The gacha system used for scouts is, politely put, atrocious and the game's insistence on making many aspects of said gacha exclusive to in-game purchases really just rubs salt into the wound. The only reason this can be considered remotely bearable is due to being able to use a wide range of characters from the BSD cast in the game as well as a somewhat fun slingshot-type gameplay. The most enjoyable characters to use are obviously the SSRs, which all have fun little animations that get better the more recent the cards are, some even featuring voice lines. It adds a certain charm to the game any BSD fan is likely to appreciate and enjoy. Another thing I find Bungo Mayoi to handle more competently than other gacha games in the market is materials, it's surprisingly easy to grind for most materials in this game, assuming you have enough AP and space in the game to do so.

Can you look at the artwork of your favorite characters without playing this game? Absolutely. Is the main story just a cheap retelling of the anime? Can't deny that. Sometimes it also just feels pretty slow and like it could benefit from an upgraded UI, it sure would be nice to not get loading screens just from switching menus and being urged so frequently to spend real money with no way of turning it off.

Basically, don't get this game unless there's an empty space in your heart that needs to be filled with more BSD content. It's a silly little way of killing time with gameplay that requires more than mindlessly typing away, but if you care about a semi-reasonable gacha experience maybe this isn't for you.

The blueprint of a beloved series and it has aged like fine wine. Typical for NES games of the time the first Castlevania game is quite challenging, ranging from difficulty overcome by experience to downright cruel, unfair game design. Movement compared to later games is rather limited with a lack of upgrades, select few sub weapons, the Belmont strut, being unable to jump on stairs, and the frustrating yet classic death due to knockback. Overall very punishing, but also beyond rewarding upon mastery. If Castlevania Requiem is not accessible to you this is still the perfect starting point to get into the series.

Sonia is an enjoyable protagonist and the small bits of dialogue are surprisingly good, but that really doesn't save the rest of the game. Many of the improvements seen in Belmont's Revenge are simply not present here. The difficulty is completely unbalanced thanks to the new gameplay mechanics, making this one of the easiest Castlevania games to play through, and yet also one of the most frustrating due to poor and overall just very sloppy level and enemy designs. The graphics are uninspired and dated even for its time and the music is the same 20 seconds long track on loop.

The soul weapons, the previously mentioned new mechanic which replaces the sub weapons, are an interesting idea but they all vary completely in usefulness. Combine them with the newly introduced burning mode that makes this game's Belmont unstoppable and you have the easiest boss fights in the series, Dracula included. Castlevania Legends is still by all means better than the Adventure, but there is not much to enjoy here. It's kind of shocking to realize it was made in the same year as SotN and see it take inspiration from the game in form of hidden rooms and branching pathways, but it just never gets the execution right, again leading to more frustration than enjoyment.

What an amazing start to such a beloved series. Fun and engaging from start to finish, topped off with a presentation and soundtrack which has aged perfectly for a twenty year old game. It may be the game with the weakest pacing in the original trilogy and most predictable villains with rather lackluster motives (all criticisms which don't apply to the wonderful case that is Turnabout Goodbyes), but all of it can be easily excused by the fact they were still trying to figure out the right tone and overall style of the series.

By the time you get to Turnabout Samurai you really get a feel for the gameplay and character dynamics which are going to be the foundation of the Ace Attorney series and will be immensely improved on in later entries. The writing improves with each new case and it's amazing to see plot points which were introduced in this game, both big and small, become relevant again in later games. It may not have as much replay value as later games, but if you have even the slightest attachment to the original trilogy chances are you will eventually return to this game, be it for the second half or to appreciate the beginnings of the series. A must play, regardless of whether or not you want to give its sequels and spin-offs a try.

Twewy really is a game that can be categorized as "seeing is believing"; there's no way to truly understand why this game is as highly regarded as it is and has resonated with so many people without experiencing it for yourself. You look at the cover art and think it might be because of the unique art direction. You start up the game and then think it might also be due to the unique soundtrack and interesting premise, which is set up with a very distinct style and solid pacing. You may already connect with a character or two but you haven't exactly reached the point yet where you'd say you just went through a life changing experience. They're charming at best and carried by dialogue which feels pretty natural and can be quite endearing due to just how much you can tell this was made in the 2000s. This goes for the setting as a whole, but it never feels too alienating or like you can only appreciate it because you've been there, done that so long as you embrace the general vibe the game is aiming for.

