A game clearly made by a bunch of artists and writers who utterly lack the game design skill to actually pull off what they wanted to do. As a lover of adventure games I’m not a stranger to encountering adventure games like this, ones that add mechanics that just drag the experience down because the devs just did not have a good grasp of them at all or were too afraid that their work is not “gamey” enough so they felt the need to shoehorn them in. Little Goody Two Shoes is a life-sim/yuri VN frankensteined together poorly with an RPGmaker horror game and those elements are at complete odds with each other. The aesthetics and atmosphere are phenomenal, merging 90’s shoujo and Grimms’ fairy tales wonderfully. The writing is solid enough too as the main cast of ladies are likable and the mystery is engaging enough. The life sim elements are mostly fine, most of the job mini-games are alright though I’m not a fan of the rat one. The game does a bit of a bad job of pushing the player to overly fear raising suspicion though as it’s usually not hard to avoid or at least drop it down; I can easily see someone screwing themselves if they invested too much stamina and money in bringing Rozenmarine to work with them at all because it’s just not worth it, the villagers can be easily assuaged with the right responses. The night time horror segments is where the game completely goes to shit though.

This game really shows how it’s essentially a bad 2000’s RPGmaker horror game just with an actual budget as the nighttime segments are jank as hell with puzzles mostly relying on trial and error. One night has you run away from a boss who will instantly kill you and the game can’t really handle the chase sequence that well; spike blocks will fall too fast to dodge within a fair window unless you know they’re coming and the second segment seems like sometimes you’ll just get randomly killed even when you’re running full speed. The puzzles gets worse as the game goes on as Thursday has you play floor is lava with phantoms that are attracted to sound, but the camera tends to be too zoomed in to see them effectively at times so you’re probably going to walk your ass into a few of them because the game gives you very little visual or audio cues that they’re coming. Apparently some of the segments were even more obtuse and bullshit before they patched them and that’s just galling to me. The breaking point for me was on Friday where you had to go in complete darkness because turning on your lantern gets you instantly killed by statues. It’s absolutely abysmal puzzle design to the point where I’m baffled the devs thought it was a good idea. It’s not clever or challenging like good adventure game puzzles should, it genuinely feels like a troll. Thankfully somebody on Steam told me the solution so I went back and beat it but man did it still suck. The endings are also unsatisfying because they seem kind of at odds with each other and don’t really give a true conclusion if you take them into account. Just a wet fart of an ending to top off a game that was unraveling as it went along.

This game just utterly frustrates me because this game could have been great but its dogshit design decisions prevent it from being such. The game isn’t completely unsalvageable, a couple patches and overhauling the Friday puzzle to not be so awful and it’d be at a decent enough quality. Gonna be blunt and say they really need to hire a person who actually knows good adventure game design if they want to make keeping games like this. This is definitely the kind of game that you should probably watch an LP of. I’m usually the kind of guy who will readily defend games that have merely serviceable gameplay but great everything else, but Little Goody Two Shoe’s gameplay is too annoying for me to heartily endorse experiencing yourself.

The original Star Stacker is a bland falling blocks game, but this update adds some much-needed spice.

To be fair, the core conceit to Star Stacker was never bad, just very straightforward. It's really quite easy to sandwich stars or other blocks between Animal Friends, so you don't arrive at that same hook you get out of something like frantically searching the board for matches in Panel de Pon. It's the same sort of relative mindlessness and monotony you get out of something like Candy Crush Saga, only with fewer power-ups or aesthetic flourishes to disguise its simplicity. Star Stacker GB may have had some of Dedede's very best animations, plus those nifty splash images of Kirby and friends playing, but little else.

But Super Star Stacker overhauls the experience in a lot of little ways. Most obvious is the game's story mode and the consequential emphasis on competitive. Now you finally have that sense of urgency the original game was largely missing, trying to make combos quickly enough to fill your opponent's well with blocks. Obvious too is the gorgeous new art direction, clearly taking cues from Dream Land 3. And the story, while simple, is fun. I know most people these days are gonna play it in Japanese thanks to Nintendo Switch Online, but I'll be forever grateful I had the opportunity to play a fan translation, which explains Dedede's decision to shoot the little star guy out of the sky as a "brilliant prank".

Admittedly I still don't think much of Super Star Stacker - it's a pretty simple game with little iteration, and for as cute as the story is, it doesn't add much. But given the context of its original release - a download-exclusive title for the Super Famicom - it was all right.

