It was fun to experience the first entry in the beloved Pikmin series! It's easy to tell that the first game was experimental, as many ideas weren't completely fleshed out yet and mechanics could be pretty janky. Others have talked about these points ad nauseam, so I'm going to focus more on the experience.

I really enjoyed the atmosphere. Compared to the later games, Pikmin 1 has an incredible sense of loneliness. You're trapped on an alien planet with a limited time to escape before you asphyxiate, and you're forced to place your trust in a hive mind species to survive. It's a great hook for a minimal story! Most of the dialog is revealed through daily logs and ship parts, which adds to the mystery surrounding Pikmin 1. Who is Olimar, why is he here, why do the pikmin help him etc etc.

When you finally get all the ship parts to return home, Olimar seems almost sad that he has to leave the pikmin behind. Again, no dialog (which is a good thing!) These moments made Olimar feel more human. This might be the last time he would ever see the species that would save his life! Of course, we know that's not true, but the subtle storytelling is very well done here.

Like many others, I was frustrated by tripping, dumb pikmin ai, and selecting specific pikmin, but Pikmin 1 started the series on a strong note. It was more difficult than I thought, which makes me excited to finally play Pikmin 2 and finish the series!

In turns of presentation and animation, this is probably the most high effort mascot horror game. Unfortunately, it falls into the same tropes that every mascot horror game has

- Chapter Based
- You start at the entrance of the park, which was closed for mysterious, unknown reasons
- You get an introduction to all the very marketable characters
- You get introduced to the games central gimmick (a wristband that opens doors)
- It ends with a scripted chase that is the exact same one from poppy playtime chapter one (though this is better just because the bird mascot gets decapitated with blood coming out of her head).

Overall, it's very short and free so it's slightly worth checking out, but if the future chapters start charging for money, I'm not gonna bother playing them.

To date, the only one of these I've played, though I'd gone through LPs of the full series beforehand. One of my friend groups had a "game club", where we ran through a bunch of different games over a couple weeks or so, then discussed our findings together. We were only gonna play one of the games, and 3 seemed to be the best, so that's what we ran through.

For the record, if I was to rate the games based on the impressions I got from the LPs, I'd probably go 3 > 6 >>> 2 > 5 >>> 1 >>>> 4. But like I said, this is the only one I've played, so take those ratings with a grain of salt.

Since my firsthand experience with the series is through a casual playthrough of 3 (I didn't even mess much with the post game!), I can't comment much on the game within its continuum. I feel the need to mention that, since despite its Saturday Morning cartoon vibe, Battle Network is an extremely complex series from a mechanical standpoint. I sorta feel like I'd need to run through a bunch of 'em before I got confident enough to comment on stuff like the chip balance (I know Gater breaks the game, somehow?), or how much NaviCust changes the formula (though it's fun to mess with), or how much of a bummer it'll be to trade Style Change for Double Soul next time, or anything like that.

So I'll mostly just look at this game as its own thing. It's a good time! I may not get this game's high-end skill level, but I really respect combat as its own thing. Fast and quite strategic, this may be one of the most-involved Deck Builders I've played, particularly relative to how simple the systems involved are. There's a ton of different types of ways you can kit out MegaMan.EXE, lending to a lot of different playstyles. You probably want to play around Program Advances like LifeSword and Gater, but there's no reason you have to. The impression I get is that all the high-end game-breaking stuff is mostly there for the competitive scene (like Pokémon!), which means you can go nuts with whatever you want. So if you really just wanna turtle up with Guard and take potshots on the enemy, I mean that's agony, but you can. More power to you.

