copyleft
2017
It's a cute little game, I guess.
The main thing I kept desiring with this game was more freedom. The game is super linear, which really stinks in a beautiful game filled with lush nature like this. I couldn't really explore and go out of bounds, I couldn't hop over all these fences. I wish I could take in the world more.
It's wrong to hate too much, cause the credits says this is an Unreal Challenge game or something, so it likely had a very short development cycle. Whether that was a week or months I don't know. But I know the ability to wander this world would have been greatly improved with less invisible walls and a bit more collision (I thought it was weird that the crystals in the last stage completely lacked collision).
Also the butterfly kept annoying me. I can figure out where to go!!!!!! Quit yelling at me!!!!!!!!
Regardless, it's a cute little scenic game, it's still enjoyable.
The main thing I kept desiring with this game was more freedom. The game is super linear, which really stinks in a beautiful game filled with lush nature like this. I couldn't really explore and go out of bounds, I couldn't hop over all these fences. I wish I could take in the world more.
It's wrong to hate too much, cause the credits says this is an Unreal Challenge game or something, so it likely had a very short development cycle. Whether that was a week or months I don't know. But I know the ability to wander this world would have been greatly improved with less invisible walls and a bit more collision (I thought it was weird that the crystals in the last stage completely lacked collision).
Also the butterfly kept annoying me. I can figure out where to go!!!!!! Quit yelling at me!!!!!!!!
Regardless, it's a cute little scenic game, it's still enjoyable.
2023
This is, so far, the worst game I've ever played.
The performance is so bad I had to install an external program to increase my PC's fan speed. The drone mechanic is slow and annoying. The game as a whole isn't well designed, the part where you have to find all the objects (can't be bothered to remember what they are) is annoying, the chase sequence is unintuitive since there's an invisible wall where you think you would exit, you have to turn off the alarm that looks like a decoration. You don't even SEE BANBAN IN THIS GAME. It's not even "so bad it's funny," it just sucks. I'll still laugh at banban memes though.
The performance is so bad I had to install an external program to increase my PC's fan speed. The drone mechanic is slow and annoying. The game as a whole isn't well designed, the part where you have to find all the objects (can't be bothered to remember what they are) is annoying, the chase sequence is unintuitive since there's an invisible wall where you think you would exit, you have to turn off the alarm that looks like a decoration. You don't even SEE BANBAN IN THIS GAME. It's not even "so bad it's funny," it just sucks. I'll still laugh at banban memes though.
2010
Short but very sweet platformer with a unique concept in a badass C64 style!
The hub area of this game is great fun to explore, the music is very enjoyable, the game has solid replayability and several challenge modes, and the level design of this game is just very solid! Some games, by the nature, can only be so good, and I feel like this game pretty much hit its own ceiling. I enjoyed this game!
The hub area of this game is great fun to explore, the music is very enjoyable, the game has solid replayability and several challenge modes, and the level design of this game is just very solid! Some games, by the nature, can only be so good, and I feel like this game pretty much hit its own ceiling. I enjoyed this game!
1990
Oh hell yes. Few brave souls would ever dare to make a sequel to Tetris, known by many in the community as the Mafia Godfather of Gaming. But one man, Alexey Pajitnov, decided to try and strike it big, and created Hatris.
In this thriller epic, you must constantly stack hats until you die. If you get enough hats of the same kind on top of each other, they'll be removed from play. The hats come in many lengths. If you put a different hat on top of a cowboy hat, you're probably fine. But if you put one on top of a top hat? Ohoho. Foolish error.
There's also two conniving brothers whose help you can call for occasionally if you find yourself in a pickle.
Also I didn't know this wasn't originally a NES game. Maybe I'll play the PC-98 version someday.
In this thriller epic, you must constantly stack hats until you die. If you get enough hats of the same kind on top of each other, they'll be removed from play. The hats come in many lengths. If you put a different hat on top of a cowboy hat, you're probably fine. But if you put one on top of a top hat? Ohoho. Foolish error.
There's also two conniving brothers whose help you can call for occasionally if you find yourself in a pickle.
Also I didn't know this wasn't originally a NES game. Maybe I'll play the PC-98 version someday.
1996
why is this considered a seperate game from pokemon blue
anyway
It's the original Pokemon game! Going into this, I expected this to blow me away with how much it pioneered considering that almost every single mainline Pokemon game takes a LOT of inspiration from the first game (3 fire-water-grass starters, start in small town, 8 type-specialist gym leaders, the back-to-back elite 4 (also type specialists) and champion, tall grass with random encounters, the whole rival thing, and the evil team on the side are the tropes that first come to mind). And this game does, in fact, do all of that, but I don't think it's the greatest game in the series, as some may have you believe.
This game, naturally, struggles with a lot of the problems Pokemon games naturally face; namely, it's slow. You will rarely see people play this game on emulator without abusing the speedup function. It's a game where you have to come in with a calm mind and not be in a rush. The game takes its time, from the long transition into battles and trainer encounters to the lack of fast movement until the latter half of the game, to the slow healing at the Pokemon Center. I'd say the game is paced decently enough that I was able to go through it my first time playing without minding too much, but I find that trying to play it again after the fact is brutal. You really come to realize how much the game likes to take its time. It's not necessarily a bad virtue to have, but if you're trying to get through the game linearly, it'll be a bit painful. If you're the type to go in all the different buildings and talk to many NPCs, you won't be bothered as much, especially since many NPCs in this game have straight up funny dialogue, like the guy talking about the first moon landing on July 20, 1969.
Generally, as Pokemon so often goes, this is a "make your own fun" kind of game. You ever see those challenge Youtubers who constantly use speedup and infinite rare candies and skip anything that isn't a required battle? They, too, are having fun. For me, it's completing the Pokedex. And for many, the biggest "make your own fun" is getting other team members. Yes, you can pick one Pokemon and run through the entire game with it, but the game becomes much more fun catching the little guys you like and trying to make them work on the battlefield, slowly leveling them up from trainers and Pokemon too strong for them. I used a Beedrill going through this game because a friend told me to, and I figured it'd just be deadweight, but to my surprise, it actually performed very well once it got Twineedle! It's memories like that that define Pokemon. The unexpected clutches, the shocking encounters, the unfortunate deaths, all occuring in the hundred ways you can approach this game.
You really have got to respect this game considering the console and time it came out. Was it the greatest RPG? No, acclaimed greats like Chrono Trigger had already come out. But was it awesome having an RPG with critters you can catch and play anytime? Hell yeah. And honestly, it's a miracle how much fit on this game cartridge. Compare this to the Game Boy's launch titles of Tetris and Super Mario Land and you'll see an absolute world of difference. The game is somehow held together and is coherent, but is, of course, very, very well known for being buggy. BUT! The bugginess of this game is extremely overhyped. You won't encounter any Missingnos unless you really go out of your way. There are a lot of battle inconsistencies, but they seldom make the game feel unfun, and are often enjoyable. I like seeing the strange battle quirks of this game! There are some annoying ones though, namely the really unintuitive nature of how balls work (seriously look it up, some bizarre programming at work there). And balance-wise, of course this game is unbalanced, it's gen 1. Bug types and poison types are way worse than Normal and Psychic types because that's just how things are here. If you're just playing through the game, the unbalanced type chart won't bother you too much, it's more of a competitive thing, anyway.
