Corrugated_Fox
2002
I recently started the Metroid series from scratch for one reason: to play Metroid Fusion. I had always been intrigued by this game, thinking it looked a bit different from the rest of the series, but I just never had a chance to actually play it until recently. After finishing up Zero Mission, Samus Returns, and Super Metroid I was all ready to finally give this game a whirl.
Sadly, I did not enjoy Metroid Fusion. I don't feel it was a bad game, but in my opinion, it is the weakest game in there 2D series. My main issue with it was that it relied too heavily on the mechanic of blasting random walls to find the path forward. This mechanic has always been my least favorite aspect of the series, but at least in Samus Returns and Super Metroid you gained abilities that helped make things less obtuse (aeon scan in SR, X-Ray Visor in SM). I swear that half of my play time in Fusion was spent shooting/bombing random wall and floor tiles in hopes of finding the path forward. The mechanic really only exists to pad out the play time and I feel it is the game's biggest downfall.
Another issue I had with Fusion is that the "world" you explore is far less interesting than the ones in the previous games. In Fusion you find yourself in a science research station, which I liked the idea of, but felt that it lacked the mystery and intrigue of exploring a foreign planet. The different sectors of the research station varied from one another slightly, but they were nowhere near as varied as the areas found in other games in the series. (On a side note, this is supposed to be a research station where regular scientists work, right? But the areas are clearly designed to be maneuvered by someone with abilities akin to Samus... so am I to believe that scientists are space jumping around just to get to the breakroom?)
I also really disliked most of the bosses in Fusion. I will admit that they were more varied and interesting than most of the bosses from the earlier games, but I found their movement and attack patterns to be generally cheap and annoying (I'm looking at you, Nightmare). Each boss felt like more a test of endurance than skill as each boss required an absolute ton of damage to take them down, and each hit by them resulted in a huge loss of health to Samus. The save points for some of these bosses were placed infuriatingly far away too, which further added to my frustration. There were even a few times that I almost gave up on the game entirely because of these battles. I managed to get through them all in the end, but they were my least favorite boss battles in the entire series.
(One bonus complaint: after acquiring the final upgrade I was locked out of exploring the research station for some reason (you get locked in any Navigation room you enter, forcing you to progress to the final boss). I had planned on going back to get some missed upgrades before attempting the final boss, but I couldn't. Very strange game design for this style of game, if you ask me.)
Now that I have the negatives out of the way I suppose I should mention a few things I liked about the game. First, I really liked how much story there was in Fusion. Prior games in the series had just a few tidbits of a story here and there but Fusion's story is fully fleshed out and quite interesting. It ties in nicely to prior games in the series and also connects to the story in Metroid Dread too. The story was definitely Fusion's strongest aspect. Additionally, the game looked great. The sprite design was good and was well animated. The world design overall was less interesting than previous games, but it still looked fantastic.
Overall, I was quite disappointed by Metroid Fusion. The world was less interesting the previous entries in the series and exploring it was hampered immensely by the need to bomb/shoot hidden blocks just to progress with the story. I found the bosses to be the most annoying of the series, with a few of them almost making me give up on the game entirely. Fusion isn't necessarily a bad game, but I do consider it to be the worst game in this fantastic series.
Sadly, I did not enjoy Metroid Fusion. I don't feel it was a bad game, but in my opinion, it is the weakest game in there 2D series. My main issue with it was that it relied too heavily on the mechanic of blasting random walls to find the path forward. This mechanic has always been my least favorite aspect of the series, but at least in Samus Returns and Super Metroid you gained abilities that helped make things less obtuse (aeon scan in SR, X-Ray Visor in SM). I swear that half of my play time in Fusion was spent shooting/bombing random wall and floor tiles in hopes of finding the path forward. The mechanic really only exists to pad out the play time and I feel it is the game's biggest downfall.
Another issue I had with Fusion is that the "world" you explore is far less interesting than the ones in the previous games. In Fusion you find yourself in a science research station, which I liked the idea of, but felt that it lacked the mystery and intrigue of exploring a foreign planet. The different sectors of the research station varied from one another slightly, but they were nowhere near as varied as the areas found in other games in the series. (On a side note, this is supposed to be a research station where regular scientists work, right? But the areas are clearly designed to be maneuvered by someone with abilities akin to Samus... so am I to believe that scientists are space jumping around just to get to the breakroom?)
I also really disliked most of the bosses in Fusion. I will admit that they were more varied and interesting than most of the bosses from the earlier games, but I found their movement and attack patterns to be generally cheap and annoying (I'm looking at you, Nightmare). Each boss felt like more a test of endurance than skill as each boss required an absolute ton of damage to take them down, and each hit by them resulted in a huge loss of health to Samus. The save points for some of these bosses were placed infuriatingly far away too, which further added to my frustration. There were even a few times that I almost gave up on the game entirely because of these battles. I managed to get through them all in the end, but they were my least favorite boss battles in the entire series.
(One bonus complaint: after acquiring the final upgrade I was locked out of exploring the research station for some reason (you get locked in any Navigation room you enter, forcing you to progress to the final boss). I had planned on going back to get some missed upgrades before attempting the final boss, but I couldn't. Very strange game design for this style of game, if you ask me.)
Now that I have the negatives out of the way I suppose I should mention a few things I liked about the game. First, I really liked how much story there was in Fusion. Prior games in the series had just a few tidbits of a story here and there but Fusion's story is fully fleshed out and quite interesting. It ties in nicely to prior games in the series and also connects to the story in Metroid Dread too. The story was definitely Fusion's strongest aspect. Additionally, the game looked great. The sprite design was good and was well animated. The world design overall was less interesting than previous games, but it still looked fantastic.
Overall, I was quite disappointed by Metroid Fusion. The world was less interesting the previous entries in the series and exploring it was hampered immensely by the need to bomb/shoot hidden blocks just to progress with the story. I found the bosses to be the most annoying of the series, with a few of them almost making me give up on the game entirely. Fusion isn't necessarily a bad game, but I do consider it to be the worst game in this fantastic series.
2022
After finishing Octopath 2 recently I was in the mood for a significantly shorter game. I struggled to decide on something to play, actually finding myself in a pretty big gaming slump for a few weeks, but I had heard good things about Infernax so I thought I decided to try it out.
Infernax is a throwback to earlier Castlevania games and Zelda 2, but with some modern-day improvements and a morality system of sorts. As the game's protagonist, Alcedor, you explore a 2D world while defeating enemies with your trusty mace, this game's version of Castlevania's whip/ Link's sword. An evil presence has been wreaking havoc on the world and it is up to you to destroy 6 crystals, which are guarded at the end of 6 castles by 6 bosses, to restore peace to the world. Along the journey you find new abilities that allow you to reach areas you could not reach previously. It felt very similar to the to the games that inspired it, but I guess that was kind of the point.
As you explore the game's world you defeat enemies with your mace, earning you XP and gold. XP can be used to increase Alcedor's weapon damage, health points, or magic points, and gold can be used to buy items from shops, such as additional lives, more health points, new armor (decreases damage taken), new weapons (all of which are maces - increases damage dealt), and new spells. You also gain additional XP and gold by completing side quests or by defeating bosses.
The game started out pretty challenging, with regular enemies often taking me out before I could get from one save point to the next. However, after getting the healing spell and a few health and weapon upgrades I found the difficulty was more or less completely negated, leaving the game feeling far too easy. Regular enemies could then be downed in just a few hits and rarely caused any real problems (minus the few times they were placed in cheap locations). After the first two castles I was able to get through most of the remaining castles and their bosses on my first attempt.
The game's world wasn't terribly large, but it was enjoyable enough to explore. On the path to the next objective there were different paths to check out, though going the wrong way generally led roadblocks that required a certain skill or ability to overcome. Directions on where to go next were usually pretty obtuse, but thankfully the game's map made it fairly easy to deduce which areas had yet to be explored. There were a few instances where I had to look to a guide to determine where I was supposed to be going, which I hate doing, but it didn't happen too often.
