MegaBarrakuda
There is nothing much to say about this one, which doesn't mean that the game was bad per se, it just wasn't so long that I got any proper lasting impression. It doesn't offer a much of a challenge, the levels themselves are very short and enemies are fairly few. Only time those enemies managed to actually hit me were some traps you probably only fall for once in a playthrough.
Each time you complete a level, you face against a boss in a fighting sequence. Although the mechanics have changed, the challenge remains pretty much the same. Just block, hit where you can and use your special whenever that gets full. Soon you notice you've run out of the game.
The game's weakness is definitely the lack of challenge and it's length, because everything else is pretty damn well done. The controls feel solid and satisfying to use and the music is pretty banging, probably one of the best NES game soundtracks I've heard.
The game feels like something that was made as a quick tie-in for a television show but developers themselves couldn't stand doing half-assed job out of it.
Each time you complete a level, you face against a boss in a fighting sequence. Although the mechanics have changed, the challenge remains pretty much the same. Just block, hit where you can and use your special whenever that gets full. Soon you notice you've run out of the game.
The game's weakness is definitely the lack of challenge and it's length, because everything else is pretty damn well done. The controls feel solid and satisfying to use and the music is pretty banging, probably one of the best NES game soundtracks I've heard.
The game feels like something that was made as a quick tie-in for a television show but developers themselves couldn't stand doing half-assed job out of it.
1999
Once again one of those games that are surprisingly good at what they do, which isn't that much. Of course, it must have been a challenge to make a driving game for Game Boy Color and this attempt left a bit of a sour taste in mouth with it's monotone sound design and very janky controls.
There are some ideas I like with this game, like different road types and cars having different stats and mechanics, giving it some replayability, but even that falls flat once you find the right car for every track, which the game doesn't have a very high number of. If you just want to clear all the races with minimum requirements, you're done in about an hour. As a racer, it kinda follows Ridge Racer in a sense that the races are time trials, you're not actually driving against other drivers, they are in the game just to visualize how good time you're making and offer some challenge as you try to navigate past them. In a sense it also reminds me of Choro Q since most of the challenge is just how to clear those tight turns as fast as possible. It was surprisingly fun to figure it out, though my thumbs were left way too sore.
All in all, it's worth a try if you like driving games. Password system might be a bit of a hindrance, but otherwise it's a passable game picking up one race at a time, maybe during bus rides or loo breaks.
There are some ideas I like with this game, like different road types and cars having different stats and mechanics, giving it some replayability, but even that falls flat once you find the right car for every track, which the game doesn't have a very high number of. If you just want to clear all the races with minimum requirements, you're done in about an hour. As a racer, it kinda follows Ridge Racer in a sense that the races are time trials, you're not actually driving against other drivers, they are in the game just to visualize how good time you're making and offer some challenge as you try to navigate past them. In a sense it also reminds me of Choro Q since most of the challenge is just how to clear those tight turns as fast as possible. It was surprisingly fun to figure it out, though my thumbs were left way too sore.
All in all, it's worth a try if you like driving games. Password system might be a bit of a hindrance, but otherwise it's a passable game picking up one race at a time, maybe during bus rides or loo breaks.
1994
Very short cute 'em up and definitely on the easier side. Still, it doesn't lack challenge which presents itself in the last level and the bosses. It never managed to feel unfair though and each enemy had clear attacks you could avoid with careful positioning and keeping your eyes on the projectiles.
The game definitely doesn't do anything new, but what it does it does well. Collecting fairies, shooting magic and using specials all manage to feel satisfying with solid controls.
Cute, charming and funny. It's a decently cromulent way to spend your sunday in my opinion.
The game definitely doesn't do anything new, but what it does it does well. Collecting fairies, shooting magic and using specials all manage to feel satisfying with solid controls.
Cute, charming and funny. It's a decently cromulent way to spend your sunday in my opinion.
1994
Denjin Makai doesn't really do anything groundbreaking as a beat 'em up, but what it does it does pretty well in my opinion. It's a short one, maybe takes about an hour to complete but it's not much of a quarter-burner like some other games.
What I like is that the special attacks deplete their own power bar, which makes them a really versatile tool to use and not just a panic button to avoid certain death. The bosses are pretty easy for beat 'em up bosses and while there is some trial and error, each of them have pretty choreographed moveset and playing around their attacks feels rewarding rather than just throwing more money into the machine after the bbeg hits you with the bullet train to Chicago third time this fight. The playable character are also diverse and have their own strengths and weaknesses, allowing for great variety of play styles.
