If I had to place a bet between Half-Life 3 or this game getting finished first, I'd put my money on Half-Life 3.

Kirby's Dream Land is like a sugar cookie. It's short and plain but still manages to be a sweet, delicious snack.

Pepsiman is the hero we needed but didn't deserve.

Looking back on the games I played over the course of my childhood, I've noticed that some of my most memorable gaming expirences came from Rare. Before I discovered Banjo-Kazooie, I played and beat the GBA port of Donkey Kong Country 2 and the DS remake of Diddy Kong Racing, but out of those two games I found Diddy Kong Racing DS to be much more interesting. I frequently looked up information online on how to unlock everything that the game had to offer. Apon doing so, I eventually discovered that there was a whole other version of the game that came before it with a few characters that weren't in the DS version. This is how I discovered the existence of Banjo. It wasn't until I connected my Xbox 360 to the internet for the first time a few years later that I would rediscover Banjo-Kazooie and download the demos of this game and its sequel Tooie. Not long after, I was able to purchase both of them and enjoy them to my heart's content. The Banjo-Kazooie games quickly became some of my all-time favorites, leading me into developing a fascination for the developers that made them. I've even attempted speedrunning this game on the 360 version multiple times with my best time being around 5 hours. Having just finished another playthrough of this masterpiece, I will say this is easily Rare's best collect-a-thon and one of the best 3d platformers ever made.

There are a lot of positive things to say about Banjo-Kazooie. The graphics are nice, the characters are funny & memorable, the worlds are enjoyable to explore, and the size of said worlds are just right. One big issue with some of the games that came after this one such as Donkey Kong 64 & Banjo-Tooie are that the worlds are just too damn big and require a lot of backtracking. WIth Banjo-Kazooie, all the objectives & goodies are scattered throughout the levels in a way that isn't intrusive. The only exception being one jiggy you'll have to backtrack for in the middle part of the game, but unless you're aiming for 100% completion it is totally optional.

As far as negatives go, the controls can be a little confusing. It could be since my last playthrough was a couple years ago, but I had some trouble remembering the imputs for a few moves or just accidently doing the wrong thing. It was never something I thought about until I played this version but that's probably because of the obtuse design of the controller. The other issue is something that the 360 version fixes which involves having to recollect the Jinjos and musical notes if you died. It can be very aggrivating to go through the process of getting them all again, especially if you die in any of the later worlds. However, the reason this issue exists is because of hardware limitations so its somewhat excusable.

Banjo-Kazooie is Rare's most iconic IP and rightfully so. Its tight level design, beautiful worlds, and memorable cast cement this game as the best 3d platformer on the N64. Between Banjo-Kazooie & Mario 64, I'd say the bear & bird duo gave the Italian plumber a run for his money.

Octopath Traveler was a game that took me by surprise with how much I enjoyed it. Initially, I wasn't interested in the game due to it resembling Bravely Default and because I got filtered by both Bravely Default & Octopath Traveler's demos when those were released. In retrospect, I went into them hoping for and expecting them to be games that I could play and keep my brain turned off. Before & during my playthrough of the first Octopath Traveler I realized I was a total idiot. When I finally gave the game a proper chance, I found the strategy required in taking down bosses and enemies to be one of the best parts of the game. Octopath Traveler II keeps everything good about the first game and improves upon its shortcomings to deliver a fantastic RPG that is sure to become a classic in due time.

The gameplay is mostly the same with all of the primary jobs from the first game coming back. Even the new secondary jobs share some similarities to the ones in the previous game. However, they added one new mechanic and it is one that can become a game-changer in tough situations, Latent Powers. Each traveler has a unique one with different benefits. A few examples would be, Partitio's latent power that allows him to have max BP, Agnea's which allows her single attack moves to attack all enemies, or Hikari's & Ochette's which give them access to special attacks. I can't count the number of times this mechanic saved me from what would otherwise have been a game over had it not been added. There are also EX skills that grant you access to more powerful abilities but I didn't use them as much as I probably could have. They may not have been vital additions to the game, but they are welcome ones that make the game a little bit easier and each character more unique.

The biggest issues with the first game were the story and the 8 travelers you play as barely interact with each other. While there were a couple of travelers from the first game whose stories I ended up enjoying more, in most cases the stories were more interesting and an improvement over the first one. The pacing for each story was better too. Some chapters are split into two parts that give the game a little more breathing room to flesh out the story a little more compared to everyone in the first game where they only had 4 chapters. They fixed my biggest gripe with the first game's story and that was the lack of connection between each traveler's quest. The final chapter unites all of the characters together in order to save the world and also adds some lore that pieces some events in their respective stories together.

