Mariov33
15 reviews liked by Mariov33
PokeMMO
2012
It's hard to get into this game casually with friends compared to the real thing. The game pushes for many restrictions that kinda goes against the original's design, and many of it's anti-frustration features are locked behind "donations"-- at that point it's not a donation anymore??
I get you need to accomodate to MMO mechanics to adapt the original games to, well, a MMO, but it crosses a fine line where it just becomes annoying. Maybe it's just not meant to be, by design.
I get you need to accomodate to MMO mechanics to adapt the original games to, well, a MMO, but it crosses a fine line where it just becomes annoying. Maybe it's just not meant to be, by design.
Dynasty Warriors 4
2003
98% of the time, you're hitting the square button, the rest of the controller is generously allowed to participate for the final 2% of the time. Despite this, I ADORE the Dynasty Warriors series. How does it's 4th entry hold up in the grand scheme of things? Read on to find out.
Let's start with my history playing these games. I started way back on Dynasty Warriors 3, which to this day might be my favourite game of all time and absolutely is my favourite Dynasty Warriors game. Since then, I've played almost all entries to varying degrees. Sometimes I'm obsessed, sometimes I'm apathetic and in rare circumstances, I'm horrified (Looking at you Dynasty Warriors 9).
This is me admitting that I will have an un-avoidable bias towards some entries and throughout this review, there may be some comparisons to other Dynasty Warriors games that might not make a whole lot of sense if you haven't checked them out.
Dynasty Warriors is KOEI's over the top re-telling of the already romanticised part of Chinese history known as the "Three Kingdoms era". These games are based on the 14th century novel by Luo Guanzhong titled "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". It's an unbelievably interesting part of Chinese history that puts Game of Thrones to shame.
Okay so what does this even mean? To most, it wont mean much but it does serve as context to the vast array of characters you play as and fight along side in this repetitive hack and slash game. You pick a character of your liking and hit the Square button until there are no enemies left in the stage. Each stage is based on a real historical battle but realism is completely thrown out the window and what we have left is a camp and cheesy game where you can live out your fantasy of slaying thousands of foot soldiers. It's really addictive and KOEI seriously know how to make this type of thing satisfying and 'more-ish' so to speak.
Your regular attacks are tied to the square button of which come in a string of 4, 5 or 6 depending on how high you have your weapon levelled up. Each attack has a slower but more powerful charge attack too which you use with the triangle button. You'll combo by combining these two attacks. DW4 introduced a jumping charge attack which is a nice feature but won't be used too often. You have Musou bar under your health bar which when full, can be unleashed with a press of the circle button. This is your most powerful attack and last longer the larger your musou bar is and how long you hold the button for. When using your Musou attack, you're invincible and is great for dealing large damage to enemy officers and getting you out of sticky situations. These are unique to each character and it's super fun to see.
You have a few modes to chose from. Musou mode is essentially the story mode of the game which VERY LOOSLY follows one of the three Dynasties, Shu, Wu and Wei, and their efforts to unify this era of China. The game doesn't do a great job re-telling the story but it does intrigue enough that you will likely want to go off and do your own research into this part of history. There are also characters not tied to one of the three kingdoms that have their own Musou story such as the terrifying Lu Bu which act like a sort of 'What if' scenario. It's great stuff in all honesty.
Secondly we have Free Mode which is, as you would expect, a mode where you can freely chose any individual stage you played and unlocked in the story mode.
We also have Challenge mode which in my opinion is a little light on content, worth a quick look and nothing more.
The game has some very light (and I do mean very light) RPG elements. The Warriors you play as start off sort of weak and fragile, so you will want to start out on Easy mode before switching to Normal and Hard mode. Throughout the stages, you will find items, +attack and +defence pickups that permanently make your warrior stronger for repeat play-throughs. The higher the difficulty, the better the pickups are too. The Items you find are equip-able before each stage, but you will likely just use the items that give you higher attack & defence etc as there's not much of a reason to do otherwise.
Some Items (and ridable horses) have a certain criteria you must meet on certain stages for them to be discoverable. The criteria for these items is extremely odd and there's a very small chance you'll know what to do unless using a guide. You might have to play stages in a certain order and defeat only a certain few generals for the item to appear. It's something us Dynasty Warriors fans are used to but be warned if you're a new player.
The music in Dynasty Warriors 4 is unbelievably good. If you've played other Warriors or "musou" games, then this won't be a surprise but these games are genuinely worth checking out for their metal-esque cheesy goodness alone! This particular entry introduces traditional Chinese instrumentation and vocalisations too. On paper that shouldn't work, but oh boy it does!
The game is real fun and 10x better if you have a player 2! Find a buddy and tear through enemies and have a laugh at the cut scenes and head bang to soundtrack, you'll have a blast for sure. If you're looking for a game to grind out that can be a little mindless at times, then look no further than this franchise as a whole.
The rest of this review will be catered to those of us who are already familiar with the series.
Dynasty Warriors 4 is the highest selling of the series. Online, it seems to be one of if not THE most fondly remembered. While I enjoy the game, I think it's the weakest out of the classic era (Dynasty Warriors 3 - 5) for a handful of reasons.
