I got this game along with my 3DS and Super Mario 3D Land on Christmas of 2011. I only just got into Nintendo the year prior with the wii and as such, this was my first of the DS line of systems. I remember loving both 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 back then though jumping forward to 2024, both entries seem pretty safe in each of their respective series. While I still think 3D Land is pretty meh, coming back to Mario Kart 7, I will say yeah it's pretty good! Can it be seen as one of the most forgettable entries in the series though, yeah I can totally see it.

The first thing I'll get into are the courses. This time around, the new courses are honestly, mostly forgettable I think. The new rainbow road is one of the best in the series and it does have some memorable tracks like DK Jungle, Piranha Plant Slide and Music Park (tho perhaps those are the most memorable because they're also in 8 lol) but the majority of them, idk man I just don't care for all too much. I don't think any of them are bad but compared to Wii's excellent selection, it's a major downgrade. On the plus side though, the retro selection is probably the best it's been thus far. A big reason is the addition of Wii stages. Mushroom Gorge, Coconut Mall, Maple Treeway and Koopa Cape. Literally all the fan favorites from Wii are here and they're all solid versions for the most part. Koopa Cape's ending though is not nearly as fun as before. It was changed from a current of water under you making you go super fast while dodging these electric obstacles to a way slower underwater section where you dodge cheep cheeps. Biggest downgrade from any stage which is a shame but the course is still fun overall. The rest of selection of retro courses is really good too. Fan favorites from DS return like Waluigi Pinball and Airship Fortress which are way better picks than some of the DS courses that were in Wii. GCN courses are really good here too with them picking Dino Dino Jungle and Daisy Cruiser. Even the SNES course picks are decent just cuz one of them is Rainbow Road and with the modern driving mechanics is super fun.

Speaking of modern mechanics, this game brought back the trick system from Wii and also added a couple other new additions. The trick system was awesome from Wii and thank god it's been a mainstay ever since cuz future titles would have felt a bit lacking. The other two things this game added are underwater driving and gliding. Underwater driving is definitely the worse of the two. It's cool at first but it's just driving but you're slower in accelerating and drifting. Gliding tho is pretty fun. They changed the old stages to add these two mechanics and gliding usually has new shortcuts associated with it. Are either as fun as half pipe ramps from wii though? Definitely not cuz even though gliding is fun it still slows you down compared to driving unless you're taking a big shortcut. I think both are decent additions but not really anything substantial like tricks were in Wii.

Something else this game added was customizable kart parts and the return of coins. The kart parts idea is interesting but mostly unnecessary imo as I almost 100% of the time just use the same setup each time. You can mix and match stats how you like but idk I think I prefer how past games handled karts. Coins returning also doesn't really do anything for me. Yeah it's cool seeing them again as they haven't been in a game since Super Circuit but their only purpose like in that game is to increase your top speed. That and they unlock the various kart parts so you'll need to grind a decent amount if you want em all. Both additions don't hinder the game but they also just don't do much for me.

For being the 2nd Mario Kart on a DS system, you'd think it'd be much improved from DS. In terms of graphics, hell yeah it is. The character models are more similar to Wii in quality and honestly are better in certain characters (like Bowser). This is a massive improvement from DS which frankly had pretty ugly models. This is nice and all but when it comes to the battle mode and the lack of missions, this is a downgrade from DS. The battle mode is better than Wii since you aren't forced into teams anymore but there's still no elimination mode as you have to wait until the timer ends. That plus the track selection is worse than DS makes it a decent downgrade from that game. Still better than Wii and especially vanilla 8's but not the best I think. Also, no missions? Those were so fun in DS and this game has nothing. Like, I can excuse Wii and 8 since those are console titles so something like missions which works well on a portable title wouldn't be quite as fun. But 7 has no excuse so it's somewhat disappointing.

Last thing is the character selection is quite weak. Look I love Mario galaxy but honey bee?? Metal mario, Lakitu and Wiggler aren't terrible but those over Waluigi?? When Waluigi pinball is in this game???? Just baffling tbh and a pretty big downgrade from Wii's and even DS's selection.

Also, just something random, online play still works as of now though I think it's gonna end soon. Played a couple courses and it's fun but man almost everyone that joined are pros that play this game daily or something it's crazy. But the online is actually pretty good for the most part so I recommend giving it a go while you can

I'm giving this a 7 for now cuz I do think it's pretty good and it does some things really well (like the retro selection). But besides that, and even then that's just past content, I feel like there's really no reason to go back to this one when DS, Wii and 8 just does all the other aspects so much better. Didn't think I'd be so negative on this one (sorry about that) cuz I enjoyed it a ton back in the day and it's still a good game to this day! But when people say this one just feels like another Mario Kart, I can kind of understand that tbh. Ah well, anyways vanilla 8 is next because yeah I said I'm going to play them all and I'll stand by that so stay tuned for that one!

Edit: Bumped down to a 6.5

Back in the day, I was a huge fan of the Wii U. I got one for Christmas a month after it came out and for a long while, I would get every single big release. Mario 3D World, Pikmin 3, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, some great titles released early on into the consoles life cycle so I was always looking forward to the next big Wii U game. Fast forward to May of 2014, I got my hands on Mario Kart 8 the day it came out. I loved 7 back in the day and was absolutely ecstatic for 8's release. Once I finally was able to play it, I knew it would be THE game I'd be playing with friends for a long while. Though honestly in retrospect, while I still played it a decent amount with my buds, I ended up playing Smash 4 and even it's better version Mario Kart 8 Deluxe a lot more. Still, even if there's no reason to go back to this one when Deluxe is a thing, it's still great in its own right.

The initial aspect I noticed all those years ago was just how damn amazing this game looks. And yeah, it still looks amazing to this day. Idk what Nintendo was cooking but this was easily the best-looking Wii U game like ever, with Pikmin 3 coming right behind it. Not only are the new tracks all so vibrant and just super clean looking with its more realistic shading and texture work, all the retro courses got this treatment too and they're simply wonderful to look at. Like I said, this game still looks beautiful to this day, and it's almost 10 years old at this point! It's crazy really.

A big reason this game's tracks look so good visually is due to the game's new gimmick. While underwater driving and gliding are still in the game, Mario Kart 8 also added zero gravity. This leads to some amazing looking and feeling track design with how the track can curve all around any which way. It gives new tracks so much character and retro tracks are better than ever because of it. Like for example GBA Mario Circuit. Very boring track outside of 8 but 8's anti gravity section has a section of the track totally elevated off the ground and just makes an otherwise unmemorable track, super memorable. Same thing happens with Toad's Turnpike where you can literally drive on the walls, passing a lot of traffic if you choose to do so, and this wall driving happens in several other courses too. Underwater driving is meh, gliding is cool but anti-gravity as a gimmick is just so awesome and I'm glad it's used so well and so often in 8.

Going into more depth on the track selection, it's actually really great overall. While I still think Wii easily wins in the original track selection department, 8 just uses the anti-gravity mechanic so well it's hard not to like 8's selection too. Cloudtop Cruise was always my favorite but you have some other really good tracks like Mario Circuit, Mount Wario, Thwomp Ruins, Sunshine Airport and Toad Harbor. My favorites from Wii's selection definitely trump most of these but this is still one of the better selections of original tracks in the series. Now with the retro tracks, I know I said 7 has the best selection but thinking on it, 8 probably has the best in the series. The anti-gravity additions to many of the tracks just adds so much and the glide pads also added to a lot of them was nice too. It would've been cool if every retro stage had anti-gravity added to them but they added it to a good chunk of them so I can't complain. All this plus these retro tracks just look absolutely gorgeous.

