detailed deception of mental illness

cry of fear is a rollercoaster of different emotions . the eerie , kafkaesque world that takes place in Simon's mind mind and the several medication named enemies all hint towards Simon's battle with depression and the affects of it on his mind . with several engines to come to , the game offers suspenseful and genuine scary endings . the exploration is fun , art style is interesting , and the audio queues emphasize the lonely European city we are left to explore . I recommend watching a lore breakdown after beating for clarity .

I still remember the exact moment that this game was revealed, I was ecstatic. Nintendo hadn't forgotten about Mario Strikers after all! They knew what we wanted and were gonna give it to us, and to make things better it was coming out in just a few months! I couldn't have been more clueless. Mario Strikers Battle League is to this day the most disappointing game that I have ever played and has little to no redeeming qualities.

Of all the aspects to dislike about this game that gameplay is the one that I hate the least, granted that means I still hate it quite a lot but it's not as bad as the rest of what makes this game bad. The general gameplay here feels like they completely forgot how to make a Mario Strikers game, because it just straight up doesn't have the balance or fun of those games at all. The captain and sidekick system are completely gone, now there's just a roster of like 16 or so Mario characters to choose from, none of which are all that surprising to see present or different in ways that makes them feel better. What's even stranger about this is that you can break all continuity and just choose four of the same character to fill your team, so if you want four Bowsers or four DKs you can have it, and nobody will say a thing. It's like if in real soccer four Messi's walked onto the field for a game, you'd think that would be bizarre and pretty unfair, but it's done completely straight faced here and it just shows that they really put no thought into this game at all. The way items are handled is really bad here as well, instead of the game giving them out to a team that fills the requirements to earn one in the situation, the game just drops random item blocks on the field from time to time. If the current match is at a neutral state an item block that anyone can grab will drop, if one team is at even a slight disadvantage though the game will drop team specific item blocks that only the disadvantaged team can get and will continue to do so extremely frequently until that team gets its shit together. Another feature done for the worse here is the Hyper Strikes, this game's equivalent of the captain specific special shots from the previous games. In this game you can no longer pop one of these whenever you want, you have to wait for a Strike Orb to appear on the field, grab it and then you'll have around 30 seconds to pull off a Hyper Strike. Pulling off a hyper strike is insanely easy, given that you get to a spot on the field with ample distance between you and your opponents all you have to do is press "A" twice on a meter that determines the shot's accuracy, if you press the button twice while on the smallest blue section your shot will go in no matter what and score you two points instead of one, the problem is that this timing is incredibly easy to hit leading to virtually no challenge when it comes to these other than finding a safe spot to use them. The fact that you can't use them whenever you want though and that any character on the field can use them, rather than just the captain, makes them quite useless in the long run. These kinds of shots were so useful in the other games because they were a risk and reward type scenario to use helpful for tying the game when you got desperately behind or pulling farther ahead, here they just show up to infrequently to strategize around and to be considered any kinds of useful.

Like I've already mentioned, I was extremely hyped for this game before it came out and bought it Day 1, I remember coming home and playing like 2 to 3 hours of the main tournament mode before inevitably getting bored and putting it down, hoping I'd never have to play it again. What's funny is if I had only played a like 2 more hours of the tournament mode I would have seen all that the game has and ever would have to offer in terms of content. Mario Strikers Battle League is easily the most barren and worthless Mario Sports game in terms of content and surprisingly enough it wears that on its sleeve unashamedly. I am not joking when I say that literally all there is to do in this game is the tournament mode, which consists of six tournament cups, each having a four-match bracket within it and that's all. Now there is of course also the online mode that Nintendo was clearly putting all their stock into when making this game but clearly after seeing how bad this game is everyone who bought it as a whole decided to forego the online and move on with their lives and I don't blame them. This is quite honestly one of the lightest games in terms of content that I've ever seen and it's absolutely shameful, then again perhaps I should thank it because if there were more content here I'd be forced to play this game longer.

