the "friction" in this game is hotly debated but i think a lot of it stems from this fact that this game is pretty fundamentally flawed on a structural level. the insanely stunted fast travel is done entirely on purpose not to instill a sense of adventure in the player, but because walking across dirt roads and fighting the same three enemies is literally the meat of the game. that is the gameplay, and if you don't REALLY fuck with it then you have my pass to give up on it without feeling like you're losing out on your gamer badge of honor. fighting guys does feel really good but its hard not to feel like -- yet again -- im just playing the demo for the actual dragons dogma.

cant say that i or anybody else should be disappointed because a lotta folks are gonna come to find out thats just what dragons dogma is, but if this game is going to continue that tradition then i gotta come to the same conclusion i think a lot of people come to: dragons dogma is really just ok

I have an immense amount of nostalgia for Wii Play, and it was a lot of fun taking my friend through it for the first time. Our playthrough became this extremely particular time capsule - its sights and sounds unpicking locks in my mind which have very specific childhood memories behind them. I guess this is what nostalgia feels like.

But I also think that this is just an extremely well produced and joyful bit of casual software. The games are of an extremely uneven quality (Billiards and Laser Hockey are uniquely dull) but the most polished ones are a great laugh in multiplayer.

The package was thin but it was essentially pack-in software for the Wii Remote, and through that lens there is great genius to how it explains the controller in a practical way. This is simple, intuitive fun, as the best games in the Wii series were.

In my mission to clean up the last 2D Mario games I've never finished before Wonder (just 2 USA, Lost Levels and Land 1 to go now), I finally cleared SMB. Of course, I've played this game countless times across countless platforms, but I never actually completed 8-4.

The game still plays well and it's impossible to discount how groundbreaking its scale was in 1985. But SMB1 was relegated to the status of blueprint when Super Mario Bros. 3 released on the same platform - and that game remains a masterpiece today. SMB1, by comparison, seems like a napkin sketch.

That's not to discount how masterful its worldbuilding and mechanics are. The Mushroom Kingdom as we know it now still owes its identity almost wholesale to SMB1. That's a sort of visionary level of game design that asserts SMB1 as a critically important game, but nowadays also a largely uninteresting one.

It's hard to poke holes in a game this important and this airtight, but it's likewise difficult to provide a list of reasons why it deserves a revisit over literally any of the games that follow. We will always be indebted to Super Mario Bros., but I think we can pay our respects from afar.

saw a tweet that said something along the lines of "where pikmin 3 was a perfection of pikmin 1's formula, pikmin 4 feels like a perfection of pikmin 2's formula" and I wholeheartedly agree, but I also kind of feel like it goes beyond that. this game builds upon the ideas set in every previous game in the series (even hey! pikmin apparently since thats where sparklium originally came from I think?) and because of that, I can say with full confidence that this is easily the best game in the series. I mean, they actually made caves GOOD. WIZARDRY. it's still got a few flaws that are keeping it from being a 10/10 (weird timeline reset, underutilization of a couple pikmin types, etc) but it is damn close. entering the postgame, can't wait to play more.

ok so we can all agree that this is by far the best one right? You can argue that the Pikmin 1 had a better story, or that Pikmin 2 had more to do, but come on. the new pikmin types are awesome, the new QOL stuff is incredible (LOCK ON AHHHHHHHHH), the game just LOOKS gorgeous, the boss fights are the best in the series, the pikmin aren't nearly as stupid as they were in the first two, and it just plays better overall. I just wish it was a bit longer, but tbf there's still the side story stuff. hype levels are at a max for Pikmin 4, here's hoping that game is as good as it looks.

"It's Dangerous to Go Alone. Take this!"

The Legend of Zelda's influence on the American games market in particular was something I wish I could have beheld, simply because I think that if I played it back in its prime, I would have loved it as much as any other kid from the eighties did. Alas, a game that's as cryptic and at times bizzare as this does not really hold up relatively speaking. The Legend of Zelda faces an uphill battle for the average modern video game player, and this isn't me trying to dunk on the casuals. Far from it. Quite simply the game is too archaic that even if you think you can accept its age and what that could entail, you truly cannot grasp the absurdity that The Legend of Zelda will make you go through to progress through its arduous quest. If you are willing to brave the "Hyrule Fantasy" and can stomach its manys traps and failings, then by all means, enjoy. It is a cornerstone piece of the video game industry, just not one that I think can be truly accessible to everyone these days.