Minus half a star for the choppy framerate and Gamecube graphics. That aside, this is fantastic. This is about as deep as monster collectors get but it still seems pretty newbie friendly: the number of permutations between monsters (who all have multiple innate passives) and the fact you can graft any 3 skill paths onto anyone is insane but you can't really screw up too bad: rescouting becomes super easy as you progress and you have 1000 monster slots to work with, so getting the right skills on the right monster isn't too tough. Monsterpedia is excellent: if you're worried you need a synthesis guide they really give you a lot of recommended combos, you can check family trees in case you've forgotten past synthesis, etc. Really user-friendly without being handholdy. As long as people play ladder (and it's never been easier to make great, unique monsters), it'll never get stale.

This is a BIG game too: my memory may be foggy but I feel like the campaign is about twice as long as past entries. The story strikes a nice balance between telling a solid isolated narrative and being a geeky fanservice what-if prequel for the Zenithian trilogy freaks (Why is Toilen Trubble a main character here? I dunno man but he's a piece of shit and I'm happy he's here to rob everyone in the name of science).

Localization slaps. Took a screenshot every time they announced a new arena fighter, dialogue is insanely dumb in the best way. Anyways eat your damn heart out, Pokemon.

I used to love the Storm series ever since the first game released, and even since the first Ultimate Ninja on PS2. I would get so hyped when a new game was coming out, but i didn't really feel anything when this got announced. Maybe because the initial reveal was bad, Budokai Tenkaichi 4 overshadowing it, Boruto existing, or just growing out of these games after waiting 7 years since Storm 4 released. If you're looking for more multi-player battles, then this is the best Storm game. The gameplay is the most refined in the series so far. The single-player content is pretty disappointing, possibly one of the worst in the series. Everything you unlock is used primarily for online battles as this is a mostly multi-player oriented game. It feels like a cash grab, and possibly an "in between" game before Storm 5.

why do i feel like all the bespoke queer games ive seen that came out in the last 10 years have been just so saccharine? this isn't really a knock against the game itself, and I don't really fault anyone who enjoys these types of games, its just I really want more games about being gay/trans that isnt just like "I'm a girl and I can kiss girls!!!!!!" I want a game thats bespokely queer, but through the lens of someone whos gotten past the initial euphoria of figuring out your queer identity, like a story thats about people's real world struggles and how they intertwine with their queerness to where its the focus? they speak from the abyss seems to fit that bill from what I've seen, maybe something like that? this is a genuine question btw. and hey maybe if this game eventually does become what im describing then i'll give it another go! i really just wasn't feelin it chief.

What was new became old. New Super Mario Bros was the first new 2D side-scrolling platformer in over 13 years after Super Mario Land 2's release. During that time, Nintendo experimented and released two 3D Mario games for the N64 and GameCube respectively, four remakes of the plumber's past adventures for the Game Boy Advance, and a plethora of spin-offs. Mario was given a ton of support around that time frame, but it was clear something was missing. So in May 2006, Nintendo released New Super Mario Bros to the world on Nintendo's most successful console, the Nintendo DS, trying to recapture the experience of his past 2D adventures while making a few changes to make it accessible to a wider audience, and I think it worked both critically and financially. It takes elements like an overworld and finding secrets (in the form of exits) like in Super Mario Bros. 3 and World and has some classic power-ups that remained unchanged like the Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, and the Star. It's clear that the game was a return to form for 2D Mario, and I think they did it well.

Let's get on to the "new" stuff, starting with the movement. Mario feels so good to control, and they brought moves from the 3D outings like a triple jump and wall jump, and it's so fun to pull off. The Star Coins are the main collectibles of the game, every level has three of them, and they have their own use. You can unlock Toad Houses and additional paths to new levels at the cost of five Star Coins. They're fun to collect, and while the series doesn't reward you with anything cool for completion, they do have their worth compared to something like the Dragon Coins in Super Mario World.

For the items, we have a few new ones. The Mini Mushroom makes Mario extremely tiny, making it easier to walk through small areas that couldn't be possible with normal-sized Mario, and he also has a high jump and can run on water, and the only way to get to Worlds 4 and 7. The Blue Shell (different from Mario Kart) grants the ability to shell dash by either ducking or dashing, decimating through enemies and blocks, but is vulnerable to bottomless pits, lava, and poison if the player is not attentive. I don't like this one; it feels like you're not in control of the shell most of the time and can accidentally trigger the shell dash and lead to deaths that weren't on purpose; I'm glad this one never appeared as a power-up again honestly. Lastly, we have the Mega Mushroom, the one that was featured on the box art and was advertised as this big power-up for the game (no pun intended), but in reality, it wasn't. The item was only implemented to a few levels, and what it essentially does is make Mario or Luigi grow big for a limited amount of time, decimating everything its path while earning some extra lives. I feel mixed on the new items overall, but what about the bosses? Of course, we have Bowser as the main bad guy, but Bowser Jr. is heavily involved in attempting to stop the Mario Bros from proceeding further. We battle him at the end of every tower level and the final castle with a showdown that takes a few seconds long if you have the Fire Flower equipped; very thrilling. The castle bosses are a mix of new and old enemies from past Mario games like Petey Piranha from Mario Sunshine and new ones like the Mummipokey, Cheepskipper, and Dry Bowser. Every boss goes down in three hits like usual, but at least there is some originality here which can't be said with the Koopalings in the following NSMB games. I think you all are starting to see the picture here; there's not enough stuff that can justify as "new" in New Super Mario Bros. When looking at this game from a 2023 perspective, it's a solid 2D platformer, but it comes off as generic, and that statement can be described for all of the NSMB games that came after, starting to feel repetitive and play it safe.

