Mario Party DS is the first Mario Party game I've enjoyed enough to play singleplayer and I loved every second of it. There's so much charm in this game, especially in the story mode which has a cute storyboard-like art style to tell a narrative between levels.

The boards were relatively simple and fun, nothing too complex like I've seen in other entries of the game but they have enough going on to make them unique and stand apart from one another. After each board, there is a boss fight you must beat before progressing to the next one, and these are so cool and a nice reward for beating a level; the only one I didn't love was the last one which felt a bit underwhelming.

I recommend this game to anyone who has yet to give the series a try. A series with as many entries as Mario Party can be quite overwhelming, especially when hearing how hit or miss they are but this one seems to be a great place to start.

This game had so much potential but it just fell flat for me. This is Peach's first solo game since the controversial Super Princess Peach but there just isn't much content here at all. The content it does have is enjoyable, despite it being extremely easy, but you're probably getting around 7 hours of playtime for a full-price game which, in my opinion, isn't worth it at all.

The concept of Showtime is cool because each world is like a different genre of game, some of my favourites were the more stealth-based ninja levels, the mighty mission levels where Peach becomes a superhero, and the kung fu levels which have awesome combat. However, there are some levels which bring the game down, and every level is mandatory to beat before fighting the final boss so there's no way to avoid them. For example, the detective levels were extremely slow and provided very little challenge to make up for it; you'll spend 10 minutes finishing the level just to feel no satisfaction at all because of how easy it was.

The boss fights were a highlight of this game though, they were surprisingly fun and occasionally provided a bit of challenge. Light Fang is the boss of the second floor and I think he was probably my favourite, and the Madame Grape fight at the end was really cool too.

Overall, I think this game is just fine. I definitely wouldn't recommend paying full price for it but if you can pick it up for cheap it's a somewhat fun game to kill a few hours.

My favourite thing about the fifth generation of Pokemon is that it has an entirely new and strong Pokedex with all unique Pokemon. This feels like such a gamble for the series but it absolutely paid off, I love using only new Pokemon in my team whenever I play a new Pokemon game but it's not always easy to find a good variety with the few new Pokemon added, but an entirely new Pokedex allows you to experiment with the wide range of new Pokemon without falling back on the ones you're already comfortable with from the previous generations. Honestly, I can't believe they haven't done this since Black & White, I would love to see another game take this approach.

The story was great and the different areas were really cool, I often find certain areas a bit of a drag in Pokemon games but I was hooked throughout my entire playthrough of Pokemon Black, I found myself interacting with every single NPC I came across which I normally don't have the patience for.

If you're a Pokemon fan and haven't played this yet, I 100% recommend you to do so, it's a must-play for me.

Garfield Kart: Furious Racing is a remake of its 2014 predecessor adding 2 more characters, improved graphics, and not much more. The controls are equally bad but I found it even harder to get used to the movement in this one because it feels much more slippery. The best addition to this game is the ability to play with friends! While this game is extremely janky, unpolished and difficult to control, playing with a friend is so much fun.

I only recommend this game if you've got a friend to play with and you can get a good deal on it. I got this and the original game in a Steam bundle for £1.47 on sale and it was worth every penny.

Super charming and fun, each level has unique gimmicks that constantly keep the game feeling fresh and alive. The art style is terrifying, I can't tell if I love it or hate it, but its goofiness and ridiculousness show Pizza Tower is self-aware in its wacky characters and concepts which I found very charming. As a big fan of the Wario Land series, seeing the inspiration it took from those games is really cool, as I was going through each level I noticed more and more similarities, especially from Wario Land 4, which was awesome! The boss fights were probably my favourite part of the game, they were quite difficult but after a few attempts, I started to master their attack patterns and how to counter them, filling me with satisfaction and making me feel like a god.

This game is so much fun and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys fast-paced platformers, especially fans of the Wario Land games!