Outside of programming mishaps, this game has some bad design choices, too. Version exclusivity and trade evolutions suck and are fun for nobody. Imagine a society where you can fill out your regional pokedex on one game cartridge... magnificent. The first gym leader is a big troll, because for two of the three starters, it's a piece of cake, but for poor Charmander, he's heavily at a disadvantage. It's not unwinnable - far from it, but if you're new to the game and using Charmander, the Brock fight will absolutely stomp you. Additionally, many of the Pokemon you can catch after Brock are weak or very shaky against Misty. Why is Koga the 5th gym leader and Sabrina the 6th when almost every player will find themselves against Sabrina first. Big one here: why do so many enemy teams in this game have absolute dookie garbage movesets. It sometimes feels like some of the early game bosses, like Brock with Onix's Bide, Misty and Starmie's Bubblebeam, and Surge's Raichu wtih Thunderbolt, are way more threatening in their arsenal than later bosses, whose signature Pokemon may not even have STAB or barely any good moves.
As an RPG, this game isn't winning any awards, but as a monster catching game with a world with pretty nice writing, this game definitely had a reason for being such a cultural phenomenon in the 90s. That said, it doesn't hold up super well, you can tell it's aged. If you want to play through Kanto again, please just play FireRed / LeafGreen, they're excellent remakes (unless you plan on using a Golbat or Chansey). Regardless, I enjoyed my time with this one!
anyway
It's the original Pokemon game! Going into this, I expected this to blow me away with how much it pioneered considering that almost every single mainline Pokemon game takes a LOT of inspiration from the first game (3 fire-water-grass starters, start in small town, 8 type-specialist gym leaders, the back-to-back elite 4 (also type specialists) and champion, tall grass with random encounters, the whole rival thing, and the evil team on the side are the tropes that first come to mind). And this game does, in fact, do all of that, but I don't think it's the greatest game in the series, as some may have you believe.
This game, naturally, struggles with a lot of the problems Pokemon games naturally face; namely, it's slow. You will rarely see people play this game on emulator without abusing the speedup function. It's a game where you have to come in with a calm mind and not be in a rush. The game takes its time, from the long transition into battles and trainer encounters to the lack of fast movement until the latter half of the game, to the slow healing at the Pokemon Center. I'd say the game is paced decently enough that I was able to go through it my first time playing without minding too much, but I find that trying to play it again after the fact is brutal. You really come to realize how much the game likes to take its time. It's not necessarily a bad virtue to have, but if you're trying to get through the game linearly, it'll be a bit painful. If you're the type to go in all the different buildings and talk to many NPCs, you won't be bothered as much, especially since many NPCs in this game have straight up funny dialogue, like the guy talking about the first moon landing on July 20, 1969.
Generally, as Pokemon so often goes, this is a "make your own fun" kind of game. You ever see those challenge Youtubers who constantly use speedup and infinite rare candies and skip anything that isn't a required battle? They, too, are having fun. For me, it's completing the Pokedex. And for many, the biggest "make your own fun" is getting other team members. Yes, you can pick one Pokemon and run through the entire game with it, but the game becomes much more fun catching the little guys you like and trying to make them work on the battlefield, slowly leveling them up from trainers and Pokemon too strong for them. I used a Beedrill going through this game because a friend told me to, and I figured it'd just be deadweight, but to my surprise, it actually performed very well once it got Twineedle! It's memories like that that define Pokemon. The unexpected clutches, the shocking encounters, the unfortunate deaths, all occuring in the hundred ways you can approach this game.
You really have got to respect this game considering the console and time it came out. Was it the greatest RPG? No, acclaimed greats like Chrono Trigger had already come out. But was it awesome having an RPG with critters you can catch and play anytime? Hell yeah. And honestly, it's a miracle how much fit on this game cartridge. Compare this to the Game Boy's launch titles of Tetris and Super Mario Land and you'll see an absolute world of difference. The game is somehow held together and is coherent, but is, of course, very, very well known for being buggy. BUT! The bugginess of this game is extremely overhyped. You won't encounter any Missingnos unless you really go out of your way. There are a lot of battle inconsistencies, but they seldom make the game feel unfun, and are often enjoyable. I like seeing the strange battle quirks of this game! There are some annoying ones though, namely the really unintuitive nature of how balls work (seriously look it up, some bizarre programming at work there). And balance-wise, of course this game is unbalanced, it's gen 1. Bug types and poison types are way worse than Normal and Psychic types because that's just how things are here. If you're just playing through the game, the unbalanced type chart won't bother you too much, it's more of a competitive thing, anyway.
Outside of programming mishaps, this game has some bad design choices, too. Version exclusivity and trade evolutions suck and are fun for nobody. Imagine a society where you can fill out your regional pokedex on one game cartridge... magnificent. The first gym leader is a big troll, because for two of the three starters, it's a piece of cake, but for poor Charmander, he's heavily at a disadvantage. It's not unwinnable - far from it, but if you're new to the game and using Charmander, the Brock fight will absolutely stomp you. Additionally, many of the Pokemon you can catch after Brock are weak or very shaky against Misty. Why is Koga the 5th gym leader and Sabrina the 6th when almost every player will find themselves against Sabrina first. Big one here: why do so many enemy teams in this game have absolute dookie garbage movesets. It sometimes feels like some of the early game bosses, like Brock with Onix's Bide, Misty and Starmie's Bubblebeam, and Surge's Raichu wtih Thunderbolt, are way more threatening in their arsenal than later bosses, whose signature Pokemon may not even have STAB or barely any good moves.
As an RPG, this game isn't winning any awards, but as a monster catching game with a world with pretty nice writing, this game definitely had a reason for being such a cultural phenomenon in the 90s. That said, it doesn't hold up super well, you can tell it's aged. If you want to play through Kanto again, please just play FireRed / LeafGreen, they're excellent remakes (unless you plan on using a Golbat or Chansey). Regardless, I enjoyed my time with this one!
2002
Pokemon, due to its popularity and missed potential in many of its games, is often debated among gamers as to what the ideal Pokemon game would be. After playing this, I think these Hoenn games are pretty close to the ideal.
