Scanlines' Monthly Scoop #2 (February 2025)

Everything I played this month, my plans for March and hopes for the future

I have to say my second month on the platform went a lot better than the first, I see a lot of regulars liking and commenting on the publication now and my subscriber count has doubled this month with my amount of reads per post almost 5 times what it was, so I’d like to thank you all for reading, restacking, liking, all of it and look forward to another month on the platform.

I didn’t really start this Substack with a ‘goal’ but I would like to try and get 50 subscribers in my first 6 months.

I’ve noticed something interesting with my post stats: my more opinionated, blog-style works like the Command & Conquer cutscenes post (my most viewed post ever) and ‘I Want Console Exclusives Back’ get more reads but less engagement from my existing subscribers than my Weekly Plays and Monthly Scoop series; I think this is a sign I have the right format, so from here on I’m going to try and publish one of each type of post every single week and we’ll see what that brings throughout March. The last online blog-writing-thing I ran was a Wattpad when I was 16 so bear with me while I learn the best way to go about this thing.

With that out of the way, here’s what I played this month.


The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64 Version)

Genre: Action and Adventure

Status: Ongoing

I turned 25 this month and when it’s around this time of year I like to revisit my second favourite game of all time and the first game I ever played that wasn’t on a handheld: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

I’m sure most serious Nintendo fans and Zelda fans have played this game by now and feel similarly but it’s always held a special place in my heart; the Hero of Time’s tragic fate, the light-horror elements, dark lore, memorable characters and fantastic music all contribute to Ocarina of Time, to this day, being my favourite game in the series despite some stiff competition from A Link to the Past, Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild. It just has such a sense of magic and breadth to its world despite the map size being quite modest today.

You’ll notice I didn’t compliment the gameplay and that’s because as much as I adore Ocarina it is still a Nintendo 64 game so it has a janky camera, too many block pushing puzzles and many other issues that plague early 3D titles, however, I do think it’s more accessible to modern players than Super Mario 64 as you do get to control the camera somewhat.


Super Mario Sunshine (Gamecube Version)

Genre: 3D Platformer

Status: Didn’t Finish

You can read my review for Sunshine here but the long and short of it is that I actually enjoyed the game even less on a repeat playthrough and it still sits firmly at the bottom of my rankings for the 3D Mario series.

To top it all off, my Gamecube controller malfunctioned while I was playing the game and I now need to replace it as it shorts out my Gamecube and my Wii whenever I plug it in so I couldn’t finish the run.


Rainbow Six (Nintendo 64 Version)

Genre: First Person Shooter

Status: Finished

This was my first time playing the original Rainbow Six and I have to say, I found it really fun; I have about 1000 hours in Arma 3 and I grew up with Rainbow Six Vegas 1 & 2 though so this wasn’t a big surprise to me.

It controls very well on the Nintendo 64, the graphics are decent and enough of the game was ported for me to consider it worth picking up though I have to say, apart from the infamous Operation Deep Magic, this game’s reputation for difficulty has been vastly overblown in my opinion. I got to the final mission with no problems but I stopped there because the mission was quite a challenge and by then I had gotten my fill of the game.


Duke Nukem 64

Genre: First Person Shooter

Status: Didn’t Finish

I really didn’t get on with this version of Duke Nukem. I’ve always preferred Doom and Quake to this game as it is but the Nintendo 64 port isn’t great. The graphics are extremely muddy, aliased and ugly, the controls aren’t very pleasant and there is zero music outside the title screen: a cardinal sin for a game with a soundtrack this iconic.

I got maybe 4-5 missions in before I stopped forcing myself to play it and moved on.


Super Mario All-Stars (SNES Version)

Genre: 2D Platformer

Status: Finished

This month, I managed to beat the infamous Lost Levels and played a healthy amount of the other classic NES-era Mario games too, all remade in glorious 16-bit.

To tell you the truth, the PAL input delay and collision changes make these versions inferior to their NES originals in my opinion but there was no way I was going to beat the Lost Levels without saving. What else can I say? A slightly less ideal version of the most influential games ever made but that save feature and my wanting to finish to finish them relatively quickly compelled me.


Metroid Prime Remastered

Genre: Metroidvania

Status: Finished

I reviewed this game last week so I won’t write much more about it here but what I can say is that this is the definitive version of Metroid Prime and I no longer feel any need to boot up the Wii or the Gamecube when I feel like replaying this classic.

One of the best classic games on the best modern console.


Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Wii Version)

Genre: Metroidvania

Status: Ongoing

I posted a Note a little while ago but not knowing which I prefer between Prime 1 and Prime 2 and now. towards the end of my most recent Prime 2 playthrough I would say the original is more replayable but I enjoy Prime 2 more generally; if it wasn’t for the absolute drag that is the Torvus Bog (although I love the atmosphere and music) I would replay this game just as often.

I love the game and I especially love controlling it on the Wii.


Tlatoani: Aztec Cities

Genre: City Builder

Status: Ongoing

I am massively interested in Mesoamerican history, so when I found out about this game this month I had to grab it and it was a very pleasant surprise. I’m usually not a fan of city-builders but the Aztec theme, trade mechanics and lack of boring district painting really sucked me in to this game… and nobody’s talking about it!

Tlatoani has really flown under the radar, so I encourage you to give it a shot on Steam.


Hearts of Iron IV

Genre: Grand Strategy

Status: Addicted

It feels like cheating putting HOI4 on this list because I play it every single month for tens of hours; I’ve been playing since 2020 and I’m absolutely addicted and approaching 2000 hours on Steam.

Paradox Interactive’s DLC policy is forever contentious and the game’s friendly AI are consistently useless but with a subscription and the game’s relatively cheap price, I recommend grabbing yourself the game, a month of the DLC subscription and diving in as long as you don’t mind a very steep learning curve.


I hope you had a fantastic February and I’ll see you here next time, don’t forget to support the publication if you like what you read and stay-tuned for more!