Greatest hits compilations can be a hard sell since a fan of the series might say "big deal, I've played all these games before" but the beauty of Gold lies in the hardware it was released on. Getting a WarioWare on the 3DS, a system that can emulate both the gyro controls of Twisted and the touch screen of Touched, was a stroke of genius - even if it occurred late in the system's lifespan - and the way it accumulates into an absolutely frantic finale where you're switching between 3 different play styles on the fly was a real "This is why I love video games as a art medium" moment. If you're going to use console gimmicks for your video game, might as well go this hard with them, and if you can, please play this beautiful game on an actual 3DS system. This is where Gold shines. like gold

In a way, WarioWare Gold is an amazing send-off, both for the handheld WarioWare games and the 3DS itself. An absolutely exquisite curtain drop for the system before it succumbs to its fatal injuries via poorly selling remakes, and I'm saying this about a game where Wario gains godlike powers by wearing a communal toilet on his head and tries to murder a small child in front of a stadium full of people while doing so (in makes sense in context, I promise, and also it's unclear if the communal toilet itself has godlike powers or if Wario gave himself godlike powers via the placebo effect).

Oh, and to sweeten the deal, once you collect all the souvenirs, the game slaps you on the back and says "well done, now you get this mildly addicting collectible card game where you play rock-paper-scissors against those random freaks from the minigames". This game rules.

Do you ever think that Kevin Eastman or Peter Laird regret creating the Ninja Turtles? Probably not, because they made a lot of money from it and made a product that is adored by millions to this day, but ignoring all that, do you think they regret creating the series, or even what it eventually became? Do you think that one day, the two of them just look back at shit like the Micheal Bay movies, TMNT III, or that one live-action show that got made, and they just think to themselves “My god… look at how they massacred my boys…”... I would probably feel that way if I was in a similar situation, but then I would look back on all the positive things to come out of the franchise as well, and then I would realize it would’ve all been worthwhile……………. none of that has anything to do with this review, I just needed an intro: it’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project!

After going through the first NES game, the arcade game, and then skipping over to the infinitely superior TMNT IV, we have now finally arrived at the final TMNT game that was released for the NES before jumping straight to the next generation of systems (aside from the port of Tournament Fighters, but… you know…). Much like all of the other TMNT games for the system, I haven’t played this one before now, but I had seen it a little bit before, and it looked about as standard as these games could get: just being another typical beat-’em-up that lets you play as your favorite turtle and kick plenty of ass. So, it was no surprise then that, when I got around to actually playing it, that was pretty much exactly what I got, but that doesn’t make it bad by any means. It is still a pretty good game, definitely the best TMNT NES game and one of the best beat-’em-ups on the system, but it does have one or two things holding it back from me absolutely loving it.

The story is a little more extreme for a TMNT game, where while the turtles are vacationing in Florida (already off to a fantastic start), Shredder takes over Manhattan, raising it up into the sky like it’s Angel Island, and kidnaps April O’Neal in the process, so it is up to the turtles to end their vacation early and go save the day once again, which is pretty crazy for a TMNT plot, but it is still a very basic “Shredder’s a dick, go beat him up” story, so it isn’t that great. The graphics are pretty good, being the best looking TMNT game available on the NES, and there are plenty of varied environments, enemies, and bosses to see, but it is nothing too spectacular, the music is good, giving off the same vibe as plenty of other soundtracks from this series, but nothing really stuck out as too memorable for me, and the control/gameplay is pretty good for what we got here, keeping the gameplay generally similar to what we have seen before, while refining it enough to where it is the best that the series has seen… at least, at this point in time.

The game is an old-school beat-’em-up, where you take control of one of the four Ninja Turtles, or if you are me, you pick Leonardo and nobody else, because you are a basic bitch, go through a set of eight different levels that range from the scummy, insane depths of Florida to the far reaches of space, defeat many different enemies that come your way using whatever moves that you have at your disposal, pick up pizzas to heal yourself whenever you get the chance to do so (which is only like three to four times in the entire game), and take on plenty of familiar faces in boss fights, ranging from regulars you would find from the comics and animated series, to others that come from the TMNT movies. It is your standard TMNT affair in almost every way, but that doesn’t make it bad in any way, as you can still have plenty of fun with it, and if you got a friend who can join you on your journey, that would definitely be the best way to play through it. Just, you know, make sure to turn off friendly fire (seriously, why is that even an option?).

There’s really not much else I can say about this game that I haven’t already talked about in plenty of other TMNT reviews at this point. You walk around, you beat people up, you grab pizza when you can, you fall into a sewer hole like a dumbass and feel bad about yourself, you all know how this goes by now. There is nothing new here to change up the gameplay whatsoever from what we have seen before, because it’s a TMNT game, and they didn’t need to try to do anything new or exciting, because it will sell anyway. But what I will say is that, as a whole, the game still plays pretty well. The moves are still fun enough to pull off, the specials are pretty helpful to use, and while the bosses are pretty tough, it is satisfying to beat them down and take them out. The only real part about the gameplay that I wasn’t a fan of was how slow your movement speed is, which I guess makes sense, seeing as you are playing as a turtle, but he is also a NINJA, and last time I checked, they go so fast that you would be dead before you knew they were there.