While exploring the world there were NPCs to talk to, oftentimes providing a side quest to complete. A lot of these side quests had moral decisions to make, having to choose between one of two outcomes (for example, sparing or killing an infected person). This morality system was part of why I chose to play this game, but ultimately, I found it underwhelming. If I planned on playing through Infernax multiple times maybe I would have got more out of the system, but most decisions left little to no impact on me and I had no interest in seeing what the alternate outcome would have been. The ending I got upon felling the final boss was also lackluster, likely due to the moral choices I made throughout my adventure, which further detracted from my overall enjoyment of the game.
Infernax did a fairly good job of paying homage to the genre classics that inspired it, but ultimately, I left feeling a bit disappointed. While initially a decent challenge, the introduction of upgrades and new abilities destroyed the game's difficulty and greatly diminished my level of enjoyment. The morality system was underwhelming and the ending I received was incredibly lackluster. Despite its flaws, I still had a good time playing through Infernax and I would recommend it for fans of retro-platformers in the same vein as earlier Castlevania's or Zelda 2.
Infernax is a throwback to earlier Castlevania games and Zelda 2, but with some modern-day improvements and a morality system of sorts. As the game's protagonist, Alcedor, you explore a 2D world while defeating enemies with your trusty mace, this game's version of Castlevania's whip/ Link's sword. An evil presence has been wreaking havoc on the world and it is up to you to destroy 6 crystals, which are guarded at the end of 6 castles by 6 bosses, to restore peace to the world. Along the journey you find new abilities that allow you to reach areas you could not reach previously. It felt very similar to the to the games that inspired it, but I guess that was kind of the point.
As you explore the game's world you defeat enemies with your mace, earning you XP and gold. XP can be used to increase Alcedor's weapon damage, health points, or magic points, and gold can be used to buy items from shops, such as additional lives, more health points, new armor (decreases damage taken), new weapons (all of which are maces - increases damage dealt), and new spells. You also gain additional XP and gold by completing side quests or by defeating bosses.
The game started out pretty challenging, with regular enemies often taking me out before I could get from one save point to the next. However, after getting the healing spell and a few health and weapon upgrades I found the difficulty was more or less completely negated, leaving the game feeling far too easy. Regular enemies could then be downed in just a few hits and rarely caused any real problems (minus the few times they were placed in cheap locations). After the first two castles I was able to get through most of the remaining castles and their bosses on my first attempt.
The game's world wasn't terribly large, but it was enjoyable enough to explore. On the path to the next objective there were different paths to check out, though going the wrong way generally led roadblocks that required a certain skill or ability to overcome. Directions on where to go next were usually pretty obtuse, but thankfully the game's map made it fairly easy to deduce which areas had yet to be explored. There were a few instances where I had to look to a guide to determine where I was supposed to be going, which I hate doing, but it didn't happen too often.
While exploring the world there were NPCs to talk to, oftentimes providing a side quest to complete. A lot of these side quests had moral decisions to make, having to choose between one of two outcomes (for example, sparing or killing an infected person). This morality system was part of why I chose to play this game, but ultimately, I found it underwhelming. If I planned on playing through Infernax multiple times maybe I would have got more out of the system, but most decisions left little to no impact on me and I had no interest in seeing what the alternate outcome would have been. The ending I got upon felling the final boss was also lackluster, likely due to the moral choices I made throughout my adventure, which further detracted from my overall enjoyment of the game.
Infernax did a fairly good job of paying homage to the genre classics that inspired it, but ultimately, I left feeling a bit disappointed. While initially a decent challenge, the introduction of upgrades and new abilities destroyed the game's difficulty and greatly diminished my level of enjoyment. The morality system was underwhelming and the ending I received was incredibly lackluster. Despite its flaws, I still had a good time playing through Infernax and I would recommend it for fans of retro-platformers in the same vein as earlier Castlevania's or Zelda 2.
2016
Oxenfree has been in my backlog for years now, but I always put off playing it for some reason or another. After hearing that the sequel is coming next month, I figured I should finally cross this off my list.
In Oxenfree you control Alex, a teenage girl, who takes a ferry to an island to party with a few of her friends. While you're there you accidentally open a rift in time, or something along those lines, and you have to work together to figure out how to fix it.
The game plays as a walking simulator game of sorts. You walk around the island and try to solve the mystery that has transpired around you. Aside from walking around, the main gameplay element is selecting Alex's dialogue choices from 2-3 speech options that appear above her head.
This gameplay style worked well enough for a narrative game like this, but I had one huge annoyance with how the conversations were handled in Oxenfree. As conversations are going on you are given just a few seconds to make your selection. This would be a completely fine way of doing things, but the game just doesn't give you enough time to respond (ideally you could have until the end of the dialogue being spoken), but for some reason your dialogue options almost always disappear before the previous conversation ends. Because of this you are forced to make your selection before the current dialogue finishes, causing Alex to interrupt the previous line of dialogue (and in turn potentially missing out on key information). Another annoyance caused by this system is that if you decide not to respond (or fail to select an option in the time limit) Alex will stay silent and not contribute to the conversation, often changing how things play out (for example, I didn't reply quick enough and was forced to proceed to a new area with a different character, which in turn started an argument between the group). These annoyances didn't ruin the game for me, but they certainly made it feel less immersive.
My other main annoyance with the game was the incredibly long load times. The game has a simple 2D-ish art style which didn't seem like it should be too taxing on the Switch, but it honestly took longer to load into a new area in in this game than it takes to load into BOTW or TOTK. I couldn't believe it!
One thing to note, after finishing the game for the first time you unlock New Game+, and a playthough of New Game+ is required if you want to see the true ending. The two playthroughs are essentially the same, but there are a few new scenes and some new dialogue options as well.
I had a mostly good time with Oxenfree, but the game wasn't without its flaws. I enjoyed the overall story and the interactions between Alex and her friends, but the long load times, the time limit to select dialogue choices, and the constant dialogue interruptions ruined the immersion and left me feeling a bit disappointed with the game as a whole.
In Oxenfree you control Alex, a teenage girl, who takes a ferry to an island to party with a few of her friends. While you're there you accidentally open a rift in time, or something along those lines, and you have to work together to figure out how to fix it.
The game plays as a walking simulator game of sorts. You walk around the island and try to solve the mystery that has transpired around you. Aside from walking around, the main gameplay element is selecting Alex's dialogue choices from 2-3 speech options that appear above her head.
This gameplay style worked well enough for a narrative game like this, but I had one huge annoyance with how the conversations were handled in Oxenfree. As conversations are going on you are given just a few seconds to make your selection. This would be a completely fine way of doing things, but the game just doesn't give you enough time to respond (ideally you could have until the end of the dialogue being spoken), but for some reason your dialogue options almost always disappear before the previous conversation ends. Because of this you are forced to make your selection before the current dialogue finishes, causing Alex to interrupt the previous line of dialogue (and in turn potentially missing out on key information). Another annoyance caused by this system is that if you decide not to respond (or fail to select an option in the time limit) Alex will stay silent and not contribute to the conversation, often changing how things play out (for example, I didn't reply quick enough and was forced to proceed to a new area with a different character, which in turn started an argument between the group). These annoyances didn't ruin the game for me, but they certainly made it feel less immersive.
My other main annoyance with the game was the incredibly long load times. The game has a simple 2D-ish art style which didn't seem like it should be too taxing on the Switch, but it honestly took longer to load into a new area in in this game than it takes to load into BOTW or TOTK. I couldn't believe it!
One thing to note, after finishing the game for the first time you unlock New Game+, and a playthough of New Game+ is required if you want to see the true ending. The two playthroughs are essentially the same, but there are a few new scenes and some new dialogue options as well.
I had a mostly good time with Oxenfree, but the game wasn't without its flaws. I enjoyed the overall story and the interactions between Alex and her friends, but the long load times, the time limit to select dialogue choices, and the constant dialogue interruptions ruined the immersion and left me feeling a bit disappointed with the game as a whole.
