I have been an avid critic of Link's Awakening since first playing it a few years back. The gameplay style is fun if not a little confusing in part due to the confusing nature of the world design where everything is open to you but nothing is actually open to you. I find it a cheap way to hide linear design behind the vignette of an "open world". That being said, I was very willing to give TUNIC a try when I first saw it. I liked the art style, the world looked pretty enough to keep me engaged and I was really looking forward to the combat since playing Elden Ring has made me more hungry for things with that Souls-like formula. That being said, this game has a myriad of problems that the worst of both of those franchises has along with a few extra bits and pieces just for added touch.

Starting with the good, however, since there is genuine merit to this game. The art style is cute. It's very clearly inspired by other big breakout indies like FEZ with its own little twist on it. The sound design is gorgeous, too. The music is wonderful and really sets the mood for each area. The world design is rather cute as well. I feel as though if I really wanted to I could get rather immersed in this world, as it has plenty of realistic elements along with that bit of mysticism that keeps you wanting to know more.

And the presentation is effectively where my praises stop and the criticisms begin. As the gameplay in itself is infuriating in every way. Firstly, the combat, which was my biggest draw to the game. Many are calling this game a Souls-like however I think that's a bit off the mark, as while the game may be hard, incitivises attacking your enemy only when their pattern allows it and there's a dodge roll, it's not fair like Dark Souls. When you die in a Dark Souls game, it really feels like it's your fault. It was never out of your control, you simply lacked the expertise to get that one hit in and got punished for it. This game is not fair. Windows of attack are small and the game will sometimes throw multiple enemies at you, just to make your experience more miserable. And the fire pits that bare similarity to Dark Souls' bonfires are used so sparingly that you'll often be trekking back multiple times through one area because you died to something simply out of your control. The roll is way to fast and is a better movement tool than an evasion tool. The shield does nothing but impede your attacks, giving you no window of opportunity to counterattack. Often times combat will amount to "attack once, step back, wait out the three second animation of a guy swinging at you, attack again, repeat until dead" and it just becomes boring. It says a lot about a game's combat when you csn turn it off from the very beginning. The only incentive to attacking enemies is to clear the path so you can get to your next destination but sometimes running around is even easier than that. If you can avoid combat entirely and it is at the advantage of the player to do so then your game needs tweaking. Although there is a level system, it has more to do with exploration than it really does with beating enemies, as you need certain items before you can level up at all. This would be fine if exploration was not the most cryptic thing alive. Once again comes my problems with this style of gameplay. I absolutely hate it when games pretend to open something up to you, only to hit you with an empty room and a sign that says "come back later". It's always just annoying. If your game is going to be linear, I'd just rather have a sense of direction so I'm not wandering around for an hour before giving up. I looked up walkthroughs twice in my 3 hours with this game, something I have only done once in my 25 hours with Elden's Ring, and that was just cus I got tired of looking. I don't think I would have genuinely known there was a leveling system if it wasn't thanks to walkthroughs. While I like the style of cryptic storytelling the game is going for, it really impedes my enjoyment of the game if the cryptic nature of the game is everywhere. Im a good fifth of the way through the game and the main plot still has yet to reveal itself.

In conclusion, if you like Link's Awakening, this game is for you. If you like Dark Souls this game is not for you. If you hate Dark Souls, this game is also not for you. This game really only serves to be a harder version of Link's Awakening and while I can see merit in that, the gameplay style of Link's Awakening is just my least favorite in an action-adventure game. And I certainly don't think it works here. That does not mean I would not like to see more from this studio, because I do think that even this game is good, it just was not what it was hyped up to be in my mind.

Mario Party Superstars is a step in the right direction for a series that has been misguided for well over a decade. Ever since NDCube took over the franchise from Hudson Soft, the quality of the games has dropped entry after entry and that was far too obvious in 2018's Super Mario Party which felt like a husk of the former games. However, this game has really brought the series back and I am finally seeing it get the respect it deserves as the chaotic party game it was always meant to be.

The presentation of the game is actually really nice, even compared to previous entries. Most Mario games go for a toy-looking art style that makes everything look like plastic and ugly but the direction of this more realistic art style has looks much better. But the music is really where this game shines, as every track has been remixed to add new, modern flare to each board and minigame, with the old tracks being optional to change after beating each board. It all sounds and looks just how it should for a simple party game.

Of course, no one comes to Mario Party for its stunning visuals, and luckily the gameplay does not suck this time. The return of the classic 1-10 dice, along with a grab-bag of classic minigames without any gimmicks added to them makes this a Mario Party that feels fresh to new players, and like a true return to form for veterans. The game is finally playable in handheld mode, which was not possible in the other Switch Mario Party and the selection of boards and minigames doesn't suck like the other anniversary title. And, the addition of stickers just adds that little thing that doesn't need to be there but is just fun to have when its not your turn. Also, a solid multiplayer mode! In a first party Nintendo game! Who would've thought? This is genuinely just a solid entry all around.

Although, there are some things lacking that do make me wonder if this game was rushed out the door a bit too fast. The lack of any kind of singleplayer content is a little disappointing since my personal favorite entry is Mario Party DS and that comes with an entire campaign, but also just a mission mode would have been nice. Additionally, the lack of modes for the main board game feels a little bit weird. No 2v2 mode, no partner mechanics, no special dice blocks depending on your character all feel like weird things to be excluded from, but I assume this was to focus on the main game, since NDCube does have a habit of overstuffing their titles with modes that lack any depth. Although, the limited character selection and only 5 boards is a little disappointing, and the boards chosen aren't really stand outs. The fact that Birdo got a slot over like Bowser Jr is a little weird, and Peach's Birthday Cake is a pretty boring map. All in all, I just wish that more content had been taken from the Gamecube titles and MP8 over the N64 titles, since it feels like those titles really got shelved in terms of inspiration.

This is decisively the best Mario Party in a long time and I absolutely want to get more chances to play this with friends because its just a fun time, with that added bit of Mario Party chaos back into the game.

Metroid Dread is one of the most unique games to come out of a first-party Nintendo IP in a very long time. I love when Nintendo does something different with my favorite franchises, and here is a title that has really changed up gameplay and storytelling in its own way that makes this title really stand out. However, thats not to say it does not come with some of the flaws of previous Metroid games.

