Perfect on iOS. More of these tiny, old RPG titles need to be put in portrait mode and ported to smartphones. So many of them, because they were made for the NES, were designed to be these little games you can pick up and play a little of at a time, which is perfect for mobile since sometimes you just need to twiddle your thumbs. I much prefer playing an actual game with a narrative rather than completing daily tasks in some free-to-play time-sink so these little ports that Square Enix, especially, are putting out are perfect. Dragon Quest is so primo, too. There’s a lot of simplicity in this first one but that just makes it perfect for portability because it just doesn’t need thought put into it; you grind against monsters for levels and gold and the map is small enough to keep track of. You just work toward the next best items and explore all the dungeons for better stuff and then kill the guy! It’s so satisfying fighting monsters that you had trouble with a few levels ago and decimating them with the strength and weapon you grinded for. chef’s kiss mwah!

Wanted to give both versions a try before posting a review, but I’ve mostly been playing Blue Rescue Team on my DSi that I loaded up with ROMs of Pokémon spin-offs. Specifically Pokémon spin-offs from those weird in-between eras of generations, like that era between Emerald Version and Diamond & Pearl Versions where the DS was fully out and about, but Sinnoh Pokémon could nary be involved in the fun shenanigans of the older Pokémon who have been basking in the sunlight. It’s such a funny thing to have two versions on the Game Boy Advance and on the DS (which is very clever considering the DS could play both so any consumer could enjoy these no matter if they’d upgraded or not). I had Red Rescue Team as a kid, and despite wanting to get into this series more as it went on I never actually did, and going back to play both Red & Blue Rescue Team has me feeling the same “welp,” feeling that these games all give me once I get passed finding out what Pokémon I am.

Nevermind the fact that going from the DS version to the GBA version feels very much like you’re playing on the older console. Though, besides some crunchy-ass sound files and less menu/UI options, it’s only just barely the less optimized version. And as much as I love the feeling of getting out of a monster house, I think what I don’t like about these games are merely slights against how everything is set up. The Pokémon in this world have an economy and somewhere on the same planet, humans still capture Pokémon? Whatever (unless I’m missing something from not having finished this game ever lol)! My biggest gameplay gripe is the friends you find along the way never feel like a real part of your rescue team. Having my little buddy Houndour have to leave every time and me have to ask them back before each outing just didn’t feel right. Seems like a tiny thing but to me it feels like it’s counter-intuitive to Pokémon’s whole thing!

I may try Explorers of Sky just to cross off the one that everyone goes nuts about, but after whiting out in Sky Tower two times and losing all my money and items, I think I might let this series lie for a while.

I thought it was interesting how immediately more fleshed out Dragon Quest II is compared to the first one, I wasn’t expecting an experience so much closer to III after playing the original for the first time. Some of the scenario beats are annoying, or scatterbrained, or really annoying, but I also may have been rushing a little bit. Though, I still did have a blast despite some moments of frustration. Dragon Quest is one of my favorite series, I think, even though I’m only really getting into it for real recently. I’ve been reading recent reviews of this installment and I not only disagree with people saying this is “obviously better than the first,” but also the people who think this is a sophomore slump. It definitely is the Erdrick trilogy’s middle child, though; not the perfectly short and sweet game like the first and not one of the best RPGs of all time like the third. I could say it’s “just another Dragon Quest game,” but do mind the fact that “just Dragon Quest” is fuckin’ gooooooood.

A really good thing about this website is through following people and interacting with the network of users I've found on here, I'm reminded of all the smaller games that completely evaporate from memory because of how passive my interaction with them was. Super Hexagon was a phone game I spent a lot of time on maybe one month out of my teen years and thanks to its inclusion on a random user's random list of games, I've found myself playing it again.

This game is basically a simple concept that so well captures and executes a lot of the simple, foundational concepts of video games. You are but a little shape avoiding bigger shapes, using precise, twitchy movements to avoiding obstacle courses. You get used to these movements and obstacles the more you play and you can naturally feel yourself improve the more you play. I adore it; one of the best ways to twiddle your thumbs that exist.

