Very solid remake of the first Game Boy CV game. I never have beaten it, it gets pretty rough later in the game. I should try again someday.

BUT, what I really wanted out of Konami, was to have them give the same 16-bit remake treatment to the OTHER two Game Boy CV games. Most especially, I very badly wanted a remake to Castlevania Legends, to give an improved experience and do some much needed justice to poor Sonia Belmont (THE cannon first Belmont, screw that PS2 trash).

Alas, they never did remake the others. Still, this was a cool curiosity for the time.

Pros: A "sequel" to what I consider the best RPG ever made, Final Fantasy II/IV. Same cool characters (plus their kids), same great gameplay, same awesome soundtrack.

Cons: The story is kinda dumb. I REALLY dislike the "moon phase" mechanic, and wish they'd left that out. I found myself using a LOT of Tents to get back to the phase I preferred.

Worst Con: Squaresoft grifting us poor Wii owners so hard. This game should have been ONE release, ONE download, costing no more than like $15-$20, TOPS. Instead, they made us download "Chapters", having to wait weeks in between to continue the story. AND it all cost $37. For a game that 100% just re-used assets from FFIV on SNES. Talk about a goddamn ripoff.

Final Verdict: I MOSTLY enjoyed playing this, outside of that idiotic moon phase shit. But as stated, the story was pretty dumb, especially at the end, and this SHOULD NOT have been episodic, nor cost nearly $40.

I won't give a drawn out review of this game.

For now I'll simply say:

Playing as Mario, this is one of the funnest games I've ever played, even IF the "planet/gravity" gimmick got a bit old.

Playing as Luigi, this game was a fucking chore and a half, and a slog to try and get all the stars in.

Talk about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I guess NOT slipping around like a stupid asshole, truly DOES make all the difference!

This is the best Smash Bros. game, I don't care about people's takes of "unbalanced", yadda yadda. As someone who ISN'T married to the "Tourney Scene", I absolutely loved it. Especially because out of the entire series, it had the MOST single player content, in my view. And what put it over the top, was the "Subspace Emissary" adventure mode.

I was outright gutted when it turned out the (lazily subtitleless) Wii U game featured NO kind of adventure mode whatsoever. Not even a bare-bones one like Melee had. Nothing. With one of the lamest excuses from a developer as to why, that I've ever heard, "Oh some people spoiled the cut-scenes for themselves online". Like, what? WHO THE FUCK CARES?

But back to Brawl, as stated, I love it. I put a TON of time into it, trying to unlock all the songs and various things. No, the online wasn't SUPER great, which was Nintendo's fault. But the game in general, as far as total package and sheer amount of content, is the best of the bunch, to me. Even WITH consideration to characters added on Wii U and Switch that I wish had been in this one.

And for the record, I LIKE how Meta Knight plays in this. Just saying.

The only one of the trilogy that I beat. And one of the few games that honestly justified the Wii's native control set-up. THIS game made good use of the Wiimote and Nunchuk, in a way that very few other games did. The best thing about the Wiimote was always the IR pointer, which was great for aiming, shooting, menu navigation. In my view, that Wiimote/Nunchuk setup, specifically JUST for shooter games, was preferable to mouse/keyboard, or dual-stick.

There's just something about moving with the nunchuk, while looking/aiming around, and shooting DIRECTLY at what you're pointing at, that can't be beat. As such, while I really enjoyed the original Prime (though I never beat it), I preferred this control scheme BIG time, and I found Prime 3, for the most part, easy to play. Meaning it was not cumbersome to play it, and the controls didn't get in the way at all.

The story was OK, nothing special. But the game in general was a mostly fun ride, some frustrating bits but nothing horrible. I still VASTLY prefer 2D Metroid, and really wish we'd ever get a true FULLY 2D sprite-based follow up to Super Metroid (or Fusion, I guess). But who knows if that'll ever happen. This was the best of the Prime bunch, at least to me. Certainly not flawless, but enjoyable.

I do not love motion controls, especially when they're the ONLY option. That kind of thing straight up ruined several Wii games that otherwise would have been fine (many of which I owed), such as: Sonic and the Secret Rings, Godzilla Unleashed, Soul Caliber Legends, etc.

