My first Donkey Kong Country game was Returns for the Wii. I got it for Christmas the year it came out (that or it was 2011 I forget) and I remember being so excited to play it. While nowadays, I'm not the biggest Returns fan personally, I can't deny it started my love for the DKC series. Once I got into Super Nintendo games with Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island, I decided I wanted to play the very first Donkey Kong Country game since at that point I still only played Returns. I bought it at my local flea market I believe and really enjoyed it. I mentioned how Yoshi's Island always reminds me of the weekend, since I would play that a lot during that time, and the same applies here too. While I think the sequel does everything this game does but better, I still think the original is a really fun time.

The general gameplay of Donkey Kong Country is you run, jump and roll. Those are basics of course, as each level has other aspects that change gameplay up like barrel cannons you can shoot out of or ropes you can jump on but the general gameplay is pretty simple. The controls are basically perfect, rolling feels super good to perform, and if you know the layout of the levels it's very easy to just speedrun through levels since both Donkey and Diddy are relatively fast. Speaking about the characters, Diddy Kong's first appearance was in this game, and he honestly upstages Donkey Kong. If you get a DK barrel, you can get the other Kong along and they basically act as a 2nd hit. You can switch freely and this is helpful since they each have different attributes to them. Donkey Kong is slower but heavier so he can kill certain enemies that Diddy can't. Diddy just feels better to play as he's faster than Donkey and also has a smaller hitbox. Both are valuable, but Donkey is more situational and is mostly just used for one enemy type (and even then, Diddy can defeat them by rolling into them) so Diddy Kong is my much-preferred Kong to use.

As for collectables in the levels, you have bananas of course. The main plot involves King K Rool stealing DK's banana hoard and he must go after him and his baddies to obtain them back. I think the reasoning behind there being so many littered throughout the levels is he just dropped them or something but either way, they act as coins and getting 100 earns you a life. You can collect letters that spell out KONG and they also give you a life. You can also collect these animal buddy tokens, and getting three of a specific buddy lets you collect these stars, and every 100 you collect ALSO gives you a life. Besides all this, you can also find secret bonus rooms. These all contain all the aformentioned items, or just lives straight up, but these can be a pain to find. I wouldn't have an issue normally since these are optional bonus rooms so it makes sense they'd be really hidden, but getting every single one is how you get 101% in the game, so if you're a completionist you must find them all. The real issue then is, a good chunk of them are just kinda bullshit. You'll have some that are very easy to spot and are self-explanatory. But then you have ones that are completely hidden and sometimes even require blind jumps into pits. I know they wanted you to buy a guide or a Nintendo Power back then to find these locations, but I don't find random pit bonuses or random breakable wall bonuses fun ever. I used a guide for like 80% of these cuz I only ever 100%ed this game once before, so I forgot most of these. The sequel can be like this too, but it generally handled bonus room locations a lot better. Alongside all the collectables and bonus rooms, you also have animal buddies. These are fun as they change up the gameplay slightly. Rambi can kill usually unkillable (unless you have a barrel) enemies by running into them. Expresso can jump a bit higher and float over large gaps. Enguarde swims faster in water and has an attack you can perform. Winky...well Winky just jumps really high, tho he can also jump on usually harmful enemies too and he's honestly underrated. These guys appear enough where they don't just feel like one-off gimmicks or anything.

The levels themselves are generally well designed. They're simpler than the sequels, and I feel like there's generally more bullshit due to enemies suddenly appearing on screen randomly, but there's a nice flow to the levels. Visually, I think it just looks alright. The characters themselves looks good, I just think some of the backgrounds don't look great compared to others, and definitely compared to 2's backgrounds. I think it also doesn't help that the level themes aren't too interesting in this game. You have jungles and mines and factories and Mayan temples and some of these are more unique than others, but they don't exactly lead to very vibrant colors. When it hits, it hits. The one jungle level with the sunset is really nice and I like the ice caves. The factories are kind of cool near the end too, but overall, I think the level settings can be a bit bland here. Not like Returns tho, since that is very formulaic with its level themes but compared to 2, 1 is not as good in that regard.

The bosses in this game are kind of a joke. All of them, besides King K Rool, are incredibly easy and just feel like a slightly tougher regular enemy. They could've easily had no bosses and it would've been fine so I guess it's not like they detract from the game too much, however 2 did bosses way better.

