*Note: The Japanese version was played for this review, Japanese names for stuff like Kirby game titles will be used.

You ever play something and just enjoy it but it has enough problems that you sometimes feel iffy about replaying it? Hoshi no Kirby 3 is one of those games. I always saw it as a good game but I always found it to be one of the weaker Kirby games. Though I like to try to think clearly and see what I can find in games. I wanna see if my feelings with them can change. I thought about giving it a try with this title and see if it’s a great game or still just a game with too many flaws.

Hoshi no Kirby 3 is about saving the residents of Dream Land from their struggles all while clearing 5 worlds (yes I know they’re called levels, it sounds dumb saying levels) with 6 stages and a boss in each one. Kirby can do about what he could also do in Super Deluxe except guarding since health bars aren’t a thing in this. It’s back to health points but now each one holds 2 meaning you can take up to 10 hits on a full bar which is nice. You can also press A to take two off to summon Gooey who is basically a clone of Kirby for the 2nd player. Just don’t use him for the AI as he’s atrocious.

Speed in this game is rather odd. You actually move really fast on the ground during a dash. It can actually make the camera have to force you further back if Kirby almost starts outpacing the screen. His flying however is bad, it’s probably the one bad area about his controls because it just feels stiff and you fall like a rock when you shoot out an air puff. I honestly find it more satisfying to just run and jump for platforming. Kirby can also slide still which isn’t a bad option because it’s easily spammable and while it won’t kill enemies in one hit, it’s still a good movement option to get past them. One tech I also wanna give out is what I call dash jump attack tech. Some abilities can benefit where you run and then press jump and attack immediately after giving you a good leap forward and can give some moves good potential if you experiment.

Level design in this game is quite the interesting one. There’s a lot of gimmicks here with a wide variety of new enemies. One thing I noticed a lot with it is I swear the game loves to put rooms where you go back and forth in them. IDK if that makes sense but there’s a lot of left and right turning. Some levels have horizontal design in mind while some like to have you going vertically. I wouldn’t really say there’s levels I ever dread going to but I do think the 2nd world is a little too focused on water giving you a lot of time to Kine. There’s also stuff like sand that will slow you down and even avalanches that will try to cover your vision in the autoscroller. Oh yeah that’s something brought back from the 2nd game, autoscrollers. Honestly not a fan of them but those are never really my favorite kinds of levels anyway. There’s a lot of neat moments I remember like enemies looking like drawings and coming to life, an enemy that breaks blocks to let you progress, moments that’ll have you using multiple abilities in a room, and using some nice terrain like trees to get through the levels. Levels aren’t perfect but it’s still pretty fun.

Animal friends are back and now there’s three more. First I should talk about Rick’s changes. Rick is once again given the best mobility on ground terrain but was given a nerf to inhale by making complete garbage. Seriously, why is it not just the one from 2? But that’s okay because he can now do wall kicks on walls which is pretty neat. If you’re wondering why only talk about Rick well it’s because Coo and Kine play about the same excelling at air and ocean respectively. Nago, Chuchu, and Pitch are the new ones in town. Nago is a great jumper with a triple jump in tow and since some Animal Friends can jump on enemies, he’s good for speedy times. Chuchu can grab things with her tentacles including the ceiling to climb on. She can also jump lots but they get weaker and weaker until you gain 0 height from them. Kirby seems to like her a lot too so they’ll make a great duo for fighting enemies. Pitch is very similar to Kirby in movement just without a slide and air puff projectile. What he excels in is his good variety of abilities that can be very helpful for Kirby. (at least that’s what some sources say.) This game does a pretty good job of balancing them for the most part even if I’ll forever like Nago the most you can’t stop me! With them all here, it gives you more opportunities to experiment with abilities and how you’ll go through levels. Speaking of abilities…

All of the abilities from Hoshi no Kirby 2 are back along with a whole new ability named Clean. Clean uses a variety of cleaning appliances depending on the character being used. Once again using different Animal friends will give you different results so try to experiment with them all if possible! While it’s not all balanced, it’s impressive just how many combinations there are and some are pretty fun to use like Spark Coo, Ice Chuchu, Cutter Pitch, and many more. It should be noted abilities are also divided into three different damage values. Abilities can do either 16, 32, 48, or 64 damage so do some research if you need to. They also really hated Kine because they nerfed a couple of his abilities from 2 like Ice and Spark. Why must you do this to my boy? Personally I always like abilities that can keep the pace going. Here’s a fun fact for you, did you know Parasol Kirby can guard by holding down. Use that knowledge along with dash jump attack tech and it’s a pretty fun time. Also Needle Rick still is atrocious like what the hell HAL? What were you thinking with this??

