On: PlayStation 5

Writing up my thoughts on this after the 2024 Game of the Year Awards, and I couldn't be happier. I don't care much for the award ceremony as is, but this was a spectacular, tight little game that is the most enjoyment I've had with a 3D platformer in ages. Probably Mario Odyssey was the last one, but if you discount Nintendo then it's been much longer. If you want to be cynical (and you certainly can), then this is a pretty IP heavy commercial for Sony products more than it is a 30th anniversary celebration. But I choose to think of it as the latter, primarily because most of the properties featured Sony would have you believe are long dead and buried. Regardless, huge fan of this one. I had tons of fun and completed it 100% as soon as I was able.

On: PlayStation 5

I'm a fan of the Silent Hill series for sure, and I was with plenty of folks on the fence when BlooberTeam had been announced as the developers behind this particular remake. And I was mostly proven wrong, which I'm very happy to report. I don't hate Bloober, they've made some games that I've liked well enough. But I've never known them for games with actual embedded gameplay, and Silent Hill 2 translates very smoothly to this modern generation and all of its sensibilities. My main complaints are mostly handled thanks to the extensive Accessibility settings, which they really didn't need to include so that's a relief. The primary bit here is that the health meter in the Inventory screen was removed in a traditional sense, in favor of that "blood around the screen" thing. Thankfully, this can be turned off and you can just rely on the overall color of the inventory screen to let you know about your health. Even still, that kinda sucks hard. I don't know how other platforms handle this (if at all), but I played on PS5 and this was mitigated through the color of the PS5's sensor lights which is a GODSEND. I love this feature, and it's one of the many MANY small details embedded in the Silent Hill 2 remake that make it a way better game than a remake really has any right to be.

On: Nintendo GameCube

Talk about games I used to play all the time as a child but never actually completed. Hell, I never even beat this one! The time constraint aspect of it always freaked me out, and I was terrible at keeping my armies of Pikmin alive. But this time around, I SOMEHOW was able to get the good ending after only a single try. Just like "Luigi's Mansion" last year, I suppose that just growing up was enough to get me to gel with what the game wanted me to accomplish! I need to place "Pikmin 2" on my resolutions stack for next year so I can be sure to play it while my "strategy" skills are still fresh. Well, if not fresh, than I at least don't want them to degrade too much.

On: Sega CD

You know, I always wanted to get around to this one because of the time travel stage elements, and then I found out as I played "Sonic CD" for the first time I rarely engaged with that feature. In fact, it's not even really required from completion. You can either travel through time in the level and destroy the robot machine/destroy Metal Sonic, OR you can collect a certain amount of rings, jump through the end goal ring, and destroy the UGOs to get yourself a chaos emerald. It seems both produce the same result. The game is still fun, and I adore the soundtrack (that Dr. Robotnik theme is haunting in this game), just reminds me that there are so many titles in series that I love that I have yet to engage with for various reasons.

On: PC/Windows

There are a ton of games out now that could be described as "PS1-core", and this certainly applies. The subset of these games that go for a Resident Evil or Silent Hill style are far from the minority, and Crow Country at it's core is very much a survival horror in a way that evokes those games. The only real difference here is one that completionists will no doubt appreciate: there are no multiple endings. The game has collectables and a ranking system at the end, not to mention some collectibles, but the outcome is always the same regardless of what you do. And it makes sense! Crow Country can be completed in a single sitting, my first playthrough being only about 4 hours, and my second one being about an hour and a half. My main complaint is that there isn't any voicing acting here, not even anything that could be described as nostalgically goofy or anything. I wish they had gone the extra mile there, but no harm no foul.

On: PlayStation 5

I played through a ton of short horror games this October (I even finished off the Dread X Collection series finally!), and yet none of those games quite caught my attention the way this one did. It just so happens to be a mixture of a ton of different things I like: horror, creepy worldbuilding, and simulation management. The fact that I could spend a few days grinding cash through a fast food simulation and then jump into a dangerous boss fight fully prepared was fantastic, and none of it felt like chores or grinding because of just how much variety there is in the fast food section of the game. I wish more titles would aspire to be as versatile as I feel this one is.

On: PlayStation 5

I can't believe we got a good 3D Sonic game this year, especially because how I was one of the very few that was disappointed by "Sonic Frontiers". I loved dashing around and getting to follow through with the different mechanics you get with a Shadow playstyle versus a Sonic one. The stages felt better produced to the "Sonic Generations" flow as well, perhaps because there's been time to refine them since the initial game's release, as well as designing them to fit Shadow's moveset. For example, in "Sonic Generations", the "Sonic (2006)" level was perhaps my least favorite, it felt almost as clunky as the original level in that game. However, the Kingdom Valley levels here feel fantastic to play and was probably my favorite of the levels, I was quite literally smiling the entire time I was going through it. The collection can be tedious, because there's no way to track the bolt items on the map specifically (yet again, a completionists nightmare), but the actual game itself was insanely fun. I would recommend this to anyone that's been a fan of a 3D Sonic in the past that this is 100% a step in the right direction. Much moreso than "Frontiers" was.

On: PlayStation 5

Can we PLEASE get more souls-likes that are cartoony like this? That's really all I want...

On: PC/Windows

Ever wanted to play an RPG version of "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing"? Well, this game is the one for you! It's a lot of fun to go into this without really knowing what to expect, because the mixture of rapid fire typing combined with puzzle solving, riddle solving, and "word learning" make this feel much more educational than it really is. And completing the game is a blast too, because the achievements behind it aren't a slog or grindy, maybe coming off of "Sonic Forces" colored my opinion of this one a little bit. The worst it gets is learning all the lore/move sets for each of the 4 party members, and that's only grindy because there are SO many to get through. But if you eventually go fishing, solve every skull riddle and open every chest, you shouldn't really have any problems there. And even better yet, you can start right at the beginning of the final boss after the game, so you can get all 3 endings in no time at all! There's only one "choice" achievement you'll need to start the game over for, and that's near the start of the game, so not hard to get back to that one. This was fun, I hope this developer makes more games in the future, even if they're reminiscent of this.

On: PC/Windows

Quite possibly the most British game ever created, and also one of the funniest. The fact that this is one of those "experience" style games that just leads from gag to gag until an hour and a half have gone by and your already done is more than enough to have justified my time with it. Recommended all the way, not even difficult to complete, just may have to do another playthrough or two.