7 reviews liked by milkpwns
Beating every Zelda in timeline order 6/20:
Twilight Princess was my first Zelda game and the one that I've beaten the most. By a lot. I love this game. After returning to it with a fully developed brain, it's not everything I'm looking for in a Zelda game, but it's damn near close. This is by far the easiest Zelda game I've played so far, and although all the bosses LOOK super cool, they are some of the most brain-dead easy sequences in the game, excluding the final boss sequence. The game takes a bit to get going in general, having you run back and forth in Faron Woods for like, 2 hours. Once you're in it though, the meat of the game is all great stuff. I love nearly all the dungeons in the game, and although they're not always difficult, they're always fun to work through. Their theming and designs are some of the best in the series. I still pick up on new things every time I experience the story, which speaks to its longevity. And I like the vibes. These are great vibes, all around. Makes me wanna be under a big blanket and play in a dark room until 3 am.
Twilight Princess is without a doubt the most nostalgic Zelda game for me, and anything I have to say about it probably doesn't hold up under scrutiny. But I fuckin love this game.
Twilight Princess was my first Zelda game and the one that I've beaten the most. By a lot. I love this game. After returning to it with a fully developed brain, it's not everything I'm looking for in a Zelda game, but it's damn near close. This is by far the easiest Zelda game I've played so far, and although all the bosses LOOK super cool, they are some of the most brain-dead easy sequences in the game, excluding the final boss sequence. The game takes a bit to get going in general, having you run back and forth in Faron Woods for like, 2 hours. Once you're in it though, the meat of the game is all great stuff. I love nearly all the dungeons in the game, and although they're not always difficult, they're always fun to work through. Their theming and designs are some of the best in the series. I still pick up on new things every time I experience the story, which speaks to its longevity. And I like the vibes. These are great vibes, all around. Makes me wanna be under a big blanket and play in a dark room until 3 am.
Twilight Princess is without a doubt the most nostalgic Zelda game for me, and anything I have to say about it probably doesn't hold up under scrutiny. But I fuckin love this game.
An amazing way to replay this old classic. All the colors chosen feel perfect. I also like the little touches on the UI, changing the enemy counter to a little Goomba. Or the 1-Up Hearts into 1-Up Mushrooms, to make use of the color.
Bonus points for having Luigi. Though I didn't use him since the game is pretty slippery on its own and I didn't wanna add Luigi level slippery.
As for the game itself, Super Mario Land 2 was always great. While the physics aren't amazing and the levels can be extremely short, they make up for that with sheer presentation. This is not a game that goes for the classic Mario formula of plains, forests, mountains, tundras, and volcanoes.
RG35XX
Bonus points for having Luigi. Though I didn't use him since the game is pretty slippery on its own and I didn't wanna add Luigi level slippery.
As for the game itself, Super Mario Land 2 was always great. While the physics aren't amazing and the levels can be extremely short, they make up for that with sheer presentation. This is not a game that goes for the classic Mario formula of plains, forests, mountains, tundras, and volcanoes.
RG35XX
Super Paper Mario
2007
This is one of my favorite games ever, and I like to revisit it every few years. It still holds up magnificently. It's just a joy to play through, the atmosphere and writing are fun, the gameplay is light and enjoyable, the music is great, etc. It's always fun to come back to it with a new perspective.
As far as nitpicks go, I think a couple of them deal with Pixls. I enjoy their designs and dialog a lot, but they only talk during their intro scenes and never again. It would've given them a lot more character if they actually chimed in now and again like your current character does (also, let Mario talk. It just feels a little silly when he's the only silent one). I also think there's just a little bit of bloat in the number of Pixls, not even counting optional ones. A lot of the fun of the gameplay is "OK, holding forward stopped working, what tools do I have that might apply here?" and figuring it out. This starts out pretty simple, then grows to a nice tight loop, then eventually you have a few too many options and it becomes pretty rare to whip out some of the early game or niche Pixls to solve anything. There's already a wealth of options with the character swapping, flipping to 3D, and Tippi, so I think it might have helped keep things more creative if there were only 4 or 5 Pixls. Fleep, for example, really doesn't need to exist, and then the others get spread so thin, especially Slim (hehe). But again, this is nitpicking. It's fine to have some less notable Pixls just for the fun of collecting them or recognizing a rare scenario when they apply anyway. I do feel like >80% of the 2nd half of my game was either Bowser + Carrie or Mario + Dashell though (and my old favorite, Cudge). Something else that would've been nice is being able to bind more than one Pixl to certain buttons, like you can with items in A Link Between Worlds or something, since you swap around a lot and this would cut down on menuing.
Another very minor nitpick I noticed this time around was that for 3 of the 7 pure hearts you collect, it turns out it was the character you were escorting/rescuing the whole time. Kind of funny that it happens so often, doesn't really impact the story, I just thought it was silly. The story is Kingdom Hearts if it was good. Or Romeo and Juliet if it was good, idk.