Heart Stars are the new collectibles and they are found in every stage. Different objectives vary on the stage you are. The first ones require you to help flowers whether they involve not stepping on them, getting dust off of them, or killing them because the mushrooms are awful people!! The second ones require doing a unique objective stuff like using Parasol Kine next to the resident to cheer them up, helping a baby chick off a balloon, or freezing metroids to help Samus. The third ones will have you go into a room to play a minigame with the resident and you must win at it three times to get the Heart Star. The fourth ones have a mini boss you’ll need to fight and usually you’ll find a character that needs help and all you need to do is touch them. The fifth ones require you to bring a specific Animal Friend with you and it should be obvious which one you’ll need if you look at their portrait. The last ones are interesting. The odd number worlds require you to find items for the person in need. The even number worlds require you to help Picross puzzles form blocks that resemble their shape. Also yes they are a Picross reference, I had to double check. You’ll collect the Heart Star at the end of each stage before you do your jumping bonus game to get stars, health, or 1-ups by timing. Overall these are fun and are a nice way to vary the challenge and they are loads better than collecting the Rainbow Drops from 2. Though it should be noted this will always vary from person to person as there can be frustrations. I always hated the Kawasaki one because if you fail it, you have to keep doing a slow boring autoscroller to get back. I also know many who despise 3-6 but personally it isn’t too bad for me nowadays now I know how to get all of the Robot parts.

Now we have the bosses which are actually pretty nice in this game. The first two Whispy Woods and Acro try to change things up by having a 2nd phase in their fights. Pon and Con are like the Nruff and Nelly fight but are slightly more challenging due to stuff like bombs being in the way. My favorite fight has to be against the human painter Ado because you get to refight all of the bosses from Hoshi no Kirby 2 that aren’t bosses here but as weaker drawings. It’s a really cool fight and I love Ado’s attempt at a fight only to be defeated in one hit. Finally there’s Dedede and he’s once again corrupted by Dark Matter but without enough persistence he will be down and then the game ends here if you fail to get every Heart Star. It feels kind of bitter as you’ll not only lack to see who worked on the game but you never made everyone happy and Dark Matter will continue to take over…how sad. Though if you did get them all, all of the happy residents and guests you helped will give you a new ability called the Love Love Stick and you got one more job. Go fight Dark Matter in the Hyper Zone! The fight is in his territory and it plays very similar to the Nightmare Orb fight in the Famicom game. It’ll be tough but it’s fun. Once he’s down, it’s not over! That’s right you now need to fight Zero, the real final boss. He’s big, he’s scary and he means business. He has the most health out of any boss and he even shoots…blood? Is it blood? IDK. Once you beat him, his eye pops out of his body and out of huge desperation you’ll have to shoot him or whack him as he chases you. After enough hits, he’s down and Popstar is saved. Kirby and some of the residents celebrate with Ado drawing cute pictures of everyone including the planet Popstar which has new rings thanks to the defeat of Zero, you can actually see them before his explosive death. Sadly they retconned this in 64 so that’s unfortunate. At least you made everyone happy and saved the day which is always lovely.

There’s some small bonus modes you can do to get true 100%. The first one is just doing all the minigames in a row. The second one has you doing the bonus game and having to make sure you keep collecting smileys and wow it’s really hard. Finally there’s the Boss Butch mode where you have to fight every boss in a row in one life, no health refills, no abilities or Animal Friends, and not even Gooey! This can be pretty tough so do your best!!

