Probably my favorite post-Square, post Love-de-lic Akira Ueda involved project. Keeps the charming visual style of Contact while opting for a simpler adventure game with occasional boss fights and imho is all the better for it.

It matches up to be, along with "Houkago Shounen", the DS's version of Japanese summer vacation simulator type games (like Attack of the Friday Monsters for 3DS or Boku Natsu for Playstation)

Only issue is that the game is surprisingly short, when I got to the ending, I was surprised. I might have exclaimed "already?" Yeah, this game has 4 chapters and is only around about 5 hours if you only do the main story, I'd say. Still, there are sidequests in each chapter that add up to a replayable experience. You also unlock scenes by collecting people's tears each chapter (the gimmick the game centers around), and you get little scenes based on "pets", animals around town that you also unlock via tear collecting.

Really awesome third person pre-rendered graphics, odd but great music, and a weighty yet sentimental and nostalgic story of childhood. I honestly had no clue what was being said in the dialogue while playing it, and curbing my usually obsessive google translate attempts I just played through it without translating a bit of the dialogue. I did get a sense of the emotional weight of what was happening. It's a story of kids, their parents, and the sometimes misguided childhood desire for escape.

Really recommend this one.

Pretty interesting cooking RPG for the 3DO, that is extremely rare and expensive sadly. Couldn't get much out of it, since I didn't really follow what was happening (none of the dialogue is in text, it is all spoken). It moves at a very slow pace, to be frank, but it is interesting to see the lovely graphics and how far they could push the 3DO. You can literally talk to every NPC. It's also neat to see a game officially sponsored by Yukio Hattori, a professional celebrity chef in Japan. A fun and oft relaxing curio, with some really really actually difficult cooking segments, and some not so difficult (at least to where I got) RPG segments. Most of the game is gathering ingredients from the money you get from fights to make these recipes, which allow you to progress. I only really got like halfway through the second 'area'. Give it a try, it's definitely worthy of getting more attention, but you need the patience of a cat-herder to be able to power through if you don't know Japanese.

Very much an interesting experiment in the style of games like Lack of Love. The soundtrack itself was supervised by the late, great Ryuichi Sakamato (according to a Japanese website.) The music was composed by Takuma Sato, who deserves to be more well known, as the soundtrack to this game is something that would not be foreign to the most ambient, relaxing moments of Donkey Kong Country.

I think Ryuichi Sakamato might have taken from this game in his experience directing L.O.L, and the similarities do not start only with the music, but with the main idea of the game itself: helping animals. It's one of those "Symbiosis Simulators". It's an interesting balance here between semi-realistic animals (like a pretty realistic Axolotl) and crazy, somewhat far off surrealist creatures which only resemble their counterparts.

We have a huge cow with, uh, 8 udders which have the potential to hurt you (I'll spare you the details). This is the same cow that is represented by the cool boxart. There is a black rabbit, that looks like something out of Lack of Love, with it's minimalistic, polka-dot design riff on the form of a real rabbit. The whole game oscillates on the spectrum of realism, and more often then not it goes towards the unreal, surrealistic side. It's an uncanny valley where it feels just real enough, however.

The spaces you walk around in are surprisingly expansive. Granted, they are literally just prerendered backdrops that you walk through (albeit beautiful ones). However, based on where you walk forward in said backdrops, you will be led to different parts of the environment. The environments are all biomes, and you get there by typing in a 3-string word on a pillar at the start of the game. The biomes are aquatic, subterranean (kind of deserts and caves), a lush forest-like area, and the literal last area of the game. You can spawn in any of these, as it is mostly random.

Now, to the main gimmick of the game, which is a kind of proto-Scribblenauts idea where you can type in any verb, and your avatar (the weird squiggly spiraled golden triangle guy) will perform the action. You need to type in the right verbs to help the animals. Sometimes, it's simple, other times its frustrating. Even at the very beginning of the game, I was stuck. In my frustration, I typed in "go", and finally a kind of 'movement board' appeared which allows you to move in various directions in the game, and I was shocked. In a good way, rest assured. I felt like a magician (though it was the game doing the heavy lifting).

Luckily, there is a really in-depth analysis and walkthrough on youtube by a user named Dilan. Mad props to him for his and his friends determination in not only emailing people involved but pushing through and helping people complete the game.

I'm shelving it, but please know that I will finish this aesthetically wonderful and mythologically/spiritually rich game (even if the mythology is nooot very reflective of actual
Mayan belief systems).

