Shiver_Star
2023
This is a fantastic remake of an already amazing RPG, with the new additions helping battles flow better than before. This game is a no-brainer for anyone who likes mario, and even the rematch battles are challenging yet clever.
The only hitch I have is those new mechanics also make the game easier for longer than before. Some bosses that I vividly remembered struggling against were incredibly easy since the chain and weakness system will shred their health like mad. But this doesn't stop the game from being a real fun experience.
The only hitch I have is those new mechanics also make the game easier for longer than before. Some bosses that I vividly remembered struggling against were incredibly easy since the chain and weakness system will shred their health like mad. But this doesn't stop the game from being a real fun experience.
Every level, main gimmick and wonder effect left me with a nice feeling of "That was really nice, thank you for showing me." Nintendo didn't cut corners on the spectacle as well as how good it felt to play through that spectacle. If they keep expanding what they do with Mario, I'm real excited for future games.
2023
This is a fantastic entry that was well worth the wait. They enhanced the scope of the series so much with how huge the new maps are along with tons more collectibles than any of the past games. You're given a slew of gameplay changes between exploring these maps and caves with a vastly improved camera, night expeditions to take out some unruly monsters and dandori battles/challenges that work miles better than 3's missions.
My only complaints are that the game ought to have a new game+ for how the unlock system has it so you might end up unlocking some of the coolest gear and skills when you're nearly done with the game and the insane amount of times the game stops you just for the characters around you to talk.
With how well this game is doing, I sure hope it won't be long until we see more Pikmin!
My only complaints are that the game ought to have a new game+ for how the unlock system has it so you might end up unlocking some of the coolest gear and skills when you're nearly done with the game and the insane amount of times the game stops you just for the characters around you to talk.
With how well this game is doing, I sure hope it won't be long until we see more Pikmin!
2020
The exclusion of caves allowed this game to be more like an expanded take on Pikmin 1. Bigger maps and three different captains to control. While the switch port is a tad unwieldy to control the captains given the game used to utilize the gamepad for it, it still does the job for a fun time. The port also gives some new olimar challenges where you work with a time limit like the mission mode.
The main story is a fun time with some twists and turns here and there. I loved every bit of seeking out each fruit, and it led up to a really cool finale. Every gigantic boss was also fun to fight, but it felt limiting that the game gave them cinematic cutscenes even in the middle of the fight. The mission mode on the other hand is hit or miss, I didn't have as much fun working under the time limit trying to be as optimal as possible. The Olimar missions handle this better with how much smaller the scale is in them.
The main story is a fun time with some twists and turns here and there. I loved every bit of seeking out each fruit, and it led up to a really cool finale. Every gigantic boss was also fun to fight, but it felt limiting that the game gave them cinematic cutscenes even in the middle of the fight. The mission mode on the other hand is hit or miss, I didn't have as much fun working under the time limit trying to be as optimal as possible. The Olimar missions handle this better with how much smaller the scale is in them.
2004
My favorite game in the series, even when I just recently completed it.
It encapsulates my favorite parts of what the franchise is capable of. Multiple fun overworlds but the addition of caves gives even more gameplay as well as more variety. I adore every part of exploring the maps and delving into caves, with more fun puzzles to open up the way. I also love some of the chaos this game brings especially underground.
Despite all of this, the Wistful Wild gets downright evil. Every cave in it is a mishmash of tedious layouts and monsters all over. I'd be lying if I said I don't encourage people to give it a try, but just be aware that you're in for a hell of a time.
It encapsulates my favorite parts of what the franchise is capable of. Multiple fun overworlds but the addition of caves gives even more gameplay as well as more variety. I adore every part of exploring the maps and delving into caves, with more fun puzzles to open up the way. I also love some of the chaos this game brings especially underground.
Despite all of this, the Wistful Wild gets downright evil. Every cave in it is a mishmash of tedious layouts and monsters all over. I'd be lying if I said I don't encourage people to give it a try, but just be aware that you're in for a hell of a time.
2001
In general, Pikmin is such a good franchise. It's addicting and never fails to suck me in when I boot up a game.
The first game wraps up that essence perfectly well in a short and sweet little bow. You easily get the gist of how this serene world has a harsh side with the hungry monsters and the 30-day time limit, and how satisfying it feels to overcome all these to grow more pikmin and collect the parts.
While this might be my least favorite in the series, I still hold it in high regard. A great game and the series only goes up from here!
