i think i am one of the last few remaining Wii U defenders on the planet today. i love the gamepad allowing for asynchronous things to be happening on the screens. i love Pikmin 2. needless to say, when i saw that you could split up your captains on the gamepad and use auto-pathing to multitask your pikmin for maximum efficiency during the short days, my heart stopped (i lived).

ultimately, i think the game falls short in dialing back a lot of the best parts of Pikmin 2, such as the charm of each individual treasure and the lack of caves acting as long challenging dungeons, and not expanding enough elsewhere. oh well. maybe we'll get a pikmin 4 on the switch someday...

Shigesato Itoi's ending to the Mother series leaves off on its strongest messages to take home. I'm of a family of brothers and sisters, but most importantly I have a twin brother of my own. That made the story around Lucas and Claus that much stronger and poignant to me, not to discredit that the writing in general isn't already incredible.

From the slow corruption of Tazmily village as it conforms into a capitalist society that comes with less pros than it does take away familial strengths and bonds within the community, to the surrealist hero's journey of the seven needles, Mother 3 fantastically paces itself out and keeps the core message of family ever so strung through the whole thing.

The characters, while not so much riveting examples of three dimensional characterization, each found their way into my heart as I played through. This is a game where, though it has its lows, had a profound effect on my life for a very long time. Even when you dig to its core, to where you find that it's simple in scope and works off of a fine tightrope of emotional beats, I still think it's a shining example of video games I've ever played. I can hum most of the soundtrack to this day.

The combat may not be riveting, it taking up a huge percentage of the time playing the game and just barely good enough thanks to some great boss design, some solid enemy encounters, and the cohesive rhythm system. But still, I never lost my engagement for a single moment. I was gripped until the credits rolled and the game came up and told me that it wants the very best of my life as I did the characters at the end. And I think, I wish everyone here the best too, and that maybe if these words find you that you also play Mother 3. (10/10)

It is both surprising to me and uplifting that the Ace Attorney trilogy found its way on its ending mark, a game that neatly ties all of its threads and themes set up and brings home the real deal on the nature of humanity, why we put ourselves on the line in the pursuit of truth. Not just the truth about others but also our own mindsets, biases, and understandings.

Trials and Tribulations threads the needle perfectly both in terms of characterization for all its major characters including new ones brought up, as well as general writing. The prose and charm is still at its top notch here, and it makes most sentences a delight to read, even at the game's lowest point. The casewriting is at its best, with good logical points to follow, and investigations that are well paced and make sense this time around. Breaking down testimony is still immensely satisfying as the solid music plays in the background.

There's really only one fumble to mention, that despite everything being set up so well and executed on with a perfect fashion, it still puts two mostly throw-away filler cases I can do without. 3-2 is tolerable, but 3-3 is so stupid that I go back and forth whether it was the stupidest shit to be added to this game in particular, or if it's just funny and self aware enough to be excused. Either way, there's a whole middle point that needs to be passed.

Even still, 3-1, 3-4, and 3-5 are where the bulk of the storytelling is and it's all a delight to read, managing to get me teary-eyed near the end as the case writing wrapped up. It was an amazing journey, a complete far cry from how I felt about the first two games. (9/10)