If I had to name off any major problems I had with the game, aside from the slow movement and the lack of changes, it would be based on how fucking LONG this game is. The game itself doesn’t have that much content, only having about eight stages, which is pretty standard for an NES game, but I swear, these stages drag on for an eternity, as you are constantly beating up bad guys and taking on minorly challenging platforming. Not to mention, some of the stages have multiple bosses, which only makes them take even longer to get through, and because of all of this, it took me over two hours to beat the game, which isn’t that bad, but for a game like this, you would expect something a lot quicker and snappier to help the pacing. Maybe it would’ve gone faster if I had played with another person, but either way, I still think the stages should’ve been shrunken down a little bit, especially for a game that has no password feature and limited continues.

Overall, despite a lack of change, your slow movement, and how the game drags on at points, this game is still a pretty good beat-’em-up for the NES, being the best of the original TMNT trilogy, and being a pretty good time all on its own, and I am sure big fans of this franchise would be able to properly enjoy themselves with this game all the same. I would recommend it for those who are big TMNT fans, as well as those who are big fans of beat-’em-ups in general, because while there are definitely better options out there now, this still does the job well enough, and you should be able to enjoy it all the same. Now, if you will excuse me, I am gonna go find out how exactly a turtle can live a full life while living on a pizza-only diet. See you all next time!

Game #535

At this point in time, Rare didn’t necessarily have the best track record when it came to their releases. Sure, they did have the Battletoads franchise, which mostly managed to have pretty solid games, and they had developed several other games that hold up relatively well, but most of the rest of the games that they have developed were either uninteresting, forgotten, or just straight up terrible. It was enough for them to stay in the business for as long as they had been, but not to the point where they could reach the same level of success and notoriety as other developers, like Capcom, Squaresoft, or Konami. That is, until they were approached by Nintendo who, after seeing what they could pull off with games on the SNES using pre-rendered graphics, decided to give them a shot at developing a brand new game in a similar style so they could compete with what games like Aladdin were doing on the Genesis. They were given the reigns to make a new game in the DK franchise, which, aside from the Game Boy game that had been released earlier in the year, hadn’t really seen any major attention in nearly a decade, and thus, Rare went on to not only make a new game to reintroduce DK to modern audiences, but to also completely re-invent the character and his world, changing both DK and Rare's reputation forever. This would result in what would become the start of one of the best sub-series that DK would ever be a part of, Donkey Kong Country.

I have had quite the history with the DKC series over the years, with my first proper introduction to the series being with DKC Returns back in 2010, when I was still a dumb kid, and I had no clue as to what a Super Nintendo or a Rareware was. Eventually, I would discover the wonders of what we refer to as “retro gaming”, and it would lead to me getting my hands on a SNES for myself, with this being one of the first games that I had ever gotten with the system. I don’t think I had ever heard of the game beforehand, so needless to say, I was excited to try it out, and naturally, I ended up loving it. So now that I am playing it again after all this time, I can say that it holds up extremely well, being pretty basic for a platformer, but having some of the best design, personality, and fun challenges from any platformer of this era, and it successfully managed to reinvent DK into what he would be to this day.

The story is pretty simple, where the villainous King K. Rool steals Donkey Kong’s banana hoard with the help of his Kremlings, which makes DK very sad, so he then sets out with his nephew Diddy Kong to go beat them up and get his bananas back, which is a very silly premise, but one that fits perfectly for this series, and I am all here for it. The graphics are pretty good, not only having a pretty unique style for a SNES game at that point, but also holding up extremely well, with all of the different models for the characters, enemies, and bosses looking very charming, and the environments look just as great right alongside them, the music is fantastic, with there being plenty of different tracks that I still love to listen to to this day, such as the final boss theme, the theme for the first level, and my favorite track in the whole game, the underwater level theme (if I drowned IRL while this music played, I would be going out happy), the control is pretty great, with both DK and Diddy having the proper weight to them, and each action they can perform feels just right on a SNES controller, and the gameplay itself is pretty basic for the genre it takes on, but it still manages to be a solid experience all the way through, and I would rather a game be simple yet solid rather than experimental yet flawed.

