Games Beaten 2025

[MrPopo]

Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

1. Tomb Raider II Remastered - PC
2. Tomb Raider III Remastered - PC
3. Blade Chimera - Switch
4. Cyber Shadow - Switch
5. Signalis - Switch
6. Ender Magnolia - Switch
7. SimCity 2000 Special Edition - PC
8. Ghost Song - Switch
9. Citizen Sleeper 2 - Switch
10. Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider - Switch
11. The Last Faith - Switch
12. Anger Foot - PC
13. Avowed - PC
14. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: Classic Mode - Switch
15. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: Classic II: Dominque's Curse - Switch
16. The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak II - PS5
17. Pacific Drive - PC
18. Mekkablood: Quarry Assault - PC
19. Tempest Rising - PC
20. Astalon: Tears of the Earth - Switch
21. Voidwrought - Switch
22. Death's Gambit: Afterlife - Switch
23. Mechwarrior 5: Ghost Bear: Flash Storm - PC
24. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - PS5
25. Doom: The Dark Ages - PC
26. Haiku the Robot - Switch
27. Alwa's Awakening - Switch
28. Warhammer 40000: Boltgun: Words of Vengeance - PC
29. Alwa's Legacy - Switch
30. Wizordum - PC
31. Project Warlock II - PC
32. Exophobia - PC
33. Haunted Castle Revisited - Switch
34. Mario Kart World - Switch 2

Mario Kart World is THE launch title for the Switch 2. Sure, there's a bunch of ports and one tech demo game, but this is their Super Mario World equivalent. How does the latest iteration of Mario Kart fare? Some good, some meh. Could use with a few more options.

The big thing that sets World apart from the rest of the series is the open world mode. Nintendo has created one giant landmass that all the tracks are placed upon, and then there are various roads connecting them. You can noodle around in this open world and look for P-Switches (which are short challenges), coins (required for unlocking karts), and mystery blocks (they do something?). The map shows your collection statistics, but there is no indication of the total number of anything but the mystery blocks by each track, and there's nothing that marks what you've completed. So don't go into this trying for full completion; you will go insane.

This open world is then used for the changes to Grand Prix mode. The way things work now, the first track in a Grand Prix is done as normal, with you doing a few laps to see how everyone places. But after this first track, each subsequent race starts off with a moving start as you go onto the roads that take you to the next track. These routes are far straighter than a normal track, and at the end you'll do a single lap of the destination track. This causes you to experience the non-starting tracks far less, and there's a very different dynamic for the race on the straight paths, as you can't use good cornering to overtake other drivers. If you play in time trials you do get to play each track as normal. It would have been nice to have an option to do classic Grand Prix without the driving in between segments.

The new mode is Knockout Tour, which takes those driving in between segments and turns it up to eleven. You will progress through five tracks, doing a small portion of each one, and then move to the next. There is a cutoff after each track where the last four racers are disqualified; at the end if is you vs. three others to try and place on the last track, which actually gets a full lap. If you weren't a fan of the Grand Prix changes you'll dislike this mode. Fortunately, the only thing it locks is that you need to play (but not get first) each of them as part of unlocking Mirror Mode.

The game does make a couple of changes to the driving. You now can always have two items, a la Double Dash, though you can't swap them, so you'll sometimes need to burn one if you want to get something better. There's also a new move where you hold the slide button while holding forward; this will charge up a spark after a couple seconds which will trigger when you release, also giving you a decent hop. This is used for boosts on straightaways and to be able to get up on rails, which give you a bit of a speed boost compared to being on the ground.

While the racing is fun, I would rather have seem more emphasis on the races and less on the open world stuff. Especially since the open world stuff is pushed to be much more of a "just dick around" sandbox rather than a "do a bunch of things". It makes me not want to engage with the open world, because at this point in my life I'm not really drawn to just vibing with a game without purpose. But maybe you do enjoy that, in which case you'll probably like that aspect of World.

[RobertAugustdeMeijer]

First 27:

1. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Cynically, in the modern chapters, this game even admits that it's a commercially pedestrian blockbuster. It depicts history wrongly all the time, so there's little value in that. Purely as a game, it's mostly the same as the previous games, which means gameplay is automatic and shallow, while you hoover up symbols on your map. The only thing going for it would be the ship battles, which while sluggish and imprecise, are still somewhat novel and explosive. In about forty hours of play time, I think I had about an hour of fun being a pirate.
4/10

2. Minecraft
I was extremely pleasantly surprised at how much respect the game had for the player's ingenuity. The tutorial is merely some pages you can find in the options menu. You have minutes to set up a safe haven, preferably with a bed and torches, with little to no instructions. Dying halves your experience points and leaves all your gear scattered about. Although randomly generated, there's always a feeling you might find something unique. The final boss is a treat, being open ended and seemingly insurmountable at first. There's a lot of random stuff that can set you back a couple of hours back, which keeps the challenge honest and respectful. However, it is still a game about crafting, meaning half the time you'll be doing busywork and clicking around in menus.
8/10

3. Street Fighter 6
Link combos now have a three frame buffer, while the super meter(s) allow many alterations to your moves. Competitively, this means you'll spend less time practicing the same combos over and over, and instead practicing reading different situations. With less neutral and much more creativity, this makes Street Fighter more like the other anime fighters. Which while a good thing, makes me wonder why this should be played at all. The answer is the masses: the single player mode is a poor man's Yakuza, but nevertheless will feed the tournament scene with plenty of folks confident enough they'll want to compete.
8/10

4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Is this a recruitment ad for the US Army? The production values are very impressive. Obviously, the game propels you forward, set piece to set piece, always giving you blockbuster flare. Occasionally, precision and strategy is required, and everything falls apart. Perhaps the lack of clarity and random nature of the enemies is realistic, but it does not make the challenge engaging. Luckily, it's over within a couple of hours. I hear the multiplayer was popular. Perhaps, but I doubt there's a reason to play this over Counter Strike or Quake.
3/10

5. Felvidek
A brisk 'Japanese' RPG instead located in Hungary, as its name implies. It delights in its historic background, where the church is at odds with cultists, and the monarchy at odds with the peasantry. The combat might just be barely strategic enough to keep the fights interesting, but this leaves more headspace for the eccentric narrative. Both silly and serious themes are explored, with intriguing writing and distinctive artistry. It's no Disco Elysium or Undertale, but if you want more in the same vein, a must play.
7/10

6. Blazing Lazers
Hectic and sharp, this is everything you could hope a 16-bit shmup can be. At times there might be too much going on, while you're bomb attack is too slow, but otherwise the difficulty is mostly fair. Space Megaforce has more interesting weapon choices, and MUSHA has more pizazz, but this one is still almost as good and definitely a step up from earlier Zanac/Aleste games.
7/10

7. Company of Heroes
On paper this sounds like any other RTS, but this one has a bombast to it that makes everything feel urgent, hence its popular appeal. The campaign benefits from high production values, enhancing the historic significance of the battles. There's an extra emphasis on controlling many different parts of the map for resources, and less on building structures, making skirmishes action packed. Still, I'd recommend only trying out single player, as CoH3 and SC2 have better competitive scenes.
8/10

8. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
The amount of personality is commendable, but that's really all this 'game' has to offer. You can't help but feel like half the time you're just doing mundane tasks. And for what? Happy emotes and the occasional joke? Perhaps being able to show off your creativity with online friends. Fundamentally, this genre is flawed due to being in a medium that limits expression to moving things around and making extremely simple dialogue choices. Still, picked up at the right time in small bursts, there's no denying it's a charming experience. And for what it's worth, there is more to see and do than in the prequels.
6/10

9. Shatterhand
The risk/reward element of short ranged attacks works better in Zelda II and Ninja Gaiden due to them having defensive options. Shatterhand relies a lot on speed and brute strength, which is exciting, but also tense. The upgrades are awkward to yield and keeping them around is even harder. There's a lot of potential here: think Mega Man with fists and body extensions. And while the execution is polished on a surface level, the combat is too frustrating to make it a classic.
5/10

10. CyberPunk 2077
Amazingly ambitious, just seeing the effort put into this is a marvel. Goes beyond the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Witcher III in almost every way, and thankfully, also in terms of gameplay and emergency. Unfortunately, the whole thing buckles under its own weight, as it's clear that the design process was hacked into parts for delegation. So don't expect level design as bold and organic as in Deus Ex, and systems working as well together. But there's still a lot to toy around with, and often enough make a choice with emotional weight.
8/10

