The next game in this Zelda marathon, A Link to the Past, is a breath of fresh air. While I didn't particularly like Zelda 1, and I definitely didn't like Zelda II, this game was different. This was one of the first Zelda games I played I believe, yet this was only my 2nd time fully beating it. I had seen plenty of randomizers before, but I haven't fully beaten this game in like 10 years. As I stated, this game was a breath of fresh air because, as opposed to the first two games, A Link to the Past is really great.

This game ditches the side-scrolling platformer adventure RPG Zelda II went for and is more in line with how Zelda 1 does things. It's top down again, there are no more RPG mechanics like Zelda II and the game isn't absolutely brutal like Zelda II. In fact, it's easier than the first game, tho I still died weirdly often funnily enough. Anyways this is all for the better as the direction Zelda II was going in, just did not do it for me at all.

The story this time around, and it focuses more on its story than the first two games, actually takes place before Zelda I and II. Before the events of the game happen, Ganondorf manages to open the gateway to the Sacred Realm where the Triforce is hidden away and he obtains the Triforce for himself. Knowing he was evil and this would lead to catastrophe, the king of Hyrule ordered seven sages to seal the gateway up along with Ganondorf inside. A long battle ensues but, in the end, the gateway was sealed. Many years later, horrible events start occurring and so the king of Hyrule believes it to be related to the sages seal. Finding out it was not that, he puts out a reward for anyone that can help him with these troubles. A wizard named Agahnim comes alone, seemingly fixing these troubles with his magic. He becomes close to the king and all is well for a while. However shortly after, people start to suspect something is wrong with Agahnim. He starts abusing his power. He eventually casts spells on all the soldiers to turn them evil, and kidnaps maidens that were descended from the sages, using their powers to try to open the seal himself. The game then officially starts, with Link having to save Zelda from the dungeon of Hyrule castle. Once Link saves her, she and him meet up with the priest of a nearby sanctuary and he tells you some of the details I just told you. It's now Link's job to get 3 pendants to obtain the Master Sword, eventually having to rescue the maidens (and Zelda she gets kidnapped too) from each of the dungeons that reside in the Dark World and in the end defeating Ganon. That was a lot but yeah this game is more story-focused than the other two and I like that. The story isn't mind-blowing, and I think Ocarina of Time honestly did the story way better since it's pretty similar to this game's but it's still a solid first attempt at this type of Zelda story.

Actually, getting into the gameplay tho, it's basically Zelda 1 but more polished. It's more linear than that game and holds your hand more but is also more engaging. You actually have a map for the overworld and there are always markers showing you where you need to go next. Some might see this as maybe too hand-holdy, but compared to Zelda 1's cryptic and more directionless nature, I'll take this any day over that. Another thing this game does better with its overworld is the secrets. Gone is every secret being a completely random bush to burn or wall to blow up. If there are bombable walls, they have a crack in them to indicate they can be blown up. Outside of that, the secrets are way more different. Sometimes you'll have to fall in a hole or well to end up in a cave and to get rupees or pieces of heart. (That's another change too, pieces of heart are now a thing, and you have to get 4 to make a full heart container). Sometimes you have to use the dark and light world to your advantage and switch between both to get secrets. Sometimes there are little minigames you can play to get items like pieces of heart. The secrets and ways you get items in the overworld are just so much more interesting here compared to the randomness in Zelda 1. There's a reason future Zelda's stuck with this format.

Dungeons this time around are more fleshed out and are more puzzle-like. Instead of having to push a block, find keys and maybe bomb some walls, A Link to the Past introduces many new concepts in its dungeons. One dungeon you're going in and out constantly through entrances in the overworld. Another is full of ice and thus the palace has ice physics. Another involves you having to use an item to create a platform on some tracks, letting you ride them to your destination. These never feel too gimmicky either and always come naturally. The dungeons are great in this game, far better than Zelda 1 and 2's, but I can't say I absolutely love them. Some are better than others (Skull Woods gave me big issues for some reason) and I generally prefer 3D Zelda dungeons more just because they usually have much more distinct aesthetic to them compared to these. Still tho, these dungeons are very enjoyable..especially the endgame ones. Tho Ganon's tower is brutal I gotta say lol.

