Mega Man X3 - much worse than the first game, haven’t played the second game in awhile but from what I remember that was slightly worse. X3 is just unfair, you take so much damage and the enemies are everywhere. There are so many collectibles that you’ll probably never find without a guide. The third armor buster upgrade is much worse than the second armor’s version, although the foot parts might be the best out of all the foot upgrades in the series, as they allow you to air dash upwards. There are 4 enhancement chips for each armor upgrade, but you can only use one. However, if you don’t get any of them, you can get a special chip that will give you all enhancements. Of course, that chip is stupidly hard just to get access to. You have to have almost every single item in the game (every heart capsule, sub-tank, armor part, and ride armor chip), and you have to be at full health when reaching the capsule. Those upgrades make the game a lot easier, until you reach the final stages (the first of which just so happens to be the location of the special chip). You’ve probably heard horror stories about Buzz Lightyear in this game (the first five games feature Buzz Lightyear; the last three feature his even more evil mother Mrs Nesbitt). The first phase is annoying enough, but the second phase is just a death sentence. Dude takes up so much of the screen, and his head is the only damageable spot. Of course, once he’s defeated, he’ll show up in virus form and chase you to the top, where you’ll have to escape rising lava while Buzz tries to knock you down. Dying here forces you to fight him all over again. This game isn’t really hated on, but it is never really considered to be anywhere near the best in the X series. I definitely consider it to be one of my least favorites; it beats out X2 for me thanks to the much better soundtrack, more interesting levels and less completely unfair boss fights. I don’t know whether I like it more than X6, though. I guess some people might find this to be enjoyable, but if you decide to play it, use a guide and be prepared for a steep challenge.
Avowed on series s. It was a decent time but not goty material for me.
This is gonna be a weird year for GoTY. GTA6, at least 3 big Switch 2 games. Monster Hunter Wilds. Silk song, Witcher 4. Split Fiction is currently on top of the 2025 metacritic charts. I have no guesses.
@FishyS for sure. I'd like to play split fiction but Id never have anyone to play with. I think Clare obscure expedition 33 is going to be a goty contender.
@NintendoByNature Honestly, Avowed not trying to be a GOTY contender was one of my favorite parts. It was just a fun action RPG that knew what it was good at, and didn't try to be the "most crazy complex RPG of all time".
@FishyS I forgot, what was the third game besides MKW and DKB?
I was counting Metroid Prime 4 because the better performance of the Switch 2 version will remove the automatic complaints about Nintendo games recently. We'll see how the game does, but if Metroid Prime Remastered can get the third highest reviews of any game in 2023, it's at least possible that Prime 4 will also be a GotY contender. Similar to Donkey Kong; either game could blow it out of the park or merely be good.
Finally finished the TTYD remake. This was a game that I was really looking forward to. I was just starting to become a dedicated Nintendo fan around the time of the Color Splash hate train, so I heard all the criticism and complaints about modern Paper Mario in comparison to this untouchable game. I ended up playing Bug Fables as a result of that and really enjoyed the battle style and game mechanics that I knew were lifted from the series. So I had somewhat high hopes for this game. I sat down with my little brother, and we pass and played the 40 hour adventure. Is this game better than the modern Paper Mario titles? I would say so. Is it the best Mario RPG of all time? Not even close.
Positives:
-The story is excellent. Don’t know any of the script differences from the original to the remaster, but in general, the game feels like it’s trying to be consistently emotionally resonant in a way that only a few Mario games really are.
-The music is phenomenal, both the original songs and the remixes, which I swapped back and forth.
-The battle system is great. Just enough strategy to punish you for poor decisions, but the guard and super guard ensures you always have a chance.
-I did not expect this game’s dungeons to be as good as they were. If Paper Mario wanted to be something removed from an RPG, a traditional Zelda-like (think Origami King, but just the Folded Soldier fights) wouldn’t be a bad way to go.
-Boss fights are phenomenal, from the unique music to the constantly changing gimmicks.
Negatives:
-The game is just a tad bit too easy. I haven’t engaged in the harder optional stuff yet, but it seems like just as your back is against a corner and you’re starting to have to evaluate your decisions, you level up or run across a health block that trivializes the experience.
-I feel like all of the recurring side bosses could have used one more fight, both to more firmly establish them as characters and because the game is at its best in the boss fights.
Those are kinda nitpicks, but my two main issues with the game revolve around this one problem:
The game really does not respect your time. This is apparent both in the plot and in the locations Mario must encounter. The game has about five different jokes that are some variation of, “Isn’t it funny that we’re making you do this annoying backtracking, or poke a character an annoying amount of times to wake them up, or go through 100 different text boxes to progress the plot?” And it never was.
