Lots of respect to this game for launching one of my favorite franchises, but it's definitely not a game for me.

https://wraith2021.wordpress.com/2017/08/22/what-im-playing-part-20/

I know a lot of people aren't fond of this game but it's quirkiness in the SMB series is what makes it stand out for me and makes it so much fun.

Everything about this game is good EXCEPT for the boss battles in the shrines. They're all terrible as fuck.

Look for "The Year of Kingdom Hearts" on my blog by the end of civilization

A cute little 2D side scroller on the Switch about a kid off on an adventure to save the kingdom from the big bad. I feel like there was a LOT left out of the "plot" to this game (if you even want to call it that) and that it was basically a collect-a-thon for coins.

Cute little Zelda wannabe on the Xbox. Didn't really take much time to finish and was a delight from start to finish for me. Definitely scratched that Zelda itch.

Man what is this game? It's so bad I'm glad I got it on sale (and its sequel)

I LOVE THIS GAME! I love this game so much that I pre-ordered the physiclal from iam8bit.com. I kinda suck at it and it's a lot of trial and error (which I normally fucking hate in games) but the checkpoints in this game are done so right that I don't even care when I die.

Definitely one of my favorite SMB games of all time, if not THE SMB game of all time for me.

This was a riot a minute. I enjoyed the Metroidvania-esque style of gameplay and the dick and fart joke humor. Kinda bummed that farming the orange upgrade goo seems to cap out after a while and that there were basically 2 or 3 enemy types in the game that they use THE SHIT OUT OF through out the whole game but I loved it regardless.

Fuck. This. Game. If I was getting any decent amount of money for trading this game in, this garbage would be out of my collection so fast.

An improvement over Mega Man. I almost feel like this one was overly easy as compared to part 1 but I enjoyed it regardless

And then we went back to being hard as balls for some reason. Not the biggest fan of this one I'm afraid.

And now we're back to being overly easy? Man, Capcom, what kind of drugs were you guys on when you made these games?

I feel like this one was somewhat equally balanced as compared to the others (?) and thought it was a nice endcap to the Mega Man Legacy Collection. I enjoyed my journey through the original Mega Man series. They're all good games but 4 will always be the special one for me since it was my first.

Not good but not bad either. Definitely something I won't revisit for a long, long time. I think Bash is the worst ability in the game. Making you use it to navigate levels isn't so bad (except escaping the water tree, that part can die in a fire) but having to remember to switch between which end of the arrow you need with split second timing when dealing with enemies and projectiles is frustrating and nerve racking. I feel like this could have been implemented better or handled by a different ability altogether. The input lag for Bash didn't help my dislike either. Ori's inability to jump properly when carrying things (Forlorn Ruins) is frustrating but the unique way that Forlorn Ruins was laid out during that part was interesting. Having to do a ridiculous escape sequence every single time you reawaken an element of Nibel is both fun and not fun. It's not fun that you have to do the **ENTIRE** sequence from the beginning if you die but it's satisfying when you finally get it. But not killing a boss in Dark Souls level of satisfying. More like 'I'm glad I don't have to do that again' type of satisfying. If there were generous checkpoints in the sequences it would be different, or the ability to create your own checkpoint then I'd hate them significantly less. Speaking of which, the checkpoints in this game are very brutal if you don't remember to make your own and save often. And I have never *hated* an owl more in my life than this game. Basically I'm middle of the road on this game. Any good will that's built up is canceled out but the ridiculous amount of trial and error you have to deal with. 3/5

