baby's (and my) first rpg. I bought this game on release day and I think I learned my lesson about doing that for games I'm not already familiar with. I took an extended break from the game and had to really push myself to keep playing it. I'm glad I stuck with it though, very charming game. If not a little on the easy side, especially with all the additions the remake made, the only time I felt really challenged was the final boss. I didn't go on to do the rematches though. The soundtrack goes hard - shout out "And My Name's Booster".

I revisited this beloved childhood game expecting it to not hold up at all today - having recently played through all of its predecessors which that was certainly true for.
Mario Kart DS is a complete masterpiece, everything about the game is near perfect. It still looks phenomenal on original hardware, the 3d character models are great, along with the bosses from the missions. The new tracks are mostly superb, with the obvious standouts that have returned in countless subsequent titles. The retro tracks do let the game down somewhat and I believe this to be its worst quality. A mix between technical limitations, and poor choice with the decision to include a gba and snes track in each retro cup. I revisited the mission mode and went on to get 3 stars on each mission, so much fun. I cannot believe they haven't brought back mission mode in any future games. If it weren't for most of the retros being sub-par this game would easily score a 10/10 from me.

Man.
I went into this game expecting to find it quite frustrating with it being old. I had played up to the first dungeon before on 3ds and was not captivated enough to keep going. I went in with a more open mind this time and boy was I stunned. I completely understand the people that say this is the best game ever made, I think it is vastly ahead of its time and playing through some other n64 games recently has reinforced that very strongly, the game is outstandingly strong across the board and holds up really quite well, even the original n64 version! Sure I got stuck on a few bits but I think I would have got by without help if I had bashed my head against the wall a bit longer, I think these occurrences are to be expected with games like these where a completely new concept is being born. This game is utterly fantastic, I think the rest of the Zeldas will struggle to live up to its standards as I play through them, though I hear Majora's Mask is pretty damn special so I look forward to that dearly.

Oh and I did 100% but cheated fishing, fuck fishing.