What a wild experience this was, playing the original Ace Attorney game and finally seeing what the hype is about with this series. Thank you Game Pass!

For the most part, I absolutely loved the courtroom segments of this game. They are the meat of it of course, and solving puzzles, finding contradictions, it's so much fun. The music goes along with this perfectly, I love it so much. Each case has some absolutely wild twists that kept me on the edge of my seat all the way to the end. Investigations are a different story though, these mostly just drag. In universe, trials must reach a verdict within three days, and most of them here take up all of that time. This means you'll be asked to investigate three separate times, running around the same areas and solving puzzles to progress. It gets draining after a while, even if there are some big WOAH moments here and there.

This game also has some pretty ridiculous writing if I'm being honest, such as requiring you to do something stupid so that Phoenix is left at a disadvantage in the coming day in court. These range from walking up to the person who you're going to accuse of murder and waving evidence at them, to Phoenix being too stupid to turn a piece of evidence around and look at the other side until he's about to lose a trial. It's baffling honestly.

With that, I guess I'll just give my opinions on the individual cases. Cases 1 and 2 are pretty solid, I enjoyed them a lot even if they were pretty simple. Case 3 is alright but it definitely drags. The investigation segments here aren't really fun, but the final day in court might just make up for all of that honestly. Edgeworth is the best. Case 4 is absolutely incredible. I loved it to bits. Everything just fits together so well and I was glued to the screen during it, there are so many amazing twists, and it's a perfect conclusion to the story.

However, in all rereleases of the game, there is an extra case to play. This was originally meant to take advantage of the Nintendo DS and encourage buying the game a second time, even if we never got the GBA version in the west. Case 5 definitely screams DS though, and it leaves me pretty split on it. Investigation segments take FOREVER here because there are added gimmicks meant to take advantage of the touch screen and microphone. These have been reworked for the HD version, but they still just feel like a waste of time. The courtroom segments are pretty great though. I love the story here and all the new characters. It was super satisfying to finally fit all the pieces together and it adds a lot to Edgeworth's character, which is great.

I know I complained a fair bit here but I really did enjoy myself playing this. The game is a little rough around the edges but there's nothing quite like the feeling of figuring out a contradiction and watching everything fall into place as the music ramps up, it's AMAZING. I am most definitely interested in playing more of this series, because if the original game is this well put together, that's a great sign.

Also Phoenix and Edgeworth are definitely gay holy shit.

I am going to be very personal and vulnerable in this review. I very much am biased and unable to look at this game with a more critical eye, my apologies. I've wanted to play this game for so long. When Half-Genie Hero was getting a lot of buzz back in 2016, it got me interested in the series. This game in particular was on Game Pass at the time, so naturally I took the opportunity to play it right? Actually no, and the reasoning requires some personal background.

I've been struggling with my identity for a long time now. Before I recently discovered that I'm transfem, I was often ashamed of myself for my interests, and not being how I was "supposed" to be. To tell the truth, there's plenty of media I've been interested in checking out over the years, which I haven't allowed myself to. The main reason being that 'Guys don't do that and I'll be mocked and ridiculed for it.' Shantae was one of these cases. How was I, a male teenager, supposed to justify playing a game where the main character is a belly dancing genie woman? I mean that's just ridiculous right?

After coming to terms with my identity, I've been trying to open myself up to more things that I was pushing away all this time. After all this time, I finally played a Shantae game, and the experience was purely magical, for lack of a better word. Right away, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse was hitting me right in the nostalgia. As a kid, one of my favorite things to play was the original Adventure Time game, also made by Wayforward! Booting up this game, being met with the incredible 16 bit look, hearing another legendary soundtrack by Jake Kaufman, fighting enemies while platforming in 2D, it just...felt right.

As silly as this probably sounds, playing this game felt like I was just my old self again. Before I was stressing over my identity, my relationships, my future. Before I was struggling to come to terms with who I am as a person. I was just...my authentic self, playing a game I loved and enjoyed. The game's world and lovely cast of characters pulled me in immediately. It's got a great sense of humor, all kinds of whacky and entertaining scenarios happening at every corner, again, just like Adventure Time.

