After a long period of radio silence from the big ape, Donkey Kong managed to bounce back and flourish in the spotlight once again, thanks to Rareware and the first two games of the Donkey Kong Country sub-series. Both of these games in many ways are some of the best platformers that you could possibly find not just on the SNES, but from the 16-bit era, providing fast and fun platforming challenges, plenty of fun secrets and levels for players to find and complete, many difficult trails that feel oh-so-satisfying to conquer, and all of the joy, charm, and fun that you could expect from both Rare and Nintendo around that time. So, now that we have two very successful and beloved games on our hands, how about we go ahead and expand things a bit, by making a brand new DKC game specifically for the Game Boy (also, yes, I am aware that DKL came out before DKC 2 did, but uhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I don’t care)! And I mean, hey, why not? After all, Mario was able to make several beloved and successful platformers for the gray brick beforehand, and Donkey Kong already made a name for himself on the Game Boy with that one title from 1994, so I’m pretty sure they could do no harm with this decision. So, after a little bit of time and after one cancellation of a Battletoads Arcade port (it was probably for the best, tbh), we then got this game in the form of Donkey Kong Land.

This is probably one of the more forgettable games in the Donkey Kong series, as you don’t really hear too many people talking about it or its sequels anymore, and as for me, I didn’t even know it existed for the longest time until a good while ago, until I bought a bunch of Game Boy games off of this one woman, and this just so happened to be one of the games included in it. Whenever I eventually did decide to sit down and play it initially, I remembered HATING it, being incredibly frustrated with it by the end of it, and thinking that it was pretty much just a shitty version of the main console DKC games. It has been a long time since that initial playthrough though, and I felt I may have been a little too harsh towards the game back then, so I decided to go back to it and give it another shot, and you know what… it still ain’t no DKC 1, but for what it is worth, it is a good game. It doesn’t really do anything too special or different from the mainlike DKC games, but it still manages to successfully bring the fun gameplay of those games onto the smaller screen, and it can provide you with plenty of fun if you can ignore some of its... glaring issues.

The story is exactly the same as the original DKC, so there is no need to go further into that, the graphics are Game Boy graphics, and in this case, they are…… interesting, where they do try to replicate the same kind of look and animations that are in the SNES games, and it is impressive what they manage to do with that here, but it definitely has aged pretty poorly, and it can make the game an eyesore at plenty of times, the music is good, with most of the tracks consisting of Game Boy renditions of DKC 1’s tunes, but they manage to sound good enough on the system, and the new tracks there are good to listen to as well, and the gameplay/control is pretty much exactly as how it was in the SNES games (you see the pattern here, right?), except not quite as good, so if you were a big fan of how those games played and controlled, you are pretty much gonna feel the same way here.

The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of either Donkey Kong or Diddy Kong, go through a set of thirty different levels across many different worlds, from your typical jungle and water levels, to new levels like sewers and the clouds, defeat plenty of enemies by either bopping them on the head or slamming a barrel into their face, even if most of them are just minding their own business, gather plenty of bananas to increase your life, as well as the KONG letters and extra lives to help you out along the way, and take on several bosses that take the wrong lessons from DKC 1’s bosses, and can be quite the disappointment. Most of what you would expect from a DKC game is here and accounted for, and while it doesn’t feel quite as great to play and conquer as that of the console games, it can still provide a decent amount of fun whenever you try it out, and it is some good road trip material…….. as long as you play it on a GBA SP, otherwise you won’t be able to see a thing.

Aside from the new level environments, bosses, and what have you, there isn’t really anything new to talk about when it comes to this game, which is to be expected, as this was just meant to be a companion piece to the original DKC. So, the biggest factor that I can really judge this game on, over anything else, is how well it does at managing to bring the classic DKC formula to a handheld system, and from what we got here, I think it works out pretty well. Everything still plays and feels like a typical DKC game, with tricky yet satisfying platforming, plenty of secrets and bonuses to find, many difficult segments that you will need to overcome, and enough of that same charm you have come to expect, which all works pretty well here, making for a fairly solid little adventure that you can finish in an hour or so if you know what you’re doing. It can be a little hard to get used to, considering how momentum and movement can feel pretty stiff, especially if you are coming from the SNES games, as well as how difficult it can get towards the end of the game, but it isn’t anything too off-putting to where I couldn’t finish it, and I ended up having a really good time with it regardless.

