Still the king, baby.

Now, I already reviewed Super Mario World in the past and feel that I said everything I needed to say about this game there. However, as I replayed this game over and over throughout my life, I have yearned for ways to make each new playthrough feel unique. For a while, the randomizer did just that for me, and later on I would experience the joys and hilarity of the ROM hack where the game's stages and music were remade from memory. Now, I return to Super Mario World once more for another twist, focusing entirely on the soundtrack.

For this playthrough, I implemented a ROM hack titled Super Mario World MSU-1 Plus Ultra. For those unaware, MSU-1 is a custom coprocessor designed by the late Near that allows Super Nintendo games to play CD quality audio and full-motion videos. Many modders have taken advantage of this coprocessor to do insanely impressive things with Super Nintendo games. Look at this video of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, for example. This is what the coprocessor looks and sounds like in action!

Many games have been given MSU-1 upgrades over the years, and Super Mario World is no exception to this. In fact, MSU-1 mods for this game have had an interesting development history. At first, there were just mods that swapped the music for more orchestral sounding remixes of the music tracks, which is the standard protocol for these mods. Following these would come a more ambitious mod, titled Super Mario World MSU+, which not only swaps the original tracks for CD quality music, but also introduces voice clips for characters and implements the use of different remixes of the overworld music depending on which region of the map you're currently in. I've played that version and loved it, finding it to be a refreshing way to experience this game.

Years later after the release of this mod, however, we would be gifted with an even more ambitious mod in the form of Super Mario World MSU-1 Plus Ultra. Not only did this mod implement everything from Super Mario World MSU+. It also made it possible for every stage in the game to have its own unique remix. This means that the soundtrack of Super Mario World has been expanded to 130 unique tracks!

Needless to say, I've been dying to get into this mod and hear all the music within, and after a breezy 96 exit run of this game, I can say genuinely that this is an amazing way to experience (or re-experience) Super Mario World. It's exciting to drop into a stage and hear an entirely new remix. It could be orchestral, jazzy, rock, or something else! Your ears are certainly in for a treat with this mod!

The best part of this and other MSU-1 mods is that they are fully playable on the most recent models of flash carts, such as the FXPak Pro, for example. You're going to be hearing CD quality music and voice lines from characters in a day 1 Super Nintendo game all on real hardware! It's beyond impressive, and every so often as I play mods like these, I can't help but think of how much these advancements blow me away.

If you love the Super Nintendo and want to see what their games would be like if they had a bit of that Sega CD energy (complimentary) in them, I highly implore you to check out the MSU-1 Hacks Database and try some of these mods for yourself! They take a bit more of set-up to get running than your usual ROM hack, but the extra work is worth it to see and hear how these games get enhanced by this technology!

The first-person shooter genre was rocked by Goldeneye in 1997 and then rocked again by Half-Life in 1998. In 1999, it would be time for EA and Dreamworks Interactive to rock the genre once more with Medal of Honor.

Medal of Honor is a military shooter set during towards the end of World War II. Players take the role of Jimmy Patterson as he completes 7 missions for the OSS, each being broken up into 3-4 action-packed stages. Alongside this is a multiplayer mode that allows you to have shootouts with your friends. I haven't gotten to play much of the multiplayer, so this review will focus on the single-player aspects of this game.

Firstly, let me say that the presentation is immaculate. When you get past the developer logos and loading screen you're put in the War Room, which is your main menu. You'll be checking different areas of the room to check out things like the options and your stats, and while you do this, you'll hear the ambiance of the office activities while watching people walk between rooms. It's very cozy, and you'll quickly find it to be a comforting space. Hang out in the war room long enough without touching the controller, and you'll be treated to some trailers for the game. This was a treat to discover, and it made me wish more games were proud enough of their advertisements to stick them into the game as a way of preserving them.

Soon, you'll find your way to the first mission. Before each mission, you're briefed on what your objective is for the mission as war footage plays on a projector. You're being briefed vocally by Colonel Stanley Hargrove (voiced by William Morgan Sheppard), who proves to be a friendly yet stern superior. Hearing him speak to you about the missions was relaxing and fun, and I was surprised to hear moments where he felt a personal connection so some of your missions. The vocal performance easily enhanced the feeling of going into battle.

Before going into each stage of a mission, you are handed a note from Manon, a liaison from the French Resistance. She gives you an overview of each stage, letting you know things like what kinds of weapons the enemy are carrying, what your objectives are, and hints about secrets. It was always enjoyable reading her letters, hearing about her experiences as she fed you information about the Nazi's plans.

She's basically the equivalent of a radio buddy in a 7th gen game except her letters only pop up between stages, which is really funny when you do something like sneak onto a U-Boat minutes before it departs. How did she get the letter to you after you got on? How did she even know you successfully made it in the first place, considering how tight the timing was? Is she just anticipating you clearing all the objectives flawlessly and is writing letters in advance? Does Jimmy just receive all her letters in bulk before each mission? These are all questions we may never get answers to. I'll just pretend Manon is some French deity who has the mystical ability to keep Jimmy informed at all times and leave it at that.

With your briefings over, it's finally time to begin the game proper. The first thing you'll notice is how dark the game is, visually speaking. At least for me, I needed to crank my TV's brightness setting up in order to see most things. It's at its worst when you're doing outdoor missions at night.

That aside, you'll begin to move and aim and oh man they did it! They almost nailed what would become the standard control scheme for all future first-person shooters! Okay, let me get more specific. Medal of Honor has a number of control presets for the player to choose from. Of them all, I found that Controller Setting 4 came the closest to what would become standard in late 7th gen. The only thing that really upset me about this setting is how the Square and Triangle buttons go unused while R1 does two separate things! They could've easily put reload on Square and it would've felt fine, but what we have here is truly ahead of its time, so despite the shortcomings of this playstyle, I am impressed.

And so you're on your way through your first mission. Thankfully, if you forgot what your objectives were in your letter from Manon, you can pause the game at any time to check what objectives you have, as well as your kill count for that stage (which is important for something I'll get into later). Unlike in games like Goldeneye, you can't fail objectives, so that's one less thing to worry about as you play. Objectives are all required to complete, as well, as the game will refuse to allow you to leave a stage until you finish that checklist.

Most stages will have you going through guns blazing, shooting Nazis left and right while hunting for objectives. Some other stages take a different approach, having you infiltrate Nazi bases in disguise, blending in to tamper with tech and assassinate key officials. To blend in, you have a set of papers documenting your rank in your disguise. By taking out higher ranking Nazis, you can steal their papers and gain access to more areas, which can be a rewarding process that's quite engaging.

At least, it is when it works and the game doesn't pull pranks. There are some enemies that will approach you asking for your documentation, and in the early stealth stages you'll show them the papers and they'll leave you alone. In the later stealth stages, you'll begin to be faced with less trusting Nazis who will see through your disguise and attack you. Perhaps the weirdest part of this is as you try to show them your papers over and over, they'll repeat lines like "Show me your papers!" and "What is your name?" over and over in different pitches. I'm sure that the different pitches exist to make the Nazis all sound distinct, but hearing them come out of one Nazi was just bizarre.

The other prank that can get played on you here occurs when silently taking down some enemies. Most Nazis walking around can be easily neutralized with a headshot from your silenced pistol, which will prevent any other Nazis from being alerted to your presence. Nazis that guard doors that require you to have specific papers pose a unique threat. If you try to silently dispatch them, two Nazi soldiers will spawn in (usually behind you) and they will them quickly drain your life bar. Not the greatest feeling when this happens!

