I’ve seen a lot of people compare this game to Nier and Bayonetta but I haven’t played any of those so for me this game was great!

Combat is really fun! It felt intuitive and it’s super satisfying to pull off consecutive parries. Graphically it’s one of the best looking games I’ve played on PS5! The game has some really cool character designs too!

Of course there’s Eve who I will admit I do like her design but there’s also a lot of others like Orcal and Enya who I think are really cool. Even a lot of the bosses designs go hard.

Story wise I thought it was alright, I was invested but it wasn’t anything that really wowed me. I’ll also admit the final sections of the game are surprisingly boss heavy and the ending kinda sneaks up on you. With that said the last like 3 bosses gave me a real challenge that looking back I appreciated but I could see being annoying to some players.

Overall I loved Stellar Blade for more then just the sexy robot ladies and for that I say it deserves to be up there as one of the better games of the year!

EVERY CHAPTER IN PAPER MARIO TTYD RANKED!
Before we get into the ranking let's talk about the game!

Man oh man what a great remake! After the somewhat disappointing 3D All Stars, I was so excited to see that this was a real remake of a game I loved and not just a port. Although I would of taken a port too!

The presentation is superb, all the characters have new animations that just make me so happy to see. The remixed music is great, there's a ton of new music and if you want you can change it to the original!

There's a bunch of quality of life changes. An easier way to warp from place to place. The backtracking in some chapters has been cut down. One of my favorites was that you can now find hidden star piece panels with the hammer making them easier to find. In fact if you find every star piece in a chapter you can view some concept art. Because of this I ended up doing something I'd never done before, I 100% the game.

I found every star piece, tattled every enemy, found every badge, did every trouble at the trouble center and cooked every recipe. The last one made up the last couple hours of my playthrough but I did it!

Now I'll admit there isn't much brand new content but the fact there is some stuff is enough for me. Hell there didn't even need to be any new content and my rating wouldn't of changed. The other negative I've been hearing is how the game is slower. Now ill admit I noticed it when I started playing but I got over it pretty quick so I really don't think its as big a deal as some people are making it out to be.

With that out of the way lets get into the chapter ranking!

SPOILERS AHEAD

#8 Chapter 2: Honestly there isn't a bad chapter in the game but I've never been a fan of chapter 2. The start of the chapter is just a bunch of running back and forth. Even when you get into the tree dealing with the Punis is just kinda annoying. I do like their designs though. I'm also not a huge fan of Flurrie so her joining you here doesn't do much for me. The chapter boss also isn't the most interesting I wish it was more relevant to the location instead of just being Lord Crump in a mech. Speaking of Lord Crump...

#7 Chapter 7: For the penultimate chapter this one just never did it for me. I like the snowy area of Fahr Outpost but you don't spend a lot of time there before being sent off on a wild goose chase for General White. I do like the humor of hunting the general down but it is a bit tedious. After that its off to the moon which is cool but then its into the dreary metallic X-Naut base. Getting to explore the base we've seen during the Peach intermissions is cool but its novelty doesn't last. The chapter boss this time around while just being an upgraded version of chapters 2s feels way more fitting and is pretty fun.

#6 Chapter 1: A pretty solid start. It follows the classic "oh no this village has been tormented by the presence of an evil being and you, the hero must stop it". In this case the village is Petalburg and the evil presence is the dragon Hooktail. You even get a new party member in Koops who's dad went to fight the dragon but never returned. Hooktail is a great chapter boss with an imposing presence who isn't afraid to pull a few tricks. I really like the trick to beating her too. I honestly don't see much wrong with this chapter I just like the others a bit better.

