It's cute and warm and fluffy! This is obviously an edutainment-style allegory game moreso than anything else, but I appreciate the game wears its heart on the sleeve, to the point you can see it answering its own criticisms that only people who are already attuned to its message would check it out. I like the fact that it has good, genuine world building rather than being overly direct, and that it could trip you up both by going too far into stereotypes, and also by assuming everything you hear is incorrect! I got 4/5 on the first quiz, 5/5 on the 2nd. Honestly, seeing an expanded game / whatnot of this universe would be fun, because the worldbuilding is neat for the time it has. Marie is absolutely my jam when it comes to characters which is a plus. I don't have the heart to go for the bad ending by being mean to them :(

The art style is very appealing and the music that's in the soundtrack is energetic and mood setting. HELLO was nice. There's plenty of deeper meaning to be found in the text about people who are "othered" having the onus to change people's minds thrust on them, but at the same time understanding for those who are unaware or curious (rather than just total assholes like the people mailing threats), which is nice. As a bisexual person, having a fluffy and optimistic game tackling these issues is pleasing, and it didn't feel condescending at all, I'd say it sounded smart. I hope we get to come back to the Tomato Clinic in the future and given I have one night, hot springs I should really check out npckc's other works already!

Not a ton to say about this one, folks. It's a very very easy and very, VERY generic 2D GBA platformer. The level design evolves little throughout the game, you WILL go through the exact same swimming section at least 9 times, most of it is doing pretty simple platforming that doesn't evolve, I only died a single time before the final boss (who I died to three times against) when they SHOWER you in 1-ups. Controls are mostly fine save for the double jump having a weird delay to it that means you kinda need to pre-emptively double jump, but I DID get used to it. It isn't as horrid to control as a lot of godawful platformers and not heavily flawed, just super boring.

Normally I might be willing to give this a low 3 but maaaaaaan the art style and story suck. Did we really need Frogger to find a princess before he, ahem, busts? The spritework in this game is frequently grotesque and in the dialogue cutscenes it uses terribly pixelated versions of the already awful PS2 Great Quest models. This game is just plain disgusting to look at. Frogger has a lot better games on the GBA and the GBA has a lot better 2D Platformers, there isn't anything interesting to analyze so just...avoid this.

Metroid -> Super Metroid is a commonly discussed evolution of the series and one that is absolutely true, with the start of Super Metroid all but spelling it out for the player. But how about this: Metroid II -> Metroid Fusion is a completely parallel yet similar evolution of taking an older title's unique ideas and modifying them. Both of them offer more linear experiences than the game they preceded (Metroid/Super Metroid) that offer a more "horror" vibe to them and revolve around the idea of hunting, with Fusion having you take the role of the hunted and Metroid II taking the role of the hunter. This dual track of Metroid development is very interesting to consider, but how about the quality of it as a game? Well, I'd call it a game that succeeds in spite of itself.

This game runs a LOT on the general atmosphere and "vibes" of the game, this light horror tension as you're walking through stark white (or puke green if you're playing the original original Game Boy) stone enviroments while waiting to see where you're going to run into the tough boss you're going to be hunting down, seeing their discarded shells or floating awaiting your approach and THIS part of the game is pretty effective. There were multiple times where when I came across a long corridor and would move forward in little bursts so I wouldn't trigger a boss if I wasn't ready health-wise and that kind of feel is exactly what the game feels like it is going for. The final Area is particularly strong at this, nearly empty save for the final enemies and a few secrets. It really gives the feeling of traveling through a ruined and desecrated facility, continuing the Metroid trend of strong enviromental finishes to Metroid games which is what kept the game in the 7 star range for me. The strong music helps in this regard, spooky bit tunes and screeches and lowkey enviromental noises that really set the tone. The title theme is a particularly strong one, the transition from the little "scree....scree..." noises to a more relaxing tone is basically how the game goes, the kinda frantic stomping anger of the final boss theme, the general surface theme. This game really doesn't have a LOT of music but it takes full advantage of the primitive Game Boy sound options to make a pretty memorable OST.

I was also impressed by this game's use of visual langauge and how it made a game without a ton of tile variety quite legible, in addition to servicing the background story. For example, you come to the same tiered tile set of platforms in pretty much every area, which is a visual indicator of being that area's "hub" from which you'll be exploring the other areas for their designated Metroids, which gives an effective way to know when you're in a new area when combined with each area having either a unique flying enemy OR a unique hazard at the bottom of it. Simply by looking to see "oh, is this the one with spikes?" was enough to give me a good idea of where I was via mental map, helping with the total lack of an in-game map. Blast doors you need to use missiles on pretty much always lead to something good, while if they lack the missile doors you're in league for a boss fight. That sort of thing permiates the game and is very helpful.

This is great and all but all runs into some pretty serious flaws in the game. I actually didn't find the boss fights too repetitive, there's enough exploration that it turned into more of my brain tinkering how best to exterminate the next boss which given the hunting / "genocide ALL metroids" theme feels intended, but instead the problem I had is how often the fights just felt like a health/missile check. You simply do not have the mobility with Samus' stiffer Game Boy controls and the chunky sprites vs. the screen size to effectively dodge your opponents, let alone easily hit weak points, meaning that a lot of fights felt to me like spamming missiles while tanking hits and hoping my chunky dodging was enough. The Ai exploitability (which I don't blame them for it's an OG Game Boy game for god's sake) adds to this. It DOES mean some of the fights were quite intense, but it adds a pretty hollow element to a bunch of them. There's also a few of them that just do NOT work right, usually involving long vertical drops, the one with fake blocks was a specific low point as 80% of the fight was just trying to even jump to fight it. The fact that the boss only moves when on screen and the way the music/sound effects work also makes it feel incredibly artificial, just not good.