11. Wario Land 4
Despite being the third iteration as a costume-based puzzle platformer, design is still rather tame and in stark contrast with the its exuberant personality. Some of the later levels dare the player to think twice, but never are you allowed to attempt things creatively. Still, it's a highly saccharine trip and you can't help but feel glee as Wario plows through ancient ruins with reckless abandon. Great bosses, too!
7/10

12. SUGAR (Jen Simpkins)
This interaction fiction is so short, it borders on being poetry. No matter, every second is gripping, as is every branch in the narrative. We already knew she was a talented writer as editor of Edge. I can only hope Jen's talents make it into other games. And you get to be a sex worker that eats the rich, indeed a very wholesome topic.
7/10

13. Earthbound
The best parts are when it subverts genre conventions, but rarely does it subvert gaming conventions. This tragically leaves the experience emotionally bound to 90's Japanese role playing games. Which in turn might ironically create its charm: it's yet another go at one of these, only this time everything's a bit different, making it both familiar and odd at the same time. The overworld portions are memorable, the combat isn't.
6/10

14. Venba
The cooking is surprisingly involving, as the meals have an existential weight to them. The cut-scenes between them are just barely long enough to get you interested in the next family conundrum. In the end, it's a bittersweet tale you can almost smell at times. And yes, you unlock a cook book at the end to add these recipes to your own memories.
7/10

15. Mario Kart 8
Now with more pizazz!! Luigi's Death Stare(tm) will never get old. And all the Nintendo characters having political alignments is hilarious. Toadette for life. /raisefist
7/10

16. Super Mario 64
Are you into speedrunning? Then this is the golden standard. There's boundless creativity in the movement options and oddball architecture. But as an adventure, this one quickly loses steam, as the horrendous camera does not gel well with the demanding platforming found in later stages. Most of the enjoyment comes from seeing how Nintendo got the most personality out of limited polygons. Often, the compromises create fantastic 90's SGI landscapes, which are a pleasure to trek through.
6/10

17. Resident Evil 2 Remake
There's something cozy about turning an unsafe area (in this case, the police station) into an orderly safe haven. The power fantasy is domestic: it's not that the place is empty, it's just under control. As the narrative delves deeper and astray into lacklustre areas and explanations, this one devolves into run-of-the-mill post-RE4 Resident Evil. The Claire run fares better thanks to the girl's side-missions.
5/10

18. Fantastic Dizzy
Stupid puzzles and annoying platforming are combined into something more than the sum of its parts. Perhaps the anticipation of seeing if your solution actually works is heightened by putting dexterous challenges in your way. And there's adorkable energy abound, as the Darling Brothers yet again shamelessly slap together a jury-rigged budget title according to a proven formula. While it is not recommended to be played, it should nevertheless never be forgotten.
5/10

19. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
A commercially injected by-the-numbers kitchen-sink metroidvania: doing everything as expected, and meticulously programmed. Of course, Ubisoft doesn't understand that it's mystery that ignites a sense of adventure (as done in Super Metroid and Hollow Knight), so its predictability makes everything feel redundant. And yet, you get a bunch of moves to play around with, while the developers went ham with exploiting tightly designed obstacles.
7/10

20. Chess 2: The Sequel
Easily the best Chess variant ever made. Some of these rules should at the very least be instituted in normal play (like winning by crossing the mid-line with your king). David Sirlin yet again amazes by adding five new armies to choose from. No need to memorize opening moves, and mid-game excitement is practically the whole game. Tragically so good, it exposes Chess's fundamental flaws. By turning the classic into a modern strategy game, one starts to realize that Chess was never really that interesting for competition. Its main attraction was that it's a rabbit-hole that has been studied for centuries.
7/10

21. Project Gotham Racing 4
PGR's last hurrah is more of the same, only this time flashier. Going down to 30 fps wasn't worth it though. There's fun to be had, climbing the ladder and fantasizing about the rivalries you make. One of the more demanding racing games, the repetition rewards the player with excellence. The kudo system, bikes, and alternative objectives keep the racing fresh. Unfortunately a bit too gimmicky for a sense of simulation, but too serious for pure fun.
6/10

22. Lode Runner
What I didn't expect is how much tension is added by the slow animation for making holes. This means you have to think ahead to keep Bomberman at bay. Combined with its fair share of different obstacles, I can see why the level editor was so popular. One of the best pre-crash games I've ever played!
7/10

23. Grand Theft Auto IV
You can easily watch ten better gangsta films in the time it takes to get through this one, while also avoiding all the unfunny sexism, homophobia, and juvenile humor. The driving and shooting have amazingly bad controls, considering the prestigious amounts of money that went into this. Nothing has been added to GTA's best parts, namely blowing stuff up and seeing how the world reacts. Instead we get mundane dating mini-games and a character with half-baked introspective moments.
1/10

24. Prince of Prussia
The original is infamous for its excessive animations and wonky sword fighting. Now all animation is cut away, making the platforming zippy and fun. And what's even more fun is that you get to stab nazis in the back. It's simple, gratis, and short, and very much worth your time.
7/10
25. Riven
The stand-alone puzzles of Myst are replaced by two huge world spanning puzzles. The connection between the world's logistics, and the symbolism used for the puzzles, is a bit contrived. But it nevertheless does give everything a potential meaning. The puzzles aren't solved by hard math, but by intuiting what the designers were trying to communicate. The clean mid-90's silicon graphics aesthetic fits well with the serene nature of the fictional setting and is a delight to surround yourself with, click by click.
7/10

26. Ghost of Tsushima
Basically a Ubisoft map set in Japan. The combat has more bells and whistles, but is still heavily restrained by sensational animations. The lack of mini-map doesn't really make you pay better attention to your surroundings, as every challenge is still bluntly applied cookie-cutter style. Only about three of the Witcher III-inspired tales are memorable, and even more startling, even fewer have a sense of humor to them. Triple-A at its best and worst: spectacular detail on the surface, while design gets more rudimentary the more you try to get out of this game.
4/10

27. Double Dragon
I don't recall being this annoyed by all this slowdown forty years ago. Were it not for that, this would still be a decent beat-em-up with almost everything you could hope for: a nice variety of moves and enemies, exciting locations, catchy music, and a few gimmicks like treadmills and booby traps. Good luck finding somebody else to play this with to the end for -that- classic duel, as thirty minutes of sluggish gameplay is a hard sell.
5/10

28. BABBDI
Probably the best tutorial since Dusk. There's no combat or death, and interactions are mostly limited to movement. But still get ready to question the meaning of everything this game throws at you. Good luck trying to go over the borders of the map. Yes, you can jump higher using the bat. Heck, it even has bunny hopping! At about two hours, it's over too fast. But still has as many thrills, and better ones to boot, than the likes of Half-Life 2, Metro, and STALKER.
8/10

29. Cuphead
The challenges are divided into bite-sized chunks, hence its mainstream success. But beyond its glorious animation, there's also some modern gameplay technology, like dashes, parries, and equippable skills, which lift it above 90's era run 'n' guns. Cuphead lacks the depth of Alien Soldier or Battle Garegga, but it compensates by simply having a lot of well thought out encounters with multiple phases. A delight!
8/10

30. Uncharted 2
The best parts are the cut-scenes, and I'm not sure they're even as good as The Crystal Skull. The epitome of Naughty Dog's water and oil design: nothing fits together, whether it be the puzzles, shooting, or climbing. None of which are done well. There are countless Quartermain/Indiana Jones knockoffs; this one is simply unnecessary. If for whatever reason you enjoy the first half, be warned, the second half just drags on and on.
2/10

[ElkinFencer10]

Games Beaten in 2025 - 2
* denotes a replay

January (Not Shit Beaten)

February (Not Shit Beaten)

March (Not Shit Beaten)

April (Not Shit Beaten)

May (Not Shit Beaten)

June (2 Games Beaten)

Doom: The Dark Ages - Series X - June 2
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 - PlayStation 5 - June 16

2. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 - PlayStation 5 - June 16



Call of Duty is one of the most prolific game series around with 21 main series entries - that will be 22 later this year - and numerous spin-offs. The series has spawned two major sub-series - Modern Warfare and Black Ops - and it seems that Black Ops is currently center stage with 2024's Black Ops 6 as the most recent Call of Duty game and Black Ops 7 scheduled to release later this year. As an entry in a series most known for its multiplayer, does the campaign in Black Ops 6 offer anything of substance, or is this effectively another useless Black Ops 4 (stupidly stylized "IIII" instead of "IV") situation?



