Chronicles of the Wolf

• Genre: Action Platformer (Metroidvania... emphasis on the vania.)
• Spoiler Free Review: Pretty much.
• Time Played: 12 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It was pretty solid, actually a bit longer than I expected but didn't really wear out it's welcome.
• Did I cry: Nah.
• Soundtrack: Way better than I expected it to be, the music went pretty hard.
• Why I played: It looked like they were really going for that classic Castlevania-style gameplay, but more wolf-centric, what else did I need?
• Jank: There are some aspects about the platforming I could nit-pick a little. Some things I think I could do before I was meant to do, and times where the controls feel a little finnicky - not as responsive as they should be, such as when trying to climb a rope, but for the most part it's not really a problem.
• Difficulty: It's not too difficult overall, but there are some ridiculous difficulty spikes and upgrades that level things out passed those progression barriers - I usually reexplored areas enough to always be the most upgraded I could be at whatever point of the game I was in, but there were a couple bosses that were pretty tough.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm very pleased. Overall, I think the game was very well thought out and while very traditional and not really modernized in any ways - did an excellent job of recapturing that classic Castlevania feel.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would. This goes toward the top of games for people who "wish there were more Castlevania games". I mean thankfully we're getting at least one pretty soon, but it's been a bit of a dry spell for some years. This definitely fills the void in the way games like the Bloodstained series do.
  

Chronicles of the Wolf surprised me a few ways. I didn't expect it to have voice acting at all, and most story dialog is voiced. Most of the music is pretty solid, but some tracks are especially good. There is a day/night cycle, which does have an effect at least on a few situations in the earlier part of the game. The puzzles, riddles, etc. are generally well thought out, a couple maybe ruined by them more or less telling you, but it really fleshed out the environment to have so many little things going on. Speaking of which, I thought the game was maybe going to be a few hours, based on how much of the map there was, then when getting to a specific section, I thought "oh this will be the same size as the others", only to really learn that I hadn't even explored half the game and it truly was a Castlevania game in all but name.

Pretty much just full of pleasant surprises. I do wish that the pacing was a little better as far as upgrades. Some of the "upgrades" barely feel like anything because they're only used to access one or two little areas and are used for nothing else, and that kind of takes the spot of more useful upgrades you get late game. By late game I had everything I expected, but there was a long time I felt like "I must have missed something" and kept retreading all the prior locations hoping to find a secret I missed. I didn't miss many secrets throughout my playthrough, the upgrade progression is just tilted a little bit in the wrong direction.

Overall a very minor complaint. It's a great game, a great classic-style Castlevania. No stamina bar, no parries, technical combat, no secondary equipment systems and crafting, no gem slotting, no farming materials(maybe just a little gold to buy all the shop items), no ridiculously low item drops requiring farming enemies to get special abilities. Just a straight forward game that is fun to play and has a lot of neat little environmental puzzles and riddles.

Dragon Loop

• Genre: Action Platforming (Metroidvania)
• Spoiler Free Review: Pretty much, normal allusions to progression.
• Time Played: ~24 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It may run just a touch too long, but that could have been my fault for being obstinate about trying to get stuff and apparently pseudo-sequence breaking rather than wait for the easier methods to do things.
• Did I cry: Almost got me.
• Soundtrack: This is actually the weakest part of the game, to it's detriment just a little. It's not that the music is bad, but the... loops are a little short and it gets to feel a bit repetitive, for a game of this length.
• Why I played: I just thought it looked really cute. I think I added it to my Steam wishlist before it even had an english version and had just been kind of following it for a bit. It was released on Switch so I grabbed it immediately.
• Jank: Not gonna lie, this is a janky ass game. If there is a type of bug, this game has it. Times where I couldn't use certain moves, times where I can't access the menu. Weird stuck collision with game objects. Lines missed in localization. There are times when you can't actually navigate the menus you bring up. Most of the time going to a checkpoint will resolve these issues(except for the neglected translations), but there are a couple areas this seems to be consistent issue with. Maybe it's not as bad on the Steam version, but that's not what I played. It just came out on Switch so hopefully they release a patch.
• Difficulty: It's pretty much just right, with a caveat. There are times where things seem to hard, times where they seem to easy, overall it's well balances enough. There is a problem with it's attempt at balancing the game I guess to prevent it from getting boring, and that's basically done by tying how much damage you take to your overall progression. This means even weak early game enemies can take a good quarter of your health away late game - even after you have 15 upgrades to your HP! It can be a bit frustrating that basically you always have to focus a certain amount of upgrades on your HP or else you'll be one shot by even early game enemies. It kind of makes sense why they did it this way because of how you can progress in the game, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Despite the jank and the weird choice for game balance, I actually loved this game. I wasn't so sure in the beginning and thought I may just play a little to try it out and move on, but it ending up grabbing me not too long. I just wish I didn't replay the first hour thinking "I skipped stuff", whoops.
• Recommend to others: It's a tough recommend because it's so janky, but it's very clever, has a lot of cool abilities that are utilized in interesting ways, and how it handles navigation is unique - seems tedious at first, but I actually found it pretty clever as I moved on and learns how to navigate better. I want to recommend it, but you have to be tolerant of issues. Maybe it has less of them on Steam? That might be the way to go.
  

For awhile I was on a bit of a roll with metroidvania-style games and could confidently say I played more than most people, but I feel like in the past couple years I've fallen behind a little. A lot of games that have come to be some peoples favorites are ones I haven't even touched - or barely have, if I started it.

Something about 2024, I guess. It looks like I played no Metroidvania's that year. I guess I got burnt out. 2024 was also a record low in game completion numbers in recent years as well. To be fair - I finished a lot of RPGs that year. 3 full Final Fantasy games, a Xenoblade game, Metaphor, Fantasian, and a number of others. Several of which I know were at least 100+ hour games.