The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of either Donkey Kong or Diddy Kong, go through many different worlds, each one containing their own set of levels that will challenge you in plenty of different ways, defeat many different enemies and Kremlings along the way while gathering plenty of bananas, collectibles, and power-ups to assist you on your way, find many of the other members of the Kong family such as Funky Kong, the coolest motherfucker on the planet, Candy Kong, the Kong who made a lot of kids question themselves when they were younger, and Cranky Kong, the Kong who resembled everybody’s grandparents in one way or another, who will each help you out in their own way (except for Cranky, who just says you suck and makes you depressed), and take on plenty of bosses that will prove to be quite the “challenge” to overcome to get your precious bananas back. A lot of it is pretty standard for a platformer, and some who aren’t new to the genre may question why you would bother playing it with plenty of other options out there, but not only does the graphical and musical style help give this game its own unique identity that holds up extremely well to this day, but it also still manages to be a fun game all on its own, with many ways it changes up the formula and keep you going.

For every single level in the game that you go through, there is always something new and exciting waiting for you, even if the changes may not be as big as others. You start out going through a pretty typical platformer level, nothing too exciting for you to see or do, but then you get to levels where you will be going through ancient temples, fighting different foes, finding different animal buddies that can help you take out enemies and give you more momentum, and there are even extreme cases of changing up the gameplay, such as levels where you are riding minecarts, ones where you are grabbing fuel for a conveyor belt you are riding on, and ones where you are turning on the lights to keep the Satan crocodiles from waking up. While some of these gimmicks are definitely preferable over others, each one is very fun to go through and experience, all while the game makes you think more and more about what to do in each situation, even if the goal is obvious.

What also helps keep this game fun and fresh throughout the entire journey would be in terms of its difficulty. For those of you who have played this game, you know it isn’t easy in the slightest, and while I wouldn’t say it is as hard as other platformers out there like Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden, there are still plenty of the moments where the game will test your skills in pretty extreme ways, such as with precarious platforming in plenty of levels, adding gimmicks like wind and barrels you need to shoot out of, timing your jumps on minecart segments effectively, and so many more examples. However, despite how hard it can be, it never feels unfair. There is always a chance for you to figure out what to do, how to overcome these challenges, whether it be through simple trial and error, or just by taking your time, and even if you do manage to fuck up and get a game over, if you have been using save points properly, then you shouldn’t be sent too far back to where it discourages you from continuing forward. Not to mention, it feels immensely rewarding whenever you do conquer some of the challenges in this game, managing to make it to the next save point so that you can press on towards whatever challenge may lie ahead.

For those of you wanting a little more out of your platformers though, fear not, because this game isn’t just a simple “run to the end and you win” kinda deal… or at least, it doesn’t have to be, anyway. Throughout each of the level, there are plenty of different bonus areas that you can access, each one giving you some kind of bonus, whether it be with extra lives, or even by sending you to this bonus area where you can collect all of these golden tokens as one of your animal buddies for even more extra lives! Not only do they help you prepare for the journey ahead, but each one does add to your percentage total, and it can even change the ending that you get if you manage to find everything… which isn’t much different then the normal ending, but it will keep Cranky Kong from complaining too much, fucking old-ass prick. They are pretty fun to go for, not just for the sake of completion, but they can be pretty tricky to find to, making you really look around every corner to see what walls or floors are breakable, and where else you could look just in case you end up missing something along the way.

So yeah, most of this game is a blast from start to finish, but there are some gripes that I have with it that do keep it from being a perfect game in my eyes. For one thing, the boss fights FUCKING SUCK, not because they are too hard, but moreso because they are uncreative and boring. Most of them consist of just bigger versions of enemies that you fight in the regular levels, with some of these even being repeated as the game goes on, and while some of them try to mix things up a bit, it’s only methods of doing so is by either giving you a different weak spot to hit, or just by taking on an enemy gauntlet, which isn’t exactly fun to deal with. The only good boss in the entire game is the final one against K. Rool, because not only does the foe you fight actually put up a fight, but the ways in which he does and when you can hit him is pretty creative, and it keeps you on your toes.

Secondly, while most of the elements in this game are pretty fair, and you can get through a lot of the challenges easily, there are some things that were put into this game that I am just not a fan of. There’s one example of this that sticks out to me as clear as day, and that is with one of the bonus areas that you find in Oil Drum Alley. Whenever you go into one of the other bonus levels in the stage and clear it out, you have to take the barrel that you get and throw it ABOVE the wall that you would normally hit in order to clear it out, which will grant you access to another bonus area you need to go through. If you don’t know about this on your first go, and you end up missing it, you cannot go back and try getting it again, making it so that, if you are going for 101% completion, you are FUCKED. That’s not necessarily that bad for those who just wanna go through the game normally, and I myself have never had this happen to me, but the fact that it can happen at all is pretty shitty, and I’d imagine there is at least one person out there who didn’t know about it, figured out what they was missing, and had their day ruined because of it.

