qbbyamiibo
2020
So glad this game randomly blew up and got super popular because it deserves it! This game is everything I've ever wanted out of a video game from the general aesthetic to a lab rat protagonist to being a rhythm game with Dyes Iwasaki's music. It definitely suffers from the typical NIS difficulty but I expected as much. Not a single bad song in the game either, some definitely more memorable than others but everything I've caught myself humming to myself at least once or twice.
2019
A cute premise but could've been expanded on greatly and was kind of boring to sit through. Not...bad? Just kinda underwhelming.
1991
Neat little tech demo in the form of a shoot-em-up. Definitely a product of it's time but still cool and I enjoyed my time with it. Jun Ishikawa never misses with the soundtracks
2017
Love this game so much but I really wish the devs added more content or a story mode or SOMETHING idk....just feels like a whole lot of super missed potential.
This was such a nice little game to turn my brain off to. No thoughts just gator. đđđ The theming was great and the title screen made me smile; I love how everything reacted if/when you hit them with the ball. Just a good time all around
1996
There is nothing remarkable about this game honestly but I love the way it looks so much and it's a good time waster. I also have childhood bias though LOL
1988
I played this with my friend the other day out of pure curiosity. Could hardly figure out what I was even supposed to do until we both got a game over. The diagonal inputs were also very confusing. I still don't totally understand what the goal is.
2018
I think Star Allies is a fantastic game but itâs not something I can really recommend, itâs very much a âyou had to be thereâ game.
The game is very much fanservice for all of Kirby up until this game but especially the Dark Matter trilogy (DL2, DL3, 64). If you donât have an attachment to those games, you wonât get much out of this game. But also, if youâre new to Kirby and want to play this one, you almost definitely donât have the same emotional attachment and wonât get much out of it. (âŚand/or youâve probably been spoiled already.)
Gameplay wise, the main story is lot easier than usual to make up for the 4-player aspect. But itâs a little too 4-player friendly and ends up being ridiculously easy. Guest Star and Heroes in Another Dimension are fun.
Being a continuation of a set of Kirby games thatâve slowly been getting a worse reputation over the years for their flaws, easier than usual main game, and people expecting the game to be more like Super Star because of the helper system all work against this game. It was a FANTASTIC anniversary celebration, but thatâs exactly why I canât necessarily recommend it.
The game is very much fanservice for all of Kirby up until this game but especially the Dark Matter trilogy (DL2, DL3, 64). If you donât have an attachment to those games, you wonât get much out of this game. But also, if youâre new to Kirby and want to play this one, you almost definitely donât have the same emotional attachment and wonât get much out of it. (âŚand/or youâve probably been spoiled already.)
Gameplay wise, the main story is lot easier than usual to make up for the 4-player aspect. But itâs a little too 4-player friendly and ends up being ridiculously easy. Guest Star and Heroes in Another Dimension are fun.
Being a continuation of a set of Kirby games thatâve slowly been getting a worse reputation over the years for their flaws, easier than usual main game, and people expecting the game to be more like Super Star because of the helper system all work against this game. It was a FANTASTIC anniversary celebration, but thatâs exactly why I canât necessarily recommend it.
2001
Silly quirky puzzle game w/ very charming visuals and music. Never gets too difficult but puzzles still feel rewarding to solve. Overall just a good time; would absolutely recommend! :D
2009
This is the best one because it has Body Rock in it.
In all seriousness though, I think this might be the best Warioware besides Gold. I do have childhood bias, but the "DIY" part of it is just great! I got soooo much use out of this game's tools from the actual microgame maker to the music tools and the comic maker. It was fun looking online to see people's own microgames and song covers. The tutorials and design lessons were honestly pretty solid and a good insight on the absolute basics of game development. Your typical Warioware formula is as fine as ever here too, but that's not the main reason to get/play this game. Overall just solid and a really good creative tool for it's time. Basically Mario Paint on DS and wackier.
