There are a lot of things to love about Big Hops. The core is a solid 3D platformer with great movement tech and interesting mechanics throughout. 3-4 interesting worlds/areas to explore, and plenty of NPCs populating the world with everyone in the game being voice acted. Decent to good music too.

But the game isn't without problems. I've encountered a few glitches since release, particularly near the start of the game. Patches have been coming out since then which is a good sign, however. The two major complaints I have with the game at this time are that I didn't find the story writing to be all that great, and more fundamentally the lack of content. For the writing, it feels a bit disjointed at times. Much of the game seems kid-friendly, but occasionally an eyebrow or two can get raised when the villain of the first area starts swearing at their child complete with bleeped audio and a black bar briefly covering the character's mouth. No explicit audio is there but it is clear what is happening. Setting that aside, the story itself is underwhelming. Dizz is a somewhat malevolent entity that the game tries, poorly, to make somewhat sympathetic despite the fact that he straight up kidnaps the main character Hop. Hard to feel bad for him when he does that and is kinda rude in every interaction we have. It just doesn't come across as a good story when an antagonist for the whole game is suddenly treated as if he was the main character's brother in the eleventh hour. It just doesn't work well.

Then there's the content issues. The story is fairly short, able to be beaten in a few hours if you try for speed even without knowing how to speedrun. That isn't a bad thing necessarily, but once you beat the game, what else is there? There is absolutely no postgame content. The only options you have are to get every collectible and to learn how to speedrun the game. That's it. If you did what Drizz wanted and tried to collect everything along the way to beat it? Then you only have 1 option. While it isn't the most fair comparison, if you look at Super Mario Odyssey, once you beat the game there are lots of collectibles only available after the game is beaten. Not to mention the existence of "Dark Side" and "Darker Side" as additional challenges. Nothing like that exists here. The most are maybe 1 or 2 challenge room activities that might have some slight difficulty. I'm not saying the game needs to be insanely hard or have an almost impossible challenge, but it would be nice if there was anything else to do that might take some tries to do, instead of time trials for those challenge rooms to get high on the leaderboard, or beat the game fast. Then there's the matter of completion. A lack of easily accessible checklist or indicator of where missing things might be located is absolutely frustrating as a player. I'd like to complete everything with the game, but short of going to every location from start to finish to find what I might be missing I have no idea where the last missing things are. Dark Bits are the worst example of this, they look quite similar to Drips on the compass and they're the majority of what you need to collect. I have 99.5/100 Drips, all I need are some Bits, but I have no idea what world, loading zone, or anything they might be in. I have 1 bug left to collect and all I know is that it's somewhere in the desert world, with no indication of where in the world's vast expanse or many separate areas it might be. To top it off, I have no idea on the "Talk to every NPC" achievement how many I have talked to or if any are blocked off after you beat it. I could just let this go but I like the game and want to do all the things available if I can. Not to mention there is a tracker on what percent of your file has been completed in addition to the Steam achievements. It just feels counterintuitive to have a tracker and achievements with no checklist or indicator for some of these things.

My ramblings aside, the game is quite fun and charming. Movement feels great in this which is very important for this kind of game, and the art style fits quite well. I still recommend it, but just be warned if you want to complete the game that it's not going to be a great experience to try and do so.

Look, you'll never catch me saying the mainline Dragon Quest games are bad, or not worth trying. I've played all of them that are available in the West (basically just haven't played 10) and they are fantastic JRPGs, a progenitor of that type of game, and a shining example of how to design these kinds of things. When I was very young, I would play my dad's old NES and boot up this game called "Dragon Warrior" that I liked but could never beat since the save function didn't work. I bought many of them to play on my phone probably about 8 years ago, and they were wonderful games in that regard, with 1 and 2 in particular benefitting from being on a mobile device as the difficulty spikes and more notorious aspects of their designs were mitigated by being able to play them at basically any time, letting you grind when you're a passenger in someone's car or a bus or train. Waiting in line somewhere? Well, maybe you can pass the time hunting metal slimes.

These remastered games aren't on mobile in this way unless you use a Steam Deck (or play the Switch versions) which doesn't seem very practical in comparison to your mobile phone. The tradeoff, however, is largely worth it. The games are expanded to a truly wonderful scale, with charming visuals that Square Enix has had much practice with since the creation of the Octopath Traveler games among others that decide to utilize pixel art for a more retro feel. You could argue that these games, and the recent 3 remake, could have been updated to 3D visuals, but they all work well in their current style. I haven't cracked into 2 yet, but even 1 alone is a fantastic update to the game all these years later, giving the princess you rescue in the first game an actual story to her, expanding on information given to the player to give context for where to go and why, plenty of new content to explore that largely feels right at home, and generally giving the player plenty more to do while tying it in firmly as a central piece to the initial trilogy of the games. Maybe the price tag is a bit steep considering the games first came out almost 40 years ago, but many have missed out on trying these classics and with sales and bundles, I feel like I can still confidently recommend the games on that front.