Finally, we get to the most egregious aspect of Battle League, the presentation. I loved the style of the other two Strikers games and have already gone on in lengths about that in the reviews I've done for them, so you can imagine my distaste when I'm presented with a game that throws all that out the window. Battle League attempts to copy the former games' style visually and musically in some places but completely misses the point of it but toning things down and not allowing the characters to be unhinged like they were in the previous games. Instead of actually charming and funny win/lose animations like we got in the previous game we instead get the most homogenized cutscenes of Mario characters doing typical Mario character things that fit Nintendo's evergreen vision for them rather than one that makes them more fun and interesting because God forbid these characters be interesting. And it's not just the characters either, the stadiums are no longer fun or different instead just being basic stadiums with themed backsplashes that do nothing but change the color of the grass, the UI is abysmal and boring to look at, and the music tries so hard to be crowd-pleasing only to be the most forgettable few notes repeated that I've ever heard. It's because of this game that this series that I loved has lost its soul and Nintendo refuses to let it go and find it again.

I can say in confidence that Mario Strikers Battle League is the both the worst Mario Sports game and just one of the worst games I have ever played in general. It is a spit in the face to the legacy of Mario Sports games and those like me who grew up enjoying them and now that I have finished it, I am glad I will never have to play it again.

I haven't finished Sonic Mania, but I played enough to know that whatever the incredibly talented team that made that did next was something that was going to be worth playing, and Penny's Big Breakaway is exactly that. From the moment this game was revealed in a Nintendo Direct last year, to when it was shadow dropped in a Partner Showcase this year I knew it was something I wanted to play, and now having done so I'm happy to say that it delivers on most fronts.

To start off with the world of this game is so vibrant with colors and a visually appealing artstyle that makes each level a joy to traverse. The level design here is great as well, world themes that would feel basic in other 3D platformers are done with an interesting twist here and it's absolutely refreshing. The main draw to the gameplay though is of course Penny and her expansive moveset, and while I for sure had fun with this aspect it didn't feel like it was made for me. Penny's moveset is off the walls, the number of tricks you can do with your yoyo to complete levels fast and in style is wild and while I would like to say I found this as intuitive and fun as other did, but personally I just never quite got the hang of this and felt like I was doing it wrong throughout the entire game. The only part of the gameplay that I think just didn't add up were the boss battles, they weren't particularly long or difficult, especially not the final boss which kinda just ended things on an anticlimactic note.

In terms of story the game is charming enough but I'd be lying if I said I was fully engaged with it. I liked the little penguin guys and some of the character designs, and the love story between Emperor Eddie and Taboo was cute I guess, but that's about all I remember lol.

Overall, Penny's Big Breakaway is a really fun and imaginative game from Evening Star and I still can't wait to see what they do next.

A really short and sweet puzzle game. The ducks are cute and I felt incentive to save them just to hear the fun things they would each say. The gameplay is unique and doesn't outstay it's welcome. My only complaint is that the game neglects to tell you that you can move your vessel thing faster by pressing "B". I didn't find this a problem for most of the game but at a certain point it became required to beat certain levels and since I didn't know about it I had to look up a guide on how to beat the level, assuming I was just playing sub-optimally, only to be told of this crucial mechanic's existence, so that was fun.

My first introduction to Banjo Kazooie was in the E3 2019 Nintendo Direct when he was revealed for Smash. I had no idea who this character was or what the series was about, I just knew that a LOT of people were happy they made it, and I couldn't understand why. But having finally played the game I now understand the tears of the people that flow from the lack of this series in the modern day, they are now my tears as well.

The gameplay in Banjo Kazooie is simply phenomenal. The titular duo's moveset is extremely varied and gives you everything you need to master the game with. It never really felt like I hit a wall because of it, if there was a puzzle to solve I was always certain that I had what I needed to solve it at my disposal and the game rewarded me for that. On top of that the platforming is pure joy, the perfect mix of challenge and fun. And then there's just the collectathon structure this game employs to an excellent degree. In any other 3D platformer I would feel content just to get the objectives required to beat the game, but because collecting things in Banjo Kazooie is just so damn satisfying I found myself collecting everything. 100% completing this game not only felt really satisfying but it also felt like the intended way to play the game and enhanced the experience ten times more than it would have been if I just did the bare minimum required.