Let me clear this up quickly: third versions of Pokemon games have a status as being the definitive version of a set of games, and there is no reason to play any that came before it. While it is true that Emerald added some extra content, 90% of the game is just the same. If you play Ruby or Sapphire, you aren't missing THAT much from Emerald. Emerald has some solid additions, like the Ferry actually being a place you can explore, being able to get both fossils, and being able to cleanly go in a straight line from Verdanturf to Route 118, making breeding easier, and the Battle Frontier (namely, the Battle Factory, my beloved). However, Emerald is actually worse in a couple regards - namely being the PokeNav constantly going off from phone calls from random trainers, Ditto being accessible making breeding for the Pokedex more lame, and, for some reason, being able to catch a Level 70 boxart legendary before the Elite 4.
Onto the game, I've gotta say - WOW! The GBA games are the ones I tend to see the most nostalgia for these days (maybe it's just a generational thing?), and I've got no question as to why. One of the game's biggest strengths is its map - incredibly interconnected, loading zones take almost no time at all, and are super lovely to go through. This game truly feels like it takes advantage of its hardware and graphics - compare this to Gen 1 with its very basic map and routes containing nothing but trainers, this game has SCENERY! Beautiful waterfalls, carved out paths, reflections in the water, hidden crevasses, bike ramps, secret bases - not to mention the sheer variety of places you can go! What really sells me on the game is that you really don't have to explore all that much to progress, and being able to go to all these cool places on my own without being forced to makes this game feel genuinely open world in a way I've only seen Super Mario World match in how despite how small the world really is, objectively speaking, the amount of stuff everywhere, all the secrets, and how many random offshoots go to who-knows-where make this game absolutely exceptional. I mean come on, there's a desert, a cave with a high and low tide mechanic with a frozen over section, there's a ton of little diving spots that lead to new spots in the ocean you couldn't go otherwise, the entire Sky Pillar and Regi caves are barely alluded to, leading the player to have to find them on their own and be absolutely bewildered when they do. Gen 1 absolutely THRIVED off of playground rumors, so building the game like this absolutely plays to its strengths in a deceivingly massive world.
One thing that kills me is that people play these games with the speedup button practically held down, and it significantly dampens the experience in my eyes. It's a slow game, yes, but sit down, have a little patience. If you want to get a quick fill of battles, go play Emerald Rogue or Showdown or something. Speeding up so often in this game dulls you to the world, to battles, it numbs your experience a lot.
Really, I can't stress enough how much I love the map in this game. Had I been a young boy, I would likely have gone around the map so many times just to see if there was something I missed - which honestly, there's so much stuff that there probably ARE things I missed on this playthrough. Furthermore, the Pokemon in the region are also excellently selected. Pokedexes have to pick a ratio between old and new, and Hoenn's absolutely nails it on that end. Not just in ratio, but also how they're distributed - at the beginning of the game, it's almost exclusively new stuff, with the rare older Pokemon around as a familiar, relieving sight.
Playing this time around, I used a bunch of unorthodox Pokemon I normally would never use. My final team was Blaziken, Ninjask, Tentacruel, Minun, Claydol, and Glalie. While they had struggles in the beginning, all of them eventually grew into their own niche, and all performed super well. Ninjask struggles against singular Pokemon, but against whole teams, it'll Swords Dance up and wreck them. Minun's stats aren't very good, but in exchange, it learns a bunch of VERY useful status moves, like Thunder Wave, Charm, Encore, and Baton Pass. Glalie, despite being such a late catch, actually pulled its weight VERY well, especially into the Elite 4. Of course, having tons and tons of team members, all of which can work well and the player can feel a bond towards, is a strength of any mainline Pokemon game, but still, worth mentioning.
The game is fairly solid in terms of difficulty. It isn't as hard as Emerald's gym leaders are, but the game definitely can throw some punches, especially Norman's gym. They gave him two Slakings, which was fucked up. Barely won. The game does struggle with finding a good spot for levels later on, as my team was very often underleveled, but I guess that's the cost of using a full team of 6, huh? I just don't like grinding is all.
Unlike Emerald, you actually get into a fight with the cover legendary in this game, which came as an absolute shock to me. It ended up being pretty epic, all things considered. I had to weigh my choices between taking the easy way out and killing it, or struggling, struggling, and struggling to catch it. You have a lot of pressure, too, since you only have that one chance. Sadly, this coolness is significantly reduced by the fact that you have the Master Ball at this point, removing any tension at all. How lame!
Most of my gripes with the game come in the very end, which felt weirdly rushed. "Rushed" isn't usually a term you see associated with Pokemon games (aside from the infamous performance issues of Scarlet/Violet), but it's weirdly fitting here. The Wally battle is super random and out of nowhere, and even stranger is the way he just stays there afterwards and you can fight him again sometimes? You enter Ever Grande City, which isn't even a city. It would have been cool to have a lovely place reserved for only the strongest trainers, retired champions and the like, with its own mart and houses and everything, but whatever. The Elite 4's teams are just... odd. Phoebe and Glacia using only 3 and 2 lines of Pokemon families, respectively, comes off as really strange. Two glalies, two Sealeos and a Walrein. Drake also only has three lines of Pokemon, although Emerald fixes it by replacing one of his Flygons with a Kingdra. Steven being the Champion is just kinda... alright, I guess? You only saw him a couple of times in the game (the Double Battle with him in the Mossdeep Space Center is only in Emerald). And when I beat him, May came in (???? these are supposed to be one-on-one matches, how did she even get in? The door always locks behind you in every room) along with Professor Birch, who told me to use Rock Smash to find Pokemon and then I got taken to the Hall of Fame. The whole ending part of this game after the 8th gym leader really does just feel unfinished, in all honesty. This is made worse by the fact that they don't have rematch teams! And you can't rematch Gym Leaders in this one! So grinding levels on Pokemon for Pokedex purposes takes a LOT longer in this game than it should in others. I beat the Elite Four for the first time in 39 hours, but I didn't complete the Dex until 62 hours in - most of which was spent just going to the Elite Four over and over! If you plan on also catching the whole dex, please, watch a show or movie in the meantime.
One other things I'll mention is this game has a lot of strange details that are easy to miss, like the TV channels showing things like the Game Corner's service day, the Energy Guru, and swarms. There's the VERY complicated Pokeblock mechanic as well. Contests are neat, but are hard to get into and aren't super rewarding. Secret Bases are badass, but in my adult age, aren't something I'll spend a lot of time doing. This game is absolutely chock full of things to do, but not all of those things are very interesting is what I'm trying to say.
This game left me wanting more. Like, why does this game not have cool quality of life things like showing you what's about to come in when you play on Switch and you hit A too fast and go straight to the Pokemon menu? Why does it not offer me to use another Repel after I run out? Why can't I go hunting for Pokemon with May?! That's not something I'd hold against it, though. It just means what I played was really good.
That's most of what I can say. Definitely a really really solid game, even if it is very slow and uninteresting at times. What's here is a genuinely great game. I haven't played most of the mainline Pokemon series, but I'd wager these are some of the best games out of them all.
