HeyItMeBen
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is an exceptionally well put together entry in the series. After Star Allies, I was concerned that HAL was going to begin churning out new mainline Kirby games. Yet here we are, on the same system, with the first mainline 3D Kirby game, and what a wonderful transition the little guy has made into this new dimension. There's work to be done, but Forgotten Land puts its best foot forward and delivers an unforgettable adventure in this evergreen franchise.
HAL could have played this one safe with its setting. Star Allies (I haven't played it so take this with a grain of salt) seemed unambitious. Typical Kirby locales, typical Kirby bosses, with just a smattering of multiplayer mayhem intended to shake things up. The New Super Mario Bros. Wii of the series, if you will. Forgotten Land's world is not generically 'Kirby'. We're not on Popstar anymore and this new world is refreshingly unique yet unmistakably still Kirby. Ruins of a lost civilization contrast against all manner of cute creatures, teasing its twisted antagonist rather early for once. Everything is beautiful, possibly the best looking game on the Switch, lending to the creation of locales that rival the series' best. There's fanservice sprinkled throughout - it's a Kirby game after all - but the game is never reliant on it. I'm overjoyed that they decided to take such a bold step with both the gameplay and the setting!
Speaking of the gameplay, Kirby plays just like you'd expect him to do in 3D. No growing pains, it just works. We lost something in the process though. While the series had been building up each copy ability's movesets over several decades, Forgotten Land unfortunately has to return to its roots and the game suffers for it. I'd estimate that each copy ability has about 3 different moves, with some exceptions having more (or even less!). This means that copy abilities can get pretty stale, especially if you're used to the fleshed out abilities of previous games. I'm sure this is something a sequel will fix, but for the time being it's a tad disappointing, even if I understand why it had to be done. Each copy ability has upgrades which give them different properties, but this never really equates to added depth.
Every level has you doing something distinct, though I can't say I found most of the level design too engaging. It was always pleasant, but I never felt it was as tight as the likes of Triple Deluxe or Planet Robobot. Thankfully, the gimmick of this game is a hit. Mouthful Mode lets you engulf everyday objects such as a car, lightbulb or even a vending machine. Again, the amount of things you can do as each one is very limited, but they never overstay their welcome and there are plenty to discover throughout the lengthy campaign.
As with every Kirby game, there's a lot of optional guff to keep you busy. Optional challenges litter each level alongside more traditional collectibles in the form of caged Waddle Dees. As a massive Waddle Dee fan, I was extremely fond of their prevalence in this game, especially the whole town dedicated to the l'il guys. There's some fun things to do there too, again making this game its entirely own thing rather than feeling like a 3D version of an already existing Kirby game.
I had a blast with this. Even if I found my focus dwindling during long play sessions, I'm on the whole pleased as punch that Kirby remains in good hands. Maybe I'm setting my hopes too high, but I expect this game's sequel to be something truly exceptional. For now, though, this'll do just fine.
HAL could have played this one safe with its setting. Star Allies (I haven't played it so take this with a grain of salt) seemed unambitious. Typical Kirby locales, typical Kirby bosses, with just a smattering of multiplayer mayhem intended to shake things up. The New Super Mario Bros. Wii of the series, if you will. Forgotten Land's world is not generically 'Kirby'. We're not on Popstar anymore and this new world is refreshingly unique yet unmistakably still Kirby. Ruins of a lost civilization contrast against all manner of cute creatures, teasing its twisted antagonist rather early for once. Everything is beautiful, possibly the best looking game on the Switch, lending to the creation of locales that rival the series' best. There's fanservice sprinkled throughout - it's a Kirby game after all - but the game is never reliant on it. I'm overjoyed that they decided to take such a bold step with both the gameplay and the setting!
Speaking of the gameplay, Kirby plays just like you'd expect him to do in 3D. No growing pains, it just works. We lost something in the process though. While the series had been building up each copy ability's movesets over several decades, Forgotten Land unfortunately has to return to its roots and the game suffers for it. I'd estimate that each copy ability has about 3 different moves, with some exceptions having more (or even less!). This means that copy abilities can get pretty stale, especially if you're used to the fleshed out abilities of previous games. I'm sure this is something a sequel will fix, but for the time being it's a tad disappointing, even if I understand why it had to be done. Each copy ability has upgrades which give them different properties, but this never really equates to added depth.
Every level has you doing something distinct, though I can't say I found most of the level design too engaging. It was always pleasant, but I never felt it was as tight as the likes of Triple Deluxe or Planet Robobot. Thankfully, the gimmick of this game is a hit. Mouthful Mode lets you engulf everyday objects such as a car, lightbulb or even a vending machine. Again, the amount of things you can do as each one is very limited, but they never overstay their welcome and there are plenty to discover throughout the lengthy campaign.
As with every Kirby game, there's a lot of optional guff to keep you busy. Optional challenges litter each level alongside more traditional collectibles in the form of caged Waddle Dees. As a massive Waddle Dee fan, I was extremely fond of their prevalence in this game, especially the whole town dedicated to the l'il guys. There's some fun things to do there too, again making this game its entirely own thing rather than feeling like a 3D version of an already existing Kirby game.
I had a blast with this. Even if I found my focus dwindling during long play sessions, I'm on the whole pleased as punch that Kirby remains in good hands. Maybe I'm setting my hopes too high, but I expect this game's sequel to be something truly exceptional. For now, though, this'll do just fine.
2023
This review contains spoilers
Pikmin 4 is... weird. I want to preface this by saying that Pikmin is probably my favourite series besides Metroid. I struggled through 1 as a wee lad, was traumatised by the bad ending and accidentally broke my disk later, which is when my parents bought me its sequel. Pikmin 2 is an all-time great to me. I've replayed it tons, it's an overtly cruel RTS that is so special to me and, as you'll see, could never be truly replicated by a modern day Nintendo. Pikmin 3 was the first game in the series I actively anticipated the release of. The wait for it to come out felt like forever, I re-watched the trailers endlessly, consumed any content made for the game pre-release and, stupidly, watched someone play through a good chunk of the game in Japanese prior to its western release. I was 12 then and I'm 23 now, which is important as I did the opposite going into Pikmin 4. I watched the first trailer and then tuned into radio silence. I averted my eyes and ears every time it showed up in subsequent directs, muted words on twitter that could get it onto my timeline and avoided any discussion of the game within friend groups. Ultimately, I did discover certain elements against my will (character creation, glow pikmin, going out at night, Olimar's leafy appearance) but I felt satisfied in how little I knew when the game arrived last friday. I was excited, yet nervous. For as much as I loved 3, it dumbed down certain aspects of the series that I'd come to love, allowing for a much smoother experience than I was comfortable with. I feared 4 would double down on dullng the series' edges, which did end up being the case, yet it also restored some of what made the first two games unique. Pikmin 4 is weird, so let me tell you why.
Before I get into the nitty gritty, I want to make it clear that I love this game. At the end of the day, despite all of my many, many upcoming critiques, it's Pikmin! And I just adore Pikmin. This game realistically does more good than bad because it's Pikmin, but because it's Pikmin, I'm inherently going to be more critical of it. That's why the length of this review dwarfs all of my others. It's a spillage of thoughts that I had to share, so I'm sorry if it's totally incoherent.
Pikmin 4 begins with a recap of Pikmin 1... until it doesn't. Instead of getting all 30 ship parts and leaving the planet, Olimar discovers a dog called Moss and the game throws you into a playable section inside a house. Confused, I plowed forward in search of answers that I would never get.
Ths stories in the first 3 Pikmin games are simple enough. Pikmin 4's plot is simple if you HAVEN'T played those games, otherwise it becomes a convoluted mess of crossing wires that never quite adds up. Despite the 4 in the title, this game is essentially a reboot of the series. It replaces 1 in the timeline, makes things in 2 cease to make sense and even introduces characters that essentially replace those in 3 and can't I like any of it. I kept waiting for an answer at the end, why are things this way, are they really doing some weird plot that'll somehow come together during the final cutscene? And it just didn't, in fact the ending bluntly explains nothing. During the fake out credits (this game is going to copy Pikmin 2 a lot), we see Louie is on the planet. How did he get there? We return to help out our dog, Oatchi, who can no longer stray too far from the planet due to a mutation. Louie is abducting castaways and trying to turn them into leaflings. So when we finally get ahold of him, what do we learn? Nothing at all. We leave the planet, fly off into the space and the game ends. I sat there, bewildered, at the lack of any resolution. The lack of an answer is, in many cases, a good thing, but here it just feels lazy. Louie feels wildly out of character, his want to stay on PNF-404 is consistent with his story in 2, but the abduction just doesn't make an ounce of sense. Pikmin 4's story feels like an offbeat pastiche of the trilogy, trying to cater both to new players by resetting the lore and to veteran players by using returning characters and familiar ideas. I think it falls flat for the latter and while I can't say for certain, I imagine the former would also find themselves confused by the tacked on Louie plotline.
