Just to qualify some of the things I say, here’s my history with Pokémon. Blue was the first video game I ever played and first game I ever beat. I spent hundreds of hours on Silver, and remember the exact moment as a 6 year old that I beat the Elite Four. I completed the National Dex on Ruby (with a little help from my friend Game Shark). I’ve played every Pokémon spin off game. My brother and I put hundreds of hours into Stadium 1 & 2 as kids, and Pokémon Snap still sits in the Hall of Greats for me. When I got to high school and Diamond/Pearl came out, I was too cool for Pokémon. It’s for babies! I also missed out on Black/White for this reason. Sue me, we all had this phase.

As did every single one of us, when I got to college I realized it was okay to like the things you like, and all of my friends were back into Pokémon as well. I remember being so excited for XY in my Junior year of college. Nerd stuff makes you cool in college! My roommate and I rolled up to the Gamestop on release date and each bought a 2DS with X or Y (I got Y). It was so cool seeing Pokémon in 3D for the first time, but i have to admit that when I finished it 50 hours later it fell a little flat. Whatever, I was just glad to be back. I love this little fighting cactus, or whatever! Who remembers. I’ve been playing Pokemon Go every single day for the last 2 years. This franchise is close to my heart.

When Sun and Moon dropped, I got my pre-order ready. I upgraded to a New 3DS XL from my 2DS to prepare. And you know what? Not disappointed. Let’s get into it.

From humble beginnings, you’ll start your journey as a 10 year old (I know, I know) who has just been forced to move to Alola (Hawaii) from Kanto (Japan) because your mom has a new job. This heartwarming ad for SM is basically that story, and boy did I cry when I watched it. https://youtu.be/Byg1Ti15K_o

We’re all one just people, man. Pokémon, as the biggest franchise in the world, has a distinct honor of connecting people across races, nationalities, gender identities, orientations, and even language barriers. Trade, battle, work together. Pokémon is how I made many of my friends as a kid and even a few in college. The power of this franchise should not be underestimated, even if you turn your nose up at it. Remember that first month of Pokémon GO? That was the closest we will ever be to world peace.

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The Game


Of course the first thing we want to do when a new Pokémon game drops is get a look at those beautiful, beautiful starters. Pictured above, from left to right we have Rowlett, Litten, and Popplio. Personally, I’ve always picked the water starter, although I experimented with Treecko in Ruby (it was a phase). I know Popplio has gotten a lot of flak for being a literal clown, but wait until you see her final form’s Z-Move: https://youtu.be/S85tGtPHOSI

I couldn’t resist her siren song. I’m a proud father of a young, healthy Primarina.

Regardless of who you pick, this batch of starters is the best since Gen III, at least in my opinion. You’ll end up with either Decidueye, Incineroar, or Primarina, all pretty good designs. As is customary, here’s an absolute bop from the soundtrack of this game. Play this as you read for the sake of immersion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REC7daXbjho

After leaving home, you’ll experience the most beautiful region yet, Alola. Look, the map design itself was better in Gen III, sure, but no one can argue that the lushness of the tropical jungle makes Pokémon finally feel fresh again. The new Pokémon designs, for the most part, are really good and sometimes clever. I love Mudsdale so much. These are the best Pokemon designs since RSE, don’t @ me. Alolan Pokemon also were a great move. Alolan Exeggutor is a masterstroke for meme potential, and seeing an Ice Ninetales and a Ghost/Fire Marowak is just exciting for fans of the 1st Gen.


SM was a, well not a breath of fresh air, but a puff. More like how Link’s Awakening reinvigorated the Zelda series with new stuff rather than how Breath of the Wild tore it apart and rebuilt it from the ground up.

Mega Evolutions? Ugh, Mom, we’re on Z-Moves now.

That’s right, Megas are out. Hot take: Z-Moves are fun. You do a dumb dance with your Pokémon, it uses a super-powerful attack, and then you can’t do it again the rest of the match. Megas always felt overpowered to me, and I like that any Pokémon can use Z-Moves. Plus, it’s a onetime attack so it’s good to get out of a tight situation in a gym battle.

