Rhythm Heaven Groove

Before I can talk about Rhythm Heaven Groove, I want to talk about Rhythm Heaven Megamix, the last game in the series for the past eight years. Megamix is a compilation of minigames from prior entries (albeit with a big Fever bias), so you'd think it would be a tough act for any potential sequel to follow. However, I was actually hoping Groove would be as unlike Megamix as possible. Despite the strong base, Megamix made a lot of changes I really don't care for. It added a story mode that bogs down the pacing with dull unskippable cutscenes, it padded out the early game with easy versions of pre-existing minigames forcing you to play through a lot of tedium before you got to the good stuff, the Perfect campaign booted you out automatically so you can't get practice in, the rating system was too generous and showed you how well you did removing all the tension, the Challenge Train made getting unlockables too much of a grind, and the English version replaced the JP vocal tracks with MIDIs. My biggest fear going into Groove would be that it would carry over all of these annoying mechanics from Megamix, so... did it?

Thankfully, no. Rhythm Heaven Groove feels like a back-to-basics return to form for the series, basing a lot of its inspiration on the first game in particular. Structurally, Groove feels pretty much exactly like the first three games. Each set has four tracks and a remix, there's no story, you don't know how you get each ranking, there's plenty of side minigames to unlock by getting Superb/Amazing medals, and the difficulty is genuinely challenging again, albeit very fair. The inputs still aren't as strict as they used to be (which I'd argue is one of Megamix's few genuine improvements), but tracks employ trickier tactics like offbeats as early as the first set, and the rankings are back to requiring near-perfection to get each medal. That's not to say Groove feels outdated though, it definitely doesn't feel like a step-back from Megamix in terms of ambition. While Groove initially tricks you into thinking there'll only be eight sets of minigames like in Tengoku, it eventually pulls out the rug from under you revealing an entire eight more sets for the postgame. There's an impressive count of 80 minigames in Groove, with 30 original additions, 30 sequels, and a whopping 20 remixes. Add in some of the most fleshed-out side content in the series, a multiplayer mode with 30 exclusive minigames, and a more robust Perfect Campaign that unlocks blind versions of each minigame, and you get a game that can absolutely rival Megamix in terms of scope and content, but without all the repeated content and padding.

But how are the minigames themselves in Groove? Pretty great, actually, consistently so. There really aren't many stinkers here, even Fever had games like Catch Of The Day and Love Rap. The first set alone has some solid bangers like Disc Dog and Feeding The Beast, and it only gets better from there. Some of my highlights include Hop N Slide where you test a game design student's glitchy project, Germ Aerobics and Soda Hop which are two very addictive Lockstep-style games, Wiper Bosses which has you control two characters as once as they hop over window-wipers, and Lightning Bolting which has you play as an adorable little dancing alien as he teleports away from lightning strikes to head-banging rock music. Though the easy standout for me and a lot of people is A For Effort, the most shitpost-y minigame in the series which flashes stock photos in your face in a rocking ode to the letter A. It's indescribably funny, you really have to play it for yourself. My only gripe with the minigame lineup in Groove was that the base versions of some of these games can feel a bit too simple and easy, but those issues were instantly addressed when I found out every minigame has a sequel in this one. And this is probably my favorite roster of sequel games in the series, each one feeling like a meaningful improvement with more cues, faster speeds, and more things to worry about. And that's not even mentioning the aforementioned 20 remixes, allowing you to experience basically every single minigame combo possible. More than in any other RH game, Groove gets to have the legroom to fully explore all of its ideas and push your rhythmic skills to the limits, and it all culminates in an incredible gauntlet of six remixes back-to-back that all rank among the best in the game.

As far as side content goes, Rhythm Heaven Groove also really excels. The main selling point was a new mode called Beatspell, which is basically a rhythm-based RPG not too dissimilar from something like Patapon. It seemed neat but unassuming at first, but I was shocked by how invested I got in Beatspell to the point that it was a highlight of the entire package for me. Once you get introduced to enough mechanics, there's a surprisingly level of depth and mastery to picking the right spells, crafting a powerful build, and nailing those inputs to shred through each opponent. The music's great throughout, there's some surprisingly solid lore to piece together as you go, and beating the campaign unlocks a roguelike mode that really lets you run loose with Beatspell's mechanics. Genuinely one of the best side modes I've seen in a long time. Beyond that, though Rhythm Heaven Groove also has plenty of unlockable minigames, the return of Drum Lessons from Tengoku (and much more fun at that), and as mentioned, an entire multiplayer campaign that's actually really fun with very few misses of its own. Considering Rhythm Heaven Groove is one of the cheapest first-party Switch 1 games at only $40, the amount of content here is super impressive.

It seems the most divisive aspect of Rhythm Heaven Groove are the visuals, and I can see it in some areas. The minigames go for much more inconsistent artstyles than before, and the main menu looks pretty barebones. That being said, it's not something I ever found detracting from my experience. As a matter of fact, the weird artstyle shifts almost feel more like a purposeful throwback to the more inconsistent artstyle of Rhythm Tengoku, the game that Groove as a whole feels like it's harkening back to. There are a few areas that I don't think look amazing such as the Yum Bot Simulator minigame and a few menus, but I still think the vast majority of Rhythm Heaven Groove looks clean and charming, very much feeling like a more high-res take on 2D Wii games. The other point of criticism I see a lot is that out of the game's 20 remixes, roughly five have unique theming. Don't get me wrong, I'd certainly love it if all 20 remixes had unique themes, but I get why they didn't considering how many of them there are and it's not a huge deal-breaker for me either. The themes aren't why I like remixes, it's always been the actual core gameplay and how the various minigames flow together and bounce off each other, and that's still completely intact. If anything, my bigger issue is how few remixes in the second half have vocal tracks. So yeah, I do see the visual criticisms here but they're definitely not anything that meaningfully detracts from the game for me.

As for the soundtrack, yeah it's incredible. Groove has easily the largest soundtrack in the series between its 110 minigames and variety of side modes like Beatspell, and so much of the music absolutely slaps. Even the sequels have fully original music tracks this time rather than remixes, just to show how much effort was put into this absolute behemoth. It maybe leans a bit more into house and funk than I'm used to seeing from the series but that is by no means a bad thing (it is called Groove, after all). Tracks like Brolly Good Show, Disc Dog, Remix 9, both Lightning Bolting tracks, A For Effort, Sneezy Moon 2, and High Five Fever already stick out as instant classics, and that's not even getting into the most impressive part of the OST: THE VOCAL TRACKS. Rhythm Heaven Groove has over a dozen vocal tracks, the most in the series to date, and most of them are kept in their native languages even in the US version thank god. Most of them are fantastic pieces of j-pop, with one being performed by Ado of all people, but there's also a few tracks in the latter half of the game sung in other languages like French, Spanish, and Italian that are similarly stellar. Special mention to Soda Hop 2, a Lockstep clone which brings back the singer from my beloved Frog Hop to perform an Italian rock banger. I don't think you could make a more "for me" minigame than this.