The items you get from the dungeons, and I guess outside of them too, are pretty solid tho some are situational. The hookshot became very iconic from this game onwards and is used a lot in the 2nd half of the game. The bow and arrow, while not used a ton in this game, is fun and also became iconic. The hammer has its uses throughout the game but is pretty situational. The medallions damage enemies, tho I never really used them for that purpose much, and otherwise are only required very rarely. This game introduced bottles which are a nice addition as you can store faries in them to revive Link. This game does have several kind of forgettable items and also situational ones you won't use outside of battle or even often at all, but it also introduces some series staples as well, so I'd say it was a good selection of items overall.

The bosses at the end of dungeons are generally really good. They're all distinct visually, and some are even iconic enough to appear in future Zelda titles. Arrghus for example, basically reappears in Majora's Mask under the name Wart. Moldorm appears as a boss in Link's Awakening and A Link Between Worlds. The bosses are generally good, tho sometimes they can be a bit annoying. Mothula for example is incredibly hard without magic and the fire rod. Even with that, it's still difficult because of all the spike blocks in its room. Trinexx you basically NEED to have magic, the fire and ice rod, to even attack it or else you're shit out of luck. The game tells you a couple times throughout the game, when you'll basically need a green potion for a dungeon. They aren't kidding either. Cuz, I had a red or green potion almost every time before I started a dungeon. Luckily rupees are incredibly easy to get in this game, maybe the easiest game to rack up rupees, and a shop that sells green and red potions has a warp next to it which is handy (oh yeah, I forgot to mention you can warp with the ocarina once you get the song to summon the bird which is extremely helpful to warp throughout the Light World). Either way, besides some frustrating ones, the bosses are overall a big improvement from the first two games.

I mentioned the Dark World before and yeah, that's this games big thing. A ways into the game, you obtain the mirror. When you're in the Dark World, Link will turn into a bunny. When he uses the mirror tho, he can go back to the light world and leaves a little warp on the floor that he can use to go back to the Dark World. There are also several warps naturally strewn across the world that Link can use to warp to the Dark World if need be. Anyways, the reason Link is a bunny in the Dark World is because anything that's there morphs into a monster or an animal or whatever. Link cannot attack as a Bunny, but as soon as he first goes go to the Dark World, the dungeon that appears not even a minute after that happens holds the Moon Pearl. This let's Link go to the Dark World without turning into a bunny. Personally, since there's almost nothing in between you first going to the Dark World and getting the Moon Pearl, I would've liked if you got the moon pearl a bit later since it kind of felt pointless that you turn into a bunny only to not have to worry about that pretty much ever soon after. That's a minor nitpick tho, just something I thought about with this replay. Anyways, the whole Light World Dark World gimmick is very well done here, and it leads to some really cool secrets throughout the game.

The OST is great this time around. Zelda 1 already had a very solid soundtrack, and not only does this game have a new an improved version of the overworld theme, it also has some awesome new tracks along with some that become series staples. Zelda's theme makes its first appearance here and its a fantastic version of the song. Both the Dark World theme and the Dark World dungeon theme are also fantastic and fit the darker atmosphere the Dark World provides. This is even the first appearance of the Kakariko Village theme and as someone that played OOT before this game, I always thought that was very fascinating lol. Anyways this game's ost is iconic for a reason and has some of the best songs in the series.

While I did list a couple minor issues I had with this game, this truly is a massive step-up from the prior games. There's a big reason this is a classic and is still played today (whether it's the vanilla version or with randomizers). Now I do prefer Ocarina of Time personally, tho I guess I won't truly know until I replay that next, but if I'll give anything to this game over Ocarina, it's the fact the pacing is way faster and its a lot easier to just dive in and replay. That and visually it does look a lot cleaner. Anyways, I was going to play the CDI games, but I realized the hassle to get an emulator working for them wouldn't have been worth it for how supposedly bad they are. So, Link's Awakening DX is next in this marathon, look forward to that review coming soon!!

I first played Link's Awakening on my 3DS years ago. I got it on the eShop one day after a Youtuber I liked was let's playing it, and seeing as I was a Zelda fan at this point, I figured I'd enjoyed it. I think I got up until Eagle Tower and dropped it? I at least don't remember ever beating this game. Fast forward to the beginning of 2022, I had just gotten the remake for Christmas and was excited to play it. I actually beat that version this time and had a great time. Now with this marathon, I can finally beat this version of the game. I think overall I might prefer the remake, but this version is still good and Link's Awakening is still a good game overall.

