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BusierDonkey · Jun 3, 2026

Game 31

Scott Pilgrim EX
Completed co-op playthrough

I have fond memories of the original and this game was good, but I don't think I'll look back at this one the way I do the original. The music is great, but not as memorable as the original, the same goes for the characters and story which despite just finishing the game, I don't completely remember. It's definitely worth playing through but if I had to pick between the two games, I'd play Scott Pilgrim VS. The World again. The game does have plenty of great boss fights, it controls very well and you'll have fun so again, it's definitely worth a shot.

Jack Videogames · Jun 6, 2026

Seems I'm consistently a couple months behind target. It's looking grim for now - but I can't help myself. There's just so many JRPGs to play.

***

15h.

Beat it in 2 days, 7h per day. Best 6€ I ever spent. Careful if you are ADHD.

My Score: ★★★★☆

***

12.1h. Normal difficulty. Beat all sidecases except for one (No backtracking is a very, very bad idea, devs).

7.5, too much cheese.

Alright, fine. Mouse P.I is a mighty fine game. Tight shooting, original graphics, fantastic voice acting, and the cheese puns are really not that annoying. Also, the story is not as dumb as IGN seems to think - I found it very period-appropriate, and pretty engaging from beginning to end. The final levels are this Indiana Jones-esque spectacle setups that make for a very satisfying conclusion.

The caveats: most weapons are useless (The Tommy and the thinner gun will carry you through the game: you won't use anything else unless you're starved for ammo), enemy variety is so-so, and the "mysteries" peter off near the end of the storyline. Very much worth your money, though.

My Score: ★★★★☆

***

37:15h. Game + Postgame. Winning team: Venusaur, Jolteon, Dragonite, Snorlax, Nidoking, Lapras (Adventurous, I know)

Pokémon! It's Pokémon. Anything I could say would be superfluous. I found it interesting to see that the game isn't as hard as I remembered - the difficulty is just very frontloaded. Once your heavy hitters have gotten a couple evolutions, the game is easy as pie. Not even the Elite 4 required more than one try. So yeah, when people tell you LGFR is a super hard game, tell them that's bullshit.

My Score: ★★★★★

***

20:30h. Normal difficulty. Game + Hidden Signal completed for the Secret Ending.

This game was the pleasant surprise of the year for me. It's not (only) because of the Dad Space setting - the story is a bit too short for the intended emotional link between Diana and Hugh to really solidify. But the combination of their pleasant relationship, the basic if intriguing story, the spectacular setting and boss battles (The final boss battle is the kind of boss battle every action game needs - and so is the second boss, the Creator), the Vanquish-style shooting and the hacking mechanics makes it a game you have to see through.

Some simulations are bitches though. The hardest simulations are like 10x harder than any of the Hidden Signal levels.

My Score:

Cert.in.Death · Jun 7, 2026

Review: 2/10

A platinum journey over 11 years in the making. I don't recall the specifics any longer, but this was a PS+ offering in 2015 or thereabouts, I popped two trophies in Feb., and it sat on my PSN list for over a decade at 2%. I couldn't take it anymore, I had to right this wrong.

The critical gist is thus: the entire game is a rip off of God Of War and worse in every way. After an hour or so, I was struck with the memory of why I noped out of this game previously, and the emotion was both swift and sudden...

THE SATYRS ARE WALKING AROUND WITH THEIR FULLY ERECT DICKS OUT.
ಠ_ಠ

I don't know why I do this to myself. /s

Cert.in.Death · Jun 9, 2026

Review: 9/10

Bluepoint's HD Remake for PS3 played via PSNow. I left the speedrun and Challenge of the Gods trophies for a later date and after Apotheon, figured I wanted to see what a good game in a Greek setting was like. Still an astounding accomplishment for its era - driven by good ole Jaffe - that launched a mega franchise for Playstation. Somehow, someway - being a lukewarm fan of the series - I have now platinumed every single GOW game. Where else can I go while I wait for Laufey and the remakes? Maybe I'll play the Vita versions and add those to the pile.

falling into hell · Jun 10, 2026

11. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth 7/10

The game was just an average game with pretty graphics. There was too much filler, open world was mostly empty and most quests sucked.

Pantz · Jun 12, 2026

Oh no, I'm late with my report. Already the 11th too and I'm behind in June! I need to get back to playing stuff.

May Report:

#15: 05/07 - Claw Machine Sim (PC/Steam)
It's fun to play a little bit at a time. Different items have different weight and surface material so some are harder to grab than others. Eventually you can collect everything. Play in simulation difficulty from the start so you don't have to collect everything twice. That's all the game is, just playing the claw machine.

#16: 05/10 - Mixtape (Xbox Series X) #HatePlay
I had to check it out due to the IGN 10/10. For most of the game I could set the controller down and let it play itself while I was working out and playing Fire Emblem on Switch 2. So it's more of an interactive experience type of game (interaction optional). The characters grew on me a little bit, but everything else not so much. It's a 6 or 7 at best.

#17: 05/29 - Forza Horizon 6 (Xbox Series X)
This may have less gameplay than Mixtape. Anna the AI driver completed all races for me. Definitely have Forza Horizon fatigue especially now that the game can play itself. They just hand you cars and money and houses like candy with little sense of progression. Anyway I completed all the events and collected everything. At least I can still complete the PR stunts and drift challenges without the AI driver completing them for me.

#18: 05/30 - Hidden Folks (PC/Steam)
This is the one to get of these types of games. Good hand drawn art and funny noises. Good clues for finding the hidden things. Just the right difficulty.

Currently playing:
Aphelion (Xbox Series X)
Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Switch 2)
Felvidek (PC/Steam)

ReyBrujo · Jun 13, 2026

Continuing the list of games due 30000 characters cap.

27	Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom	Many changes compared to Ni no Kuni 1. Now it is an action JRPG instead of an ATS. It's barely linked to the original game, in fact I don't quite like how they linked the story. The battle system is fine, though finished the game without casting a spell because the "boost" system is unlocked literally just before the final battle. Tons of sidequests, infinite "tasks" to do, some things to unlock after the final battle (including I think more links to the first game). Graphically it is beautiful, world is large and the story is entertaining though very Miyazaki-like (even bad people are good). About 60 hours to beat the game.	5/27	7/10
28	Etrian Odyssey HD 3	Years later I bought the HD Collection and finished 1 and 2 again, and now 3 for the first time. Many differences: there's an overworld now, though only accessible via a ship which is a nice break from the dungeon crawling. The game now ends at level 20 instead of level 25, your characters can have subclasses and the level cap is higher (L60 before, finished the game with characters at level 66). The sovereign class makes the game too easy personally with its constant healing. The story is much cooler, you got apparently 3 paths to follow and 3 endings (went with the Deep City path). Took me 65 hours though I spent probably 20 hours with autowalk and grinding while playing another game.	6/12	9/10
29	Persona 3 Portable	This is my first Persona/SMT game and it was a really good experience. I liked the dungeon crawling though they quickly become repetitive even with the small variations like darkness and death chasing you. The story was cool too, lots of interactions. It reminded me of Kowloon High-School Chronicle with the visual novel section during the day and the dungeon crawling at night. Battle was fine, though there were just too many Persona combinations and in the end I just stuck with a few ones, didn't even try the unlocked ultimate ones. Finished it in a bit more than 90 hours in Normal.	6/19	9/10
30	Dragon Ruins	This is a tiny, simple dungeon crawler. One 30x30 floor to map, find and slay the dragon (the drake in the remix). Two modes, original and remix with different map layout. Several classes to choose 4 adventurers from but they are just a different portrait and slightly different values for attack, defense and dexterity. Battles are in auto, you enter a room and fight automatically, get money and experience. If you go back to the exit you heal and revive automatically. Use money to level up (+25 coins every time you level up) and improve equipment (+1 attack and defense every 50 coins you spend). Took me 2 hours 40 minutes to finish. Automatic NG+ "one year" after you kill the dragon, you are called because the dragon revived and need to slay him again, dragon becomes increasingly harder every time you slay him (but map isn't reset so you pretty much know how to find him).	6/21	3/10
31	Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Familia Myth Infinite Combate	This comes from an anime which I've never watched so didn't know what to expect. It's a simple bordeline ecchi game, half visual novel and half action RPG. Gameplay is simple, enter the randomly generated dungeon to do something (either advance the story or grind). Your character basically has two levels, level 1 when you start the game and level 2 after a certain story section so you can grind all you want but will never raise your level. Took me less than 12 hours to finish it. After finishing you get extra dungeons and the ability to grind "date points" in those dungeons to "date" the characters and unlock extra gallery.	6/24	3/10
32	Mika and the Witch's	This was apparently a crowdfunded project. It's a simple game, you cannot die, only fly, pick up and drop things and talk with people. As a beginner witch you are given the task of working as a delivery girl, taking parcels from one character to another. The difficulty is remembering where every character is and what they want. The game has "4 days" of gameplay, you get money for delivery and improve your broom until eventually getting the witch's broom that allows you to reach the mountain, your target. Took me a little less than 12 hours because I got lost and couldn't find one of the last parcels. Ideal for young players.	7/7	3/10
33	Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!	Yes, late to the party. I knew this wasn't just a date simulator or visual novel, that it had horror elements but it surprised me just like Labyrinth of Galleria did (for a very similar reason). You never feel like you are in danger like a Resident Evil, you don't really feel the oppressive atmosphere of Labyrinth of the Demon King, there really aren't (that many) scarejumps, yet it plays with your feelings, with what you think about the characters. It's not That Shady Part of Me that talks about bad feelings in a very educative way, Doki Doki is brutal. But you must continue, time and again because you want it to finish it with a good ending. Took me 7 hours the very first run, and over 20 to finally get the "good ending".	7/10	8/10
34	Mario's Picross	First game for the Game Boy from the Nintendo Classics I finish. I love picross puzzles, unfortunately it's like they are not allowed in the Argentine eshop (there are no games named "picross" there). So even though I got the Japanese physical cartridge I went with the online option for usability, screen is much better. It's just another picross game, 64 easy and 64 normal puzzles. Overall took me 20 hours to finish.	7/21	6/10
35	Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen	This is one of those games I first bought digitally when I bought my first Switch in 2023 because it looked cool and it was cheap (like The Witcher 3, the Assassin Creed, Immortals Fenyx Rising, etc). And gave it a go for the first time. It's a Western-like RPG made by a Japanese company, there are things that I don't quite like (like having to juggle weight between characters), the pawn AI was usually combative (always wanting to attack instead of just slide around unnoticed as I was doing) and the map was huge, especially when you have limited teleporters around. But it was a nice experience, the game crashed a couple of times but nothing serious, couldn't finish all of the missions because some were pretty repetitive but overall it was entertaining (especially when I discovered Y let me read what I was supposed to do, got lost for a dozen hours before that). Took me 76 hours to finish.	7/24	6/10
36	Tears of Avia	A tactical RPG where you recruit some characters to find the Tears of Avia and beat the demons. The game is pretty simple, up to 5 characters can be in your team at the same time. Mages and archers are too powerful, once you understand the equipment system it's a breeze, making 300k damage per turn and wiping out 8-9 enemies in one attack. Even the final boss, after you clean the stage, takes 4 or 5 attacks to be killed. Game would crash after getting each of the tears, fortunately it automatically saves. And using B to speed up opponent's turn is kind of a mess. Pretty repetitive though story got a few twists. A bit more than 13 hours to finish.	7/29	4/10
37	Re: Turn 2 - Runaway	I had bought it for very cheap and after finishing Tears I wanted something very short. This is a 2D psychological horror game very similar to The Coma and LiveStream where you mostly solve puzzle while hiding from the stalker. The game has 8 acts, each lasting between 10 to 20 minutes though a couple of puzzles were pretty hard for me. There are unlockables, missed a couple but finished the game. It contains spoilers from the first game since it begins right after 1 ends apparently (however I can't buy it from the Argentine eshop so I went with this one directly). It's a cute but simple game. Took me about 6 hours and a half to finish.	8/1	3/10
38	Dragon Ruins 2	The dungeon crawler for lazy people returns immensely better. Contrary to the original there's only one save, however there are 15 different quest NPCs (contrary to only the queen in the original), there's a different map for every NPC and you need to beat between 4 and 7 missions for each NPC to "finish" the quest before it loops back to the first one. Graphics now are no longer wireframe only, There are many more enemies and many more weapons and armours to improve. Took me 24 years (25 hours and a half). Includes two lovely easter eggs: one stage makes you kill the original heroes of Dragon Ruins 1, and after beating the dragons the Queen asks a new mission opens where the absolutely last boss is a bunny.	8/1	7/10
39	Drawngeon	This is one of the first dungeon crawlers I tried on Switch and it was so buggy I stopped playing. I started 5 times and all three times I had to stop because of an inventory bug (if you move things in your inventory sometimes it will crash and you would lose the item). So, I started it for like the sixth time taking extra care with it. This time I managed to finish it in about 4 hours and a half. The game has "hand drawn" graphics which are cute, similar to Labyrinth of Zangetsu. The story is simple, just grind to size and beat the Wizard's maze. There are several enemies, a few pieces of equipment and some locked doors. If not for the bug I would have finished it a year ago.	8/5	2/10
40	Atelier Marie Remake	The remake of the first Atelier is my first Atelier. A very simple and cozy RPG with chibi characters: explore locations to gather ingredients and battle some simple enemies with a couple of other partners, raise friendship, progress through the story and finish tasks in 5 years to become a proper Alchemist. Every action takes one day. Only 4 bosses, capped to level 50 but by that time you shouldn't have problem beating almost everything in the game. The story is nice and you got an Unlimited mode to play without the 5 year limit. Finished in 17 hours and a half. NG+ available. Also the deluxe version includes the original PS game.	8/7	6/10