Before I get to the gameplay (which I have way too much to say about), I want to touch on the environments, atmosphere and music. The original Pikmin had 5 areas, though only 3 were fully fleshed out. Each one was distinct, from the pleasant optimism of The Forest of Hope to the oppressively dark Forest Navel and then the quiet solitude of The Distant Spring. The music contributed heavily to making these areas stand out and darkness and fog did a commendable job of making these areas feel more expansive than they actually were. Pikmin 2 followed on effortlessly with remixes of the areas from 1, yet they all feel different enough. Each of the four areas represent a different season, with my favourite being Wistful Wild, an autumnal aesthetic accompanied by an thrilling yet foreboding track that embodies finality and danger. Pikmin 3 did a decent enough job with its areas, though I felt that Tropical Wilds and Garden of Hope were a little too similar looking. Musically, I also feel 3 dropped the ball, with none of the area themes sticking in my head after I finished the game.
Unfortunately, 4 accentuates 3's issues. Sun-Speckled Terrace, Blossoming Arcadia, Giant's Hearth and, to a lesser extent, Primordial Thicket all felt like different parts of a single level. This wasn't helped at all by the gentle, lowkey tracks that accompanied these locales which I cannot recall at all. This music direction extends to the caves which scarcely even have music unless they decide to steal from 2, which is the case for the Engulfed Castle. What baffles me most of all is that Olimar's side story, which you can access after the first ending, has much more Pikmin-y tracks for the first four areas. It's certainly a preference thing, but seeing Breath of the Wild, Metroid Dread and now Pikmin 4 switch to these more atmospheric soundtracks has been largely disappointing.
To give some credit where it's due, Serene Shores and especially Hero's Hideaway were very fresh. It was exciting to finally be able to explore a house's interior outside of Pikmin 3's mission mode and the changing tides were a neat addition to a beach level. While I think even these areas could have done a little more to set this game apart from its predecessors, they were certainly highlights of the adventure. The interiors of caves were also beautiful, with the aquarium being my personal favourite. While most of the aesthetics were ripped directly from 2, they look fantastic in HD.
I'm left a touch disappointed with the way Pikmin 4 looked and sounded. Texture quality is obviously the best it's ever been, but I found the art direction widelylacking, even when compared to 3 which I already believed to be a bit of a step down from its predecessors.
Now... the game. The thing I immediately noticed and immediately hated was the automatic lock on. I didn't like the lock on in Pikmin 3, but at the very least it was never forced. Even if you were standing next to an enemy, you could throw Pikmin elsewhere. In 4, this isn't an option. It dumbs down the gameplay for sure, but it also has some severe downsides that genuinely hamper basic playability. Here's an example: I'm standing next to a treasure on a small islet, surrounded by water. I have ice pikmin in hand, I want to chuck them into the water so they freeze it. This isn't physically possible because, try as I might to create some distance between me and the treasure, I cannot aim them away from it. Small instances like this are some of the most infuriating control issues in the series. If you're fighting multiple enemies and you want to go for a specific one, you best hope that the target switch mechanic can read your mind! And if there's a treasure among the enemies? Good luck.
The controls are, to put it bluntly, awful. They simultaneously make the game easier and harder (but not in the good way). The smart stopping for tossing Pikmin (there's a delay after you throw the required number of Pikmin at an object) can be helpful, but I often found it to be hindrance. Why can't I turn these things off? Then there's leaf Pikmin vs flower Pikmin. From what I can tell, there's no way to manually select what maturity of Pikmin you want to throw. It's handy in that, if you throw them into a candypop bud, it'll always use leaf Pikmin. But, and I have no idea why this is the case, leaf Pikmin seem to be the default 90% of the time. Why would I want my leaf Pikmin to carry a treasure back? Why can't I select flower Pikmin? Let me turn this off. Let me turn all these "smart" features off. Let me control the game myself!!
Anyhoo.
Pikmin 4's structure is a familiar one, blatantly copying Pikmin 2's homework. I am fascinated by this decision, 2 always struck me as a black sheep, a formula that I loved but never expected to see again. The treasures are brilliant, I'm a little sad we can't have the branded treasures that grounded 2 in the real world, but that's mostly a non-issue due to how packed it is otherwise. The best ones are the music boxes, playing three iconic tracks from Nintendo's history, delighting me each time. Besides the treasures, you also have onions, flarlics, castaways and raw materials to gather. This gives each area a ton to find and I never felt an area was lacking nor did it ever drag on. The onions were particularly interesting as you initially only have access to 20 Pikmin on the field, which is a fantastic decision! It's satisfying to build up to 100 over a fairly long period rather than getting there in just a few in-game days. You're now also restricted to just 3 types of Pikmin on the field at a time, which I also feel was the right call. After all, every single Pikmin is in this game (except Bulbmin, my heart yearns for you) so it could be overwhelming to use them all simultaneously. My only gripe is that the areas are usually designed around those 3 types, and the game blatantly tells you which they are so there's no room for surveying the land to figure out what you might need, or even using alternative Pikmin types to accomplish tasks rather than what the game intends.
There are a few notable additions to Pikmin 2's structure which set this game apart. Instead of a world map, you have a hub where your crew and all the castaways gather. Many of them have side missions to complete which, if you're already looking to collect everything, you'll breeze through without issue. You can upgrade your equipment with materials and even train Oatchi, which I'll touch on later. It's pleasant having so much to do at home base, though part of me wishes we could have been more involved in the expansion, even if it was as simple as commanding a group of Pikmin to build some structures or something. From here, you also get access to night expeditions which left me underwhelmed. You use the new glow Pikmin to defend your base(s), but it's easy and a tad monotonous. It feels disconnected from the main game and never asks much of you, so we're still a ways off from having the a brutally difficult option to continue exploring during the night. They use these missions to reintroduce the Smoky Progg from Pikmin 1 and as much as I enjoy a little fanservice, it loses a ton of its mystique in this setting. A solid threat for a mode like this, but a meager shadow of its former self.
Lastly we have the Dandori Battles and Challenges. The challenges are ripped straight from Pikmin 3's mission mode, which was the best part of that game. To no surprise; they're great here too! Not quite as enjoyable due to lack of a third captain, but I was never disappointed to come across one. The battles are competitive collection jobs, the multiplayer of the game taken and moulded into singleplayer. They're not very good but largely inoffensive, which is what I would say if they didn't punctuate big story moments! In 3, these would be scored by impressive boss fights, the best in the series. Besides the final boss, 4 reverts back to 2's philosophy of quantity over quality. This was reasonable back then, but after seeing what was possible, their absence here was sorely missed. A mix of the two would have been perfect!
Most of the bosses this game does have are plucked directly from 2, in many cases to their detriment. When you have such an easy comparison point, it's poor showing when it's clear that what you've made is a blatantly pale imitation. The prime example for this is the Engulfed Castle and the Waterwraith. This iconic enemy is a terrifying threat in Pikmin 2's Submerged Castle, stalking you through this 5 sublevel nightmare. In 4, the music is the same, the aesthetic is the same, even some of the layouts are the same, but the kicker is that it's a total breeze. The Waterwraith showed up 2 times during the first 3 sublevels, once while I was leaving the first sublevel and again while I was transporting the final treasure on the second sublevel. Apparently I cleared the third so quickly that he decided not to appear. And sublevel 4 was the boss fight, which was identical to Pikmin 2. Pardon the pun, but why copy that game if you're just going to water down its toughest challenges? The cruelty of the Submerged Castle was what gave it so much charm! The answer is that they wanted to appeal new players with 'Pikmin's Greatest Hits' which is fine, but as a verteran I can't help but feel deflated by its new incarnation.