In all seriousness though, I think this might be the best Warioware besides Gold. I do have childhood bias, but the "DIY" part of it is just great! I got soooo much use out of this game's tools from the actual microgame maker to the music tools and the comic maker. It was fun looking online to see people's own microgames and song covers. The tutorials and design lessons were honestly pretty solid and a good insight on the absolute basics of game development. Your typical Warioware formula is as fine as ever here too, but that's not the main reason to get/play this game. Overall just solid and a really good creative tool for it's time. Basically Mario Paint on DS and wackier.
2023
There isn't a lot I can say that hasn't already been said, but as someone who loved the original I absolutely adore this version too.
Even the best remakes are usually pretty hit or miss, but this overall was fantastic. Especially the music, I don't think there's a single track that was worse than the original, everything is on par at least. The addition of a monster list and the scrapbook are greatly appreciated. There's a lot of new QOL stuff, like fast travel and being able to heal in the field. The cinematics look fantastic. All the characters and enemies look fantastic as well. The game is definitely a bit easier with the addition of triple attacks and splash damage, but fights can still get rough quick if you aren't prepared. There's also dedicated postgame content now which is definitely harder.
In short: you can tell the team had a lot of love for the original and whether you have or haven't played the original, this is still definitely worth a play!
Even the best remakes are usually pretty hit or miss, but this overall was fantastic. Especially the music, I don't think there's a single track that was worse than the original, everything is on par at least. The addition of a monster list and the scrapbook are greatly appreciated. There's a lot of new QOL stuff, like fast travel and being able to heal in the field. The cinematics look fantastic. All the characters and enemies look fantastic as well. The game is definitely a bit easier with the addition of triple attacks and splash damage, but fights can still get rough quick if you aren't prepared. There's also dedicated postgame content now which is definitely harder.
In short: you can tell the team had a lot of love for the original and whether you have or haven't played the original, this is still definitely worth a play!
Fine game. Itâs fun at first but eventually you start getting so much thrown at you that the game slows down and the screen flickers a lot and it's just tedious. In the later halfâs bosses, you have to spend so much time dodging that you donât get much room to attack.
Not terrible but not something I think Iâll revisit.
Takamaru is a cool character design though, would love to see him be in a game as a protagonist again and not just a guest character.
Not terrible but not something I think Iâll revisit.
Takamaru is a cool character design though, would love to see him be in a game as a protagonist again and not just a guest character.
2021
This game is genuinely so awesome. Put on a playlist + team up with a friend for the ultimate online parallel play experience
(2/15/24 update: My thoughts are about the same, I just reworded a bit and added a lot more now that I've sunk a bunch of time into this game.)
What a nice game! I finally played this recently after being curious about it for quite a while. It's a "definitive" version of a Super Famicom game under the same title. I can't comment on differences as I haven't played the original, but the core gameplay seems to be the same. It's hard to find info on either, as almost every mention of these games is by Mother fans due to the fact it's Shigesato Itoi's game.
This game is surprisingly complex for what it is! You got your usual lures, time of day/weather, et cetera. but the game also goes into detail on hard lures vs soft lures (worms), the two main types of rods, types of lines, bass migration and spawning patterns...too much to list out here. The manual included an extremely wordy fishing terms dictionary as well. If you pause while on the field, there's a little help section with an octopus explaining the basics while the titular man himself goes more in depth. You can catch fish besides bass, but they're just referred to as outliers and you don't seem to actually get anything for them.
Visaully, the game is about your usual N64 3D, but every character is in 2D. Simple designs, but very cute! The character designs are by Norio Hikone and his wife, and most are redesigns of the various animals used for the SFC's promotional material/boxart. (Kuma-san, the bear, is the same.)
SFC boxart vs N64 boxart
You get to talk to the various animals meet throughout the game. Before you head out for the day, you get to choose who'll join you as company. There's a little icon at the top of whoever you bring, and they'll have both visual and audio cues based on whatever is going on, such as if your line tension is too high. If nothing bites your line for a bit, they'll give you some pointers on how to try and attract more fish. They also make comments on the size of your catch, or if you fumbled a fish.
