you can beat the living shit out of neco arc. 10/10

what can i say? this game's legendary status is more than earned. i cannot imagine playing this for the first time in 1998, it must have been absolutely mind-exploding. playing it for the first time in 2024, sure, there are some rough edges. some of the bosses aren't great and the gameplay leaves a little bit to be desired. but, when you have a story as good as this, when the voice acting is as great as this, when you have the brilliant ability to balance comedy and drama and sometimes seamlessly combine the two, when the music is this great, when the codec conversations are probably the best out of any MGS game (thanks to yoji shinkawa's incredible character portraits), when you have the brilliant fourth-wall shattering, and when the overall atmosphere and colour palette is one of the most immersive of any game i've ever played in spite of the aged graphics, fucking hell man. i cannot help but adore this game. hideo kojima is a horny little genius.

one hell of an addictive experience what with the surprising amount of meat on its bones. you have the individual songs but also quests that you can do, and a full versus mode as well. additionally, this just oozes with so much adoration for final fantasy (both the music and the series as a whole) that you can't help but fall in love with it. pretty much every game gets at least a few songs, including spin-offs and side ones. the gameplay is so much fun. this game rocks!

zone of the enders 1 is an OK game. it has a hefty amount of problems, and doesn't amount to much more than a tech demo, but it's a fun enough tech demo. the combat system is fun enough to use and the story and voice acting have a kind of so-bad-they're-good quality to them. it's the exact kind of game a sequel is essential for, and in this case it would have been a doddle to make it good. give it a good narrative, make the voice acting work, and tighten up the mission design, and you would have something truly special. the high praise for this game left me excited to see what a truly good ZotE game would look like. those hopes did not last long. there is far too much clunk. there is far too much jank. the experience of playing this game has aged like milk. the difficulty step up is monumental, for a start. certain sections of this game took far too long to complete. one after another, you are hit with missions that are just so poorly designed and repetitive. whoever conceived of the train level, there is a special place in hell for you. the player has to constantly fight the awful camera system you get to work with. furthermore, you have to work around this hideous lock-on system. it works fine in a handful of battle scenarios (although often leads to these situations being so visually disorientating and chaotic you want to be sick) but something the game constantly likes to do is throw swarms of tiny enemies at you. this wouldn't be too bad on its own, but when there are other actually threatening robots in the mix, it's all over. when you are just trying to lock-on to the robot that is pummelling you, and the lock-on system is targeting individual enemies in these swarms, you feel a frustration i cannot put into words. just awful to play, and feels so bad. the majority of your subweapons are useless in the majority of battle scenarios, too. this means that your best bet is to hack-and-slash through your opponents, and the game is not well-designed around this and doing it just feels so mindless and mind-numbing. the story starts out interesting, and there's a particularly cool cameo for players of the first ZotE game, which was nice. however it just doesn't lead to anything interesting happening and the cutscene writing feels like a combination of MGS and the more tech jargony stuff in a mecha anime like evangelion. that, and the voice acting is now just flat-out lifeless. fuck, man. i was rooting for this game at the start. but, by its end, i had grown so sick and tired of it. ZotE 2 totally failed to live up to any expectations i had for it, and is proof that just because a sequel is bigger does not mean it's better. improving on the first game should have been so easy, and how hard they failed in that way just makes me sad. yes this means i prefer the first ZotE game. i am not immune to abysmal takes, it seems.

plenty of fun to be had here, thanks to some tight-ass gameplay, great theming (the robot + western aesthetic is fantastic and pretty unique), a good soundtrack and the short but replayable nature of it. wild guns is wild funs.

i have almost definitely sullied my experience with this game by playing the PS2 version which is notorious for how ass it is compared to the OG xbox version. so many loading screens, which is a bummer and a hell of a step down when you're used to the immediacy of the original gamecube versions. the combination of levels from 1 and 2 makes for a hefty challenge when it comes to the arcade mode, one which is not great given how imprecise a PS2 analog stick is compared to a GC analog stick. furthermore, the new stages they've added into deluxe are just kinda... bad? like they're all massive and gimmicky and have a lot of unused space on them. i might come back to this on the original xbox one day, but for now i can only rate what i played. and i did not enjoy it that much. it is fundamentally still fun because of how strong its predecessors were, but fails to add much of anything interesting or new. minigames are fun tho.

gitaroo man is so bizarre and weird but, like, in the absolute best way possible. the story is nonsense but so heartwarming and charming and surreal you kinda have to fall in love with it. mechanically it plays unlike any other rhythm game i've seen, while also using an easily understandable and unique system when it comes to playing in time with the music. and what incredible music it is. so much of this game is about the art style and presentation, though, and it has one of my favourite overall aesthetics of any game. i don't know what it is about this game's look but it just scratches an itch i never knew i had. all the elements work in tandem with each other to form one of the tightest, most cohesive visions i have ever seen a game put out, and it concludes with one of the greatest endings to a rhythm game perhaps ever put to disc. i cannot wait to give master's play a full shot, and to listen to the soundtrack every day until i die.

