This is THE quintessential Kirby game. If someone wants to try just a single Kirby game, you point to this one. Everything that pretty much becomes a mainstay in the franchise most likely stems from this one.

It just plays so well. The difficulty is JUST right and there is the added bonus of drop in Coop. Almost every copy ability is satisfying to use and the artstyle is gorgeous. Level design is some of the best in all of Kirby.

I love how levels are presented as "episodes" each with their own gimmick. Like the the tutorial episode is called Spring Breeze, which is a modern homage to Kirby's Dream Land. Then you have a more traditional Kirby episode like Dynablade. Then the Great Cave Offensive episode which is exploration based, encouraging you to find all treasures before completing the level. My personal favorite is Milky Way Wishes which kind of plays like a Kirby metroidvania that has you exploring planets to find copy abilities as permanent upgrades. All of these episodes hit and absolutely do not miss. It also has the benefit of keeping the game feel fresh all the way through.

The original Super Star is a 9/10 (4.5 stars) as it was almost perfect, but just fell short of having enough content to completely satisfy me. With Kirby Super Star Ultra, it not only comes with better QoL features and visuals, but you have FOUR extra hard hard mode episodes - which easily elevates this game to a perfect score. Having a nice extra CHALLENGING post game with cool unlockables after beating the main game gives Super Star so much more life and is the definitive way to experience this game.

It is very hard to love a game that does not love itself and tries to be more than it is. Assassin's Creed Revelations feels like a DLC that should have been part of Brotherhood after launch despite the size of the city that it takes place in.

The city is a major highlight of this game as it looks stunningly good for a game from 2011, and it has a really charming atmosphere that elevates the experience. Revelations also has a darker theme as it deals with death, aging and losing focus over time, and it has some decent writing that supports these themes but overall, the writing in general feels a bit edgy this time around.

The lack of side missions and things to do further makes this adventure pretty boring at times as you barely can interact with the world while you travel between main missions. In previous games, I was constantly reminded and motivated to interact with the world through events and missions but Revelations lacks these.

The last thing I wanted to talk about that I did not like at all is the clunky nature of the combat, making it very unsatisfying to engage with enemies. Overall, Revelations does everything worse and still manages to improve upon one thing, that is the saving grace of this game: the parkour.

The hookblade and ziplines were great additions, and they really made travelling around fun and exciting. Some of the main missions even uses tombs, which are mostly parkour segments, and they are the most fun out of every mission.

Overall, the Ezio trilogy is mostly ridden with fans who are more nostalgic than objective with the games, but I cannot blame them. The writing (so far) is one of the strongest aspect of these games, and all of them are charming in their own way.

I don't usually understand why certain games are so highly rated here on backloggd. BOTW, Celeste, Sonic 3 etc, so I wasn't expecting to love this. I mean, I hate backtracking, so why would I like something that basically revolves around it?

After about 2 hours of playing, I put down my controller, looked into the sky and said "I get it".

Yeah this game fucking fucks. Slashing through everything in sight, finding new relics to find new areas to find new items is so much fun. At a point, your inventory does become cluttered with useless shit, and some of the stuff you have to do to progress can be cryptic (waiting in a room for a minute) but those are really my only critiques.

The inverted castle is pretty infamous, but I don't think its AS bad as people make it out to be, especially if you get the Crissaegrim early into it (like I did).

Man, I have to start playing more Metroidvanias. I better go check out Super Metroid, since everyone loves that one.

Another Crab's Treasure's existence is phenomenal to me. I love soulslikes so much, but also many platformers are some of my favorite games of all time. The marriage of the two genres is not something I thought I'd ever see, but here we are.

To get it out of the way, this game is closer to Sekiro more than anything. You only have one main weapon and you are forced to master it or you won't get very far (like Sekiro), however you are given many tools to also assist you alongside your main weapon (also like Sekiro) via the shell system.
The gameplay is done very well, it's super responsive and I never had any issues with the controls itself, besides some camera struggles at rare times.

