I went into this game looking for a strategy game that offered different gameplay as opposed to something like a more tactical-style game like Fire Emblem would. What I got was a kind of run-of-the-mill story with decent gameplay, that was frustratingly difficult at times but not impossible.

The gameplay itself is interesting enough - strategically moving units around a 3D space, dodging enemies and hiding behind cover to avoid getting hit, and aiming yourself rather than relying on hit% or a dice roll. I appreciated the way the maps used verticality a lot, and line of sight as well. The leveling system was a little weird - having levels tied to classes meant that none of your units necessarily fell behind, but it did make me feel more disconnected to the playable characters moreso than something like Fire Emblem or a Pokemon nuzlocke would. The upgrade trees for weapons was a nice touch, and although it was interesting that you could pick up enemy weapons off certain corpses, I never found the enemy's weapons useful enough to use practically.

The story, as alluded to before, is very run-of-the-mill; but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It does do a good job exploring the various natures of the gravity and seriousness of war - but it can be hard to take the story seriously when it seems like the characters, outside of Welkin and Alicia, don't? If that makes sense? The Valkyrur and their connections with the Darcsen tribe give a sense of intrigue, but I feel like these sort of themes explored better in something like Fire Emblem's Tellius duology.

Other things: the music was not necessarily a favorite, and even became annoying at parts (especially the book mode music), but the cel-shaded style mixed with storybook style art were gorgeous to look at and kept me going.

Overall not a bad time, but I feel like I could have spent my time a little better.

Best 3D platformer I've played, hands down. So many creative ideas and levels and I love the emphasis on music throughout the game as well. It was an easy game overall, though it had its challenging moments (Timed jump blocks my behated, you know the ones).

The removal of the timer is a very fantastic change, as it encourages the player to explore the levels thoroughly and completely to find all the hidden secrets. I also love the inclusion of new mini-stages in between some of the longer ones that focus on specific platforming challenges or similar, though I could have done without the Search Party levels. The online is implemented brilliantly in my opinion, giving the game the feel of couch co-op without being too intrusive, and allowing you to turn it on/off at the switch of a button. The inclusion of all sorts of different playable characters from previous SMB games is also really nice to see, though I wish the animations were consistent throughout - it kinda sucks that only a few characters get a unique animation when going through a pipe, for example.

Furthermore, I wish Yoshi wasn't restricted to easy mode - it would have been nice if there were a couple of Yoshi options that removed the easy mode restrictions. There are only four powerups, which is a bit of a disappointment, but is overshadowed by the sheer amount of unique changes and transformations the player will encounter during the Wonder stages of the levels. My last complaint is probably that the bosses overall were underwhelming, though I found the final level against Bowser to be a lot of fun. All of these are minor nitpicks of an otherwise flawless game.

It took me about 18 hours to complete the game and grab all the Wonder Seeds, and although I'm not a completionist (especially when it comes to platformers), the game has me very close to jumping back in to grab all the other things that I've missed, and get all the medals.

This game is as if it were designed by a five year old - but in the best way possible. No ideas are left off the table, and it's great to hear that the devs weren't given any deadlines or pressured to rush the game out in any capacity; it really let their creativity shine through and resulted in a fantastic game that I'd easily recommend to anyone, whether you're a fan of Mario or not.

Picked this up during the Switch game trial and bought it near immediately after the trial ended.

Eastward is such a charming little game that manages to be haunting as well, both in the beautiful and scary sense. The spritework is positively gorgeous and the color palette manages to hit you in all the feels, from the bright colors of the cityscape to the dark & brooding miasma. The gameplay is simple enough (top-down Zelda inspired), though it's the characters that keeps the player engaged throughout the journey. There are just so many wonderful characters in this game: William, Lee, Alva, Isabel, and, of course, Sam. Although there were a few slower sections (Chapter 3 comes to mind), and the writing isn't the best, the game never fails to continue to drive momentum more and more...eastward, if you will, until the end. And though the ending does raise some questions that are left unanswered, the leadup to both the second to last and final bosses are both a ton of fun.