Anyway, so I've fallen off of what at some point I may have said was my favorite genre. It's still very up there for me, but I guess they've become a pretty popular genre for indie devs, and modern games I didn't entirely love like Hollow Knight have been a big influence on that market. That along with them trying to stick souls-like or rogue-lite into as many games as possible. I just felt tired of the formula. It was feeling repetitive, or at least not what I like out of the genre. A lot of them really want to be combat focused but neither Metroid or Castlevania really are outside the boss battles. You shoot or stab something once or twice, it's gone you move on. You're just trying to get from point a to be as quick and efficiently as possible.

I understand "metroidvania" is far removed from either of those games at this point. I constantly see social media threads from the youngins, mentioning how so many of them have never actually played a Metroid or Castlevania. Heck, a recent interview with a producer of the upcoming Castlevania: Belmont's Curse was cited saying he wanted to develop the game for this exact reason.

Yars Rising

• Genre: Platforming Action (Metroidvania), Arcade
• Spoiler Free Review: Mostly, just mechanical progression shared and such. The story isn't the draw anyway.
• Time Played: ~10 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's solid.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: Actually way better than I expected going in. It's a pretty awesome soundtrack with a lot of original vocal tracks.
• Why I played: I've been playing Panzer Dragoon Saga here and there and while I was playing I wanted to play Panzer Dragoon(not Saga), but diverted to the 2011 Yar's Revenge which is also an on-rails shooter, but then was like "Wait don't I have some kind of Yars-themed Metroidvania and I decided to check this out.
• Jank: It's got a little jank with the controls not feeling 100% the way they're supposed to. Other than that I don't think there is anything.
• Difficulty: This one is a roller coaster. Because of the original Yars Revenge style arcade challenges, it has moments where it's very difficult. By default it leaves a prompt for "Invincible Yar" for arcade sections - if you lose a couple times it'll prompt you at each challenge. I turned this off myself, so I can't speak for how much "easier" the game makes it. I imagine some of those arcade challenges might even be a little difficult even when invincible. 
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm pretty please with this, I enjoyed it way more than I expected.
• Recommend to others: I'm not entirely sure I would go out of my way to. It's not like I know a lot of people clamoring for more Yars Revenge content in 2026. It's kind of an odd weird out of place game that feels like it's made by a bunch of of 50+ aged developers who want to make a game to appeal to the 15-35 age group who aren't into classic Atari games enough.
  

Yars Rising surprised me, I enjoyed it a lot. As a stand-alone metroidvania, it's not too much, it's pretty much the basics at bare-minimum with serviceable game play, often cringy but not entirely too bad dialog, in near-stock with just enough going on to not look too bland environments. It's one of a million in the genre, especially those in the breadth of recent indie metroidvania games.

Then there is the music, the music is stellar enough that it may have kept me playing on it's own. Good music can really elevate an experience in a video game. Not necessarily make a bad one enjoyable, but make a somewhat enjoyable one enjoyable enough to keep playing, or otherwise make a good game a great experience.

Then there is the "hacking", which is performed by playing various challenges that are - for the most part, just playing the original Yars Revenge, each with a condition, goal, modifier, etc. Sometimes you're playing a version inspired by another Atari game entirely. Some of these are extremely difficult, but besides turning invincible mode on, you also have a degree of skill customization that allows you to equip abilities for both the overworld game play, and the hacking.

And that's another point. The game isn't just a Yar game, it's an Atari game. It's filled with references to other Atari franchises - primarily in it's boss battles. As you progress, or once you've finished the game, you've unlocked dozen more of the Arcade-style challenges just to play from the main menu sans equipable skills. So when you're done with the adventure, you're still left with more straight-forward Yar game. At the very least, it's a good value.

Mega Man X8

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes. Excluding a screenshot.
• Time Played: ~15 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's good. It has what feels like more reason to return to levels and there is enough variety it doesn't get old.
• Did I cry: Almost.
• Soundtrack: X8 has one of the better soundtracks. I don't know if it's the best, but it does have what might be one of my favorite tracks; Jakob Stage.
• Why I played: To finish up the final mainline game in the Mega Man X marathon, with this I've played all X1-X8
• Jank: X8 I feel like is pretty refined. It might not be perfect, but it's pretty jankfree. There are a couple little bugs in the original version that I think they fixed for Legacy collection, but that's about it.
• Difficulty: X8 varies a little more in this. I think sometimes it's one of the most challenging games in the series and sometimes it's not. It could be how much better I got as I went on, or how many upgrades I got that carried me along, but even with everything, the final bosses are pretty tough. Maybe not the toughest, but I think there is a pretty good balance of difficulty and challenge where maybe at times it's frustrating, but never so much it makes me mad.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm extremely please. I think X8 is maybe the best game in the series, and I think it's unfortunate that so many people haven't or don't give it a fair shot.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would. It's kind of weird to say I would recommend it over the others, but I reaffirmed any defense I had of X8. Going in I was a bit worried that maybe I was being generous with my memory of having enjoyed X8 - after all, I also liked X5 and X6 which SOME people say are worse than X7(and are wrong). But yeah, if you have never played X8 and weren't sure if it held up or were worried about the direction of the X games after 4, definitely give 8 a shot.
  

I loved Mega Man X8, and I think until Mega Man ZX/Advent came out it might have been my favorite Mega Man game, but I can't remember, and that's only really a two year window 20 years ago. I might have to replay ZX/Advent sometime soon. I definitely remember years ago having to defend X8 a lot because people lumped it in with X7. I'm sure some people just still didn't like the move to 3d graphics instead of the sprites they've come to love, and honestly visually, X8 is nothing special. At the time I thought it looked pretty good, but at the time was 22 years ago. They should have kept the cel shading they used in X7, just maybe... different character models and better animated, there are aspects of X7's visuals which hold up better and I think most people now realize cel shading in any of the first couple generations of 3D platforms aged way better. It also just fits the style of Mega Man way better. Shoot, the fmv cutscenes in the game look like they're just cel shaded renders.