The shell system is the main mechanic that differentiates the combat from souls/sekiro. There are many different shells you can find lying around the levels and they essentially act like shields that you can pick up and swap out. All shells have different properties like weight, defense and ability. The weight determines whether you are fatrolling or not, defense is defense, and ability is the thing you want to look out for the most. Each shell has a unique ability that can turn the tides of battle. There are so many abilities that they can range from simply healing you, or buffing your stats, to things like shooting magic or freezing everything around you. There is no 'best' shell here. You want to play around as some shells can benefit you more than others depending on the area you or are in or the boss you are fighting. I love this system and trying to find every new shell and seeing what they do kept the shell system very exciting all the way till the very end.

The glaring difference between this and souls games is the setting, and artstyle. We are so used to having realistic dead dark horror fantasy worlds as the backdrop for these types of games, but here we have something that feels more like a Saturday morning cartoon, and it is a very refreshing deviation to the typical backdrop of the genre.

The setting allows this game to also be a platformer at the same time, which is done very well here. Jumps cam easily be controlled through the air as you are given moves and tools to help your air control, including grappling hooks. Obviously it's no Mario Odyessy, but for a game that nails combat, it also surprisingly nails platforming too. Usually it's one or the other, and not both.

The difficulty is what you expect from a soulslike. It's not Sekrio hard, but it's not a walk in the park either. Each boss challenged me fairly and each took me a few tries, always feeling that the deaths were on me. Like Elden Ring though, if you do your fair share of exploring optional areas, you can find some stuff that can break bosses and trivialize the difficulty.

Exploration is close to Dark Souls 1 and Sekiro where levels are quite linear with branching paths with a lot of collectables that can greatly help you on your journey if you explore each area to the fullest. Exploring in ACT is even more fun than it is in other souls games as there is the requirement of having to platform around. As previously mentioned there are also some optional areas you can go to to get some great abilities and upgrades.

Unlike From's games, there is a lot of dialouge and cutscenes. The writing is the typical in your face humor that you'd see in something like a saturday morning cartoon, where they replace swears with puns like "shuck off". It's pretty funny and there is a decent story here, but it's nothing too deep and the game knows to not take itself too seriously either. There are some seriously funny moments though I will say, the devs got some good sense of humor.

Playing this at launch, it's not the most polished game, but it feels up to the standard that most AA games should feel. I know the team are very dedicated to supplying the game with post launch updates very frequently so we'll just have to see how much it improves from here.

There was still a bit to be desired. The game can be completed in about 18 hours, and 100%ed in 22 hours, which is 10 hours too short of what a souls game should be. It could have used one or two more areas to feel more like a fuller game. I'm still happy with all the content and I just enjoyed the game so much I wish there was more.

Aggro Crab has created something that could be a flagship franchise. There is some room for improvement and if there is work on a sequel, there is potential for one of the best soulslikes of all time. They have something good in their hands and they just need to keep the momentum going.

I highly recommend you give this at least a try if you are a fan of soulslikes, or want to get into the genre of soulslikes and want a solid place to start. Great game, loved every second of it - just wished there was more of it.

A fun game in 1990 and a still fun game now. Have been in love with the sprite work in this game since I was like 12 and am glad to report it hasn’t aged a day. Possibly the console's prettiest game, and only potentially outdone by it's sequel. So many great levels in this one, albeit a few which are complete shit. Compared to the cohort of its time however, it has a shockingly good ratio of good stuff to makes me want to die stuff. Every platformer released after this inarguably stands upon Super Mario World's shoulders, but many of them have surpassed it thanks to the leg up.