Of course though, it does come with its fair share of issues, because just like with DKC 1, the bosses in this game kind of suck. To be fair, they are better than that of that original game, and there are fewer of them to complain about, but some of the ones here aren’t really that fun to fight at all, such as one where you have to just jump on a bunch of stingrays and then you win, or one that takes place entirely underwater, and you have to maneuver yourself around this area to get the enemy to hit itself with its own projectiles. Yeah, I’m sure you can imagine how much fun that is. Also, this game does have a bit of an issue with saving, where unlike in DKC 1, where you can visit Candy Kong so that she can save your game, here, you have to collect the KONG letters in the levels in order to do that, which isn’t necessarily that bad or impossible to do, but it definitely isn’t the way I would want to go about saving my game. And I thought Crash Bandicoot was the only game that does this kind of stupid saving shit, but I didn’t know what was barreling around the corner…

Overall, despite some poor bosses and the saving system being pretty lame, Donkey Kong Land is still a good companion piece to the original Donkey Kong Country, where it still retains all of the things you love about the main games, including the fun platforming, the challenging yet satisfying obstacles, all of the secrets to find and collect, as well as that Rare charm that you just can’t go without. I would recommend it for those who are big fans of the main DKC games, as well as those who are big old-school platformer fans, because while this may not be the go-to option for those wanting a helping of DK action, it can still be fun regardless if you haven’t tried it out. Also, before we end this review off, I do wanna briefly go over the other two Donkey Kong Land games, DKL 2 and 3, because I am not gonna be dedicating full reviews to those two games. Unlike the first DKL, which was more of an original Donkey Kong adventure, these two games are more or less conversions of DKC 2 and 3 for the Game Boy, where most of the level themes and means of progression remain the same, but some of the level design is changed up. These are fine enough versions of these games, and they are pretty impressive conversions for this gray brick, but you obviously wouldn’t want to play them over the main console games, so they are just more forgettable than anything else. It’s a shame too, cause I definitely would’ve wanted to see a sequel to the original DKL that did have more original content, but eh, whaddya gonna do.

Games #626, 626.5, and 627

Esse faz parte das 10 fitas de SNES q ainda tenho guardadas aq. Já zerei o Super Mario World e o Super Mario Bros 3 por aq, já o segundo game eu n curto muito.
Vou citar oq acho de melhor em cada jogo : SMB. ( trilha sonora ), SMB.2 ( personagens jogáveis ), SMB.3 ( fases e power-ups ) e SMW ( gráficos ).

>> Prós
• JOGABILIDADE : Todos eles tem controles fáceis e parecidos, além de ser possivel escolher a configuração no menu antes de iniciar um save.
• SOUNDTRACK : A trilha sonora do primeiro game é incrivel e acho ela a melhor do pack, embora eu tenha jogado mais o 3 e o World.
• COOP : É legal q da pra jogar com um amigo, além de ter aquele modo de batalha no menu principal pra tirar um x1.
• DIVERTIDO : Mt bom pra passar o tempo, pra época com ctz era uma opção essencial por ter vários jogos ótimos na msm fita.
• CENÁRIOS : Todos tem alguns cenários e fases clássicas, tipo a primeira do Super Mario Bros. ou a fase da estrela do Super Mario World.

>> Contras
• Nenhum.