This dovetails nicely into another issue I had: For some reason this game HATES recharge stations, but it doesn't fully commit as something like Super Metroid would later do by locking you OUT from them until you finish a specific area. Instead it just puts them in horribly awkward locations, like on the ceiling or random crevices, making them really easy to forget location-wise or just take a long time to get to. Some even have enemies that circle them you need to dodge and they'll do like NO damage but force you out of the Spider Ball or Space Jump (which you need to access most of these) and now you have to go through like a whole minute of them to get back there. Why is this a thing? I could understand if it was survival horror style scarcity, but no, not only are they often not locked off, but the game frequently puts farming areas w/ enemies that respawn constantly on screen (compared to leaving and re-entering) for you to get your resources back up, so the scarcity isn't really a "thing". It is a very confused design choice.

The map is mostly easy to navigate, but I will say I ended up looking at a guide three times during the game, although I think only one was really the game's fault. The first time was wholly on me because I thought I had checked an area multiple times but despite knowing what each screen is I apparently didn't jump all the way to the top of one. The last time was just convenience after I died to the final boss to see if the area had health/missile refills or if I had to backtrack. The middle time was because I forgot what area had lava to recede after beating one Metroid batch, which DID feel like an issue as it can be kinda easy to forget where the lava areas are, this isn't too bad but it does feel like this game could use a rudimentary in-game map if possible. Even moreso than Metroid 1 in a way: It's more viable to make an in-game map on your home console Metroid game than the Game Boy one that's absolutely gonna be played on the go constantly.

A few general and short thoughts at the end: The platforming here is very simple and never too challenging, but it is still fun if chunky at times. Annoying how various late-game stuff can be when you do it without the High Jump Boots, which ARE optional and which I never found. Enemies being placed at annoying heights was overly common, especially with flying enemies, where it was hard to find a jumping OR crouching height to hit them. This is a rare game where I feel like it looks better when NOT played on a Game Boy Color, so I recommend that.

Real Life Time: 8 Hours 32 Minutes
In-Game Time: 6 Hours 55 Minutes

This game is a whole half hour long or so (It took me 27 minutes), so there isn't a lot to say here. I commend Rare for trying to give this game some meat with a unique boss at the end of each world in a bit of a Mega Man style, but it wasn't exactly uncommon on the original Game Boy (Super Mario Land 1 had this as a launch title, let alone many other games) and the fights are fairly bad. They range from stupid simple (stand to the far right vs. Green Goblin and unless you miss hitting him on the pattern you cannot be hit) to extremely frustrating (The final boss, my god). Probably the most annoying thing is that this was a beat 'em up / platformer hybrid, but your attack range feels tiny: I particularly found it difficult to hit bosses without taking damage back, sometimes without it even being during their attack but just due to the hitbox of it being so small that I got too close and got hit. I would not have beaten this game were it not for the fact that when you die and get to full health, boss HPs retain their damage. I was on my very last continue when I won.

Basic enemies have this issue where due to your range, all fights are one of two things: The enemies just run into your fist (the bats in the subway level and some other flying enemies) OR they come at you and due to your range you either have to hit during a small window before they ever attack or get hit, there's very few alternative attacks and the jumping is too chunky to reliably dodge opponents. The low enemy variety also makes it overall boring. The wall climbing segments I think are actually a neat idea, the spidey-sense warning of falling objects as a kind of obstacle course dodging is a good implementation of the idea but they make the obstacles fast enough that you really can't react to it and some randomness in the patterns led to parts where I think I had no choice but to take a hit. It's also too easy to one hit kill yourself by jumping on these parts and I don't know why you have to jump into a window when you reach the top to finish the stage...especially since you always then end up on the rooftop rather than inside. Web-slinging was also inconsistent even once I realized the odd control scheme and led to a pair of unfortunate deaths.

There's only two good things about this game: The music with David Wise on the team is kinda boppin' and the cutscenes are cheesy in an intentional, old Spidey cartoon way that frankly makes them pretty funny. Why does Spider-Man answer the phone in his house dressed as Spider-Man? It's not worth playing the game for but, hey, it is something!

It's pretty fun to look back on the very first Kirby game and see how much of the series lay within its genesis, in particular the game having Game Boy shmup levels that are a clear starting point to the multitude of later shooter levels Kirby will have in his games. There's the real cute animations between every level which a multitude of games like Kirby's Adventure and Kirby 64 would use, plus the fact it has a lively and vibrant soundtrack that's quite nice for an early Game Boy game.

None of this really saves Kirby's Dream Land from feeling like a boring game. The problem isn't just that it is easy, plenty of easy games are fun, but the methods in which Dream Land is easy often make it actively unengaging. There isn't enough consideration to Kirby's great flight abilities (which are stronger here than most), so a lot of levels can be beaten by mashing the jump button and ocassionally stopping to slightly descend for a flying enemy that tracks you. And even when you can't do that, the game's platforming is a bit overly simplistic for Kirby's already very simple moveset. While obviously he lacks the copy abilities, the inability to even slide is disappointing as that'd add a very casual option to allow more for the player to do. Simple can work, I enjoyed Super Mario Bros. 1 again recently, but it really needs something to challenge the most basic stuff for me because otherwise it's not doing enough. It's telling the most deaths I had were something I'd also complain about, is the background of Level 4 blends into the stage to me and so I died multiple times thinking I was landning on level but actually went through a bottomless pit. I do understand this was meant to be an extremely beginner friendly platformer and I can see it working as a kid's first game well enough, but I've always preferred platformers more engaging than this.

