A Metroidvania Kirby exists?? And no one told me about this?? Well it it's a metroidvania in principle but it doesn't feel like it fully commits to being a fully fledged metroidvania.

At it's very core, this is another mainline Kirby game where you'll be doing the same exact things you do in other mainline Kirby games. You go through levels, you suck and copy enemies, you fight bosses rinse and repeat till you get to the end. What the big twist is here is how the game is structured. Yes it is structured like a metroidvania, but I wouldn't exactly consider it a metroidvania. The word "structure" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here as you are presented with an open world with branching paths, a map system and the ability to unlock more of the map screen by exploring and finding pages in treasure chests. You can also find health upgrades in some of those chests. But that is the extent of metroidvania this game gets as there isn't as much reward in exploring.

You don't unlock new areas of the world by exploring and finding new upgrades or tools to further help you through previously blocked pathways. Everything is already open to you, so in that sense the real core what makes a metroidvania a metroidvania is not here.

It is more fair to compare this to a Mega Man game with an open world. Because in reality the name of the game is to get to a boss in a certain section of the world, kill the boss, and move one step closer to the final boss. What makes it more Mega Man-ie is the fact that you can do these boss fights in any order. This is pretty cool for a Kirby game because I don't think there is another mainline Kirby that has this sort of structure. If you wanna tackle the "hardest" part of the map first, you can go do that. Unfortunately, and again what takes away from this being a true metroidvania, is the fact that there's no benefit to the order you do it in. Killing bosses don't reward with a cool extra move that is only tired to killing that boss. The only reward you get is an extra key (or mirror shard) that brings you one step closer to the final boss. So unlike a Mega Man game (or even Breath of the Wild) where choosing a boss order is a type of strategy, in Kirby and the Amazing Mirror there is no absolutely no strategy.

In a sense, if you are a metroidvania fan and come into this expecting a metroidvania, you will be severely disappointed. However if your expectations are set to "Kirby's Adventure, but non-linear" you will really enjoy this game. This is still a very good Kirby title that wish fully did commit to being a full fledged metroidvania as the potential is there as we've seen in Milky Way Wishes from Kirby Super Star.

I mean this is me just rambling but could you imagine if this game gave you the reward of unlocking permanent copy abilities by exploring and defeating optional bosses around the map? Honestly could have been one of the best Kirby games of all time.

Such a weird little game. I'm not sure who thought steampunk American literary heroes vs literal lovecraftian monsters was a good idea, but it kind of worked. Its hard to figure out who the target audience was and the markets didn't help. What percentage of people who play video games even know Randolph Carter is Lovecraft's alter ego he wrote into a few of his short stories? The gameplay was pretty solid. Standard XCOM fair, but you line up weak point shots instead of rolling the dice, which heavily favors aggressive play. The game did a good job constantly introducing new characters and maps, but ran out of enemies to pull from halfway through the game and started to throw multiple previously plot-important bosses at you all at once. The soundtrack, however, was fantastic. While the enemy music could unfortunately stumble into dubstep, the player phase music was a glorious combination of metal and strings , somehow giving songs that were both fully metal and 18th century america. Despite my enjoyment, it doesn't get my recommendation as there's simply better games you could play instead. Its not like this will ever get a sequel with how poorly it performed anyway.....

Citizens! Look around! Can you hear that fearsome sound? It’s that corpse of a game done dirty, killed off by the 3DS' closing! Enjoy the meme, that so-called Code Name S.T.E.A.M.~! (Load up your drive to fight back the reductive menace) What a dream~, why hate on Code Name S.T.E.A.M.~?! United they stand with every Valkyria, XCOM, and—[record scratch] erm, just those two and Fire Emblem mainly.

| Trouble Brewing |

I speak of Intelligent Systems’ 3DS character strategy experiment that debuted alongside Splatoon yet couldn’t have had a worse fate. It came a long way from rocky origins and launch reception, yet now so few are interested. At best, physical copies go on sale at different stores, retailing far cheaper than any other evergreen Nintendo titles I know. Then people pay attention, or remark that the game deserved its bomba-stic fate. With the death of the 3DS eShop and any pull the system had outside its fans and retro enthusiast press, there's an increasing risk of this becoming a mere footnote, something misunderstood back in 2015 and only a bit less so now.