I don't just love the game because it reminds me of Adventure Time though, that'd be silly. Let's get into what makes Shantae so amazing. For one, the metroidvania gameplay. The game doesn't have one big map like most games in the genre do, or even some other games in this same series. Instead, there are a handful of separate islands you fast travel between. Each one has a handful of collectibles to find, a dungeon, a new ability to unlock, and a boss fight. Each island also has its own mini story arc with the characters you run into and these are absolutely delightful. My absolute favorite is Spiderweb Island where you have to carry Rottytops to her home. Rottytops is without question my favorite character and she gets a fair amount of depth throughout the game, which I appreciate.

Though, one of these little arcs, specifically the one on Sunburn Island, is clearly just an excuse for fanservice, if you know what I mean. That's not a negative for me, I just thought it was worth pointing out. I honestly love how these games just do not care. I mean, all of the different characters you run into throughout the game not only have unique sprites, but portrait art too. The team clearly just wants to draw hot women and I have to respect that.

Regarding the islands themselves, there are both Heart Squids and Tinkerbats to find on them, and a lot of them require abilities you'll have to come back with later. Heart Squids increase Shantae's maximum HP, while Tinkerbats are simply just for 100% completion. The true final boss is hidden behind collecting all of these. As for the abilities and upgrades, Shantae does not have her magic in this game, meaning no animal transformations. Instead, Shantae finds Risky's different pirate gear throughout the different dungeons and adds them to her arsenal. These include a pistol, a big hat for gliding, a scimitar for attacking directly below you, boots that allow you to run super fast (think the Speed Booster from Metroid, except you're also invincible while moving that quickly), and a cannon for additional jumps in mid-air. Sure, these aren't really magical at all, and don't have the spectacle that the animal transformations do, but they are so much fun to use. They can all be activated on the fly and can even be chained together in really fun ways.

Revisiting older areas with your new equipment is so fun in this game. Not only can you reach new areas that you couldn't before, but you feel so much stronger, with so many ways to easily take out enemies. Ever try staying in the air as long as possible while bouncing on zombies' heads with the scimitar? You should! I also love that your hub area of sorts, Scuttle Town, does change as you progress. There are always new scenarios and dialogue to experience there, most of which are pretty funny!

Playing this game just makes me feel so fucking good, man. Normally I wouldn't be inclined to go after everything in the game for the sake of a true final boss or whatever, but I did here because I was having too much fun! I didn't want to reach the end yet! I love this world, I love these characters, I love how satisfying this game is to play. I love that I'm feeling this way playing a game. I love that I'm finally opening myself up to experiences like this.
I love that I'm being more true to myself. I love...me.

If Geno has a million fans, then I am one of them. If Geno has ten fans, then I am one of them. If Geno has only one fan then that is me. If Geno has no fans, then that means I am no longer on earth. If the world is against Geno, then I am against the world.

Hey look I finally managed to finish an RPG from the Mario series, that only took way too long! This remake is very interesting to me because of how faithful it is to the original, for better and for worse. I never played the original, but this was even obvious for someone like me. There are just little things here and there. Platforming with no depth perception because of the asymmetric angle can be a little frustrating. The Bowser's Keep segment of the game goes on for a bit too long with too many battles that aren't even difficult in the slightest. Scenes that play out exactly the same as the original feel weird here, because the SNES game had the sprites animate in a way that let the player connect the dots on what was going on. With 3D models in HD animated exactly the same way, it just looks stilted and awkward, the first encounter with Bowser being a great example. To get one more negative out of the way, the game's performance isn't the best. There are a handful of specific areas where the game stutters and I did encounter slowdown here and there. One of these moments was when the final boss started which took me out of it a little bit.