Some of the animals will also give you challenges you can take on, asking you to catch a certain amount of specific sizes of bass. You can get special lures, such as the old promotional ones for the first game, to different locations if you win a challenge. If you don't take on a challenge for the day, you can challenge whoever's out and about to a fishing contest. If you win, they'll give you info on how to obtain a treasure.
Each character has their own unique way of talking and are fairly fleshed out personality wise, considering this is a silly fishing game. They all also have unique sprites based on how well you're doing in a challenge/contest.
The music of the game is nice! I'm not sure how exactly to describe it, but it's very cozy. You get a few various themes depending on the day and where you're fishing. The music stops when you throw out a line, which makes sense but is a little sad. There's nature noises throughout your entire day as well.
I think the only real flaw this game has is the difficulty system. You get your usual easy (labeled "beginner"), standard, hard difficulties. The easiest means you can cast farther + fish bite your line more often, but the sizes of your fish are typically smaller, making some of the later challenges frustratingly difficult. So much for making things easy! While it's not impossible to catch bigger fish, it's noticably less often. Beginner also makes some mechanics null, such as not needing to worry about appeal vs natural color.
Overall, I think the game is fantastic and very cozy. It reminds me a lot of going fishing with my dad as a kid. :) I hope it gets a playable fan translation one day! It's a bit too wordy to go in without any Japanese knowledge. The only reason this rating isn't a solid 5 stars is because of the difficulty thing.
Thanks for reading!
~~~
Unrelated to the actual review: There was a special controller released for this game known as the Tsurikon 64! (lit. fishing + controller) Mother Forever did a nice, short write-up on it.
There was also a self-interview with Itoi and some of the devs at both DICE and HAL Laboratory which goes into the making of the game, competing with other fishing games, and making the game's mechanics. whowasphone404 on Gamefaqs translated the entire thing alongside the game's manual.
There was also an animated commercial for the first game.
What a nice game! I finally played this recently after being curious about it for quite a while. It's a "definitive" version of a Super Famicom game under the same title. I can't comment on differences as I haven't played the original, but the core gameplay seems to be the same. It's hard to find info on either, as almost every mention of these games is by Mother fans due to the fact it's Shigesato Itoi's game.
This game is surprisingly complex for what it is! You got your usual lures, time of day/weather, et cetera. but the game also goes into detail on hard lures vs soft lures (worms), the two main types of rods, types of lines, bass migration and spawning patterns...too much to list out here. The manual included an extremely wordy fishing terms dictionary as well. If you pause while on the field, there's a little help section with an octopus explaining the basics while the titular man himself goes more in depth. You can catch fish besides bass, but they're just referred to as outliers and you don't seem to actually get anything for them.
Visaully, the game is about your usual N64 3D, but every character is in 2D. Simple designs, but very cute! The character designs are by Norio Hikone and his wife, and most are redesigns of the various animals used for the SFC's promotional material/boxart. (Kuma-san, the bear, is the same.)
SFC boxart vs N64 boxart
You get to talk to the various animals meet throughout the game. Before you head out for the day, you get to choose who'll join you as company. There's a little icon at the top of whoever you bring, and they'll have both visual and audio cues based on whatever is going on, such as if your line tension is too high. If nothing bites your line for a bit, they'll give you some pointers on how to try and attract more fish. They also make comments on the size of your catch, or if you fumbled a fish.
Some of the animals will also give you challenges you can take on, asking you to catch a certain amount of specific sizes of bass. You can get special lures, such as the old promotional ones for the first game, to different locations if you win a challenge. If you don't take on a challenge for the day, you can challenge whoever's out and about to a fishing contest. If you win, they'll give you info on how to obtain a treasure.
Each character has their own unique way of talking and are fairly fleshed out personality wise, considering this is a silly fishing game. They all also have unique sprites based on how well you're doing in a challenge/contest.