falling into hell · Jun 13, 2026

12. Rune Factory Tides of Destiny 6/10

It just took me thirteen years to finish the game. When I bought it I really enjoyed it and dreamt about, how awesome it would be to live on a remote island. I personally would love it, if in real life we had holidays like in the game. My opinion of this game changed over time. Now I see most of the things in the game as grindy shit, nearly everything is a grind. To finish the game I had to grind like crazy. The battle system in the game sucks which is not that bad because fighting monsters is not the biggest part of the game. The game is more about maxing out relationships with the other islanders and grinding all the various synthesis skills. I was happy once I beat the game and swore to myself never to touch a Rune Factory game ever again.

13. Onee Chanbara Origin 6/10

First thing first I hated the art style I would prefer if it looked a little bit more realistic and less anime. I personally love the oneechanbara game series but prefered the earlier entries. This game felt like a dumbed down version of the earlier games. It would have been better if there was more stage variety. Nearly all levels look the same.

Cert.in.Death · Jun 17, 2026

Review: 7/10

Revisiting this after many years, decided to gauge how it holds up among whatever remaster additions they included (nothing notable based on this playthrough, I have enough recollection of the original to know that the "shiny" textures on character models are more pronounced than before and it looks awful, as usual). On replay, the most annoying aspect is how padded the final episode feels and how the plot bounces around at a breakneck speed in comparison with other chapters. The uneven offering is a bygone of the episodic approach games were undertaking back then, but the amount of content they spread across the other 4 episodes was more sensibly organized.

Gripes aside, the narrative/plot of this game remains a notable success. Paired with some quality music on offer, it sticks its landing when you reach the final curtain (at least the "Sacrifice" ending does). Unsure if I want to spoil the experience by playing the sequel Double Exposure, but I'll keep it under consideration. Keen to see how the TV series turns out, if it happens.

BusierDonkey · Jun 19, 2026

Game 32

Ninja Five-O
Two playthroughs

This game was interesting, I'd never even heard of it before and only jumped in after seeing it on a top GBA game list. It's got a little Bionic Commando with the grappling hook and swinging, but it also has a bit of the NES Robocop in there, with the bad guys holding people hostage. Like Robocop (I'm sure there's a better example of a game with the same mechanic but the old brain is currently experiencing the same thing a 47-year-old man that poops his pants because he forgot to pull down both his pants and his shorts must go through so... yeah) you can mess up and kill the hostages, this carries through to one of the boss fights, where a pilot is held hostage in the cockpit of a plane by the boss, so you have to be careful not to tag the pilot with stray shots while fighting the boss. It's a pretty cool game. On the negative side, the grapple mechanic is sometimes sketchy and the entire last area of the game is just grappling up a shaft full of lasers while a timer counts down, or put another way, my least favorite thing ever. That coupled with a bug where I couldn't damage the base computer at the top of the shaft soured me a bit on the game right at the end.

Game 33

Klonoa: Empire of Dreams
100% Complete

This was my first Klonoa game. The series is more well-known for the Playstation releases but this GBA game was actually pretty good. Its main mechanic involves grabbing enemies and throwing them to gain a second jump. It's one of those games that is relatively simple to finish, but the levels have collectables that you can chose to find to 100% the game. Opting to 100% the game makes the game extremely hard, sometimes frustratingly so as you can't just pop back into levels to collect what you missed, you have to get everything in one run, each retry resets the stage entirely. The game has some clever puzzle platforming and introduces new mechanics right up to the end of the game making the puzzles more complex as the game goes on. The game's bosses are also fun to fight, though not especially difficult. Unfortunately the game is held back by overly stiff controls, a grab move that seems to reach about three pixels away despite being absolutely crucial to the gameplay, and a flutter jump like Yoshi, only it basically slows movement to a crawl making it annoying to use. This is a really decent platformer, I just wish those few issues didn't exist.

Game 34

Strider
100% Complete - Hard difficulty

I own this game on multiple platforms and I've started it on each one, then something comes up and I forget I started it and years later run across it again, rinse, repeat. I recently installed it on Steam and nothing else came up so I finally finished it. Right away I was surprised, I didn't realize this was a Metroidvania title, I thought it was a stage-based action game. The map in the game is very good, flows well and the game controls beautifully. Hiryu easily flows through the areas, he can wall climb almost any surface including the bottoms of overhangs. Eventually he unlocks a double jump and a timed air dash which can be cleverly chained together. He also unlocks different plasma energy types for his weapons and specials accessed by the d-pad. Once fully powered up he basically dances through hordes of enemies, slicing them into parts as he gracefully flips around. The visual style is a bit low-detail which takes a bit away from the atmosphere here, as do the goofy enemies who tend to ramble on before fighting you, but it's not modern-game levels of annoying. This was definitely a pleasant surprise and I'm glad I finally got around to playing through it.

marcincz · Jun 20, 2026

Game 30 and next titles.

Game 30 - Life is Strange: Double Exposure (PS5) - 07h 40m
Beat 24/05/2026 - my score: 7/10
2nd playthrough. Achieved platinum trophy.

Game 31 - 007 First Light (PS5) - 19h 36m
Beat 04/06/2026 - my score: 9/10
Great action game. IOI did an excellent work. One of the best Bond games in history. Can't wait for the second part.

Game 32 - Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake (PS5) - 18h 52m
Beat 14/06/2026 - my score: 7/10
My first contact with FF series. To be honest, I am little disappointed.

Game 33 - Cuphead (PS4) - 05h 20m
Beat 17/06/2026 - my score: 7/10
Well, I am weak. I beat this title on simple difficulty. Regular was too much for me, from 2nd map.

Game 34 - Castlevania (PS4) - 02h 23m
Beat 20/06/2026 - my score: 8/10
Very good game, but incredible tough (played it for the first time ever). Especially final fight with Dracula. I've got Anniversary Collection and finished North American version. Funny, because there is a japanese ver., which included easy mode.

Jack Videogames · Jun 20, 2026

Two updates in a month!? Is... is there hope for me yet?

12.2h. Normal difficulty.

As a born and raised Spaniard I really, really wanted to like this one. Unfortunately, after a strong early game, the hype peters out pretty fast. The environments are samey and you probably won't get the full appeal if you're not Spanish, and even if you are, it feels a bit too... on the nose sometimes. Also, there are like three types of enemies that repeat eternally, so everything becomes tedious fast. And the game stutters even on my 5090.

Gameplay wise, mixed bag. The HP = ammo system is interesting, but it's not paired with an appropriate amount of healing items and the enemies are bullet sponges... so as you can imagine most of the gameplay after a while can be summarized as "run until you can heal, heal, waste most of your bullets, rinse and repeat". Interestingly the bosses are surprisingly easy compared to the levels themselves.

The puzzles are good fun, but they're almost all rebakes of classic videogame puzzles like Towers of Hanoi and Othello. They feel kinda uninspired, like they were put as an afterthought.

Oh and after dying, and you will die because the parry system is bollocks and enemies take half your hp when they hit you, instead of a quick respawn you get to suffer through an unskippable game over screen and then load your game. Because we never really outgrew the Spectrum era I guess.

Chapter 2 is unfettered ass. Most of the time is spent running away from Dolores, who has peerless sight and hearing so you cannot run past her. Fortunately chapter 3 and the final chapter go back to being much better.

I'm giving it 3 stars because like 60% of the game is 4 stars worthy and 40% is like 2 stars worthy.

My Score: ★★★☆☆

***

12.5h. Non-completionist (achievements) run.

Another fine addition to my collection of "Games I paid 5€ or less for and beat in two days". Scritchy Scratchy is a cool incremental game where you start dishes until you get enough money to buy lottery scratchies and then start accumulating ridiculous wealth. As it often happens with incremental games, the stakes soon become stupidly high. Short, cheap divertimento.

My Score: ★★★★☆

***

50:08h. Normal difficulty. Bracer rank 1.

