I've felt like I've been in the minority for a while, having loved this game since the WIIU days and not quite understanding the hate it would receive. Now, after finally getting the full 100% playthrough I've aimed for since the original release, I have a newfound appreciation for 3D World, as well as new acknowledgment of its short comings.

Like Mario Kart 8 and other incredibly polished WIIU games, 3D World ushered the 3D Mario series into a new era of polish, being the first HD supported console as well. While it lacks the charming and unique visual styles of previous entries, the upgraded particle/visual effects and clean textures makes it incredibly pleasing to the eye and clearly gave the groundwork to future titles like Odyssey. It's an incredibly vital part of 3D World's identity, and leans more into the controversial side of the argument.

It's undeniable at this point the similarities 3D World shares with the NSMB series, instead in the 3D genre. It's a relatively short and quick experience, that throws as much variety to you in as little time as possible, and never pushes the boundaries to a large degree. Despite the clear comparison in design, the same can't be said in quality. Where NSMB fails in providing a fresh and consistently engaging experience, 3D World never stops being fun. It's so confident in it's bright and bubbly nature, with such vibrant locations and snazzy scores, and never waivers. I loved the different ways it also allowed me to approach each level with the surprisingly unique character selection in favor of a less unique Mario moveset (Not to say it doesn't feel as tight and fun to control as ever; The dive mechanics and speed increase make it somehow even more perfect. I can't ever imagine playing this game again without them.) It really feels like the developers were allowed to have full creative reign with this game's design, and while it led to a less focused experience, it doesn't devalue just how fun of a game it can still be.

On the other hand, the similarities that run between 3D World and the new content expansion, Bowser's Fury, are almost nonexistent. If anything, it's proven to me that we have the most competent and promising 3D Mario team in the history of Nintendo. It's so chaotic in structure and level design; There are no limits in how you approach almost every task ahead of you. It's pure, adrenaline-filled, 3D collect-a-thon enjoyment, with one hell of a final act. It's hard to say whether or not it's better than the base experience, but it easily makes the port rebuy more than worth it.

I'm really happy with how the public perception of this game has changed. Odyssey has filled the need for a new Collect-a-thon 3D Mario game, so 3D World has more room to thrive as its own being. It doesn't push the boundaries of one of the most inventive franchises in gaming history, but it's a shining example of the quality we can still expect from Nintendo blockbusters today.

Now's your chance to be a [[BIG SHOT]]!

Really good and I'm very interested to see where this story goes, Berdley and Queen are hilarious and I really enjoyed this chapter!

Extremely excited for the full game for sure.

Games haven’t been that much fun for me lately. I often find myself bored out of my mind playing them and it has been like this for quite some time. There are exceptions to this, but very little, and I’ve felt this way since October when I finished God of War for the first time. I don’t know why I fell out of love with games but it did upset me for a bit. It upset me because I fell out of love with a medium that originally meant so much to me, but I think that might’ve changed. Playing Link Between Worlds, I had such a fantastic time, so fantastic that I actually have motivation to play more games. And if you’re close to me, you know that this is a pretty big deal.

Legend of Zelda: A Link Between worlds is a magnificent game that uses the medium to its full advantage. It is very similar to Hollow Knight where it tells such a beautiful story through atmosphere and exploration, and seeing everything it presents come together during the final boss (which is the best final boss in the series btw) was breathtaking. That whole scene with Hilda, which I’ll get to later, was beautiful and I’ve never felt this way about a Zelda story in my life until now. And this is complimented with the overall gameplay and structure which I will now get into and focus on very briefly, since the real meat of this game is within its story, which I’m saving for last.