Of course, there's some gripes. I don't know if what I encountered is a bug, but it seems that the enemies have better range to their attacks than you do. Multiple times I walked up to an enemy and started smashing at them, only to realize that I'm just about too high or low to actually hit them, while they could hit me perfectly fine. Stunning enemies manage to always feel frustrating, especially in later levels when the game fills the screen with enemies and if they all have stunning attacks, it becomes a free-for-all tennis match. The difficulty also increases rapidly towards the end, the last level alone doubling my quarters spent on this game. The difficulty increase comes in a form of just increasing the amount of enemies on the screen, which doesn't give too much room to play around and just leads to lost quarters from action economy alone. This is a huge shame, since earlier levels showed some creativity with environmental hazards and level design, which would've been the perfect way to keep the difficulty high in the last level as well. The game is thankfully short, so these minuses for the game don't fortunately overstay their welcome and the final boss feels just like the ones before: fair and beatable with some clever strategizing.
Overall, if you like beat 'em ups, the game is worth checking out. It's a good way to burn your sunday afternoon.
What I like is that the special attacks deplete their own power bar, which makes them a really versatile tool to use and not just a panic button to avoid certain death. The bosses are pretty easy for beat 'em up bosses and while there is some trial and error, each of them have pretty choreographed moveset and playing around their attacks feels rewarding rather than just throwing more money into the machine after the bbeg hits you with the bullet train to Chicago third time this fight. The playable character are also diverse and have their own strengths and weaknesses, allowing for great variety of play styles.
Of course, there's some gripes. I don't know if what I encountered is a bug, but it seems that the enemies have better range to their attacks than you do. Multiple times I walked up to an enemy and started smashing at them, only to realize that I'm just about too high or low to actually hit them, while they could hit me perfectly fine. Stunning enemies manage to always feel frustrating, especially in later levels when the game fills the screen with enemies and if they all have stunning attacks, it becomes a free-for-all tennis match. The difficulty also increases rapidly towards the end, the last level alone doubling my quarters spent on this game. The difficulty increase comes in a form of just increasing the amount of enemies on the screen, which doesn't give too much room to play around and just leads to lost quarters from action economy alone. This is a huge shame, since earlier levels showed some creativity with environmental hazards and level design, which would've been the perfect way to keep the difficulty high in the last level as well. The game is thankfully short, so these minuses for the game don't fortunately overstay their welcome and the final boss feels just like the ones before: fair and beatable with some clever strategizing.
Overall, if you like beat 'em ups, the game is worth checking out. It's a good way to burn your sunday afternoon.
Played the GBC conversion hack. All I got to say is that it's pretty much an old-school Mega Man game, just on a smaller screen, which definitely doesn't help with the frustrations that stem from the "hard platformers" of the era. I know that there is a case to be made that the hard difficulty is to make the short game last longer, but the style of difficulty where the solution is only found with trial and error has aged terribly.
Still, I managed to enjoy myself with this game. I admit that I consulted a guide that told the order I should tackle all the bosses, which really trivialized the vast majority of them. The platforming was passable, although the controls were a bit stiff and sometimes you needed way too precise inputs to clear an obstacle without taking a needless hit. However, once you clear a level, the satisfaction is immense. That feeling is probably the only thing the game has going for it.
So if you're one of those people who love old Mega Man games, this is a mobile version of those and worth a try. For the rest of you I recommend moving along.
Still, I managed to enjoy myself with this game. I admit that I consulted a guide that told the order I should tackle all the bosses, which really trivialized the vast majority of them. The platforming was passable, although the controls were a bit stiff and sometimes you needed way too precise inputs to clear an obstacle without taking a needless hit. However, once you clear a level, the satisfaction is immense. That feeling is probably the only thing the game has going for it.
So if you're one of those people who love old Mega Man games, this is a mobile version of those and worth a try. For the rest of you I recommend moving along.
1998
When I was a child, our Playstation had mostly just driving games, so I really developed a taste for that particular genre and even equate the whole platform on the great car games it had. I never played Choro Q back then, but there were almost no issues for me to dive right into this game. It felt right like going back home.