Overall this was a solid 9/10 experience that gets brought down to an 8/10 due to the random crashes that would happen to me throughout the game. I'm not sure if this is something unique to the Switch version, but if it is, I'd advise you to unfortunately play this game on another platform, if that sort of thing bugs you.

Although it has its flaws, I still think that Skyward Sword is a tad overhated. Sure, it's a bit too linear, and sure there's a lot of backtracking, but this game has the best dungeons in the series, the best incarnation of Zelda in the series, one of the best soundtracks in the series, and a fantastic ending amongst the series' best. The improvements to the HD remaster are all really good - especially the camera control. The motion controls, after a bit of time with them, feel pretty good as well. Especially shield parrying, which is a lot easier with the Joy-Cons than with the Wii Nunchuck. All in all, this was a blast to replay on my Switch!

8/10

This is a really great game, and I like it a lot. I can absolutely see where it gets all its praise. For starters, the game looks positively GORGEOUS on Nintendo Switch, and runs well in addition. It nails the atmosphere (the most important part of any Metroid game) of a place which was once the site of a booming civilization, but now with an eerie, deadly haze as that civilization has long since faded into ruin. The fantastic music adds to that atmosphere, with the standout track absolutely being Phendrana Drifts. In addition, the game's environmental storytelling is second to none, not only telling the story of the Chozo, but the Space Pirates as well - highlighting both sides of an intriguing narrative surrounding the Phazon energy that seeps through the planet. Additionally, the boss fights are a lot of fun, with the final boss being one of my favorite final bosses I've ever beaten.

But - I can't seem to find it in me to really LOVE this game the same way others do. And, it's interesting to think about why that may be. I mean, yes, this game is a Metroidvania at its core: push forward until you obtain item, then backtrack to find places to use said item. But to me, it feels like the world is designed like one big puzzle. Which isn't a bad thing, or even a thing I dislike in video games (take 3D Zelda, for example!). It's just not my favorite kind of Metroid game. I guess for me, when I'm playing a Metroid game, I want to feel like I'm a badass. Zipping and zagging through corridors, making intricate movements to avoid enemy attacks, feeling like a badass when I see that my arm cannon, which used to shoot one measely bullet, now shoots three gigantic bullets through walls...That's what makes a Metroid game for me.

And maybe that's on me - maybe I need to stop viewing Metroid Prime through the lens of a Metroid game and more as its own thing. Maybe that will come once I get around to playing the sequels. But for now, as a personal preference - Metroid Prime is a great game, I just think I like 2D Metroid better.

It's a bit difficult to completely judge this game without also getting to experience part 2, but from what we did get, I felt that this first part of the Pokemon Scarlet/Violet DLC was a pretty sizeable step down from the base game. The biggest letdown for me was the lack of encounter diversity. It feels like I kept running into the same ten families of Pokemon over and over again throughout all the areas, which is a shame because the main game had a TON of diversity, even in the first area. Another issue I had was that there's no consequence for you to just scale the side of the mountain every time to get to all your objectives. It made me appreciate the staggered upgrades you got through the Titan storyline in the base game a whole lot more. And those two things were what made me really want to explore the world in the base game. Which leads to my third complaint...since the world is not as fun to explore here, it makes the technical issues far less easy to ignore, and they are plentiful, just like in the base game. The story was okay, but I understand that this is only part 1, and I'll judge it further once we get the second part.

All in all, I didn't really feel like this was too worth my time, to be honest. 4/10

Had a pretty fun time with it. The game really had momentum in the first couple of chapters, but lost it in the middle, only to regain it at the end. Bowser's Castle was a super fun culmination, being a dungeon that uses all of the different abilities your partners give you. Combat is simple, but surprisingly deep, with built-in challenge through the use (or not) of the Badge system. Star Power feels a bit overpowered at first, but is certainly useful as the game continues given that Mario is always taking damage (very rarely does he completely dodge an attack, though badges can help with this). Humor is there in the writing, but I feel like the Mario & Luigi games were all more funny than this? Maybe it's just a result of the times.