Bokura provides a deep and wholesome story about friendship with some good, challenging puzzles. Since each player sees different things on their screen, communication is key to progressing through these levels which leads to some hilarious and chaotic scenarios. I loved playing through this game and I loved how the ending was quite ambiguous; as the credits started rolling my friend and I realised something that isn't directly explained in the story and it was such an awesome moment. However, I do think there were some elements which could've been explained more.

I 100% recommend this game to play with a friend to kill a few hours, I haven't seen many co-op games force both of you to use your brains so much. Worth every penny.

Everything about this Wario Land game is so fun, I only wish it was longer because I beat it with only an hour of playtime.

This title keeps mostly everything from the first game but the movement feels smoother and the level design is infinitely better and much more enjoyable. The 3D aspects of the Virtual Boy were shown off well in this game through the ability to jump to and from the background of the level. This feature was so much fun and used well in each level to hide cool secrets. The boss fights were also cool in this title but were a bit too easy; the only one I didn't beat first try was the final boss.

I highly recommend this game to fans of the Wario Land series!

Minit Fun Racer is a short but fun spin-off game. I enjoyed the gameplay which consisted of racing to the end of the track before time ran out. Every upgrade in the shop was equally impactful and freshened up the gameplay each time, providing new abilities or perks to help you beat the clock. There were a couple of issues I found, such as obstacles sometimes being in unavoidable spots like at the end of a ramp. I also had some difficulty actually seeing where some of the obstacles were relative to my character resulting in me unexpectedly crashing a lot.

I recommend this game if you're a Minit fan or simply looking for something short and sweet to play. To put the icing on the cake, all profits from this game go straight to charity, making your purchase even more worthwhile.

It took me a while to beat this one; I enjoyed the campaign overall but I think I preferred the first Modern Warfare. That being said, some missions really stand out to me in this game such as 'No Russian' which was extremely brutal and tragic, I haven't experienced anything like that in a game before.

The gameplay is fun, a step up from the first Modern Warfare, but one thing I absolutely can not get used to is the blood-splatter effect. It feels like you get shot once and then your entire vision is compromised by this bloody overlay which was consistently ruining the flow of combat for me.

Overall, a good title with fun gameplay mechanics and a strong story, but not one I can see myself going back to.

This is what I've been waiting for! After 3 titles, each drastically different from the other in the most creative and unique ways, Wario Land 4 took everything it learned from its predecessors to make the perfect sequel and final handheld entry to the series.

The first thing I noticed upon entering the first level was the lack of Wario's immortality, a trait he possessed since the 2nd game, and one I really loved. Instead, Wario starts with 5 hearts, which maximises at 10, and loses 1 when hit by an enemy as expected. What made the enemies so interesting in previous titles was that, rather than damaging Wario, they gave him a power-up which had both pros and cons to it. However, this often became overbearing when every single enemy gave you a power-up that you might not even need. This title strikes a balance between power-up enemies and damage enemies. The power-up enemies are placed only where they're necessary and can be used to Wario's advantage, which can often be used as hints for how to progress the level if you're stuck. This change grew on me quickly and, while I missed the immortality gimmick, it made the level design feel 10x better and way less frustrating than it was in Wario Land 3.

There are 4 main worlds (passages) in this game with each their own identity. The creative minds behind this game went crazy with this one because so many of the levels stood out to me as they were so fun and imaginative. My favourite passage was the Topaz Passage which consists of levels that make you feel like you're in a massive toy box. The Sapphire Passage contained some really cool gimmicks on each level too, a highlight being the Fiery Cavern level.

The objective of each level is to reach the switch at the end before racing against the clock back to the start of the level before jumping back into the vortex you entered through. I loved this concept because it allowed you to take your time and explore each level, learning whatever gimmicks it threw at you, without worrying about a time limit which a lot of Nintendo platformers tend to do, then speedrunning back through the course at the end. The switch often opens up new areas, keeping the level feeling fresh and providing new areas to explore in the limited time you have to return to the vortex.