The game also seems to revel in making you replay a level over and over again with minimal changes. Worlds 4 and 5 are the two obvious culprits of this design philosophy, but pretty much every level makes you go through it at least twice through the same batch of enemies with the same attacks and minimal EXP gain. And that’s not even taking into account the amount of side quests the game expects you to travel through the same level with a unique NPC at the end for. The game, at its core, does not respect the player’s time, and that is one of the cardinal sins a game can commit in my opinion. Chop off about 10 hours and TTYD is probably my second favorite Mario RPG behind Bowser’s Inside Story. As it stands, it’s now plopped off the podium that SMRPG and Dream Team sit on. Sorry for the long rant, but it’s just so wild to me that the Mario and Luigi games (or even Color Splash and Origami King) are sort of sneered down upon by a lot of people in favor of a game that, while great, has some big flaws that heavily detract from my experience. I’ve heard the original Paper Mario is not nearly as guilty of these issues as TTYD, so I may give that a shot at some point. But this game is a great but flawed 9/10.
“A fool and his money are soon parted.”
Proverbs 11:20
Switch Friend Code: 6009-5662-0517
Recently beat 20XX. It's a neat roquelike in the style of Mega Man. Really good controls and enjoyable layouts, it's definitely the simpler game I needed after the months playing Brothership. Music's pretty neat, too:
After this, I think I'll be ignoring Brothership a little more and play Portal on Switch (which I just started). I'll get back to it, and Phantom Hourglass, eventually. I swear.
I finally polished off Sonic X Shadow Generations (Switch). For not being a huge Sonic fan the game was pretty fun. Not amazing but pretty fun. Like many have said the 'Shadow' campaign is by far the stand out star of the show. I don't feel the desire though to 100% the game. The campaign(s) rely a lot on mini games to progress and for whatever reason I wasn't really digging it. They weren't hard but to me they felt like busy work to pad the lack of levels. I just did the minimum so I could progress the game's story. I'm not knocking the game at all I could easily see how someone that loves that style of gameplay would love it. Just not for me. The last time I played anything Sonic was in the 90's so I'm way out of the loop of generations of Sonic games. I highly recommend it!
This fire is burning and it's out of control. It's not a problem you can stop it's Rock and Roll!!!
I recently finished Xenoblade Chronicles 3(Switch). It was, to be frank, an awful game. Nah JK. It was an absolutely amazing game! Not like OOT "This will go down in history" great, but still crazy good. I might have to embark on a repeat playthrough due to skipping most of the cutscenes at the start of chapter 6 and missing a lot of story beats. Epic game though.
after twenty hours of jumping, coin-collecting, and cap throwing, ive beat mario odyssey for the first time. off to DK bananza now 😂😂
it was a very fun game, and its world is pretty impressive, but somehow it did not hit for me. i guess playing TTYD beforehand was a mistake (loved that game and its story) haha. i will say, new donk city was a wonderfully charming part of the journey, and the return to the mushroom kingdom at the end was very cool. and the final fight was admittedly epic. but i found myself kind of getting tired with its superbly wacky world and and mechanics. i dont know why, i guess its just a me problem 😿 so 8/10 for me, for sure, cause i can deffo see why this is on a lot of peoples all time lists. @MangoMahn definitely a crazily good game that deserves praise more than its given, im glad u enjoyed it 🥳
BRING NINJI INTO MARIO KART WORLD RIGHT NOW.
five favorite games of all time:
1. splatoon 3
2. minecraft
3. mother 2
4. xenoblade chronicles 3
5. zelda majoras mask
apart of the #HashtagGang
resident swiftie
😻
Mega Man X6. Honestly, it’s not that terrible, as it has a great soundtrack (Blizzard Wolfgang’s level theme does not have a place in that mindset) and a decent albeit terribly explained story thanks to the horrible translation. The boss fights against the 8 investigators are pretty fun, except for Infinity Mijinion, who’s the undisputed king of chaos. In terms of their stages, they have very questionable level design, but the only ones that I found to be truly terrible were Ground Scaravich and Blaze Heatnix’s. Of course, the game goes crazy in the laboratory levels, throwing all kinds of crap at you, and the bosses all completely suck. The final fight against the newly introduced Mrs Nesbitt, the mother of Buzz Lightyear, is ridiculous thanks to the amount of enemies on screen. Thankfully, they provide energy pickups every now and then. This game is definitely pretty similar to Mega Man 3: crappy design that’s made up for by the items you can get that’ll make navigation much easier. It can be fun sometimes, but overall, it is very much a mixed experience. I definitely prefer it to X2 and 3, though. I’ve also been considering getting therapy in order to cure my insanity that stems from the fact I absolutely despise Mega Man 2, but I decided to replay that mess to see if my opinion would change. I definitely need therapy now, not only to help with my insanity but also to deal with my worsening PTSD. Safe to say my opinion on Mega Man 2 has not changed.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order on Xbox Series X. This one's been in the backlog for a while, but I absolutely loved it. Kind of a mix of Uncharted/Tomb Raider-like platforming and simple puzzles, Metroidvania exploration with the maps opening up as you gain abilities, and Souls-like combat. Flinging Stormtroopers off ledges with Force powers never gets old - although here it's just a simple push, so not quite as fun as The Force Unleashed where you could just fling them in any direction.