Now onto the positives. I want to bring up the writing first off. This game is so creative and feels nothing like any other Mario game. Besides the Mushroom Kingdom and Bowser's Keep, every area in this game is something new and whacky you will never find anywhere else in this series, with so many fun characters as well. Speaking of characters, we've got two completely original ones as party members that never return after this game. As I said from the top, I absolutely love Geno. He's probably my favorite companion from any Mario game. He stands out so much, intentionally so because if his origin, but he still fits this world so well and I love his interactions with everybody, not to mention in battle he can just straight up shoot enemies. I unfortunately didn't use Mallow in my party all that much, but I still think he's a great character. It's nothing you or I haven't seen before in plenty of other stories, but he plays off everyone else in the party pretty well. I really enjoyed Nimbus Land because of Mallow's connection to its little storyline.
This is probably my favorite interpretation of Bowser ever. Future games really lean into the comedic aspect of his character, and that's still here for sure, but he also feels like a real person with emotions and goals. I love when you run into old minions of his who are afraid of angering him, but he tells them not to worry, it's nice. Peach is...not great honestly. I used her in my party a lot because her healing abilities are insane, but as a character she's not her Paper Mario self that's for sure. She's pretty one dimensional and I didn't really care for it.

I guess that just leaves the combat! My favorite aspect of this is that everyone has different attack animations with different timing for better damage, depending on what weapon you have equipped to them. Bowser has my favorites, from spinning and throwing a Chain Chomp at enemies to just straight up throwing Mario at them, great stuff. Every character has plenty of special moves they can use and it really feels like you need to be careful about which ones you use at what time. Not only do they have different timing or inputs to get the best results, but the strongest ones use a lot of mana and you definitely don't want to run out. The remake added a meter in battles that fills up when you successfully block attacks or land the input for better damage on your own attacks. When it's full, you can use a super move, and each party formation has their own unique one! Mario, Bowser, and Geno is my favorite one personally. You can also now swap out a party member if they become immobilized or if their HP runs out, which is a godsend. Mario has to remain in the party at all times though for some reason. Battles are pretty fun in this game! Boss battles especially kept me engaged and really thinking about what I was doing. It's nothing too complicated, it is a Mario game after all, but it's still a lot of fun.

And that sums up my thoughts on this game as a whole. It's not anything groundbreaking or super in-depth or anything like that. It's a simple, sweet, fun adventure that I could revisit anytime. I love this take on the Mario universe and there's nothing quite like it, and that makes it feel pretty special.

Alright I think it's safe to say classic Final Fantasy is not my cup of tea unfortunately. This is now the third turn-based FF game that I ended up putting down. For what it's worth, I definitely enjoyed this one a lot more than FFVII or FFIX. I played 20 hours of this before I got tired of it.

While I was very much invested in the story because of Terra, Locke, and Celes, that's pretty much the extent of it I could get into. This game has too many damn characters and most of them are not important after their introductions. I can appreciate the ambition, as it's definitely impressive for an SNES game, but too many of these characters feel half-baked. They DO all have their unique attributes...kinda. The game clearly wants you to use the esper system to build up your characters with magic spells, but this makes them all feel the same. Why bother worrying about specific character abilities when the game makes it very obvious very early on that spamming magic is infinitely more effective? There are also instances where you have to use specific characters for story moments, and if you haven't built those characters up enough, good luck! I was stuck on one section for a good while just because I needed ice magic, and I couldn't use the character I had built up ice spells on, how fun! Creating a team with so many characters to pick from should be a fun experience, but the game ruins this with its own battle system. Switching out the characters you've put time into is a bad idea, and it absolutely sucks when you have to. It just makes things take longer than they should.

I do want to make it very clear that I was enjoying the story a lot, as bloated as it is. I'm a little bummed that I won't see the end of Terra or Celes's arcs, but this gameplay is just not doing it for me unfortunately. I was super into this game in the beginning, but the more I played, the more the mechanics bothered me . It being an SNES game, it has plenty of "old game-isms" that are annoying too. The pixel remaster doesn't help with these either which just confuses me. I really appreciate what it did for the time, but it's not a game I like all that much.

What will stick out the most about this game to me is the opera house segment, because the performance scene is HD-2D and nothing else in this release is. It's beautiful and I love it, but like...why?