With that said, why do I rate this game a 4/5 then? Well, for two reasons, and both are outside the main game. First, Mario vs. Luigi mode. This is a mode where you and another person with a DS can play locally, select one of the two Mario Bros., and duke it out in a duel where whoever gets the maximum amount of stars wins. If you've not experienced this mode for yourself, I highly recommend it; it's fun just being an ass and steal stars from the other player, it's wonderful. The second reason, and the one thing that beats out every NSMB for me is the minigames. Returning from Mario 64 DS, these were my biggest time wasters growing up, trying to achieve high scores while trying to play every minigame possible as all of them are unlocked plus some new ones that are exclusive to this game. My favorite ones are easily the table minigames featuring Luigi; there's something so addicting about betting in-game coins and playing Picture Poker or Memory Match and witnessing my coin count go up every time I win. So, thank you Luigi for teaching kids how to gamble.

I enjoyed revisiting New Super Mario Bros. While it's generic and not as remembered fondly compared to the classic 2D Mario entries, it's still an enjoyable 6-hour adventure and it has its significance to the Mario series by being a solid return to form. I have a soft spot for this one, and after replaying the whole series in out of order in the span of a few years, the DS one remains the best, all because the others don't have a mode where we can gamble with Luigi.

I very much enjoyed this game. The combat and exploration are both great and I'd recommend it for those aspects. The story leaves a lot to be desired though, and the ideas it presents outpace the narrative's ability to build a strong world around them. Most of the characters presented in the game have little impact on events that occur or could be written out with no change. It really did feel like Nocturne but less interesting and with a weaker atmosphere. Music is pretty good too, and I kept Mermaid on my team the whole game.

Majora's Mask is very novel for its tight use of integrated systems and narrative to explore themes of alienation, despair and hope. It's one thing, I think, for a game to have high level themes, it's another thing for those themes to be directly illustrated by elements of its underlying systems, like it's ticking clock, temporal loop mechanic, the deliberate inability for the protagonist to meaningfully save or help everyone. The latter of which isn't forced upon you by the narrative structure of the game, there's no unseen writer telling you that someone can't be saved other than the fact that you simply don't have enough time. In a lot of ways, I think Majora's Mask is uniquely tempocentric in an art form mostly structured around games which center around the agency and freedom of players. It's a world that is moving on its own clock with characters who are interacting to their impending demise in their own ways, the player is reduced to an interloper and is not the central pivot point for the story, they are merely a vessel to experience it.

I also think Majora's Mask is a game that, in an ideal world, should only be played once. The way Majora's Mask rations time means that you're forced to choose, ultimately, to make sacrifices between doing "right" by individual characters and doing "right" within the context of trying to save the world to the point that even thinking about some of those choices however much time later still tugs at me. By helping some characters resolve certain traumas and unresolved pain, you're quite literally choosing to give them a measure of peace above quite literally everything else, above the existential security of the entire world. To me, that's almost the definition of selfless love, and it's incredible that any medium could find a way to convey that using such a simple mechanic as the ticking clock.

The truly powerful thing that helps make Majora's Mask a masterpiece, is that all these choices emerge through gameplay, it's your trade-offs, your time to ration, the game doesn't tell you how you should manage your time, the game doesn't even mandate you save the world, as far as Majora's Mask is concerned, you can let the world die while using all the time you have to comfort the dying, to help them move on and let go and that's fine. I feel bluntly that there is something truly beautiful in that.

Majora's Mask as a game that has come closer than any game I have played to having a truly holistic design. Everything about the game from the sound design, mechanics and direction is expertly crafted around the underlying philosophical and social premise it is trying to convey and to me, that's just incredible. Very few games come close to ever achieving that level of integration of systems, ideas of disempowerment, alienation, loneliness and a sense of hopeless struggle or futility. These are some of the most difficult themes to address in gaming, a genre all about choice and a perception of agency, and yet the game knocks it out of the park just on mechanical construction alone. Majora's Mask is a bad Zelda game, I should say that bluntly. It does not fit the series tone or its normal gameplay cycle in any way, but by god I'm glad it is one. If you go into Majora looking for something else, what you find is a game that has mastered the gameplay narrative balance to create a game that will forever hold up as a masterpiece in my eyes and something I feel very strongly everyone should be able to experience in full atleast once in their lifetime.