newer players a safety net that eases them in to platforming in a 3D space. Additionally, the extra jump is great for getting places that seem just out of reach, horizontally or vertically, enabling the game to set up interesting platforming challenges and fun opportunities to skip past sections if the player is good enough. But the Spin Move isn’t just for platforming; it’s also the player’s primary means of interaction with the game. It’s used to defeat enemies, break objects, collect shells, swim faster, and so much more, and every interaction is completely intuitive (Ceave Gaming has a great video on this exact topic).

I’ve seen some people criticize the Galaxy games for not having as much movement tech as other 3D Mario games. While, yes, the movement here is much simpler than 64, Sunshine or Odyssey, I actually think it works to the game’s benefit. Not only is it much easier to learn, requiring the player to understand a few basic moves rather than a plethora of complex maneuvers, but the more limited moveset lets the game be carried entirely by its level design.

And said level design is top-notch. Like 64 and Sunshine before it, Galaxy spreads its 120 stars across multiple worlds for the plumber to tackle. But it trades their handful of levels holding a few collectibles for a supercluster of memorable locales, each one bearing a unique mechanical, visual and auditory identity. Fully committing to Sunshine’s separation of individual objectives lets the designers get the most out of a single Galaxy by introducing multiple ideas while still maintaining the level’s core themes, and splitting up the action across multiple planets allows for great variety within missions as well as between them. Plus, the introduction of mid-level checkpoints allows for longer levels that don’t feel like they drag on and gives the designers more time to play with a level’s gimmicks. The more linear level design even means the game’s limited camera rarely feels limiting. And the generous amount of Power Stars gives players plenty of freedom in choosing which levels to tackle.

This would all mean nothing if the levels themselves were boring, but luckily they couldn’t be further from that. Galaxy takes basic level tropes like Ice, Beach, and Desert levels and pushes them to their absolute limits: combining ice and fire mechanics in a lava-skating course, hiding the path to a deadly obstacle course behind an underwater cave, and navigating sand streams and tornadoes across an ocean of quicksand. And that’s not even mentioning the more original levels, like HoneyHive Galaxy, BattleRock Galaxy, or Toy Time Galaxy. Besides a few stinkers like the ball-rolling levels and some of the race levels, the level mechanics on display are consistently excellent in a way I think is only matched by this game's own sequel. Interesting obstacles like altered gravity, throwing Bob-Ombs, and launching from Sling Pods are expertly paced and explored to the fullest. Cool enemies like spinning tops, bugs that need to be ground-pounded, and giant eels combined with interesting spins on classic enemies like Goombas and Boos work wonders both from a mechanical and aesthetic standpoint. Plus the bosses are great tests of skill, utilizing a level’s mechanics in their battles on top of being tests of basic skill. Power ups are pretty fun too (besides the spring), with their own unique attributes, interactions with level gimmicks, and hazards to deal with.

And do I even need to mention the visuals and music? The artstyle is vibrant, yet the locales are consistently stunning, with great attention to detail both in the actual levels and in background elements. The character designs are excellent, both with how returning characters look and how the new characters perfectly fit in with Mario while still standing out. Plus, there are tons of cool little details and secret areas that, while they may be a little pointless, give the levels tons of personality. But even more impressive is the game’s music. The confident, orchestral themes give the game an almost cinematic feel, and yet each one perfectly fits within the level and the Mario series. There are so many standout pieces in this regard, like Good Egg Galaxy, BattleRock Galaxy, and Buoy Base Galaxy. However, the game also knows when to be more subdued and reflective, with pieces like Space Junk Galaxy and Gateway Galaxy.

And on that note…besides sparking my love of video games, there’s another reason this game means so much to me.

Back in late 2016, I made some mistakes. The details are personal, but long story short, I was a stupid 12-year-old who took his friends for granted and ended up losing them all. And for the entire month of November, going to school was absolute Hell for me because of it. In every class, I would argue with people, get teased, or get laughed at, and since a lot of it was my fault, I didn’t want to ask any teachers or my parents for help. Luckily, Thanksgiving Break rolled around eventually, and I was home safe. But at this point I realized something horrible: I had no one to turn to. All my friends left me because of my egotism, and my parents wouldn’t understand enough to help me. For that entire week, I was more or less left to think about my actions, angry at myself and at the people who hurt me. I didn’t know if I could go on, and before long, my mind went to some…dark places.

Then, on Sunday, the day before I had to go back to school, I thought I would boot up Mario Galaxy so I could at least have a little fun. I played around a little, going through some of my favorite levels, not really accomplishing much. But I enjoyed it. The game didn’t judge me. It didn’t try to hurt me. It didn’t care what I did. It was just there for me, and it was there to make me happy.

