{WII VERSION REVIEW} I just watched all of iCarly and wanted ti finish it by playing the 4 Wii and DS games, starting with this Wii one. As far as mini game collections go based on existing IP, i’ve seen worse (The Chuck E Cheese games come to mind). This is more of a WarioWare knock off though, which is at least a little more interesting of a concept. Theres some okay callbacks to the show, things like Nevel obviously, Lewbert, Mandy, the baby chicks. Very much so up to season the iGotoJapan special in terms of references. The writing is pretty awful as to be expected, but it is cool that there is ALOT of voice acting in the game, all by the main cast. I also hate how much Nevel says Rue in this. Its like the only joke the game has. Not gonna blow any minds but also not a terrible thing to play if you want to completely exhaust the iCarly extended media catalog and got a free night. (I do like the included bonus behind the scenes videos, they are a cool extra)

I went to PAX East 2024 this year and was able to get a physical copy of this, along side getting it signed by the creator and a artist/VAs from the Zelda CDI games. They also held a pannel where they talked about the history of the CDI games which was cool to hear about. The game itself is obviously asterisk wise very unique, and a game I am very happy was actually made. The gameplay itself though is kinda middling and not a whole ton of fun to play. It’s a pretty short game, which is fine, but I was very on and off with playing it over the corse of half a month. This was not a great way to play the game, as especially in the start of the game, I would often completely forget what I was doing and have no clue where to go. This lead to ALOT of pointless replays of levels, just because I didn’t remember if something I could now pass was in that level. This problem becomes less prevalent later in the game when you have so many abilities unlocked that your bound to stumble on something new. But yeah the mechanics of the game and the main loop could definitely be more interesting. I also feel like I completely cheesed the last few bosses with the bounce back shield? The final boss specifically I didn't have to do anything accept just hold forward and do some jumps while holding the shield down. Kinda felt like an oversight, or im not sure if it was intentional.

I’ve been playing this on and off for a while now. Whenever I had a couple minutes to spare, I’d just pick up and play a bit of it. I think this 3D classics version is definitely the ultimate version of the original TwinBee. I’ve played the arcade version, the NES and this version. I know this version is based off thr NES version, but there are small changes that make this a more addictive and fulfilling experience. Being able to always see your lifes is nice. I feel like I die less in this version. It of course looks nicer and having the ability to save is nice. My biggest gripe with all of the original TwinBees is that whenever you die, it feels almost impossible to surmount a comeback, regardless of how many lives you have. If you don't have the upgrades, it can be hard to work in the frantic and fast enemy layouts of the later levels. Still the best version of a pretty good arcade shooter.

