Generation 3 was when Gamefreak made it a tradition to have both a new game and a remake of a previous generation, this one is the new entry and it shows, not only because the creatures are new, but because bosses have noticeably better teams and story progress is more streamlined compared to the remakes.
Pokémon Emerald also introduced the Battle Frontier, gym leader rematches and other post game content to extend the longevity of the game so that's neat. However, I really dislike how grindy it is to train Pokémon and get battle points for items and such, EVs were introduced in this generation and it shows because the mechanic leaves a lot to be desired in contrast to the simple stat experience of old.
I also dislike how despite Emerald supposedly being the definitive gen 3 game they still implemented version exclusives. Gamefreak have always been bastards when it comes to this, but the joke's on them because I've only ever emulated their games.
This title is also somehow controversial because you need 3 different water HMs to traverse the region and there's an excess of water routes populated by pretty much the same Pokémon. I'm afraid this is true, a couple islands here and there with an item or patch of grass would have been great.
I came back to this game for a Nuzlocke challenge. I wiped 3 times, but I had fun in the end. It's nice that self imposed challenges like that exist because otherwise Pokémon causes me an existential crisis with how easy it is. I have no idea how good new Pokémon games are because I haven't played them, but I like this one a lot.

Almost like a standalone expansion for the first game. The only differences are a new campaign, almost double the cards and an entire new map. There are also a few new music tracks and the AI is notoriously better.
Opponents will now often require the player to meet certain deck requirements before facing them or add their own special rules which is a nice addition most of the time because in the first entry you had to go out of your way not to run a meta deck. Now at least there's some variation.
The saddest aspect about this title is that its been 21 years since its release at the time of this review, and yet it remains the best singleplayer Pokemon TCG video game in English.

This is a collection of short games featuring Kirby, a pink balloon creature with the uncanny ability to copy enemy abilities and create allies out of them. The most famous are probably the platformers because I never hear people talk about the gourmet race or great cave offensive.
This has to be the easiest mainstream Nintendo platformer by a large margin, Kirby has a large health pool, healing items are abundant, enemies double as power-ups, continues are infinite, and the ability to float makes bottomless pits a non issue. If you can't beat this game then you are gonna have a lot of difficulty beating other platformers from the era.
I think the game has a pleasant tone about it and clearly a great deal of attention was given to characters and animations. Kirby in particular is really expressive and it's hard to not get attached to the pink protagonist.
The presentation is good in other areas as well. Some environments and enemies are shared within games, but the experience as a whole doesn't feel repetitive. I really like the main theme as well, it's really catchy.
To conclude, I don't think I've said anything that hasn't been said before about Kirby Super Star. It's a fun game with a cute, likable protagonist that doesn't take itself even remotely seriously. Neat.

Advance Wars 2 improves upon the original by adding new COs, maps and a lengthy campaign against the forces of Black Hole. At first, you could think it gets repetitive always fighting the same enemy, but now every other faction is playable during the story mode at some point which more than makes up for it.
Unlocking a CO for battle maps and versus mode is easier than ever too and it's no longer required to replay the main campaign over and over again. That's neat.
Mission design has largely improved as well. The first game's campaign felt almost like a tutorial for battle maps most of the time, but now only the first few missions are really like that. The downside is that some battles can get a little tedious near the end, often stretching past the 20 turn mark for the par time. The AI is also generally better and actually spends its funds.
On the topic of presentation, the game is pretty much identical to its predecessor. I'm almost certain that the sprites for units are the same, although the new COs have their own unique themes and the story is much better. It still has a lighthearted tone, but most of the main characters actually comment on the tragedy of war, except for Andy who's still a sociopath.
Overall, Advance Wars 2 seems like a standalone expansion for the original, but on closer inspection it's clear that the game represents an improvement on pretty much every single aspect that made the original great.

A 2D beat 'em up about a guy in spandex with film-related time control abilities. Made by the same people who would go on to form Clover Studio and, later on, Platinum.
The gameplay mostly revolves around using your different skills to exploit gaps in enemy attack patterns, particularly slowdown. I guess this gives the game a bit of a movie feeling since battles tend to have a certain flow as a result with the hero valiantly dodging blows left and right and then turning the tides with a well placed counter.
The combat is really good for the most part, and the game is not terribly hard save for a boss rush section near the end that honestly could have tolerated an extra checkpoint. My issues with it are the odd gimmicky sections and that the bosses are a bit boring.
By far, the most memorable aspect about the game has to be the presentation. Viewtiful Joe is a cell-shaded, fast paced, wisecracking, 4th wall breaking, reference packed, over the top series of sequences one after another. It's great.
To conclude, I think the GameCube version is a bit better than the PS2 one and the game is a bit short but, as it's tradition for Japanese action games, you can unlock new psychotic difficulty settings after beating the game once. Also, new characters and stuff.