Firstly, the stages don't hold a candle to Dynasty Warriors 2, 3 and 5, as well as some of the later entries like 7 and 8. There are more levels than DW2 or 3, but most of them are a lot smaller! They lack that certain magic that DW3 in particular brought to the table. There are a couple of great ones here like Chi Bi and Wu Zhang Plains, but they still feel like watered down versions of the previous games iterations of these battles. The Nanman Campaign in particular is not a lot of fun as it's a medium sized map with closed off sections you can't get through without an elephant. The elephants are cool the first time you see them but aren't a lot of fun to use. With Meng Huo appearing all over the stage, you have to travel up and down the map, possibly using an elephant to traverse. It's a bit of a slog.
The story mode being tied to each faction instead of character sounds good on paper as it does mean we get slightly more accurate re-telling of the story. It makes grinding a little more of a pain in the back side though as you'll want to stick to one character throughout a campaign in order to max their stats and weapons, but by the time you've done this in the story mode, you'll still have a few stages to go and switching to one of your un-used officers makes them too weak to handle the stage. This was rectified in later entries but here it doesn't work well.
The weird auto lock when attacking is extremely strong in this game, too strong in fact. In almost every encounter with an officer. I'm attempting to focus my attacks on only them, only for my consecutive attack to be automatically focused on one of the privates next to them. You can't move direction while attacking during these moments and forces you to stop your string of attacks, giving the officer a chance to run away, attack your back or give themselves a x2 attack buff. This frustrated me more than anything else in Dynasty Warriors 4, especially on higher difficulties or facing Lu Bu.
Officers offering you a 1 on 1 duel was introduced in this game in which you have 45 seconds to defeat them in a small arena. It's not too bad except when officers are in rage mode. They already have a full musou that they can whip out at any moment, they shield almost constantly and attempting to use your taunt to break their guard is so slow that they either do a jump charge attack or they just shield up again instantly. This brings the pace of the game to a crawl for a while.
The Voice acting is a weird one for me. Personally, I loved the down-right terrible VA in Dynasty Warriors 3. It's one of it's main attractions. In this game, the voice acting is fine but it's not what I'd call good. It's never so silly that you can't help but laugh or imitate. It's a minor point but I felt like mentioning it.
These reasons are why I've given the game the score I did. I enjoyed the game a bunch and had a great time playing. But I'd really rather play Dynasty Warriors 3 and 5 instead.
Let's start with my history playing these games. I started way back on Dynasty Warriors 3, which to this day might be my favourite game of all time and absolutely is my favourite Dynasty Warriors game. Since then, I've played almost all entries to varying degrees. Sometimes I'm obsessed, sometimes I'm apathetic and in rare circumstances, I'm horrified (Looking at you Dynasty Warriors 9).
This is me admitting that I will have an un-avoidable bias towards some entries and throughout this review, there may be some comparisons to other Dynasty Warriors games that might not make a whole lot of sense if you haven't checked them out.
Dynasty Warriors is KOEI's over the top re-telling of the already romanticised part of Chinese history known as the "Three Kingdoms era". These games are based on the 14th century novel by Luo Guanzhong titled "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". It's an unbelievably interesting part of Chinese history that puts Game of Thrones to shame.
Okay so what does this even mean? To most, it wont mean much but it does serve as context to the vast array of characters you play as and fight along side in this repetitive hack and slash game. You pick a character of your liking and hit the Square button until there are no enemies left in the stage. Each stage is based on a real historical battle but realism is completely thrown out the window and what we have left is a camp and cheesy game where you can live out your fantasy of slaying thousands of foot soldiers. It's really addictive and KOEI seriously know how to make this type of thing satisfying and 'more-ish' so to speak.
Your regular attacks are tied to the square button of which come in a string of 4, 5 or 6 depending on how high you have your weapon levelled up. Each attack has a slower but more powerful charge attack too which you use with the triangle button. You'll combo by combining these two attacks. DW4 introduced a jumping charge attack which is a nice feature but won't be used too often. You have Musou bar under your health bar which when full, can be unleashed with a press of the circle button. This is your most powerful attack and last longer the larger your musou bar is and how long you hold the button for. When using your Musou attack, you're invincible and is great for dealing large damage to enemy officers and getting you out of sticky situations. These are unique to each character and it's super fun to see.
You have a few modes to chose from. Musou mode is essentially the story mode of the game which VERY LOOSLY follows one of the three Dynasties, Shu, Wu and Wei, and their efforts to unify this era of China. The game doesn't do a great job re-telling the story but it does intrigue enough that you will likely want to go off and do your own research into this part of history. There are also characters not tied to one of the three kingdoms that have their own Musou story such as the terrifying Lu Bu which act like a sort of 'What if' scenario. It's great stuff in all honesty.
Secondly we have Free Mode which is, as you would expect, a mode where you can freely chose any individual stage you played and unlocked in the story mode.
We also have Challenge mode which in my opinion is a little light on content, worth a quick look and nothing more.