The bosses are also pretty lackluster, Kracko was my favorite and felt like the one with the most gameplay to it, King Dedede is shockingly boring here due to how casual he is to avoid yet how long it can take to get hits in if you are playing safely. I do appreciate the game having a second playthrough hard mode option and the vast array of difficulty options for the time is great, but the fact I need to get through the game twice before getting the difficulty adjustments is a bummer, and the actual playthrough I had gave me little desire to go through it a second time. An interesting start for the Kirby franchise, but Kirby's Avalanche feels like the truest start of the series.

A short review for a short game, Super Mario Land is more interesting as a historical artifact in being a launch title for that good ol' original Game Boy and being the first portable Mario game than as a fun gameplay experience. The biggest thing that sticks out about it is the wackiness on display that makes it feel like a successor to Super Mario Bros. 2 USA (in fact when I was younger I constantly thought Daisy came from SMB2 rather than SML due to that!), with alien UFOs as stage transportation, flying Moai Statue heads as attacks and Mario having actual shmup sections! It's a kind of playfulness outside the norm, in this case being before the norm was established in 1989, that gives it an endearing quality of its own, and there's some things that would be fun to revisit like the shmups.

The playful creativity is brought down by the game itself, which feels undeniably crunched to fit in with a still burgeoning Game Boy, with extremely simple level design and enemy placement. Combined with the much shortened length from something like Super Mario Bros. 1, Super Mario Land feels more like the start of a game than a complete showing. It isn't helped by some questionable physics and MORE questionable hitbox detection. It's no Castlevania: The Adventure, but difficulty judging sprite hitboxes and with the run button were the main reason I died in an otherwise very easy game. It's very easy to overshoot when running due to Mario's overly tuned acceleration, but Mario's actual air mobility is limited and momentum is barely preserved, so if you try to weave back you're liable to fall like a rock. I also repeatedly ran into the issue of the game not registering my jump input if I tried to jump TOO soon after starting a run, which was annoying.

On the plus side, the game's very generous lives system thanks to a pretty easy minigame means too much game overing isn't an issue. The game's checkpoint system is bizarrely flawed, but it isn't frustrating since it is flawed in the player's favor: Multiple times I died and then the game put me on a checkpoint further in the game, causing me to end up "skipping" small parts. The graphics are super simple, although I kinda dig Mario's sprite along with some like the adorable 8-bit jumping spider, but the soundtrack is actually kinda fire. Pretty bouncy tunes.

Overall, though, Super Mario Land is a mildly enjoyable and obviously flawed look into the past of the series, it's genuinely fascinating to see what Gunpei Yokoi and company thought was critical to keep or not keep in such a limited form of a Mario game. Mushrooms and Goombas? Critical. But fire flowers and how Koopas work? Exchangable. It's super short, an hour or less if you don't game over, so check it out if it looks vaguely interesting and don't sweat it if it doesn't.

About thirty years too late to be presenting any fresh takes about Super Mario World, but here comes my thoughts regardless! This game's a classic, launching off the SNES and entering fierce competition with the contrasting Sonic 1 a year later.

Let's start out with the positives. The introduction of Yoshi is a nice touch, functioning as a power-up with his own unique rules such as being able to get him back after being hit or eating enemies for power-up variations. I quite enjoy the overworld's system of secret exits in tons of levels to unlock alternate routes, warps and secret worlds, and when I thought about it I'm actually shocked more games haven't really used this system given how popular Super Mario World was? Most games that use level selects are either pretty linear or have more direct branching paths (just look at Super Mario 3D World for example), rather than the complex web of exits that Super Mario World has. I will say though that, and this comparison will pop up a few times due to the games being connected and being my favorite 2D Mario (currently), I do prefer Super Mario Bros. 3's overworld. It doesn't have the complexity of exits, but the different ways you can tackle pathing is very interesting, and I always liked the way you could use items before entering levels.

The game doesn't FULLY utilize the SNES' power, unsurprising for a launch title, but Super Mario World is still a pretty looking game (even if I prefer SMB3's a bit more dusty, even "realistic" feel at times), and some parts of it particularly ooze quality such as Bowser's overworld or the Forest of Illusion. I really like the small touch of lightning flashes in the Bowser level overworld giving you a glimpse of the final boss! This game also does all the little things right, stuff like Peach in the final battle helping you out, that help elevate it beyond what would feel like bog standard New Super Mario Bros fare. This game clearly seeks to iterate on the NES Super Mario games and loves introducing new concepts such as springs, the aforementioned Yoshi, the cape's movement, and a toooooooon of gimmicks to mess around with. Super Mario World doesn't play it safe and when it is on, it is on! My favorite levels would probably be most of the Bowser levels, Forest of Illusion levels, Chocolate Island 2 (what a crazy cool gimmick!), Chocolate Island 3, and Ludwig's Castle off the top of my head.

