Honestly its the 3DS version of skylanders spyros adventure that got me interested in the series, not the more mainstream console version. I needed more 3DS games to play at the time, plus that version came with its own set of dudes unique to that version so I was like hell yeah. This game plays like a 3D action platformer, where you beam 2 skylanders up to the game from the portal wirelessly to then take em around with you, rather than needing a portal constantly hooked up at all times. It makes the game better paced imo, but if you have a large collection of figures it gets annoying if you want to swap characters, plus upgrades don't really exist between the 3DS and console versions, so take what you will with that. I brought my figures to a friends house to play the console version once and found out that while my dudes were high-leveled, they didn't have any upgrades. Honestly though I think this version of the game might have held up better than the main console versions.

Technically impressive, there's plenty of fun to be had and I'd say it was an improvement over Breath Of The Wild, but it felt too similar. I understand that it's a sequel so obviously it'll be reminiscent of its predecessor, however there were too many moments where it just felt like I was playing BOTW with some additions. There are plenty of improvements though such as the shrines having more interesting puzzles, the dungeons are revolutionary in the sense that they're actually visually distinct from one another, and the depths and sky islands are cool...... for like the first time you visit them.

Unfortunately due to things still feeling samey I got bored with exploration pretty early on and kept playing the game off and on, if you thought the open world in the original was boring then this game won't change your mind. I don't think anything in TOTK will be that appealing to you if you didn't like BOTW, outside of the dungeons and bosses. The depths are boring after the first visit because everything looks the same down there and the lighting makes it unfun to traverse, and the sky islands are disappointingly half baked outside of the opening. We get an area that's so different from anything in BOTW and yet there's so little to explore, and what is there is divided into small chunks scattered several miles apart from each other. I wouldn't have minded if the main map was smaller if it meant more time to flesh out the sky.

Aside from those main two map additions not much has changed, there are some new enemies that don't really change the way you approach combat. The only other thing I have to say regarding combat is that activating sage abilities is a pain since you have to run up to the sage whose ability you want to use mid battle and press A, which is not as simple as it sounds considering some of the fights can be huge mob encounters and there's too much going on.

I never really found it necessary to use Ultrahand creations. They took more time and resources to make and usually never ended up working the way I wanted them too. You'll just make the occasional car or plane to traverse certain areas, but at least the options to get really creative are there. I also liked the new abilities, ascend makes for clever transportation options and recall is actually broken which is a good and bad thing. On one hand solving puzzles due to clever thinking with recall is satisfying, but on the other hand there were a lot of moments where I walked into a shrine and instead of thinking of the way the devs probably intended for me to solve it, I could just grab a platform, hover it around the spot I needed to get to, then put it down and recall it so I can get up to where I needed to be without much effort. I'm all for open ended puzzle solving, but it just gets totally trivialized a lot of the time here.

With all of that said, I don't think this game is worth $70. It reuses so much from the first game that I don't really think it can justify the price tag even if it is technically impressive, ignoring frame drops. Not that $70 is a terrible price or anything, but it's something that I don't want game devs to get comfortable doing (it might be too late for us though)

It's a good game, but I never feel like the game hit its true potential as a sequel. Also I'm getting kinda worn out on a lot of games being open world, so I hope this doesn't end up becoming the norm for the series, I think this formula will get stale if we get a third game like this.

The prospect of a 2nd Mario Kart on a handheld console might not have been something that was super appealing to fans prior to the Nintendo DS's announcement. Mario Kart Super Circuit, for the GBA, was a 2D racer in the same vein as the original Super Mario Kart, and it quickly gained a reputation as the most forgotten game of the series. But in 2005, public sentiment was about to change; Mario Kart DS was released late that year, signaling an end to the 2D style by being the first 3D Mario Kart on a handheld console.

It's important not to understate how significant this was; 3D on handhelds was still somewhat of a revolutionary concept at this point, and the game looked quite good considering the circumstances. It also helped massively with playing the game, too; 2D environments were never that easy to race in, as depth perception was often quite difficult. With Mario Kart DS, the game felt as good to play as ever, and looked the part as well, aided by the absolutely fantastic course designs on offer here. Nintendo were at the top of their game when it came to track design in MKDS; there are many fantastic courses in this game that are not only well-designed, but also feel appropriate to the Mario series as well. Delfino Square, Luigi's Mansion, Airship Fortress, Tick Tock Clock; so many of MKDS's courses feel thematically appropriate, as well as being enjoyable to race through. It was also the first game to bring back retro courses from multiple previous titles. Not all of these courses were the most amazing, as half were lifted from SMK & MKSC, but there was still enough variety and graphical upgrading to make them interesting. This added an incredible amount of variety to this game, to the point where it became something that would go on to become a mainstay in future Mario Kart games. It was also the first game in the series to feature wireless multiplayer and WiFi racing; truly, so many features that are taken for granted now started in Mario Kart DS.

Mechanically, the game feels great to play as well. Rubberbanding has been toned down a bit from previous titles, so racing feels a little more fair. One negative of Mario Kart DS is the prevalence of snaking; drifting and boosting back and forth on a straight piece of track. It's technically the fastest way to race, but it makes the game a lot more tedious and uninteresting. Luckily, its implementation is not required in single player modes, so it only affected the long-retired multiplayer aspect of the game. But most other things about Mario Kart DS just feel so right. It's a standard MK experience in a way, but one with so many unique aspects, like the relevant course design and the overall DS aesthetic, that makes it extremely memorable. Even the ability to add a little emblem to the front of your kart, a mostly insignificant addition, just gives the game that extra amount of character. Battle Mode, while mostly remaining unchanged, even added a feature to allow players to blow into the DS's microphone to blow up a balloon during the game. It's these little additions that add up to make MKDS such a satisfying game to play.

Of course, Mario Kart DS's biggest addition was the introduction of Mission Mode, a series of single player challenges and boss fights for players to complete. This was, simply put, a brilliant addition. Mario Kart has always been a series that focused more on multiplayer than anything, and while all games from the series can be enjoyed in single player, no other title catered to them more than MKDS. The challenges weren't anything super special, but they were extremely fun, and added a massive degree of value to the game. It's something that just makes other MK games feel lacking by comparison, and what helps Mario Kart DS stand out as the definitive Mario Kart experience. More than ever, it was evident that a great deal of care and time was put into making this game the best that the series has to offer, and Nintendo succeeded with that goal tremendously. To this day, no other game in the series has just what Mario Kart DS had, which is why it remains so memorable and special to so many people, and why players keep going back to it, even almost 20 years after its release.

A very unfortunately mediocre game. I came into it wishing I'd be able to come out saying 'oh this game doesn't deserve the hate it gets' but... no it really does. Essentially a bad 2 hour movie with some of the worst gameplay the Sonic franchise has ever seen spliced in between. Some of the soundtrack here is pretty good, the visuals looks rather pretty when the stages aren't sticking to the palette of orange and brown, and the avatar creator is neat. That's about as much praise as I can give this game. I'd only advise picking it up if you're a hardcore Sonic fan (or want to play with mods!)