This is the case for many of Pikmin 2's bosses, though exact replicas of its caves are thankfully uncommon otherwise. 4 tends to shorter cave lengths, with much more forgiving design throughout. Alongside the rewind function (which, again, would be nice to disable), you're unlikely to have a situation where you don't have enough Pikmin to finish a cave. It's a stroll in the park, I'd always march around each sublevel with 100 Pikmin in tow instead of splitting them up, which I did constantly in previous games. This is partially due to the difficulty (lack of instakill threats), but also due to Oatchi, who we'll get to soon. I liked a lot of the new gimmicks, such as the conveyor belts from 3 and the fire you had to carry between torches, or whatever they're called. I'd like to see more of this, go all out with the weird stuff! 3 had plenty other great ideas to steal, like the 2D portions in Beastly Caverns or the oddly absent electricity conducting properties of the yellow Pikmin. Anything to set these caves apart from 2 would have been brilliant, because they were at their best when trying something new. Below Grade Discoteque is one of the most distinct dungeons in the game, concluding with one of my favourite fights in the series. It needs to be seen (and heard) to be believed.
So there's bits of 2 and 3 in this game, but what about 1? Pikmin 4 has you covered with Olimar's Shipwreck Tale, a miniature game within the game that sees you collecting 30 ship parts in just 15 days, mimicking what you did in the original Pikmin. It's great, there's little to say about it but the areas are remixed just enough, it's plenty nostalgic and as mentioned previously, the music is better than the main game! It's not that long but not too short either, just another layer on this gargantuan multi-layered birthday cake of a Pikmin game.
At last, I am ready to address the canine in the room: Oatchi. Every game prior to Pikmin 4 has increased the number of captains by one. 4 bucked this trend, which I think was probably the right thing to do. We've gone back to two, as much as I enjoyed how much you could micro-manage in 3, I believe it's best off a little simplified. You still have the 'go here' function, yet I rarely found myself using it. Perhaps that's partly due to the lack of a Wii U gamepad, but I think the more likely cause is Oatchi. He's very cute, but he fundamentally destroys Pikmin. While you do have to upgrade him to get there, Oatchi is both the ultimate captain AND the ultimate Pikmin. He lacks the ability to charge Pikmin forward but makes up for it with his own charge (which eventually stuns enemies) that flings all of his Pikmin onto whatever he headbutts, MELTING enemy health. He can also jump, swim, jump while swimming and do almost anything a Pikmin can, the major exception being that he can't be thrown. He's eventually immune to all elements and has a final carrying weight of 100, with the ability to swallow objects becoming one of the quickest ways to transport massive treasures.
These features alone would make Oatchi the ultimate companion character. Your create-a-character (I called him Bill) is outclassed in every way, with only a few areas off limits to the dog. However, there's one more aspect of Oatchi that tears apart the fabric of Pikmin: Oatchi can carry not only the captain, but the Pikmin too. This means both captains and the Pikmin can get up small ledges and cross any body of water all the while not being held up by their movement speed. Water rarely feels like an obstacle to Pikmin now, nor do other hazards such as poisonous or fiery floors. The biggest issue this creates, though, is that Pikmin is no longer messy. The Man-at-Legs is in this game with virtually no changes. The challenge of this fight came from deciding which Pikmin to bring into the fray; leaf Pikmin may not be able to make it to cover in time, therefore being risky prospects. So you'd position one captain in cover while the other took on the beast, potentially having to move cover if the beast got too close. In 4, the Man-at-Legs is a completely non-threat as even the slowest Pikmin hop onto Oatchi's back and can run circles around the helpless critter. There are countless instances of this as Pikmin scattering about in the prior games caused a majority deaths. You had to be patient, careful about your approaches, restrictive with the number of Pikmin you brought to a fight. Squeezing a full group of Pikmin under the Beady Long Legs' feet was nigh impossible - not anymore. Of all the criticisms I've leveraged against this game, this, alongside the controls, is the most damning and contributes to why I don't see myself replaying this one like I do the first two.
And yet, despite everything, I love this game. I know this is jarring, and I'm confused by it too. This game is the sum of its parts, and its parts are taken from 3 of my favourite games ever made. Even if each part is worse in this entry, it's Pikmin, and I fucking love Pikmin. Pikmin 4 was a joy from start to finish, I'm a fan and I was serviced! I may not replay this one, but I more fun with that single playthrough than I did playing 90% of the games on the system. I hope Pikmin can course correct somewhat for the fifth entry, yet despite the direction things are heading, I will be there, day 1, no matter what.
Some disjointed final thoughts I forgot to include above (I promise my reviews aren't usually like this):
-The Piklopedia is great here, though I wish they'd brought back the music too. Writing for both it and the treasure catalogue is fab. Character writing is decent, though the story has far too much dialogue in the beginning.
-Why is there no jingle when I reach the final sublevel? And why put Pikmin 2's boss theme in this game if you're going cut out the best part of the song?
-Glow Pikmin are very cute. Ice Pikmin are a strong addition but similarly to rock Pikmin, they don't look like what I think a Pikmin should look like.
-I enjoyed the final boss, but it felt like a Mario boss more than a Pikmin boss.
-Enemy variety is amazing, I love the Miniature Snootwhacker and want to be friends with him.
-Seriously, why no Bulbmin?
Before I get into the nitty gritty, I want to make it clear that I love this game. At the end of the day, despite all of my many, many upcoming critiques, it's Pikmin! And I just adore Pikmin. This game realistically does more good than bad because it's Pikmin, but because it's Pikmin, I'm inherently going to be more critical of it. That's why the length of this review dwarfs all of my others. It's a spillage of thoughts that I had to share, so I'm sorry if it's totally incoherent.
Pikmin 4 begins with a recap of Pikmin 1... until it doesn't. Instead of getting all 30 ship parts and leaving the planet, Olimar discovers a dog called Moss and the game throws you into a playable section inside a house. Confused, I plowed forward in search of answers that I would never get.
Ths stories in the first 3 Pikmin games are simple enough. Pikmin 4's plot is simple if you HAVEN'T played those games, otherwise it becomes a convoluted mess of crossing wires that never quite adds up. Despite the 4 in the title, this game is essentially a reboot of the series. It replaces 1 in the timeline, makes things in 2 cease to make sense and even introduces characters that essentially replace those in 3 and can't I like any of it. I kept waiting for an answer at the end, why are things this way, are they really doing some weird plot that'll somehow come together during the final cutscene? And it just didn't, in fact the ending bluntly explains nothing. During the fake out credits (this game is going to copy Pikmin 2 a lot), we see Louie is on the planet. How did he get there? We return to help out our dog, Oatchi, who can no longer stray too far from the planet due to a mutation. Louie is abducting castaways and trying to turn them into leaflings. So when we finally get ahold of him, what do we learn? Nothing at all. We leave the planet, fly off into the space and the game ends. I sat there, bewildered, at the lack of any resolution. The lack of an answer is, in many cases, a good thing, but here it just feels lazy. Louie feels wildly out of character, his want to stay on PNF-404 is consistent with his story in 2, but the abduction just doesn't make an ounce of sense. Pikmin 4's story feels like an offbeat pastiche of the trilogy, trying to cater both to new players by resetting the lore and to veteran players by using returning characters and familiar ideas. I think it falls flat for the latter and while I can't say for certain, I imagine the former would also find themselves confused by the tacked on Louie plotline.
Before I get to the gameplay (which I have way too much to say about), I want to touch on the environments, atmosphere and music. The original Pikmin had 5 areas, though only 3 were fully fleshed out. Each one was distinct, from the pleasant optimism of The Forest of Hope to the oppressively dark Forest Navel and then the quiet solitude of The Distant Spring. The music contributed heavily to making these areas stand out and darkness and fog did a commendable job of making these areas feel more expansive than they actually were. Pikmin 2 followed on effortlessly with remixes of the areas from 1, yet they all feel different enough. Each of the four areas represent a different season, with my favourite being Wistful Wild, an autumnal aesthetic accompanied by an thrilling yet foreboding track that embodies finality and danger. Pikmin 3 did a decent enough job with its areas, though I felt that Tropical Wilds and Garden of Hope were a little too similar looking. Musically, I also feel 3 dropped the ball, with none of the area themes sticking in my head after I finished the game.