The music of the game is nice! I'm not sure how exactly to describe it, but it's very cozy. You get a few various themes depending on the day and where you're fishing. The music stops when you throw out a line, which makes sense but is a little sad. There's nature noises throughout your entire day as well.
I think the only real flaw this game has is the difficulty system. You get your usual easy (labeled "beginner"), standard, hard difficulties. The easiest means you can cast farther + fish bite your line more often, but the sizes of your fish are typically smaller, making some of the later challenges frustratingly difficult. So much for making things easy! While it's not impossible to catch bigger fish, it's noticably less often. Beginner also makes some mechanics null, such as not needing to worry about appeal vs natural color.
Overall, I think the game is fantastic and very cozy. It reminds me a lot of going fishing with my dad as a kid. :) I hope it gets a playable fan translation one day! It's a bit too wordy to go in without any Japanese knowledge. The only reason this rating isn't a solid 5 stars is because of the difficulty thing.
Thanks for reading!
~~~
Unrelated to the actual review: There was a special controller released for this game known as the Tsurikon 64! (lit. fishing + controller) Mother Forever did a nice, short write-up on it.
There was also a self-interview with Itoi and some of the devs at both DICE and HAL Laboratory which goes into the making of the game, competing with other fishing games, and making the game's mechanics. whowasphone404 on Gamefaqs translated the entire thing alongside the game's manual.
There was also an animated commercial for the first game.
2019
This review contains spoilers
I feel so silly tagging such a simplistic looking game with a spoiler warning, LOL. Anyways, I have mixed feelings about this one.
I'll start this review by saying this game is a prequel explaining how the world from the first game came to be lifeless/colorless. (Which is why I'm marking this as spoilers!) It's a case of "Same names same designs but still different characters" syndrome.
There's three different modes: A Tale for One, A Tale for Two (multiplayer), and A Tall Tale (tall boy mode). A Tale for One has two endings, but you're always going to get the bad one on your first playthrough, as you have to beat all at least once for what's considered the true ending. This bad ending is the actual true ending, as it ends on the same screen that the first game starts with: a dead box in an empty, colorless world, and a new one falls out of the sky and lands next to it.
Gameplay wise it's fantastic and overall the hardest in the series, as "You have _ boxes you can use before you can't collect the crowns anymore" got switched to box count and the crowns being seperate, so you have to manage both. You can't just collect the crowns then use as many boxes as you want afterwards. Being a prequel, almost all the old mechanics from the first three are gone, such as the stages where you lead the Spikys into traps. Because you have three seperate modes, there is no postgame. I played A Tale for Two by myself (you get Four Swords "play as one at a time" controls) so I can't comment on whether it was good or bad from a multiplayer standpoint. A Tall Tale let's you play as Qudy and you have to work with rectangular boxes instead of square boxes, and is probably the best mode of the three.
Like the last games, you have your extra stuff in the shop. Some of the translatations of the 4komas feel like the jokes got lost in translation. You also have the shop challenges akin to the first game. Instead of time attack/score attack, you have a set time to pop some ballons. Sometimes the balloons won't pop though? It's happened to me once or twice. The challenge theme from the first game also gets re-arranged here, albiet it's not nearly as anxiety inducing. Since this game has actual color and backgrounds, you don't get the fun inverted colors anymore like the first game. Since the costumes are part of a gacha now, you can get assists like jump or extra boxes from alternate items you can buy instead rather than them being tied to specific outfits.
Visually though it looks....bad. The visual simplicity is used in the original trilogy for a lonely atmosphere, accompanied by some empty sounding songs. The original 3DS trilogy didn't have crazy detailed aniamtions or anything, but the crunch of the 3DS screen and the pixels make it look a lot nicer. This game has fully colored backgrounds and really smooth animation. Too smooth, to the point it looks like a browser game. There's not many overworld animations either, which was one of my favorite parts of the original trilogy (especially the second one.) The costumes being parts from a gacha intead of full outfits also led them to being super stiffly animated as well, and it's kinda jarring. The mix of mostly black and white with some bits of color just looks kinda odd a lot of the time? I'm not sure how to explain it. It's a shame, because the backgrounds are extremely well done, especially in the final levels.