Now, despite it's cutesy and bright style, this game has some serious learning curve. The cars are really light and rather tall, so they spin out really easily on almost every curve. The cpu hardly does any mistakes, but takes the corners really slow so overcoming the difficulty in this game is mostly just about choosing the right tires and making those turns faster than your opponents. You can even use the slippery mechanics to your advantage and drift around the difficult curves, dominating everyone else. Once you get the hang of it, you feel like a god.
Little disappointingly, the difficulty drops after the second grand prix. At that point, you have most likely already mastered the driving mechanics and going into the third and last gp, the other cars are not that consistent with their placements. If you drive couple first races well enough, you can even come last in the final race since nobody can reach your point total any longer.
Still, this is a super solid game and I would highly recommend this if you like driving/racing games and want to have a little twist to the style.
Now, despite it's cutesy and bright style, this game has some serious learning curve. The cars are really light and rather tall, so they spin out really easily on almost every curve. The cpu hardly does any mistakes, but takes the corners really slow so overcoming the difficulty in this game is mostly just about choosing the right tires and making those turns faster than your opponents. You can even use the slippery mechanics to your advantage and drift around the difficult curves, dominating everyone else. Once you get the hang of it, you feel like a god.
Little disappointingly, the difficulty drops after the second grand prix. At that point, you have most likely already mastered the driving mechanics and going into the third and last gp, the other cars are not that consistent with their placements. If you drive couple first races well enough, you can even come last in the final race since nobody can reach your point total any longer.
Still, this is a super solid game and I would highly recommend this if you like driving/racing games and want to have a little twist to the style.
2015
Car go fast nyoom. Going in, I was told that in Outrun you play as the coked up jackass who passes you on the freeway, flipping you off and certainly going towards their eventual big crash and I definitely felt like it. It's the perfectly chaotic arcade racing game with more than solid soundtrack, difficulty and finally a 3D-effect that didn't make me want to gouge my eyes while playing on the 3DS.
I haven't really played the original that much, but this seems like a good way to port the game on the more modern consoles.
I haven't really played the original that much, but this seems like a good way to port the game on the more modern consoles.
1990
You want bomberman? Bomberman is as bomberman as a bomberman could bomberman. Okay, I'll stop. But honestly, it's a short and simple game with a solid and straightforward core mechanic. You have bombs, you plant bombs, you explode bombs until every single living being on the arena is dead.
The game isn't too difficult, I blasted through most of the game collecting powerups and only occasionally killing myself to my own smoothbrainess. The difficulty ramps up in the final area considerably and you really need to put everything you've learned to play if you want to finish the final stretch. It also helps if you have all the upgrades, but even with those it's going to be an uphill climb. Eventually I beat it, even the fast moving ghosts and the final boss, which were some bs, but I did it and I feel oddly proud for doing so.
I can recommend the game to everyone interested in where the series (or Gmod's famous melon bomber) got their start from. It's a short and simple pastime, I even completed this game on my bathroom breaks.
The game isn't too difficult, I blasted through most of the game collecting powerups and only occasionally killing myself to my own smoothbrainess. The difficulty ramps up in the final area considerably and you really need to put everything you've learned to play if you want to finish the final stretch. It also helps if you have all the upgrades, but even with those it's going to be an uphill climb. Eventually I beat it, even the fast moving ghosts and the final boss, which were some bs, but I did it and I feel oddly proud for doing so.
I can recommend the game to everyone interested in where the series (or Gmod's famous melon bomber) got their start from. It's a short and simple pastime, I even completed this game on my bathroom breaks.
I played this game as a child and remembered it being awesome. Now getting back to it at older age, I fully expected the great game from childhood being just a product of nostalgia, but it just rocked as much as it did back then, maybe even better since I went for the Dreamcast version over Playstation this time.
Rayman 2 is one of those early 3D platformers starring an iconic character from a beloved 2D platformer, now with just another dimension added. I would say Rayman did just as well with the transition as Mario. Of course, there is some jankiness to the controls, especially camera since you control it with the shoulder buttons, but thankfully it never becomes a hindrance. Only in the last level did I feel like I had to fight against stiff controls while flying with the rocket, but I got used to it pretty quickly since the hitboxes themselves were actually quite forgiving and turning surprisingly quick. Rayman 2 also suffers from that unintended creepiness some of the early 3D games had, with dead stares and some jarring environments.