Unfortunately, 4 accentuates 3's issues. Sun-Speckled Terrace, Blossoming Arcadia, Giant's Hearth and, to a lesser extent, Primordial Thicket all felt like different parts of a single level. This wasn't helped at all by the gentle, lowkey tracks that accompanied these locales which I cannot recall at all. This music direction extends to the caves which scarcely even have music unless they decide to steal from 2, which is the case for the Engulfed Castle. What baffles me most of all is that Olimar's side story, which you can access after the first ending, has much more Pikmin-y tracks for the first four areas. It's certainly a preference thing, but seeing Breath of the Wild, Metroid Dread and now Pikmin 4 switch to these more atmospheric soundtracks has been largely disappointing.
To give some credit where it's due, Serene Shores and especially Hero's Hideaway were very fresh. It was exciting to finally be able to explore a house's interior outside of Pikmin 3's mission mode and the changing tides were a neat addition to a beach level. While I think even these areas could have done a little more to set this game apart from its predecessors, they were certainly highlights of the adventure. The interiors of caves were also beautiful, with the aquarium being my personal favourite. While most of the aesthetics were ripped directly from 2, they look fantastic in HD.
I'm left a touch disappointed with the way Pikmin 4 looked and sounded. Texture quality is obviously the best it's ever been, but I found the art direction widelylacking, even when compared to 3 which I already believed to be a bit of a step down from its predecessors.
Now... the game. The thing I immediately noticed and immediately hated was the automatic lock on. I didn't like the lock on in Pikmin 3, but at the very least it was never forced. Even if you were standing next to an enemy, you could throw Pikmin elsewhere. In 4, this isn't an option. It dumbs down the gameplay for sure, but it also has some severe downsides that genuinely hamper basic playability. Here's an example: I'm standing next to a treasure on a small islet, surrounded by water. I have ice pikmin in hand, I want to chuck them into the water so they freeze it. This isn't physically possible because, try as I might to create some distance between me and the treasure, I cannot aim them away from it. Small instances like this are some of the most infuriating control issues in the series. If you're fighting multiple enemies and you want to go for a specific one, you best hope that the target switch mechanic can read your mind! And if there's a treasure among the enemies? Good luck.
The controls are, to put it bluntly, awful. They simultaneously make the game easier and harder (but not in the good way). The smart stopping for tossing Pikmin (there's a delay after you throw the required number of Pikmin at an object) can be helpful, but I often found it to be hindrance. Why can't I turn these things off? Then there's leaf Pikmin vs flower Pikmin. From what I can tell, there's no way to manually select what maturity of Pikmin you want to throw. It's handy in that, if you throw them into a candypop bud, it'll always use leaf Pikmin. But, and I have no idea why this is the case, leaf Pikmin seem to be the default 90% of the time. Why would I want my leaf Pikmin to carry a treasure back? Why can't I select flower Pikmin? Let me turn this off. Let me turn all these "smart" features off. Let me control the game myself!!
Anyhoo.
Pikmin 4's structure is a familiar one, blatantly copying Pikmin 2's homework. I am fascinated by this decision, 2 always struck me as a black sheep, a formula that I loved but never expected to see again. The treasures are brilliant, I'm a little sad we can't have the branded treasures that grounded 2 in the real world, but that's mostly a non-issue due to how packed it is otherwise. The best ones are the music boxes, playing three iconic tracks from Nintendo's history, delighting me each time. Besides the treasures, you also have onions, flarlics, castaways and raw materials to gather. This gives each area a ton to find and I never felt an area was lacking nor did it ever drag on. The onions were particularly interesting as you initially only have access to 20 Pikmin on the field, which is a fantastic decision! It's satisfying to build up to 100 over a fairly long period rather than getting there in just a few in-game days. You're now also restricted to just 3 types of Pikmin on the field at a time, which I also feel was the right call. After all, every single Pikmin is in this game (except Bulbmin, my heart yearns for you) so it could be overwhelming to use them all simultaneously. My only gripe is that the areas are usually designed around those 3 types, and the game blatantly tells you which they are so there's no room for surveying the land to figure out what you might need, or even using alternative Pikmin types to accomplish tasks rather than what the game intends.
There are a few notable additions to Pikmin 2's structure which set this game apart. Instead of a world map, you have a hub where your crew and all the castaways gather. Many of them have side missions to complete which, if you're already looking to collect everything, you'll breeze through without issue. You can upgrade your equipment with materials and even train Oatchi, which I'll touch on later. It's pleasant having so much to do at home base, though part of me wishes we could have been more involved in the expansion, even if it was as simple as commanding a group of Pikmin to build some structures or something. From here, you also get access to night expeditions which left me underwhelmed. You use the new glow Pikmin to defend your base(s), but it's easy and a tad monotonous. It feels disconnected from the main game and never asks much of you, so we're still a ways off from having the a brutally difficult option to continue exploring during the night. They use these missions to reintroduce the Smoky Progg from Pikmin 1 and as much as I enjoy a little fanservice, it loses a ton of its mystique in this setting. A solid threat for a mode like this, but a meager shadow of its former self.
Lastly we have the Dandori Battles and Challenges. The challenges are ripped straight from Pikmin 3's mission mode, which was the best part of that game. To no surprise; they're great here too! Not quite as enjoyable due to lack of a third captain, but I was never disappointed to come across one. The battles are competitive collection jobs, the multiplayer of the game taken and moulded into singleplayer. They're not very good but largely inoffensive, which is what I would say if they didn't punctuate big story moments! In 3, these would be scored by impressive boss fights, the best in the series. Besides the final boss, 4 reverts back to 2's philosophy of quantity over quality. This was reasonable back then, but after seeing what was possible, their absence here was sorely missed. A mix of the two would have been perfect!
Most of the bosses this game does have are plucked directly from 2, in many cases to their detriment. When you have such an easy comparison point, it's poor showing when it's clear that what you've made is a blatantly pale imitation. The prime example for this is the Engulfed Castle and the Waterwraith. This iconic enemy is a terrifying threat in Pikmin 2's Submerged Castle, stalking you through this 5 sublevel nightmare. In 4, the music is the same, the aesthetic is the same, even some of the layouts are the same, but the kicker is that it's a total breeze. The Waterwraith showed up 2 times during the first 3 sublevels, once while I was leaving the first sublevel and again while I was transporting the final treasure on the second sublevel. Apparently I cleared the third so quickly that he decided not to appear. And sublevel 4 was the boss fight, which was identical to Pikmin 2. Pardon the pun, but why copy that game if you're just going to water down its toughest challenges? The cruelty of the Submerged Castle was what gave it so much charm! The answer is that they wanted to appeal new players with 'Pikmin's Greatest Hits' which is fine, but as a verteran I can't help but feel deflated by its new incarnation.
This is the case for many of Pikmin 2's bosses, though exact replicas of its caves are thankfully uncommon otherwise. 4 tends to shorter cave lengths, with much more forgiving design throughout. Alongside the rewind function (which, again, would be nice to disable), you're unlikely to have a situation where you don't have enough Pikmin to finish a cave. It's a stroll in the park, I'd always march around each sublevel with 100 Pikmin in tow instead of splitting them up, which I did constantly in previous games. This is partially due to the difficulty (lack of instakill threats), but also due to Oatchi, who we'll get to soon. I liked a lot of the new gimmicks, such as the conveyor belts from 3 and the fire you had to carry between torches, or whatever they're called. I'd like to see more of this, go all out with the weird stuff! 3 had plenty other great ideas to steal, like the 2D portions in Beastly Caverns or the oddly absent electricity conducting properties of the yellow Pikmin. Anything to set these caves apart from 2 would have been brilliant, because they were at their best when trying something new. Below Grade Discoteque is one of the most distinct dungeons in the game, concluding with one of my favourite fights in the series. It needs to be seen (and heard) to be believed.
