Rayman is a platforming marvel that oozes with charm, beauty and overall whimsy, and makes for one of gaming's best platformers out there, however a few of it's concepts do scuff the overall package.

AESTHETICS AND STYLE:
As if Rayman Origins wasn't stunning enough, the slider has been turned up to 11, our main heroes, enemies, as well as the overall environment is given a visual overhaul, with a more painterly, storybook, or shaded style in comparison to Rayman Origin's comic/cartoon style, the game also plays around with more 3D elements and layers to truly immerse yourself in this silly world, this can be seen with dragons being 3D, or things happening in the background, and just generally more polish and visual flare in comparison, it's one of the most stunning platformers out there.

GAMEPLAY:
It's your typical Rayman affair, game is robust with great character control and physics, however I've noticed there's a lot more emphasis on segments and flow, generally more closely knit in comparison to origins, this may not seem bad, it does make for a stellar single player campaign, however I'm not sure if I can say the same for it's 4-5 player co op structure, it might just be a general thing for co op games to be chaotic but it didn't feel as tho there's much freedom for such a feature, since levels are linear, you'd just be tailing from behind than exploring different layers on your own, maybe it gets better if I play longer. Another new feature that's sort of a mixed bag is the introduction of purple lums, lums that appear purple and dancing at the start of a lum trail, which collecting will continue along the line of lums giving double the amount, and while this is neat, it does make gameplay a lot more challenging and strict as you really have to be careful on collecting otherwise you'd break the chain and return to normal yellow, this mechanic I feel would make co op mode a lot more stressful as you'd have to make sure your partner doesn't touch the path so you can get enough lums, lum requirement is also stricter so in order to get all trophies on a stage, it's essential to make every lum count. One huge gimmick introduced is Murphy, a character who's mechanic is designed for the wii u's touch controls, is now a simple button press with predetermined paths to loop and wait when given the signal. Murphy I'd say is the most mixed bag that I feel would turn away some folks from the game, call it a skill issue but it is generally just stressful to navigate and care about him at the same time, it makes for good reaction speed challenges but I'm really just yearning for simple platforming, and makes this game feel like it's only best experienced when in co op only, this idea is however thrown out the window on every other platform release aside from the Wii U and vita, as stated earlier that murphy's simplified to button presses, so the whole gang can suffer together fighting over murphy's controls, sometimes leading to funny moments of murphy pulling away someone's platform, killing them due to both parties pressing the same button.

There are also rhythm based music stages which I think are really neat.

Game is also crazy jam packed with content, aswell as sporting all the stages from origins, making this a pretty splendid deal if you wanna get around to playing the originals, without the bossfights however.

MUSIC:
Rayman Legends really puts the legend in it's title with orchestral arrangements to coincide with the storybook feel of the game and are all very memorable. It also has a few licensed music covers rayman-ified with it's kazoos and enemy sounds which I find very nice too. Overall a big step up from Origins' already stellar soundtrack.

STORY:
Just like mario, this game doesn't really feature a lot of story elements, it's a pretty simple premise of a bunch of areas being conquered by nightmares, wake up Rayman and the gang and mess them up, no real comments on this.

CRITICISMS:
- As stated before, the game's a bit more close knit in comparison to origins, making the exploration, and multiplayer aspect of the game feeling a bit eh.

- Murphy is just a real sore thumb sometimes as it's clearly designed to be controlled by another person in mind, but isn't translated onto other consoles, filling your plate with this guy to deal with, as if normal gameplay isn't hectic enough.

- Murphy's disabled in music stages on different platforms so you just get points of awkward glowing signs that feel like it should be interacted.

- The introduction of purple lums adds more challenge to a single player game sure but really hurts co op experiences with doing your best trying to make your partner not break a chain to get the most out of them, to adhere to the much strict lum count requirements to achieve all trophies. (The trophies don't do anything anyway but I want them)

- these new mechanics, design, and gimmicks makes it feel the game can't decide if you want a friend along or not, and if you do, you simply just follow the leader.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
While Rayman Legends does bring a lot of amount onto the table, it does have a few mechanics that I feel hurt the overall product, co op especially which could make it mixed to recommend for the multiplayer aspect but it's still one of the greatest platformers out there nonetheless, and is just an evolution of Origin's gameplay, you get a free copy of Origins in the game too!