#5 Chapter 8: I went back and forth a bunch with this chapter and the one I put at #4 so consider them a tie. The final chapter of the game is an epic decent into the Palace of Shadow. You'll use everything you've learned up to this point. Encounter a bunch of bosses that offer a pretty solid challenge, all culminating in one of the best Mario final bosses with the Shadow Queen. I haven't even mentioned how cool the Palace of Shadow is. I always liked how weirdly elegant the whole place looks, it really captures that fallen city theme the game is going for. My only complaint is that this chapter is completely linear, there really isn't much chance for exploration and there's no NPCs to talk to. At the same time though it does add to that isolation and fear of what awaits you in the Palace.

#4 Chapter 4: Now I know I bashed chapter 2 for its running back and forth but here me out. Chapter 4 starts out with a pretty wild plot about a town who's residents are being turned into pigs when the bell tower at the nearby steeple rings. Then after making your way to the steeple and taking out the chapter boss you have your identity stolen and are stuck walking around a shadow of your former self without any of your party members. We also get one of the best party members Vivian in this chapter who joins us and helps us get out identity back. So already the plot of this chapter is better then some of the others, also Twilight Town is one of the coolest locations. Yes the backtracking between the town and the steeple is annoying in the original version but the remake cuts the amount of trips down by giving you a warp pipe back to Twilight Town after your 2nd visit to the Steeple. This does make the chapter feel a little short but id say it improves the it overall.

#3 Chapter 5: This chapter has Flavio in it what more does one need. Okay I'll say a bit more, in this chapter Mario gets stranded on Keelhaul Key after the ship he was on is destroyed. He's not alone though as there was a whole crew on the ship who have made a little makeshift village. I always liked how your basically stuck in the chapter from the moment you start it till you finish it. As you explore the surrounding jungle you get my favorite party member in Admiral Bobbery and not long after that you explore the Pirates Grotto which might just be my favorite dungeon in the game. The chapter boss Cortez also has one of the best designs even if his fight isn't that hard. You even get another boss fight against Lord Crump which is one of his better ones. A cool setting with a bunch of great characters earns it the #3 spot.

#2 Chapter 6: Why would a chapter with very little combat in a turn based RPG end up being this high on the list? By having it on a train and making the plot a mystery. The story of chapter 6 is where all its fun comes from. When you begin you find a letter threatening you with a sticky yummy explosion. From there you team up with the detective penguin Pennington to uncover who left the letter before they can enact their plan. The chapter takes place over 3 days, I always like it when a game does a good job with the passage of time and chapter 6 does just that. Time will pass from day to dusk to night as you solve different mysteries and get to know the other passengers. There is still some combat when the train has to stop on the 2nd day at riverside station and there is a chapter boss who is neat but isn't super involved in the chapter. Even as someone who's played this chapter many times and knows all the solutions I still love my time on the Excess Express.

#1 Chapter 3: Chapter 3 sees Mario visiting Glitzville a city in the sky known for the Glitzpit an arena where fighters come from far and wide to be #1. Realizing the crystal star is on the champions belt Mario enters the competition as The Great Gonzales and fights his way to the top. If that wasn't enough it turns out there's more going on then meets the eye. The story of chapter 3 is my favorite, it takes the mystery elements of chapter 6 but has more fighting as you climb the ranks. You get the Mini-Yoshi as a party member who is one of the coolest as he can be a variety of colors making each playthrough a little more unique. The Chapter boss actually uses the crystal star's power to their advantage which I always found real cool since all the others just have it but don't actually use it. I loved Chapter 3 as a kid and I still love it now as an adult.

So there you have it all the chapters ranked in my opinion. If your curious I also did this for the first Paper Mario game when I logged it last year, so check that out if you're interested! As for this game it was always in my Top 10 and the remake has just done an excellent job keeping it there for years to come!

Revisiting this classic from my childhood was a treat!

While as a whole I think I prefer the Gen 3 remakes (I know it’s a bit of a hot take) for their more modern battle mechanics and better graphics. Emerald still has a lot of charm! Also random note but man this game has a lot of opportunities for double battles, like way more then I remembered.

With my team I tried to use a few Pokemon I’d never used before mixed in with some of my favourites!