Let me clear this up quickly: third versions of Pokemon games have a status as being the definitive version of a set of games, and there is no reason to play any that came before it. While it is true that Emerald added some extra content, 90% of the game is just the same. If you play Ruby or Sapphire, you aren't missing THAT much from Emerald. Emerald has some solid additions, like the Ferry actually being a place you can explore, being able to get both fossils, and being able to cleanly go in a straight line from Verdanturf to Route 118, making breeding easier, and the Battle Frontier (namely, the Battle Factory, my beloved). However, Emerald is actually worse in a couple regards - namely being the PokeNav constantly going off from phone calls from random trainers, Ditto being accessible making breeding for the Pokedex more lame, and, for some reason, being able to catch a Level 70 boxart legendary before the Elite 4.
Onto the game, I've gotta say - WOW! The GBA games are the ones I tend to see the most nostalgia for these days (maybe it's just a generational thing?), and I've got no question as to why. One of the game's biggest strengths is its map - incredibly interconnected, loading zones take almost no time at all, and are super lovely to go through. This game truly feels like it takes advantage of its hardware and graphics - compare this to Gen 1 with its very basic map and routes containing nothing but trainers, this game has SCENERY! Beautiful waterfalls, carved out paths, reflections in the water, hidden crevasses, bike ramps, secret bases - not to mention the sheer variety of places you can go! What really sells me on the game is that you really don't have to explore all that much to progress, and being able to go to all these cool places on my own without being forced to makes this game feel genuinely open world in a way I've only seen Super Mario World match in how despite how small the world really is, objectively speaking, the amount of stuff everywhere, all the secrets, and how many random offshoots go to who-knows-where make this game absolutely exceptional. I mean come on, there's a desert, a cave with a high and low tide mechanic with a frozen over section, there's a ton of little diving spots that lead to new spots in the ocean you couldn't go otherwise, the entire Sky Pillar and Regi caves are barely alluded to, leading the player to have to find them on their own and be absolutely bewildered when they do. Gen 1 absolutely THRIVED off of playground rumors, so building the game like this absolutely plays to its strengths in a deceivingly massive world.
One thing that kills me is that people play these games with the speedup button practically held down, and it significantly dampens the experience in my eyes. It's a slow game, yes, but sit down, have a little patience. If you want to get a quick fill of battles, go play Emerald Rogue or Showdown or something. Speeding up so often in this game dulls you to the world, to battles, it numbs your experience a lot.
Really, I can't stress enough how much I love the map in this game. Had I been a young boy, I would likely have gone around the map so many times just to see if there was something I missed - which honestly, there's so much stuff that there probably ARE things I missed on this playthrough. Furthermore, the Pokemon in the region are also excellently selected. Pokedexes have to pick a ratio between old and new, and Hoenn's absolutely nails it on that end. Not just in ratio, but also how they're distributed - at the beginning of the game, it's almost exclusively new stuff, with the rare older Pokemon around as a familiar, relieving sight.
Playing this time around, I used a bunch of unorthodox Pokemon I normally would never use. My final team was Blaziken, Ninjask, Tentacruel, Minun, Claydol, and Glalie. While they had struggles in the beginning, all of them eventually grew into their own niche, and all performed super well. Ninjask struggles against singular Pokemon, but against whole teams, it'll Swords Dance up and wreck them. Minun's stats aren't very good, but in exchange, it learns a bunch of VERY useful status moves, like Thunder Wave, Charm, Encore, and Baton Pass. Glalie, despite being such a late catch, actually pulled its weight VERY well, especially into the Elite 4. Of course, having tons and tons of team members, all of which can work well and the player can feel a bond towards, is a strength of any mainline Pokemon game, but still, worth mentioning.
The game is fairly solid in terms of difficulty. It isn't as hard as Emerald's gym leaders are, but the game definitely can throw some punches, especially Norman's gym. They gave him two Slakings, which was fucked up. Barely won. The game does struggle with finding a good spot for levels later on, as my team was very often underleveled, but I guess that's the cost of using a full team of 6, huh? I just don't like grinding is all.
Unlike Emerald, you actually get into a fight with the cover legendary in this game, which came as an absolute shock to me. It ended up being pretty epic, all things considered. I had to weigh my choices between taking the easy way out and killing it, or struggling, struggling, and struggling to catch it. You have a lot of pressure, too, since you only have that one chance. Sadly, this coolness is significantly reduced by the fact that you have the Master Ball at this point, removing any tension at all. How lame!
Most of my gripes with the game come in the very end, which felt weirdly rushed. "Rushed" isn't usually a term you see associated with Pokemon games (aside from the infamous performance issues of Scarlet/Violet), but it's weirdly fitting here. The Wally battle is super random and out of nowhere, and even stranger is the way he just stays there afterwards and you can fight him again sometimes? You enter Ever Grande City, which isn't even a city. It would have been cool to have a lovely place reserved for only the strongest trainers, retired champions and the like, with its own mart and houses and everything, but whatever. The Elite 4's teams are just... odd. Phoebe and Glacia using only 3 and 2 lines of Pokemon families, respectively, comes off as really strange. Two glalies, two Sealeos and a Walrein. Drake also only has three lines of Pokemon, although Emerald fixes it by replacing one of his Flygons with a Kingdra. Steven being the Champion is just kinda... alright, I guess? You only saw him a couple of times in the game (the Double Battle with him in the Mossdeep Space Center is only in Emerald). And when I beat him, May came in (???? these are supposed to be one-on-one matches, how did she even get in? The door always locks behind you in every room) along with Professor Birch, who told me to use Rock Smash to find Pokemon and then I got taken to the Hall of Fame. The whole ending part of this game after the 8th gym leader really does just feel unfinished, in all honesty. This is made worse by the fact that they don't have rematch teams! And you can't rematch Gym Leaders in this one! So grinding levels on Pokemon for Pokedex purposes takes a LOT longer in this game than it should in others. I beat the Elite Four for the first time in 39 hours, but I didn't complete the Dex until 62 hours in - most of which was spent just going to the Elite Four over and over! If you plan on also catching the whole dex, please, watch a show or movie in the meantime.
One other things I'll mention is this game has a lot of strange details that are easy to miss, like the TV channels showing things like the Game Corner's service day, the Energy Guru, and swarms. There's the VERY complicated Pokeblock mechanic as well. Contests are neat, but are hard to get into and aren't super rewarding. Secret Bases are badass, but in my adult age, aren't something I'll spend a lot of time doing. This game is absolutely chock full of things to do, but not all of those things are very interesting is what I'm trying to say.
This game left me wanting more. Like, why does this game not have cool quality of life things like showing you what's about to come in when you play on Switch and you hit A too fast and go straight to the Pokemon menu? Why does it not offer me to use another Repel after I run out? Why can't I go hunting for Pokemon with May?! That's not something I'd hold against it, though. It just means what I played was really good.
That's most of what I can say. Definitely a really really solid game, even if it is very slow and uninteresting at times. What's here is a genuinely great game. I haven't played most of the mainline Pokemon series, but I'd wager these are some of the best games out of them all.