This game had a lot of problems for me too, though, and when it was off it was pretty off. The most obvious thing that hurt a lot of the cool level design was the physic. Mario feels waaaaay floatier and loose compared to the NES titles, is this just me a thing? I hear a lot of people complain about SMB1 or even SMB3's physics, but when I was replaying SMB1 recently I was able to consistently bring myself to a halt on the edges of platforms and do crazy tricks. But in World, Mario retains much more of his momentum when he lands from a jump while also being floatier in the air. Great when you have lots of open space! Not so great whenever you jump on something small. I legitimately had an easier time with a bunch of the Bowser levels because they asked you to do daring, risky, precision platforming but onto large platforms than sometimes I had with simple "hit a block, jump on the block" stuff because it is so easy to slip off of one block if you get the momentum even a bit off.

Similarly, I would say I prefer the P-Speed of Super Mario Bros 3 to Super Mario World's dashing system. World feels a bit squished onto an SNES controller frankly, with both the power up and dash buttons on the same button leading to awkwardness if you want to both run and attack. You also basically want to be holding down dash 80% of the time, which can feel kinda weird to then also jump and led to me often letting go of dash to jump when I really shouldn't. You CAN just fat finger the dash with the jump and spin jump, but it often feels off and with the spin jump in particular not great. I also had a few troubles with my fingers being a bit big for the buttons for this, but I won't really dock points from the game for that because on the SNES (which it was designed for) the buttons were bigger and more spread out than a Pro Controller, so it'd work better with its intended design. P-Speed also feels more skillful, needing to find ways to keep up your momentum and plot out how to move and platform through a course, versus holding down a button. It also allows you to build it up while attacking and felt super smooth with the fire flower.

While the base graphical quality is solid, the game is sorely lacking in variety. The Ghosts Houses and Castles looking the same isn't the issue, but Donut Plains and Chocolate Island for example feel like they could easily be the same "area". It feels like for the main game at least the game has about 3-4 themes that it stretches out compared to the extreme variety of Super Mario Bros. 3 or some other platformers, without having a "unifying" feel that would make it be more logical. Valley of Bowser and Forest of Illusion not only had some of my favorite level design but were some of the only levels that had a truly unique aesthetic which I think really helped them stand out.

Thirdly the game has some VERY uneven level design, to the point by the end I was getting into a rhythm of liking about 2-3 levels fairly well then coming across one I rather disliked. Pretty much every castle level except for Iggy's, Ludwig's and Bowser's sucks. Lemmy and Larry's are probably the worst offenders here, the start of Lemmy's castle is just a needlessly annoying gimmick (and I don't think Ieven ended up clearing it the "right" way lol) which sours a fun latter half, while Larry's has a very boring snake block segment at the start that is RIDICULOUSLY easy but takes like a minute, which if you have to retry the level multiple times starts to feel like brain rot. Wendy's level also suffers from me finding the spin jump onto sawblades or wrecking balls unreliable, leading to frustrating deaths. Sunken Ghost Ship was also a level I disliked.

And while I know many people describe one of THE moments of Super Mario World as getting the cape...I gotta be honest, Donut Plains 1 is one of my least favorite levels in the entire game. The placement of the enemies feels all wrong! The start of the course clearly wants you to be able to get a cape from a Cape Koopa, then learn how to use it to fly, except they placed them in such a way that the enemies at the start will respawn super easily and make it tremendously annoying to do so! The entire level was annoying and actually one of the ones I had the most trouble with, on top of that I get the appeal of how the cape controls but I wasn't exactly a great fan. It does feel pretty nice whenever you get a very wide open space (unless there's enemies), but anything not meant for you to basically skip over everything feels trashy.

Unsurprisingly the story is very barebones and I don't think it has setpieces that match up to taking down Bowser's entire army in SMB3, but I did really enjoy all the little skits after clearing each castle. Were they necessary? Not at all. Were they one of those little things this game does quite well? Absolutely! I looked forward to seeing what each one would do, and of course this is the kind of thing that is enjoyably abusable in the SMW modding scene.

Overall, Super Mario World was a good game with some great highs and frustrating lows. It's easy for me to understand why people consider it a masterpiece, particularly anyone who really gels with the physics (watch people who REALLY know how to play this game and they can pull off soem crazy stuff!), but too much dragged it down for me for it to reach that level. I got half the exits in the game and it was fun enough I'll probably go back some day to get some more, though, so I'd say mission accomplished...and I'm pretty excited to play Yoshi's Island sometime soon. :)

A short review for a short game. Toree 3D is a basic throwback platformer to the days of the PS1 in terms of aesthetic and style, something which I would say it executes reasonably well, particularly given the extremely cheap 99 cent price tag.

The best thing about this game is the tight controls, this game feels GREAT to control and reminds me that I wish more games would map dash buttons to the shoulder buttons or allow you to remap them. It's soooo nice to hold down the shoulder button for running, thumb ready at a moment's notice to jump at will (or in games with more than just jumps, like Mega Man Zero, attacking or special abilities). If anything the game is a bit TOO good controlling! Because of how much precision you're able to have it can be a bit too easy to save yourself from mistakes you make, especially thanks to the game having a double jump, and because the level design is pretty simple this means the game is pretty easy for better or worse. I think it could have gone a bit harder on not letting you "get out" of mistakes so easily, basically. Still, this game's physics and feel is a real keeper for any future projects!

