Recent reviews by Boibi

I've played many game collections. This is the best one I've played. Each game in this collection is a full fledged NES style game, whether that's an arcade with 4 stages and a high score list, or an RPG with towns and turn based combat. This collection is a testament to the idea that games do not have to be complex to be fun. Every game is a modern twist on a classic genre or formula in a way that freshens the experience while still being plausibly playable on the fake game console they present.

Derek Yu and friends, thank you. Thank you for pouring your souls and effort into this masterpiece of a collection.

It's not just another souls-like. I uses the underwater theme in interesting ways both in story and in gameplay. It's both fun and tells an important message.

The core game is fun, but the monetization is the worst I've seen of any fighting game ever.

I do not want a Tekken shop that takes away free cosmetics (they literally took free cosmetics from Tekken 7 and made them paid in Tekken 8). I do not want a battlepass in a fighting game ever. I do not want a special Tekken currency that I can only spend on Tekken stuff (and will become meaningless when Tekken 9 releases). They are even cracking down on outfit mods. Modern online only gaming is a sin that hurts gamers.

One of the best monster collector games I've played. It has a lot of unique ideas and they work together in fun ways. The types are fairly simple, but with the coating and fusion mechanics, it ends up still being pretty complex. I loved that super effective type matchups placed debuffs on your opponent with a little bonus damage instead of doing double damage. The status play reminded me of Octopath Traveler. I would love to see more from this team.

The aethestics felt to me like 80s or early 90s, which was before my time. I think the vibes grew on me, because I know I'll have that main theme stuck in my head for a week and I'm not even upset about it.

This game is one part competent 2D platformer, one part fully realized environmental sim, and one part philosophical journey. I realized that this game is a masterpiece about halfway through when the story started to explain the gameplay mechanics. Every element of this game is thoughtfully included. It feels like a full package.

If you like Beat-em-ups, Match-3s, and Iron Chef then this is the game for you. It really delivers on this unique experience. My biggest gripe is that I wish it were longer, or had more single player content than just daily challenges. I also wish that the multiplayer versus had online. That being said, these are minor gripes on an otherwise fantastic package.

There are not enough games where the bosses are 3D platforming challenges. The survival mechanics complemented the rest of the game's mechanics way better than I expected. I got frustrated with a few of the bosses, but with a bit of struggling and elbow grease I beat the game on hard mode and I feel great about it.

A great spiritual successor to Symphony of the Night. Lots of build variety with the demon shard system and types of weapons. Sometimes the progression seemed a bit esoteric, so don't feel bad looking up a guide if you get stuck.

This game is not only an enjoyable metroidvania, but much more flexible than most metroidvanias in how you play. There is gating, but it's more soft gating, meaning that multiple skills or abilities will allow you to get through different sections.

The game is composed of 3D platforming, logic puzzles, and third-person shooting. These elements are present in fairly even amounts. However, as previously mentioned, the way you tackle these problems is very flexible. Hacking is an ability that effectively lets the player tailor the game to their preference. You can unlock hacking fairly early and it can do various things like modify the logic puzzles, take over enemies, and slow down time. This lets you trivialize or skip challenges that you don't like. However, hacking costs bits, meaning you can't use it to skip the whole game. This meant that I treated hacking like a costly skip button if I was ever just fed up with a challenge. This made the game feel like I was only ever doing the stuff I liked doing. Which in turn meant that I was having fun the entire time I played it.

I also didn't even touch on the narrative, which is a fun exploration into the logs of long dead humans who were isolated in space. I really like reading through logs and getting a feel for people who had interesting, difficult, and at times conflicting goals.

A solid 6/10. This puts it on the yes side of recommendations, but just barely. This game would have been an 8/10 if I had a map. A majority of the time I felt lost, despite the maps being small and unique. I didn't like this feeling. Combat and exploration was mostly good, but the attack patterns of later enemies and bosses felt unfair. Not hard, unfair. I beat the game, but I wasn't proud of myself at the end, just glad it was over. Still, the art design is on point, and a few (admittedly large) bad game mechanic decisions don't ruin the game.