Shouts out to Blargg! This, technically, isn’t my first game. However! This is the game I’ve had for the longest. I still have the same cartridge I got some twenty years ago for Christmas, and despite my young self having a knack for misplacing games and cartridges, I was quickly sentimental, and knew to never give this one up. It’s been a while since I’ve beaten this game. Like, probably not since I went and found every secret level back in my teen years, but recently I’ve been wanting to play it again.

I’m a huge sucker for world maps, probably because of this game. I mean, my two favorite Fire Emblem games both have world maps, I love the look of this game so much, and the look of the world, too. Rediscovering a lot of the secrets of the world map, finding all of the switch palaces, taking different routes through worlds. It’s so, so great. I’m not really into Mario games, all that much. They’ve never sucked me in at all or enticed me all that much. I didn’t own a single entry in the “New” series of 2D games, I’ve not even played Sunshine, Galaxy, or Odyssey, lol. Though, hoo boy, Super Mario Bros. Wonder looks absolutely so grand.

So pretty, so charming, so tricky, but never frustrating, for me, in an unfun way. Had a blast going through this. I am not a Mario game fan, I would say, but I feel very proud to be a Super Mario Advance 2 expert lol.

Definitely my least favorite ‘Layton’, maybe, though by only a smidge, but not for the reasons I expected. This game actually does a really great job on the transition from 2D to 3D, considering this is a series that, before this game, basically leaned mostly on the charm of their cartoony art style and animations that were made for 2D art and animation. The models in this game were not only very well done, but are well utilized to make some scenes a little more lively, with some non-2D-animated cutscenes using the models for some action scenes so that it’s not all the standard visual novel diorama. It gives the game a really great overall look that doesn’t veer far away from the established and well known style of the Professor Layton series.

Unfortunately, this game’s scenario and plot is just not even meeting its visual success in the middle. It is very interesting to dive into more of Layton’s past, after getting some insight into his love life in ‘Unwound Future’ and then seeing his early days at his current professor job in ‘Last Specter’. The scenario goes back and forth between past and present, as the professor recounts more of a story that’s directly intwined with the strange events that the gang is investigating. The thing is, the events of the present are not interesting after the very beginning and until the very end! It is a bit of a drag, pacing-wise, and the mystery just did not entice me. The chapters that make up the past are leagues more interesting, as we learn more about the stoic Hershel Layton’s closest friends of his teenhood. It made me wonder, constantly, of how this plot might’ve been better broken up or arranged in order to make for a better overall scenario.

Now, in these games, I don’t exactly hold a high standard for them to be extremely mind-boggling and surprising in terms of plot twists. Professor Layton games are very wacky and mystical and earnest, aiming for a wide audience of all ages. These games all revolve around Layton and his entourage unraveling a seemingly supernatural event, and not only explaining the phenomenon as a farce, but also uncovering the motives behind it. A problem in this installment is the game doesn’t really seem to be having any fun with the “explaining the phenom” part of the story. Professor Layton just seems to figure a lot of it out by talking about the events with others, and not a lot of investigating into each event happens, or puzzle solving, for that matter. There are less “a-ha!” moments and more “oh, okay,” ones, instead, I guess you could say. This is the fifth installment, and at this point, the audience knows that people magically disappearing or turning to stone might have some logic behind it, and the fun should be figuring out just how it was done, instead of figuring out that it was a trick in the first place.

Then, when it comes to motive, it is not exactly hard to connect the dots on what’s going on even as soon as all of the main players are introduced. The story, then, does not unfold with this in mind, and thus plays out as if we couldn’t possibly have a clue up until the last couple of chapters, when the professor himself begins hinting that he knows. Though, once you see even the first chapter that takes place in Layton’s past, I imagine any player could narrow it down a lot, and it becomes less about unmasking the masked villain of this story, and more about uncovering the motive. The game’s present story drags, mostly, because it takes a while to get to investigating a motive that might tie into events of the past that we still are dying to see.