Also quick note before the review: I was originally going to play the three CDI Zelda's next but decided against it so I'm skipping those. I also know this is the DX version, and that technically released after Ocarina of Time, however the majority of this game is still the original Link's Awakening which released 5 years before OOT so I just decided to play this first.

Anyways, Link's Awakening. This released 2 years after A Link to the Past and compared to that game and even the Zelda games before it, this game's plot and general atmosphere is very different. The story this time around is pretty simple. This is the same Link as the one in ALTTP and he regularly goes out to sea to train in other countries in case of further threats. One day, a storm destroys the boat he is on and he is washed ashore on Koholint Island. This girl named Marin finds him and brings Link to her home where he wakes up to see her and her father Tarin. Link leaves the home hoping to learn what this island is about and how he can get off of it. Along the way, he meets an owl that tells him to escape this island he must get the 8 instruments of the sirens and wake the wind fish (who resides in a giant egg) with them. Halfway into the adventure however, Link finds out that the entire island may just be a dream created by the wind fish. Whether that's true or not, Link continues to gather the instruments so he can wake the wind wish and get off the island. It's a simple plot but the first thing you'll notice is that it's WEIRD. I did not mention Zelda because she is not in this game. No Triforce or Ganon either. The big staple characters aren't in this game, instead it's an entire brand new cast. You have Marin and Tarin, the other villagers of the town they're in. There are many animal NPC's through out the world, there's even and animal village too lol. The villagers eventually can't recall how long they've been on the island. Throughout the game you even start seeing things from other Nintendo games like the many different Mario enemies, a girl gives you her photo and she looks just like Princess Peach and there's even an enemy that looks and acts like Kirby. This along with the general plot gives this game such a weird, dream-like atmosphere. That's kind of a joke but it's true, they really did a great job at making this game feel like a dream. This is honestly my favorite aspect of this game; just how weird and different it feels from other Zelda games.


The general gameplay is similar to ALTTP, tho it's not quite as linear as that game. You're still going through dungeons and what not but they aren't marked on your map. It can be a bit cryptic at times, trying to figure out how to get into each dungeon, because now you have to find each dungeons respective key to unlock it. Besides that, the overworld itself is pretty fun tho it can get a bit tedious to backtrack through. There are a couple warp points throughout the world you can warp to, but I think there should've been more because even with them, backtracking is plentiful and it's not super fun in this game. The reason for that is, and it's the game's biggest issue, there's only two item slots in this game and stuff like the power bracelet and even the sword takes up a slot. I know this is a Gameboy game, so there was only A and B to work with but having to constantly switch between items to explore can get a bit tiresome. That plus when you don't have an item, needed to clear an object, equipped, an unskippable message appears every time to let you know you need that item. So, whatever you do, don't touch any rocks without having the power bracelet equipped. Like I said, this is my biggest annoyance in the game and while I still enjoyed the overworld despite this, it can be annoying due to these issues.

Exploring the overworld, you'll find many optional secrets just like ALTTP. Like that game, there are caves all throughout and you'll usually need a dungeon item to get whatever treasure is inside. The puzzles in these might actually be more complex than ALTTP's, either way it's good that they're back in this game. You'll also find those weird NPC's throughout the world as well. There's actually a long trade quest in the game, that you would think would be optional due to how long and exploration based it is but it's not. It's required at several points to progress and also the reward you get at the end of it is too. It's not the worst thing in the world but I had forgotten how to do parts of it so I had to look some of it up online so that might stump new players.