I also like our leads here! Lan's a good kid, such a fun go-getter of a hero. I love his dynamic with MegaMan.EXE, where Lan really does feel like his younger brother despite everything. The rest of Lan's friend group are simple but cute enough friends (though, I always have to remind myself that MegaMan.EXE and Roll.EXE are not related in this continuity; Roll.EXE's crush always throws me). Dr. Wily is of course great fun as always, particularly as a Saturday Morning cartoon villain surrounded by Saturday Morning flunkies. This is probably Bass.EXE at his most interesting, since the bonus boss finally gets a chance at plot relevance, and we get this genuinely interesting story about his identity as a ghost in the machine.

...but mostly, if you're playing this game casually, you're here for the scenario writing silliness. How can you not love a game where one of the big set pieces is a zoo with animals chasing after people? Or a random bearded hero saving a suburban mother from her dishwasher? Or "MegaMan! Attack!" Has to be up there with the airplane rap battle from BN2 as one of the funniest moments in the series.

Battle Network is a series that could only have existed at its time. I didn't grow up with it or anything, but I grew up in the era it came out, so I'm VERY familiar with the type of media it's commenting on and would consider its contemporary. In particular, I think the way Battle Network reveres the internet is very much a product of the early 00s, when the internet was just starting to become a component of children's day-to-day life. Like you look at kids' shows today, and the internet is just a thing that exists, getting commented upon like an every day facet of life without any need to over-examine it. But at this time, the internet was ~novel~ and represented ~unfettered potential~. This is a time when the internet is still so foreign that it's represented through abstract terms; like, sure, maybe everyone has a little computer program dude that goes exploring the information superhighway to retrieve data and hang out. And maybe you can contain a soul in a .BAT file, who knows?

I'm not gonna sit here and say whether or not Battle Network predicted the future (though, it got the Internet of Things spot-on). But I think Battle Network represented an era where it was okay to be optimistic about the internet, not cynical. And that's lovely.

The time has come for the true Pit to step forward. Who will you guys choose? Me, or this fake! But turns out, he might just be good enough to be my fake. Also, I'm technically supposed to be the Dark Pit. But idk this user name came from spur of the moment when I was 11, sometimes there is nothing more to things. The same thought process applies to Kid Icarus to a T! Sometimes, less is more. Still, I would've liked it more if there was more, it works alright, but a little pizzazz would suffice. I guess this ain't no Teen Icarus huh. Have you guys seen the reject project for "Icarus" on the Wii? Good heavens. The kind Pit lives in. I don't know how they thought it would actually happen. The dark HAS to be underlying. Or maybe river twygz from Super Paper Mario gave them false hope? History sure is fascinating.

Oh, the game? Oh right. You know, Pit is that G when you think about how he leads an army whilst not being able to fly and arrows that don't last the winter. Bro thought he was him and I have to be reminded that, yes he is. I happen to read manuals for old games, and there are multiple pages for the lore, sadly I must say it's a waste of paper ain't nobody fw allat 😂 although it does explain the most iconic part if the game where you can collect mallets and use those to absolutely murder like holy shit Pit has cojones free one member of your army to help you against the level's boss. This is probably what led the designers to make them HP sponges, but that's still a tad excessive ain't it? Metroid kinnie 😭 I'm giving the bad guy my arrows like he's collecting my lunch money. In days like these, naughty kids like Icarus should be burning in Hell (pretty chill place in this game ngl ngl).

It's not a very hard game, is it? It's pretty fair even with some enemy placements that an overworked employee might have cooked up. I suppose it mainly refers to labyrinths. Being forced to become an eggplant? Fuck off my man, I do not identify as no eggplant no sir 🖕 who let the far left ideology in my kids game?? Nah that's crazy though cuz enemies rain from the sky and everytime I aim upwards, it's a hit & miss... then I get robbed by one of Snow White's lackeys and I have to hit the black market to retrieve the stolen goods. The kids game might not be so kiddy??! Also there is free healthcare thank god I thought I might have been american but I am scottish 🙏 I think the lack of walls in favor of rising the killzone works wonder for the vertically focused platformer. You lose some cover as you progress, if you're not happy with it fuck it here's a scrolling shooter. Scroll deez nuts!!