Firstly, the gameplay loop is simply fantastic. Explore dark caverns, fight increasingly difficult bosses and upgrade your weapons to become as strong as you can. That is inevitable with any Metroid game and you will certainly get that same satisfaction from this title. Puzzles are fun, but challenging enough to make players feel that gratification from beating one; bosses are hard and while a few are confusing, it is easy to figure them out once you understand their attack patterns; and upgrades always feel earned and enjoyable additions to your arsenal. However, the weakest point of the gameplay loop (and by extension, the gameplay loop of all other Metroid-Vanias with similar problems) is the feeling of getting lost, which happened a lot during my trek with this game. Not just once, but multiple times throughout my experience with this game did I feel as though I was making steady progress and then suddenly felt as though I was wandering around aimlessly for an hour. I understand that the exploration is part of the point of the game, and I certainly do not want that taken away from players, some way of telling the player where to go or what to do without explicitly telling them is part of good game design. Many times, vital enterances or exits are blocked by hidden walls that have little-to-no visual differences from other walls. There is no way to explicitly tell the difference until way into the latter part of the game, and by then you feel entirely burnt out by the hidden wall mechanic. While I love secrets, and exploring is what makes the genre of the title so strong, its hard to say the game is perfect when I had to look up multiple walkthroughs simply to find out where I needed to go next.

Finally, with my only complaint of the game over, the presentation of the game can truly shine. This game is downright gorgeous. Environments look so real and lived in, creatures look like they breathe and eat as though they are real animals and even something as miniscule as cave ambience feels like it was perfected to a science. Additionally, these excellent looks are backed by beautiful sound design and tracks. Music feels mysterious, yet alluring and each individual sound adds that bit more tension. Just hearing an EMMI click as it attempts to hunt you down sends shivers down my spine. MercurySteam really went all out to earn that "Dread" subtitle, because each sound and enemy design in this game is absolutely horrifying.

Conclusively, I think Metroid Dread is an almost flawless game, with just a few minor annoyances that kept me from keeping up with it all the time. It did start to fall to the side as I got a bit fed up with more difficult bosses, such as the final boss, and left me annoyed by excessive backtracking. But, the morbid curiosity of what was going on within the depths of ZDR, kept me coming back for the thrilling narrative ride of a lifetime.

Magic: The Gathering is one of my favorite games of all time. Yeah, not just board games; my favorite game. So that being said, a free-to-play version with online functionality allowing me to play at any time should be the best thing ever, right? Well...

So I guess I should get this out of the way since it's clearly everybody's problem with this game. Yes, it's insanely predatory, but so are card games? This is no less predatory than actual Magic realistically but I don't think that's most people's problem with this game. Their problem is that when you do get cards and do make a fun deck based around those cards, that deck is rendered almost completely obsolete only a few months later. The fact that Standard is what they decided to base the game around instead of Modern really makes it hard to justify buying cards. Why would I buy cards that have no use outside of this game if they aren't going to be worth anything in said game after a year or so? With paper Magic, there are so many ways to play, with so many formats, casual play is so common that you can use any of your cards in any deck with limitless rules. And with real Magic cards, you can sell those guys when you're done with them if you want. But if you pull cards you don't want in this game, you're just kind of stuck with them, which makes pulling commons even more annoying than it is IRL. At least with paper Magic, you actually own something tangible, even if it's barely worth more than a few cents. I think the easiest way for Wizards to circumvent this would literally just be to let you have the cards. Build and try out any decks you want, just like Magic: Online. I know this isn't realistic and that they have to make their money somehow but I don't think that having ads or something would be any less immersion breaking than scummy monetary practices.

That being said, how is the game as a service for Magic? I'm not going to judge the Magic format because I would simply say that it's perfect and mastered the card game style in '93 but I do want to judge the way this game provides a place to play Magic. In my honest opinion, it's alright. It works well, and processes everything at a nice pace. It certainly feels like I'm playing a game of Magic. But, it doesn't do much in the way of offering me customizability and this ties back into the problem with basing your game around Standard. It's my opinion that the Standard format is inherently flawed. It promotes playing the game for as few turns as possible and it shows by how few control decks are played in the format. However, I understand that there is a market for this format and that a lot of people really do like it. But, what about me who is not one of those people. What do I get to work with? Well there's Brawl which is certainly a lot of fun but other than that, there's only variations of Standard, and considering that most cards in the game are simply 2018 and onward, it really all just feels like Standard. There's barely any variations, no Two-headed giant, no Commander, no Archenemy and no real variations on the Draft formats. It feels like this was constructed entirely for competitive one-on-one... oh yeah... is was. All MTG tournaments since the release of this game have been on Arena. They simply made this as an official way to have pretty presentation for Magic tournaments. I'm happy that these players have their way to play now but most people play Magic as a hobby and would like some variation from time to time. Throwing a bone to your main fan base would probably do you some good, Wizards.

Regardless, the game is presented very well. Special animations for legendary creatures, sound design is delightful and everything looks really good. They did not have to go this hard for a simple card game. The game is updated consistently to keep up with Magic's ever-expanding line of products. But man, those updates are killer and keep me from opening this thing so often. I don't think I need a 7GB update every single time I open your app, Wizards but I appreciate you being on top of things. Also, the lack of social features on here is abyssmal. Magic always has been a very social game and while I'm not saying you need voice chat or anything, but the ability to say something beyond a "Hey!" or a "Nice job." would be nice.

This honestly, just feels like Wizards attempt to kill paper Magic that did nothing but make paper Magic fans more dedicated to their cardboard. It's a nice application but until more features are added to be more inclusive to casual formats, I don't think this will replace paper Magic for me and millions of others.

For a cross between Halo and Portal, this is not half bad.

