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52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

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dhaabi:

--- Quote from: telekill on December 27, 2025, 03:56:41 pm ---Completed: 02
2. Code Violet (PS5)
--- End quote ---

Code Violet's quality looked subpar to me early on from pre-release trailers and even more so after it released. But after remembering how eager you were for it, I'm curious if it managed to meet your expectations and if your thoughts differ from the general public's negative opinion after having played it.

realpoketendonl:
5. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond — Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

And that's game number 5, the long awaited Metroid Prime 4. Including by me. This game has been divisive, with some people and reviewers praising it but many players heavily criticising it. And honestly, now that I've beaten it, I'm rather split on it too. Full warning: I will try not to spoil anything, but I will be generally discussing some aspects of the game. And yes, sorry, this is a long one, but I have a lot of thoughts on this one.

Let's start with the good, because there is a lot to like here. This game is visually beautiful. Its visual design in the environment and creatures is just as strong as it was in the previous Prime games. I really enjoyed the boss fights. Those are always highlights for me in the Prime games, and these bosses do not disappoint. The gameplay loop is satisfying. The various areas in the game, although linear, are still fun to explore, and constantly finding powerups to slowly beef yourself up feels as good as ever. I really want to stress: there is a lot to like here, and at times, that did shine through for me.

But yes, there are annoyances here too. The game feels strongly linear. You still explore areas and solve puzzles to progress, which is still fun, but in some way, this just felt stronger in previous titles. The games's locations are connected by an open world, and I know it's a desert but it still feels empty. I think I preferred the more directly interconnected areas from the previous Prime titles.

By far the biggest criticism online is the supporting characters, and unfortunately, I have to agree with the critics. Throughout the game you're accompanied by a cast of Galactic Federation characters. They call you, join you on quests, and will talk to you whenever they're around. And yes, I found them annoying and grading. Some of them instantly got on my nerves, to the point that once the cutscene ended I jokingly tried to shoot them (which the game doesn't allow but still). They instruct you on every new step which makes the game not only feel even more linear, but also takes away some of that sense of figuring stuff out more on your own. The previous Prime games also had objective markers, but they were far less intrusive. And on top of this, they're a hindrance in combat. There are multiple segments where you get into fights and they join you. And while they're constantly depicted as capable soldiers, every time they almost die and you have to stop fighting and go heal them. Often multiple times per fight. Several times I found myself almost screaming at my screen: "This would be so much easier if you would just GET OUT OF MY WAY!"

But a deeper issue with them is that, to me, they don't fit Metroid. A core aspect of Metroid, to me, is its sense of loneliness. That feeling of you, alone, on a distant, intriguing but hostile world, with nothing but your wits and your skills to aid you. One of Metroid's biggest appeals to me is that atmosphere. And these characters, to me, ruin that completely. If I ever got into that mental state of getting lost in the world the game was giving me, whenever these guys popped up it immediately took me back out of it. They break the immersion, and also break that sense of isolation and weight. I admittedly don't play many games with chatty sidekicks like this, but still: I would've enjoyed this game so much more if I was just left to explore this world on my own, and only interact with ancient messages and the main villain.

(Also, a little side tangent, but I do not understand why Nintendo thinks we like the Galactic Federation so much. Personally, I don't. At all. If you want other characters: Prime 3 had you interacting with other bounty hunters that turn from good to evil, all from different species with wildly different designs and abilities. They were cool! Prime Hunters's other bounty hunters are still, to this day, fan favourites! Yet from Prime 3 to gosh darn Federation Force to this, they keep focusing on the stupid space army. Drop them and focus on something cool instead! Hell, Sylux is right there. If you focused on just him, he could've been so much cooler!)

I think the biggest thing that stood out to me about Prime 4 is that it didn't feel as grand or epic as the previous games. The game does try to give your situation weight, trapping you in a completely unknown and isolated world, with a troubled history of a fallen civilization, but I rarely felt that weight. I don't know whether it's the world design, the npc's or whatever, but I never felt that immersion or weight. When I beat the original Metroid Prime games, I felt a sense of accomplishment, relief, grandeur, weight. With this game, I just felt like I had beaten another game.