While I thought the stealth missions were an interesting idea, I had the most fun going through the regular action stages. Any stage can have you equipped with up to three guns and one throwable explosive. You get weapons like pistols, SMG's, shotguns and, later in the campaign, a bazooka! The weapon variety isn't very large at all, but what is here is serviceable for your adventure. All of the weapons reload very quickly, as well, leaving little to no downtime during heated shootouts.

My one complaint here is that if you want to use a specific weapon, you need to keep hitting the "Switch Weapon" button until you land on it. This also includes items like grenades, which don't have a unique button for them and are treated as another weapon. Because of this, I barely used grenades, which is a shame because watching Nazis interact with them is highly interesting. Some will lie flat on them to guard their friends from an explosion. Some will kick them away or throw them back. Others will just run from them. You'll also face dog enemies that will pick them up in their mouths and charge at you with them, which can be terrifying!

This isn't where the Nazi animations stop, either. There's a surprising number of animations for them in regard to their reactions to your shots. Their helmets can fly off their heads if you aim at their head, protecting them from a headshot. They might bounce around in pain if you shoot their leg. A powerful shot may knock them on their butt, causing them to take a few moments to get themselves together before standing and shooting at you once more. Of course, a well-aimed shotgun blast or an explosion will send them flying, which is endlessly satisfying to watch.

Of course, Nazis tend to shoot back at you as you shoot at them. In the top-left corner of your screen you have a compass that houses your health bar, which can be refilled with medical packs scattered through stages. This compass also houses another feature: it will flash red in the direction of enemy fire that is making contact with you. Getting hit from the front? The top flashes red. The back? The bottom flashes. The left or right? I don't think I need to answer that. It's a very handy feature that seems to be taken straight from Half-Life, showing just how influential that game was after it came out.

As you get deeper into the game Nazis get more and more aggressive, using more powerful weapons to take you down. One weapon they will use is the Panzerschreck, which is an anti-tank rocket launcher. The splash damage on the rockets these things fire can do a good job draining your health, and direct contact with a rocket will kill you instantly. I guess now's as good of a time as any to mention that if you die, you have to re-do the entire stage, which can be pretty annoying if a stage is longer or if you're doing good only to get a back full of rocket that you couldn't see coming. I used save-states to give myself checkpoints throughout stages to mitigate this issue, but real hardware players will face some difficulty here due to this.

When you clear a stage, you'll be taken to a screen showing how you did during a stage, detailing things such as your favorite weapon for the stage as well as your accuracy. Here, you'll also be awarded stars. You'll get one for just beating the stage, two for killing most of the Nazis in a stage, and three for clearing the stage with 75% or more health. That order is strictly implemented, by the way. Beat a stage without killing most of the Nazis but had over 75% health? You're only getting one star. So, what do stars do? Well, by getting all 3 stars on every stage of a mission, you'll not only be awarded a shiny medal, but you will also be given a "secret code". These are basically cheat menu options, doing things like adding power-ups to multiplayer, quadrupling your weapon fire speed, and turning all non-interactable environment textures into wireframes. They're mostly goofy stuff, which is a cute and welcome addition to this game to incentivize high-level play.

Also on this menu they detail which body parts you shot the most, which is an interesting statistic to see. You're also given a "Gunnery Evaluation" based on which parts you hit the most. You'll get called a "Winger" for hitting mostly arms, for example. Two that stood out to me the most were one for getting mostly headshots, which was "Discount Barber", and another for getting mostly groin shots, charmingly called "Homewrecker".

I would also like to bring up the music. The score done for this game is very well-done, making you feel like you're in an intense war movie! The soundtrack was composed by Michael Giacchino, who would go on to compose the score for numerous Disney movies such as Up and The Incredibles. Needless to say, he did an excellent job here, and I'll definitely be keeping my eye out for his name in future works!

Overall, I loved my time with Medal of Honor. The game truly felt ahead of its time in a number of ways and was an absolute joy from beginning to end. I highly recommend any lover of military FPS games to give this game a shot! This is a game that definitely deserves to be as well-remembered as games like Half-Life and Goldeneye!

We REALLY need to let Steven Spielberg make more games he's really good at this.

Bring the noise!

So, The Noise update for Pizza Tower dropped, so I figured what better way to christen my new Steam Deck than doing a full playthrough of the update in one sitting?

When I first played Pizza Tower last year, I was shocked by the quality of it. The animation felt ripped straight out of a 90's cartoon we never got. The level design was astounding, offering plenty of ways to keep momentum to allow players to attempt to get "P" ranks. The music was flawless, with tunes being catchy and memorable (I may have bought the OST immediately after beating the game).

Pizza Tower was a gift, and it proves to be a gift that keeps on giving with this update. Here, we take the role of The Noise, an antagonist in the main game. While you're able to travel at mach speeds with him as easily as you did with Peppino, The Noise has a few tricks up his sleeves. His moveset varies slightly from Peppino's, with him not being able to run up walls and being able to super jump without building up speed, for example. The Noise also uses each gimmick ability differently from Peppino, making it feel like a fresh experience when you encounter them. This all does a good job of making this playthrough not feel like just a retread of the original game, as you now have to adapt to different styles of gameplay with each stage, as well as the slight level alterations made to accommodate The Noise's unique moveset.

While there technically aren't any new boss fights here, how you fight bosses has been changed. The Noise attacks bosses by throwing bombs at them, rather than tackling or shooting them like Peppino did. This adds an interesting twist to boss fights as you're now encouraged to keep your distance from bosses while taking advantage of their openings. You also have a small bit of windup to consider when throwing bombs to account for, making it feel like your throws need to count. There is some forgiving elements here, as the bombs will bounce along the floor a bit before exploding, allowing you to still earn a hit if a boss lands on the bouncing bomb while they're vulnerable.

The animations made for The Noise are nothing short of superb. He's highly expressive, and watching him interact with the world will leave you with a smile. There's also a ton of other additions of Noise-centered art to consume as you travel through the tower that are always nice to look at.

Last, but most certainly not least, are the new music tracks. Folks, I'm happy to say that they're all bangers! New tracks replace ones such as "It's Pizza Time!" and they all fit really well! ClascyJitto and Mr. Sauceman went crazy here, and players will be treated with some really strong tracks to keep them pumped during their revisit of the tower.

Overall, this is an excellent addition to the game. If you've played Pizza Tower and are hungry for a reason to jump back in, I highly recommend giving this update a shot!

Snotty approved, baybee!

Not the game I knew I needed, but I'm glad I know now.

When I was a kid growing up, I loved the Paper Mario franchise. It would be a good number of years before I played the Nintendo 64 title, but I would play The Thousand Year Door and Super Paper Mario extensively. While I loved Super and still do, I would hope that the next game would follow in the same style as TTYD, since I found the gameplay to be a bit more engaging. Sadly, I didn't get my wish, as Sticker Star and Color Splash went in directions that only disappointed me. It truly seemed that this would be the direction the franchise would be taking from there on out, and I longed for a day where Nintendo would give the older gameplay style another shot.

Little did I know, though, that it would not be Nintendo that would make the game I wanted. Instead, Moonsprout Games would answer the call. In January of 2018, they would launch an Indiegogo Campaign for their new game, an adventure RPG that is taking heavy inspiration from TTYD. Needless to say, people were drawn in like moths to a flame, and the game would reach its funding goal. Almost two years later, we'd get the completed project, titled Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling

While I didn't back the campaign or buy the game at launch, it still remained heavily on my radar, as I've been itching for a traditional Paper Mario experience that also offered a new world to explore. All these years later, I've finally gotten to see this game to the end, and man, this game is full of surprises!