However, there weren't just 8 cups this time around. If you got the DLC, which I did, you were able to race on 12 cups in total. It was $12 for both DLC packs and it added 4 cups, 6 new characters and 8 new vehicles. The 4 new cups have some alright tracks, some solid ones and some absolute bangers like Wario's Gold Mine, SNES Rainbow Road and Ribbon Road. It also added an excite bike course, an Animal Crossing course, a Zelda course and two F Zero Courses. It was basically a crossover pack since with the characters, it also added Link and the villagers. While it is a bit weird seeing non-Mario characters in the game, it's still really cool and is also really amazing value wise. Also with this DLC came a free update which gave players the option to race on 200cc. This is a cool addition, and more content is always nice, tho it was never my preferred way to play since it can just be so awkward going that fast on these courses. Still, it can be fun just seeing your friends rage when they fall off the track going that fast. At this point, this was the most amount of characters and courses in any Mario Kart game so you'd think it'd be hard to not call it the ultimate Mario Kart game. Well, sadly there's a couple issues I have outside of the stuff I mentioned.

The biggest issue people have and yeah, it's a pretty big one for me too, is the bad battle mode. Instead of having battle mode specific courses, they decided to pick a handful of race courses for you to play on instead and it just doesn't work. More enclosed and smaller maps works well for battle mode since players will always be in the action. But with normal race courses, a lot of the time it's hard to find players unless you deliberately stay on each other's asses the whole time. Bottom line is, it just doesn't work really and there's a reason people shat on it when the game came out.

Another, smaller issue I had, was the character selection. It's better than 8's but not only did they add another baby in baby Rosalina (which makes no sense if you know her back story), they added all 7 koopalings as separate characters and something as dumb as pink gold peach. Having something like pink gold peach but not diddy kong or birdo or boswer jr.?
Just disappointing on the new character selections even if I mained Ludwig back in the day. Still, at least this game has Waluigi and the DLC at least added Dry Bowser back as well the crossover characters.

Even with the less than great character roster and possibly the worst battle mode in the series, the other things this game does so well, it elevates it to still being great in my eyes. There may be absolutely no reason to play this version of 8 when deluxe is a thing, but I can't deny this game's immense quality when it comes to the racing. Though honestly I do think Wii is the best in the series up to this point, we'll see how Deluxe stacks up when I get to that next. So look forward to that one as it will be the finale of this Mario Kart marathon!

After getting my Switch on launch along with Breath of the Wild, I was excited to see what games the console would have in the future. I bought Master Blaster Zero and eventually The Binding of Isaac for the third time, but a month and a half later Mario Kart 8 Deluxe came out. Now look, this may be a rerelease and all but it was for a portable console. Mario Kart 8 was great but I could only play it at home and with a game like Mario Kart, its more fun to play it on the go with friends. When this came out, I was nearing the end of my Junior year in High School. Let me tell you, me and my friends played this all the time during the span of the rest of my high school experience. We played it in lunch, we played it in study hall, we even played it in class whether it was sneaking it or just when we had free time. This was THE Switch game to play when it came to my friend group alongside Jackbox Party Pack 3. It's just a ton of fun and while I said it was a rerelease, it's not just a lazy port. They not only included the DLC tracks, but they also added some new characters and revamped the battle mode.

I said the character selection was a bit lacking in the original game but the ones they added here are all good. Bowser Jr, King Boo and Dry Bones are all good additions that were in past games. The completely brand-new addition tho is Inkling Girl/Boy. Now, I was a huge Splatoon 1 fan before this so I was hyped when they were added. I mained them a lot when I first played and honestly, they're a perfect crossover addition just cuz Splatoon was originally supposed to be a Mario game which I found funny. This isn't even getting into the characters they added from the booster course pass. Most of those are also great, tho I haven't used them myself since I don't own the booster courses. If you do though, easily the best roster in the series.

The other thing they fixed of course is the battle mode. Easily the worst part of the original game and the worst battle mode I've played, it's really good here. Not as good as Mario Kart DS since there's still no option to have it be elimination rules, however you're not forced into teams like Wii and there's a whopping 5 modes this time around. Balloon battle and coin runners are classics of course. Shine thief makes a return and it's also pretty fun here. Bob-omb blast apparently originated from Double Dash and that's also fun tho definitely the most chaotic of the bunch. The brand new mode this time around is renegade roundup and its basically cops and robbers. Pretty fun mode as well but the real reason these are all actually fun is they gave us battle courses again THANK GOD. The old courses are great and some of the new courses are awesome too like Urchin Underpass. Love to see a little Splatoon representation since it didn't get a race track.

So there you go, the character selection was expanded and while not my favorite battle mode, the battle mode was made actually fun again. The only other thing they added, and they added it 5 years after deluxe came out, are the booster courses. Now I don't own them but my good friend Quent has the expansion pass so along with him and my friend wheatie, we played a bunch of online races for this review and I was able to play pretty much all the courses I wanted to. I didn't play them all but I can see the course quality varies greatly. You have some really half assed tracks and then you have really great ones like Yoshi's Island or SNES Bowser's Castle. A lot of the returning ones are Wii courses which is a plus too. Obviously most of these are just straight up ported from Tour and the visuals on a lot of them are pretty unacceptable compared to the base game but, if you don't care about then then the value of 48 tracks for $25 is great. That's basically 50 cents a track plus the added characters. Not only that but they added the ability to choose custom items, plus a music player in the main menu.

With the slightly better character roster and the MUCH better battle mode, I can say this is definitely THE definite Mario Kart. Though I may end up liking Wii a tad bit more now due to it's wacky physics. Either way, definitely a must have as a Switch owner and as a Mario Kart fan.

Well, that's the end of the Mario Kart marathon everyone unless I end up actually playing Tour lol. Been playing Persona 3 FES this whole time alongside these games and I'm in December now so I think I'm nearing the end of it, stay tuned for that review!

The only roguelite I ever got into majorly was the Binding of Isaac. I played Hades and Returnal but while I thought those were fun, I never played them for too long unlike Isaac (I should get back to them though). Cult of the Lamb however is now the 2nd roguelite I've ever beaten a run of. Did I like it? Yeah I enjoyed myself but compared to something like the Binding of Isaac, this game's lacking a bit.

The first thing you'll notice about this game is it's not just a roguelite. It's also a management simulation type game. Basically, the times you won't be playing through the roguelite sections, you'll be working with your cult on a day to day basis. You have to make sure they're fed, make sure they have beds to sleep on, make sure to clean their literal shit as well as making them do tasks like harvesting crops or mining rocks and stuff. Also, since you're the leader of a cult, you can also perform rituals and sermons daily. At first I found this really refreshing and a nice break from the roguelite sections. Well, I'd say its the other way around as you'll be in this mode a lot more than the roguelite sections. While this part of the game is fun, it never gets super fleshed out at all and becomes a bit tiring in the endgame, at least for me. I will say, this part of the game did kinda freak me out with the depictions of cult behavior. Idk why honestly since I don't get freaked out by stuff like this usually but after a bit I got used to it.