Mega Man X7

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 7-8 Hours (End game timer says around 4-ish, again, definitely not the actual time spent in game)
• Too Short/Long: It's fine for what it is, it definitely doesn't need to be any longer.
• Did I cry: I cried but only because of how bad it was.
• Soundtrack: It's not the best Mega Man X soundtrack.
• Why I played: Well, in the spirit of things, I felt like I should finally knock this one out.
• Jank: It's extremely janky. Not necessarily in the buggy way, but it's obnoxious to go through menus, the controls sometimes terrible. The hitboxes are not actually on model for like anything. The contact with the environment is pretty much always off.
• Difficulty: It's one of the easier games in the series, the only time it's difficult is when things are frustrating because of the jank. It does have one of the harder boss rushes due to the fact the bosses aren't as easily stun-locked from their weaknesses, which could be considered a good thing if they were more fun. Some are, some are not.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I was going in with the lowest of expectations, so I guess I can say I'm pleased... enough. I'm not actually pleased, I wish Mega Man X7 was straight up a better in game in almost every way.
• Recommend to others: I do not. I pretty much skipped this one back in the day and for good reason. It's not really a good game by any metric.
  

This is actually the first time I have finished Mega Man X7, despite several prior attempts to play this game. I think I was possibly the most turned off the first time. After years of building up how bad it was, it wasn't... QUITE as bad as I had it in my memory. That said, I'm glad I finally got through it, and to this day I just can't believe what they churned out to such a beloved franchise, but it's further testament that Mega Man was never "AAA". That said, X5 was rough, but X7 is pretty much just bad. The voice acting is barely a tier above X4, which is a great game all aside the voice acting. In the 3D movement section, they move like slugs despite still being animated like they're running, as if they're running on ice. The camera is at a weird angle most levels making it hard to judge what you're actually lined up with. In 3D movement sections the camera is constantly fighting against you to move to behind the character making it harder to dodge enemy attacks. The hit boxes of either the character or almost every attack is way bigger than it looks, you are just constantly taking no-contact damage. Oh and to top it off, the enemies are a bit of an HP sponge thanks to the fact the American version apparently lowered all attack values. Someone at Capcom must have really thought American gamers needed harder games, there are like 6 Gamecube/PS2 era games from Capcom just off the top of my head that were harder for the American version. (the others being Devil May Cry 3, Resident Evil 4, PN03, Chaos Legion).

That sponginess made their super cool new character "Axl" basically useless because you had to take dozens of shots on just regular enemies and trying to determine when you can use his copy shot which has to charge was a pain in the ass. It was easier to just not use it at all except where you absolutely have to for collectibles. Also, Axl sucks ass. Another trend of the time was to try to introduce a new main hero for the new generation or something, and that sucked and pretty much failed every time. You can't even play X until at minimum 1/3rd of the way through the game. If you play "poorly" enough, he only becomes available for the final missions, at which point, he's probably not worth using unless you very strategically avoided most of the upgrades in the game and are replaying all the levels for them.

Despite everything wrong with it, there are a few cool things for a Mega Man fan, there are cool ideas and level design and stage gimmicks that could have been really cool if it was a better game. It sounds silly to say, but this could have been a good game, if it were better. It's just all built on a poor foundation and then shoved in with little effort. It's a shame that Mega Man was kind of abandoned for so long post Inafune leaving Capcom. I would have loved to have seen what some new modern takes that actually took care could have done and X7 at the very least was making an attempt for that at the time. It was just too soon and they put too little effort in for what they wanted to achieve. It plays like/maybe worse than the many random licensed movie-tie of the time, and those were notoriously shovelware/slop at the time so much so it was a legitimate surprise when one wasn't bad. I say this about X7 because X8 I know goes back to playing it safe, and sure it might end up being a much better game for it, but it doesn't mean if done well, the things X7 was trying to do, couldn't have been good.

Mega Man X6

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: ~10 Hours, though the post-credits timer said like 4, I know that's not true. I don't know how it's calculating the time, because even the post-mission timers would say like 10 minutes after half hour+
• Too Short/Long: Just right.
• Did I cry: Nah.
• Soundtrack: Pretty good. This is definitely one of the better ones.
• Why I played: Megamanathoning
• Jank: It's a lot less janky than X5 and besides some stupid stuff, like instant death spikes which textures don't actually go all the way out to where the hitbox is, it's not really that janky. I guess the localization is still pretty uhh.. not great. X6 has a few pretty infamous lines.
• Difficulty: X6 is definitely one of the tougher ones and in ways that can be pretty frustrating, but the also dropped any pretense of lives/continues meaning anything as you always start at the last checkpoint after dying, even after losing all your lives. They started this with X5, but at least using continues negatively impacted your score, which affects your rank.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm pretty pleased with X6. It has it's frustrating aspect, but generally speaking I think people are far too harsh on this one. X5 I understand a bit more.
• Recommend to others: Of course, but keeping in the trend, I'd still recommend starting with 1 or 4 first.
  

Mega Man X6 overall I think has a pretty strong showing but maybe also tries to do too much when what's simple works better. That said, some of the ideas work out a little better in this one. There are ways your stage order can affect the following stage you play, the level design is pretty good, the part system is a bit better. How it handles rank and such is a bit more forgiving. Filling the level with rescuable Reploids is something they would continue to do in the Mega Man Zero series, so while it's not necessarily my favorite thing to have in every level, obviously some people like it. I think it would be a little better as a single stage gimmick(maybe two), than the whole game. It's a bit stressful at time since just one wrong move or hesitation can mean a Nightmare gets to them and they're just gone forever, no chance of rescuing, and many of them have parts/upgrades you can only get from them, so that part/upgrade is at risk of being gone forever. I'm just not a big fan of permanent missables in any game, but it does add an engaging sense of urgency I might not have otherwise had in some areas. That said, some it hindered the experience because I was treading so carefully, trying to draw out the Nightmare, which is what you really need to do in some cases.