So there's bits of 2 and 3 in this game, but what about 1? Pikmin 4 has you covered with Olimar's Shipwreck Tale, a miniature game within the game that sees you collecting 30 ship parts in just 15 days, mimicking what you did in the original Pikmin. It's great, there's little to say about it but the areas are remixed just enough, it's plenty nostalgic and as mentioned previously, the music is better than the main game! It's not that long but not too short either, just another layer on this gargantuan multi-layered birthday cake of a Pikmin game.
At last, I am ready to address the canine in the room: Oatchi. Every game prior to Pikmin 4 has increased the number of captains by one. 4 bucked this trend, which I think was probably the right thing to do. We've gone back to two, as much as I enjoyed how much you could micro-manage in 3, I believe it's best off a little simplified. You still have the 'go here' function, yet I rarely found myself using it. Perhaps that's partly due to the lack of a Wii U gamepad, but I think the more likely cause is Oatchi. He's very cute, but he fundamentally destroys Pikmin. While you do have to upgrade him to get there, Oatchi is both the ultimate captain AND the ultimate Pikmin. He lacks the ability to charge Pikmin forward but makes up for it with his own charge (which eventually stuns enemies) that flings all of his Pikmin onto whatever he headbutts, MELTING enemy health. He can also jump, swim, jump while swimming and do almost anything a Pikmin can, the major exception being that he can't be thrown. He's eventually immune to all elements and has a final carrying weight of 100, with the ability to swallow objects becoming one of the quickest ways to transport massive treasures.
These features alone would make Oatchi the ultimate companion character. Your create-a-character (I called him Bill) is outclassed in every way, with only a few areas off limits to the dog. However, there's one more aspect of Oatchi that tears apart the fabric of Pikmin: Oatchi can carry not only the captain, but the Pikmin too. This means both captains and the Pikmin can get up small ledges and cross any body of water all the while not being held up by their movement speed. Water rarely feels like an obstacle to Pikmin now, nor do other hazards such as poisonous or fiery floors. The biggest issue this creates, though, is that Pikmin is no longer messy. The Man-at-Legs is in this game with virtually no changes. The challenge of this fight came from deciding which Pikmin to bring into the fray; leaf Pikmin may not be able to make it to cover in time, therefore being risky prospects. So you'd position one captain in cover while the other took on the beast, potentially having to move cover if the beast got too close. In 4, the Man-at-Legs is a completely non-threat as even the slowest Pikmin hop onto Oatchi's back and can run circles around the helpless critter. There are countless instances of this as Pikmin scattering about in the prior games caused a majority deaths. You had to be patient, careful about your approaches, restrictive with the number of Pikmin you brought to a fight. Squeezing a full group of Pikmin under the Beady Long Legs' feet was nigh impossible - not anymore. Of all the criticisms I've leveraged against this game, this, alongside the controls, is the most damning and contributes to why I don't see myself replaying this one like I do the first two.
And yet, despite everything, I love this game. I know this is jarring, and I'm confused by it too. This game is the sum of its parts, and its parts are taken from 3 of my favourite games ever made. Even if each part is worse in this entry, it's Pikmin, and I fucking love Pikmin. Pikmin 4 was a joy from start to finish, I'm a fan and I was serviced! I may not replay this one, but I more fun with that single playthrough than I did playing 90% of the games on the system. I hope Pikmin can course correct somewhat for the fifth entry, yet despite the direction things are heading, I will be there, day 1, no matter what.
Some disjointed final thoughts I forgot to include above (I promise my reviews aren't usually like this):
-The Piklopedia is great here, though I wish they'd brought back the music too. Writing for both it and the treasure catalogue is fab. Character writing is decent, though the story has far too much dialogue in the beginning.
-Why is there no jingle when I reach the final sublevel? And why put Pikmin 2's boss theme in this game if you're going cut out the best part of the song?
-Glow Pikmin are very cute. Ice Pikmin are a strong addition but similarly to rock Pikmin, they don't look like what I think a Pikmin should look like.
-I enjoyed the final boss, but it felt like a Mario boss more than a Pikmin boss.
-Enemy variety is amazing, I love the Miniature Snootwhacker and want to be friends with him.
-Seriously, why no Bulbmin?
I just can't do it! I give Dragon Quest games so many chances, I really don't want to dislike them but this experience was so dull.
For context, I just added Torneko to the main party and was going to find Alena next. Battles in this game are really nice looking, though besides that it's typical Dragon Quest affair. It's a shame that these games all look identical, with this game in particular really lacking its own identity to me.
I don't like the combat here, there's little customization and despite some characters having spells, they all blend together for the most part. It's real boring, but I'd be willing to trudge through it for a good story... which just isn't there. The main hook is that you play through each character's story before they join the protagonist. This is neat, but the chapters are largely a bit dull. This isn't helped by the fact that the main character of each chapter doesn't speak during said chapter, making them feel like cardboard.
This could be worse if we were missing out on good dialogue but we're not! The writing in this game is so trite and frustratingly quriky. You have a generic plot about the chosen one and the dark lord's reawakening while everyone talks like cariactures of different cultures and personalities. No-one in this world feels like a real person, they're all vessels for jokes that rarely hit the mark. People commend this game for just how much writing there is due to the party chat, but if absolutely none of it moves me, then why should I care?
I want Dragon Quest to be for me; I love IX and Monsters Joker 2 for their customization and deeper battle systems, but I'm yet to find another entry in the series that clicks with me the same way.
For context, I just added Torneko to the main party and was going to find Alena next. Battles in this game are really nice looking, though besides that it's typical Dragon Quest affair. It's a shame that these games all look identical, with this game in particular really lacking its own identity to me.
I don't like the combat here, there's little customization and despite some characters having spells, they all blend together for the most part. It's real boring, but I'd be willing to trudge through it for a good story... which just isn't there. The main hook is that you play through each character's story before they join the protagonist. This is neat, but the chapters are largely a bit dull. This isn't helped by the fact that the main character of each chapter doesn't speak during said chapter, making them feel like cardboard.
This could be worse if we were missing out on good dialogue but we're not! The writing in this game is so trite and frustratingly quriky. You have a generic plot about the chosen one and the dark lord's reawakening while everyone talks like cariactures of different cultures and personalities. No-one in this world feels like a real person, they're all vessels for jokes that rarely hit the mark. People commend this game for just how much writing there is due to the party chat, but if absolutely none of it moves me, then why should I care?
I want Dragon Quest to be for me; I love IX and Monsters Joker 2 for their customization and deeper battle systems, but I'm yet to find another entry in the series that clicks with me the same way.
2005
There isn't a lot to this game. It's an interesting precursor to the far more stylized Hotel Dusk, but on its own it's a nice story with a middling selection of puzzles and generally mundane exploration.
To give the game some credit, I did enjoy the story. While it was predictable and none of the characters stood out as ones I loved, there were some great ideas, I was generally engaged for the whole (admittedly short) playtime and, ultimately, the emotional core tugged at my heartstrings and I felt myself welling up just a tad towards the end. It's close to something excellent but falls short, being a solid effort which I can't take much fault with.
The puzzles, though, vary in quality massively. There are some unique uses of the DS's features that, disappointingly, I couldn't make the most of because I emulated this one. Notably, closing the system partially and using the reflection of the screens to find a puzzle solution is one of the most genius uses of the dual screen gimmick I've seen. Unfortunately, the actual difficulty of the puzzles was low, with solutions coming to me almost instantly. This was made worse by often not knowing HOW to input my solution. You will have to investigate certain objects multiple times, or after interacting with other things, in order to progress sometimes. It was incredibly frustrating when I knew that an object would be important yet Ashley would refuse to grab it until I'd done something else. There's one instance where you're supposed to remember a small object TWO CHAPTERS back and, after you need it, return to that location to snag it. Irritations are usually small but common and while I can't say I hated any of the game's puzzles, I scarcely enjoyed them.
And, all in all, this game is just good. The gameplay doesn't hold the story back but the story doesn't strive for too much and that's okay. I'm keen to get through the rest of CiNG's library (a shame they went defunct), especially to see how the sequel to this game shook things up.
To give the game some credit, I did enjoy the story. While it was predictable and none of the characters stood out as ones I loved, there were some great ideas, I was generally engaged for the whole (admittedly short) playtime and, ultimately, the emotional core tugged at my heartstrings and I felt myself welling up just a tad towards the end. It's close to something excellent but falls short, being a solid effort which I can't take much fault with.