Black Ops 6 takes place during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, a UN Security Council sanctioned campaign led by a coalition of allied nations (following the United States's lead, of course) to push Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army out of neighboring Kuwait following his illegal invasion of the small Arab nation. The game's storyline follows a handful of rogue CIA operatives as they investigate as mysterious paramilitary group called Pantheon and end up unraveling a decades old conspiracy that goes straight to the heart of the CIA. The game takes the usual cinematic approach for which Call of Duty campaigns are known, but what really makes Black Ops 6 stand out is the variety of missions in its campaign from stealthy missions where the characters are undercover to gain access to a restricted area to a small-team assault on an enemy base to full blown combat operations in the deserts of Iraq. What stuck out to me was that the game even had a couple of levels that left the action genre behind and went full blown horror. Who got Resident Evil in my pew pew murder simulator? Between missions, you return to a hub “safe house” that offers non-essential dialogue to build character development and allows you to spend money you find during missions to upgrade weapons, upgrade gear, or upgrade your own combat prowess.



Visually, Black Ops 6 is - as one would expect for the most recent release - the most impressive of the series yet. The character models look fantastic and super realistic, the weapon textures are razor sharp, and the campaign's environments range from scorching deserts to casinos and abandoned top-secret military bases that housed unspeakably horrific experiments. Everything about the game's visual presentation is quite good if not outstanding. The game's audio design, including gunfire, environmental sound effects, and voicework is equally impressive and really reinforce the cinematic vibe throughout the campaign. The voice acting especially is top notch and really drove the immersion for me. Overall, the high production value of Black Ops 6 really elevates the narrative set‑pieces and makes you interested in the story and its effects on the characters.



As for the multiplayer, it's largely your typical Call of Duty experience with no truly ground-breaking innovations or changes. They did add "omnidirectional movement" which lets you sprint in any direction and aim in a full 360 degrees while prone which, honestly, is helpful but also looks goofy when you turn around 180 degrees and your legs are just awkwardly sticking out in front of you. That's the only change to the core formula of note, though. There are around a dozen and a half maps for your traditional multiplayer modes, the expected Zombies mode that continues the story familiar to those who keep up with the series, and the balance between weapons is solid with no weapon feeling useless underpowered or like an outright noob tube.



Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 isn't shooting to the top of my "Favorite Call of Duty Games" list, but it's definitely a very good entry and absolutely worth playing for fans of FPS campaigns. Multiplayer feels great to play and offers a good braindead distraction from the never-ending existential dread of adult life. It is, of course, available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Windows - with Game Pass as an option for the latter two - but it's also still available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One for the peasants out there. As a Nintendo shill, I was hoping for a Switch 2 port when the console launched earlier this month, but I definitely wasn't surprised that it never materialized. Fingers crossed (without any real optimism) for Black Ops 7!

[REPO Man]

I just want a big, fat standalone Call of Duty: Zombies release. Basically a remaster of all the Zombies maps from past games with all their original gimmicks.

[MrPopo]

Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

1. Tomb Raider II Remastered - PC
2. Tomb Raider III Remastered - PC
3. Blade Chimera - Switch
4. Cyber Shadow - Switch
5. Signalis - Switch
6. Ender Magnolia - Switch
7. SimCity 2000 Special Edition - PC
8. Ghost Song - Switch
9. Citizen Sleeper 2 - Switch
10. Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider - Switch
11. The Last Faith - Switch
12. Anger Foot - PC
13. Avowed - PC
14. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: Classic Mode - Switch
15. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: Classic II: Dominque's Curse - Switch
16. The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak II - PS5
17. Pacific Drive - PC
18. Mekkablood: Quarry Assault - PC
19. Tempest Rising - PC
20. Astalon: Tears of the Earth - Switch
21. Voidwrought - Switch
22. Death's Gambit: Afterlife - Switch
23. Mechwarrior 5: Ghost Bear: Flash Storm - PC
24. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - PS5
25. Doom: The Dark Ages - PC
26. Haiku the Robot - Switch
27. Alwa's Awakening - Switch
28. Warhammer 40000: Boltgun: Words of Vengeance - PC
29. Alwa's Legacy - Switch
30. Wizordum - PC
31. Project Warlock II - PC
32. Exophobia - PC
33. Haunted Castle Revisited - Switch
34. Mario Kart World - Switch 2
35. Rebel Transmute - Switch

Rebel Transmute is a Metroidvania that is more on the Metroid end of things, though there are definitely some Hollow Knight influences. It also has a strong beginning and a shockingly weak finish that frankly amazed me at the drop in the experience.

The game begins with the main character, Moon, traveling to a colony her mom works at, before contact was cut off. Because this is a video game, the ship crashes and Moon wakes up in a stasis tube. Her only real objective is to find her mom, but of course things will not be that simple. Cue a bunch of maze exploration and mobility ability finding.

As mentioned, this is more on the Metroid end of things. You've got a sci fi setting, no experience points, and a ranged weapon. Well, the range isn't that great; it's a bit better than the Hollow Knight weapon once you get it upgraded, but fights definitely are more melee-ish. There is an optional upgrade you can get that does turn it into a proper gun, but the damage is less per attack and you don't get your healing resource from it, so you're going to stick with the short range. None of the mobility abilities are terribly interesting; they all come from the standard pack you see across the genre.

The game starts off fairly strong; the signposting is decent and the combat is enjoyable. But as you get further into the game it starts to take on more challenge platformer aspects. However, these aspects are not super well done. There's an inherent jankiness to some of it, especially anything involving the spin bounce. This ability lets you pogo off of enemies and certain objects, but it has the property of instantly giving you terminal fall speed. But you can still steer a bit to the left or right, so you'll often find yourself accidentally overshooting your target because you're a bit higher up and can move over just enough. Also, the game is inconsistent with how it handles enemies it expects you to pogo off of to progress. Some enemies are invincible, others have health bars. Some enemies respawn when you leave a room, others don't until you go to a save point. The net result is you can sometimes lock yourself out of progressing until you force a respawn, or even get stuck in between death pits and have to take a death and respawn.

But this pales next to the real cardinal sin of the game. Do you remember in Super Metroid how you need the shine spark to gain 100% completion, but there is no explicit explanation of how to do it, just an in-game "follow me" tutorial with the bird and the sizzle reel showing that you can do it horizontally? Well take that, remove even the in-game hint, and put these moves on the required path. Specifically, there are two moves. The first is the bomb jump. Now, you'll probably discover that the bomb you can fire out will push you back on detonation and give you a bit of a boost on a jump. What you are less likely to realize is that you can do your spin bounce into it and get a major height increase. While most of the time this just makes your life so much easier, there is one spot where it is required, and that's when you're activating one of the MacGuffins. And this ties into the second unexplained mechanic. Now, in the game, once you hit terminal fall velocity you will land with a big thud (and you can equip an ability that causes this to generate a shockwave). If you reach that speed before hitting a body of water, once in the water you will be in a special boost state. You will maintain this as long as you keep moving through the water or air. You can jump while in this state and preserve it. And exiting the water in this state will increase significantly the velocity you exit the water. This is made use of to reach a switch; you have to bomb jump to get the requisite height, then fall into water and maneuver through a half pipe, complete with a jump midway through to maintain the boost state, then come out the other end and get barely enough height to get up to the switch (and you need an upgrade that you won't necessarily have when you reach this point to actually get to the switch at the peak of your jump). This was the point where I became rather upset with the game, as this is the kind of trick you would normally put an inconsequential upgrade behind so that players who want to 100% can demonstrate mastery. To put this in the critical path without any explanation is a proper dick move.

The Switch port also has a couple of notable bugs. The first is that any area with a lava death play doesn't render it properly. There will be a square of flat orange in the lower left of the room and then nothing over the rest of the death plane. There will be some smoke effects to help you know where it is, and the plane is still active, but it does make judging some of the narrow jumps much harder. Also, there is one room transition that is unintentionally one way only; the placement of an enemy cause you to be knocked back upon transitioning. Fortunately, there is another way into the room (which is part of the critical path), so the game is still completable.

