Madagascar 3: The Video Game for Nintendo DS is easily the worst Madagascar game I’ve played so far, it even beats Madagascar DS, which was basically the same as the GBA version. I have not played the home console version or Madagascar Kartz, but it’ll stay that way for a while.

Madagascar 3: The Video Game DS feels like a 3DS game that had to be crammed into a DS cart, as a result, it feels rough from a technical standpoint. The voice acting and sound in general are low quality. The graphics aren’t too bad, however, the game stutters frequently, and the frame rate isn’t that good to begin with. It genuinely felt bad to play, some of the worst performance I’ve experienced in a while, I think since Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game DS, which, by the way, is by the same developer, Torus Games. Actually, I quickly checked the 3DS version, and while it performs much better, it still has some performance issues and stutters, so I guess it’s just poor coding. I also encountered this bug where a chunk of the level’s geometry didn’t load, and walking into void would teleport you in a weird way. Luckily, all 2 or three times I’ve gotten out of bounds, I was able to get back into the play field, but it was still not a good experience. Something is definitely shaky with the game’s programming.

But alright, I’m not that bothered by framerates, if the game has good gameplay then I can excuse it somewhat… right? Well, no. Just… no. This game is not very fun. First, there’s this chase section at the beginning of the game. You control a car to escape from the main antagonist. It sucks. First, why all the cars go in one direction? Anyway, if you hit a car or an obstacle, you slow down significantly, and you’ll be hitting a lot of obstacles, since the cars sometimes just decide to stop to turn into an alley, which can result into you bumping into it, losing speed. Or when the car changes the lane, and so on. It’s pretty frustrating. At least the game is generous in terms of checkpoints, so even if you fail a bunch, you won’t lose too much progress, but to be honest, if you cut this section, nothing of value would be lost. I expected this section tor repeat at the end of the game, which it didn’t, this chase is only one in the entire game, which makes this little distraction seemingly pointless.

But, that’s just a small part of the game. For the most part, you play in 2.5D platforming stages. The camera is positioned sideways, but unlike most games this isn’t a strict left to right affair, you can go into the background and foreground to an extend. Does that make these actually 3D and not 2.5D? I dunno. There are also a few top-down sections, only found in the first country, Italy. Feels like a missed opportunity that they didn’t add more of these alternate perspective sections. In any case, you’ll be doing a lot of platforming. The objective of this game is to do chores. Do you like chores? I sure hope you do, because otherwise you’re in for a boring time. The biggest issue is how repetitive the game is. Each country has a few levels, and you’ll be running through the same levels multiple times to advance the game. The tasks themselves are only slightly different – hang posters, collect instruments or other thingamajigas. The platforming itself is serviceable at best – there’s pretty much nothing in terms of challenging platforming or obstacles. There are some enemies, but have fun jumping on top of these bastards – the collision detection is janky as hell, especially for those bike riding enemies, you’ll likely receive damage trying to hurt one (it doesn’t help that you have NO invulnerability frames when you take damage). You can also get close and personal, like with Marty’s kick, but really, it’s preferable to just avoid them, unless the task you’re doing is eliminating all of the enemies (that can be eliminated that is, there are a few that can’t be defeated). Overall, going through the same levels, doing similar tasks is not very fun, as you can imagine, with all the issues I’ve mentioned previously (poor performance and jank).

You play the game as one of the four main characters, you can change them at any time. At first, the differences are pretty minor – Gloria can swim in water, while others can’t, so it would be a smart strategy to play as her most of the time. Marty can kick enemies and objects for tickets. Both Gloria and Melman can walk on tight ropes, and so on. The characters can get new moves like Alex can obtain a double jump ability by spending tickets – they’re pretty much everywhere. Speaking of tickets, they can also be used to buy a few other items, like… an extra life! That’s right, the game has a lives system, which feels arbitrary. You can get lives when defeating enemies, though they are very uncommon. Of course, you can also buy some health. There are also keys to unlock gates found in certain levels. They’re basically only for those looking for 100%, as they gate items. It’s not like you unlock a new portion of the level or something like that. Feels pretty underwhelming.

Lastly, there’s the circus performance, which is a true 2.5D platforming experience (you can technically still go forward and back towards the screen, but… why?). There’s circus practice mission, where you, well, practice, or do actual performance after you do a bunch of chore missions. And it’s simple platforming challenges on a timer, and you have audience to please. The perception of the audience can be improved by jumping through rings, or worsened by hitting hazards of falling to the bottom of the stage. These are just boring and at times frustrating – there are hazards in a form of cannons and their projectiles can assault you from offscreen, causing you to lose audience’s positive reception, and you’ll get knocked back slightly. There are also monkeys on pogo sticks, and touching them at all is ill-advised, again, the audience will hate that and also, don’t forget about the janky collision, so you may find yourself draining that gauge fast. Avoid them like bubonic plague. During actual performances, in-between there’s also a penguin mission where you throw food items to hungry audience, it’s okay.