The entire aesthetic and presentation of the game feels on point for the PS1 retro mood, the harbor levels feel right out of Sonic Adventure 2 in feel (though obviously not as expansive) and Toree's design absolutely would appear like this back in the day. It feels kinda like if someone turned Flicky into a 3D platformer. There's also some fairly memorable tunes included in the package, although I'll take this moment to note that some of the sound effects could be a bit loud, and that one thing I wish this game did better was have a bit more expansive Options for stuff like sound, Options menus aren't really something that need to "throw back'.

This game was made for a "haunted PS1 demo disc" game am and so it has some light horror elements, but they're veeery minor which I would say was absolutely to this game's strengths. In fact, I'd say 95% of this game's spooky elements would feel exactly at home from a PS1 platformer even without them, like some enemy designs being fairly cartoonishly scary. I also love how it actually mixed this into the game's story: Toree's ice cream is stolen by a "creepy mean guy" and Toree rushes to get it back. The first stage then shows this glitched out grim reaper ass guy holding an ice cream. It is very amusing!

While I wouldn't say the game is THAT ridiculously short for 99 cents, you can't expect a dollar game to be as expansive as Breath of the Wild, I do think that the game was still somewhat too short even for that. Given the late 90s platformer feel I am really surprised there weren't any simple boss fights in the game, which could have helped break up the stages, in particularly the end of the 9th stage could have tied the spooky elements of the game into a surprise boss fight or something for some flair. It feels like the game ends right when the level design is opening up, as many of the first four levels are VERY simple, even something like two more levels (one for top and bottom row) could have added a lot. This game's shorter than Super Mario Bros. 1 on a casual playthrough, I beat it in 38 minutes while trying to 100% all stars on each stage, so I don't think that much is unreasonable to request.

Overall, Toree 3D's a short game that nails what it is going for but admittedly never goes beyond that, held together by well put together aesthetics and very tight controls to make up for some quite simple game design and the feeling there could be "more". At 99 cents? Yeah, I'd absolutely recommend it if you want a quick fun time, and there IS a good deal of replayability thanks to two unlockable characters and the option to go for A Ranks. I even got it for free with gold eShop coins! Just don't expect tooooooo much.

This game starts off as a pretty solid, easy kid's platformer type of game. And that's what you'll get early on. It is decent, not especially engaging but I am going to bet if I was the age of the target audience (young kids who'd want a McDonalds liscensed game) it wouldn't be so bad, nonetheless I would say after a while this game gets really grating? The thing is the game never gets hard, pits can be defeated with balloons which can even be strategically used to skip large parts of the stages even, but at times it just kind of adds in some obtuse stage design or gimmicks. For example, the brief ship level with the penguins actually confused me for a bit, and had me trying other stuff until I realized you were supposed to platform to the right (which looks the same as the left, which is death if you go that way). The end result is spending some minutes dwadling around while not in any realistic danger. especially since health pickups are impossibly common in this game.

In general this game feels very reliant on "gimmicks", in the sense that the platforming very rarely evolves beyond the simple and so instead it is spiced up with some gimmick that the game feels like it adds more to it, like having sumo wrestlers that stomp down and cause the track platforms it is on to be angled differently. This doesn't actually change up gameplay, it's the same simple jumps to do them, so it didn't do much for me. Boss fights in this game are also weird? You need to deliberately get hit by one of their attacks so they can suck up your life, then attack them while they chew the life gem after attacking, and frankly this mostly leads to fights becoming dragged out. It's nearly impossible to actually die to any of them except for the final boss since their patterns are simple and they spawn enemies that drop health (otherwise they could become unbeatable easily), so you just wait for the attack and sometimes only get a few hits. The final boss is frustrating because they set it up so if you mess up his easy pattern, you nearly unavoidably lose half your health, necessitating either grinding health to win or dying if you make more than a single mistake. It's still fairly easy, but it is annoying to die in this way and since the fight isn't super clear at first it will be a "gotcha!" at first.

Graphically the game is solid, but for some reason this music just absolutely slaps? Must be that Treasure power. The final boss theme is way too intense for the puzzle boss fight, the stage music all bop with some of the moon stages bein' reeeeal funky, this was by far the best part of the game, maybe this should have just been a McDonalds album. Also, for some reason this game just. Has racist caricatures?? What?

I know some people got nostalgic memories for this but gotta say I wouldn't recommend this one.

I don't have a ton to say about this game, but given it was a bit of an enjoyable surprise I feel sad it has no reviews at all right now, so...yeah. SKYPEACE is a pretty charming and fun, short game! It's pretty simple, arcade-y fun: Get to the end of each stage, collect as many coins and as much treasure as possible and avoid enemies, with a few secrets here and there. It ends up playing a lot like a horizontal shmup but without the shooting, which is interesting in a way. The art style is a cute little "indie anime" style, kinda nice, and the music is honestly kind of a happy-chill banger that got me into the zone to play this game.

The game itself is pretty short, it has 10 stages + a tutorial and will be completed in about 35-40 minutes if you're just trying to beat each stage, but I was rather surprised at the number of achievements on display! There's plenty of standard ones like just beating the level, getting X amount of coins in the level or not getting hit, but there were also some little inventive ones like beating the game only using vertical movement. While the game is quite easy to beat normally, I am going to guess that getting the best ranks is harder as I didn't particularly come close to any S Ranks (I got two A Ranks and eight B Ranks), so there's plenty of room for replayability. And while it is short, the game is also only a dollar, so it's really impossible to complain about the size. I certainly felt like I got my money's worth.