Why in the fuck did I like this DLC when I first played it, this is ROUGH.

The Arctic Cruise is without question the worst chapter in the game. Its nothing but tight spaces, awkward platforming, and the worst camera in the history of platformers. There are only 3 levels too and the second one has you going through the exact same areas as the first except on a timer, a really stress inducing timer at that. The best thing I can say about this chapter is that the seals are funny, I like them. They SHOULD be annoying because they speak in uwu, but I always wanted to hear what they had to say.

The other new addition in this DLC is Death Wish, which is...not fun, but that's kinda by design. It's mainly super difficult versions of pre-existing levels. Most of them aren't a fun challenge either, they're just irritating. There are also tasks you'll be given that you can do in any eligible world, and these always suck, they're a pointless grind just to make the mode take longer. I have never finished this mode and I probably never will. Those new boss themes are bangers but that's about all I can say in terms of positives.

So uh yeah in conclusion this DLC sucks it's terrible I don't like it but it did introduce Bow Kid so points for that I guess

This and its sequel are where Pokemon peaked. Fast paced battles with great looking animated sprites, a beautiful combination of 2D and 3D visuals, a story that's actually in-depth and engaging, memorable characters (N 😳), it's all fantastic. The game even uses the legendaries in an effective way here, the villain having one to defeat the league with raises the stakes. It feels like your journey actually matters in the context of the world itself.

I love the ambition of including 150 brand new Pokemon, and not only that, making them the ONLY ones you can encounter throughout your journey. It really forces the player to learn what these new Pokemon are and how to effectively use them and counter them. My one complaint though is that just like gen 1, you'll be seeing the same handful of Pokemon in the early game, which can get a little old.

I don't think Pokemon will ever be this good ever again. They put everything into this and the sequel. I would do anything for an HD 2D game that just takes this style and enhances it, but I guess we're stuck with these lifeless 3D games now, hooray.
All I'm saying is nothing in the modern games will leave as much of an impression as the Reshiram and Zekrom confrontation in this game.

Ok let's get the obvious out of the way first. Yes, superheroes turning evil is overdone. Yes, the main characters have insane levels of plot armor so that the story can happen. Yes, live service games are a plague on the industry and most of them are not good.

Ok moving on.
As someone who enjoys a shooter every now and then, I've had a lot of fun with this game. Each character is fun to play as, and the gunplay feels great. Metropolis is such a cool location to explore. My hottest take is probably that I find the missions fun too, and there really weren't any that I hated. That said though it's not amazing or super complex or anything. I like my fast paced action but I'm not gonna argue that it isn't shallow. As for me, I like plowing through enemies with King Shark, or zipping around the arena as Boomerang.

I do have some story complaints, like how this game is set in the Arkhamverse for literally no reason, and how underwhelming Superman is. Every other league member has a lot of buildup before you fight them, but for stupid narrative reasons Superman just isn't around for most of it. Its probably because they knew if they didn't write him out of the story, there's no reason for him not to just instantly kill all the main characters. Also stop making Diana super unlikable, I hate it. I do like the squad though and I'm excited to see where they take this game with future characters and exploring the multiverse.

Oh and give me a Green Lantern skin for King Shark you cowards.

It's been a hot minute since I played this, and it's still one of my favorite games ever, my favorite 3D platformer outside of Mario. This time I played on Steam, most of the game in co-op, and messed with mods a bit. I will say playing a version of this game that doesn't always feel like it's on the brink of exploding was really nice, but if I wanted to, I could easily nitpick the hell out of this. The game is not perfect and on a second run the little gripes are a lot more noticeable.

Mustache Girl is a pretty nothing villain, set up early on and then barely ever seen again until the endgame. Alpine Skyline in general, while not a bad chapter, is a very noticeable weakpoint compared to every other chapter in the game. Not all of the hats are that useful, the ice hat and time stop hat feel very underutilized in particular. The presentation isn't the best either. Whether or not characters emote during cutscenes seems to be random? It's very distracting. However, does any of this bring the game down for me? NOPE!!!