The Nightmares are a bit annoying, maybe too abundant. I played this one as Zero because I played X5 mostly as X. I still did a lot of my backtracking and replays as Zero in X5, and I did the same with X in X6 to make sure I got everything before wrapping up the game. The Nightmares are way easier to take out as Zero because they have pretty small hitboxes and take a lot of hits, though X does have the Z-saber in this one as well, he's not quite as proficient so he's far less agile when using it, so Zero just feels better for the level design. The bosses definitely still feel more designed around X, so I guess it's balanced in some kind of way.

Anyway... I sure hope I've at least been slightly too harsh on X7 all these years...

Mega Man X5

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: ~10 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's fine.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: Pretty good, I don't think it's as standout as the prior.
• Why I played: Megamanthon continues
• Jank: It's a bit jankier than X4. Not so much in standard gameplay, but just how the game feels a little more mashed together, X5 feels like a Romhack, rather than a properly designed sequel.
• Difficulty: The difficulty in X5 comes with understanding all it's systems and how the game functions while still getting the most out of it. It's otherwise one of the easier ones... except for that damn final boss. They always make Sigma just so frustratingly difficult.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm more neutral with X5, I mean I'm please to play it again, but it's not perfect.
• Recommend to others: No more than any other X game, at this point, I'd say start with either X or X4 and play from there, but I wouldn't prioritize this one.
  

Mega Man X5 is a pretty divisive game for Mega Man fans. A lot of people just straight up hate this game and some will even claim it's the worst. It's not without it's problems, but generally speaking I think people are too harsh on it. Sure there are aspects you can nitpick to say "This isn't as good as this" when referencing specific aspect of it, but just because something else did it better doesn't make it bad. X4 was so good(outside the voice acting) and what did we get after that? A partially asset flipped game that feels a bit rushed, but tried to experiment with new systems, trying to modernize a formula we've seen over a dozen times at this point.

Mega Man X4

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 10+ Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's solid for a Mega Man game, but I played it twice to play as both X and Zero as they have exclusive story/animations.
• Did I cry: I'd almost say no, except I did for a kind of meta reason. I was playing via the anniversary collection and there is a little achievement(Hunter Medals?) that comes up if you beat it with X without the Ultimate Armor. "True Hero" popping up as the restarted just got me.
• Soundtrack: Now we're getting into the really good stuff here. Not just a few notable tracks that trigger nostalgia, but a kickass soundtrack all the way through.
• Why I played: Keeping it going...
• Jank: The only thing janky about Mega Man X4 is the voice acting.
• Difficulty: It's much easier than the prior games... until it's not. The final boss is just unbearably difficult, and then, playing as Zero, the bosses just aren't designed(redesigned?) for Zero and it makes some of them way tougher. 
• Pleased/Disappointed: Extremely pleased. X4 definitely holds up the best so far.
• Recommend to others: I would definitely recommend X4, especially if someone isn't concerned with playing "all" the Mega Man X games, and just wants to get to the good part. X4 is definitely a great place to start.
  

Mega Man X4 was the first game released for a new generation after Mega Man X's SNES debut, and it does a lot to show that. I know there was some weirdness with PlayStation not originally wanting 2D games, but the game has a marked improvement on the previous games and glad they were able to get this out like this before making their rough leap to 3D.

Something I may have forgot to mention that annoyed me about 1-3 is that the second 1 pixel of an enemy's spawn point is off screen, that enemy respawns. In some cases, larger enemies will even pop-in partially on screen if you defeat their original version just slightly off screen of the spawn. It's a little tedious and very annoying. X4 gives just enough leeway for off-screen respawn that it doesn't change the feel of the game in any way but positive. I don't personally love enemies infinitely spawning, but in Mega Man, it's not usually like when you're standing still they constantly come at you, only where you currently aren't, they always spawn off-screen, and it greatly benefits to give a little extra space so that you can actually dodge attacks and back up slightly and not get stuck in an being-attacked infinite loop just because you need to move back an inch.

Also, even though we're not yet at widescreen or HD display, resolution is just way better and the screen real-estate makes for a vast improvement. Many Mega Man games, especially the X series, would super benefit from widescreen, so it's truly a shame the Mega Man series fell off kind of and Capcom only very occasionally does something with the original Mega Man IP. I'd love for new Mega Man X games, but on the other hand I'd worry too much that it wouldn't be exactly what I want, as many things that fall of for extended period of time and try returning don't exactly have the same magic with all new people or perspectives working on them. I want the natural successor to the series as if they never stopped, something that would have been made over a dozen years ago.

That said, I love this game, and while the prior three offer a bigger sense of nostalgia, X4 is just so good, nostalgia or not. The gameplay is refined, and while many levels may be easier because of many improvements, it's just so much more fun. Eventually having access to unlimited uncharged special energy allows a freedom of use that makes them feel far more relevant, instead of feeling the need to conserve. The bike level is way better than prior attempts. Like X3 before it, it makes an effort to have longer levels, and to balance that it has mid-mission checkpoints that work even if you lose all lives - a godsend. If they kept making longer levels but didn't do something like this, the game would risk growing tiresome.

The anime cutscenes... have terrible voice acting but ooze that mid-nineties style that embodies the epitome of what I like in an anime style. Something you just can't get today. The compiled cutscenes of Mega Man X4 are something I enjoy more than 90% of anime I've ever watched and that's like less than 20 minutes of scenes between both X and Zero's story.

