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I've been waiting for years for ArcSys to make a game like this. They've had the visuals down since Xrd, but they finally made a game that's easy to pick up, but not too simple for long-time fans to enjoy (unless you actually just wanted to keep playing Xrd or +R), and has top-of-class rollback netcode. It's not perfect (looking at you, lobbies and lack of frame data and combo trials in training mode), but it's solid enough in the aspects that really matter that I've been having an absolute blast actually learning a fighting game for once instead of bouncing off of it after a month because the online is so bad or the gameplay is so impenetrable.
What can I say, I'm a fucking sucker for this type of game, especially one as polished and high-production value as this one is. Outside of the boss fights, which I think are some of the best in the entire genre easily, I wouldn't say this game is doing much outside of what's expected for this type of game. But man, just seeing a traditional sidescrolling Metroid with a decent budget in 2021 is so great. Hopefully this game will do well enough to convince Nintendo they can make these games more than once every decade. And who knows, maybe this game will mean other devs get to take a chance on a sidescroller with a budget? *cough Castlevania cough*
Bowser's Fury is a really cool experiment. Short and to the point, neat gimmick with the Bowser fights. All around a cool initial idea for an open world Mario that I'd love to see them expand on in the future. Wish they'd built it in Mario Odyssey's engine rather than 3D World, which has dramatically less interesting movement options. It also just doesn't look as good as Odyssey, which is extra weird when you remember Odyssey was essentially a launch game for Switch, and that was 4 years ago. 3D World is neat, but ultimately limited by the decision to keep the perspective the same as the previous game that was built for a console with a 3D screen. Some really cool ideas, but god just let me move the camera. You just end up having to stare at your character's shadow the whole time. All the actually cool stuff is hidden behind a bunch of fine but boring levels, so by the time I got to them I was ready to be done with Mario for a while. Didn't help that the multiplayer makes all the issues this game has that much more apparent. It's even harder to tell where you're going to land when the camera's zoomed way the eff out and your shadow is like 10 pixels on screen. Also maybe don't make the grab button the same as the run button if you can pick up other players. It's funny at first, but infuriating when you've accidentally thrown your partner off the same cliff 5 times now and oh my god I just wanna make it through the dang level, please.
Doesn't measure up to the scares of REVII or the general greatness of the RE2 Remake, but still a fun enough Resident Evil experience. The unbelievable return of the completely forgettable protagonist of the last game being played for essentially slapstick humor is an incredible choice and absolutely made the game for me. More than anything, I'm reminded once again that Resident Evil does new game + content better than just about anyone. Running (twice as fast thanks to the movement speed upgrade) through a second time on a harder difficulty with an infinite ammo assault rifle is a real dumb/good time, and more games should let you break them after you get through them once. If I had any critique of the NG+, it'd be that they make it too hard to get most of the really dumb stuff. I enjoyed running through it again, but not enough to grind out the challenges and get infinite ammo on the really strong weapons to completely break the game.
Painfully short, but an absolute joy. Controlling characters moving around the screen could have been a big misstep, but they design around it in a truly fun way. Not to mention the art and specifically the cutscenes remind me of Katamari Damacy, and there's no higher praise I could give it than that.
A super cute little Link to the Past tribute with an anti-capitalist bent that you can play through in one sitting without too much trouble. Just a nice time.