The game has some very light (and I do mean very light) RPG elements. The Warriors you play as start off sort of weak and fragile, so you will want to start out on Easy mode before switching to Normal and Hard mode. Throughout the stages, you will find items, +attack and +defence pickups that permanently make your warrior stronger for repeat play-throughs. The higher the difficulty, the better the pickups are too. The Items you find are equip-able before each stage, but you will likely just use the items that give you higher attack & defence etc as there's not much of a reason to do otherwise.
Some Items (and ridable horses) have a certain criteria you must meet on certain stages for them to be discoverable. The criteria for these items is extremely odd and there's a very small chance you'll know what to do unless using a guide. You might have to play stages in a certain order and defeat only a certain few generals for the item to appear. It's something us Dynasty Warriors fans are used to but be warned if you're a new player.
The music in Dynasty Warriors 4 is unbelievably good. If you've played other Warriors or "musou" games, then this won't be a surprise but these games are genuinely worth checking out for their metal-esque cheesy goodness alone! This particular entry introduces traditional Chinese instrumentation and vocalisations too. On paper that shouldn't work, but oh boy it does!
The game is real fun and 10x better if you have a player 2! Find a buddy and tear through enemies and have a laugh at the cut scenes and head bang to soundtrack, you'll have a blast for sure. If you're looking for a game to grind out that can be a little mindless at times, then look no further than this franchise as a whole.
The rest of this review will be catered to those of us who are already familiar with the series.
Dynasty Warriors 4 is the highest selling of the series. Online, it seems to be one of if not THE most fondly remembered. While I enjoy the game, I think it's the weakest out of the classic era (Dynasty Warriors 3 - 5) for a handful of reasons.
Firstly, the stages don't hold a candle to Dynasty Warriors 2, 3 and 5, as well as some of the later entries like 7 and 8. There are more levels than DW2 or 3, but most of them are a lot smaller! They lack that certain magic that DW3 in particular brought to the table. There are a couple of great ones here like Chi Bi and Wu Zhang Plains, but they still feel like watered down versions of the previous games iterations of these battles. The Nanman Campaign in particular is not a lot of fun as it's a medium sized map with closed off sections you can't get through without an elephant. The elephants are cool the first time you see them but aren't a lot of fun to use. With Meng Huo appearing all over the stage, you have to travel up and down the map, possibly using an elephant to traverse. It's a bit of a slog.
The story mode being tied to each faction instead of character sounds good on paper as it does mean we get slightly more accurate re-telling of the story. It makes grinding a little more of a pain in the back side though as you'll want to stick to one character throughout a campaign in order to max their stats and weapons, but by the time you've done this in the story mode, you'll still have a few stages to go and switching to one of your un-used officers makes them too weak to handle the stage. This was rectified in later entries but here it doesn't work well.
The weird auto lock when attacking is extremely strong in this game, too strong in fact. In almost every encounter with an officer. I'm attempting to focus my attacks on only them, only for my consecutive attack to be automatically focused on one of the privates next to them. You can't move direction while attacking during these moments and forces you to stop your string of attacks, giving the officer a chance to run away, attack your back or give themselves a x2 attack buff. This frustrated me more than anything else in Dynasty Warriors 4, especially on higher difficulties or facing Lu Bu.
Officers offering you a 1 on 1 duel was introduced in this game in which you have 45 seconds to defeat them in a small arena. It's not too bad except when officers are in rage mode. They already have a full musou that they can whip out at any moment, they shield almost constantly and attempting to use your taunt to break their guard is so slow that they either do a jump charge attack or they just shield up again instantly. This brings the pace of the game to a crawl for a while.
The Voice acting is a weird one for me. Personally, I loved the down-right terrible VA in Dynasty Warriors 3. It's one of it's main attractions. In this game, the voice acting is fine but it's not what I'd call good. It's never so silly that you can't help but laugh or imitate. It's a minor point but I felt like mentioning it.
These reasons are why I've given the game the score I did. I enjoyed the game a bunch and had a great time playing. But I'd really rather play Dynasty Warriors 3 and 5 instead.
Dynasty Warriors 2
2000
dian wei: grunt, grunt, grunt, URRYEEEAT!
EA Sports FC 24
2023
I think most people think fifa is a bad game due to it’s gambling and pay to win aspects and the fact that it releases every year. These things for the average Fifa player (including me) sadly don’t matter anymore. This community doesn’t care because it is used to these things most people who played this game grew up with it and don’t know any better.
That is the reason I expect EA to atleast make the core gameplay of FIFA good but they can’t even achieve that with this game. I mean how can you release the same game over and over again and make it worse every year as an example the gameplay feels different everyday I am not even kidding sometimes it feels smooth and fast but most of the time just sluggish and slow. Ultimate teams power curve is evolving way to fast by making way to many promos so that everyone has an Overpowered squad halfway through this games life cycle. Something that still annoys me is how pace dependent everything is it doesn’t matter that Rodri is one of the best defensive midfielders in the world if he doesn’t have a promo with atleast 90 pace by December he is useless.
Career mode is also shit and gets worse every year the only thing EA add are some animations that yes are cute but get repetitive very fast and simply can’t be counted as added content. Also please for the sake of my life please remove the club objectives how can it be that I win the Premier league with Luton town and still get a bad managerial rating because i didn’t sign three players from Micronesia.
