Dark Moon came out during my Nintendo drought years. The first Luigi's Mansion was a treasured playthrough on the Gamecube, the console before the Switch that really had my attention. So the memories of the franchise when I picked up the sequel as an adult were far enough away for me to approach Dark Moon with an open mind regarding the mission structure.

I both appreciate the level-by-level gameplay and acknowledge that it breaks the immersion of the world's design. But kudos where kudos are due, part of the frustration of being yanked out of the world is due to genius level design. Combine this with a soundtrack that is both amusing and creepy and you've got a great Luigi adventure that encourages you to take breaks as needed.

Within minutes, you can tell that this is the technical leap forward for Pikmin that graduates the franchise from cult oddity to potential juggernaut. The quality of life improvements in this one are a masterclass.

And yet....

As hard as it is to go back to the first Pikmin's engine, there's something that neither of its sequels have recaptured. How much of this is my own nostalgia, I won't quantify right now. But there's something to be said for the "set quantity of treasures, set quantity of time" mechanic. I really enjoyed how Pikmin 3 integrated its plot, but the drawback was that it really made you feel how short the campaign is.

Here's a debate that really ultimately doesn't matter to your health, well-being, and stability: Do you rate a piece of art/entertainment based on the context of its time or based on how it stacks up against the more evolved artifacts that have come since? I'm going to say - mix both these criteria and maybe Super Mario Bros. comes in at 4 stars. But then add a dash of "screw it," and you get my five star rating.

Nintendo has come to dominate the narrative of the 80's, painting itself as the savior of the video game industry after Atari nearly buried it in a landfill. So it'd be fascinating to see what would have happened to a franchise like, say, Pitfall, if Atari had remained in the game. Maybe then you'd get a rival to Mario. But as things stand, the sheer audacity of Miyamoto and Nintendo in taking a character from their blockbuster Donkey Kong franchise, warping him out of his vertical arcade roots, and transporting him into a world where the background wasn't stark black space created something that can still be picked up, played, and enjoyed until the heat death of the universe. Screw it, five stars.

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.

There were times during my 3D All-Stars playthrough when I was tempted to bump this down to 4/5. Particularly whenever I tried to use a wing cap to land on a Shifting Sand Land pillar or when I was simply trying to stay on the elevators in Hazy Maze Cave. But the simple fact was that I woke up every day excited to get more stars and I felt a full sense of accomplishment when I surprised Bowser with the 120 star total. There will always be something special about the juxtaposition of the freedom the game grants you along with its restrictions. There's only so many shapes they could render and only so many sounds they could produce, but each playthrough can be your own and each ending feels earned. Thank you for more than 20 years of joy, SM64.

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.

I've just gotten to Molly's room and this already the scariest game I've played in my life.

Following Completion Three Weeks Later

I didn't expect this to end up remaining with me so much. The Barbara section really piqued my interest, but the combination of Walter's story, the mechanics of Sam's flashback, and everything about Gregory building up to Lewis and the denouement. Wow.

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.