As a child growing up in the late 80's and early 90's I was a huge fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I had the toys, watched the TV show, wore the clothing, and of course played the video games. My best friend had a few of the TMNT games on the NES and I have some incredible memories playing those, despite never finishing them (I don't think). When I first heard about Shredder's Revenge, I got really excited as it looked to be a nostalgic trip to this cherished part of my childhood. I was hopeful it would live up to what I had hoped for from a modern TMNT beat-em-up.
Thankfully, the developers did a fantastic job with Shredder's Revenge. They were incredibly faithful to the source material and the game is absolutely jam packed with references to the original series. I was constantly being surprised by boss fights which I had action figures for back in the day. The game's visuals and sound design were spot on too and everything felt so authentic to that era. The playable characters and enemies looked and sounded great, and the environments felt exactly like they came straight out of a classic beat-em-up.
The stages in Shredder's Revenge are split into two types: auto-scrollers and traditional beat-em-up stages. You fight enemies throughout the stage, eventually making your way to the stage's boss. Boss battles were fun and varied and featured lots of characters from the original series. The combat throughout was fluid and very felt satisfying, except when it came to airborne enemies. It was hard to line-up hits on these enemies, which was quite frustrating, but thankfully they didn't come along too often and didn't detract too much from my overall enjoyment of the game.
One nice improvement that this game has over traditional beat-em-ups is the addition of character upgrades. These upgrades include more health points, an increased super ability bar, additional lives, etc., all which unlock just by playing the game. There are also new playable characters to unlock too, all of which who rank up through gameplay. These were nice touches that give more reason to go back and replay the game multiple times.
I had a really enjoyable time with Shredder's Revenge. It was a solid modern-day beat-em-up which was incredibly faithful to the source material. The graphics and sound design were top notch, and the gameplay was a lot of fun from start to finish. A single playthrough is pretty short, but there is enough unlockable content here to keep one busy for a long time after the credits roll, if that's their thing. If you're a solo player you'll probably get less enjoyment out of this than if you were playing it co-op, but if you're a fan of TMNT it's still worth a playthrough regardless.
Thankfully, the developers did a fantastic job with Shredder's Revenge. They were incredibly faithful to the source material and the game is absolutely jam packed with references to the original series. I was constantly being surprised by boss fights which I had action figures for back in the day. The game's visuals and sound design were spot on too and everything felt so authentic to that era. The playable characters and enemies looked and sounded great, and the environments felt exactly like they came straight out of a classic beat-em-up.
The stages in Shredder's Revenge are split into two types: auto-scrollers and traditional beat-em-up stages. You fight enemies throughout the stage, eventually making your way to the stage's boss. Boss battles were fun and varied and featured lots of characters from the original series. The combat throughout was fluid and very felt satisfying, except when it came to airborne enemies. It was hard to line-up hits on these enemies, which was quite frustrating, but thankfully they didn't come along too often and didn't detract too much from my overall enjoyment of the game.
One nice improvement that this game has over traditional beat-em-ups is the addition of character upgrades. These upgrades include more health points, an increased super ability bar, additional lives, etc., all which unlock just by playing the game. There are also new playable characters to unlock too, all of which who rank up through gameplay. These were nice touches that give more reason to go back and replay the game multiple times.
I had a really enjoyable time with Shredder's Revenge. It was a solid modern-day beat-em-up which was incredibly faithful to the source material. The graphics and sound design were top notch, and the gameplay was a lot of fun from start to finish. A single playthrough is pretty short, but there is enough unlockable content here to keep one busy for a long time after the credits roll, if that's their thing. If you're a solo player you'll probably get less enjoyment out of this than if you were playing it co-op, but if you're a fan of TMNT it's still worth a playthrough regardless.
After my recent playthrough of Breath of the Wild I was craving some more Zelda. I figured where better to start than with the only 3D game in the series that I had yet to finish: Skyward Sword. I had originally attempted a play through shortly after its release on the Wii, but after getting to about the halfway point I set it aside and never returned. I was hoping the Switch's portability, the removal of the motion controls (as I would be playing this entirely in handheld mode), and the update to HD would help me to stick through to the end credits.
As I was coming straight out of BOTW I found Skyward Sword to be a pretty big adjustment. Gone was the huge open world with thousands of things to discover. Skyward Sword, at least in theory, has an "open world" to explore, but it feels empty and uninteresting when compared to the open world of BOTW. Skyward Sword was also very linear, as you, for the most part, follow a fairly defined line from the start of the adventure through to the end. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and I didn't dislike it, per se, but it could put some gamers off.
One thing I really liked about Skyward Sword were its visuals. The art style was colourful, vibrant, and just had a really nice look to it. The character designs were unique and their animations did a good job of conveying their personality and emotions. The game's world looked great too, with each of the environments having a nice look to it. The environments were nothing too out of the normal for the series (volcano zone, desert zone, forest zone), but they did look nice. Complimenting the game's graphics, the soundtrack was solid. It features a good mix of classic Zelda tunes and new music too.
One of Skywards greatest strengths was its story. Compared to other games in the series there is actually quite a bit here, and I found myself more captivated than I usually am with games in the series. I won't spoil anything here, but I did really like how Zelda played more of a role than usual in this game. I also found the overall story to be quite interesting, and the main villain/evil entity to have a good backstory (it is just too bad that he was pretty darn goofy looking, at least in my opinion).
Where Skyward Sword suffers most is its pacing. To start, it takes far too long before it gets interesting (about 3 hours). You start out by learning the basics of the combat, get introduced to the inhabitants of Skyloft, and do a few minor quests. It was all important stuff, but just felt like it went on for far too long. After things got going I had an absolute blast! That is, until around the 25-hour mark. At that point the game throws a fairly lengthy quest at you that clearly only exists to pad out the play time. This section added nothing to the experience and left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Thankfully the game's ending made up for this misstep.
As for gameplay, I really enjoyed it. I played the game entirely in handheld mode so I can't comment on the motion controls, but I can confirm that the translation of the original motion controls to a regular control method worked very well. You swing your sword by flicking the right joystick in the direction you want to slash, and you stab by pressing the stick in. You get full control over the camera too, you just have to hold the "L" button down before moving the right stick. It did take me a few hours to really get a hang of the controls, but once I did, I thought they worked very well. I liked the added depth given to the sword play which you wouldn't get by just pressing a single button to attack.
One of Skyward Sword's biggest strengths was its dungeons. These were all well designed and each one contained a new tool to find which were required to get through to the final dungeon boss. Most of the puzzles in the dungeons were fun to solve and I didn't find them to be too easy nor too tough. With that said, I found that you rarely needed the tools you had acquired from previous dungeons in the dungeons that came after it. You would use that one tool in some unique ways in the dungeon you got it in, but afterwards it would often end up unused in you inventory unused for. I didn't feel this was a huge deal, but that it was still worth mentioning here. Additionally, I found that the tools themselves were among the least interesting in the entire series. They weren't bad, just none of them stood out as something truly unique or special.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Skyward Sword. Some pacing issues hampered my overall enjoyment of the game, and the tools you unlock were among the least interesting in the entire Legend of Zelda series, but the interesting story, the fun gameplay, the unique control scheme, and the stunning graphics more than made up for any shortcomings. Fans of 3D Zelda games should check this one out if they haven't yet.
As I was coming straight out of BOTW I found Skyward Sword to be a pretty big adjustment. Gone was the huge open world with thousands of things to discover. Skyward Sword, at least in theory, has an "open world" to explore, but it feels empty and uninteresting when compared to the open world of BOTW. Skyward Sword was also very linear, as you, for the most part, follow a fairly defined line from the start of the adventure through to the end. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and I didn't dislike it, per se, but it could put some gamers off.
