General and Gaming > General
52 Games Challenge 2025!!!
realpoketendonl:
18. Kirby Air Riders
The recently released Kirby Air Riders, is beaten! I've beaten the story mode's New Game+ campaign, which unlocks the true ending, and I've also unlocked all characters and vehicles. I never played the original Kirby Air Ride, but when this game was announced I was immediately intrigued. And when it was announced Masahiro Sakurai was once again directing, it was an instant pickup for me. Yes, he's a developer I have that much faith in, I'm just that big a fan of his work.
And it lived up to my expectations. Kirby Air Riders is a blast! Right from the start this game clearly has the Sakurai-action style to it. When you first pick it up, the wild action and effects are so overwhelming you can sometimes barely tell what you're doing, but that doesn't take away from the fun. And then once you get the hang of it and the game clicks in your mind, the gameplay becomes enthralling. I'm still not that great at the game, online I usually get my butt kicked, but every match I play, no matter what mode, I find myself focused in a zen-like state I otherwise only really get from, well, Smash Bros. (which is one of my favourite games ever btw). It's a blast.
The single player content admittedly isn't spectacular. The story mode is just a long series of challenges with little to tie them together. Now that on its own isn't a problem if you enjoy the gameplay enough, which I definitely do, but it's still primarily a long challenge run. But that's fine: Kirby Air Riders is fun solo, but is also clearly about the multiplayer. And I gotta say: I had an absolute blast with it on that front. A day after release, I took it with me to a weekly gamer hangout I go to, where we played it with a group. And it was insanely fun! Nobody had a clue what was going on, but we had a blast with it! I hope we can do more races in the future.
I can whole-heartedly recommend this game. If you're looking for a wild Smash Bros.-vibe-like multiplayer game, or if you've just seen the trailers and this looks interesting to you, give it a shot. I already feel like I want to hop back in, and I can definitely see myself coming back to this repeatedly for a good long while.
kashell:
--- Quote from: realpoketendonl on November 26, 2025, 05:16:23 pm ---18. Kirby Air Riders
The recently released Kirby Air Riders, is beaten! I've beaten the story mode's New Game+ campaign, which unlocks the true ending, and I've also unlocked all characters and vehicles. I never played the original Kirby Air Ride, but when this game was announced I was immediately intrigued. And when it was announced Masahiro Sakurai was once again directing, it was an instant pickup for me. Yes, he's a developer I have that much faith in, I'm just that big a fan of his work.
And it lived up to my expectations. Kirby Air Riders is a blast! Right from the start this game clearly has the Sakurai-action style to it. When you first pick it up, the wild action and effects are so overwhelming you can sometimes barely tell what you're doing, but that doesn't take away from the fun. And then once you get the hang of it and the game clicks in your mind, the gameplay becomes enthralling. I'm still not that great at the game, online I usually get my butt kicked, but every match I play, no matter what mode, I find myself focused in a zen-like state I otherwise only really get from, well, Smash Bros. (which is one of my favourite games ever btw). It's a blast.
The single player content admittedly isn't spectacular. The story mode is just a long series of challenges with little to tie them together. Now that on its own isn't a problem if you enjoy the gameplay enough, which I definitely do, but it's still primarily a long challenge run. But that's fine: Kirby Air Riders is fun solo, but is also clearly about the multiplayer. And I gotta say: I had an absolute blast with it on that front. A day after release, I took it with me to a weekly gamer hangout I go to, where we played it with a group. And it was insanely fun! Nobody had a clue what was going on, but we had a blast with it! I hope we can do more races in the future.
I can whole-heartedly recommend this game. If you're looking for a wild Smash Bros.-vibe-like multiplayer game, or if you've just seen the trailers and this looks interesting to you, give it a shot. I already feel like I want to hop back in, and I can definitely see myself coming back to this repeatedly for a good long while.
--- End quote ---
Thanks for this write-up. I'm a huge Kirby fan, but that mostly applies to traditional Kirby titles. Reading this, this sounds like just a good time despite it not being what I typically enjoy with my favorite Nintendo mascot.
bikingjahuty:
112. God of War II (PS3)
Like the first God of War (GOW) game, I'm genuinely surprised how much of its sequel, God of War II (GOW2) I forgot despite beating game just shy of a decade ago. Also like the first game, GOW2 is appropriately epic in just about every way. One thing that stuck with me all these years since first beating GOW2 was how the ending made me immediately want to jump into God of War 3, and after beating GOW2 again, I completely understand why.
GOW2 improves upon its predecessor in most ways. Before I discuss those improvements, however, it is worth noting that GOW2 borrows a ton of enemies, abilities, and graphical assets from the first game, which makes sense since GOW2 only came out 2 years after the first game. This does make the visuals of GOW2 feel a bit lazy, but considering the visuals in GOW were pretty damn good for a late PS2 title, there just as impressive in GOW2. That's definitely not to say there aren't a lot of meaningful upgrades to the visuals, as well as new enemies, bosses, settings, and other visuals elements that make GOW2 absolutely distinct from its predecessor. GOW2 absolutely feels like a proper sequel unlike a game like Zelda Tears of the Kingdom which just felt like a glorified expansion to Breath of the Wild. If it weren't for rampant use of recycled GOW assets I'd have said the visuals were on par with an early Gen 7 game, but it is a point worth noting that did bother me while i was playing.
