With The Crew's servers going down in less than two weeks, I felt compelled to play through the campaign before it goes away forever. My expectations were fairly low coming in, and The Crew was actually even more boring than I thought I'd find it. I did find the massive map to be impressive and driving through it could sometimes be zen-like, but the campaign events are repetitive and the plot is threadbare. The entire game feels pointless and boring as a result, with little reason to play event after event. The multiplayer aspects also appear to be shoehorned, though I didn't experience it directly.

Wendy: Every Witch Way feels like a prototype for WayForward's future game Mighty Flip Champs, so I wasn't surprised when I looked it up to find that it was actually the inspiration for that later game. This game is charming and looks amazing for a Game Boy Color game, but it's definitely lacking in challenge or longevity. It seems like the developers could have gotten a lot more creative with the stage design given their flipping mechanic (and they later would), but they mostly played it safe here.

Super Mario Galaxy still holds up as one of Nintendo's most creative Mario endeavors. It's a game that still looks and plays great, a testament to the brilliance of Nintendo's design. In this playthrough I was impressed to notice just how well Mario controls even when intended direction may be ambiguous given player and camera orientation. It's clear that Nintendo spent a lot of time making sure that they were able to properly infer player intent. This port does feel a little bit lacking given it requires either motion controls or the touchscreen, which ends up feeling unwieldy in handheld mode, but the core of Super Mario Galaxy still holds this up as an excellent way to play the game.

I'm a sucker for a classic turn-based RPG and Golden Sun certainly provided an experience which scratched that itch. It's got some neat twists to the formula with the Djinn system and Psynergy, but the combat overall isn't terribly engaging and is more just serviceable. The dungeon design is more notable with some genuinely awesome puzzles and generally well laid out maps. Story is, in classic RPG fashion, barely present, mostly serving to shuffle our heroes from location to location. I enjoyed Golden Sun for what it offers, but it's definitely not an all-time great, more of just a solid all-around game.

I've always enjoyed storied franchises exploring other genres but it's not always a formula that works out. Spartan Assault is boring and inconsequential, making poor translation work of Halo's gameplay and concepts into a twin-stick shooter. The game's levels all blend together with similar objectives and environments all featuring passable gameplay. The need to go into cover and regenerate your shield slows the pace of the game when twin-stick shooters tend to feel more frenetically paced. There's nothing special about Spartan Assault.

After playing through hundreds of games, it's always exciting to find something that feels truly novel in its mechanics. Cocoon executes brilliantly on its concept of interconnected worlds as physical objects. It's filled with moments that make you feel like a genius for figuring out, without being too obtuse such that it becomes frustrating. I kept finding myself thinking "there's no way this would work," only for that to be the solution to a puzzle. The designers have masterfully connected these worlds through gameplay and visual flair. With Limbo and Inside as pedigree, Cocoon is more evidence to the brilliance of Jeppe Carlsen.

This is one of those games where it's best to come into the experience as blind as possible. This game is crammed with writing that manages to be compelling without falling into pretention. It manages to be open to many interpretations without being unsatisfactory. I will say that the game's many routes are more similar than they appeared to me on my first playthrough, but I still enjoyed exploring all of them. I'll be thinking about a lot of the questions this game asks for a while, which is rare to find with video game writing, so that alone propels Slay the Princess to a higher personal rating.

It's an all around solid twin-stick shooter that suffers from some repetitiveness. Played through in co-op in one sitting, so having a buddy to play with made this one more enjoyable but by the end we were feeling a little bit of fatigue on the game. Environments are detailed and relatively varied, but the gameplay stays mostly the same throughout. The story is also forgettable with a conclusion that's delivered in cutscene form. I will say that it's interesting to see an earlier Housemarque title as I'm a huge fan of Returnal. Some of that game's roots are evident even here.

Emergency Meeting is my favorite of the Vampire Survivors DLC so far. Previously, I'd had complaints about the DLCs not shaking up the Vampire Survivors formula enough beyond adding new stages, characters, and weapons, so having a crossover with some fun twists helps to alleviate that criticism. I'll always enjoy hopping back into Vampire Survivors for a few hours once a new DLC drops and this one was no exception. All that said, it would have been nice for there to be some sort of boss or additional secrets to uncover in the new stage.

Unlike any other puzzle game I've played. Deciphering languages in Chants of Sennaar had me totally captivated. It was mostly well-executed in the way that it would slowly reveal words using contextual clues or pictographs. Every "ah-ha" moment felt earned and it was rare for me to feel helplessly lost. The game also has a lovely art style and some peaceful music. I did feel as though some sections of the game felt somewhat slow with too much walking, but I was still enthralled the entire story.

I'm actually glad to have played the second Cat Quest prior to this one because it is essentially the same as the original but with some much needed improvements. The upgrade system in this one is annoying to engage with--loot is purchased from a blacksmith and if it's a duplicate item that's owned, then its level is upgraded. With dozens of items in the game, it makes upgrading equipment a chore requiring randomized rolls. The exploration in this one also dragged, with many quests requiring multiple long back and forth trips peppered with overly wordy quest dialogue. This series is still charming to me, and it's honestly encouraging that the second game was such an evolution. Bodes well for the upcoming third game!