Wario Land 4 is a really freakin' funky (in a good way) game. Everything about the style of it, the actually insane music, just gives that off.

It's an amazing experience of a game, and a great pick if you're looking for an out-of-the-box platformer for the GBA. I did have my problems with it, but I still highly recommend it.

The music, I think is one of the best soundtracks I've heard for a GBA game. Some of the tracks (Palm Tree Paradise, the credits track) even have VOCALS. I'm sure this isn't as impressive as I make it out to be, but the fact that you can actually tell what the person is singing is quite impressive. The music really fits the mood of the stages, from relaxing in nature (Wildflower Fields, Monsoon Jungle), to haunted and spooky, with a touch of funky (Crescent Moon Village, Hotel Horror), and then my favorite, the hyperactive "Hurry Up!" music that starts when the timer goes off.

I also want to mention the level design. Here, I don't just mean the way the levels are layed out, like enemy placement, but just literally how the levels are designed, artistically speaking. Every level is really just a visual treat, and the visuals actually lend to the identity and function of the levels. Mystic Lake is going to be kind of weird and mystical, with you traversing these underground water-tunnels, and dodging these weird eels. To fit the theme is also has really strange and mystical music. It makes it extremely interesting to traverse these stages, because each one is really fun just to soak in, and the people making this must have been masters at setting the stage. The music, aesthetic design, and functional design of each level worked in almost perfect tandem.

The enemies are really goofy in their design. They aren't as straightforward and too-the-point in their design like in Super Mario Bros. (even though the enemies in those games are surreal as well). You have fish wearing scuba goggles, these weird pink guys with an axe in Hotel Horror, and altogether just a bunch of really colorful enemies, most of which (as far as I can tell) are not recycled from previous games.

I nominate it for the most colorful Wario Land game (with Shake It coming in second). I still think 2 is my favorite, but this one just has so much personality. It might be unfair the call it the most colorful, because two of the entries were on the OG Gameboy, and the Virtual Boy, where there wasn't much color literally. However, I think that it's a really just bold game, the boldest out of the already experimental Wario Land games, which is what I mean by colorful. You have a timer that happens when you leave each level, Wario has a health bar, along with countless other experimentations. I can't quite phrase it, Wario Land 3 was bold for being a metroidvania rather than a normal sidescrolling platformer, Wario Land 2 for having a unique aesthetic style, Wario Land VB for being on well... the Virtual Boy, and lastly, Wario Land 1 for making a game about freaking Wario of all things, but 4 is really where the series found it's identity. The limitations (although they made the previous games charming) were really just overcome here, and Wario really realizes his full potential.

I still have some problems with the level design. I take the blame for it, but many times I had to retraverse levels in order to get an item I needed. This is game where collection isn't optional, but necesarry. It works, don't get me wrong, with the timer system. Both that you had to collect all the gem pieces and the key, and get out in time, was actually a really fun gameplay mechanic. The part that wasn't fun was either losing all progress when you ran out of time, or forgetting something and not being able to backtrack because the area was now blocked off.

Some of these complaints are actually what made the game interesting, however. It was really cool to see the pathways that were blocked off before became exit routes when you hit the timer switch. So I really do like the gameplay elements at work here, it's just kind of a personal thing ;(.

As a last complaint (talk about ending on a positive note) the movement feels kind of clunky. It's part and parcel of the Wario Land series, and Wario's character, however. You are definitely not controlling a lanky, speedy Mario. You are controlling a portly, muscly Wario. It wouldn't make sense for him to move any other way, but it does make some of the boss fights somewhat annoying. It's easily forgiveable though.

TLDR: Wario Land 4 is perfect for those looking for an out of the box platformer on the GBA. With plenty of identity, jamming tunes, and a fun and clever but once in a while frustrating gameplay system, this game is highly recommended. You might feel a bit like Wario after playing it, greedy for more.

This is a fun kind of turn-your-brain-off game, with surprisingly great music. Don't be fooled by the somewhat gruff title "REEL FISHING" - this is anything but a fast and macho arcade-y fishing game. I played it last year, and it convinced me to enjoy fishing games. It has pretty music, pretty pre-rendered backgrounds of various lakes and rivers (as well as bodies of water from around the world), and an aquarium where you can put the fish you caught. Plus, there's also various different accessories for your tank, such as miniature models of landmarks around the world.