Overall, a bland and janky platformer. If you like doing mind-numbing tasks in three different countries, repetitive platforming with consistently shaky performance, and overall and unpolished feel, boy do I have a game for you. The game feels quite rushed, and I don’t use that term very often for licensed games. I dunno, I just don’t feel that way (And most of them likely are, being tie-ins and such), but with some half-baked ideas and the lack of polish, this certainly feels like it. Not a good game.

Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game for Nintendo DS is a combat oriented action game based on the movie of the same name (minus The Video Game part of course). Your goal throughout the game is to kick nightmares' butts and restore world belief in the guardians.

In the game you can control one of the five guardians that you can switch between by tapping appropriate character's icon. At your disposal you have normal attacks with B button, as well as three special attacks for the rest of face buttons. You can also block with L, which reflects damage onto attacking enemy, and dodge roll with R. Sounds like a decent setup for engaging combat. Unfortunately, the combat against regular enemies ends up being pretty repetitive, it still ends up being a button mash fest for the majority of the game. Reflecting damage is pathetic, and it only shields you from the front, so you'd have to reposition yourself if you find enemies attacking you from the back. You can still take damage when dodge rolling, if you roll too late, and you receive a short stun when you take damage. Regular enemies don't even deal that much damage, at least I didn't really notice, although maybe early on they do, but still.

There are 5 worlds in the entire game, and each world is filled with the same missions to do - defeat Pitch's clusters of nightmares, uncover lost artifacts from chests, protect someone and so-on. One thing I can give this game is the amount of content is pretty sizeable. It many not be “good” content, but at least the game doesn’t feel cheap in that way. Lets break down these objectives. Shadow stompers is just destroy enemies. Protectors of Belief, of which there are 5 in each world, is protecting someone from oncoming threats. Those are easily the most button mashy segments of the entire game, the enemies will only target Guardian’s friends, and not you. All you do is just kill more enemies, no strategy, just mash that sucker. I found myself using Bunnymund and his projectile attacks to pick some enemies from a distance before they get close. Cage Breaks are pretty much the same as Shadow Stompers, but you get to break a cage containing a friend at the end. There are 5 gates that you can teleport between and heal at, but only 1 is available at first, the rest need to be freed from nightmare bois, which means more combat. Lastly, there are exploration related missions, 5 nesting doll pieces and 25 chests. The “exploration” isn’t that good. You can always consult the map to know where the stuff is at, and if you’re close, the game will point you in the direction of the mission (except for chests). I really wish the map feature was mapped to Select button instead of having to tap it on touch screen. While the game is fairly handholdy, the map won’t allow you to view other locations and the goodies In them. There are only 5 teleport points, but there could be more than 5 locations in the world, which means you have to figure out in which part of the world you haven’t been to if you’re looking for 100%ting this game. Town of Burgess is a pretty straightforward world, no additional areas, North Pole is the first one that has additional areas and unmarked transitions. It all peaked at Tooth Palace, which doesn’t even show missions unless you’re on the same elevation. This is where I considered dropping doing all of the game’s content, because the back and forth, trying to figure out where I missed stuff was starting to get on my nerves. Eventually I did find all the missions, however aside from these, the game also features “rewards”, these are like achievements, find stuff, perform combos and so on. One of them is “Be defeated by Pitch in one of his lair confrontations.”, an achievement that asks you to lose. I don’t like these kinds of achievements where you’re asked to get a bad ending or just lose in some way, it’s either you suck at the game so bad you accidently achieve this or you purposefully fail at the game, I don’t like the idea of getting a bad consequence to get rewarded with an achievement. You can’t even obtain this if you beat him in all his confrontations. Which means technically I didn’t even 100% completed the game. Thankfully, you don’t have to do everything to get the credits rolling, you only need to complete a set number of missions (I don’t actually know how many, I don’t think the game tells you). I already achieved credits by the time I was done with all missions in Bunnymund’s Warren (I did everything in worlds prior). In summary, the game features a decent amount of content, but it’s pretty much the same thing over and over, the exploration is pretty much non-existent, the level design and map feature don’t always relay adequate information for those looking for 100% completing all the worlds.

Speaking of relaying information, the game features some RPG like elements, your weapons have level progression, I think it’s awarded after you beat Pitch because I remember getting a pop-up for that consistently after these confrontations. The game also awards skill points that can be distributed among various stats, which can be done through Journal->Power accessed through the pause menu. I think you gain EXP when fighting enemies, the game does feature levels, since it tells you that you can unlock new special attacks at level X, but the game doesn’t tell you what level you are or where you can view EXP progression. The game also doesn’t explain what stat does what. I think I can figure out what Strength does or Defense, but what Focus is? What does Energy do? Your health is “Guardian’s Belief”, so I imagine Belief augments that, not Energy. A big issue I have is that the game just doesn’t tell you enough. It’s probably deemed unnecessary because this is a silly licensed game for silly kids, but c’mon, kids aren’t stupid, Final Fantasy VI is a kids game too, y’know. The game also could’ve explained the differences between characters a bit more, like their strengths. I think Jack Frost has good blocking ability, North is supposed to be powerful, Bunnymund is fast and long distance, Tooth Fairy I guess is more powerful ranged, and Sand Man is fast to attack. To be honest, I only used Sand Man and Bunnymund for the majority of the game. I thought Sand Man was a decent mix of strength and speed, but it’s likely because I dumped Power points into Strength. The game doesn’t really incentivize experimentation, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be playing the same way I did, there’s definitely a potential for different playstyles with different characters and power customization. Continuing with customization, there are gems that you can buy for each individual character and then equipped to get some kind of benefit – more damage, more crystals with which you can buy said gems, and so on. Pretty neat.