The first game wraps up that essence perfectly well in a short and sweet little bow. You easily get the gist of how this serene world has a harsh side with the hungry monsters and the 30-day time limit, and how satisfying it feels to overcome all these to grow more pikmin and collect the parts.
While this might be my least favorite in the series, I still hold it in high regard. A great game and the series only goes up from here!
This review contains spoilers
I'll start by saying breath of the wild didn't click with me. I respected the new direction they went, but a bunch of aspects felt half-baked.
Getting this out of the way, right from the start it felt like tears of the kingdom was plenty more fleshed out. The beginning island already felt more interesting than the great plateau, for example. The new zonai abilities immediately proved their worth over the sheikah ones prior as they expanded the potential for puzzles.
Just about every aspect of the game felt like a proper answer to the problems I had with breath of the wild. The weapon durability made more sense now that I could mix and match fusing things together and exploring felt more fun with ascend and the fact I could eventually make a quick car, boat et cetera with the zonai devices.
The story is an interesting aspect, though. It was much grander than breath of the wild's, but for a direct sequel... it doesn't mention the calamity very often. It's a contained story without even explaining what happened to the sheikah tech or the divine beasts now that they're absent. However the main story totk does tell is much grander, focusing on the ancient zonai races and hylian ancestors having to deal with Ganondorf. The finale was also fantastic, it fit the grand scope of this adventure very nicely.
One of my biggest complaints might be with the dungeons. I enjoyed the concept where they were traditional temples rather than the divine beasts, and you get a partner of the area's race as a sort of replacement to temple items. The temples fall short on execution though. For the gigantic world this hyrule is, the temples feel smaller and shorter than most of the dungeons of past games. A step in the right direction but not enough dedication.
Returning aspects feel a lot stronger, as well. Shrine puzzles are more interesting and have stumped me many times since the zonai abilities have more varied applications, and rather than tests of strength there are proving grounds where you're stripped of every item but what you find in the shrine. It was also nice seeing the same characters but progressed a few years later.
People normally say the game isn't recommendable to people who didn't like botw, but it's hard to agree when it warmed me up to the new direction much more than botw could. It's not a full return to the old stuff, but they sprinkled a bit of it in there. It might be hard to sell it to them with that 70 usd price, though...
Tears of the kingdom is excellent, and I'm happy with how much it pleasantly surprised me.
Getting this out of the way, right from the start it felt like tears of the kingdom was plenty more fleshed out. The beginning island already felt more interesting than the great plateau, for example. The new zonai abilities immediately proved their worth over the sheikah ones prior as they expanded the potential for puzzles.
Just about every aspect of the game felt like a proper answer to the problems I had with breath of the wild. The weapon durability made more sense now that I could mix and match fusing things together and exploring felt more fun with ascend and the fact I could eventually make a quick car, boat et cetera with the zonai devices.
The story is an interesting aspect, though. It was much grander than breath of the wild's, but for a direct sequel... it doesn't mention the calamity very often. It's a contained story without even explaining what happened to the sheikah tech or the divine beasts now that they're absent. However the main story totk does tell is much grander, focusing on the ancient zonai races and hylian ancestors having to deal with Ganondorf. The finale was also fantastic, it fit the grand scope of this adventure very nicely.
One of my biggest complaints might be with the dungeons. I enjoyed the concept where they were traditional temples rather than the divine beasts, and you get a partner of the area's race as a sort of replacement to temple items. The temples fall short on execution though. For the gigantic world this hyrule is, the temples feel smaller and shorter than most of the dungeons of past games. A step in the right direction but not enough dedication.
Returning aspects feel a lot stronger, as well. Shrine puzzles are more interesting and have stumped me many times since the zonai abilities have more varied applications, and rather than tests of strength there are proving grounds where you're stripped of every item but what you find in the shrine. It was also nice seeing the same characters but progressed a few years later.
People normally say the game isn't recommendable to people who didn't like botw, but it's hard to agree when it warmed me up to the new direction much more than botw could. It's not a full return to the old stuff, but they sprinkled a bit of it in there. It might be hard to sell it to them with that 70 usd price, though...
Tears of the kingdom is excellent, and I'm happy with how much it pleasantly surprised me.
2019
Save for some rough bits of game design (instakill spots and having to equip platforming abilities), this is an excellent soulslike.