BUT, while I may well have likely preferred a traditional control set-up to Excite Truck, and the tilt-y motion only control scheme DOES take some getting used to, once you DO get used to it, this game is honestly a hell of a lot of fun. And as say that as someone who never particularly got into the original Excite Bike.

The game had good graphics for the time, a true sense of speed, and amazing sense of exhileration when you go leaping in to the sky off of a mountain that randomly appears in the track, etc. The jumps are often insane in this, and the game features some really killer tracks. You ONLY get various trucks and jeep-type deals in this, which is a shame, but that's not a huge drawback. AND, in a rare feature for the Wii (or a Nintendo console), if you have an SD card with enough space, you can play your OWN choice of music while playing the game, which only increased the fun, I must say.

I would easily call this the best racer on Wii, in my opinion. The sense of speed, and fun of warping tracks and doing huge jumps and tricks, is unmatched by any other racer I've ever played. It also features a sadly-too-limited, but VERY fun demolition derby type mode, where the ONLY goal is to crash into other cars. I wish more racers had that kind of mode.

On a side note, I was VERY excited by the prospect of a sequel to this. What I was HOPING for, was a game basically called "Excite Race", which would expand the vehicle types, improve the graphics, add more tracks, and add online play. Well, what we got INSTEAD...was this oddity called "Excite Bots", which somehow featured kinda WORSE graphics (at least in art style), had weird transformer animal "bots" instead of cars/trucks, didn't offer enough variety in new tracks, and was semi-ruined by the horrible idea of having little motion-control mini-games happen MID-race. And you HAVE to do them. That killed it for me. It did indeed have (limited) online racing, but that wasn't enough to make me like it, or keep it, unfortunately. A real bummer, because the sequel they SHOULD have made, could have been amazing.

But at least Excite Truck itself is pretty great!

I never played this on PC, I only really became aware of it when it was released on Wii. And quite frankly, upon playing it, I adored it. So much so that it was my Game of 2010, by a mile! It's one of the best games I've played in the entire 21st century, in fact, and that is really exceptional, considering it was the passion project of ONE guy.

It's a really superb, excellent across the board action-vania game, and I loved the 16-ish bit aesthetics. The ONLY thing I'll knock this game for, is the goddamn Hell Dungeon, which I couldn't get all the way through (because it's sadistic as fuck and I finally gave up). SCREW that bit. But the rest of the game is marvelous!

I'm gonna gain some undeserved gamer ire right now, and claim that THIS is the best game in the Paper Mario series. At least to me. I liked the N64 game, it was novel, albeit a little too simple. I played the GC entry a bit, and it also seemed fine. But THIS game really spoke to me.

I love that it's a blend of 2D platforming and rpg elements, I did and still do think that's a brilliant idea. While (in true rpg fashion) the dialogue scenes could sometimes go on too long, the comedic writing in this game was often actually witty, not cringe-inducing. I enjoyed most of the different worlds you adventure to. Hell, I even enjoyed the cooking mechanic, to make various items.

I wasn't in LOVE with the whole "flip from 2D to 3D" thing. It was neat at first, but I coulda done without it, ultimately. But this game does far more things right than it doesn't, ESPECIALLY getting play Bowser in an actual side scroller? Count me in!

It's a great platformer/rpg, and I would personally REALLY love them to make a Super Mario RPG 2 someday. I doubt they will, but they SHOULD. One of my favorite games on the Wii.

I will preface this by saying that I did not really play/get into the original DS game. I thought it was cool that they made a new "2D" Mario, but I just wasn't that into it. That said, when it was first rumored there would be a NSMB game on Wii, my initial reaction was to GROOOOOOAN, because I really didn't care about them basically porting the same experience, but maybe better looking.

Boy, am I glad I was wrong! While I would have 100% preferred this game to be called "Super Mario Bros. 5", officially, and to be a fully 2D, sprite based game, once they revealed what it actually was? I was beyond stoked! Why? Because, simply put, NSMB Wii was the first 2D Mario game to be on a Nintendo HOME console, not to mention the first Mario game period to feature the OTHER Koopa Kids (not just stupid "Bowser Jr"), since Super Mario World, all the way back in 1991 (All-Stars doesn't really count, it was just a remake collection)! Truth be told, this is the closest I think we'll likely ever get to getting a REAL SMB5 out of Nintendo, so in my head canon, it basically is.