The game’s finale also kind of falls flat. In my review of Professor Layton and the Last Specter, I fawned very hard over the climax of that game. The finale incorporates a lot of fun elements, and a lot of puzzles, and thus feels like a great finale, story- and game-wise. There’s only about a handful of puzzles even involved in this game’s final hour, and while they are fun I just couldn’t help but feel as if this game’s entire scenario was just really stringy, and wobbly, and not at all the kind of charming, woven quilt that most of the other installments share. For instance, part of the last chapter has you reading storybooks left as hints within a giant hotel so that Layton and co. know where to go to confront the antagonist. This amounts to you going to a room, finding the book after clicking around, then going to the next room. I feel like, in a puzzle/mystery game, it might be better to have the player be familiar with all of the rooms already, maybe by having already visited the area (it actually would’ve really served the story to have Layton be staying in this hotel during his entire visit), and then the player can figure out which room to go to themselves based on the hints instead of just, unlocking the room once you find the book, lol.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask transitions a landmark DS series to 3DS very, very well when it comes to UI and basic gameplay structure, and the visuals do not suffer from letting go of the classic 2D portraits and also switching things to the top screen to accomodate the 3DS’ hardware design. One of the most fun little reveals was actually that a chapter in the story is told entirely through a dungeon crawling segment, utilizing the game’s newfound 3D style to switch things up, gameplay-wise, and keep the series fresh and still inventive, and, thus, keeping the audience engaged. This game is definitely continuing from its predecessor and throwing in more ingredients into the pot than just a bunch more puzzles. However, the story’s execution just did not come together on this one, for me, and although I would still recommend this to any fan of the professor’s, as it still give some wonderful insight into the character, it definitely is the weakest installment, in my mind.

Gonna log a “first impressions” log and then review this again way down the line. Which, I hope there is a “down the line,” because I do think this is really fun. F-Zero was only, like 33% about going fast, and the other was managing your health and your boost and also turning. Bumping into things is BAD in this series, and I like how a big part of the almost tongue-in-cheek 99-racer installment is bumping into players and collecting the sparks that fly off of other players bumping into each other. It’s a great adaptation of this series to this kind of structure of multiplayer play, and so far, the five hours I’ve already spent with it have been a blast, and I’m excited to see if they give this a decent lifespan. Though, I figured this was released as a pulse check, to see if all the fans who hope for a new installment would actually buy it. Because, to be honest, I feel like people have more tricked themselves into thinking they want a new F-Zero, lol.

Wow, what a bummer. Was hoping that this being developed by Intelligent Systems and having ‘Wars’ in the title meant this would just end up being Advance Wars but with monsters from the Dragon Quest series. Was also hoping this might have some sort of Dragon Quest Monsters kind of story, too, or something akin to ‘Rocket Slime’. Unfortunately, it’s just a little mostly-multiplayer game with the only single player being a training mode. The strategy element doesn’t feel right because the amount of strategy one might use is about the aame one might for any turn-based RPG. I might’ve bothered to complete the training mode as a stand-in for the campaign if the gameplay wasn’t intensely boring. Feels like a mini-game that might be included in a Mario Party-esque spin-off of this series. I guess I didn’t really remember that most DSiWare was designed around updating the DS with smartphone-style apps, so most of the games designed for DSiWare end up not really being full-fledged games. I have to go back and download those couple that I really loved on the DSi back in the day, though, and have some fun with some Real Shit.

A really good little snipit of the Neopets experience. The “Create a Pet” screen will have you choosing between different species, all dressed up, in this game, as if to be ready for a fantastical adventure. But, really, you’re just playing a flash game with extremely minimal interest in presenting a visually striking, well, anything. This game is a visual novel, a really old visual novel that’s closer to the Meet ‘n’ Fuck games in terms of production value than it is to its Nintendo DS contemporaries like Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney and Professor Layton. Which fits, because this game is based on a browser game built almost exclusively on Flash!