The problem is needing a reason to keep playing. Once you have played one round, you have kind of played everything the game has to offer. If you just need a fun, free-to-play game to hang out with some friends on than this is super good for that but the gameplay loop doesn't offer much. It's fun but not very compelling. Shooting someone through a portal or doing a portal jump up to a high area only to pummel three people up there is only so fun for so long. There is no story mode, the battlepass gives you some cosmetic changes and the ranked system isn't so much a ranked "system" as it is a ranked game mode slapped together and labeled a system. The problem with pick-up and play shooters in the online era is there is no real reason to keep playing. Halo or (the good) Call of Duty games are really easy to pick up and start playing but also have comprehensive campaigns and compelling online modes that let you play the game at your own pace. Everything about Splitgate is about getting you into the next match. Matches are timed, no matter what the game mode and lobbies just thrust you into random games, switching up the game mode at a moments pace. You can't just choose to play King of the Hill for a bit, you have to play King of the Hill and a bunch of other games in a jamboree, and if you don't get the mode you like, its too bad cus the game has pretty much already started.

Outside of that gameplay loop, there's not much to say. It's exactly what you expect. Halo but with portals is a really fun concept and when you first jump into this, it is a lot of fun. Trying to find where you can portal to in order to get a high ground advantage, plus using your jetpack to help with tricky jumps and running around the maps trying to pummel someone at close range can be a lot of fun. I love all of the maps with an exception or two, but there's enough variety in each that you won't get tired of any of them, even if you dislike them. The gun variety is really good too. Each gun feels unique in its own way but still easy to use. Rarely ever did I pick up a gun and immediately drop it for another.

Overall, a really solid time for what it is, but you won't see it winning any awards. It doesn't push the boundaries, it doesn't do anything new, it just takes what you've liked about shooters in the past and mashed them into one free, easy to play experience.

So Valorant; the shooter made by the same team behind League of Legends has a lot going for it. It's good, it's fun, it's pretty enough now that the game has had a few polishing updates, but its hard to say much beyond that.

The game takes inspiration from a lot of other shooters, and that's obvious the second you boot it up. The tactics of CS:GO combined with the chaos of Overwatch should be a no-brainer, right? Well, it's taken some tweaking and it really shows by the fact that the game has been getting frequent updates with character patches all the time and metas that evolve less so around the players and more so around the devs. Some characters are insanely fun to play, like the crazy setups that can be done with Cypher or the high-octance anime battles that can be done as Jett but other characters like Yoru are gimmicky at best and just not fun to play as at their worst. No character is completely unplayable but the fact that almost no one plays smokes willingly says a lot about your game design, especially when said smokes are an incredibly crucial part of the game.

But so what if the character meta is a little weird at times, the gameplay is tactics based so it should be consistent and fun, right? Well not really. They're fun when they work and when people play the game as intended but often times, you will catch people running and firing, camping in corners and hitting shots that just should not be feasible. There are an infinite number of clips of a bullet going nowhere near someone and landing a headshot and its hard to say a game feels fair when that happens. Each of the guns has their own strengths and weaknesses that don't feel as strictly enforced as they should (i.e. judge killing at ranges up to 20m and op killing at ranges as close as 2m) and its just hard to call the game a tactics game when the mechanics are so janky.

Now for the most egregious part of the game and what inspired me to write this review in the first place, the ranking system! Dear god, this game has a terrible ranking and placement system. The game not only does nothing to prevent smurfing but actively encourages it, by allowing people to join all smurf account lobbies for the first 10 unrated and counting surrender wins, meaning you can have 8-10 accounts ready to go in about 2-3 hours, but they actively encourage it. Riot Games has done nothing to prevent this problem and it gets worse as time goes on. Now I know high elo players like to say just "git gud" but I don't see why I should have to grind ranked for hours, study gameplay and reach Plat just to have an enjoyable experience. Online games should be fun and competitive at all skill levels and smurfs completely ruin that, requiring me to play solo or duo queue if I want to have an enjoyable ranked experience, as full teams usually end up just being completely crazy. Which Riot fully admits to by allowing Diamond and up to only duo queue. They admit that their ranking and queueing system is broken by having this rule! Which you think would spur them on to create a better ranking system but they just have not bothered. In a competitive, tactics-based shooter such as this one, fairness in competition is of the utmost importance but I almost rarely run into games where my team completely stomps the enemies or vice versa.

Regardless, I would like to say some positive things about the game, because I do believe there are positives. The mechanics and ideas are genuinely fun, combining abilities with tactical gunplay makes for a really fun shooter experience. The maps are mostly well-designed, with a few exceptions and the problem of far too many corners to clear, but overall the maps really dictate the strategy. The fact that I don't particularly love nor hate most maps proves they designed them well because it shows that they at least made them fair. Gun skins are actually really cool, even if they are incredibly overpriced, but it isn't exploitative like most shooters are these days. Character designs are well-made and the personalities and history behind each character make them feel real, even after hearing the same voice lines over and over. The lore, while scarce and underwhelming at times, is probably one of the most fun things about the game.

Overall, it's kind of just an average shooter that if nothing else have made me want to try out CS:GO and boot up TF2 for the first time in years which probably isn't a good thing. A game should probably not actively make me want to seek out it's competition, especially when it's competition is 10-15 years older than it. It needs a heavy breakdown of its mechanics and I think it would be best if Riot brought on someone who has actually made a shooter before, because they clearly can't do it completely right, even if they get the tactics thing right. Incredibly fun to watch, not as fun to play, which says a lot about the game.

This was a pleasant surprise that I don't think anyone saw coming. I got around to playing this chapter a bit later than I had hoped but I'm glad I took it at the pace I did. I should probably preface this review by saying one thing: yes, I was an Undertale mega-fan back in the day. That being said, I'm honestly super happy that the direction this game is going. If you want to play this without playing Undertale first, then I think that is perfectly fine, as this acts as a better spiritual successor as opposed to a sequel.

Deltarune Chapter 1 honestly kind of disappointed me when it first came out. It didn't have the replay value Undertale had, hell it barely had any at all, the characters felt like lackluster carbon copies of Undertale characters and overall it just felt like it couldn't detach itself from Undertale's legacy. Of course, me being a mega-fan of Undertale, I had no problem with this at first, as long as you fed me a bit of mystery and plopped in a Sans cameo, I was golden. But as I reflected on the game, I started to realize that it really didn't impact me the same way that game did. But, I can say confidently that Chapter 2 has really redeemed itself and it really makes me excited for what this game has to offer in the future.