That is the reason I expect EA to atleast make the core gameplay of FIFA good but they can’t even achieve that with this game. I mean how can you release the same game over and over again and make it worse every year as an example the gameplay feels different everyday I am not even kidding sometimes it feels smooth and fast but most of the time just sluggish and slow. Ultimate teams power curve is evolving way to fast by making way to many promos so that everyone has an Overpowered squad halfway through this games life cycle. Something that still annoys me is how pace dependent everything is it doesn’t matter that Rodri is one of the best defensive midfielders in the world if he doesn’t have a promo with atleast 90 pace by December he is useless.
Career mode is also shit and gets worse every year the only thing EA add are some animations that yes are cute but get repetitive very fast and simply can’t be counted as added content. Also please for the sake of my life please remove the club objectives how can it be that I win the Premier league with Luton town and still get a bad managerial rating because i didn’t sign three players from Micronesia.
For some this is the darkest Zelda game, for others it's a rehash of the incredible Ocarina of Time. For me, it's possibly the best Zelda game of all time.
For this review, I played the HD remaster for the Wii U, the differences are subtle so wont be mentioned much. Everything I say here will apply to the Gamecube and Wii originals too.
In recent years, Twilight Princess has been seen as a bit of a 'black sheep' in the series, alongside Majoras Mask. I'll never understand this as in all honesty, Twilight Princess has an almost un-rivalled ability to suck you into it's cooky world of darkness almost instantly. Just like it did back in 2006, the game opens up with you taking control of of our hero Link. Here, he is a farm boy living in the cosy forest village of Ordon, helping the village with menial tasks, spending time with the village youths and of course, herding goats. Instantly, Link becomes that under-dog hero we all know and loves living the easy quiet life. We just know that something darker is brewing around the corner.
Without going into to many details, eventually Link and his best friend Ilia are attacked while giving Links horse Epona, a wash in the spring water fountain just outside of the village. The kids of the village are kidnapped and our hero is turned into the wolf we see on the cover, he awakens in a cell and we are met with one of, if not the single best character in the entire franchise, Midna. Midna is an inhabitant of the Twilight world, a sort of echo to Hyrule where everything is dark, Twilight monsters roam freely and contact with the regular world of Hyrule is extremely limited. It's a hauntingly beautiful sight every time we cross the Twilight barrier.
The afore mentioned Midna happens to be my favourite character in all of Zelda. In fact, I named my cat after her! Without spoiling too much, Midnas character evolves throughout the game in a way in which we have rarely seen in Zelda games or even Nintendo games for that matter, even to this day. She starts the adventure poking fun at Link in his horrible situation and having a disdain for the occupants of the light world, but eventually she molds into this loving character who trusts Link with saving not just Hyrule, but the Twilight realm itself. She's a wonderful character to experience.
In typical Zelda fashion, Link and Midna have to adventure throughout this vast iteration of Hyrule, meeting the different races that live there, traveling through dungeons, beating bosses, attaining different unique tools and solving puzzles, all in the name of saving Hyrule as he always does.
The version of Hyrule we have in twilight Princess is vast, beautiful and full of the memorable quirky characters the series is known for. The giant stone Gorons of death mountain at first don't get along well with humans, but with Links help, they become the friendly gentle giants we absolutely adore. They even have a handful of different designs, some of which are so hilariously lovable in their mannerisms that I have to say, they become the most memorable of all the Gorons in Zelda.
The Zora of Zoras domain are a beautiful graceful race of mermaid-like fish people. Very stoic in their nature, they have recently lost their Queen and we must help their Prince find his courage to lead the Zora as his mother once did.
We also have a new race, the Oocoo, of which late in the game we get to travel to their city in the sky and save them from a giant twilight dragon. They are little bald bird-like creatures that talk with weird mannerisms, can glide like cuccoos (chickens) and walk on walls, for some reason.. Instantly memorable!
Of course we also have the humans (Hylians?). In Twilight Princess, humans come in so many different varieties, just like in real life, all with different passions, styles and bursting with personality. A few of the most memorable are Rusl, Links mentor in Ordon Village. Agitha, a young 'princess' who lives in this games Castle Town and is obsessed with bugs, in which Link must collect them all for her. Fyer, a man who lives in the stunning Lake Hylia and owns a cannon, and is instrumental in helping Link later in the game. Falbi, who owns a Cuccoo mini game in which you must grab a cuccoo and float down towards Lake Hylia and land on a platform of treasure chests and possibly my favourite human character, Telma. Telma is the owner of Telmas bar in Castle Town who uses her, ahem.. assets.. to help Link and his friends throughout the adventure. She's brave, smart and always seems to know something more than the other characters with that cheeky wink she does constantly.
We also have a pair or Yeti, Yeta and Yeto who reside in the Snowpeak Ruins. They are a married couple that I cannot wait to meet every time I play the game. Their warmth (despite living on a frozen mountain) friendliness and humour are one of the peak sections to the game, if you pardon the pun, ha!
As I am sure most people know, Ganon/Ganondorf is the main big villain in the game, and he is great here with his best ever design. He's huge, menacing and seems so powerful in this world. Better still, we have Zant whom we meet early in the game and turns up from time to time. He's an inhabitant of the Twilight world, has an unbelievably interesting design and seems so unique for a villain in a Zelda game, he even has a good back story. You better believe we will be kicking his ass later on!