In between these simulator parts are the roguelite sections. Compared to something like Isaac, these are not fleshed out at all. They're fun but in terms of content, there's not much here. You have a small assortment of weapons to choose from. They can have passive abilities but each type plays the exact same each time. You have a regular attack, then a strong attack which uses fervor as well as specials you can collect that also use fervor. Fervor is basically just like SP you can collect from enemies to perform these moves. You don't have much in terms of a move set and it pales in comparison to Isaac's many synergies. You can also get tarot cards and relics which both provide other upgrades or abilities but there aren't many of those either and I kept getting the same ones a lot of the time. The bosses are pretty fun I will say and while I didn't find this game hard really, some of the later bosses can be tricky. In the early game, I was having a blast with the simulator section and less fun with the roguelite section, but in the endgame, it was the opposite except the roguelite section was just fun rather than a blast.

I will say, probably the aspect that holds up the best is the art style. Despite some of the disturbing stuff you can do in this game, it never is that bad (despite me being creeped out at first) because of how cutesy everything looks. In general, it's just a really nice art style and everything looks really good, as long as it doesn't glitch out on you.

Yeah uh, I saw some people mentioning glitches and while they never bothered me, it is worth mentioning. I played the PS5 version and every time the start of a new day happened; the game would literally freeze for 5 seconds each time. You get used to it but the first time it happened I thought the game crashed lol. I also had an issue where followers would glitch out and work on something like a block or two away from where it should be so it looks like they're working on nothing which is distracting. Also had a glitch at the very end of the game where the floor texture would go from looking normal to being reflective like water. Idk if all this is just in the PS5 version but it all happened throughout my game and it's worth mentioning.

Overall, I enjoyed myself, but I wish a lot of the game was more fleshed out. The simulator and roguelite sections are fun but because they're trying to balance the two, neither feels super rewarding in the end. The fun concept, cute art style and really fun early game is what made me enjoy this game in the end. Just wish it was better overall. Also didn't bother with the platinum despite it seeming easy enough. Looks like it requires way more playtime than I'm up for lol.

While in the middle of my Cult of the Lamb playthrough, my power went out for 4 hours. In that time, I had nothing to do except go on my phone but eventually it died. I remembered my 3DS was fully charged and so I decided to look through my DS/3DS games to see if I can be productive and replay something I hadn't in a while. Decided on the original New Super Mario Bros, since I hadn't played the series in years. After playing through the first world, my power came back on not long after. Decided to continue replaying this even with the power back on so here we are.

The New Super Mario Bros games were not games I ever truly loved. Yes, by the time 2 and U came out, the series became super stale. But even with DS and Wii, I never found them amazing at all. Replaying DS, this seems to still be true for me. In fact, this may be my least favorite of the bunch, at least next to 2 for several different reasons. Even despite that however, it's still a fun time overall and worth coming back to for a certain addition I'll talk about later.

First thing you'll notice when playing the game, would be its graphics. Personally, I always thought the NSMB games had a fine enough artstyle tho I much prefer how the sprite-based games looked in the past. DS though is sadly the ugliest in the series now. It was certainly a marvel back then but nowadays, just looks kinda ugly a lot of the time compared to the other titles.

Level design-wise, the game has plenty of levels that actually are pretty memorable. The sewers level, the giant wiggler level, the pipe maze level, the fucking brutal 8-1 level with the birds. I wish more of the levels were memorable like these, since a large chunk can be forgettable but I was surprised just how many I ended up remembering. This game also added the star coin collectable and honestly, they can be a tremendous pain in this game. They don't hide them behind invisible walls like future game but some of them require a powerup from other levels or toad houses and it can be frustrating. Same with the secret exits (which came back from Mario World). Like a third of those require the aforementioned outside powerup and they're a pain. I do recommend going for 100% tho cuz once you beat the game, you can actually buy bottom screen skins with any star coins you have and I never knew this and it's awesome. Such a great reward for going out of your way to get them.

One more aspect of the gameplay I wanted to get into were the powerups. 80% of the game you'll be seeing the fire flower which is a good powerup of course. The other 20%, you'll see the three new ones (and the classic star I guess) and I gotta say they're not that great. The mega mushroom is a great concept and is fun to use but is barely in any levels naturally. The mini mushroom is also not used that much and I honestly never liked much just because it's so floaty. And the shell is just obnoxious since you start moving on your own the moment you hit top speed and you have to manually stop to get out of your shell. I'm sure it's super fun when speed running but alas, it just annoyed me more than anything. This is another thing I think future games did better, especially WIi, that one has a great selection of powerups.

I really don't have much to say about the soundtrack. It's alright at best I think and it doesn't help the 1-1 theme gets reused in Wii. I did actually like the map theme for world 7 though, something about that feels so nostalgic. This game is somewhat nostalgic to me since I remember seeing a classmate play this on field trip bus ride when I was 8 and thinking it looked so cool. Never ended up playing the main campaign until after I played the other 3 NSMB games but my memory of that bus ride is engrained in my memory, and part of me thinks that classmate was on world 7 that day which might explain why the song feels so nostalgic. Either way, besides that one song I really like, never cared for the game's ost sadly.

This is all fine and dandy, but the real reason I think someone should come back to this one is its multiplayer modes. Minigames are a blast to play, even if most of them are ported straight from 64 DS, but there are a couple new ones which is nice. I probably played these more than the actual game back in the day. The Mario vs Luigi mode was also a lot of fun back in the day too. The goal was to get the most stars and you could steal them from the opposite Mario brother. Was just really fun constantly screwing the other person over. Though I guess since (most of) the minigames are in 64 DS and future games had multiplayer in it's campaigns, these aren't amazing reasons to come back to NSMB DS specifically, but it's still a nice little package of multiplayer goodness overall.

Like I said, was never a huge fan of the New Super Mario Bros games, and while this still rings true...I'd say this was still a fun time overall. Would be fun to replay them all but I'd have to spread them out considering how samey they are lol.

This is yet another Kirby game I had yet to play prior to this Kirbyathon. I was honestly feeling a 6 most of the time I was playing, and was thinking this is the best Kirby spin-off thus far (after Dream Course). Then the endgame happened.

Let's start with the positives first though. This is basically Kirby breakout and it's generally pretty fun. You break blocks by bouncing Kirby against the paddles, typical breakout basically. The twist here, besides being Kirby themed ofc, is 4 of Kirby's staple copy abilities are in the game and used as power-ups. Stone let's you destroy anything directly below you, burn anything directly above you, needle stops you in place briefly and let's you cling back onto a bumper and aim again and spark bounces you sporadically destroying any block in your path more effectively. This was probably the coolest part of the game. Like Dream Course, the copy abilities are implemented super well into the actual gameplay.

Each level also has a boss at the end, like Pinball Land, but unlike that game I was actually able to beat (almost) all of them this time around. They can be pretty fun but watch out you don't get thrown into the spikes. Luckily in the stage prior to the boss, you can get a sneak-peak at what the boss will be as well as the opportunity to get safety blocks that cover the spikes in the boss stage.

The OST was alright, I saw some reviews saying it was really good but I can't say any of the songs stood out imo.

