Arcade (these are single credit clears):
Espgaluda (4/5)
-Amazing shmup. Great bosses (especially the final one), the slow-mo mechanic is really satisfying to use while also making the game fairly accessible for beginners (like me), the scoring system is fun even at a casual level, and the soundtrack is legendary. The only Cave game I've beaten so far; hoping to get more sometime soon.
Haunted Castle (2/5)
-I went on a big Castlevania tear this year, having only played the original game before (in 2010). This game sucks though - obnoxious level design that demands nothing but memorization, and the boss fights are seriously pathetic. There's a couple of neat pieces of music though.
J.J. Squawkers (4/5)
-Really cool platformer in the vein of the Ghosts 'n Goblins series. It's really fast-paced and has an interesting selection of weapons. The enemies are very aggressive and random too, with some neat behaviors - especially fun to deal with on the game's harder second loop. The stages can be kind of undercooked or simplistic-feeling, though, as can the bosses.
Midnight Wanderers (4/5)
-A seriously underrated title from Capcom. Also a GnG-like game, this game has great, detailed art, fantastic controls, and really great level design that throws you in a lot of intense combat situations.
Rastan (4/5)
-Fast platformer with lots of random enemies and a moveset large enough to deal with any nasty formation the game throws at you (shame about the aerial downward stab's awkward hitbox, though). The game could use a little more stage variety aesthetically (visually and aurally - there are only, like, three tracks that play in-game and you've heard them all by the second stage) but what's there is still lovable.
Game Boy Advance:
Ninja Five-O (4/5)
-Awesome platformer with an incredibly cool grappling hook mechanic - way more freewheeling than Bionic Commando's. My only real complaint about the game is that like 80% of the game uses the same, lame single piece of BGM.
Genesis:
Castlevania: Bloodlines (4/5)
-One of the coolest Castlevanias, and that's saying a lot. It's got the same great controls that require methodical play and high-quality stage designs that all the great CV games share, but throws in some extra player abilities that make optimizing play a real joy.
Ranger X (4/5)
-Really cool mech platformer. You control a big, weighty robot (two at once, actually - the game's main draw) with a big arsenal of weapons, and the levels have a ton of variety - I was surprised to find a legitimately awesome stealth mission in here. Some segments feel a little unpolished, but the game is so ambitious (and largely successful) that it's easy to call it great.
The Revenge of Shinobi (4/5)
-Cool, tactical platformer with an amazing soundtrack. Great level design that makes the game very satisfying to stomp, but overall a little stiff for my liking.
Rocket Knight Adventures (4/5)
-Awesome, fast-paced game with great presentation and a lot of really cool scenarios. Most of the game crumbles a little too easy to memorization, though.
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master (3/5)
-Absolutely gorgeous game, but I definitely think it's weak compared to Revenge of Shinobi. As fun as the player's moveset is to deal with, the majority of the game is just way too easy.
NES:
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (2/5)
-Mediocre. Everything in this game with the exception of the art and music sucks (and even the environments are very repetitive-looking).
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (4/5)
-Awesome game. It's not quite as well-paced as the first game - there are a couple of poor levels, including - unfortunately - the first one, and there are no bosses as cool as Frankenstein, Death, or Dracula from the original, but it's still great and the extra playable characters are mostly really fun to use, especially Grant.
Fire Emblem: Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light (3/5)
-Fire Emblem is a cool series. Most of this game's sequels surpassed it (maybe not the second, though), and it has some issues (menu navigation is very cumbersome, for one) but it's a great start.
Gimmick! (5/5)
-One of the best platformers ever. Amazing, weighty controls and a fun-as-hell attack (which also serves as a major method of movement - check out speedruns of this game to see it used to its full potential), and cool, complex levels that blend intense obstacle courses with satisfying exploration.
Journey to Silius (3/5)
-Decent. The stages get kind of repetitive, the camera can occasionally be iffy, and the controls are a bit off (the game seems to eat your jump input under certain conditions), but it has some fun segments buried in there, the weapon variety is nice, and some of the standard enemies can be fun to fight. Kind of feels like a lesser Mega Man, really. Probably most notable for its
amazing stage 2 theme.
Kabuki - Quantum Fighter (3/5)
-Solid platformer. The only thing particularly cool about it is its swinging mechanic, which has more nuance than it appears to at first and is used well in the latter stages. Not especially exciting outside of that, but not a bad game at all either.
Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (3/5)
-Not quite as enjoyable as the first game; the stages are a little too gimmicky. Still totally solid though, and it has more interesting bosses than its predecessor.
StarTropics (3/5)
-Neat game with some cool dungeons and puzzles, and a surprisingly huge amount of weapon variety. Never really reaches excellence but it's cool; like a weird, alternate, less-refined Zelda 1.
Street Fighter 2010 - The Final Fight (4/5)
-Badass. Really weird controls that are very satisfying to master (limited, but in ways that force you to really step back and learn your limits before taking action, making a lot of interesting moments), and the way it constantly changes up stage structure on you always keeps things exciting.
Vice - Project Doom (3/5)
-Good, vaguely Ninja Gaiden-esque platformer. Controls really well and has nice (if sometimes unclear) graphics, but despite having solidly-built stages throughout the game (and some interesting, if brief, genre-shift segments), it never really reaches excellence.
PC:
Armored Hunter Gunhound EX (3/5)
-A fast-paced mech platformer. Lots of energy and variety, but I feel like it lacks the substance of Gigantic Army. I need to give this a few more playthroughs before I can really judge it, though.
Dark Souls II (4/5)
-Maybe the weakest of the Souls games (largely just due to being very inconsistent visually and having a lot of poor bosses), but it's still an extremely solid game. Never reaches the heights of Demon's Souls or Dark Souls but it's great.
