PhilthePill
BACKER
2023
Midway through my Pikmin 4 experience, I was happy to be playing a new Pikmin game that looked gorgeous and handled smoothly, but I did feel that the game had added a lot of mechanics that simply made it different from my peak experience of surviving with Olimar and Louie.
Pikmin 4 has the busy maps from Pikmin 3, all the ways Oatchi makes combat far less dangerous, and an extremely prominent checklisting feature that makes the treasure gauge from Pikmin 2 seem downright opaque. It's certainly a way to streamline the game and make it accessible to folks who didn't grow up with the first two, but it also felt like I had a life preserver on when what I really wanted to do was a full swim in the lake.
Cruising to the end of the first act, it was a great Switch experience, but mostly just a good Pikmin experience....until I went through the plot and levels of Act 2. This is where the game truly rises above its station and puts all those mechanics to use. The caves in these areas are actually challenging. The addition of Shipwreck Tale is an excellent challenge for those who like the time management aspects of the franchise. The Sage Trials were blisteringly tough. And all the additional lore they're adding to a certain character made it the total package for me by the end.
I would just make it so that Oatchi's Rush is a little more limited in its uses.
Pikmin 4 has the busy maps from Pikmin 3, all the ways Oatchi makes combat far less dangerous, and an extremely prominent checklisting feature that makes the treasure gauge from Pikmin 2 seem downright opaque. It's certainly a way to streamline the game and make it accessible to folks who didn't grow up with the first two, but it also felt like I had a life preserver on when what I really wanted to do was a full swim in the lake.
Cruising to the end of the first act, it was a great Switch experience, but mostly just a good Pikmin experience....until I went through the plot and levels of Act 2. This is where the game truly rises above its station and puts all those mechanics to use. The caves in these areas are actually challenging. The addition of Shipwreck Tale is an excellent challenge for those who like the time management aspects of the franchise. The Sage Trials were blisteringly tough. And all the additional lore they're adding to a certain character made it the total package for me by the end.
I would just make it so that Oatchi's Rush is a little more limited in its uses.
While Metroid Dread is still the most pure evolution of the series, this one kept drawing me back in due to its rewarding atmosphere.
2020
Fell into a good groove on my second attempt, barrelling through my choices in order to see what would happen at the end of the 28 days. The background questions Death & Taxes bring up don't get fully explored by the simple plot. The "impact" your choices have on the world are sometimes extremely predictable, but part of the fun is chasing down the butterfly effect of certain choices, including what happens to the green boots.
2021
Hear me out. The game's plot changes depending on whether you put your toilet paper up on the toilet tank or in the cupboards.
2022
I'm not a graphics guy. I roll my eyes at the gamers who care about framerate. I stay in my Nintendo lane and do not care to know what an Unreal Engine is. Which is why the whole "they didn't even create new Pokemon models for Sword & Shield" talking point didn't bother me.
But this game initially tested me. The fact that the performance issues was resulting in lag and delayed interface response was admittedly a core flaw.
Just a few hours into it, I went back to not caring. What I cared about was exploring new areas with my Miraidon and sending out my stronger Pokemon in the Let's Go style while keeping my eyes peeled for literally hundreds that I had yet to catch.
I don't think we're going back to linear Pokemon anytime soon. Now to just cross my fingers and hope next time we get some level scaling with the gyms.
But this game initially tested me. The fact that the performance issues was resulting in lag and delayed interface response was admittedly a core flaw.
Just a few hours into it, I went back to not caring. What I cared about was exploring new areas with my Miraidon and sending out my stronger Pokemon in the Let's Go style while keeping my eyes peeled for literally hundreds that I had yet to catch.
I don't think we're going back to linear Pokemon anytime soon. Now to just cross my fingers and hope next time we get some level scaling with the gyms.
"I'll just complete this last mission."
When this game clicked for me, I was hooked. Alternating between skags, bandits, and the subsequent variety of enemies was very satisfying. There probably could be more done to the difficulty balance to make it harder to be killed, but more punishing when it does happen. Still, the game brings surprising difficulty ramp-ups that were welcome in its final third with the introduction of armored enemies. A great time.