But I am not without my complaints. Like I said, I haven't cracked into 2 yet, and that's largely because 1 is much more difficult than I first experienced. In DQ1, you are a party of 1 which is already difficult enough because you can easily encounter varied groups of monsters, so for every turn you get the ability to do only one thing while your foes can act several times, once for each monster. Some even get the ability to act twice a turn, which just exacerbates the problem. Without extensive game knowledge and a good bit of time grinding, even without the hardest difficulty enabled the game can just feel frustrating. It's been years since I played, and I am much more unfamiliar with the late-game but with many of the changes added onto that it feels like I might need a guide in order to beat this, just because several of the boss fights feel less like tests of skill and more like casinos to hope they don't just outright kill you before you can act sometimes. I still have fun with the game, but am getting increasingly frustrated when I take 480 damage before I can act some times vs my "meager" HP of around 360. I have options, some of which don't involve many hours of grinding to have enough HP to tank the combos, but I can easily see a more casual first-time player getting too frustrated with some fights and switching to "Dracky Quest" for an invincibility through fights, or giving up the game entirely. I love a lot of things about this game and the series, so I'd hate for people to drop it because they find things too difficult or unfair.

I'd recommend getting these games if you know you like Dragon Quest, but if you're unsure I would say that while these are fine enough entry points (I mean, this literally includes the very first game), the mobile game ports are a cheaper and arguably more friendly way to play them. Additionally, 3, 5, 9, and 11 are some of the best the series has to offer so those might be better to start with. I love this remake, but it's not necessarily for everyone as much as I love it and want people to see the beauty of these games.

I had been interested in this game since the first announcement of it, but was late to the bandwagon when it finally released. Unfortunately, I will never be able to experience the magic of playing this game as new chapters/episodes/levels release. Even without that though, the game is a great time. To avoid spoiling too much, you mainly play as a sort of emergency first responder, sending out superheroes instead of ambulances or fire trucks. The gameplay and story as a result are closely tied to making decisions that ripple out with effects down the line. Who you send out to respond to calls changes your chance of success, and how you interact with the team you help direct changes who is able or willing to respond. It's really a great game that ties player choice into gameplay, the narrative, and the impact it can have. Fantastic game, I recommend getting it if you can.

Okay, I initially reviewed this game with a positive outlook but noted that I struggled to actually view it too positively due to performance issues the game had that I encountered. It turns out that it was less to do with the game and instead a fatal issue my laptop had with software in general. I think if you can't manage to run Dragon Quest, that's a pretty good sign that there's something wrong with your system.

Now that I haven't had issue with game crashes causing me to reset my laptop every time, the game is amazing. Interesting story and worldbuilding combines with great gameplay to make for an overall amazing experience. You fight increasingly dangerous machines in a far-flung post apocalyptic world where you find that the more things are different in culture and social structure, the more things stay the same through conflict, madness, and greed. My biggest regrets with the game is an initially tentative positive review, and not playing it sooner. Highly recommend this one!

If you like Marvel's Spider-Man, the Spider-Verse movies, or just Spider-Man related characters and gameplay, you'll like this game at the very least. While it isn't as full of stuff to do as the previous game, that isn't entirely a bad thing as it makes sure to not have anything overstay its welcome. I've seen some say this game could have just been a DLC of the first one, and while it's understandable to feel that way when there's only about half as much to do as Marvel's Spider-Man, I'm also glad Miles got his own game to spread his wings in. Personally, I think I prefer Miles Morales from what I've seen of his stories, but that's a matter of personal preference which probably sways some of my feelings for this game. This one just has better combat, a less exhausting amount of side content, and a good story all wrapped up together for a great game. I don't quite love it as much as the original game, but only just barely. Which is very high praise considering how good the original is.

This is a fantastic game and one of the reasons why it was worth getting a PS4 about 7 years ago now. The game still looks amazing, and it has spectacular gameplay, which winds up making this pretty much the ultimate Spider-Man game (heh). There's a ton to do, whether it's swinging in to stop a crime in progress, finding backpacks scattered around with plenty of references to Spider lore, getting great camera shots of scenic locations in New York City, or just playing the main story. My only real complaint is that this remaster is quite the beefy game. Overall I highly recommend it

This game is a great follow-up to Duck Detective: The Secret Salami. These games are fun mysteries that manage to be all-ages friendly while engaging with just about every audience. The aesthetic works well as a contrast to the somewhat goofier elements, and the mystery tends to be a small slight that is incidental to a much larger issue the Duck Detective uses to "quack" the case.

Highly recommend these games despite the short runtime!