>> Jogos
• SUPER MARIO BROS. = 4/5
• SUPER MARIO BROS. 2 = 2/5
• SUPER MARIO BROS. 3 = 4.5/5
• SUPER MARIO WORLD = 4/5

too much content dawg…. this game is incredibly disappointing, no new map, sky and depths are underwhelming, the building is cool but it’s not like bad piggies or other mechanical builders where you can activate a button to do an action to prevent blowing your vehicle up, I don’t even have much motivation to finish the game, that’s how much fun im not having with this. this sucks man.. >~< weapon fusing is fucking awesome though. honestly if this was in botw i’d be havin a fuckin BLAST! its so awesome. this is as close to the homestuck alchemize system we can get in gaming… for now….the only time ill replay this game is when i download the wolf link mod :3c

I took both Thursday and Friday off to play the DLC. And all I can say is what a journey from start to finish it was.
Just entering the Realm of Shadow for the first time was fucking incredible, the world looked beautiful and I could already see tons of new areas which I would eventually find.

I immediately went to go look for the Scadutree blessings (which I cannot recommend enough) and explored the immediate surroundings. This is what people should absolutely be paying attention to when playing the DLC, I truly believe that the Scadutree blessing level is a game-changer.

The bosses were absolutely phenomenal, they seem so imposing and challenging at first but they HAVE learnable patterns. They might seem really overtuned or spammy, but don't lose hope, they are genuinely a blast to fight and some of this DLC's bosses have already entered my personal top 10. The final boss is probably the craziest challenge fromsoft has ever put out. Might it disappoint some? Maybe. Personally, I loved the reveal, and I felt rewarded for doing the NPC quests and being able to put together everything. I definitely expect a nerf soon though.

I beat the entirety of the DLC solo, without summons (save the one during the Bayle fight), no meta build, or bleed weapons. I played through with my Strength Faith character and I had tons of fun finding new weapons for my build and trying them out (and for any other STR-FAITH enthusiasts out there, this expansion has a ton of goods for us :D). Another common theme in this dlc is how I was DYING to re-spec every time I found a new weapons. All of the new weapon types I found were absolutely insane and looked so fucking cool. Incantations and spells didn't disappoint either, really.

Only real critique is the fact that a few map fragments are a little inaccesible. Takes a bit of the fun out of exploring if you can't even look at the map. I believe having the entirety of the map available from the start could be helpful, or if not, just place them in more "accesible" areas. Looking at you, Abyssal Woods and Rauh Base.

Overall, this DLC scores a high 9.5/10. I'm not really taking optimization issues into account because that's really only been a huge issue for Steam and we can be sure that Fromsoft is already working on a few patches.

It's genuinely insane how the development team had some pretty good ideas going forward, but then completely went backwards on it. I get that the game is free and all that, but it reminds me of the Injustice mobile games a lot, especially the menus. The menus are a mess to navigate through, especially with all the in-game currencies there are all of a sudden. I feel like the beta had a way better idea on how to be a game than this did, which is a shame. This is far from the worst free game I've played, I've become a sort of expert in that department so I'm able to tell, but we'll have to wait and see with updates if it can and will improve on this full launch. Unless the Samurai Jack leaks are true, in which case the game is actually a 10/10 and this review is mute.

It's a good game for a while but is let down by two key areas.
I would recommend it on sale but not for any more than €30+.

It's basically RE:7 but bigger, larger map, more antagonists, more weapons, etc. It has most of the same characters though a different setting. The first thing I noticed was how amazing it looks, especially for a game under 50gb when it appears most devs either don't know how to or don't care to try and compress their games.

The opening hours are fun, unnerving and very interesting, it does draw you in, it's the typical formula of "you are trapped in this area, find puzzle pieces, kill enemies, avoid the main antagonist until a scripted boss fight". It's fun though the horror feels toned down compared to RE:7.