When this game clicked for me, I was hooked. Alternating between skags, bandits, and the subsequent variety of enemies was very satisfying. There probably could be more done to the difficulty balance to make it harder to be killed, but more punishing when it does happen. Still, the game brings surprising difficulty ramp-ups that were welcome in its final third with the introduction of armored enemies. A great time.
2018
This game kicked my ass and I had to cheat at the end, but it was better than 95% of movies.
1997
Okay, hear me out:
A remake of this game where you get to play a flashback mission alongside Bill. Also, if you kill enough friendlies during Katina, the Cornerian Space Force turns against you the rest of your mission.
A remake of this game where you get to play a flashback mission alongside Bill. Also, if you kill enough friendlies during Katina, the Cornerian Space Force turns against you the rest of your mission.
Arceus takes the half-steps established in Pokemon Go/Let's Go and Pokemon Sword/Shield and actually develops them into a Pokemon game that I'm driven to complete for the first time since Platinum.
A few things - I'm really glad that there are very rare surprise trainer battles in the wild areas. But I do think this could benefit from a little more battling structure, akin to the gyms. You pick up on the pattern of "battle at the gates, battle a mount guardian, battle a warden." I think it would be nice to challenge some of the people at the Diamond Settlement or the Pearl Settlement.
Otherwise, I'm glad they've cracked the issue of random encounters. I hope Gen IX maintains the ability to view the Pokemon in the overworld, throw Pokeballs from a stealth vantage, and handle evolutions on your own time.
A few things - I'm really glad that there are very rare surprise trainer battles in the wild areas. But I do think this could benefit from a little more battling structure, akin to the gyms. You pick up on the pattern of "battle at the gates, battle a mount guardian, battle a warden." I think it would be nice to challenge some of the people at the Diamond Settlement or the Pearl Settlement.
Otherwise, I'm glad they've cracked the issue of random encounters. I hope Gen IX maintains the ability to view the Pokemon in the overworld, throw Pokeballs from a stealth vantage, and handle evolutions on your own time.
1997
This becomes a grueling challenge when you imagine that the Shy Guys are torturing the shit out of ever baby Yoshi that gets carried to the castle and are trying your hardest to make sure not a single one gets taken.
2021
Just here to note that I love that this series is back in primetime. I do wish every single EMMI a very "disintegrate in a pool of magma," though. I would love the first hour of the game without them!
Despite owning a Game Boy Advance in my youth and being a big enough fan of Kingdom Hearts to play games like 358/2 Days and Birth By Sleep, Chain of Memories always eluded me. In time, I filled myself in on the general strokes of the lore. Why not just play the game? Well, the card battling gimmick didn't exactly repulse me, but it did make the game seem particularly spin-offy.
All that to say that this was my first exposure to the gameplay of CoM. It started off rocky. It got downright frustrating. It landed somewhere between compelling and life-draining. But just as Final Mix managed to quicksand me back into the KH fandom, CoM is sticking with me and making me want to do another playthrough as Sora to see if I can optimize the game for myself.
The big-profile KH reviewers like KingK frequently point out that Sonic Blade, among other sleights, "break" the game and reduce the boss fights to spam fest. Luckily, even though I'd been told this halfway through my playthrough, I simply chose not to do that. The result was multiple deaths at the hands of Repliku, Larxene, Axel, and Vexen (strangely enough, Marluxia never managed to kill me with my proper Boss Deck) - but I could feel myself getting better with magic, zero cards, and partner sleights. I allowed myself the option to explore the rest of what the game had to offer and that made all the difference.
