The first level of this game is honestly fantastic. If you can get the game on sale for dirt cheap on whatever you majorly play your games on, I absolutely recommend it if you're a fan of the Pro Skater games. A bedroom transformed into a skate park for a bird on a teck deck is complete genius and I had so much fun.

Then the game goes into stage 2 and this is where I had to stop because wow does this game get WAY TOO hard to even keep going, not to mention, just loses a lot of charm because now we're just on a connection of buildings.

It's hard to even decide if Skatebird is a solid title or not, but since I had so much fun in the first stage I can't hate it

Obviously made in the era of Nintendo trying to capitalize on Tetris hoping to find another Dr. Mario in case they manage to find gold, and this one didn't.

If you've heard of the term, fun and addicting, well this game has plenty of fun but little addicting. As the gameplay takes on Tetris pretty well of stacking various Mario enemies on four plates.

My opinion is the way you wipe out the enemies by gaining points, turning the enemies into Yoshi eggs but putting two pieces together and then hatch into Yoshis. And the Yoshis vary in size based on enemy amount, and much like Tetris, you have that need to make the best combo that gives this game it's a fun drive.

But it's not an addicting drive, as you'll find yourself having the funnest 8 minutes of your life, but having no desire to continue for a good long while.

What I'm saying is that Yoshi is a fun game to come back to once in a while as a solid C tier falling puzzle game

As I grow older, Dr. Mario's faults as a game are only more apparent. The biggest flaw is unfortunately the delayed gameplay that constantly throws pills you don't need anymore in your direction, leaving to a lot of throwing pills around waiting for the one you need.

And yet granted there's still a sprinkle of fun here that has made it last as one of Nintendo's most unique titles. Like I like the idea of pill management, making sure you can clear enough to put more in and when you pull off a combo you didn't intend is one of the greatest feelings ever.

At best I can call Dr. Mario a time waster game, which might fit the same description as Tetris, but there still is a bigger sense of variety in what Tetris piece you might get over Dr. Mario's three colors. But time waster or not it can still offer a lot of fun especially with another player.

Also two of the best compositions written by legacy Nintendo composer Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka

I've always had a soft spot for Link's Awakening so what took me so long to play the pseudo sequels aka ROM hacks released 8 years later?

A good question, because everything I enjoy about Link's Awakening is here in Oracle of Ages, and in my opinion, does it even better, adding things like the races introduced in games like Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, such as the Gorons, the Ocean Zoras and those stray fairies, now here as just regular fairies.

I love this game's map feature that showcases every square and appears on the map if you been there, and all the fun new characters and set pieces to meet, like the Tokay race who all have this great sound effect when they talk, a village that changes after you save the day and of course the Maku Tree, a cute treegirl that leads Link on his journey. It's like if the Great Deku Tree didn't die 30 minutes into Ocarina of Time, I love that.

Also the Roc's Feather that makes you jump makes a return. Enough said.

On top of that, this game's big gimmick is a time traveling one, similar to Ocarina of Time, but more similar to A Link to the Past's Light and Dark World and I think this game trounces on both of them for the sole reason later on in the game you can get the ability to go forward or back in any area, not just with the warp tiles.

Dungeons are fun, bosses can be a joy and even the story's pretty solid...

And yet this game loses me a lot near the ending as there's just a lot of "like seriously?" moments in this game. Like in order to progress in the Gorom section of the game, you need to play a rhythm game. Yes a rhythm game on the Game Boy Color doesn't sound like fun at all and let me tell ya, it isn't.

Plus moments that feel like a wild guess for you to figure out, like knowing you need what you think is an optional potion that turns out to be a mandatory item to cure someone, that feels arbitrary like it's something straight out of the first Legend of Zelda, which gets some excuses based on the time it was released in, but here in 2001, it just can't be tolerated anymore.

Also Link can meet up with a few creatures that can lend him a hand at certain points of the game, and outside of one that you can call to have him basically be your Epona of the game, 2 out of the 3 of them show up for one point in the game and then disappear, which is weird considering how much promotion I remember these creatures getting when I read Nintendo Power as a kid.

And of course the worst part of this whole game, the Mermaid Suit. Now personally, any game that lets you become a mermaid is a pro in my book, but here it's just obnoxious.

Basically, it's a swimming suit that let's you swim anywhere as well as dive under the water. The major problem is actually controlling the thing, instead of just holding down the direction on the D-pad, you need to tap it constantly to keep Link moving and it gets so annoying to get in and out of the water figuring out why you aren't moving precisely in the heat of the moment.

And the final boss is just this huge gauntlet of three forms you need to beat on one life, and it's not that I have issue with fighting three forms in a row, it's just that they put all the health to replenish you, a long trek away from the final battle and it's like can't you just put all that stuff right there? It's so tedious...

Oracle of Ages is a game I enjoyed a lot more in the beginning than the ending, but hey, the beginning is still a lot of fun and great for any Zelda fans out there. It's about as great as a Game Boy Color Zelda game could get.

This is such a brilliant choice of design for a turn based RPG-Roguelike, but it's also games like this why I just don't care for roguelikes 80% of the time.

It's so addicting to see all these upgrades you get, yet so frustrating to see it all go down the drain because the RNG hates you, but again that's just the appeal of this genre in a nutshell so it might scratch that itch to you more than it does to me.

But also I'm just a sucker for taking more traditional game elements like dice or cards and work them into a video game setting so this game gains a lot more appeal to me.