At first sight ALBW seems like your typical Zelda game. You start it as a normal boy living a normal yet boring life, until you find yourself in the mist of a grand adventure that started by pure coincidence. You do some dungeons, get the master sword, do some other dungeons, and then you beat the game. It’s structure is actually very similar to OOT, where you get three items, get the master sword, then go after the Seven Sages. It sounds simplistic, yet it’s so damn good fun. I had a blast going through this world finding secrets and secret areas that I couldn’t get to yet, it felt like a true adventure. Going around the world multiple times, marking areas on my map for later, planning my routes and what order I’d do dungeons in, it’s all so fun. This is very similar to how I felt playing Hollow Knight, and I think playing that game made me enjoy the adventure aspect of certain games way more. The world in ALBW isn’t that big and there isn’t all that much variety, in the normal world that is. The big thing with this game is that there are two worlds to explore: Hyrule and Lorule. Hyrule is your stereotypical Zelda world; you have your normal grassy fields, water based areas, large mountains, giant maze like forests, and deserts, it’s nothing special but it still works. Then you have Lorule, which is where the meat of the game lies. You’ll spend a large chunk of the game here, only occasionally going to Hyrule to buy items and get to different areas in Lorule via portals that are scattered across the map due to how the world is formed. Lorule is a very disconnected place; there are large gaps in the earth, broken bridges, and large cliffs, making it harder to traverse around seeing how you need to move back and forth through dimensions in order to get around, but this is what makes Lorule so good. While the world doesn’t compare to Skyward Swords world or BOTWs, Lorule is still a very special and unique place. It’s this desolate wasteland overrun by monsters, and I think the disconnected nature of Lorule does a great job at representing this. It’s a great parallel to Hyrule, which is this happy bright place where people live their normal lives. Yet in Lorule, it’s all dead. The people are unfriendly because of the nature of this dark crumbling world being held up by the remaining hope they have, the areas are opposite as to what they are in Hyrule, and there are a large sum of monsters. Look at it this way: Hyrule is 80% light and 20% dark, while Lorule is 80% dark and 20% light, maybe less. It is the perfect parallel to Hyrule and the perfect depiction of a crumbling world that is slowly getting to the point where it’s beyond saving. I love it. I love lorule, I love the atmosphere, I love everything about it. It also gives us the best overworld theme in the series so extra points for that. A big component of traversal is the ability to become a painting, which allows you to walk inside of walls. It’s a very fun mechanic that is never overused and it really makes it feel like you’re apart of this world. To sum it all up for the world: Lorule is an impressive landscape that perfectly parallels that world of Hyrule, while also telling a story through its atmosphere and exploration. (I didn’t touch upon the dungeons or overall combat, but it’s fun and very consistent. Not much to talk about here)

Now, to get to the REAL review, the component of ALBW that made it an instant favorite and potential top 1. The story. I went into it a little bit before by showing my love for Lorule, which directly connects to the story. To summarize: ALBW tells its story through it’s world. While simplistic at first, it takes a turn that I really wasn’t expecting. It isn’t anything grand, it’s not Evangelion or Berserk, but it’s still something that I was able to love and appreciate. Let’s start from the beginning: You wake up to do your job as a blacksmiths apprentice, but you’re late. And because you’re late, you’re forced to take a sword to a knight that was forgotten at the blacksmiths place. You then find yourself in Hyrule Sanctuary, which is where you meet Yuga, the main antagonist of the game. And from here, you start your adventure. Your quest to defeat Yuga. You do three dungeons, with two giving you charms that allow you to unlock the master sword. Once you do so, you unlock Lorule after getting to where the story truly begins. You get to lorule castle, see Yuga revive the dark beast, then get introduced to Hilda. After the Seven Sages that were kidnapped are spread throughout the world you go around Lorule searching for them in order to receive the triforce of courage so you can defeat Yuga. Its your formulaic adventure story for the most part, but as stated before it is mainly focused on the decaying world of Lorule, which all comes together to deliver a powerful ending. After getting to the final boss it is revealed that Hilda (lorule equivalent of Zelda) was actually using you in order to get the triforce of courage, which would allow her to rebuild Lorule after falling apart due to her ancestors destroying Lorules triforce. This is where ALBW became a game that cherish greatly. Something that the Zelda series never does is give you a good understanding of the triforce and the reigns it has on the world. You know it can grant wishes and you know that it’s something everyone seeks after, but you never get to see the effects it truly has. ALBW does an incredible job at showing the greed that spawns from the triforce, the danger that it possesses, the grasp it has on the world, but also how it’s a symbol of light. And without light, you just have darkness, the darkness that has consumed Lorule, but also the darkness that is being held back by the hope of Hilda. And this is why I love the story of A Link Between Worlds. It tells a gripping and somewhat emotional story about light vs darkness, and everything that resides within both. It’s such a beautiful story that nearly made me tear up, especially near the end during Hilda’s development. Her character is built around the despair created by darkness, and how you need the small amounts of hope left in order to defeat it. And I really love stories about hope, so I really loved this game. A lot.