The travelers interact with each other a lot more and in a handful of others ways than they did in the first game. There is the banter dialogue which is a lot easier to find than it was in the first game (I didn't even know it existed in Octopath 1 till the end of the game), the crossed paths chapters that involve two of the travelers going on an adventure together, and the final chapter that unites them all. Seeing all your party members interact with each other might seem like a small, unimportant oversight, but it comes a long way in enhancing the experience.

While the first Octopath Traveler may have a special place in my heart, Octopath Traveler II is a game that surpasses it in pretty much every way. If this game is an indication of what is in store for the future of the Octopath Traveler franchise, then its a series that has a bright future ahead of it.

The real final boss is the camera.

This game is so good, it got a 100-minute ad dedicated to it.

Donkey Kong 64 was one of the several noteworthy games that remained in my backlog for over 10 years. Because of that, I would say this game and a handful of others that I have and haven't reviewed yet were all a part of the key reason I made my Backloggd account. In my previous playthrough, I made it all the way up to the final world in K. Rool's lair where you were the amount of time you had to beat it depended on the amount of blueprints you collected. By the time I wanted to tackle it, I somehow forgot how to do all of the kongs' moves. Ultimately, it lead to me dropping the game. I did try to start over from scratch a few times, but I never was able to commit until I decided to beat it this year. I enjoyed it, but compared to Rare's other collect-a-thons, this one probably has the most issues.

It plays like all of Rare's other platformers where your purpose in playing is to collect a plethora of different items spread across 8 different worlds, but some of the collectibles have slightly different functions compared to Banjo-Kazooie. The golden bananas are just like your jiggys or stars, but the different colored bananas scattered around the level serve as a means to access the boss for each world which also plays a necessary role in getting to the next world alongside the golden bananas since you get a key for defeating each boss. It all sounds pretty simple, but the problem is that you aren't just playing as one character like Mario or Banjo. In Donkey Kong 64, you play 5 different characters including DK, Diddy, Tiny, Lanky, and Chunky Kong. In most cases, it's pretty cool to have a roster that big in a platformer. However, the approach Rare took in adding more characters is what is this game's biggest flaw, bloat.

Each and every kong have their own colored bananas to collect and objectives to do. The placement of a lot of where these collectibles are located will lead to a copious amount of backtracking. Another big issue that also amplifies the backtracking problem is that most of the worlds are just too big. It's fairly easy to get lost and even with teleportation pads, getting to some locations can still be rather time-consuming. Speaking of time-consuming, getting 100% in this game requires double the amount of golden bananas needed to regularly beat the game. Given how much you have to backtrack for the colored bananas and numerous golden bananas I would never do it since I'm not a madman. I salute those bold enough to 100% this game.

Personally, I still enjoyed the game a lot despite it being very flawed and straight-up inferior in comparison to Rare's other platformers. Their ambitions with this title were pretty expansive, but ultimately they bit off a little more than they could chew in some areas. If you're a diehard collect-a-thon fan and willing to put up with the repetitive parts of the game I'd still recommend it. If DK64 seems like too much, then I'd stick to something shorter and better-paced like Banjo-Kazooie.

No More Heroes is one of Suda51's best games and by far his most popular one compared to his previous games such as Killer7, The Silver Case, and Flower, Sun, and Rain. Two of which were not released outside of Japan when this game came out. No More Heroes was a game deserving of its popularity not just because it was one of the few mature games released on the Wii, but also because of its simple but fun gameplay, creativity, and good story.

The game starts off with a badass introduction to Travis Touchdown and a first level & boss that give you a feel for how to use Travis's beam katana in combat and some of the game's other mechanics like the quickstep you can do by dodging at the right time or managing & charging your battery for the beam katana. It's a fantastic introduction as not only do you get straight into the action almost immediately, but also is a fantastic setup for the game's main story.

In contrast to just about every other game by Grasshopper, this game's plot while not completely devoid of serious moments is mostly pretty goofy. Up until the fantastic twist at the end of the game, No More Heroes is about a broke dork who enters a tournament where he kills people for money to buy the typical things an otaku would buy and to get laid. However, in order to progress in the tournament, he still needs to earn money by taking jobs around the town of Santa Destroy.