Where I did wish the developers had done something specifically for Re:COM was address the monotony of the map traversal. Once you're at a high enough level and have a deck built, the incentive to pick fights on the thirteenth floor vanishes like a Namine memory. I can't speak for what this was like in a GBA-era handheld, but for an at-home experience, it started to feel rather punishing. Not because fighting Heartless was hard, but because no matter how good you got, the card system meant that the fights lasted longer than, say, grind sessions in Hollow Bastion in Final Mix. There are mechanics in the game that seem quirky rather than integrated. Simply adding more variety to what the door cards actually do in regards to your final confrontations would have gone a long way.
It's a game I would have quit if it weren't for my investment in the characters. It's hard to say how much of this is the meta text or simply the knowledge of future events. But I was surprised by how moved I was by Namine's story and her interactions with the characters. It was a character I'd only known about, but it's truly something else to experience the journey, making later moments in the Kingdom Hearts story carry a lot more significance.
All that to say that this was my first exposure to the gameplay of CoM. It started off rocky. It got downright frustrating. It landed somewhere between compelling and life-draining. But just as Final Mix managed to quicksand me back into the KH fandom, CoM is sticking with me and making me want to do another playthrough as Sora to see if I can optimize the game for myself.
The big-profile KH reviewers like KingK frequently point out that Sonic Blade, among other sleights, "break" the game and reduce the boss fights to spam fest. Luckily, even though I'd been told this halfway through my playthrough, I simply chose not to do that. The result was multiple deaths at the hands of Repliku, Larxene, Axel, and Vexen (strangely enough, Marluxia never managed to kill me with my proper Boss Deck) - but I could feel myself getting better with magic, zero cards, and partner sleights. I allowed myself the option to explore the rest of what the game had to offer and that made all the difference.
Where I did wish the developers had done something specifically for Re:COM was address the monotony of the map traversal. Once you're at a high enough level and have a deck built, the incentive to pick fights on the thirteenth floor vanishes like a Namine memory. I can't speak for what this was like in a GBA-era handheld, but for an at-home experience, it started to feel rather punishing. Not because fighting Heartless was hard, but because no matter how good you got, the card system meant that the fights lasted longer than, say, grind sessions in Hollow Bastion in Final Mix. There are mechanics in the game that seem quirky rather than integrated. Simply adding more variety to what the door cards actually do in regards to your final confrontations would have gone a long way.
It's a game I would have quit if it weren't for my investment in the characters. It's hard to say how much of this is the meta text or simply the knowledge of future events. But I was surprised by how moved I was by Namine's story and her interactions with the characters. It was a character I'd only known about, but it's truly something else to experience the journey, making later moments in the Kingdom Hearts story carry a lot more significance.
“I wasn’t allowed to play the early installments of this franchise.” That’s the first thing that comes to my head when I reflect on the world of Mortal Kombat. But the fact of the matter is that I wasn’t banned from playing the games, because I never asked. I didn’t want to be the edgy kid who played “Mature” games that I couldn’t buy myself. It was hard enough to justify the expense to play Mario and Pikmin on our Nintendo Gamecube. It was my younger brother who would push the boundaries and look into games that were beyond our “maturity level.”
The release of the 2021 Mortal Kombat film unleashed a new short-term interest in the entire legacy of Mortal Kombat. It led me to downloading this game for my Switch. And I guess I was expecting it to be a rehash of the movie plots, which never take you past Mortal Kombat 3. I was blown away by the fact that there is a generation of MK fighters after Sonya Blade and Jax Briggs. And in the first few chapters of the Mortal Kombat 11 story mode, they make clear that there were consequences to the previous games and that there are consequences for people in this one.
In short, I’ve really liked it.
On a platform level this isn't 4.5 stars. I don't really give two rat bottoms regarding latest-gen graphical achievements, but what the Switch is doing with the hair textures here is distracting. The load times are bearable, but there's this weird churn when selecting your default character skins in the Fight mode. That said, the fact that this is possible on the Switch at all is kind of impressive. Regardless, I can't fault the core game for the platform's limitations and I really like the quality of the cutscene animations, so it is nearly a "perfect game" when you idealize its hardware.