This game is fantastic. While it's a gacha game, meaning it suffers from the same "Free to Play" monetization scheme as the likes of Blue Archive, Genshin Impact, Arknights, Azur Lane, and any of the other dozens of examples I could throw out of the genre, it isn't overly aggressive in trying to make the player spend money. There are two different systems for the gacha as an outlet: Different horse-girls that you spend campaigns raising from scratch to compete for their own stories, and support cards that give different events and interactions during stories that can change stat distributions for the horse-girl or even grant access to certain skills and point discounts during a run.

The core gameplay is a roguelike management simulator where you train a horse-girl (based off real Japanese race horses) in any of the 5 core stats while maintaining good energy and a positive mood so that you can enter and win races with the horse-girl. Because they are girls and the aesthetic of the game is what it is, you also gain fans for your horse-girl who is also an idol in all of this, but fans are only gained by placing well in races, so your main focus is there for the duration of the game, at least when starting out. Where the game shines, is that the races are implemented spectacularly. You can do what is essentially gambling to roll the dice for a specific horse-girl in the gacha, sure, but you get the same kind of excitement at the races. As a player, you have invested time, in-game resources, or maybe even real dollars, into your horse-girl, spent time with them on screen getting emotionally invested as well. So when the gate is flung open, you see the cinematic angles and camerawork of a race with the horse-girl you've invested so much in as an excited Japanese commentator gets increasingly excited at the race as it goes on, until they all cross the finish line. Then you joyously celebrate if you won, take notes for the next training session if you passed but didn't win, or sadly end the career of your prize horse-girl if she lost completely.

It's hard to explain in words why this game is so exciting and fun. Sure, I started because it looks goofy and cringe with a bunch of anime idol girls in dresses running around in the dirt, but it's a fantastic time once you start playing. I've grown to enjoy it so much that I'm considering playing other horse racing games to compare, especially because I'm not overly invested in the idol side of things. There are animated concerts in the game, but most of the idol aspects are completely avoidable if that's not your thing. I recommend trying it out for a bit but without spending any money, that way the worst-case scenario is you waste a few hours' time and private/hide/remove the game from your library.

Now that I've beaten the game 100%, I can confidently recommend this game and say that I really enjoyed it. Maybe get it on a sale, but it's worth playing to experience the game for yourself. The game is challenging but fair, with a charming art style and mostly solid controls. My biggest issues with the game are with the controls and with the worst achievement in the game.

The issue with the controls is in two parts. The configuration is terrible, defaulting to arrow keys for movement among other odd choices, with the configuration also resetting if a controller is plugged in or unplugged with its own issues on top of that. The other issue with the controls lies in the overuse of moves being tied to the dash button. You have multiple possible inputs, with no context for any buttons. You have a dedicated button for cancelling and another one for confirming any and all dialogue/text boxes. But separate buttons for jump, dash, and spray water which are all the most vital functions of the platforming that takes a vast majority of the time spent in the game. As a result, most unique aspects of movement like the slide tackle or the upward swing, are a mix of movement and using the dash button. What's frustrating though is there is a move that makes Tembo round like a ball and immediately and very quickly go diagonally down tied to dashing in the air, which is frustrating when your dash gets cancelled in midair so you want to resume it, or you need to jump and do an upward swing, or the game just randomly registers a new dash input from the button you've been holding in the middle of a jump. The result is that one of the least needed and hardest to control options in the game becomes frequently mistakenly used, at least to me.

The other major issue is a grind-y achievement to collect 99 lives, represented by peanut butter jars. You collect peanuts instead of coins, with 300 making a single jar for a life and no 1-up items exist, so you just have to farm for 29,700 peanuts, probably 60 or so at a time because the easiest and safest way to get them is to go to 2-1 and go to the left for a large peanut near the beginning and quit out of the stage. It takes hours to mindlessly grind the lives regardless of the method you use and is the worst thing about this game. It's a decent length that just gets extended uselessly by a dumb mindless thing if you want all the achievements.

That aside, it's a fun game and one I enjoyed while I was actually playing it. I do recommend it solidly, even if I have issues with it. It's got some good design throughout, and while it feels too short, I still would recommend it because of how solid the design is. A fairly underrated gem of a platformer!

Great game to play with friends. This is a prime example of the fine line between horror and comedy. By all accounts it should be a horror game with jump scares by creepy monsters, and mounting tension as you and anyone you might be playing with attempt to conquer ever-increasing quotas, but more often than not it's just hilarious. Whack your friends with the shovels you just bought, watch them jump into the same pit you fell into earlier on the death cam, crash the company car into a ditch, the comedy is endless, or play a group game of chicken as everyone rings the bell for your scrap to be sold to The Company. It's a really great time if you have multiple people. This is a great one!