The open world of Santa Destroy might not be the best hub world to exist, but with the odd jobs around town you'll need to do to get money or the places you'll need to visit to get various items and enhancements it still is successful in getting you immersed in the world of No More Heroes. There are a handful of different jobs including lawn mowing, collecting coconuts, or filling up cars with gas. Some of these are more enjoyable than others, but they are all a unique, alternative way to earn money besides just killing goons.

Over the course of Travis's battles, we get a look at who Travis is as a character and how he grows in his journey to becoming the assassin he is. One primary example is when Travis expresses regret for not killing Holly Summers after she berated him for his hesitation. It adds a level of realism and depth to his character that I enjoyed seeing unfold.

Over the years No More Heroes has become a successful franchise with a handful of games. The series even managed to get representation in Smash in the form of a Mii costume for Travis in Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Given the amount of creativity and care that went into making this game, it is very much deserving of the success it has received. It is a fantastic hack-and-slash that is more than worth your time and money.

Sonic Unleashed isn't a terrible game but there are enough gripes I had with it that made the game a slog to beat. The werehog levels while sometimes enjoyable overstayed their welcome and the combat isn't all that great. The sun & moon coins were also a pain in the ass to collect for a good chunk of the game and will probably take up a good majority of your playthrough. It gets a bit easier to get the amount required to complete the game once you unlock the extra acts, but unless you really pay attention as you play the levels, you're going to find yourself replaying them quite a bit if you want to make progress. Eggmanland is one of the most infuriating levels I have played for quite some time. Not only does it have an absurdly big difficulty curve from every other level, but the level drags on longer than the other werehog levels. Considering my lack of skill at Sonic games, I'm honestly surprised I managed to beat it, let alone without having to grind for extra lives. Even with that in mind it still took me over an hour to do it.

I've complained enough about the downsides so I'll go into the positive aspects this game has to offer. The regular Sonic levels are fun to speed through and there is a lot of variety among the levels which is something I always am clamoring for in a game. The graphics are impressive and hold up nicely in 2023. Despite the werehog levels being far from perfect, I can still appreciate that they at least tried to do something new and unique.

There is a good game underneath some of the issues it has. What Sonic Unleashed really needs is a remaster that adds some QoL changes. Those few small changes can come a long way and are all Sonic Unleashed really needs for it to truly unleash its potential.

Note: This is a review of the collection itself and does not reflect my score of the games in them. I might eventually review each game individually in the future.

Prior to when this compilation was officially revealed, it was something that was the topic of numerous rumors and speculation. Despite owning all 3 games, I was really hoping for it to be real since I never completed any of these games at the time and the idea of playing the past 3d Mario games on a portable device was one that I found fascinating. However, I didn't just want these three, I was hoping they'd add Galaxy 2 and maybe 3d Land & 64 DS too if Nintendo were feeling generous. Unfortunately, my wish did not come to fruition.

One good thing I can say is that the games that are in this compilation remain virtually untouched. Each game feels and plays exactly like they did when I played them on their original consoles. I also like how they allow you to use your pro controller for Mario Galaxy. I still had to waggle around my pro controller a little bit, but it successfully managed to carry over the motion controls from the original version nicely. For those who have not played the originals or own the consoles they were on, these are good versions to play. I would recommend this collection to those people if it is still sold at a reasonable price as in terms of quality these games range from good to fantastic.

In terms of extras, the only extras added are the music player mode that plays tracks from the three games. It's a neat feature, but this collection definitely would have benefitted from having a few more extras. Several collections usually have an artwork/memorabilia gallery, challenges, or behind-the-scenes videos like what Rare Replay had with the Rare Revealed videos. Even some of Nintendo's past compilations have had more content and care put into them. Kirby's Dream Collection had most of these including even a few episodes of the anime.

While I'm happy this collection exists, I'm disappointed in how low effort it is. The lack of Galaxy 2 and extra features in this compilation really make this feel like a half-assed attempt at celebrating Mario's 35th anniversary. Mario is the most iconic & influential video game character in the world, our plumber deserves more than a lazy, incomplete collection for his 35th birthday.

Being a douchebag while playing co-op has never been more fun.

