If Rayman Raving Rabbids has a million fans, I am one of them
If Rayman Raving Rabbids has 5 fans, I am one of them
If Rayman Raving Rabbids has 1 fans, that one is me
If Rayman Raving Rabbids has no fans, I'm no longer alive
If the world is against Rayman Raving Rabbids I'm against the whole world
Till my last breath, I'll support Rayman Raving Rabbids

I absolutely adored my time with this game. I would need to sit on it for a while to determine if this is my favourite in the series or not, but it's up there at the very least.

The setting of a post-apocalyptic world once inhabited by a seemingly thriving civilisation really makes each world stand out. What typically would be considered generic grass, desert, ice worlds, etc. instead feel like lived in places, a fact only furthered by the tidbits of lore we learn about this past civilisation from the gotcha collectibles.

Of the 6 worlds, my favourites would have to be the third world and the fourth world. The third world is the only one not to follow any particular platformer trope, taking place in an abandoned theme park, allowing it to have some really creative level design. The fourth world on the other hand is one of the most gorgeous takes on the ice world platformer trope, and features some of my favourite music tracks in the game.
If there is one nitpick I have with the levels however, it's the hidden waddle dee requirements. For the most part these are no big deal, you may have to play through a level a second time to get the one or two you missed, but given how great each level is this isn't a problem for me. My problem is with the way they are listed. While most are listed in the order you are supposed to discover them in the level, there's the odd one that will be listed at the end despite appearing before other requirements. To give you an idea, there is one particular level where the last Waddle Dee requires you to take a detour. This resulted in me spending a good hour scouring every nook and cranny at the end of the level, only for me to discover said detour in the first part of the level.
This is thankfully pretty rare, and the only time I felt particularly frustrated with the game, but nevertheless it's something to be wary of (it could also just be that I'm really stupid and this isn't a massive problem for anyone else except for me).
The new Mouthful Mode feels like a natural addition to Kirby's abilities, unlike some past gimmicks such as the Hypernova from Triple Deluxe, or some of the friend abilities from Star Allies, which felt much more like style over substance in how they were implemented. The mechanic also makes up for the unfortunate lack of copy abilities in the game, of which there are only 12. What's more, the move sets of each copy ability feel pretty trimmed down compared to past entries, and although the upgraded abilities somewhat make up for this, I would have taken a more versatile move set instead any day of the week, especially given that one of the face buttons is never even used throughout the game's run time.
Ultimately though this is just a nitpick of mine, as the copy abilities we do have are used to their fullest potential for puzzles and fights in every level, including various challenge runs that test your skill with a particular copy ability.
The bosses in the game are also a lot of fun. While the first two are fairly simple, each boss after the first two worlds feels really fun and dynamic. While most aren't super challenging on their own, going for the extra Waddle Dees did pose a fair challenge, as each requires you to take down the boss in a certain time and without getting hit. The bosses at the end of the game in particular are fantastic, and lend themselves to what could be my favourite finale of any Kirby game, the only true contender for me being Planet Robobot.

Thank you to anyone who decided to read all this. I truly hope that if you were on the fence about this game for whatever reason, I have convinced you to pick it up. Outside of my two small nitpicks with the game and some minor performance issues (enemies in the background run at a lower frame rate than nearby ones) this is a phenomenal game. HAL have really knocked it out of the park with their first 3D Kirby, and I really cannot wait to see how the series evolves from here.

I'm only about 30 hours into Elden Ring but there are some other games coming up that I'd like to put time into and I'm ready to take a break, so I'm going to log it now. By all means a quality FromSoft title that definitely grabbed me but one I feel has a few issues holding it back.

I'll start with the positives: I've had a ton of fun talking about bosses and secret areas with friends and the whole rollout has been a blast. Overall, I think that's actually the strongest suit of this game and what I'll end up looking back fondly on the most. The NPCs are colorful and funny and lend a ton of character to the world. Ranni, Blaidd, Roderika, Rogier, all very cool. I wish From had taken a step out of their comfort zone and made the narrative more character driven, but oh well. Combat is as good as ever, which is to say, very very good. Adding jumping was a great idea by itself, but the game just gives you so many options at all times. Even if I play boring ass melee builds and have no interest in doing more than one run of a From title, I can appreciate how deep the pool of options is. The "legacy dungeons" are extremely cool, Raya Lucaria and Stormveil are excellent locations that are a ton of fun to explore. I know there are more to come and I'm interested in seeing what they are. The QoL improvements are very nice, like Stakes of Marika and overall tuning to the menus and out of combat movement. Gone are the days of running and jumping jank, now we've got immediate boss respawns and teleports to anywhere on the map. The exploration isn't my favorite thing (more on that next) but it's still impossible to not be grabbed by it a little bit, running from point of interest to point of interest. It doesn't touch, say, Breath of the Wild or Ghost of Tsushima for me, but it's solid. It definitely helps give the whole game that "ah I'll just play another 15-20 minutes" feeling.