Overall, the game ended on a pretty sour note, and it removed the goodwill it had built up earlier. I definitely felt disincentivized from trying to explore for more optional stuff beyond what was on the critical path by the midway point. Many of the harder challenges only rewarded currency, which is already in abundance and unnecessary. You can definitely do better than this one.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Partridge Senpai's 2025 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
* indicates a repeat

1~50

1. Arc Rise Fantasia (Wii)
2. Return of the Obra Dinn (PC)
3. Battlefield: Hardline (PS3)
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops (PS3)
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (PS3)
6. Dead Nation (PS3)
7. Kileak, The Blood 2: Reason in Madness (PS1)
8. Paro Wars (PS1)
9. in Stars and Time (Steam)
10. Tetris Battle Gaiden (SFC)
11. Super Tetris 3 (SFC)
12. Battlefield 4 (PS3)
13. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3)
14. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PS3)
15. Call of Duty: Black Ops III (PS4)
16. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (PS4)
17. Call of Duty: WWII (PS4)
18. Resistance 3 (PS3)
19. Tearaway: Unfolded (PS4)
20. Grow Home (PS4)
21. Grow Up (PS4)
22. Ratchet & Clank (2016) (PS4)
23. Dark Sector (Steam)
24. Nagano Winter Olympics '98 (N64)
25. Multi-Racing Championship (N64)
26. Super Smash Bros. (N64)
27. Puyo Puyo Sun 64 (N64)
28. Shin Nippon Pro Wrestling: Toukon Road - Brave Spirits (N64)
29. Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyuu 6 (N64)
30. Let's Smash (N64)
31. Mario Tennis 64 (N64)
32. Ucchannanchan no Honō no Challenger: Denryū Iraira Bō (N64)
33. Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyuu 4 (N64)
34. FIFA: Road to the World Cup 98 (N64)
35. Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyuu 2000 (N64)
36. Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyuu 5 (N64)
37. Time and Eternity (PS3)
38. Pokemon Red (GB)
39. Dr. Mario 64 (N64)
40. Shining Force Neo (PS2)
41. Chou Kuukan Nighter: King of Pro Baseball (N64)
42. Tales of Destiny 2 (PS2)
43. Star Wars: Episode I - Racer (N64)
44. ChoroQ 64 (N64)
45. F-Zero X (N64)
46. Homefront (PS3)
47. Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed (PS2)
48. F-Zero (SNES)
49. Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (PS2)
50. Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (PS2)

51. Wave Race 64 (N64)
52. Bakushou Jinsei 64: Mezase! Resort-ou (N64)
53. Mother (Famicom)
54. Famista 64 (N64)
55. Weird and Unfortunate Things are Happening (PC)
56. Kirby and the Rainbow Curse (Wii U)
57. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
58. Wario Land: Shake it! (Wii) *
59. Mario Party 8 (Wii) *
60. Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure (Wii)
61. SimCity 2000 (N64)
62. Prototype (PS3)
63. Prototype 2 (PS3)

64. Final Fantasy X (PS2) *

This is a game I beat for the first time probably like 15 or so years ago. I was a teenager who was very into retro games, and I was certainly not someone terribly adept at seeing thematic meaning or subtext in stories, let alone someone capable of appreciating those things. Much like with Tales of the Abyss last year, which was a similar case, I’ve really been meaning to replay FFX at some point to give it a reevaluation with my now much more experienced eyes. Also much like with Tales of the Abyss, the opportunity that presented itself for me to do that was my partner talking about how she was looking to begin playing it herself soon. That was all the reason I needed to finally go out and spend the 200 yen on a copy of this and finally sit down with it. Over about a week and a half, it took me about 45 or so hours to beat the original Japanese version of the game on real hardware (I didn’t realize that pausing the game with Start didn’t freeze the play timer, so that’s a rough guess of total idle time taken out of my 51 hour final save time).

Final Fantasy X is the story of Tidus. An ace blitzball player in the city of Zanarkand, he’s a playboy living on top of the world. However, that all changes one day when a massive apocalypse suddenly befalls the city. His trusted friend Auron tells him that this is actually a monster named Sin, and that this is Tidus’s story. Not knowing at all what Auron’s talking about, Tidus has no time at all to think before he’s spirited away by Sin into a strange and unfamiliar ruined world. He soon learns this world is called Spira, and he’s also told that the Zanarkand he claims to be from was destroyed 1000 years ago. With nothing to go on but a desire to find out what happened to him and an even stronger desire to go home, Tidus sets out with his new friends on this truly bizarre fantasy tale.

I was very torn on what to say about the story here (spoilers upcoming, btw), because it started as something I loved, but ended as something I was terribly disappointed with.

On the positive side, the road to getting to the end was really enjoyable. While most of the main party other than Wakka go relatively underdeveloped, Tidus and Yuna are both great characters, and I really loved their relationship. There are a lot of great themes we keep going back to over the course of the story regarding the actual value of hope (especially false hope), how the poor choices of past generations ruins everything for young people (who have to sort out those mistakes themselves at great cost), and what loss does to people (and how it can turn them into destructive, bitter monsters). Right up until the end of the game, I was really on board for where we were going with all of these themes, since it was a very interesting way of handling them, but it wasn’t until the ending cutscenes were playing that I realized that we were never going anywhere with any of these.

The reasons for major death that happens at the end of the narrative are very well established through the story’s *plot*. I want to make it 100% clear that I am not here to dispute that, and I know the narrative reasons why that character can’t survive the end of the story. However, what struck me so greatly was the utter lack of any *thematic* reasons that it had to happen. Wracking my brain like crazy for what they could possible be going for with this, what the message here could possibly be, is what led me to a lot more contemplation and realization that FFX is ultimately a story that doesn’t particularly have much to say about anything.

Wakka is a racist, sure, but we make very sure to explicitly communicate to the player that his racism, much like his religiosity, are both coping mechanisms because he’s failing to deal with the loss of his brother and is desperate for anything to ascribe that to. It’s a tragic story of a man embittered by loss, but it doesn’t really have anything to say about real-world racism in any way. Similarly, the troubled relationship that Tidus has with his father is all down to poor communication between the two of them. This isn’t even a typical “bad dad apologia” story so much as it is a bittersweet tale of Tidus realizing that his dad was always a pretty good guy. Even that larger theme of past generations messing things up for successive ones is complicated a ton by things like the Church of Yevon itself.

As much as I may desperately wish I could say this is a story about a selfish, destructive institution corrupting its original mission to just keep itself and its masters in power, that isn’t what the Church of Yevon is at all. Everything the Church of Yevon does is out of a sincere earnestness to stop Sin, because this is the only way they understand he can be defeated. The only way the main party knows how to defeat Sin is because they get told explicitly how through sources that the Church of Yevon has no access to, so it’s not like the Yevonites are keeping the world in a spiral of despair out of selfishness or anything. Much like with how Seymour isn’t some evil or self-serving guy, he’s just a guy who misses his mom and was made extremely embittered by his abandonment as a child, the story really goes out of its way to establish that there really are no bad actors here.

Just about everyone is given a sympathetic angle to establish how reasonable their actions are from the limited knowledge they’re working from. It really defangs any possible weight our themes could end up with by the end of the story. That final death feels thematically out of nowhere because it probably was just something done as a big emotional gut punch to make a more memorable ending. That’s not a crime or anything, and I’m certainly thankful that the story doesn’t carry heavy reactionary or right-wing politics underneath all of this too, but those are hardly comments worth being proud of. I was going through it thinking that this was another all-timer on the console for well-written RPGs, but it comes up very wanting with just how badly it fails to actually go anywhere with all the ideas it sets up. It certainly doesn’t help things that games like Tales of the Abyss would come out some years later and execute on this game’s story ideas FAR better than it does itself, and it’s really hard to tamper down my disappointment when I so readily have such a pillar of narrative quality to compare this to. It’s entertaining to go through, and it has some nice characters and memorable set pieces, but that just isn’t enough for me. I really prefer my RPG stories (and stories in general) to give me provocative ideas to contemplate in how they present their stories, but the greatest source of contemplation from FFX came from deciphering just how many ways its story fails to amount to anything ^^;

Mechanically, however, FFX provides a great experience that I have trouble finding much fault in. Much like some previous FF games, it has a 3-person party, and each party member has overlimits specific to themselves. However, FFX brings some innovations to this system that really make it addictive. First is the turn order system. Instead of real-time Active Time Battle (ATB) systems like Square had been using for the past 6 FF games, FFX is entirely turn-based with no real-time components. Instead, there is a turn order indicator at the side of the screen, and you can see clearly what each actions you take will have on the frequency of turns for both you and your enemies. This is also very important due to the change that you can now freely swap characters in and out of battle whenever you want. Using the right character for the right encounter (whether its due to the moves they’ve got handy or just being fast enough for the job) makes for a super satisfying approach to turn-based combat, and it’s no wonder so many other RPGs this generation would take inspiration from this approach.