Deltarune's gameplay doesn't differ all that much from Undertale, apart from a few minor ways. The game still takes place in a 16-bit SNES style where you play as an androgynous child lost in a world of monsters and magic. However, the battle system has completely changed and what used to be a pretty slow burn with some bullet hell sequences has turned into complete chaos with full RPG features that still lets the essence of Toby's message breathe. Fighting is still an option, and while there are consequences for hurting others, you aren't completely devoid of humanity the second you slap a fly or punch a mouse. Acting is still essential to your main gameplay and gives each fight its own minigame-like sequence, which keeps the whole point of pacifism from getting too monotonous and repetitive. Magic is new to the world of Deltarune however and has largely changed the gameplay and really gives this game a more traditional RPG feel over its predecessor. Puzzles are still a delight to solve, and don't derail the story too much, and those that do typically serve some other gameplay purpose so solving everything and turning over every rock becomes an absolute treat (To Deltarune's credit, Undertale really did have some long hallways that led to nothing). The gameplay just feels like everything you would want in a sequel, but Chapter 2 has absolutely gone above and beyond, adding small animations and little sequences that make the act of ACTing that much more fun.

But of course, who comes to a Toby Fox game for the gameplay? Everyone wants to know about the story. Well, I am happy to say that you will not be disappointed by this chapter. I did genuinely have some problems with the first part of this saga when it comes to story, it became poorly-paced at time, it didn't do much to get you invested in the characters or new world and not much happens that really makes you feel like you impacted some lives or felt something. However, Chapter 2 remedies all of this and more, with new interesting characters that really drive the story forward. Toby Fox's stories are largely driven by their characters and in this chapter, the new characters introduced, along with the previous characters being expanded upon really gives the game new flavor. Your main party members, Susie and Ralsei, feel much more real compared to Chapter 1. Susie has evolved from being an angry tomboy to an angry tomboy lesbian who also actually has complex emotions and a struggle to connect with others. Meanwhile, Ralsei has went from being a shy goat boy to being a shy goat boy with seemingly alterior motives and his hospitality reaches unnerving levels in this new story. Other characters like Noelle and Toriel finally get greater depth in this chapter, as we uncover the roots of Noelle's pushover-like nature and discover a colder side to Toriel that is unseen in Undertale. And the story is just beginning to ooze with mystery as we learn more about the Dark World and its themes of a magical fantasy world where nothing matters contrasted against a bleak real world where nothing you do matters. It truly feels like this part in Toby's new tale has come into its own thematically.

That's all I really have to say on Deltarune's new chapter without spoiling the entire thing. If you liked Undertale or Chapter 1, absolutely give this a try. If you didn't like either, I still think you should give this a try, it's different enough that it could finally be the thing that makes one of these stories click for you. If you haven't tried either Undertale nor Chapter 1 yet, then you should probably try Undertale first. I feel that Deltarune has evolved into a more mature version of Toby's storytelling (as shown by the colorful language and darker themes in this chapter), and playing Undertale first may give you a better beginner's guide to a Fox story. But if you want to jump right into this without playing Undertale because the hype is just killing you, then I highly suggest it either way, you should just probably play Chapter 1 first. This chapter won't make a lot of sense without it.

Minecraft Dungeons was actually a really promising idea to me. When it first came out I was asking friends who had played it on GamePass if they enjoyed it and they said it was alright but I really did not hear much more. I see now why after playing and I don't think it takes much to see the flaws in the game.

I bought this game for the Switch because it was cheap, had some of the DLC and I wanted to play local multiplayer since I knew it was multiplayer. Little did I know the Switch version is actually broken. The game would crash randomly, have constant slowdown issues and it was just a pain to play sometimes. I had to play a single level three times because of the crashing problem with this game. It's one thing to not port a game to another console because it cannot handle it, it's another to allow the game to exist and do nothing to fix its issues.

Outside of general graphics issues that really bogged down my experience. The game just does not understand how these kinds of games work. The leveling system is incredibly dumb because it's based on the level of your items, not of your character. Effectively, it's better to play items that are stronger in level, whether or not you like them, and whether or not they are actually optimal for the battle. So you can either play the game levels below where you actually are and play on baby mode, but at least you get to play with the items you want, or you can play with items that you don't like and play at a difficulty that will actually challenge you. And of course, they can't allow you to upgrade your old items, because that would be too simple a solution to this problem. Even though making your old gear better is a focal mechanic of Minecraft, we couldn't bother to add anything like that here. Well of course there are options to play at higher levels with weaker items but I would strongly advise against that seen as the game has no idea how difficulty scaling works. My girlfriend and I ran through this game with variances in difficulty everywhere. Some levels we would cut through like butter and others we would get stuck on one boss or group of enemies that would tear us apart, even though we played on the same difficulty rating all the way through.

So now we come to what I believe is the most egregious fault in this game, the level design. The levels are very vibrant and beautiful. There are some places that I really wanted to explore that were just out of reach and at first, it was so fun to run through each area and see what we could find. So why is this a problem? Well because Mojang's developers don't actually want you to look at the different places they developed, they just want you to get to the end. There are so many dead ends in this game that lead to nothing, it became tiring to walk down long corridors only to come to nothing. Occasionally there would be a treasure chest with some emeralds and a few enemies in those halls but most of the time, you would walk down a route way off the beaten path, find nothing, and have to turn back around. This made it really tedious to enter a new level knowing you were most likely going to run through, get nothing you like, scrap all of your old stuff for emeralds in hopes that one of the villagers at camp would give you something better.


To be fair to the game, bosses and enemies are interesting to fight, designs are good, weapons are diverse, the soundtrack is meh, and all--around the presentation is what you come to expect from a Minecraft experience. It's just hard to justify calling something good if it just looks pretty.

Minecraft Dungeons was an alright experience because they did the bare minimum and allowed multiplayer but if you have no one else to play this with, I would not give this a shot. Decent multiplayer game if you have someone as dedicated to it as you are, but it's a sub-par experience everywhere else.