When you first enter the world of Bug Fables, the first thing you'll notice is the presentation. They go for a style here that uses 2D characters in 3D environments. They use this very effectively, creating interesting environments and amazing character designs! Your main trio of characters all look great, and the NPC designs are all unique and highly memorable! Meeting new characters and entering new environments was always a treat, as I never knew what would be waiting for me as I traversed through this game's unique world. Speaking of the world, they do a great job playing with the fact that you're playing as bugs! You get a great sense of scope as you find more human-made objects littering the world you're exploring. Seeing how the bug citizens of this world take advantage of these objects to enhance their ways of life is always charming, as well.

As you start going through the first chapter of the game, you'll get introduced to the combat mechanics almost immediately. Like the older Paper Mario games, battles are turn-based, and when you attack, you play a small minigame to maximize damage. You also have special moves that use TP, which is this game's FP. You can block enemy attacks with well-timed button presses, with even less damage being taken with better timing. This is all standard Paper Mario fare, for the most part, and it all works very well. It never felt like it was the game's fault if I missed an action command or mistimed a block.

Things get even more interesting as you obtain party members. You have three characters of your party in total, and they all fight at once. During battle, you can switch who is in the lead, and the leading party member will do additional damage as a bonus. Each party member has their own specialty, as well. You have one that can target flying enemies with ease, one that can topple enemies, and one that can freeze enemies to prevent them from attacking. As you progress through the game, you'll discover more moves for your party that allow for some interesting strategic approaches to tougher fights.

To add to this, you can find a large variety of medals, which is this game's answer to the badge system. Like badges, you have points that you can use to equip them, and each will have a unique effect. There are medals that get equipped to the whole party, and there are some that can only be put on one character. This adds even more to the strategy of fights, as now you can have specific "builds" that allow you to make characters insanely strong under specific conditions.

I'll give an example. There are a variety of status effects in this game. One of these is poison, which damages you each turn. While there are medals that decrease your likelihood of getting poisoned, there are a ton of medals that reward you for getting poisoned, doing things such as buffing your defense and attack. There's even also a medal that make it so poison no longer hurts! To add to this, you can equip a medal that causes you to get poisoned whenever you consume an item, allowing you to activate your poison buffs whenever you want. This is just one way you can get super strong in this game, and playing with the medal combos to find out which builds work best for you can be a highly rewarding time.

If you don't want a risk/reward build and just want stuff that helps you out with no strings attached, though, you're gonna need to play the game for a while. Frequently as I visited shops and explored the overworld I would find mostly risk/reward medals, which was disappointing since I didn't really want to do a crazy build. Thankfully, though, the more you play and explore the game, you'll find more medals that strictly aid you, so this is a short-term problem.

A good source of medals and other goodies are the side quests! As you progress, more and more side quests become available, that each have their own story to them and end with a reward, whether it be currency, medals, or other things. One of the most important tips I could give to a new player is to explore as much of the world as you can! There's secrets hiding all over the place! Optional dungeons and bosses await those seeking a challenge, and you'll be rewarded very well for your efforts!

I had an excellent time exploring the world of this game, especially as more overworld moves were unlocked. Each party member brings with them a growing toolkit of moves to allow you to search every nook and cranny for secrets. They're also all used to solve fun simple puzzles that keep you engaged as you explore the world. Some of the most fun I had in this game was taking time between chapters to explore with new moves I unlocked to see what secrets were hiding around!

Now, I won't be spoiling the story here at all, but I do want to vaguely gush about how much I loved what they did here! They do such a great job fleshing out the world! There's all sorts of factions in this bug world and there's so much lore to discover for each one! You even have a menu where you keep track of discoveries in the world that you can review at any time to refresh yourself on the inner-workings of this land. You find lore books that add backstory to the creation of the kingdoms, as well as answering questions like why are there bugs that behave like people and others that behave like animals. It gets pretty deep, and those along with the story beats flesh out the world in such an exciting way. The further I played, the more I wanted to learn about the world and all its quirks!

What is a world without its people? The characters you meet in Bug Fables are all varied and interesting, both in design and personality! I loved interacting with characters and seeing their reactions to the events happening in the story, as well as seeing how they develop during side quests. The personalities of the main trio also shine super-brightly here, as well. Watching them interact with each other and the world around them was always a treat, and by the end of the game you'll easily love them all. They all also have interesting backstories that you learn about as you play, leading to some very heartfelt moments that will make you smile.

Their personalities shine in the game's tattle system, as well. All three characters have the ability to tattle enemies, revealing their health and defense. Along with this, each character has something unique to say about every enemy in the game! You don't even need to tattle the enemy three times to see all the dialogue, either! You can check the bestiary and it'll have each character's line in it! They stop at nothing to make sure you see every character's take on an enemy or boss, and I think that's amazing!

Outside of tattling enemies, you can also press a button in each area of the overworld to learn more about the area you're in, as well as potential hints to solving a puzzle. You can also do this near NPC's to see the characters have a small conversation about the NPC in question, and sometimes these will change after you talk to a character and learn new information! They did so much work fleshing out dialogue and lore and all this stuff and it adds so much to this game. Exploring and seeing every exchange between characters was endlessly rewarding, and it was easily one of my favorite parts of this game!

Overall, I loved my time playing Bug Fables! The combat was rewarding and exploring the world was highly satisfying! It also doesn't overstay its welcome, either! My in-game timer said 30 hours by the time I finished, but it was more like 28 because this game does that thing I hate where the timer continues to tick even when you're in the pause menu doing nothing. You can probably finish this game faster if you don't do as many side quests, but I can't recommend doing them enough due to all the goodies they give ya. This is a game that you should take your time with and really get immersed in the world. You won't regret it!

If somehow none of what I said has convinced you to play this game, please look at Tanjerin. Look at this boy. He is so precious. You can talk to him in the game and he's really cute. You like cute little guys, right? R-right?

It's been a while since I've had nights like this.

As an adult with a busy life, it gets much harder to find the time to spend with friends. Thankfully, things have been changing for me in that regard, and now I'm getting to spend more time with the group of people I've known for the past 10 years or so. Tonight, three of us gathered at a friend's place, looking forward to a night of fun and conversation. After thinking about what we wanted to do, we settled on doing a playthrough of Star Wars: Battlefront II on the original Xbox. Now, I had heard plenty of praise for this game in the past, but I haven't had enough interest to give it a shot. Now, I had no excuse to not try it out, especially since you could play the campaign in 4-player co-op.

This game, with friends, certainly is an experience.

One minute you'll be on the battlefield on foot, mowing down enemy troops, occasionally shooting a blast or throwing a grenade in the path of one of your friends, and working as best as you can together to complete objectives. Another minute, you're soaring through space, shooting out fleets of enemies while trying not to crash your ships just trying to land (or yelling in agony as you careen into a wall due to our lack of flight experience, which always gets a laugh out of the group.) You may also find yourself gaining the ability to play as a key character from the movies, such as Yoda or Darth Vader. You may also find yourself accidentally wiping out half of your friend's health as they're playing as this character because you started firing at a grunt just as they swooped in to do a lightsaber attack on the same foe. You'll take control of vehicles, even getting to pilot AT-ATs, feeling powerful as you fire strong blasts into enemy troops and turrets, as well as your friend who was just trying to capture the objective.

I guess with all that I'm trying to say that Star Wars: Battlefront II is messy, chaotic fun in the goofiest of ways. You'll laugh and bicker playfully with your friends as you explore stages and try to progress. You'll laugh every time the game sharply cuts to a screen that just says "VICTORY" when you complete a mission. You'll scoff as the framerate drops to like 15 fps because they crammed you all in a hallway with like 20 other NPCs all shooting at each other, and you'll all laugh again as one of you fires a blast in said hallway that kills at least 10 people on both sides, including themselves and the rest of your group.