Let’s talk about the game’s aesthetics. The graphics look decent, but the framerate is pretty inconsistent. At times it can run at full 60 FPS, but if there’s a lot of geometry and/or enemies on screen, the game drops significantly. It’s not too bad for the most part, but a few areas can get to low tens or even single digits. One notable area is one of the protection missions in Bunnymund’s Warren featured insane lag, it was actually kind of disgusting (on top of the same button mashing gameplay). The characters animate at low frame rate regardless. I do like the stylized 2D art for the cutscenes. Speaking of 2D art, the UI is decent, but I really wish they chose a different color for the currently selected option to contrast with the ones not selected, as is it’s white against sky blue which is barely noticeable. The music sounds pretty generic, not much to say really.

After you beat a certain amount of missions, a bed will appear that’ll reveal a portal to Pitch’s Lair, before that, of course, you have more of the game’s repetitive combat. However, Pitch himself is actually a cool boss fight, he actually hits hard, and has patterns to learn. I found myself dodge rolling away when appropriate. Is that Code Vein-tier combat??? It’s actually enjoyable… for the first time. The game will repeat the boss fight 5 more times. Yes, he will get a different gimmick with each iteration, like a projectile attack, or summoning nightmare North who is actually pathetic, or his dopplegangers with same movesets. In the end though, these are pretty much the same fights over and over. I think it’s a nice summary of the game. It has some really nice concepts and ideas, but the potential isn’t realized, leading to more of the same repetitive gameplay. I don’t know about home console versions (3DS version looks like it’s the same, just slightly better visuals), but this DS version is an incredibly mediocre experience, filled with potential for a genuinely decent time, but unfortunately the end product is not that.

Super Mario 64 sees Mario skip 59 entries jump into 3D and 64-Bit gaming as a launch title for Nintendo 64. Remember when Super Mario 64 title was a “work in progress”? Anyway, it’s a classic, remembered fondly by many, it’s important and influential like many of Nintendo’s works, so of course it had to be included in Nintendo’s Super Mario 3D All-Stars to celebrate 35th anniversary of Mario and his 3D gaming history. Most importantly, is the game any good? Well, unfortunately, I personally didn’t find as much joy in playing it.

My biggest gripe with the game is it’s controls. Even towards the end of the game, I never felt confident in controlling Mario, never quite grasped the game’s physics. When I thought I could maneuver the levels well, I would get stumbled by something, like not grabbing the ledge, or bonking off the wall or not turning properly, or anything in-between. There were a few moments where I could get stuck in a landed-airborn state and slide towards my doom (when at the very edge of some platform). The air control is not very good, it feels pretty stiff, kinda similar to the original Super Mario Bros.. Now, this is a Super Mario 3D All-Stars version, and I heard it has some input lag, which no doubt contributed to some of my frustration, but even then, even if I didn’t have input lag issues, that wouldn’t fix clunky control (you can also argue the controller layout also contributes to this, since it’s obviously different, compared to the original N64). The flying with winged cap is similar to the cape feather from Super Mario World, but it just doesn’t feel as good to maneuver in air. Another big issue, which I’m sure most of you can actually agree with, is the game’s camera. The rotation is quantized, instead of modern smooth scrolling, but the camera isn’t very intelligent, there’s little vertical camera control, aside from panning the camera further or closer, and it likes to show unhelpful angles where you’re behind some object. Sometimes, the camera won’t even scroll further, usually when it doesn’t really make sense. Like, when I was fighting Bowser, I REALLY wished the camera would show me those bombs, or just kept full arena in view at all times.

The graphics are also a little dated, which is understandable since this is a Nintendo 64 launch title. Mario himself looks a little odd, where he is made out of multiple chunks that are clearly visible (though you get used to his look), and Bowser, well… he is Bowser, alright. However, I think the bigger issue is the game’s textures, or more specifically, how some of them are stretched to look smeary and ugly on surfaces, Super Mario 3D All-Stars and it’s resolution bump makes them more apparent. Again, this is an early 3D game for Nintendo, so the artwork is a little rough as the company was gaining experience in 3D modelling, and you can see their experience improve over time, most apparent in the game’s remake, Super Mario 64 DS. The game does have a charming early 3D look, which can be nostalgic, but I’m not going to pretend that the graphics are greater than they really are.