The other main thing I want to talk about here is the game's presentation. Despite being an N64 game I feel like Banjo Kazooie has held up incredibly well. The game's visual style, world, tone, and sound design are all just so damn charming. There's so much to love here, from all the charming characters and the funny dialogue between them, to the oddly kinda edgy sense of humor the game has (at least for an E rated game) like when they said Gruntilda does a striptease or when Kazooie heavily implied she was gonna shove a key up someone's ass, just jokes that I laughed a lot at because I had no idea how they got away with them. The worlds here are very unique and interesting as well. There are of course some stinkers (looking at you Bubblegloop Swamp) but for the most parts these environments are just interesting and fun in concept and a blast to actually explore yourself. They take basic level themes and add the game's charm to them to make some truly great levels that are some of the best I've ever played in a platformer.

Overall, Banjo Kazooie is a classic game that's well loved for a reason. The game's charm, pristine level design, and incredibly fun gameplay cycle kept me engaged and addicted the whole way through and turned me into a fan of this character and this series that I priorly couldn't care less about.

I have heard a ton of great things about the Ori games and since I needed a short game to fill some time in my backlog schedule and was recommended this one, I thought I'd give it a go. It's clear to me now that that was a mistake. While Ori and the Blind Forest was a short experience it was a very miserable and frustrating one.

Lets start out with the good, the game is drop-dead gorgeous to look at. The artstyle and world just look stunning, even with the blurrier graphics of the Switch the game just looks great. The music is also very good and matches the tone of the beautiful environments it plays in. And to give the gameplay a slight compliment, the basic metroidvania elements of getting new powers and exploring the interconnected world were fun and I never once got lost which is a huge plus for me here. And the story, though a bit lacking, is pretty sweet and has good themes.

Despite all these positives, Ori and the Blind Forest falters with its moment-to-moment gameplay and makes for an incredibly irritating experience rather than a fun one. A lot of the game's problems come from how Ori controls. Ori is incredibly light on her (at least I think it's a her) feet and moves around the world in a really loose and fluid way, the problem is the world is clearly not designed around this control style and it leads to much frustration. The game asks for precision in its platforming and that simply not something that's very easy to do with a character that's so floaty, at times it felt like I was playing Super Meat Boy only that I can tell that that's not what the developers intended it to feel like. On top of that the combat is just incredibly awful here. Because Ori is so light and fragile she can't really take a lot of hits from anything before dying, and unfortunately the enemies in this game are really good at hitting you. This wouldn't be a problem of course if you had substantial means to defend yourself, but of course, you don't. What you get is a little orb that can shoot out three light projectiles before having to take a second to recharge, meaning combat boils down to using these attacks and then dodging the attacks the enemies throw at you but since you control so lightly and there's no shield or dodge button you kinda just have to try and jump away from their attacks which I found most of the time just led to jumping straight into them instead. Now clearly combat is not supposed to be a focus here, as proven by a lack of boss fights or enemy gauntlets but at that point I just have to wonder, why make the game a metroidvania at all? Why not just refine the platforming elements (they clearly need it) and make a pretty good platformer? Was it really part of the developers' vision to make a metroidvania that has unfair and unsatisfying combat, or were they just doing it because its what all the cool games were doing? Anyways moving onto my final gripe with the gameplay, the save system is a mess. Instead of just having a button on the menu or a certain room to go to in order to save progress, Ori's way of saving progress comes from an in game ability that has it's whole meter and everything. By holding a button and using one point from the refillable energy meter, you're allowed to save your spot on any flat surface in the game (as long as it's stable and there's no enemies within eyesight that is) and if you die you will respawn back to this point. Because the game provides you with the materials to refill this energy meter often it becomes a main part of the gameplay, this allows you to save your spot before a particularly tricky set of enemy placements or platforming section to make the best of this, which in my eyes kinda confirms that they knew that both of these main aspects were not great and instead of fixing them they gave the player the equivalent of a save state button to try and remedy it. All these things add up to make a game that is truly frustrating to play and makes me forget about all the good aspects it has while I'm playing it.

I wanted to really like this game, its beautiful artstyle, spectacular music, and touching story cannot be understated, unfortunately though the same goes for its unproportionate and unfun gameplay. The problem with Ori and the Blind Forest is that I can tell there was passion behind it, it just wasn't placed into the right areas unfortunately.