a cute and fun little take on the metroidvania genre. it's not genre-changing or anything, and hell it barely qualifies under the metroidvania umbrella at all with how linear it is. but, with how cute it is, how surprisingly great the soundtrack and sound design is, and how simple but effective the story it tells is, doinksoft have cooked hard here.

controls are a bit of a bitch to grapple with. they're fine to work around on the more forgiving tracks, but the second you get to the special cup it's all over. this gains a point over SMK for having actually interesting courses but the other mario karts far exceed it.

there are certain aspects of this game which stand the test of time. the aesthetic, atmosphere, music and story are consistently top-of-the-line and its greatest features. it feels like playing a really fun sci-fi action movie, with quotable dialogue and funny moments aplenty. also has some gameplay sections that will just floor you and the less said about those the better. the levels themselves, however, aren't great. lots of jank, lots of swarms and swarms of enemies making things frustratingly hard at points, and the library itself warrants this being below an 8/10. i wound up having a horrible time with a game i otherwise enjoyed because of how frustrating i found the levels.

a cool and chill lil puzzle game with immaculate vibes. not much more to say about it than that.

a lack of mario-themed individual puzzle solutions (which would have been cool) and some QOL hangups from my experience with more recently released picross games make this a bit of a hard game to stick with. still a bit fun tho

y'know, maybe a 4/5 is a bit much for this but i was really impressed with how much this manages to achieve in such a short runtime. the ending hit like a damn truck. it does something completely different from what i've come to expect from works by key, and still does a phenomenal job in terms of worldbuilding and atmosphere in spite of jun maeda's lack of involvement. plus yumemi and the junker's relationship was so strongly built i could easily have just watched them interact for a good few more hours.

in a series that contains some of the most charming games perhaps ever made, it was probably always destined that i would not find the first picross game for the ds particularly interesting. 3d and especially 3d round 2 have so much going for them and are some all time favourites for me. so, i was surprised by how much i enjoyed myself here. this is my first time encountering 2d picross puzzles, and they are just so much fun to suss out. easy to get into, and easy to get lost in. what it lacks in charm or a particularly memorable soundtrack, it more than makes up for in simplicity and plain ol fun.

managing to make exercise even slightly fun should have warranted a perfect score, but it just kinda falls flat as a game in terms of keeping the player hooked. for a fatass like myself this game does a great job, initially, at gripping you but then i found it hard to stick with after a while. those initial playthroughs are golden though. it's graphically sound with great voice acting, and plenty of modes for a strong and varied workout. i love how inclusive this is, nintendo really thought of everything (silent mode is a gift from god). plus cool rhythm game yay!

been playing a bunch of this lately and i'm having a blast. it's addictive in all the right ways that the best puzzle games are, and the art style and art direction is really good and cute. so is the music.

front to back fun and awesome. controls so tightly and satisfyingly it's absurd. i never expected to get emotional and nearly cry playing a racing game of all things, but man that colin mcrae tribute (combined with the frequent voices of ken block and dave mirra) really got to me. i love how much style this has, too. the visual presentation is just awesome, and the soundtrack is so of-the-time but also great in its own right. and i love how hearing ken block call me awesome makes me feel like a giddy child. couple things i'm not keen on. the trophy truck/dune buggy races i just do not enjoy. plus the people in this game would look out of place in a PS2 game, never mind a 360 game

i think this game would work better if there were monkeys inside the marbles.

this DLC acts as the explanation of the reason why you are taking these photographs, and does a great job at that. perhaps one of the angriest games i've played.

great cyberpunk stylings and a really interesting approach to worldbuilding. the photography side of things is very fun to do and well-handled, even if the physics are rather janky and the story you uncover is a touch on the cryptic side

i guess having watched all the episodes means i've 'played' this 'game' and i have to say that was a regret

a truly phenomenal game. manages to be extremely unsettling and disturbing while also telling a fantastic story of guilt and tragedy. i love how this incorporates elements of the developer's culture and dark history to really make it a one-of-a-kind. gameplay-wise it is a touch on the standard side, taking clear notes from silent hill's books in terms of puzzle solving, although there are occasionally very interesting and unique gameplay ideas to catch you off guard. detention also takes inspiration from silent hill in how surreal it can get. visually it has an astounding style that is unique and perfectly matches the events portrayed. it's incredibly atmospheric and immersive, too. a lot of the scares really catch you off guard, and solidify how strong the game is as a horror in its own right. the story is not one for the faint of heart and, as more of it is unveiled, the more devastated the player will find themselves. this game does not fuck around. really, the only flaws here are minor nitpicks barely worth mentioning like frame-rate drops and some instances of screen-tearing, but like, that's it in terms of problems. it's the perfect length; not too short to leave no impact, but not so long it overstays its welcome. a depressing story told cryptically but not to the point of being incomprehensible, all the while being rich with the history and folklore of the country it takes place in. it is astounding to me that such an amazing game was made by such a tiny team. for anyone learning about taiwanese history, or anyone who just wants to play a really good horror game, i would definitely say detention is worth every penny.