One thing I really liked about Skyward Sword were its visuals. The art style was colourful, vibrant, and just had a really nice look to it. The character designs were unique and their animations did a good job of conveying their personality and emotions. The game's world looked great too, with each of the environments having a nice look to it. The environments were nothing too out of the normal for the series (volcano zone, desert zone, forest zone), but they did look nice. Complimenting the game's graphics, the soundtrack was solid. It features a good mix of classic Zelda tunes and new music too.
One of Skywards greatest strengths was its story. Compared to other games in the series there is actually quite a bit here, and I found myself more captivated than I usually am with games in the series. I won't spoil anything here, but I did really like how Zelda played more of a role than usual in this game. I also found the overall story to be quite interesting, and the main villain/evil entity to have a good backstory (it is just too bad that he was pretty darn goofy looking, at least in my opinion).
Where Skyward Sword suffers most is its pacing. To start, it takes far too long before it gets interesting (about 3 hours). You start out by learning the basics of the combat, get introduced to the inhabitants of Skyloft, and do a few minor quests. It was all important stuff, but just felt like it went on for far too long. After things got going I had an absolute blast! That is, until around the 25-hour mark. At that point the game throws a fairly lengthy quest at you that clearly only exists to pad out the play time. This section added nothing to the experience and left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Thankfully the game's ending made up for this misstep.
As for gameplay, I really enjoyed it. I played the game entirely in handheld mode so I can't comment on the motion controls, but I can confirm that the translation of the original motion controls to a regular control method worked very well. You swing your sword by flicking the right joystick in the direction you want to slash, and you stab by pressing the stick in. You get full control over the camera too, you just have to hold the "L" button down before moving the right stick. It did take me a few hours to really get a hang of the controls, but once I did, I thought they worked very well. I liked the added depth given to the sword play which you wouldn't get by just pressing a single button to attack.
One of Skyward Sword's biggest strengths was its dungeons. These were all well designed and each one contained a new tool to find which were required to get through to the final dungeon boss. Most of the puzzles in the dungeons were fun to solve and I didn't find them to be too easy nor too tough. With that said, I found that you rarely needed the tools you had acquired from previous dungeons in the dungeons that came after it. You would use that one tool in some unique ways in the dungeon you got it in, but afterwards it would often end up unused in you inventory unused for. I didn't feel this was a huge deal, but that it was still worth mentioning here. Additionally, I found that the tools themselves were among the least interesting in the entire series. They weren't bad, just none of them stood out as something truly unique or special.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Skyward Sword. Some pacing issues hampered my overall enjoyment of the game, and the tools you unlock were among the least interesting in the entire Legend of Zelda series, but the interesting story, the fun gameplay, the unique control scheme, and the stunning graphics more than made up for any shortcomings. Fans of 3D Zelda games should check this one out if they haven't yet.
1994
I remember renting Super Metroid from the video store several times as a kid. I think it was the unique world sucked me in. I loved exploring the diverse environments and finding the well-hidden secrets and powerful upgrades. In the era where internet guides didn't exist it meant I had to fully explore this world if I wanted to get through it, and after a few rental periods I was eventually able to see the game through to the end credits. At that time, I considered Super Metroid to be one of the best games I had ever played, and it always held a spot in my memory as one of my absolute favorite games of all time.
Back in 2016 I replayed Super Metroid for the first time since I was a kid, and I wanted to see if it still lived up how great I remembered it being. Sadly, by the time I saw the game through to completion, I felt a bit disappointed. I still loved the overall gameplay, and I found the world design to be as interesting as I had remembered it being, but I found that I was continually annoyed by the game's lack of direction, and I missed some of the quality-of-life improvements that newer games in the genre had adopted.
This year I thought it would be fun to play through every game in the 2D Metroid series. I opted for the remakes for the first two games in the series (Zero Mission instead of Metroid on the NES, Samus Returns instead of Metroid 2 on the Game Boy), both of which I enjoyed quite a bit. Next it was time to play through Super Metroid. I was curious to see if my opinion had changed on it since my playthrough in 2016.
Honestly, there is a lot I liked about Super Metroid during this playthrough. The game looks fantastic! The sprite designs are beautiful and are well animated, and the world itself has a great look to it. Each new area looked completely different than the ones that came before them. Super Metroid's environments were a lot more varied than the ones in Zero Mission and Samus Returns. The game's soundtrack was fantastic too and it created such a unique tone from the very beginning right through to the game's credits screen. I'm honestly surprised that a soundtrack this good existed on the SNES. Another huge plus for Super Metroid was how Zebes (the planet you are exploring) was a much less linear environment than the planets you explore in Zero Mission and Samus Returns (this was both a pro and a con, but more on the con side in a minute). The planet is absolutely littered with upgrades and powerful upgrades to find, with some of them being incredibly well hidden.
While there was a lot to love in Super Metroid it wasn't without some faults, most of which were the lack of quality-of-life improvements that newer games in the genre have adopted since this game's release. First off, the game's map isn't great. It works, but the lack of simple things like the locations of doors is a bit of a nuissance. Also, the inability to add reminder markers to the map was a bit disappointing, but definitely not game breaking.
Secondly, I wish the game had offered more guidance on where you were supposed to go next. This lack of direction gives you more freedom to explore the world at your own pace, but it led to a few frustrating moments where I had no idea where I should be going. This led to me backtracking through the entire world in hopes of finding something I may have missed, and often these ways forward were incredibly cryptic or at least very well hidden. You didn't think to walk through the inconspicuous wall that shows on the radar as a real wall? Better go back through the world and hope you think to do that when you inevitably exhaust all other possibilities. Thankfully the X-Ray Visor upgrade helps alleviate some of this frustration, but even so it isn't a perfect solution.
Though I found that some elements of Super Metroid didn't stand the test of time as well as I had hoped they would it is hard to deny that this game is still incredible to this very day. The fact that this came out almost 30 years is astounding. The game's world is beautiful, it is fun to explore, and it is filled with unique (albeit hard-to-find) and powerful upgrades. The game also boasts one of the most memorable soundtracks of all time. Sure it's easy to get hung up on some missing quality of life upgrades that newer games in the genre have since adopted, but it is impossible to deny that Super Metroid still holds up incredibly after all these years. This game helped to define the Metroidvania genre, and it should be experienced by anyone that has yet to play through it.
Back in 2016 I replayed Super Metroid for the first time since I was a kid, and I wanted to see if it still lived up how great I remembered it being. Sadly, by the time I saw the game through to completion, I felt a bit disappointed. I still loved the overall gameplay, and I found the world design to be as interesting as I had remembered it being, but I found that I was continually annoyed by the game's lack of direction, and I missed some of the quality-of-life improvements that newer games in the genre had adopted.
This year I thought it would be fun to play through every game in the 2D Metroid series. I opted for the remakes for the first two games in the series (Zero Mission instead of Metroid on the NES, Samus Returns instead of Metroid 2 on the Game Boy), both of which I enjoyed quite a bit. Next it was time to play through Super Metroid. I was curious to see if my opinion had changed on it since my playthrough in 2016.
Honestly, there is a lot I liked about Super Metroid during this playthrough. The game looks fantastic! The sprite designs are beautiful and are well animated, and the world itself has a great look to it. Each new area looked completely different than the ones that came before them. Super Metroid's environments were a lot more varied than the ones in Zero Mission and Samus Returns. The game's soundtrack was fantastic too and it created such a unique tone from the very beginning right through to the game's credits screen. I'm honestly surprised that a soundtrack this good existed on the SNES. Another huge plus for Super Metroid was how Zebes (the planet you are exploring) was a much less linear environment than the planets you explore in Zero Mission and Samus Returns (this was both a pro and a con, but more on the con side in a minute). The planet is absolutely littered with upgrades and powerful upgrades to find, with some of them being incredibly well hidden.
While there was a lot to love in Super Metroid it wasn't without some faults, most of which were the lack of quality-of-life improvements that newer games in the genre have adopted since this game's release. First off, the game's map isn't great. It works, but the lack of simple things like the locations of doors is a bit of a nuissance. Also, the inability to add reminder markers to the map was a bit disappointing, but definitely not game breaking.