So with all that glowing praise, is Rhythm Heaven Groove my favorite game in the series? Well, no. I still think Rhythm Heaven Fever is my favorite, as it's a more stylish, polished, and cohesive experience all around with the strongest artstyle, remixes, and soundtrack in the series. However, Groove is a very close second thanks to its consistent quality, perfect level of difficulty, abundance of content, and gargantuan OST. It addresses pretty much all of my issues with prior Rhythm Heaven games and strikes the perfect balance between paying fanservice to the past and charting a new way forward for the series. It's such a joyous game through and through, and really brings me back to the Wii era with its clean vector artstyle, variety of goofy modes, and high-energy soundtrack. At the moment, I would even call Rhythm Heaven Groove my Game Of The Year, and I couldn't be any happier to say it. Even after all these years, Tsunku hasn't missed a beat.

So, What Did I Think About The Star Fox Remake?

A while back, I made a few posts about my thoughts on the Star Fox series. Like many fans, I am also fascinated by this series' potential and frustrated how it's never been able to fully capitalize on this. So when Nintendo announced a new Star Fox project only to reveal it's yet another remake of Star Fox 64, I was... baffled to say the least. Maybe even frustrated. And yet, after that initial shock wore off, I actually got kind of excited.

Because here's the thing, as you probably already know, I do not think Star Fox 64 is a perfect game. The controls are alright in the on-rails sections, but feel stiff and heavy in the all-range stages making all of them very irritating to play. This is especially bad in the Star Wolf stages where the AI is programmed to lock themselves onto your back, and since your teammate's AI sucks, it's not uncommon to have all four Star Wolf members hounding you in a matter of seconds. Add in some annoying gimmick stages like Aquas and you get a game riddled with "that one levels". Presentation-wise, I also think Star Fox 64 really suffers from being a Nintendo 64 games. The stages look drab and sparse, the framerate hovers around a choppy 20fps, and the pretty good score is held back by a dinky-sounding MIDI soundfont. I still think Star Fox 64 is good, it has plenty of great stages and bosses, but I don't love it as much as everyone else does. 

And quite frankly, neither of its two remakes so far have really managed to improve on it much. Star Fox 64 3D is shot-for-shot to a fault, and Star Fox Zero while more of a reimagining is held back by its garbage Gamepad controls and drab visual style. So there is actually a lot of room for improvement with Star Fox 2026. We already knew from the trailers that the game was getting a robust visual overhaul and a fully reorchestrated soundtrack, so that's a good start. If this remake could tighten up the controls, improve ally/enemy AI across the board, and maybe even make Aquas fun, it could actually be a worthwhile remake. What also helped my optimism was the reveal that Velan Studios, a fairly new studio composed of Vicarious Visions alumni, was working on this remake which I think made a lot of people immediately realize what Nintendo is planning here. They're basically pulling a Samus Returns or Link's Awakening by having a new team tackle remaking one of their IPs before following it up with an original mainline game. And with the Star Fox hype created by Fox's appearance in the Mario Galaxy Movie and Nintendo's pretty solid advertising for the game, this remake actually had the best chance so far of elevating Star Fox as a series to new heights of popularity.

So, did Star Fox actually manage to live up to my expectations for it as a remake? Absolutely it did. Let me just get the gameplay stuff out of the way first, Star Fox '26 fixes damn near all of my issues with the original game and then some. The controls feel buttery smooth, especially in the all-range missions. The Arwing feels just as agile as it's supposed to be, and I feel like I'm able to line up shots much more intuitively. Dare I say, this version of the game feels much more like Star Fox Assault, which I've always praised as having the best-feeling Arwing controls in the series. The AI is also a lot better, my teammates get shot down far less often because they can actually hold up a fight, and Star Wolf's fights feel a lot more organic than before. You can now restart missions without losing a life which I personally love since it makes getting medals way less tedious. And Aquas... well okay, it still isn't too fun but it is a bit faster-paced and runs so much better. You can tell Velan Studios understood what Star Fox 64 does well and what could be improved, and they intelligently cleanup all the original's rougher edges which maintaining the strong game design at its core. In a similar vein to TTYD, this is one of the remakes that feels like you're playing the original game through rose-tinted glasses. I don't think I could ever go back to the N64 version after this.

The biggest change Star Fox '26 makes is in the story department. Not only has the game been completely redubbed but it also got new cutscenes between each of the stages to flesh out the story. Now, I know Star Fox 64's voicelines are iconic. They're hammy, cheesy, and wonderfully charming and this remake doesn't replicate that in the slightest. But it's also not trying to? Star Fox '26 is trying to go for a more serious, gritty take on the story akin to the tone of Star Fox Adventures and Star Fox Assault, and I'm all for it. Star Fox are more explicitly a team of mercenaries, you get lots more scenes with them hanging out on the Great Fox bantering, and failing a mission actually feels like a genuine setback for the characters in a way that it just didn't in the original. Falco's development from a jerk to a jerk with a heart of gold feels more accentuated, Fox has the snark he had in Adventures but not to the point of stepping on Falco's toes, and Slippy gets a characterization glow-up by focusing more on his tech nerd side. For as quotable as the original 64 is, I can't really take the characters seriously like I can in this version which I think makes this a much stronger jumping-off point for a sequel.

On a presentation level, Star Fox '26 is also an extremely impressive package. The visuals are easily some of the most stunning on the Switch 2, while also running at a smooth 60fps and looking sharp even on handheld. Every stage looks distinct and the colors are more bold and vivid without hurting the original's atmosphere. And the soundtrack, which has been fully redone with a live orchestra, is just perfect. Star Fox always works best with orchestrated music, and this score goes full-on space opera. It's the best OST the series has ever had, and Stephen Barton did an immaculate job with it. There's also a nice array of extra modes and features including an impressively detailed lorebook, a mission mode, Mouse Mode controls, Co-Op mode returning from Zero (its one good idea), and... GameChat vtuber avatars. Yeah that was a bit of a strange choice but it did genuinely a lot of streamers onto the game so I'm not complaining. But of course, I can't go without mentioning the Battle Mode. Finally, we have a Star Fox battle mode with online and bot support, and it's fun! Not as robust as Assault's, but with the great all-range controls, dogfights feel better than ever. That being said, only three maps isn't enough and my biggest wish for this game is for Velan to keep support the multiplayer with new modes and maps because there's so much potential here.

So yeah, Star Fox '26 is a genuinely fantastic remake, the best version of Star Fox 64 bar none. It looks and sounds incredible, adds enough extra content to justify itself as a package, and most importantly, fuses 64 with all the best aspects of Assault to create what is currently my new favorite Star Fox game in the entire series. Velan Studios has proved that they fully get it and with how much publicity this remake is getting, the future of Star Fox is brighter than ever. I just really hope Nintendo actually takes advantage of this opportunity and finally lets Velan push the series forward.

Mina The Hollower

Mina The Hollower was one of my most anticipated games of the year. I loved Shovel Knight and I especially loved Specter Of Torment, so to see Yacht Club Games go full gothic for their next big game was a cool prospect. The clear inspiration from Zelda, Castlevania, and soulslikes, all genres I love, also felt tailored specifically for me. And the reviews on Metacritic looked incredible, a 92?! It was the best-received game of the year! Better than Resident Evil, better than 007, better than Pokopia! I was all in on the Mina hype cycle, counting down the hours until its release, and woke up bright and early super excited to play it. So naturally, when I finally got my hands on it, I... liked it. But unfortunately, I didn't love it.