Now for the endgame, the later stages can be quite annoying with their block placement and the use of 4 bumpers around the screen. The 10th stage, I even decided to save state past that first section cuz it was just so obnoxious. The hit detection on the bumpers can be wonky, which I can't discredit the game too much since it's still a Gameboy game, however it still led to some frustration in the endgame. That plus you can't even play the final level and get the true ending without getting a certain score threshold in each stage. I did this only once in stage 9, and it was by complete accident. I tried to beat the required score a couple of times in stage 1, but I think there's also a secret time requirement (from one of the reviews I read on here) and with how random the game can be with being able to hit blocks in time, yeah no thanks. I know they did this, so it would make you replay the game a bunch, however it's still a bummer.

Overall, it's a decent little game however the true ending being locked to a somewhat frustrating 100% and the endgame levels being kinda frustrating brings it down a bit. It's a fun little time waster, and definitely better than Pinball Land. And yeah, this is yet another game I technically wasn't able to beat due to the 100% requirement. At least I beat every other stage in the game otherwise.

The first time I ever beat this game was back in 2022. After playing Forgotten Land when it launched, and really enjoying that, I was still in a Kirby mood and decided to beat one of the few mainline games I haven't already. While not bad overall, I found this notably weaker than Dreamland 1 for several reasons. I was a bit generous back then tho and gave it a 6 like I did Dreamland 1. Well coming back to it again, yeah It's still weaker than Dreamland 1 and I'm dropping it to a 5 now.

That's not to say there aren't some things this game improved on compared to 1. Overall, Kirby feels better to control in this one which is nice. While I'm nostalgic for the first game's ost, this game might have it beat overall. Sure it reuses a lot of tracks from Dreamland 1 and Adventure, however it's original tracks are actually really damn good. Coo's Theme is the real standout here, goddamn is that some good shit. Visually it also looks nicer than Dreamland 1 I'd say, though still doesn't look that great overall since it's still a Gameboy game.

The main thing this game added though were the animal friends. The aforementioned Koo the owl, Kine the fish and Rick the hamster are the three buddies in this game. They're a fun addition and change the gameplay up. Since copy abilities are back, each animal friend actually has their own version of each one. They greatly vary in usage though. Koo with parasol is amazing while Rick with needle is most of the time awful. It's a cool idea, that gets expanded on way more in Dreamland 3, however the execution here is very hit and miss.

Something you can use these animal friends abilities on are copy ability specific blocks. These usually block the main collectable in this game, the rainbow drops. To get 100% in this game, and fight the true final boss, you must get them all. Let me tell you, some of them are a huge pain to get. Not only are the later ones cryptic, the one where you have to use Kine + electric is just straight BS sometimes because of what you have to do to get it. If you know you know, but either way you most likely won't be getting these without a guide.

Other than that, the game just goes on for way too long I feel. To beat Dreamland 1, it takes around and hour or less (most likely a half hour) which is perfect for the type of game this is. Dreamland 2 might improve on 1's controls a bit, but it's still a Gameboy game and it's around 4 hours long to full complete everything. That's way longer and as such it just drags on near the end. That, plus the level design can be very hit or miss. Most of the levels are passable I'd say, however the game really loves its auto scrolling levels and these can be a bitch sometimes with it being a Gameboy game. And of course there's the infamous auto-scroller with the instakill dead ends that is pure trial and error and yeah that one is pure dogshit.

Along with the rainbow drops, to get 100% you have to also do these star collecting minigames and also find the female Gooey once. Gooey is this blobby guy that replaces an animal buddy if it gives you the one you already have. He just gives you some health back if you collect him. However there's a 1/8 chance it'll be a female Gooey instead and finding her actually contributes to 100% which is weird but easy to do in a certain level luckily. The star minigames you can do after going into the boss door again after you've beaten them. You have to collect every star and get a perfect in every world because this contributes to 100%. The minigames themselves are fine enough, however if you get hit or miss a star, you can't play it again until you go and beat a stage. I get why they do this as it's easy to grind lives if this wasn't in place, however the fact you have to do this for 100% just means it wastes time if you lose which isn't fun.

This is the first in the Dark Matter trilogy and so after we defeat Dedede at the end, we get to fight Dark Matter for the first time. Get used to doing that as he's a regular throughout the trilogy ofc. I remember the fight being more frustrating back in 2022, but here it wasn't too bad. Decent introduction to them as a main antagonist of the trilogy.

While I quite like Dreamland 1 and 3, I don't have much of a connection to 2 at all and I personally think it's a lot more flawed compared to those two games. It improves on some things from 1 but is also way longer and drags on because of that. Not to mention it's annoying to 100%. It's not a terrible sequel but I personally think it's a downgrade compared to 1 even if the animal friends and copy abilities being here are nice. I'll take 1 any day of the week over this.

Throughout my many years of playing games from Sega’s lineup of consoles, the one console that I have little to zero experience with whatsoever would be the Sega Saturn. I have played some games from the system, such as Nights Into Dreams and maaaaaaaaaaaaybe Sonic R, even though I’m not sure if that’s a real game, but aside from those two, I have had zero experience with any Sega Saturn exclusive games whatsoever. It is a shame too, considering that from what I have seen, it looks like there are a lot of quality games for the system, ones that probably don’t reach the same quality as many other games of the era, but enough to where anyone who owned the system could definitely get their money’s worth from a nice selection of titles to choose from. So, I figured it is about time that I dip my toes further into the pool that is the Sega Saturn library, starting with a game that was a launch title for the system for us Americans, Clockwork Knight.

I have never played this game or it’s sequel before, but I have known about them for quite a while, seeing them being played on some YouTube channels that I have been subscribed to over the years. It looked charming enough with its toy-themed setting, and it did look short enough to where I could get through it in one afternoon, so I figured “Why the hell not?”, and I did blaze through it in that same afternoon, finding a charming and fun game that… doesn’t really do that much. It is a solid platformer all throughout for the most part, and it does the job that it is supposed to do, but there are definitely plenty of other titles that were out around this time that could do what this game did a whole lot better.

The story is fairly standard for a game like this, where in a seemingly average household at midnight, all of the toys in the house are brought to life by the voice of lovely Clockwork Fairy Princess Chelsea, and everybody goes about their merry way as a result, but suddenly, she is kidnapped by an unknown and mysterious force, so it is up to Sir Tongara de Pepperoucha III, or just Pepper, to set out on a journey to rescue her and stop her vile kidnapper, which is all presented in a charming, yet understandably terrifying, intro cutscene, which does give the story much more charm despite how generic it is. The graphics are pretty good, using pre-rendered sprites for the characters and enemies like Donkey Kong Country, and mixing them together with 3D polygonal environments, all of which blend together pretty well, despite it obviously looking dated, the music is pretty good, having plenty of enjoyable tunes to listen to throughout your journey, and the gameplay/control is pretty standard for a 2D platformer, but it all works out pretty well, and you can get a handle on things with no problem whatsoever.

The game is a 2D action platformer, where you take control of Pepper, go through four different worlds, each with two levels and a boss, all themed around different toys and other objects and places you would find in an average house, go through many different platforming challenges while taking out plenty of enemies using your trusty keyblade weapon (wait a minute…), gather plenty of different coins, health upgrades and pickups, and extra lives to give you an advantage for what comes up ahead later down the road, and take on several boss fights that range from being piss easy to mildly annoying, all for the purpose of saving the one girl who is responsible for your entire existence. It’s the same song and dance you have seen time and time again, with very little to make it stand out amongst other titles, but again, it does manage to still be fun for the time it lasts, and its simplicity does help make it more appealing for those like myself who were looking for something to play from the console as an introduction.