My god that presentation. It’s such a beauty. There’s so many cool effects and tricks done to make things look good it’s incredible. The style too is just drop dead gorgeous. This is a top 10 Super Famicom game for me graphically. I can’t think of a single thing wrong with the graphics.
There’s so many awesome views, I love the fuzzy like movement on stuff like the game’s logo, All of the environments just fit perfectly. This also fits in line with the excellent sprite art. I always loved how the Famicom guest characters are colored like they’re from their actual games. I always liked the reference to Nintendo 64 on the Boss Butch screen. I could go on and on about just how much the game gets it right. Truly a grand achievement for the Super Famicom. The OST is also filled with many excellent tracks and even stuff like the sound effects sound really good and memorable. I know that sounds weird but it just works perfectly for me. While Super Deluxe had a better OST, this one isn’t a slouch and shouldn’t be slept on. Really this whole section I just wanna gush more about the game here. But I’ll refrain so I’m not here all night.

In the end, Hoshi no Kirby 3 is a very good game. There’s a lot to love about the game and for such a late release, it’s impressive just how well crafted the game is. I think I appreciate the game more now than I used to, while it has issues and there are many Kirby games I’d rather play, this is still a very fun game. I understand why this game is one of the weaker games reception wise, I think just analyzing the game through and through, there’s a lot here that just makes me smile. HAL really just nailed it and made a much better sequel compared to 2 having some questionable design choices. Nowadays the game can be played on NSO if you have one of those for your Switch. Sadly the US version of this game is hard to find a copy for your SNES due to its poor sales. The game used to be on Wii and Wii U VC but has sadly gone down before this review was made which hurts to see. It should be noted it was also featured in the Kirby Collection on the Wii. I also wanna point out a couple of graphics were changed in later releases to prevent seizures like the Dark Matter fight in the Boss Butch mode. If you have yet to play this wonderful game then give it a shot! You might like it but it also might take a couple of playthroughs to get you coming back for more. The game’s legacy may have never shined but its brilliance will always shine on as an almost closing farewell to the Super Famicom. Thank you HAL for this lovely game. I’m glad I could walk out enjoying the game more even if it’s not perfect. Time to go lie down out at night and enjoy the starry sky outside.

END

A few months after picking up a PlayStation 2 and telling myself "just put games on the hard drive, do NOT go down the rabbit hole of buying used games," I saw the cover of Final Fantasy Origins and was so spellbound by Yoshitaka Amano's gorgeous art that I broke my solemn vow. It's just that meme of the guy looking over his shoulder, my gaze pulled away from my 1TB Western Digital hard drive towards the alluring figure of Final Fantasy Origins... Yeah... Yeah this game's got a great ass...

Whoa. Ok, I guess Origins still has me captive. But who could blame me? It's a fine looking collection, and it happens to hold two Final Fantasy games I've never played before outside of dipping my toes into the first few minutes of Final Fantasy I. It's not like grabbing this would set me down a costly path of buying every Final Fantasy on the PSX. That'd just be crazy!

I've already reviewed both games in this collection, so I won't go over what I think about them individually. Instead, I want to touch on the improvements Origins makes over the original releases. The most apparent of which is its presentation. Gone are the flat 8-bit graphics in favor of something more akin to the Super Nintendo era of Final Fantasy games, with the score getting its own boost to match Origins' graphical fidelity. Though it is graphically the same as the WonderSwan release for which it is a port of, the PSX Origins collection also includes a sparing amount of FMVs which adds a little more of that Amano flavor, and that's just what daddy wants its really graet. .

More importantly, Origins introduces a ton of quality-of-life improvements to modernize the experience of playing both games, including a "memo" save feature that allows you to make a hot save to the system's RAM. This is invaluable given the length and brutality of some of Final Fantasy's dungeons and was all but mandatory to ease my slog through Final Fantasy II's Pandaemonium. You still need to commit to sitting down and finishing these dungeons in a single playthrough but is eases the burden of redoing them from scratch due to bad RNG, which I feel is a good compromise. It's also just nice that spells which did not function correctly (if at all) in the original games now work as intended.