Secondly, I wish the game had offered more guidance on where you were supposed to go next. This lack of direction gives you more freedom to explore the world at your own pace, but it led to a few frustrating moments where I had no idea where I should be going. This led to me backtracking through the entire world in hopes of finding something I may have missed, and often these ways forward were incredibly cryptic or at least very well hidden. You didn't think to walk through the inconspicuous wall that shows on the radar as a real wall? Better go back through the world and hope you think to do that when you inevitably exhaust all other possibilities. Thankfully the X-Ray Visor upgrade helps alleviate some of this frustration, but even so it isn't a perfect solution.
Though I found that some elements of Super Metroid didn't stand the test of time as well as I had hoped they would it is hard to deny that this game is still incredible to this very day. The fact that this came out almost 30 years is astounding. The game's world is beautiful, it is fun to explore, and it is filled with unique (albeit hard-to-find) and powerful upgrades. The game also boasts one of the most memorable soundtracks of all time. Sure it's easy to get hung up on some missing quality of life upgrades that newer games in the genre have since adopted, but it is impossible to deny that Super Metroid still holds up incredibly after all these years. This game helped to define the Metroidvania genre, and it should be experienced by anyone that has yet to play through it.
2023
After seeing the announcement trailers for Sea of Stars it quickly became one of my most anticipated games of 2023. I was instantly entranced by the stunning pixel art, and though I am not a diehard fan of turn-based RPGs, this looked like it was going to a good throwback to the era of SNES JRPGs. I couldn't wait to check it out.
Starting out with graphics, Sea of Stars not only has one of the best pixel art styles I have ever seen but it is also one of the best-looking games I have ever played. The game's locations genuinely felt unique and the level of detail that the developers packed into all areas of the game was truly remarkable. The characters were all well designed, their movements were fluid and looked great (both in and out of combat), and their portraits did a good job of conveying emotion. The enemy and boss designs were equally as impressive, too.
Sea of Stars has a pretty darn brilliant soundtrack too, featuring catchy tunes that always fit the environment and situation perfectly. The battle theme song was very memorable, and I always got stuck in my head for hours after each play session.
While the game's world and locales were beautifully crafted and a joy to look at, I found exploring them to be a bit underwhelming. There were always a good number of treasure chests scattered throughout the areas, but these were rarely hidden out of site and were generally very easy to find. The main character unlocks a few new abilities that are used for solving puzzles and for traversing the environment, but even these felt a bit underutilized. I also found the game's puzzles to be far too easy, with none of them stumping me for more than a few moments (and I am far from a puzzle wiz).
The combat system in Sea of Stars felt pretty unique and offered a good amount of depth, which I felt differentiated it from other turn-based RPGs I have played. I especially liked the Paper Mario-like timing mechanics that granted bonus attack damage and reduced damage taken when a button press was timed successfully. I liked the combat system as a whole, but it did start to wear a bit thin around the 15 hour mark of the game. Battles felt too easy, rarely offering any real challenge at all. Even boss battles were far too simple. I imagine this at least partially my fault as fairly early on in my playthrough I equipped an amulet that gave me bonus XP, but regardless, the lack of challenge was pretty disappointing (and this comes from a gamer that normally prefers RPGs that lean to the easier side of the difficulty scale!).
However, I feel the most disappointing aspect of Sea of Stars was the story. It started out slow with a drawn-out introduction to the characters, setting, and situation at hand, and it didn't really get interesting, at least in my person opinion, until around the 20 hour mark. There were definitely some good moments sprinkled throughout, but due the blandness of most characters I had a hard time getting too invested in what was going on. After the 20 hour mark hit I did become quite interested in the narrative, but sadly this eventually led to a lackluster final boss battle and a shockingly abrupt ending.
Sea of Stars is easily one of the most beautiful games I have ever played, but sadly I feel its non-aesthetic elements held it back from being something truly great. The combat lacked much challenge (I do accept that this was partially my fault), the story took a long time to hook me, the characters were pretty bland, and the game's conclusion left me disappointed. Sea of Stars took me just under 27 hours to finish, and I am sure there is a good amount of additional content that I missed, but I have no interest going back to finish it. This was not a bad game, not by a long shot, it just didn't wow me like I had expected it would.
Starting out with graphics, Sea of Stars not only has one of the best pixel art styles I have ever seen but it is also one of the best-looking games I have ever played. The game's locations genuinely felt unique and the level of detail that the developers packed into all areas of the game was truly remarkable. The characters were all well designed, their movements were fluid and looked great (both in and out of combat), and their portraits did a good job of conveying emotion. The enemy and boss designs were equally as impressive, too.
Sea of Stars has a pretty darn brilliant soundtrack too, featuring catchy tunes that always fit the environment and situation perfectly. The battle theme song was very memorable, and I always got stuck in my head for hours after each play session.
While the game's world and locales were beautifully crafted and a joy to look at, I found exploring them to be a bit underwhelming. There were always a good number of treasure chests scattered throughout the areas, but these were rarely hidden out of site and were generally very easy to find. The main character unlocks a few new abilities that are used for solving puzzles and for traversing the environment, but even these felt a bit underutilized. I also found the game's puzzles to be far too easy, with none of them stumping me for more than a few moments (and I am far from a puzzle wiz).
The combat system in Sea of Stars felt pretty unique and offered a good amount of depth, which I felt differentiated it from other turn-based RPGs I have played. I especially liked the Paper Mario-like timing mechanics that granted bonus attack damage and reduced damage taken when a button press was timed successfully. I liked the combat system as a whole, but it did start to wear a bit thin around the 15 hour mark of the game. Battles felt too easy, rarely offering any real challenge at all. Even boss battles were far too simple. I imagine this at least partially my fault as fairly early on in my playthrough I equipped an amulet that gave me bonus XP, but regardless, the lack of challenge was pretty disappointing (and this comes from a gamer that normally prefers RPGs that lean to the easier side of the difficulty scale!).
However, I feel the most disappointing aspect of Sea of Stars was the story. It started out slow with a drawn-out introduction to the characters, setting, and situation at hand, and it didn't really get interesting, at least in my person opinion, until around the 20 hour mark. There were definitely some good moments sprinkled throughout, but due the blandness of most characters I had a hard time getting too invested in what was going on. After the 20 hour mark hit I did become quite interested in the narrative, but sadly this eventually led to a lackluster final boss battle and a shockingly abrupt ending.
Sea of Stars is easily one of the most beautiful games I have ever played, but sadly I feel its non-aesthetic elements held it back from being something truly great. The combat lacked much challenge (I do accept that this was partially my fault), the story took a long time to hook me, the characters were pretty bland, and the game's conclusion left me disappointed. Sea of Stars took me just under 27 hours to finish, and I am sure there is a good amount of additional content that I missed, but I have no interest going back to finish it. This was not a bad game, not by a long shot, it just didn't wow me like I had expected it would.
2018
Growing up I was a big Nintendo fan. I owned every console they released, including the Game Cube, but I never got around to playing Luigi's Mansion. It just didn't appeal to me when I was younger, I guess, but with Halloween just around the corner I thought it might be fun to play something a little "spooky", and it seemed like as good of a time as any to see what made Luigi's Mansion such a beloved series.
You play the game as Luigi, unsurprisingly, who has won a mansion from a contest he never entered. However, upon his arrival, he finds that it is haunted. Bummer. He then meets Dr. E. Gadd who presents him with a back-mounted ghost-sucking vacuum called the Poltergust 3000 which he then uses in conjunction with a flashlight to clear the mansion of the ghosts that are haunting it. There is a bit more to the story than that, but to avoid any potential spoilers I will leave there.
The first thing that really hit me when playing Luigi's Mansion is its truly incredible atmosphere. Nintendo nailed the "haunted mansion" feel here. It feels very kid friendly for sure, but I absolutely adored it. The rooms all start out dark and dingy but after you clear them of ghosts the lights come on and they look a lot warmer and more cheerful. As you progress through the game it really feels like you are clearing this mansion of what has been haunting it. I loved this change to the atmosphere, and it made me want to clear each and every room.