The puzzles, though, vary in quality massively. There are some unique uses of the DS's features that, disappointingly, I couldn't make the most of because I emulated this one. Notably, closing the system partially and using the reflection of the screens to find a puzzle solution is one of the most genius uses of the dual screen gimmick I've seen. Unfortunately, the actual difficulty of the puzzles was low, with solutions coming to me almost instantly. This was made worse by often not knowing HOW to input my solution. You will have to investigate certain objects multiple times, or after interacting with other things, in order to progress sometimes. It was incredibly frustrating when I knew that an object would be important yet Ashley would refuse to grab it until I'd done something else. There's one instance where you're supposed to remember a small object TWO CHAPTERS back and, after you need it, return to that location to snag it. Irritations are usually small but common and while I can't say I hated any of the game's puzzles, I scarcely enjoyed them.
And, all in all, this game is just good. The gameplay doesn't hold the story back but the story doesn't strive for too much and that's okay. I'm keen to get through the rest of CiNG's library (a shame they went defunct), especially to see how the sequel to this game shook things up.
As it turns out, I don't think I like pinball. The Metroid aesthetices do somewhat alleviate this issue, but it's then compounded again by the game's setup. Instead of individual levels with their own challenges to clear, you have a gauntlet of levels where you collect artifacts by defeating enemies and bosses. It takes ages to do this. When you've got them all, you have a gruelling Ridley fight followed by a tough but a little more enjoyable battle with Metroid Prime.
When I finally reached Ridley and saw how unforgiving the fight was, I resorted to save states just so I could see the end of this one. I finally got to the perfect run after too many tries to count and I wasn't going to let go of it so close to the finish line. Each loss soured me more, I scarcely felt it was my fault when I lost and while I'm sure I'm not very good at pinball, I can't imagine that was all it was. The music and visuals kept me playing, but I don't see myself revisiting this entry of the series ever again.
When I finally reached Ridley and saw how unforgiving the fight was, I resorted to save states just so I could see the end of this one. I finally got to the perfect run after too many tries to count and I wasn't going to let go of it so close to the finish line. Each loss soured me more, I scarcely felt it was my fault when I lost and while I'm sure I'm not very good at pinball, I can't imagine that was all it was. The music and visuals kept me playing, but I don't see myself revisiting this entry of the series ever again.
2023
Pizza Tower is like if you were served a Michelin star level meal in a McDonalds.
From the first glance, this game stands out. It's aesthetic is clearly inspired by the likes of Cow and Chicken, but unlike its inspirations, the game never relies on crude or vulgar imagery to make you laugh. It's hilarious in its use of slapstick, the expressions on every character and enemy being a delight to behold. One of the highlights of each level is seeing the title card and how the HUD changes when Peppino gets a new powerup.
The movement in Pizza Tower is sloppy, greasy, yet incredibly precise. Everything flows effortlessly and due to how fun it feels to string together actions, it's almost like the game is begging you to achieve its coveted P Ranks. These are awarded to you for completing a level without dropping a combo, finding every secret and doing a second lap all during a single run. These feel absolutely incredible, often brutally hard but never unfair. The combo system is just lenient enough that you mess up several times and still come out on top if you can make quick recoveries. It rewards you for building speed as demolish most enemies in your path and honestly feels like the best 2D Sonic game in that regard.
And the levels themselves, wow. Each one is distinctively themed which is exciting on its own, but the theming is compounded by every level having a large of array of unique gimmicks and enemies. Almost every level features its own temporary powerup and some levels even have unique objectives to complete, like Golf and WAR. It's hard to give enough credit to the game in this regard, every single level is a delectable banquet of ideas from start to finish and I'm bewildered by the sheer volume of mechanics the developer was able to come up with. And the music in each one is fantastic, with some having multiple tracks (as well as distinct tracks for their secret rooms) which not only compliment the level's style and feel, but are usually bangers in their own right.
The only relative low point of this game are its bosses. While they could be the highlight of a lesser platformer, here they contrast against the brilliance of the regular levels and just come off a little flat. They're all quite fun but I've seen much better, I only bring it up as it's my only gripe with the game (and I'm saying this about an aspect I still enjoy to some degree).
It's rare that I play a game I've been hearing so much positive buzz about that lives up to the monumental amount of hype that's been heaped onto it, but Pizza Tower blows past those expectations and ends up as one of, if not THE greatest platformer(s) ever made.
From the first glance, this game stands out. It's aesthetic is clearly inspired by the likes of Cow and Chicken, but unlike its inspirations, the game never relies on crude or vulgar imagery to make you laugh. It's hilarious in its use of slapstick, the expressions on every character and enemy being a delight to behold. One of the highlights of each level is seeing the title card and how the HUD changes when Peppino gets a new powerup.
The movement in Pizza Tower is sloppy, greasy, yet incredibly precise. Everything flows effortlessly and due to how fun it feels to string together actions, it's almost like the game is begging you to achieve its coveted P Ranks. These are awarded to you for completing a level without dropping a combo, finding every secret and doing a second lap all during a single run. These feel absolutely incredible, often brutally hard but never unfair. The combo system is just lenient enough that you mess up several times and still come out on top if you can make quick recoveries. It rewards you for building speed as demolish most enemies in your path and honestly feels like the best 2D Sonic game in that regard.
And the levels themselves, wow. Each one is distinctively themed which is exciting on its own, but the theming is compounded by every level having a large of array of unique gimmicks and enemies. Almost every level features its own temporary powerup and some levels even have unique objectives to complete, like Golf and WAR. It's hard to give enough credit to the game in this regard, every single level is a delectable banquet of ideas from start to finish and I'm bewildered by the sheer volume of mechanics the developer was able to come up with. And the music in each one is fantastic, with some having multiple tracks (as well as distinct tracks for their secret rooms) which not only compliment the level's style and feel, but are usually bangers in their own right.
The only relative low point of this game are its bosses. While they could be the highlight of a lesser platformer, here they contrast against the brilliance of the regular levels and just come off a little flat. They're all quite fun but I've seen much better, I only bring it up as it's my only gripe with the game (and I'm saying this about an aspect I still enjoy to some degree).
It's rare that I play a game I've been hearing so much positive buzz about that lives up to the monumental amount of hype that's been heaped onto it, but Pizza Tower blows past those expectations and ends up as one of, if not THE greatest platformer(s) ever made.
1998
This was a fine enough game, I briefly player Wario Land 1 and didn't gel with it so I was pleased that this was a little different.
This game's strengths are in its distancing from the Mario games. Not every level is a standard "get to the end" adventure; you often have a specific objective to complete, even if oftentimes you're still just getting to the end.
The context behind levels is cute, you're turning off a leaky faucet, returning a chicken to its coup or stopping a moving train. Levels are generally quite diverse too, bouncing around between unique locales sometimes on a level to level basis.
At the end of the day though, this game suffers from being so old. Wario does not control all that well and there's some janky difficulty from time to time. It's fun for a little but can get old, which is why I'd had enough after a single playthrough, not bothering with the additional content and endings à la NieR:Automata.
This game's strengths are in its distancing from the Mario games. Not every level is a standard "get to the end" adventure; you often have a specific objective to complete, even if oftentimes you're still just getting to the end.
The context behind levels is cute, you're turning off a leaky faucet, returning a chicken to its coup or stopping a moving train. Levels are generally quite diverse too, bouncing around between unique locales sometimes on a level to level basis.
At the end of the day though, this game suffers from being so old. Wario does not control all that well and there's some janky difficulty from time to time. It's fun for a little but can get old, which is why I'd had enough after a single playthrough, not bothering with the additional content and endings à la NieR:Automata.
2022
This review contains spoilers
My immediate response to the ending of Iron Lung was disappointment. Some of that still lingers, was a fish-mouth jumpscare really the best that could be mustered?
Yet, at the same time, it fits in perfectly with the game's story and themes. You have been put in this iron lung without too much hope of survival. You are seen by the scientists who put you there as "scum", meaningless. The way your life is ripped away so suddenly speaks to the miniscule meaning it had in the first place. I'm still not totally sold on it, but with more reflection and reading through the terminal entries, it does add up.