And…suddenly, I wasn’t alone anymore.

Not only did that moment save my life, not only did it bring me out of the hole I dug for myself, but it made me realize the true power of a good video game. Some people might say video games are silly little things, that they’re hunks of digital junk to give to a kid so they’ll shut up for a bit. But I think they’re more than that. Like any form of art, they can lift a person up, give them a new perspective on life, and help them move forward even when nobody else will. That moment is why I wanted to become a game designer. Because I wanted to help someone feel like someone cared for them, the same way Super Mario Galaxy helped me. Sometimes, when you’re feeling hopeless, that’s the only message you need to hear:

“Thank you so much for playing my game.”

Playing this gave me the conviction that it's actually criminal Nintendo will throw up games onto its Switch Online service for western audiences without translating them. I get that it's an extra expense, but hey, I'm paying them for this. It's honestly impressive how much of this you can get, even the little tutorials, without understanding a character of Japanese. But it sure would be nice to enjoy the flavor text, and I fear the lack of translation will turn people off from a solid, cute, very enjoyable little title.

I'm not a fighting game person, but playing through the story mode was really fun, and encouraged me to try out all of the playable roster (8 for story mode) as the various abilities for each might give you an advantage when you find yourself stuck. The last set of fighters in story mode are clones of your own roster, but more powerful, which seems unfair but makes it more satisfying when you beat them.

I love that the mascot is essentially the comedy character, as well. Still, drill guy for life.

Better than Letter Adventure because it has Cookie Monster, and Elmo does sick tricks with his jetski in the Land of Chocolate.

In all seriousness, this Elmo game and its twin are fairly amusing as a meme speedrun race for adults, but they emulate really badly (like, frequently crashing and freezing) and for some strange reason the N64 emulation community has not collectively worked very hard to change that. So unless you have an everdrive or the cartridges, it's probably not worth trying to make it work out for 20 minutes of gameplay.

As an actual game for children, this duology was perhaps more useful in teaching toddlers how to hold an N64 controller and navigate virtual 3D space than actually teaching them anything about reading or numbers. If you can recognize how a letter/number is written once, you can probably do it 20 times. p and q or b and d might be the only challenges. I dunno, I don't have kids yet though. When I do I can share this with them and see what they think, and possibly be the first person to actually subject children to this perfectly harmless but also unimpressive edutainment game in like 25 years. I'll get back to you someday.

If I had a nickel for every N64 game where you get through all the levels and have an initial confrontation with the villain (who is a stereotypical green Halloween witch), but to get the true final battle you have to go back and get VERY close to full-completing the game, I'd have two nickels.

This game actually holds up extremely well... for the most part. The graphics are simple, which is all they need to be for a game like this, and there are a surprising amount of charming and unique details interspersed throughout the levels, with pleasant colors and textures. The music is great, but there aren't that many songs, and hearing the same relatively short loop for three levels in a row gets tiring, no matter how much of a banger it is. Apparently the way they got around N64 music limitations was just... actually making the songs shorter by cutting out parts of them, the "calmer" parts that made them seem less repetitive. The PS1 and Dreamcast versions apparently have more levels too, including more bonuses with varied gameplay, not to mention other features like voice acting and rendered preview images before levels. In my quest to play every decent game on the N64, I have once again fallen victim to the inferior version of a product.

Version differences aside- the simplicity of this game is another reason it holds up so well. The only buttons required outside of menuing are the dpad or stick, with A and B merely zooming in and out. Everything is accomplished by walking around to collect dots (including the classic power pellets that will let you devour your foes), walking onto switches, and interacting with other things in the environment. I could see this kind of simple appeal finding an audience in the indie market today. Yet even here there somehow manages to be camera issues, with a camera that often lags behind your movement. If you don't stop and wait for it to catch up, you can run into some rude surprises.

The top-down maze format is filled with block-pushing puzzles, which almost always involve TNT blocks that explode on a timer and will blow up other blocks in your way, but also the old standby of ice blocks that can cool lava enough to make a temporary bridge, and other types of environmental puzzles and interactions. Nothing is too hard to figure out, but it's fun and engaging enough to keep you going.

Unfortunately, this game has a massive flaw: the stringency of its requirements to access the final boss. You have to get the VAST majority of stars in the game, which are gained from either finding every fruit in a level, every dot, or completing a time trial. Let's talk about those first two. They can ostensibly both be accomplished on a single run, but for some levels you actually can't get everything until you've beaten the first boss (after completing every level at least once) and received a special key, so you might spend time trying to collect everything only to later realize you're gated off from initial success. What's more, there are often "points of no return" in the levels, so if you missed something, get ready to do the whole thing all over again because there's no way to go back.

