Matthew

One of the best Mario games. I had a lot of fun trying to 100% it.

Hands down, this is the best Super Smash Bros. Game ever. It's my favorite fighting game, despite my possible rose-tinted glasses seeing many hours hunting for new characters and stages. The single player Classic Mode is awesome, and there's tons of ways to play multiplayer. It's an insanely precise and easy to learn game! And it's fueled intense competition between the toughest of opponents for years since its release. This is a great game, and I'm proud to still have my original copy. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate comes close to Melee's perfection, but Melee came first and still stands the test of time.

Twilight Princess invoked a similar feeling that Ocarina of Time did for me, seeing a new fresh 3D world with modernized mechanics (at the time) for the Wii was awesome. Despite how linear this game feels, the sense of adventure is clearly present, and the shadowy features in this game make this one of the more interesting and darker installments in the Zelda franchise--- although, Majora's Mask is still by far the spookiest.

This installment of Legend of Zelda was long overdue; her name is in the title! Playing from the perspective of Zelda with the new echoes mechanic was more than a delight, I felt like I was cheating the whole time by coming up with crafty ways to move around the map. This game also references the classics like A Link to the Past in many ways and I love it for that.

I remember having so much faith in this game, and playing the earliest version of it, feeling somewhat dissatisfied yet accepted what it was. But then the creators of the game kept expanding it, refining it, reshaping it, knowing full well it was rushed out into existence. By 2024, it's realized its near-full potential, offering an incredible amount of places to be, things to collect and learn about. The only thing lacking is it's slightly lackluster combat, but it's not trying to be an action RPG, it's trying to be No Man's Sky, and it's very good at it. After playing Bethesda's Starfield, I couldn't help but keep thinking about No Man's Sky and how much better of an exploration game it is.

Kentucky Route Zero is an interactive fiction game featuring a magical realist story separated in five acts. Each act loosely connects to each other, but overall a tapestry of electronic music and bluegrass fused into haunting sceneries will leave you with a welcome emptiness. This game is more than just a game, it's a melancholic exploration of identity and existentialism.

This is one of the few games I've platinumed on PS4/5, and it's a badass adventure. It's a refreshing taking on fighting games with a surprising twist on combat. (No spoilers) The combat is simple at first, but quickly grows into a combination of defensive and offensive maneuvers that keeps you and your enemies sharp. The visual aesthetic is reminiscent of classic martial art films and expresses love for the genre it emulates.

Like Breath of the Wild, but BETTER! I don't know how they pulled it off, but the freedom in creating contraptions and the expansion of the world going from sky high to deep below the earth is liberating. The different locations to explore, and the interesting adventure puzzles in the way of getting to bosses is really fun. The creators of this game love The Legends of Zelda, and it shows. They created a memorable extension to the universe.