2019
This game has ascended past the status of "Touhou Fangame" by a mile and stands proudly as a fantastic Metroidvania, regardless of how well you know the series.
The pixel art in this game is just beautiful. It doesn't pop out at you, desperately wanting you to look all over it, but instead sits calmly in the background. When you actually stop to look at it, you realize just how nice it looks, how detailed it is and how it's so seamless that you forget the game is done using pixel art at all.
The enemies in this game are also incredibly memorable in both design and animation - the animation especially, everything flows so nicely. Even the enemies that are basic conceptually, like the Will-O-Wisps and Skeletons are given a great amount of character just through their behavior and attacks. A great amount of them are parts of Japanese folklore, while still giving respect to the Touhou side of things - namely in the many kinds of fairy enemies. Fittingly for the Scarlet Devil Mansion, it also has a few enemies of western origin, like Frankenstein, and the White Rabbit!
The game controls incredibly nicely. The player is given an exceptionally powerful kit consisting of skills, snail time, timestop, and graze, but they will often not know how to fully utilize until towards the end of the game. This is one of my favorite schools of design in gaming - giving the player full reign of the character's abilities and letting them figure it out over time. The graze mechanic from the Touhou shmups is integrated beautifully in particular here as a way of gaining energy back and being greatly rewarding while keeping the risk of the move in play. Sakuya (the character you play as)'s basic attack feels good to throw out, stalling in the air with diagonal knifes is super cool, and every skill card in the game has its own unique use. On this last playthrough I did over the course of maybe a week, in which I 100%'d the game on 1 HP mode, I found myself having multiple genuine uses of each skill card in the game... except Stun Knife. I have no idea what Stun Knife is actually useful for.
The bosses of this game attack in a fixed pattern, yet keep you very much on your toes, giving the player the satisfaction akin to climbing a mountain after beating them, like a Dark Souls boss. Each one is very different from each other and usually require you to think outside of your usual habits in order to beat. One of the bosses, Marisa, possesses one of this game's very few glaring flaws - her Master Spark attack is really poorly designed. It deals a ton of damage and it seems like there's no way to dodge it. I now know how to dodge, but I don't even understand why it works (some weird graze mechanic). Outside of that, fighting each one is a blast. My favorite is the final boss, which is very, very long, and you end up learning much more about how to graze and gain back energy along the way. It's really tough, but not enough to feel impossible, but it is enough to really make you grow from it.
The flaws I have with this game are very few. One is Marisa's Master Spark, as stated. Another is the fact that the last boss of the Extra Stage is a ridiculously huge difficulty spike compared to the rest of the game. It kinda makes sense, considering how Extra Stages in the actual games are, but it doesn't change the fact that it kicked my ass so badly I got demoralized and stopped playing for a while. Even now, doing it on 1 HP mode with all my game knowledge over time, the fight took me a full day to complete.
The game's most noticeable issue is its writing. The English translation here is really, really weak. Full of errors and awkward phrasing (and a couple of times going outside the textbox), it's immediately noticeable with the sign at the beginning that says "Attack with [Attack Button]." The story in this game is basic, but the bad writing definitely doesn't help things. Furthermore, as stated, this game has ascended past the status of Touhou fangame, meaning many people who know nothing about the series will inevitably play this. This means the bad translation will hurt further, because players will feel left out in a way, since they'll feel like the reason they don't understand the dialogue is because they don't know the characters, when that isn't necessarily the case. I almost wish the game had a "I Don't Know Touhou" mode which would give you a brief rundown of who you are and who the characters you meet are. You could fit most of that info on a flashcard, so it wouldn't be anything too text-heavy either.
I don't know what the game's original writing looked like, so I can't say if it's also bad in the Japanese version, but it really does come off as a bad translation. It's definitely enough to knock it half a star, but I don't want to blame it for something that is solely an issue on localization's end, not the actual game's fault.
All in all in all... a super good game! It isn't particularly long, but it is VERY replayable. Super recommend for anyone into anything metroidvania or even just platforming related!
The pixel art in this game is just beautiful. It doesn't pop out at you, desperately wanting you to look all over it, but instead sits calmly in the background. When you actually stop to look at it, you realize just how nice it looks, how detailed it is and how it's so seamless that you forget the game is done using pixel art at all.
The enemies in this game are also incredibly memorable in both design and animation - the animation especially, everything flows so nicely. Even the enemies that are basic conceptually, like the Will-O-Wisps and Skeletons are given a great amount of character just through their behavior and attacks. A great amount of them are parts of Japanese folklore, while still giving respect to the Touhou side of things - namely in the many kinds of fairy enemies. Fittingly for the Scarlet Devil Mansion, it also has a few enemies of western origin, like Frankenstein, and the White Rabbit!
The game controls incredibly nicely. The player is given an exceptionally powerful kit consisting of skills, snail time, timestop, and graze, but they will often not know how to fully utilize until towards the end of the game. This is one of my favorite schools of design in gaming - giving the player full reign of the character's abilities and letting them figure it out over time. The graze mechanic from the Touhou shmups is integrated beautifully in particular here as a way of gaining energy back and being greatly rewarding while keeping the risk of the move in play. Sakuya (the character you play as)'s basic attack feels good to throw out, stalling in the air with diagonal knifes is super cool, and every skill card in the game has its own unique use. On this last playthrough I did over the course of maybe a week, in which I 100%'d the game on 1 HP mode, I found myself having multiple genuine uses of each skill card in the game... except Stun Knife. I have no idea what Stun Knife is actually useful for.
The bosses of this game attack in a fixed pattern, yet keep you very much on your toes, giving the player the satisfaction akin to climbing a mountain after beating them, like a Dark Souls boss. Each one is very different from each other and usually require you to think outside of your usual habits in order to beat. One of the bosses, Marisa, possesses one of this game's very few glaring flaws - her Master Spark attack is really poorly designed. It deals a ton of damage and it seems like there's no way to dodge it. I now know how to dodge, but I don't even understand why it works (some weird graze mechanic). Outside of that, fighting each one is a blast. My favorite is the final boss, which is very, very long, and you end up learning much more about how to graze and gain back energy along the way. It's really tough, but not enough to feel impossible, but it is enough to really make you grow from it.
The flaws I have with this game are very few. One is Marisa's Master Spark, as stated. Another is the fact that the last boss of the Extra Stage is a ridiculously huge difficulty spike compared to the rest of the game. It kinda makes sense, considering how Extra Stages in the actual games are, but it doesn't change the fact that it kicked my ass so badly I got demoralized and stopped playing for a while. Even now, doing it on 1 HP mode with all my game knowledge over time, the fight took me a full day to complete.