Given that this was a launch title for the Sega Saturn (for us Americans, anyway), it is important for the game to not only be fun, but to also show off some of the things that the system was capable of, and while it doesn’t push the system to its limits, it does a good job at showing some of the things it can do. There are plenty of different cutscenes throughout the game, showing the characters animated with a CG style, and while nowadays these cutscenes look terrifying just from the toy designs alone, I imagine this must’ve looked really impressive back in the day. Not only that, but once again, the pre-rendered sprites for the characters and enemies mesh together really well with the 3D environments, and the main gameplay style is familiar enough for those who owned plenty of other well-known titles for the Sega Genesis, being able to bring them into this new generation smoothly without anything too crazy or intimidating getting in the way.

With all that being said though, from the lens of a modern-day player like myself, there isn’t much else the game has going for it other then that. It is a very basic platformer, where ya run, ya jump, ya grab the shiny objects, ya save the girl, ya drill these guys in the ass with your keyblade, we all know how it goes. It manages to do everything right, and it feels good to play, but at the same time, it doesn’t go out of its way to really shake things up or do anything crazy, which leads it to being somewhat generic as a result. Not to mention, the game is REALLY short, only having eight main levels and five bosses, all of which can be beaten fairly quickly if you know what you are doing, which is definitely a letdown. If only there was maybe one or two more worlds with more fleshed out mechanics, as well as possibly adding one or two more levels to the already existing worlds, then maybe this would feel like a complete package, but as it stands, it does feel like it ends too quickly once you beat the final boss, leaving you wanting a little more.

Overall, despite how basic and short the game is, Clockwork Knight manages to not only do a good job at being a launch title for the Sega Saturn, but also for being just an all around enjoyable platformer, full of plenty of platforming challenges for those that are fans of the genre, an impressive visual style and graphics for the time, and having a sense of charm to it that does make it much more appealing as a result. I would definitely recommend it for those who are looking for something to play on the system, or for those who are just fans of 90s platformers in general, because while this isn’t the meatiest one of the bunch, it should provide a good amount of fun and leaves you satisfied by the end of it all. Although, speaking of which, it does kinda suck that it ends on a cliffhanger of all things, which really paints a picture of what they are trying to do. “Aw, you wanna know what happens to Chelsea? Well, you can certainly find out, for a small $60 fee, thank you very much…”

Game #570

A long time ago, I went ahead and played a little cute-’em-up from Konami called TwinBee, and I remember really enjoying it at the time. The game was a very basic shmup as a whole, giving a bit of a unique twist on how one goes about getting power ups and providing plenty of strange, yet enjoyable enemies to shoot down, but there wasn’t that much more to offer aside from that. Despite this, it was enough to keep me entertained back then as someone who didn’t play that many shmups, but now, it has been almost a year since I have played and reviewed that original game, and something has happened in that timespan…. I have become a shmup fanatic. I have played and reviewed many other games in the genre, and while I haven’t even scratched the surface of what the genre has offered, it is quite clear that I have more experience with them, as well as what makes a great one or a mediocre one. So, now that I have all this “experience” under my belt, I figured it was about time I returned to this series by checking out its second installment, Stinger.

I had actually been wanting to check out this game for a long time, as well as getting back to reviewing TwinBee games as a whole, but I had always put it on the backburner for quite a while. Not really sure why I did this, as I remembered having pretty good memories with the first game, and I figured I would come to enjoy the others, but I dunno, after playing games like Aero Fighters and Thunder Force IV, how exactly do you go back to something like this? Well, I figured I would find that answer out myself, playing through the game finally, and from that experience, I can certainly say that it is, indeed, another TwinBee game. It’s a good time, giving you plenty of what you loved in the original TwinBee while slightly expanding on it, but it definitely isn’t doing anything too crazy or incredible that we haven’t already seen before.

The story is fairly simple to follow and interpret, where one day at Konami HQ, aliens come out of nowhere and suddenly start to destroy the entire place, coming down and kidnapping Dr. Wily before fleeing off towards an unknown location, so it is up to TwinBee, along with his pals WinBee and GwinBee, to set out on a mission to rescue him so that he can save Konami………………… I couldn’t find the official story online, so I had to go with what was shown in the opening cutscene, and, uh, ha ha, CLEARLY it is 100% accurate, and it is the best story of all time. But anyway, the graphics are good, looking pretty much identical to that of the NES port of the original TwinBee, but it is still colorful enough with plenty of goofy enemy designs to where I don’t mind it, the music is also good, but it isn’t anything noteworthy to where I can tell you anything about any of the tracks, as it left my mind pretty quickly, and the gameplay/control is also pretty identical to that of the original game, expanded upon enough to where it does feel like a proper step-up from that original game, but nothing more.

The game is your typical NES cute-’em-up, where you take control of one of the Bees that I mentioned earlier, go through a set of seven different levels through plenty of different environments from the pyramids to the grassy plains and to the far reaches of space, shoot down whatever weird creatures come your way using either your main shots or your unlimited supply of bombs, gather plenty of different power ups from the many bells you can find that can either increase your speed or firepower, and take on plenty of bosses that are also just as weird and out-there as the enemies, but are also pretty easy if you have the right tools equipped for the job. Anyone who played the original TwinBee knows pretty much exactly what to expect from this game, and it does manage to offer several new features for the player to take on and mess around with, but it doesn’t really make the game any more fun or exciting than what had come previously.

When it comes to what has changed from the previous game, this time around, they decided to pull a Life Force and give us not only the top-down levels from the last game, but we also now have horizontally scrolling stages as well, with there not being too much difference between the two other then that one of them has you shooting and throwing bombs down at the same time, which can be helpful in some situations. These levels are pretty fun to play, but they are pretty few and far between compared to the main levels, which does kinda suck, but eh, what can ya do. Not only that, but we have new power ups to mess around with, such as a laser, which, if you know me, is something that I immediately gravitated towards and never let go of for even a fraction of a second, and as I mentioned before, we have boss fights! These aren’t anything too special, especially if you have the glorious LASER, but they can be fun to take down, and have just as goofy and ridiculous designs as the enemies in the game. Although, not gonna lie, I didn’t need the seizure that the game keeps wanting to give me before each fight, you can take that back home with you.

Other than all that though, what you see is what you get with this game, as it doesn’t do much of anything else to excite or entrance the player. It makes sense, given that this is a shooter from the 80s, but if you weren’t a fan of the original game, then you most likely aren’t gonna be a fan of this one either, because it sticks way too closely to its roots to be anything more grand or exciting. Kind of seems to be a running theme with Konami shmup sequels, since I have played so many Gradius games at this point. But hey, if you don’t mind a little simplicity here and there, then by all means, go for it, and if you have two friends nearby that have nothing better to do, have them join the game as well for some good ol’ fashioned fun.

Overall, despite the lack of any major change, Stinger is still a good shmup at the end of the day, and a natural evolution for the TwinBee series as a whole, adding just enough to where it does feel like an upgrade to the previous game, while still keeping the main gameplay and charm of the original intact. I would recommend it for those who were fans of the original TwinBee, as well as those who are fans of shmups in general, but for everyone else, there are definitely plenty of better options out there that you could choose from instead. But either way, I am just glad to finally get this game out of the way, and now that I am back, I guess I will have to check out the rest of the games at some point in the future. It’ll go right alongside Gradius as the series that I will never shut the fuck up about, despite having covered over a dozen games from it at this point… I think.