Everynow and then I stumble across a game so great that I'm at a loss for what to write as a review, so this won't exactly be a traditional review. I’m writing this about 10 or so minutes after finally beating Halo 3 and completing the original halo trilogy. I won't go into too much of an in-depth review for this game because I feel there is not much more praise I can give to it gameplay-wise that I didn't already give to Halo 2.

Wow this is the perfect ending to this amazing trilogy. It's incredible that with every subsequent game the story just kept on getting better and better. It was amazing to see the technology and design behind every aspect of these games just keep on advancing through every release. Every step of the way this game’s universe just kept on expanding more and more, until ultimately culminating in this incredible final battle for the fate of everything within it. I absolutely loved the feeling of unity felt in Halo 3. Teaming up with all of your former enemies at one point or another to aid a greater cause was incredible, and I especially loved that the covenant never ended up being a 100% evil, brainwashed, or crazy race of villains. There's overall a strong sense of hopefulness found within this game. It’s a very refreshing difference from many other edgy and cruel first person shooter games, even from the first two Halo games at times. Ultimately I believe this not only to be one of the best FPS games ever made, but probably one of the best video games of all time.

Picross 3D: Round 2!

I did a short review of this a while ago, but I'm redoing it since I can word my thoughts better, and cause I did a long-er review on the first game. Let's go!

So, just like the first game, it's a 3D take on Picross. Instead of a square filled with squares, you get a cube made of cubes! You have to chip away at the cubes to reveal the shape. Unlike the first game, you have to paint each block as well. Instead of just very-square models, your shapes in this game are stylized as wooden figures! Here's the game cover, for an example. You get two colors: orange and blue. Orange numbers are used for curved blocks and non-straight lines of blocks, and blue is for straight lines of blocks. This game also introduces a bomb button, which will clear all the 0 blocks. It's very useful to shave off time and also so you don't accidentally tap the wrong thing and get a strike. While you do get strikes, you can only get a game over in time trials/one-chance challenges. Outside of those, strikes only affect your score.

Instead of being sorted by difficulty like the first game, this game has puzzles themed by category from the start, referred to as books. The actual puzzle difficulty is adjustable from easy, normal, and hard. You can only get the highest gem ranking if you play on hard, but you only need the white gems to unlock more books.

The presentation is really where this game shines. The game is themed after a cafe/book shop. Your file is referred to as a membership card, and you get stamps for every 3000 points, and can get up to 10 stamps. This is also why the categories are referred to as books! Each book has it's own unique cover. As mentioned earlier, the actual puzzles are themed as wooden figures! In exchange for the styliaztion of the figures, the puzzles aren't animated here. The music is all various flavors of jazz, and I think is probably one of the best soundtracks ever made for a game. There's also some nice detail in the sound design, such as the noises for painting cubes orange and blue being different from one another.

There's no puzzle maker or sharing like the first game, unfortunately. There's some amiibo puzzles, but that's about it for fun extras. The Kirby ones are specifically themed to also be related to the game.

I think the only real downside to this game is that it's SUPER easy to make a misinput, but the first game has that problem too. Such is the nature of a touch screen based game.

I think this is the best game ever made. Its first ever (and probably only!) five star rating. (And my first rating ever, actually!)

If you like puzzle games or touch-screen based games, I absolutely recommend it!

Thanks for reading!

Wow, the average score on this game is low. I realize that I’m going to be a bit controversial with some of the things I say here, but I do believe that this game in general takes an unfairly harsh criticism from the community for simply being the first to majorly screw up the paper Mario formula; I think it’s a genuinely better game than color splash, which tends to see at least slightly less scathing reviews.