The game's most noticeable issue is its writing. The English translation here is really, really weak. Full of errors and awkward phrasing (and a couple of times going outside the textbox), it's immediately noticeable with the sign at the beginning that says "Attack with [Attack Button]." The story in this game is basic, but the bad writing definitely doesn't help things. Furthermore, as stated, this game has ascended past the status of Touhou fangame, meaning many people who know nothing about the series will inevitably play this. This means the bad translation will hurt further, because players will feel left out in a way, since they'll feel like the reason they don't understand the dialogue is because they don't know the characters, when that isn't necessarily the case. I almost wish the game had a "I Don't Know Touhou" mode which would give you a brief rundown of who you are and who the characters you meet are. You could fit most of that info on a flashcard, so it wouldn't be anything too text-heavy either.
I don't know what the game's original writing looked like, so I can't say if it's also bad in the Japanese version, but it really does come off as a bad translation. It's definitely enough to knock it half a star, but I don't want to blame it for something that is solely an issue on localization's end, not the actual game's fault.
All in all in all... a super good game! It isn't particularly long, but it is VERY replayable. Super recommend for anyone into anything metroidvania or even just platforming related!
In the lore, danmaku battles in the Touhou prioritize beauty above all else. This is the first game in the series that really feels like that's the case.
The game opens up on this beautiful, welcoming tune as you fly through a blizzard, seeing an old face in Cirno and a new one in Letty. This start is really imprinted on me, I don't know why. But anyway, as you'd expect, this follows the standard Touhou formula - 6 stages, 4 difficulties, and you have to get a 1 credit clear to get the good ending and bonus stuff. In that sense, this isn't breaking new ground, but I think for what it is, this game is special.
The back half of the game is what really sells me. Stage 4 is this really well made section with a fantastic music loop ending once you break through to see the clouds and are given a moment of calm before being tossed into an awesome boss fight with the Prismrivers. Stage 5 is short but damn is it majestic with the stairs in the background and the temple music. I just really dig this game, can you tell?
The big big big big one though, the big thing that makes me love this game, is the last stage. The cherry blossom trees in the background and Yuyuko's beautiful spell cards are so memorable, and once you beat her, I won't say what happens, but it is honest to god one of the most hype things I've ever experienced in any game.
I really struggle to find things to say about this game other than "it's beautiful." Go play it!
The game opens up on this beautiful, welcoming tune as you fly through a blizzard, seeing an old face in Cirno and a new one in Letty. This start is really imprinted on me, I don't know why. But anyway, as you'd expect, this follows the standard Touhou formula - 6 stages, 4 difficulties, and you have to get a 1 credit clear to get the good ending and bonus stuff. In that sense, this isn't breaking new ground, but I think for what it is, this game is special.
The back half of the game is what really sells me. Stage 4 is this really well made section with a fantastic music loop ending once you break through to see the clouds and are given a moment of calm before being tossed into an awesome boss fight with the Prismrivers. Stage 5 is short but damn is it majestic with the stairs in the background and the temple music. I just really dig this game, can you tell?
The big big big big one though, the big thing that makes me love this game, is the last stage. The cherry blossom trees in the background and Yuyuko's beautiful spell cards are so memorable, and once you beat her, I won't say what happens, but it is honest to god one of the most hype things I've ever experienced in any game.
I really struggle to find things to say about this game other than "it's beautiful." Go play it!
2021
This is a cool little RPG Maker game! It kept me engaged the whole time, had fun segments throughout, with solid music and story! The highlight of the game are the animated sequences, which are beautifully done and genuinely caught me off guard with their quality. I think it would've been cool if Rong Rong himself animated them, though...
It's a very short game, I beat it and got all achievements in under 3 hours. So, if you want to kill that amount of time, this game is a very solid way of doing that, especially seeing as it's free! For what it is, very good!!!
It's a very short game, I beat it and got all achievements in under 3 hours. So, if you want to kill that amount of time, this game is a very solid way of doing that, especially seeing as it's free! For what it is, very good!!!
This is more of a reminiscing post than a review. I'm going to write about the Flash version of this game, which is, effectively, no longer playable. Even if you can get it to boot up, it's effectively in a dead, offline state.
It was amazing. It was a far, far greater game than SAS3. I wasn't around for its early days, but I wish it was. You could spec into reload so much that your weapons had instant reload with no cooldown. You could apply the Overclock augment to semi-automatic weapons, and combining these made the HVM MPG, a Rocket Launcher, an absolute demon of a gun. If you specced into speed high enough, you could clip out of bounds and end levels early. With strong enough guns, you could break open the entrance to the grocery store at the start of Zombie Pods and run through the level much faster. This was a very special game, this top-down shooter with insane optimization for builds. Even after the Fast Movement nerf, you could still hit crazy speeds. You could get armor high enough to get 99% resistance on all 3 damage types. You could make a Suicide Medic that would die, throw out high-level medkits using Final Farewell, and revive extremely fast and repeat the process.
The game wasn't perfect, you definitely had to play quite a bit to get to the good levels. I definitely have hundreds of hours in this game (no way to check anymore) and never even hit level 100. The strongbox system was far from perfect too, you could get something truly beautiful like a HIKS S300 with some garbage augments like Skeletonized or Biosynthesis, and you just had to live with it. ZX840, if you're reading this, I still think Biosynthesis is bad regardless of what you think.
This game had another feature that Ninja Kiwi very sadly lacks nowadays: full text chat. Whether it was strangers in a public game or playing with my buddies, it was such a joy to be able to communicate freely (aside from the heavy censorship filter) and made the game so much more endearing. I even miss saying what strongboxes I got at the end of the game (in the form of something like: 112348).
Nightmare Mode. Oh my God I loved this mode so much, it was like crack to younger me. Every enemy was insanely buffed up, there were far more boss encounters, but you got absolutely ridiculous rewards in exchange. You unlock it at level 35, but you will barely be able to function in it until around level 50. Even with the 5-tickets-a-day system, I would play this mode ALL the time. This game had a really special way of being just unhinged enough in the right way. Even though sometimes I'd lose cause a Nightmarish Dark Minion Apex Runner jumpscared me because I couldn't see it in the foreground, it was still fun.
This game had such a fun variety of guns as well. To this day, the standard Lone Star is my most damaged weapon in the game, being one of few to I had to hit the 32-bit integer limit. The Mustang, Gebirgskanone, Shredder, Hotspot, Stripper, and oh god the 1887 Shockfield my BELOVED. I had so many fun guns in my inventory, I do wish there were more slots available cause it always killed me to get rid of some of them.
I guess I should criticize it, too. This is less of a criticism of the game than the player base: I despised how every. Single. Multiplayer game. Was done on Pods. Nobody every wanted to play anything but Pods. Pods Pods Pods Pods. It's a fun map, but I definitely got tired of it sometimes. And if you picked an actually fun map like Ice Station everyone would just leave. Shoutout to Nightmare maps which chose a random one, made it way more fun, even if you could look into your cache to see what the game was loading. But it was still tolerable cause people would take anything that wasn't Last Stand.