Overall, despite the terrible bosses and some secrets having strict punishments for not finding them, the original DKC is still a fantastic game after almost 30 years, having very fun platforming challenges, wonderful visuals and music, and plenty of things to do for those that wanna go the extra mile that you usually wouldn’t go for in a platformer like this. I would highly recommend it for those who are fans of Donkey Kong, as well as those who love 2D platformers in the first place, because while this certainly isn’t my favorite game in the series, it is still one of the best platformers you can play on the SNES, and one that would launch an equally fantastic series that would continue to get installments for years to come…………. at least, until 2014, that is. Seriously, Nintendo, bring back Donkey Kong in a brand new game already! And maybe also try to bring back the Kremlings while you’re at it, too. That would be nice.

Game #532

Whenever deciding to check out any piece of media, it is always best to keep an open mind. Sure, there are things out there that you look at, get a good idea of what it is all about, and make a proper assumption about their quality based on that, but in many cases, you don’t really know how good or bad a product can be without giving it a proper shot. Hell, there have been plenty of points in the past where I would watch a movie, play a game, or whatever, thinking that it was gonna be nothing all that special, or it would just flat-out suck, and it ends up becoming one of my new personal favorites from whatever medium it comes from. So, I figured I needed to have this type of approach when it came to a game like NBA Jam.

If you have been keeping up with my reviews for a while now, you would know that I generally am not a fan of sports games in the slightest, as most of the time, they are usually not only incredibly similar to each other, but also have zero effort put into them to make one stand out from another, and are just pumped out non-stop for poor souls to waste their time and money on. There are obvious exceptions to this, but that is usually the case when it comes to a lot of these titles, and I had a sneaking suspicion that this game would end up like most of the others. I had heard from many YouTubers and others in the past that, out of all of the basketball games to be released back in the day, or just sports games in general, this was one of the best of the bunch, which made me very curious to try it out for the longest time. I figured it was about time that I do give it a fair chance, and it may not come off as a surprise to some of you, but I actually ended up having way more fun with it then I thought I would. It isn’t anything more than what it is advertised as, so you won’t be seeing anything too groundbreaking from it, but for what it is, it is some of the most fun I have ever had with a sports game in such a long time.

The graphics are pretty good, featuring good recreations of what a lot of the players here look like in real life, and the sprites for the players on the court do look… off, but still well done enough to where you can have a great time watching all of the action take place, the music is pretty good, not being there for a majority of the main game, but for all of the menus and segments, there are some enjoyable tunes to listen to that get you ready to play another round, the control is pretty solid, with you being able to do plenty with so little in order to score points, although it can take a little getting used to, in my case anyway, and the gameplay is pretty much what you would expect, but with all of the personality and energy that you would want from one of these games, which makes it worth checking out above all the rest.

The game is a basketball game, where you take control of one of many, MANY different basketball teams from 1992-1993 and 1993-1994 NBA seasons (depending on what version of the game you play), take on another team in a two-on-two game on the court, get the ball whenever you can to pass to your teammate and shoot it into your hoop whenever you can, use the turbo feature to keep up with the other players and shove them out of the way to make sure they never get the chance to score either, and enjoy all of this without any of the dumbass rules that really basketball has to keep you from going too buckwild… except for goaltending and 24-second violations, because you can’t have too much fun with this. A lot of it is pretty generic for a basketball game, so you wouldn’t really think too much of it on the surface, making you question why you would play it over any other basketball game released at the time or ever since, but if there is one thing that makes this game stand out from the rest, it is the energy and personality that it brings to the sport as a whole.

The game is already flashy and engaging enough with its appealing visuals and sound quality, but then there are plenty of other elements added to spice up the gameplay even more to make it that much more fun and exciting. While the game mostly sticks to the realistic movements and maneuvers one would typically see in a basketball games, there are also a lot of other movements that are over-the-top and greatly exaggerated, making a lot of the actions you can perform throughout the game feel exciting and extremely satisfying. Of course, a lot of that comes from whenever you shoot or dunk the ball into a hoop, and a lot of these movements can be pretty basic, but some of them get so incredibly ridiculous that you can’t help but love them, such as when you are able to not only set the net ON FIRE because of how awesome you are, but you are also able to straight up break the backboard of the hoop, and it is just the most glorious thing that I may have ever seen in any NBA game ever.

In addition to this, you also have an announcer that will be commenting on everything you do in the game, and while he doesn’t really do much to change up the gameplay, I just love listening to this guy talk. He adds a lot of the charm and personality that a game like this needs, and many of the phrases that he does say have become just as iconic as the game itself, with lines like “Boomshakalaka!”, “He’s heating up!”, and “He’s on fire!” being just some of the few most noteworthy ones you can hear. Seriously, how can you not love hearing that whenever you manage to score a perfect shot in the basket? Not only that, but whenever the announcer does say “he’s on fire”, you get an infinite turbo meter for a limited amount of time, making it easy to keep up with opponents, take the ball, and score even more points.