Next I want to talk about improvements this game makes compared to past games. This is a Gameboy game so obviously I can't compare its visuals to ALTTP but for a Gameboy game this looks super nice and compared to the first two Zelda games, this also looks nice than them. They did a great job with all the pixel art in this game and I can see why some people prefer this version of the game compared to the remake, based on the art style since it's super charming here. This game also improved on stuff from ALTTP as well funnily enough. You could collect items with you sword in Zelda 1 but not ALTTP for some reason, luckily, you're able to in this game again. I also found the Pegasus Boots better in this game due to you not needing to press and hold the item button again and again when you want to dash constantly. You just need to hold it and Link will start to dash on every screen he's on now. Something that's kinda weird compared to past game is the rupees. Every rupee that spawns in the overworld from cut bushes or defeated enemies is a single rupee. The only way to get more than that at once is with chests and they can give you 20, 50, 100 or even 200 rupees. It's an interesting change but probably a needed one since this was a Gameboy game and this game was already probably pushing the system to its limits.

The dungeons in this game are actually really solid. They're not as vibrant or as memorable visually as ALTTP dungeons however they're full of puzzles, maybe even moreso than ALTTP. That game has a bit more of a focus on combat, and I still might prefer that games dungeons just because of the aforementioned visual memorability. But even still, very good set of dungeons that even stumped me a bit at times. The items you get in these though are pretty solid. You have the aforementioned power bracelet, the magic rod from past Zeldas, the hookshot from ALTTP as well as the flippers. A lot of these are just older items but the standout item, and the one that actually makes the game more fun to play in general tbh, was the roc's feather. When you equip this, you can jump. That's it but it makes a world of difference in how you can play and can absolutely just destroy some bosses super-fast if you're skilled enough. If I didn't need any item to progress, I just went with my sword and the roc's feather. That was my go to set of items. There was an annoyance I had with the items. Since there's no way to speed up text, you'll be seeing the same dialogue for the map and compass over and over again. The map is fine since it's so short but the compass is like three times as long or something and they decided to let you know there's a new sound that plays whenever a chest is in the same room as you. That's cool...you don't have to tell me every time I do a dungeon tho! The bosses at the end of dungeons might also be an improvement from ALTTP. They aren't as flashy of course but they also don't require red/green potions sometimes to defeat, they all have dialogue this time which gives them more character and they're also just really weird or goofy which fits the setting of the game. I'd say they're overall maybe simpler to fight than ALTTP's bosses but simple doesn't equal bad. The final boss tho, had several different phases that took the form of bosses you fought in past games, and it also made use of several of Link's items. Because of that, it was easily the best boss in the game.

The soundtrack in this game, even tho its a Gameboy game, is really melancholic at times and is charming as hell. The signature Ballad of the Wind Fish(I sent Marin's version is easily my favorite song in the game. Mabe Village,Tal Tal Heights and the Ending Theme were my other favorites. The whole soundtrack is good however, and something else this game had over ALTTP is the fact each dungeon had their own unique theme. Now I can't say I prefer any of them over the two ALTTP had but they're still mostly solid here.

While I did have some issues that held this game back from being better than ALTTP, this is still a really solid Zelda game and one that is unique in the story it tells and the atmosphere it provides. It must've been amazing having a game like this on the go back in the day. Like I said as well, I do prefer the remake just because of the some of the improvements it made. I'm kind of known as the original game enjoyer, so for me to prefer a remake over the original is very odd. We'll get to that game way down the line but even if I like that one more, it doesn't stop this version from being good. It certainly has its own charm as well.

I think I'm going to take a small break in between this game and Ocarina of Time. I'm thinking maybe my Plants vs Zombies replay is next? Either way, stay tuned for that and then Ocarina of Time after in the near future!

A View From The Heitz: Resident Evil 3 is a high quality, fun and action packed game. Like RE2 the gameplay is solid, the graphics are beautiful and it can take you 5-6 hours to beat at a leisurely pace trying to unearth every secret or run through the entire game in under an hour and the half.
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Lets first get it out of the way. Yes, this is a much shorter game than RE2 with less puzzles and more action but for me, that was a positive and not a negative. While the argument of this being a full $60 priced game is legitimate (wait a few weeks and I guarantee that price will be cut in half), I appreciate a shorter/high quality experience I could enjoy between some huge titles.

This is exactly what I needed. From the first few moments of the game I knew I was going to love it. The graphics are the best the series has ever seen. From the characters to the locations and ambiance, I was continually impressed by how the game looked and ran. The one exception, which was more of design choice, was Carlos hair which sat like a dead animal on his head.