To unlock the boss room at the end of a passage, you must find all 4 jewel pieces on each level to open the final door. This does make sense in concept because the 4 jewel pieces assemble to create a jewel, and the door to the boss room requires them as a sort of key. Still, sometimes after spending 10+ minutes on a level to realise I missed a single jewel piece, it was a bit annoying having to do the entire thing again. Some of them are hard to find as well and aren't available until after you press the switch and you're running back through the level to beat the clock making them pretty easy to miss.

Overall, Wario Land 4 is a must-play platformer with amazing level design and super creative gimmicks and concepts. Each level has something new and fun to provide and there isn't a dull moment.

Despite my love for the base game, I struggled with this expansion. The story is one of the few things I enjoyed about it, it's relatively generic overall but it's centred around Melia who was my favourite character in the base game so I enjoyed it a lot for that reason. As for the gameplay, while it's almost identical to the base game, they removed chain attacks for some reason which was one of the most fun parts of Xenoblade's combat system for me. The new characters are two Nopon who are gameplay-wise identical to Reyn and Sharla. I found them fun at first but the novelty wore off fast and by the end, I just found them annoying. Finally, the last boss was one of the most frustrating bosses I've ever fought. I genuinely considered giving up because of how much I hated that fight but I remember casual mode exists; I'm not the type to lower the difficulty for the sake of a boss in games, I usually have too much pride for that, but I really didn't care with this boss and was just glad it was over.

I'd only recommend this expansion for the story, it's worth it for the Melia content but not much else outside of that.

It took me a while to really get into Xenoblade, but once I did it became one of my best video game experiences of all time. The combat is unlike anything I've played before; it took me a while to get used to but in the end, I was in love with it. I mained Shulk for the majority of my playthrough and was able to master his moves before switching to Melia in the late game whose combat was trickier to learn but felt very rewarding once I figured it out. Chain attacks were so fun; my usual party for half the game consisted of Shulk, Reyn and Sharla, and I got into such a good flow with these characters when performing chain attacks which felt so satisfying, especially with the score and their voice lines building up the hype in the background.

Some of the boss fights were extremely difficult and required going back and levelling up a lot, which was often achievable through completing side quests from across Bionis. For the most part, the side quests provide small new stories with the people of Bionis who reward you upon completing tasks for them which were quite enjoyable, but there were a lot of filler side quests which followed the formula of 'kill these monsters' or 'find these items' which were not only repetitive and boring, but were often extremely unrewarding. The only time where I found this to be an issue when trying to level up was at the very end of the story, a lot of the side quests unlocked at this point are very late-game stuff which I couldn't complete due to simply being too low a level. This is the only point in the game where I couldn't rely on side quests to help me level up and had to go out of my way to grind experience through fighting monsters, which wasn't very fun, but I took it as an opportunity to try out different characters and party combinations after maining Shulk for most of the game.

Each character has such defining characteristics with so much charm, especially the likes of Reyn and Melia who stood out to me the most throughout the story, alongside other characters you won't meet until late-game. Everyone's gameplay differs drastically, allowing for infinite party combinations to tackle different types of enemies in different areas. The AI isn't always perfect, for example, Sharla won't always heal the party when it's crucial, but the warning feature makes up for this after Shulk sees a vision so you can command your party members to perform specific actions at the cost of a party gauge bar which saved my life a million times.

The story overall is just outstanding. I've never played anything like it. The amount of twists and turns it takes you on, it's a rollercoaster. Learning about the world and the war between Homs and Mechon throughout the story is so cool, details like being able to see Mechonis in the distance in certain areas of Bionis add so much character to the story and the world, it blew me away.

After 75 hours logged on Xenoblade, it's become one of my favourite games of all time and I can't wait to continue my journey in the rest of the series. I recommend this game to everyone for the story alone, it's a must-play.