This may be my hottest take though. I don't love the OST. A big reason for that is most of the OST was in Returns, and so I had always felt there was an identity crisis with this game which is not the game's fault and is more a me thing because I played Returns first. Even outside of that, some of the songs I just never really got into...but objectively the OST is quite solid. There are still bangers like Aquatic Ambience and Gang-Plank Galleon of course. Also a shoutout to Fear Factory, that one's nice too. Even though I don't love the OST, it's still good overall, I just much prefer 2's tbh.

I've kind of been complaining about things here or there despite praising the gameplay. Something else I'll praise about this game tho is its Rare charm. Animations are very charming between characters. Donkey and Diddy both get terrified when you're at the edge of a cliff. They do a charming celebration whenever you defeat a boss or complete a bonus room. Diddy Kong throws his hat down and stomps on it when he loses a bonus room. The dialogue between the other characters like Cranky or Funky or Candy are very charming too. There's a fake-out Kremlin credits that happens when you get halfway into King K Rool's fight, and the actual credits have humorous cutscenes between characters. Not only is this game charming as hell, but it also created all these well-known characters too. We wouldn't have Diddy Kong or Cranky Kong or Funky Kong if it wasn't for this game. We wouldn't have my man K Rool either, he's such a memorable villain. The Kremlins themselves are very memorable and cartoony. I think besides the actual gameplay, the best thing DKC1 does is the worldbuilding and charm. Before this, we just had DK and DK Jr. It's all thanks to Rare, that we have as many memorable characters as we do now.

I may have some issues with this game, and I think 2 fixes them all pretty much, but this is still a classic for a reason and is staple Super Nintendo game. I was honestly thinking about dropping this to a 7, even up until writing most of this review, but it wasn't until the paragraph before this did, I really ponder and think about how many staple characters this game created and just how charming this game is in general. It's very important to entire DK series as a whole and is a very fun platformer at that! However, as I've said several times in this review, 2 is better in every way and I'm going to be replaying that soon so stay tuned for that review!

I think the impulse to describe Crabs Treasure as merely a Soulslike is understandable given the somewhat divisive nature of the Souls style difficulty curve - but in truth Crabs Treasure is just as much a PS2 era 3D platformer as it is a challenging action RPG. This fusion is so unexpectedly seamless that its actually kind of difficult to distinguish at first, but when youre unlocking an ability that lets you break purple cubes that have been blocking passages in the past 3 zones and now youre backtracking through levels to collect pink upgrade crystals the experience is unmistakable.

And unlike most contemporary Soulslike titles that determine iteration on the genre means stapling more systems onto the side of the combat experience, Crabs Treasures combination of genres genuinely synthesizes novel gameplay experiences unseen or unrealized even by the Souls games themselves. You ever wanted a boss that truly roams an entire level and acts as a stage hazard in addition to a thrilling Souls fight? Well guess what nerd, the silly crab game is the one that pulled it off - and it might have even pulled it off because its a silly crab game thats slightly less beholden to the confines of realism.

Bonus Thoughts:

- The humor here is kind of tone deaf. Balancing serious with funny is for sure challenging but Aggro Crab makes their gambles with just emphatically bad jokes half the time.

- Swomps not in the game

- Slightly less serious Soulslike means slightly less serious about making sure things like input buffers are tight and unobtrusive, and therefore an occasionally more frustrating game to take seriously.

Donkey Kong Country 2 took everything that made its predacessor great and cranked it up to 11. I seriously mean everything. The visuals, the music, the gameplay, the levels, the story are all major upgrades from an already fantastic platformer.

While the story isn't great it is much better than the original. The original is legitamately Kaptain King K. Rool stole all of Donkey Kong's hoard of bananas. In DKC2 the stakes are raised from bananas to Donkey Kong’s life as he is kidnapped by King K. Rool. It's now up to Diddy Kong and newly introduced Dixie Kong to save the day. Dixie and Diddy are far and away my favorite two characters in the franchise so it was so much fun to have the entire game revolve around them. The gameplay is smooth and feels great even today. To be fair the original DKC also had smooth gameplay but I always found myself using the limber and quick Diddy over the lumbering DK. In DKC2 Diddy controls identically to the original DKC but now instead of a slower based powerful DK you get a second quick character in Dixie Kong. Plus Dixie comes with my favorite movement in the entire series with her hair spin which functions similarly to Peach's float mechanic in the Mario series. You will absolutely need that hairspin as this game is very difficult, especially the bonus stages. Every world out side of the first is sprinkled with a few very difficult levels which I appreciate.