But of course, what would one of these games be without the many, MANY easter eggs that you can find? Throughout the game, you can see plenty of different ones that not only relate to the NBA and the players found in it, but also from Midway themselves and whatever whacky shit the devs thought of including in here. Depending on what version you play, you can enter different cheat codes to play as different characters, such as other players from the NBA, some of the devs that made the game, and even some pretty out-of-nowhere characters that you would never expect, such as the mascot for the Charlotte Hornets and even Bill fucking Clinton! I mean, c’mon, you can’t hate a game that allows you to dunk on basketball players as a former president. Aside from that though, there are also other codes that change up the game itself, such as one that gives everyone huge heads, one that makes all of the floors slippery to where you can fall down if you go too fast, and there is even a secret tank game that you can access just for the sake of it. All of this is incredibly stupid and unnecessary, and yet, it makes the game so much better just by being there, not only for the novelty of being there, but also allowing you to experiment with the many different modes and characters you can play as for many more matches.

At the end of the day though, it is still a basketball game through and through. You run around, shoot hoops, and try not to let the other team score as many points as you do, with there being no other modes to try out, so if you are not someone who enjoys these types of games, or you just aren’t a fan of basketball or sports in general, then you probably wouldn’t enjoy this game as much as others. Not to mention, in terms of the original version of NBA Jam, the one that I played for this review, there have updates to it made over the years which does add more content to the game, so if you are going to play this game, you would be better off sticking to one of those versions over this one. That doesn’t make this version bad whatsoever, but that is still something to consider if you want to play the game for yourself.

Overall, despite how simple it is and how it is outdated when compared to future editions of the game, NBA Jam may just be the best sports game that I have ever played from this era, and it may even be the best basketball game I have ever played in general, having the exact energy that a game like this should have, along with plenty of personality and extras for you to try out that make it truly one of a kind. I would absolutely recommend this game, not just for those who are fans of basketball or sports games, but for anyone to try out in general, because even for someone like me who avoids sports games like the plague, this managed to give me one hell of a good time regardless, and it will probably do the same for you. You see that, modern sports game designers? THIS is what more sports games should be like, alright? Not whatever shit EA usually pulls out of their ass for all the sport cucks to throw their money at every year.

Game #531

A remake of the beloved GBA original which in itself was a spiritual sequel to the actual classic Donkey Kong 94 for Gameboy. Now the first entry in the Mini Mario Puzzle Genre gets the end of life console remake treatment. And how is it? Eh, it's fine. Visually, it's definitely a step up from the somewhat highly saturated Pixel art of the GBA original and definitely benefits from a soundtrack remaster as well. The game controls well, albeit some jumps can feel a bit floaty at times, but other moves such as the handstand, backflip, and handstand jump feel good to use and pull off. The most fun from this game comes in the form of its new Co-op mode in which a second player plays as Toad. Toad can do everything Mario can and even has the ability to fit into small spaces while hanstanding. This results in being able to have a lot of fun breaking the original games levels in a lot of fun ways since they never accounted for a second player to begin with. The biggest drawback of the title is that the presentation is incredibly boring. Lots of incredibly simple menus that result in a real boring and sanitized feel, and while it's fun to see the original games static slideshow cutscenes now in fully animated CG, there is a lot of charm lost in the carryover due to the fact that a lot of the fun voice lines have been removed from Mario, resulting in him being more mildly concerned at DK rather than pissed off and mocking of him. If you're interested in the game, it's definitely not worth it at full price despite the addition of some Expert levels. $50 is way too steep for what you're given. If the game were to fall to say $20, then that'd be the time to pick it up.

A remake of one of my favorite GBA games...Really fucking bizarre how it's 20 years old now. Ugh. Anyway, this is a very solid remake of an already great puzzle platformer. While I do miss some of the original's charm (Mario's plethora of voice clips and fun little animations like Mario's unique deaths), it's not really a dealbreaker just a little unfortunate.

The game looks wonderful and the remixes/new music slaps too. The addition of time trials was also nice even if completing them all doesn't really net you a reward. This game's about the challenging puzzles and your journey through mastering them.

Weirdly jank thing is the hitboxes on the enemies being altered too, I took way too many deaths than I expected too because of misjudging my jumps that I otherwise would've landed in the original. This is a nitpick though and likely wouldn't affect new players at all. It also would've been cool to see them remake the Japan only E-Reader levels as a neat little bonus, I didn't think they'd be remade but I was a lil hopeful ya know.

Overall, this is a solid game and remake with alot to offer especially if you're looking to complete everything. If you're unsure on buying this remake (especially with it being $50) wait for a sale.

Pulling a Trophy Hunting Pro Gamer Move™ getting this game's Platinum mere hours before it left the PS Plus service when I rarely play stealth games was An Experience, let me tell you. I am now fully acquainted with the finicky 100% requirements of El Hijo, whether I like it or not.

First, the positives. The art, level design, art direction, and music are all just incredible. The way this game looked was what pulled me in and caused me to make my dumb "hmm perhaps I shall complete this before it leaves the service" decision after all. There's a very consistent spaghetti western meets late 2010's animated TV show visual aesthetic throughout the entire game, where it oozes atmosphere and charm in every stitch. It's a gorgeous game, and the choices in color with the lighting and the uses of yellows and blues are simply stellar.