[Replay] First time replaying this in probably a decade. I have memories of absolutely loving Portal 2 on the 360, but I honestly remembered very little going in, which is great for this specific game where the puzzles and jokes are at the forefront. Portal 2 is definitely in contention for one of the greatest games of all time, without a doubt. It takes almost every facet of the original Portal, and improves it to the max. The puzzles add many more elements and layers like the gels, the light bridges or the beams and are definitely trickier as a result. The scope and ambition is so much grander, you can really feel the confidence oozing from this game after making the first game look like a little pet project. And of course, the writing. The writing and performances in Portal 2 I would argue, is probably the funniest and best in any video game ever. I cannot think of any other game that really surpasses the level of effortlessness this game demonstrates. When you as a player stops for minutes on end at every single dialogue exchange just to hear every line that was written for that character, you know its good. But its's one thing to just have the funniest writing of all games, but to also have the best performances too with Ellen McLain as Glados and Stephen Merchant as Wheatly? It's insane how high quality it all is and puts a lot of other and modern games in the AAA space to shame. I couldn't stop playing on the first day I started at it and would have beaten the whole game in one sitting if my eyes weren't hurting from staring at the screen all day. The only area I feel the game isn't an improvement on Portal 1, would be the escape sequence / old Aperture labs stuff. These two sections in both games are pretty comparable because it has you breaking out of the test chambers and kind of free wheeling through the facility with more natural puzzles. In Portal 1, I think it worked a little better because it felt a little more guided and gave a sense like you were hopping between test chambers, making your own rules as you went. In Portal 2, I felt like I was frustrated more during the section way underground, because in between tests, I had a hard time navigating to the next due to the darkness and unclear path. It's still ultimately not that bad and not that much of the game, but I think Portal 1 did it better. Its also quiet for a good chunk of that part (aside from J.K. Simmons character which I thought pales in comparison to Glados and Wheatly) so that kind of gives you this incentive to push past that section and get back to the top. The Switch version runs really good all things considered, only just bogged down by the semi frequent loading times. I'd much rather it have these loading times though than it run poorly though. On top of all this, there's the whole separate Co-Op campaign, which I never really got to play back in the day. So far, I played about half of the game with a friend locally, and its great for what it is . The writing isn't quite up to snuff with the main game, but that's honestly probably for the better because your gonna be talking and not hearing a lot of it anyway. Will be completing the Co op run pretty soon. The ending is also very memorable and parts of it make me extremely happy like knowing how Ellen Mclain has talked about being a classically trained opera singer. So cool for the game to recognize that and really accentuate her unique skill set. Not many other developers would care enough to give that much care about a performer like that. As much as I'd want a Portal 3, I would only ever want them to do it if they are confident they could top Portal 2, which is a monumental task both mechanically and writing wise. I also think there is an expiration on when this can happen, being however much longer McLain could keep doing Glados' voice, because there is nobody else that can really do that role. On top of all this, Portal 2 is such a perfect ending, that I kind of don't even want a third game. Overall easily one of the best games of all time, and I think in a year or so, I may come back and do a run with the developer commentary.

First time playing through Pikmin. I have been meaning to for years but stuff always came up or gotten in the way of me actually doing it. My earliest real memories of the series is Pikmin stuff being in Brawl (although I do remember watching the trailer on Luigis Mansion). With the stage that was included with Brawl, I was convinced for some reason that I had played “that game” before, when I was younger. But. I was actually confusing Pikmin with Zapper, another bug like Gamecube game (probably cashing in on the ascetic the same way that Shark Tale did to Finding Nemo (Except WAY more niche and less lucrative)). I played alot of Pikmin Bloom prior to this and have the entire series, I just wanted to play them in chronological order. Going into it I was kind of nervous. I didnt fully understand how the game works and when a game has a time limit, it makes everything 10 times more stressfull to learn fast. I kind of had the impression that the game would be like Majora’s Mask but on crack, where if I make too many mistakes, I basically would have to start an 8 hour run all over again after getting the bad ending. I played the first few game days like this, only realizing at about game 7 after a horrible day that I dont HAVE to save my progress. This made me feel like I had a huge weight off my shoulders and felt like I could take my time more and actually think. I would sometimes do scouting days where I would just spend an entire day when at a new area just looking around and forming a battle plan. I then became obsesive for the next few game days, going for perfection because I was way behind on parts from my bad first 7 days and was trying to master things to get at least 2 parts a day for a while. I liked playing lik this because I found myself while the game was off, or I was at work, thinking about the game and what I can and would do to optimize a route to get as much as possible. I think thr beauty of this game is definitely on repeat playthroughs. Its very fun and a great first time experience, but I think on repeated playthroughs, going for high scores, where you know where everything is and its just up to you to figure out how to do it most efficiently, thats where the meat of the game is. I ended with getting all parts at 21 days and my best day consisted of me getting 3 parts at once. Going to play Pikmin 2 in the near future.

Completed a normal run, a run with the developer commentary and all the DLC maps. I havent played Portal or Portal 2 since way back on the Xbox 360 over a decade ago. So it was more than enough time that I forgot all the layouts to the rooms. Portal 1 is such a great game, its a great length for what it is and nothing really feels like it overstays its welcome. The developer commentary is such a great feature I wish more games had, and really gives you a look into how thorugh and clean they were with developing ideas. They bassicly say it themselves, the game is almost like a 2 hour tutorial because each level is almost continuously trying to teach you something. Also the writing is so funny and makes Glados an instantly classic character. If I wasn't already somewhat aware of just how much more Portal 2 improves on Portal 1, I’d probably give Portal 5 stars. Regardless such an incredible proof of concept.

