This is my first review I've made. If I'm wrong about anything, please let me know in the comments.
With that being said, I will say that the game runs quite fine, and that the rest of the games are good nostalgic blasts from the past that I remember fondly, and still would probably have fun trying to complete if I actually tried to complete them.
HOWEVER, despite that positive feedback, I ultimately am frustrated with this game for the sole reason of trying to 3-star 25 and Must Pop Words, which all but five to ten minutes of my 1.4 hours of playtime as of writing this was done trying to obtain (with those minutes being used to get Klikwerks three star'd, which was simple to understand but decently fun to get). These two games are completely luck/RNG related, and despite having strategies, the amount of luck needed is seemingly near impossible to obtain, even when implementing logic and skill. Must Pop Words' 3-star is seemingly only available through the penguin popping up after erasing a few words, which can either give a big chunk of points or slow the bubble spawn rate drastically; this happens after erasing 5 or so words, and continues to happen at this rate after every penguin event. Out of the few runs I did of this before getting frustrated and giving up, the penguin generally gave challenges that were seemingly impossible to complete on most occasions, making me either have to fight through to the next penguin event or reset the run. One time, the penguin asked me to spell a word starting with a letter and ending with a different letter for 1000 points, but the end letter never showed up, blocking me from getting the points. As such, it was frustrating trying to even get two stars in this game.
As for 25... oh boy. 25 is a "2048-esque" game where in addition to the "1"- numbered blocks that spawn, red blocks that block the path spawn as well, which are a pain to remove in most cases. Although the strategy is to "plan ahead" and "put the highest numbers in the corners and stack the numbers in that row/column" according to the Video Games Wiki, the way that the game works is that you do not know what is coming next, and in many cases this wrecks your runs, even when you are actively trying. This is what I spent most of my time trying to accomplish, and my best was just below 4,000- every other run did not even break the 2,000 mark, even when I actively tried to put the blocks in and not do random spirals with my arrow keys (which somehow gave me that near-4,000 point run). From this, I was highly frustrated to the point of cursing out the game in more than a few instances. Although I do have some anger issues I still am trying to overcome (obviously, cursing out Bart Bonte's 10 year old games shows this), the fact that most of my runs did not even break two-fifths of the 3-star requirement makes me believe that the requirement to get all three stars should be drastically lowered; for me, even 2,500 would be acceptable as a 3-star.
As such, I believe that the requirements for both of these games are too high in order to make a fun experience for the player, as these two games in particular lead- at least for me- to major frustrations in trying to 100% these games and the game in general. It also does not feel right that these two games have 3-star requirements like the rest of the games, as these two have luck play major roles in whether or not you get the 3-star or not. The rest of the games- even the Klikwerks game (the only other game other than these two that has point requirements)- requires some form of skill and/or logical reasoning in order to complete the requirements for the 3-star. If these games are to stay, my personal recommendation would be to remove the achievements for these two games, and instead make them fun endless modes that show high-scores; that way, not only would the achievements actually be completely related to a mix of logic and skill- what I assume most people bought this game to put into action and have fun doing- but also relieve the frustrations of trying to overcome a luck-based system to complete the game as a whole. As a person who is highly dissuaded from playing a game if I am not fully convinced that I can 100% it with skill and logic, seeing these two games have 3-star requirements despite having major elements of luck frustrates me to no end in an otherwise fine-looking product, and- despite being a couple of bad apples in the bunch- these two games are the sole reason why I do not recommend playing this game.
EDIT: After playing through the rest of the games, other than one non-obvious part of Loose the Moose that I needed to look up to get past (and one certain game I will discuss later), I was able to complete the rest of the collection on my own. There were many times I had to stop and think about for a little while, and it was very satisfying to complete each and every one of them. However, this update will mainly focus on my opinions about 25 and Must Pop Words, and my experiences with each game.
First, Must Pop Words. It was as I expected, with the penguin events being very luck-based and required for the 3-star. However, there were a couple of times I almost had it, and it drove me up the wall when the game seemingly sold me down the river; luckily, one time, I surpassed the 3-star requirement by over 1,500 points, and it was a huge sigh of relief. As such, although it is one of the toughest in the pack (and one I would personally lower some), it is possible to 3-star this.
However, the one that I personally could not accomplish legitimately was 25. The luck required, even when implementing the best strategies to my knowledge, is near astronomical; it is to the point where I had to edit the save to get the 3 star. I never got another run quite like that one random-input run, even after another good hour or more of runs, so my best legitimate score was not even 4,000; as such, not only does the inclusion of this game and its ridiculously high 3-star requirement still damage the entirety of the point of the rest of the collection, but also moderately hinders my ability to look back fondly on the collection as a whole. My personal suggestions would be to lower the 3-star to between 3-4000 in Must Pop Words, and to about 2500-3000 in 25, and the 2 star in 25 to about 1500-2000, so that it is possible for people to get it without crazy luck. In its current state, though, although I could personally recommend getting the collection for good fun, I DO NOT recommend getting it to complete it all the way, despite the inclusion of the stars, and that sucks for my completionist mentality. Although I did have fun with it, when critiquing things, although having fun does help a lot, if something sticks out like 25 does that is so out of place and so bad that it actively damages the rest of the game and the experience, I cannot help but call it out.