Every journey has a beginning. Whether it be a monumental journey that tells of some great hero setting out to accomplish some goal or to defeat a big bad guy, or rather it be something as simple as how one decided to go to the post office that day, there is always a beginning to every story, and that definitely rings true when it comes to video games. Some of us may have played thousands of games at this point in our lives, while others are merely starting to get into the hobby, but one thing that remains consistent between all of us is that we all had a first video game, the one that would introduce us to this vast, creative and limitless medium, one that either fully enraptured us to the point of seeking out what else you could find, or leaving a simple, yet enjoyable enough impression to where you wouldn’t mind trying anything else out in the future. So, I figured, for the 600th review that I am making on this website (I might be slightly insane), I figured it was about time that I covered the very first video game I ever played in my life, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island.

I don’t remember the exact, precise details of how I ended up with this as the first game I would ever play, but I do have a bit of a brief summary based on what I do remember, which will do a good enough job at painting a picture. Back in 2003-2004, when I was around 3-4 years old as well, I was a dumbass little kid, not knowing what a video game even was, and most likely doing the things that most toddlers were doing back then, such as running around, yelling, eating weird stuff off the floor, and receiving plenty of injuries. One day, my Mom and Dad came home one day with a little present for me, which just so happened to be a gray Game Boy Advance SP, one that I still own even to this day, and one that I share a lot of fond memories with throughout my life. With this, I also managed to get two games, those being Pokemon Blue and Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi’s Island, and with all of these things in hand, I had… absolutely zero clue as to what I was supposed to do with it. After messing around with the things for a bit, most likely opening and closing them, chewing on the sides of them, and so on, I then found out I can shove that weird gray rectangle thing into the big gray brick, while also finding a power switch on the system, leading to it turning on, and from that moment on, I was never the same.

So yeah, obviously, I have a lot of nostalgia towards this game, and while those early experiences were with the GBA port of the game rather than the original, it was still pretty accurate to that of the original game, to the point where I fondly remember several memories of me playing it as a kid, including one instance where I got so angry when I lost to the second phase of the Baby Bowser fight. It was my first instance of rage… you love to see it. But anyways, you all obviously didn’t come here to listen to me babble on about the past. You all came here to hear my opinion of this game, and if you couldn’t tell already at this point, I do still hold a soft place for it in my heart, and I love it tremendously. I can’t say it is perfect by any means,as it does have problems I will get into, but it was still fantastic all the way through, not only as one of the first proper Yoshi games ever made that wasn’t a puzzle game or whatever else, but also as the game that would drag me into the world of video games as a whole.

The story is very simple, yet very charming at the same time, where one night, while a stork is delivering two baby brothers by the name of Mario and Luigi to their parents, he is attacked by an evil sorcerer named Kamek, who kidnaps Baby Luigi and causes Baby Mario to fall down into the depths of the island below. Down on said island, a green Yoshi is taking a nice, leisurely stroll, until he then finds Baby Mario falling right on his back, while also dropping the map that the stork was using to deliver the kids. After gathering with several other Yoshis on the island, they then deduce (somehow) what happened to Baby Luigi, so they all then set out, with Baby Mario alongside them, to go and rescue Baby Luigi from Kamek’s evil clutches, while he and his lackeys plot to take Baby Mario as well to succeed in their ultimate goal. It is somewhat of an odd story, considering how it de-ages the Mario bros. and shifts the focus onto the Yoshis, but it is one that you can easily get behind and want to see through, as you don’t wanna see Baby Luigi get hurt by Kamek……… he can hurt Baby Mario instead, considering how much you have to put up with him in this game.

The graphics are still absolutely amazing even to this day, being one of the best looking games from the SNES library, let alone the best looking platformer on the system, having a very unique art style and plenty of vibrant colors, wonderful character, enemy, and boss designs, as well as plenty of vibrant environments that you will travel through for your whole journey, the music is fantastic, having incredibly up-beat and iconic tunes like this one that will play throughout the game, mixed in with some more “menacing” tunes like this one, most of them being a joy to listen to even after all this time, and the gameplay/control is mostly stuff that we have seen before from the Mario franchise, but not only does it remain really fun to play, but there are several different gimmicks that are present in the game that you wouldn’t typically find in other games.