The second thing that surprised me about Luigi's Mansion was just how unique the base gameplay was. In all honesty, the closest thing I can relate it to is the original Resident Evil. You go from room to room in a dark mansion, you solve puzzles that allow you to progress deeper into the mansion, and you defeat enemies along the way. The combat here is obviously different (more on that in the next paragraph), and the puzzles are nowhere near as convoluted as the ones in RE, but there are a good number of similarities between these two titles. The more lighthearted tone in Luigi's Mansion really set it apart as something special though.
The combat in Luigi's Mansion is fairly straight forward and uses a mix of a flashlight and the Poltergust 3000. You go room to room through the mansion, clearing the rooms of their ghostly inhabitants. There are a few different types of ghosts in the game: generic ghosts (basic combat enemies), boos (a sort of collectible, they show up after you clear a room of the generic ghosts), named ghosts (ghosts that generally require a slight bit of puzzle solving before you can vacuum them up), and boss ghosts. The method of catching the generic ghosts, boos, and named ghosts is pretty straightforward, but thankfully the game's boss ghosts used the game's mechanics in fun and interesting ways. There weren't many bosses here, but each one of them was pretty inventive and fun to battle against.
Honestly, I don't have much in the way of negatives to state here. My one complaint is that the controls weren't great. Being able to use two joysticks would have made such a difference here. I played through Luigi's Mansion using a New 3DS, meaning I could play through the game using the awkward control nub, which generally worked okay (after getting used to it), but it never felt as good as a real joystick would have. If you have an older model 3DS I'm guessing you would have to play using gyro to aim, but as I never tried this method so I can't comment on how well that works. That being said, despite the controls being a bit wonky I never felt that they really hampered my experience too much. All the game's high points more than made up for the occasionally wonky controls. Though, one other thing to note, is that the game is quite short. I thought it felt like a good length, but chances are an initial playthrough will take around 6 hours to complete. I got this for a good deal so I didn't mind the short length, but if I had paid full price, I imagine this would have been a much bigger complaint.
When all was said and done, I have to say that I really loved my time with Luigi's Mansion. It was a short game, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted. The controls weren't perfect on the 3DS but they never were so bad that it hampered my enjoyment. I felt that the game's incredible atmosphere and fun gameplay more than made up for any of the downfalls I have mentioned here. I highly recommend anyone with even an iota of interest in the Luigi's Mansion series to check this game out.
You play the game as Luigi, unsurprisingly, who has won a mansion from a contest he never entered. However, upon his arrival, he finds that it is haunted. Bummer. He then meets Dr. E. Gadd who presents him with a back-mounted ghost-sucking vacuum called the Poltergust 3000 which he then uses in conjunction with a flashlight to clear the mansion of the ghosts that are haunting it. There is a bit more to the story than that, but to avoid any potential spoilers I will leave there.
The first thing that really hit me when playing Luigi's Mansion is its truly incredible atmosphere. Nintendo nailed the "haunted mansion" feel here. It feels very kid friendly for sure, but I absolutely adored it. The rooms all start out dark and dingy but after you clear them of ghosts the lights come on and they look a lot warmer and more cheerful. As you progress through the game it really feels like you are clearing this mansion of what has been haunting it. I loved this change to the atmosphere, and it made me want to clear each and every room.
The second thing that surprised me about Luigi's Mansion was just how unique the base gameplay was. In all honesty, the closest thing I can relate it to is the original Resident Evil. You go from room to room in a dark mansion, you solve puzzles that allow you to progress deeper into the mansion, and you defeat enemies along the way. The combat here is obviously different (more on that in the next paragraph), and the puzzles are nowhere near as convoluted as the ones in RE, but there are a good number of similarities between these two titles. The more lighthearted tone in Luigi's Mansion really set it apart as something special though.
The combat in Luigi's Mansion is fairly straight forward and uses a mix of a flashlight and the Poltergust 3000. You go room to room through the mansion, clearing the rooms of their ghostly inhabitants. There are a few different types of ghosts in the game: generic ghosts (basic combat enemies), boos (a sort of collectible, they show up after you clear a room of the generic ghosts), named ghosts (ghosts that generally require a slight bit of puzzle solving before you can vacuum them up), and boss ghosts. The method of catching the generic ghosts, boos, and named ghosts is pretty straightforward, but thankfully the game's boss ghosts used the game's mechanics in fun and interesting ways. There weren't many bosses here, but each one of them was pretty inventive and fun to battle against.
Honestly, I don't have much in the way of negatives to state here. My one complaint is that the controls weren't great. Being able to use two joysticks would have made such a difference here. I played through Luigi's Mansion using a New 3DS, meaning I could play through the game using the awkward control nub, which generally worked okay (after getting used to it), but it never felt as good as a real joystick would have. If you have an older model 3DS I'm guessing you would have to play using gyro to aim, but as I never tried this method so I can't comment on how well that works. That being said, despite the controls being a bit wonky I never felt that they really hampered my experience too much. All the game's high points more than made up for the occasionally wonky controls. Though, one other thing to note, is that the game is quite short. I thought it felt like a good length, but chances are an initial playthrough will take around 6 hours to complete. I got this for a good deal so I didn't mind the short length, but if I had paid full price, I imagine this would have been a much bigger complaint.
When all was said and done, I have to say that I really loved my time with Luigi's Mansion. It was a short game, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted. The controls weren't perfect on the 3DS but they never were so bad that it hampered my enjoyment. I felt that the game's incredible atmosphere and fun gameplay more than made up for any of the downfalls I have mentioned here. I highly recommend anyone with even an iota of interest in the Luigi's Mansion series to check this game out.
I recently played through the original Luigi's Mansion for the first time on the 3DS. I really enjoyed the game so I figured I would check out its sequel, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. I was a bit skeptical to even boot it up though as while critic reviews raved about the game (85% overall score on Metacritic with a lot of scores over 90), user reviews seemed far less pleased by the game. I figured I should still give it a try though as I really want to play Luigi's Mansion 3 at some point.
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon takes place after the events of the original Luigi's Mansion. The opening cutscene shows the "Dark Moon" shattering, which causes previously friendly ghosts to turn crazy/evil. Dr. E. Gadd calls upon Luigi (against his will) to gather the shards of the Dark Moon (which coincidentally have fallen into haunted mansions) and restore peace to the land, or something to that effect anyway. The story is nothing special, but it works well enough.
Firstly, I loved the level design. I was initially skeptical as this game takes place across five mansions instead of a single mansion like in the original Luigi's Mansion. Thankfully, the multiple mansion setup worked really well here. Each mansion had its own unique theme, each being quite a bit different than the ones that came before it. Each mansion was charming and the level of detail in each was astounding.
Secondly, the graphics were incredible. This game has among the best graphics on the 3DS, and the game just oozes with charm. The look of the game is far less serious than the original Luigi's Mansion, but that worked well for it. Dark Moon's mansion designs were more vibrant (though still felt "haunted"), the animations were more over the top and goofier (but this added a lot of character to the game), and the lighting effects were fantastic. Also, the game's 3D looked incredible, and I feel they really added a lot to the game as a whole.
Thirdly, the sound design was solid. I'm generally not the kind of gamer that puts much emphasis on sound design, but everything worked well here. The main Luigi's Mansion theme plays throughout the game, yet somehow it didn't get grating (though I did get it stuck in my head after each play session). The sound effects all fit the game's theme and mood appropriately too.
Thirdly, the gameplay was a lot of fun. Combat in Dark Moon has you using a back-mounted vacuum to suck up ghosts that are scattered throughout the mansions. The combat in Dark Moon was significantly easier than the combat in Luigi's Mansion, but I don't think that is a bad thing at all. It felt far more fluid, which honestly makes it one of this game's biggest strengths.