i don't have much to say about trackmania nations forever. it's extremely fun, it looks great for the low requirements, it controls tight as hell and it offers a fantastically addictive challenge. what more do you want.

a really cute little thing. short, but memorable. i'd love a game in this style if it were longer, the mechanics here could go a hell of a long way.

thank you, clannad.

unlimited definitely beats out super in the graphics department, as well as having an actual narrative and a definitive end goal. said narrative, while simplistic, is undeniably effective and a strong motivator for you to complete the puzzles. the charm is plentiful and the humour is just as strong as ever. i love the interconnected levels, and i love scrounging those levels for every last puzzle. however, those puzzles are where this game loses to super for the best scribblenauts, imo. after a while, they get very monotonous and very repetitive, and the smaller levels that you have to complete for full starites are ridiculously easy, even a long ways into the game. this wouldn't be too bad on its own, but the puzzles you need to complete for starite shards are often extremely cryptic, leading to a heavy unbalance. a pretty good game, nontheless.

like, i can't be too mad at scribblenauts seeing as it was the start of a very important series for my childhood. this definitely has a lot of charm, too. but jesus christ i cannot get past the controls. what the fuck were they thinking.

as gordon ramsay once said, 'it's bland'

nostalgic af, well designed with some creative ideas and is very fun while it lasts. largely forgettable on the whole, tho

very fun and soothing, but lacks of a lot of replayability for someone like me who has no interest in obtaining high scores or improving themselves. pilotwings 64 is occasionally very tough, and not so much 'firm but fair' but rather 'firm but fuck you'. while this definitely makes for a satisfying game once you get everything right in that perfect run, actually getting to that point ranges from a fun challenge to a nightmarish abyssal hell-hole. i love the cosy and relaxed vibe and peaceful soundtrack (the hang-glider music is a banger), as well as the slightly terrifying 3d models. every vehicle controls realistically and is hard to master, which is nice. not a lot of content, but playing every level to a decent degree will definitely take a few hours. a really cool game, and probably my favourite in this series thus far. gotta say at the end here, why are the screams when you crash so terrifying? they sound straight of a damn horror film lmao

warioware fuckin rocks. the cutscenes here might be my favourite in the entire series, the voice acting is genuinely fantastic.

ranks amongst the most delightful, charming and adorable video games i've ever had the pleasure of playing. the soundtrack is fantastic, the puzzles are a hell of a lot of fun to figure out, and the dual colour mechanic works so sublimely. picross 3d was a fantastic game in its own right, and round 2 does an arguably even better job at it. however, this doesn't quite get the perfect score for me, and it's for reasons which i can't exactly put into words or boil down to poor gameplay. having to paint every block a specific colour often means accidentally painting a block the incorrect colour, and when you go as fast as i go that can get frustrating fast. additionally, the specifically-themed books for every level mean that difficulty spikes are plentiful. which is not a bad thing because difficulty is now adjustable, but that almost makes the game too easy. picross 3d had some genuine tension to it at points; there was nothing like being on your last life and exercising surgical precision and critical thinking to solve the puzzle without having to start over. there's none of that in this game, which definitely helps with accessibility, but means that the experience on the whole kind of goes in one ear and out the other. unless you're pushing for the best scores on the hardest difficulty, the game doesn't ever force you to get good at it. that's not to take credit away where it's due, it's still one of the most pleasant and enjoyable experiences i've ever had, and the music is to die for. personally, i prefer the variety in the first game's soundtrack, but i can absolutely see someone preferring round 2's soundtrack instead.

every bit as miserable as the actual job, gj david

idk what's happening but i'm having fun lmao

if i was the creative sort or could handle even beginner-level programming without breaking out in hives i could absolutely see this being one of my favourite games. but i am who i am, and who i am is a man with not much. the built-in games are as fun as ever, and i love working with the music and comic editors. the game editor, not so much. i kinda missed this game in its heyday when online sharing was popular, too. as it stands, a great game and tool for creation, but one that my severe lack of creativity does not really get on with that well.

it's a fun light-gun shooter, but that's about it. characters don't have the same atrocious voice acting as they do in 2, which is a blessing and a curse. also just doesn't have as memorable of a location as venice does in 2, either. still fun tho.

edge-of-your-seat lightgun gameplay one second, the absolute funniest dialogue in history the next. what a game. i usually hate going through arcade games again when i lose but every run through this was a delight, and i actually went back through it again once i finished it for the first time. that is not common for me.