The fishing mechanic is the same that most fishing games use (Sega Fishing series, Fishing Resort, etc.) where you have a meter that goes up or down depending on how fast you reel in. If the meter goes into the red - that means to back off for a little bit because the line is about to snap. However, beware, you can't let it to go too far into the blue from not reeling in, because then the fish will be let off the hook. Looking back on it, I can't remember if the meter is actually visible, so you might have to rely on the sound the line makes.

It's a very simple but fun premise, and it gets pretty intense, Sega Bass/Marine fishing levels of intense.

Overall, it's an extremely simple game, but an oddly relaxing experience. There is really nothing to it, but it has an odd kind of serenity that has attracted me to this series.

(This game was too hard to rate, but if I did it would be 2.75 stars, just below 3 stars.)

Incredibly charming, but incredibly outmoded adventure game that's kind of hard to recommend without a guide.

Well, I'm not sure I've been starting 2024 off on a great foot game-wise, because I've shelved more games then I've actually completed, and for some reason I feel a kind of shame about it. I also want to say sorry to Hudson because my previous attempt with one of their games (Elemental Gimmick Gear) resulted in a similar shelving rather than completing due to mechanical issues within the game itself, although the atmosphere was breathtaking.

While I might not describe Princess Tomato's atmosphere as breathtaking, it did have a sort of quaint almost dreamy feel to it. Even the cover art, where the characters seem to be made of clay has an incredibly vintage feel to it, vegetable and fruit characters in semi-medievalist, fairy tale attire is an oddly comforting kind of surrealism.

Princess Tomato is one where I don't really know what went wrong - because you can say that a lot of it's gameplay is just bound up in the tropes of the early adventure games, part and parcel of a game around its era. The puzzles are just barely solvable without a guide, but I highly recommend using one anyway at parts.
So where do I put the blame? Frankly, I don't know. There was just something tiring here. If Princess Tomato is vintage, it's vintage, but with a slight musty smell. Some might like the smell of an old book for example, maybe because it "brings them back" (but not always). Anyway, I bring that up because I think for people who are nostalgic for this time of gaming and old text adventures (A la Portopia Serial Murder Case and maybe Shadowgate) the jank is almost a part of the fun nostalgic trip. It's a "you had to be there thing", that I think this game kind of suffers from.

To follow the less than perfect metaphor, the smell of an old book might be off putting, especially if one can tell it's pages are filled with labyrinth prose, winding plot threads and such. Not that Princess Tomato is at all a dense tome, but it does have a sense of confusion and you will be lost. There's a painful maze section, it drops you into combat with kind of no explanation on how to actually fight (you do it through rock paper scissors and then a guessing game, it's hard to explain). Then there is the insane amount of menu options: LOOK, CHECK (why aren't look and check the same thing?), FIGHT, PUNCH, etc. that makes me appreciate the sleek interfaces of the modern point-and-clicks.

Yet, like I said, it's quaint, humorous and has some banging chiptune. It's kind of a pick-your-poison with this and equally old text adventures (not that they are all abstrusely designed), where you have to kind of make a trade-off between charm and ease of play. If you have nostalgia for this kind of thing, this might not even faze you. I'm not sure how this game would even translate into a remake, though it would help to modernize it a bit at least graphics wise, although the graphics are charming in an 8-bit interface and look good on the NES (and according to Hardcore Gaming 101 it did get a remake for Japanese mobile phones).

Finally, believe it or not I actually played this game on my dreamcast, using an emulator, so the fact that I had to wait for my boot disc to load, after about 15 tries each time, didn't help with making me want to play it. I'll definitely give it another go... with a different setup.

It seems few series are able to escape the curse of at least one of their (mainline) games being widely-regarded as stinky. In fact, I can only think of a few series who's (mainline) games have, for the most part, all garnered positive critical reception at launch - The Legend of Zelda, Kirby... and that might be it.

The two series mentioned are Nintendo's A-List celebs, their heavy hitters. When we look at the history of their more niche franchises: Chibi-Robo, 3D Metroid, Pikmin, we see a tendency for a rocky and non-linear design philosophy. Of course, it all boils down to sales. Chibi-Robo might as well be the poster boy for this experimentation - there is a relatively stable theme throughout all the games, but there is also the fact that only 2 Chibi-Robo games are really similar to each other; that is, Okaeri! Chibi Robo, and the original.

Starting with Park Patrol, after the relatively mediocre sales figures of the original (https://culturedvultures.com/history-chibi-robo-games/) the theory is that Nintendo wanted to find a new suit for it's newly recruited series. Enter Park Patrol, a more Animal Crossing-esque design approach where you manage a park... and it was only available at Walmart. Then one sequel later, that gives us more of the first game (perhaps even better), aaand it's never localized.