The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of one of many different colored Yoshis at a time, go through plenty different levels across many different standout locations amongst Yoshi’s Island, take out plenty of enemies either by jumping on them, swallowing them whole, or throwing others’ dead remains at them to drive the point home, protect Baby Mario at all times to not only prevent Kamek’s cronies from taking him, but also to make sure you won’t be listening to this sound for too long, gather plenty of different eggs to help you defend yourself, solve puzzles, and take down foes, while also gathering plenty of collectibles along the way, and take on some goofy, yet at-times threatening bosses, which range from being big, intimidating foes that can definitely give you a run for your money to……. this guy, who you defeat by just simply holding right…….. fucking flawless. Much of it is your standard platforming affair, even for those who are very familiar with Mario and his past adventures, but rest assured, despite the fact that it carries the name “Super Mario World” in its title, Yoshi’s Island manages to have plenty of unique elements that distinguish itself from Mario quite a bit, both in terms of its presentation and gameplay.

A lot of elements in this game have been done to death over and over again in many other games, such as going from left to right to the end of the level, defeating enemies, getting coins, and so on, but one of the ways that makes this feel much different than that of a typical Mario game is how you are playing as Yoshi the entire time. Naturally, he does not go about his business the same way Mario does, being able to swallow enemies and throw them around as eggs, and as such, this changes up how the game expects you to approach many situations, and it is great because of it. There are many instances in this game that can’t be cleared through just by running and jumping, but instead, you may need to figure out a different way to defeat an enemy or solve a puzzle using your flutter jump or your eggs, and while some of it can get tedious at times, most of it is incredibly solid, still feeling natural and just as fun even after all of these years.

Not to mention, there are plenty of things that this game has that expands upon elements seen in previous Mario games, all to its benefit. There are many different bonus games that can be accessed throughout the game, each granting you the chance of getting a GARGANTUAN amount of lives to use for the future, right alongside several items as well, which you can use at any time while in a level. Most of these items aren’t really all that useful, just being a means of helping you get to 100%, and the bonus games themselves aren’t anything too useful after beating them once or twice, but they can still be pretty helpful whenever you get the chance to participate in any of them, and in some instances, they can definitely get you out of a bind that you are in. Aside from that though, there are also the powerups in this game, which, rather than being the traditional ones we see all the time in typical Mario games, are instead a bunch of different transformations that Yoshi can take on for a brief period of time. You can become a helicopter, a submarine, a robot mole, and there’s even a powerup that allows you to play as Baby Mario by himself, running around and going up walls, because who gives a fuck about logic! Granted, not all of these powerups are fun to use, with some like that robot mole I mentioned earlier having some pretty awkward handling at times, but they are a nice change of pace whenever they pop up, and it is always really neat seeing just what kinds of things that they are willing to transform Yoshi into next.

So yeah, the game does have a lot going for it in the gameplay department, being very fun even all the way to now, but a lot of the reason why this game does hold up also has something to do with its presentation. The game was made with the Super FX chip, one that was able to do a whole lot more then what games like Star Fox could, and when you play the game for yourself, you can really see it working perfectly in harmony. Sprites will frequently change sizes to fit the situations, enemies will jump from the background to the foreground, there are 3D objects that can be interacted with, and the way that some enemies and sprites move around looks much more impressive then any other game from the SNES at that point. Hell, even just by watching the intro sequence, you can see just what kind of stuff this game was capable of, and while it does look a little rough nowadays, I can imagine this kind of thing blowing peoples’ minds back in the day, and it has aged pretty wonderfully overtime. Not to mention, the general art style of the game is perfect in every way, making everything look so vibrant, lively, and adorable, to the point where I want to live on this island and never come back to civilization.