There are two reasons I don't recommend this game, first is the story and second are the boss fights.
RE:7's story was silly, it was this very realistically-rendered world contrasted with laughably bad, Goosebump's level writing where bosses would taunt you endlessly throughout a five minute fight while your character never responds, or where your character would watch part of their body get sliced off, quietly mutter "ow" then pay it no attention again. Village is exactly the same but I feel like they must have hired the junior writers from the last game because the dialogue is painfully bad, it honestly is hard to listen to. Ethan isn't relatable or likeable, Mia is annoying at best, all of the antagonists come across like theater kids rather than grounded villains. I'm not one to let story ruin a game but Village is unfortunately a game where you cannot avoid the story, similarly you can't avoid the boss fights.

Boss fights in RE:7 were bad but usually short. Boss fights in RE:8 are bad but incredibly long at normal+ difficulty. I hated every single boss fight, they all either had super obvious gimmicks that may as well have been quick time event style button prompts to win or the bosses were bullet sponges design to run down your suppliers and leave you re-loading your save so you can go buy more and re-try. The final boss fight was by far the worst, without spoiling it some attacks felt like they were impossible to dodge, the room felt too small to maneuver in and the lack of feedback from the boss to show whether or not your damage was effective made it feel like a grind. I died three times because despite stocking up on supplies as much as I could and re-trying I kept running out. Landing every single shot made no difference, the fight just goes on and on all while the boss espouses dialogue that rivals a James Bond villain, telling me she is going to kill me while not actually doing it despite have ample opportunity. At some stage I got sick of it, dropped the difficulty I had stuck to all play through and was happy to finish up in less than 5 minutes on my next attempt.

Another issue it copies from RE:7 is that it turns into an action-horror game by the end - why did they decide on this? Animations are slow, your character controls like a boat, you're hindered by this to increase tension in one on one combat sections and all of a sudden you have an assault rifle, unlimited ammo, a horde of enemies and the same awful controls, it doesn't work.

The most stand-out section of the game is when you're in the basement with the mannequin, I won't spoil it but the body horror and tension are unrivaled in the rest of the game however it ended too soon.

If it's on sale grab it for an interesting 10+ hour run but I would recommend 7 over this any day, even with all of its flaws. It starts strong but leaves you wishing for its end.

The first time I played Katamari Damacy was with Reroll in 2018. I had gotten a copy for Christmas after thinking it seemed interesting. I played it a bit throughout my week trip with my ex-girlfriend and thought it was somewhat fun and nothing else. Fast forward to 2022, I was going through my games deciding what to play next. I see Reroll and remembered I didn't actually beat it. Since I knew it was short, I decided to finish it this time. Coming out of it, I thought it was great and a lot better than I initially thought. Fast forward again to the end of 2022, I get the PS2 version. I already really enjoyed Reroll but this replay of the OG version made me truly love Katamari and got me to eventually play We Love Katamari. And yet again, with this most recent playthrough, I still love this game.

The story of Damacy is wacky and lighthearted. The King of Cosmos (this giant flying handsome guy like fella) flies into all the stars in the sky as well as the moon because he was drunk. You the prince, must now roll up objects in levels and create new stars (and the moon) to fix your dad's mistake. That's the entire story but it works because of this games weird and quirky humor.

So you have to roll up objects in levels and make them big enough to satisfy the king before he turns them into stars. Sounds simple enough right? Well besides there being some levels that aren't just that, the way you collect objects in this game is interesting. You start with a ball at a specific size and must gradually make it bigger over time. The thing with that is, you can't roll just anything at the start. You have a size limit depending on how large your ball is and as it gets bigger, so does the size of possible things you can roll up. It can be a bit tricky to gauge what things you can and can't collect at your ball size, and if you run into something you can't it can knock things out of your ball. It's actually not too hard to do that, because along with knocking into large objects, if you get stuck somehow that can make you drop objects as well. It's actually not hard to get stuck in this game, and while it can be somewhat frustrating, you can usually escape. A large part of the reason this game is so fun to play, besides the general gameplay being solid, is how wacky collecting everything is. What you can collect ranges from small stuff like erasers or thumbtacks to literal whole landmasses and clouds in the sky. Besides the King occasionally cracking jokes or reprimanding you in levels, a lot of the character comes the humans. Like halfway into the game, you start getting to levels where you can collect humans. There are all types of them and they all have hilarious or even somewhat-terrifying reactions to being rolled up. But this is the fun of the game, going from level to level and seeing what types of craziness will ensue.