I speak about the ending because before that, it's just a lot of build up. I love the way you navigate the world, being able to interact with the ship so tangibly lends to the immersion. And, speaking of, this game is harrowing. The lonely silence makes every creak, every noise from outside, every single sound terrifying. It's an uncomfortable concept, being stuck under the ocean on a ship so tiny, especially with such a limited view of what's around you. Your mind has to fill in the blanks, and my mind at least painted an ugly picture.
Despite how stressful this was, I loved it. The sea is beautiful, yet horrifying. Subnautica is an example of something that balances these two aspects well, with the moments where you sink into the depths being scarier than a lot of horror games. Iron Lung drills in on that aspect, crafting a suspenseful, short story that doesn't risk stretching its gameplay too thin. I hated playing it, but love reflecting on it; it's a brutal beauty.
Yet, at the same time, it fits in perfectly with the game's story and themes. You have been put in this iron lung without too much hope of survival. You are seen by the scientists who put you there as "scum", meaningless. The way your life is ripped away so suddenly speaks to the miniscule meaning it had in the first place. I'm still not totally sold on it, but with more reflection and reading through the terminal entries, it does add up.
I speak about the ending because before that, it's just a lot of build up. I love the way you navigate the world, being able to interact with the ship so tangibly lends to the immersion. And, speaking of, this game is harrowing. The lonely silence makes every creak, every noise from outside, every single sound terrifying. It's an uncomfortable concept, being stuck under the ocean on a ship so tiny, especially with such a limited view of what's around you. Your mind has to fill in the blanks, and my mind at least painted an ugly picture.
Despite how stressful this was, I loved it. The sea is beautiful, yet horrifying. Subnautica is an example of something that balances these two aspects well, with the moments where you sink into the depths being scarier than a lot of horror games. Iron Lung drills in on that aspect, crafting a suspenseful, short story that doesn't risk stretching its gameplay too thin. I hated playing it, but love reflecting on it; it's a brutal beauty.
2020
Elephantasy is brimming with charm yet lacking in substance. That isn't necessarily an issue, but I figured I should set some expectations for anyone interested in the game.
The core gameplay loop is a mix of Metroidvania and A Link Between World's rental system, where you use items to advance past certain obstacles on the map, but you must choose which items to take with you at a time. Find gems around the surprisingly wide world and upgrade your carry capacity until you can finally carry each item once.
There's a little synergy between items (namely between the ring and others), but it doesn't go far enough to create anything with a great amount of mechanical depth. It's just quaint, a pretty little game that won't challenge you too much or take too long. I liked it.
The core gameplay loop is a mix of Metroidvania and A Link Between World's rental system, where you use items to advance past certain obstacles on the map, but you must choose which items to take with you at a time. Find gems around the surprisingly wide world and upgrade your carry capacity until you can finally carry each item once.
There's a little synergy between items (namely between the ring and others), but it doesn't go far enough to create anything with a great amount of mechanical depth. It's just quaint, a pretty little game that won't challenge you too much or take too long. I liked it.
I can't tell you why I finished this game. Well, I can, it's called the sunken cost fallacy. I also can't really tell you why I didn't rate it any lower. Perhaps the platforming was actually redeeming?
To start there, I'd say the platforming challenges in this one are largely an improvement on its predecessor. More unique gimmicks across the world, better feeling movement and the little additions such as the banners you can careen down were a good touch. Unfortunately, that's where the praise ends.
This game's story is a huge step down from Sands of Time, which wasn't very good in the first place. The prince in the last game is quippy, pompous, a little arrogant but largely well-meaning. He has some growth and some funny lines sprinkled in. The prince in this game is someone completely different, dark and brooding, a man of few jokes and a shell of his former self. The story is edgier now, the female characters are sexier, the music is more metal. It's an embarrassing game to play in 2023 and while it is very much a product of its time, god did this make me cringe.
Anyway, the world in this is fine but they decided to remove the linearity of the last game and instead make you traverse each area multiple times. It's pretty confusing figuring out where to go because the map does fuck all to help. I didn't end up getting the true ending because it required a lot of backtracking and I had no interest in playing this game for any longer.
The final point is the combat, which was... improved? It feels a little better to hit things, and there's inarguably more depth to it than Sands of Time... but I think that might make it worse. There's even more fighting in this one, with multiple boss fights throughout the game and most importantly, it's a lot harder. Now, admittedly, I don't remember if there was a difficulty select, and I'm prone to picking the hardest option, but this game was absolutely infuriating. So many roadblocks, none of the fights engaging in a fun way. It was such a slog.
But it's done. Complete. Finished. Good night,sweet sour prince.
To start there, I'd say the platforming challenges in this one are largely an improvement on its predecessor. More unique gimmicks across the world, better feeling movement and the little additions such as the banners you can careen down were a good touch. Unfortunately, that's where the praise ends.
This game's story is a huge step down from Sands of Time, which wasn't very good in the first place. The prince in the last game is quippy, pompous, a little arrogant but largely well-meaning. He has some growth and some funny lines sprinkled in. The prince in this game is someone completely different, dark and brooding, a man of few jokes and a shell of his former self. The story is edgier now, the female characters are sexier, the music is more metal. It's an embarrassing game to play in 2023 and while it is very much a product of its time, god did this make me cringe.
Anyway, the world in this is fine but they decided to remove the linearity of the last game and instead make you traverse each area multiple times. It's pretty confusing figuring out where to go because the map does fuck all to help. I didn't end up getting the true ending because it required a lot of backtracking and I had no interest in playing this game for any longer.
The final point is the combat, which was... improved? It feels a little better to hit things, and there's inarguably more depth to it than Sands of Time... but I think that might make it worse. There's even more fighting in this one, with multiple boss fights throughout the game and most importantly, it's a lot harder. Now, admittedly, I don't remember if there was a difficulty select, and I'm prone to picking the hardest option, but this game was absolutely infuriating. So many roadblocks, none of the fights engaging in a fun way. It was such a slog.
But it's done. Complete. Finished. Good night,
To quickly get the port discussion out of the way, the audio mixing on the Steam version is terrible, but I actually enjoyed some of the dialogue from the prince in this one.
The game itself is... fine. It's just fine. It's good, probably. The platforming was fun enough and never really got boring, though it also wasn't anything too special either. But this game has a horrible, horrible flaw and that's the combat. It's dreadful, I don't care much to describe how it works because you need only watch some footage or play the game to understand how mind-numbing it is. I probably wouldn't hate the combat if it was used sparingly, but Ubisoft just had artificially extend the game's length so people couldn't beat it too quickly. Almost every fucking platforming challenge is punctuated by a combat room. Multiple enemies, usually spawning over and over, it was so so so tedious!
The game has a charm to it, though. It's quaint and largely inoffensive, something a compliment I can't offer to its sequel. I can only hope the remake addresses some of its shortcomings, though I'm starting to doubt we'll ever even see it.
The game itself is... fine. It's just fine. It's good, probably. The platforming was fun enough and never really got boring, though it also wasn't anything too special either. But this game has a horrible, horrible flaw and that's the combat. It's dreadful, I don't care much to describe how it works because you need only watch some footage or play the game to understand how mind-numbing it is. I probably wouldn't hate the combat if it was used sparingly, but Ubisoft just had artificially extend the game's length so people couldn't beat it too quickly. Almost every fucking platforming challenge is punctuated by a combat room. Multiple enemies, usually spawning over and over, it was so so so tedious!
The game has a charm to it, though. It's quaint and largely inoffensive, something a compliment I can't offer to its sequel. I can only hope the remake addresses some of its shortcomings, though I'm starting to doubt we'll ever even see it.
2023
As a port, this really is just Pikmin. No bells and whistles, it's Pikmin as you knew it on the Gamec- er, Wii, I suppose.
With that said, I love Pikmin! Replaying this game isn't as exciting as its sequels; the game just isn't as fun, quality of life is at an all time low and there's not much to do once you've done it before. However, the world is one I never get tired of, from the relative optimism of the Forest of Hope to the gritty and bleak Forest Navel. Weirdly enough, the nicer models and widescreen actually clean up the latter area to an extent that takes away some of the charm, though not enough to knock the port too harshly for it.