Ultimately, if a simple little arcade-y high score game sounds your speed, I definitely recommend this if you got a spare dollar! I picked it up with eShop coins and felt happy with my purchase. It was apparently a little 20th anniversary project for the company, so maybe that's why it feels like it has a little extra heart put into it.

Hot DAMN, this game is good! This game is excellent at giving off a supreme sense of "flow" when everything goes right, a zen-like state of leaping from one action to another. Open a door by cutting someone down, at the same time toss a cleaver diagonally to hit an enemy on next floor from below, slowing down time to slash a bullet away at the gunman on the other side of the room and finally leap over the last, shielded enemy in slo-mo to cut them down from behind, all fluidly one after another! That is the essence of what makes Katana ZERO's quick-twitch, one hit kill gameplay work so well!

It feels a lot like a blend between the difficult, checkpoint-based platformers like Super Meat Boy and Celeste and action-platformers or even character action games, such as Ninja Gaiden with a hint of No More Heroes. Room-based action where your goal is to kill everyone and get to the exit, turning it into an almost puzzle-action game where it is all about planning out the most efficient route of murder. Your toolkit is largely simple: You can jump, slash with your sword or grab certain stage objects to throw as projectiles. But the game mixes this all together to create some wicked areas, especially with the secret sauce of the game's last mechanic, which is that you can slow down time by holding down L2 (or w/e button you want) on a limited, regenerating timer. Slow down bullets to send them back with your sword, roll around opponents, but don't abuse it too much since you'll still die just as quickly. I BELIEVE the game can technically be beaten without ever using it, but only if you're a god at it, instead working out when and how to use it is a pretty strategic and tactical choice. The checkpoint-based retries encourage exploring multiple paths to completing your killing spree and helps with the frustrating that might otherwise arise, this game is very clearly designed with it in mind.

Enemy variety could definitely stand to be a little better, at the least in terms of visual appearance it feels like more could have been done at the end, but ultimately there is plenty enough to challenge your knowledge of the tools at your disposal and bosses end up challenging you in unique ways, since they're 1v1 killfests rather than room-based challenges, with more of a focus on tight dodging and attack windows. Given the svelte playtime, I finished in 4 hours 40 minutes on the nose, it doesn't overstay its welcome at all throughout the run time. The levels keep throwing different challenges at you as well, which helps with keeping things feeling fresh: Even your standard thug or guy with a gun can be fun when they're in a room designed to make you tackle them in different ways, after all!

But while the gameplay is great, it was the story that ended up really drawing me in to the point I would say that by the end I was much more interested where that was going then on the next gameplay challenge! I'm not going to spoil it, as I think it's probably best enjoyed without that, so allow me to just say that it is a lot more than you'd normally get out of this kind of game, something I quite enjoy in a 2D Platformer. Funny enough, the other games that come to mind for this also have "Zero" in the title: Mega Man Zero. I will also say one thing I loved was how the game's mechanics are so woven into the story, with pretty much all of it coming in-universe, even stuff like the checkpoint basis! Hell, even the soundtrack is almost entirely diagetic, either being played by someone in-universe or listened to by the protagonist on his headphones which even brings up the title of the song as if you were using a cyberpunk iPod.

And ooooooh man, the music, the graphics, this game is slick when it comes to aaaaaaall that. Synthwave-inspired, so many tracks fill in nicely with the mood of a given scene and the thrill of the momentum-based gameplay, to the point I'd say the music is a critical part of how the game's "flow" works. It knows when to be bombastic, techno-infused and keeping you on your toes, but there's slower tracks best in tune with more quiet moments as well, a good blend. Some of my favorites are Overdose, Katana ZERO and Third District. This has to be a contender for best video game soundtrack of 2019! Visually, it's got a super neon look that feels right at home with games like Hotline Miami and Hyper Light Drifter, along with obvious inspiration from classic cyberpunk works. While some of the spritework is pretty simple, the aesthetic stylings do more than carry it along with some swift animations and stuff like how blood splatters on walls or injections look. I was also quite impressed with how this game utilized some "glitchiness" aesthetic, especially since the game already uses VCR stylings for menus or security tapes so it fits in really well.

There's a few things keeping it out of 10/10, one of which is the ending, which isn't bad (I'd even say I liked it) but feels like it is tacking too hard on a sequel or DLC. It isn't that it just has a sequel hook, but that it leaves too much kinda unresolved and hollow, desperately in need of completion, even if there is stuff about it I like. Another pertinent reason is that decent chunks of the final level dipped a bit too much into frustration rather than challenge, in particular there are multiple "Gotcha!" moments where if you didn't essentially know it was happening before it did you WILL die, which fits flavorfully but feels bad. One of them is rather easy to trip, too. And then there's just a few slight random quibbles that don't hurt the game much but add up overall, this game just would have been perfect if it went on another two hours, but it's a bit too short for the narrative.

Overall, though, these are more minor issues that keep it from a "perfect score" than anything to worry about. Absolutely anyone who is interested in this kind of action platformer should play this and it has enough going for it I'd even recommend it to people normally disinclined by that if they're up for trying it. Given this game has received widespread attention, I think this one's on track to truly be an action platformer classic as time goes on. Out of the 10 games I've completed to date this year, it was easily my favorite, so I'm very excited for where that (free!) DLC takes us, or even a sequel!