For one, I think the sticker mechanic is far more fun and engaging than the color card mechanic from that game. Peeling unique attack stickers from the overworld is just such a satisfying thing! And I think the graphics look good on the smaller screen, whereas I find color splash to be far more bland visually. Obviously, this game is entirely lacking story. It’s simply a ‘collect all the pieces’ game without nearly anything else going in. Even so, there are some interesting set piece moments to enjoy even if they’re kind of moot without a story, such as losing Kersti (stupid name) and your hammer to the poison big forest and wiggler’s antics that ensue, or climbing an ancient desert tower, or the haunted mansion. I also think that the ‘Things’ have the best implementation in this game compared to any other paper Mario game that has used them. A lot of the game is lacking though, in intrigue and variance compared to paper Mario games past. The bosses are generally uninspired, typically being a regular Mario enemy enhanced with the power of one of the sticker crowns.

Though, I think if you can get past how much of a step back it is from the other predecessor games, you can actually find a decently fun time in this game! Don’t let all those hate reviews bring your perception down; and that’s coming from a diehard Super Paper Mario fan.

The next game in this Zelda marathon, A Link to the Past, is a breath of fresh air. While I didn't particularly like Zelda 1, and I definitely didn't like Zelda II, this game was different. This was one of the first Zelda games I played I believe, yet this was only my 2nd time fully beating it. I had seen plenty of randomizers before, but I haven't fully beaten this game in like 10 years. As I stated, this game was a breath of fresh air because, as opposed to the first two games, A Link to the Past is really great.

This game ditches the side-scrolling platformer adventure RPG Zelda II went for and is more in line with how Zelda 1 does things. It's top down again, there are no more RPG mechanics like Zelda II and the game isn't absolutely brutal like Zelda II. In fact, it's easier than the first game, tho I still died weirdly often funnily enough. Anyways this is all for the better as the direction Zelda II was going in, just did not do it for me at all.

The story this time around, and it focuses more on its story than the first two games, actually takes place before Zelda I and II. Before the events of the game happen, Ganondorf manages to open the gateway to the Sacred Realm where the Triforce is hidden away and he obtains the Triforce for himself. Knowing he was evil and this would lead to catastrophe, the king of Hyrule ordered seven sages to seal the gateway up along with Ganondorf inside. A long battle ensues but, in the end, the gateway was sealed. Many years later, horrible events start occurring and so the king of Hyrule believes it to be related to the sages seal. Finding out it was not that, he puts out a reward for anyone that can help him with these troubles. A wizard named Agahnim comes alone, seemingly fixing these troubles with his magic. He becomes close to the king and all is well for a while. However shortly after, people start to suspect something is wrong with Agahnim. He starts abusing his power. He eventually casts spells on all the soldiers to turn them evil, and kidnaps maidens that were descended from the sages, using their powers to try to open the seal himself. The game then officially starts, with Link having to save Zelda from the dungeon of Hyrule castle. Once Link saves her, she and him meet up with the priest of a nearby sanctuary and he tells you some of the details I just told you. It's now Link's job to get 3 pendants to obtain the Master Sword, eventually having to rescue the maidens (and Zelda she gets kidnapped too) from each of the dungeons that reside in the Dark World and in the end defeating Ganon. That was a lot but yeah this game is more story-focused than the other two and I like that. The story isn't mind-blowing, and I think Ocarina of Time honestly did the story way better since it's pretty similar to this game's but it's still a solid first attempt at this type of Zelda story.

Actually, getting into the gameplay tho, it's basically Zelda 1 but more polished. It's more linear than that game and holds your hand more but is also more engaging. You actually have a map for the overworld and there are always markers showing you where you need to go next. Some might see this as maybe too hand-holdy, but compared to Zelda 1's cryptic and more directionless nature, I'll take this any day over that. Another thing this game does better with its overworld is the secrets. Gone is every secret being a completely random bush to burn or wall to blow up. If there are bombable walls, they have a crack in them to indicate they can be blown up. Outside of that, the secrets are way more different. Sometimes you'll have to fall in a hole or well to end up in a cave and to get rupees or pieces of heart. (That's another change too, pieces of heart are now a thing, and you have to get 4 to make a full heart container). Sometimes you have to use the dark and light world to your advantage and switch between both to get secrets. Sometimes there are little minigames you can play to get items like pieces of heart. The secrets and ways you get items in the overworld are just so much more interesting here compared to the randomness in Zelda 1. There's a reason future Zelda's stuck with this format.