And let me re-emphasize: that doesn't mean the game is bad. Tons of good games have left me without a major feeling at the end. And I did enjoy this game. I was always happy to pick it back up and keep playing, there are moments that did immerse me into the world and battles that are riveting. But yes, from Prime 4, I was also hoping to feel more.

I know that Prime 4 had an impossible legacy to live up to, but even seen on its own, I cannot ignore some of these annoyances. This is still a good game, there is no doubt about that. This is a high quality title that I don't doubt many people will enjoy. But to me, while I overall enjoyed my time with it, if I were to rank my favourite Metroid games, Prime 4 would not be very high on that list. I only just beat it, so maybe the positives will become stronger in my head over time. But right now, while this game is no doubt good and worth playing, I also don't feel comfortable calling it anything more than just "good".

bikingjahuty:
8. Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch)

Occasionally, my wife and I will pick out a local co-op game to play together. In recent years, this has typically been some sort of two player platformer. About a week ago we decided to finally play Kirby and the Forgotten Land, a game that we originally started playing in 2022, right before we moved into our new home. Unfortunately between the move and other games the two of us started around that time, Kirby got shelved until finally nearly 4-years later we picked it back up. While it wasn't the amazing game I hope all first party Nintendo platformers will be when I first start playing them, it was a still a decent little game overall.


Being a mainline Kirby game, Forgotten Land has most of the same mechanics of Kirby's previous main series adventures. You're sucking up various enemy types and absorbing their powers. All the power up staples of many previous Kirby games is here  as well, with the added bonus of being able to power them up to become stronger and stronger. While powering up your umm...power ups makes them more powerful (I will try not to saw "power" again) and therefore making the game easier, this actually plays into Forgotten Land's greatest flaw, at least in my humble opinion. It's difficulty.


Nearly every mainline Kirby game I've ever played ranges for moderately easy to laughably, close you eyes and just press forward and auto win easy. Unfortunately, most of forgotten land leans closer to the latter and it wasn't until the last couple areas of the game where I felt like anything resembling a challenge presented itself. The result of all this was me being fairly bored throughout this game, and that's despite the pretty good 3D visuals and adorable Kirby game charm. In fact, had I not been playing this game co-op with my wife, I don't know that I'd have finished the game, simply out of sheer boredom.


The 3D stages and visuals are Forgotten Land's best quality. This is probably the best, most visually impressive Kirby game ever made. Unfortunately, that doesn't translate to this game being a stunner for the eyes. While there are a lot of recycled assets, both stages and enemies, my main issue is how a lot of the characters and enemies sort of clash with the setting overall. The forgotten land this game is named after resembles some sort of post apocalyptic world, more similar to a cartoonish earth than what we've seen on Planet Pop Star and in other Kirby titles. Some stages definitely feel like they fit better than others, but many of them just feel out of place for a Kirby game. This, however, is a fairly minor compliant to what is otherwise a pretty good looking 3D platforming game.


Finally, the audio in Kirby is fine for the most part, if not bordering pretty good. There are some pretty good tracks, although I never felt like any of them particularly stood out and really caught my attention. There is almost no voice acting of any kind unless you want to count little grunts and noises from Kirby, his allies, and some of the enemies and bosses as voice acting. The non-OST audio certainly fits, but just like the character visuals, it somewhat clashes with the levels and settings throughout the game.


I can't say Kirby and the Forgotten World is the best Kirby game I've ever played, but for what it's worth, it was a pretty fun, little game that I derived more enjoyment out of playing it with my wife than I did out of the game itself. I feel like your mileage with this one will absolutely vary depending on your tolerance for remaining engaged in easier games, as well as your love of the Kirby franchise. I definitely like Kirby, but there was enough I didn't care for in this game that beating it solo would have been more of a test of my endurance than I'd care to admit. Still, I beat Kirby and it was a decent platformer overall that I'd recommend other fans of the genre, or Kirby, try out if they can grab a copy for relatively cheap. (1/24/26) [34/50]

ssj4yamgeta:
3: Tomb Raider III (Evercade)