When it comes to its place in the Dragon Quest canon, Dragon Quest II is a rather interesting one. Undeniably, it improves noticably upon the first game: The addition of party members adds at least some depth to the gameplay, you get to travel the overworld via boat in something that I imagine helped inspire five million other games and the story is slightly more advanced. The thing is, the advancement isn't that much, and in the span of only a year Dragon Quest III completely changes the landscape of Dragon Quest and JRPGs. So, how does this awkwardly placed sequel stack up?

Well, the combat is definitely an improvement upon the first game. Not only does the multiple party allow somewhat more strategy and having to deal with more specialized characters (basically a Warrior, a Warrior/Mage and a Mage), but enemies can now appear in numbers more than one means you can get tougher encounters or a bit more variety. A definite improvement, but I do feel this game really doesn't iterate that much. Ultimately, combat is 90% of the time either using basic attacks or using your strongest spells, in part because this game has almost no bosses and almost no buffs, debuffs or status effects. Despite going to a multitude of dungeons, most of them end on nothing special or a "boss battle" that is just against a horde of standard enemies. There's only one buff/debuff spell, both for defense, and status effects are powerful but with few powerful enemies not used often. There's almost no elemental weaknesses or anything like that, some enemies resist Kaboom etc but that's it, so there isn't a lot of decision making when it comes to spells to use. Basically, it is improved but feels half-baked. I did enjoy it, but in the sense that I can kind of dig old school grindy RPGs from time to time, especially as a game during podcasts or the like. Though I honestly basically didn't need to grind in this game.

One thing I was divided on was the inability to target individual monsters in a group, instead it auto-targets. On one hand, given this is an old school NES RPG it makes things go faster which is nice, and the game's auto-targeting was on point to be optimal. On the other hand, I don't really like losing control of my character and I feel part of why it worked was how incredibly simple the combat system is, and sometimes it would kill enemies under Snooze (who I'd rather wait until later since they're asleep) first because they had less HP than enemies not under snooze. I've heard this stays for many Dragon Quest games, so I'll be interested to see how that works out.

This game is infamously difficult and obtuse, but I had little difficulty with that despite very rarely referring to a guide, I can think of only two times I did. One, to make sure the Yggdrassil Leaf's purpose. Secondly, to check the final boss' resistance to status attacks after I got one on him to see if that was supposed to be a thing. Most NPCs in any given town will talk about some specific thing you'll need or a location, so as long as you talk to everyone you'll be mostly fine. Combat is very easy early on and only really ramps up in difficulty late, I game overed once early walking around with like 5 HP like a dumbass but after that only had a few character deaths even until the end game. While the end game is harder, I actually didn't find it that hard. You'll get Kamikazed or Thwacked if you're unlucky, but Kaboom is so strong it rips through enemies. The final boss is the real pain in the ass and is essentially a luck-based boss, but if you go at it enough they'll go down.

I will note I WAS playing on the Switch version (which is based on the IOS version), which from what I can tell made a few changes (relocating a plot significant item for example)...but it is considered to be "very difficult" by most people I saw AND the final boss is if anything harder. But I didn't have much issue. I wonder if this game only having single target healing trips people up? You really need to keep everyone up at near full HP almost all the time against the tough enemies unless you can kill them, because you can't casually heal everyone. It could also just be because Kamikaze/Thwack make things bad if you're unlucky. The bosses in the final dungeon are an absolute joke though, even if one has a tricky gimmick.

There isn't much to the story but it'll pass you by and considering this is one of the first console RPGs, I don't fault it much, if anything having to search for your party and having defined characters is a notable upgrade from a lot of stuff up to Dragon Quest II's point. The finale of the game even has a cool setpiece. The music is...fine. I don't think anything was particularly memorable, the song when sailing is neat I suppose, but it was enjoyable filler music. Graphically, I think the original game's with their NES sprites is actually nice, the simplistic look combined with the textures gives a lot of room for the imagination to run wild, sadly I had the Switch port which feels like it has very generic cell phone replacement sprites with the exception of the enemy monsters which are still Toriyama. Honestly, I'm not the biggest fan of Toriyama's character design, so it's kinda mid for me there. That's not to say he's bad, just not to my taste.

I also think "up to Dragon Quest II's point" is a bit of a factor. Setting aside Dragon Quest III blowing the lid off things a mere year later, Final Fantasy 1 would come out the same year with a notably deeper battle system with a wider class variety, while Phantasy Star 1 the same year eschews the class variety but goes a lot harder on the story (and AFAIK gameplay depth). Ultimately, the game feels like an enjoyable half-step from the most primitive early console RPGs to the heavy hitters that will follow within its era. Don't be scared off by its purported difficulty if you're into these old school RPGs as it is a fun if basic time, but it isn't going to turn heads if you're not.

Bonus for being able to get an actual Puff-Puff.

It's pretty sad when the box art is the best part of a game. And in this case, it absolutely is. Seriously that is some of the sickest box art Castlevania has gotten, in a series that has a lot of really good box art. Shame the name's positioning makes it look like it says "The Castlevania Adventure".

This game is noooot good and it only takes playing through the first level a little to get through. First, Christopher Belmont walks as if he did not have legs. He is UNBEARABLY slow and it is probably the worst thing about this game. Not only does it make trudging through every level feel like walking through molasses, it means that fighting literally anything that can move is ridiculously frustrating. You simply do not have the movement speed to deal with stuff in a way that actually feels fun even when you see it coming. Not only is this not enjoyable, it also means enemies by and large have very simple attacks / patterns. Most of the difficulty in this game comes from fighting the terrible controls.

