Recent reviews by Rikkuedo

instead of repeating the same ♥♥♥♥ everyone else has said, good or bad, the endorsement from my point of view is that people have made such ridiculously good and/or funny cosplay builds that you can get sucked into customization for hours and that is a massive win in my book

tell me what other mecha game has deep enough customization that it lets you roll into battle as thomas the tank mecha

Most reviews I've seen are split between the topic of Metroidvania vs Not Metroidvania for this game. A more helpful label I would assign (in a non-derogatory way, mind you) is diet Metroidvania. 9 Years lacks some aspects of the genre that aficionados might come to expect like sequence breaking, but I wouldn't call it a worse game because of it, and here's why.

A friend of mine played this game whilst having practically zero experience with the genre. His closing comment, as directly quoted, was: "If this is what the Metroidvania genre has to offer, I might have to dig into it." To me, that symbolizes a strength of "simpler" Metroidvanias such as this one; they're great for getting your feet wet with the genre before moving on to the more well known -vanias like Dust: An Elysian Tail or Guacamelee. You could go so far as to argue the value of them as stepping stones to games sharing the same conceptual DNA, like Dark Souls and it's (spiritual) successors.

But enough about that. My own personal list of pros and cons for 9 Years:

Pros:
- Fantastic pixel art
- Good music (also, two notable Konami composers are represented in game as actual characters; the game knows it's audience)
- Catchy designs across the board
- Simple, but touching story
- The combat abilities granted by your familiar show some surprising depth as far as how you approach fights and split second decision making (if I had to compare this to anything, it would be Hildryn in Warframe as far as "spend your shields for combat purposes" goes)
- Your familiar is literally a floating bear plush
- No performance issues for Steam Deck owners (and the patches have fixed typical launch-window Deck issues like cutscenes not playing properly)

Cons:
- More linear than most Metroidvanias
- Movement is rather slow (alternate forms notwithstanding) and doesn't get any faster, which can be particularly frustrating when backtracking, or god forbid dying when you haven't saved
- Loading screens for area transitions expect you to manually advance them; not exactly ideal and very annoying when the filler dialogue is spent
- Boss difficulty is inconsistent as opposed to naturally scaling throughout the game

The pros ultimately won over the cons in my eyes given my particular views expressed above. $20 is middle of the road pricing compared to some other Metroidvanias, sales notiwthstanding. If you can accept a diet Metroidvania (again, not inherently negative) with it's own little unique quirks, then it's a fair deal, though I also wouldn't blame you if you opted to wait on a sale. I picked this up at it's limited time introductory $15 price, and if it comes down to that number during a random sale period, I'd recommend it more freely.

In hindsight, my buying this game was something of a gamble. I'm in the process of expanding my library for my eventual Steam Deck and this showed up in my discovery feed. It looked like an amalgamation of things that entice me; sci-fi, roguelikes (especially after finishing Hades on the Switch port), guns and a cute hybrid artstyle. Plus at $11 when I bought it (even now I think $16 is fair) it wasn't a dent on my wallet like some other games would be.

I waited until I beat the game once to review it. Took me 21 runs to reach and beat the final boss the first time. I'll condense my thoughts in bullet points to save some time for myself (and you, review reader):

-The cylindrical gameplay is surprisingly strategic despite only being on a small 2.5D plane. You definitely notice the rewards of experimentation when it comes to weapons and upgrades that can deal damage across both layers. Once you master weapon ranges and angles the safety you're afforded is immense.

-Very fast paced, and doesn't let up. The further you get, the faster you need to adapt or die. Thankfully it's not overtly punishing; as you come to know every enemy and what they do avoiding damage gets easier barring some borderline bullet hell floors.

-Pretty timeless artstyle. Environments are 3D while enemies mix both pixel art and 3D models. None of it looks seriously out of place. The player class designs are neat as well.

-Backtracking is made completely painless by post-battle teleporting. If you rushed to a timed crate and skipped portals or upgrades, fear not, just teleport back and grab them. I never once had any lack of clarity with the maps.

-The plot is certainly no doorstopper, not does it need to be. You are guy who gon teach the aliens lesson and doesn't afraid of anything. It's a backdrop to justify the gameplay and is sufficient.

If you've stumbled upon this game and find the kind of appeal I did in it, this is worth your time. Costs less than certain microtransactions in other games and has more long lasting appeal if you truly sink your teeth into it.

Years later, Empire at War continues to be a great RTS game in general. Three campaigns (across both the standard edtition and Forces of Corruption) and Galactic Conquests give the game a lot of meat for your time. As my first time playing the Forces Of Corruption expansion (didn't have it back then), it was quite fun to take control of a faction that isn't Rebels or Imperials, even if it is slightly unbalanced. FOC also adds new heroes for the old factions, giving a reason to keep playing through Galactic Conquests and the like.

The graphics are arguably the game's worst aspect and the performance isn't always up to snuff when running at double speed (which you'll need because this game suffers from grindy battles quite frequently), but these aren't deal breakers.

2D Dead Space minus gore. The atmosphere is fantastic. The story is quite original, keeps you on your toes. Combat is kinda lame, but meh. Doesn't detract from the very clever design choices in this game. I am so glad I went on a selling spree on the Market to get it when it was 4.99 on the Summer Sale.

Funnest strategy game ever. I get a laugh out of myself when I realize Albert Wesker's plan to infect the world with Uroboros succeeds.

All I see are complaints that it's not an FPS. WHO CARES. It gets most of the main series' aspects down correctly and puts it's own unique twist on them.

My only complaint is it's somewhat low replay valure. Skulls and acheivements being the gist of it.