What I truly hated was this game's end cycle. Championships were one of the worst things ever added to a game. You had this shitty contest that was INSANELY grindy that lasted a week I believe, and for getting top 3 you get a disgustingly overpowered weapon that invalidates the whole game. It's so unbalanced and stupid. Fuck the HIKS M1000 in particular, that thing should be put down. I didn't care for the crafting system either, it was nice but felt really cheap getting whatever I wanted, I missed the Strongbox system where I would hope and pray more. It did let me get a 10/3 HVM 001 though, which I used all my Elite Cores on. Got some good reactions out of people in lobbies.
More than anything, I miss the Ninja Kiwi community. Back when the website had a profile feed and forums, and you could Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down posts, and the higher level you were, the more your votes would count. I miss a lot of the people from there. Won't name too many names, but if you were there, you were there. I remember always hoping that Rohan would accept my friend request, cause to me, that was like a status symbol. Alright, I'm getting off-track now.
I guess I should mention this here Steam port of the Mobile version, huh? Well, I don't care for it. The score I gave is for the Flash version. This version is way less cool aesthetically. I have no idea why for this, BTD5, and BMC, Ninja Kiwi thought the mobile ports should be the ones ported to Steam when they look much worse. Additionally, this version doesn't have Ice Station or Meltdown, but it does have a really funny car level which is cool. If I had to put it to words, this version is like a sauceless SAS4 Flash. It feels dry. And with a game dry like that, the long level-up times aren't easy to bear through.
You can find the Flash version on NInja Kiwi Archive, but you can't get any multiplayer games, so what's the point. The multiplayer is the heart of soul of this game.
Alright, reminiscing over. Thanks for reading, or thanks for scrolling straight to the bottom. I don't really care which you did.
It was amazing. It was a far, far greater game than SAS3. I wasn't around for its early days, but I wish it was. You could spec into reload so much that your weapons had instant reload with no cooldown. You could apply the Overclock augment to semi-automatic weapons, and combining these made the HVM MPG, a Rocket Launcher, an absolute demon of a gun. If you specced into speed high enough, you could clip out of bounds and end levels early. With strong enough guns, you could break open the entrance to the grocery store at the start of Zombie Pods and run through the level much faster. This was a very special game, this top-down shooter with insane optimization for builds. Even after the Fast Movement nerf, you could still hit crazy speeds. You could get armor high enough to get 99% resistance on all 3 damage types. You could make a Suicide Medic that would die, throw out high-level medkits using Final Farewell, and revive extremely fast and repeat the process.
The game wasn't perfect, you definitely had to play quite a bit to get to the good levels. I definitely have hundreds of hours in this game (no way to check anymore) and never even hit level 100. The strongbox system was far from perfect too, you could get something truly beautiful like a HIKS S300 with some garbage augments like Skeletonized or Biosynthesis, and you just had to live with it. ZX840, if you're reading this, I still think Biosynthesis is bad regardless of what you think.
This game had another feature that Ninja Kiwi very sadly lacks nowadays: full text chat. Whether it was strangers in a public game or playing with my buddies, it was such a joy to be able to communicate freely (aside from the heavy censorship filter) and made the game so much more endearing. I even miss saying what strongboxes I got at the end of the game (in the form of something like: 112348).
Nightmare Mode. Oh my God I loved this mode so much, it was like crack to younger me. Every enemy was insanely buffed up, there were far more boss encounters, but you got absolutely ridiculous rewards in exchange. You unlock it at level 35, but you will barely be able to function in it until around level 50. Even with the 5-tickets-a-day system, I would play this mode ALL the time. This game had a really special way of being just unhinged enough in the right way. Even though sometimes I'd lose cause a Nightmarish Dark Minion Apex Runner jumpscared me because I couldn't see it in the foreground, it was still fun.
This game had such a fun variety of guns as well. To this day, the standard Lone Star is my most damaged weapon in the game, being one of few to I had to hit the 32-bit integer limit. The Mustang, Gebirgskanone, Shredder, Hotspot, Stripper, and oh god the 1887 Shockfield my BELOVED. I had so many fun guns in my inventory, I do wish there were more slots available cause it always killed me to get rid of some of them.
I guess I should criticize it, too. This is less of a criticism of the game than the player base: I despised how every. Single. Multiplayer game. Was done on Pods. Nobody every wanted to play anything but Pods. Pods Pods Pods Pods. It's a fun map, but I definitely got tired of it sometimes. And if you picked an actually fun map like Ice Station everyone would just leave. Shoutout to Nightmare maps which chose a random one, made it way more fun, even if you could look into your cache to see what the game was loading. But it was still tolerable cause people would take anything that wasn't Last Stand.
What I truly hated was this game's end cycle. Championships were one of the worst things ever added to a game. You had this shitty contest that was INSANELY grindy that lasted a week I believe, and for getting top 3 you get a disgustingly overpowered weapon that invalidates the whole game. It's so unbalanced and stupid. Fuck the HIKS M1000 in particular, that thing should be put down. I didn't care for the crafting system either, it was nice but felt really cheap getting whatever I wanted, I missed the Strongbox system where I would hope and pray more. It did let me get a 10/3 HVM 001 though, which I used all my Elite Cores on. Got some good reactions out of people in lobbies.
More than anything, I miss the Ninja Kiwi community. Back when the website had a profile feed and forums, and you could Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down posts, and the higher level you were, the more your votes would count. I miss a lot of the people from there. Won't name too many names, but if you were there, you were there. I remember always hoping that Rohan would accept my friend request, cause to me, that was like a status symbol. Alright, I'm getting off-track now.
I guess I should mention this here Steam port of the Mobile version, huh? Well, I don't care for it. The score I gave is for the Flash version. This version is way less cool aesthetically. I have no idea why for this, BTD5, and BMC, Ninja Kiwi thought the mobile ports should be the ones ported to Steam when they look much worse. Additionally, this version doesn't have Ice Station or Meltdown, but it does have a really funny car level which is cool. If I had to put it to words, this version is like a sauceless SAS4 Flash. It feels dry. And with a game dry like that, the long level-up times aren't easy to bear through.
You can find the Flash version on NInja Kiwi Archive, but you can't get any multiplayer games, so what's the point. The multiplayer is the heart of soul of this game.
Alright, reminiscing over. Thanks for reading, or thanks for scrolling straight to the bottom. I don't really care which you did.
2009
The title screen of this game is so fucking funny.
It's frogger! A four level long game that loops around once you beat it. It's definitely harder than it looks, when I got to the Swamp level for the first time my hands were definitely shaking.
This is a decent challenge game to try and get through it all. And the multiplayer is fun to dick around with friends for a bit. That's about its whole purpose. I've done both in life, and now I can shelve this game. The main thing I can say about it is, "yep, that's a video game!"
