The Pikmin series is top notch and these HD ports are a great reminder of that for anyone who has played them before, and a wonderful primer to the series for anyone that hasn't. It's startling how well a lot of the artistic decisions that were made in the GameCube era still translate to now, like a soundtrack that is absolutely bang on, and character designs and animations that are infinitely charming. Whether or not the time limit in Pikmin or, conversely, the unlimited time, gauntlet-like puzzle caves and score chasing from Pikmin 2 is the preferred way to go, they're both excellent titles that play just as well now as they ever did.
The Pikmin series is top notch and these HD ports are a great reminder of that for anyone who has played them before, and a wonderful primer to the series for anyone that hasn't. It's startling how well a lot of the artistic decisions that were made in the GameCube era still translate to now, like a soundtrack that is absolutely bang on, and character designs and animations that are infinitely charming. Whether or not the time limit in Pikmin or, conversely, the unlimited time, gauntlet-like puzzle caves and score chasing from Pikmin 2 is the preferred way to go, they're both excellent titles that play just as well now as they ever did.
Pikmin 4 is one of the best video game releases of 2023.
It's a lonely, cold planet over here. Mileage on Outer Wilds will depend largely on how much one enjoys exploration, discovery and extrinsic reward versus repetitive backtracking and restrictive (but also far too long and frequently-occurring-to-be-as-restrictive-as-it-is) time limits. It may certainly be a monkey brain desire for feedback and a more robust signposting of progress, but even knowing that the lack of it here is exactly the point, one can't help think there are examples within interactive media that have done lateral think puzzles better. Ones that would waste less time in between solving puzzles, too. Clearly, there's a majority disagreement for this view, so take it with a pinch of salt, but also go into it aware that it's not going to be for everyone. It is an experience that introduces a lot of mind-bending sci-fi concepts and a surprisingly emotional, if conflicting, conclusion. One just wonders if we like the scaffolding more than we like the building itself. Perhaps, though, it's just that some people really don't like time loop mechanics.
Robocop: Rogue City is the very definition of a solid 7 out of 10 which is somewhat reminiscent of the PS2 era in the sense that there were more outliers released during a given year - the type that would be establishing a lot of the formulas that in a risk-averse mainstream market we find difficult to break away from now. It's a strange point to make as we reach a maturation point in what is likely to be a historic year for risk-averse mainstream video game releases but if it were not for a set of fairly prominent technical issues at the time of release and the writing which, while capturing the broad strokes of the Robocop appeal, isn't quite as sharp as it could've been, Robocop: Rogue City puts all of its efforts into all of the right places and does feel like an outlier because of this. It simply is some of the most fun that can be had in interactive media this year and because of the frame it finds itself in will be a dead cert for a future hit cult classic.