The story is pretty straightforward and simplistic, only there to give you some goals to achieve. That paired with an easy difficulty clearly shows this game was designed for children to play and it serves it purpose wonderfully. Only thing I found annoying was the fact that you could skip any other cutscene in the game with a press of a button except the teensy cutscene that tells if you're allowed to progress or not every once in a while. I don't know why the only repeating cutscene in the game isn't skippable, but it's not a long one so I could stomach sitting through it every time.
Overall, it's a good game that in my opinion, deserves every bit of nostalgia you can muster up for a game from your childhood.
Rayman 2 is one of those early 3D platformers starring an iconic character from a beloved 2D platformer, now with just another dimension added. I would say Rayman did just as well with the transition as Mario. Of course, there is some jankiness to the controls, especially camera since you control it with the shoulder buttons, but thankfully it never becomes a hindrance. Only in the last level did I feel like I had to fight against stiff controls while flying with the rocket, but I got used to it pretty quickly since the hitboxes themselves were actually quite forgiving and turning surprisingly quick. Rayman 2 also suffers from that unintended creepiness some of the early 3D games had, with dead stares and some jarring environments.
The story is pretty straightforward and simplistic, only there to give you some goals to achieve. That paired with an easy difficulty clearly shows this game was designed for children to play and it serves it purpose wonderfully. Only thing I found annoying was the fact that you could skip any other cutscene in the game with a press of a button except the teensy cutscene that tells if you're allowed to progress or not every once in a while. I don't know why the only repeating cutscene in the game isn't skippable, but it's not a long one so I could stomach sitting through it every time.
Overall, it's a good game that in my opinion, deserves every bit of nostalgia you can muster up for a game from your childhood.
2012
Like many other reviews have mentioned, it's truly a unique experience. It's not a super long one, my first playthrough took me around 2 hours. Despite the length, this game has managed to sit on my backlog ever since it's release. I remember seeing some ads for it when it first came out on PS3, but never got around to buy it until it was released on Steam and even then it took me couple years to actually play it proper. Now that I've played it, I got to say that I wish I had done so earlier.
I really like the sound design with pretty minimal songs and letting the ambient sounds do their work in setting up the atmosphere most of the time. The surroundings manage to feel calm and tranquil, also giving the game a sort of timeless feel. Of course, it still manages to drive the story home even without any dialogue by showing it in cutscenes, which aren't too revealing either and lets you piece it all together by yourself.
There isn't much to say about the gameplay itself other than it works. The controls feel fluid and solid and I never had to fight against my character's movement. There isn't much of a challenge other than couple enemies you need to sneak past, but majority of the time you're allowed to breeze through your journey with whoever you got connected with in multiplayer.
Somehow my partner got lost in the middle of the snow level and turned back. Still didn't ruin the game for me one bit, maybe the fact that you don't actually communicate with them makes it even better for me.
I really like the sound design with pretty minimal songs and letting the ambient sounds do their work in setting up the atmosphere most of the time. The surroundings manage to feel calm and tranquil, also giving the game a sort of timeless feel. Of course, it still manages to drive the story home even without any dialogue by showing it in cutscenes, which aren't too revealing either and lets you piece it all together by yourself.
There isn't much to say about the gameplay itself other than it works. The controls feel fluid and solid and I never had to fight against my character's movement. There isn't much of a challenge other than couple enemies you need to sneak past, but majority of the time you're allowed to breeze through your journey with whoever you got connected with in multiplayer.
Somehow my partner got lost in the middle of the snow level and turned back. Still didn't ruin the game for me one bit, maybe the fact that you don't actually communicate with them makes it even better for me.
2005
Cutesy GBA-platformer with a new and interesting gameplay mechanic? On paper this should be something I would be all over, but in the end it just somehow didn't manage to hold up as much as I initially thought. It's fun to play through, the drilling mechanics are comfortable and fun to solve puzzles with and the platforming action feels smooth and mostly uninterrupted, but after the first couple of levels, I just didn't feel like this game has enough to pull me in. There wasn't really anything to keep me engaged further in the game, especially with every level stripping away the gear upgrades and making you start collecting those again. This is perfectly fine way to keep each level as a separate adventure, but that felt just an unnecessary chore having to do the same thing over and over again.
The story isn't really anything new or great, the normal fetch quest type of deal having you collect six diamonds and beating the big bad evil guy, some of the bosses were a blast and some even managed to be challenging, but others just fade without having any real impact. I don't regret playing through it, it's a pretty decent game for a handheld system to set down and return to beat little bit every now and then.