Swampert: My favourite starter line and honestly Mudkip is probably my favourite pokemon overall!

Breloom: Another classic pick for me! Always liked the typing

Swallot: Never used it in Emerald but I have used it in Pokemon XD. Wasn’t the most helpful at the elite four but still liked having him around!

Skarmory: As a kid I never used single stage Pokemon cause I thought they were weak but Skarmory held her own pretty well!

Wobbuffet: A really wild pick to throw on the team. Never thought I’d use one but said why not! She even managed to take out the champions final Pokémon!

Banette: A bit of a late addition but proved pretty helpful against Phoebe once he was a high enough level to out speed her team!

While a little cryptic at times I found Cavern of Dreams to be a real fun time!

Starting off with the most important thing. Fynn is a top tier protagonist and I adore how every time you collect an egg he goes “good job”.

Moving on level variety is pretty good especially the last level where things take a pretty interesting turn. The game feels good to control and I found you were always using different moves to figure things out. I also really liked how while you could find all the eggs on your first visit to a world coming back later with new moves would make those challenges easier!

Like I said before the some of the puzzles can be a bit confusing at times but if you’re just trying to finish the game and not 100% it I don’t think you’ll have too rough a time. I do also wish the game was longer but what we have is pretty good.

If your a fan of 3D playformer collectathons I say check it out!

A near perfect Mario Kart game! Seeing how much this game has changed over the years has been insane. Starting out as a just alright game on the Wii U and becoming arguably the best Mario Kart as of the final wave of the booster course pack!

I’ve spent the past couple months playing through 10 or so courses every Sunday with my fiancé and another couple online and it was a lot of fun! (Even if I lost a lot)

Honestly there’s only a few things I wish this game had. A few missing tracks like Toad Factory, Wario Colosseum and Delfino Square to name a few would have been cool to see.

While I know we’ll never get it, seeing mission mode return would have been crazy. Battle mode is a lot better but I do wish they had an elimination mode for balloon battle.

Finally I do wish there were a couple more online features like being able to design a cup choosing the order of the tracks when playing with friends.

Those are all really just nitpicks but they do keep the game from being the absolute best Mario kart that gives you no reason to replay the old ones.

I don’t know who’s else is playing Wii Play in 2024 but a friend and I spent an afternoon playing it and it was fun!

Simple for sure and a couple of the games are kinda whatever but the ones that hit are pretty good. Find Mii is my personal favourite of the bunch.

While you don’t need to go hunt down a copy by any means. If you happen to own it already maybe pop it in for an hour or so of fun with a friend or loved one.

I’m gonna echo what a lot of people have said about this game but dang what a cool concept that just isn’t quite there execution wise.

Being able to evolve your character and alter your stats based on what you pick is super cool! I didn’t even mind the fact your character resets a few times over the course of the game. The fact there’s even some secret things you can evolve makes the game feel so much bigger.

But man actually playing it is just such a slog. Good thing the game isn’t super long. It really boils down to find an area with easy enough enemies to kill, grind up EVO points, get stronger, fight next bigger thing. Also for me even when I became super strong there were a few bosses that felt near impossible to beat (Thank you save states).

It’s really too bad cause the game has really nice sprite work and even a pretty interesting story overall. Perhaps there’s a romhack version that fixes these problems but honestly I’d love to just see a spiritual successor cause there is a great game hidden in this one.

A pretty challenging 3D platformer but in a good way!

Controls take some getting used to but once you do it’s fun figuring out how to get to certain areas using your single wall jump and dash abilities.

I like how weird the dream world you explore is and the dislike for a few chuckles out of me at times!

A little on the short side but I hope that just means we get a bigger sequel down the road cause I’d for sure play it.

What a solid little game. Banjo-Kazooie is one of my favourite games, it might even be my favourite N64 game!

While I’ve played the original a whole bunch, I never had the chance to play the GBA game until now and let me say it was a very pleasant surprise.