Kingdom Hearts is a series I've had a history with for a long time. I remember the first time I caught wind of the series was when I was at GameStop back when it was called EB Games and saw the cover of Chain of Memories and a banner for KH2 that had Chicken Little on one of the images. I didn't remember the name of the series until a few years later my curiosity kicked in and I looked up the weird Disney game with humans. After this rediscovery, I became very interested in playing the KH games for the reasons mentioned in my 358/2 Days review which eventually led to me purchasing this game. After going back and finally rebeating this game years later, I can safely say that I still enjoyed it just as much as my younger self did.

The combat is extremely fun and the command deck along with the stat matrix are massive improvements over the panel system present in 358/2 Days. The clock gauge while not as powerful as the limit gauge was in 358/2 Days is a cool mechanic that allows you to use a finisher when you max out its level. It's satisfying to pull off and can get you out of some troublesome situations if you max it out in a bind. There are also a variety of finish commands that you can choose such as Faith, Mega Flare, or stronger versions of your typical fire, ice, or thunder spells. The command deck gives you a lot of freedom to choose attacks, spells, or items you want to use. The stat matrix allows you to gain abilities, magic, strength, level-up, and etc by collecting panels across the worlds you visit. I think it's a really clever way of progressively leveling up and strengthening your character since they are pretty common and there are plenty of different panels. Another cool feature you can do with the stat matrix is to change the difficulty at any time. It makes the game more accessable and noob friendly to those who either aren't that good at the game or are new players and it gives those who want more of a challenge to swap to a harder difficulty. It is really a shame most other games in the series do not have this option. Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded also gets a bit experimental as it adds small segments from a variety of different genres such as a stealth segment, a 2d platforming one, and even a part where it turns into a turn-based RPG. Some of them might have fallen flat but its something different and I appreciate it when developers toy with new ideas.

The gameplay may be awesome, but the story feels mostly like a filler arc. There is a small bit of important info that is relevant in the end, but for 90% of the game you're pretty much wandering around the same locations we've all previously been to multiple times just in digitized form. This leads to my other criticism. The worlds in this game are almost exactly the same as they were in KH1 with the exception of Castle Oblivion at the end. All of these worlds are in multiple games and revisiting them with little to no changes starts to get old. 358/2 Days was guilty of this too but even that game managed to add something new to previously visited worlds like Neverland and Agrabah (which is also in this game).

While I can understand the reasons why this game is disliked among fans, I don't think it deserves as much hate as it gets. There is a lot of fun to be had gameplay wise and it is more accessible to people of all skill levels with the added ability to swap difficulties at any time. Unless you only care about the story, I'd give this one a try.

For the longest time, Devil May Cry 1 was my favorite in the series for its simplicity, aesthetics, and Dante's initial design. This didn't mean that I didn't like DMC3 just as much though, I always enjoyed my playthroughs of the game, watched the cutscenes multiple times, and thought Dante's and Vergil's sibling rivalry made the game's story engaging. After finally getting around to playing the game as Vergil, I think DMC3 is now my favorite in the series.

Dante & Vergil do have some similar weapons and abilities, but enough changes to make them feel different. Right off the gate, Vergil has access to devil trigger which makes the first few missions a breeze to go through. Like with Dante, you still have to buy new moves to unlock his full moveset. I've never fully unlocked either of their movesets, but from what I've played Vergil's is slightly more fun to use and stronger than Dante's. Despite this, Dante is still a blast to play too and I really like the weapons he has too except Nevan, that one didn't really resonate with me gameplay-wise.

DMC3 is a prequel that explains how Dante got the name for his shop and a few other events that happen in the first game. It may not have the most complex or best plot ever, but in this story, Dante and Vergil steal the show. Personality-wise, Dante is at his peak here. His silly quips towards the other characters and the situations he gets in are genuinely funny. His goofy personality with the blend of getting serious when he needs to add that level of realism to Dante which is why he is one of my favorite video game characters. Besides being extremely quotable, Vergil is a fantastic villain whose tragic backstory, more serious personality, and his approach to gaining more power make him a masterclass rival to Dante and a lovable villain. I always looked forward to seeing the sons of Sparda banter with each other and the boss fights you get with Vergil are easily the best parts of the game. The final battle is a very intense, climactic finale that is fun and challenging to fight with an ending that will give you an emotional punch to the gut.

Devil May Cry 3 is a fantastic prequel and character action game that is one of the best in the genre defined by its enthralling gameplay and characters. I'd rank it an SSS.