Technically speaking, Gryll remains one of the few Kirby bosses I've never beaten. For a Dural-type boss, it's weirdly easy to get to her, so... maybe I'll beat her some day?

um... splatoon 3. i like it but its different to be reviewing a game that is still getting updates, patches and changes, one you have experienced from the start and have had to deal with some crazy shit LOL. i think splatoon 3 is easily the best in the series due to its quality of life changes and better ui among other things, but i have very mixed feelings towards it. but im not going to sit here and be uncertain about the future, ill just go over some stuff im doing in it present day. i think splatoon 3s salmon run is miles better than splatoon 2s, i mean obviously right? but honestly i could play it all day (and i do.) king salmonids are such a cool addition, and big runs > splatfests. splatfests are really cool in this game, love the idea of 3 teams even if it hasnt been working in my favor much. personally i think splatoon 3s hero mode tries WAAAY too hard. it tried to bank on octo expansions success by making them the exact same but then sucking the life out of it. in my opinion it is boring and tells kind of a nothing story. i did not feel invested at all which is very sad because ive been looking forward to it for years, but oh well. i trust side order will treat me better... one last thing since this is getting long, i havent really clicked yet with deep cut. right now they have absolutely nothing going for them and im really hoping they get some interesting developments soon. BY THE WAY I DO NOT HATE THIS GAME. sorry if im overly negative, i am for some reason very critical of games i absolutely love. i look forward to what the coming years of content bring!

splatoon 2s one of those games where you gotta force yourself to keep playing but i still hold it dear to my heart. in my splatoon review i said its broken and unplayable in a fun way, but splatoon 2 is just broken and unplayable LMAO its still fun, definitely not my favorite of the trilogy but i still love it so much. ill say more in my review of octo expansion ;) this game has an AMAZING ost though and while id say splatoon 2s story mode is kinda weak its totally my guilty pleasure because i love the squid sisters. and off the hook is easily the best idol duo to this day

I didn't get this game, and I'm bummed about it. I wish I could've really loved this game. The design of it didn't work for me, I don't understand what the point of it was, and the story, if there even was one, was lost on me. The gameplay was weirdly inconsistent; I don't like how it went from being super fast paced to suddenly slowing down completely in the next puzzle.

However, it wasn't completely without its merit. The music slapped really hard and was my favorite soundtrack of the year. The boss fights were well designed and probably the most fun I had while playing. It also had a great sense of humor and didn't overstay its welcome.

I could see why this game is so well liked, but as far as side scrolling platformers go, I don't think I'll look back on this one too much.

Definitely has its problems in the dungeon and world design departments but its charm is irresistible. Awesome soundtrack and art style, one of the best Zelda stories, and good characters. While Ocarina of Time was about growing up, Wind Waker is about being forced to grow up. You aren't "the chosen one", you aren't inhabiting some kind of magical fairytale world, and your call to action wasn't from a talking tree. Your sister was captured, the world is flooding, and your grandmother is spiraling. What's left of Hyrule has gone to absolute shit (and you didn't even need to set foot in a temple of time), and now it's your job to fix the colossal mess that the older generation created? You had to prove your worth as a hero not because it was your destiny, but because nobody else would step up. It's graphical style was seen as unpleasant when the original game released in 2002. And I think that reaction mirrors the way Wind Waker attempts to unlearn generational patterns of selfish inaction and mediocrity. We've come to appreciate this game's artstyle nowadays, and applaud Aonuma and co.'s progressiveness and willingness to bring change. And I believe those lessons can be applied to our own lives. The kids are alright - you don't need to be the "chosen one" to change the world.

Also, I'm gonna say it. The final scene in this game where link kills ganondorf is cooler than the one in twilight princess. Rawest moment in video games.

An insane amount of content for only $10, Genius Sonority proves that they can make quality original titles and should be allowed to do so more often. The whole game has this offbeat, electronically-themed charm to it (assisted particularly by the soundtrack, featuring heavy use of these quirky-sounding synths). The overworld is a ton of fun to explore and there are a lot of optional things to do. There's even an online PVP mode if you're interested in that kind of thing!

The gameplay, story, and characters follow your typical JRPG tropes, but as previously mentioned, the charm of the game's presentation make them fun and memorable. Plus, it's always cool to find a Denpa Man in the wild with an antenna you haven't seen before, unlocking new abilities for combat. My only real problem with the game is that it has an admittedly massive grinding problem; you have to grind a lot in this game, and so it asks for a lot of your patience, but I think the rest of the game largely makes up for it.

I might be a bit biased, since this game was pretty much my introduction to traditional-style JRPGs (now my favorite genre) but in my opinion, this game is the true hidden gem of the 3DS's library, and it'll be a shame when it becomes widely unavailable once the eShop closes. Hopefully one day Genius Sonority will be allowed to go back to making games that aren't just mobile Pokémon spin-offs.