Oh damn, this was the worst game in the original trilogy. Such a mixed bag of a game. It had a good weapon selection and some levels that I liked, but every level I liked was sandwiched between two that I absolutely hated. In the first two games you could see the cause and effect of pulling levers and pushing buttons right away, but here it was common to pull a lever and have no idea what it opened. And then there was the absolutely broken crap like the underwater segment of Lud's Gate where the underwater vehicle you had to use would constantly hang up on the walls without even touching them, causing you to run out of air. The final boss was godawful, you had to sprint around a narrow stone circle with slippery slopes and instant death lava pools on both the inside and outside edge, while stopping to fire at the boss who was constantly chasing you. And when you stunned him, you had to quickly sprint down a connecting pathway, pick up an artifact, and sprint back before he recovered and fired an undodgeable perfect-homing instant death fireball at you. And you had to do this FOUR TIMES before you could kill him! And even after he died, you still had to fight your way through his henchmen to the level exit. Seriously, that boss can fornicate with a full-size saguaro cactus until he becomes physically and psychologically dependent on the sensation. The Fire Giant in Elden Ring was easier and more fun.

Like Dark Souls II, Tomb Raider III was made by a different team than the first game, and was a potentially good game ruined by terrible design choices. Also like Dark Souls II, I refuse to ever play Tomb Raider III again unless it gets a significant upgrade. I might try the remaster because they let you change the controls and uncap the framerate, but vanilla Tomb Raider III has earned its spot as one of the bottom 5 worst games I've ever played. In closing, I'll rate the original trilogy:

TR1: 4/10 Subpar
TR2: 5/10 Average
TR3: 3/10 Bad

Now I've gone from the Evercade VS-R to the PS4 to play the remastered versions of Tomb Raider IV, V, and VI. I'm really liking Tomb raider: The Last Revelation Remastered so far. This might be the first classic Tomb Raider game to get a 6/10 from me, but it's way too early to tell as I'm still on the first level after the prologue.

Completed:

Tomb Raider II (Evercade)
Tomb Raider III (Evercade)
Mafia: The Old Country (PS5)

In Progress:

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (PS4)
Final Fantasy IV Advance (GBA)
Resident Evil Code: Veronica X (Gamecube)

dhaabi:
04. Resident Evil Code: Veronica X || GameCube || 01.21.2026



Despite not being a numbered title, Resident Evil Code: Veronica X (C:VX) is a game I've been aware that's quite renowned by fans of the Resident Evil franchise. There are a lot of rumors, speculation, and alleged facts as to the game's naming convention status that relates to it being a mainline entry or not, though it's ultimately irrelevant as it's the game itself that matters. So while being aware of the game's positive reception, I began playing with certain expectations.

With that said, C:VX is a lot different than the games before it from a narrative perspective. Set after the events of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, the game deviates from the epicenter of the zombie outbreak, Raccoon City, and instead is divided between two separate military bases as its setting. I wasn't particularly pleased with how the game's opening events transpire, though I did eventually recognize why they occur as it's only rational considering how the previous series entry concludes while transitioning the franchise narrative to a more global scale instead of a localized one. In fact, the story became far more engaging than I was anticipating while offering a much more focused look at what the T-virus is, the virus's origins, and what the virus can become alongside other experimentations parallel to Umbrella's own scientific efforts. As the story continued, I was surprised at how successful it expands upon the franchise lore more than any of the three previous games without directly being about Umbrella at all even. Looking back, I'm still not partial to how the game begins by dropping the player right in the middle of an ongoing event. From my understanding, this seems to be expected as the franchise continues, with greater context being provided much later in later series installments.