The other very cool thing FFX brings to the table is the famous sphere grid for its level up mechanics. Getting enough EXP (or AP as this game calls it) doesn’t get a character a solid level that outright raises their stats to a pre-defined degree. Instead, one level gets you one move on that character’s position on the sphere grid, and each move (usually) gets you close enough to another place on the grid where you can pop in the appropriate sphere to get them a specific, discrete upgrade (whether it’s another 200 HP or 4 more points of magic defense). It seems fairly whimsical but pointless an overall change to leveling up at first, but the real genius lies in the later progression of the system. Even though each character generally lives on their own mostly-straight line on the grid, they eventually gain the ability to unlock paths to one another’s parts of the grid, and that allows them to gain the stat growth rate as well as abilities/spells from that character’s part of the tree. Compared to past game’s systems like FF7’s materia system, the sphere grid is a really ingenious method to both well adjust the player to the game’s systems while ultimately still giving them a great deal of control over just how their party will fight and play. The sphere grid combined with the previous descriptions of how turn-based combat has been innovated makes FFX awesome fun to play, and it’s easily the strongest reason I can find for recommending you play it.

That said, there is still definitely a miscellaneous pile of complaints I have about how the game plays (other than how the original Japanese version somehow lacks any option to manually sort weapons, which makes sorting through them a small nightmare). The most major complaint I have is that in order to gain AP from a battle, a character must actively take part in it. Having to swap your party members for a mandatory non-lethal thwack to each and every enemy you can gets really tedious after a while, and I really just wish every character always gained AP from battle instead.

My other real complaints can be summed up by saying that the game’s side content may be generally rather fun, but it’s paced terribly. It does suck that each character’s ultimate weapons are both SUCH massive power upgrades as well as such massive pains in the behind to get, but the much bigger reason I dislike that is due to how basically *all* of the game’s massive pile of side content is reserved entirely for the end of the game. It turns the relatively fun soccer-like game of Blitzball into an unbelievable chore with just how many games of it you have to play (and how relatively limited your ability to do that is until you have the ability to go anywhere at the game’s end state). None of these problems are deal breakers for me by any means, but it’s still little annoyances here and there that bothered me enough that I’d feel remiss in omitting them here.

It’s a Final Fantasy game, so of course the music is great, but I do gotta say that even though I didn’t play the newer HD remaster of this (if only because I don’t really like the changes the International Edition makes to various mechanical aspects of the game), this game still looks incredible given its age. For a game from 2001, this game’s ability to animate faces for cutscene closeups still holds up amazingly, and it’s no wonder this game looked so jaw-dropping when it came out. Compared to a rough contemporary like Shadow Hearts 1, this game really took “next gen graphics” to a whole new meaning back in the day, and it means the game still largely looks great now too. I certainly wish you had any ability to skip cutscenes, for sure, but at least they look very nice and are excellently voice-acted XD.

Verdict: Recommended. As much as the story ultimately disappointed me, I still did really enjoy my time with this game. It’s certainly not a new favorite RPG on the system like it seemed like it was shaping up to be (it sure ain’t no Tales of the Abyss or Mana Khemia 1, that’s for sure), it’s still a really good game that’s good fun to play through. As long as you’re not expecting the story to really have much thematic impact or coherent messaging, it’s still a well enough choreographed and executed story that the ride to the end is plenty fun with just how well put together the combat is~.

[RobertAugustdeMeijer]

"But this pales next to the real cardinal sin of the game. Do you remember in Super Metroid how you need the shine spark to gain 100% completion, but there is no explicit explanation of how to do it, just an in-game "follow me" tutorial with the bird and the sizzle reel showing that you can do it horizontally? Well take that, remove even the in-game hint, and put these moves on the required path. Specifically, there are two moves. The first is the bomb jump. Now, you'll probably discover that the bomb you can fire out will push you back on detonation and give you a bit of a boost on a jump. What you are less likely to realize is that you can do your spin bounce into it and get a major height increase. While most of the time this just makes your life so much easier, there is one spot where it is required, and that's when you're activating one of the MacGuffins. And this ties into the second unexplained mechanic. Now, in the game, once you hit terminal fall velocity you will land with a big thud (and you can equip an ability that causes this to generate a shockwave). If you reach that speed before hitting a body of water, once in the water you will be in a special boost state. You will maintain this as long as you keep moving through the water or air. You can jump while in this state and preserve it. And exiting the water in this state will increase significantly the velocity you exit the water. This is made use of to reach a switch; you have to bomb jump to get the requisite height, then fall into water and maneuver through a half pipe, complete with a jump midway through to maintain the boost state, then come out the other end and get barely enough height to get up to the switch (and you need an upgrade that you won't necessarily have when you reach this point to actually get to the switch at the peak of your jump). This was the point where I became rather upset with the game, as this is the kind of trick you would normally put an inconsequential upgrade behind so that players who want to 100% can demonstrate mastery. To put this in the critical path without any explanation is a proper dick move."

To me this sounds based as fu*k
But hey, I love Castlevania II and Cruelty Squad because they respect the player enough to figure things out for themselves.

[ElkinFencer10]

Games Beaten in 2025 - 3
* denotes a replay

January (Not Shit Beaten)

February (Not Shit Beaten)

March (Not Shit Beaten)

April (Not Shit Beaten)

May (Not Shit Beaten)

June (3 Games Beaten)

Doom: The Dark Ages - Series X - June 2
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 - PlayStation 5 - June 16
3. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour - Switch 2 - June 16

3. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour - Switch 2 - June 16



Nintendo wouldn't be Nintendo if they did what they want and to hell with anyone who has a problem with it. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is exactly the free pack-in game that we would expect the Switch 2 to launch with. Unfortunately, this game was neither free nor a pack-in, and that made the internet keyboard warriors angry. We'll get to that in a bit. Despite the controversy surrounding the game's price (and whether it even counts as a game), I had a very pleasant time with Welcome Tour and quite enjoyed what it had to offer.



Welcome Tour introduces players to a highly polished and visually impressive showcase of the new Switch 2 hardware in the form of an exhibit sort of event. You use your avatar to explore freely a massive recreation of the Switch 2, the Joycon 2s, the Joycon 2 straps the Switch 2 Pro Controller, the camera, and the Joycon 2 wheels. While the visuals may not impress folks who are used to high end PCs or a PS5 or Series X, this exhibit area rendered in crisp 3D is unlike anything we've seen on a Nintendo platform before. It’s really more like a virtual museum than a traditional game, but its main purpose is to teach customers about the Switch 2 hardware - and it goes into a LOT of detail about the hardware and the design philosophy - and showcase the system's capabilities and highlight the ways in which it's separate and distinct from the Switch.



The game impressed me the most in its tech demonstrations. These aren't "games" per se but, as the name suggests, ways to see the new hardware's capabilities and features highlighted. Players move the Joycon 2s in “mouse mode,” experience detailed HD‑rumble effects, and test the 120Hz screen refresh rate. These demos also showcase the Joycon 2’s magnetic attachment, gyroscope and accelerometer features, tactile feedback, and 3D audio features. One especially cool demo even uses the Joycon 2's vibration to replicate classic Mario sounds, highlighting just how advanced the HD Rumble 2 effect is. With around 20 minigames and 14 demos, Welcome Tour mixes increasingly challenging minigames like mini‑golf, maze navigation, and frame‑rate guessing with interactive informational boards to teach you about the system's features and design and quizzes that follow. Though critics tend to say that the minigames don’t offer much replay value, I really enjoyed them as bite‑sized tech showcases and liked being able to learn the hardware design quirks in a relatively fun and interesting way.



More than providing a gameplay experience to showcase the new system, the experience is educational and offers insights (that's literally what they call it) into the console's engineering and hardware philosophy. It explains features like the Joycon 2's magnetics connection to the system, airflow design in the dock, screen tech, and accessory integration. For Nintendo enthusiasts like me and folks interested in technology design, it’s a fascinating glimpse into the platform's inner workings and upgrades over its predecessor. It may look extremely similar to the Switch, but it's a completely different beast under the hood.