The levels in DKC 2 put other platformers of this generation to shame. From a pirate ship, to a volcano, to a swamp, to a run down amusement park, to a giant castle this game takes you to many different locations that all feel fleshed out and keep the levels intersting and fresh. Not to mention they are gorgeous graphically. In my opinion it is some of the best graphics of the entire SNES library. The pirate, amusement park, and the bee hive levels absolutely pop with vibrant and beautiful color schemes. The swamp, castle, and volacono have a completely different tone with a much darker palette but equal in beauty just in a much different way. The animations on the enemies and the Kongs were top notch for the time. My favorite animation, which is also one of my favorites of all time, is when you complete a level and Diddy Kong breaks outs a boom box and starts rapping while Dixie pulls out a guitar and start slaying. It’s also very fitting that they celebrate their victory with music as this game with out a doubt has a top tier sound track of all time. As many great qualities that DKC boasts the star of the game is the abusrdly beautiful OST.

DKC2 is rightfully thought of as one of the greatest 2D platformers of all time and this is absolutely a game you should play.

My favorite 100 games of all time:
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/my-favorite-100-video-game-of-all-time/

Finally we are getting into the meat and potatoes. A divine course of DLC that’ll make even the most serious dollar sign min-maxxers shudder in fear.

Ring ring, who’s calling? Oh, that guy you met once and never again. He wants to know if you’ll go to GeekCon with him and dress up as Star Wars characters. A random townie just crashed the rocket ship there and literally exploded (didn’t die), so you bought the festival related SWAG to commemorate this fine afternoon. They’ve concocted the perfect sample of stupidity to coax my Sims out of their house. Apparently it’s karaoke bars and dumb little stupid events that happen every other week. There is nothing like getting a bunch of Sims together and watching them interact on their own, whether it’s bettering their lives or destroying them. This is why I play the stupid, haha funny gibberish game.

The bulk of this pack is stored within a new city, which you can travel to at any time. Living there will require you to foreclose your house and gulp.. become a renter instead. Unfortunately, you cannot edit the foundation of the pre-made apartments, but most of them are rather lavishly gigantic. We’re talking sitcom levels of large, despite being the cost of a pair of shoes per month. Video game escapism, my beloved. It does however come with the added addition of shitty annoying neighbors. Video game escapism, denied. I like the busyness of the city, but I still prefer to just travel there instead. With it having 4 districts of different things to do and an assortment of foods to eat from different cultures, I’m still slowly working my way through the Collectibles that it added. There’s just a lot to do in the city, baybee. I barely go to the other towns in this game, San Myshuno is where it’s at.

I haven't really talked about the furniture in these packs and that’s mainly because it's.. well, just chairs and couches and whatnot. I do not claim to be or even exist on the same level as Bob from Bob’s Furniture. I’m much more the type of person that just kinda throws things I like together. Orange walls with green couch cushions, ya know? One look into my Sim’s house will make even the most sane individual break. But, guess what you sicko Animal Crossing enjoyers, this pack includes a gigantic superstore’s worth of furniture, not to mention the added abilities to perform street art to scribble all over your walls and lawns with. And don’t even get me started on Lot Traits man, give your house a literal personality so that it’s easier for your Sims to learn certain skills or encourage certain behaviors while they’re there. There are now more than a million different ways to make money that aren't just going into a rabbit hole and disappearing for 8 in-game hours. I would consider this to be a pretty big root for the tree that is this game as each pack created after this one just adds more oomph to it.

The only thing that genuinely annoys me is that they added a Singing Skill. It’s not the skill that annoys me really, but my Sim just loves to whip out her best Ariana Grande impression whenever there’s nothing to do. It’s like she’ll die if she doesn’t do it once every two hours. But other than that, this is a beefy hamburger of an expansion pack that adds a ton of content from aesthetics to actual gameplay. I don’t think I go a single session without using it, so I would think this one is pretty bang for your buckaroos.