Don’t get me wrong, the game is not a bad one. When controls and level design work, the game can be fun to platform through. And there are some enjoyable levels, like the very first level – “Bob-Omb Battlefield”, or “Big Boo’s Haunt” or “Raibow Ride” (despite latter having some slow carpet riding). The game’s open nature is also to be commended. I was stuck early on, trying to win the penguin race at “Cool Cool Mountain”, and I kept sliding off, which was really frustrating. Then I simply decided to move onto a different level, like “Jolly Roger Bay”, and I started enjoying myself far more. If you find some stars difficult, you have plenty of options in different stages, though if you’re going for 100% completion, you’ll have to contend with everything. You can also collect stars out of order in the same stage – most of them aren’t locked, and even though you don’t receive a tip on how to obtain them, you’re free to explore around, which is great, really contributes to the open sandbox gameplay the game offers. Ultimately though, I just didn’t enjoy that much, thanks to the control issues, camera and other tidbits. It’s just another classic that I didn’t vibe with to the pile. I don’t find it to be a timeless masterpiece, but I also don’t find it to be “overrated” – it has it’s merits and fans. It's dated, janky, yet legendary.

The Grinch for Game Boy Color is a top down stealth game, developed by- WHO??? None other than Konami themselves, which makes me draw parallels to a certain Metal Gear. Remember Konami being a good developer? No surprise this game is decent.

Your objective throughout the game is to collect a certain amount of objects, be it presents, bells or even scraps for Grinch's sled. The game is similar to Pac-Man in that regard. You’re also on a time limit, though it resets each time you fail, and I encountered time up theme maybe three times, and only once did it ran out, because I failed a lot. There are time tokens that will restore some in-game seconds. When you fail, all collected things remain collected, though you only have 3 tries for every continue. The movement controls are pretty straightforward, but aside from normal hallways, there are tight spaces that can be crawled into that can act as cover, or required to get in for progression. Throughout the game, you’ll need to avoid contact with Whoville residents or other enemies. When you’re in a line of sight, the NPC will make a distinct sound and either chase you (kids, dogs, policemen and robots) or back away (most adults) but alert other NPCs as well. Policemen (in early scenes) and robots will shoot a projectile that can freeze Grinch, though it can be avoided by crouching, and it can affect other NPCs. NPCs can also run into each other, which can be tactically used to get past. Regardless of who gets alerted, you get a speed boost to allow for a quick escape. You're not completely defenseless though. You play as either Grinch or his dog Max depending on which Scene you're playing. As Grinch, you can perform a close range stun to temporarily disable an NPC, which can be risky since it needs to be timed right. You can also time your action when they’re coming onto you which is even riskier. When outside, you can crouch and make snowballs for a ranged attack, which can be beneficial. In act 7 when Grinch is disguised as Santa, you have a limited supply of eggs that can be thrown at others and they won’t respawn if you fail. As Max, you can jump over enemies, or crouch and bark which will stun all enemies on screen (if they aren't already chasing after you). At first, this move feels overpowered, since barking is unlimited, but at times, it feels necessary for progress. It definitely makes levels where you play as Max easier. The game does get progressively harder, and it’s fairly lengthy, there are 7 Scenes, each is 5 levels long with the exception of Scene 7, which is 10 levels long. The game consistently hands out a password every 5 levels and it features unlimited continues, which is a god send, because the levels get longer and more convoluted as the game goes on. The game also introduces new gimmicks later on, like in scene 4, everyone gets on their go-karts and the game turns into Grinch Kart, you have to use B to accelerate and use a limited supply of eggs to get by. Scene 5 introduces slippery ice, and Scene 6 features big funnels that are like teleporters, making levels more maze-like. In the last scene, the game introduces colored keys and doors that unlock once an appropriate key has been picked up.

One issue I have with the game is controls, the game does not assist you when making a turn. If you’re ever so slightly off from the turn, the game will interpret your input as a continuation of the previous one, and it annoyed me on multiple occasions, especially when running away from enemies. Even when it clearly looked like I was perfectly lined with the turn, the game still continued moving me down the same hallway. It all peaked at Scene 4, where everyone’s on cars. Speeding around makes turning even harder, and you’re the same speed as NPCs. It just doesn’t feel very fun to control, and you have a limited supply of eggs that can be picked up, and they won’t respawn if you fail, like I mentioned earlier. I think the most fun parts are where you can pick up a bunch of eggs and speed through throwing them away at enemies without having to run away, like in Scene 4-2. But otherwise, it was probably the most frustrating Scene of the entire game, more than the last ones that are longer and more complicated.

Graphically, the game looks pretty solid. I like the cartoony aesthetics of the cutscenes, the level backgrounds are fairly detailed, but the sprites are more minimalistic, given their size. The music is good too. The game runs smoothly for the most part, it does slow down a little bit when there are many NPCs on screen, but it’s still consistent. The characters are well animated, though residents feature minimal animation frames, they do have animations when interacting with each other, or for instance, when an enemy hits someone other than Grinch with a projectile, they’ll stand for a moment realizing a mistake they made and display an animation, like cursing Grinch for such a snafu, it adds charm to the game.

Overall, The Grinch for Game Boy Color is a cool stealth game that also plays similarly to Pac-Man, a unique mix, the game, though flawed in some ways, is still decently enjoyable and engaging, it’s one of the better licensed games for the 8-bit handheld and in general. I can recommend you check it out.