Anyway please get rayman out of purgatory Ubisoft I'm begging you

Honestly can't see the vision unfortunately, this is such a janky and nearly incomprehensible kart rider/party game. The tracks are so narrow, the unique mechanics of the karts feel so hastily conceptualized, you can hit almost no one in city trial cuz everyone's zooming around 100 mph, there's a powerup in city trial that makes your extremely fast I fail to see how it can work in any capacity and a bunch of weird ass design choices. I'd like to see HAL take a crack at a Kirby Air Ride sequel someday buy as it stands, this is just not fun.

Super Mario 3D World gives the most general Mario game experience, for better of for worse, and it's not exactly bad, it plays quite well actually, but I come out of it feeling like I just played white bread: the game.

AESTHETICS AND STYLE:
Super Mario 3D World brings in the NSMB aesthetic people know and (probably) love, with it's vibrant, isolated obstacle courses filled with life and color, tho nothing really grand or crazy to write home about, actually feels sort of corporate or sterile feeling, doesn't help that the environments are really generic. I apologize if I can't describe it as well. Whatever the case, it's Mario at it's core and if you like Mario's world, you'll probably like how this looks I guess.

GAMEPLAY:
The game has you in limited camera angles, and directions to move in, which results in very precise movement which feels pretty good and allows for platforming to be much more controlled and simple. There are however moments or instances where different camera angles or such would benefit certain situations and I'd either get my view obscured that not even Mario's silhouette really helps know what I'm doing while elements block my view or have a certain angle I feel comfortable with playing but is disabled for whatever reason. There are also segments where I feel should have invisible walls, esp like psuedo 2D sections, why am I allowed to jump off the side of the train, the outer area section isn't even there anymore, I'd also be able to just hop to the background and die. And a bunch of other things that sort of irk me like character specific buttons or more camera angles but I don't want this to be too long.

Captain Toad stages are really cute, they're nice pace breakers, a sort of nitpick I do have tho is the inability to zoom in, and why does toad have a jump button, it does literally nothing but play a hop animation.

MUSIC:
Most of the OST is pretty catchy, I don't have a lot of opinions on these in particular other than it's good Mario music that did it's job.

STORY:
Mario Game

CRITICISMS:
- As stated before, while colorful, this feels like such a sterile game, the settings are very general and don't really wow me, I see the game and say "yup that's Mario." I think it'd be cool if future Mario games develop a more stunning aesthetic or something to really compliment the other creative stuff.

- Bosses are an absolute joke, it usually takes under 3-5 minutes to beat all of them, the final boss felt sort of anticlimactic, I sort of expected to actually fight Bowser eventually but all I got was an autoscroller course which ended with a feeling of "that's it?"

FINAL THOUGHTS:
I can't think much on what to criticize the game other than it just feels like a very general Mario game, it has no interesting features or something, it's just pure unadulterated Mario, "The Mario Game Ever" if you will I guess. Probably a good introduction game for new fans or audiences after the recent Mario Movie. Anyway yeah if you want to play a Mario game with no quirks and not 2D (technically), you can grab this and you'll probably have a fun time.

No I will not be doing the post game challenges go away.

Bowser's Fury has got to be one of the most cleverly and wonderfully crafted platformer x open world hybrid games I've played by far. Bowsers Fury drops Mario into a mysterious world called Lake Lapcat, an environment filled with obstacle courses, cats, and challenges each island. It's surprisingly well paced with how each provides a series of challenges and nick knacks to discover, on top of a gigantic godzilla type foe looming in the background.

AESTHETICS AND STYLE:
Bowsers Fury integrates the concept of a mysterious island well into the Mario brand, being a bunch of blocky ruins, and landmasses akin to the typical Mario structure, aswell as brimming with life from enemies to silly cats, and the shrubbery. Things turn up a notch as Fury Bowser awakens from his slumber and the atmosphere suddenly changes to dark and danger as the sky turns to black and the world is illuminated by the fiery breath of Fury Bowser, which I think is great!

GAMEPLAY:
Now for the meat and potatoes of this expansion. As said from the beginning, Bowser's Fury is such a wonderfully crafted open world x platformer game, where you're given the freedom to visit each island (you unlocked) and go at it your own pace, aswell as old areas adding new additions and challenge as you return. On top of all this, it's hosted in one singular world, making travel and exploration practically seamless, with quick loading when warping between the islands.