I, personally, had a great time with Welcome Tour. I downloaded it - actually, I preordered it on Nintendo's website - because I'm a Nintendo shill and will buy almost anything with their logo on it, but I ended up liking it a lot more than I expected. There are a few minigame medals that I can't get because some of them get INSANELY difficult, but I probably finished 97% of all of the content in the game. To me for the enjoyment I got out of it, it's worth the $10 asking price, although that does seem to be a minority opinion. To be clear, I absolutely think this should have been a free pack-in like Wii Sports was. That said, I don't think $10 is an unreasonable asking price. That's pretty darn cheap for a game, and while it's totally fine if a tech demo crossed with an edutainment game doesn't appeal to you, don't pretend that the amount of content doesn't justify the price just because it's content you don't care for. It's definitely not a game for everyone, but if you are interested in how the Switch 2 works and why it was made that way - and want to see the mouse controls and other features in action - definitely consider checking this out. That said, though, there's no real replay value here, and a lot of the minigames are just different uses of the same features, and those things are important to note. If you're not willing to shell out the $10 for it, at least find a friend who bought it and hijack their Switch 2 for a few hours to give it a try. It's definitely worth that.

[ElkinFencer10]

Games Beaten in 2025 - 4
* denotes a replay

January (Not Shit Beaten)

February (Not Shit Beaten)

March (Not Shit Beaten)

April (Not Shit Beaten)

May (Not Shit Beaten)

June (4 Games Beaten)

Doom: The Dark Ages - Series X - June 2
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 - PlayStation 5 - June 16
3. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour - Switch 2 - June 16
4. Fast Fusion - Switch 2 - June 17

4. Fast Fusion - Switch 2 - June 17



Fast Fusion is the fourth (or third, depending on how you look at it) game in Shin'en Multimedia's F-Zero/Wipeout hybrid racing series. Debuting on the Wii's WiiWare service with Fast Racing League, then moving to HD on the Wii U with Fast Racing Neo (which was then ported and expanded on Switch with Fast RMX since only twelve people bought a Wii U), the series has now made the jump to UHD with Fast Fusion on Switch 2. It's a little content light compared to its predecessor, but quality over quantity seems to be the name of the game here.



Fast Fusion embraces the Switch 2's capabilities with a number of visual profiles, although I honestly don't know what the point of some are. The "Ultra Quality" setting is the peak of visuals here with 4K visuals, maximum detail textures, and even ray tracing. The tradeoff, though, is that the game only runs at 30 fps on that setting, but it is at least a stable 30 fps. Still, though, not the ideal way to play. Below that, you have the Quality setting which is what I use. No ray tracing here, but it still runs at 4K with a solid 60 fps frame rate. Below that, you have a balanced setting that offers 1440p and 60 fps, and there's also a Performance setting for 1080p and...60 fps. It's really disappointing that even dropping the resolution all the way down to 1080p doesn't offer support for the Switch 2's 120 fps capability, although Shin'en has said that they're exploring adding 120 fps support in a future update. I think there's a fifth setting that I'm forgetting, but with 4K, 1440p, and 1080p all running at 60 fps, I don't really know what the point is. Still, though, the game looks great, and while Digital Foundry's analysis went into some detail about some blurring that occurs due to the way Shin'en used DLSS here, I honestly didn't notice any visual issues whatsoever while I was playing given how fast the game's pace is. That really seems like more of an issue for people watching others play rather than the player themselves.



Fast Fusion features numerous game modes. The traditional Championship mode is your typical grand prix. You race a set of three tracks for each championship, and there are four championships in each of the game's three difficulty settings, although I'm pretty sure the tracks are the same and in the same order in all three difficulties. Subsonic is pretty easy and is definitely akin to Mario Kart's 50cc. Supersonic is basically Mario Kart's 100cc and for experienced players who haven't really mastered the game yet. Hypersonic is the game's 150cc equivalent, and it definitely gets hard. I fought hard for some second and third place finishes in Hypersonic. In addition to Championship, you've also some Time Attacks where you try to beat the developers' best times on the game's tracks. Lastly, you have Superhero, the game's hardcore mode. You have to finish the race without crashing a single time and without running out of energy, and your energy is used by both your shields as well as your boost, so you have to be very careful with how you use it. I...have never finished a race on this mode, though not for lack of trying. It's difficult, and I suck at the game. The last gameplay feature which is really the star of the show is the vehicle fusion. As you earn in-game money in the races and buy vehicles, you have the option of fusing them together. Sometimes these fusions are nothing special, but other times, they'll yield an immensely powerful vehicle. I ended up using a fusion that maxed out top speed, almost maxed out acceleration, and had about 2/3 of the way to max for boost. You'll definitely want to use a good fused vehicle for Hypersonic and the Time Attacks.



The only real letdown with Fast Fusion is the amount of content. There aren't a lot of tracks, so you'll probably get bored with the track variety pretty quickly. To Shin'en's credit, they have promised that free updates are coming in the future to add more tracks (and potentially that 120 fps support), but at launch, it's a bit content dry. As I said earlier, though, what content is here is excellent. Quality, not quantity, folks. Fast Fusion is an excellent racing launch title for the Switch 2 for gamers who want something a little more intense than Mario Kart. It sadly doesn't support online play like its predecessor did, and that genuinely is a bummer, but I'm hopeful that that, too, can be added in an update down the line. Other than the limited track selection and the lack of online play, though, Fast Fusion is probably the best game in the series. At the very least, it's a tie with Fast RMX. If you have a Switch 2, I definitely consider this to be a must have. It's digital only (for now), but it's only $15, and that's more than fair as an asking price.

[alienjesus]

Oh look, it only took me til mid-Jun to make my first review post of the year in this thread

10 down, 18 to go!

1. Advance Wars ReBoot Camp - Advance Wars Campaign Switch *NEW*
2. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Switch *NEW*
3. Advance Wars ReBoot Camp - Advance Wars 2 Campaign Switch *NEW*
4. Another Code Recollection - Another Code: Two Memories Switch *NEW*
5. Another Code Recollection - Another Code R: A Journey Into Lost Memories Switch *NEW*
6. Bomb Chicken Switch *NEW*
7. Castlevania Advance Collection - Castlevania: Vampire’s Kiss Switch *NEW*
8. Castlevania Advance Collection - Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow Switch *NEW*
9. Disco Elysium Switch *NEW*
10. Espgaluda II Switch *NEW*


Advance Wars ReBoot Camp – Advance Wars 1 Campaign



I love me a bit of the advance wars games, so when they announced a comeback for the series with ReBoot Camp I was initially pretty excited. However, as more info about the game came out my excitement dwindled. Not only was the remake pretty faithful and thus offered little new, but I wasn’t impressed by the new 3D visuals and hearing that it was being handled by WayForward didn’t help either – many people love them, but I think WayForward are a company that makes decent but not amazing games personally.

Luckily, after playing through the game, I actually ended up feeling pretty positively to it. I still don’t like the 3D graphics as much as the old sprites, but they look and feel way better in motion than in stills, and the other presentation around the game is great – especially the music remixes for each character theme.

Gameplay wise, it’s much the same. There been a few small balance changes on some missions but Cos and units work the same way they did in the original version. One positive is that the game lets you play missed missions after you beat it, so you can experience all missions easily – in the original some of the missions were on split paths so you could only choose specific ones to play each playthrough.

Advance Wars 1 is my least favourite of the 3 ‘main’ Advance Wars games, but it’s still a lot of fun. Is has some teeth compared to later entries but I don’t think it gets too unreasonable on the base difficulty.

Overall, I think ReBoot Camp is a good way to experience the series if it’s your first time playing Advance Wars, but I think the GBA games are a more impressive experience with a better all-around presentation. Either way, they’re must play games.

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door



A bit of a trend for me this year has been replaying titles I last played quite some time ago, either in the form of a remake or replaying the original. I haven’t beaten Paper Mario TTYD since I was a teenager, so I was excited to replay the game. And a great time was had – not only did I beat the game, but I 100% completed it too, with all star pieces, badges, sidequests, and optional bosses beaten. I also deliberately avoided levelling up HP this run for a challenge. I levelled only BP for the majority of the game until I maxed it out, then focused exclusively on FP after that. BP is so overpowered though that I think for most of the game it might have actually been easier – only late game battles in the pit of 100 trials were scary with the low hp. I did avoid the infamous ‘danger’ mario build that people discuss online as it’s too OP to be fun, but even so it was quite easy.