Very cute, bite-sized 2D Zelda game that strikes a balance from what came before and wasn’t as crusty as I anticipated, very Zelda 1- like in times especially with a thin plot and characters. I don’t have much knowledge of the original Link’s Awakening but the oracle titles separate themselves well in adding small twists on series conventions to give their own identity, especially since the duology wasn’t crafted by Nintendo themselves. The most surprising going through this and still Ages at this point is how much these games lean on adventuring and memorizing the terrain as a means of progression instead of a heavy hand guiding you most of the time. There’s still constraints on places and dungeon order but there isn’t much of a direct path spelling out what you need and have to do outside of what Din says after completing each dungeon; there’s more down time just roaming around and coming across puzzles almost organically and I feel that this is true across both titles, though I felt this a bit more with seasons with how streamlined and less puzzle-centric it is compared to my experience of Ages at this point.

The world design of Holodrum is small and very linear with obvious gated paths or obstacles requiring certain items preventing going forward, but it’s way more open than awakening and even most of the Zelda titles generally feels. Specifically anything revolving around the rod of seasons like puzzles or hidden paths do require added memorization of the world map and exploring the area. I like it more conceptually than in practice since the puzzle solving didn’t amount to much and weren’t as memorable as I expected; finding stumps were a touch annoying outside of using the map but nothing too trial and error-y like the time traveling mechanic with the Harp of Ages can end up being.

New items like the seeds, rings, roc’s cape and the magnetic glove add more weirdness to the journey. The former two add nice customization to combat encounters instead of mostly relying on the regular sword and shield tactic with a set amount of damage given and taken. The seeds have a decent variety of things going on outside of just combat, but the rings did feel somewhat underutilized and negligent outside of a small handful locked behind random chance in mini game challenges or from growing Gasha trees. The latter two were my outright favorites with how unique they are among returning items and the slight satisfaction they brought to some puzzles and late game traversal.

Dungeon wise there isn’t much to talk about as the theming for most are very similar to one another aesthetically and mechanically. I genuinely couldn’t tell you much about 70% of them outside of some shared frustrations with falling down pits. The sword and shield maze is no contest the strongest in its labyrinthine layout that involves many of the items and upgrades gained in the adventure and translating them into pretty meaty and layered puzzles and challenges. Given the developers had to put together 16 dungeons with 8 in each of these games, the results still serve their purpose fine and I liked how some of the dungeons utilized their dungeon specific items in cool ways like anything involving the magnetic glove to zip around and over gaps, but the diminishing returns is pretty obvious with how messy, repetitive and low challenge they fare, surprising in the more combat focused version.

Even though I left not feeling pretty high on this, I appreciate what Capcom did here as someone dying for more 2D Zelda games that Nintendo doesn’t want to do anymore. A remake akin to Link’s Awakening would be great in ironing out the smaller annoyances of menuing and the dizzying sound effects and music, and just bringing this game and its sibling off the dusty game boy color. Revamping how the linked secrets work would be interesting since most of them relied on simple codes rather than interesting discoveries, but the references to the first game played out of the two are cool. Between the two at this point, I’d probably say Ages is a bit more my speed compared to Seasons’ survival emphasis with so many enemy gauntlets and the more simple puzzles than what I’ve seen in Ages so far, but expect something on that soon.

We were young, and we were still learning. Coming into our own, yet still not quite there.

The second generation was much like some of us who had experienced the series from the beginning as bright eyed and optimistic children. Maturing, finding our footing in life, and trying to figure things out for what we really wanted out of our future. Do we continue onward with our current path and continue developing our skill? Are we seeking to make a career of said skill? Those drawings bearing a similar crudeness to generation one sprites that we etched on the back of our tests, those little characters that you made from your own two hands and the ocean of your imagination. They would need to be refined, perhaps to the point you would be sick of seeing them again through the months and months of practice. We struck gold on something we were good at, but were we ready to make this our life? How do we get ready for life? Would we even make it to that path we dreamed of?

For us, this was the sequel. A sequel to childhood, and the path to maturity.