Mina The Hollower starts pretty strong. The prologue was a very tightly-designed tutorial with banging music, the borrowing mechanic was creative and felt great to use for platforming, the early boss fight against Thorne was a ton of fun, and the pixel art was charming and luscious throughout. Then the world opens up, and taking the time to explore the overworld and level up was easily my favorite part of the game. If there's one thing Mina consistently nails, it's the map design and the sense of exploration. Pretty much every screen was memorable making it easy to navigate even if I didn't have a map, and there were tons of cool collectibles hidden all over the place that felt intuitive and satisfying to collect. The first dungeon was also pretty solid, if a bit unremarkable, and the difficulty throughout felt tough but fair. I've seen a lot of reviews claim this early stretch was the hardest part of the game, but I thought it was all pretty reasonable if you take the time to explore.

But once I started to tackle the first three dungeons, the cracks started to show a bit. One potentially interesting mechanic was the sidearms which basically work like the secondary weapons in Castlevania in that you can swap them out. However, in Mina, many collectibles are straight-up hidden behind these temporary sidearms and if you happen to not have the right one at the right time, you gotta go backtrack for the one you need. As a result, I found myself not experimenting with the sidearms at all since I felt I needed one that let me jump across multiple spaces. There's a similar issue in terms of the keys. There are tons of locks hidden around, and more often than not you will not have enough keys to unlock everything which ends up leading to, you guessed it, even more backtracking. Where this issue really becomes apparent is when I realized that there aren't really any permanent ability unlocks like in most games of this vein. Outside of stuff like stat increases, Mina at the start of the game is basically the same as Mina at the end of the game. So you end up not getting that satisfying sense of progression that you usually would in a Zeldalike, but you still have all the backtracking.

It was also around this point that the enemy and boss design was really starting to bug me. Mina's movement kit is fairly limited. You can only attack in four directions, your weapons all have very thin hitboxes, and your only dodge move is the burrow which has more of a starting delay than your average dodge. So naturally, most of the enemies have really erratic eight-directional movement that can feel frustrating to learn, and don't even get me started on the flying enemies. I ended up bruteforcing a lot of the combat encounters in this game with a tank build because I always had enough health refills for it, which made Mina's combat just feel unsatisfying. Compared to something like Silksong or Nine Sols which gave you so many options to counter your aggressive opponents, I felt like I was constantly on the back-foot and getting randomly clipped by an enemy in Mina. And this only got worse with the boss fights which are often these huge monsters with confusing hitboxes, especially if you try to stand behind them. The weird part is that I didn't really end up dying much in Mina compared to other soulslikes I've played, but that's less because of the game design and more because of how many safety nets you have. I'd rather have a game like Silksong or Metroid Dread where it's super easy to die but everything feels tight and deliberate, to a game as messy as Mina.

While I was still enjoying the exploration and the platforming, the combat just kept getting in the way, and I wasn't really as invested in the setting and story to make up for that. The main premise felt very predictable, you could see the main twist coming from a mile away, and a lot of the music in the first half was more atmospheric and ponderous compared to the consistent bangers we had in Shovel Knight. And all of this came to a head in the third dungeon, Septemburg, which was so bad that I nearly gave up on the game altogether. The concept was cool. It's a Halloween town with giant lawnmowers, pumpkins all over the place, and a creepy serial killer occasionally chasing after you. However, there's also wind mechanics and lightning strikes that home in on you unless you're near a lightning rod (something that I felt was very poorly conveyed), and the enemy design is at its absolute worst here. So while the dungeon actually started off as pretty fun, by the end you're dealing with all this shit at the same time while being chased by the serial killer and it just felt way too overtuned. I was genuinely shocked that this was the game that was getting all those 92s, I wasn't having fun and felt completely checked-out.

But then, as I reluctantly started to head over to the fourth dungeon, I noticed something. The game was... getting good again? Every dungeon from Bone Beach onward was genuinely fun and creative with more engaging platforming than ever before and less frustrating enemy encounters. It also helped that I was able to scrounge up enough bones to buy some pretty great upgrades and equippable trinkets that mended a lot of my bigger issues with the game. I unlocked the ability to equip two sidearms, and I got a trinket that gave me a boost of speed every time I hit an enemy allowing me to play as aggressive as I wanted. The boss fights felt less repetitive and focused on contact damage, the story got a bit more engaging as it focused more on Mina's conflicted nature, and even the music got way more energetic and bumping, especially Yuzo Koshiro's tracks which I'd argue are the best in the game. The high point for me was the penultimate dungeon, the Astral Orrery, a gorgeous space-themed area with tons of inventive gimmicks, stellar music, and a fantastic three-phase boss fight to cap it all off. Not to say the final dungeon wasn't also a pretty great sendoff, it was Mina at its most unabashedly gothic and ended on a surprisingly gutsy and tragic final note that really stuck with me.

So then, where does that leave Mina The Hollower. I'm glad I did end up really enjoying it by the end, but that doesn't really change the fact that I just wasn't enjoying myself for much of the first half, and a lot of my issues with the early-game still hold true. The fact that there's a New Game Plus with a bunch of variations does help if I ever want to replay the game, but would I ever want to start up a new save and have to deal with those growing pains again? Maybe I'd know how to dodge those issues on a second playthrough, but does that make them not issues anymore? I don't know. All I can say is, I think Mina The Hollower is a great game with strong platforming and exploration, a stellar second half, and loads of charm and polish. But it's just not one of my favorite gaming experiences of the year, not with as many lows as it had. I wouldn't even say it was my favorite indie 2D Zeldalike starring a rodent with a whip, since I thought last year's Pipistrello & The Cursed Yoyo was a much better game in pretty much every respect. 

That being said, I'm glad it seems to be doing well as Yacht Club Games did really need the hit. It may not have lived up to Shovel Knight for me, but I'm glad these guys get to keep on making games.

Yoshi & The Mysterious Book

I've been meaning to get back to writing more longform reviews about the new games I play, but playing Yoshi & The Mysterious Book was what really clinched it. I have so many thoughts about this new Yoshi game, and I just need to let them all out.

The Switch 2 has had easily Nintendo's most experimental game library since the Gamecube. A Mario Kart game with parkour and movement tech? A 3D Donkey Kong game built around terrain deformation? A sequel to Kirby Air Ride? A Pokemon-themed Dragon Quest Builders sequel starring Ditto? A Splatoon looter shooter? Star Fox-themed vtubers? These are all such off-the-wall game concepts and yet, so far at least, they've all been consistently well-executed and surprisingly fun. No thanks to Nintendo's marketing, though. Their trailer game especially this year has been absolutely awful, with Pokemon Pokopia being a glaring example since they for some reason neglected to mention the game's stellar 20-30 hour campaign. This damn company is lucky I trust them with putting out quality games because if they were anyone else, these trailers would've gotten me to walk away and never look back. And no game got hit with this worse than Yoshi & The Mysterious Book.

Yoshi & The Mysterious Book had some of the absolute worst trailers I have ever seen in a game, with each one slowly walking you through a single level in the first world. You know, the boring tutorial levels with the most basic puzzles. The concept of researching Yoshi's Island's enemies seemed cool but the actual gameplay looked very guided and mindless. The patronizing narration that was clearly meant to appeal to little kids definitely didn't help matters either. By the time the game reached its review embargo, I feel like most people still didn't know what Mysterious Book was even about and most the footage we saw looked really dull. But having played the game myself, I'm happy to say Nintendo did this game a serious disservice. Those trailers didn't even come close to showing off Mysterious Book's creative puzzles, varied mechanics, immense personality, and surprisingly unhinged energy. This is not just a traditional Yoshi game, this is the most experimental first-party Nintendo game I've seen since the original Chibi Robo.