So the (IMO) best JRPG ever gets a remake and it's STILL the best JRPG ever, just better looking. WHAT A FUCKING SURPRISE HUH

No, really. This is what a remake should be. The game is exactly the same - hell, you can easily follow through the game using a walkthrough for the original. All improvements are technical and QoL (Like the fact that it's now extremely hard to miss bracer tasks because they appear in the minimap).

Also, the new translation is more faithful to the original, with Estelle now being her original airheaded tomboy instead of Alex DeLarge with a stick.

So here you have it, my current title holder for Best JRPG for the next two months, at least, until 2nd Chapter dethrones it.

My Score:

***

3:50-ish. My Armor is Contempt difficulty.

4h more Boltgun! What else can a man ask for?

Its an old style expansion pack, really. Not much more to say. Like new five awesome new levels, action-packed and a little challenging, and one or two new weapons (not sure if there's anything else that's new apart from the grav gun)

Be warned, if you thought the original game final fight was some bullshit, you're in for a treat.

My Score: ★★★★★

Cert.in.Death · Jun 21, 2026

Review: 0_o / 10

Joke platinum to commemorate #420 (played Estival Versus for #69 years ago). Couldn't find a comically absurd drug-centric game, so went full degen and...now I need to take a shower to wash away the filth...

BusierDonkey · Jun 24, 2026

Game 35

Metro: 2033 Redux
Completed playthrough

I played Exodus not long after it released and never went back to play these first two games. Exodus was pretty forgettable and these two are in the same boat. I swear I fought with the bloom effects in this as much as the enemies. The game is just alright, while movement is decent and it is fun blasting mutants, the game has this hidden morality system that kind of makes no sense and makes the game a bit less fun to play. Taking ammo from dead bodies is bad even though ammo is about as precious as water in the metro. Killing is also bad so I should creep around karate chopping people in the neck. It's more fun to just run in and mow down the dumb AI. The world is definitely interesting but everyone tends to ramble on forever.

Game 36

Metro: Last Light Redux
Completed Playthrough

Last Light spends a little more effort trying to get the player to use the mediocre stealth mechanics and once again despite my best efforts I ended up running and gunning my way through everything because the AI is so dumb it takes it a second to snap out of its talking mode which is all the time I need to knock out most of the room. Like 2033 before and Exodus after, the NPCs in this game tend to walk really slowly and never stop talking. This game's major flaw is the level design which just goes all over and quite often becomes confusing to navigate. Overheating weapons and random jams can piss off too.

applesaucejaxon · Jun 24, 2026

Original Post
April Post
May Post

18: Shadow of the Tomb Raider - PS5 - Beat 6/24
What the fuck is this shit? I remember liking Tomb Raider and Rise of the Tomb Raider, but it's been a long time since I've played them. THIS? This is a garbage game. It took all of 10 minutes to get tired of listening to Lara talk to herself, the flashback sequence was lame, the characters looked like they were made of wax, and Lara sounded like she was on the verge of tears the entire game. And what the hell was this story? I can suspend disbelief, but everything about it was moronic. I'm not going to go into lengths about what rubbed me the wrong way, but I will complain about 2 specific things. So the penultimate baddie... the guy that dogs you the most throughout the game... the one that wants you dead the most and you want to kill the most... just fucking dies. I didn't even realize it was him getting killed until after the fact because it made no damn sense. And something that was so stupid that it stuck with me for the rest of the game: you come across a group of people. Savage and whatnot, but very obviously people. Dumb ass Lara refers to them as creatures and is confused about what they are. Mother fucker, they were obviously human beings. You fucking idiot, are you blind?!? And how many red herring deaths did Jonah really need? It felt like every story beat included something hinting that he was dead or dying. In the end, I just wished he died to get it over with. But he doesn't. I finished the game out of hate because I was in too deep by the time I realized it was just getting dumber as it went.
Repetitive, stupid, and boring game. It was a complete waste of time.

19: Abzu - PS4 via PS5 - Beat 6/28
Hey, so it turns out this wasn't Subnautica. I don't know how I keep doing this to myself. It was ok. Pretty game, but kind of boring. I was really hoping it was ending for the last 15 minutes or so.

20: Devil May Cry (HD) - PS4 via PS5 - Beat 6/30
I never played this back when it first came out. 2001/2002 was a busy time for games and college stuff. Lots of good stuff and this kind of fell between the cracks. The only other DMC game I've played was 4. I liked that quite a bit back when it released. Oh, and I also beat DmC... But I won't count that. I've had DMC 5 for my PS5 since launch, but I want to play the originals before I finally jump in.
Devil May Cry 1 kind of sucks. The gameplay is stiff, the camera cuts are awful and hamper gameplay, the voice acting is really bad, and the game is visually bland aside from the very last section. I don't get the hype that this garnered back in the day. And I don't want to hear "oh, it's an old game and you're just used to modern gaming." No. I can go back and play MGS2, Gran Turismo 3, Jak and Daxter, Metroid Prime, Eternal Darkness, etc. and still enjoy playing the games. They're well made, from the same time, and they hold up. I have no idea how this launched a franchise.
And now I get to move on to DMC 2...

21: Devil May Cry 2 (HD) - PS4 via PS5 - Beat 7/1
I was expecting a turd. I had more fun playing this than I did with 1. It was easy, but I at least had fun playing it. That's more than I can say about DMC 1. But the story was... there was no story? The voice acting was somehow worse. Especially the main baddie. Not sure who signed off on that. The tonal shift with Dante was definitely a choice. 1 was hokey, but at least Dante had a personality. In this, he might as well have been Link with a gun. And it was as ugly, if not uglier, than part one. Neither game really did much for me, but I started part 3 for a little right after I finished 2 and it felt a lot better. I'm looking forward to playing that.

22: Cursed to Golf - Switch via Switch 2 - Beat 7/14
I've been eyeballing this one for a while now. Looked neat in the shop and went on sale for I think $2. Aside from a handful of mildly annoying bugs, this game exceeded my expectations. I really loved it. I would never expect a golfing roguelike to work, but this was a neat way to do it. I did struggle with it until I finally stopped being so cheap with the powerup cards and played it as intended. I will definitely be coming back to this one for a round or 2 here and there.

23: Final Fight - Switch - Beat 7/15
It's crazy that this used to be what I considered to be an awesome game. I rented this multiple times for my SNES when I was a kid and even pumped some quarters into this at Aladdin's Castle back in the day. Playing now, it's just so mindless. Don't get me wrong, I still have fun playing this. Shoot, just these old beat-em ups are always something I fall back to. There's just nothing to them. And as an adult, it's so much easier to see how they were designed specifically to part stupid kids with as many quarters as possible.

24: Five Nights at Freddy's: Into the Pit - PC - Beat 7/16
I enjoyed it. Was it great? Not really. It's a solid 75/100. I've tried to play the original FNAF on numerous occasions, and I just can't do it. The "gameplay" loop just never clicked with me. When I saw a trailer for this earlier this year, I thought it look pretty cool. I'm glad I played it and was definitely more satisfying than what I played of FNAF. It wasn't scary, but I also didn't find the original game to be, either. Maybe if I was like 10 years old or something.

25: The King of Dragons - Switch - Beat 7/17
This was awesome! I beat it with 2 of my kids and we had a blast. This is possibly my new favorite beat-em up. If it's not obvious, I'm working my way through the Capcom Beat-em Up Bundle.

26: Battle Circuit - Switch - Beat 7/18
Another solid Beat-em up, but this one I had never heard of. The upgrade system was pretty decent but it was crazy short. Will definitely play again some time.

27: Sega Ages: Virtua Racing - Switch - Beat 7/22
I've had this since launch and I remember playing the original arcade cabinet. Not going to lie, I don't think I ever actually finished a race in Virtua Racer. I was always more of a Daytona guy. Playing it again, it reminded me of my biggest annoyance with old arcade racers: the timer. Nothing is more frustrating than having a crap start, rebounding, fighting to 1st place, and having the timer expire just before crossing the finish line. I never understood why they couldn't just ignore the timer if you're in 1st place in the last lap.
Anyway, this was a great conversion and it's super enjoyable. I'm trying to get my kids into it so we could battle for top times, but they aren't having it. Oh well...

28: Star Fox - Switch 2 - Beat 7/23
Awesome remake. It took everything I loved about Star Fox 64 and upped it. That said, I didn't really like Fox's new attitude. He just came off as a bit of a jerk. I beat a couple routes, and I had to explain to my son that yes it's short, but the fun is exploring and going to all the different planets. Surprisingly, he liked that idea. I think he's going to give it a try next week.

29: WWE 2K26 - Switch 2 - Beat 7/25
It was OK. I finally beat the showcase mode. It sucks, because Punk is my favorite wrestler of probably the last 20 years - but has recently been overtaken by Swerve Strickland - and it just wasn't fun playing through the showcase. Graphically, it seems to have improved after recent updates. I remember it being rough at launch, but when I booted it up yesterday to power through the Showcase it seemed to look a run a lot better.
Showcase mode is getting to be a chore. There's just no other way to say it. Where you should be enjoying the matches and just having fun with the game, it becomes a slog completing one bullet point, reading what's next, and trying to just get through them all before the AI overpowers you while you're dealing with all their reversals of everything you are being forced to do. It just isn't fun anymore. Punk deserved better.

30: Destroy All Humans - PS5 - Beat 7/25
Never played the originals. A bundle went on sale and it looked fun. This first game was kind of fun. It got really repetitive, and I never felt truly powerful. Most of the game was disguising myself as a human and spamming brain scans so that I wasn't discovered. It just felt like a wasted opportunity. Hopefully part 2 is better. I'll be playing that later. The sound in this game was awful though. I assume it's just the audio files from the original game, and they sound like they were recorded in somebody's garage.

I've been on a tear lately, and I'm actually on pace to finish this year. I have a few more games that I've started recently, so I'll probably have at least one more completed game by the end of the month. Possibly 3-4 if I'm feeling spicy. But like previous years, I've hit the point where I feel like I'm beating games just for the sake of this challenge. I'm not enjoying most of these as much as I should be.

31: Little Noah: Scion of Paradise - Switch - Beat 7/28
This was a fun little rogue like. Should have bought it on PC. I need to start checking Steam before I buy games on the Switch. This was the worst feeling 30 FPS I've ever experienced. It wasn't dropping frames, but I assume the frame pacing was dogshit. The game itself was fantastic though. Will definitely be going back to it later on.

32: Peggle Nights - PC - Beat 7/28
Well, it's Peggle... I love Peggle, but only ever beat the original game. Nice and relaxing. Maybe I'll try Peggle 2 sometime soon.

33: Devil May Cry 3 - PS4 via PS5 - Beat 7/31
OK, this should be the last game I beat this month. Nothing else I have started is close to being complete, and I don't think I'm going to marathon session anything tonight.
THIS was a great game. Everything about it was head and tails above the quality of the first 2 games. The bosses were fun, and the world wasn't so ugly this time around. I really have no complaints aside from the usual issues when switching camera viewpoints. But that was much less of an issue this time around. I beat DMC 4 way back on the 360, so I don't think I'm going to replay that. But I think I'll finally get around to part 5 sometime next month.