If we were to get ready for life, we would need to learn how to maintain a schedule and utilize a form of communication to keep in touch with our contacts. Through our little battery-powered clock in our cartridges, we kept track of the time of day in order to search for different friends on different paths. We would remember what day it was, so we could participate in a bug catching contest and try to find that Scyther. If we couldn't get up in the morning early enough to catch a Ledyba, what good were we in participating in life? It was at this point we were starting to get into the thick of things, we weren't children anymore, but teenagers who aspired to be more like adults. We were excited of all that upcoming opportunity that would only be granted to us with age, and with that age in due time came responsibility and expectations to provide. Life would soon not be all about fun anymore.

It was soon time to grow up, and perhaps move away from home to master our craft elsewhere...

It's hard however to leave behind everything that you grew up with. We traveled to Johto to learn how to better ourselves, perhaps like the bike shop owner who got unlucky on their new shop placement in Goldenrod, but for us it wasn't truly home. We would long for our old pals, our old hangout spots, and our favorite order from our childhood fast food place. We desired a return trip home to Kanto, so we can say hello to everybody one last time before we begin our life's career. Home however, wasn't quite the same as we had remembered. Forests were chopped down, caves were cleared out, and Lavender Town's place of remembrance had been converted into a radio tower. Kanto has changed, or has it matured like us? Resources have been plundered for practical use over the thoughts of those who had lived there, and spirituality has been pushed to the side in the name of technological advancement. Have we lost our way, or is this what is to be expected of us in the future?

When I finally climb this mountain and end this visit home, what will await me at it's peak?

The last lingering strand of childhood I had left made manifest, the past me armed with the very first friends I had made on this adventure. If I must let go of the past, I must defeat the longing memories of what once was. Even if I were victorious, will the memories finally rest or will they continue pursuing me? With the destruction of the past, we make way for the future. This is the way. This is the way we grow up. We no longer have room for trifling matters such as our childhood friends, memories, or the places we once held dear. It's time to make way for adulthood and to only go forward without ever looking back. Home is no longer home, it's no longer even a memory for us, it was thrown back into the toybox where it belonged. With this we continue our adventure elsewhere, and we leave everything behind. It was a fad, and it's time to bury those McDonalds toys and trading cards in a box or sell them off in a yard sale.

It was never to be the same again, for we have both grown up. Us now simple mature adults, and them a fully-realized juggernaut of a franchise with no end in sight. We've defeated our childhood, there was no reason to keep going with this series obviously geared towards what we had grown out of. We could take a peek once in a while to check on them when they make the television, but we would do so with a look over our shoulder to try and maintain our mask of adulthood and maturity. It was time to only watch mature programming, and play mature games while doing other such mature things, like swearing while our parents weren't around. This is what is expected of us now, it's time to leave it behind to the next generation who will grow with the next set of games, whom may also leave once they have grown past it....with another generation to follow.....and the cycle repeats....

My time was over, much like Kanto and the Game Boy, but despite what life and middle school demanded of me, I would never be too far away.

I am home, I always have been.

A looping/Groundhogs Day puzzle game that can be beaten in a clean 6-8 hours and doesn't overstay its welcome? This is my kind of game.

The Forgotten City is the kind of game that feels good to puzzle out on your own. It opens with a single a problem you're being asked to solve, and then reveals itself to be several interwoven problems that all affect one another. And even beyond those problems lays a whole layer of secrets to discover. It was really satisfying to figure everything out and get the "best" ending without ever feeling like I needed to look to a guide. Solid game design.
There are also baked-in features in the game to save you time on subsequent loops so you don't have to have the same conversations over and over again.

There were some occasions here and there where I experienced a bit of jank. Sometimes I'd do things in a weird order the game wouldn't expect that might result in characters getting stuck, or someone having a conversation with a corpse. I suspect this game starting as a Skyrim mod is to blame for that.

Regardless of the minor problems I came across, The Forgotten City is a really fun puzzle box to explore, test, and solve on your own. Definitely recommend going into this one as blind as possible.

+ Great puzzle box design
+ Fun story and lore
+ Quality-of-life features to save time during your loops
+ Doesn't overstay its welcome

- Some jank here-and-there
- A bit too easy to confuse the game's systems in some instances

Was this necessary?





