That meant a lot to me, personally, as Super Mario Bros. 3 is my favorite game of all time, and in addition to being excited for the return of the Koopalings, I was also VERY happy to see this game feature several Mario 3-like elements. Most especially the item inventory system, which is fantastic. This game goes beyond SMB3, and lets you collect up to 99 of ANY power up, which is great, because this game also happens to get pretty damn challenging at points.

As for the power-ups themselves, they're all pretty great, with the one exception, in my opinion, being the propeller helmet. It's not a BAD item, it's useful, but I would have rather had something that let you fly for real, vs. something that lets you rocket STRAIGHT up, and then float down. Beyond that though, Ice Flower? Amazing. Micro-Mario from NSMB DS? Great. But the PENGUIN suit? Jesus Christ! I will state this now, that next to the Tanooki Suit in SMB3 (which lets gives you all the abilities of Racoon Mario, plus you can turn into a temporarily-invincible statue), THIS is the best Mario power up ever invented.

It has SO much going on. Let me count the ways: It lets you freeze enemies, ala the Ice Flower. It makes it so you don't slip while running on ice. You can do a belly slide, which crushes some blocks and kills many enemies. It allows you a supreme degree of swimming control that even the Frog Suit from SMB3 didn't give you. AND, it's goddamn adorable!

I don't love EVERYTHING about the game, hence why I stop just short of giving it a full 5 stars. For one thing, while I don't mind the music (it kinda grows on ya), I really would have preferred some more throwback Mario tunes (from Mario 1, 3, 4/World, hell even 2). It's a minor gripe, but the OST just doesn't quite stack up to 3 and World. Also, as a general rule, I don't love motion controls, especially in games that really don't need them AT all. I could have done without shaking my controller to use the propeller, or to do the spin jump period. Though to be fair, tilting the controller to control the tilt of tilting platforms IS useful. Again a fairly minor complaint. And like all "2.5D" games, the game is floaty. Polygons simply don't move/control AS tightly and fluidly as sprites, especially in a side-scrolling game. That is the case 100% of the time, that fully 2D games feel (and to me look) better than "2.5D".

That said, while I WOULD have preferred fully 2D, for the floatiness it's naturally just going to have, the game plays/controls well. And while I will always prefer sprites, for the Wii hardware, it's also quite a pretty looking game. Not "eye candy" like Mario Galaxy, but it looks nice. It has a nice diverse assortment of worlds, thought it's a shame the game couldn't have gotten some more unique worlds of its own, instead of other NSMB games basically sharing the exact same world themes. BUT, the worlds that are here, are nice, and I will say this game features some VERY creative/inventive level designs. The best of the NSMB series, as far as I'm concerned. The item inventory is great, the mini-games are mostly fun and useful. Having the Koopa Kids back was fantastic, even IF Bowser Jr. was along for the ride. I actually put in the time and effort (and in a few levels' case, the extreme frustration, I'm looking at YOU level 7 of Special World), to get ALL five shiny stars on my save profile, which I was extremely proud of. All in all, this may well be the most fun I had with any game on the Wii, and it's my top favorite game on the console.

While this was meant to be a "special edition" release, it really wasn't much of an upgrade over the original Castlevania 64. The graphics might be a TOUCH sharper, but they failed to fix any of the camera or gameplay issues, unfortunately.

The main game focuses this time around on Cornell, a werewolf character who was supposed to be in the OG release. He was also supposed to be this bad ass martial arts character, who in development articles was stated to be able to pull off some cool acrobatic moves. And again, unfortunately, he can't do any of that. He can swipe his claws at this, and throw "energy waves". He can't even KICK, at least that I remember. His story is different from the base story the characters share in the original game, but not by TOO much. He does get his own unique stages that are new here, including a neat opening "sneaking into the castle via a derelict ship on the lake" area. But most of his adventure is comprised of the same levels, playing out in the same order. Though it IS worth pointing out, that without spoiling it, the Dracula fight in this game IS different, at least in the final form, than in the original.