I feel I had to mention this eventually but yes, Bowser's Fury is full of reused 3D World assets, but I feel it's done very tastefully in this game, they're all integrated to the environment or feel like they're built with intention and challenge, paired with original terrain environments, not to mention everything is well sewn into the Mario aesthetic, it feels fresh and unique, utilizing everything the devs have in their toolbox and craft something new out of it.

One of the prominent aspects throughout this whole adventure is this gigantic beast, Fury Bowser, who drops by every few minutes and drops massive stakes, rains fireballs and blast a laser of fire towards you, it adds a feeling of tension whenever you're in a current course but you have this big lad blowing a fuse and firing a beam of destruction around you.

It gets sicker as you claim enough cat shines to scare him away in the meantime, but once you get enough, you unlock the Giga Bell, which allows Mario to absorb it and turn into Giga Cat Mario (practically Super Saiyan Mario) in a raw kaiju battle in the middle of the ruins, as you toss his stakes back and slam on his stakes back and slam him.

MUSIC:
The score is just as whimsical as any other Mario song which is great, I find myself jamming to some of these for a while. One part I do want to mention is bowser's sick theme whenever he drops by, as the soothing world is engulfed in madness and destruction, it's paired with heavy metal and what sounds like an interpretation of Bowser singing, which is so sick to hear!

STORY:
It's a mario game, no one really goes for the story lol.

CRITICISMS:
As wonderful of a package Bowser's Fury is, I do have a few gripes with it, tho are very minor.

- Bowser specific blocks that can only be destroyed when hes around is cool at first but then feels a bit tiresome, as I have to wait for a whole cycle for him to pop back out, to which I'm likely doing something else in the meantime, and couldn't travel back or couldn't remember what spot I specifically want him to strike, and before you know it, he goes back to sleep, so it's sorta optimal to just wait around in idle till he spawns back.

- This criticism carries over to 3D World as lava damage doesn't work like in Odyssey, so touching it is just insta death, I've tried using the invincibility star ability and still die, so that's a bit infuriating on a few puzzles.

- Don't get me wrong, yes Bowser spawning in makes courses much more intense and is overall a cool function but it oftentimes feels a bit bothersome, esp in challenges where I'm sort of struggling and want my peace. It also does feel a bit repetitive. It's also extremely bothersome late game where he just doesn't leave, making the cats I'm trying to retrieve constantly evil, or just generally obstructing, so I choose to die to reset Bowser.

- Performance issues aplenty, especially as you unlock more of the world and in 2nd play, as more assets or environments are loaded, the switch is really huffing and puffing out those frames as the slowdown occurs everytime Fury Bowser pops in, it's much apparent when going for the Lucky Isle shines, but generally yeah, the performance tanks a bit here and there late game.

- Overworld bosses are an absolute breeze, I mean I don't really go or expect super challenging bosses in Mario, but they are super easy to deal with, it's more of a minigame than a boss if anything, which I guess is just general Mario bosses (Fury Bowser's boss is fun tho)

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Bowser's Fury is a delightful take on open world Mario, integrating Mario's platforming aspect well into the seamless world design, a well paced adventure that's just the right amount of length (personally), and just an overall charming product, if I were to rate this, it'd be an 8/10, great stuff!

The same thoughts I have towards Fortnite, amongst the sea of modern gritty shooters comes a silly, goofy and yet challenging shooter that really itches a specific spot I look for. Splatoon is a third-person shooter where the goal is to cover up the battlefield with your ink, and those who cover most of the turf wins. First and foremost, it's direction, Nintendo is always that one company amongst the big three gaming companies that always go for fun over graphics, in turn creating one of the most distinct and creative shooters out there, from it's aesthetics to it's gameplay, it's never a dull moment! Gameplay is very fun, as you're just constantly engaged with tasks such as inking the turf, and battling enemies, but the focus really is on coating the area with your ink. Movement is distinct and insane, instead of the usual wall climbing or parkour, the inklings turn into their squid form and swim across their painted areas, from walls to the ground, seeing the bunch of clips on Twitter featuring insane movement tech is astounding, this game really is Titanfall but disguised as a funny woomy game. The gun play is so varied, from the usual paint guns to whole new ways of inking such as blasters, bows, swords, paint brushes, and rollers, all with their different specials and abilities, it shakes up the pace and gives many people different playstyles that fit their ways to play. And if turf war isn't up your alley, there are different modes to hop into, such as tower control, splatzones, rainmaker, clamblitz, and salmon run. Personally have not experienced a lot of clamblitz but all the other 3 anarchy modes are very fun, and blend the whole inking aspect of splatoon into traditional gun game modes almost seamlessly. Salmon Run is the PVE of this game and is very fun to play, you are a team of 4 working to get Salmon Eggs into a basket, while a bunch of Salmonids come and kill you, it gets very hectic and intense! The music is piss gargling, but still very catchy, it really helps making this world more distinct and unique. The game overall does a great job at getting you immersed at this whole new reality of modern society inhabited solely by sea cratures, covering different aspects such as music, history, tradition, and etc.