It captures the grim atmosphere and weighty combat really well, along with incredibly elaborate sprite work both in gameplay and in fully-voiced cutscenes. The platforming is a bit slow and clunky, but it adds to the charm they were going for. Definitely excited for the sequel.
It captures the grim atmosphere and weighty combat really well, along with incredibly elaborate sprite work both in gameplay and in fully-voiced cutscenes. The platforming is a bit slow and clunky, but it adds to the charm they were going for. Definitely excited for the sequel.
2016
Very cute musou-like game with a bit of crude and self-aware humor. Though while similar to a musou/warriors game, it felt more engaging as the game goes through smaller maps with the aim being to destroy every monster on it. There's also a fairly deep strategy with customizing the character classes themselves. Over time and with material you grind from beating monsters, you can grow an array of skills, weapons and stat-boosting rings to fit the characters with and incentivizes playing around with different setups.
After feeling pretty sour from how disappointing bayonetta 3 was to finish, I was hesitant on getting this game despite the charming style. Thankfully a friend of mine bought the game and let me borrow it.
Starting the game quickly washed away that mentioned sour feeling, however. I adored the cutesy fairy tale style the whole way, and the slower pace focused on exploring and solving puzzles makes me wish Platinum would make more adventure games. It gave me a similar pleasant feeling to playing Okami. The story was also nicely straightforward and whimsical.
I also enjoyed the two-sided gameplay of having to control both Cereza and Cheshire with the left and right sticks as well as the respective buttons. I love when games cleverly use the right stick for gameplay quirks like this.
Overall, it's a solid and charming game. It makes me wish for more like this from Platinum rather than their usual character action stuff.
Starting the game quickly washed away that mentioned sour feeling, however. I adored the cutesy fairy tale style the whole way, and the slower pace focused on exploring and solving puzzles makes me wish Platinum would make more adventure games. It gave me a similar pleasant feeling to playing Okami. The story was also nicely straightforward and whimsical.
I also enjoyed the two-sided gameplay of having to control both Cereza and Cheshire with the left and right sticks as well as the respective buttons. I love when games cleverly use the right stick for gameplay quirks like this.
Overall, it's a solid and charming game. It makes me wish for more like this from Platinum rather than their usual character action stuff.
2000
It always surprises me how ambitious games can be on the gameboy. It also completely surprised me to find out the game is a whole metroid game that's done better than the actual gameboy metroid game.
The game is slow going at the start, but I got quickly hooked on the gameplay loop the moment I saw how collecting the treasures would constantly change the map. It felt clever how the four treasures in every level felt like their own mini-level as well as every area having coins to look out for. And with how the game doesn't have a health system (and NSO has the rewind function), exploring is hardly ever frustrating.
The game is slow going at the start, but I got quickly hooked on the gameplay loop the moment I saw how collecting the treasures would constantly change the map. It felt clever how the four treasures in every level felt like their own mini-level as well as every area having coins to look out for. And with how the game doesn't have a health system (and NSO has the rewind function), exploring is hardly ever frustrating.
RtDL was already a timeless game back on the Wii, but I always love how HAL goes above and beyond for Kirby. The new Magoland is a fun way to celebrate their sub-games (and nice fanservice with the tons of masks you can unlock) and the magolor epilogue is a fun extra romp. Sand and Mecha are really good abilities, too.
Man, I love Kirby and HAL Labs always makes it easy to.
Man, I love Kirby and HAL Labs always makes it easy to.
2023
Genuinely unhinged game, it's always an adrenaline rush when you enter a level. The team nailed both the fluid gameplay and the goofy squash and stretch with an equally insane soundtrack on top of it!
2022
I'm really impressed that this game was made by a single person (technically two people were on the main team, but it was a lead doing the game itself and the other person was the composer), it is beefy and chock full of levels. I only finished the main story so far and there's more to do!
As for the game itself, it's in a weird place with me. I found this enjoyable enough to play levels multiple times for all of the requirements in each one, but I can't ignore the hiccups it has. I think it does really well at being a recently-released game that emulates what a B-grade platformer would be like on the N64/Playstation... as a positive and a negative. Hell, it's easy enough to compare the grapple tongue mechanic to Chameleon Twist.
The game absolutely nails the charm of old low-poly games in every aspect. The graphics, the wacky music, the engaging yet frustrating gameplay. In the end the latter can bog it down and make this an unfortunate time if someone can't get used to it. The controls are very restrictive and often deceptive. Renata feels heavy to control since she moves slowly and her jumps are very weak to prioritize Frogun's grappling tongue.