Aside from finally completing Xenoblade 2, Mario Wonder, and DMC 5, I need to look at my backlog and see what else needs finishing. I know I have tons of games I haven't beat, but I want to really enjoy the last 19 games for the year. I know I have at least 1 more game in the Beat Em Up bundle that I'll finish before my kids go back to school.

34: Inside - PC - Beat 7/31
Well I guess I lied. My kids were watching something I didn't want to watch, so I decided to finish this up at my office PC. What the heck?!? It was great, but holy cow. Very strange. It was less like Limbo than I was expecting. 5 minutes in, I just assumed it would be Limbo with more color. I was wrong. But I really enjoyed this game.
For real this time, that's it for games beat in July.

falling into hell · Jun 26, 2026

14. Dirt Showdown 7/10
I was in the mood to play a racing game. Not wanting to buy a new game I searched my backlog and found this game. It seems I started playing it in the past. Just had to play through half the game. While not the best racing game ever it was still fun to play. Most events were just driving around a round course.

15. Shikhondo: Youkai Rampage 6/10

Just an average bullet hell game, which is not bad considering I love the genre. It's a bad habbit but I always buy too many shoot 'em ups. Right now it's one of my favourite game genres. What I didn't like about the game is the bosses were all monster waifus. Instead of fighting them I would prefer if we all could become friends.

16. Angel at Dusk 9/10

I love this game. It's full off content you get three different arcade campaigns and a roguelike mode. The graphics style really stand out. You have to fight lots of grotesque looking enemies. Some religious people may have a problem that the enemies are angels. The music is nice. I will definitely play more of it until I finish all modes and see all endings.

17. Detective Kibukawa Case 2 3/10

Going by the premise you would expect an interesting game but it was mostly just a waste of time. It was boring and the conclusion was disappointing. I should better forget that I ever played this game.

18. Detective Kibukawa Case 6 8/10

An awesome case full of surprises.

Cert.in.Death · Jun 28, 2026

Review: 9/10

There is so little to add to the already widespread consensus: Cuphead is superb, this DLC content is likewise, and I should be tarred & feathered for having set this aside for later. The only caveat: this took an exceptionally long period of time to debut, which is not its only misstep but the one most readily remembered. But once it was in-hand, it delivered.

BusierDonkey · Jun 29, 2026

Finished a few more games.

Game 37

Panzer Paladin
Completed playthrough

This is a pretty interesting game. It borrows a lot from several other games. Combat could be compared to Zelda II, with up and down stab moves, and a fair number of enemies that behave like Zelda II enemies. There is a definite nod to 8-bit Castlevania here as well with breakable walls hiding weapons and the entire last set of stages are situated on a map much like the Dr. Wily Castle maps from Mega Man. There are quite a few Easter eggs pertaining to many other game franchises as well. Game play itself is quite good, the controls are tight, combat is precise and the game itself is fun to play. There is a lot of game here as well, with a good number of stages, all I would say are on the long side. That's where I come to my first gripe, the game checkpoints, which require sacrificing a weapon, are spaced too far apart. A simple misstep can easily cost you a half-hour in some stages. M other gripe is the horseman boss, he is this game's Proto Man and like in Mega Man he is introduced with a tune before he shows up to fight you, unfortunately he shows up about a hundred times and it's the same boss fight each time. The game is well worth the asking price, routinely on sale for a song.

Game 38

Stadium Mud Buggies
Played all events

My older brother bought the newly released Intellivision console which came pre-loaded with a bunch of games. Most of them are exactly what you would expect considering the hardware, but this game really stood out to me. It's an isometric perspective racing game, similar to RC Pro-Am for the NES, but this game is actually better in some ways. There are is a lot of variation to the levels, while it lacks turbo boosts, it does have gear changes. It also sports oil patches, puddles, rivers, opening and closing ramps on the track, cars to crush as you run them over and steep hills in the hill climb events. The game makes good use of the Intellivision's circle pad with the car moving in the direction you press. While most of the games on the console were mostly curiosities this was a genuinely good game.

Game 39

Bomb Squad
Played it as well as possible

While I wouldn't call this game good, it certainly tried something I haven't seen before. You are a bomb squad agent and have to diffuse a number of devices using a tool set. Interestingly the game uses voice to explain what you need to do an in what order. You use cutters to free parts, a soldering gun to reinstall circuits and pliers to remove and replace components on circuit boards. The controls are absolutely awful unfortunately so getting through the game is an exercise in frustration as the voice dialogue constantly tells you you're not lined up properly. I wouldn't say I abandoned the game as I literally don't have an Intellivision to continue playing, but I'm not sure I could ever actually complete this one.

Game 40

Star Wars: Dark Forces
Completed Playthrough

I was playing games on PC before Windows was a thing, then I moved to consoles for gaming until 2015. In that time I missed out on a fair number of PC titles which I've been making a moderate effort to get back to. This was a pretty big hole in my backlog, as I was a pretty big Star Wars fan before it all went to shit. This game is the original story of how the Death Star plans were stolen, and the story of an ex-Imperial mercenary taking down the Empire's new Dark Trooper program. Of course this has all been altered in canon. The Death Star now had deliberate flaws, the dark troopers don't exist until Luke saves Grogu after the events of Return of the Jedi and Kyle Katarn just doesn't exist anymore. The game is an interesting adventure which starts with you infiltrating an imperial base and stealing the plans to the Death Star, discovering a new Imperial weapon, the Dark Trooper, then spending the rest of the game flying around the galaxy taking down the program. You're taken to some new worlds that aren't seem in other Star Wars media and you hitch a ride on Jabba's star ship which was pretty cool. It all culminates with you sneaking aboard the Executor then onto the factory ship that manufactures the Dark Troopers to blow it up. The game is a product of its time, enemies are not smart, they will let you shoot them in the face, and you can cheese the game quite often to make the enemies unable to shoot you using the level geometry. While the game is a "Doom clone", the levels feature a lot more verticality but unlike Doom the levels are not as cleverly designed. The levels do retain Doom's obscure hidden rooms, some in plain sight, others requiring you to do weird unintuitive things to access them. Weapons are also not as varied as they could be, while there are a decent number of guns, many of them behave the same way as each other making them fairly pointless. The worst part of the game is the slippery game play. The game does have "ice cleats" which activate with the d-pad and are the only way to make the game not control like a slick mess, but I don't know why they are optional. I can't imagine anyone choosing not to wear them. I'm glad I finally played this one, but I was hooping to enjoy it more.

Cert.in.Death · Jun 30, 2026

Review: 7/10

Visiting these remakes after platinuming their PS1 originals last year. Though these remakes are more approachable, something inexplicable is lost in the adaptations. A major reason why these games are beloved is because of their ingenuity to work within the technological shortcomings of their era. Once you strip that away, the uncertainty of what you'll discover just one click in front of you is dispelled and the design frustrations are less excusable.

All that aside, they still warrant a recommendation. They are highly functional remakes in a proper engine, but the obtuseness and pompousness of their puzzles are constant. Next up: squeezing in a few others so I can get back on track and summit the P5 Royal mountaintop....

DarkLordOtaku · Jul 3, 2026

I've just finished playing Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake, a survival horror game developed and published by KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. Completing the base game alongside most achievements took around 15 hours. However, experiencing all six endings would likely require double that playtime.

Fatal Frame II is a survival horror adventure, featuring the twins Mio and Mayu. While relaxing by a river, Mayu is enticed by a crimson butterfly, which leads her deep into the woods. The twins soon find themselves lost in a mysterious village, trapped in an eternal nightfall. The two are separated, and Mio searches for her sister in the haunted town, aided only by an exorcising camera. A dark ritual is brewing in this lost village, and it's uncertain whether the twins will survive the night, or be torn apart forever.

Narratively, the plot of Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake closely follows the original for inspiration. The Lost Village, Minakami Village, is a dead town, whose residents were all victims of a horrific ritual gone wrong decades prior to the start of the game. Twins have always served a sacred purpose in Minakami Village, which is why Mio and Mayu were called to it from the river. As Mio investigates the town searching for Mayu, she's able to uncover hidden documents, and memory fragments from the dead villagers.

Between the assorted documents and recordings, Fatal Frame II does a reasonable job establishing the classic Japanese horror trope of a village so entrenched in superstitious ritual, that it causes them to commit horrific acts. There are several key figures from the past, including previous twins "Crimson Maidens," a pair of researchers who came to study supernatural phenomena, and of course the village residents themselves. While the game setting is a bit lacking in originality, it creates a smothering atmosphere and establishes a sense of hopelessness for Mio and Mayu.

Putting aside the elements of horror, the central theme of the story between Mio and Mayu revolves around feelings of growing apart from one's closest companions. As is the case with some twins, Mio and Mayu's personalities are becoming more pronounced with age. While I did not find it to be the most compelling concept, I appreciated the effort to convey this divergence of personalities across the storylines of both Mio and Mayu, as well as the specters of the village.

While much of Fatal Frame II is played from an over the shoulder perspective as Mio investigates Minakami Village, there are several segments of the game which will require her fight the ghosts. Mio's equipped with the Camera Obscura, a fantastical piece of technology which can exorcise the supernatural.

While Mio can sometimes sneak up on a ghost and surprise them for extra damage, she's often on the backfoot, being frequently ambushed. During these encounters, Mio has a willpower bar and a health bar. While health is self explanatory, Willpower serves as both a shield against direct damage to the health bar, as well as her stamina while dodging and running. The Camera Obscura needs to be focused on a ghost to exorcise it, so Mio needs to aim at ghosts until they come into focus, and try to capture as much of them in the frame as she can. There are several different types of film for the camera, some reloads very quickly, while other is slower, but deals more damage. Film is limited, thus making the game lean more towards "survival" horror.

The Camera Obscura also has several filters, some of which can be used in combat for special effects, or outside of combat to reveal new doorways, or access spiritually sealed chests. Mio can also equip various charms to augment her abilities, like faster reload times, as well as upgrading the camera to deal more damage, etc. During combat, enemies will sometimes flash red, exposing themselves to critical damage, so the gameplay tends to be a very methodical retaliation style of combat.

I enjoyed the combat for its unique design around using a camera; however, the overall experience was not wholly positive. The town is very small, so much of the game is spent revisiting areas. While I would not usually mind this, there are A LOT of random encounters in Fatal Frame II, and the combat is very slow. I sometimes found myself reloading a save, just to avoid an optional combat encounter. Even after investing quite a bit into upgrading the camera, I still found myself wishing it had a higher damage output, especially because the ghosts can enter an enraged state, where they can regenerate health.