Game #571

We have covered many different fighters from SNK on this website so far, from the good to the bad, the iconic to the obscure, the stupid to the…. equally as stupid. You get the picture, we have covered a lot so far, but we have yet to cover… THE SNK fighter, the one that most people gravitate towards when they think of the company, the one that has managed to outlast every single other one and become the flagship franchise for the company. This wasn’t just any simple fighting game though, because we have already had too many of those to count from the company, but instead, it was gonna be a crossover event, one that takes two of the big fighting juggernauts from the company, along with several others, and bring them together for the first time to duke it out, not only to defeat a common enemy, but also to stand as the best of the best. This was the story… of The King of Fighters ‘94……………. or at least, that is what happened when it did get turned into a fighting game rather than a beat-’em-up.

Out of all of the fighting franchises from this company, this is the one that I had heard the most about before checking out for myself, not only because of how huge it had gotten ever since its inception, but because of its entire concept in general. At this point in time, there had never been a fighting game that’s primary focus was to be a full-on crossover game, taking two different universe and clashing them together, so seeing a game not only take Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting and having them duke it out, along with characters from Ikari Warriors and Athena because why the hell not, must’ve been really exciting for anyone who was fans of any of these games. And hey, it clearly paid off at the end of the day, because the game would go onto get yearly installments for quite some time, as well as plenty of spin-offs, side games, and other forms of media released right alongside it to this day. So, now that I am pretty familiar with every single franchise that is represented in this game, I figured it was about time I gave the series a shot with the first game, and to the surprise of nobody, I ended up really enjoying it. It most likely does not come even close to the quality of future titles, and it isn’t toooooooo different from their previous title, but it does manage to not only be a great introduction for the series as a whole, but also a really good fighting game all on its own that i am really happy to have checked out.

The story doesn’t try to be anything more than what you have come to expect, where a new face in town known as Rugal decides to host a brand new King of Fighters tournament after seeing Geese and Krauser do so in the events of Fatal Fury 1 and 2 (as well as Art of Fighting 2, but who cares), sending invitations all over the world which not only reaches the main characters from those games, but also plenty of other newcomers from around the world, so they all come together to form teams of three to take on the tournament, become the definitive King of the Fighters, and figure out what sinister intentions Rugal might be hiding. It’s an SNK fighting game, so it would feel weird for this to not be the plot, and I don’t wanna risk tearing a hole into the fabric of the universe, so I will just accept the generic plot and move along from there.

The graphics are wonderful, having some fantastic sprite work, animations, and designs for all of the characters, stages, and effects, although there are some parts like the drawings for the characters during the ending cutscenes that definitely do look rough around the edges, and is just… ugh, the music is great, having plenty of kick-ass tunes to go along with you kicking your opponent’s teeth in, but of course, you will barely be able to hear it over the sounds of the many sound effects that will be playing as you fight your opponent, and the gameplay/control is mostly what you would expect from a fighting game, but with several changes and gimmicks that would not only become a staple part of the franchise, but would make fights much more interesting as a whole.

The game is a somewhat-typical 2D fighter, where you take control of one of eight different teams, each consisting of three different fighters from other SNK games, or completely new faces that would become regulars in the series, take on plenty of other teams in locations fought all around the world, throw out plenty of different punches, kicks, and special moves to eliminate all members of the team while relying on your team’s special skills, block and dodge accordingly to sustain minimal damage to any member of your team at any time, and bask in the sweet glow of victory for those few moments…. only to then get pummeled by the next opponent who will come by. Most fighting game veterans would be able to comfortably settle into this game and have a great time with it, even with the apparent changes made to the formula, which one can easily adjust to if they know what they are doing, and still have a great time with it.

If you SOMEHOW haven’t caught onto this already, the one big change made in this game compared to every single fighting game before this is how you take control of a team of characters rather then just one solo character, and while this doesn’t affect the gameplay too heavily, it does make just enough of a change to where it does make you think about how to approach matches. Rather than the typical “three rounds and ya win/lose” formula that most fighting games have, each fighter can only be used once per match as long as they aren’t knocked out, and whenever a fighter is knocked out, they are then switched out for the next fighter on the team in the order that you selected. The only other time I have ever had experience with this style of fighting is with Marvel vs. Capcom, so I was fully aware of what this system was gonna be like going into it, and from what we have here, it works out pretty well.

It does make you think more about how you go about winning a fight, based on what character you are playing as, what moves they can pull off, their speed, their attacks, all of that shit, and seeing how you can be using a completely new character on the fly if you fuck up, it adds another level of strategy and complexity that was simple to grasp and incredibly satisfying to master. Not to mention, given how you don’t get a full health bar back whenever you beat an opponent, the game encourages you, more than ever, to play smart, and not just constantly spam the same move over and over again, or just button mash, in the vein hope of winning (even though, with some of these games, I have no choice but to do that).

Other then that though, not too much has changed if you compare this to other SNK fighters, as it is mostly your standard romp. The only real other differences I can see is that there are no bonus stages to take on, and the way that you use special moves is a bit different, but otherwise, you know what you are getting into with this, and as someone who has now played more of these then I can count, I can safely say that this was one really fun. Of course, the combat was rough around the edges, but the flow of fights still felt pretty satisfying, the energy that was there made a lot of the game feel exciting and fun, the little extra story bits here and there were very interesting, and with the fact that you essentially have 24 different characters to mess around with, there is plenty of things to do that will leave you busy, especially if you are going for all the endings.

However, as is traditional with fighting games, we gotta talk about the elephant in the room, and that elephant’s name is Fighting Game Syndrome, where the game’s CPU will not hesitate to pummel your ass to the ground before you even have a chance to comprehend what was going on in the first place. Although, with that being said, I didn’t actually find the difficulty of the game to be that bad when playing through it……. THAT IS, until I reached the final battle with Rugal, who takes on your entire team by himself, and that right there is a dirty, rotten trick. It lures you into a false sense of security, with you thinking “PFFT, three against one? This will be a total cakewalk!”, but then you actually fight him, and you will learn to never trust one of these games again. His first phase is pretty standard, nothing too bad that you can just easily get through if you know what you are doing, but then he throws off his coat, and that is when SHIT GETS REAL. He will be throwing out all these crazy attacks, comboing you before you can do anything to stop it, push you across the screen and slam you into the walls, and it is an absolute nightmare of a fight at this point. Of course, he is beatable, but you need to be pretty skilled at these games in order to take him down, and while I wouldn’t say this boss is as hard as, say, Geese Howard in Fatal Fury 1, he will still have you begging for mercy if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Overall, despite fighting game syndrome being in effect and Rugal needing to go fuck himself in every way possible, this was a great way to start off an ambitious franchise like this, and an overall really good game, having plenty of what SNK fighters had that make them so fun to try out and beat, a gameplay gimmick that shakes things up to where it is much more interesting without sacrificing what makes these games work, and having plenty of fan service from plenty of points in SNK’s history with the characters that you can’t help but appreciate if you have been playing all of these games like I have. I would definitely recommend it for those who are big fighting game fans, as well as those who love the other fighters from the company like Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting, because this game manages to blow both of those out of the water in every single way, and I can’t wait to see what the next installments have in store. But if there is one thing I will ask for, it would be to PLEASE tone down the final boss of the next game so that they won’t be as much of a pain to fight?....... who am I kidding, it’s SNK, they’re not gonna do that. And given what played at the end of the game there, looks like I am gonna have double the fun with it in the next game, so YAY FOR ME!....................... help

Game #572

The first Gameboy game I ever bought for myself was this. My dad had passed down his OG gameboy along with Tetris and Kwirk, but Kirby's Dreamland was special in it was the first one I got of my own volition. I still remember buying it for $5 at the flea market back in the day. I still remember first discovering I could play original Gameboy games on my GBA because of this game. In fact, this might've been my first ever Kirby game period (it was either this or Return to Dreamland). I've played this game several times prior to this, and even now, it was still fun.