Gym battles? Mom, gym battles are so 2015. We’re doing Island Trials.

That’s right, gyms are gone. They’ve been replaced with Island Trials, which are definitely not gyms. Despite my saltiness here, I preferred the format of Island Trials to gyms. You explore a small area, do a small side quest, battle some minion Pokémon, and progress to the boss battle: A Totem Pokémon. Totems are larger and more powerful than their counterparts with the main distinction of being able to summon minions during the fight. This turned out to work very well and provided wildly different levels of difficulty. WishiWashi provided a considerable challenge and actually KO’d my whole party the first time through. I had to fight Larantis FOUR TIMES before I was able to kill it. In contrast, I one-shotted Salazzle on the first turn. So… your mileage may vary. At the end of each Island you’ll fight a boss, the Island Kahuna, who again is somewhat of a challenge. Then you unlock a new mechanic to help you traverse the overworld. Yeah, like an HM -

Mom you’re embarrassing me! HM’s are dead. We have Pokémon Uber.

That’s right, HM’s are out as well. Gone are the days of wasting a move slot on a party member for Cut or Flash. We’ve now got a smartphone (I’ll get to the Rotom Dex in a bit) with the Poke Ride Share app, which calls to your aid different Pokémon to either solve environmental puzzles or help you cross difficult terrain. You unlock more as you go along, and it works well. SwSh has no HM’s and no rideshare either, the world is free of “cut trees” and “strength boulders.” Honestly, good move.


So those are the things that are different. How’s everything else?

The game is definitely a bit more difficult than XY, no question. Not to say that it’s hard, just harder than XY, which was a game a baby could play while asleep. EXP share is a team thing again, which sucks, but you can turn it off, which I did immediately.

There. Are. A. Lot. Of. Cutscenes. And you know me, I love those 9 minute unskippable cutscenes. This is probably the worst thing about the game, to be honest. There are cutscenes every 4-5 minutes in the story heavy parts, and they’re all about 5 minutes long. Pokémon has long sufficed on not really having a story, and when they said “this one is going to have a big story” they meant it. Usually you’d want them to spend more time honing a finely crafted story, but this seems like they just crammed 20 years’ worth of story into the game to make up for all the previous gens not having one. The story is fine and would actually qualify as good if not for such lengthy, arduous cutscenes. SM managed to produce the most memorable characters the series has had since GSC.


So let’s get into the characters. Professor Kikui is a hot young stud in the academic world, looking to prove himself. He has a flair for the dramatic, and I won’t say more than that to avoid ruining the best scene in the entire game. To round out the dynamic trio, you’ve got Lillie, the adopted daughter of Professor Kikui, and Hau, your dumb best friend/neighbor/rival who really just believes in everyone. Lillie and Hau act as companions on your journey, but they don’t actually walk everywhere with you. They just move around to each area/island as the story moves them, and I liked this system. It felt enough like having companions without feeling like I had to drag them everywhere. Then we have your real rival, Gladion, a smug blond Draco Malfoy-type who puts up an actual challenge when you fight him.

And then the Rotom Dex, your constant companion. Yes, your Pokedex talks to you. No, it doesn’t ever become more endearing. I like the ideas of companions in concept, and they really went half-assed with this one. We need a full fledged Navi if we’re going to go in on that, not a constantly buzzing cartoon phone that keeps sending you tutorial hints 80 hours into the game.