What I liked about the story is how it intertwines with that of RE2. You will revisit locations of RE2 during or moments before events take place in the previous game. They are not huge story moments but a nice nod to how things played out in the RE2. The story of RE3 is simply a hunt to find a vaccine while being chased by the unstoppable force that is the Nemesis.

Which brings us the the Mr. X of the game: Nemesis. He will follow you, grab you, jump in front of you, drag you, shoot rockets at you, use a flamethrower .... pretty much anything to stop you. However, whereas Mr. X would pursue unrelenting through claustrophobic hallways with little to no room to escape, Nemesis is out in the open and can be avoided successfully with a well timed dodge. During the first section of the game he is at his best as you try to navigate around him to get to your next objective. In the later game he becomes simply a cinematic and boss fight during several levels and mutations. Because of this, he never reaches the heights of fear that you get from Mr. X following you around Raccoon City PD.

As previous games, there are many difficulties to chose from with the latter ones being Hardcore, Nightmare and Inferno. Hardcore ramps up the difficulty, Inferno limits the amount of saves you can make but Nightmare is the TRUE Resident Evil 3 experience. Nightmare gets everything right by remixing the zombie and item encounters in levels, increasing the difficulty and making ammo more scarce. Even with the experience of previous runs, you have to take each area carefully, managing your bullets to knee shots, perfect dodges and using the environment to move on. In this mode is the only time that I was caught off guard by zombies around a corner that made me jump out of my seat. This is the mode I most recommend people play to both those who love the game and those that think the experience is sub-par.

Last thing of note is that there are many challenges (many of which are tied to trophies) that award you points that you can use to buy "cheats" in the store. From extra pouches, coins that improve your defense, attack and health recovery to strong weapons and the series staple: Infinite Rocket Launcher. With a well placed save you could return to high enemy locations and grind out kills with weapons for extra points that can be used to get the Infinite Rocket Launcher after your first run of the game and make later runs a piece. of. cake.

Highly recommend this game for what it is, a short, well executed and fun game with a lot of replay ability that has me excited for the future of the franchise, which we know is soon to be RE8 and the remake of the all time great Resident Evil 4!

Trophies
Difficulty: 3/10 (with Infinite Rocket Launcher - 7/10 without)
Time: 20 hours
Trophy Guide: Recommended especially for collectibles

Resident Evil 3 is a really fun platinum trophy run. One of my issues with trophy lists is when you need to play a game multiple times to earn the platinum. Exception are games like Shadow of the Colossus and Resident Evil that are designed to be longer experiences the first time you play the game but can be less than just a couple hours when you know exactly what to do.

RE3 falls in that camp, it took me about 5-6 hours to beat the game the first time, get all the collectibles and most of the trophies out of the way. Then another couple of hours to grind out points to purchased items in the store for my final runs. You will definitely want to save during the final hospital fight were you go against over 100 zombies filing into the building 3-5 at a time and another in NEST when you are looking for the vaccine components. These locations is where you can grind your zombie and weapon kills.

I also did my first run of the game using no health items (on the easiest mode) and not using the storage box. It was easy to do on my first run and it got those trophies out of the way plus it gave me extra points towards the store. With those out of the way, all you need is the Infinite Rocket Launcher and 3 more runs on Hardcore/Nightmare/Inferno to earn that platinum trophy.

With the rocket launcher you can run through Inferno which needs to be beat in less than 2 hours to get S rank (I beat it in 1 hr 34 minutes) and using less than 5 saves. If you do die you can just quit and restart (don't click continue) and your time resets to the time of the save. The only difficulty I had was the final Nemesis fight so make sure you have a lot of health items as it only takes 2 hits to take you down and you need to be perfect with your dodges.

The first time I played this I really wasn't impressed to be honest. I wasn't in the right mood for the style of gameplay it demands, and I get so lost with all the backtracking that Nemesis quickly became a huge annoyance for me.

Playing it again in a more fitting mood, not trying to rush through everything and being a little more careful.. Yeah I hadn't been fair at all. I've stood firm for ages that this is an average game and ole Nemmy is the most frustrating, broken enemy in the series, but in reality I was just a stinky butthead.