The sequel to Shining Force that improves upon the original in most ways, save for the balance that's still awful, but in a different sense.
Shining Force II's greatest strength is its variety. I think the game starts out slower than the first entry, but it's also longer overall. Some sections are very memorable and even contain enemies, tile sets and mechanics that don't show up anywhere else during the main campaign, that shows commitment to keeping things fresh.
Just as its predecessor, the game is divided into battles and regular RPG sections where you walk around towns and talk to NPCs. This breaths life into the world, which is a bit generic, but so are most strategy game settings anyway. At least the centaur knights are a cool idea.
I said earlier that the balance was still awful, and that's true, but this time instead of newer characters replacing old ones the opposite happens and early game characters tend to be superior because the player can promote them later and marginal productivity differences translate into larger gains in the long term. However, this is somewhat compensated by the introduction of new classes and promotions, it's not just knights this time around.
The presentation is also as good as ever, particularly the music. The only exception is the story which wasn't very good in the first entry either. Despite this I like how your party members (aka the titular Shining Force) have more of a personality this time around, it makes them more memorable.
Overall, I really like Shining Force II, about as much as the original and that's one of my favorite games ever. I realize I'm horribly biased too, but what can you do?

The funny thing about Shining Force is that it was originally created to compete against Nintendo's Fire Emblem. However, that series didn't get localized until the 7th installment so this series enjoyed an ironic lack of competition in the west.
Anyway, the game is an SPRG, but it differentiates itself by also including segments where you can walk around towns and such rather than being composed exclusively of battles and cutscenes. There are plenty of battles to be had regardless, don't worry about that.
Speaking of that, this game has a trend of giving you cool characters who are terribly under-leveled, essentially making them useless unless you are willing to grind, which in turn makes the game trivial anyways. Balance is not this game's greatest strength.
In my opinion, that award goes to the game's sheer variety instead. You start with a pretty diverse party from the get go and regularly get new characters, assuming you explore in-between battles. As I said, some of the characters you get are terribly weak, but the opposite is also true. New characters for each class more often than not outcompete their counterparts and many items grant extra active skills, like a ranged attack to a melee class, so the gameplay stays interesting for the most part.
This diversity applies to the battles as well as some are quite memorable and often introduce new enemies or a memorable set piece.
On the topic of presentation, I really like it, especially the music. The art grew on me as well, more so than the anime art style featured in the GBA remake, which also has its own particular strengths, but I digress.
Shining Force is a personal favorite of mine, but it's not perfect. Notably the balance is awful, as I mentioned earlier. Also, the localization is a bit rough and, as a result, important plot elements are omitted.
I think I would recommend this version to start out over the GBA remake, but I'm not completely sure about that because both versions are good in my opinion.

The Legend of Zelda is first and foremost a game about exploration. The manual comes with an incomplete map and a few clues so it's up to the player to discover the locations of the later dungeons and many important items.
This isn't the first game to require the player to draw their own map or find one online, dungeon crawlers had been doing it for a while by 1986, however The Legend of Zelda is a lot more accessible.
While playing some old RPGs I've often felt like some things I could have never figured out on my own, whereas with Zelda I managed to sort out most of it by myself. It helps that each dungeon rewards an extra heart container and an item so as the game goes on exploration becomes progressively easier.
Obviously the game's age prevents it from featuring cutting edge graphics but a different aspect of the presentation, the music, remains remarkable and quite catchy to this day.
Another aspect that makes The Legend of Zelda hard to recommend is the combat. It's competent and the enemy roster is varied in both strengths and weaknesses, but fighting room after room full of darknuts was never something I found myself enjoying.
Overall, I would say The Legend of Zelda is a pretty solid action adventure game. Subsequent games in the series either improved or experimented with the formula, but I think none of them can truly replace the original; it's a raw version of what made the series so great.

I remember watching my cousin play this game back when I was a kid, I always wanted to play it but I forgot about it for over a decade. Also, I normally don't even look at Star Wars games because licensed games tend to be kind of bad and I'm not the biggest fan of the setting.
However, I'm happy to say that my preconceptions were wrong. Jedi Academy is actually quite fun and you are cutting down bad guys within the first 30 minutes. They aren't very challenging at first, but once lightsaber wielding enemies show up in significant numbers things get really interesting.
That's the greatest strength of the game in my opinion, it's really fun to fly around high on the force chopping down bad guys with a sword. The presentation is alright, the story is unremarkable and Mark Hamill doesn't voice Luke Skywalker, but none of that matters because the combat is fun.
The only other aspect I found noteworthy is that you can play as an alien. I think that's cool because aliens are cool.
For people who like Star Wars this is probably a must play.