There are two major institutions in play here – Team Skull and the Aether Foundation. That’s right, Pokémon has factions now. Too bad you can’t join them! Team Skull is, well, amazing. They are definitely the best evil team we’ve had since Team Rocket. They’re dumb, funny, and have amazing music. I personally have a Team Skull cosplay that’s a big hit. They’re led by Guzma, who comes off as kind of an ass, but I guess that’ll happen when you are the head of an evil team of thugs. One of my favorite sections of the game was Po Town, a village that Team Skull basically invaded and took over. The Aether Foundation is just a ton of science fiction tropes in a shiny chrome laboratory trying to break the laws of reality for the sake of progress. If you are familiar with Fallout, this is the Institute to a tee. They’re doing research on a weird phenomenon called Ultra Beasts. Their leader, Lusamine, looks awfully familiar…

This game is also a lot more anime than the previous ones, which works fine for it. You can see they dove even further into the anime aesthetic in SwSh, and it works well there. Lillie has a pet Cosmog named Nebby, who is quite obviously a legendary Pokémon. The plot of the game revolves around the bad guys, Team Skull, trying to obtain Nebby and you trying to keep Nebby is his goddamn bag for five fucking minutes. While being annoying in that he keeps getting kidnapped, Nebby is charming and cute, and I grew to love that little bastard.

The world is broken up into four islands, each one more tropical than the last. Mechanically it just is a way of locking off the game until you progress the story, but each individual island is fairly open, so you can kind of explore that any way you’d like.

Once you beat the Elite Four equivalent, there’s a bit of post-game and it’s not bad. The post-game of XY, Delta Episode, was the highlight of the game and made me hopeful for something crazy in SM. Alas, nothing to write home about. There’s a final boss battle at the end which is very cool, followed by access to the Battle Tower. This is again not the Battle Frontier, just an endless roulette of trainers. It’s fun, and I’ve spent a few hours fighting doubles in the tower, but it could have been way more entertaining.

Sun and Moon don’t quite provide the big reimagining the series desperately needs, but they at least try something new. The new Pokémon designs feel fresh, as does the tropical nature of the region. There are a lot of references to Gen I, which feels pandering but probably did its job getting old fans back into the series. The characters are interesting and memorable, but the story is weighed down by 5+ minute unskippable cutscenes all the way through, ruining what would otherwise be an above average JRPG story. The bosses in this game are difficult and will actually defeat you here and there (sometimes requiring multiple tries even for the best trainers) but the difficulty of regular trainers in the overworld remains a bit too easy. SM rectifies a few of the traditions that have been holding back Pokemon since RSE, and it’s absolutely worth a shot to experience a new, beautiful world.

When I arrived at grad school in Charleston, I didn't know anyone. I tried to make friends by joining a bunch of clubs, and the one that stuck was the Quidditch team. That Halloween I invited everyone at large to show up to my apartment to try out Until Dawn, which was something I had been wanting to check out for a long time. The people who happened to show up became our friend group, and some of them are still my closest friends in the world. I have played this game 4 times through with different groups and never gotten even a little tired of it. This was a master stroke and I can only hope and pray the Quarry is as good.

It is no overstatement to suggest that Mario has defined and elevated the industry to new heights during the last 30 years with unparalleled endurance. Super Mario 64 was the first game to get a 3D camera right, and placed so much importance on it that the camera is an actual character in the game. Super Mario Sunshine, my personal favorite, gave Mario a set of tools far beyond the jumping we had grown used to for so many years. Super Mario Galaxy was the most innovative platformer of its time, taking full advantage of gravity and perspective to enhance the gameplay. Super Mario 3D World brought co-op to the mainline games and proved that pure, old school platforming in 3D was still fun. Even so, Super Mario Odyssey is something special. Previous Mario titles have continually redefined 3D platformers, but Super Mario Odyssey has perfected them.

When Mario finds out that Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach and arranged a wedding, he sets out on a quest to track down the King Koopa and stop this most unholy of matrimonies. He teams up with Cappy, the magical hat demon, and they set off to rescue both Princess Peach and Cappy’s sister, Tiara.

Cappy at first seems like a simple mechanic. At first glance it appears that Mario can throw the hat at enemies and defeat them. Cappy has so much more to offer though, that is perhaps not on display just from the ads. He can be tossed directly upwards, in a rolling motion along the ground, in an ascending spiral around Mario, or even in a vertical circle from the air. He can be tossed and held in place in to create a platform, or if you’re looking for the advanced stuff he can utilize the dash jump to extend Mario’s jump length tenfold. Cappy’s wide swath of abilities provide the player freedom to try and play however they’d like.