Chibi-Robo's fate seems to be a mix between Skip's relentless experimentation and creativity, and Nintendo's confusion on how to market it to a wider audience.

Fast forward past one more experimentation - an E-Shop exclusive photo capturing game that seemed like a strange mix between all the elements of the past Chibi-Robo games. The theory goes that a game later, Zip-Lash was Nintendo's last chance to make their series a hit. (source: https://www.perfectly-nintendo.com/chibi-robo-zip-lash-tanabe-talks-about-the-future-of-the-series-demo-available-in-japan/).

What we got was a complete 180 of what the series was before, a byproduct of the tendency of Nintendo's lesser known franchises to get weird, slightly gimmicky games (the Yoshi series being case in point). It seemed like a really desperate turnaround for the series, or maybe simply just a fun spin-off to get people interested? We'll probably never know. And, surprise... It's a mediocre 2D platformer.

Now, to be fair, I did enjoy this game. It was my first Chibi-Robo game that I went into knowing next to nothing about the series. Thankfully, I gave the rest of the games a try and they were more my style.

Essentially, the game plays a little like a puzzle platformer. Chibi-Robo's cord is now a lasso that he uses to attach to things, getting him to higher places than he could jumping. The plot is kind of unfocused - there is some alien invasion, add Chibi-Robo's environmental themes to get something about the Earth being polluted - and then the rest makes only a little sense. Now, it is fun at times. You are travelling across each continent of the Earth (confirming that Chibi-Robo takes place on earth?? lol) fighting different bosses. The platforming is only vaguely interesting, honestly. There are puzzles where you have to use your lasso-cord to hit a bunch of switches all at once (by ricocheting it), and these were the worst the game had to offer. The rest, was kind of just frankly easy.

For me, the fun of the game was actually in it's collectibles. I had the same joy in Pikmin 2, just seeing all these household objects in a weird context. In this case, it's candy like Pez dispensers. Also, it keeps the theme of the Chibi Robo series of having different living toys, and their designs are unique and creative.

So overall, I liked this game, but in the context of the Chibi-Robo series boy does it make me wonder what could've been. I got the Chibi-Robo amiibo to show for it, at least.

Filler review, this time dropping a really interesting fact. Apparently, and you can fact check me on this, this game was scored by T's Music, who also worked on the score of frickin' OKAMI.
Now that's pretty cool, and it explains a lot of the epic sounds of this game.
I love the Reel Fishing series too, really relaxing fishing games, and this is probably the most relaxing on the dreamcast. I think comparing it to things like Sega Bass Fishing and the like is comparing apples to oranges, so I don't like how this is often put in competition with those games.
Kind of sad that they got rid of the aquarium, but I understand why, maybe for space limitations.

Pretty deeply mystical adventure/exploration game.
Dare I say it's somewhat minimalist - it doesn't rely on a huge map, an extreme amount of characters, or even being a very long game. It does however, have multiple endings and quite a few secrets.
It's low-poly PS1 style managed to be just the right niche for me, and I imagine many others. It has a very charming graphical style, which while trying to mimic the PS1 look, ends up giving it a unique sheen all of it's own.
Not unlike many adventure games, it has plenty of "how the heck was I supposed to know how to do that?" moments.
Ultimately though, it's a very deeply meditative and somber game. Despite some cute character designs, it's far from light. The ultimate tone it produces is one of serenity and acceptance, however.

Were I to make to give this review a sensationalistic title, I might go with something like "Better than Phoenix Wright?", or "The best DS games that no one has played!".
Admittedly, I played this game a hot minute ago. The reason I feel qualified to review it, is just that I was honestly born and raised on Ace Attorney. I played through the original trilogy when I was a young lad, and I confess there was very few times when I wasn't consulting a walkthrough.

After playing through most of the Ace Attorney games (except Spirit of Justice, which I gotta get to), those sensationalistic ideas I suggested at the beginning are some things I honestly somewhat believe, just hyperbolized.
Investigations does a complete twist on the "normal" Ace Attorney formula; that is, travelling to areas (which are most often just drawn backgrounds) using a kind of menu. This is the more common option, and what had been done for the early Japanese detective games, a la "The Portopia Serial Murder Case" and "Famicom Detective Club".