This game is extremely impressive on a technical level for a GBA title, it contains a ridiculous amount of cards, lots of AI opponents, puzzles, challenges, etc. I also like how you can pick a structure deck at the beginning instead of being handed a bunch of garbage like in most Yu-Gi-Oh! games.
However, this is still a GBA game so it's rather limited in some aspects. I'm of the opinion that a simulator like this needs a campaign of sorts because otherwise it's better to simply play with other people. Also, the low resolution means most cards look awful.
Old games like this always have some value because they help preserve a time in the game's history, but I would probably recommend a different one for 2006.

Back in the day, Bandai had its own Japan exclusive portable console: the Wonderswan. That meant that if you liked Digimon in the west then you had very few available options. However, some titles did make their way across to more accessible systems such as the Gameboy Advance. This is one of them and, as a result, I ended up playing this a lot as a kid.
Digimon Battle Spirit is what you would call a party or platform fighting game. Characters have limited move pools due to the control limitations and instead of a health bar they drop small orbs when hit. Whoever collects the most orbs from the opponent after 2 minutes is declared the winner. Also, Calumon shows up twice per match and whoever catches it digievolves which means they become invincible, gain new attacks and deal a ton of damage for a few seconds.
The main game mode is a campaign consisting of 7 fights and a final boss. Beat the game with each character to unlock more fighters... that's it really. It's not a deep game at all, but it's fun.
In a different note, I really like the presentation. The chibi art style is really cute and the music is nice to listen to, although it doesn't have much to do with the show. Most of the characters you would want to play as are present too... and Sukamon, for some reason.
To conclude, this game is alright. I'm kind of biased because I like Digimon, especially Tamers, so I wouldn't really recommend it for people who are unaware or don't like the series.

Advance Wars is easy to get into for a strategy game. There's only a handful of units which are identical across all factions and fulfill a specific role so it's not hard to understand. Also, the AI is kind of garbage so it's easy to win sans missions where the odds are really stacked against the player.
Speaking of the missions, there's a decent variety on offer, only a couple of missions are like a regular skirmish. On top of that, depending on what commander you play as you might unlock extra missions and characters. However, I'm not a fan of how you must beat the game several times to unlock every playable CO for VS mode and battle maps.
In terms of presentation, the game is colorful, the music is cheerful and the graphics are detailed. It's almost too happy considering this is a game about war, perhaps the entire cast is comprised of sociopaths.
Anyways, I believe Advance Wars is really good. This is the strategy game for people who want to get into turn based strategy but are afraid of permanently losing a character in XCOM or Fire Emblem.

It's Tag Force 1... but better. There's less grinding, most characters have their decks from the anime, packs are cheaper and they fleshed out the tag duel mechanic more. The AI isn't the best, but the opponent is also garbage so it balances out.
There are also some fun interactions between the different characters, although a lot of story events are repeated, only the latter tend to be unique.
Overall, Tag Force 2 is better than 1, but it still suffers from similar issues. This series apparently gets better with each iteration. Although if you want GX era mechanics only, this is the one to play.

A highly ambitious card game. Rather than just being a simulator with AI opponents, Tag Force lets you roam around the duel academy and talk to people. There's even a basic affection system where you can become friends with different characters by having a chat, dueling and, most importantly, gifting them sandwiches.
I like the game concept, but Tag Force 1 also has some major issues. The first one is the grind, your starting deck is total garbage and packs are a bit pricey, not to mention you have to unlock new ones so you need to grind for the privilege of grinding more later.
My second issue is that, at the time the game was made, a lot of the cards the characters use in the anime weren't out yet so their decks are super generic. I think Tag Force 2 is much better in this regard.
Overall, I think the game provided a solid base for future Tag Force titles, but I wouldn't really recommend this one unless you are really nostalgic for this particular era of Yu-Gi-Oh!

LucasArts are mostly known for their licensed Star Wars and graphic adventure games, but this is a vastly different title that's been somewhat forgotten.
Metal Warriors is a sidescroller shooter that's about as close as one can get to Cybernator without risking a lawsuit.
The star of the title are, of course, the mechs, of which there are 6 to choose from. The player usually starts with the Nitro (the mech in the cover), but you can get down at any time if you find a replacement. In fact, swapping mechs is a necessity for certain stages.
On that note, the levels feature a great deal of verticality and secrets. It's important to explore because this game is quite difficult and lacks a save system or continues. However, you can make your own saves these days with an emulator, and at 3 hours of length on average I think Metal Warriors is too long to beat in one sitting anyway, but that's just my opinion.
As for the presentation, I really like the art style of the game. There are even some short cutscenes which feature beautiful pixel art. I also think the music is quite enjoyable.
To summarize, Metal Warriors is pretty good and I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind the high difficulty. I suggest trying the splitscreen versus mode too if you have a pal to play with.