I prefer this over the SNES original for it's quality of life improvements, like being able to save anywhere and the life count doesn't reset after shutting the game off. The boss fights are also improved.

That being said, this is still Donkey Kong Country, which means it still inherits some issues from the original. While some bonus barrels are now clearly visible, some stuff remains cryptic. Ropey Rampage still features that offscreen barrel that leads to the bonus room, and the bonus within bonus in Oil Drum Alley is still the worst. The game is still frustrating at times, with some trial and error. Not only that, this remake adds its own issues. A little bit of screen crunch is probably expected, but my issue is the new collectible required for the completion: the photos. Some of them are just lying around, but most of them you get by destroying certain enemies in a certain way, but it's not clear which enemies and in what way you're supposed to defeat to get the photos. This is something DKC2GBA improves upon, by having certain enemies have a photo float over them and defeating them will give you said photos, and the game also offers in-game hints on where to find them. I had to whip out a video playthrough to find obscure bonuses, but I still have to find some of those photos, which is why I haven't 101%ed it yet (now I did, but I had to whip out an official guide, I wouldn't have figured out that, for example, you have to clear all levels in a world as Diddy or Donkey gives a respective photo).

That being said though, I still had some enjoyment playing this game, but it didn't age as well as the later entries. If you didn't enjoy original Donkey Kong Country, you won't enjoy this remake, but if you did, then I can highly recommend this one. It'll still provide you with decent time.

The Pizza Delivery Boy Who Saved the World is the best visual novel that has Pizza, Delivery, a boy, saving the world, and, most importantly, The.

In the market of visual novels where majority go for an Anime art style that is just so cool and appealing (don't get me wrong, I myself do enjoy the cute kind of aesthetic), The Pizza Delivery Boy Who Saved the World opts for a photorealistic approach, presenting real world photographs for backgrounds, real life people, and of course, realistic pizza ("Pizza so realistic you'll eat your computer" is one of the key features). The visuals presented make for a more grounded kind of read, maybe even relatable to some. Though it does include an element of time travel, which is far from grounded. Anyway, the visuals are interesting, and I do like them overall. Some of the backgrounds look great, and the actors have a variety of poses and emotions, so they aren't boring to look at. The music selection, even though it's licensed and not originally composed, is picked well and I do like some of the tracks quite a bit.

Of course, the visual novel is all (or almost all) about writing, and I did find it enjoyable, with some good cheesy humor in it. The time travel aspect may seem weird, but I found some of the writing to be absurd outside of that, so I don't really mind. I do think the antagonistic group that tried to destroy the internet and rule the world could've been fleshed out a bit more, and shown to be more of a threat, but again, I think the writing is absurd enough in a B-Movie sorta deal that it's not too big of an issue.

However, there are legitimate criticisms to be had. For some reason, the game lacks many basic features found in many visual novels, such as a log to review dialogue that you may have accidently skipped, a fast forward button and any ability to see the key bindings. To be fair, I haven't really seen a Ren'Py visual novel that had an ability to rebind keys or view the defaults, but at least those that I did had the appropriate buttons on the hud for auto, fast forward, log and so on. Actually, the game does have a fast forward, but for some reason it's in the options menu (in this game it's called "Toppings"), not during gameplay, like in other VNs. Also, after playing Cat President - ~A More Purrfect Union~, one of the dev's previous visual novels, they removed the ability to disable HUD with the mouse wheel click, which is baffling. It does have a "Cheese Level" in the options menu, which is always at MAXIMUM and the screen shakes when you try to change it. Amazing.

Overall though, it's a nice slice of reading pizza for an hour or two, with good comedy and unique visuals. If you want to take a break from those cringy/generic anime romance visual novels, this game may prove a nice change of pace, and it's not too pricy, especially on sale on Steam.

By the way, I see the platform options for PS5 and Xbox Series, did this game get native ports or is it backwards compatibility? I'm curious.

Garfield Gets Real. Garfield Gets Real... bad. This game is truly awful, bottom of the barrel tier stuff. There are only 7 levels (thank god for its relatively short run time), but those are levels of hell. First, you have levels where you need to collect stuff that’s falling from… somewhere, and you need to collect a certain amount. These are the most tolerable levels. Not great, but at least they don’t make me pull my hair out. You move left or right, and you can dive left and right, and jump in place. Occasionally, coins appear, but these are only for score. Basically worthless. Next, there are “””“platforming”””” 2.5D levels. You can only move forward, jump in place or long jump forward. These are long, no checkpoints and feature inconsistent mechanics that can force you to die. The first such level took me around FORTY minutes of suffering, thanks to bad hitboxes and swinging things not spawning consistently that makes it hard to jump from one onto the other (sometimes impossible), and it takes forever to beat. There are only two such levels in this roster, but these are the worst. The last one where you rescue Odie from a burning house forced me to jump into a hole near the end of the level. Remember, you can long jump forward, no short jumps forward, and you can’t just walk up stairs, so I had no option of progressing other than dying. Great game design. Lastly, there’s an awfully long memory game, where you remember moves and execute them at the right moments. The moves themselves don’t show up as button prompts, instead they show up as Garfield in different poses. They’re somewhat intuitive for touch screen controls but not for buttons (as the game can be controlled with either), so I had to use a combination of both. Overall, this game is little fun. Stay far away from this game and treat yourself to something nice.