Bought the English translated GBA cart and played it primarily on my Gamecube's Gameboy Player. Started this unrelated to the whole NSO release that happened for Japan. For years, I never wanted to play the Mother 3 Fan Translation because I was still holding out the small semblance of hope that Nintendo will one day do an official release, though I REALLY wanted to play it. It wasn't until about 3 or 4 years ago that I finally kind of had the epiphany and came to terms with that, IF Nintendo of America ever did release and localize this game, it's going to be in some basterdized, inauthentic form for a variety of reasons, whether it be because of the music, certain characters that Nintendo may feel are "too topical for America's current political climate", darker story elements being toned down, the games distinct art style or maybe a mix of all these things. The fan translation is THE most authentic way you can play this game, and I'm so happy it exists and to have played it. It's been a WHILE since a new game has entered my "favorite games of all time". But Mother 3 definitely cracks it. How it compares to Mother 2 for me is complicated. If it makes sense, I think in a lot of ways, Mother 2 is the better game, being so ahead of its time. But maybe its because Mother 3 is less focused on being a parody and more comfortable with telling its own story, that I think I prefer this to Mother 2 ever so slightly. (That and the rhythm combat combined with the rolling numbers is probably my favorite combat system of any JRPG now ((sorry Paper Mario TTYD)) ). I don't know if this game will ever really get released in the west, I'd still be interested in trying whatever Nintendo officially puts out. But don't wait if your still holding out for some reason, the fan translation is THE authentic way to play the game, not whatever Frankenstein Nintendo of America may or may not put out one day.

(Played on NSO on Switch) I played Atari 2600 Real Sports Volleyball a little bit ago and it took me like 5 minutes to feel like I was done with it and could move on. So when I switched to playing this game, the jump is enormous. Simply having music and 6 players on each team feels enormous, not to mention the graphical jump. Obviously, this is just a black box NES sports title, and not a very well regarded one at that. But from my perspective, this is a night and day improvement over what I was playing. The game is actually pretty deep to give it some credit. I got beat into the ground by Tunisia when i first played the game. The next day at work, I was looking through the manual online to try to understand the mechanics. Its got a lot going on for such a simple game, with different types of spikes, blocking, 4 different types of serves, etc. I didn't really get to play this game in multiplayer yet, but my main goal going into this was to beat Japan, as they are basically the middle ranked team. I eventually overcame Tunisia and moved onto Japan. I spent a while just kinda passing possessions back and forth between them, but ultimately ended up giving up because I feel like I still don't have as good as grips as I need to beat them over things like blocking and low set ups. I was pretty satisfied with myself being able to basically wipe the floor with Tunisia for now, maybe my skills will improve one day. I spent a little over 3 hours with this game which is more than I thought I’d get out of it. Another big thing to note is I LOVE the illustrations in the games manual for the volleyball players. Its such a unique 80s drawing style, and I’m very curious who at Nintendo made them. Overall not a bad time for my first REAL time playing a Black Box Nintendo developed sports game.