Bonus half a point because Sackboy is awesome.

If there was one segment I could choose to represent Pid as an experience, Id say: About halfway through the game or so, you come across a cavernous maze filled with the somber dulcet echoes of jazz saxophone. At the end of the maze, you find a saxophonist, the cave dead silent as you speak to him. Just needed a quiet place to play, he says. The saxophone picks up in the distance, off-screen, as you depart. Thats what Pid is, a series of vibes.

Its like a dream diary turned into a platformer by one of those game jam kids that only write things down in game engines. The platforming is simple, maybe even sometimes rudimentary. Sometimes its clumsy. But its also always whimsical, evocative, oozing the atmosphere of a quaint and quiet night sky. There are some moments in this game that have left vivid imprints on my mind, that I recall often and which keep this small, seemingly unknown game floating in my constellation of influences.

In an interview with IGN in 2020 Senior Producer Fleur Marty commented about Gotham Knights, Warner Brother's newest Batman game that it's, and I quote:

"is very much not designed as a game-as-service."

Now I don't blame him for this comment, it's part of his job when doing PR rounds to help sell the product. I can only imagine with the negative outlook the title was receiving that the Eye of Sauron at Warner Brothers was watching intently. The thing is the reason I don't believe him is to give credit to the talented people that work on WB Montreal as I refuse to believe they would design such an awful system if it wasn't a live service game initially that was repurposed. Now I like the premise of it, playing as the sidekick's when Batman is gone and the launch trailer is superb at really emphasizing that feeling. I like the idea of having the game co-op and having upgradeable RPG mechanics but the way it's implemented is just dreadful.

So it's an open world game similar to it's predecessors where Gotham City is the playground. When you are let loose to explore there are basic repetitive crimes on the map where you can scan to find them then interrogate criminals to find pre meditated crimes and it's utterly pointless. Simply finding them organically exploring would have been better and more interesting. When stopping crimes sometimes there are chests that have resources in them or blueprints for new gear you can make. The resources are just various shades of colours with huge numbers that are never explained. Playing with a friend to tell them I'd found "some green" which I already had 100,000 of just means nothing and is extremely unexciting. I had random unexplained resources coming out of my ears, blueprints for weapons and armour I'd never use equally spilling out of my bat belt pouch. To compound matters further creating one of these items you can do on the fly but you can't equip it until you return to the Belfry which the game makes you do constantly. It just seems to want to break it's own flow all the time with these "not designed as live service" mechanics.

The game generally is a bit of a rough state in various areas. The movement around the city will have you feel constantly stuck on objects like perches and lampposts that Batgirl seems to glue to with the worlds strongest adhesive like she'd made a lifelong commitment she refuses to break. Bless her. Additionally there are constant little things like the lack of a proper jump being only contextual leaving questions if it will actually work, running into other players or walls kills all momentum and you freeze for no reason, a choppy frame rate and playing online co-op auto stops my headset working in private chat forcing me to mute and unmute again in mid conversation for just no reason. All small things, nothing stopping the game being unplayable but they can get frustrating over time.

The thing is if you strip those mechanics out and look past the niggling technical issues there is actually the foundation of a good game here. When playing specific story missions and it's focused on the plot and unique locations it's really good. I like the characters and narrative, there are some touching scenes and funny moments. There is the framework of a great game here just held back by an obviously difficult development and initial design pivot regardless of what Fleur Marty may have been stating on his PR rounds. My friend and I did have fun playing it regardless and certainly don't regret it. Riding through Gotham on a bat-cycle launching into the air to land on an unsuspecting criminal and doing a finisher with a brutal kick to the jaw is really satisfying. I also loved playing as Batgirl and wanted more of that ever since the Arkham Knight - A Matter of Family DLC. Whilst it just doesn't reach that level of quality it was still fun, just extremely flawed.

Worth a try if you're curious as it's constantly on sale, hard one to recommend but it's not as bad as some people make out I feel.

+ Story premise is really good.
+ I like the characters and story beats.
+ I like the presentation though it's not as dense and gothic as it's predecessors.

- Upgrade and open world systems are just awful, clearly was designed as a live service game that pivoted in development but the damage is there.
- Combat and movement isn't smooth enough.
- Some minor bugs and frame rate issues.