Something I think I prefer in We Love are the level settings. In this game it's a lot more basic and is someone's home, a little town, an area by a lake and then a whole city. It's not bad in the slightest, and I do really like how the levels evolve over the time..I just prefer We Love's more varied level themes now. I will say though, while I do at the very least like every level, the final one where you must make the moon is so peak. It's a city level but you're given 25 minutes to complete it and you eventually get big enough to collect full cities and clouds in the sky and a literal thunder god. It's insane and by far the wackiest level in the game and I love it. I gave a couple very minor things I wish were better in this game but the thing I actually don't like are some of the side levels. Besides the usual ones I described, there are levels where you must create constellations. These range from levels where you have to collect as many of an object as you can to one where you must collect as many paired objects as you can. These are all fine and dandy but then there are some where you have to collect the biggest of an object you can. These two levels are make Ursa Major and Make Taurus. With these, you have to collect the biggest bear and cow in each respective level. Only issue is there are bears and cows all over the level and if you collect just one it ends the level. They want you to memorize the stage so you can make your ball big enough and find the bear/cow. Idk, I never had the patience for these and just don't find them fun so I always just collect the first one I see and skip it basically. Another level I'm not as keen on but still try with is the one where you must make a 10M ball but you can't see your progress so you must guess. I do find it a little fun to see how close I can get but it's pretty difficult for me to gauge where I'm at just by guessing. That's my biggest issue with the game, these three side levels and they're only like a 10th of the game so it's not the biggest deal in the world.

The games visuals and artstyle is fantastic. It goes for cel-shading I believe and it makes every level so vibrant and colorful. The levels are already cool enough as it is but the little planets you go on in the hub, atmospherically are great as well. It's literally just your means of going to each level or the options in the game but it has a ton of personality that just makes it super memorable. The entire game is like that tbh, even the title screen with the three game files has you rolling up parts of the word Namco to start..each file in the game is literally a couple letters of the publisher! It's just incredibly quirky and charming which I love a lot.

Besides the game's weird and quirky nature, the soundtrack is kind of what sells this game. It's honestly a very impressive and out there OST, with songs from all different music genres. You have swing, techno, salsa, J-pop etc. This game is bound to have a song you'll like. Some of my favorites are Que Sera Sera, Katamari on the Rocks, Lovely Angel and plenty more. There are actually a couple of stage songs I'm not like a huge fan on, namely Wanda Wanda and You Am Smart. They aren't bad, they just pale in comparison to a lot of the other songs I feel. I honestly don't think I like love love any song in this game, but like the collective majority of great and experimental songs just makes me appreciate the soundtrack a ton. That is...besides Lonely Rolling Star which is not only my favorite song between both Katamari games I've played, it's one of my favorite videogame songs ever now and is probably in my top 5 VGM of all time. The levels it's in could be total shit and I wouldn't care because the song is so good, so every level it was in (only 2 apparently which is kinda sadge) was pure bliss. The final level was also pure bliss because on top of being the most fun, it played Katamari on the Rocks which is a banger. Either way, great OST which is even more peak because it has Lonely Rolling Star.

Had a couple of little gripes that might be fixed by We Love when I replay it. Doesn't change the fact this game is peak though. Was thinking about bumping this to a 10, still might in the future, but for now I'll just keep it at a 9. Still a blast to play and just artistically it's amazing (both conceptually and it's music/art style) which I appreciate a TON. Anyways, next review will be Majora's Mask and then I'll probably join everyone in playing Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance so look forward to those reviews in the future!

Edit: I decided to finally bump this to a 10/10. It has a couple things I think We Love did better, but this is still an incredible work of art I gotta give it the 10.