New Super Mario Bros. U continues the New Super Mario Bros. series by doing the same exact thing that every other game in the franchise has done. It follows the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality just as the games before it. This game came in an era where Nintendo was doing everything they could to make the most profit with the least amount of risk and did so by mimicking its most popular franchise at the time. This game is not bad but it has nothing going for it that was not already done by every other 2D platformer made at the time.

Obviously, the presentation for this game is pretty. It has a pleasant art style and bubbly sounds that call for a comfortable and warm experience. Then you keep playing and you realize how samey everything looks. The music is the same from the 2006 game, as are the graphics and the sound effects, even some of the level designs and power-ups are the exact same. One of the most unique things about the presentation is that the game is in HD which makes everything even worse when you realize how little of a graphical jump SD to HD was when comparing this to the Wii version. The presentation is pretty but it is nothing to brag about.

Speaking of nothing to brag about, how about the way the game plays? Well it plays exactly like every other game, but at least the controls are refined. Really nothing has been added to Mario's moveset here except the Racoon mushroom to let him glide but everything else feels just like the Wii version. No new moves have been added, no new jumps or flips. However, keeping everything the same has helped a ton with level design. In my opinion, most other New Super games have flawed level design at best and some really poorly designed stages at worst but U has almost none of that. Sure this means the game is easy compared to most of its predecessors but it also makes the game a lot more fun. I got really tired of finding some of the dumbest secrets in the older games but here the game lets you figure out where to go, how to get there, and what you need to collect the star coins.

Star coins have made the same contribution they did in Wii and it feels much more worthwhile here. While I still believe that the handheld games have the best system for the coins, the fact that the coins here still feel like they unlock something does leave some kind of feeling of progression.

I feel that I have said all I can about New Super Mario Bros. U without repeating myself. The game is incredibly generic and does nothing to push the series to the heights I know it could reach but with excellent level design and satisfying progression, this game is no doubt the best modern mainline 2D Mario game in a vacuum. Although, that would leave out New Super Luigi U and Super Mario Maker which completely lowers the bar on what the best "modern 2D Mario" is.

When this game was initially re-revealed in late 2020 as a part of the Mario 35 Anniversary Direct, I effectively just took a huge sigh of relief. This was one of the last Wii U ports to make its way over to the Nintendo Switch and it was nice to finally have it, but I knew I did not want to get it when it came out. I liked 3D World but not enough to buy it again. Then the game comes out and I can't stop hearing about how its side mode, Bowser's Fury is one of the most innovative and unique Mario experiences ever. So I pick up a copy and put it in, not really expecting to be blown away but expecting to have a decent amount of fun.

With all of that introduction out of the way, I do have to say that Bowser's Fury is literally my favorite Mario experience of all time. Everything about this small little 6-hour experience is perfect to me and leaves me craving this formula more. First off, those controls that I absolutely hate in 3D World feel so nice here. Something about the way Mario runs and jumps feels so much more intuitive in a wide-open environment as opposed to a tight platform collection. Running up walls and bouncing off of enemies has never felt better.

It really has never looked better either. This game is so pretty, from the glistening water to the particle effects on the rain, the sludge effects on Bowser look magnificent. This is still effectively just 3D World's style but when you have time to stop and take a look at the world around you, you realize how pretty everything is. The cat references everywhere make for perfect secrets as well, discovering what does and does not have cat ears makes for perfect little rewarding secrets. Everything about the environment makes it feel as though the game was modeled with nothing but passion.

Speaking of those environments, just everything about exploring them is amazing. I have played Super Mario 64 and Sunshine an infinite number of times more than I have for this game but everything about this game's environment looks and plays so much better. I forget certain areas in Sunshine exist sometimes but there was never an area that felt forgettable to me here. Most 64 areas have certain puzzles or challenges that just play like garbage but none of that is present here. Whether you are climbing on a tower that you cannot see or moving around a fortress that is entirely surrounded by clear pipes, the challenges will always have you wanting more.

Unfortunately, that is the worst part about this game, that there is not enough of it. It is the shortest 3D Mario experience, even shorter than Super Mario 64. Areas are tiny and compact and it all takes place on one world the size of a single location in Odyssey. There are only 100 main collectibles and getting them all does not unlock some ultra-hard final challenge or even more collectibles. This game is very limited in its content and once you have played through it fully, you've effectively seen everything.

However, that is what makes me love this game so much is the idea that we may get more. If we get another 3D Mario game some time from now in the same formula with a new unique system then I am sure it will become my new favorite Mario but for now, this small slice of heaven will have to do.

I really had to sit down and think about this one. I might even complete this review in multiple sittings just because I really broke down into the fundamentals to figuring out why Super Mario 3D World is not a perfect game and why, in my mind, Bowser's Fury is, despite its length. I've had a complicated history with 3D World, it was the last console 3D Mario I owned, I started it and never 100% beat it in the summer of '19 because I could not get past Champion's Road for the life of me. Come Summer of '20 I sit down and decide I'm gonna grind through it and I beat it, only a few days after this remake was announced. I thought that even with Bowser's Fury I was not going to want to replay this game but then I heard so many good things about the side mode and decided that I was gonna spend my money anyways and I did. But in order to understand why I think Bowser's Fury is revolutionary, I think it is important to contextualize what it is that made 3D World not live up to the hype.

Super Mario 3D World follows a similar level design idea to that of Super Mario 3D Land. The game is set in a 3D isometric world that makes it look like a 3D Mario and play like a 2D one. It makes the levels a good baseline for anyone who wants to jump into the series. That being said, World differs from Land by being a bit more open. Each of Land's levels are a bit tighter and Mario has restricted movement to make the levels flow much more naturally. Super Mario 3D World has sporadic level design, with the game often shifting what you are doing constantly. Some of them introduce their levels well. They introduce an idea, expand upon that idea and then challenge a player's understanding of that idea. Levels that come to mind are Double Cherry Pass or Switch Scramble Circus. Then you take a look at levels like Champion's Road which has the player introduced to new elements presented in new ideas constantly. Or if you want to use the excuse that Champion's road is the ultimate Act 3 or a Mario level then consider the Boo houses in the game or the ninja house levels. How many levels in 3D World can you remember that even have that three-act pattern? When people say 3D World has good game design, they are cherry-picking to the extreme.

