reasons this is the best zelda game:
- stamp collecting side-quest where you get to do the stamping yourself
- absolutely KILLER soundtrack
- when you go on your little train the soundtrack syncs to the rhythm of your engine
- rabbits :)
- zelda is one of the best companion characters the series has ever had. i love having her by my side
- you can make your train go choo-choo, an experience no other zelda game offers
- the final battle slaps
- i first played it when i was 9

at one point i tried playing snow barrel blast while i had a headache and developed such severe motion sickness that it took me out for a good few hours. then i did the level again the next day, missed one of the barrels immediately, and accidentally fell into the easy route.

great game. 10/10

this game is rated 12+ in the pal region because the american translators made the australian lady say bugger

a solid game. i appreciated the way it smoothed out some elements of the earlier ui (especially movement, which i'd always found tedious before). maybe felt a little too long at points but overall i was satisfied and i really enjoyed that final case. that being said i did sometimes feel like it had too many characters for its own good - klavier and pearl felt like glorified cameos (maybe pearl gets more to do in the dlc case? i didn't play any of that) and trucy was Just Kinda There. hoping that the 6th game juggles all the leads with a bit more effectiveness!

four swords games (which i have no real way of playing) aside....this is my last zelda game. the difficulty with groundbreaking classics is that they're so often built upon by their successors, but the zelda formula is solid enough that i still had plenty of fun. helps that unlike oot it didn't have a direct sequel using the same engine that i can compare it to.

leaning between a 4 and a 4.5 for my rating. it's a great game but it can be a little obtuse at times (a holdover from the nes duo?). also i think this is a result of my formative zeldas being the two ds ones, neither of which have particularly hefty dungeons, but dungeons have never been my favourite part of the zelda experience - i like wandering around the overworld with new weapons, doing sidequests. being such an early zelda this one's fairly sidequest light, and OH BOY is it dungeon heavy. i actually enjoyed most of them once i got into the right mindset to do them, but i'd've maybe liked a bit more downtime between finishing one dungeon and going onto the next.

my aim next time i play it is to use the wii u restore point feature less. i'm sure i'll stick to that all the way up until that giant worm boss that knocks you down a floor.

i am until the day i die a twilight princess long opening tutorial section apologist

totally get why this may not be some people's Thing ace attorney-wise but i really loved it. real talk sometimes even in my fave games of this series there's at least one case that really drags/feels like filler (i think dual destinies really suffered from having TWO cases that i wasn't super invested in, even if i thought the concluding case was strong) whereas that wasn't a problem here! even the non-plot relevant case worked because it 1) didn't outstay its welcome, 2) had some fun characters in the witness box (and from what i've read a surprisingly accurate depiction of did?) 3) gave the focus to characters who otherwise wouldn't have had much in this game. between that and trucy's case i think this did a much better job than dual destinies at juggling an increasingly large cast of characters by simply acknowledging that it COULDN'T give them all equal attention all the time but could spotlight a few for one part. though i understand that maya may be less prominent than people imagined when it was first announced she was coming back (it's a bit hard to gauge this for me 7 years on).

also i think it's fun that you get followed around a bunch by a teenage girl who hates you and insults you at every opportunity!

full disclaimer, i'm not big on sims. there's some that look fun! but i like games that give a sense of finality to them and tbh i actually really struggled in some ways with ending this here even though i wasn't really having fun (and the main reason i logged so many hours is because i'm away from home with limited games lol) because it didn't feel complete. it DOES however feel very repetitive after a while. i don't think it helps that it's a very simplistic text based sim where football matches are just watching a bunch of words scroll past, or that training doesn't actually seem to improve formations, so where's the tactics. it's compelling up to a point, but i played three in-game seasons and i think i've had enough at that point. plus i want to replay spirit tracks now which i'll probably get a lot more enjoyment out of lol.

most of the first eight worlds is piss-easy and i probably wouldn't rate this quite as high if i didn't feel like the special worlds struck a decent balance between legitimate challenge and NOT making me want to tear my hair out - usually when i play and enjoy easy games they have some other aesthetic or gameplay quality that stands out to me. i feel generally though that 2d mario doesn't Hit quite as much for me as dkc.

biggest plot twist in this for me is that luke's father is still alive. i straight up thought he was some orphan boy that professor layton adopted this entire time

it's a great game with a very atmospheric end boss but i'm SO glad that earthbound got rid of the very stupid mechanic where all but one of your party start at level 1

definitely fudged it with restore points way more than i did super mario bros 3 but i also enjoyed it more than super mario bros 3...but i don't think it's JUST a difficulty thing (though i think what i struggle with most about difficult platformers is having to redo stuff i've already succeeded at just because something's pulling me up short later), since i enjoyed the different types of stage way more than similar variations in the earlier game. also this one has yoshi in. great job all round

had a few too many Very Annoying Bosses (and i think the thing that gets to me in metroid games is not having to redo the boss but having to retrace my steps to the boss each time, so that spider thing ages from any save point REALLY got to me) and its opening actually made me appreciate why people complain about handholding in videogames, but all in all as high quality an experience as i've come to expect from metroid!

i can't speak on this as a remake but i had a lot of fun!! i'm not a big fan of stealth sections in games (they stress me out and not in a good way) but they were manageable here. i also really thought i'd get a higher completion rate than 58% but I guess even when i was keeping track of doors and bombable blocks there was a lot i missed! also i think it's really cool that the game just. gives you the original metroid after you complete. i think more remakes should do that when they significantly overhaul the original, and i'll be sure to check it out at some point in the far distant future.

This review contains spoilers

super fun!! there were actually quite a few really frustrating stars (dusty dune galaxy it is On Sight) but i always felt the sense of achievement once i completed them made up for the challenge! haven't played super luigi galaxy yet (i loved this game but probably not enough to play all 120 stars of it AGAIN immediately after completion) but it's definitely on the list. i was also...unexpectedly moved by the entire ending? something about the circle of life and the constant creation of new worlds really got to me i guess