Star Wars: Battlefront II gave me an experience that feels seldom rare in the modern era: a fast-paced objective-based shooter that can be enjoyed on a couch with a group of friends that isn't looking to nickle-and-dime you in some weird way. Outside of the framerate issues, you'll easily have a wonderful and hilarious time if you can get three friends together to sit down and just blast through stage after stage. The game overall is pretty short, maybe like 2-3 hours max for the campaign, but doing it in a group will make it feel like an adventure.

If you ever find yourself in a situation where you can experience this game in 4-player co-op, go for it. I can't speak for how this game plays as a single-player experience, but as a multiplayer one, I can guarantee that you'll have a great time!

Average reading time: 10 minutes

A challenging platformer wrapped in a very pretty package.

This isn't my first foray with Croc. I distinctly remember attempting to play through this game a number of years ago and then quitting in world 3 due to a crazy difficulty spike. Now, a few years later, my brain spiders command me to once again control the lovable green reptilian and try to beat this game for good. Of course, I knew what I was getting into, and decided to make one small, yet absurdly essential change to make this game more fun.

Now, anyone who's read my Billy Hatcher review knows my opinions about lives systems in games, and that opinion of mine isn't going away. Because of this, I implemented an unlimited lives cheat for this run. As I go further into detail about my time with Croc, it will become clearer as to why I did this, but I did want to state this early on, just for the sake of clarity regarding my experience this time around.

Now, Croc has a simple story. You witness Croc floating in a basket towards a group of Gobbos, who then adopt and raise him. Soon, Baron Dante makes his presence known, sending his troops to kidnap the Gobbos. The Gobbo King bangs a gong to have Croc sent away from the chaos, allowing Croc the chance to fight back and save his friends!

A simple plot for a simple game. However, the instruction manual gives way more detail about the Gobbo world. Reading it will teach you more about the Gobbos as a species, the Gobbo King, referred to as "King Rufus the Intolerant", Croc's experiences growing up with the Gobbos, and even information about Baron Dante's evil group, referred to as "The Dantinis". It's also a bizarrely funny read, with a lot of jokes that stick the landing very well. If you want to read something that will make you constantly double take, read the Croc instruction manual!

Once you take control of Croc, you'll immediately notice a point of contention regarding this game: it's a 3D platformer with tank controls. Needless to say, not the most comfortable platforming experience. Even using an analog controller does not fix this issue, sadly. You'll often find yourself stopping to turn yourself to line up a jump, and jumping feels very stiff. Whatever direction you plan on moving in the air is the only direction you're moving, with little room for adjustment. Over time, of course, you'll get used to the platforming mechanics, but you'll never find yourself saying "this feels great to play!"

Aside from running and jumping, Croc has a few extra moves at his disposal. One of the most vital moves he possesses is his ability to turn around! Using a dedicated button, Croc can do a 180 degree turn whenever he wants, which is a godsend for re-orienting yourself to line up another jump. If you do it while he's on the move, he'll do a really cool flip that made me react like this when I first saw it.

As for Croc's combat ability, he has two moves to use. First, he has a tail swipe move that's great for deleting enemies from existence. His other move is a ground pound, performed by hitting the jump button twice. Aside from dispatching enemies, this move will allow Croc to bust open crates and objects blocking tunnel passageways. Gonna be honest here, I don't like that you have to hit jump twice for this. I wish it was mapped to a different button, because I would often have scenarios where I was doing a precision platforming section that required me to jump as soon as I landed on a platform, and if my timing was off slightly it would result in Croc stopping in midair, asserting the ground-pound position, and plummeting to his death. Not fun.

It's also worth noting that when Croc performs his attacking moves, he has a number of onomatopoeia's he can blurt out, such as "yazoo!" or "kersplat!" You would think this would get annoying after a while, but honestly it never bothered me. I think it adds to Croc's character, being a young croco on a big adventure to save a tribe of people who have a tradition of shoving kitchen utensils down their pants (PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL I PROMISE I DIDN'T MAKE THAT UP)

Speaking of Croc as a character, oh man, would you take a look at these little guys! This game is filled to the brim with scrimblo-type characters, little dudes that you're gonna want plushies of as soon as you see them. They're EVERYWHERE! If you love little weirdos and want to catalogue them all, this is the perfect game for you. Absolutely loved seeing each new creature emerge on my screen as I played.

Okay, so we have cute characters in a fuzzy 32-bit world clearly made for kids. The controls take some getting used to but surely the main game doesn't get too taxing, right? Oh, how I wish I could say yes. For the first two worlds, it's honestly a pretty comfortable romp. Level design is highly forgiving, featuring non-intimidating level design unless you're going after collectibles. Once you hit world 3, though, you'll start seeing much more difficult stage layouts requiring you to perform more precise movements to get by. For me, this is where Croc begins to fall in terms of quality.

So, Croc behaves like Sonic the Hedgehog when it comes to taking damage, in that he'll drop this game's ring equivalent (gems) when getting hit. Get hit without them and you'll lose a life. It's around world 3 where you'll begin facing much more challenging platforming over damaging floors and bottomless pits. Because of this, it is incredibly easy to lose lives. Thankfully, you're given a checkpoint at every door/tunnel you exit, which means a death won't set you too far back. Getting a game over, however, sends you back to whichever stage you last saved at, which means starting a level over again from the beginning.

Now, on paper this doesn't seem like too bad of a punishment, but after getting game over's over and over again due to how easy it is for Croc to die I began to find it intolerable, hence why I opted for the unlimited lives cheat. I can accept dying and having to re-do a small section but having to re-do a stage over and over due to game overs, especially when you get close to the end of a stage, just feels intolerable in the modern era. If you want to tackle this game without such assists, then all the power to you. Just be prepared for a lot of level attempts in the back half of the game and lots of visits to specific stages to grind extra lives hidden away in secret spots.

When it comes to collectables in stages, you really only have two to worry about: Gobbos and colored gems. There are six Gobbos hidden in each stage, and collecting all of the Gobbos in the game allow you to access some secret levels that unlock even more secret stuff. Throughout the stage, you'll find five of these Gobbos hidden in boxes, cages, and on hard-to-reach platforms. "Wait hold on five? I thought you said there were six Gobbos in a stage!" So remember when I mentioned colored gems? You can find five of these in each stage either disguised as regular gems or hidden in boxes. Collecting all of these unlocks a door near the end of each stage, where you will either complete a platforming challenge or a minigame to rescue the last Gobbo.

The platforming challenges are straightforward enough. However, it's the minigames where I take issue with this system. While most minigames are perfectly fine, there's one that I dislike immensely. Basically, you have a cauldron that you control by jumping on two arrow buttons. Your goal is to catch the gems descending from the sky. Catch them all and you're awarded a Gobbo. The problems here are that this minigame goes on way too long, and if you miss even one, the mini game ends. You may think "Oh, if I die I can reset the mini game and try again." A smart idea, but sadly not the case. Losing any minigame without securing a Gobbo will require you to beat the entire stage again to retry it. This means re-collecting every Gobbo and colored gem along the way, which is a frustrating process if it happened in a more difficult level, even if you know what you're getting into.

With how difficult the stages can get, you would think the boss fights would also prove to be challenging. Surprisingly, the bosses in this game are absurdly easy. It's your typical "wait for them to attack and hit them when they're vulnerable" type of fights throughout the game, and dodging attacks is as simple as running in a circle around the boss while they do their thing. Also, almost every boss does this thing where they just stop animating and freeze after you deal the final blow, which is always funny to witness.

