This was the one game in the franchise that I was dreading coming back to. I got to the area just before the 2nd dungeon and genuinely just couldn't take anymore of it. I played this using the NES switch thing and eventually switched to the "SP" version which gives you most upgrades off the bat.

Due to me not finishing it I cant really talk about it in full detail but from what I played, the world design is horrific. I really did not like the top down world view especially with enemies popping out every 3 seconds and being impossible to dodge. Some enemies are designed really poorly, having to be frame perfect with attacks in order to do damage, also similarly to the first game, when Link has full health he shoots a sword beam, in this game it doesn't damage half the enemies so its totally pointless.

The impression that I got was that if you want to be appropriately levelled their would be a lot of back tracking and with a game as slow as this I just couldn't bring myself to keep at it.

I do have a couple positives. I really like the music, there is a decent diversity in tracks as supposed to the first game. Also you can see a lot of the framework that goes into the future games come around here with towns and villagers, i think a large issue for this game is it was too ambitious with the hardware it was on.

I may come back to it but I highly doubt it and if I do it will be out of pure spite just to finish it.

First Pokemon game from my childhood and still a classic al these years later.

Flew through the game on this particular play through trying to use Pokemon I'd never used before, which was a difficult task due to the amount of times I've played a Kanto game.

People complain about the starter Pikachu being unable to evolve but the game is so easy that the challenge of using it throughout the game is extremely fun and rewarding! It even came in clutch during my Elite 4 run which I absolutely didn't expect. Big ups to 'Pikasso' my Pikachu!

Still as charming as it was when I was a kid, will never get bored of Pokemon Yellow (& Red & Blue!).

My first Gen 3 game from back in 02, haven't played since due to Pokemon Emerald being superior in almost every way.

Decided to play this for the hell of it. Being the first game I played this year, I had a blast despite the games shortcomings. It's a great game with wonderful music, a superb region and charming graphics. Was disappointed there was no 'superboss' at the end and if you want to use a unique team (like I did) then you have limited options until you have 4 badges.

If you haven't played a gen 3 game, just play Emerald instead, but you can't go wrong with Ruby, Sapphire or their 3d re-makes.

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.

Best in the Metro series. The gorgeous semi-open world segments had inspired design and were super fun to explore and get to know. Enemy variety was best in the series, the guns all felt great, and the new factions were interesting. Enemy AI had some really cool behaviors and acted believably if not particularly intelligently which really made the world feel alive. The looting, crafting, and customization was simple without being boring. The linear segments that broke up the semi-open segments were also good, in classic Metro fashion, but were never as interesting as the more sprawling environments. Luckily, they never overstayed their welcome.

The story is fine to good. I love the main cast of characters but some of the plot beats felt uninspired or clumsy. It especially stumbles when the game is trying to conquer complex moral issues. The story is absolutely at its best when focusing on the main characters and their development over time. I loved interacting with everyone on the train and eavesdropping on conversations between NPCs. Overall the story did its job of moving the game from location to location but wasn't particularly memorable.

My main complaints are that the back half of the game felt less complete than the first half (rushed maybe?) and that the Karma system still sucks. This is a problem the whole series has as well as many other games with the good ending/bad ending trope. What gave "good" karma vs "bad" karma felt incredibly arbitrary and was not explained clearly at all. Why are some enemies okay to kill and others not? Why is stealth karmically "good" in a game that is primarily a shooter and just has a side of (admittedly good) stealth mechanics? I got the good ending in my playthrough, but it felt entirely due to luck.

Quibbles aside, this game rocked. One of the best shooters ever. Plus it had a train. Choo choo!