The game is quite short, only taking around an hour or less to beat, but I think that's actually really nice with a game like this. It does not overstay its welcome and if it was way longer, idk if I'd like it much. This is the first Kirby game and so it's super simple. There's only 5 stages in the game, with a boss at the end of them. It's really not that hard of a game at all, that's what Kirby is known for and it applies to his first game as well. Copy abilities weren't a thing at all until Adventure, so the gameplay in this is super simplistic. But like I said, it's short so I don't really have much of an issue with it.

For a Gameboy game, this has a super nice soundtrack. Every single song is memorable, though maybe that's also because I've played this several times, but I think a big reason for that besides them being good is the fact they get reused a lot in later games. I think the only song I haven't heard in later games is the spicy curry theme, all the rest are iconic whether it's Green Greens or the invincibility lollipop theme or Dedede's theme. Kirby has been known to never have a bad soundtrack and yeah it applies here too.

Something I'm not really much of a fan of is extra mode. I tried it out a bit again here but I still can never get far. I've never beaten it before but it's because instead of being a bit harder, it goes full into bullshit mode and not only do I not find that fun, it doesn't feel fitting for Kirby. Kirby's known for easy main playthroughs but hard side content but it's too much in this game I feel.

I never found this game amazing at all but I have fond memories with this one. It's one of the better Gameboy games I've played for sure. I plan on going through every Kirby game eventually now so consider this the start of my Kirby reviews cuz yeah I'm gonna review most of them. Don't expect it to be like my Mario Kart marathon tho since there's way more Kirby games and I don't wanna get burnt out lol.

Edit: Bumped up to a 7

Kirby's Adventure was actually the first game I ever let's played when I still had my old YouTube channel back in the day. I chose it because around that time, I got an NES and figured it was a good game to play first because it's so easy. Turns out, I really sucked at the game lol. Since I was using a camcorder and didn't know how to edit videos, I had to keep every single death in too. I may have sucked ass but I truly wish I still had those videos, as sadly they're lost to time now. Anyways, playing this again brought me right back to those memories of making the videos 10+ years ago, good AND bad memories.

Let's start with the biggest addition, the copy abilities. This was the first game to have then. And it kinda shows. You have a ton of classic abilities here; sword, hammer, cutter, needle etc. The NES was very limited with its buttons, so the move sets are super simplistic, but it works well. The reason I said "it kinda shows" was they have abilities that would later just be combined into one. Ice/freeze and fire/fireball. Freeze and fireball are both so much better than ice and fire, there was just no need to have both. But of course, they had to be split due to the NES controller only having two face buttons. Overall, a decent selection of copy abilities but not great imo.

For an NES game, and compared to dreamland 1's graphics, this game looks great. While I'm personally just not a fan of how NES games look in general, this game does have a very consistent color palette which I can commend. It's no Dreamland 3, but again it looks nice for the console it's on.

The OST is ofc good again, all Kirby games are. This game introduced a buncha songs that have become staples now. Butter Bridge is a big one, such a banger. Honestly might be my favorite version of that song too, it's that clean.

The level design is solid though I feel like no level really sticks out and they all just blend together. The levels have these switches that you can find in the stages that unlock little parts of the map outside of the levels, and let me tell you some of them are mean. I only found a couple this playthrough, but I feel like with some of them, you'd absolutely need a guide. Like I said, there's a map. Besides the main levels, there's other stuff you can do. There's little arena sections where you can fight a boss for a maxim tomato. There's a copy ability room where you can get a specific ability anytime you want. And then there's the little minigames that can net you some lives. All of them are fun but my personal favorite was always the crane game.

Something I did not like back then, and this still applies to the NSO version, is the lag that happens in game. Every single room you're gonna get some sort of lag, and sometimes it chugs hard when there's like 4 enemies on screen or a fire/ice/electric effect is happening. I get they wanted to make the game look super good but it was at the cost of the game not running well which stinks. Apparently the 3DS version fixes this funnily enough? But the E-Shop is now closed so ahhh that blows. Also I never really liked how you barely have any invincibility frames in this game. The game is easy but it can be super easy for enemies to stun lock you in certain circumstances, especially since enemies respawn. Not a huge issue but it did annoy me somewhat even on this replay.

This game brings back a lot of good memories but sadly this was never one of my favorite Kirby games. It's definitely a solid time but I like most of the other mainline games more. Honestly, I think I like Dreamland 1 more just because it's so short and comfy. Ah well, still recommended for anyone looking to get into Kirby or NES games in general!

This is gonna be a conflicting one.

In 2021, I first saw the trailer for NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139. I was a huge fan of Automata and had also played a bit of Gestalt before dropping it, so I was no stranger to the series. I wanted to play Replicant but also wanted to play every prior game beforehand. Alongside going back to Gestalt and finally beating that, I also decided to buy both Drakengard and Drakengard 3 since I knew they were connected to the series somehow. Fast forward to 2022, I randomly decide to finally dive into the Drakengard games. I play up until like chapter 3 or 4 I think and drop the game due to a skill issue. What did I think of it? I thought it was shit! Not only did I not like the gameplay, which most people don't ofc, I also just thought the story was super boring up to that point. The story was the main reason you'd be playing the game, so for me to not be into the characters or story at all, I just wasn't motivated to continue playing it. Fast forward to present day, fellow user Lemonstrade eggs me on to play it as a joke. Well I didn't back down and decided to beat it this time. The first mission or two, I immediately thought "yup this is still shit". But then I remembered some of the gameplay mechanics that made the game more tolerable and bada bing, I started to enjoy myself more.

So let's get into the absolute most contentious aspect of the game, the gameplay. The biggest issue I had with it, and it's still its biggest issue now, is it doesn't flow the best due to the camera. It's a fixed camera depending on what way you're facing and the right stick only tilts the screen a bit and goes back in place when you let go of it. If there's an enemy behind you, this can be really clunky feeling as you manually have to face the enemy before you can see them in front of you. I got used to this pretty quickly but this is the only major issue I had with the gameplay tbh. Otherwise, it's just a perfectly fine hack and slash/musou game. The actual gameplay, not including camera issues, is perfectly serviceable I felt. It actually does get satisfying killing hoardes of enemies while the side characters talk about how brutal Caim is. That plus there's combos that can knock enemies down which makes the gameplay more tolerable, there's summonable characters that can just mow down hoardes of enemies like nothing and the magic that changes depending on what weapon you're using. The combat is surprisingly more in depth than you'd think, and that's not even getting into the air combat. I found that more enjoyable from the start tho that can be even more frustrating than the ground combat at points just because how slow it is to aim sometimes. That's only an issue with later encounters and bosses but either way, the combat in this game? Not bad honestly, it's not great ofc but in the end I found it a lot enjoyable than when I played the game initially.

