Jess’s Game Clearing Reviews

Release Year: 2011 System: Switch Date Finished: July 6th Status: Beaten Naturally was curious to see how this was after going through the first one for play club, and man it did not disappoint. The story, characters, humor, and puzzle variety is all a massive step-up from the first game, and just highlights all the more in retrospect that the original Portal was really little more than a test for the concept and ideas. The story has a handful of great twists and turns, the writing is *exponentially* more funny while simultaneously adding bits of lore around GLaDOS and Aperture Science. And the new mechanics for puzzles are incredibly fun, ESPECIALLY the gels. As if all that wasn't enough the co-op campaign is absolutely worth going through as well, it doesn't feel at all like a last minute addition. There's as much thought and care put into the mode as the story, with the puzzles being built around 2 pairs of portals going utterly wild. Even if the first game left you a bi...

 Release Year: 2007  System: Switch Date Finished: June 30th Status: Beaten Very neat puzzle game! It didn't hit me as hard as I may have expected given it's status, but it was still a great time. I can imagine the portals being mindblowing at the time, and even today they're super interesting and fun to mess and all the potential puzzles they bring. The presentation is fairly simple but it works. I will say though...I really wish there was some better balance between navigating the corridors of the facility and doing the test chambers. After a bit that structure in the later parts gets kinda boring with not much getting mixed up or new being introduced mechanically. And even before that, I was surprised at how few puzzle mechanics there was for the test chambers. They just milked the small handful for all they were worth and I wish there was more variety to spice things up. Beyond that though the dialogue is utterly hilarious and the story, albeit straightforward, works we...

Release Year: 2023 System: Switch Date Finished: June 23rd Status: Beaten Tears of the Kingdom feels impossible. It's lightning caught in a bottle for a second time. Breath of the World redefined not only the Legend of Zelda series but the open world genre as a whole. And now the sequel..did almost everything even better, exceeding all possible expectations. Neither game is perfect of course, and while TotK addressed many of BotW's issues, it still fumbles at times. The story as a whole is..a bit of a mixed bag. To start I absolutely love how the game opens, immediately making it clear the much greater story focus than the last game. Link and Zelda walking down a decrepit pathway under Hyrule Castle, which had been forbidden from seeing any of, evokes strong feelings of mystery and uneasiness. The further down you go the distorted voices get more and more prominent, their true intent completely lost. At the end you find the focal point of the early marketing: a mummy-esque corp...

Release Year: 2017 System: Switch Date Finished: May 11th Status: Completed First non-Metroid search action game I've played to the end! This is far more linear in its structure than I imagine most games in the genre are, and honestly I don't mind it. I appreciated the game being pretty clear most of the time about where to go and making backtracking for items very simple. Annoying fall damage aside, I really enjoyed the mix of side-scroller search action with the tank and top-down Mega Man type action on foot. And I really liked the game's unique weapons system and the different utilities for them...though 99% of the time there's no reason to use any main weapon on foot but wave if you have it. I didn't end up seeing much use for the sub weapons but I'm sure others could find good times for them to come into play. The tank weapons I felt were a bit more balanced and I loved how they all had their purposes for different enemies and scenarios. The boss fights wer...

Release Year: 2023 System: Switch Date Finished: May 8th Status: Beaten Never “reviewed” a dlc expansion before but here it goes. I did almost everything I possibly could. Got every collectible type thing in the world, completed the Community, every side quest…the only things I didn’t do was fully upgrade the weapons and beat some of the toughest uniques plus things tied to that. Still pretty fun, loved the new party crew, all the fanservice is amazing, and I loved the prequel story. I wish there were some story elements like what happens soon after this and stuff with Moebius that were expanded on even further, but I still really appreciated what we got. Despite wanting to see more this still feels like a phenomenal ending to this saga and I’m incredibly excited now to see where the future goes from here. The ending sequence in particular got me so much more invested in this universe (multiverse?) lore and I *need* to know as much about it as possible. Absolutely recommend buying the ...

Release Year: 1992 System: PC Date Finished: March 31st Status: Completed (As a heads-up, the romhack I used to play the game mainly just added a few QoL features, like item quick swap or making the Ice Palace more manageable. The latter of which being the only real major change, otherwise it’s the SNES classic. Just cleaned up a tad) So glad to have finally played through ALTTP in its entirety. Back in 2018 I got a little into the Dark World and stopped cause Smash Ultimate came out, and I just never went back until now. The visuals have aged beautifully, the sprite work and general style is timeless. And a lot of the music has since become iconic for good reason between the intro jingle, the main theme, the Dark World, Ganon’s theme, and some of the smaller tunes that still stick in my mind. The gameplay loop is classic Zelda and I never tire of it. The dungeons are fun, but for the most part I found them and the bosses to be a let down. I’m sure it’s just due to being the second go ...