I played a lot of Meet ‘n’ Fuck games as a teen— I mean, I played a lot of Neopets as a kid. Recently I decided to get back online to Neopets.com for a little bit just to see what’s been going on the last decade and change. I explored parts of the website that I never understood back in primary school and played a lot of stuff that I did understand but was just really bad at. I took good care of my couple of little guys before I got bored. Virtual pets can kind of be a form of masochism, to attach yourself emotionally to an artificial being as some form of entertainment to the point that, even after it’s outlived its ability to entertain you, you have this gnawing feeling in the back of your skull. Those sad, sad faces. They’re not real! What a terrible fate to befall me. You don’t get that stuff in Pokémon because monster collectors are never about perpetual care, and at least Tamagotchis have the decency to die—or return to their home planet—and put a point of punctuation on the circle of life. Neopets, though, they live forever. Even when poorly taken care of, they continue on, forever feeling a hunger and a sadness that only one person can access the means to end such a pain.

Through my recent experiences I’ve found that Neopets.com, overall, is an entirely convoluted game full of years worth of computer drawings that date anywhere from before 9/11 to after the arrest of former President Donald Trump. Convoluted not only in the sense that there is so much stuff, but so many ideas. Classical fantasy settings, futuristic sci-fi settings. Pyramids, castles, faeries (sic), dinosaurs, ghouls, goblins, space stations, mermaids. There’s also a good chunk of the world of Neopets that leans really hard on cultural stereotypes (this is very present in ‘Puzzle Adventure’, lol). All in all, there is promise of adventure, but really the best things to do on this site are play card games against computer players whose AI was programmed while you were in pre-school. It’s a museum, and because most of every activity that’s ever existed on the website is still in tact there really is SO MUCH TO DO. Not even including all of the forums, website design, running a store!!! Like some users run shops full of rare items with, like, custom HTML— I’m getting carried away, but, really, this shit is a monolith of internet evolution and it’s always been something that’s beyond me. As an adult, the games are still fun to play, but 90% of the site seems really only attractive to a version of me who kept up with this site all these years.

Neopets Puzzle Adventure is somehow published by Capcom, during what I believe was a short time where Neopets was licensed to Nickelodeon so that the brand could expand more. I actually first found the Wii version of this game at a thrift store where I’ve gotten some other gems I’ve reviewed on here before, but I was in fact lacking a Wii. I bought it more as a novelty, being a fan of Neopets, but then I found out there’s a DS version and I just had to. From footage I’ve seen of the Wii version, the handheld version is definitely the better-looking one. The artwork just translates better to the DS game’s limitations, while the Wii version has that weird cartoon cut-out look that some of its worst shovelware bears.

The titular puzzle is also not exactly stimulating, unfortunately, as it’s something you only really have to half-understand in order to stumble your way into beating all of the weird bosses. It actually does feel like a game that would be featured in a few puzzles in the Professor Layton games. The story is actually kind of interesting, and does a good job of feeling like an authentic Neopets story. Unfortunately, due to that poor production design the visual novel becomes a total snore to look at, and I found myself clicking through most of the fluff. Much like the series of Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop games, this little gem is just a borderline flash game with nothing much to write home about passed the fact that it exists within the orbit of a much greater phenomenon of nostalgia that I could talk about for ages.

This game was on my radar a bit. Like, it was a very faint blip on the edge of the display that I see and think, "oh, right, that thing..." It went on sale for $4.99 (what it is actually worth) so I decided to try it. It's definitely a really low budget Unity game. The wooden-marionette approach to its character design definitely lends itself to the quality of the entire game in the same way that Pixar decided to do a movie about toys because the animation technology wasn't advanced enough to make good-looking humans. Though, graphics are really only just one thing, and the game having a vision for its art design really does help you forget how low budget it looks. What's missing here, for me, is a compelling story, and some balance.

The wall I hit was an area being a little too difficult, level-wise, right after I had beaten an area that I was just strong enough to make it through. Maybe the consequence of a studio's first RPG that it doesn't nail level-progression too well, but it's a hump I didn't care too much to get over because the story is very tongue-in-cheek. Not exactly the type of person to find a character going "Oh, what a cliche!" very endearing. Very not-for-me on top of its problems, so I unfortunately do not care to finish this one. Which stinks because I feel like I'm not finishing too many things, but games are here to enjoy, not to toil over. I have to keep remembering that, lol.