Gigantic Army (4/5)
-Really great. A tactical, slow mech platformer in the vein of the Assault Suits series, with great weighty controls (as is the standard for games like these). It doesn't have the flash most Assault Suits-likes do, but it makes up for it by having really well-built levels with lots of action (and man, that melee attack is fun as hell).
Mute Crimson+ (3/5)
-Really solid platformer with excellent art and cool bosses (especially later on), and some great unlockable modes.
Undertale (4/5)
-Really charming game. Kind of simplistic and the most fun fights in the game are sort of hidden behind some annoying requirements, but it's paced well enough that it never wears itself thin, and the soundtrack is phenomenal.
PC-98:
Night Slave (3/5)
-Another Assault Suits-like game. Solid, but it has a lot of annoying unskippable cutscenes (especially in that final stage, jeez), a lack of challenge, and weapons take a little too long to level. The Gradius-like powerup system is cool though.
Playstation:
The Adventure of Little Ralph (4/5)
-Excellent platformer with stellar presentation. Despite being fairly long, it's intense throughout, too. I think the only real flaw is that checkpoints are a little too frequent.
Castlevania: Chronicles (4/5)
-Probably my favorite Castlevania. It's the only one that feels like a true refinement of the methodical original game, without adding lots of extra layers on top of it (like Rondo of Blood or Bloodlines, which are still excellent). I wish the game got going a little faster, though.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (3/5)
-Amazing art and music but the game is entirely lacking in substance. It's pretty much a half-baked action game (with great controls) stapled onto a half-baked Metroid-style adventure game. Pretty but unmemorable.
Super Nintendo:
Assault Suits Valken (4/5)
-The original gold standard for mech platformers. Absolutely amazing controls that really drive home the feeling of piloting a huge robot, and tons of variety. The game is a little on the easy side due to weak enemies and the overpowered shield the player has, but it's still excellent.
Castlevania: Dracula X (2/5)
-Very middling Castlevania game. Very amateur stage design, and Richter feels sluggish to control, but there are glimmers of quality in here (probably just because of things ported over from Rondo of Blood).
Final Fight 3 (3/5)
-Solid if dry brawler. Controls well but there's no real variety and it's not a particularly intense game; real downgrade from the amazing original.
Hagane: The Final Conflict (4/5)
-Absolutely awesome platformer with incredible art and really cool controls - the somersault move that combines with your attack and jump button to give you a lot of extra moves is really interesting. The levels are a little short, though.
Kishin Douji Zenki: Battle Raiden (3/5)
-Solid game from the developers of Hagane. Its huge character, possessing a moveset right out of a fighting game, is cool to control and unique among protagonists from this genre, but the game is definitely too easy and doesn't ask you to really learn your interesting moveset.
The Ninja Warriors Again (3/5)
-Absolutely sublime combat - especially if you're playing as Ninja, whose bulk is really fun to steer around the battlefield - but the game is lacking in variety, and probably could have stood to be a stage shorter.
Pocky and Rocky (4/5)
-Intense top-down run-and-gun with excellent art. Really high-energy game; I honestly can't find anything to complain about here.
Super Castlevania IV (3/5)
-Solid game with a cool soundtrack. Kind of long and easy for a Castlevania game, but it has a pretty excellent finale. Even if it's one of the weaker Castlevanias, it's at least worthy of the name.
Tetris Attack (4/5)
-Not a lot to say. One of the best puzzle games.
Wild Guns (4/5)
-Incredibly solid Cabal-style shooter with great pacing.
PC Engine:
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (4/5)
-Amazing art and music, cool hidden secrets and alternate paths all throughout the game, and maybe the best lineup of bosses in a Castlevania (Werewolf, Death, both incarnations of Shaft, the original Castlevania boss rush... all awesome). The easy mode character, Maria, is fun to screw around with, too. Definitely one of the best Castlevania games.
Wii:
Doc Louis's Punch-Out!! (3/5)
-Does this really count as a game? It's neat for an hour I guess; like a little training mode / prologue that feels like it could have been cut out of Punch-Out IWii).
Wii U:
Bayonetta 2 (5/5)
-It's more Bayonetta - amazingly fast and fluid action. The weapon variety is much better than the first game's, and the quality-of-life improvements (like the streamlining of the genre-shift segments and the toning down of instant-death QTEs) are nice, but overall it does feel like a downgrade from the first game, with Umbran Climax and the changed Witch Time simplifying things a bit too much. Still absolutely excellent regardless.
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (4/5)
-Absolutely badass bosses, and I really appreciate that the game still feels pretty balanced in co-op (as opposed to something like the Souls games, which break apart as soon as you add a second player). I kind of hate the grindy loot aspect of the game, though; really drags it down.
New Super Luigi U (3/5)
-Definitely a solid expansion. The increased difficulty, relative to New Super Mario Bros. U, could have been really nice, but the tiny stages really harm this game, so as a result I'd still consider the original better.
Super Mario 3D World (4/5)
-Insane amounts of variety and charm, with lots of awesome little details in basically every stage. It's definitely way too easy for the majority of its runtime, but it does a decent enough job of keeping the player engaged despite that. Never really achieves true greatness until the final post-game stage, but still probably the best 3D Mario.
The Wonderful 101 (5/5)
-Amazing action game - one of the most complex games in the genre, with a lot of satisfying systems to learn and master. The game has a ton of environmental variety and a great sense of scale, making it feel like a truly epic adventure. The only real downsides - some of the genre shifts feel a little half-baked, and the boss fights lean a little too heavily on spectacle most of the time. But it's still one of the best 3D action games despite those flaws.