By now, you probably know how the classic format of Zelda is structured, we beat temples and dungeons. In Twilight Princess, dungeons have so much more to them stylistically compared to most other entries in the series. A few of my favourites are the Goron Mines, a fire temple of sorts in which we actually meet some aging Goron elders in the temple itself! This is where you get the Bow and Arrow! The Arbiters Grounds which seems to be the favourite among fans. It's a temple in the desert which becomes a very important place in the story and includes a call back to Ocarina of Time in which you must find and defeat 4 ghostly Peo souls. You also get the fan favourite Spinner tool which can connect to runners like a gear in various walls throughout the dungeon and Hyrule, leading to some adrenaline pumping high paced puzzle solving! They have to re-introduce this into the series some day. My favourite dungeon in the whole series is the Snowpeak Ruins. Married yetis Yeta and Yeto call this abandoned mansion in the snowy mountains home. Yeta isn't feeling great and she accidentally sends us around the mansion searching for her bedroom key while her husband Yeto is lovingly making a soup! We also get a brilliant weapon here, the Ball and Chain which can destroy things, mostly ice, and helps us throughout the rest of the game with some really unique application.
There are no bad dungeons in the game at all, some other great ones include the first temple in the game, the Forest temple in which Monkeys help us traverse the place and gives us the Gale boomerang, The City in the Sky where the Oocoo live and we get the brilliant double Clawshot letting us zip around like Spiderman and the seriously under-rated Lakebed Temple, which is a water temple under Lake Hylia. It's a water temple done right (I'm looking at you Ocarina of time) and where you utilise the easy-to-use swimming physics of the Zora armour.
Part-way through the game, Link is able to transform into a wolf at will, this gives him a digging ability which lets us find rupees, heart and the occasional cave which can house all sorts of goodies from large rupees, poe souls and heart containers. Wolf Link is also able to utilise his scent ability which lets him track people down in the story as well as finding the spots to dig! He can also fast travel around Hyrule in this form, which is needed as this game is huge!
Lets talk about the music quickly. It's unbelievable good. The Hyrule Field music is an instant ear-worm which I hum almost constantly. Kakariko village is present in this game with a little melody that difficult to not whistle! There is even a spaghetti western inspired song that plays in a hidden village later in the game where we must use our bow and arrow to clear out the enemies present! The highlight song is Midnas Lament however. Without spoiling the story too much, we must save Midna from death. This simply gorgeous piano ballad plays which is emotional, haunting and fitting for the character and what she is going through, a must listen even if you don't play that game.
If I had to pick some parts of the game that I don't particularly enjoy, well first would be the difficulty, it's probably too easy, but that makes it an excellent game for people looking to get into the game. I don't think I've come close to dying in the game ever in any playthroughs. There are these sections where you play as Wolf Link and must collect 'Tears of Light' to progress the story early in the game. This occurs three times early in the game and are shortened in the HD remaster, but they still feel like padding. Bearing in mind the game came out in 2006, I do wish that the Hyrule field was a little more inhabited like the towns and villages are but my biggest gripe is Zelda, The titular Princess herself! She's rocking a beautiful mature design here but she's not in the game much at all, I think we see her 2 times in total.
It's a masterpiece of a game and in my mind, Twilight Princess is a near-perfect entry into the series. Is it better than Ocarina of Time, Majoras Mask and Wind Waker? I'm not sure, they all have their highlights but for me, I'm picking Twilight Princess as my absolute favourite in the series.
For this review, I played the HD remaster for the Wii U, the differences are subtle so wont be mentioned much. Everything I say here will apply to the Gamecube and Wii originals too.
In recent years, Twilight Princess has been seen as a bit of a 'black sheep' in the series, alongside Majoras Mask. I'll never understand this as in all honesty, Twilight Princess has an almost un-rivalled ability to suck you into it's cooky world of darkness almost instantly. Just like it did back in 2006, the game opens up with you taking control of of our hero Link. Here, he is a farm boy living in the cosy forest village of Ordon, helping the village with menial tasks, spending time with the village youths and of course, herding goats. Instantly, Link becomes that under-dog hero we all know and loves living the easy quiet life. We just know that something darker is brewing around the corner.
Without going into to many details, eventually Link and his best friend Ilia are attacked while giving Links horse Epona, a wash in the spring water fountain just outside of the village. The kids of the village are kidnapped and our hero is turned into the wolf we see on the cover, he awakens in a cell and we are met with one of, if not the single best character in the entire franchise, Midna. Midna is an inhabitant of the Twilight world, a sort of echo to Hyrule where everything is dark, Twilight monsters roam freely and contact with the regular world of Hyrule is extremely limited. It's a hauntingly beautiful sight every time we cross the Twilight barrier.
The afore mentioned Midna happens to be my favourite character in all of Zelda. In fact, I named my cat after her! Without spoiling too much, Midnas character evolves throughout the game in a way in which we have rarely seen in Zelda games or even Nintendo games for that matter, even to this day. She starts the adventure poking fun at Link in his horrible situation and having a disdain for the occupants of the light world, but eventually she molds into this loving character who trusts Link with saving not just Hyrule, but the Twilight realm itself. She's a wonderful character to experience.