A really wonderful little diner visit. Perfectly encapsulates the vibe of going to a late-night diner. There are the regulars, they get the vibe here. The machines are broken. They’re out of something. The back of house is ominous. There are two moo—two moons?! Definitely seems like something like A Short Hike where I’ll come back to it every now and then, but instead of coming back to it when I miss summertime, I’ll come back to this one when I’m feeling lonely around 1am, just like tonight. Redeemed Unity-made indie games for the time being. Reminded me a lot of Milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk, in its haunting loneliness and art style (was surprised they weren’t made by the same folk). Having played that game on Switch last year opened the door for my mind to fully get locked in here. Will try for ending 2 sooner rather than later.

Went back to this one, specifically, after an itch for a puzzle game on my phone needed to be scratched, mainly because this is the installment in the first trilogy that I was farthest from 100%-ing as of my latest playthrough. So, I figured, I try harder to find every puzzle and complete every mini-game. Unfortunately, there is something about arriving in Folsense that really takes the wind out of my desire to sink my teeth deep here.

Something I noticed, and I’ll admit quickly that this may be a symptom of my last ‘Layton’ playthrough being the latest installment, is that the numbered order of puzzles does not run very parallel to the order in which a player might organically discover each puzzle throughout the game. Maybe not a design flaw, in the grand scheme of things, but it definitely will throw off returning players as they begin back-tracking once they find the next puzzle they found after No. 11 was No. 19. Then after retracing one’s steps only nets most of those missing puzzles, you’ll find that puzzle No. 12 was actually a story puzzle waiting for you at the end of a chapter.

Back-tracking and retracing is not a huge problem, of course. It’s a point & click adventure game, you’re going to do plenty of that. Though, it’s a lot easier in an area like the Molentary Express and the small village of Dropstone, but then you’re dropped into the town of Folsense. Once I was finding puzzles No. 129 and No. 67 back-to-back, it was feeling very daunting to fully complete this one. Then, not finding every puzzle means not getting everything you need for each mini-game. The ones in this one being SO. MID. The camera is great (both constructing it and using it), but the Hamster feels not super imaginative and the tea set can go fuck itself, frankly.

I half-felt like just blasting through the last couple of chapters because I like the ending, but a quick YouTube search for the finale would be the final nail in this playthrough’s coffin. Sorry, professor.

Visited this game's page again and noticed that I am still the only person who's logged this apparently, so I thought I should finally post a review. After seeing some other users review Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories, I became very interested in the game at the same time where I was pining for physical carts to add to my Game Boy collection. I usually browse Limited Run Games' website to see if they have anything going on that I would be interested in, and after seeing this, I thought, "Oh! Well, I am interested in this game and would love a little cartridge, too!" So, I pre-ordered it.

I will say, the cartridge is absolutely gorgeous and super high-quality. I've gotten stuff from Limited Run in the past that didn't meet my expectations (I've found it's more worth it to get smaller packages from them than the huge ones), but the cartridge is not only pretty, but has a real weight to it. They didn't just 3D print these suckers, and the box and manual is really well done, too.

However, the game itself, at the end of the day, is really just a nice novelty. Meant to be played within one, hour-long session, it's definitely a de-make in the sense where it stuffs, what I have to imagine, is the original game's scenario into a bite-sized chunk. What I thought would be an entire experience sized down into the Game Boy aesthetics that I really love, is more just a (really high-quality) collector's item. If you're a big Melon Journey fan, you would love this for sure. If you're just a collector of Game Boy stuff, like me, I wouldn't spring for it.

Intelligent Systems, you beautiful bastards. The spritework here is absolutely insane, just so gorgeous here, some amazing portraits of the Johto gym leaders, along with a very cute sprite of the Gold & Silver protagonist. This is a great, great spin-off; not just one of those old spin-offs that take an IP’s name and slaps it on a puzzle game, this feels like an actual Pokémon game. A great companion to Gold & Silver versions, too, the way it highlights its starters and baby evolutions. It was just a real treat, and considering the console version of this is more of a Pokémon anime game instead of a Pokémon game, this is definitely the one to play. Between this and the Zelda ‘Oracle’ games, it’s really spectacular what some folks were able to do with the spritework on such limiting hardware. Like, this might be one of the best looking Pokémon games ever.