Sure it's short, but the quality is pretty ace across the board. Not to mention Jill being the hottest, most badass girlboss in gaming (maaaaybe second to Tifa but sh) -- I get it now. It's not perfect and I wish there was more to it, it definitely falls short in some ways compared to RE2 (where is the awesome end credits song?!?) but yeah, I'm convinced. This game good.

Also despite having a really dumb and stoopid name that makes him sound like a fool that doesn't like AI, Carlos is neat :p

yknow on a strict gaming sense i kinda get why everyone would be angry about this game i didnt actually play the original so i cant fully participate in the general hate about this so yeah i do understand the backlash this game got the majority of the game is cut and the remaining parts do get kind of samey after a while even though the game is fucking SHORT like this is incredibly short people i think i finished it in like 4 - 5 hours is that even possible istg this game is incredibly short

i do believe this feels kind of rushed even for me that i have no idea how the OG game was but it is actually a legit great game yknow did you see the beginning of this game it felt like the silent evil 4 segment UNTIL Jill gets in the bathroom and everything turns 3rd person and THATS absolutely fucking unbelievable maybe this is because i have no experience with the material this is based off so im probably just going omg fancy graphics and cool mechanics and omg zombies this is sick and shit like that

now this plays out as a classic resident evil and its pretty similar to resident evil 2 from the gameplay experience to the way everything looks and the character models and you can basically tell that capcom saw how well the re2 remake sold and said ok lets just rush another one and get that fucking money that we so need for the re4 remake

and they did it

lets just talk about the elephant in the room and unmistakably the greatest aspect of this entire game: carlos

people in this room i invite you to just get a drink and sit back because this is gonna be long so apart from the main character jill valentine who you would also know for her protagonist role in the VERY FIRST resident evil game alongside hot and sexy young chris redfield and shit like that you can definitely understand how she is not targeted to me because her partner exists so you are introduced to the second main character carlos oliveira who is as for my humble opinion possibly the hottest character in the entire resident evil franchise and thats incredibly flattering considering that chris redfield is just sitting there waiting to be sucked dry so if you had told me in 1999 that carlos was hot i wouldve laughed at your face because lets be real OG carlos is kinda ugly and im not gonna lie about this i am not a liar he looked weird he looked out of place and he looked like he did not get pussy for 2 decades but guys . guys remake carlos is something else i was not ready to see this man in action AT ALL i will be real with you i was not unaware of his existence due to rule34 and other stuff like twitter porn section and all that shit so i knew very well who carlos oliveira was and the chokehold he had on me so i was PREPARED but not as much as i shouldve because seeing him get all hot and sweaty shooting zombies in the face . i am in love guys like look at his curly hair his cute smile his charisma his humour his big and strong and beefy arms did you see those arms oh my god im dizzy when he said I know. You want to ask me out. All the foxy ladies love my accent. It drives them crazy. i was IN LOVE i swooned i blushed i was not joking this man has too much power on me and i dont like it he could ruin my life and my hole and i wouldnt say a thing im so sorry mom

umh so umh sorry about that so as i was saying the story revolves around these 2 people they get into the racoon city zombie havoc and stuff and they gotta escape thats the main gist of it all and it is interesting to traverse racoon city it has some interesting locations here and there and you can see people going absolutely crazy over it and honestly wouldnt you too if zombies were going around killing people and a big humanoid monster chased you around i dont think you would have so much fun if i can have an opinion about this so

ok whatever resident evil plot always gets infodumped in the end and its always the same shit oh no there was a biohazard around a biological weapon from a pharmacological company that was used because of MONEY and suddenly it spread and everyones a zombie now and thats fucking it experiments on people virus infecting everyone trying to create the ultimate humanoid bio weapon or some shit like that its always a plot like this and never carlos fucks me in the ass pornhub gay

so apart from the usual storyline the game itself is incredibly gorgeous every scene is great theres no scenery that wasnt absolutely breathtaking even though its literally a town in ruin but what do we care when RTX is on

people complained about the fact that nemesis encounters are scripted and dont last long and again since i havent played the original i cant agree to this criticism BUT i did enjoy the different boss battles and the fact that slowly and steadily nemesis evolved into a more disgusting and heinous being by the end of the game so yeah and the final fucking boss fight with the huge gun fight is too fun to be real

umh i mean not too much more to say about this game apart from the fact that those bug like zombies who deepthroated jill were the grossest thing ive ever experienced since heather vomiting the fetus so i can say for sure that this was done for fetish art i cannot overstate i fetish ey this looks oh my fucking god that segment doesnt feel real it was literally deepthroat green herb vomit deepthroat green herb vomit who thought about that honestly i need to talk for a sec forreal