While I would recommend Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake to survival horror fans, it is also an experience which feels weighed down by a lot of intentional friction. Due to how frequently enemies keep popping up to slow progression, I could see some players becoming frustrated and bouncing off the title. Overall though, Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake feels like a very faithful retelling of the story, which makes great effort to modernize the gameplay.

DarkLordOtaku · Jul 3, 2026

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake is my 52nd completed game for 2026!

SpiceRacz · Jul 3, 2026

19. Mina The Hollower - Best game of 2026 up to this point and an all timer to me.

20. Exit 8 - This was a really cool concept and I appreciated how short it is. You're walking through the same train station hallway repeatedly and you have to identify if there are any anomalies each time. Simple, but effective. Kind of want to watch the movie now.

21. Batman Arkham City - Worse than Asylum in almost every way. Found the open map of Gotham to be forgettable. I prefer the smaller more focused map of the original.

22. Earthbound Beginnings Remake - Great remake. It fixes a lot of my issues with the original. Specifically the grinding for experience and money. Seems like the enemies are more balanced as well. The original is brutally difficult. It maintains some of that, but it's much more manageable this time around. Also, I might be crazy, but I think they condensed the map compared to the original. The remade soundtrack is a nice touch as well. There's a few original tracks they added that stand out. Overall really well done for what I assume was just a side project.

Cert.in.Death · Jul 4, 2026

Review: 6/10

Hats off to Obsidian: Pentiment is a testament to their prowess at game creation (from stem to stern). I'm unsure how to square my admiration for their creative intuitions while still feeling lukewarm toward the end product, but I'll attempt to explain myself nonetheless.

At the core of Pentiment is a superb script that I will heap praise upon at every turn and its subject matter is refreshingly welcome. But the route to its destination is encumbered by an uninviting rigidity that renders it less than suitable as a product best experienced with interactivity as its central tenet.

In layman's English: the story on offer is better than (most of) what Telltale has published, for example, but - mechanically speaking - the ability to explore different routes and options is not catered to in the design. The opportunity to contemplate choices is open-ended, unattenuated to the impact or consequence of your ultimate decision, and it doesn't provide avenues for experimentation without encumbering the player with the task of restarting or - in my specific situation - referencing outside materials for guidance. What resulted is wanting to follow instruction rather than organically exploring and engrossing myself in each narrative string.

Perhaps I am not compatible with this type of approach, but excluding that possibility for the sake of argument, my takeaway is that what fails for me in Pentiment is not the creative imagination but logical execution. It's not dissimilar to how I feel toward "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture": a story/experience better delivered via a more traditional medium rather than shoehorning interactive elements into its DNA. I would have vastly preferred to watch or read Pentiment rather than interact with it, but alas, acta est fabula plaudite.

Pantz · Jul 4, 2026

Only 2 games in June... 6 games behind. Time to double down.

June Report:

#19: 06/23 - Mushroom Cats 2 (PC/Steam)
More hats, more cats. You put the hats on the cats. This one had some catchy music and a little bit of story interaction to the levels. Something about it stuck with me. It took about 25 minutes to unlock all achievements. Looking forward to Mushroom Cats 3!

#20: 06/29 - Aphelion (Xbox Series X)
It has some of the best snow environment visuals in any game. Their environmental and lighting artist did a good job. I kept playing the game to look at the pretty environments. Don't Nod games always have nice environments to look at. Gameplay and story was annoying and bland at best.

Currently playing:
The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales (Xbox Series X)
Japanese School Life (PC/Steam)
Trepang2 (Xbox Series X
Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Switch 2)
Felvidek (PC/Steam)

Barakov · Jul 4, 2026

11.) Dragon Quest II HD-Remake - Switch
12.) Star Fox - Switch 2
13.) Devil Blade Reboot - PC

Cert.in.Death · Jul 5, 2026

Review: 8/10

An unusual but welcome surprise. On paper, Mixtape is an itemized list of red flags: narrative game? Check. Pretentious teenage melodrama? Check. Limited interactivity? Very much so. Outsized praise from those it's pandering to? In spades.

But the Australian studio Beethoven & Dinosaur deserve the adulation. It's a brief, simple, and heartfelt ode to an era that feels more and more alien, but the true accomplishment lies in the variable creativity. It most closely resembles a game like "It Takes Two" but with a greater focus on music at the center of its appeal.

It isn't without flaw: the conflict between Cassandra and her Father was overly contrived for the purpose of providing conflict and the best parts of the game are all in the first 50%. But its strength is in its brevity and it's a game I'm keen to share with friends and family who aren't videogame-inclined. Results pending, I'll let you know what they they think when they're the ones controlling a pair of wrestling teenage tongues

Review: 7/10

Why didn't I play this before? And why did I not know David Duchovny and Adam West starred? I knew of the original when it was only on GameCube, but I never heard anyone singing its praises (I imagine not having a second analog stick for aiming may have resulted in a vastly different experience). I do remember the remake's initial release was lambasted with negative press for what was done to the visuals. But Microids apparently doubled-back in 2022 and patched in the old cel-shade visuals, which have always been underrated and unfairly demeaned (you know who you are, jerks calling Wind Waker "Celda").

What a neat game, basically COD-meets-James-Bond but overtly campy. Don't misunderstand, it is a product of its time: even in the remake I bumped into busted scripting and lack of direction on how to progress, plus it's clear that the original developers wrestled with how to implement stealth into their blueprint, which they downplayed after putting a lot of effort into the mechanics for it. But it settles into a space where it's not nearly as off-the-wall or as absurd as GTA or unnecessarily serious as COD but adopts a few of the better qualities of each.

marcincz · Jul 7, 2026

Game 35 - Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (PS4) - 05h 08m
Beat 23/06/2026 - my score: 4/10

Game 36 - Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (PS4) - 05h 14m
Beat 28/06/2026 - my score: 8/10

Game 37 - Super Castlevania IV (PS4) - 04h 20m
Beat 01/07/2026 - my score: 9/10

Game 38 - Castlevania: The Adventure (PS4) - 01h 46m
Beat 02/07/2026 - my score: 6/10

Game 39 - Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (PS4) - 02h 04m
Beat 05/07/2026 - my score: 8/10

Game 40 - Kid Dracula (PS4) - 02h 35m
Beat 06/07/2026 - my score: 7/10

Started Castlevania (Anniversary Collection) marathon few weeks ago. I've never played any of these titles. Some of them are fantastic. Especially IV.
Only one game left. Bloodlines from Genesis.

applesaucejaxon · Jul 17, 2026

marcincz said:
Game 35 - Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (PS4) - 05h 08m
Beat 23/06/2026 - my score: 4/10

Game 36 - Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (PS4) - 05h 14m
Beat 28/06/2026 - my score: 8/10

Game 37 - Super Castlevania IV (PS4) - 04h 20m
Beat 01/07/2026 - my score: 9/10

Game 38 - Castlevania: The Adventure (PS4) - 01h 46m
Beat 02/07/2026 - my score: 6/10

Game 39 - Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (PS4) - 02h 04m
Beat 05/07/2026 - my score: 8/10

Game 40 - Kid Dracula (PS4) - 02h 35m
Beat 06/07/2026 - my score: 7/10

Started Castlevania (Anniversary Collection) marathon few weeks ago. I've never played any of these titles. Some of them are fantastic. Especially IV.
Only one game left. Bloodlines from Genesis.

I did the same thing last summer. Love the old style Castlevania games, and there were a few I had never gotten around to playing. I think Bloodlines was way too overhyped to me before I played it, because I felt it was just OK. Definitely not the worst game in the series, though. I'm looking at you, Castlevania: The Adventure...

marcincz · Jul 18, 2026

applesaucejaxon said:
I did the same thing last summer. Love the old style Castlevania games, and there were a few I had never gotten around to playing. I think Bloodlines was way too overhyped to me before I played it, because I felt it was just OK. Definitely not the worst game in the series, though. I'm looking at you, Castlevania: The Adventure...

Finished Bloodlines few days ago. It's ok, but not as great as IV. Traveling around Europe (new stage = new country) is quite interesting thing.

BusierDonkey · Jul 19, 2026

I've got a lot to unload here. With the summer comes out my Analogue Pocket, which holds just about every portable game ever released across Lynx, Game Gear, Neo Geo pocket, Wonder Swan and the various Gameboy iterations. The Neo Geo library is also included as well as a large collection of arcade games. This last trip out to the lake we got hit with quite a few nasty days so I dug into the Neo Geo library some more. I'll start with games 41-50.

Game 41

U.N. Squadron
Completed playthrough

This is about as generic of a shoot 'em up as you can find. It does feature real US military planes like the F-14 Tomcat and the A-10 Warthog, but the game play is basic and the missions are a little repetitive, which is saying a lot for a shoot 'em up.

Games 42 and 43

Midnight Wanderers & Chariot: Adventure Through the Sky
Completed playthrough

These two games are actually part of one three-game arcade collection called 'Three Wonders'. The first game is an action platformer which I'd best describe as Ghosts 'n Goblins if it ran at half speed. It's really sluggish and though I did enjoy the art and music the game would have been so much better if everything moved faster. The second game is a shoot 'em up which takes place immediately after the end of the first title (though you can play them in any order). I'd say it's just okay, nothing special, though again I do like the art and music. The third game in this compilation was a puzzle game that I did not like at all so I just stopped playing it.

Game 44

Mercs
Completed playthrough

This game was pretty fun, though it was ridiculously short. It's a top-down twin stick shooter where you are a mercenary group out doing missions, culminating with the rescue of the former President from a plane. it controls well, has good animation and really it is fun to play, but it's over before you really feel like you're getting started.

Game 45

Zed Blade
Completed playthrough

Even though I'm not especially great at games in this genre, I always enjoy playing through them. This game has some exceptional pixel art and animation. The environments are cool and the music fits everything well. This game's issue is that despite sucking at these shooters, once powered up you almost can't die in this game as your regular attacks cover so much area enemies die before entering the screen.

Game 46

Savage Reign
Finished with all characters

This is a pretty cool fighting game with a gimmick that lets you leap to another plane on each stage, be it into rafters in a building of just in and out of the backgrounds. I'm not sure I've played another fighting game that let me do that. Being a Neo Geo game, the pixel art is great, but like many Neo Geo fighters the controls are stiff and pretty unforgiving.

Game 47

Robo Army
Completed playthrough

This game is a pretty funny beat 'em up. You play as various cyborgs slowly trundling around fighting robots. If you power up, you can transform into a small car-like thingy which still moves insanely slow and just kind of bumps enemies to death. Weird.

Game 48

Ragnagard
Finished with all characters

This fighting game features pre-rendered visuals similar to Killer Instinct, only the characters in this were based on a more anime design. The animation itself is very impressive and fluid. Unfortunately the game play is pretty wooden.