In typical Zelda fashion, Link and Midna have to adventure throughout this vast iteration of Hyrule, meeting the different races that live there, traveling through dungeons, beating bosses, attaining different unique tools and solving puzzles, all in the name of saving Hyrule as he always does.
The version of Hyrule we have in twilight Princess is vast, beautiful and full of the memorable quirky characters the series is known for. The giant stone Gorons of death mountain at first don't get along well with humans, but with Links help, they become the friendly gentle giants we absolutely adore. They even have a handful of different designs, some of which are so hilariously lovable in their mannerisms that I have to say, they become the most memorable of all the Gorons in Zelda.
The Zora of Zoras domain are a beautiful graceful race of mermaid-like fish people. Very stoic in their nature, they have recently lost their Queen and we must help their Prince find his courage to lead the Zora as his mother once did.
We also have a new race, the Oocoo, of which late in the game we get to travel to their city in the sky and save them from a giant twilight dragon. They are little bald bird-like creatures that talk with weird mannerisms, can glide like cuccoos (chickens) and walk on walls, for some reason.. Instantly memorable!
Of course we also have the humans (Hylians?). In Twilight Princess, humans come in so many different varieties, just like in real life, all with different passions, styles and bursting with personality. A few of the most memorable are Rusl, Links mentor in Ordon Village. Agitha, a young 'princess' who lives in this games Castle Town and is obsessed with bugs, in which Link must collect them all for her. Fyer, a man who lives in the stunning Lake Hylia and owns a cannon, and is instrumental in helping Link later in the game. Falbi, who owns a Cuccoo mini game in which you must grab a cuccoo and float down towards Lake Hylia and land on a platform of treasure chests and possibly my favourite human character, Telma. Telma is the owner of Telmas bar in Castle Town who uses her, ahem.. assets.. to help Link and his friends throughout the adventure. She's brave, smart and always seems to know something more than the other characters with that cheeky wink she does constantly.
We also have a pair or Yeti, Yeta and Yeto who reside in the Snowpeak Ruins. They are a married couple that I cannot wait to meet every time I play the game. Their warmth (despite living on a frozen mountain) friendliness and humour are one of the peak sections to the game, if you pardon the pun, ha!
As I am sure most people know, Ganon/Ganondorf is the main big villain in the game, and he is great here with his best ever design. He's huge, menacing and seems so powerful in this world. Better still, we have Zant whom we meet early in the game and turns up from time to time. He's an inhabitant of the Twilight world, has an unbelievably interesting design and seems so unique for a villain in a Zelda game, he even has a good back story. You better believe we will be kicking his ass later on!
By now, you probably know how the classic format of Zelda is structured, we beat temples and dungeons. In Twilight Princess, dungeons have so much more to them stylistically compared to most other entries in the series. A few of my favourites are the Goron Mines, a fire temple of sorts in which we actually meet some aging Goron elders in the temple itself! This is where you get the Bow and Arrow! The Arbiters Grounds which seems to be the favourite among fans. It's a temple in the desert which becomes a very important place in the story and includes a call back to Ocarina of Time in which you must find and defeat 4 ghostly Peo souls. You also get the fan favourite Spinner tool which can connect to runners like a gear in various walls throughout the dungeon and Hyrule, leading to some adrenaline pumping high paced puzzle solving! They have to re-introduce this into the series some day. My favourite dungeon in the whole series is the Snowpeak Ruins. Married yetis Yeta and Yeto call this abandoned mansion in the snowy mountains home. Yeta isn't feeling great and she accidentally sends us around the mansion searching for her bedroom key while her husband Yeto is lovingly making a soup! We also get a brilliant weapon here, the Ball and Chain which can destroy things, mostly ice, and helps us throughout the rest of the game with some really unique application.
There are no bad dungeons in the game at all, some other great ones include the first temple in the game, the Forest temple in which Monkeys help us traverse the place and gives us the Gale boomerang, The City in the Sky where the Oocoo live and we get the brilliant double Clawshot letting us zip around like Spiderman and the seriously under-rated Lakebed Temple, which is a water temple under Lake Hylia. It's a water temple done right (I'm looking at you Ocarina of time) and where you utilise the easy-to-use swimming physics of the Zora armour.
Part-way through the game, Link is able to transform into a wolf at will, this gives him a digging ability which lets us find rupees, heart and the occasional cave which can house all sorts of goodies from large rupees, poe souls and heart containers. Wolf Link is also able to utilise his scent ability which lets him track people down in the story as well as finding the spots to dig! He can also fast travel around Hyrule in this form, which is needed as this game is huge!
Lets talk about the music quickly. It's unbelievable good. The Hyrule Field music is an instant ear-worm which I hum almost constantly. Kakariko village is present in this game with a little melody that difficult to not whistle! There is even a spaghetti western inspired song that plays in a hidden village later in the game where we must use our bow and arrow to clear out the enemies present! The highlight song is Midnas Lament however. Without spoiling the story too much, we must save Midna from death. This simply gorgeous piano ballad plays which is emotional, haunting and fitting for the character and what she is going through, a must listen even if you don't play that game.