The more thing I want to touch on is the music. The soundtrack is pretty good! There's some leitmotif sprinkled throughout the stages, with overworld and underground areas sharing some melodies. The title screen is also pretty catchy and may or may not have had a chunk of its melody lifted from it to be a part of a main theme for a Nintendo game.

Speaking of Nintendo, it's worth noting that this game began life as a pitch for a 3D Yoshi game. After the pitch was turned down, it became Croc, and you can kinda see some of that Yoshi blood in here a little bit. You have a green reptile protagonist who can ground pound (a move Yoshi had in Yoshi's Island) as well as a bad guy who uses magic to make smaller creatures into tough boss enemies. Swap the characters for Yoshi's Island ones and add a tongue move and flutter jump to Croc's arsenal and you basically have a Yoshi game, which is fun to think about as you experience this game.

Overall, I didn't hate Croc. I love his design, and the Gobbo Archipelago is fun to explore. The enemies you encounter are all cute and charming, and hearing Croc exclaim things like "Wazoo" never gets old. However, the stage design, especially in the back half of this game, combined with the awkward controls make this a difficult game to clear. I recommend giving this game a shot, despite the difficulty.

The aesthetics of this game invoke an aura of childhood innocence and succeeds at taking you back to a time where things felt simpler, even if the game isn't the easiest around. For that reason alone, I feel that Croc is worth visiting today. Even with the rise of low-poly indie 3D platformers, there's none that I am aware of that really capture the welcoming aesthetics of Croc.

My opinions on this game and my preference in how I like my eggs share one similarity: they're both scrambled.

When it comes to the plot, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg doesn't offer much of note. Billy and his friends get whisked away to a realm called Morning Land, where the chicken inhabitants are being attacked by a group of evil crows. It's your basic "Go beat up the evil dark lord bad guy" storyline that's all too common in games like this. I'm not complaining about it, though. I think the plot is fine for what it is, and they do try to add some lore here and there to keep the world interesting. I have my complaints about this game, and let me tell you the plot isn't what I take issue with here.

Let's talk about how the game works. Throughout your adventure, you're constantly running into eggs. When you start pushing them around, you gain access to a whole wealth of traversal and combat abilities. You can do a ground pound with the egg and have it launch you in the air to gain some extra height. You can shoot it at enemies and have it roll back to you. You can also use it to dash. What's weird about the dash, though, is that Billy doesn't have the dash move when he isn't pushing an egg around. Why he suddenly loses the will to pick up the pace when he isn't shoving around an egg is beyond me, but we have other pressing matters to discuss.

Throughout my playthrough of this game, one constant thought ran through my head as I engaged with the mechanics: "Wow, this game would be great if the mechanics worked more reliably!"

The ideas they present with the gameplay are neat, but in execution prove to be rather frustrating. Take the ground pound that lets you jump higher I mentioned earlier. You're going to primarily be using this to reach higher platforms. In any other game, this would be as simple as using the move and then getting on the platform. However, things are not so simple in Billy Hatcher! When you use this move, the egg and, by extension, Billy begin to spin. Now, this has no effect on the controls, but it does have an effect on what happens when you land. If you're barely making it onto a platform and Billy is over the edge when you land, he's going to drop and the egg will just be hanging out on the platform you wanted to get on, mocking you as you try to find another egg to try this again. If there's no other eggs around then you need to wait for the egg to despawn and go back to its spawn point so you can try again.

Now, you may think at first that this is just a quirky weird thing that doesn't happen too often. Oh, you ignorant fool! This happens on almost every platform in the entire game. I started forming a habit of doing two ground pound jumps before even attempting to move myself to a platform because I managed to have less arduous results when I did it. I am thankful to say that this has never caused a death during my playthrough, but it is frustrating to deal with.

What did cause deaths during my playthrough was a special object in some stages. Sometimes in stages there will be railways that you need to put your egg on, and while it's rolling away you need to maneuver yourself to a location where you can catch it before it rolls off a ledge. When you first see one of these, it immediately works as advertised. However, in later stages it, for some reason or another, becomes the most finicky thing that you will ever interact with in this game.

Allow me to describe to you how these things almost made me quit the game. So, the first mission of every world requires you to find a gold egg and hatch it. For one world, you need to move this egg across one of these rails and catch it on the other end. The problems I had here weren't with catching the egg. The problems I had were that the egg just refused to get on the rail. If I moved too quickly towards the rail, it wouldn't connect with it and the egg and I would plummet down a pit. If I moved too slowly, the egg would just fall right through the rail, which also causes death since it's an important egg. I also can't use the move that launches the egg out to get it on there because then it makes the egg move too fast, making it impossible for me to catch it, resulting in death. I had to carefully manage my speed when approaching this rail, aiming my movements at just the right angle to get the egg on there. Whoever was in charge of playtesting levels that use these things must've had some level of spite towards the developers of this game because there's no way they didn't notice this! Either that or they reported it and it was, for one reason or another, never fixed by the devs, but we'll never know the true story.

I would probably be less mad about it if death was meaningless, but you have to remember that this is 6th Gen gaming, and we're still doing the lives thing in most platformers, as it was the style at the time. Personally, I think lives counters add nothing to games outside of making things more stressful for the player, and I rarely find their inclusion in games to be something worth celebrating. When developers add a lives system to their games, they either make lives super rare, making playing stages stressful and infuriating when getting a game over, or they shower you in them, raising the question of why they even bothered with including them in the first place. There's also other things to account for, such as what happens when you get a game over in terms of progress lost, when factoring how valuable lives are, but at the end of the day I think every game that has a lives mechanic would go up 2 points if they hadn't even bothered with a lives counter in the first place.

How does this relate to Billy Hatcher, you ask? Well, lives are rare in this game, for one. I didn't find a single extra life during my playthrough. I dunno if I needed to hatch a specific egg to find one but I didn't find any during my adventure. Next, we need to talk about what happens when you get a game over. A normal game would splash a "Game Over" screen with an option to continue or to quit, with continuing taking you back to the start of the stage you were attempting. Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, like other SEGA games during this time period, take you straight back to the title screen, requiring you to go through menus and loading times before you're allowed your next attempt. I think I game over'd around 5 times during that stage I mentioned earlier, so needless to say I was not a happy camper by the time I beat it.

As you go on your journey you'll get "Emblems of Courage", which act as your main collectable for this journey. For most of the game, they don't really matter. You only need to beat the first two missions of each world to advance to the next one. This is consistent for the first five worlds of the game. Once you get to the 6th world, they have you complete a third stage. At the end of that stage, though, you are greeted with a text box telling you that you need to go back to older worlds and collect more emblems before you can beat the game, and then you're kicked out of the level! You could spend over 7 minutes going through the stage, full of deaths and frustrating egg-related platforming all for the game to say "bro look at your wallet ☠️☠️ get back with some more green my man." and throw you out! Thankfully, there's an NPC near that spot where that happens that you need to just have 25 of the things before you can beat the game, but the way the game phrases things when you get to that room makes you think you need to get all of the emblems in the previous worlds, which would've scared me away easily.

At the very least, the other missions that you would need to do to get the remaining emblems at that point are absurdly easy. They went out of their way to make the first two missions of the worlds in the back half of this game worryingly difficult, but the missions outside the first two of each world are a breeze in comparison. There are some that'll end in just a few minutes without any need for a second attempt. It's crazy! Funnily enough it was during the time I was rounding up the extra emblems that I was having the most fun with the game. There weren't many rails to worry about, there was less egg platforming that could lead to ledge issues, it was like I was playing a normal game! All I could think during all this was "Why did they hide all the easy stuff and make me suffer like they have for the past few hours?"