The simple difference here is now the investigations are done mostly in top-down, third person segments. Oddly, this just makes the game 1000% more endearing to me. Just being able to walk around already makes a huge difference to how connected you feel to these areas.
That's not the only thing that makes the two investigations games among my favorites. For one, the game feels much less fragmentary and disconnected, dare I say "cold", than the trilogy. There was a certain coldness about the trilogy, every case, every case-specific character, seemed like simply a "one and done" set piece, never to be revisited. Here, there is genuinely some build-up (which I won't spoil). Each character, each case is carefully weaved to be an intricately connected web. There are no "filler" cases to be seen here, as in other Ace Attorney games.

The humor is just awesome. Everyone plays off of Edgeworth's stone cold, stoic, no-fun disposition. The comedic writing here is some of my favorite of any game. Edgeworth is an ultimately sympathetic character despite being a bit of a jerk, because you know he secretly loves his friends deep down.

I love the trilogy as much as the next person, but I did think there was much to be built on, and I wanted to see them go farther. After all, they were originally GBA games in Japan. Playing the Investigations series, however, just feels like they really stepped up the anty in the graphics and music department. The original games were already pretty graphically and musically impressive, so it was a high bar, but they surpassed it. One of my favorite game soundtracks of all time.
Overall, this game, as with the AA series, is like comfort food to me. I even considered speedrunning it, if it qualifies for speedrunning.

Holy smokes was this a fun ride. Had some extremely witty writing, vibrant and beautiful graphics, and was just overall a great experience for me.

I'm well aware of the rocky history of Paper Mario games in recent years. I acknowledge that, this being my first Paper Mario game, I can't take into account the series history as a whole. However, there is absolutely no contrarianism here: I loved this game. I never thought I would feel connected to a can of paint.

Everything is vibrant. I love how everything is "paper based". The walls are made out of cardboard, one of the gates is made out of toilet paper. The joy of this is not only in the pun of everything being based around paper - it's the distinct visual style this creates. It feels handcrafted; and the graphical finesse takes it a step further, to where you don't even realize the "handcrafted" nature of it all. I love the colors at play here, the little small details in the buildings.

The battle system was a problem, I'll get that out of the way. It plays like an extremely simplistic card battler, like Baiten Kaitos, but extremely watered down (and weird). Essentially you have two main resources in the game, paint and cards. You have to have a deck of cards in order to play attacks on enemies, and painting these cards endows them with more power. This is problematic, because you will run very quickly out of cards. The game doesn't do the best at supplying you with cards out in the field, so you will have to buy them. You will constantly be traveling back to the main town, Port Prisma, in order to buy new stuff. It's also tedious to make money in this game, the best way is a Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament called Ro-Sham-Bo (not making this up).

Yet this backtracking isn't as sour as it could be just by the fact that you travel by levels. It takes the level system from the Mario platformers and makes it fit into the context of an RPG. While I always do like an interconnected world rather than disparate levels - I find it really worked to this games advantage. Each 'level' is unique as hell. Some are better than others (my favorite was Dark Bloo Inn), but all of them have a distinct identity and gimmicks in the most positive sense of the term. The different routes each "Paint Star" opens, and the way the world is connected feels very intricate in a way I can't explain.

Back to a negative that is also a positive: the witty dialogue. I often got "joke fatigue", the feeling that they were just joking too dang much here. It made it hard to take things seriously. Yet there were times when the game could be serious and affecting, and it knew when to step back from the jokes for a little.

Heres a positive again: the music was kickin', love the violin in Port Prisma's town theme and the main theme repeated throughout the game.
Overall, just really loved this game. Just beat it. Probably the best Wii U exclusive in my opinion.

I think this game came out at a bit of an awkward time, but it makes me want to play more of the Paper Mario games, including TTYD.

Absolutely insane game for 1993 - it's no exaggeration that this inspired many well known filmmakers, hell, a sizeable portion of modern sci-fi cinema in general.

It's a game that can be completed in a single afternoon, but this doesn't lessen it's power.

The CG, prerendered 3d spaces, are all just of mind-blowing beauty. This must have absolutely shocked people back then.
The music, while minimal, creates such an atmosphere of impeding dread and doom. The train is like a percussion instrument, setting the beat for a song of death.
It's effortlessly cinematic. I can see how a lot of those late 90's early 2000's, "trippy" sci-fi flicks were inspired by this (a la the Matrix).