If I had to pick some parts of the game that I don't particularly enjoy, well first would be the difficulty, it's probably too easy, but that makes it an excellent game for people looking to get into the game. I don't think I've come close to dying in the game ever in any playthroughs. There are these sections where you play as Wolf Link and must collect 'Tears of Light' to progress the story early in the game. This occurs three times early in the game and are shortened in the HD remaster, but they still feel like padding. Bearing in mind the game came out in 2006, I do wish that the Hyrule field was a little more inhabited like the towns and villages are but my biggest gripe is Zelda, The titular Princess herself! She's rocking a beautiful mature design here but she's not in the game much at all, I think we see her 2 times in total.
It's a masterpiece of a game and in my mind, Twilight Princess is a near-perfect entry into the series. Is it better than Ocarina of Time, Majoras Mask and Wind Waker? I'm not sure, they all have their highlights but for me, I'm picking Twilight Princess as my absolute favourite in the series.
Pokémon Go
2016
Been playing this game on and off since release. April 2023 I started a new account and have hardly missed a day of playing. While I don't play quite as much as I used to, I still check in everyday to send gifts to friends, spin a stop and catch a Pokemon.
The game has changed a whole lot in the last few years. If you haven't played for years, it's well worth starting fresh and finding a buddy to play with! During the better weather, it's unbelievably fun to go a walk for an hour, catch a bunch of Pokemon and defeat a few gyms on the way.
There are daily challenges which range from catching a certain amount of a specific Pokemon to defeating a certain amount of Rocket Go grunts. The feedback loop is extremely addictive and levelling up your character is tremendously satisfying.
My favourite part of Pokemon Go? Once a month there is a "Community day" where one Pokemon is the star for a 3 hour slot. In this time-frame, you'll find this one 'mon 99% of the time with an increased chance to find a shiny variant! If you're playing with a friend, it's mega fun to compete and see who can find the most shinys in that time frame. If you are a part of any online communities, you can also link up to take on "Raids" in which a group (or solo if you are good enough!) take on a beefy Pokemon together with a chance to catch the critter upon defeating it. This is how you catch most of the legendary Pokemon, which also yields a decent amount of experience. The community enjoy a bit of a moan online (I'm looking at you Facebook groups!) but, it's mostly a good time.
While it's a difficult task to 'Catch 'em all', it's doable with enough time and effort. Grab a buddy, and use this as an excuse to go walks a little more often than you normally would, weather permitting of course!
It's not perfect, but I can't think of any other mobile games that provide what Pokemon Go has provided over the last few years! The best part is, you don't even have to be an existing fan of Pokemon to enjoy this. Most players I know have never touched a Pokemon game at all!
The game has changed a whole lot in the last few years. If you haven't played for years, it's well worth starting fresh and finding a buddy to play with! During the better weather, it's unbelievably fun to go a walk for an hour, catch a bunch of Pokemon and defeat a few gyms on the way.
There are daily challenges which range from catching a certain amount of a specific Pokemon to defeating a certain amount of Rocket Go grunts. The feedback loop is extremely addictive and levelling up your character is tremendously satisfying.
My favourite part of Pokemon Go? Once a month there is a "Community day" where one Pokemon is the star for a 3 hour slot. In this time-frame, you'll find this one 'mon 99% of the time with an increased chance to find a shiny variant! If you're playing with a friend, it's mega fun to compete and see who can find the most shinys in that time frame. If you are a part of any online communities, you can also link up to take on "Raids" in which a group (or solo if you are good enough!) take on a beefy Pokemon together with a chance to catch the critter upon defeating it. This is how you catch most of the legendary Pokemon, which also yields a decent amount of experience. The community enjoy a bit of a moan online (I'm looking at you Facebook groups!) but, it's mostly a good time.
While it's a difficult task to 'Catch 'em all', it's doable with enough time and effort. Grab a buddy, and use this as an excuse to go walks a little more often than you normally would, weather permitting of course!
It's not perfect, but I can't think of any other mobile games that provide what Pokemon Go has provided over the last few years! The best part is, you don't even have to be an existing fan of Pokemon to enjoy this. Most players I know have never touched a Pokemon game at all!
Kirby's Dream Land
1992
My first foray into the Kirby Series, decided to start with the little guys first adventure, Kirby's Dream Land on the Game Boy.
I had no idea what to expect when going in, all I knew is that Kirby could inhale enemies and steal their powers. My only experience with the greedy little marshmallow was through the Super Smash Bros franchise.
I am delighted to say that I am pleasantly surprised with how good this little game is, and I now understand why this series is so popular. I will definitely be coming back to this series in the future to check out what else is on offer.
So, it's a 2D platformer on the Game Boy, but it offers a unique and easy to understand control scheme and level layout. Theres only 5 levels with a boss at the end of each, so it should only take 45 to 60 minutes to complete, even completely blind. It's also extremely easy with very little challenge, but that doesn't seem to matter because what's on offer here is so delightfully charming, that you'll spent that hour or so smiling and humming away.