Mega Man X3

(he did not put an end to Sigma for good)

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes. Except for the screenshot above.
• Time Played: 7-8 Hours?
• Too Short/Long: It's solid, a bit longer than the prior two, in a good way.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: A bit better than X2, but still not quite as good as the first, I don't think.
• Why I played: I'm keeping the Megamanathon going.
• Jank: It's definitely overall a bit more refined than the previous two. The "jank" really lies in how unbalanced it feels...
• Difficulty: It feels really all over the place. Partly I blame myself for forgetting that you can switch to Zero pretty much whenever during normal stages. The early game felt very difficult and this would have alleviated some of it. By time I remembered this, I had enough power ups where Mega Man didn't feel so difficult and the game started to feel like a breeze. There were still moments that were extremely difficult, and it kinda jumped back and forth between extremely hard and too easy for the rest of the game.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm still very pleased with it.
• Recommend to others: If not for the jumps in difficulty/ease, I would most recommend 3 of the SNES games, but that detracts it enough that the first still remains the best one to get started with, even if 2 and 3 improve upon it in some aspects.
  

I've never quite understood why X3 isn't as loved as the previous two. X3 has so much cool stuff. The armor pieces are almost* universally better, there are additional enhancements on top of that, there are a bunch of ride armors, the levels are more substantial, each about 2-3x as long as in X2, there is a bit more going on with the story, and of course, playing as Zero. I just forgot you have to move the pause/equipment screen with the weapon select buttons because I was not reading an SNES instruction booklet before playing this.

I think it's mostly due to the difficulty being all over the place, it wildly jumps from sections/bosses being a breeze to others that are frustratingly difficult. There is also the fact the *arm upgrade causes you to pause when shooting out it's full charges shot. This isn't something that affected me in the late game, but the first couple bosses I had to fight after getting it, it really screwed up my rhythm - which is something that is very important in these games.

Otherwise though, it's not bad, I think it may at least be the "coolest" of the SNES Mega Man X games and they're all pretty damn cool.

Mega Man X2

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 5 Hours? Honestly I don't actually know because the game itself doesn't say and it's in a compilation and such, so.
• Too Short/Long: Just right.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: Unfortunately, not as good as Mega Man X. The tracks are much more repetitive and just not as catchy for the most part.
• Why I played: Playing the first made me want to play the next. It's been so long since I played through the Mega Man X games... I might keep it going.
• Jank: Less than the first, not without, but barely noticeable.
• Difficulty: Hard to judge when coming right off the prior, as skill starts to build, but I would say X2 is a bit easier than the first - with some optional challenges being harder.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm pleased of course.
• Recommend to others: I would of course recommend it. Over the first if you never played Mega Man X? Probably not even if I think some aspects are a little bitter. The first is just more iconic in a few ways, but in general, I would definitely recommend it.
  

Mega Man X2 isn't entirely a different game than the prior. You start with dash ability which is great, and the armor upgrades are a little different, now the boots give you an air dash. It has the X Hunters which can appear in any level through a slightly alternate path, and the game tries to experiment a little more with unique and diverse stage mechanics. I think it's generally a bit better than the first, but it's not quite the drastic difference like Mega Man 2 is to the original Mega Man.

Mega Man X

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Spoiler Free Review: The only spoiler is the screenshot above.
• Time Played: 5 Hours?
• Too Short/Long: Just right.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: It's filled with unique tracks that are considered classics today. I'd say it's pretty great.
• Why I played: Alice was playing it recently and it made me want to play it too.
• Jank: It's not perfect. There are slowdown point when too much is happening on screen, like when you go down the minecart, and it doesn't handle perfectly, but the first Mega Man X is a lot better Mega Man.
• Difficulty: Surprisingly difficult. Either my reaction time and pattern recognition have taken a severe hit in the past few years or I just forgot how hard this game was.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I am (almost) always pleased with Mega Man. I've played this plenty so it's not like it was anything new.
• Recommend to others: I will always recommend people play Mega Man games, regardless of age, preferred genre, and other tastes. I know it's not in quite the same standing but for me, playing Mega Man is like playing Super Mario Bros. or Sonic the Hedgehog. If you play games you should know it, to some degree. This is arguably the best place to start if not the original Mega Man.

I haven't played the original version of Mega Man X in some time. Last time I played it Mega Man X... last couple times really, it was Maverick Hunter X. Which is an excellent version of the game, but it's a remake and not exactly the same. Maverick Hunter X is a full blown remake and I'd argue the definitive version of it, but maybe at this point it feels a little aged as well. Maverick Hunter X is now closer to the release of Mega Man X than the current date, and that's kinda crazy to me. Also the original is available on pretty much everything while Maverick Hunter X is only playable on PSP(and maybe Vita/TV for digital version?).

Mega Man X is really hard, and maybe one thing that Maverick Hunter X by default makes it a little easier is having a widescreen format. Sometimes the literal second you step back from where an enemy spawn, just like, a few pixels, the enemy respawns. It makes it a little tough to navigate and dodge attacks and stuff sometimes when the design of the game feels like it wants you to pretty much only progress with forward momentum.

I found the game a little frustrating at times. That said, there was marked improvement as I played, learned what enemies did, and how to react, etc. and honestly that's how a Mega Man game should feel, but it's been long enough that it practically felt like playing the game the first time. The game keeps you on your toes though and never quite becomes a walk in the park, even after obtaining every upgrade. I still love the game though and maybe I'll have to see the rest through again sooner than later.