Okay, the negatives: I can't help but think the game would've been improved by decreasing the size of the map. I don't necessarily think the open world should be cut entirely, but if the whole thing was scaled to… 75% of its current size I think it would help the pacing and overall quality. Running around in the open world just isn't as engaging as it could be and repetitive use of enemy types and the mini-dungeons wears after a while. The map itself, while obviously aesthetically cool (and more than we ever got in other Soulsborne titles), can be a little obtuse at times. Like, there's a spot in the east of Liurnia that just doesn't show a giant-ass rock wall separating two areas. It's weird how the game handles some things, like fall damage. They made such a point of showing it off in previews and building these huge places that tower over stuff but still have fall damage? Why? On a more personal note, I feel like the return to dark medieval as the core theme was a step back from the imaginative worlds of Bloodborne and Sekiro (the latter I admittedly have not played), resulting in what is certainly more Dark Souls than it isn't.

To be REALLY negative for a second, it's absolutely absurd that From shipped this game in its current state on PS5 / XSX. Texture pop-in is rampant (some of the worst I've ever seen on PS4 or 5) and the game struggles to maintain ~50 fps with little on the screen. I'm by no means a total obsessive when it comes to performance and it's more than playable but the hardware is not being utilized well at all and it's pretty sad to see. ER has a cool aesthetic in places but on a technical level it's really not pushing the bar - honestly the PS5 not hitting constant 60 by sheer beef of CPU / GPU baffles me.

Despite it maybe being the draw of the game, I'm not really going to touch on bosses, because A) I've only seen but so many of them, and B) they all tilt me anyway so talking about balance or variety is out of my arena. I've enjoyed who I've fought so far, though. Rennala is probably my favorite. Questlines and endings, too, are not something I overly care about in my FromSoft games so I'll pass on judging those too. I will say when that guy had me clear his fort of monsters for him and gave me a shitty dagger as payment that I drove my sword through him like he was microwaved butter.

So, yeah. I guess this came off pretty negative, and I admit that taking a break from it was partially caused by the criticisms I kept thinking of, but overall I have enjoyed my time with Elden Ring more than a little bit. At its core, this is another mechanically tight FromSoft joint with a shitload to do and kill. There's things I would change if I were Miyazaki, but I can't disagree with anyone loving it a whole lot. I'm sure I'll be coming back to it in time.

I've played this game for basically its entire lifespan. This game is extremely cool and truly one of a kind. A lot of care went into the creation of each of its characters and maps. The art of it I cannot praise enough. Unfortunately, it outgrew its intended purpose as a casual MOBA and is on its way out. New players trickle in and out and veteran players are most of what's left, so it may not be as accessible. As a veteran player who paid for the full game I cannot judge the new F2P experience.

I will keep this as brief as possible and keep spoilers vague and to a minimum.

I went into this with tempered expectations. I really liked Samus Returns, so I had confidence that Mercury Steam could do well and improve on the mechanics and concepts they introduced there. But I wasn't sure quite what they'd end up with, and I was hesitant to expect it to do everything I wanted.

This game's pacing is utterly impeccable. Now, I didn't find terribly many sequence breaks myself - I did fight one boss quite a bit earlier than expected, which was cool, but I didn't find much else. However, even playing this game in the "intended" sequence was extremely satisfying. The game is paced very well and introduces new powers at just the right times I find, with the main path being relatively linear while also allowing you to get lost and have to figure out where to go on your own. Having now finished the game and seeing other's experiences with the game though, it seems there's decent work being done finding more substantial skips and breaks which is very promising to see.

Samus has, hands down, the best-feeling moveset and controls in the entire series to this point. Minutes into the game, I noticed that when you slide off a ledge, you still have a little bit of leeway to jump - that "coyote time" is just one of the many contributing factors that make Samus feel at her absolute best in Dread. Even back with Samus Returns, Mercury Steam had a very clear understanding of how to make Metroid feel good to play, and to see them iterate and improve on that even further with Dread is phenomenal. Of course, they have an even clearer understanding of how to make satisfying, engaging (and admittedly very punishing at times) boss fights.

But even beyond being fantastic to play, this game brings back ideas and concepts from prior Metroids that I genuinely never expected to see. And they handle it with such restraint, holding back on showing you their cards until the precise moment they'll leave the biggest impact, so that when you finally encounter them, it's an incredible and unforgettable moment. This truly feels like a sequel to Fusion, in the best possible ways.

All of that applies to the endgame as well. Absolutely nothing could have prepared me for everything that happens. The final boss is easily the best fight in the entire game, and one of the best bosses in the entire series. Everything that happens during the finale had me losing my mind and cheering at the screen, I was giddy and screaming basically the entire way through. The finale of Dread is such a perfect culmination of what the series has been building up to and it was both everything I wanted and nothing I expected.

I can not wait to see where the series goes from here. However long it takes to get Metroid 6, I'll be there for it. With Mercury Steam at the helm, the series is in good hands.

See you next mission, Samus Aran.
See you next mission, Metroid.