Game 49

Pulstar
Completed playthrough

This is a side-scrolling shoot 'em up that features a mix of pre-rendered visuals like Ragnagard and the typical amazing pixel art expected on the Neo Geo. This game has some enemies so well animated they could pass as CG. I had a lot of fun with this one.

Game 50

Prehistoric Isle 2
Completed playthrough

This was a pretty cool side-scrolling shoot 'em up where you play as rescue helicopter pilots saving civilians from NOT JURASSIC PARK. The cool gimmick here is that as you progress through the stages you save trapped people who then hang off your helicopter. As you save more people, they hang off each other like Barrel of Monleys and you drag them around the rest of the stage until you find a transfer vehicle to take them off your hands.

Jack Videogames · Jul 19, 2026

Seems I'm back to the slow cycle, even though I "cheated". Oh well, I think I already beat most games this year than the last one.

17:48h. Default difficulty settings.

I thought I was not going to like this game, but I actually did, quite a lot. Yeah, I can see how some people say it's Baby's First Hitman, but I appreciated that there were different ways of approaching the same problems and you weren't forced into stealth if you weren't great at it. It had most of the elements of a good Bond adventure and I'd like to see this actor in more Bond media.

My Score: ★★★★★

***

5h-ish. Started on Ultraviolence, had to reduce to Hurt Me Plenty with dips to ITYTD in the hardest parts. Completionist run.

BOY HOWDY is this one hard. It was very satisfying sometimes, but the difficulty is like 3 tiers over the base game's. Only three levels, but long, varied, dense and with some incredible setpieces. More Doom is always good.

My Score: ★★★★★

***

41:18. Hard difficulty level. No postgame, as I've heard it's not important story-wise and I don't like that.

DQVII is an incredible game. No two ways about that. But maybe Square in their cutting spree to make the game more accessible to the modern audience has cut way too much. A 100h game has become a 40h long game that you can beat in automatic most of the time.

Still very worth it if only for the high production values, the relaxing "fairytale" story (but be warned - this has some of the darkest setpieces I've seen in a DQ game) and, in general, because DQ is a good game even when it's not perfect.

My Score: ★★★★☆

***

6h-ish. Ultraviolence with dips to Hurt me Plenty. Completionist.

Yes I'm counting them as separate games. If they have separate credits, they're separate games for me.

For my money, I think TAG2 is the better DLC of the two. A tad less difficult, more varied environment, a couple new gameplay addition (the hammer, for example) and a satisfying conclusion to the story. The final level, Immora, is really spectacular, and the final shot with the Slayer taking out his helmet and answering the Dark Lord's question ("Anything you want to say to your creator before you destroy him?") in the only way he could. ("No.") is absolute cinnamon. Worth it.

My Score: ★★★★★

Cert.in.Death · Jul 19, 2026

Review: 8/10

At long last, I am rid of P5 Royal's judgmental gaze everytime I open my backlog to peruse what to play next. Granted, it only took 6 years or so? Good God.

I'm by no account a Persona originalist. I'm versed enough with the franchise - having now played P3 Reload, P4 Golden, and P5 Royal (and in line to play P4 Revival next year) - but it's here that the blueprint began to tire me out. The good and bad of Persona is its length: you simply have to come to terms whether that's a positive or a negative. In this installment, I consider myself more in the latter camp: the longer the game went on, the more exhausted by it I was feeling. There just wasn't anything interesting left to say or do after hour 70 and the game saunters along in that state until the bizarrely assembled stack of its original ending followed up by its expanded Royal offer. When taken together, the game seems like it's supposed to end at 4 or 5 different points in time, but it just won't.

But what became most egregious were the flurry of contrivances the game tosses out to try and convince the player that everything makes sense. Simply put, the logical pretzels the narrative folds itself into were neither clever, nor convincing. Meanwhile, the positives are abundant (when you compare them to the original Persona installments): snappy UI, in-and-out battles, flashy presentation, and actual effort put into level design. But unfortunately I'll remember P5 Royal more as a game I managed to scratch off my list than anything it managed to accomplish therein.

Cert.in.Death · Jul 23, 2026

Review: 8/10

Can't sing the praises of Teyon & Nacon enough. I was cursorily familiar with RoboCop as a child and have yet to ever watch one of the films from start to end, but this - and Rogue City before it - really have me pining to delve into the fandom. It's not necessarily a great FPS experience (being stapled to the floor and plodding around at 1x speed and the slightly better 1.1x sprint speed leave much to be desired in the movement department), but the RP fantasy brought to life is awesome through and through.

The dialogue trees and detective sequences are the more hit-and-miss element. Sometimes they're great, other times they're a nuisance to endure and tolerate. Their placement is the most grating annoyance: occasionally inserted under the guise of breaking up the monotony of walking from one encounter arena to the next, only to then have you meander for 30-60 minutes without any prevailing purpose than world-building (and to the game's defense, sometimes it's good, other times it feels like busy work). But when they allow you to let loose on mercs and criminals, it's an addictive hit to the dopamine button in my brain. Very well done.

jshackles · Jul 23, 2026

I'm at 29/54 games, but I'm playing (and have played) sooo many super long JRPGs this year that reaching the goal this year seems like it'll be a bit of a stretch. For example right now I'm playing Final Fantasy IX, Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, and Trails to Azure.

I need to throw a few short games in my rotation to balance things out.

BusierDonkey · Jul 23, 2026

Continuing the above post, more Neo-Geo

Game 51

Ninja Master's
Completed playthrough

This game is not bad, it's weapon-based fighting game with a pretty decent cast of fighter's. You can fight hand-to-hand as well. At the end of the day though in a sea of fighting games on the system, this one doesn't really stand out.

Game 52

Ninja Commando
Completed playthrough

I had fun with this game. It's a top-down shoot 'em up where you move around on foot playing as one of several "ninjas". It features some unique enemy entrances (for example a sea can is tossed onto the map and enemy units come running out) instead of just having everything come in from the edge of the screen. It made the adventure a bit more interesting. The game also features some cool bosses. It is on the short side unfortunately so the fun doesn't last long.

Game 53

Ninja Combat
Completed playthrough

The characters animations and design in this game are hilarious. I would call it them bad but I loved how weird everything looked and moved. This is your typical beat 'em up, which is to say a fun way to kill an hour of your time, but it is missing some things I like to see in beat 'em ups like unique enemy entrances, elevators and short diagonal sections in the map. This was the last of the "ninja" games for this run.

Game 54

Last Resort
Completed playthrough

Pretty standard side-scrolling space shoot 'em up. Big bosses, lots of enemies and upgrades. When it released it was often compared to R-Type as it shares a lot with those games.

Game 55

Starfox 64 3D
Completed lower path (easy path)

Starfox 64 is one of my favorite games ever. I am incredibly excited to play the Switch 2 remake but unfortunately I am past my cutoff point for buying new games since my birthday is on the horizon. In the meantime I have the 3DS version of the game which looks really good, sounds really good and plays pretty shitty because the circle pad is not great for this game and although the 3D is dome exceptionally in this game, it makes enemies vanish in the distance as your eyes try to refocus constantly. I had fully intended on collecting all the medals before moving on, but a single run is all I can do with this version of the game before it feels like my eyes are going to fall out of my head. Aside from that, this is a great game, I still remember where every enemy comes on-screen, where all the secrets are and I really don't think I'll ever tire of this game.

Game 56-65

King of Fighters '94 - 2003
Completed each game with each 3-character teamup. For later games I chose the original teams when possible.

The Neo Geo is home to a massive collection of fighting games, most have become available on other platforms. For the most part I find SNK's fighters to be overly stiff and unforgiving, I'm assuming playing on a small handheld like the Analogue Pocket isn't the intended medium and a big fighting pad would deliver a better experience, but Capcom's CPS arcade fighters plays just fine on the same device. KOF is a long-running franchise that saw annual releases on the Neo Geo. The changes were not sweeping throughout the series, in fact most of the characters used the same sprites throughout. Each new game featured small changes to things like new menus, a new villain and some small game play toss-ups. I'm not great at fighting games, but I've always liked the characters featured in them and these games have a ton of great characters which kept playing a decade of the franchise back to back interesting.

Game 66

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
100% Complete, all achievements

LEGO games are always a great palate cleanser. They offer basically no real challenge, offer a ton of exploration and are a small project. This is probably my favorite LEGO game after LEGO City Undercover. I had actually started this game at my older brother's place, then wanted to keep playing so I downloaded LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Original and Prequel trilogies). I quickly realized that this game and that one have nothing in common outside the Star Wars name. This game is not a collection of older LEGO Star Wars games with redone visuals, it's entirely new. All the worlds in the galaxy are available throughout the three trilogies and you constantly travel back and forth between them unlocking new events and missions. The worlds themselves are intricately detailed miniature versions of the movie sets. Take Tatooine for example, you start at Tosche Station, and 50 feet away is the Lars family homestead and moisture farm, which is 50 feet away from the dune sea, which is 50 feet from the tusken raider's camp, which is 50 feet away from the jawa caves (sadly there isn't a sand crawler to be found in the game, just a food truck made out of a single sand crawler track), and right around the corner through Beggar's Canyon is Jabba's palace and the Sarlacc Pit. Mos Eisley and Mos Espa get their own dedicated areas, but both are massive. The entire game is like this, miniaturized but still enormous areas that perfectly capture the essence of the movies. There is a ton to unlock in this game and in total I spend 135 hours fully completing it. I probably could have shaved some time but I spent a lot of time farting around smelling the roses and just looking at things. There is a lot to do in this game and a lot of different gameplay styles, outside the on-foot platforming areas, you can hop onto animals, into vehicles, you can pilot ships and there's a pretty decent podracing section in the Phantom Menace chapter.

All that being said this is a LEGO game, so the platforming is best described as sloppy. Like every LEGO game going back to the first one, platforming is slippery and imprecise. The game is also filled with small bugs and glitches that caused me to believe that several times I had become stuck in the game, requiring a reset and a couple times sheer dumb luck allowing me to continue. This game's other major issue is that it is a Disney Star Wars game and it was pretty clear the direction from Disney was to focus on certain characters that really weren't well received. Fortunately they snuck in a few jabs at the sequel trilogy so it wasn't a constant glossing. It was pretty evident that the writers weren't especially fond of the sequel trilogy either. Where the first six movie chapters in the game followed those movies 1:1, the sequel trilogy chapters had you doing things and exploring areas that weren't even part of the movies because much of the events in those movies would not have translated well to gameplay.

If you're going to play a LEGO game I would still recommend Lego City Undercover over this, it's shorter and is an original story with a bunch of fun characters and a great storyline. This game was great, but unless you really like Star Wars, it's a lot of time to dedicate to an otherwise mediocre platformer.

Cert.in.Death · Jul 26, 2026

Review: 9/10

Revered for a reason, Black Ops remains one of my top Call Of Duty games. It's the same as it ever was, but with flawless performance (which you'd hope for 15 years later), though you can certainly fault Microsoft for releasing a port absent any notable additions (but at $20, the price for platinum was amenable). The DLC offered separately is the real head-scratcher since it fragments zombie matchmaking (which you have to play in order to achieve platinum).