I'm sorry I love this game too much. The issues it has aren't big enough for me to dislike it even a little bit. The platforming feels amazing. The levels are full of so much stuff to collect, it's so much fun to just run around. The game constantly throws you into different absurd scenarios, yet it never feels jarring. From a murder mystery, to performing in a big parade, to selling your soul to a shadow...demon...guy...thing, it never stops being super entertaining. It's also really funny. It might look ridiculous for a game like this to be rated T but that dark humor is much appreciated. And do I even need to say anything about the soundtrack, it speaks for itself.

I just love this game. I'm absolutely biased and overlooking its problems, but hey, Super Mario Galaxy is another one of my favorite games ever, and that game has some of the most obnoxious padding ever. Let me have this one >:)

Man...that's really it, huh?

As much as I love Pac-Man World and have a lot of fun with the Championship Edition games...this is really all we've gotten in this style? I can't exactly say that I'm surprised that the soundtrack is the only thing about this game that's ever brought up. Maze Madness feels more like a proof of concept than anything else. Where Pac-Man World got a sequel that took its foundation and polished it into a damn good game, here it's just...nothing.

Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy this game! The classic maze formula brought into 3D with a focus on puzzle solving, that's great! I love it! The game never really feels like it gets off the ground though, it just always feels like it's missing something. There's only so many ways you can push ice blocks and TNT to solve puzzles before it starts to feel samey. I was waiting for the game to really test my abilities or introduce some whacky new gimmick to solve puzzles with, but..it never happened. The game never goes beyond just "good."

Instead the game artificially extends its runtime with the worst padding I have ever seen. See I actually don't mind that you have to go out of your way to collect as much as you can in levels in order to progress. It's Pac-Man, I want to collect all the dots and fruit anyway. The problem is that the game will lock you away from collecting things in a stage at first so that you HAVE to play it a second time later on. The witch's key is the dumbest thing this game throws at you. You don't unlock it until you enter the final world in the game, and it unlocks paths in previous levels you couldn't access before for no real reason! On top of that, this is the same point where the game roadblocks you, and doesn't let you progress until you've collected enough in older levels.

Once I realized that all you get for doing this is a rematch with World 4's boss, which is the only boss fight in the game by the way, and then the game just ends...yeah, no thanks. I'll pass.

Unfortunately we're probably never going to get another game like this ever again, and it's a real shame. There's plenty of potential here, and I would've much preferred another crack at this formula over a 3rd World game and that stupid reboot they did, but oh well, what can ya do.

Cute little game! The collectathon gameplay may be simplistic and a bit repetitive, but it works great for a little 4 hour experience. The art style is amazing, and I love the Paper Mario-esque aesthetic with 2D characters in a 3D space.
What I was not expecting at all, was the subtle storytelling about a nonbinary youth looking for acceptance in the world. I found myself caring for Niko more and more as the game went on, as I learned more about them. I love how it was handled.
I think asking for $25 for this is a bit much, but this is absolutely worth picking up when it's on sale, it's a great cozy little time.

Disclaimer: I have not played all the different routes, these are my thoughts after getting the pacifist ending.

Reviewing this game is tricky, it's a prime example of why number scores don't mean anything really. Undertale Yellow is a fantastic experience, that is admittedly rough around the edges. Making a follow-up to Undertale is quite the task in the first place. That game is so unique with its commentary on game design and the different ways it breaks the fourth wall. That kind of magic can't be replicated in a follow-up, the novelty isn't there anymore. This is also a fan project, a very ambitious fan project, but a fan project nonetheless. With that in mind, its important to set expectations in check.

I'll get the negatives out of the way first. The game has a fairly weak start. The Ruins and Snowdin are so similar to their Undertale counterparts that it's not very engaging, the game feels like it's on autopilot for a while. Even the new areas aren't super interesting. The game is hard carried by its character interactions and funny setpieces, because these areas are so linear and uninteresting it's sad. There's a lot of just walking in a straight line, and the puzzles you do come across are pathetically easy, they may as well not be there. It's very odd when enemy encounters are so much more difficult compared to Undertale.