Although I will admit there was a lot of good in this game. The green stars are very well implemented and as long as I sat back looking for them, I usually found them on my first try. In some instances, they were even placed in really nice spots that make the player feel accomplished for searching around, such as in an invisible maze where there's a glowing spot for the player to ground pound and when they do, a hidden path appears to the star. On that note, completion is a rough thorn on the rose of the 3D World. I love completing 3D Mario's. Seeing that max star count in Super Mario 64 is what I live for. So when I look at 3D World in comparison I groan. Super Mario Odyssey has a lot to do but that whole lot is paced so well, with so many tips as to where you need to go and it all flows into the next so well that I never feel booted from the action. 3D World is very different because of the 2D Mario style. If you miss a green star, you have to go back and play through the whole level to find it. Three hundred and eighty stars, along with a collection of stamps and hitting the top of every flagpole with a character makes this game a pain in the ass to get through. I think this could have easily been toned down without removing the collectibles entirely. Get rid of the stamp houses and the mushroom and flower worlds. Each little thing the game forces me to do for completion makes me feel like the game is padding out its runtime. There is no need for a captain Toad level in every world that acts as a complete pace breaker, even though I do like the Captain Toad levels. There's no need for a stamp house or twenty different secret bosses blocking my path. Half of the stars that you get in 3D World are not even from finding things in levels, most of them are just end-of-level completion which does not give the player any gratification when they complete other levels and get nothing. I like this game, I really do but they need to tone things down with the collectibles

Finally, we come to the minor issues and praises for this game. Firstly, this moveset does nothing for me. The multiple characters really felt like a way to make the movement "interesting" because there are hints where I really like a character but it fades and I always switch back to Luigi because he's objectively the best and even he feels bland at times. The power-ups are what helps in this regard because this is the most power-up heavy Mario game and it works. While the cat bell does take center stage, I found myself often wanting a Tanooki Leaf or a fire flower just because of how well-balanced everything is in terms of enhancing the player's abilities. I do wish they had brought back the pocket system here because I do find myself looking for an item constantly only to realize I have none.

All in all, Super Mario 3D World is an incredible game that feels like a true translation of the 2D Mario formula into a digestible 2.5D format without being entirely uninteresting the way that Super Mario 3D Land was. Although I do just wish that the game wasn't effectively made with 4 casual players in mind because single-player experiences are more my pace.

-------------------------------Bowser's Fury-----------------------------------

When this game was initially re-revealed in late 2020 as a part of the Mario 35 Anniversary Direct, I effectively just took a huge sigh of relief. This was one of the last Wii U ports to make its way over to the Nintendo Switch and it was nice to finally have it, but I knew I did not want to get it when it came out. I liked 3D World but not enough to buy it again. Then the game comes out and I can't stop hearing about how its side mode, Bowser's Fury is one of the most innovative and unique Mario experiences ever. So I pick up a copy and put it in, not really expecting to be blown away but expecting to have a decent amount of fun.

With all of that introduction out of the way, I do have to say that Bowser's Fury is literally my favorite Mario experience of all time. Everything about this small little 6-hour experience is perfect to me and leaves me craving this formula more. First off, those controls that I absolutely hate in 3D World feel so nice here. Something about the way Mario runs and jumps feels so much more intuitive in a wide-open environment as opposed to a tight platform collection. Running up walls and bouncing off of enemies has never felt better.

It really has never looked better either. This game is so pretty, from the glistening water to the particle effects on the rain, the sludge effects on Bowser look magnificent. This is still effectively just 3D World's style but when you have time to stop and take a look at the world around you, you realize how pretty everything is. The cat references everywhere make for perfect secrets as well, discovering what does and does not have cat ears makes for perfect little rewarding secrets. Everything about the environment makes it feel as though the game was modeled with nothing but passion.

Speaking of those environments, just everything about exploring them is amazing. I have played Super Mario 64 and Sunshine an infinite number of times more than I have for this game but everything about this game's environment looks and plays so much better. I forget certain areas in Sunshine exist sometimes but there was never an area that felt forgettable to me here. Most 64 areas have certain puzzles or challenges that just play like garbage but none of that is present here. Whether you are climbing on a tower that you cannot see or moving around a fortress that is entirely surrounded by clear pipes, the challenges will always have you wanting more.

Unfortunately, that is the worst part about this game, that there is not enough of it. It is the shortest 3D Mario experience, even shorter than Super Mario 64. Areas are tiny and compact and it all takes place on one world the size of a single location in Odyssey. There are only 100 main collectibles and getting them all does not unlock some ultra-hard final challenge or even more collectibles. This game is very limited in its content and once you have played through it fully, you've effectively seen everything.

However, that is what makes me love this game so much is the idea that we may get more. If we get another 3D Mario game some time from now in the same formula with a new unique system then I am sure it will become my new favorite Mario but for now, this small slice of heaven will have to do.

One of the things you don't see with Animal Crossing: New Horizons or any Animal Crossing title is critical reviews that explain why the games are the way they are. In recent years I have begun to see a shift in the way people think about game reviews and the shift from explaining why a game is good into why a game is alright but not what could be. Here I want to do the same and explain why Animal Crossing: New Horizons is not the title I think it could be.

To preface this review, I want to say that I do not think New Horizons is a bad game, far from it. It matches a lot of what you want about these games that never end, there's a comfortable atmosphere, plenty to do and so much content that truly completing the game is effectively impossible. Music sets a welcoming atmosphere in Animal Crossing and listening to those tunes on a warm summer night or a chilly winter morning is one of the best things that comes with Animal Crossing. Beautiful vistas, the cuddly characters, the feeling of freedom as you explore your tropical paradise, and the limitless amount of furniture and clothing you can create make the game feel very personal. New Horizons nails what Animal Crossing always has, the aura of a calm, quiet town.