Ghost Trick was one of the first games I put in my Amazon wish list back when I made an account in 2017. I remember a Youtuber I liked, Nintendocaprisun, streamed the game and the little I watched from the stream looked really cool. It sat in that wishlist for ages, eventually skyrocketing in price. It wasn't until last year, that I decided to bite the bullet and buy the game physically off eBay. It was expensive but it was a game I wanted to own for a while now, and I figured playing it on the DS would have been awesome. By this time, I was already a big Ace Attorney Fan, and knowing that this was another Shu Takumi game..I was pretty excited to play it. While I personally still prefer AA1 and AA3 over this, this was still a great time overall.

This game makes great use of the touch-screen. So, the basic premise of the game without going into story details, you the main character have died. You are a ghost and find out you have the ability to go back to the past, four minutes before someone has died, and have the potential to save them. You also have the ability to move to different objects and control them. You do this by going into ghost mode and moving your little wisp icon from object to object. The catch is, you can only move it a specific distance away. If something is too far away, you have to figure out how to get there by possibly interacting with the object you're on. This is called "tricking" and it can vary depending on the section of the story you're on. Some can be very simple while others you need to time specific actions in the real world. It might seem a bit confusing with how I explained however, it's very easy to understand in game. Either way, this gameplay loop is really fun and is perfect for a DS game. Near the end of the game, it also throws another character at you with some different mechanics. And it even combines the two at once and it can lead to some really fun puzzles. The game was never that hard, I never even had to look up a guide, however I never found them super easy.

Story-wise, like I said the premise is you die at the start. You play as Sissel, someone we know nothing about, and not even he knows who he is. His main goal from the start is to figure out who he is and how he dies, but along the way he meets a colorful cast of characters, and the game gets more complicated from there. Overall, I enjoyed the story and cast of characters for sure. Like Ace Attorney, they're all very distinct and can be very goofy. The main cast is very good tho I have to say I didn't connect to them as much as I do with the main cast of Ace Attorney. Probably because this game is shorter than your average AA game, and I was able to connect to that game's cast through the span of three games! Either way, while I didn't love any character here, Sissel..Lynne..Jowd..Cabanela..Missile..the entire cast is memorable and entertaining. The story is also full of twists and turns throughout. The ending may be a little convoluted imo but I think it was executed well and I did not see it coming at all. While not mind-blowing overall, I can at least commend the story and overall concept of the game for being unique. Always love seeing really out there stories like this.

This may be weird to here, but I don't think the absolute best aspect of this game is the story or the gameplay. It's the visuals. Honestly, some of the best sprite-work I've ever seen in a game. Every animation is so buttery smooth and really gives the game a lot of character. The look of each character sprite too, idk how they did it, but it has this very distinct look to it. Since the game is very goofy at times, the characters animations are goofy as well. The art style on the portraits is very distinct too tho those aren't animated. They're nice but it would have been cool if they had little animations as well, like Ace Attorney. Along with the sprites being full of personality, so is the dialogue. If you played Ace Attorney before this, you'd be right at home here. It feels just like Ace Attorney. Goofy and witty when it wants to be, serious when it wants to be, and full of heart throughout. In this regard, it may be better than Ace Attorney because I didn't notice any spelling errors lol.

The OST is probably my biggest disappointment compared to Ace Attorney tbh, especially since the AA1 composer did this game. The first Ace Attorney's ost is now in my top 10 OSTS of all time. I just love it so much, so I might've hyped myself up too much with this game. That's not to say this game has a bad soundtrack, I just don't find it comparable to the Ace Attorney games personally. Maybe I just haven't listened to the OST enough, as I know this is probably a hot take and others will disagree. Still, there were songs I did like. Four Minutes Before Death probably being my favorite since it reminded me of Ace Attorney the most haha.

I do wish I ended up liking this a bit more, especially since this game is praised so much and has a 4.5 average, however in this case I can totally see why it is as this game is really great. I guess maybe it just comes down to my personal preferences. Or maybe I'll like this even more on replay, who knows. Either way, while it seems I do prefer the Ace Attorney series more (sorry I keep comparing them, it's just hard not to with the type of game this is), this is still must-play DS game imo and worth all the praise it gets.