It's frogger! A four level long game that loops around once you beat it. It's definitely harder than it looks, when I got to the Swamp level for the first time my hands were definitely shaking.
This is a decent challenge game to try and get through it all. And the multiplayer is fun to dick around with friends for a bit. That's about its whole purpose. I've done both in life, and now I can shelve this game. The main thing I can say about it is, "yep, that's a video game!"
2011
There is too much to say about this game. I don't think I can fully comprehend it and review it. I'm not sure anyone else can, either. It's in a category of its own.
1999
This game is so fucking cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Contained in this game so tiny the entirety of it fits in the PS1's RAM is one of my now favorite albums of all time, Laugh and Peace. The style of the game is super badass with its almost unnerving chaos and having only two colors, its wavelengths and static and the little noises connecting it all. Vibri's little quotes and bits of dialogue are super lovely. You can have your own levels autogenerated from your OWN CD. Beautiful beautiful.
Contained in this game so tiny the entirety of it fits in the PS1's RAM is one of my now favorite albums of all time, Laugh and Peace. The style of the game is super badass with its almost unnerving chaos and having only two colors, its wavelengths and static and the little noises connecting it all. Vibri's little quotes and bits of dialogue are super lovely. You can have your own levels autogenerated from your OWN CD. Beautiful beautiful.
This game has a tough learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, is a pretty fun little game! 100%ing this takes FOR-E-VER, and I may never get there. A lot of your success in the minigames depends on how responsive your Wii remotes still are. That, combined with some minigames being brutally unforgiving, like the deep-frying one, makes this game legitimately kinda hard.
Mama's voice lines are very charming, and I enjoy the friends from around the world. The fact that they all speak their native language is something that hits me in the heart, that's something I have a weakness for. They all have cute music too, which is nice, except the start of the British friend's song is super grating on the ears, and you have to hear it a whole lot.
You have to make the recipes using motion controls, which are responsive enough, but can definitely troll you sometimes. You have to discover a method to the madness. This is, for all intents and purposes, a rage game. You must stay calm on the battlefield and make mama proud.
Fighting against the friends around the world is very............... interesting. Sometimes the game will award a bonus and you'll never be able to replicate it. Sometimes they'll utterly beat your ass so badly it's shocking. Other times it's like they'll have a stroke in the middle of working and hand you a free win. The scoring for the minigames is pretty funny here: you have three main ones: a perfect, a good enough, and a fail. On some minigames, you'll rarely ever fail, and on others, messing up even a LITTLE will give you an instant fail. It's genuinely brutal.
Of course, that scoring system is something you only need to worry about in the friends around the world mode. For normal recipes, you just need all perfects, as harsh as it is. Challenge mode is incredibly silly, you just need a passing grade, but you have a super short time limit on each game.
It's a chill game! One I can pick up and kill two hours easily. It's not a masterpiece, but I think it's a game emblematic of the Wii era and is still fun for that if nothing else. Great game to get mad at with your friends.
Mama's voice lines are very charming, and I enjoy the friends from around the world. The fact that they all speak their native language is something that hits me in the heart, that's something I have a weakness for. They all have cute music too, which is nice, except the start of the British friend's song is super grating on the ears, and you have to hear it a whole lot.
You have to make the recipes using motion controls, which are responsive enough, but can definitely troll you sometimes. You have to discover a method to the madness. This is, for all intents and purposes, a rage game. You must stay calm on the battlefield and make mama proud.
Fighting against the friends around the world is very............... interesting. Sometimes the game will award a bonus and you'll never be able to replicate it. Sometimes they'll utterly beat your ass so badly it's shocking. Other times it's like they'll have a stroke in the middle of working and hand you a free win. The scoring for the minigames is pretty funny here: you have three main ones: a perfect, a good enough, and a fail. On some minigames, you'll rarely ever fail, and on others, messing up even a LITTLE will give you an instant fail. It's genuinely brutal.
Of course, that scoring system is something you only need to worry about in the friends around the world mode. For normal recipes, you just need all perfects, as harsh as it is. Challenge mode is incredibly silly, you just need a passing grade, but you have a super short time limit on each game.
It's a chill game! One I can pick up and kill two hours easily. It's not a masterpiece, but I think it's a game emblematic of the Wii era and is still fun for that if nothing else. Great game to get mad at with your friends.
1993
This game is fantastic if you don't go into with preconceived notions. I thought going into it, this would be hardcore run-and-gun chaos. This is not necessarily true.
You will spend a lot of time getting lost. You will constantly look at the map wondering where to go. You will wander the halls of the levels back and forth and back and forth. And it rocks. Going into the game thinking it would be hardcore off the bat, this game was off-putting, but after staying with it, I was rewarded with a game that has aged incredibly gracefully.
Doom is a very patient shooter. After a while, I enjoyed wandering the vast, detailed levels, all the rooms and details, all the secrets I occasionally came across. I think there was one or two levels I had to look up what I was supposed to do, but most of the game can be figured out intuitively.
The real secret is that the run-and-gun madness part of this game comes a while after you start playing it. After you get a feel for the maps, you'll understand where to go faster, and start getting into fights more. For this reason, this game has a TON of replayability, just running through the levels killing stuff and having a blast. It takes a while getting to that point, but I honestly enjoyed getting there.
The only thing that I guess stands out as weird is the inability to look up and down, creating weird auto-aim situations where, if an enemy is very high or very low below you, you'll seemingly shoot at nothing, but still hit them. It's nothing too awful though, you get used to it after a while.
It's overall just a blast, getting faster and faster and fighting through the hordes of enemies, all of which I enjoy aside from lost souls, seriously fuck those guys. Definitely recommend! It's no wonder this game has such a strong community to this very day.
You will spend a lot of time getting lost. You will constantly look at the map wondering where to go. You will wander the halls of the levels back and forth and back and forth. And it rocks. Going into the game thinking it would be hardcore off the bat, this game was off-putting, but after staying with it, I was rewarded with a game that has aged incredibly gracefully.
Doom is a very patient shooter. After a while, I enjoyed wandering the vast, detailed levels, all the rooms and details, all the secrets I occasionally came across. I think there was one or two levels I had to look up what I was supposed to do, but most of the game can be figured out intuitively.
The real secret is that the run-and-gun madness part of this game comes a while after you start playing it. After you get a feel for the maps, you'll understand where to go faster, and start getting into fights more. For this reason, this game has a TON of replayability, just running through the levels killing stuff and having a blast. It takes a while getting to that point, but I honestly enjoyed getting there.
The only thing that I guess stands out as weird is the inability to look up and down, creating weird auto-aim situations where, if an enemy is very high or very low below you, you'll seemingly shoot at nothing, but still hit them. It's nothing too awful though, you get used to it after a while.
It's overall just a blast, getting faster and faster and fighting through the hordes of enemies, all of which I enjoy aside from lost souls, seriously fuck those guys. Definitely recommend! It's no wonder this game has such a strong community to this very day.