The story isn't really anything new or great, the normal fetch quest type of deal having you collect six diamonds and beating the big bad evil guy, some of the bosses were a blast and some even managed to be challenging, but others just fade without having any real impact. I don't regret playing through it, it's a pretty decent game for a handheld system to set down and return to beat little bit every now and then.
1992
This review contains spoilers
Not really a type of game I would usually go for. As much as I've enjoyed myself with the Metal Gear series and Death Stranding, a visual novel written entirely by Hideo Kojima didn't sound that appealing to me, mainly because I thought there would be no cool gameplay mechanics to save the game if the writing style failed. I was proven wrong on some accounts.
What pulled me in immediately was the setting and the general vibe. I'm a huge sucker for 80s scifi and this seemed more like a love letter to the genre. There is some originality to it, but so much elements have been "loaned" from other sources you would expect the main character turns out to be one of the bad killer robots himself. From the opening cinematic I was hooked on the soundtrack and dark visuals ripped straight from Blade Runner. Can't really complain.
Gameplay-wise, Snatcher is very simple but not something you would call straight-forward. Some of the progression feels fairly complex and arbitrary and most of the time you're not sure if you should LOOK or INSPECT the item to progress. Sometimes you need to even do these multiple times in a specific order. I can say I didn't finish this game without consulting a guide. Sometimes there are these shooting gallery scenes, where you're supposed to mow down killer robots before they kill you. Early in the game these are easy, but difficulty ramps up quickly, especially the final insector fight is just outright brutal and the snatcher fight right after that feels child's play in comparison.
The plot is... It's okay. It really feels Blade Runner - esque with our trench coat detective hunting robots mimicing humans, but there are certain Kojima-elements sprinkled in that don't really hold up that well in my opinion. I played the western localization, so I got saved from the most horrendous stuff but the main character still manages to feel like a huge ass with no consequences when interacting with the opposite sex. The ending with all the women gathered around swooning the protagonist felt just unnecessarily masturbatory and the shower scene just plain creepy.
In the end, it's a fine visual novel/graphic adventure and a great homage to 80s scifi, as long as you get past all the yikes-stuff.
What pulled me in immediately was the setting and the general vibe. I'm a huge sucker for 80s scifi and this seemed more like a love letter to the genre. There is some originality to it, but so much elements have been "loaned" from other sources you would expect the main character turns out to be one of the bad killer robots himself. From the opening cinematic I was hooked on the soundtrack and dark visuals ripped straight from Blade Runner. Can't really complain.
Gameplay-wise, Snatcher is very simple but not something you would call straight-forward. Some of the progression feels fairly complex and arbitrary and most of the time you're not sure if you should LOOK or INSPECT the item to progress. Sometimes you need to even do these multiple times in a specific order. I can say I didn't finish this game without consulting a guide. Sometimes there are these shooting gallery scenes, where you're supposed to mow down killer robots before they kill you. Early in the game these are easy, but difficulty ramps up quickly, especially the final insector fight is just outright brutal and the snatcher fight right after that feels child's play in comparison.
The plot is... It's okay. It really feels Blade Runner - esque with our trench coat detective hunting robots mimicing humans, but there are certain Kojima-elements sprinkled in that don't really hold up that well in my opinion. I played the western localization, so I got saved from the most horrendous stuff but the main character still manages to feel like a huge ass with no consequences when interacting with the opposite sex. The ending with all the women gathered around swooning the protagonist felt just unnecessarily masturbatory and the shower scene just plain creepy.
In the end, it's a fine visual novel/graphic adventure and a great homage to 80s scifi, as long as you get past all the yikes-stuff.
I rarely like fps-games, so for me to fall in love with Siege as hard as I did was a small miracle. It was more tactical than other fps games at the time and gameplay heavily leaned on teamwork and communication so you could more efficiently use your character's unique gadgets. Soloing this game is a nightmare and usually the best fun I had was with a preformed group. We liked to play Siege regularly up until the autumn of 2021, but fell off the wagon over the winter.
The game has seen numerous changes and additions over the years, some good and some less good. I cannot pinpoint exact reason why we felt that way, but Siege just stopped feeling fun any longer. Maybe it was the fact that Ubisoft had put the game in the backburner in favor of other projects but still tried to push esport scene for the sweet profits, the growing feeling of cash-grabbing with battlepass while removing the season pass (which given, they brought back, but the sentiment is still there) or maybe the game had just ran it's course and it was time for us to move on.