SANABI

• Genre: Platforming Action
• Spoiler Free Review: Not entirely, a little bit spoiled contextually, mechanically.
• Time Played: Can't see yet. I don't know... 15 hours?
• Too Short/Long: It's mostly fine, but I rarely enjoy the "rerun through whole game again" shebang, which this has you do, to be fair it was an abbreviated version that went pretty quick, but still.
• Soundtrack: It has some really cool and atmospheric tracks, it's high points are high but it's mostly just serviceable.
• Why I played: I'll likely give any game where grappling hook is a primary mechanic a shot, but this one is definitely more my style. I kind of forgot why I added to my wishlist for a long time and screenshots didn't do it justice. A friend mentioned playing it(may have suggested it?) and so that bumped it up on my to-play. 
• Did I cry: I got choked up a couple times and thought I was at the end and going to say "Surprisingly, no", but then it got me for a long one.
• Jank: The jank comes mostly from the localization being a little awkward. Sometimes it feels perfectly fine, sometimes it feels weird, sometimes there is a reason it is weird, sometimes I think it's an odd choice for why it's weird. Other than that, there are times where it feels the mechanics or controls are working against you/not exactly how you want, but it's mostly fine.
• Difficulty: It can be pretty difficult at times. Mostly it's not entirely too hard once you grasp how the grappling handles - which I do feel is slightly off, but regardless, it probably didn't help I went the whole game without using the "slowdown time and aim" feature. I noticed it once early on, didn't need it for a long time, forgot about it, had some areas I had more trouble with, then accidentally pressed the button for it and "remembered" it existed in the final moments of the game, by then my muscle memory was already adequate enough to carry me the rest of the way.
• Recommend to others: I would definitely recommend Sanabi to people who like unique takes on platforming action. It's not quite like it, but it reminds me of Dandara, just because of how unique Dandara is in how it handles. Sanabi isn't quite that unique, but you're likely spending more time swinging on the grappling hook, pulling in your line (which does feel Dandara-esque), and running up walls, then you are running along the ground.
  

Sanabi was a good game and overall I really enjoyed it. The story is a little convoluted and takes awhile to get it's point across. It could also do a bit better with providing more of the story throughout the game rather than backloading I think what might be the vast majority of it. Not that some of the earlier interactions aren't necessary to build it up, but that just means it feels a little empty in the middle and the end is a dramatic shift. The pacing is off, is really all I'm saying.

It doesn't specifically have "levels", it's more of a "chapter" game, but each chapter has it's own set of gimmicks, which is pretty fun, so I feel like it's mostly well designed in that aspect. They utilize some aspects more than others, but they usually expand upon things later on and toss a little in later to mix it up. That might also be a part of what the final rerun through the game is for, but it could have been a new area instead of replaying(albeit modified).

There is one thing I don't like graphically, and I jumped right into another game that did it and decided to play something else. The "blank space" of the game is just all black. In a game with some gorgeous cyberpunk style art in the backgrounds, you'd think they could have put some foreground textures up. Instead it's just black space and it makes it feel very... game makery. I think it's mostly a well crafted game, it's just something like that takes a bit away from it's personality and makes it feel like less effort went into it. I know a ton of games do it, but it kind of made me realize I don't like, and am tired of seeing it. It's especially common in twitchy precision platformers for some reason so maybe they're just playing to the genre. But I don't want it. At least just fill it in with some generic metal panels or something.

Blade Chimera

• Genre: Action Platforming (Metroidvania)
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 12 Hours?
• Too Short/Long: About right.
• Soundtrack: Pretty standard fair, nothing that really sticks out.
• Why I played: I've played all the other games made by Team Ladybug, which are mostly the same genre.
• Did I cry: No.
• Jank: Not very janky. The only jank is maybe the slight awkwardness of the controls. It's something you get used to, but I definitely had to rebind them to even achieve that.
• Difficulty: It's mostly pretty easy. I don't recall there being a difficulty setting, but your level ups and equipment mostly outpace enemies.
• Recommend to others: Not really, not to most. While I enjoyed it, it's not really the best of it's genre. It's aesthetically pleasing and has a unique mechanic but overall I'd recommend many before it. If you've exhausted almost all other games in the genre though, it's certainly not bad.

Team Ladybug makes some pretty visually appealing games. This is their third action platforming metroidavania of the the four games they've made. The visual appeal is good at drawing you in, or me at least, but you need to have substance beyond that to make something really special and I think that's what each of their games really lacks.

The other two were both licensed so I didn't expect them to be the best things ever. They were both decent, but I think I felt like they were missing something. Especially in the level-design category. This is where Blade Chimera doesn't do better, and arguably even worse. Visually? More appeal - there is more stuff going on in the background. Functionally? Less creative, less interactivity. There are a wealth of corridors where it's just a hallway and you're meant to just fight your way through a dozen enemies. Everything is still very awkwardly angled and random to a point the design just feels like they're using a "metroidvania generator", or a "2d platformer game maker", so they can just place tiles down for each room. Very few rooms offered gimmicks or unique set pieces. They did introduce a mechanic in the level design that interacted with the main mechanics of the game, but only used it only a handful of times. It's a shame because it could have resulted in some very cool puzzle rooms, using that combination of mechanics. So the overall level design kinda stinks.

Ghostrunner

• Genre: First-Person Action Platformer
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 
• Too Short/Long: Feels about right.
• Soundtrack: When you're stuck in an area you may have to hear a track for a long time, thankfully the loops are pretty solid and do well to not feel too repetitive. The music is pretty damn good, but it is just kind of a bunch of high energy electronic loops. 
• Why I played: I wanted to be a Cyber Ninja That Climbs The City... in 4k.
• Did I cry: No, not exactly an emotional story.
• Jank: Sometimes the footholds can be a little janky. Getting caught on weird platforms, objects jutting out, etc. Not that there are many, but other first person platformers feel a bit smoother.
• Difficulty: It is extremely difficult. This goes in the bin of most difficult games I've played.
• Recommend to others: I would recommend it very selectively. People who like a challenge and the type of games that present each area as a trial you have to play repeatedly to figure out. This one is a little different because the levels are far longer than typical speed running trial games, but it still includes leaderboards and such.

Ghostrunner is a damn tough game. It's got the bones of a trial/speed running game, but most trial/speed running games have pretty short levels. It's something like that combined with a more traditional level design. Some levels are pretty lengthy and take awhile, but checkpoints are pretty generous, so it's not arduous to retry areas.