Cappy’s main ability is possession — throwing him onto enemies and objects around the world let’s Mario take control of them. Every one of Mario’s age old enemies, from Goombas to Koopas to Chain-Chomps, is controllable in this game. You can finally be the Bullet Bill you always wanted to be! Cappy additionally can be played by a second player, and working together on a co-op experience in a sandbox Mario game is a dream come true. Don’t expect the co-op to make the game easier, though.

The game so cleverly sets up puzzles in its sandbox world to be solved by utilizing the abilities of some foe while not making it obvious. Children can play this game with a little help, but some of the puzzles can stump even adults. The puzzles and environment tie in so closely with the possession mechanics, yet maintain an air or nonchalance; there are often more clever ways to make it past obstacles than the game would have you think.

Super Mario Odyssey’s theme of world travel is never forgotten or thrown to the wayside. Travel to Mexico, New York City, an underwater kingdom, the deep forest, the moon, the second moon, and even a world a little too similar to Dark Souls. I don’t want to spoil the adventure for you, but the 16+ worlds, some larger even than their Super Mario 64 predecessors, have nothing to offer but beauty, excitement, variety, and an impossible number of challenges.

That brings me to the Moons, the objects you’ll be collecting to power your ship, the Odyssey, and chase down Bowser. First I’ll commend the cleverness of choosing Moons — after all, this is the spiritual successor to Super Mario 64 (in which you collected stars) and Super Mario Sunshine (where you collected suns). Moons are much more plentiful than either of those, and over a hundred can be found in each of the larger worlds. The challenge difficulty of obtaining a moon can be anywhere on a scale of Animal Crossing to Bloodborne, so you’ll always feel that you’re both working towards something and earning something along the way.

Super Mario Odyssey has built on the backs of its predecessors to create an unparalleled 3D platforming experience. The pacing of collecting moons, variety of worlds, Cappy’s distinct platforming abilities, and general attention to fun make Super Mario Odyssey the best 3D platformer ever created. Cappy feels like a natural companion to Mario and I weep at the thought of setting sail on the next adventure without him. Nintendo has proven once again that concentrating on pure, unadulterated fun is what makes Mario games so perpetually strong. No bells, no whistles, just smiles on faces of every age.

Blake: The Visual Novel is a passion project from solo indie dev Ori Mees that takes us to what I’d call a cyberpunk-noir future - the world and characters capture the feel of cyberpunk without relying much on the aesthetic and hone in on the feeling of being a detective. Regardless, it’s a quick story worth exploring with memorable characters, great comic book- inspired art and absolutely killer music.

Blake has been having strange dreams, but not nearly as strange as his real life has become when he wakes up with a crate of stolen owls from the zoo in his bedroom. With the help of some legitimately enjoyable characters such as Max, Orlo, Lee and Hari, Blake seeks to get to the bottom of everything while uncovering some deeper mystery and finding out about his blood family that he never knew.

Unfortunately , as this is a visual novel and is entirely a story, I can’t say anything further about the plot without spoiling it. What I can talk about is the refreshing nature of providing actual choices to the player that deviates the story greatly. There are a few points particularly where the player makes a choice and branches the story in a totally different direction. There’s also a few mini games peppered throughout that are a good time. There are a good few endings, and it all comes together to give you the feel of a good ole fashioned paperback choose your own adventure novel.

I wasn’t a fan of the ending that I got, as it felt abrupt, but I know there are a few others to unlock which might be more narratively satisfying. I also felt that some of the characters, particularly Jonathan, didn’t really have a believable dialogue back and forth with Blake. In fact, he felt so fake that I was sure he was secretly a villain until the end, as his story just didn’t add up. Blake’s coworkers are delightful though, and I especially loved Hari and was kind of irritated that Blake didn’t enjoy her company. There also wasn’t an option for autoplay, which would be a great accessibility option besides removing the annoyance of constantly tapping Enter. There are a few issues here and there with the writing’s flow and transitions from scene to scene, and yes some of it feels like being jerked between one revelation to the next, but I had a good time with it and the characters are definitely crafted with heart.