The time trials, though. They remove all key blocks from the level, making them shorter overall (as there are lots of side areas you won't have to visit)... But even so, they are EXTREMELY demanding (with a few exceptions) and will require routing, practice, and near perfect execution- including avoiding enemies who will take time off your clock instead of damaging you. Depending on how much damage they would normally do, this can be as much as 20 or even 30 seconds. Your attempt could be functionally over after one hit. The challenge could be fun and rewarding but the investment rarely seemed worth it. You will have to do at least a few of them, so choose wisely.

It's easy to sour on an overall fun experience when you have to slog your way through the same levels several times, repeating the same puzzles, with the same walking pace and non-variable gameplay. Even just hacking off five or ten of the required stars would have encouraged people to revisit levels and engage with the time trial mechanics without ending up feeling like a job.

It's a charming and unique game which, due to its simplicity, doesn't really feel dated... but far outstays its welcome. By the end, I definitely felt the maze madness setting in.

Wasn't sure if I'd like this or not, but it was really fun to play. I was initially kind of turned off by the visuals and hearing about its hard difficulty, but after playing games like the Mega Man series, I've been more open to trying harder games. This was definitely a challenge at times, but it was a pretty fun game to blaze through regardless of its difficulty. I had a blast with a good chunk of the game, though I wasn't a fan of most of the Gorilla Glacier levels. However, I do really like Croctopus Chase and Rope Bridge Rumble, both being levels that really stand out for me in particular. The levels in this game also have great gimmicks that didn't change much of the gameplay itself, but more of how you need to tackle each level. Great examples of gimmicks I love are the Stop & Go Barrels in Stop & Go Station and the flickering lights in Blackout Basement (which is probably my favourite level in the game). The music in this game is also incredibly good and it's another example of retro music being really damn good (like Mega Man), featuring tracks like Fear Factory, Mine Cart Madness, Gang-Plank Galleon, and my personal favourite which is Aquatic Ambiance. Speaking of which, props to the developers for creating really fun water levels. Normally I don't like water levels because they feel extremely slow, but these levels felt really good to control and play while having incredible music to really enhance the experience. Overall, I'd say this game provides a great level of challenge and fun and is a great starting point for the Donkey Kong Country series.

For context, I haven't played the other GB Castlevanias, but as a fan of the series in general, decided to give this a try. I'd heard it was bad, and I wish I could disagree.

Sonia has two modes: agonizingly slow... and twice as fast + invincible. You can only use the invincible "burning mode" once per life, and it doesn't last for long, but it should be enough to get you past the more frustrating spots and help you mindlessly blast through bosses. But as cheap as it may feel, you wouldn't want it otherwise; one of the shorter Castlevanias, yet also one of the cheapest, this game basically begs you to use its built-in mechanics to brute force your way through. I didn't feel like I had cheated myself by making liberal use of Burning Mode, as the game just isn't really fun to play except in that brief span of feeling overpowered. In addition, the adventure overall has an option called "light mode" where you can choose to give your file a constantly fully-powered whip. I didn't play with this, but wish I had, since there didn't end up being much of a challenge regardless, and by the time I was halfway done I just wanted to make it to the end.

I know people have praised that Sonia can change direction while jumping, and also walk/whip while ducking, which is apparently a step up from the previous GB titles… but the default feel is still clumsy, especially with the change in the subweapon system removing a lot of the player's toolkit and creativity. Something I normally adore about Castlevania games is hunting down the best strategic subweapon for your preference and needs, but here you get power-ups one by one after beating various levels, making the game feel very limited until later on.

This game has some annoying enemy placement (and they'll respawn if you scroll the screen, too), and is filled with bats that will knock you around before you can maneuver your horizontal whip to kill them. The devs also loved tall vertical rooms which the hardware cannot handle, leading to slowdown every time.

The final boss is a test of learning patterns and figuring out where to stand, which is... ok if you like that sort of thing, I guess. It actually made me feel engaged for once.

The idea of the first vampire-hunting Belmont being a young woman is cool, and I was happy to see my boy Alucard show up... until the implication that the two of them were an item, which was weird. It also makes the implications for the future of the Belmont clan weird. They really drive home the strong independent girl thing, and yet have to make sure to tie her into having a romantic involvement with beloved Alucard from that better game. In the end, I don't mind that this is no longer canon.

When I was in high school I had a MegaMan game on my calculator. That’s what this game reminds me of. This is the beautiful and elegant idea of Castlevania stripped down to its barest essentials, so that you might play it portably. Isn’t that cool?? At the time, getting the Castlevania experience on a road trip must have been entertaining enough to get some to cut this game some slack. In the modern era, only the most hardcore and curious of fans need bother.