The game also features a lot of exploration, which I found to be a lot of fun. You go through each mansion, solve various (generally easy) puzzles, and collect loot along the way. Most of these puzzles require you to use your vacuum in a number of different ways. You control the aim of the vacuum using the 3DS's gyro function, which I didn't expect to work well, and at times it didn't, but overall it worked pretty darn well. In the original Luigi's Mansion I used the control nub to aim, and the gyro here was a significant upgrade over that control method.
While you're exploring the mansions there are a number of collectibles to find too. Each stage is littered with money to uncover and (mostly) well-hidden gems to find. The money here, unlike in Luigi's Mansion, actually has a purpose here too. After earning a certain amount of it, Dr. E. Gadd will present you with a new update. The upgrades didn't change the game in huge or astounding ways, but having a reason to collect the loot was a nice touch (in the original Luigi's Mansion the money only affected your score at the end of the game).
However, while I thoroughly enjoyed Dark Moon, it wasn't without it's faults. My biggest complaint is the constant phone calls from Dr. E. Gadd. Early on in the game these interruptions were unrelenting. Walk a few feet, interruption. Try to interact with something you've never seen before, interruption. Need to use a mechanic you haven't used before, interruption. Getting close to finishing the mission, interruption. Finishing the mission, interruption. After finishing a mission E. Gadd teleports you back to his lab too, further interrupting the gameplay. All of the interruptions really detract from the flow of the game, but thankfully after finishing the first mansion the calls come less frequently and you are given more freedom to explore the mansions at your leisure.
The other negative I have with Dark Moon is that the last few missions weren't very fun. The game ditches the puzzle solving gameplay and just throws a whole whack of enemies at you. This is such a deviation from everything up until this point in the game and the combat design just doesn't really work well with this many enemies. This didn't ruin the experience, but it certainly detracted from my overall enjoyment.
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon was a joy to play. While not perfect it was still a lot of fun, and well worth playing through. Its charming atmosphere, stunning graphics, fantastic 3D, and enjoyable gameplay make it one of the best games on the 3DS. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a lighthearted exploration game with light puzzles.
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon takes place after the events of the original Luigi's Mansion. The opening cutscene shows the "Dark Moon" shattering, which causes previously friendly ghosts to turn crazy/evil. Dr. E. Gadd calls upon Luigi (against his will) to gather the shards of the Dark Moon (which coincidentally have fallen into haunted mansions) and restore peace to the land, or something to that effect anyway. The story is nothing special, but it works well enough.
Firstly, I loved the level design. I was initially skeptical as this game takes place across five mansions instead of a single mansion like in the original Luigi's Mansion. Thankfully, the multiple mansion setup worked really well here. Each mansion had its own unique theme, each being quite a bit different than the ones that came before it. Each mansion was charming and the level of detail in each was astounding.
Secondly, the graphics were incredible. This game has among the best graphics on the 3DS, and the game just oozes with charm. The look of the game is far less serious than the original Luigi's Mansion, but that worked well for it. Dark Moon's mansion designs were more vibrant (though still felt "haunted"), the animations were more over the top and goofier (but this added a lot of character to the game), and the lighting effects were fantastic. Also, the game's 3D looked incredible, and I feel they really added a lot to the game as a whole.
Thirdly, the sound design was solid. I'm generally not the kind of gamer that puts much emphasis on sound design, but everything worked well here. The main Luigi's Mansion theme plays throughout the game, yet somehow it didn't get grating (though I did get it stuck in my head after each play session). The sound effects all fit the game's theme and mood appropriately too.
Thirdly, the gameplay was a lot of fun. Combat in Dark Moon has you using a back-mounted vacuum to suck up ghosts that are scattered throughout the mansions. The combat in Dark Moon was significantly easier than the combat in Luigi's Mansion, but I don't think that is a bad thing at all. It felt far more fluid, which honestly makes it one of this game's biggest strengths.
The game also features a lot of exploration, which I found to be a lot of fun. You go through each mansion, solve various (generally easy) puzzles, and collect loot along the way. Most of these puzzles require you to use your vacuum in a number of different ways. You control the aim of the vacuum using the 3DS's gyro function, which I didn't expect to work well, and at times it didn't, but overall it worked pretty darn well. In the original Luigi's Mansion I used the control nub to aim, and the gyro here was a significant upgrade over that control method.
While you're exploring the mansions there are a number of collectibles to find too. Each stage is littered with money to uncover and (mostly) well-hidden gems to find. The money here, unlike in Luigi's Mansion, actually has a purpose here too. After earning a certain amount of it, Dr. E. Gadd will present you with a new update. The upgrades didn't change the game in huge or astounding ways, but having a reason to collect the loot was a nice touch (in the original Luigi's Mansion the money only affected your score at the end of the game).
However, while I thoroughly enjoyed Dark Moon, it wasn't without it's faults. My biggest complaint is the constant phone calls from Dr. E. Gadd. Early on in the game these interruptions were unrelenting. Walk a few feet, interruption. Try to interact with something you've never seen before, interruption. Need to use a mechanic you haven't used before, interruption. Getting close to finishing the mission, interruption. Finishing the mission, interruption. After finishing a mission E. Gadd teleports you back to his lab too, further interrupting the gameplay. All of the interruptions really detract from the flow of the game, but thankfully after finishing the first mansion the calls come less frequently and you are given more freedom to explore the mansions at your leisure.
The other negative I have with Dark Moon is that the last few missions weren't very fun. The game ditches the puzzle solving gameplay and just throws a whole whack of enemies at you. This is such a deviation from everything up until this point in the game and the combat design just doesn't really work well with this many enemies. This didn't ruin the experience, but it certainly detracted from my overall enjoyment.
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon was a joy to play. While not perfect it was still a lot of fun, and well worth playing through. Its charming atmosphere, stunning graphics, fantastic 3D, and enjoyable gameplay make it one of the best games on the 3DS. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a lighthearted exploration game with light puzzles.
1995
Chrono Trigger was my first foray into the JRPG genre - and it was a good game to start out with. I wouldn't call it the most incredible experience from my gaming career, but it was still a fun game and had an interesting cast of characters and a well written story. The combat was entertaining, but near the end of the game I just wanted it to be over with... but up until this point I had a blast.
I played through this years ago on the Wii U and was absolutely blown away by it. I didn't buy it right as release simply because I didn't think it was going to be as good as the critics had claimed it was. However, I eventually got around to checking it out, and was I ever happy that I did. The world was beautiful, massive, and such a joy to explore. Without a doubt one of the best games I have ever played. I absolutely adored this game.
What a truly incredible experience from start to finish! My mind was just so blown by everything. The story was great and had several unexpected twists, the gameplay was so smooth and so satisfying, and I loved each and every character, too. Probably the best game I have ever played. Wow. Just, WOW! 10/10 for me without a doubt.
I grew up without any handheld gaming systems, and because of this I never had the ability to play The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. The game's screenshots and videos had me so intrigued: the mechanic allowing Link to shrink down to miniscule size sounded unique and inventive, and the graphics looked stunning (especially when Link shrunk down in size and real-world objects looked huge next to him). With no way of playing it I more-or-less forgot about, but I recently saw that it was available on the 3DS so I decided to finally give it a go.
I was hooked from the get-go. The first thing that got me was the game's incredible graphics. Minish Cap has a look quite similar to Wind Waker but in 2D. Everything was colourful and vibrant and the sprite and world design was fantastic throughout. It was so neat to see how different aspects of the world change depending on if Link was his normal size or if he was shrunken down to Minish size. Also, I was contantly surprised by how this was a GBA game. I didn't realize this handheld console was capable of making games look this nice!
The gameplay was a lot of fun too. Minish Cap plays just like any other 2D Zelda game, but the developers did enough to make the gameplay feel fresh. The new tools were pretty unique and they made exploring the dungeons and the overworld a lot of fun. I really enjoyed each of the game's dungeons. There weren't enough of them, but the puzzles within them were never overly complicated but they used the acquired tools in interesting ways. The dungeon boss battles were very well designed and were a definite highlight of the game.