I also want to give special props to the soundtrack. It is fantastic and probably the thing that has stuck most with me, giving a perfect flair to both the cyberpunk and noir sensibilities of the visual novel. In fact the ambient music is so pleasing I left the game running on my computer while cooking dinner so I could keep jamming out to it. It fits in with the atmosphere and the story the developer is crafting seamlessly and honestly I’d just buy the soundtrack as a standalone at this point.

Overall, Blake The Visual Novel is a fine entry to a niche genre and I think is worth playing for anybody who already enjoys visual novels. If you are one of the many people that doesnt, however, I do not believe this one will change your mind. I’m a very fast reader and it took me about an hour and a half to finish, and I think the average time is around 2 hours so it’s not gonna take up too much of your time. I think if I could give any award to Blake: The Visual Novel, it would be for most directed vibes. The city of new stone is cool, interesting, and I advise anyone who is even a tad interested to give it a run.

This charming choice-driven visual novel is chock full of vibes, and with some stellar music and great characters, fans of the genre shouldn’t skip this one.

Ultimately, Meet Your Maker has some great ideas and a great premise that is needlessly over-complicated and hostile to players at nearly every turn. The thing is, I actually had a lot of fun with it when it did work. It was thrilling watching replays of it. Being a free PS Plus game, I heartily encourage you to give Meet Your Maker a try on PlayStation if the idea tickles your fancy. Remember, you will have to both constantly raid and build to play – you can’t just do one or another. There were a lot of times I was really enjoying solving the cobbled-together puzzles other players were creating and seeing what I could manage with the limited toolset. Meet Your Maker is quite fun to play when it’s not actively combating the player. With some truly amazing levels to play and ten times more garbage ones, your mileage certainly will vary.

Full review: https://gameluster.com/review-meet-your-maker-live-cry-repeat/

Overall, I enjoyed my time with Cartel Tycoon, and I may pop back in when I get a hankering for a management game. There are a lot of systems, perhaps a bit too many, but automation is easy enough and the speed at which they’re introduced to you is manageable. I’d like to see some better written characters in the future as well as Spanish VO, and maybe at some point the darker parts of the real cartel life need to be touched on and addressed. It’s a good time, although certainly not relaxing, but if you feel like you’ll enjoy this management sim you probably will. And hey, if there’s a way to explore your city once you build it up, I will most certainly be back.

Full review at https://gameluster.com/review-cartel-tycoon-somehow-i-manage/

I reviewed this game with a key provided by the publisher: https://gameluster.com/review-my-big-sister-remastered-narrative-nonsense/

Overall, while the art and world and music are top notch, I can’t really recommend this very narrative heavy game because the story is just a disaster of thematic and tonal clashing at every turn. If this was another kind of game with a heavier combat element or something else to carry the weight, it’d be a different story, but My Big Sister is a narrative. If you are content to just vibe with it for a few hours and let the story be of no consequence, maybe you’ll find a way to enjoy it.

I am so disappointed in this game. I really was hoping for something in the vein of Little Nightmares based on reviews, but this is some of the worst platforming and jankiest controls I've ever felt. The story wasn't compelling, the monsters were largely boring, most of the environments are boring, and your character moves so slowly through huge environments it's tough not to tear out your hair. Also features three of the worst boss fights I can remember experiencing in the last few years. I really liked the art and loved the music, however, which saved the whole thing from being a complete waste of time. Don't recommend.

Ashina the Red Witch is the newest adventure title from Stranga Games, sporting fantastic music, fun puzzles, well-made pixel art, and a story that is poignant, heartbreaking, and gripping right up until it isn't. While the narrative, characters, and dialogue were excellent most of the way through, Ashina shoots itself in the foot with the most thematically dissonant and laughably bad ending this side of Game of Thrones.