Final thoughts:
Splatoon is a very unique game amongst the realm of shooters, giving a whole new spin on the genre through integrating painting, and swimming, encapsulating the charm of Nintendo titles, jam packed with charm and challenges!

(Note: There are some aspects of this game that I've neglected on experiencing such as the story mode, and the card game)

All style and flair, but not much substance..

Sonic Frontiers when first playing was a blast for me personally, but after a few plays upon completing the game two times (Switch and PC), it does start to show its cracks.

Negatives (a bit of a ramble):
Combat is flashy but not much depth, almost every attack does the same thing with a different animation, very shoddily built system that combat can be boiled down to holding parry and waiting for the enemy to hit so you can do a QTE and activate an OP counter attack, and if not that, it's just mashing different moves with no rhyme or reason other than it looks cool, lack of incentive for a better term.

Open Zone is very uninteresting, with the world just looking out of place and dull for Sonic, even if it was on purpose (isn't executed well anyway), it's weird how this island in particular isn't affected by Sonic tropes, not to mention the immense immersion shattering pollution of platforms and rails in the sky. Sonic himself also just isn't compatible with the world, aside from the contrast, he's practically not built for the terrain as he's magnetized to the floor, leading to the character shaking at crevices and pebbles, to using pebbles as ramps and some cliffs just leading you straight to hell.


Story is alright for the first half, but from Rhea and onwards gets a steep nosedive, the hyped up Cyber Aids Sonic was suffering from for the entire game was easily solved by the power of friendship, I also wasn't personally enthralled by the ancients. Tons of references to past events that although are endearing, do overstay their welcome as you progress through the game. Cutscenes where they make you want to feel fall flat most of the time, Sage crying over seeing Sonic and Tails' bond is supposed to be a feels moment but since she doesn't have much to go off of, it's just a compilation of Eggman screaming, which may make a few people burst into laughter.

The fishing, one of the most memed aspects of this game, is very braindead as all you really need is to aim it, do a QTE and win, moving the reticle anywhere else is pointless as there's usually only one group of fish in the entire pond. Cooking DLC is also mindless as there isn't any variation to the cooking speeds of each session, they're all the same and after like one or two games, you practically have it figured out, doesn't help that it makes fish farming self sustainable as it offers coins, to which you can use to fish and buy out the entire island requirements instantly.

Combat issues carry over to the boss fights themselves as the goal really is to just mash as much as possible, and although the goal is to deal as much before your rings are gone, I could still apply the cheeses to the boss fights aswell, losing it's luster. Knight although is probably the most developed boss in the game is such a drag, esp in the final phase with the bouncing shield taking forever and Knight being annoying and not staying still. THE END IS A HORRIBLE WAY TO END YOUR GAME, I think normal mode players get a better experience cuz they don't have to play THE HACKING MINIGAME, AS THE FINAL BOSS, what a massive disappointment.

Positives (may include some contradictory statements):
The game's OST goes so hard, esp the boss fight themes, Sonic almost never misses with the games' soundtrack and this is one of them, I do however have a few gripes with it, one of them being the Cyberspace stages being so disconnected from the stages and environment itself, but some of the additions do be banging.

The game's spectacle is something I applaud, especially with a more expressive Sonic (we really shouldn't be praising such a bare minimum thing but here we are), the boss battle spectacles are absolutely insane, irregardless of the piss easy combat, I always find myself loving the sheer power of Super Sonic busting it down against sky scraper sized enemies.

Sonic controls like a dream here, in past boost titles he always controlled like a car, but in this game he actually controls like an actual 3D platformer character for once.




CONCLUSION:
This game has so many asterisks tied to it (there are a few more I could list but I don't wanna make this review too long) but I can't deny that I did have a bit of fun from it, if I were to rate frontiers, it'd be a 6/10, it's absolutely not the best, and I really didn't sit in anticipation for 5 years for a "this has potential" game, but it's also not like the bane of existence.