Dungeons this time around are more fleshed out and are more puzzle-like. Instead of having to push a block, find keys and maybe bomb some walls, A Link to the Past introduces many new concepts in its dungeons. One dungeon you're going in and out constantly through entrances in the overworld. Another is full of ice and thus the palace has ice physics. Another involves you having to use an item to create a platform on some tracks, letting you ride them to your destination. These never feel too gimmicky either and always come naturally. The dungeons are great in this game, far better than Zelda 1 and 2's, but I can't say I absolutely love them. Some are better than others (Skull Woods gave me big issues for some reason) and I generally prefer 3D Zelda dungeons more just because they usually have much more distinct aesthetic to them compared to these. Still tho, these dungeons are very enjoyable..especially the endgame ones. Tho Ganon's tower is brutal I gotta say lol.

The items you get from the dungeons, and I guess outside of them too, are pretty solid tho some are situational. The hookshot became very iconic from this game onwards and is used a lot in the 2nd half of the game. The bow and arrow, while not used a ton in this game, is fun and also became iconic. The hammer has its uses throughout the game but is pretty situational. The medallions damage enemies, tho I never really used them for that purpose much, and otherwise are only required very rarely. This game introduced bottles which are a nice addition as you can store faries in them to revive Link. This game does have several kind of forgettable items and also situational ones you won't use outside of battle or even often at all, but it also introduces some series staples as well, so I'd say it was a good selection of items overall.

The bosses at the end of dungeons are generally really good. They're all distinct visually, and some are even iconic enough to appear in future Zelda titles. Arrghus for example, basically reappears in Majora's Mask under the name Wart. Moldorm appears as a boss in Link's Awakening and A Link Between Worlds. The bosses are generally good, tho sometimes they can be a bit annoying. Mothula for example is incredibly hard without magic and the fire rod. Even with that, it's still difficult because of all the spike blocks in its room. Trinexx you basically NEED to have magic, the fire and ice rod, to even attack it or else you're shit out of luck. The game tells you a couple times throughout the game, when you'll basically need a green potion for a dungeon. They aren't kidding either. Cuz, I had a red or green potion almost every time before I started a dungeon. Luckily rupees are incredibly easy to get in this game, maybe the easiest game to rack up rupees, and a shop that sells green and red potions has a warp next to it which is handy (oh yeah, I forgot to mention you can warp with the ocarina once you get the song to summon the bird which is extremely helpful to warp throughout the Light World). Either way, besides some frustrating ones, the bosses are overall a big improvement from the first two games.

I mentioned the Dark World before and yeah, that's this games big thing. A ways into the game, you obtain the mirror. When you're in the Dark World, Link will turn into a bunny. When he uses the mirror tho, he can go back to the light world and leaves a little warp on the floor that he can use to go back to the Dark World. There are also several warps naturally strewn across the world that Link can use to warp to the Dark World if need be. Anyways, the reason Link is a bunny in the Dark World is because anything that's there morphs into a monster or an animal or whatever. Link cannot attack as a Bunny, but as soon as he first goes go to the Dark World, the dungeon that appears not even a minute after that happens holds the Moon Pearl. This let's Link go to the Dark World without turning into a bunny. Personally, since there's almost nothing in between you first going to the Dark World and getting the Moon Pearl, I would've liked if you got the moon pearl a bit later since it kind of felt pointless that you turn into a bunny only to not have to worry about that pretty much ever soon after. That's a minor nitpick tho, just something I thought about with this replay. Anyways, the whole Light World Dark World gimmick is very well done here, and it leads to some really cool secrets throughout the game.