[Replay] I played the Walking Dead for thr first time a little after it came out. At the time, Telltale games and this game specifically were getting so big and I remember alot of people saying that this was there game of the year at the time. I feel like in 2024, next to nobody really acknowledges it much anymore. Maybe it’s because of Telltale Studios going out of business. Or maybe because Telltale creatively bankrupted themselves by pumping at 2 to 3 new series a year by the end of its life, with little to no real innovation in its formula. Regardless, I don’t really think any of that impacts this specific game and season’s quality. I think this game ranks among the best licensed games of all time. For a western game of its time, it was decidedly simple in a good way, that really put a focus on its story, which should and is its main goal. There are small action sequences here and there and light adventure game style item based puzzels. But the main gameplay loop is centered around constantly making choices that (at least try to give the illusion of) impacting the greater story. At the time, on a first play-through and being much younger in about 2012/2013, I remember being pretty impressed by the games dynamic story elements and feeling like every choice mattered. Knowing what I know now, after over a decade of new and old game experiences under my belt, being whats probably my third or fourth playthrough, it’s easy to see through the games smoke and mirrors (reference to The Wolf Amoung Us episode title). I found myself kinda falling back into a rythem of kind of just making choices based on prior playthrougs because I knew what mattered and what didn’t and how I wanted the story to play out. I dont really think thats a fault of the game very much though. I think the game was designed for a single playthrough despite its branching story paths. Only a small handful of choices REALLY matter, like the Carly or other guy choice, or the people you side with. Regardless, the story has major beats it needs to hit so characters will always live and die based on wheather the story really dictates it. If a character doesnt die, there kinda just uselessly there for a little while longer just for the sake of making you feel like you had an impact. That said, I was suprised at the end of the game seeing how many options the player has on who the final squad could end up being. Mine has always been Kenny, Omid and Christa. But I didnt even know a squad of like, only Ben could exist. I think episode 5 is normally where a Telltale game can go hogwild because its a culmination of all your choices at that point and doesnt have to really worry about a next episode. When this originaly came out, I would go on to become an active subscriber in The Wolf Among Us and Walking Dead Season 2. I ended up loving TWAU and became a big fan of the Fables comics as a result. I remember being somewhat let down by The Walking Dead Season 2 though, but still kind of enjoying it. I never really played anything beyond that, besides Tales from The Borderlands randomly years later. I think Telltales episodic structure was such a fun product of its time when these games first came out, that doesn't really exist anymore. I remember buying the season pass on xbox marketplace and staying up late at night some nights for new episodes to drop. Its. a model that really isn't around in video games anymore in the same way. Overall, pretty good for what it is.The Walking Dead Season 1 is kind of like adventure game / visual novel comfort food for me. Its not that complicated, but still well done. (Also, I played this on Switch and played all 5 episodes on docked mode and it ran kinda bad, but then I played 400 Days on handheld and it ran very smoothly??)

I never really would have expected Nintendo to make a direct sequel to something like WarioWare Smooth Moves. Its so unlike them to target a specific game in a franchise and make a sequel based on that. Only a few games come to mind like Kirby and The Rainbow Curse and A Link Between Worlds. And this is definitely and proudly a sequel to Smooth Moves. Smooth Moves was probably one of my favorite games on Wii as a kid. I thought the way it used the Wii Remote was super novel compared to everything else that basically became waggle. I felt pretty immersed in the forms the game would tell you to hold the remote, even if it could probably work with just lower effort. I used to actually believe I was getting great exercise and losing weight while playing the cyclist mode. I took the dance microgame very seriously. Overall, Twisted is probably my favorite WarioWare, but Smooth Moves is such a unique and special entry in the series. So to have a sequel come out only a few years after Get it Together on Switch was pretty welcomed in my eyes and I was excited for it. Overall, I enjoy the game, but I can tell its not AS great of a feeling as I felt when I played Smooth Moves on Wii. I feel like everything's toned down a bit and it plays it a little to by the books. It kinda just is exactly what I expected it would be, which is fine. But after Get it Together kind of exceeded my lower expectations, it just feels like they put this together a little to fast. That said, I’m extremely happy the Switch generation didnt just come and go and a good WarioWare that takes advantage of the Joycons weird and quirky features DID come out. Things like dropping the joycons, using the IR sensors, the weird gyro things the joycons can do, even HD rumble, its all very unique to the Switch's hardware. They really do push the Joycons to the absolute limit of what they can do in these Microgames. I played the game to completion and took me a little over 10 hours so its decent length if you actually play for completion records. Loved the final minigame being the dancing callback to Smooth Moves. Happy this game exists, but could have been a little more in my opinion. (Played multiplayer a few times but not all the modes yet, just kind of the co op)