The story and characters were decent - better than any of the sequel trilogy movies I'd say and thankfully they didn't go overboard with having cameos from movie characters etc, although there are a couple. Gameplay-wise its probably one of the best Star Wars games I've played, although there were a few sections where the controls were a bit ropey - like where you slide down hills/slopes etc. and some of the wall-running sections were a bit fiddly too, but thankfully there weren't too many of those. Combat was enjoyable with an emphasis on dodging and parrying, especially some of the later enemies. The only real downsides for me were the fiddly controls in a couple of places (as mentioned) and the map. It was presented as a sort of 3d hologram, but was quite tricky to navigate at times.
Nier: Automata (Steam)
Time to fight for humanity.
Gameplay:
Combat mixes the snappy fluid dance of a CAG with Sh'mup elements of all things, and wraps everything up with a (J)RPG leveling/progression system. It's a really unique mixture I haven't seen anywhere else & it won't take long before you're swiftly weaving between foes & projectiles alike as you deal damage.
the world/exploration has a pretty typical JRPG setup to it, with you unlocking new regions to explore as the story demands. Some of them can be quite large/open while others are tiny, but in general you'll move through them in a linear fashion from a story perspective (of course there are a number of chests scattered throughout the map, and of course side quests to partake in). Oh, and a fishing mini game if you want to relax for a bit. There is a bit of an "open world" illusion as there's not usually any noticeable loading between regions (usually there'll be some sort of tightly enclosed path, like a sewer, between regions, where the outside world is probably loading in the background).
it doesn't have that many locations that I'd really refer to as a "dungeon", though it does have a couple, and it's just as likely that a chapter/region will end out in a prolonged Sh'mup segment instead.
It definitely has a bit of an auteur's touch, as gameplay systems & quirks are mixed in to make sense from a narrative perspective, and this is probably the most unique thing about the game that makes it insanely memorable. For example, the game opens with you initiating an assault deep into enemy territory, and you aren't allowed to save at all during this opening 1 ½ hour segment. If you die at any point here (or shut off the game) it's right back to the beginning to start a new game. It's tense, it's bombastic, it feels great to clear, and it'll make sense narratively once you get past it. The game has a lot of elements like this, and although to say too much would be spoilery, let's just say I saw things through to the [E]nd.
Outside of that opening gauntlet I didn't think it was all that difficult a game though (granted, I only played it on Normal, & apparently the highest difficulty is instant OHKO for any damage). Apparently it does the "Souls" thing of making you retrieve your belongings from where you last died if you want to keep them, but I never had to face this. At the end of the day it's pretty standard difficulty for a JRPG, so as long as you don't run past most enemies & keep up on doing side quests as they pop up (there are a few you can't do immediately though), as well as remember to stay up to date with your best equipment (here in the form of computer chips that boost your stats & give you other boons), before you know it you'll always be at least a few levels above what's required for the main story content. Honestly there was only one boss in the middle of my third "playthrough" that had some real bite, but by then I was so awash in restorative items (which I hadn't had to use much since the opening gauntlet) that I was just able to cheese my way through it with tons of items to spare.
Story:
the story follows 2B & 9S, androids sent from a base on the Moon to help reclaim Earth from an army of Machines that are part of an alien invasion (what's left of humanity ran to the Moon). The war has been going on for centuries with no end in sight.
It honestly has some great twists & background lore, and although I knew some were coming I rarely guessed correctly what they were going to be. Likewise I really grew attached to the characters, which was a double edged sword as this isn't a very happy game to put it mildly. That said there is the occasional moment of levity, so it's not (completely) doom.
It can be a dreary existence in this world.
Presentation:
It's not exactly cutting edge (especially today), but it has a clear vision that really holds up with a great atmosphere. It uses a lot of the typical theme tropes (desert, forest, & so on) but has enough of a personality of it's own that it infuses into them. The real standout though is the Amusement Park region. You can definitely feel the auteur touch here as well, whether it be the monochrome hues of your home base or the Gameboy inspired aesthetics of it's various digital datascapes like the world map (and more...).
Music is a real standout as well, with some beautiful theme music that really hits home with the game's melancholic vibes.
Conclusion:
This is definitely going to be a game that sticks with me a long time. I doubt whatever I play next would ever have a chance of hitting the same kinda highs as this, so I'm not even going to try (I've started up Valkyrie Drive: Bhikunni, which is very much "B-game" quality, so I don't expect too much from it, and it's also much more of a bright & preppy game, which is a nice change of pace). Anyhow, Automata is definitely in the running for the best game I've played for the first time this year, and ironically enough it's biggest competition is South Park: the Stick of Truth, which while also a top tier RPG, couldn't be more different in terms of vibe, lol.
Time for a nice break.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
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