While Console and PC versions of Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers/Quack Attack is a clone of Crash Bandicoot, Game Boy Color version is a clone of Rayman, which makes more sense because it was developed by Ubisoft, and Rayman GBC was released earlier the same year.

You control Donald Duck through progressively tougher stages to rescue Daisy from evil magician Merlock. The controls are pretty simple, Donald can jump and double jump, and that's it, the only other action he can do is ground pound with B button after picking an invincibility power-up to unlock a way forward in some places. Items Donald can collect include some sort of discs that give an extra life once enough have been collected, said extra lives lying around, and said invincibility items that are usually required to destroy some obstacles blocking progression.

Said progression is fairly linear, with some secrets offering extra lives. As I mentioned before, levels get progressively harder, first two worlds aren't too tough, but later levels become pretty challenging, to the point where there are spikes almost everywhere, and avoiding spikes on moving platforms, drawing parallels to Rayman. Other Rayman-like elements include trigger points that'll make certain things appear when you touch them, straight from Rayman 1, climbing vines and similar objects in a similar fashion, similar slippery physics, and even a doppelganger gimmick where a helicopter will mimic your movement and you have to avoid colliding with it to not take any damage.

The level design is honestly pretty solid, not without shitty moments like boulders you didn't see coming in later levels, but I did enjoy the game and its challenge quite a bit, in fact, I 100% completed the game, collecting all the missing blueprints, unlocking an extra world with 4 more levels that are just as challenging. Granted, I was only missing blueprints in the first world so I didn't have to replay some of the harder stages, but still.

Of course, this game does have some flaws. First, there's a controls oddity where instantly switching horizontal direction will stop you in place, even though I'm still holding the direction and should be moving, which can be a little annoying. Hitboxes aren't always consistent, so sometimes I'll take damage when trying to jump on top of an enemy. The bosses are also inconsistent, the first boss was confusion as you have to jump where beehives are and feed the bear at the bottom some honey while avoiding bees with annoyingly tiny hitboxes. 2nd world's Beagle Boys are surprisingly easy, and Magica De Spell is tough but features checkpoints between hits. Last boss, Merlin himself is pretty frustrating, featuring somewhat erratic movement as a flying thing, after which you have to avoid lava bubbles with precise timing so to not take damage, and then jump on top of him some more while avoiding projectiles. This is where I lost almost all my lives, but eventually I beat him. Good riddance.

But overall, I did enjoy this game. I can see this being frustrating for younger audiences, but I can recommend it to fans of hard platformers, or original Rayman (or the GBC one at least). The levels become challenging but are mostly of fair variety and are well designed, the graphics are nice with great looking backgrounds and with some fluid animations and the music is decent. A solid platformer for the 8-bit handheld.

I'll be honest, I didn't enjoy the game as much as I wish I did. It was very good at making me rage though. The platforming, on the surface level, is fantastic, with different maneuvers to make the traversal enjoyable, but the level design isn't always good at guiding you, and the mechanics don't feel as polished as they should be. For instance, I wished Faith would grab onto ledges more, because it can be easy to miss the jump and just fall to your doom. C'mon Faith, you should know better jumping from roof to roof. There were also times where the wall climbing didn’t register when I wanted to climb up somewhere, or I got caught onto geometry and started wall sliding when I didn't want to. The annoyances started from the very beginning at the tutorial, where you’re instructed to do a wall jump by doing a 180. In fairness, the move itself is fine, and I don’t remember having any issues with it past the tutorial. However, failing the trick had me rewatch the tutorial cutscene over and over, and it just bothered me. However, the game also introduces the combat, which in my opinion is little fun. Maybe I made the game worse to myself, because I refused to shoot people after taking their guns, as I wanted to be as pacifist as possible, but in the last level, the encounters started pissing me so much that I decided to start shooting people. Still, the window when you can disarm the enemy can be very strict, and the enemy can stagger you, after which you’ll perish quickly. The encounter with the agile person who kept jumping and sliding at you and blocking your attacks also wasn’t very fun, because it felt like a war of attrition, trying to get that window where you can disarm them. Oh, and there was also one quick time event where another guy jumps at you with a pipe, and failing it also felt like a time waste. I think the game should have focused purely on platforming aspect and polishing the mechanics and level design. The game is filled with little annoyances and trial-and-error design, turning it into a mediocre experience (not too dissimilar to Half-Life, a title beloved by many, but I personally am not very fond of).

However, there are some aspects that I do enjoy. I like the somewhat minimalistic graphics, with buildings being primarily white, some areas colored blue and red color used to hint at objects that can be used for a way forward with Runner’s vision (or whats-it). Now, the game is pretty ancient at this point, so I had to fix the physics of the game lagging the game horrendously by updating NVIDIA’s PhysX and changing a few files. Even then, the game did lag on occasion, and I’m not sure why. Still, the game does look visually pleasing. The music is pretty good. I also like the animated cutscenes, again, the artstyle looks interesting, though certain things like Faith’s running animation in one of those can look weird.