The OST is great this time around. Zelda 1 already had a very solid soundtrack, and not only does this game have a new an improved version of the overworld theme, it also has some awesome new tracks along with some that become series staples. Zelda's theme makes its first appearance here and its a fantastic version of the song. Both the Dark World theme and the Dark World dungeon theme are also fantastic and fit the darker atmosphere the Dark World provides. This is even the first appearance of the Kakariko Village theme and as someone that played OOT before this game, I always thought that was very fascinating lol. Anyways this game's ost is iconic for a reason and has some of the best songs in the series.

While I did list a couple minor issues I had with this game, this truly is a massive step-up from the prior games. There's a big reason this is a classic and is still played today (whether it's the vanilla version or with randomizers). Now I do prefer Ocarina of Time personally, tho I guess I won't truly know until I replay that next, but if I'll give anything to this game over Ocarina, it's the fact the pacing is way faster and its a lot easier to just dive in and replay. That and visually it does look a lot cleaner. Anyways, I was going to play the CDI games, but I realized the hassle to get an emulator working for them wouldn't have been worth it for how supposedly bad they are. So, Link's Awakening DX is next in this marathon, look forward to that review coming soon!!

3 years later, after the relative success of Mario land 1, yokoi would return and give us a Mario land sequel we all deserved. A sequel that improved on the original in quite a few ways. Its sequel would also end up being quite a hit, with the game getting a lot more inspiration from the recent Super Mario World and going above and beyond to make the game as ambitious as possible. So let’s dive into it shall we?

So this time, Mario land 2 actually does take place in Mario land. While Mario was away, his rival Wario took over and now Mario has to take it back by finding 6 coins in 6 differently themed areas and then facing up against Wario. This was the game to introduce Wario and would end up being the precursor to that of the Wario land games, which I promise, I will get to one day.

In terms of gameplay, it takes both a few steps forward and a step back. I said it took a lot more inspiration from Super Mario World and trust me: it really does show. The sprites match that of it and the power-ups also reflect it. This time there are two: the fire flower and…a carrot…which helps you fly. The fire flower is a lot more traditional, with the carrot being very similar to things such as the tanooki suit and the cape feather. Then there are the 6 different areas which are all accessed by a world map, which is very similar to the world maps of Super Mario Bros. 3 and obviously World. The 6 worlds include the Tree zone, the space zone, the macro zone, the pumpkin zone, the turtle zone and the Mario zone with them each having different bosses and amount of levels.

After all this we finally face up to Wario in a pretty interesting final level. Personally, this is probably one of my least favourite final levels, mainly because of its random bullshit thrown everywhere. You survive a pool of lava and then whoop- looks like you got hit by a random mechanical fist. The bane of my existence. The Wario boss is also pretty annoying but it isn’t all too bad. He just uses the different power ups you used and you have to adapt to them and hopefully not die. But then, Mario finally gets his castle back, and harmony is restored.

Something quick to mention is the zoomed in camera. My problem with the first Mario land was it was way too zoomed out which would probably be tedious to play in the wrong lighting conditions. But thankfully for this game they zoomed it out! Well…maybe zoomed it out a little too far. This was the step back I was talking about earlier. The camera is a pain to deal with. The only thing you can control is what is above you and what is below you, anything to the sides you’re just gonna have to risk it and hope an enemy or spike isn’t there. I didn’t have that many problems with it but when it annoyed me, it annoyed me.

Overall, out of the 2 games I’d say Mario Land 2 is a great improvement over the original. It applies a lot more inspiration from its console counterparts whilst still doing its own thing. While it is still quite flawed in areas, I have to admit it’s a very fun time. Whether I’ll get to the Wario land games I’ll definitely see.

Quirky sequel to a quirky game boy game, music still slaps, nice sprites, cool areas, shit camera, and fuck the mechanical arms