However, with all of that out of the way, I can’t let my nostalgia goggles blind me for too long, because I am well aware that this game is not perfect, despite it being very, VERY close to that point. While most of the game is extremely fun to play, great to look at/listen to, and has plenty of charming elements that makes it a must-play for any Nintendo fan, there has always been one element of the game that I never really liked, and that is going for 100%. For those that aren’t aware, in order to 100% Yoshi’s Island, you have to collect plenty of items in every single level, such as 30 stars to max out your life, all of the red coins, and the five smiley flowers for the chance at a bonus game at the end of the level. That doesn’t sound that bad, but trust me, completing these tasks is MUCH easier said than done, not only because of how hard it can be in plenty of places, but also because of how tedious it is. Getting a lot of these collectibles can be quite a gamble, especially in plenty of areas where you have to have perfect precision when it comes to throwing your eggs, or even in life-or-death situations where you can’t screw up, or else you would have to die or start the level over again.

That’s not even bringing up the fact that, once you do 100% the main levels in a world, you then unlock an extra stage to play for that world, and these stages can be quite the pain in the dino-ass if you aren’t prepared for them. This can be seen even as early as the first world’s extra stage, where for most of the stage, you are riding along the back of Poochy, Yoshi’s dog companion who is also be goodest good boy of them all, while going across a lot of precarious lava and tight jumps, while also having a very small platform to go back to every time you land. All of this and more awaits you when you decide to go for 100%, and while I myself usually tend to 100% the games that I play, I just simply don’t like doing that with Yoshi games. I dunno, maybe it’s because of how it was a series I grew up with, and is near and dear to my heart, but I have always found this games to be a “chill” series, one that I could just play, run straight through a lot of the time, not having to worry about much else, and I don’t think I will ever change my mind on that stance. To be fair though, I am not saying that going for 100% in this game is a bad thing at all, because it is still perfectly doable, and quite the challenge, if you so wish to go for it, but it is just something I don’t think I will ever be likely to do that much whenever I go back to one of these games. Not to mention, the last time I did 100% percent a Yoshi game was with Crafted World, and, ah hah……………… NEVER AGAIN.

Overall, despite me not really getting into the whole idea of 100% this game at many given times, I am eternally grateful that this managed to be the first video game I ever played in my life, as not only is it a wonderful place to start for anybody, but it is also a fantastic game in many ways, having a wonderful art style, fantastic music, addicting and satisfying gameplay, and a sense of identity that the series would carry on its shoulders all the way to this day, which is all for the best in my opinion. I would definitely recommend it for those who have never played any Yoshi game before, as well as those who are just big fans of Yoshi in general, because if you somehow haven’t gotten the chance to play this for yourself, then you are clearly missing out, because it truly is one of the finest platformers from the 16-bit era. happy sigh..... man, it feels great to finally get to this game, after I had been planning it for so long. Although, now that I am done with all my gushing, I don’t have any funny gag to end the review on. Uh… obligatory Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy reference. There ya go, is that good enough? Have I won the Yoshi’s Island internet prize, and will people like me now?

Game #578

This game gatekeeping you with side quests to progress the main story is the equivalent as being told you can't go outside till you do some extra homework.
The story and battle system Torna has to offer is incredibly interesting, and I won't lie when I say the moments with Lora, Gin, and Mythra were very interesting - but it's all heavily guarded by side quests. You're told twice in the main game, but most notably just before the finale - that you should help the people of Torna, and you're actively forced out of story progress until you do.
It's horrible artificial padding, and it honestly didn't feel rewarding at a point because not much changed when you did them. I personally ended up skipping most of the enemies later on because the forced side quests kept me at a decent level anyway, and by then I was getting sick of the battle system.
I'm not saying Torna is bad by any means, but I am saying it has its heavy faults. You will still find plenty of joy in this package, however with Future Redeemed doing what Torna did wrong and fixing it - I think I can safely say in hindsight that this was Monolith testing the waters with Xenoblade Expansions, and I'm glad that the blunders in this campaign meant that the devs could learn from their mistakes and make side content actually worth exploring and doing in Future Redeemed.