As for the staple tongue grapple, its effect can be very wonky. Some platforming involving it just requires you to get from point A to point B, but after some time the game will suddenly require incredibly tight challenges where you bounce off of enemies or walls again and again. If you miss that window, you simply plummet and have to start again. Even with an update that let me shoot Frogun twice in the air, it was tricky.
The game has had multiple updates since launch and the developer seems to promise more on the way, but at the core the game was well-crafted around the challenge of playing like an old 3d platformer. Overall your enjoyment depends on how much you like that kind of challenge, and I've put enough hours to say I like it enough despite that ps1-style jank.
As for the game itself, it's in a weird place with me. I found this enjoyable enough to play levels multiple times for all of the requirements in each one, but I can't ignore the hiccups it has. I think it does really well at being a recently-released game that emulates what a B-grade platformer would be like on the N64/Playstation... as a positive and a negative. Hell, it's easy enough to compare the grapple tongue mechanic to Chameleon Twist.
The game absolutely nails the charm of old low-poly games in every aspect. The graphics, the wacky music, the engaging yet frustrating gameplay. In the end the latter can bog it down and make this an unfortunate time if someone can't get used to it. The controls are very restrictive and often deceptive. Renata feels heavy to control since she moves slowly and her jumps are very weak to prioritize Frogun's grappling tongue.
As for the staple tongue grapple, its effect can be very wonky. Some platforming involving it just requires you to get from point A to point B, but after some time the game will suddenly require incredibly tight challenges where you bounce off of enemies or walls again and again. If you miss that window, you simply plummet and have to start again. Even with an update that let me shoot Frogun twice in the air, it was tricky.
The game has had multiple updates since launch and the developer seems to promise more on the way, but at the core the game was well-crafted around the challenge of playing like an old 3d platformer. Overall your enjoyment depends on how much you like that kind of challenge, and I've put enough hours to say I like it enough despite that ps1-style jank.
I don't think I have it in me to finish this game.
As far as presentation goes, it has that nice whimsical charm that dragon quest tends to have. The colorful landscapes, Toriyama's pleasant designs, the slimes making gooey puns.
But from what I played, you're given the gameplay loop fairly early on and while it is simple, I feel like it could've worked well if only controlling the characters felt better.
The options you're given for traveling are as frustrating as they are convenient. These options are tied to the three monsters you go on adventure with. For example the drackies can be used for gliding for a short time, slimes can be bounced on for higher jumps and sabrecats are for a speedier riding option. The problem is that these abilities are on cooldowns and stamina. You can only ride the sabrecat for a couple minutes before its stamina says you can't, then you have to wait a few minutes to ride it again. There also isn't really a fast travel outside of running to an active train station to move to another, and a consumable resource to even get to your base without losing the treasures you've collected.
As for combat, it's a quickly tiring loop of either hitting monsters with a simple slash combo or shooting pellets at them while your monster friends just attack them automatically. It stops feeling engaging very quickly.
Overall there was potential for the game to be a pleasant easygoing time-killer, but the game has a few underwhelming aspects that just make it not fun for me to play.
As far as presentation goes, it has that nice whimsical charm that dragon quest tends to have. The colorful landscapes, Toriyama's pleasant designs, the slimes making gooey puns.
But from what I played, you're given the gameplay loop fairly early on and while it is simple, I feel like it could've worked well if only controlling the characters felt better.
The options you're given for traveling are as frustrating as they are convenient. These options are tied to the three monsters you go on adventure with. For example the drackies can be used for gliding for a short time, slimes can be bounced on for higher jumps and sabrecats are for a speedier riding option. The problem is that these abilities are on cooldowns and stamina. You can only ride the sabrecat for a couple minutes before its stamina says you can't, then you have to wait a few minutes to ride it again. There also isn't really a fast travel outside of running to an active train station to move to another, and a consumable resource to even get to your base without losing the treasures you've collected.
As for combat, it's a quickly tiring loop of either hitting monsters with a simple slash combo or shooting pellets at them while your monster friends just attack them automatically. It stops feeling engaging very quickly.
Overall there was potential for the game to be a pleasant easygoing time-killer, but the game has a few underwhelming aspects that just make it not fun for me to play.