It's interesting: the developers, Synergy, are not really what I would consider to be high profile. At least not in the West. They've made waves before, but with only one other game: "Alice: an Interactive Museum".
They've made some incredibly strange games over the years, such as a a series of Wizard of Oz RPGs (not the one for the DS). Those were this developers final games, IIRC.
It surprises me, because this game just feels like a switch went off in the developers mind, and they decided they were going to knock it out of the park. Not that this developers other games are bad in any respect, in fact I'd say they are all hidden diamonds; just that this game feels like such a culmination of energy and themes that they've worked on in other games. Large, art deco institutions. A weird steampunk/cyberpunk mix with themes of: alienation, the viewing of technology as salvation, and the meaning of huge, kaleidoscopic temples of steel. Haruhiko Shono, and his team are genius for this.

Here's a game that you cannot purchase, in any way or form. There is literally no way you can officially get this game.

It is quite a shame. This game was released exclusively on the Nintendo 3DS eshop. By now, the closing of the 3DS eshop is probably old news to everyone and their grandmas.

There was some panic due to the fact that we would lose many games, and a few months ago (around the time of the shutdown) the topic trended among Nintendo fans. However, the panic seemed to simmer down quite a bit. I think it's time to start bringing it up again. Along with this game, we have no way to purchase, among many others: Pushmo, Stretchmo, the first two Dillon's Rolling Westerns, Harmoknight, Sakura Samurai, Pocket Card Jockey, and the Denpa Men games.

This game might as well be pretty much lost. If it weren't for archivists, that is. It's ironic, considering this is a game about helping someone manage a museum of nostalgic items. This game has itself become relegated to the archive.

The game itself is actually quite good. You could fool me if you said this was a full-priced 3DS retail game. Sure, it does show it's budget-ness in some ways. Most evidently, in it's casual, somewhat repetitive gameplay loop. It does at time feel like a game you would play in transit, or before bed to wind down.

Yet, this doesn't really capture (no pun intended) how beautiful this game is. Visually, it's stunning. Skip have always been masters of visual wizardry, pushing pretty much every platform they've released a game on to it's graphical limits. Here, the environments are beautiful., and everything is bathed in golden and leafy green colors. It just feels serene. Music is also awesome.

The camera feature sucks though (which is probably the 3DS's fault), that's all I'll say on that lol. It sucks, it really does. I have no idea how the recognition system in this game works (which is where I'll put the responsibility on the game). it won't recognize an object, even if it's in perfect lighting. Even if it does recognize it, it often shows up as a "Nostaldud", this puzzle piece thing that vanishes along with the film you just bought. It was really annoying when this happened, but at least the puzzle pieces became things you could collect to get another piece of film... yay?

Otherwise, this actually feels like an official Chibi-Robo game. Chibi-Robo lite, maybe. It is somewhat diluted. However, it's really the last of the Chibi-Robo games to be a 3D action-adventure. If you've played the first 3, you might actually like this one. Don't be put off by the new designs of the characters, or what at first seems like nothing but a minigame collection. This game actually has exploration (however, you travel to different places through photos rather than one interconnected world, so it's a little different).

The characters were charming, strange, and each had their own personality. Music was actually awesome. I'll let the music speak for itself, so definitely check out the OST.

In summary, it's really a shame that this game is no longer available to purchase in any way. I somewhat hope that it would be brought over to the switch, but part of me doubts it. If I remember correctly, the developers Skip went out of business. This game is really charming when you give it a chance, and surprisingly in-depth (according to my save file I spent 16 and a half hours on it, and the game was 10 dollars). It really deserves to be remembered.

(Note: I'm just getting home from a long trip, so I'm writing this in the wee hours of the morning. Therefore, this isn't going to be an in depth review, and I apologize)

I think this is the perfect game to introduce people to RPG's.
For one, it's fairly easy (except for that final boss), if you get the Star B items and distribute stat points well. Even so, it's not a pushover. So it challenges just enough.

It has a surprisingly large overworld for a GBA game, but it isn't overwhelming. It's full of zaniness that bypasses and even at times parodies the RPG conventions. The story doesn't take itself extremely seriously, and you can tell from the onset. However, that's actually what makes the game stand out.

There are a large number of sidequests, and the graphics are charming, with great spritework that makes it feel like a DS game.
The battle system is really unique. Sure, it takes cues from its predecessors SMRPG and Paper Mario, but it adds its own twists. For example, in order to be able to dodge enemy attacks well, you have to read their cues. Some enemies will look left or right before attacking, some will have a red or green signal, which tells you which Bro the attack is going to.

It's a really interesting system. It adds kind of an active element to the turn-based RPG system. Instead of just waiting for your turn passively, it felt like you were really participating in the battles.

Recommending for just about anyone to try this one.