This is not helped by the jumping, which is bad. Castlevania jump physics are stiff, that's fine, the games often gear themselves to that, but this is TOO stiff. You WILL initially find yourself having difficulty doing a single jump onto a platform because ol' Christopher doesn't want to move. It IS something you can get used to, but it never feels truly consistent, and combined with your non-existant horizontal movement means the way to take every single jump is to get as cloooose to the edge as possible and leap. I will say right now I heavily save stated playing this game unlike NES Castlevania, because extra lives are very hard to come by and it is way too easy to die to the controls. Bosses are largely extremely easy though, with the exception of the second stage boss...which is still easy if you do it right, but if you do it wrong and a single one of whatever the hell they are gets out it becomes very hard because they move fast and you can't really dodge move fast consistently.

There's no sub-weapons in this game, but given this is a near-launch title on a crunchy lime-green original Game Boy I'm okay with that. What I'm not okay with is your whip upgrades going DOWN when you get hit. Castlevania games and Mario games have pretty different designs, and Castlevania's doesn't work well with it I feel...but especially not in a game as stiff as this. There's also the fact that it isn't like the whip attack "eats" damage like a mushroom in Super Mario, you just also lose it and your health. Maybe it's because the Flame Whip is OP here? At least the bosses give you a free whip upgrade before they start.

This game does have a little bit to it that is innovative, such as an extended section involving running away from a spiked floor and then spiked wall. It's pretty common but a bit novel for an original Game Boy or old Castlevania game, I feel like the segment would have been kinda fun if the movement speed wasn't so bad. The spike platforms are a bit neat I guess? Okay yeah there isn't much, just a tiny sliver, but ay. Soundtrack is a fairly poor early GB soundtrack, it largely gets repetitive in a bad way when you are dying so often. The graphics aren't that good, but I submit the fact that it is on the original ass green Game Boy and only like 3 months after release means it isn't bad for the time it was made, and honestly I'd take how it looks over something like Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle.

So, yeah, Castlevania: The Adventure isn't good! It is slow, sounds bad, unnecessarily difficult in a way more unfair than challenging, and I would essentially only recommend it to people very interested in Castlevania's full history (like me), the original Game Boy's history or if you got it via Castlevania Anniversary Collection and figured "eh, why not". An unworthy game.

Putrid. This game doesn't get ANYTHING right. It's so bad I struggled mightily with how to begin this review, because I could start anywhere. I think I'll start with the physics, one of the MOST important things in any 2D Platformer. They're too slippery! You don't really have any good "stopping power" (think turning back in Super Mario Bros 1 or 3 to slow your momentum) and you slide pretty wildly when landing unless you take them very slowly. It isn't tooooooo bad early because at least a decent amount of the platforms are large, but as soon as the game starts throwing single block platforms at you it gets actively miserable to try and land on the damn things without just sliding off. Alex Kidd is also pretty slide-y on the ground, which leads to the annoyance of sliding into enemies while trying to punch them with your punch attack. You COULD use the jump attack but the hitbox on it feels very inconsistent and you can't do it in all situations. Fortunately most enemies are actually pathetically easy to deal with, so you just spam the punch button, instead most of your deaths will come from how poor it controls.

Speaking of controls, why is the jump mapped the way it is? I wondered if I was missing something, but when you jump you go right into the jump kick attack as you rise, UNLESS you hold down the jump button as you rise. If you do THAT, then you will only kick when you let go. It felt incredibly weird holding down the jump button to make jumps like that, doubly so because for some reason blocks on the ground can only be broken with a jump kick. Enjoy jumping in place like an idiot trying to get them to actually break. And yes, this is required at certain points. I think you can use the pogo to break them, but it was mostly frustrating. Anyway, why not make it so you just tap the jump button in the air to attack? Or that tapping A is jump but holding A is attack or something? It feels very unnatural.

Then you get into stuff like the second to last level, which is a mini-shmup style level with a pedicopter you need to CONSTANTLY tap A to fly around with and will begin to dip on the screen if you stop tapping for even a moment. Firing off an attack is NOT on A and you WILL be forced down quite a bit on the screen if you use it, which sucks even more because the downward momentum from falling makes it harder to fly back up. I beat the level pretty quickly and my thumb was soooore. But, look, there's platforms you can sit down and take a moment to rest your thumb! Oh as if the game would be so kind, this is Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle motherfucker, the platforms instantly drop off and you'll be stuck with downwards momentum if you weren't prepared! You get luck-based Rock-Paper-Scissor bosses, a final stage that feels like it drags on forever and burns its mediocre music into your skull for eternity, it also ends with a luck-based RPS fight! But then you get an actual fight that is completely pathetic, literally just crouch, walk up to them and mash the attack button, you'll hit them casually and dodge every attack.

Did I mention this game looks absolutely rancid? Alex Kidd himself is NOT nice to look at, various textures are grainy even for 8 bit, there's eye searing colors at various points and the final level is endless sandy brown blocks with endless light grey blocks that blend into a nightmare. Stage transitions are entirely in eye searing blue like a VCR tape, which also happens when you die. There's no visual cohesion or identity to the enemies or stages, feeling like highly disconnected levels and the two "city" levels are half palette swaps of each other when the game only has 11 stages. The entire thing is butt ugly aside from the woodcutting enemy with a Jason mask that gave me a chuckle.

At least Sonic Blast let you play as Sonic.