Kirby controls better than Mario on the Game Boy which shocked me. He can inhale enemies, fire them back at other enemies and float infinitely with a press of the up button. It's very intuitive after playing for a couple on minutes. That's really all their is to it. The stages are all very short and easy to follow with a some-what limited variety of enemies, all of which are charming, cute and easy to deal with. There is a little challenge (and I do mean a little) with one or two of the bosses, but it's nothing a 6 year old shouldn't be able to handle.
Actually, this would make a superb game to get kids into gaming. Yes it's old, but Kirby is such a lovable little dude that kids will love him right away and with the lack of challenge, younger players will get immense satisfaction with beating baddies and completing stages. I'd imagine that it's very engaging. As an adult, you could probably skip over it but it's great if you have an hour or so to kill and haven't played it before.
The music is all brilliant. The little chip-tune melodies are real ear worms and should be instantly recognisable to any Smash Bros players, including some of the enemies, items and the big bad guy, King Dedede.
For Game Boy platformers, I'd actually chose this over Mario Land 1, 2 and maybe even Super Mario bros Deluxe on the Game Boy Color. Top stuff by HAL!
I had no idea what to expect when going in, all I knew is that Kirby could inhale enemies and steal their powers. My only experience with the greedy little marshmallow was through the Super Smash Bros franchise.
I am delighted to say that I am pleasantly surprised with how good this little game is, and I now understand why this series is so popular. I will definitely be coming back to this series in the future to check out what else is on offer.
So, it's a 2D platformer on the Game Boy, but it offers a unique and easy to understand control scheme and level layout. Theres only 5 levels with a boss at the end of each, so it should only take 45 to 60 minutes to complete, even completely blind. It's also extremely easy with very little challenge, but that doesn't seem to matter because what's on offer here is so delightfully charming, that you'll spent that hour or so smiling and humming away.
Kirby controls better than Mario on the Game Boy which shocked me. He can inhale enemies, fire them back at other enemies and float infinitely with a press of the up button. It's very intuitive after playing for a couple on minutes. That's really all their is to it. The stages are all very short and easy to follow with a some-what limited variety of enemies, all of which are charming, cute and easy to deal with. There is a little challenge (and I do mean a little) with one or two of the bosses, but it's nothing a 6 year old shouldn't be able to handle.
Actually, this would make a superb game to get kids into gaming. Yes it's old, but Kirby is such a lovable little dude that kids will love him right away and with the lack of challenge, younger players will get immense satisfaction with beating baddies and completing stages. I'd imagine that it's very engaging. As an adult, you could probably skip over it but it's great if you have an hour or so to kill and haven't played it before.
The music is all brilliant. The little chip-tune melodies are real ear worms and should be instantly recognisable to any Smash Bros players, including some of the enemies, items and the big bad guy, King Dedede.
For Game Boy platformers, I'd actually chose this over Mario Land 1, 2 and maybe even Super Mario bros Deluxe on the Game Boy Color. Top stuff by HAL!
I don’t trust anyone who hasn’t played this game
this was great, really. But it was also very difficult. A bit too difficult.
This "game" if you even can call it that, is pretty boring.
There is a lot of care and detail put into the idea of how a person with psychosis sees the world, which I appreciate, but the execution of the game and it's story is so bad that it would have been better off as a movie.
Typical gameplay:
- press forward to walk for 5 minutes, hearing incessant voices and dialogue in your head over and over
- find a "puzzle" where you press a button to focus in on something, then look around to find another thing that looks like it
- do some combat I guess, which is serviceable, but very basic
- experience the "story" which is almost entirely exposition dumping and a narration that is so far up it's own ass trying to be interesting
Maybe you'll love the game based on the merit of it's pros, mainly the stunning visuals and mocap, and the respectful treatment of mental illness. However, this one really didn't do it for me. There are better games out there that tell better stories and do a better job telling them.
Note on my ratings:
Treat my stars like Michelin Stars - just having one means the game is worth playing in some way.
1/2 ⭐: hot trash garbage, since you can't do zero stars here
⭐: below average, needs work
⭐⭐: average
⭐⭐⭐: pretty good
⭐⭐⭐⭐: excellent
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: all time favourite
There is a lot of care and detail put into the idea of how a person with psychosis sees the world, which I appreciate, but the execution of the game and it's story is so bad that it would have been better off as a movie.
Typical gameplay:
- press forward to walk for 5 minutes, hearing incessant voices and dialogue in your head over and over
- find a "puzzle" where you press a button to focus in on something, then look around to find another thing that looks like it
- do some combat I guess, which is serviceable, but very basic
- experience the "story" which is almost entirely exposition dumping and a narration that is so far up it's own ass trying to be interesting
Maybe you'll love the game based on the merit of it's pros, mainly the stunning visuals and mocap, and the respectful treatment of mental illness. However, this one really didn't do it for me. There are better games out there that tell better stories and do a better job telling them.
Note on my ratings:
Treat my stars like Michelin Stars - just having one means the game is worth playing in some way.
1/2 ⭐: hot trash garbage, since you can't do zero stars here
⭐: below average, needs work
⭐⭐: average
⭐⭐⭐: pretty good
⭐⭐⭐⭐: excellent
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: all time favourite