Overall, I wish I could say I liked Mirror’s Edge and it holds well, but it annoyed me so much that I wanted it to end. I’m actually thankful for its relatively short run time so I could get it off my disc space. Again, it could be that I made some things harder, skill issue or whatever, but the game just didn’t feel quite as polished or fun as it should’ve been.

Tangled for Nintendo DS screams shovelware to me. The game is basically a point-and-click sorta deal with mini-games sprinkled throughout. You go around different locations, talk with NPCs, do the chores and participate in mini-games, rinse and repeat. The mini-games themselves are mostly fine, but I think the game is lacking in variety, so after a bit, the game becomes boring to go through and I just wanted it to end. And some mini-games can drag on, like memory ones where you repeat the pattern over and over. Also, one of those memory games involves belching. Have fun! You can actually skip some mini-games if you collect suns, scattered in locations, usually hidden, so there’s a bit of exploration to be had, but some requirements for skipping are absurd, compared to the amount of effort it would take to do the mini-game legit. The game also has shockingly poor performance. Well, not always, but, for instance, there’s a loading time when you load the main menu, which is something I don’t recall seeing in any other game. Just pausing makes you wait! But there are a few moments of lag in the game itself, most notable to me is Snake-like mini-game where you grow Rapunzel’s hair. When the hair gets bigger and you turn frequently, there’s noticeable frame drops. The presentation is also average. The hand-drawn artstyle isn’t very consistent, but usually decent, but there’s also things like characters that look like they’re pre-rendered sprites with limited animations. I also noticed when Rapunzel turns as you walk, her hair gets noticeably cut-off, which makes it feel unpolished. Overall, I don’t think this is a good game, while it may be enjoyable for younger players who don’t know any better, they still deserve better than this.

original "review":
One of my childhood games, I remember it being fun but surprisingly difficult.

new review:
Continuing the tradition of revisiting my childhood games but on different platforms (a PS1 version for this one). I thought the game was decently fun, though the difficulty feels inconsistent. Sometimes you can have a win for free, and sometimes you get wrecked, mostly in levels with tight turns. I had a feeling that this game had a Crash Team Racing-like mechanic of slide boosting, because, c'mon, some of these turns are ridiculous, and only when I got to the Jungle Cruise I realized that R1 isn't a simple jump button, but is used exactly for that, power slide. That does make the races a little bit easier. No surprise I found this game difficult as a youngster, I probably didn't know about this boost mechanic. Another important thing for victory is knowing the shortcuts, which I remembered most of. With that, the game isn't very difficult to beat the first time, you'll probably have to restart the races a few times because the AI can be quite ruthless, but it's pretty manageable. On the positive there doesn't seem to be any rubber banding, if you get far enough ahead, other racers won't suddenly speed up to catch up. I repaired the machine in about 3 and a half hours. Of course you can play the races again for cups and other goodies for 100% completion, which I'd imagine are more difficult to obtain, but I'm focusing this review on the any% completion. Besides the races there are these little challenge stages where you have to find 30 coins in a time limit, and these are basically like small open worlds where you have to get these things. These aren't very difficult either.

The settings for race tracks are varied and imaginative because they're based on the attactions at Walt Disney World. I think. A small touch I like is that in every track you're riding a different vehicle, in the first level (Big Thunder Mountain) you're riding little trains (or I think they're like trains) for example, and boats in Pirates of the Caribbean level, which is fitting.

There are some things that I don't like however. The rings that you race through and unlock a shortcut aren't consistent, I swear sometimes I race through all of them and the shortcut doesn't open. Perhaps it's a power-up hitting me that resets the ring progress but that feels unfair since other opponents can race through these shortcuts as well. Exclusive to this PS1 version (well I assume it isn't much worse in a Dreamcast version) is some abysmal lag. Now I'm not a framerate snob, while the framerate isn't very consistent the game is very much playable, however I still aknowledge that the inconsistent framerate is there, and sometimes it can get pretty low (most noticeably during water races), and some other players may be put off by this.

But overall I think this is a fine racing game. Sure it might be just another Crash Team Racing clone, but the formula works and I enjoyed the game a decent amount.

I wasn't very impressed with Half-Life, but I was eager to check out its sequel. And let me tell you... this game is a GIGANTIC step up from the predecessor. There's pretty much no BS from the first game, the level design is thoughtful, and at times, clever. The gameplay in general is engaging, with a mix of great gunplay with a decent selection of weapons to play with, and some light puzzle elements, and a good mechanical variety, like the Squad mechanic towards the end, or vehicle parts. The game's biggest feature is its physics. The objects react in a somewhat realistic way, I like how you can use some objects such as explosive barrels against enemies, but the enemies themselves can use their surroundings against you. And, of course, there's a Gravity Gun that amplifies the use of object physics, allowing to throw objects with a greater force against enemies and draw the objects towards Gordon. It's not overpowered however, as there aren't always heavy objects around or it's not always convinient to use, and I have to say that the weapon balance is ace, I used every weapon acquired throughout the game. The game features locations that are far more memorable and varied than the first game (like Ravenholm and how it's a legitimately creepy area, a dark and hostile territory you don't want to be in). The story is solid too, I can understand the appeal of the minimalist storytelling of the first game, but I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with the presentation, aside from the fact that you don't get to the action as quick. The characters are well animated, and the voice acting is good. Lastly, the ladders aren't jank! This is a game that I can actually see being called a masterpiece. While I had my moments of frustration, they weren't really the game's fault, but mostly me being dumb or my fatigue. I can see this game getting better on repeat playthroughs, I mean this is true for most games, but still. If you didn't like Half-Life the first (which is a minority it seems), I highly recommend Half-Life 2. Heck, I can recommend this game to anyone. It's simply a quality game.