Content wise, TTYD on Switch is a very faithful remake of the game. Most of the content is the same with a few small script adjustments, mainly around the character of Vivian who has been localised more explicitly as a non-binary character – which feels unexpected but positive coming from Nintendo. The game in many ways looks like the original, but I also feel like it leans into the ‘Paper’ aesthetic a bit more visually compared to the original. The frame rate is 30fps on switch compared to 60 on Gamecube, but I didn’t find this to be an issue – and the lower frame-rate actually kind of works with the aesthetic.

There is a little bit of significant new content here, in the form of 2 new optional bosses. One can be found at the bottom of the pit of 100 trials on a second run through, and the other is found at the pit of 100 trials. Both are easily capable of taking you out in 1 hit but are also fairly easily cheesed so I didn’t struggle too much with them. They are definitely candidates for toughest enemies in the game though!

One thing I found with this game on my first playthrough, and again on this replay, is that it can be quite a tedious game. It revels in making you do busywork that takes lots of time – fight 20 battles in the glitz pit, walk the length of the woods 5 times (this time they add a short cut to skip a few trips, but it’s still annoying!), visit multiple places to find this NPC, then jump on him 50 times to wake him up, click through 100 almost identical dialogue boxes to get out of this conversation. It’s a joke played straight – it’s definitely done in a tongue in cheek fashion, but you do still have to do it all, and it can be tedious. It’s the main reason why, despite really loving TTYD, I would say the original N64 title is still my vote for the best Paper Mario title.

That said, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t really enjoy replaying TTYD. It’s still a fantastic game, and it’s the format I’d really like to see the series return to going forwards – and I think most fans of the series agree on that fact. Here’s hoping the next title moves a little more back to the classic format

Advance Wars ReBoot Camp – Advance Wars 2 Campaign



Advance Wars ReBoot Camp includes both the first and second Advance Wars title, and so after finishing the first game, I decided to move on and play the second as well. The second game is much more refined compared to the first, with improved balancing, new COs to play as and an additional level of CO power you can use to turn around battle or overpower your opponent.

Whereas the first Advance Wars game essentially forced you to play as the 3 Orange Star COs Andy, Max and Sami for the whole campaign, Advance Wars 2 is split into sections where you play as each Army respectively – first Orange Star, then Blue Moon, Yellow Comet (renamed as Gold Comet here, oddly enough), and Green Earth. Each Army has a selection of COs available to use and missions in their sections are often specifically design for individual COs, focused on their respective strengths and weaknesses. This format is really interested for variety and also introduce you better to the wider range of COs you can use in the optional war room maps, but it has some drawbacks – the Orange Star missions are basically tutorials, whereas Green Earth being last contains the hardest maps – so you won’t get much chance to be good as Orange Star whilst later COs you have to get used to fast.

Although they’ve refined it a bit since the first game, the game still struggles with balancing it’s COs. COs like Kanbei, Colin and Sensei are so outrageously good it’s basically impossible to lose as them, whereas the likes of Sonja and Flak are so bad that they’re basically a handicap if you play as them. The campaign balances this reasonably well by focusing on their strengths or weaknesses and balancing the deck against you somewhat, but in the war room or multiplayer components you need to be aware of their power to decide how easy or challenging you want to make it.

Advance Wars 2 is a fun time, and an easier time than the original too. ReBoot Camp plays it pretty straight again – the balance is exactly the same as the original title, down to the fact that characters who were rebalanced between AW1 and AW2 keep their balance changes between campaigns in this game, which could be a bit confusing to new players. Again, I think I would lean towards the GBA game as my recommended version due to the superior presentation and charm, but getting both games remade in one package on Switch is a great deal and ReBoot Camp is still a great option if you want to experience the games for the first time.

Another Code Recollection - Another Code: Two Memories



More Switch remakes of games I played year ago now. Another Code Recollection is a package containing remakes of Another Code: Two Memories for DS (known as Trace Memory in the US), and Another Code R: A Journey Into Lost Memories for the Wii, two adventure games from the now defunct Cing. This remake has been handled by Arc System Works, which was quite a surprise to me – not only is amazing that these very obscure games have received a remake at all, but the choice of develop for it was definitely unexpected.

The developer makes sense when you look at the presentation though. Arc System Works make some beautiful games and despite this game clearly being a low budget game, it’s a real looker. The painted aesthetic to the graphics and the full 3D reworking of the island is really something to behold, especially when comparing it to the original DS title. It’s hard to believe it’s the same game!

And in many respects, it isn’t! Another Code was a game packed with puzzles formatted around the system hardware. Infamous examples include puzzles involving closing the DS to press a stamp from the top to the bottom screen, angling it like a book to reflect an image from one screen onto an image on the other, as well as plenty of touch screen and microphone input. Obviously none of this survives the transition to the Switch hardware, and disappointingly, most of it hasn’t been replaced with similar Switch usage. In fact - a lot of the puzzle elements of the game have gone totally, making this skew much more heavily into the visual novel side of the game. Not totally, but certainly more so than the original title.

Thankfully, the story of the game is still pretty compelling, with the two memories of the title referring to protagonist Ashley’s past, as well as supporting character D - a ghost who doesn’t remember how he died. The tragic backstory of both characters is unravelled progressively throughout the game, with some sci-fi elements thrown into the mix thanks to Project Another – a project Ashley’s dad has been working on which can affect people’s memories.

I’m torn on recommending Another Code Recollection. I loved my playthrough and loved revisiting the story and locations of the original game on the new more powerful hardware – but if you come to this game for the first time via switch, it might feel a little basic and uninteresting due to some of the core gameplay of the original being cut due to the hardware transition. I would recommend experiencing the game on DS first.

Another Code Recollection - Another Code R: A Journey Into Lost Memories



Another Code R picks up where Another Code leaves off, with an older Ashley visiting her dad at a holiday camp near a lake. The original game came out on Wii and felt like it unwent quite a tonal shift – it feels much more down to earth, with less fantastical elements than the original game, although the scifi elements of the first game definitely still play a key role. As an example, rather than the spectral D as your partner character in this game, you get the much less spectral Matt, a 13 year old boy who is on a mission to find his father.

Another Code R was released on Wii in Europe and Japan, but never made it to America. It was released not long before Cing went under as well, and it always gave the impression of a game with development challenges. On the Wii it was quite an attractive game, but the story felt bloated and there was too much backtracking and side stories bloating the content out unnecessarily. Matthew’s story went entirely unresolved by the end too, leaving that aspect of the game on a cliffhanger.

Arc System works have massively reworked this game for Recollection. For a start, they’ve taken most of it out. The original game is about 16 hours long, but it’ll take you maybe 5-6 hours to work through in recollection. Again, puzzles have been mostly stripped away here, but there were substantially less in the original game anyway – it was very much a narrative experience. They’ve also stripped away a whole bunch of superfluous extra characters from the game that added little to the plot. More significantly, they’ve made some huge story changes that completely recontextualise the game. Firstly, Matthew’s story gets a conclusion after 16 years. But more importantly, the conclusion to Ashley’s story is changed massively, with more of the fantastical elements from the first game emphasised for a much stranger conclusion.

I’m mixed on these changes – I think there are issues with the narrative and pacing of the original game, but I think some of the character changes to the antagonists of this game undermine some of the story beats of the first. When Recollection was released, they made a big deal about Another Code R getting a US release for the first time – but lets be clear, this is a ultimately a different take on the game, and thus is more of an alternative story rather than a retelling of the original.

Unfortunately, whilst the presentation of both the original Wii version of Another Code R and the Switch version of Another Code Two Memories is stellar despite budget limitations, Another Code R on Switch feels decidedly weaker. It’s still reasonably nice, but the game taking place around a much bigger outdoor environment compared to the first really highlights the budget limitations, with lots of low poly terrain and flat plants and textures. It’s a shame it feels like so much has been cut back in R compared to the Wii – that game was bloated, but this version feels somewhat malnourished. I still enjoyed my time and the story is interesting – but I ultimately prefer the Wii version of the title overall. I’d recommend the Switch game, but try and play both versions of these titles if you can!

Bomb Chicken



Bomb Chicken is a game I picked up from Limited Run Games years ago on a whim. You play as the titular Bomb Chicken, who lays bombs instead of eggs. This is the core basis for a quite challenging action puzzle platformer title where the chicken must escape a processing plant where she is going to be turned into drumsticks.