El Hijo's world and story unfolds entirely without dialogue, and to El Hijo's credit, this works. Once the mom leaves her child at a monastery so that she can go extract Wild West Revenge on the bandits who destroyed her home without her boyson catching a bullet between the eyes, El Hijo of course escapes and we get a steady reveal that the monastery isn't actually the safe haven that El Hijo's mom thought it would be and that it's, in reality, actually a weird front for corpse experimentation, weapons manufacturing, and child slavery. ("Whoops!") Then you get to see mom and son's paths converge as the levels progress and it accumulates with every bad guy in the game joining forces in a weird tag team of monks and outlaws before a plucky kid and his slingshot takes them all down. The story is simple and kid-friendly, but it's executed pretty well, and you even get a cute "Kid Power" ending where the enslaved children join forces and fight off the big, mean adults.

And then there's the gameplay...

There are many indie games where the art style and presentation are so much cooler than actually playing the game. Style over substance, the common complaint of cool-looking first releases by new, small studios. El Hijo is sadly one of them.

This is an exploratory stealth game, and this game's brand of stealth is completely nonviolent and focused on finding the one optimal route in a given level. You cannot take down enemies for good, you can only temporarily slow them down. At first, Little Sonboy must use shadows to sneak past the guards and throw rocks to create diversions, but eventually you unlock more weapons like a smoke bomb made out of cactus pollen and fireworks to stun enemies. On the one hand, I liked the feeling of progression and watching Little Boyson become More Sneaky™, but as a result, the last 1/4th of the game where you have access to the fireworks just feels funner to play because now you have more sneaking options than just "wait in one place until guard walks past your hiding spot".

Sadly, that was a big problem I had with El Hijo. The part of the game where you're in the monastery and feel the most defenseless is also the slowest and longest part of the game, and it's also the part of the game that highlights how brainless the AI can be. As long as Tiny Boykid is in the shadows, he can stand literally inches in front of guards without any worry. Monks are apparently nightblind, despite working in complete darkness being Their Thing. But then, the moment a guard does notices you, this instantly reverses and it's almost always an instant checkpoint restart since they are near impossible to evade as they turn into the goddamn Terminator to take you down. It's doable, but enemies run twice as fast as El Hijo and can be strangely persistent, often phasing through cracks in the wall or pushing past boundaries you swore were impassible. I swear I saw a monastery monk phase through a wall in order to catch me.

I was browsing through the Steam reviews and apparently the controls were worse in a previous release of a game. I can't even imagine how that felt, because the finicky, imprecise controls - in a game where you have to make split-second decisions - are what end up killing me the most. Little Sonboy's stealth controls are all Context Sensitive, giving you the option to crouch or hide when you bump into objects that give you the appropriate stealthing prompt. The game does not give you these prompts instantaneously when you touch a place of cover AND has a tendency to read multiple button prompts at once, meaning that Wee Childman will dive in and out of cover on accident and get caught because you happened to panic a little at an approaching guard.

There's also a bonus objective for Inspiring the various children you find, often locked in chains and forced to do slave labor off the beaten path, scattered throughout the various levels. I get what they're going for with El Hijo's silly antics bringing cheer to these hopeless kids - and sometimes El Hijo DOES save them so that they can move a ladder within reach - but some of these children were placed in very dire places like chained on a desert cliff baking in the sun or forced to build a bridge underneath the supervision of heavily armed soldiers that made me go "hey El Hijo, this kid's gonna die, I don't think the juggling act's gonna cut it this time".

All the kids you save end up showing up in the Epilogue so they supposedly all make it just fine. I still have my doubts about the second kid in Level 12 - The Monastery Station.

But, despite my gripes about the stealth (of which I had many), the aesthetics of the game and that feeling of power I got once I got the cooler weapons were enough to make me Platinum the game. El Hijo had some of the most frustrating moments I've had in a video game all year, but you know what? I saved all the children and got my farm and mom back.

Would I do it all again? Prrrobably not to 100%. But there's definitely Something Here to this game that probably could've been something great if the controls were hammered out more. There's better stealth games out there but El Hijo has HEART. And a slingshot that's kinda hard to target and often won't hit the object you were aiming for.

Similar to how the Animal Crossing villagers used to insult your weight and steal your stuff in the first installment, Cooking Mama used to be a weird bully who would call you a bitch because you didn't peel three potatoes perfectly under an oppressive time limit.

While this does give the original Cooking Mama more of a personality than the sequels, I also don't like being stressed out while making pixel art spaghetti. I definitely prefer the defanged Cooking Mama of the 3DS era to the original "if I see one lettuce leaf break then it's a bronze medal" Cooking Mama.