Overall, I'd give this a slight 7 - only slight though. It's definitely a good game, but I don't think I'd replay it anytime soon.

Hades absolutely deserves all the praise it gets. With incredibly smooth, fast paced gameplay, beautiful art style, and a story Rick Riordan fanfic writers wish they had thought of (in the best way possible), Hades is a gold standard for the roguelite genre that keeps the player coming back, death after death.

Going into Hades, I had played a few roguelike/roguelite games, but none had really managed to stick with me for very long. However, Hades manages to address this issue by presenting a narrative that is believable within its setting and builds itself around the core gameplay loop. Dying repeatedly is all just another part of Zagreus’ attempts to escape the Underworld, and occurs because of his immortality and status as the son of Hades, rather than simply happening for the sake of the gameplay loop. Players will find themselves immediately drawn into the world after just a few runs, after realizing that each death presents with it new dialogue that can occur between Zagreus and the other residents of the House of Hades. As such, death is never a hinderance, as there’s always someone to talk to or something new to unlock within the House on each subsequent visit.

And, it’s with those characters that the narrative succeeds the most. Supergiant Games did a fantastic job including so many unique dialogue interactions that, even after fifty hours playing the game, it still feels like I haven’t seen any repeated dialogue, even in the typical, unscripted interactions. Because of this, everyone is fun to interact with, and their personalities are very well developed. Furthermore, because the perspective of the Underworld’s residents is so rarely used in modern adaptations of Greek mythology, it’s likely that the player will meet someone they’ve never heard of before, regardless of their experience with Greek mythology. All paired with some incredible voice acting for an indie game, Hades’ characters give the game a sense of uniqueness that helps carry the game through slower parts of its plot that, although decent, doesn’t reinvent the wheel.

In addition to the characters found within the Underworld, Zagreus can also interact with his relatives on Olympus by receiving their Boons, which act as effects that help the player on individual runs through the Underworld. Each Olympian has their own unique theme for their boons - Zeus’ are based around extra-damaging lightning, Artemis’ are focused around critical hits that do extra damage, Athena’s are focused on shielding and deflecting attacks, and so on. In addition to Boons, Zagreus can find Hammers, which act as weapon upgrades, and coin to spend in shops throughout the Underworld, each of which also effect individual runs. However, there are also a number of collectables that can be used to upgrade Zagreus’ overall capabilities - darkness to unlock permanent abilities, keys to unlock new weapons and darkness upgrades, nectar to share with friends, and gemstones that give cosmetic and functional upgrades to the House of Hades. With so many potential collectables to find on any specific run, it can be difficult to grind for specific resources you need, but you’ll be guaranteed to have a unique run every time you descend into Tartarus.

The gameplay is primarily action hack & slash, but different unlockable weapons give the player extra combat potential that varies between different range and melee options. Each weapon has a primary attack and special attack (both of which can be changed by Hammers or Boons), and Zagreus is always equipped with a dodge and ranged “call” attack that fires a single projectile. It can almost be overwhelming at first with so many different ways you can fight, but you’ll find yourself settling in as you stack upgrades and Boons which favor specific combos. Everything is incredibly polished, and with every individual action having an impact on your run, it never feels like a loss is out of your control.

The game’s visuals are unexpectedly colorful, despite what being in the “Underworld” may make you think - but it isn’t out of place, as each portion of the Underworld has its own special themes and enemy designs, with little repeats (witches aside). The colors pop especially while playing on my Switch OLED. And lastly, the hard rock, almost metal-centric soundtrack, though not for everyone, perfectly captures Zagreus’ style as well as the game’s atmosphere.

All in all, Hades is another smash indie hit from Supergiant that is well worth the hype, and is a must play for roguelike/lite and Greek Mythology fans alike.

9/10