Why Donkey Kong Bananza Is Better Than Odyssey

So far, I think Nintendo has been mostly killing it with the Switch 2's first-party lineup, to the point where some of them have caused me to re-evaluate their Switch 1 predecessors in a harsher light. Mario Kart World is the biggest example, as it's so deep and freeform that it made 8 Deluxe feel too restrictive by comparison. But another case of this has been Donkey Kong Bananza, the spiritual followup to Super Mario Odyssey that has pretty much entirely eclipsed it for me. While I still think Super Mario Odyssey is a top-notch platformer with stellar movement, a strong sense of adventure, memorable locals, solid boss fights, and an impressive postgame, it does have a lot of little issues that start to get on my nerves the more I play it. This is especially notable with the release of Bananza which not only fixes pretty much all of my issues with Odyssey, but actively improves with every playthrough for me. So I wanted to try and dig into what about Bananza I find so compelling and where I think Odyssey has begun to fall a bit short by comparison. 

Platforming And Gimmicks: Odyssey and Bananza are both structured fairly similar on the surface. They each have roughly 15-20 major areas each focusing on a main mechanic that it proceeds to flesh out before moving onto the next one. However, the types of mechanics each game chooses to develop is where things really differ. Super Mario Odyssey doesn't really have many standout platforming gimmicks, it's a lot of the kinds of stuff you've already seen before like moving and disappearing platforms. Instead, each Odyssey kingdom primarily focuses on developing a Capture. The Wooded Kingdom has the Uproots, the Seaside Kingdom has the Gushens, the Bowser Kingdom has the Pokios, and so on and so forth. The captures in Odyssey are certainly fun to mess around with, but they don't really build on Mario's base movement like I would want. Instead each capture has their own unique moveset that's usually simpler than Mario's complex platforming movekit, meaning that Odyssey aims more for gameplay variety than platforming variety. That's not inherently bad, some people really like this variety, but I personally tend to like my platformers more focused on the actual platforming rather than radical gameplay shifts.

Donkey Kong Bananza doesn't have captures. It does have the Bananza forms which do change up your moveset, but each Bananza form is more developed than your average capture and the fact that you can swap to them at any time means they feel more like an extension of Donkey Kong's moveset rather than an entirely unique form of gameplay. Since there are no captures, each layer in Bananza instead aims to introduce and develop a new type of terrain to mess around with. From the Switcheroo Goo in the Divide, to the acorns that grow vine platforms in the Forest, to Liftoff Ore in Resort, to the muck/salt combo in Feast, to the Forbidden Layer's weird Fractonium bridges. Of course, some layers also introduce harmful terrain like the Forest Layer's poison and the Tempest Layer's lava rain and lightning. As a result, it feels like every layer in Bananza is able to add another inventive way to utilize Donkey Kong's moveset, your perception of what this big ape is capable of expands as the game goes on. It makes for a more focused experience that's no less varied, and I personally find the unique terrain types to be more innovative and interesting than most of the captures.

Linearity And Progression: One of my biggest issues with Super Mario Odyssey has always been its progression and critical path. In theory, each kingdom having a central story path set in a big open area filled with collectibles would be the perfect way to satisfying fans of both linear 3D platformers and collectathons. However, the main story paths in Odyssey are often simple to a fault, completable in just a few minutes and rarely fleshing out its concepts past the surface level. But even worse is the fact that you don't even need to do them, pretty much any player can just as easily skip the story by collecting enough moons. While I'm all for sequence breaking, it shouldn't feel this easy to just ignore the problems each of the kingdoms are dealing with, and it all makes a casual A to B playthrough of Odyssey feel unrewarding and unfulfilling. If you want the absolute best experience with Odyssey, you gotta go for a 100%, but even that has its issues as I'll go into later.

Donkey Kong Bananza, despite technically being a more open game, actually fixes these progression issues. For starters, the Banandium Gems don't actually progress the story, they're entirely optional and mostly just used for upgrading Donkey Kong. The only thing you need to do in Bananza is complete the story route for each layer, but you're encouraged to go for Banandium Gems so you can stand more of a chance. As a result, it feels like both casual players and completionists feel catered to with Bananza, you can even try not collecting any Banandium Gems for a genuinely tough challenge run. What further helps is that the story paths in Bananza are a lot more interesting and developed than in Odyssey. This is partly due to the layers themselves being larger, often containing multiple sub layers that allow for more varied vistas. Many layers such as the Canyon and Forest Layers even like to have the first sublayer be more open like a traditional Odyssey kingdom, and the deeper sublayers be more linear and challenging. I never leave a layer feeling like I got the short end of the stick, every mechanic feels fully explored. As a result, I can totally see myself replaying Bananza and just ignoring most of the Banadium Gems because simply completing the story is a fun, engaging experience on its own. Not to mention, Bananza still offers plenty of sequence breaks for speedrunners, they just require more advanced movement tech and a greater understanding of Donkey Kong's physics which I think is the preferred way to implement sequence breaks.

Exploration And Rewards: Mario Odyssey's exploration is pretty solid all around. There's plenty of hidden nooks and crannies in each kingdom and lots of moons to find scattered all over the place. However, I do have some gripes still. First off, Odyssey gets off to a very slow start. The first two kingdoms in Odyssey essentially block off most of the collectibles until you complete the prologue stuff which makes them feel a bit dull on replays. This is something Bananza instantly fixes by letting you collect your first Banandium Gem right at the start. But more importantly, Odyssey's exploration doesn't feel rewarding enough. There are three major collectibles here: The coins, the purple coins, and the moons. As mentioned, the moons pretty much only progress the story. Past a certain quota, the only reason you really have left to collect all the moons is just for the 100% reward. The purple coins unlocks souvenirs and costumes for Mario, but the costumes often don't do much outside of allowing you to get a few moons that require them. And the coins mostly let you buy the free DLC costumes and not much else. If you're not really into cosmetics or 100%, going out of your way for collectibles just doesn't do much in Odyssey.

Once again, Donkey Kong Bananza is a big improvement. Right from the start, this game is constantly drawing your eye with fragile walls, hidden nooks, and enticing tunnels to explore each leading to a collectible reward. The sheer complexity of each layer is a site to behold, I'm constantly discovering new hidden areas and gold spots with every playthrough and I'll probably keep finding more for the next decade. As someone who adores exploring spaces in games, Bananza is an absolute dream come true. But of course, exploration for the sake of it isn't always enough, which is why Bananza is also incredibly rewarding. All of Bananza's collectibles feel important. Banandium Gems let you upgrade your skill tree and improve DK's abilities. Fossils let you buy costumes, but this time the costumes actually have gameplay perks so there's a mechanical reason to wear them. The tokens... are admittedly the least important, they just let you buy more Banandium Gems to get the super powerful postgame upgrades. But then there's gold, arguably the most important collectible. Even the story path is constantly asking you to cough up gold, and it's also used for shortcuts, getaways, support items, and several Banadium Gems. It's in your best interest to mine out as much gold as you possible can, which in turn creates this addictive feedback loop where you're constantly getting rewarded for your exploration. It's the collectathon genre in its ultimate form.

Length And Filler: Despite containing the same number of areas both Odyssey and Bananza have pretty vastly different runtimes. Mario Odyssey's main campaign takes me around 10 hours if I take my time, and it took me a little over 20 hours to 100%. Bananza's campaign, on the other hand, takes me around 30 hours to beat and 40 hours to 100%. Just from the numbers, you'd think that this makes Bananza the more padded out game but it's actually the complete opposite. Despite Odyssey being the much shorter game, I found it has a lot of frustrating bits of filler. Tons of moons force you to backtrack to other kingdoms and partake in various fetch quests, there's a few more gimmicky moons like the jump rope and volleyball that are just obnoxious and repetitive on their own, and then there's the postgame itself. Upon beating the game, you'll unlock around 10-20 moons in each kingdom meaning you'll especially have to go back and sweep every kingdom a second time if you want to get 100%. It's kind of exhausting and it doesn't help that a good chunk of these postgame moons are placed far more lazily than the campaign moons.

Donkey Kong Bananza, on the other hand, allows you to collect like 90% of the Banandium Gems on your first go. On one hand, this does mean the postgame isn't as impressive, Bananza doesn't even have any additional layers which I will concede is a bit of a shame. However, it also means Bananza doesn't feel like it has any fluff. All of the Banandium Gems feel like they contribute something, and while some are just placed in tunnels, most of them feel rewarding to discover through paying attention to the environment. Compared to some of the "in plain sight" moons of Odyssey, I at least feel like I have to try to look for most of Bananza's collectibles. There also aren't really any annoying or tedious gems either, no frustrating minigames or rock-kicking or backtracking across layers. There's just no fluff here which makes it all the more impressive that Bananza is that much lengthier than Odyssey. The simple fact is, Bananza just has more content. All of its layers are much bigger and have more to offer than Odyssey's kingdoms, and the levels of interactivity, hidden flavor text, and side objectives like the Smashin Stats and DK Artist give you even more reason to mess around in each layer. It's rare to play a game this lengthy that doesn't feel like it's padding out its runtime at all, Bananza feels fresh and engaging all the way to the end.

Story And Worldbuilding: While I don't think Mario's games ever need a story, there is a reason why Super Mario Galaxy is my favorite one. Putting extra emphasis on the worldbuilding and character writing can turn a great game into an emotionally resonant one. And unfortunately, I don't find Odyssey especially resonant. Super Mario Odyssey's "story" is incredibly barebones and surface level. The Broodals as side antagonists are an absolute void of personality, the world of Odyssey feels like it's lacking in cohesion due to the various artstyles, and the tone is all over the place. By that point, I didn't really mind since it was clear Nintendo had stopped caring about giving Mario even a decent story, but Bananza absolutely proved me wrong. 

Donkey Kong Bananza's story is similarly simple, but it works so much more effectively. DK and Pauline have a strong dynamic that shows in their interactions and Pauline's dialogue, and they have clear goals, motivations, and arcs. The Void Co are also genuinely well-written characters with Grumpy and Poppy have a believable redemption arc. There's plenty of signs containing lore about the underground world and how it all connects, and there's a surprising amount of wit that goes into their writing that feels right in-line with Rareware's typical cheeky style of humor. There's even an optional sidestory about a Fractone exploring the world and recording his discoveries, the first EPD 8 gave to have a legitimately compelling subplot since Rosalina's backstory. I'm not saying Donkey Kong Bananza's story is high art by any means, but it actually makes an effort into emotionally investing the player and I think the game is so much better for it.

Look, I know I was pretty harsh on Super Mario Odyssey. I swear, it's a really good game, I literally made a blog post about how it was one of my favorite games. But ultimately, it was the first of its kind. It was Nintendo's first 3D collectathon platformer since Sunshine that established a whole new formula for the genre, it makes sense that it wasn't going to be as refined as later attempts. Donkey Kong Bananza takes the groundwork that Odyssey laid out and made an game that I find to be one of Nintendo's most well-crafted experiences in years, and one of my new favorite games ever made. 

Top 10 Favorite Rhythm Heaven Minigames & Remixes

With Rhythm Heaven Groove (hopefully) on the horizon, I finally got around to playing through all the Rhythm Heaven games, and what an absolute delight of a series this is. There are so many memorable, inventive, and wonderfully quirky minigames across the four entries we've gotten so far, and I want to talk about my absolute favorites. I decided to make two separate Top 10 lists, one dedicated to the main minigames and the other dedicated to the medley remixes since I wanted to make sure both styles of gameplay got their time in the sun.

Top 10 Rhythm Heaven Minigames 

10. Cheer Readers (Rhythm Heaven Fever)

Cheer Readers is such an elegant minigame. Like all the best Rhythm Heaven minigames, it seems simple on the surface. You're pretty much just doing the wave. But as the song goes on, it keeps layering various music cues on top of each other so you never really have room to breathe, and Cheer Readers 2 only amps up the sheer insanity of it all. Beyond just the fun gameplay though, Cheer Readers also excels with its presentation. The background track is catchy, the voicelines are iconic and memorable, the sheer concept of cheerleaders rooting for you to read books is gloriously absurd, and the visuals are filled with nods to other Rhythm Heaven minigames. 

9. Love Lab (Rhythm Heaven)

Love Lab is one of the most chill minigames in the series. While the touchscreen controls in DS can feel a bit awkward at points, catching and throwing potions in Love Lab feels impressively intuitive and satisfying here. Even scratching the screen to shake the potion feels a lot more responsive than the similar motion in Love Lizards. And with the lovely sunset in the background and wonderfully saccharine music in the background, it's so easy to just zone out and vibe to the music. Considering Love Lab never got a sequel and didn't appear in Megamix, I think it's fair to call this one the most unfairly neglected minigames in the series.

8. Karate Man (Rhythm Heaven Fever)

All the Karate Man minigames are fantastic. Simple as they may be, there's something so universally appealing about punching stuff out of midair. But why is Fever's iteration my favorite? Well, there are two main reasons. First off, the charge punch that has you parry a whole slew of objects in a row is an awesome inclusion to the formula that makes you feel even more badass when you pull it off. But even more importantly, THE MUSIC. Lonely Storm is a head-banging and melodramatic rock track that easily stands out as one of the series' best tracks. It gives this fairly easy minigame so much more intensity and energy, elevating it to being one of the most memorable Rhythm Heaven minigames ever.

7. First Contact (Rhythm Heaven Megamix)

Rhythm Heaven Megamix may not have added too many new minigames, but it had some highlights, and my personal favorite has to be First Contact. The gameplay is fairly basic, just another listen-and-repeat, but that's the point. It's simple so you can focus on the dialogue which is absolutely hysterical. The main premise of translating an alien seems unassuming, until said alien starts trolling with the scientists listening. The reaction shots of the scientists' dumbfounded expressions is comic gold every single time. The sequel version, Second Contact, is just as entertaining since now you play as the alien translating the human who spends the whole minigame talking about his love life. This may not be the most complex Rhythm Heaven minigame out there, but it's certainly the funniest.

6. Tap Trial (Rhythm Tengoku)

It's hard for me to fully articulate why I like Tap Trial so much, because I can't really say it excels at anything in particular. It just gets pretty much everything right. There's a bunch of different musical cues that feel satisfying to pull off, and the speed slowly gets more chaotic as the song goes on. The visuals are a nice blend of cute and bizarre, the soundtrack is a bop, the second version amps up the difficulty perfectly, and pretty much all of its re-appearances in remixes work wonderfully. It's not hard to see why Tap Girl became one of the defacto series mascots considering how her minigame is one of the most addicting and polished in the first game.

5. Ringside (Rhythm Heaven Fever)

Ringside is probably the most memed-on Rhythm Heaven game and for good reason. The sheer premise of Ringside being an over-the-top parody of wrestler interviews is just wonderful, and the execution is even better. The iconic voicelines, the groovy backing track, the fun visuals, it all makes for a top-tier presentation. But how's the gameplay? Well, it is on the easier side but the devs are still able to do some creative stuff with these fairly simple inputs. The final stretch has some very memorable segments like the reporter blabbing on for 15 seconds straight and multiple back-to-back photoshoots making for a particularly standout ending to an already fun minigame.

4. Spaceball (Rhythm Tengoku)

Rhythm Tengoku was the first Rhythm Heaven game I played, and Spaceball was the first minigame that really showed me how special this series could be. So naturally, while it is a fairly easy tutorial song, I have a real soft-spot for this one. This is the first minigame in the series that starts actively messing with the visuals, from zooming the camera in and out to changing your character sprite to obscuring your vision, so you really gotta focus keeping on beat. It's the first time Rhythm Heaven gets really really surreal and even all these years later, its weird factor still hasn't dulled a bit. Add in some incredibly catchy conga music in the background and it all makes for a minigame that is truly hard to forget.

3. Lockstep (Rhythm Heaven)

From what I can tell, it seems a lot of people struggle with off-beats in Rhythm Heaven. Personally, I can't get enough of minigames with off-beats, they feel so satisfying to get good at. And Lockstep is probably the best example of this. Getting those beat switches down may seem tough at first, but with enough practice, they give me a boost of dopamine every time I nail one. Over time, keeping on beat becomes second nature, letting you appreciate the minigame's infectiously upbeat music and inventive visuals. Lockstep is a perfect encapsulation of everything that makes Rhythm Heaven so great, with its demanding gameplay and charming presentation, and it would already be an easy candidate for the number 1 spot if there weren't two minigames I liked even more.

2. Monkey Watch (Rhythm Heaven Fever)

Speaking of offbeats, Monkey Watch is entirely on the off-beat which makes for one of the biggest difficulty walls in the series for a lot of people. I never found Monkey Watch too hard to get down, but it's still immensely satisfying to place due to how impactful the high-fiving sounds are. The visuals also do a great job of channeling that goofy Spaceball energy with plenty of zoom-outs and obstructive scenery attempting to throw the player off. And of course, the music is once again incredible, super upbeat and earworm-y. Seriously, this one came so close to making first place since it has pretty much everything I want in a Rhythm Heaven minigame, but one stole my heart even more... 

1. Frog Hop (Rhythm Heaven)

Where do I even start with Frog Hop? There's just so much to this one. This is a long minigame, probably the longest non-remix in the series, but I don't mind because the core mechanics are so damn fun. The gameplay is quite demanding, tasking you with keeping on beat and juggling multiple inputs, but it all feels fair and satisfying to get down. This was the game that fully sold me on the touch controls since the immediate feedback meant missing a beat always felt like my fault rather than any input lag. On top of the stellar gameplay, the presentation is top-tier. There is something so heartwarming about watching these goofy frogs sing and groove along to a genuinely catchy and authentic rockabilly track. It's hard not to bop your head along with the frogs the whole way through. And that "Thank you verrrrrrrrryyyy muccccchu" is the icing on the cake. 10/10, absolute masterpiece.

Top 10 Rhythm Heaven Remixes  

10. Songbird Remix (Rhythm Heaven Megamix)

Songbird Remix isn't an especially ambitious remix by any means. The music is an absolute banger and the bird-themed visuals are fun, but it's not like it does anything super groundbreaking. Instead what makes this remix so special is the game selection, because we need to talk about how stacked Songbird Tower is. Ringside, Tap Trial, and Frog Hop all in one set?! It's like this remix was made for me specifically. If only I liked Tangotronic 3000 a bit more, maybe I'd rank Songbird Remix even higher.

9. Remix 3 (Rhythm Heaven Fever)

In case you haven't figured it out by now, Rhythm Heaven Fever is my favorite game in the series and that's in big part due to the remixes. Fever's remixes are truly leaps and bounds above the rest of the games and it's not even close, so expect to see a lot of them on this list. While the first two remixes aren't too crazy, Remix 3 is the first one in Fever that really impresses. It's already got a very solid roster of minigames including Working Dough, Air Rally, and Figure Fighter. But what really elevates it is the incredible vocal track backing it all up. Tonight is such a banger and all the minigames compliment it perfectly. In any other game, Fever's Remix 3 would probably be a contender for the top spot, which is just a testament to how good this game's remixes are.

8. Remix 4 (Rhythm Heaven)

Rhythm Heaven's fourth remix is a big step up over the first three and definitely stands on its own as a highlight. The music is this great fast-paced punk rock track and it gives the whole remix this great sense of energy. The love theming is also really cute, and fits the minigame roster really well. And speaking of which, this is yet another very strong set! Love Lab, Munchy Monk, Drummer Duel, DJ School, there's not a single miss here and they're all very well-integrated into the remix. 

7. Remix 4 (Rhythm Heaven Fever)

There are roads that a samurai must travel. Remix 4 is another one of those remixes that may not do anything mindblowing, but just executes everything perfectly. The minigame set is one of Fever's best, containing Packing Pests, Samurai Slice, Micro Row, and my beloved Ringside. The techno-Japanese music track is probably my favorite non-vocal remix theme in the entire franchise, and the whole ninja/samurai theming permeating the remix is insanely cool. And best of all, it all just feels really nice to play. It's not too hard befitting a midgame remix, but it's tough enough to make you feel accomplished for making it through.

6. Machine Remix (Rhythm Heaven Megamix)

I absolutely adore Machine Remix, and I'm not gonna lie, a lot of it is down to the music. Machine Remix's theme is this head-banging rock piece that rivals Lonely Storm in sheer badassary, and makes all the minigames you play feel more intense by extension. Figure Fighter's segments are definitely my favorite because of how well they fit with the music, but there's also Rhythm Tweezers' deliciously challenging arrangements and Fruit Basket's tricky syncopated inputs. Even Glee Club works well here and that's not even a minigame I usually like. Everything just clicks together with Machine Remix, it feels great to play and flows like a well-oiled machine

5. Remix 9 (Rhythm Heaven Fever)

From a presentation standpoint, the argument can be made that Fever's Remix 9 is the high point of the entire franchise. The stylish red/black/white color scheme looks so cool, the vocal track is an absolute banger, and most of all, the minigames are integrated into the music so creatively. You know it, I know it, the Love Rap into Ringside drop is one of the best Rhythm Heaven moments ever. However, from a gameplay standpoint, I do think Remix 9 is a bit choppier to actually play compared to some of the other remixes on this list. Some of the minigame transitions feel a bit too abrupt for their own good. If this remix played as good as it sounded, it'd be a shoe-in for first place, but even as it is now, I still absolutely adore Remix 9.

4. Remix 5 (Rhythm Tengoku)

Despite being easily my least favorite Rhythm Heaven game, Tengoku does have its moments and boy is Remix 5 one of them. WISH Kimi O Matenakute is easily one of my favorite vocal tracks in the series, it's this intense and energetic J-rock track that has no business sounding so good coming out of the GBA's speakers. All the minigames get these hilariously edgy makeovers befitting the dramatic music, and they all fit in with the song quite well. Fans like to criticize this remix for having too much Tap Trial in it, and while I see their point, I like Tap Trial too much to agree. Remix 5 is an absolute joy to play and it's easily one of the most impressive things I've ever seen the GBA pull off.

3. The Final Remixes (All Of Them)

I'm just gonna group all the medley remixes here because having them take up the top spots of the list would be really boring. Because yeah, every Rhythm Heaven game has a remix that's basically a big medley of all the games you've played up to that point, and they're all incredible. Tengoku's Remix 6, Heaven's Remix 10, Fever's Remix 10, and Megamix's Final Remix. They're all perfect final tests of everything you've learned, and the music always does an incredible job of mashing together all these memorable motifs into a single cohesive piece. Though if you had to ask me my favorite, I would definitely say Fever's Remix 10. The music is iconic, it has the best minigame roster, and of course, the double fakeout at the end is just perfect. You may be wondering why this is not number 1 and that's mostly because these medleys use the default skins for all the minigames, when part of the fun in the remixes I find is seeing the unique themes and how the minigames are reskinned to complement them.

2. Remix 8 (Rhythm Heaven)

HOLY SHIT THIS ONE'S FAST. While Remix 4 is technically faster, this one definitely feels the fastest out of any remix in the series due to its frenetic trance music and the minigames picked. Rhythm Rally, Drummer Duel, and Lockstep all in a single remix? The developers had to know what they were doing here. This whole remix is a test of how well you can nail rapid inputs, and thankfully the touch controls are the perfect test for this kind of mayhem, and the minigames flow together impressively well. There's a lot of memorable moments here but the two standouts are definitely the banger Lockstep drop and that heart-pounding speed-up right at the end. I truly respect the sheer ballsiness of making a remix this insane, and mastering it is one of the most exhilirating experiences you can have in this entire series. 

1. Remix 8 (Rhythm Heaven Fever)

If you asked me why Fever is my favorite game in the series, I would simple point you to Remix 8. This remix does everything right. The minigame roster is top-notch, featuring heavy-hitters like Double Date, Air Rally, Working Dough, and Samurai Slice. And even the weaker minigames like Exhibition Match and Launch Party are integrated into the song impressively well. The transitions are also top-notch, every minigame flows into the next super cleanly allowing the song to keep up a brisk tempo throughout. And then, of course, there's the theming. Remix 8 is a breakup song, and a sequel to Remix 3's love song for that matter. The whole remix is portrayed using these sepia-toned photographs, a truly inspired visual touch, and the music track itself has this fun contrast between its infectiously catchy swing tempo and kinda depressing lyrics. Fever's Remix 8 perfectly intertwines its fluid gameplay with its creative theming, it fully displays how Rhythm Heaven at its peak is able to transcend its own genre and become something genuinely transcendant.

Ranking Nine Sols Bosses

Ever since Hollow Knight Silksong hit the scene and knocked my socks off, I've been on a real metroidvania kick. I played Ori & The Will Of The Wisps finally and thought it was incredible, gave Death's Door a shot and thought it was excellent as well, and then I decided to try out Nine Sols which was a much riskier bet. I never really loved the parry as a move, always preferring a standard dodge, so I was worried I'd be unequipped to handle Nine Sols' challenges. Thankfully, with one notable exception, I was able to manage and ended up adoring Nine Sols on so many levels. Its combat system had so much flexibility and a stellar flow-state once you got the hang of it, the platforming was surprisingly smooth and fun, the story was gripping and the characters were incredibly well-developed, the visuals are gorgeous, and most importantly, the boss roster was absolutely top-notch, especially past the halfway point. So let's go ahead and rank them:

C Tier 

11. Goumang

I was really hoping I'd love Goumang's fight more because her design is sick, and how she gets sent off is one of the most memorably morbid moments in the game. But as a boss, yeah, she's kinda weak. She's the only Sol boss with a single phase, and you don't even fight her for most of it. Instead, you spend the fight primarily fighting her jiang-shi footsoldiers, with her only periodically coming into the fray to revive them. The footsoldiers aren't especially fun to fight either, as they're slow to move and often overlap so it's easiest to just run away from them and snipe them from afar with the Azure Bow. It makes for a very dull encounter that doesn't feel especially satisfying to learn and conquer, only really carried by the framing around the fight.

10. Headless Xingtian

Right at the endgame, you can fight Xingtian a second time in an optional encounter and it's very much just... there. Really all this boils down to is Xingtian's fight again but in a larger arena making it way too easy to just smack him with charged attacks. The devs tried to compensate by having a bunch of falling rocks for you to dodge, and tossing in two enemies for you to deal with as well, but they feel like half-measures since they're both very easy to deal with. Especially since those two enemies can be quickly killed permanently. Still, this is a fight against Xingtian who I don't think has an awful moveset, so I'll still place it above Goumang who doesn't even have that going for her.

B Tier 

9. Kanghui

Kanghui was a fight I was dreading because it's yet another mook-based fight. However, I do think this is a much more fast-paced and enjoyable fight than Goumang's for a few reasons. First off, Kanghui is always open to being hit, so there's a risk-reward aspect to the fight. You can focus on shredding Kanghui's health bar as fast as you can letting the enemies build up, or you can focus on clearing the room of enemies at the cost of dragging the fight. Second, there's the fact that this fight is set in a much smaller arena so you can't just scrape through by running away from the mooks, you'll actually have to deal with the enemies this time. While this fight still doesn't exactly play to Nine Sols' strengths, these minor changes did make my victory over Kanghui feel just a bit more rewarding.

8. Xingtian

Xingtian is probably the most forgettable boss for me, despite the interesting story context. This is primarily because of Xingtian's very basic moveset which mostly just revolves around him hitting you a bunch of times with his big-ass hammer. However, there are two interesting wrinkles that did make this fight more enjoyable for me. Xingtian can stop and heal every once in a while which you'll need to disrupt with a charge attack or a talisman attack, so you have to make sure to be mentally ready whenever he pulls this out. And more importantly, this fight is fought in a tiny arena so you really have barely any room to dodge his attacks. Xingtian is a fairly slow boss but with such little room to move around, you are gonna have to parry his blows head-on which helps add to the challenge. I also found this fight to be a great opportunity to abuse the Skull Kick to leap over him which was pretty fun. Still not a super memorable fight, but not poorly-designed by any means.

??? Tier

7. Eigong

For as much as I was enjoying Nine Sols, I had this pit of dread in my stomach for pretty much the entire playthrough. Because I've heard nothing but horror stories of the game's final boss, Eigong. Many have called her the hardest metroidvania boss of all time, and consensus is split pretty harshly down the middle over whether or not her extreme difficulty elevates the game to another level or ruins it outright. And as you can probably tell, I'm unfortunately a bit of a fence-sitter in this discussion.

Eigong is a weird boss to talk about because I think all of her moves in isolation are expertly designed to test everything you've learned. There are moves that require the standard parry, the Tai-Chi kick, the Azure Bow, the double jump, and the Unbounded Counter and you have to quickly figure out what's the best tool for each situation. I also love how Eigong uses some of your own moves like the talisman against you, so it really feels like you're fighting your own mentor. Where things get tricky is the sheer amount of mixups and delays Eigong has in her attacks, meaning it's incredibly hard to actually predict what she's gonna do. Every time I feel like I've gotten into the flow, Eigong completely switches up her fighting style and one-shots me to death. Still, I did find Eigong's first phase pretty fun to learn regardless... but that's just her first phase.

Where the cracks really started to show for me was in her second phase where the sheer amount of mixups just got too overwhelming to handle. Half of her attacks are crimson so you'll need an insane level of foresight to nail those Unbounded Counters, and her big new attack is this screen-clearing wave attack with hitboxes that I just couldn't parse out. I didn't feel capable of managing any of this, and it didn't feel like the game had prepared me for such an unpredictable boss. It felt like I was forced to fight a superboss to even finish the story, a story I was extremely invested in and wanted to see the conclusion of. And no, the third phase doesn't count as a "superboss" since the True Ending is as much as mandatory if you care at all about the themes and characters. Eventually, I just decided to bite the bullet and switch the Story Mode right at the very end. And you know what? I had a great time. It was still difficult, but it did feel more in-line with the rest of the bosses. Just having that extra bit of breathing room really helped me see the good in Eigong's boss fight, though Phase 3 was still kind of absurd.

So this left me at a pretty odd place when it comes to ranking Eigong. This is a fight that I think has a lot of great elements and definitely had a lot more effort put into her than the gank and Xingtian fights, but the difficulty got to a point where I just wasn't having as much fun mastering her compared to most of the other Sol bosses. And while I did end up finding enjoyment out of Eigong's fight eventually, the fact that I had to crank the difficulty down to do so is a pretty serious mark against her. So, middle of the ranking she goes.

A Tier

6. Yanlao

Yanlao's entire chapter was one of my favorites in the game, it had a lot of fun platforming and the sniper sequence was exhilirating. And his boss fight kept up the momentum quite well, even if I think its best aspect is the presentation. I love the unique perspective of how the fight is shown through Yanlao's TV screen, and the music is this driving techno bop that really puts you in the flow of the fight. But even mechanically, this is a pretty fun encounter. Yanlao's claw only really has two attacks that are both fairly easy to deal with, a claw-grab that you gotta dodge and a spinning attack that you gotta parry. However, both attacks deal an absurd amount of damage and as the fight goes on, the arena starts shooting tons of lasers that make it harder to deal with the claw's moveset, so there's still a solid level of challenge here. Just a really fun boss all around, not much else to say.

5. Yingzhao

As far as first bosses in metroidvanias go, Yingzhao is definitely up there with Metroid Dread's Corpius as one of the best. With a fast movement speed, big-sweeping attacks you can't dodge, and a second phase, Yingzhao is the big skill check where the game tries to make sure you know how to parry before letting you move forward. After struggling quite a bit through the early-game, I was pretty worried this guy would be a wall for me... but I actually first-tried him. For me, Yingzhao's fight is the point where Nine Sols finally clicked and I entered into the flow state of parrying attacks, bouncing around with the Tai-Chi Kick, getting in hits when I could, and finding the right time to use the talisman. It really felt like I was playing a rhythm game, and the incredible cinematic flair and banger boss theme helped me feel even more like a badass.

S Tier

4. Jiequan

Jiequan is the point where Nine Sols jumps in difficulty, but it's also the point where the game gets really good as nearly every boss fight and area from here onwards is an absolute banger. Compared to some of the more flashy fights in Nine Sols, Jiequan is more of a standard 1-on-1 duel but it's a very well-crafted one. Jiequan has a lot of sweeping attacks that feel very nice to parry, a few overpowering crimson moves that pretty much demand the Unbounded Counter, and best of all, a very fun attack where he tosses a handful of spiked handbombs that you can parry back at him. Genuinely, the bomb attack alone made this fight for me, it was so fun to use his own weapons against him. Outside of the mechanics, this is yet another fight that really shines in terms of its setup as Jiequan is probably the most love-to-hate Sol of the bunch so you have extra motivation to take him down, and I personally loved the third-phase fakeout for how well it ties into his character.

3. The Fengs

The Fengs were a very important boss for me since they were what really got me to start abusing Unbounded Counters and stunning arrows. If it wasn't for these guys, I probably would've given up on Eigong sooner. Fuxi is such an aggressive foe that any opportunity I had to stun him was one I needed to capitalize on, and it made for a pretty engaging fight. Things got even better once Nuwa got involved, her various attacks synergize with Fuxi incredibly well and trying to balance her various snake projectiles with Fuxi's usual aggression was a ton of fun. And as per the usual, I also loved the presentation here with the whole fight being set in a raving club. I've seen people complain a lot about this fight, that Fuxi's hitboxes are jank or that Nuwa's projectiles are too intrusive, but I found most of this boss pretty intuitive and well put-together. As far as I'm concerned, this is a great example of a gank fight done well. 

2. Ji

Something I've noticed about Nine Sols is that I found it shines in aerial combat. The Tai-Chi kick is so fun and versatile, and parrying multiple attacks in the area feels so insanely good. So how about a fight that's just exclusively that? Ji's main weapon of choice are throwing knives that loop back around, so his boss will have you ping-ponging between boomeranging knives and it's so damn satisfying. That's not his only attack though, he has a lot going on, like a divination wheel that lets you choose what he'll do next, a threatening black hole move, and red waves that you gotta dash through. There's so much to juggle here but it all feels fair and readable, making for a fight that I thought was an absolute joy to conquer. Though of course, I can't talk about Ji's fight without talking about the setup and presentation. Ji easily had one of the best storylines in the game since you got to meet him early on, and his whole arc about accepting that Yi will finally end his immortal life gives this boss fight a lot of emotional weight, only amplified by the wonderfully dramatic boss theme. 

S+ Tier

1. Lady Ethereal

If you've paid attention to the rest of the list, this probably shouldn't be much of a surprise to you. Lady Ethereal has pretty much everything I like in a Nine Sols boss. Fast but readable aerial attacks coming from all directions forcing you to lock-in and parry it all like a badass, gorgeously haunting visuals and hands down my favorite music track in the entire game, multiple phases that build on the last without getting too overtuned, an emotional setup buoyed by one of the most tragic characters in the game, and on top of all that, it's a gank fight with coordinated attacks that flow together incredibly smoothly. The main concept of dealing with Lady Ethereal's clones as you try to find the real one feels like it could've been really annoying, but you're given more than enough time to smack a talisman on the real Lady Ethereal once you uncover her and the clones only ever get too overwhelming to deal with if you're not actively managing them. I genuinely can not think of a single thing I dislike about Lady Ethereal's fight, it all works. It's a perfect fusion of gameplay and presentation. Learning this boss was the most fun I had playing Nine Sols and I'd easily call this one of my new favorite boss fights of all time.