Looking back on the games I played over the course of my childhood, I've noticed that some of my most memorable gaming expirences came from Rare. Before I discovered Banjo-Kazooie, I played and beat the GBA port of Donkey Kong Country 2 and the DS remake of Diddy Kong Racing, but out of those two games I found Diddy Kong Racing DS to be much more interesting. I frequently looked up information online on how to unlock everything that the game had to offer. Apon doing so, I eventually discovered that there was a whole other version of the game that came before it with a few characters that weren't in the DS version. This is how I discovered the existence of Banjo. It wasn't until I connected my Xbox 360 to the internet for the first time a few years later that I would rediscover Banjo-Kazooie and download the demos of this game and its sequel Tooie. Not long after, I was able to purchase both of them and enjoy them to my heart's content. The Banjo-Kazooie games quickly became some of my all-time favorites, leading me into developing a fascination for the developers that made them. I've even attempted speedrunning this game on the 360 version multiple times with my best time being around 5 hours. Having just finished another playthrough of this masterpiece, I will say this is easily Rare's best collect-a-thon and one of the best 3d platformers ever made.

There are a lot of positive things to say about Banjo-Kazooie. The graphics are nice, the characters are funny & memorable, the worlds are enjoyable to explore, and the size of said worlds are just right. One big issue with some of the games that came after this one such as Donkey Kong 64 & Banjo-Tooie are that the worlds are just too damn big and require a lot of backtracking. WIth Banjo-Kazooie, all the objectives & goodies are scattered throughout the levels in a way that isn't intrusive. The only exception being one jiggy you'll have to backtrack for in the middle part of the game, but unless you're aiming for 100% completion it is totally optional.

As far as negatives go, the controls can be a little confusing. It could be since my last playthrough was a couple years ago, but I had some trouble remembering the imputs for a few moves or just accidently doing the wrong thing. It was never something I thought about until I played this version but that's probably because of the obtuse design of the controller. The other issue is something that the 360 version fixes which involves having to recollect the Jinjos and musical notes if you died. It can be very aggrivating to go through the process of getting them all again, especially if you die in any of the later worlds. However, the reason this issue exists is because of hardware limitations so its somewhat excusable.

Banjo-Kazooie is Rare's most iconic IP and rightfully so. Its tight level design, beautiful worlds, and memorable cast cement this game as the best 3d platformer on the N64. Between Banjo-Kazooie & Mario 64, I'd say the bear & bird duo gave the Italian plumber a run for his money.

An improvement from the original Yooka in every way possible. Playtonic proves they can be more than "Banjo, but not as good" with "Donkey Kong Country AND on an almost equal level." Playtonic is essentially returning to their roots even further by opting to follow up their 3D platformer with a 2D one. Each of the 20 levels are very well crafted with a fantastic Soundtrack, while also taking the idea of the expanded tomes from the first game and making them 10X better with the new Change State function that completely alters how you play every level. The tonic system has also been reworked to be way more fun with a selection of boosters that can help or hinder your play of a level. Using more detrimental tonics can have a big risk, but big reward function, while helpful tonics can do the opposite. The overworld is also really fun to explore as this is where you'll find said tonics, along with puzzles that'll help you State Change a level, and some of the more memorable characters from the first game. The titular Impossible Lair is an aggravating, but very satisfying gauntlet to complete once you get the hang of things, and for the true masochist, Playtonic rewards you greatly for beating the Impossible Lair on your first try without the use of the games main collectible, The Beetalion army. It's crazy to think it's already almost been 5 years since the release of this. Hopefully Playtonix can break their silence soon. I'd love to see them finally take a 2nd crack at 3D platformers with everything they've relearned from the original Yooka and this one.

Heeeeey I didn’t like it very much!!

I feel like everything, even the good parts, are a step down from the first game. Sonic and Shadow just don’t feel as good as Sonic did in 1. They go a lot faster but they feel a lot loose to control.

Tails and Eggman are E-102 Gamma if he was slow and clunky and not fun to control.

The Knuckles and Rouge levels, holy hell, how did they mess these up so bad? Only one specific emerald shard at a time in levels three times as big as before, get all up on outta here with those apples

Music is super good at least. I mean I dunno, am I saying anything that hasn’t been said before?

It just stank, me no like

The original Joe & Mac, while not necessarily the most creative or entertaining of arcade 2D platformers, was certainly still a good, charming platformer from Data East, and it did have some elements going for it that not too many other games at the time had to offer. So, now that we had one successful title on our hands, Data East decided that they needed to turn Joe & Mac into a franchise, but the next title in the series would be… confusing to say the least. Most people would probably assume that the game known as Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics would be the official sequel to the original game, but before that, there was another title that was NOT called Joe & Mac 2, but it would still be the direct sequel to Joe & Mac, and it would be presented as a completely separate game known as Congo’s Caper. To make things even more confusing, in Japan, the game was titled Fighting Caveman 2: Rookie’s Adventure, which makes sense over there, considering Joe & Mac was also called Fighting Caveman, so why… I don’t know, video game titles make absolutely zero sense.