Each world has a boss to fight, as well. For the most part, though, they're really easy. There are some where I wish the camera would lock onto them since they move all over the place and others where it took me a try or two to figure out what they wanted from me, but for the most part they're pretty comfortable to fight. You're not going to have any worries there with this game, for the most part.

Overall, I can't say I hate Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, but I can't say I like it either. A neat gimmick and an attractive world are marred by unreliable gimmicks, the trappings of the lives system, and the fact that the game waits as long as it does to tell you to go get more collectables. If this is a game that makes you curious, then I can say it's worth at least giving a shot, but I won't blame you if you want to drop it after a few worlds.

Also, ain't no way I'm going to try to 100% this game. There's no way you get something cool for finding all the emblems. Unless it makes my Wii spit out a $100 bill I ain't doing it, and I recommend you do the same. Just focus on getting enough collectables and move on. Save yourself some headache.

It's tennis, and Mario is there!

Mario Tennis: Power Tour is a tennis game for the Game Boy Advance where you can take control of the characters of Mario's world to see who's the best at smacking balls with a racket. However, this isn't the only draw of this game. This game features a full campaign for players to enjoy. The campaign is very simple in structure: you're the new kid at the tennis academy. You play singles or doubles matches to ascend through the ranks until you are eligible for the big tournament. This is where I spent my time playing this game, and as such, it will be the focus of this review. I also played it in doubles matches, so I will be speaking about matches from the way those are set up.

As you play matches in the campaign, you gain experience points that level you and your partner up. Levelling up allows you to increase your stats, such as "Power" and "Speed". However, there will be instances where increasing one stat will decrease others. From there, you must decide if you want to have a jack-of-all-trades who never masters a skill, or you can opt for a more min/max style, focusing on beefing up specific stats to become a powerhouse in a specific set of fields. This is a neat concept, as this gets you thinking more about how you approach playing the game.

However, the more I played this game, the more I found that stats don't really matter too much. After completing some trainings and doing some research on what button combinations allow for what moves to use, I quickly found easy ways to shut down every enemy team, even during the final matches of the campaign.

If I wasn't sliding over to the edge of the court to get an easy ace serve (which is dangerously consistent against the computer), I was employing a simple, yet concerningly effective strategy that the computer almost never had an answer to (at least in doubles). Here's what you do: If the ball is coming towards you, do a lobbing shot (A, then B) towards the opponent closest to the net. The ball will almost always soar over their head, and you will then watch them and their partner struggle to try to get to the ball. This works so consistently that it makes me wonder if this is here just so less-experienced players could see the end of the campaign easily, or if they really just didn't playtest this enough. Either way, it became a very effective strategy I had no problems employing, even if it was a little sad to watch the game fall apart in my hands because of it.

Thankfully, your partner is nowhere near as bad as the opponents at tennis. In fact, they're pretty competent! They're good at keeping up volleys and are very capable of scoring points on their own. Now, that doesn't mean you should fully rely on them, as they will occasionally miss shots, but they definitely do pull their weight, especially when it comes to how well they use Power Shots.

By completing specific trainings in the training area of the academy, which take the form of small minigames, you'll unlock Power Shots. These come in two flavors: offensive and defensive. Offensive power shots are what you could assume they are: powerful shots that sent the ball flying across the court, stunning any opponent who tries to hit them back. Defensive power shots allow you to safely get to a ball that's out of reach, keeping the volley going to prevent the opponent from scoring. As you get deeper into the game, you'll be relying on these shots very regularly, especially as opponents begin using them on you!

Speaking of opponents and other people, there's no shortage of NPC's in this game, all offering tips and flavor text to make the world feel alive. Some of them have some outlandish things to say, though. At one point, for example, you meet a doctor character who asks you if you need a checkup. If you say no, he says, "You shouldn't take any drugs before a match. People might think you're doping." That line knocked me out, as I was not expecting that from a Nintendo game! There are also some interesting dialogue exchanges that happen after you beat the main tournament, but as simple as this game is, I really don't feel comfortable spoiling what happens. Either look up what happens yourself or play the game to find out!

The campaign itself is super short, with it taking me around 5-6 hours, which included doing some optional content. As you play it you'll unlock more characters to use in free matches, which can be neat but unless you have a friend to play against you'll probably get your fill from the main campaign.

Overall, I didn't hate this game, but it didn't really "wow" me, either. It's okay, not bad by any means. I would honestly recommend it for anyone who wants a decent tennis experience with some twists on the go. Just don't go into this expecting some revolutionary RPG that makes you wish more sports games were brave enough to do this instead of being weird casinos with athletes in them, though you might do that anyway since the state of modern sports games is very odd as of writing this.

Um, check this game out if you want to, I guess?

Now that I own a Steam Deck, I've been seeing this app appear in the recommended section nonstop whenever I boot it up. Decided to give it a whirl and had a fun time!

They do a good job going over what the Steam Deck is capable of in terms of functionality, the graphics do a good job showing off the power of the Deck, the writing is funny, and it's over in around a half hour, giving you just enough of a taste of what the Steam Deck brings to the table to make you excited to use it with the rest of your Steam library. If you own a Steam Deck I don't see any reason to not check it out!

Also this taught me how to take screenshots with the Deck this is such vital information I feel reborn.

Some people get shocked by bugs. Me, I'm just shocked that I liked this game as much as I did.

Deadly Creatures is an action game released for the Wii where you take control of a tarantula and a scorpion in the Mojave Desert off Route 66, using their abilities to survive fierce combat encounters with other bugs and reptiles. While they do this, we follow two human characters, played by Billy Bob Thornton and the late Dennis Hopper, searching the desert for a hidden treasure. Between the thrill of the combat and the twists of the story following the two treasure hunters, Deadly Creatures offers a lot to intrigue players.

Throughout the adventure, you play as both a tarantula and a scorpion, switching between the two with each passing stage. There's 10 stages total, so you get to play as both creatures an equal amount of time, allowing the player to be fully immersed in each creature's unique play style.

The tarantula is agile, being able to jump high in the air to dodge attacks and zip to nearby webs. Combat-wise, the tarantula is all about setups. When you unlock the ability to shoot web at enemies, this becomes your go-to way to retaliate against foes. While they're webbed, you can go in for a quick combo or pounce on them, injecting them with a lethal poison. I feel that you have a lot of creative freedom with how you play the tarantula, and figuring out combat strategies to take advantage of stunned foes is highly satisfying.

The scorpion is slow and bulky, but they are very versatile with their pincers and stinger. They're more combo-focused, punishing enemies with their pincers and ending combos with stinger strikes. Exclusive to the scorpion are finishing moves. When an enemy is weak, you'll get a prompt to begin a finishing quick-time event (I'll be referring to these as QUE's from here on out). By swinging the controllers as the prompts show up, you'll be able to finish off enemies stylishly while also regaining some health. The developers were also merciful enough to give no penalty for failing a QTE outside of having to re-do the finisher. The finishing moves are all really cool, by the way. You'll have some where you slam an enemy into the ground and then dig your pincers into them, or you'll flip them over and shove your stinger down their throat. It's way cooler than it has any right to be.

If I had to pick a favorite playstyle, it would have to be the tarantula. As much as I like the combos and finishers of the scorpion, being able to dance around foes and punish them by webbing them up and following with powerful moves was always a thrill.

Now, you don't have all of these moves from the beginning. You unlock moves by gaining points, which are earned from defeating enemies and completing story objectives. Earn enough points and you automatically unlock more moves to try out in combat. It's very simple and non-intrusive. Outside of that, as you explore stages you'll find grubs, which unlock galleries full of cool concept art, as well as leaf crickets, which will increase your health when you find enough of them.

