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Last year's list Surprised I haven't been a game this year until today. 1. DOOM: The Dark Ages This honestly wasn't on my radar, I thought the dark ages thing meant it wasn't a traditional Doom game, but boy was I wrong. I liked it a hell (no pun intended) of a lot more than Doom Eternal. It had similar things where certain attacks would refill various things (armor, weapons, health, etc) but I think you weren't limited to one method per stat. Like, I think using the flamethrower would give you armor back, while using a melee would give you ammo back or something like that. This seemed to combine a few, so it felt like there were many different ways to refill your stuff. Being able to parry was a neat addition, but it's not something I need in other Doom games. I loved being able to throw your shield (eventually you get the ability to bounce it between enemies, Captain America style) and have it stick to a guy, which would basically stun it. I ended up mainly using the shield charge to get close to an enemy and blast it in the face with the super shotgun, rinse and repeat until most enemies were dead. I doubt that's as viable a strategy at higher difficulties though. There were a few levels where you would fly on a dragon, and a few where you'd pilot a mech and honestly, while they were neat, I don't really want to do those things in a Doom game. The mech at least felt cool, the dragon not as much. The dragon kind of boiled down to locking onto a turret, dodging its attack, and then counterattacking, no real crazy strategy, which made it pretty boring. The thing I never got tired of was the sensation of being this big, powerful guy. Your steps (at least when you're running) boom with each footstep, when you jump from a decently high area, you can land and create a shockwave that kills a bunch of fodder enemies, which was a lot of fun.

The Switch 2 will be out June 5th, and will sell for $449 in the US, along with a bundle that includes the new Mario Kart World, for $500. The Switch 2 will run up to 1080/120hz undocked, and up to 4K/60hz docked. Check out the official Nintendo Switch 2 website for more information

Happy birthday, cup thief

1. Metroid: Zero Mission 1a. Metroid Fusion 1b. (SNES) Super Metroid 2. Metroid Dread 3. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor 4. (NES) Mega Man 2 5. Super Mario World (96 Exits) 6. Super Metroid (100%) 7. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (100%) 8. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 9. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Normal Mode) 9a. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Hero Mode) 10. Dragon Age: The Veilguard My first Dragon Age game, and I ended up liking it more than I expected I would. I was hankering for a Bioware style RPG to play (and was considering restarting Mass Effect) so this came along at the right time. People say the writing is bad, and I honestly didn't get that feeling. Maybe it wasn't as deep as it could've been considering some of the topics they bring up through the companion characters? I dunno. I think I ended the game with around 35 hours put into it. The main thing I didn't like was that the last 5 hours or so was me just doing side quests so that the various factions would be in good enough standing to not die during the final mission, which I wasn't a huge fan of. I do however, wish that I had realized sooner that selling your valuables to the various marketplaces would give you standing points as well. I was at the usual "point of no return" mission, so I went to sell all my valuable stuff to one vendor and it gave me something like 2000 points towards their standing, so I went back to an earlier save and spread it out a bit more evenly. I was able to get most up to level 2 (out of 3), and two of them up to level 3. There were still side quests I could've done, but at that point I was ready for the game to be over with. The only other thing that bothered me was (point of no return mission spoilers)

Tony Todd dies at age 69 His name might not be one you recognize, but I'm sure you've seen him in a lot of stuff

1. Metroid: Zero Mission 1a. Metroid Fusion 1b. (SNES) Super Metroid 2. Metroid Dread 3. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor 4. (NES) Mega Man 2 5. Super Mario World (96 Exits) 6. Super Metroid (100%) 7. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (100%) 8. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 9. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Normal Mode) 9a. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Hero Mode)

Also, happy birthday!

I got it on Wednesday, started playing late that night. I'd say 10-15 hours, just mainlining through the story. Don't know for sure since the Switch won't tell me yet.

1. Metroid: Zero Mission 1a. Metroid Fusion 1b. (SNES) Super Metroid 2. Metroid Dread 3. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor 4. (NES) Mega Man 2 5. Super Mario World (96 Exits) 6. Super Metroid (100%) 7. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (100%) 8. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 9. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom A great game from beginning to end, if a bit easy. It's cool to see the creative freedom given in the last 3D games carry over into the 2D ones. Loved the art style, glad it got used in more than just the Link's Awakening remake. I may go through it again on the harder difficulty.

1. Metroid: Zero Mission 1a. Metroid Fusion 1b. (SNES) Super Metroid 2. Metroid Dread 3. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor 4. (NES) Mega Man 2 5. Super Mario World (96 Exits) 6. Super Metroid (100%) 7. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (100%) 8. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Been on a bit of a retro kick after getting that CRT upgrade. I don't think i've gotten 96 exits on SMW since 1992. I'd never 100% completed Super Metroid before, so I figured i'd give that one a shot. It's been a long time since i've 100%'d LttP, but it was time for another go round. We also recently re-hooked up my Wii U, so I figured i'd play through Twilight Princess again. Still not a huge fan of that game, but I like it better now than I did the last two times I played it, however long ago that was.

Godzilla Minus One Outside of the first American Godzilla back in the early 2000s, i'd never seen a Godzilla movie before. I quite liked this one, more than I thought I would

James Earl Jones passes away at age 93

It's my own fault for not completely avoiding social media, but it still sucks. I even tried to cover up most of my Instagram feed to not get spoiled, and the one area my hand wasn't covering had a spoiler for the main event. And yeah, Christian getting a title shot and failing at winning is fine, the Luchasaurus fakeout was just fucking dumb

I had both of those spoiled for me so I didn't enjoy them as much as I could've. Both were great though, and I can tell if I hadn't had them spoiled I would've loved the hell out of 'em. The only match result I hated was the Casino Gauntlet, they need to fucking pull that face turn for Luchasaurus already.