Every boss in this game works the same way. The act command and spare command do literally nothing, they're all just a matter of surviving for enough turns until the boss gives up. I wish they were a little more creative there, since the different soul gimmicks in these fights are pretty neat. On top of this, boss difficulty is super whack. A lot of attacks are just straight up not telegraphed properly, and do so much damage that trial and error was the only way for me to get through them. There is an easy mode option, but it kind of over-fixes the problem? It just makes attacks do like no damage at all. So its either suffer through some dumb attack patterns, or take all the fun away by making the game piss easy. I just think the balancing needed some more work. There's also one absurdly stupid design choice near the end of the game that forced me into easy mode just to beat the game, thanks for that.

Alright that's enough of that, let's get into why this game is awesome. Firstly, I love the characters here. Martlet, Ceroba, North Star and his group of trainees, hell I even liked Flowey, that's crazy. The game ties into the original in clever ways to really flesh out these characters and make you love them. They all have their arcs that are super satisfying. They bring a layer of this world that the original game didn't go into. How DO the monsters feel about King Asgore? How have his cowardly decisions affected people? What will monsters resort to for just a chance at freedom? Is that even something they SHOULD strive for? After all, humans already drove them all away before, what's stopping them from doing it again?

The world itself is so interesting to see in the past. Different takes on Snowdin and Hotland that make sense given Undertale's context are just really neat (thank you for skipping over Waterfall though I would've actually become the Joker if I had to go through that again). The Dunes and Steamworks are fun additions to the Underground that widen the scope of Undertale's world just a little, and I like that. I'm typically not one for desert biomes in games but here, it's pretty sweet.

And of course, the game is full of comedic moments. I don't think it's quite as funny as Undertale. Not every joke lands, but it's pretty great throughout. Shoutout to Mooch, I love her she's always funny. One thing I love is since it's Flowey handling the saving and resetting for you this time, he always has something to say when you die, usually ridiculing you. A lot of his lines made me smile.

I can't say much on this myself but it's worth noting that the music is amazing. If you told me Toby Fox himself composed this soundtrack, I would believe you. Again, not quite as good as Undertale but there's quite a few bangers in here.

All this to say, is this game as good as Undertale? No, absolutely not. It's got some questionable design, and isn't quite there in terms of balancing or its world layout. It's very important to remember though that this is a fan project, and in terms of those...holy cow. I have seen some truly horrendous shit come from Undertale fan works. Truly bottom of the barrel stuff. But this, this isn't even on the level of passable or decent. This is like, how in the hell is this even possible? This is beyond impressive and everyone behind it should be proud of themselves. It tells a new fun and creative story, and expands the Undertale lore in ways I never knew I wanted to see. With that in mind, I gotta say I kinda love this. Say all you want about this not being canon or important to the other games at all, but for me, it's so well done that I don't care. I love these characters and this story and that's all that matters.

Originally my opinion on OneShot was that it was a unique and interesting concept, with characters and a world I was interested in. In terms of gameplay though, it left a lot to be desired. The gameplay was incredibly basic and not very engaging, and while the gimmick of solving puzzles by looking outside the game itself made the game unique, the game really didn't do enough with that, along with the ending feeling half-baked in my opinion.

And then I played the Solstice run.

This is where the game really shines. All of my complaints are pretty much nullified here. The game still revolves around puzzles and interacting with objects in the environment, but story wise and in terms of how it goes about the previously mentioned gimmick, it's a whole lot more engaging. I was very much immersed in what was happening. All of the characters are memorable and the way you interact with the world is incredible. The Solstice run of OneShot makes the game for me, it's a fantastic experience, up there with some of my favorite games I've ever played.

It's just really unfortunate that the experience of OneShot as a whole is having to get through that initial run that isn't that great, waiting for the game to get good once Solstice comes around. Not to say that the first run of the game is bad, but it's not anything amazing, it's just alright, which is a little frustrating.
I still highly recommend the game but it isn't without its faults, that's all.