The game's main issue - even after all these years - is the sound design. Gun effects sound flat and unimpressive, if not downright bad. Such was the case when the game debuted, but it's only more flagrant now. All the same, chasing trophies in this walk down memory lane was worthwhile and the return to revisit a sub-franchise I haven't paid attention to in many years was a welcome foray and a reminder of the franchise's heights.

Now the question is how I'm going to manage juggling Denshattack, Deus Ex, Halo:CE, and 007 all at once. A true first-world problem....

falling into hell · Jul 31, 2026

19. Cyberpunk 2077 9/10

Cyberpunk 2077

* Exclusive Digital Comic - Cyberpunk 2077: Big City Dreams is available

www.gog.com

I got the Witcher 3 some years ago and stopped playing after five hours. But unlike Witcher 3 I loved this game and couldn't stop until I finished it. Some people said the story feels rushed in some places, but for me that's a plus. Many games today feel like they are going at a snail's pace. There are still bugs in the game and the AI rather sucks. Still I had lots of fun playing the game. Actually I liked it so much that I will one day finish all quests I haven't finished yet.

20. Detective Kibukawa Case 3 7/10

This case was short which I don't mind. The series is a roller coaster ride there are some good cases and some boring ones. For once the case was interesting and didn't drag on too long.

21. Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty 7/10

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

My Rewards

www.gog.com

Not as good as the main game but still fun to play. I didn't like the new location and there was too much shooting imho.

22. Detective Kibukawa Case 4 4/10

The case was not that interesting but at least we learnt a bit about the past of one of the protagonist's of the series. The problem about the series is you sometimes need to do things in a specific order to progress the story. Sometimes you get stuck and have to try everything to progress the story.

Shaggidy · Sunday at 9:53 PM

As it turns out, I haven't actually posted my progress yet. Let me rectify that!

1: Assassin's Creed 3 Remastered
I wanted to like this more than I did. The setting is great but vastly underutilized. I had the impression that the historical cast would be part of the main cast, i.e Ben Franklin fulfilling the role Da Vinci had in the Ezio games. Didn't really have that, nor did it dig too deep into the revolution itself. Still had a lot of fun though. The dlcs were fun too.

2: Assassin's Creed: Liberation Remastered 105 hours

Can't really say much here. It was pretty good for a Vita title. It was notable for being the only game that's ever made me turn off HDR. Kept crashing on me every other hour or so.

3: Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag 71 hours
Peak of the series and I see why if got the first remake. Super fun story, great gameplay and it's just a helluva lotta fun to sail around.

4: Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry 10 hours

Not much to say. Just a fun little side adventure. I found the lack of a modern day framing device to be weird but is otherwise pretty solid.

5: Assassin's Creed: Rogue 52 hours

Despite reusing a lot from Black Flag it is very fun. I would've like a game that was about a templar for the get go and not an assassin turncoat. That's a minor nit pick though.

6: Assassin's Creed: Unity

I have a lot to say about Unity, none of it good. The gameplay is in everyway a downgrade from Black Flag. The combat is a tedious slog due to the removal of all crowd control besides smoke bombs. Which were nerfed due to the removal of smoke bomb assassinations. The story is a big nothing burger that doesn't affect anything. It has an obnoxious amount of collectibles. Stealth was made worse with the braindead choice to remove whistling.
Suffice it to say, I did not enjoy my time with Unity.

7: Assassin's Creed: Unity: Dead Kings 91 hours

Dead Kings didn't really fix my problems with Unity. I guess they finally added a grenade launcher for crowd control. That you can only use once you reach the dlc. That you can enter before beating the game. And can't leave until you do a mission. Great design, Ubisoft. Almost made me quit the game when I entered by accident like 3/4's through Unity.

8: Assassin's Creed: Syndicate

I loved my entire time playing Syndicate. Fun times through and through. I wish more happened in the story and its a shame the modern sequences got reduced to cutscenes. Even more of shame that the story built up in those cutscenes doesn't go anywhere in the games.

9: Assassin's Creed: Syndicate: Ripper 82 hours

Ripper is just... fine? It sets up a mystery about who Jack the Ripper is and it's someone who didn't exist before this dlc. Maybe they show up in a comic or something? I dunno. I did find it hilarious that they have the Jack gameplay sequences where you kill dozens of people. Not sure why they felt the need to do that, or how in universe all those deaths wouldn't be attributed to him.

10: Assassin's Creed: Origins

Loved the setting, loved the characters. Suffers very heavily from the usual AC problem of not giving the villains enough screen time. One only appears in the mission to kill her. One is friendly for a single mission before betraying you the start of the next. And the guy behind it all had a single line and about five minutes of screen time before he's revealed and you kill him. Set a good bar for the AC rpg games.

Cert.in.Death · Monday at 7:39 PM

Review: 6/10

There is so much to say about what wrong here, but in the interest of profundity I'll keep to the main atrocities and avoid my personal nitpicks. Proceed with the understanding that I consider Halo:CE as my 3rd favorite game of all-time, which makes this all the more painful.

The two major offenses in Halo: CampE center around what 343i (they are and always will be, rebrands be damned) both did and failed to do. The first: what is going on with the cinematography? What they changed is such a drastic reduction in quality and poignance from the original that I'm gobsmacked they allowed it out the door. And that's before you get to unnerving face models they selected for Johnson and Cortana (the veneer of AI touch-ups and structuring is grossly displayed throughout). Whether it's laziness, the lack of creative inspiration, or both: the directorial shortcoming sours what was once a seminal cinematic campaign and transforms it something nauseously robotic.

Second, and the more unforgiveable misstep: Halo:CE is singularly THE most important IP among all of Xbox's catalog. The sales may no longer reinforce that take, but the primary reason team green even got off the ground was thanks to MC's and Bungie's original opus. This game has existed in this near exact form for over 25 years and the best that Xbox could do was a graphical re-skin in UE5 and an overhaul of The Library (plus a trio of god-awful DLC levels that insult my intelligence to contemplate). Tossing in the weapons and mechanics of later entries doesn't reinvent or reinvigorate Halo:CE, they break it. The reason sword-wielding elites and rush-minded Flood enemies were so threatening is that they were faster, more urgent than you could be. Adding sprint, needle rifles, and boarding mechanics render the central design less nuanced, overwhelming the delicate dance of ensuring each shot lands because - should you miss - you may have no remaining options.

Revisiting Halo:CE is a welcome endeavor, despite the obvious mountain of expectation the artisans are demanded to crest. But to revisit the original in this way over a full-on remake in the vein of Capcom's RE2 & RE4 projects or S-E's FFVII:R triumvirate is to resign to a standard unbefitting of the IP. In other words: Chief deserved better than this, but at least in this one we don't have to lay eyes on his naked ass cheeks.

TL;DR Moment-to-moment plays well, like most every Halo game before it. But the soul of its creativity has been lost in the chase of revenue first, player satisfaction second.

Cert.in.Death · Monday at 7:47 PM

Review: 9/10

Mind the timestamps, I purposely set up these trophies (Halo:CE and Returnal) yesterday evening and let them stand pat until I could record today's date on them (I'll leave it to your imaginations or deductive abilities to sus out the reasons why). Why am I like this, commemorating my trophies with particular dates? Hell if I know, I am a deeply disturbed and illogical man.

Meanwhile, I intentionally enshrined Returnal with 100% completion alongside Halo because they each occupy a spot in my 10 favorite games (#3 and #9. And yes, I maintain a list).

After completing Saros, I needed reminding why I preferred the original endless fight-die-repeat game from Housemarque. The tower of Sisyphus is an apt name for the more compact experience from the story-focused original, keeping the movement and progression streamlined and discarding the requirements of the original 6-biomes for character scaling. Granted, Ascension only lasts 60 rooms before the game intentionally launches its difficulty to a stratospheric degree and make the further chase reserved for only the most hardcore of players (current top of the leaderboard is near 1.4 billion, so I'm content tapping out around 10 million and doing something else with my life).

Why does Returnal soar while Saros falters for me? It's all in the basics, actually. Guns and enemy variety are simply more interesting in Returnal than they are in Saros (despite being more limited and less bombastic), plus Saros does get a little weird with the personal trauma of its lead character.

Overall: immaculate. I can't sing this game's praises enough. The bullet ballet has never been more appealing than it is here.

Skeptical · Tuesday at 2:46 AM

Haven't updated in a while.

25. Animal Well (5h ,★★★★). Did it live up to the hype? Well, maybe. I know there are a dozen "layers" or whatever, but frankly most of my gaming time is spent half-distracted so I'm not going to bother trying to scrutinize every pixel. But at least on a surface level, the game did what I wanted it to. Sure, nothing was too challenging to figure out and I never got completely lost, but the complete lack of handholding and the freedom to tackle things in different ways and in different orders was well done. I also give them props for coming up with some unique powerups. The slinky and frisbee were fun to play with and made for a unique moveset compared to the same old, same old. Also, that wolf was freaky. For a game focusing on ambience and puzzles, they sure managed to get the heart rate up.

26. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (16h, ★★★★). I've finally rectified my biggest regret of the Wii era and played this game. Why oh why didn't I do it sooner. The creativity here almost certainly surpasses the original, which is crazy given how insanely fun THAT game was. I know some people complain about the more linear and less story driven structure, but honestly one of Galaxy's faults is the slow pace outside of levels, so I prefer this one anyway. But the levels were fantastic, and the only reason I didn't 120 star it was the motion controls on some of the levels (not an EVIL MOTION CONTROLS! rant; I have 3rd party joycons without gyro). Really, the only flaw is that Wii Mario feels a bit slow and sluggish, but the game itself is amazing.

27. The Legend of Zelda (66 min, ★★★★★). I used to be able to beat this in 40 minutes. I'm old. Also, favorite game ever.

28. The Adventures of Elliot (21h, ★★★★). Unfortunately, I don't think this is the best 2D Zelda ever that I was hoping for when I first tried the beta demo. But it was still a lot of fun to play. The world being repeated 4X may have been a challenge to keep it fresh, but I do like the feeling of exploring. There are plenty of places that you don't technically need to visit during the game, so there is that peaceful feeling of just going beyond the beaten path and hoping you are rewarded with a life shard or new weapon or something of the like. They did a reasonably good job of introducing concepts well before you actually can use them, finding things you don't understand at first, giving a sense of wonder to the world. I like the variance in the combat, even if I kept trying to use the boomerang to pick up money (force of habit after all). Sure, you can just run around with a standard sword and be done with it, but there were plenty of times that the other weapons had their uses. I'll even give props to the story; despite being overly silly at the beginning, they did a good job of secretly tying seemingly minor characters and seemingly pointless sidequests together in the end. So definitely worth my money and worth my time. It may not have been the best it could have been, but not bad for a first effort.