As the narrative unfolds, the game tries to introduce emotionally adult themes. However, the effectiveness of the majority of these scenes are widely mishandled for one chief fault: the quality of most of the cast's voice work. Even among the playable cast, vocal performances are generally awful and arguably the worst in the series so far as several devolve into cartoon characters. Generally, these characters and the situations they're in are over-the-top and too ridiculous for my personal tastes—I'd greatly prefer a more serious and mature tone with characters that reflect it instead. Accordingly, C:VX demonstrates how thin the line between horror and comedy is. It's a design philosophy I recognize and respect, but I do sometimes wonder how this franchise above all else led the thematic horror genre during this era. To a lesser extent, plot pacing and cinematography also regularly diminish the efficacy of emotion attempting to be conveyed. Fortunately, though, these performances contrast certain scenes that are eerie in tone, especially in regards to one of the central antagonists.

Regarding gameplay, it's largely split between two protagonists. They both control the same, have access to the same weapon types, and have the same functionality besides one of the two having the means to release certain locks. Despite the immense physical space between the two at times, item storage accessibility from one to the other exists somehow, though this isn't too far-fetched considering how unrealistic the system operates normally anyway. As the campaign continued, I found myself becoming more and more irritated with bugged gameplay limitations and unfair level design, such as only being able to interact with this one specific point of interest while remaining stationary unlike any other instance when it can be done in motion or a high-traffic hallway with numerous enemies that respawn and easily infect you with poison. It should also be made clear that, even on a fundamental level, C:VX's level design and level progression is not friendly to first-time players. It's common for first-time players to become softlocked during certain sections, which is an issue that's directly related to available resources from within item storage. How items are exchanged from one character to another (something that's unexpected for a first-time experience) has the opportunity to greatly bolster or worsen not only the immediate objective but what's to follow—sometimes both from effects from the same action. The auto-aim mechanic during combat is also rather mixed. There is a noticeable pattern of poor prioritization to which enemies are targeted such as aiming toward the downed enemy and not the one advancing to you that's mere paces away. But at the same time, I found the auto-aim mechanic particularly useful in this game as it reveals the presence and broad location of off-screen enemies. Perhaps that sort of functionality has been present for a while, though, but I certainly found its use during this game.

From a genre perspective, C:VX pushes survival horror to its limits. Well, that's how I felt through the opening hours, anyway. Like with previous titles, players start with basically no items at their disposal, and it seemed that resources available as the path continued—including save point typewriters and the ink ribbons to use them—were considerably sparse and spread out. But over time, the game becomes quite manageable even without playing conservatively. For much of the game, it really just felt like going through the motions when being bombarded by enemies. And as to be expected from the franchise up to this point, boss combat sequences are markedly unfair—in particularly, one at the game's midway point. While a challenge is to be expected, the design to these encounters is not balanced well, and it completely removes any and all sense of being terrified while playing as players will undoubtedly be forced to retry again and again and again. It was never dread felt during these moments but instead annoyance.

Other aspects of the game are worth mentioning too. While they're few in number, puzzles are slightly more challenging than the ones before it—they're certainly more thoughtful, anyway. Even the series of barriers that impedes exploratory progress have elevated in difficulty, in part to the game's reliance on backtracking that, while certainly irritating on a surface level, exhibits a more thought-out level design. One after another, there is also at least one immediate path being blocked for whatever reason. As has been the case with the three previous games, the the majority of so-called puzzles in C:VX are really just obstacles. In short, each one requires finding the key to unlock the path. To call the stage design itself a puzzle is an exaggeration, though players are required to remember a fair amount of information that sometimes isn't relevant for long periods of time and is an exercise in memory, for sure. Meanwhile, the Resident Evil series is known for its action sequences, and this game is no exception to that expectation. It's especially evident in the opening FMV and closing hour of the game, but it's simultaneously underwhelming, as what one segment in particularly demonstrates an intense showdown but is represented by FMV alone, entirely without player input. To say that this game is more concerned with action than horror would not be a controversial statement. Lastly, pre-rendered backgrounds have been retired with this title and have instead been replaced with real-time 3D environments. They've aged poorly by comparison and certainly remove the cinematic quality to play.

Despite coming across as rather mixed in my thoughts, my time with Resident Evil Code: Veronica X was more enjoyable than not. Its strengths and weaknesses are across a broad spectrum, but I'm nonetheless impressed with just how compelling the game's narrative is compared to the previous titles. Should its tone had been more mature, my opinion would undoubtedly be even higher.

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