So, despite not featuring Joe & Mac whatsoever, and not even mentioning them by name at all, this is the follow-up to that game, as it plays almost identically, except with a new art style, characters, and what have you. But don’t worry, because in case you did play the game not knowing it was a follow-up, you probably would’ve figured it out immediately, because it plays pretty much EXACTLY like the original game, with not too many noticeable differences in the gameplay, settings, or even the plot. With all that being said though, I would consider this game to be SLIGHTLY better then the original Joe & Mac, making the gameplay feel more fluid and controllable, while still retaining the charm of the original… somewhat. Yes, it is still very basic, but it was still fun enough to play through, and it thankfully doesn’t have that many problems that would drive people away.

The story is, once again, “guy saves girl”, except now it is just one girl instead of multiple, so I guess that somehow makes the plot different, the graphics are incredibly generic for SNES standards, but they are bright and colorful enough to where I didn’t hate looking at it, the music is very cheerful, bouncy, and fun to listen to, so it does its job well, even if the tracks themselves aren’t all that memorable either, the control is a little better than the original game, with it being generally the same, with the same awkward higher jump function, but HEY… there’s a run button now, so it is automatically better, and the gameplay is basically just if you took the original Joe & Mac, made it better… and that’s about it.

The game is your average 2D platformer, where you take control of Congo, go through plenty of different prehistoric levels through plenty of prehistoric environments, take out many different baddies that you will run into on your journey, gather plenty of gems and powerups along the way, while sometimes activating a slot machine to give you bonuses (I dunno), and take on familiar, yet new and formidable boss battles. What we have here is basically just more Joe & Mac, but with some of it removed, while other elements are added. For example, those multiple weapons that you could get and try out in the original game? Yeah, they are gone, but here, you can gather these pink orbs that, when you collect enough, gives you more speed and allows you to hit faster, while also making you glow, which is… fine, I guess. It’s not necessarily a preferable change, and it lacks variety, but I still found myself having enough fun with it.

If it wasn’t already connected with Joe & Mac, you could easily see this game as your typical shovelware SNES platformer. It really doesn’t do anything to make itself stand out from other titles on the system, and I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that it was one of those shovelware SNES platformers, because it REALLY feels like it. It is still fun, and I had a good enough time with it, but that is just because I am a big fan of old-school platformers in general. Not to mention, if you were afraid that this change of characters would result in the feel of Joe & Mac being stripped away too, well fear not, because aside from a few differences, it pretty much plays exactly like Joe & Mac, but in this case, I would say it is better then the original, despite not being as charming.

If I were to give some complaints about the game, it would be that it is pretty damn easy. Yes, the levels themselves can be pretty tricky, and there are certainly plenty of instances where you can die, but this game gives you gems and lives like they are fucking candy, to the point where you can easily max out your life count by the end of the game. That’s saying a lot, considering your life cap is at 99. Also, this may have just been a problem for me, but I did encounter a game-breaking glitch that made me restart the entire game. In one of the haunted levels of the game, whenever I would touch one of those lightbulb things, the game would just automatically reset itself, and no matter how much I reloaded that save state, it ALWAYS did this. This may not sound like that much of a big deal, but considering you HAVE to pass by one of these bulbs in order to beat the level they are in, I was pretty much caught in a dead game. Thankfully, when I got back to that level after replaying through the entire game, it didn’t do this anymore, so it may have just been a one-time thing, but the fact that a bug like that exists is still pretty bad, and is worth mentioning.

Overall, despite the gameplay not being changed around that much, the life whoring, and the game-breaking bug, Congo’s Caper was still a pretty enjoyable time, and I would definitely consider it an improvement over the original Joe & Mac, despite not seeming like there is much more to it that would be worth playing. I would recommend it for those who were fans of the original game, as well as fans of the series in general, but for everyone else, there are definitely better platformers out there. But hey, at least now that we got through this game, the confusion with the titles will probably stop now, right? Oh, who am i kidding, it’ll never stop.

Game #320

It really does show how much the early Game Boy games were advancing on the new technology in such a short amount of time when Fall of the Foot Clan, released less than a year after Castlevania: The Adventure, feels and plays leagues better when they both have the same gameplay of "hero slowly walks sideways and hits enemies until they reach the boss".

I still wouldn't call this a great game by any means, and like Castlevania: The Adventure you can really feel its age as an early GB title, but it's at least playable. They gave you enough reaction time for the countless enemy spawns so deaths didn't feel cheap, which almost feels like a blessing for games this old, and the sprites are nice to look at too. I love that they gave Michelangelo a little nunchuck twirl for his sprite.

Also hearing the TMNT theme song in the Game Boy sound font rules. This game may be old and crusty but that song still slaps.