While there is a lot to love about Minish Cap there is one glaring issue: it is short. I saw the credits roll at about 10 or 11 hours in, which is primarily caused by the lack of dungeons. The game only has four of them, and while they were great fun, a few more would have been appreciated. Completionists will get a couple more hours out of the game as there is a fair amount of additional content to unlock (heart containers, keystone matching, collectible trophies, etc.), but the adventure ends too quickly for those just playing through the main story and doing some of the side content.
Despite its short playtime I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Minish Cap. The game has a beautiful look to it, the gameplay is solid, the shrinking/growing mechanic is used in inventive ways, the puzzles are satisfying to solve, and the boss fights were very enjoyable. Minish Cap is definitely one of the best 2D Zelda games ever made. I highly recommend it for fans of the series.
I was hooked from the get-go. The first thing that got me was the game's incredible graphics. Minish Cap has a look quite similar to Wind Waker but in 2D. Everything was colourful and vibrant and the sprite and world design was fantastic throughout. It was so neat to see how different aspects of the world change depending on if Link was his normal size or if he was shrunken down to Minish size. Also, I was contantly surprised by how this was a GBA game. I didn't realize this handheld console was capable of making games look this nice!
The gameplay was a lot of fun too. Minish Cap plays just like any other 2D Zelda game, but the developers did enough to make the gameplay feel fresh. The new tools were pretty unique and they made exploring the dungeons and the overworld a lot of fun. I really enjoyed each of the game's dungeons. There weren't enough of them, but the puzzles within them were never overly complicated but they used the acquired tools in interesting ways. The dungeon boss battles were very well designed and were a definite highlight of the game.
While there is a lot to love about Minish Cap there is one glaring issue: it is short. I saw the credits roll at about 10 or 11 hours in, which is primarily caused by the lack of dungeons. The game only has four of them, and while they were great fun, a few more would have been appreciated. Completionists will get a couple more hours out of the game as there is a fair amount of additional content to unlock (heart containers, keystone matching, collectible trophies, etc.), but the adventure ends too quickly for those just playing through the main story and doing some of the side content.
Despite its short playtime I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Minish Cap. The game has a beautiful look to it, the gameplay is solid, the shrinking/growing mechanic is used in inventive ways, the puzzles are satisfying to solve, and the boss fights were very enjoyable. Minish Cap is definitely one of the best 2D Zelda games ever made. I highly recommend it for fans of the series.
I played through Metroid: Samus Returns back in January 2020, and to be honest, I was not a fan. I had high hopes for the game, but when all was said and done I felt really disappointed by it. Looking back, after finishing the game a second time, I think I just wasn't in the mood for this style of game at that time.
The first thing that really grabbed me on this playthrough was the gameplay. The controls are solid, the combat is (mostly) fun, and it was just a good time being Samus. One nice addition to this game is the ability to aim freely by holding down the L Button. This gives a better feeling of control and makes the combat feel more modern than the older games in the series. Another new feature is the addition of a melee attack, which I found to be quite enjoyable once I got the hang of it. Enemies and bosses 'flash' to show that they are going to charge at you and timing melee attack correctly will temporarily stun them and make them more susceptible to damage. The system is fun to use and incredibly effective, but there is one downside: it makes the traditional gunplay the series is known for a less viable option for most encounters.
I really enjoyed the exploration in Samus Returns. The world is quite large, and it is filled with plenty of upgrades to find. As is expected with games in this genre, you will be able to access more of the hidden upgrades after you unlock more abilities. There is backtracking in the game because of this, but thankfully it is made easier thanks to a decent teleportation system and a handy map (which is always displayed on the lower screen). You can also add 'pins' to the map if you need a reminder of places you want to revisit.
While Samus Returns is a lot of fun to play it isn't without its share of issues. My biggest issue was the complete lack of enemy variety. Throughout the game you fight about 5 different enemy types. Later in the game new "tougher" versions of these enemies start appearing, but they behave the same way and really just take more damage. I also found the enemy spawn rate to be incredibly fast at times. Sometimes enemies at the start of a room would have already respawned by the time I finished exploring the rest of the room. A minor complaint, but still worth noting. Lastly, there is very little variety in boss encounters. The game contains 40 mini-boss battles, and there are only about 5 variants in these mini-bosses. That means you end up fighting the same mini-bosses several times throughout the game.
In addition to the great gameplay Samus Returns looks incredible. Samus and enemies look great and are well animated. The environments are colourful, diverse, and have a great level of detail, especially when the 3D is turned up to max. The amount of depth that the 3D adds to the world is honestly very impressive. The game's sound design is really good too and the sound effects fit the game world well and the music works quite well too. The music is mostly just redone music from other games in the series, but there's nothing wrong with that.
Overall, I am really glad I replayed Samus Returns. I had the same complaints that I had with my initial playthrough, but I found them to be less annoying this time around and honestly had a lot more fun with the game this time around. The graphics were fantastic (I loved the 3D!), the gameplay was solid, and the world was a lot of fun to explore. This is definitely one of the best games available on the 3DS.
The first thing that really grabbed me on this playthrough was the gameplay. The controls are solid, the combat is (mostly) fun, and it was just a good time being Samus. One nice addition to this game is the ability to aim freely by holding down the L Button. This gives a better feeling of control and makes the combat feel more modern than the older games in the series. Another new feature is the addition of a melee attack, which I found to be quite enjoyable once I got the hang of it. Enemies and bosses 'flash' to show that they are going to charge at you and timing melee attack correctly will temporarily stun them and make them more susceptible to damage. The system is fun to use and incredibly effective, but there is one downside: it makes the traditional gunplay the series is known for a less viable option for most encounters.
I really enjoyed the exploration in Samus Returns. The world is quite large, and it is filled with plenty of upgrades to find. As is expected with games in this genre, you will be able to access more of the hidden upgrades after you unlock more abilities. There is backtracking in the game because of this, but thankfully it is made easier thanks to a decent teleportation system and a handy map (which is always displayed on the lower screen). You can also add 'pins' to the map if you need a reminder of places you want to revisit.
While Samus Returns is a lot of fun to play it isn't without its share of issues. My biggest issue was the complete lack of enemy variety. Throughout the game you fight about 5 different enemy types. Later in the game new "tougher" versions of these enemies start appearing, but they behave the same way and really just take more damage. I also found the enemy spawn rate to be incredibly fast at times. Sometimes enemies at the start of a room would have already respawned by the time I finished exploring the rest of the room. A minor complaint, but still worth noting. Lastly, there is very little variety in boss encounters. The game contains 40 mini-boss battles, and there are only about 5 variants in these mini-bosses. That means you end up fighting the same mini-bosses several times throughout the game.
In addition to the great gameplay Samus Returns looks incredible. Samus and enemies look great and are well animated. The environments are colourful, diverse, and have a great level of detail, especially when the 3D is turned up to max. The amount of depth that the 3D adds to the world is honestly very impressive. The game's sound design is really good too and the sound effects fit the game world well and the music works quite well too. The music is mostly just redone music from other games in the series, but there's nothing wrong with that.
Overall, I am really glad I replayed Samus Returns. I had the same complaints that I had with my initial playthrough, but I found them to be less annoying this time around and honestly had a lot more fun with the game this time around. The graphics were fantastic (I loved the 3D!), the gameplay was solid, and the world was a lot of fun to explore. This is definitely one of the best games available on the 3DS.
1998
Parasite Eve was a unique JRPG that came as a complete surprise to me. I typically avoid JRPGs (mostly because I am horrible at them) but I was instantly hooked with PE. The gameplay and setting felt like a mix of Final Fantasy and Resident Evil but with a really unique combat system that was a lot of and gave a real sense of control that I feel other JRPGs often lack. The game had a great soundtrack too. This was a really special experience. Highly recommended for fans of JRPGs, or people wanting something a bit different.