that i understood the majority of the plot of this is something of which I'm both proud and ashamed ;)

one of the more hollow scripts in the KH universe which is saying a lot, but the messy pets + flowmotion movement stuff could be fun in a chaotic way and the fantasia segment was idiosyncratic in a way that made me sit up.

A majorly effortful entry by the devs squeezing a lot out of the 3ds hardware, but still... just okay. 🤷‍♀️

Really enjoyed but something is lost in the BIGGER-ness of it all compared to the original. The core compelling gameplay of Pikmin was multi-tasking across a large landscape knowing any losses you incurred would have to be made up with smart maneuvers going forward given the ticking clock. Pikmin 2's abandonment of that clock and focus on deep-diving dungeons (which prioritize skill at micro-maneuvering your horde of Pikmin over the aforementioned multi-tasking) gets a big hmmmmmm from me. Still, there's nothing quite like this series. 🍄

I adore the aesthetics of this game and the tiny/big stuff is impressively represented in pixel art (love that it doesn't zoom in until you enter an area meant for tiny Link), but something about the progression and world design and endless scattered kinstone match drops, etc. just lacks the magic of the other Zeldas for me. Perhaps in part because it feels like it's remixing four swords and wind waker with the characters and some of the central mechanics... feels derivative in some ways that take away from the ways it is original??

I dunno, I hate being a grump about this one!

Weirdly it reminded me most of Mario 3D World with its constantly inventive ideas thrown out for the next one every 15 minutes in a way that felt pretty fresh and frenetic and sugar-rushy. And there’s lots of good truly co-operative interplay between characters given asymmetric abilities, which I really dig. The art/animation is knowingly ridiculous in a way that’s often pretty fun to look at, while the story is laughably bad in its misguided earnestness. 🤣 But there’s something B-movie enjoyable about that, too, maybe. 🤷‍♀️

I am totally drawn in, won over and charmed by the world of the ace attorney games, I’ve loved every one even if the last one I played (Dual Destinies) was missing some of the crackling dialogue and cohesive world-building of the previous entries.

This one was a delightful return to form, though, and doing a period piece ace attorney was a great way to inject some novelty into the theming, characters, and casework. It’s biggest strength and weakness is the pretty slow-building way the rapport between the characters and the protagonist’s place in society grows throughout the game, it’s great and earnest and touching by the end because of that slow build but it makes it harder to crack into than the earlier trilogy. But that makes me really excited for the sequel now that our fish-out-of-water lead is more established, especially with the tantalizing loose ends this one dangles at the player at the end.

Also SPOILER WARNING??? as lovingly done as the hd remaster is I really wish I could have played this on the 3ds for nostalgia’s sake and also because the investigation phases have diorama style backgrounds (like Holme’s residence) clearly designed to pop in 3d as you look around, and especially because the last case really explicitly dofs its hat to the 3ds’ unique functionality in a way they seem to do a clever job working around in 2d but still… would’ve been cool to feel the original design’s platform synergy in that case.