”The wind will guide us!”

The original version of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker has, without a doubt, the WORST pacing of any Zelda game. Sailing takes too long, constantly having to take out the Wind Waker itself kills the pace, the Command Melody is annoying, and having to salvage each piece of the Triforce is tedious.

The Wind Waker HD fixes all of those issues.

The game gifts us with the Swift Sail, a sail that doubles our boat’s speed and causes a favorable wind to constantly blow in whatever direction we want, meaning that we don’t have to waste time pulling out the Wind Waker every five seconds to change the wind direction. The game no longer plays back every single song we play on the Wind Waker, which makes the Command Melody much less of a pace breaker; instead, it’s just another item in Link’s arsenal. Finally, five out of the eight Triforce shards are simply in the chests that you find, meaning significantly less time wasted hunting them down.

All of these changes make the game much faster, bringing it more in line with the masterful pacing of other Zelda games. Since I no longer felt bored and/or annoyed, I was able to soak in the experience of The Wind Waker.

The already gorgeous visuals have been given an HD overhaul and a new lighting engine; it’s pure eye candy. The story is stil magnificent. Even the dungeons, which I considered some of the worst in the series in the original, are actually… pretty good? They don’t stack up to the dungeons in other 3D entries and they’re still too easy, but they have solid puzzle progression and distinct visual theming. The Tower of the Gods and the Wind Temple are still awesome.

I partook in more side quests this time around. They’re not the best thing ever, but they have their charm. Windfall Island is essentially this game’s Clock Town, only much less depressing. Helping all of the residents with their problems is inherently satisfying and fleshes out the world of the Great Sea, showing you why Link needs to protect it from Ganondorf.

Speaking of the Great Sea, The Wind Waker’s oceanic overworld has a wonderful sense of adventure that only Breath of the Wild would be able to recapture. Sure, the Great Sea isn’t exactly dense, but there’s still lots to do and discover. So many mini-dungeons, so much treasure, so many Heart Pieces… it’s amazing. Exploring the Great Sea makes you feel like a true adventurer.

I honestly loved The Wind Waker HD. I still wish there were more complex dungeons, but I was more than satisfied with what I got. All of the little improvements and quality of life changes have boosted The Wind Waker from the most overrated Zelda game to one of the series’ best.

Exoprimal is fun, frantic, absolutely off-the-wall bonkers and full of a confidence that's surprisingly not misplaced. I went into the game sold on the sci-fi PvE robots vs. dinosaur premise -- if just a little cheeky about it -- but I was surprised at how smoothly it handles its content.

It certainly reads and looks like the video game equivalent of shotgunning an energy drink, but after playing some it becomes quite clear that the game was definitely put together function-before-form. The core loop involves queueing up for matches, where you race against another team to defeat wave after wave of angry dinos before a head-to-head finale where initial advantage is determined by how well your team completed the opening phase. Completing matches progresses the story, which is revealed piecemeal via small vignettes, data logs, radio cuts, etc. and unlocks some new mission types, including some surprises in the form of 10-player cooperative raid bosses a la Monster Hunter, where chaos is really allowed to flourish. The action, gunplay, and skill sets all feel reasonably diverse even with only a handful of available exosuits at launch, and Capcom miraculously struck a balance between making players feel beastly during the dino battles and keeping PvP seeming fair.

It doesn't have a streamlined campaign quite in the way that, say, Lost Planet 2 does, opting for a completely off-the-rails story about the dangers of unchecked capitalism and AI (surprisingly relevant for what it is). Unfortunately, its initial purpose definitely feels like a clumsy impetus to get players queuin' up, which puts it in sort of a weird middle ground that admittedly may be a bit off-putting to people looking for a more curated experience -- some might not want to grind semi-competitive matches just to see story, some might not want to see story at all and feel bottlenecked by having a bunch of cutscenes and data to skip over. That said, I definitely see it as an intentional middle ground (even the repeated match queueing is "written into" the story under the guise of data collection!) rather than a game suffering from an identity crisis. A generous read, perhaps, but to be completely honest I can totally imagine Overwatch 2's now-cancelled campaign to have resembled this.

Having really loved Exoprimal, I do have some concern for its future; crossplay is limited to matchmaking only, so it's impossible to round up friends from across the game's numerous available platforms for matches (everyone's gotta be in the same ecosystem) and content updates have been entertaining but sparse. I'm really hoping that even as content starts to wind down (whenever that is) sales and the like will help breathe life into the game whenever possible. Definitely recommend it to anybody who's looking for some wacky, noncommittal fun in a shooter.