29. Gal Guardians: Servant of the Dark (12h, ★★★). This game is so odd. The actual movement and combat is still similar to the first game, which is really good with the character switch between short and long range. But every other decision is questionable. It's a huge Metroidvania-ish map, but rather than filled with secrets and powerups you need to just get a certain number of random enemy drops for progression. There is a random loot system that seems completely tacked on. And there's a ton of obtuse puzzles and exploration in what is actually a huge map. That last part, along with the great combat, is what kept me going. This is definitely not for everyone, and I spent a lot of time switching from frustration to joy on this. It should have been great.

30. Super Metroid (4h, ★★★★★). Not going to keep saying new things about this. Except, out of all the games out there that are generally regarded as one of the best ever, is this the one with the easiest final boss? I think so.

31. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (5h, ★★★★★). Also not going to keep saying new things about this. Except, to continue the final boss commentary, has Ganon ever been as tanky as this game? Complete opposite of Super Metroid here.

32. Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess (15h, ★★★). It's nice to know Capcom can occasionally make a game that's not Monster Hunter or Resident Evil, even if it did bomb and is doomed to be forgotten. The game has been described as a mix of action and tower defense, which isn't inaccurate but probably overstates the tower defense part. In reality, there aren't specific lanes; and rather than getting an optimal placement of allies it is often a perfectly acceptable strategy to bunch everyone up and play defense. But even though the strategy is overstated, I enjoyed what I got. It helps tremendously that it didn't feel like random levels; practically each one was offering a new mechanic that shook things up. Also, the day/night cycle (you need to move your priestess forward during the day, but she is immobile at night when the monsters come) led to some fun choices. Do you try to finish the first part at the end of the day in hopes that you can find a few more allies and be safe at the far end of the next map while foregoing construction due to lack of time, or do you accept another night cycle in the first part of the map with your priestess so close to the enemy gate and possibly low on health? Good stress either way. It's not perfect (the between battle base building is a complete bore), but was a unique experience that I'm glad I got the chance to play.

applesaucejaxon · Wednesday at 5:35 AM

Original Post
April Post
May Post
June/July Post

35: Kirby Air Riders - Switch 2 - Beat 8/4
I might be crazy, but this is a better game than Mario Kart World. Don't get me wrong, MKW has a lot more going on mechanically and all that... But Kirby was just more fun. The gameplay is deceptively simple until you really come to grips with the nuances of the different rides. I like it. Shoot, I was able to play with my 16 year old, my 13 year old, and my 3 year old and we all actually had a fun time. To me, that seems kind of rare in video games. And it was pretty. Maybe not quite on the level of MKW, but at least the 3/4 player split screen isn't locked down to 30 FPS. Just saying....
I still have a lot to unlock, and I feel like this is going to be one I get a lot more play time out of. Highly recommended.
On to Robocop, I think, before I dive in to Mario Wonder finally.

Shaggidy · Wednesday at 2:40 PM

11: Assassin's Creed Origins: Hidden Ones

A fine little dlc. Doesn't do much for the story, but it was nice to have a bit more time with Bayek.

12: Assassin's Creed Origins: The Curse of the Pharaohs 106 hours

This ones okay I guess. My opinion on it went down when I realized that they just wanted cool mythological things instead of trying to have any of it make sense in the world. Still cool to see that stuff though.

13: Turtles in Time Arcade

I hadn't actually played the original until a buddy of mine visited and we went through it. I can see why the 3-d version didn't take off. Absolute blast.

14: Atomfall

I've never played Stalker so the only thing I can really compare Atomfall to is Fallout and that's not entirely accurate. It was a little jank, but overall pretty fun. Lots and lots of backtracking though. Especially to get all the endings. Very interesting world, I'm eager to see where it goes. Maybe be a little more generous with fast travelling though?

15: Atomfall: The Wicked Isle

I wish Wicked Isle had more content. The island is great, and I love the mystic flavor with the monks. Just wish there was more of it.

16: Atomfall: The Red Strain 47 hours

As with the previous dlc, I wish there was more. Red Strain adds a fun new location and some fun new toys, just not enough of them. Both dlcs have the same problem of backtracking to the main game to get the endings. Which got pretty monotonous

17: Atomic Heart: Annihilation Instinct

Right off the bat, Mund Fish needs to do better playtesting. I beat the base game on the highest difficulty and got about 3/4's of the way through the dlc on the highest setting. The first boss made me drop it to the lowest, as did the final boss. Other than that, it was pretty fun. The unkillable goose was annoying as sin though. Made me waste so many healing items. I also think its a waste that you can't use the new weapons and powers in the base game.

18: Psychonauts 2 25 hours

I think I liked the second one more than the first. With this sequel, they were able to make a lot of weird, mind bending sequences that really tickled my own brain. Having to constantly switch powers is still an annoyance. Still, didn't put a damper on my enjoyment.

19: Atomic Heart: Trapped in Limbo

Probably one of the worst dlc experiences I've ever had. I mean that genuinely. I have no idea why they thought a slavhank insim lite fps needed a platforming/wall running dlc, I just know it was a bad idea. The platforming sections were actually pretty fun. The wall running sections nearly made me put my controller through the screen.

20: Sable's Grimoire

A fun little VN I've had my eye on for a while. Has pretty good writing, and some really creative bad endings. Still need to get a few more endings.

BusierDonkey · 2026-08-07T02:49:04+0100

Game 67

Galaxy Fight: Universal Warriors
Completed with all fighters

I really like the art and character designs in this game. I also like how every stage is it's own planet. Before each fight the characters share a short interaction which made playing through the game with each character more interesting. It's still a pretty stiff fighting game, typical of the console, but it was a fun afternoon.

Game 68

Captain Tomaday
Finished playthrough

Top-down shoot 'em up featuring a mutant tomato. This came has an interesting mechanic where you physically change into a new weird thing every time you pick up a power up. Some upgrades are absolutely not upgrades and other power ups are actually a hindrance. The game is short but fun.

Game 69

StarFox
Completed all three routes

This was one of my favorite games back when it released on the SNES and in many ways I still prefer it to Starfox 64. The music is still the best in the series, the level design is still great. I still remember every spawn point for every enemy, every power up, every secret in the game. Even though this thing runs at 15fps, it was designed around that. Would 60+ fps make it better? Yes, but the game still plays so well at 15 that I never struggle with it. I hop back in every now and then and always enjoy playing it again.

Game 70

SkyBlazer
Completed playthrough

This game looks great, has some decent music and for the most part gets by alright as an action platformer but unfortunately it's full of really annoying platforming sections that just weren't fun at all.

Game 71

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana
Completed 99.99%, I missed one early mission before I knew I could miss missions.

I really enjoyed this game. I played Wanderers from Ys on the SNES a long time ago for a minute but really this is my introduction to the series, and what a great introduction it was. You start off traveling on a ship when it gets attached by a giant squid, leaving you stranded alone on a deserted island. Over time you find other castaways and build a community of people trying to escape the island. The characters are great, a mix of various personalities each of whom bring something to the adventure. The island itself is the real star of this game though, there were days I could not stop exploring, just another half-hour kept turning into several hours. Uncovering the mysteries of the island was handled really well with a great mystery you slowly uncovered throughout the game. I love games that show your growth and this game really delivers there. As you progress and search for castaways the village you founded grows more with each new member, providing useful new items, armor, abilities and side quests. My only regret is that early on I failed to complete a simple mission requiring me to feed some fat idiot. I somehow forgot and progressed too far in the story, so despite completing 100% of everything else the game offered, I can't technically say it's 100% complete. I enjoyed this game so much I am actually looking into the series more deeply as apparently the main character, Adol Christin, is the main character of every game in the series. If you like ARPGs this is a great example of the genre, the story, characters, music and the battle system are great. The battle system is lighting fast, absolutely no time wasted, even the hardest attacks take a second to land (Extra Skills have an animation but it can be turned off) meaning you don't waste time watching the same drawn out animation all the time. The game's only really negative is that it is a PS Vita game ported to the Switch and sometimes it shows, low geometry objects and blurry textures pop up here and there but considering that the game looks pretty nice at times. The controls are also a tad twitchy due to how ridiculously fast you move late in the game but it's not a huge issue.

Shaggidy · 2026-08-07T04:08:32+0100

21: Dead Island 2

How this game came out good is beyond me. I had a lot of fun with it, though I rolled my eyes at the millennial tier writing. 100% less annoying to play than 1 and Riptide. I wasn't the biggest fan of the skill card system. I would've preferred to see a return of the skill trees.

22: Dead Island 2: Haus

This is where DL2 starts to lose me. The new area is fine, and I like the crossbow. I find the weird, metaphysics they decided to go with a jarring turn for a zombie game. Not bad, just not quite my thing.

23: Dead Island 2: SoLa

Personally, I think the setting is a bit wasted on such a short dlc. The zombified wreckage of a music festival could've carried a Riptide like expansion. Story is more of the weird, metaphysics I don't like. The new weapons are fun as hell, especially the saw blade chainsaw.

24: Resident Evil: Requiem

Requiem is fun. The two switching styles was handled well enough. I'm not the biggest fan of the continuing retconning of the Raccoon City Incident, but that's a small part of the game. I found the Raccoon City portions a little bland. I'd rather have overgrown ruins than the desert apocalypse vibe they went with. They could've thrown in some more actual locations for the RC games. Would've hit better than the generic streets and unnamed buildings.

25: Atomic Heart: Enchantment Under the Sea

Much better than Trapped in Limbo. Nothing really stood out, besides the visuals, which were as trippy as ever.

26: Atomic Heart: Blood on Crystal

Took forever to come out, turned out pretty good. Pretty neat visuals and locales. Constantly swapping between powers at dedicated stations got old, but at least it was an attempt to shake up the game. By the end, characters have so many nicknames, it was hard to tell what anyone's actual name was.

27: Sherlock Holmes The Awakened

This was my first of these Sherlock Holmes games, though I did previously play The Sinking City. Pretty good little game. It's about 70% Sherlock Holmes and 30% Lovecraft. I would've liked 50-50, but it is what it is.

28: Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous: The Lord of Nothing

A great conclusion to a neat little side adventure. Penta was a nice addition to the cast and it was nice to visit places that weren't demon wastes. The trophies broke at some point, and I never got the one for killing Sithud.

29: Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist

I loved Ender Lilies and I loved this one. The music, visuals, overall vibe. All fantastic. Probably my favorite metroidvania franchise at this point.

30: Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous: The Treasure of the Midnight Isles

An absolute slog. I probably made it even worse for myself, playing solely on turn based. By the third set of islands, I was so done that I just dropped the difficulty to the lowest setting and turned on real time with pause. A handful of trophies didn't pop, which did not help my opinion of this dlc. I don't even think you get anything good out of it, not that I can recall.

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