Code Name S.T.E.A.M. deserves better, both because it plays well and because it’s a great example of the developers' ambitions, even as the Awakening/Fates gravy train steamrolled all in its path. We’re talking about an alternate late-1800s steampunk Earth where Lincoln’s alive, everything looks like pulp fiction, and public-domain American literature heroes work together to defeat Lovecraftian horrors before everyone’s dead. Yes, the premise sounds as bonkers as it gets, including a multi-stage trip to Oz and invading Antarctica with the likes of Tom Sawyer and Tiger Lily in your crew. Compare this to the florid, but often predictable, heightened medieval exteriors of most Fire Emblem worlds. Int-Sys gets extra mileage from fresh settings like late-Victorian London, the bowels of Miskatonic University, and what might as well be the Schwarzwelt from Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey.

This wargame’s more puzzle than adventure, but it feels like both. Due to challenges like relying on units’ sightlines and exploring every nuance of each map to progress, I had to really apply myself in ways I'd expect mainly from a classic Jagged Alliance title. Here’s a game where replaying missions becomes more comfortable and advantageous because nearly every character and strategy can become viable. Want to turtle through long maps, abusing overwatch during the enemy phase while moving across every inch? How about rampaging through on the first try, surviving close calls and leaving collectibles untouched for a replay? It all works! The final set of maps epitomize what’s great about this mix. Elevation conflicts, alien baddies acting in cycles, sightline control, and clutch aiming for weak points are all so satisfying to juggle. Intimidating, also, since your lack of a top-down view, or any map really, enforces a fog of war linked to your guys' individual and combined vision. (Those who hold this decision against Int-Sys when it's clearly a way to solve the age-old problems associated with FoW in Fire Emblem's paradigm will always amuse me!)

I have to admit the game’s pacing isn’t all there, same with do-or-die motivation to complete it (and I only completed this a few years after buying it full price…). The problem almost everyone had around launch—enemy phase speed, which got patched up not nearly quick enough to cool down the anti-hype—didn’t help at all. I think waiting around to see enemies move, take position, and wreck my last move keeps my interest, but it doesn’t appeal to everyone. Beyond that, it’s hard to get in the mood for maps featuring constant reinforcements or intimidating boss encounters. Adding the ABE mini-game at story intervals makes a bit of difference, though, as do the shorter, more puzzle-slanted maps. Code Name S.T.E.A.M. strikes a good balance of map types, mission designs, and introducing new element when needed. Maybe they could have tightened up the mecha mini-game's controls and given it a lot more substance, though.

S.T.EA.M.’s strengths take a bit to properly describe, likely the reason why this will remain a cult classic. The game’s frustrating but rarely unfair, presenting a ton of maps where you find new ways to abuse your party’s advantages. It’s got excellent replayability thanks to later character introductions (meaning new ways to replay earlier maps) and extra modes like Merciless or multiplayer. Eschewing traditional strategy game tropes, like an overhead map or the inability to extend visibility and movement for a unit, gives this game a strong identity. Peeking around corners, hoping to not aggro a counterattack or worse, means there's almost always some healthy morsels of tension to feed on. And the presentation’s quite excellent: catchy progressive rock, the comic-book story sequences, and a short but very memorable eldritch-invasion steampunk story works so well for me. (Shout-out to the voice acting! I loathe Adam Baldwin’s involvement, but everyone fits their roles perfectly, especially James Urbaniak as Randolph Carter.)

| Deadly Dance |

Here’s a list of awesome things you can do in Code Name S.T.E.A.M.:
•Launch bomb aliens onto mines (using John Henry or another explosives user) to create a domino effect of explosions that tears through spawners and enemy lines
•Stun literally every enemy, then have a scout fighter pick them off thanks to extra damage on stunned foes
•Jump from wall to tower to behind the enemy’s weak point using Lion, picking up Gears and plenty of extra steam packs along the way for maximum damage in a round
•Explode enemy squads from afar with penguin droids; waste them with specials like Queeqeeg’s harpoon
•In general, do ridiculous stunts with North American literary legends (plus Abraham Lincoln) that are super silly yet serious—you might call this camp, even

| Intersection: Me vs. You |

I highly recommend trying this bad boy out if you want something like Intelligent Systems’ 3DS puzzlers, wrapped into a wargame premise that’s rather unlike the games it’s frequently compared to. Yes, you have interception fire and squad-level combat like in XCOM or Valkyria Chronicles, but this game emphasizes exploring very precisely-designed environments with stakes changing a lot of the time. Reinforcements, too, are a big No to players who tried or wanted to try this, but I think they’re more manageable here than usual because of your skill pool. Knowledge of character skills, shot-to-hitbox detection, and the foibles of managing your steam gauge makes for a satisfying feedback loop.