You encounter a decent variety of enemies in this game, each with their own abilities that they'll use to try to assert their place in the food chain. Outside of regular enemies, boss encounters are scarce, with there only being a small handful of them in the game. You also get to have rival matches between the scorpion and the tarantula, which gets exciting as you play, since after a while you know how they both work, and now have to figure out how you're going to counter their cool moves.

As much as I enjoyed this game, I do have some criticisms to raise. Firstly, the subtitles. In the options menu you can enable subtitles to help you follow along with what the human characters are saying. Sadly, though, these aren't always present. There are a handful of dialogue exchanges that just aren't subtitled, and it's a shame because it makes you feel like you're missing pieces of the story while the sounds of exploration and combat are happening.

My other complaints stem from this game being both a 7th Gen game and being released on the Wii. Firstly, as with many 7th Gen games at the time of this game's release, the framerate is highly inconsistent, dipping very low during many enemy encounters. This can be frustrating, especially as this effects your inputs. Games just feel less responsive when running poorly, and sadly Deadly Creatures suffers because of this. It's not game-breaking, but it is annoying.

Lastly, we need to talk about the motion controls. You're going to be pointing the wiimote at the screen for things like lining up web shots and zipping to other webs as the tarantula, which feels fine. What doesn't feel fine is when you're playing as the scorpion and you need to use motion controls for finishers. Maybe it's because my wiimotes are over 15 years old at this point, but following the prompts to move the wiimote and nunchuk for finishers feels so broken. I'll do the moves and unless I'm waving them wildly in the directions they want, they aren't going to register. It becomes infuriating when you're doing the same moves over and over again and they aren't reading to allow you to finish QTEs. There's also motion controls involved in moves outside QTEs, like combo finishers for the scorpion and follow-up moves for the tarantula. The scorpion also has environment traversal moves that require you to waggle the controllers. It's exhausting after a while, and I feel that it kinda brings down the game slightly.

Overall, I loved this game. I enjoyed following the plot of the treasure hunters, I loved playing as the tarantula and scorpion, and I greatly enjoyed checking out the concept art I unlocked, as well as interviews with Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Hopper where they talk about the game and their interest in bugs and reptiles. However, outside of the arachnophobia that some players may suffer from, there are barriers to the experience, such as the framerate issues and motion control implementation. It's probably a long-shot, but I would really like to see this game get a remaster one day that fixes the issues I had. Being able to use button presses in place of the motion controls, having a stable framerate and having consistent subtitles would absolutely bring this game up immensely.

If you don't have arachnophobia and are cool with virtual bug antics, then I highly recommend this game. You'll be humming Devil Trigger from Devil May Cry 5 while stinging bad bugs where the sun don't shine before you know it.

Well, I got what I expected. Not that that's a bad thing, of course.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong is a remake of the GBA game of the same name. While I'll admit that it's been a long time since I played the original version of this game, I will say that I enjoyed that game a lot. When this remake was announced, it immediately got marked on my calendar. While I didn't buy it day 1, I still got to it eventually, and honestly, I think it does a lot right.

The cutscenes look great and the voice acting (Charles Martinet, surprisingly. Maybe this was recorded before he left?) is fun. I do wish they used the original's script since I liked how chatty Mario was in it. He had some good Popeye energy with the direction in that title that sadly isn't present here.

The graphics look really cute during stages. All the enemies having all sorts of details to show that they're toys was a treat to see. The Mini Marios are pretty expressive, as well. Outside the stages, though, you're met with the same sterilized menus that have become common in Mario titles. I don't know how else to describe it besides too clean, if that makes any sense. It kinda puts me off, and I feel like the menus should have a bit more flair to them that just isn't here. It really gives off this mobile game energy, which makes sense since this is a remake of a portable title, but I just wish there was a bit more life to the menus, ya know?

The game plays pretty well, and pulling off side jumps and handstand jumps is snappy and satisfying. Experienced players will be flipping around all the stages, finding ways to get present boxes in creative ways while speedily clearing stages. I think on average I spent around 20 minutes in each world, including getting the present boxes in each stage. You'll clear this game in no time if you're experienced with games like the original or the Game Boy Donkey Kong title.

In the original, you would need to get a high score on stages in order to earn stars, which would unlock expert stages to test your playing ability. This would involve not only getting all the presents, but also defeating enemies, not dying, and getting through stages quickly to maximize score. Needless to say, it was stressful. Thankfully in this remake, they eased the requirements for stars. Now you only need to get all of the presents in any stage, which is a welcome change.

Despite there being over 100 stages in this game, it's very short. Each stage only takes a few minutes max to clear, with many being beatable in under a minute. A player newer to games like this may have a long journey on their hands, but it only took me a good few hours to beat every stage in the game. This is still a fun game and I don't regret my time playing it, but I think you would be better off waiting for one of Nintendo's fabled sales before snagging this one.

Well, this certainly whelmed me.

Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected is an expansion that tells the story of events that happen a year after the events of the main game. I won't be spoiling specific story events here, but I can definitely say that the story they present here is sadly not too terribly interesting. They try to answer some questions around Melia and the state of the High Entia after the events of the main game, but it really doesn't carry enough weight to make you truly invested in the plot. It also doesn't help that the main antagonist of this story doesn't evoke any real emotion from the player. They're meant to be this intimidating unrelenting force, but after coming off the main game and its strong cast of antagonists, the one they present here just feels so uninteresting and boring that at no point throughout my playthrough did I feel any personal desire to see it eradicated outside of wanting to see the credits roll.

Since this story expansion released a good number of years after the initial Wii release of Xenoblade Chronicles, the voice acting sounds noticeably different. It's very jarring in the beginning, and it doesn't help that they didn't rerecord the mid-battle call outs from the main game, but after a while you get used to it.

Outside of Shulk and Melia, two new nopon characters join your party. Character-wise, they're fine. They're mostly meant to be comic relief, but have their more interesting moments here and there. Gameplay wise, well, one of them is Reyn and the other is Sharla. They have no unique arts to use in combat at all. It's a shame, too, because I feel that an expansion like this would be an excellent opportunity to try to make characters that allow you to employ new strategies not possible in the original, giving it truly its own unique feel. For whatever reason, they played it safe, and I feel like we lost something there as a result.

With this story expansion, they made a ton of changes to the gameplay. I won't be listing them all, of course, but I'll mention the ones that stand out the most to me.

Firstly, gone are the affinity chart and equippable skills. I understand why this was done, as this is a smaller story expansion and the player may not have time to fill out affinities with the party members during the short runtime, but at the same time I feel that a ton of incentive to mix and match party members was lost as a result. I wound up using a party that was Shulk, Melia, and the Reyn nopon for the entire campaign because I had no real reason to try any other combination, and that really upsets me. Of course, I could've switched things up, but without the incentives in place from the main game, or any new ones, I didn't feel any real need or desire to.

With affinity gone, so are Heart-to-Hearts. Thankfully, though, they were replaced with an alternative in the form of Quiet Moments. These take a different form from Heart-to-Hearts, with these being fully voiced cutscenes that display a scene between two party members bonding rather than it being a text-based interaction with dialogue options to choose from. They're cute and do a good job fleshing out the personalities of your party members. As you progress the plot, more become available to you, and I feel that they're always worth hunting down to take a break from the action and enjoy a fun back-and-forth between characters.

