Nintendo seems to love surprising me with Metroid at the most unexpected times! Similarly to when I cried when Dread was announced, I was probably the loudest I’ve ever been during a direct when this got shown off, and even more so when the announcer just came out and said “Later Today”. Metroid is thriving and I could not be happier. With this and Dread coming out within the past 2 years, and with a version of every single 2D Metroid soon to be playable on the Switch and the other 2 Prime games and Zero Mission likely to come, I’ve never been more excited for the future of a series. Anyway, about Prime, every time I play this game it keeps getting better and better, especially this time thanks in no small part to the amazing work that was done for this remaster. The remastered visuals are gorgeous, while keeping the original feeling of the gamecube original, and the new control choices (ESPECIALLY Dual Stick) bring a convenience with controlling Samus that makes this already extremely good-feeling game to play feel better than ever before. Shoutout to the color assist and other accessibility options, as a colorblind person it makes me so happy to feel that I’m being cared about thru these options. I’m so so ecstatic that Metroid is back, and it really does feel like it’s here to stay this time!!

Balan Wonderworld, if it was
• made competently
• for the girlies
• had unique levels

It is VERY short

What happens when you remake a middling game? A really wonderful second chance at a story.

Although they're not all apparent until the final act of Journey Into Lost Memories, the parallels between the characters and stories in both halves of this pair of stories are fascinating, and I encourage people to play this game just to get these characters and their experiences into their heads.

While the actual gameplay in this collection is just serviceable, the writing can feel awkward at times, and the voice acting wavers in quality, I loved my time with these games. To borrow common parlance, the vibes were on-point. I loved all of the character descriptions and their gradual updates throughout each story, I enjoyed the newly-developed puzzles, and I liked most of the character redesigns (although I kind of wish Ashley's dad hadn't received such a drastic change). Really just a great experience with plenty of likable characters and decent production value (at least outside of grassy fields). I pray for Hotel Dusk and Last Window to get similar treatment, and I also hope they'll do a great job of preserving those games' rotoscoped art style.

In 2005, we got a Nintendo DS. Shortly after we picked up a game called Another Code: Two Memories because we like puzzling adventure titles and needed something to play while going on the bus or train. It became our favourite Nintendo DS game of all time and Ashley Mizuki Robins became one of our favourite video game leads ever.

Four years later we picked up Another Code: R - A Journey Into Lost Memories on Wii, and while it didn't impress us as much as the first game, we left it happy to have played it. We could never have imagined that Arc System Works would end up developing a remake of both games from the ground up for Switch, but here we are in 2024 with Another Code: Recollection.

The best Another Code game to date.

Retelling both of the previous two games, Recollection makes the interesting creative choice of mostly keeping the first game narratively intact while greatly changing up the sequel. This could have easily harmed the game, but ends up strengthening its writing immensely in the end as it ties the two stories together as one in a way that feels so perfectly cohesive that it took us a considerable amount of time to realize how much had actually been changed.

The plot has a nice blend of expected developments and clever twists and despite the often absurd fantastical aspects of the story it pulls through thanks to sheer sincerity about its subject matter. It's so easy to be immersed in Ashley and her co-stars' story of coping with loss and PTSD through a deeply emotional scenario focused on rewriting memories, especially thanks to the excellent voice acting at hand.

The the DS and Wii games made heavy use of unique hardware gimmicks for its puzzle design, resulting in the Switch requiring to change things up quite a lot. But the puzzles created for the game are fun and feel like classic adventure game material. If there's anything we felt was lacking, it's that the first game, Two Memories, felt somewhat rushed compared to its sequel. But by the time we reached the credits it didn't matter at all.

This is a game tailor made for us, and we loved every moment of it.

Note: I have not played the original titles and I do plan on playing them in the future.

I don't think this game will land for everyone, especially on the gameplay department. But what really got me to absolutely love this game was the art style, atmosphere, story, and especially its characters. This is such a tightly knit story about memories and being able to connect with others, with a lot of sincerity behind it. The game also just has such a cozy feel to it, where a lot of I would just walk around and take in the music as I was playing because of how much I was taken in by the music.

I loved this game a lot and I especially got teary eyed by the end. Maybe this review will change once I play the originals, but at this time I will remember this game fondly.

I really enjoyed revisiting these two somewhat forgotten classics in the remastered Switch version. I particularly enjoyed the first part. The atmosphere in the old manor house came across very well and I found the two parallel stories about Ashley and D very exciting and well written. There were some very heartfelt moments that really got to me. I also liked the second part. It had a completely different vibe, a summer camp by the lake instead of a gloomy villa. Of course, I was a little skeptical at first. The story also took a while to get going but then it got really interesting. By the end, I really realized that I had grown fond of the characters and especially Ashley. The credits made me really emotional. What beautiful games. Yes, they're not the most perfect and interesting games of all time in terms of storytelling and game mechanics, but I had a really good time with them and I'm glad to have caught up with them. Reminded me a bit of Life is Strange :)