Quick note: play this on a New 3DS for maximum enjoyment. That system gives you a 3x enemy phase speed toggle for situations where you really need to skip enemy actions or replay a mission. I used an OG 3DS + Circle Pad Pro to get analog camera movement, so consider that if you want to minimize stylus or face button use. Consult a guide when necessary to find all the Gears so you can get different steam boilers early on. Getting better equipment up through mid-game helps a lot later on while pushing you to understand each map in depth.

In oh so many ways, Code Name S.T.E.A.M. was Int-Sys' attempt to prove they could bring their wargame design chops outside the Fire Emblem mold, synthesizing many well-appreciated aspects of other big-name character tactics games into a unique whole. Woeful release-period impressions. and a lack of retrospective coverage from outlets that ought to have one or two writers interested, basically sunk this title's reputation and left it unable to resurface. It's hardly the fault of some conspiracy of journalists or FE fanboys as some will resort to suggesting. Nor is this (or any) Nintendo software exempt from incisive critique, as I can understand where the detractors are coming from WRT no map, slow between-turn waits, and an emphasis on puzzle solving over constantly improvising to hobble through the campaign. Yet I'm hopeful that this and other 3DS-era experiments like Rusty's Real Deal Baseball can eventually attain some prominence and reevaluation in the system's library, an era of tumult and risk-taking uncommon for the publisher.

(In case you couldn't tell, I wrote this review a few years before joining Backloggd, hence the somewhat different style. Alas, ResetEra wasn't too interested in *Code Name S.T.E.A.M. at the time, and anyone wanting to give it a go now might as well visit a certain website rhyming with "ache chop" to get a digital copy for Citra or their homebrewed 3DS. Thankfully the game runs and plays like a dream in emulation, as this detailed r/FireEmblem poster can testify. I'm sure a replay would reveal some bullshit to me, but also various things I couldn't appreciate at the time.)

You start each level as a group of 3 idiots throwing each other off cliffs, and you end each level as a coordinated team with designated roles in the boss fight.

It's satisfying, it's clever, but where are the damn outfits?! Those were a main draw of the game, yet upon completion I could only afford to unlock like 4.

With friends, I had a blast. Couldn't imagine playing with strangers w/o voice chat. Or, god forbid, by myself.

> Beaten just in time for Nintendo 3DS online shutting down in April 2024; I'd like to think we were the last ever group of 3 to finish a playthru :)

Tri Force Heroes is a good game, but you absolutely need two other people to experience the game properly. Single player won't cut it for this one. They shouldn't have given the option for single player given that's why people seem to hate the game.

It's a multiplayer Zelda game built off of A Link Between Worlds. What I really liked about this one is that players will get different dungeon items from each other, meaning that they have to play different roles during the mission. For example: one player will get a water rod that allows the other players to reach higher elevations, while another player will get a boomerang that can move other players across gaps. The people you're playing with really rely on you for your role, which means teamwork is crucial. Players have to work together to defeat bosses and solve puzzles. In my opinion that's a lot more interesting than just letting one player do all the work. I don't play that many multiplayer games but I find this sort of co-op where each team member is necessary for success to be very enjoyable. In some games co-op multiplayer can feel like you're just playing single player with another person onscreen. Tri Force Heroes shows the value of multiplayer games that are actually designed around communicating and cooperating with your team members. But that also means you have to find people willing to cooperate in order to beat a full multiplayer Zelda game together and that's easier said than done.

Most people don't want to play a multiplayer Zelda game, but I'm here to tell you that you should. Tri Force Heroes is super underrated and a lot more fun than some of the single player games like Phantom Hourglass or Spirit Tracks. It's just as worth playing through as the mainline games, but unfortunately you may never get the chance to play it. So here's hoping Nintendo ports this game and the Four Swords games to their newest platform to show fans that multiplayer Zelda is actually good.