As I stated before, Ashina is a thrilling and gripping tale for about 90% of the 3 and a half hour runtime. Stranga Games has taken more inspiration from Studio Ghibli’s masterpiece Spirited Away than I’ve perhaps ever seen anything take take, even Ghibli’s own game Ni No Kuni. And to be truthful, it’s all the better for it. Spirited Away is my favorite film of all time, and the second I arrived in the spirit world I started to see the similarities. So yeah, it’s a quick way to my heart, what are you gonna do about it?

Ashina follows the story of Ash, a twenty-something girl exhausted with life, tired of raising her younger sister Tema who is of course always getting into trouble. The two are transported to the spirit world by way of a mischievous spirit named Tanto who has stolen their late mother’s pendant, and after they’re separated Ash sets out to rescue her little sister, just as she always does.

You’ll be taken to several different towns and areas, and the gameplay mostly consists of doing small quests for one NPC in exchange for an item for another NPC to get you to the next thing. It’s all very simple, and most of it is just walking around and talking to the delightful characters. There are a few puzzles scattered about, and they do a great job hitting that medium of not being too tough while offering a challenge and feeling like a natural part of the environment.

Ashina is a very story driven narrative heavy game, so I don’t want to spoil too much more of the story - instead i want to talk about themes. Right up until the end, this story is tied together by the theme of learning to sacrifice for others because it is our responsibility. The characters Ash meets along the way have all given something up, all lost something, for the sake of others. The way to truly love is to sacrifice, to work selflessly. It hits hardest when Ash asks a miner why they keep digging for the coal that powers the city. She responds “why are you trying to rescue your sister?” Ash responds, “because it is my responsibility.”

There is even a part of the story where Ash is offered an escape back to the real world if she agrees to leave her sister behind for dead, after having a meltdown and revealing how much she hates Tema because of what she gave up to take care of her after their mother died. And yet, back into the pit she goes for her sister, her only remaining family. Because to love is to be selfless, stupid, and steadfast.

This story ends with perhaps the most baffling, and contradictory ending I can call to mind. The lesson at the end is that one should, in fact, be selfish. The characters that act for their own selfish purposes are rewarded. The characters that act out of love are punished with death, or worse. It’s not just a matter of evil winning and it being a tragic ending - the theme that the story pushed so heavily is completely invalidated in one fell swoop. The ending makes it clear that to love is to be weak, to sacrifice is to be doomed. Nothing you did in the game matters, actually - it was all stupid. Ash should have gone home and let her sister die.

After becoming so invested in these characters, in what I felt was maybe the best story in a video game this year, I was absolutely gutted by this ending. As I said, it’s not about the tragic nature - it’s about spitting in the face of theme. If you throw away your ending for shock value at the end and tell the player plainly that your story wasn’t worth anything, guess what? They’re gonna feel like they wasted their time. And I do. What was on track to be on my favorite indie games of all time list is now a bad taste in my mouth.

There are alternate endings, but this isn’t the “bad” ending - they’re all relatively like this. It’s also worth noting that Ashina is a prequel to a previous game from Stranga Games, My Big Sister. Ash’s fate was always going to be what it was, since the sequel is already written. For reference, I did skim through a playthrough of My Big Sister to see if it somehow made Ash’s story make sense - it does not. If anything, it’s even worse than I had originally thought.

Overall, there is so much good going on in Ashina: The Red Witch that I would be a fool not to acknowledge. Part of the reason I reacted so badly to this perplexing ending is that I genuinely cared about these characters. Even the ones I hated, I at least cared about them. They made an impression on me. Not to mention the wonderful slew of references and design inspirations from the works of Hayao Miyazaki, the absolute banger soundtrack, and the pleasantly memorable locations and one-off NPCs along the way. The issue, however, is that the writer invalidates everything they did with such a profound lack of self-awareness I feel like I genuinely lost these hours of my life.

Despite its charming art, music, character work, settings, and inspirations, Ashina’s last 30 minutes invalidate the entire story before it and slaps players in the face for being stupid enough to care about it.