While some of the areas are really on point with the cyberpunk aesthetic, and you have a cyberspace environment you visit from time to time, a lot of the game is just general metal+industrial areas, a lot of weird sewers and ducts and rafters and stuff like that, it kind of blends in together. One other thing that's kind of odd is the scale. It always feels like you're crouching, even though you can crouch/slide. Compared to a lot of objects in the environment, you seem really small. Though sometimes you feel too big compared directly to say, a chair. I feel like scale is very important for first person games. Not necessarily for immersion, if that's something that's important to you, but just for judgement and sense of placement, etc. Otherwise there is this just uncanny feeling as you maneuver around.

I still really liked it. It was at it's best when it presented a new challenge in a unique way or a gimmick. It did a good job at mixing it up from time to time, but I feel like they could have done a bit better. A lot of the areas were just "Enemies are set up in an annoying way, stay alive and figure out how to kill them all." Which brings me to my next point. I played like 70% of the game thinking "Damn this game would be so much more fun if you didn't instantly die anything happened. If only I could take a single hit before dying it would be so much better."

Lo and behold, assist mode offers an option to have a single-hit shield. This game is constantly telling you what a badass you are. You are playing a Ghostrunner, an elite perfect combination of genetics and engineering. Yet, everything kills you instantly. It kind of ruins the feeling of feeling like a badass. Turning on the single-hit shield changed the game for me. I still died, a lot. The game is constantly getting more difficult and it's not gradual. I usually try to play games on "normal difficult" as it's the way the game is intended to be played(via many in-game descriptions), and I do have fun with a challenge, but I think this game is objectively more fun with this option on. It didn't change any other aspect of gameplay, just gives you the ability to take a single hit(except from environmental damage) before dying.

Anyway, I already started the second game, as part of my reason for finally playing this was because I got the second and I think they did a lot to balance and improve upon this one, but I'm a little burned out on it generally so I'll likely move on to something else before coming back to Ghostrunner 2. I liked it overall, it was just a little exhausting.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 37 Hours
• Too Short/Long: This definitely could have been a good 10 hours shorter and not been any worse for it.
• Soundtrack: Nothing too special. Not bad, just kinda generic setting appropriate orchestra.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Very pleased overall. 
• Why I played: I heard it was actually a pretty good metroidvania, so I checked out the demo and picked it up sometime later.
• Did I cry: Nah, though there is some story drama, nothing really sad.
• Recommend to others: I would put it pretty high on the recommendations for metroidvanias, especially those who like both a challenging combat system based around perfectly times parries, knowing when to dodge, and when to use other abilities to out maneuver your opponent, AND precision-based platforming.

I've never really been a fan of the Prince of Persia series. Generally speaking, it's just not my style, but I like "Exploratory Action Platforming" or "Search Action" games a lot and it's been some time since I sunk my teeth into one. Maybe because a lot of them were blending together? Maybe just because I've been playing more RPGs lately. Regardless, The Lost Crown really scratched an itch. I almost want to say it's "more" than your standard metroidvania. There is just so much detail and thought put into the navigational mechanics, the level design, and the combat that it really feels like they blended together a few games that would usually independently focus on one of those points more than the other.

A lot of similar style games come down to "hit the enemy", and even if you have different ways of doing that, it doesn't really change the dance of combat - outside of maybe boss battles. Some similar games that focus too much on the combat, face the problem of just every battle becoming a grueling experience. The Lost Crown walks that line but maintains a balance to keep things mostly quick paced, while allowing you to feel the satisfaction of power scaling as well. Even to the end, it felt like I was more powerful, but I could fail if I didn't give it my all, but of course, mechanics came much more naturally as well.

Astlibra Revision

• Genre: Action Platforming RPG
• Time Played: 65 Hours
• Too Short/Long: The core game feels just right, but it's probably a little too long with it's Postscript in mind. Don't get me wrong, I WANTED to keep playing, but it has you redo areas, when you were likely already redoing areas over. It's not something I generally dig and usually feel could be integrated into the core game a bit better. Still, the revisit of old content is quick and abridged.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Extremely please, I think I've got a new favorite out of this one.
• Why I played: I'd been following it for awhile and even remember seeing stuff about the original version and it's always interested me.
• Recommend to others: This is a definitely recommend from me. In fact, I am about to shoot over the link to a few people I was talking about it with in person. 

Astlibra starts out as a game filled with jank, cobbled together stock assets, intermingled with art from several different artists of very different backgrounds, obvious Game Maker-esque tilesets, royalty free music, questionable animation, writing that is hit or miss at times and probably needed another pass through an editor, and game systems slapped one on top of another.

And it never stops being that. But it owns that, and is maybe one of the best games I've played in recent years. Astlibra is fun to play, fun to experience, has great characters, and overall a great story with pretty good writing, even if it misses the mark from time to time. It's convoluted as hell but it's a time-traveling story and what time-traveling story isn't? I think there are clearly some spots where time stuff just happened to work out, because it was written as so, but overall it works.

Bat Boy

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Time Played: ~4-5 Hours?
• Too Short/Long: Feels about right to me.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I think I expected maybe a little more out of this one.
• Why I played: Looked like it took a good amount of inspiration from Mega Man games and Shovel Knight, both which I love.
• Recommend to others: Mmmaybe if you're a dedicated fan of the particular genre and really think the theming is groovy.

Bat Boy clearly take a lot of inspiration from Shovel Knight and maybe some from it's inspirations, but I definitely think Shovel Knight in particular laid the building blocks of Bat Boy's foundation. That's certainly not a bad thing as Shovel Knight is an amazing game, but I think Bat Boy leaves a little to be desired. The polish isn't quite Shovel Knight's level and it's otherwise a little uninspired as a whole.

It's certainly not a bad game, but it's just not all that special. I am kind of reminded of  Gravity Circuit, which I described as serviceable. Which this is. It's a game to play if you wanna play the kind of game it is, but I'm not gonna go out of my way to recommend it. It was fun enough and I'm glad I got to play it.

Olija

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Time Played: ~5 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It was fine, I wouldn't have minded a bigger game that explored the mechanics a bit more.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased, it was pretty fun.
• Why I played: I had started it awhile ago and only just decided to pick it up to finish it, not exactly sure what got me started but maybe because it invoked Another World to me.
• Recommend to others: Yeah, it's worth playing.