Regarding all the metadiscourse on this game - the economy, the microtransactions; they don't really affect me since I have minimal interest in unlocking all the skins and customizing my characters for online play. I have zero competitive interest in this game as an esport, so connectivity and character balancing aren't issues for me either. The core experience for me were the two campaign modes in MK11 and Aftermath and those were what really impressed me.
This is a pretty pivotal game for me as it has taught me at an adult age that I might really actually enjoy the fighting game genre. Admittedly, as a Nintendo consumer, my main exposure to the game category was Smash and I've grown....disillusioned with it. Exploring the world of Mortal Kombat has kind of invigoriated me for games like Dragonball Fighterz and the like.
We'll see if I dabble in the Krypt next.
The release of the 2021 Mortal Kombat film unleashed a new short-term interest in the entire legacy of Mortal Kombat. It led me to downloading this game for my Switch. And I guess I was expecting it to be a rehash of the movie plots, which never take you past Mortal Kombat 3. I was blown away by the fact that there is a generation of MK fighters after Sonya Blade and Jax Briggs. And in the first few chapters of the Mortal Kombat 11 story mode, they make clear that there were consequences to the previous games and that there are consequences for people in this one.
In short, I’ve really liked it.
On a platform level this isn't 4.5 stars. I don't really give two rat bottoms regarding latest-gen graphical achievements, but what the Switch is doing with the hair textures here is distracting. The load times are bearable, but there's this weird churn when selecting your default character skins in the Fight mode. That said, the fact that this is possible on the Switch at all is kind of impressive. Regardless, I can't fault the core game for the platform's limitations and I really like the quality of the cutscene animations, so it is nearly a "perfect game" when you idealize its hardware.
Regarding all the metadiscourse on this game - the economy, the microtransactions; they don't really affect me since I have minimal interest in unlocking all the skins and customizing my characters for online play. I have zero competitive interest in this game as an esport, so connectivity and character balancing aren't issues for me either. The core experience for me were the two campaign modes in MK11 and Aftermath and those were what really impressed me.
This is a pretty pivotal game for me as it has taught me at an adult age that I might really actually enjoy the fighting game genre. Admittedly, as a Nintendo consumer, my main exposure to the game category was Smash and I've grown....disillusioned with it. Exploring the world of Mortal Kombat has kind of invigoriated me for games like Dragonball Fighterz and the like.
We'll see if I dabble in the Krypt next.
2017
This is a decent title to start and finish in one evening. The highlight is the chiptune music. But there's enough of a challenge to create a satisfying gameplay loop as you progress and hunt down the gates in each level.
2021
This really felt like Mario unburdened by many of the franchise chains - so in that sense, it's even more similar to Breath of the Wild than the lighthouse-tower comparisons would have you think.
No boot-outs. No level select. No game overs. Just pick up the game and play. As a test concept, it's brilliant. It does have limitations - even with the introduction of snow and fire islands, it's all got that endless ocean/tropical vibe going on. We don't even have a satisfying underground theme or series of challenges.
Plessie is a welcome companion, but it does kind of beg the question of what this would be like with other world-traversal options, including Yoshi and warp pipes. Dare we imagine traveling this open world with a wing cap? Would've been magical.
Still a great opportunity to open the door to more organic "the world is yours" Mario in the future. I really liked my short time with Bower's Fury, which I assume is also the sequel to Mario Sunshine and part of an ongoing commentary on climate change.
No boot-outs. No level select. No game overs. Just pick up the game and play. As a test concept, it's brilliant. It does have limitations - even with the introduction of snow and fire islands, it's all got that endless ocean/tropical vibe going on. We don't even have a satisfying underground theme or series of challenges.
Plessie is a welcome companion, but it does kind of beg the question of what this would be like with other world-traversal options, including Yoshi and warp pipes. Dare we imagine traveling this open world with a wing cap? Would've been magical.
Still a great opportunity to open the door to more organic "the world is yours" Mario in the future. I really liked my short time with Bower's Fury, which I assume is also the sequel to Mario Sunshine and part of an ongoing commentary on climate change.