The last major change I'll discuss here is the removal of chain attacks. This devastating move was replaced by a new system, entirely based around specific nopon you find and help in the open world. As you assist these nopon, they join your party. They aren't full party members, but they'll join you in battles to occasionally do things like attack, heal, or dish out debuffs. Once you find enough of them, you unlock the ability to use the chain attack replacement, which lets you choose between three special moves: one deals extra damage to an enemy, one heals and buffs the party, and the other dazes and debuffs the enemy. While I prefer the utility of chain attacks, I do think it's neat that they attempted something new here and it did help out during tense battles, so I won't say I hated it.

Also, when I say that these nopon join your party, I don't mean that it's the kind of party-joining where they're invisible when you're running around the area and then a few of them appear during battle occasionally to do things randomly. Oh, no, they went the extra mile here. The nopon that join your party are always visible, following you around the world Map and joining in every battle. You get over 10 of these guys, too, and let me tell you the Switch does not like that at all! With your three party members, all these nopon, and however many enemies decided to try to take you down in one fight, you're gonna see the framerate dip below 20 almost immediately. It also doesn't help that with so many nopon on screen it gets really hard to make out where smaller enemies are, making it awkward to try to get into position for position-based arts. It was a brave move to have that many characters in battle, but I do not think it was worth the hit to performance.

Overall, I don't hate this expansion, but I don't think it's something where I'll say to fans of Xenoblade Chronicles that they need to play it. You can skip this and lose absolutely nothing, story-wise. I feel that there are too many sacrifices made in regards to changes to the mechanics without enough additions to make it truly stand out gameplay wise, as well. At the very least, this is a mercifully short expansion, being around 8-10 hours long depending on how much time you devote to side content. If you're debating on picking up Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition solely for the extra story campaign, I am sad to say that you won't find much here. My personal recommendation is to just stick with the base game and pretend this isn't a part of the edition, unless you care about some small unlocks for the base game that become available when you beat this.

Also at some point my brain called Melia Smellia and I can't stop calling her that now I don't even hate her I like her a lot but it's like an intrusive thought at this point and it won't turn off please help me please help me please hel

Kiwami means Extreme

After beating Yakuza 0 last year, I decided that this year I would continue exploring this series by playing Yakuza Kiwami. I've never experienced the original PlayStation 2 release of this title, so I can't compare it to that at all. While I am curious about that version, I'll have to save that dive for another day.

Playing this game was certainly a treat, for the most part. Experiencing the story of this game often left me excited to see what would happen next. It's very much a crime drama that has tons of twists and turns, so if you like those you'll love this. Even if you aren't too experienced with action games like this, this game is honestly pretty forgiving in terms of difficulty. I played through on the Normal skill level, and I was constantly being showered in health items and was able to make myself pretty strong very quickly, so I feel that anyone can brute force their way through this game if they wanted to. This is definitely an experience that can be had by anyone!

One of the core parts of Yakuza Kiwami's gameplay is the combat. You get four different styles to fight enemies with, each having a unique playstyle. As you play, you'll get used to often switching styles on the fly, which can be done with the push of a button, to take advantage of scenarios that lend themselves to specific styles of fighting. You also gain access to special moves called Heat Actions, which use a meter to allow Kiryu to unleash powerful moves that make quick work of foes. Mastering the styles and learning when to use specific styles in combat is one of the best parts of playing this game. Nothing is more satisfying than building up a ton of heat with one style and then quickly switching to another to use a heat action that knocks out a crowd of foes!

You can unlock new abilities and combos for three of your styles by gaining experience points from fighting enemies, eating food, and completing substories (more on those later). One style, the Dragon style, can only be enhanced in specific scenarios. A majority of these scenarios revolve around a gimmick referred to as Majima Everywhere. Majima is not only a comfort character of mine (seriously seeing him always brings a smile to my face LOOK AT HIM GO THAT'S MY SON) but he is also literally everywhere. He's in alleys, dumpsters, cars, anywhere he can try to sneak up on ya and force you into a fight. By beating him in combat (which gets harder over time) you'll begin to unlock more moves and abilities for this style. You'll have to fight him a lot in order to get all the skills, so try not to go too wild with this if you really want to see the main story unfold. You don't need to worry about this, but it is fun having some tougher fights to keep you on your toes.

Speaking of things that keep players from seeing the story unfold, let's talk about one of the biggest draws of the Yakuza franchise, the side content! Mini games and substories await you, and man is there a TON in this game. Substories are basically side quests, often being very short. These will often reward you with cash, rare items, and experience points. The more of these you do, the easier it'll be to make Kiryu really strong! Plus they're all pretty entertaining and show more of Kiryu's goofy side (Kiryu is also a comfort character of mine I love my stoic strong responsible son who's very good at falling for scams).

Mini games are aplenty here. Karaoke, casinos, and bar games like darts will do a good job of keeping you entertained for a small while. There are two mini games that gained a lot of my attention during my playthrough, however. One is MesuKing, a kid's card game where you collect trading cards that display provocative scenes of barely dressed women wrestling and then use them to battle in Rock-Paper-Scissors matches against children (it's as insane as it sounds). These cards are scattered all across Kamurocho, and the more you find, the more options you'll have when setting up your deck. Despite it being Rock-Paper-Scissors at the end of the day, finding new fighters and moves to use and seeing them in action as you trounce the kid who always picks rock for the twentieth time is very satisfying.

The other mini game that ate more time than it ethically should have was Pocket Circuit! Players of Yakuza 0 will recognize this one. Collect parts for your car and tune it to be just right to get the edge over opponents on the race track. It's surprisingly really deep, and I often spent over an hour fine-tuning my racer to be able to get it to clear a track in first place. It's easily the most interesting of the mini games to play in this game, and I highly recommend any Yakuza Kiwami player to not overlook it!

Fighting and checking out side content also earns you Completion Points, which can be redeemed for items and abilities, like being able to run without getting tired or gaining accessories that allow you to find hard-to-see items. One accessory you can get allows you to see the locations of all currently accessible substories, and this one item brought my playthrough to a major halt. I began exploring everywhere, doing as many as I could because of how beneficial they were. This also caused me to get engrossed in finding every MesuKing card as well as spending way too much time with Pocket Circuit because of course there are substories tied to them WhY wOuLdN't ThErE bE? I got that thing in Chapter 4 and I think I spent over 10 hours of my playthrough in that chapter because of it. Do I regret any of it? Absolutely not. The side content of this game is great fun and absolutely worth seeking out. However, it's important that players don't get too lost in the sauce of the side content so they can see that plot unfold!

If I had to think of any issues I had with this game, it would be with some of the enemies you face towards the end of the game. Towards the very end, you'll begin encountering lots of enemies that use guns, which interrupt your combos and immediately knock you to the ground, requiring you to mash the X button to get back up before another enemy hits you while you're down. It is very possible to enter a situation where one enemy shoots you, you get pummeled by others, and then when you get up another enemy shoots you, repeating the cycle. These are escapable, but they are very annoying. I also began getting annoyed by some of the later game bosses, who really like to dodge out of your moves and begin countering you real fast. I found that the best strategy for these was to use the Rush style and quick step around them constantly to get behind them to punish them, but this quickly became the song and dance for most bosses because of just how many acted like this. I wanted to take advantage of other styles but their dodges didn't move fast enough to allow me to do some serious damage, so I'm a bit sour about that.

Overall, I really enjoyed Yakuza Kiwami. my playthrough lasted 31 hours, but probably would've been a little over 20 if I didn't do so much side content. I enjoyed exploring Kamurocho, playing mini games, fighting Majima, and seeing what the plot had to offer. Needless to say I'm excited to see how this is expanded upon in Yakuza Kiwami 2, and I highly encourage those who want to give this series a shot to play this game!