This might all seem a bit too transformative, but I don't get the sense that any of these changes and fixes trivialize the experience so much as they simply make it more palatable. These still feel like NES era JRPGs, the way they're paced and the order of operations you must undertake to progress through them still feels obtuse in a way that's authentic, but I can also sit down and play them, you know? I think that's exactly what you'd want from a collection like this. Also, god damn that cover art. Fuck.

Final Fantasy I review
Final Fantasy II review

As a game it's pretty thin - closest point of comparison I can make is something like Transformers: Devastation, but if combat was a lot more basic and bosses were way worse. You're gonna do the same bunch of attacks against the same bunch of enemies for about 5 hours and then you're probably never gonna play this again. I can't really hate though, because 1) this is a game based on a 70s monster of the week mecha show! It's entirely appropriate for it to be highly formulaic! And 2) it's just kind of absurd that this game exists in the year 2023 and I think I'm very happy it does, regardless of quality. It's just really cool that this ancient anime was a huge hit in France (Goldorak is such a great localised name, hell yeah) and now we have a French-developed game of it 50 years later. There should be more things like this! If a Voltes V game comes down the pipe a Filipino developer should get to make it. A Latin American dev team should get to try their hand at a KOF game. I demand more products of love!!

I played this with the French dub on as is right and proper, but in the English dub (which is pretty amusingly bad), there is a bit where Duke Fleed word for word quotes a line from The Phantom Menace. I don't know why either.

This game is so good. Everything I disliked in the old im@s console games was either removed or improved dramatically in Starlit Season. They handled 29 idols together really well. This game captures the length of the franchise. 16 years later they welcomed all of us Ps back. My Japanese is terrible but it hit me hard when Haruka's 1st commu when she tells you, "Welcome home, Producer!" This game is a raising sim where you schedule your idol's stats and performance to grow to become the best idol. there are 3 parts of gameplay, There's the communication part of the game where you socialize with your idol to raise their affection to perform well in their jobs. Sorta like social links in Persona games but not really since the choice actually matter and they can get mad at you and lower their mood which affects their performance in auditions. There's the raising sim part where you have to manage time to raise stats of the idols and play minigames to improve their stats. I think the similar gameplay for this is like Princess Maker 2 and the Monster Rancher games as well as dating sims like Tokimeki Memorial. and last is the auditions, The rhythm aspect of this game is more strategic since you have to give an appeal that will give you the highest score. This is indicated by the stat values and its appeal percentage, which decreases every time you press it while the other increases. I had a blast and even if I don't understand everything due to my Japanese being terrible, and when there's stuff I do understand, it is the best console im@s game I ever played. This game has so much replay value that I still playing it. I heard that im@s 2 amazing so I'll have to try that when my Japanese improve.

"Loosely based on the Arabian folktales of One Thousand and One Nights"?

(pushes glasses up his nose)

Um excuse me, it's actually loosely based on the ancient Persian epic poem The Shahnameh

I knew Shu Takumi wouldn't let me down. An outstanding unraveling of the many mysteries left unsolved in the first game. I am so glad this is a direct follow-up to the first game, as it get directly to the point, with no filler chapters and with an amazing pace when it comes to getting answers, and stumbling upon new mysteries. Of course, it comes without saying that the plot is, like, REALLY good. All cases, most notably the last one, are such a rollercoaster of emotions that made sure this game won't leave my mind for an eternity. I really don't want to spoil anything, just pick up Chronicles and play through the two games.

I also love how it focuses so much on character growth and development. Most characters are already met in the first game, but it's here when they really show their potential. Their experiences, their goals, and their realizations in court... it all makes them visibly change, and it makes it really easy to relate to them. The first game left me wanting to know more about the characters, and I couldn't be happier in that aspect. Even the new characters are incredibly unique and well-made, as usual from the Ace Attorney series.

I really can't say much more about Resolve without bringing up Adventures, and/or spoiling part of the plot, so I'll go straight to the point: Ace Attorney keeps being one of the best franchises I've ever been introduced to. I never imagined I could be left at the verge of tears from watching a court proceeding unfold. Just go play this game. It's true the pacing may be slow at times, but it's all worth it in the end. This is one of those games I'll be forever obsessed with, and for a reason.