Olija is a pretty cool game that despite being more action oriented I think has some pretty obvious inspiration from Another World, though only Prince of Persia is cited as a source of inspiration, though I can see that too.

It's pretty solid, the main mechanic is you have a harpoon you can throw and then teleport to if it sticks into stuff/enemies. It just doesn't stick into plain walls and the ground. Later you get a sword that sticks into the ground you can teleport to, and while they do a small handful of puzzles with these, I would have loved to have seen that explored further. They could have done some pretty cool stuff with it, like an auto scrolling sequence, or some more involved platforming challenges. That said, it's pretty tight as is and maybe going into all kinds of other stuff would have been dragging it out. I had fun with it.

Laika: Aged Through Blood

• Genre: Exploratory Action Platformer (Metroidvania)
• Time Played: 30 Hours
• Too Short/Long: A little too long, just because of the kind of game play it is, you end up redoing a lot of the areas over and over, and it's a bit more arduous than just passing through in a more standard metroidvania, and things never really get easier, you can never tank more hits to make early areas a breeze. In fact, they scale up with your progression.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Extremely pleased. I loved this game.
• Why I played: Mean coyote lady rides a motorcycle through a desert wasteland. This game was practically made for me specifically.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would... IF you like games like Trials. I am pretty sure there are others that have that kind of gameplay, I am just not thinking of them at the moment. But it's basically QWOP for motorcycles. You have to keep them balanced or else you fall over and die. But yeah, if 20+ hours of Motorcycle QWOP platforming gunfighting sounds like a good time to you, I definitely recommend it.

Laika: Aged Through Blood is a game that makes you go "Hell Yeah" when you launch your motorcycle off a ramp into a pit surrounded by enemies, pick off the first couple mid-air, then pull off a backflip to deflect incoming fire and reload, mid-air sideswipe to deflect a shot coming in from behind right back into the enemy, and fire off one more shot to clear your landing. At it's best it can be an exhilarating rush that puts you in the center of some of the best choreographed gunplay on a motorcycle.

At it's worst, it can be a bit frustrating because the controls are not always cooperative and you have to redo this entire section over and over. Or redo this entire boss fight which has several sequences that there is no way to hurry along. Or you have to return to this one area for the sixth time because of a side-quest. There aren't a ton of side-quests, so it feels important to do them, especially some more than others. But the rewards are minimal, just some materials you may already have a ton of or easier ways to farm. The currency, which is literally the blood of your enemies, could be a little easier to come by. I never "lost" any money past the first area of the game, and still had trouble affording everything I wanted by the end of the game. I had to play a lot of blackjack.

Overall the complaints are minor though. I had a hell of a time with Laika. The general gameplay is awesome, the music was amazing, and though each were very brief, the little animated scenes were a nice touch. The writing could have been a little better. It's pretty story heavy for the type of game. Some of the choices made and the subject matter in which they relate that to with the main story seems a little sloppy/clumsy, maybe in poor taste? But it's not terrible. It's just kind of "we get it" after they say something so many times. Kinda feels like they're trying to make a statement or prove something. That said, the game also made me cry several times, so the writing did well enough, but the atmosphere helps and they nailed that.

Rabi-Ribi

• Genre: Exploratory Action Platformer (Metroidvania)
• Time Played: 17 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Too long. It should have ended at the "fake out ending" which is definitely not the real ending because nothing is resolved, it literally tells you there is more to play, and you don't get any of the "post game" content until after the second, "true ending".
• Pleased/Disappointed: Kinda disappointed.
• Why I played: I thought the sprite art was cute and this gets a lot of praise from people who like metroidvanias, and it sits at Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam with over 9000 reviews. 
• Recommend to others: Not really. There is better of... everything this is trying to do. Even, very specifically what it's trying to do/be; there are better kawaii shmup metroidvanias.

Rabi-Ribi didn't impress me much. A lot of people really like it, but I just found it to be kind of a mess. The controls are messy, the maps are messy, the enemies are just kind of chaotic and go at you, the dialog/writing is... poor at best. It tries to employ a kind of coy titillation that I feel it's not even appropriate to say is only for "teenage boys" but rather, a certain kind of person who just really likes when things are surrounded with obvious innuendo but it's okay because there isn't any REAL sexual content? I dunno exactly how to put it, but it's the kind of stuff that makes the Neptunia games look like a form of high art. It just an excuse to have several girls run around calling each other "master" and do dumb anime trope stuff.

And there are games that do it better, at that. If that's what you're into it. It would be more forgivable if the game was genuinely good outside of that, but like I said, it's a mess. It's the kind of game you say "This was clearly made by one person" (derogatory), not "I can't believe this was made by one person!" (non-derogatory). That said I'm not even sure it's made "by one person" it just feels like it. It feels like someone's little pet project they worked on to practice game design. Everything is just so sloppy, and having fully played through it now, I just can't believe how much praise this game gets. I know my tastes are not always the same as the greater voice - I don't think Hollow Knight is that great, but I wouldn't call it a bad game and can definitely see why people are taken with it. This I just don't get.

I do REALLY like the sprite work, and if I am being completely honest it wasn't a completely terrible game. It was just messy, sloppy, and felt amateur in many ways and my expectations were higher. It also was unnecessarily long and has you go through quite a few grueling gauntlets. Which I may not have minding as much if the game was more polished, had tighter controls, and more direction with how it's enemies deal damage and how you avoid damage. You get a moment in each boss battle where it reminds you where your hitbox is, like a bullet-hell shmup where you only have a little diamond hitbox. But many of those you can press a button to always see your hitbox, or there is a clever indicator in it's design like the blue window on a red ship design, or a necklace's pendant on a character sprite. But none of that in this. That wouldn't have been enough though. It needed a lot.