A Link Between Worlds is a beautiful journey of light and darkness, it is an adventure between two sides of the same coin that is complimented with fantastic gameplay and world building. Creating a magical journey that I will try to revisit every year.

10/10

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is such a fantastic game and I wish I realized it sooner, way sooner. Going into this game I was expecting about the same experience I had with the original on the Wii, which was very hit or miss to where it barely even scratched a 8. However, the remaster completely flipped my views on the game.

Now, after replaying the game with qol improvements, I can safely say that it is one of the best Zelda games I’ve ever played and my favorite game I’ve played this year so far. Had such an amazing time with this game compared to the original, and this is mainly due to the new controls. While motion controls are still around (and somehow worse), there’s a new option for button controls, which allow you to control your sword using the right stick. This is such game changer, one so big that I can confidentially say that SSHD has the best combat in the series (the button controls obviously). But it’s not just my thoughts on the controls that went up, but everything from the mechanics to bosses were way better for me. Pretty much everything is the exact same as it was in the og with minor improvements, yet I still had a way better time with it. The dungeons are fantastic, the most consistent in the series tied with TP. My personal favorites are Sandship, Ancient Cistern, and Sky Keep. These ones stand out to me for their unique designs, puzzle solving, and all around enjoyment. They aren’t the most complex dungeons in the series, but they serve their roles very well, even if they lack challenge compared to some other games. The mechanics, while heavily improved in botw (stamina, gliding, upgrading, etc) are still very fun in SS, and I had an especially great time looking for items to upgrade my wide arsenal of gear. Then you have the world, which is my favorite in any Zelda game. The world in SS is so well crafted, so gorgeous and full of life, and all of this is topped off by the excellent world building and lore that makes this feel like a genuine place that I can see existing (unrelated but One Piece basically made me appreciate this game more due to my new found appreciation for world building and design).

I basically talked about everything that stood out to me, so before I reach a conclusion I want to list smaller things that I still really loved alongside a few flaws. For starters, the story. While basic, it is still very charming and a great time, even if the pacing is a bit messy near the halfway point and end. It’s a story heavily focused on the world more than plot or characters, which is why I love it so much. Then you have bosses, which are among the best in the series. You still have your fair share of piss easy/forgettable bosses, but the ones that really stand out are absolutely breathtaking. The main ones I loved are Ghirahim, Demise, and Koloktos, which are all equally challenging and fun, topped off with fantastic designs and spectacle (primarily prevalent in Demise, which may be my new favorite Zelda final boss). Everything about this game was just fantastic pretty much lol.

Now for the end. I’ve been rambling on and on about the game so I’m just gonna end it here: Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is a phenomenal game from start to finish, and a gaming experience that I will never forget. There are some problems, but in the end the sheer amount of greatness in the game outweigh all of them. Such a magical game apart of a magical series that I adore with all my heart.

while having a decently fun story,characters with unique personalities and designs. and some pretty good combat

the game is easily bogged down by it's gacha mechanics and grindiness, if you want to play a specific character you'll have to either save months for primogems or spend hundreds of dollars and you aren't guaranteed unless you lose a 50/50 on the character banner before for event characters and despite even that part it's extremely grindy to get certain materials and things due to resin and weapons are also pretty much locked behind the gacha mechanic

it's sad because there's a lot of potential here that's just ruined by the predatory gacha system that can turn the game into a slog and kill your enjoyment of the game