The chicken’s moveset is pretty limited – she can press a button to lay bombs which pop out directly underneath her, pushing her up on top of the bomb. This is your only means to gain vertical height – there’s no jump button in this platformer. Getting up to high platforms can often mean laying 8-10 bombs into an explosive totem pole then walking off them before they explode. Bombs are also obviously your primary offense – you can lay them and wait for them to explode, or by walking into them you can roll them forward into walls or enemies where they’ll explode instantly on contact.

The levels contain multiple screens of difficult platforming challenges including a variety of hazards which will kill your chicken quickly. Dying happens in a single hit, where you’ll be sent back to the last checkpoint you hit. Early levels are loaded with checkpoints, but they get very sparse by the end. You start with 3 hearts which you will lose one of every time you die, and running out of hearts will give you a game over – sending you back to the start of the level regardless of checkpoints. You can expand your hearts by grabbing blue gems throughout the levels, and taking them to the chicken god statue between levels. The number needed for hearts goes up exponentially though, so gaining more becomes more challenging as you go. In addition, the gems get harder and harder to grab, to the point where the risk exceeded the reward in many late stages and I skipped them.

I quite liked Bomb Chicken, but it definitely had issues – mainly the difficulty, which went past fun and into frustrating by the end of the game. One area it didn’t struggle with though was the visuals – this is a really well animated pixel art game which looks beautiful in motion. Bomb Chicken might be an acquired taste, but I think it’s worth a go if you like a challenging platformer.

Castlevania Advance Collection - Castlevania: Vampire's Kiss



Last year I played through Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance on the Switch Castlevania Advance Collection and had a great time with it. I decided to finish off the collection, but I’ve always heard people say great things about Aria of Sorrow whereas Vampire’s Kiss, AKA Castlevania Dracula X for SNES I’ve only ever heard criticism of. So I decided to start with the less well received game and finish on a high.

And, well, I guess that criticism is relative to other games, because honestly, I had a good time with Vampire’s Kiss. It’s essentially a port of sorts of Rondo of Blood on PC Engine over the the SNES, and with that context it’s easy to see the criticism. Rondo offers more content with branching paths, and alternate playable character and an excellent CD soundtrack. In comparison, Vampires Kiss feels stripped back and more basic than Rondo, and visually weaker than Super Castlevania 4 too. It also has a few questionable design elements in some locations with an excess of bottomless pits and platforming challenges that force backtracking if you fall. But even then, it’s still Castlevania, and it’s still pretty fun! Even the infamous final boss where you fight Dracula on platforms over bottomless pits was not as bad as I expected once I realised crouching cancelled most knockback.

It wouldn’t be my pick for the best 16 bit entry in the franchise, but Vampire’s Kiss is still a good time. It’s hard to justify paying the prices for the title physically on SNES, but as part of this collection it’s definitely worth your time.

Castlevania Advance Collection - Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow



Onto Aria of Sorrow next, the final metroidvania Castlevania game for the GBA. This one makes some interesting design decisions with the key art for the game with a much more anime aesthetic and much less gothic style. It’s not a choice I like much but thankfully it doesn’t really affect the game aesthetics much – this looks like a GBA castlevania still.

Aria of Sorrow’s unique mechanic is a soul system which lets you equip a variety of enemy souls. Some of these function essential as subweapons, some provide passive benefits when equipped, and a couple transform you into a monster with unique powers. It’s fine as a subsystem but felt a little uninteresting to me compared to the elemental books of Harmony and the card system of Circle. That said, as a system it feels better realised, with more frequent drops and more practical use cases than the other 2.

Story wise, Aria is interesting in that it takes place in the future (although it’s set in 2035, so it won’t be the future for long!) and Dracula has been defeated. His reincarnation is prophesised to happen in 2035 and you happen to get dragged along for the ride, being pulled into Dracula’s castle inside of a solar eclipse. You meet a variety of other characters including, notably, the current Belmont – who you do not play as this time around.

As usual, I am way behind on writing reviews, and so it’s been a few months since I finished this game. Slightly damningly, I’m struggling to remember the experience well enough to elaborate more on it. And that is because it is essentially just more of the same compared to the first 2. This is often touted as the best of the GBA titles – I’m not sure I really get what makes it stand out personally, but I should say I do think it is a fantastic game. I had a great time with it. But I can understand coming back to these titles later why perhaps the Castlevania brand started to struggle, with 6 of these very similar titles over the GBA and DS. They’re all great games, but in my eyes they struggle to distinguish themselves from each other.

Disco Elysium



Disco Elysium is an interesting RPG/Adventure game where you play as the world’s worst (maybe) cop. You’ve been sent to solve a lynching, but at the start of the game you don’t really remember that, or who you are, or what you do, or anything much, due to having gotten absolutely blasted on psychoactive drugs and booze on a 3 night bender.

The game is mostly an adventure game where you explore around the town with your assigned partner, Kim, talking to people to try and solve the murder and also begin to understand more about the history of this super deprived little town in a fictional country off of the back of a war.

The standout mechanic of the game is that all the different areas of your thoughts talk to you constantly, often arguing with each other, and giving contradictory advice on the games various dialogue options. For example, the electrochemistry part of your personality is always looking for the next high, whereas the esprit de corps part of your personality will fill you in on police matters and encourage you to follow police code. An empathetic part of your personality may tell you to give something to a person in need whilst a more untrusting part will tell you not to because it’s a con.

They also serve as your stats - you can choose to invest points in each element of your personality or physique to affect dice rolls which determine the outcomes of your actions. Physical traits also affect your physical health and mental traits your emotional psyche. A bad roll can cause damage to one or the other. If you don’t invest in your physical traits and try to grab your tie off of the spinning fan at the start of the game, a bad roll could cause you to take your last point of damage and die of a heart attack from over-exertion.

The game is well written and interesting – it veers between comedic, tragic and philosophical regularly. If anything, my one criticism is that perhaps it loves it’s own writing a little too much – sometimes it comes across as over-indulgent on the philosophical side, trotting out theories and terms more to show it knows about them rather than to engage with the player. I feel like I’m a reasonably well educated guy and I still had to do some occasional googling to understand whatever the game was on about this time. I also feel like sometimes it goes overboard with the worldbuilding – I don’t really need to know some of these random factoids about some dude who spoke about this thing in the fake civil war of 1863 or whatever, it doesn’t add to my immersion, just tedium.

I’d happily recommend Disco Elysium as a game with an acquired taste for those willing to engage with it’s systems, but it’s with one big, huge, massive, humungous caveat- whatever you do, don’t play it on the Switch. This is the single worst optimised and worst performing game I’ve ever played on any platform. Frames drop constantly and slowdown is frequent on a game which shouldn’t have any problem running on the system at all. Even worse, crashes are frequent – I think I had a crash at least once every 30 minutes of playing, and often far more frequently. Some conversation trees can go on for minutes on end and every time I was on edge wondering if I’d get through it before the game crashed on me. I saved after every single conversation. It was a miserable time. Maybe it runs better on Switch 2? Probably safer is to play it via Steam – at least if the performance isn’t any better there (which I believe it is) you can rely on fan patches to fix things.

Espgaluda II



I generally like bullet hell games and Cave shooters, but I am very much in the camp of people who like the games but suck at them. My favourite Cave shooters are the ones that understand that not everyone playing them is some god of shmups and at least have enough of an ease in that you can feel like you achieved something as a noobie - the likes of Deathsmiles and Akai Katana come to mind for example.

My least favourite games by Cave are the ones where they decide only about 50 people on the planet should be able to beat them without credit feeding, and you’d need to devote your life to the game to stand a chance. Relatively recently I played through Mushihimesama which falls right into this category, and unfortunately, I feel like so does Espgaluda 2.

Mechanically at least, it’s interesting. You can move between a mode where bullets are slowed down and your normal shooting, but when you come out of the slowdown mode, everything becomes faster briefly. Managing your slowdowns effectively is an interesting risk reward, but as with many Cave shmups, the system feels convoluted to understand how it works and the ingame explanations are pretty bad.

I really wanted to like Espgaluda 2, but ultimately I found it too unforgiving and too incomprehensible to really enjoy. Maybe one day someone will discover the secret to eternal life and I’ll finally have the time to master it. But until then, I think I’ll stick to something more casual friendly for my shmup fix.