Another aspect of GOW2 that is shares a lot with the first game is the audio too. Like this visuals, this isn't necessarily a bad thing seeing how good things with in GOW and that definitely carries over in GOW2. There are new tracks and sound effects, but if you've played GOW and then jump into this game, your ears will definitely hear all the similarities that Santa Monica Studios reused for this game. One thing that I am grateful for that is the same are all the voice actors from the first game that lovingly returned for the follow up. Like in GOW, the voice cast does an excellent job voice acting as their respective characters, all adding to the over the top and epic scale the entire game is going for. Kratos is often just yelling and telling everyone he's going to kill them, but it really shouldn't be any other way. All the greek gods have very fitting and well casted voices too. Honestly, other than the copious amount of reused music and other sound effects, there is little to fault here from an audio perspective.
From what I've written so far, you might be thinking GOW2 is just reheated leftovers from the first game with a dash of pepper thrown in to kick things up. That would be somewhat true, if it weren't for the gameplay improvements which make GOW2 a superior game to the original. Yes, the core gameplay of GOW2 is the same as GOW, however the enemy balancing and controlling Kratos has been noticeably improved here. This goes a long, long way towards making this an excellent and fun game to play. I don't think there's a place where this is more evident than in the many excellent boss fights in GOW2. With a few minor exceptions, the bosses in GOW2 are a fast improvement over what was present in the first game. There are far less cheap deaths, annoyingly designed sections, and certain regular enemies have been altered to make them more enjoyable and balanced to fight. That's not to say, GOW2 is easier, because it's definitely not. It's actually a tad harder than the first game, but the term "tough but fair" certainly applies here for the most part. In fact, my only real complaints about GOW2's gameplay have to do with the non-combat aspects of the game.
For one, there are some pretty annoying and unintuitive puzzles and sections in the game. New gameplay elements like being able to slow time have been added and while sections that use this mechanic are fun and fell designed, some are less so and it certainly impacted my enjoyment of the game during these parts. Another fairly major thing worth noting has to do with the game's pacing. The area you'll find yourself in during the last third of the game drags on and on, and on, and on. You'll almost forget there were other parts of the game by the time you reach the end of this part of the game, which is a shame since the game just keeps getting better and better up to that point. However, the somewhat meh pacing of the final 1/3 of the game is made up for by an amazing final boss fight and excellent ending to the game that does a great job setting up GOW3. A will also say, that by a small margin I think the story of GOW2 is slightly better than GOW, but only by a little bit. It touches in an area of Greek mythology that isn't widely discussed and it was appreciated compared to the same old, same old Greek gods doing stuff stories you often see and hear when the topic of Greek mythology comes up.
Beyond having an overall great time with GOW2, I'm very happy to say that I'm caught up once more to dive into its various sequels. I started playing GOW2 when I last beat the game, but for reasons I can't remember, I never got past the first hour of the game and never picked the game back up. When I do decide to play GOW3, which will likely be sometime next year, I'm going to make sure I finish it. Not only do I want to see how the original GOW storyline ends, but I am very eager to jump into GOW 2018 and Ragnorok to see what all the fuss is about with those games. Replaying GOW 1-3 should definitely prime me to appreciate those newer games more once I do inevitably play them.
One final thing I want to say before wrapping this review up is GOW2 really makes me miss the way games used to be. Even though it hasn't even been 20-years since GOW2 came out, this old school action style of game has become an endangered special amongst games. GOW2 does an excellent job of capturing that not bullshit, all killer and no filler style of game I dearly miss. I know there are games like Stellar Blade that carry on this tradition, but games like GOW2 are a rarity these days. I'm glad I at least can go back and enjoy the classic GOW games and hopefully the newer games give me that same sense of pure, unfiltered power fantasy the older games do such a great job of implementing. (11/27/25) [40/50]
Cartagia:
Made myself power through the last few stages of the Demon's Souls remake today. Definitely my least favorite FromSoft Souls title. The difficulty curve is super steep on this one, especially if you already have Souls experience. Its just so hard to consistently have healing items, or even to farm for them,because the enemies in the first couple of stages just are not giving you enough XP. Not enough to buy healing items, and not enough to level up to make difference. Once you do start getting enough to level up you kind of outstrip the endgame, pacing and level-wise.
kamikazekeeg:
38 - Bendy and the Dark Revival (PC 2022) - BEAT - Finally got around to finishing this as I put it off for a bit and I'm very mixed on this series. The first game was kinda your early 2010's, walking sim, horror experience, Slenderman, Amnesia, that sorta stuff, but with bad combat. It's saving grace was a cool art style and and decent characters with voice acting. The sequel is just a bad Bioshock game. The art style looks a lot better, big leap in quality, still some decently acted characters, and while the combat is technically better, it's still very bad and not well thought out. Same for some of the boss fights. The whole experience felt like they wanted to be Bioshock, but with none of the skill or budget required to do so.
So it's not terrible, it's just not that great, but fine at a really cheap price on a sale. I am interested to see if the third and final game is them fully realizing the type of game they want to be, but we'll see have to see, I probably won't get it right away unless I hear some crazy good things about it.