By god, NDCube might finally get it.

...now by "finally get it" I mean "not get it so badly and for so long that you realize the only way to get back on track is by just practically 1 to 1 remaking and remixing things that people actually liked wholesale and even then managing to screw up some of the finer details" but hey it's a real strong start to maybe getting some good original content in the next game at least.

I'm kidding around but really, this is pretty good! The minigames that have been brought back here have all made the jump pretty seamlessly and I think they chose a great list of games to return, with a good balance of free for all, team, and 1 v 3. One or two minigames seem to have been balanced incredibly weirdly even though they were fine in the originals, such as Hammer Drop, which gives out way, waaaay too many coins now, but they are exceptions. The boards themselves are also mostly great. They definitely could have used one more board though (one more from Mario Party 3 would make for 2 returning boards from each of the original 3, which would make sense) and I also question that of the returning boards the only one they took from 3 is Woody Woods, which on top of having a horribly uninspired name is also one of the worst boards from 3??? Regardless, the other returning boards are all great. The only downside is that I think the item shop items are a bit too cheap. This is something they've adjusted from the original games where items were significantly more expensive to encourage more item use, and while I like that idea on paper I think they overcorrected a bit too much to where now it feels like a no brainer to buy an item every single time you go past the shop.

But these are all pretty minor nitpicks when it comes to how badly they've bungled this series in the past, and by far the biggest two things they get right here are the only two things that actually are new: Online and quality of life features. You mileage may vary but I've played the main board game mode exclusively online and it ran pretty much flawlessly. It's one of very few times I think Nintendo has actually ever nailed online play, and it's just something the series so obviously needed that it's great to have it here. They've also managed to improve the pacing of the overall experience significantly, cutting down on slow explanations or animations and just letting you get straight to the game which for a party game is essential, and is one of the reasons why despite being a step in the right direction Super Mario Party was still a much weaker entry for the series.

Now that they've finally managed to make a good one of these the next step for NDCube will be to see if they can actually design some original boards that are even remotely good for whatever the next game ends up being. It's been about 10 years since they've taken over this series and they haven't managed it yet, but here's hoping!

First time playing this game and while you can tell that the combat is compromised from the original DS version, what they cooked up here manages to mostly capture that same spirit and ended up really clicking for me in its own way once I got the right pin loadouts going. But the real standouts are of course the aesthetics and the story.

Love the character designs and especially the music. While sometimes hearing the same vocal themes over and over can be a bit grating, I appreciate that they seemingly understood this and didn't stick to one set theme for any area of Shibuya or every single regular battle as most JRPGs would. Instead, the entire soundtrack (outside of boss fights, which fittingly have their own unique tracks) feels like it could pop up anywhere at any time, like you put a favorite album on shuffle. I also really appreciate how much the game remixes its own vocal tracks, again often for boss fights or for special in game days, which makes them that much more impactful in the same way a reprise in a musical can be.

The story also worked surprisingly well for me. Somewhat typical shonen fare especially at first - which may be a sticking point for some but which I love when executed well, and this is! Characters have lots of personality, big goals, go through major arcs that give them new outlooks on life, all the good stuff right there. The plot knows exactly how to create stakes and pull the rug out from the main cast at the most cruel times which feels genuinely impactful. One minor complaint is that the cutscenes are clearly extremely limited by budget, and while I think they did a great job with what they had you can feel that the ambitions of the story they wanted to tell could have been enhanced by improvements to the presentation in this aspect. Even with the changes to the controls in Final Remix making things feel frustrating in the early game, I'd still recommend this to just about anyone.

On a moment to moment level I probably enjoyed this more than any Sonic game I've ever played and yet at the same time it kind of goes in one ear and out the other. Already nothing about it really sticks with me and I literally just beat it 5 minutes ago. So what I'm saying is as much as this is the better game that damn hedgehog still has something over on my buddy Ristar here in terms of sheer personality and cool factor, so it's easy to see why when deciding who would be the mascot of the Genesis they went for the blue blur. Still think it's worth checking out if you like 2D platformers!

Having only listened to In Rainbows and A Moon Shaped Pool, going into this with my friend who is a massive Radiohead fan was an absolute blast. Like having an expert tour guide who knew all of the history, but the museum was just renovated so they have no idea where anything is. Discovering it all, marveling at each of the little details, and then just basking in the showstopper visual moments that it manages to build together made for a truly magical night. Time to finally go and listen to these albums now

NEO TWEWY is, like it's predecessor, a game that is supremely confident in its own vision. For that alone I give it massive props. I don't have a whole lot to say about it in a formal review sense but this ended up being one of my favorites of the year. I do think its pacing is substantially worse than the original TWEWY, and this does hurt it quite a bit, but improvements in other areas such as the better presentation and in my opinion an even stronger cast of characters (I also think the combat, while still flawed, manages to carry over a lot of the original's strengths while bringing new ones of its own) make up for that. I will say that the soundtrack is absolutely killer as well but I do think the game being so much longer than the original stretches the songs that are there pretty thin and it does grate on you after a while. A situation where I think some more quantity would have really helped things in that regard.

Ultimately though this is just some real good shonen anime shit with actual stakes, themes that the story actually manages to maintain a strong focus on, and characters that I ended up being really attached to. Great game!