You can still play Reinhardt and Carrie in this, they become unlocked after you beat it with Cornell. And they even included the 4th character that was originally supposed to be in the game, Henry, in a somewhat different (and arguably annoying) timed adventure.

All in all, it's the same basic game, just with more of the content it was originally meant to feature in the first place. It's STILL a solid game, and better than you've likely heard. Worth checking out, at any rate.

I loved this game in the arcades, even though I would grow to love its sequel, Cruis'n World, even more. But as an arcade title, it was VERY fun. And just like Killer Instinct, I do remember being excited when they both would say "Coming, to the ULTRA 64!"

Of course, KI1 never did wind up making its way to N64 (it should have), instead being released as an OK SNES port. And while Cruis'n DID come to N64, it was disappointing on multiple levels. For one thing, even though the arcade game released in 1994, the N64 port wasn't even a launch DAY title. The 64 only launched with a whopping TWO games: Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64. Granted, Mario was all most people seemed to care about, as it was so groundbreaking. But still, for me, even though it didn't come out TOO far out from launch day, it was still absurd that it wasn't a launch title.

And worse, for whatever extra time they took to make it, this port really didn't show it. It isn't a BAD port, it's still basically Cruis'n USA, same gameplay, same tracks, etc. But it's just...subpar. The game should have been MUCH better, close to "arcade perfect". Instead, we get rough textures, worse car models, crappier sounds, LOTS of fog/pop-up. It just felt like a lesser experience, because it is.

It's still a worthy addition to the library. But it should have been great, instead of just being OK. Thankfully Eurocom came along and made World the port THIS should have been.

I think, in a way, you have to have played the original arcade game, or the NES game that a friend and I once stayed up beating when I was a kid, to really appreciate this game. That isn't absolute, but I think it helps. I grew up a "Monster Kid", I loved dinosaurs, mythology, and monster movies like Godzilla and Ray Harryhausen stuff. So seeing Rampage, for me, was awesome, because it was a rare game where you got to PLAY the monsters.

As a kid, my favorite character was Lizzy, because she reminded me of Godzilla. Though I think as an adult I gravitated more towards Ralph being my fav., because Werewolves are awesome. But this game is a great update to the original formula. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it DOES add to the experience.

As a single player game, it can lose its luster pretty quickly. But just like the original, it is best played with friends. As a multiplayer/party title, it's great.

I was a big fan of the Top Gear racers on SNES. They were very fun, and top shelf for their era. I appreciated, but didn't really get into the Top Gear Rally games on N64, because they tried to go in a more realistic direction, when I've always been a bigger fan of "arcade" style racing.

But with Overdrive, they had a surprise sleeper hit, which to me feels more in line with the OG SNES releases. It's a fairly fast, smooth racer, with good graphics, good controls, and the one thing that really made it stand out (on N64 at least), was that it had REAL music. The generic metal it features isn't GREAT, by any means. But it was remarkable at the time, that an N64 game had REAL rock/metal tracks to race to.

Overall, this is a very solid racer, and one of the better ones on a system that had a wealth of good racers.

In my opinion, this is the game that truly got the F-Zero formula right. The original SNES game is remarkable for its early Mode 7 "3D" racing. And GX on Gamecube was a gorgeous game, with a TON of content...that got WAY too hard WAY too quick. To the point that it wasn't fun to me.

X on N64, however, took a simplistic yet beautiful approach. They knew that the N64 couldn't do both 60 FPS blazing fast speed, AND highly detailed graphics. So they did the right thing, and made the graphics fairly simplistic and bare. Not UGLY, by any means, they still look pretty good for the era. They're just really simple, and the tradeoff, is that the game DOES run at 60 FPS, and is BLAZING fast. Which is exactly what you want from this kind of game.

In fact I'd say this is arguably the fastest racer I've ever seen, even when compared to other futuristic ones like Wipeout and Extreme G. This is, as far as I'm concerned, THE best F-Zero game.