Was hesitant to even bother playing it since the plot got ruined for me years and years ago, but ultimately I'm a little sad that I slept on this game for 20 years. I like the story progression of how you started out as a nobody and then find out your lineage as the literal child of a god. I love the characters and the writing, but since I know the nitpicky rules of AD&D (which is what this game is based on) I feel like some of this stuff wouldn't work in a real D&D game (like having a Lawful Evil character in your party?) I like that movement is mapped to control sticks instead of click to move as in the PC version. The graphics look alright but a little weird and washed out in HD. Kinda like if watercolors ran together if that makes sense. I like that there's a HUGE cast of characters for you to choose from to have in your party, but I dislike it when they have to be in your party in pairs. A single, centralized place for all your "extra" party members to hang out (a la the castle from Suikoden 1) would have been very nice. The same hub would have been nice to store extra stuff from inventory that you didn't want to get rid of. Constant inventory space issues made that aspect of the game frustrating as well as the inability to Identify magic items without going to a shop (even though my party mage had Identify it would never let me use it....?) This game did not do anything to help my intense kleptomaia when combat was over. All flaws aside I give it a 4 out of 5 for the amazing work that Beamdog put into making sure that this beloved game is preserved on current gen consoles. I went the lazy route and went with a basic fighter and played on story mode difficulty which I feel took most of the sting out of the difficulty (no one in my party ever died but was very low in health in several battles including the final battle with Saervok)

It's fun but not as good as the first one. That's it, that's the review.

Cute little 2D pixel art side scrolling action RPG. Doesn't really do anything to stand out but it's not the worst RPG I've ever played either. Upgrades are expensive and require a lot of tedious grinding. Trying to 100% every level is a bit of a chore but can be entertaining. Having to restart a level if you happen to die can be frustrating but thankfully levels are usually on the short side. The lack of being able to jump down through floors that you would normally be able to in similar games is a glaring omission. Got the bad ending; might come back to it later.

Jumping feels really stiff and never feels like Lucky gets high enough. The up close camera pan of Lucky when you stop using the controls even for a few seconds is annoying. Doesn't really do anything new for the genre and just feels like an overall grind.

Short and sweet action game that can be replayed over and over since the 3 characters you can choose have different abilities. I enjoyed it though I got the sense that it was supposed to be a post apocalyptic setting from the scenery in one level. I might go back and play the other 2 characters one of these days.

Vampire the Masquerade: Coteries of New York

Definitely a fan of VtM and visual novels so this game was right up my alley. Due to the choices I made during my first playthrough as a Toreador I ended up dying realtively quickly before I got anywhere in the game. Next time I'm going to go for a Ventrue.

Not worth $60 IMO. Has a ton of replay value if you're a huge Kirby fan and lots of fan service for Kirby fans. Might be a long time before I go back to it.

Finally got around to playing this. Man, this game is wild and over the top. I had fun with it for the most part but with all the annoying instant loss QTE's I doubt I'll revisit this anytime soon.

It's Bomberman. Not quite what I was hoping for but it scratched the Bomberman itch. I think I finished it in one or two sittings which was a slight disappointment. The heart boss was supremely annoying.

Currently my 2020 GotY. https://wraith2021.wordpress.com/2020/04/20/final-fantasy-7-remake/

Janky uninspired PS2 era collect-a-thon. I guess it was supposed to have a moral at the end of the story of "not everyone gets a second chance but everyone deserves one" which I highly disagree with, but whatever.

Was feeling the itch for another LEGO game and some Marvel superheroes at the same time so I figured why not? Also didn't hurt that it was $8. Now for the endless grind to the platinum.

Nice relaxing puzzle game I've been working on before bed.

Still just as much fun the 2nd time around. It's true, the Xbox One version runs much smoother than the PS4 version.

Surprisingly well made Metroidvania. Got a lot of Super Metroid vibes from this when traveling underground. Sometimes frustrating but often a treat to play.

Scratches the Diablo itch I've been having but also makes me want to stop and play Minecraft. Very simple dungeon crawler with loot aspects. Might be less dull with friends. Wish you could rotate the camera instead of looking at a fixed view the whole time.

https://www.wraith2021.com/blog/the-last-of-us-2

One of the BEST looking games I've played this generation. Very enjoyable. Will eventually grind for the platinum and do a replay in Kurosawa Mode.

Lots of nods to the PlayStation legacy. Lots of references and nods to dozens of PlayStation games. Hopefully other developers will utilize the Dual Sense to the same capacity as this game, but I'm not holding my breath.

Spongebob Squarepants Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated