I don't write reviews for every game I play (because they get hacky and boring), but if I have something specifically to say, I'll say it here. :)

WORD TRIP: It's an insanely engaging word game with a slick, minimalist look. In the same way Inman's previous Playdate game, Ratcheteer, is getting a deluxe port to other platforms (which I think everyone needs to check out), I hope Word Trip is brought to more platforms just so more people get the chance to experience it. Specifically, it would really shine on mobile, given how simple the game would be to play on a touch-screen, and how perfect it would be to pick up and play.

DONKEY KONG BANANZA: The game is almost perfect, but it doesn't quite get there mainly because it gives the player too much freedom for it's own good. The same button collects all the little gold pieces around you and scans for bananas near you, and since you can almost always dig through the entire layer you're on, you can just dig to that banana and ignore whatever fun challenge you were meant to beat or small detail you were meant to notice, robbing the game of so many little moments of discovery or accomplishment. Similarly, many parts of the game become more fun if you intentionally ignore your bananza abilities and use DK's base moveset to beat challenges instead. Tellingly, one of my favorite fights in the game disables your bananza abilities entirely and becomes ten times more interesting in the process. Besides all that though, the rest of the game is beautiful, filled with creativity, and has a pretty decent story led by a fully voice acted young Pauline, who provides really charming commentary at all the rest points in the game. I think some small tweaks like a hard mode that alters the areas where they're necessary and otherwise just fully disables bananza abilities, turning off the scan, and the addition of harder boss fights would have made it just that much better.

BASEBALL (GAMEBOY): You can say that it's sparce, you can say that it's slow, but if you say it's an altogether bad baseball game you're wrong. The key to understanding it is that the fielders actually move automatically to catch the ball, which is a thoughtful design decision in balancing the singleplayer experience of the game. After you understand this, the game makes sense. I wouldn't go as far as to call it great, I'd rather the fielding be good on it's own so I don't have to rely on it fielding for me, and I'd prefer it to be a bit faster overall, but it's not as bad as people think it is.

STAMPEDE (ATARI 2600): An inventive spin on the standard space shooter that dominates the 2600 library, where you have to lasso cows that are stampeding through a field. Cows run away from you at varying paces, with some being stationary, and if they fall behind you, you lose a life. The trick to playing well is that each lane of cows can only contain one kind at a time, and since you can push them back to the front if they get too close to you, you can fill most of the lanes with faster cows that take longer to get to the back of the screen, freeing you up to handle the higher priority (and higher point value) cows in a couple lanes at a time. Brilliant design from Bob Whitehead, and some of the most charming visuals I've seen on the system.

GALAGA: In my opinion, it's one of the best classic arcade games ever made. The level of depth in the mechanics, the variety in enemies as you progress, the pacing all feel incredible and addictive. I love how the different scoring mechanics on boss galaga change your priorities on who and how much to shoot when they fly in, and the ship capture mechanic is textbook, perfected, risk vs reward design.