The music is honestly super fitting and also really experimental and out there. A big chunk of the songs sound like looping messes. It kind of sounds shit at first, and look I aint listening to the OST outside of the game, but it really is memorable. Playing this 2 years later, I still remembered all the early game songs. I wouldn't say I actually "like" the ost, except for maybe a couple of the more comprehensible songs, but it's still a good ost since the game is trying to drive you crazy.

Diving right into the story, I'm gonna just say it. I didn't think it was mind-blowing at all or even that amazing. My issue with not caring about the story or the characters still applied to a good chunk of my playtime here. It wasn't until like the last third, and all the endings, where I was actually interested. I really really enjoyed how crazy it got near the end, and I really loved the dark fantasy elements. I just wish more of the game was like that, and that the earlier chapters weren't so boring. But I also think that was the whole point, it was to subvert expectations and make you think it'll just be a boring fantasy game only to surprise you with all that craziness in the endgame. It also wasn't until post ending A, where you got cutscenes with all the side characters. Those were entertaining every once in a while but I just did not care about the cast in this game. Even Caim, who has an iconic design (which may have been caused by a very iconic user on this site) I just didn't like as much as I should've. I know the whole point of him not speaking is for the characters to describe how awful his slaughtering is and for you the player to basically take his role. That's a cool concept but it just made me not care about his character. It's funny how I'm more positive on the overall gameplay than the story, but the peaks of the endgame story cutscenes overshadow everything else at least. I just wish there was more idk. Also, that final boss, holy shit idk how you're supposed to do that without the pause trick or looking up inputs. I had to do both cuz otherwise I would've just not beaten the game lol.

Additionally, I may not really care about the cast in this game, but I can't deny the voice acting is actually surprisingly good. It's a mix of British and American voice actors but it works surprisingly well, especially for a game from 2003. Aroch, specifically when you summon her and she screams "WHERE ARE MY CHILDREN", holy crap is it satisfying. Idk who voices her but that voice actress was cooking.

So yeah, like I said, it's a very conflicting game for me. Usually you see people either loving or hating this one but I just personally think it's a decent little game that does some really unique things. I'm glad to finally have beaten this as a huge NieR fan and I'm glad I did end up enjoying this one overall. Excited to play 3 in the future, tho I also own that physically too and idk if I'm ready for the framerate lol.

6.5/10

After hearing the news that the 3DS/Wii U's online services were shutting down, the first thing that popped in my head was replaying this game's online one last time.

Back in 2015, I remember seeing the trailer for this game and thinking it looked really cool. I never played an online shooter in my life, but this one actually interested me with its colorful art style and interesting concept. The day of release, I ask my dad if he could pick the game up on his way from work and when he came home, not only did he have the game..he had an Inkling Boy amiibo as well. That basically kickstarted my Amiibo addiction around that time but that's a story for another time. Anyways, I ended up enjoying Splatoon a ton. I remember the day after I got it, I had a relatives party to go to and I could only think about playing this game. This game consumed my whole summer, I loved it so much. Playing every Splatfest, seeing every update as they roll out, I was hooked for a couple months. Part of that is because I had no school of course, because once September arrived I didn't play this game nearly as much as before. Still, May-August 2015 was the summer of Splatoon and I'll never forget it.

Anyways, time to actually review the game lol. I think the most striking aspect is just how stylish this game is. From the different outfits you can wear, to the more experimental soundtrack, to the unique art styles that appear in the sunken scrolls. I've seen people compare this game to Jet Set Radio cuz of it's sort of counter culture type attitude and ofc its stylishness and appeal to the younger demographic and I can totally see it. It can be really influential playing this as a young lad, and it certainly worked for me.

Speaking of the music, I've seen some individuals on this site specifically call it bad and I just don't see it. Sure, it's not everyone's cup of tea but the OST is really well done honestly. Splattack! is of course a classic and Ink Me Up brings me right back to participating in Splatfests all day. Those are my two favorites but the whole OST is great. I think Splatoon 2 is great and all and probably the objectively better game, but if there's anything I prefer more in 1, its the soundtrack.

The meat and potatoes of this game however is it's online matches. This game doesn't have as much content or modes as 2 (and god it was pretty barebones at launch I'll admit that) but it's still a ton of fun to play a match or two. I was able to play a couple turf war and ranked matches and they were still fun. I remember raging so hard whenever I would lose on ranked matches, I had issues lol. Still, I wish Urchin Underpass and Saltspray Rig were in future games, I miss em lol. Sadly couldn't play them during this last play session but I remember they were some of my favorites.

I did also replay the campaign, and it's still fun as it was back then. Sure, it's no octo expansion and probably worse than 2's, but I always enjoyed it personally. I don't know if it's weird to say but I kinda get Mario Galaxy vibes from it. Just going from section to section using the launchpads and seeing the really cool backgrounds in each level. Always got that vibe. It does get a bit formulaic having every 5th and 6th level be the same level type, however overall, I really enjoyed the single player. At least you can still play that even with the online off.

This game may have been a bit obsolete in the eyes of a lot of people once 2 and eventually 3 came out. However, 2 I never got into nearly as much so my memories of 1 really outshine it. It's not perfect but this game will always hold a special place in my heart and is one of the first things I think of when the year 2015 is brought up. Rest In Piece Splatoon 1 online and the 3DS/Wii U online in general, I loved you dearly.

The next Kirby game to release after Adventure was Kirby's Pinball Land. This was the first game I had yet to play prior to this whole thing and I gotta say, not really a fan of it tbh.

I do honestly enjoy pinball a bit, it's fun when you're just going for a high score or are at a pizza parlor and you see a pinball table and play it to pass the time. But Kirby's Pinball Land is actually beatable. See, each stage has a boss from Kirby's Dreamland you can fight if you progress high enough into the stage. The entire game is Dreamland themed actually. Well, I tried to get to Wispy Woods for 40 minutes straight and that's the first stage. Every time I'd defeat all the cappies in the little bonus game and make the warp star appear, something would make me fall down again. So yeah, I never even got to fight any of the bosses because I was just so frustrated trying to even get to the very first one in the first place. After giving up on the first stage then, I just decided to play the other two for a bit as well before calling it quits. There's 4 bosses in total, the three from the stages and then Dedede at the end. Idk if you have to do every stage and Dedede in one continue, because if so that's pretty ridiculous with how random pinball can be.

This review seems overly negative and yeah I was getting frustrated when playing and still don't care fit it much but for a simple pinball game, it's not bad. I'm giving it a bit of slack since it is an OG Gameboy game (and also maybe me not being much a fan is just a big skill issue). The Dreamland 1 visuals and references are nice and the music's nice too (most of it is just reused from Dreamland tho). Just maybe don't try to actually beat this game cuz you'll also get frustrated unless you have a high tolerance for random pinball BS lol. It's been a while since I played a game and didn't finish it, and I really hate doing that especially for a Kirby marathon like this, but idk man I just can't do it lol. Looking forward to playing Dream Course next!

Edit: In retrospect, maybe a 5 is too generous, especially since I couldn't even get to a boss cuz I had enough at that point. So I'll drop it to a 4.