You make it through week one and now you're probably much more emotionally invested. The stakes feel higher, the connections more personal. The game continues to build on these aspects and establishes its themes more firmly through its characters, who with their stories and interactions just feel so realistic, you can't help but sympathize with or relate to them. You reach the end of week three, the end of the game, and watch the last cutscene. Like most people you may or may not need a few minutes as the words "what the hell" echo through your mind and you process all the events which brought you to this point. And if you've seen things even remotely like me up until now, you've most likely come to the conclusion that you just had a once in a lifetime experience only a few games can provide the way twewy did it. Unless the style wasn't for you, you absolutely do not care about story in games (in which case why are you playing such a dialogue heavy game to begin with) or the themes didn't resonate with you, you'll have to acknowledge that the game you just played was truly something special.

That doesn't mean the game has no instances that are worth nitpicking and deserving of criticism: the pacing at the end of week three and a new day drags much more than it should and is plagued by repetitive enemy dialogue and a significantly increased difficulty curve. I'm not one to complain about an extra challenge or two near the end, but if the game gives you a full star for a boss fight which took 17 minutes to beat on average, you know there's a problem. This may not sound like a lot to the average rpg enjoyer, but trust me when I say this is excessive for twewy standards, which were established roughly 15 hours before that point. You can freely jump between chapters once you complete the game (which you absolutely should to collect the bits of lore you couldn't access on your first run) and its autosave function is very reliable, but having more than one save file would have made this experience much more comfortable. It simply feels out of place not to have such an option. A New Day used to feel like a pointless addition which ruined an otherwise perfect ending, but its existence is now justified thanks to neotwewy, so all it does is suffer from the same pacing and difficulty issues as the end of week three.

As for gameplay, I plan to go more in-depth on the original twewy's gameplay whenever I write a review for that one, but overall I believe it was translated as best as possible for the new system, even if it suffers from issues, which I believe were somewhat inevitable. The DS version also had issues with pin powers getting mixed up in practice, and this carries over in final remix with touch controls which, depending on your in-game status, may get mixed up with one another or ignored entirely. This is rather common when things get hectic in the game or you're simply not sure what is going on and scratching and tapping for your dear survival on hard mode. But other than those distinct instances, twewy's touch controls work as they should on the switch. If you can, play with a stylus though and avoid docked gameplay at all costs unless you must stream it.

Well, what else remains to be said? Any version of twewy is a brilliant game which is fully deserving of the praise it gets. If you haven't played this game, please do. Now if only someone would get me that hidden Joshua lore/origin story I'd be the happiest person alive.

Whenever I start to think motion controls were a mistake I look back at this game. Sure, depending on the discipline it can feel like the controls don't always do what you'd like them to. Some disciplines like golfing also don't translate as well into motion control gameplay as one would assume. Other times the game really has a strange way of rating your performance, most notably in water sports.

But other than that? Any wii game wishes it had controls like these. They couldn't have possibly made a better game to show off the wii's controls and make them seem appealing. The achievements and overall accessibility create some great replay value and it remains entertaining even a decade after the game's release. Maybe not everyone's go-to party or workout game, but you never know when you might feel nostalgic enough to revisit wuhu island and remember what made the wii feel so special all those years ago.

They were so committed to the theme of betrayal in this game that they even managed to betray the majority of players' expectations, what a twist.

It's a contender for the best opening case. It has much more elaborate and immersive investigations, way before Edgeworth's duology came along to expand on the formula. Not to mention an amazing soundtrack and a cast of characters with pretty great chemistry. But it isn't Apollo's game, and it really suffers from that. Other new characters are also mostly robbed of any possible development. There's obvious exceptions I won't get into for spoiler reasons, but their development didn't have to come at the cost of those the game neglects all the way until the end. There's also the fact they were trying way too hard to show off the improved hardware, which in some cases paid off (more dynamic sprite animation) and otherwise felt way too excessive (case 3 AMV). The replacement for the magatama/psyche locks also could've used a bit more polish, it's a drag to look all over witnesses' sprites for one tiny unusual twitch the first time around.

More than anything, I believe many of Apollo Justice's issues could've been fixed if, similar to the previous games, they had at least made a duology out of the game. It's a real shame in my opinion, especially with how messy Apollo's backstory became with future entries where he isn't even the titular character anymore.

Suddenly I'm very happy they didn't announce a remaster of Sonic Unleashed.

I really don't know what else to say here, every aspect of this game is disappointing in one way or another. When you don't encounter glitches the gameplay can seem fine, occasionally fun even, as long as you're not distracted by the lighting, sound design, loading screens or overall questionable design choices of the UI in this game. Everything points towards a rushed port and it's just an unpleasant experience. Here's hoping that after some future patches it'll make for a more comfortable playthrough, but the disappointing state at which Sonic Colors: Ultimate was released in should not be disregarded either way.