It’s basically the 3D collect-o-thon platformer that I love shrunken down onto a handheld. Sure there’s a few issues like having trouble telling just how high something is when jumping to it and there’s a few Jiggies that are a pain but the problems are few and far between.

One thing I loved that the game did different from the others is its transformations. Basically in the old games each world had only one but here you can use any transformation in any world which made them feel way more important. I just wish they would have used them even more than they did.

In fact I just wish there was more game to play, with only 5 worlds along with the hub world there isn’t a whole lot of game. With that said what is there is great and if you’re a Banjo fan you should definitely play it. A GBA game I see myself coming back to.

A game that does a lot within the limitations of the GBA.

Crash Bandicoot The Huge Adventure does a great job taking what we know about the bandicoot and shrinking it down into a game that still feels like a Crash game!

All the stuff you’d expect is here just now it’s a 2D adventure! Levels are pretty quick and fun.

With that said for me this is one of those games that I finished but really have no drive to 100%, even though I know there’s a cool reward for doing so. This is mainly due to the time trials just being a little to aggravating for me. (Also I never got the yellow gem cause of how hard it is to get to).

If you enjoy Crash you’ll enjoy this game for me personally though I’ve always been more of a Spyro guy.

As someone who’s a huge fan of the movie this game is just alright.

It really skims the plot of the movie which is fine since it’s a GBA game but it was kinda funny to me how sections of this played out.

Aesthetically I like how the game looks and the isometric camera is something I’m weirdly nostalgic for. Levels have a variety of designs and you unlock new powers at a pretty good rate. There’s even some optional exploration but it’s really just to collect coins to earn extra lives so it’s not really worth it.

Gameplay is kinda hit or miss, there’s some pretty good puzzles and most platform sections aren’t too bad. However by the end of the game there’s some spots that are just super unfair. The Solar Surfer levels are a huge pain to play to the point that I imagine a bunch of kids who played this gave up when they got to these levels.

While I wouldn’t play it again it was neat to play a video game adaptation of one of my favourite movies!

A real contender for my favourite Resident Evil game!

I love how well polished this game is. The way enemies look as you shoot off bits of their bodies and how Leon and Claire have little comments when enemies are near by or if you miss hitting them a few times. It’s so good!

A good amount of suspense as you have to manage your inventory as only have so much space to start. Even if you do have to pass on some items the games map will make them for you and it’ll even show you if there’s still items to collect in a room which is a great feature that helps when exploring.

I didn’t even mind that you have to play the game twice to get the true ending! Thankfully there are a few differences so it’s not the exact same thing.

While I don’t know if I’ll ever attempt the game on hardcore difficulty or try and get an S rank in the campaign Resident Evil 2 Remake was a blast to play!

Guess I’ll have to try the remakes of 3 and 4 at some point!

A short but pretty decent adventure puzzle game!

Story was engaging. The puzzles were pretty good I did have to look up a couple little things but I think that’s more so a me thing then a flaw with the game.

If you’re a fan of Call of Cthulhu then you’ll get a kick out of this one!

Another retro game that while it hasn’t aged the best is still neat to look back on!

I played this on the Switch’s NSO service, which unfortunately meant I only had rental Pokémon to use but I also had restore points to help me retry some of the more annoying battles.

I’m sure for its time it was crazy to see Pokémon in 3D for the first time. Ironically now the standard is having Pokémon in 3D and people reminisce on how good the sprites used to be. With that said I do find it cool to see all these old 3D models in action while playing.

Working around the old Gen 1 mechanics was an interesting challenge in fact it’s almost part of the appeal of revisiting this one i’d say.

Finally theres the mini games which might be the most fun part of the game if you have some friends to play along with!

As a Pokemon fan who grew up with Gen 3 it’s neat to go back and try this one out. If NSO online adds the Gen 1 games and connectivity with Pokemon stadium id consider bumping this ranking up half a star or maybe even more!