Played all the way through the documentary / history mode. Such a great idea. I’ve been wanting to buy an Atari collection for a while to play through a few games like Adventure, but I was always hesitant because the vast majority of Atari games are not really worth playing beyond like 5 mins. Presenting them in a format like this is such a smart idea though, it gives context and history to what your actually experiencing. Being able to look through high quality box art scans, manuals and even design documents in some cases is such an amazing value. I think the star of the package has to be the documentary bits though. They feel like small rewards as you continue through the timeline of Atari games every time you hit one. I plan on using this game as a means to play some of the games included more in depth at a later time, but as a historical package, I feel like I’ve already gotten my money’s worth. I hope to see other franchises / companys do stuff like this in the future, its like a living coffee book.

This is my first Vanillaware game. A lot of what they made hasn't really caught my attention much in the past. I heard about Murimasa alot in the past, and I hear nothing but good things about Odinsphere. I’m not super huge into the fantasy genre though, I will definitely play them, but I typically prefer Sci-Fi to Fantasy on any given day. I bought 13 Sentinels 2 years ago and its been actively bothering me in the back of my mind that I haven't played it yet. Finally made time for it and it was certainly worth it. I knew next to nothing about the games story going in, except that it was pretty acclaimed when it came out in small circles of people. When I first started, the game was incredibly intimating on thr visual novel end, where it shows the player the flow chart of all thr different outcomes to a given sinereo of one of the 13 storylines. As you keep playing though, it luckily becomes more straightforward that the game, while complex on one hand, is simple and liner to tackle from a play standpoint. The complexity of the games story DEFINITELY comes from its writing and weaving 13 stories in and out of each other in a non linear fashion, Tarantino style. There were points in the game were I just wanted to get out a whiteboard and try to piece together all the clues that I knew so far and try to make sense of it all. Thats the beauty of the game, it may start off a little overwhelming with the amount of random story threads it drops on you that almost seems like its contradictory in a meaningless way, but it pulls together fast enough to keep you invested and wanting more. There are points in this game were plot twists and major reveals will happen about every 15 mins for hours on end. And it all feels earned. I can’t even imagine the amout of time the writers had to take just to go over every minute detail of the plot to make sure of there not being contradictions. There seriously isnt a game that tries this to this level, let alone absolutely nails it on its first go. Ive heard (haven't played) games like Octopath Traveler kind of presenting itself in a similar fashion, with multiple protagonist storylines that are supposed to intercept. But i’ve also heard of them falling flat and not really mattering in the grand scheme of things. 13 Sentinels does this on such an extreme level with 13 different storylines that are infinitely more complex than most i've seen. Before playing this, I debated replaying Broken Age too. As I kept playing 13 Sentinels, I couldn't get the comparison out of my head that this game is like Broken Age, just about a hundred thousand times more complex. Part of me wonders if Kamitani was aware of Broken Age at all when it came out in 2014, as this concept of the game was conceived in 2013 (probably not, I don't even think Broken Age is available in Japanese). The database in the game is shockingly well thought out and Im genuinely curious as to how many hours went into creating everything in it. That goes for the amount of voice acting in the game too, every line is voiced (I played with the Japanese dub so I cant a-test to the English dub being good or bad). The one thing that really scared me going into this game, was the RTS stuff. I’m not really good at RTS and really the most complicated, similar thing Ive ever played is Mario Plus Rabbids. I was afraid of getting stuck on these sections and not being able to enjoy the game, but I surprisingly ended up loving them. I played all the way through on the normal difficulty, and found the first zone to be a total pushover, getting S rank in everything. I think the 2nd and 3rd zones are more appropriate in difficulty, but generally felt it was thr perfect level of challange. I was shocked to find myself actually looking forward to these parts of the game. The music and presentation are great and very distinct to me also in the whole game. Definitely one of my favorite games I've played in a few years. My feelings leaving this game are very similar to how I felt after beating Nier Automata for the first time a couple years ago, a game I probably would not have normally played if not for its word of mouth and ended up loving. I would definitely consider myself to be a fan of George Kamitani now and wanting to play is older titles and look forward to whatever him and Vanillaware do next!