Wow, I must be a big manchild liking this game THIS much. But honestly, I think there's little wrong with the game. While this game is generally not very difficult, it's not devoid of enjoyment, with good variety of platforming challenges, engaging level design that can be a more open-ended 3D or traditional 2D platforming goodness, and, most importantly, its excellent controls. There are also alternate distractions to be had - sliding statue puzzles, some of the later ones are genuinely tough to figure out, and Super Monkey Ball-like rolling challenges. In a way, this game feels like a Donkey Kong Country game, but way easier and more focused on 3D platforming controls. You won't see crazy gimmicks, but each level is unique enough. The game being easy isn’t a problem in-itself. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying some more relaxed games, like Traveller Tales’ LEGO games. If the level design and controls are good, an easy game can be just as enjoyable as a more demanding game like Super Meat Boy or Celeste. Though those seeking challenge do get some in the postgame, where Lucky must go through some difficult trials, and these challenge levels are great – the controls are more than up to the task. The game is not without faults of course – it doesn’t have control remapping features for controllers, only for keyboard, which is really strange (and it doesn’t support mouse for camera control), and the graphics, while generally pretty solid, and at times there are great looking levels, some textures don’t look that good, and it’s not hard to notice. Even on “ultra” settings. Lastly, I think it could've used more achievements to give it more play time and challenge for those looking for 100% - they did remove most coin-related ones (like 99999 one), but Lady Meowmalade is still the only boss to have a "no damage" achievement, which stands out. Aside from that, I feel confident calling this one of the best 3D platformers I’ve played in a while – it’s charming, engaging, it controls really well, and there are few issues with it. It's simply a joy to play.

And here are some of my number stats because why not:
Death Count = 8
Attempts at Wrigglearena achievement = 7
Attempts at Under Pressure achievement = 4
Attempts at Lady Meowmalade no damage achievement = 4

Yep, a "connect a dot with a dot and there are more than 2 dots" game. I think they made a bunch of these for the DSi and even for the 3DS.

The object of this game, as you can imagine, is to connect dots in an order to create an image. There are 20 levels, each has two modes - a normal mode, where you have unlimited time, and if you connect the dots carefully, you get more score (although it can feel inconsistent). The second mode is the time attack, where accuracy isn't important - it's the speed with which you connect dots. If you're fast enough, you can chain combos with each subsequent connection, which deducts seconds from the timer, it can even go into negatives. After the combo is broken, there's a small delay before you can start a new one, so you can't really abuse small combos - quick reaction is key. You can earn up to three stars in each mode for a total of 6 - for the normal mode, you have a score target to shoot for, while the second requires you to make sure the timer stays at zero by chaining the combos. I haven't played video games of this genre before (because why would I?) but if I were to compare with other shovelware of this type, I think it would be above average? I mean, I can imagine most cheap cash grabs to be just connecting dots with little depth. The time attacks can actually be a challenge, and the score targets do require time and care to achieve. The only problem I have with the gameplay is that there's an inexplicable stutter when you start connecting and after connecting dots.

There's a story in this game, although, it's a pretty simple fairy tale type of writing, as you'd expect from the title of this game. The premise is that you're taking over the duties of the God of the Stars old man dude, and help the poor girl who has a mean stepmother, because of course she does. The poor girl (she doesn't have a name) just keeps getting surprised at the items appearing in her room, a dude also shows up in her room to hide. Then, an old man to take a break on a rocking chair that conviniently materialized, shows up only to tell her that, plot twist, her biological mother is actually alive!! And apparently she's a queen of the neigboring country. We don't see them reuniting though. Also, the dude who sought refuge is actually a prince in desguise!! Another plot twist, wow! And, of course, he promises the girl to rescue her eventually, someday, maybe. That's pretty much it. It's fairly naive stuff. The only notable thing about it is a few grammatical issues and strange lines (spoiler alert: the 3DS version's english text is somehow MUCH worse, containing full on engrish and stuff, it's actually quite funny).

The presentation is about average, the visuals are fine, but the music is lacking (and there are only, like, two-three tracks for the entire game, it can become pretty repetitive).

Overall, I think this game is alright? I didn't hate it, in fact, it was a pretty chill time. But it doesn't have much value otherwise. I 100% completed it only so I could say that I'm good at 2D connecting dots with dots.