However, with that atmosphere, I rarely see anyone bring up why the quiet town feeling does not work. As we reach the game's 1 year anniversary, I see more and more people saying that they feel burnt out by the game. People who spent hours with the game will say they just dropped it one day and never felt the need to pick it back up. I wondered why that was as I continued playing and as I neared my 30th hour with the game, I discovered why. Beyond getting K.K. Slider, there is nothing to do with the game, and I mean that. Once you acquire a 3-star rating for your island, which is not hard at all, it's mostly just acquired through waiting, the game is pretty much done. But once I reached that milestone, I realized something; the game was going to make me wait a whole day just to see the end of the game. Suddenly, everything hit me on why this game does not work. You have to play the way developers intended, with no true freedom to do anything on your own. Do you want to buy into the Stalk Market? You have to wait until Sunday, and there's only a 7 hour period where you can do it. Do you want to do anything beyond your daily chores on your small landmass to gain money, looks like the only thing you can do is fish because you have to wait three days for your trees to grow fruit and a day until your rocks produce resources and shells wash up on your shores. Do you want to explore another landmass to get resources that are not native to your island? I hope you know another player with different resources because you are fresh out of luck finding that in a single-player experience. Do you want to build any kind of building that is not just another house for a villager to live in? Too bad, your focus should be on the museum and infrastructure, you don't get to choose what's on your island. The game has so many places where it falls completely flat in keeping you coming back. If you do not like the way the game has laid things out already for you, you do not get to pick your own way to do things like Minecraft or Terraria. You must do things the way developers intended with no variation on how to play. You don't get to make your own experience, or even pick which villagers you get, without some major caveat.

Sticking with the theme of developer-enforced fun, how about time traveling as an example. Why do people time travel in Animal Crossing? Because they want to cheat, right? Now answer me this, why do people want to cheat? To create their own experiences. When someone punches a cheat code into Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas or plugs a GameShark into their copy of Pokemon: FireRed, they are doing this because they want to create their own new experiences. Whether it's to give themselves a bunch of items they never got or collect every collectible in the game to see how the game responds, it's always fun to mess around with these kinds of things. But time-traveling is very different because it does not create a new experience that cannot be seen otherwise like a moon jump cheat, it just allows someone to experience the game without having the downside of waiting. It allows someone to skip ahead and continue to play the game when the game will not let them anymore. Imagine that Super Mario Odyssey forced you to stop collecting moons at a certain time. Say that you could only collect them from the hours of 8 am to 5 pm. Would it be wrong for a player to want to play the game after 5 pm by moving their Switch's clock ahead and playing that way? When developers put inherent limits in their game that force the player to stop playing, is it wrong for that player to wish to continue playing and doing so through the means of cheating. In my opinion, that is an inherent game design flaw. Now obviously that doesn't mean that I think fruits should immediately grow back. A way to remedy this would be with a significantly larger, perhaps infinite open world to explore and grab resources from. Run out of fruits in your small area, venture South and you find trees everywhere, or explore Westward and find mountains filled with rocks to mine. Is it really that hard to give that kind of freedom to the player so they can play how they want to?

All in all, despite my consistent bickering over the game, I did enjoy my time with it. Like I said at the top of the review, it's not that this game is bad, I just wish it had more to keep me engaged and playing for hours one day while allowing me to play the way the developers intended for only an hour on another day. This game has me eagerly awaiting more content and hopefully, a sequel will develop on the great base built here in this best-seller.

New Super Mario Bros 2 is like vanilla pudding. Nobody hates vanilla pudding because there really is no content to hate. Nobody loves vanilla pudding because there is no content to truly enjoy. Vanilla pudding is just the baseline and your enjoyment of it really comes down to if you find it tolerable enough to eat for the time being. That is New Super Mario Bros 2 and I do not think I have to explain why, but I am going to anyways.

Well I suppose what makes up the sugar content of this vanilla pudding should be up first. The stuff that's actually truly enjoyable about this game makes up a good 1% of it. New Super Mario Bros 2 fixes one of my biggest problems with New Super Mario Bros Wii, the star coins. In this outing, the game's main collectibles are actually useful again and are not hidden in invisible walls the way they were in the Wii game. The star coins are always hidden in just the right places to give you enough of a feeling of satisfaction without making it a chore for the player.However, some levels do not hide their star conis at all. Not even early game levels, I am talking about the last levels in the game I would collect all three of them in one run. Of course, all of that collecting is made easier by the power-ups which in my experience actually felt useful and unique compared to the game's predecessors. In DS and Wii, the unique power-ups to those games were really only ever used to find secrets and in the case of the propellor mushroom, actually provided a slight advantage, despite only being in like 5 levels. In New Super Mario Bros 2, you are actually forced to pick which power-up you think is best for solving a problem, which really only boils down to your choice of the tanooki leaf or the fire flower. Both are quite underwhelming and better implemented in other games but you will find that's a theme as we delve deeper into the game.

Speaking of game, how is it? It's bland and uninteresting, unsurprisingly. The art style and music lack uniqueness as both are essentially a blend of the previous two games, but mostly taking heavy inspiration from Wii. In the case of the music, it actually is the exact same as Wii and has no identity of it's own as far as I could tell. You find that a trend throughout most of the game, as boss battles include the koopalings, level themes and even the multiplayer are all ripped straight from Wii. Coin Rush, while admittedly one of my favorite things about the game, is just a single player coin battle from the Wii version. From red coins and checkpoint flags to secret cannons and hidden blocks, this game is just a rehash of everything that it's predecessors did with no added input. There really is nothing you can say about this game because it is not bad, it's just bland and the least interesting choice, yet you still find yourself coming back to it every once and a while.

Ask anyone who has played this game if they have fond memories of it and most of them will say yes. People who played this game liked it and still like it to this day, it's just when you compare this game to every other game in it's series, it is the literal definition of a middle child. But rating a game in context of others is not how I like to think about games. I always try my hardest to come to a conclusion about a game without thinking about what was done in other games, and only judge a game based on what it did right. Remembering that promise I made to myself, I just have to say that New Super Mario Bros 2 is a fine game. It's incredibly easy and it has no appeal to it whatsoever but it being a comfortable romp on it's own merits a good review.

With all of that being said, I come back to my vanilla ice cream analysis. Because if you ask someone who has never had a sugary treat before in their life to sit down and judge vanilla ice cream, they would tell you it's delicious and likely the best thing they have ever had. That will always be this game's legacy to me, something I wish I could have experienced as my first platformer so I could just appreciate it with ignorance.