The music is great, and the musical style is also switched up a bit from the original trilogy. There's some motifs from the original trilogy used here and there, such as the Box Ship theme getting used in World Map 3 and the first game's title theme being used at the end of the credits theme. It's very "snappy" and, with the exception of the final level theme, doesn't feel as empty as the songs of the first three games.
I also feel like, despite being a prequel, it's not a good starting point for this series, and they're best played in release order. I dunno, it's just a bit too different from the others. I do like this one a lot though! It's just...kinda ugly. I wouldn't be surprised if this game was rushed..it really feels like it.
I'll start this review by saying this game is a prequel explaining how the world from the first game came to be lifeless/colorless. (Which is why I'm marking this as spoilers!) It's a case of "Same names same designs but still different characters" syndrome.
There's three different modes: A Tale for One, A Tale for Two (multiplayer), and A Tall Tale (tall boy mode). A Tale for One has two endings, but you're always going to get the bad one on your first playthrough, as you have to beat all at least once for what's considered the true ending. This bad ending is the actual true ending, as it ends on the same screen that the first game starts with: a dead box in an empty, colorless world, and a new one falls out of the sky and lands next to it.
Gameplay wise it's fantastic and overall the hardest in the series, as "You have _ boxes you can use before you can't collect the crowns anymore" got switched to box count and the crowns being seperate, so you have to manage both. You can't just collect the crowns then use as many boxes as you want afterwards. Being a prequel, almost all the old mechanics from the first three are gone, such as the stages where you lead the Spikys into traps. Because you have three seperate modes, there is no postgame. I played A Tale for Two by myself (you get Four Swords "play as one at a time" controls) so I can't comment on whether it was good or bad from a multiplayer standpoint. A Tall Tale let's you play as Qudy and you have to work with rectangular boxes instead of square boxes, and is probably the best mode of the three.
Like the last games, you have your extra stuff in the shop. Some of the translatations of the 4komas feel like the jokes got lost in translation. You also have the shop challenges akin to the first game. Instead of time attack/score attack, you have a set time to pop some ballons. Sometimes the balloons won't pop though? It's happened to me once or twice. The challenge theme from the first game also gets re-arranged here, albiet it's not nearly as anxiety inducing. Since this game has actual color and backgrounds, you don't get the fun inverted colors anymore like the first game. Since the costumes are part of a gacha now, you can get assists like jump or extra boxes from alternate items you can buy instead rather than them being tied to specific outfits.
Visually though it looks....bad. The visual simplicity is used in the original trilogy for a lonely atmosphere, accompanied by some empty sounding songs. The original 3DS trilogy didn't have crazy detailed aniamtions or anything, but the crunch of the 3DS screen and the pixels make it look a lot nicer. This game has fully colored backgrounds and really smooth animation. Too smooth, to the point it looks like a browser game. There's not many overworld animations either, which was one of my favorite parts of the original trilogy (especially the second one.) The costumes being parts from a gacha intead of full outfits also led them to being super stiffly animated as well, and it's kinda jarring. The mix of mostly black and white with some bits of color just looks kinda odd a lot of the time? I'm not sure how to explain it. It's a shame, because the backgrounds are extremely well done, especially in the final levels.
The music is great, and the musical style is also switched up a bit from the original trilogy. There's some motifs from the original trilogy used here and there, such as the Box Ship theme getting used in World Map 3 and the first game's title theme being used at the end of the credits theme. It's very "snappy" and, with the exception of the final level theme, doesn't feel as empty as the songs of the first three games.
I also feel like, despite being a prequel, it's not a good starting point for this series, and they're best played in release order. I dunno, it's just a bit too different from the others. I do like this one a lot though! It's just...kinda ugly. I wouldn't be surprised if this game was rushed..it really feels like it.