A pretty perfect video game.
As far as nitpicks go, I think a couple of them deal with Pixls. I enjoy their designs and dialog a lot, but they only talk during their intro scenes and never again. It would've given them a lot more character if they actually chimed in now and again like your current character does (also, let Mario talk. It just feels a little silly when he's the only silent one). I also think there's just a little bit of bloat in the number of Pixls, not even counting optional ones. A lot of the fun of the gameplay is "OK, holding forward stopped working, what tools do I have that might apply here?" and figuring it out. This starts out pretty simple, then grows to a nice tight loop, then eventually you have a few too many options and it becomes pretty rare to whip out some of the early game or niche Pixls to solve anything. There's already a wealth of options with the character swapping, flipping to 3D, and Tippi, so I think it might have helped keep things more creative if there were only 4 or 5 Pixls. Fleep, for example, really doesn't need to exist, and then the others get spread so thin, especially Slim (hehe). But again, this is nitpicking. It's fine to have some less notable Pixls just for the fun of collecting them or recognizing a rare scenario when they apply anyway. I do feel like >80% of the 2nd half of my game was either Bowser + Carrie or Mario + Dashell though (and my old favorite, Cudge). Something else that would've been nice is being able to bind more than one Pixl to certain buttons, like you can with items in A Link Between Worlds or something, since you swap around a lot and this would cut down on menuing.
Another very minor nitpick I noticed this time around was that for 3 of the 7 pure hearts you collect, it turns out it was the character you were escorting/rescuing the whole time. Kind of funny that it happens so often, doesn't really impact the story, I just thought it was silly. The story is Kingdom Hearts if it was good. Or Romeo and Juliet if it was good, idk.
A pretty perfect video game.
Super Paper Mario
2007
Such an interesting and underrated platformer. While I get the hate for it not being an RPG game, the 2D 3D switching mechanic is probably one of my favorite mechanics of all time. It allows for endless secrets, and the characters alongside the side characters (while not as great as the partners of the first two games) are awesome. The ending is very depressing though.
can't say much, i came back to this game so i could just do a quick little speedrun for a fun n easy replay
blue shell is so sick, i love mario power ups focused on mobility
i also learned somehow after like nearly a decade that thwomps can't hurt you if you crouch into the shell
very nice 7/10
blue shell is so sick, i love mario power ups focused on mobility
i also learned somehow after like nearly a decade that thwomps can't hurt you if you crouch into the shell
very nice 7/10
A revival done right. New power ups and unique world bosses makes this one stand out. The music style is odd but charming. The game is basic at its core and thats all it needs to be. I would say check it out if you haven't, but lets be real you have played this before and enjoyed it.
PokeMMO
2012
As of writing, I have only played through platinum on PokeMMO, so I can imagine different games will have different mechanics which will effect the legitimacy of some of the points I make. If I ever decide to go back to this review then I’ll add that.
PokeMMO feels like a enhanced port of the Pokemon games which many people consider the “best ones”, with MMO features added to make the experience slightly more interesting. A lot of it is streamlined, and there is some good QOL I appreciate (though I disagree with the micro-transactions required to purchase the HM flutes, they have to make their money somehow but I feel like cosmetics cover that). Also, I noticed some changes to battling that I appreciated (such as the overhauled giratina fight which actually makes it feel intimidating). However, it lacks some some side content from the games which previously provided a nice break from the experience. Additionally, I dislike how PokeMMO places a focus on competitive systems (like EVs, IVs and natures) without streamlining the process (from what I’ve seen, anyway). Making a competitively-viable Pokémon is an absolute nightmare in most games and PokeMMO does not take any strides to reduce the issues, which I personally find to be disappointing. For the time being, I can recommend PokeMMO as a fun way to re-experience some of the games, but it doesn’t become the definitive way to play these games because of the issues stated. Still, if the team is able to rectify the lack of content in some areas, I can see this becoming my favourite way to play these games.
PokeMMO feels like a enhanced port of the Pokemon games which many people consider the “best ones”, with MMO features added to make the experience slightly more interesting. A lot of it is streamlined, and there is some good QOL I appreciate (though I disagree with the micro-transactions required to purchase the HM flutes, they have to make their money somehow but I feel like cosmetics cover that). Also, I noticed some changes to battling that I appreciated (such as the overhauled giratina fight which actually makes it feel intimidating). However, it lacks some some side content from the games which previously provided a nice break from the experience. Additionally, I dislike how PokeMMO places a focus on competitive systems (like EVs, IVs and natures) without streamlining the process (from what I’ve seen, anyway). Making a competitively-viable Pokémon is an absolute nightmare in most games and PokeMMO does not take any strides to reduce the issues, which I personally find to be disappointing. For the time being, I can recommend PokeMMO as a fun way to re-experience some of the games, but it doesn’t become the definitive way to play these games because of the issues stated. Still, if the team is able to rectify the lack of content in some areas, I can see this becoming my favourite way to play these games.