GG i dont remember any ost rn but i do remember some banger songs so i will just trust my memories all in all a great experience i would rate it carlos/10 thank you everybody

Sabotage only has two games to its name but that doesn’t stop this small developer to be one of my absolute favorite in the medium. Their first two games the Messenger and now Sea of Stars are love letters to games of the past that put a modern spin on the genre. Plus Sabotage seems to be custom making games for me as I love retro games with modern spins and my favorite two genres are RPGs and Metroidvania. They absolutely had a banger in The Messenger and I may enjoy Sea of Stars even more.

If I were to explain Sea of Stars gameplay it would be in battles Chrono Trigger and out of battles in dungeons Zelda A Link to the Past. I wish the puzzles were a little tougher to be honest but they were fun nonetheless. The battles are never really hard but they are engaging and strategic. I love that they use timed hits and timed blocks so that you are never hitting attack mindlessly to get through battles. You also can’t spam your best spells as you will need them to trigger weaknesses and your MP is very limited. To gain MP you have to use regular attacks to draw in a few MP per attack. It keeps the golden age of RPG spirit but modernizes it just enough to feel like a game that just came out.

The art style is beautiful and always fun to take in. The music also is beautiful. I especially loved the remixed The Messenger tracks. Just like The Messenger it has some amazing twist that had me saying “that’s awesome” a few times.

Sometimes the story wasn’t top notch, for an RPG anyways, but it suffices for sure. I do love all the ties and interweaving with the story from The Messenger and loved the characters in this game.

Sea of Stars is an exceptional game that most years would EASILY be up for my game of the year but 2023 has been an insane year. Sabotage in just its second outing has made me a fan for life. Now if you’ll excuse me I must replay Sabotage’s original master class of a game so I can see how many tie ins I can find. While I do that you should go play Sea of Stars.

Mario Wonder is a nice true return to form for 2d Mario. I feel there hasn’t been a 2D Mario game with charm and heart since Super Mario World in the SNES as the NEW series did absolutely nothing for me personally.

The worlds and levels are varied, with creativity burst in every level. Each level feels like it was based around a gimmick and the game does a good job of having the gimmick used in more complex ways the more levels you play. The art is spectacular bursting with vibrant colors and the characters all have by far the best facial features in the series. The music was top notch as it is in all good Mario games.

So why only a 4 star (which is still a fantastic rating)

The game is incredibly easy. Like beyond believable, Kirby-esque, easy. I finished the game with 98 lives after beating the final special world level and I would have had 99 but I died literally once on the final level because of a self inflicted silly mistake on the “hardest” level in the game. Also while unique especially amoungst the other Mario games I feel like they dug deep into the DKC series and flat out ripped many ideas straight out of it. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing because the DKC series is great and legendary but still directly ripped it off many times imo.

Wonder is easily the best 2D game Nintendo has put out in this series since the SNES days and I’m excited to see where they go from here now that we hopefully have laid the NEW series to rest.

Here is where it falls in my rankings of how much I enjoyed each Mario game.

https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/my-mario-rankings/

I loved Spider-Man and Spider-Man Miles Morales so I was stoked for Spider-Man 2 yet it still blew away all my expectations.

The gameplay was more of the same from the previous games but with slightly more moves and upgrades. Story wise I will say the first half of the game is nothing to write home about but from mid point on the story is nothing but exceptional. Insomniacs vision and twist on Venom, Kraven, and for spoiler reasons I’ll just say the fire cult leader were fantastic. I’m so excited to see where the story goes next from here between what happens in the ending and spoiler mentioned above. If the story wasn’t so average the first half this game would have been a bonafide masterpiece. The second half is just simply a masterclass of the medium. Maybe the biggest upgrade to the game is that you can now fast travel anywhere and the load times for it are almost non existent and are seamless transitions making traversing so much quicker.

If you enjoyed yourself playing the two Spider-Man games you owe it to your self to play this game ASAP.