I love this game, always will. Namely for the memories. The unique ending you get when you fail to repair Olimar's ship in 30 days haunted me as a child, as did the enigmatic, seemingly unkillable Smoky Progg and darkest reaches of the Forest Navel. Those memories make this game a nostalgic trip to revisit, and I'm frankly ecstatic that others may be able to discover this game's weirdness for the first time. There's an undeniable, peculiar quality that I can't quite describe that was lost after this game, something that made it truly special.
With that said, I love Pikmin! Replaying this game isn't as exciting as its sequels; the game just isn't as fun, quality of life is at an all time low and there's not much to do once you've done it before. However, the world is one I never get tired of, from the relative optimism of the Forest of Hope to the gritty and bleak Forest Navel. Weirdly enough, the nicer models and widescreen actually clean up the latter area to an extent that takes away some of the charm, though not enough to knock the port too harshly for it.
I love this game, always will. Namely for the memories. The unique ending you get when you fail to repair Olimar's ship in 30 days haunted me as a child, as did the enigmatic, seemingly unkillable Smoky Progg and darkest reaches of the Forest Navel. Those memories make this game a nostalgic trip to revisit, and I'm frankly ecstatic that others may be able to discover this game's weirdness for the first time. There's an undeniable, peculiar quality that I can't quite describe that was lost after this game, something that made it truly special.
To preface this, I wasn't Breath of the Wild's biggest fan, nor am I generally a fan of open world games. The original felt like the best game ever for hours, and in an instant stopped being enjoyable altogether. Sadly, the same is largely true for Tears of the Kingdom.
The new suite of tools is bizarrely wonderful. The things you can accomplish with every power is unfathomable, but the novelty does die off. What you're left with, then, is abilities that ask you for a lot of time investment just to keep up with what the game throws at you. I loved fusing weapons at the beginning, but by the end I was tired of the tedium, defaulting to my master sword as much as possible to avoid having to shuffle through the abhorrent menus (seriously, a scroll bar for arrowheads when I have 100s of items in my inventory?). Fuse was similar, fun to experiment with at first but once you understand the play space, the process of building became tiring. Ascend and Recall were both delightful throughout though, much less upkeep while still allowing for a fantastic level of dynamism in play.
The issue with open worlds, especially this one and Elden Ring, is that the highly curated content is usually the highlight of my playthrough, leading me to wonder - why couldn't the whole game consist of that? Remove the 60 hours of filler; spelunking in what could be randomly generated caves, walking endlessly through the barren depths, handling boring busy work for Hyrule's citizens.
The dungeons this time around were a marked improvement from Breath of the Wild. The theming was actually existent and while they all still fell into the same trappings of 'fulfil 4 objectives in any order to open up the boss', the settings for those were more exciting than the dull interiors of the divine beasts (barring the water temple, which was bad). Unfortunately, they're unlikely to stick with me the same way old Zelda dungeons do. The puzzles don't interlink the way they do in past games and there aren't enough unique elements for each to make them distinct. I miss mini-bosses like Twilight Princess's Ook, I miss each dungeon having its own set of enemies and mechanics, I miss the crazy environments of the Sandship and Snowpeak Ruins. The fact that puzzles are so fluid means you can solve these dungeons any way you want, which on paper sounds fun. But much like a choose-your-own-adventure book, the freshness of this wears off and I'm left desiring puzzles that force me to think them through rather than giving up on the 'intended' solution and brute forcing it. I'm rarely left feeling smart; I just feel like I've robbed myself of a new experience. To end this note on the dungeons, the bosses are fab, mostly. I won't go into too much detail but the spectacle of them matches and exceeds that of previous titles and the puzzle solving elements are integrated better. They still suffer from how broad your options are in certain cases, but on the whole I was incredibly impressed, especially coming off of Breath of the Wild's shoddy showing.
To conclude, I just want old Zelda back. Not because I don't think the series should change, but because I simply do not like this direction. Open world games rarely win me over and again I'm left wanting a shorter game with less to do that's more deliberate in what it's offering. We might never get that again and it makes me incredibly sad. Game's fun, though.
The new suite of tools is bizarrely wonderful. The things you can accomplish with every power is unfathomable, but the novelty does die off. What you're left with, then, is abilities that ask you for a lot of time investment just to keep up with what the game throws at you. I loved fusing weapons at the beginning, but by the end I was tired of the tedium, defaulting to my master sword as much as possible to avoid having to shuffle through the abhorrent menus (seriously, a scroll bar for arrowheads when I have 100s of items in my inventory?). Fuse was similar, fun to experiment with at first but once you understand the play space, the process of building became tiring. Ascend and Recall were both delightful throughout though, much less upkeep while still allowing for a fantastic level of dynamism in play.
The issue with open worlds, especially this one and Elden Ring, is that the highly curated content is usually the highlight of my playthrough, leading me to wonder - why couldn't the whole game consist of that? Remove the 60 hours of filler; spelunking in what could be randomly generated caves, walking endlessly through the barren depths, handling boring busy work for Hyrule's citizens.
The dungeons this time around were a marked improvement from Breath of the Wild. The theming was actually existent and while they all still fell into the same trappings of 'fulfil 4 objectives in any order to open up the boss', the settings for those were more exciting than the dull interiors of the divine beasts (barring the water temple, which was bad). Unfortunately, they're unlikely to stick with me the same way old Zelda dungeons do. The puzzles don't interlink the way they do in past games and there aren't enough unique elements for each to make them distinct. I miss mini-bosses like Twilight Princess's Ook, I miss each dungeon having its own set of enemies and mechanics, I miss the crazy environments of the Sandship and Snowpeak Ruins. The fact that puzzles are so fluid means you can solve these dungeons any way you want, which on paper sounds fun. But much like a choose-your-own-adventure book, the freshness of this wears off and I'm left desiring puzzles that force me to think them through rather than giving up on the 'intended' solution and brute forcing it. I'm rarely left feeling smart; I just feel like I've robbed myself of a new experience. To end this note on the dungeons, the bosses are fab, mostly. I won't go into too much detail but the spectacle of them matches and exceeds that of previous titles and the puzzle solving elements are integrated better. They still suffer from how broad your options are in certain cases, but on the whole I was incredibly impressed, especially coming off of Breath of the Wild's shoddy showing.
To conclude, I just want old Zelda back. Not because I don't think the series should change, but because I simply do not like this direction. Open world games rarely win me over and again I'm left wanting a shorter game with less to do that's more deliberate in what it's offering. We might never get that again and it makes me incredibly sad. Game's fun, though.
I quite liked this, but there's a ton holding it back from being great. I played on hard with level resets enabled, for reference.
The game has a quaint, simple aesthetic, but the action all has some heft to it with some cute action. It's satisfying to watch the little guys go at it in the same way you'd enjoy Totally Accurate Battle Simulator.
The structure works well enough, it was obviously intended to be replayable, though I felt no desire to do so. Each scenario felt like it went too far in one direction; either it was a walk in the park or a waking nightmare. Where the game excelled is in the micro adjustments you can make to your plan when re-doing the levels. The final level was crushing me, to the point I was about to give up. But, I made some slightly different decisions and suddenly I was trouncing the enemy. It was intense and the most fun I had with the game.
The game's simplicity is its downfall. It feels difficult to carve out meaningful strategies as the play space is so limited. There's little room for creativity so I imagine you'd need clairvoyancy in order to beat the game on harder difficulties without resets.
I had a good time with frustrations aplenty, was happy to be finished with this one.
The game has a quaint, simple aesthetic, but the action all has some heft to it with some cute action. It's satisfying to watch the little guys go at it in the same way you'd enjoy Totally Accurate Battle Simulator.
The structure works well enough, it was obviously intended to be replayable, though I felt no desire to do so. Each scenario felt like it went too far in one direction; either it was a walk in the park or a waking nightmare. Where the game excelled is in the micro adjustments you can make to your plan when re-doing the levels. The final level was crushing me, to the point I was about to give up. But, I made some slightly different decisions and suddenly I was trouncing the enemy. It was intense and the most fun I had with the game.
The game's simplicity is its downfall. It feels difficult to carve out meaningful strategies as the play space is so limited. There's little room for creativity so I imagine you'd need clairvoyancy in order to beat the game on harder difficulties without resets.
I had a good time with frustrations aplenty, was happy to be finished with this one.
2019
I made a video about this one!