I am incredibly conflicted on New Super Mario Bros Wii. So much so to the point where I am reconsidering a lot of the criticisms I levied on the DS original. This game always existed in my mind as a fun nostalgia piece, much like many of the famous Wii titles that my generation of gamers ooze over. However, coming back to it, I realized the game has many more flaws than just being an "alright game".

We're looking at one of the best-selling games of all time right now so I will just run through the things everyone says about this title. The game controls smoothly, exactly as you'd expect it to and I never found a hiccup anywhere. I'd even say that it's fun to run around in this game, more so than the original. The spin allows for much more leeway when platforming and being able to play the game from the Wii remote upright with a nunchuck or the Wii Pro controller means that anyone can play in any way they please. Music is alright, although incredibly generic and quite repetitive, as even for someone who has a soft spot for these games and their soundtracks, I got really tired of hearing the same song for every grass, water, or desert level. Level design is good enough; nothing ever feels like it pertains to the particular world's theme but they do a good job of introducing ideas and expanding on them. Although that's where my praise towards level design stops and my criticism begins.

This game has nothing interesting going for it, and I feel it makes the game feel even more painfully generic. With the original, I at least remembered most levels when playing them again and a few levels genuinely stand out to me as unique ideas. Nothing about this game is memorable. I played it in the span of a week and the only level I remember is the second to last level because the star coins were so difficult. Speaking of, why do the star coins exist in this game other than as a stand-in collectible? What do they do? They unlock a special world, sure but that could be unlocked after you beat the game normally anyways. Super Mario World doesn't force you to collect all the dragon coins in order to unlock it's special world. What else can you do with these collectibles? Spend them on hint videos that would not be necessary if you had no star coins in the first place. These things are literal contradictions in this game, their only prize is themselves which basically makes them pointless to collect in the first place. Not to mention they are not hidden cleverly at all because you really have to go hunting if you want to find these things. Most of them are hidden in an unnoticeable wall or barely take any effort to find as they just take a well-timed wall kick to reach. So effectively these things have no reason to exist, as all they do is pad out the game.

But of course, that's just if you want to beat the game to completion. What about those who just want to run through the game? Well then I am sorry for you because this game's difficulty dips and spikes sporadically like it has some kind of quota it has to fill. Most of the difficult levels are placed somewhere in the middle of the world and are usually only difficult cus they restrict something like your vision or natural progression like a sidescroller, and they can really be pace breakers. Not to mention the levels attempt to actively harm you for exploring which further puts the star coins into question. All around my feelings about the pace of the game is best summed up in World 8 where levels that take place in dark caves make it difficult to find your way through but have some genuinely creative ideas at play, there are lava rollercoasters that are probably the most fun part of the game and then the final castle just finishes the game with no interesting mechanics and no final gauntlet that tests your skill of the game like the original. I actually got all three star coins and beat the final boss in one try, it was that much of a breeze. Which pretty much sums up the whole game if you're just running through it. It's a breeze.

So those are my feelings on New Super Mario Bros Wii. Coming back to this honestly made me think about why people do not like this game as much as the original and coming back to it made it clear to see. The game has no reason to exist or be a sequel other than to cash in on 2D Mario hype and was pretty much the place that any hope for New Super Mario Bros to improve as a franchise died. I will always love this game but I will never want to return to it, not when the original outpaces it in every way.

I have a long history with this game, but the most important detail is that this is the game I think back to that started my love for videogames. Sure it's not a grandiose collect-a-thon like Super Mario 64, nor is it an absolute classic 2D platformer like Super Mario World but it was the game that made me the person I am today.

That being said, hindsight always makes you look back at something and say "wow I really thought this was some kind of masterpiece?" While many believe this to be the stand out in creativity of the New Super Mario series, I see how many of the main tropes started here. The game is incredibly easy and I racked up an almost full life counter by the time I was halfway through it and really only lost lives to the trickier star coins or just plain dumb mistakes. It's very generic, borrowing elements from every critically claimed Mario game before it and the art style and music do not stand out at all. The only reason I remember these levels are due to nostalgia and I could not name a single one and describe it to you outside of the final level. All post-game content is left up to secrets and completing the game rewards you with absolutely nothing except some backgrounds for the bottom screen. This game is generic Mario as generic Mario gets.

But that leads me to literally everything else about this game because the rest is all amazing. Sure it may be generic and borrowed but there are genuinely creative ideas at work here. My only gripe with those themes is how they are used. Take World 6 for example with heavy themes of war-torn mountains with bob-ombs and bullet bills everywhere, and a heavy emphasis on moving pulley systems. But this theme is skipped in some levels that replace it with an underwater level and a grass level that were honestly probably placed there to intentionally make the game more familiar. Then the final castle of that world uses none of these themes outside of the (genuinely creative) boss. That world represents exactly what New Super Mario Bros. is to me: well-thought-out and incredibly unique fun that weighs itself down by being the first 2D Mario in a while and thus it had to be generic because Nintendo is just that stubborn.

If you have read this far, you will notice that I have intentionally left out this game's sequels despite calling the game generic repeatedly. I never like to compare a title to future or previous entries and while that still rains true here, I still cannot help but feel that the music and style of this game do not stand out at all, even as a standalone title. It's honestly hard to believe that there was not a title before this that had some kind of shift into this one because it sounds and looks like every other New Super Mario Bros. game. That being said, the style is really nice for a DS game. While future titles do little to push the hardware of their systems, this title actually looks really good for being released early in the handheld's life. The sound replicates this as well, being bland but bubbly and sounding really good for when the title came out. I just wish more tracks were added and voice lines were given. I really do not feel like I am fighting some big army of anything like Super Mario World, it just feels like the original NES game but with Bowser Jr. and some updated polish and voice lines.

While most of this review has been me complaining about one of my favorite childhood games, that does not mean I hate it or even think it's a bad game. Just looking back at it now and with the context of the (hopefully) complete New Super Mario Bros. series, this game just has no staying power, despite being a really well-designed game with plenty of fun to be had. But unfortunately, it can be easily substituted by any other games from its series and really has no place in history, leaving it effectively worthless to gamers all around the world. I will continue to love this game but I must come to terms with just how little it did to revolutionize the 2D Mario franchise.