The gameplay itself is fun, but Siege has one of the most toxic communities in online gaming, on par with something like Dota or LoL. Finding teammates is hard for a game like this but it's miles better than solo queue, where you're put in a team with 4 total strangers that need to start pretending are your best friends for the next half an hour or your chances of actually winning the game are depending on if the enemy team has a similar composition or not. Most often the people I got put together with were the lone wolves that wanted to do their own thing and hunt for the enemy team alone like it was some sort of deathmatch game. I get it, roaming is an effective tactic for the defending team the attackers need to suppress fast, but if 3-4 people of your 5 man group are doing nothing else than roaming or hunting roamers, the actual objective of the match starts to look surprisingly difficult. Occasionally, you would get some good and coordinated teammates but those are somewhat on the same odds than those absolute nutcases who only exist to ruin other people's fun and send you hate mail afterwards.
So, if you decide to get in on Siege in 2022 (for whatever reason), just get yourself at least 3 friends to play it with. The game will be much more enjoyable with a full stack, trust me.
The game has seen numerous changes and additions over the years, some good and some less good. I cannot pinpoint exact reason why we felt that way, but Siege just stopped feeling fun any longer. Maybe it was the fact that Ubisoft had put the game in the backburner in favor of other projects but still tried to push esport scene for the sweet profits, the growing feeling of cash-grabbing with battlepass while removing the season pass (which given, they brought back, but the sentiment is still there) or maybe the game had just ran it's course and it was time for us to move on.
The gameplay itself is fun, but Siege has one of the most toxic communities in online gaming, on par with something like Dota or LoL. Finding teammates is hard for a game like this but it's miles better than solo queue, where you're put in a team with 4 total strangers that need to start pretending are your best friends for the next half an hour or your chances of actually winning the game are depending on if the enemy team has a similar composition or not. Most often the people I got put together with were the lone wolves that wanted to do their own thing and hunt for the enemy team alone like it was some sort of deathmatch game. I get it, roaming is an effective tactic for the defending team the attackers need to suppress fast, but if 3-4 people of your 5 man group are doing nothing else than roaming or hunting roamers, the actual objective of the match starts to look surprisingly difficult. Occasionally, you would get some good and coordinated teammates but those are somewhat on the same odds than those absolute nutcases who only exist to ruin other people's fun and send you hate mail afterwards.
So, if you decide to get in on Siege in 2022 (for whatever reason), just get yourself at least 3 friends to play it with. The game will be much more enjoyable with a full stack, trust me.
2016
I really liked this game at some point and played it almost every day. It somewhat reminded me of Team Fortress 2 with it's character-based gameplay, just with a fresh coat of paint, deeper in-game storylines and greater range of characters.
Then Blizzard happened and while I could just barely tolerate them fucking the original Overwatch in favor of the new game, I just can't tolerate their actions as an employer and that's why I stopped playing altogether.
Then Blizzard happened and while I could just barely tolerate them fucking the original Overwatch in favor of the new game, I just can't tolerate their actions as an employer and that's why I stopped playing altogether.
The normal Zelda formula is tried and true, even on GBA. I really liked this game from the start. The combat, the movement, imaginative enemies and even the main gameplay gimmick are all almost all well implemented and used to offer an enjoyable adventure. Shrinking in size for puzzles and dungeons is generally an underutilized idea in video games, but the Minish Cap does it well. One of my favourite moments in the game was in the first dungeon, when the boss of the dungeon was just a normal fodder enemy, but you were smaller in size so it actually became a challenge to dispose the guy. The rest of the game mostly passes the bar easily as well, the rest of the dungeons are a breeze to get through and while the last boss is a bit on the easier side, I still can say I enjoyed myself with this game.
The only minus I have to give is the kinstone system, the game's other little gimmick. I don't like it. At first, it might seem like a novel idea, but soon it becomes clear that outside of the main questline, most of the required kinstones are randomized and the reward for getting these kinstones are just rupees and more kinstones so the payoff isn't really what I could call great. It's mostly fine enough, but really irks you if your progression in a sidequest is locked behind a random kinstone you just don't have with you at the moment. I was in a situation like that and it wasn't fun to try and look for the right thing that drops randomly to progress.
Outside of kinstones, it's a great Zelda adventure. I like it on GBA because you can just pick it up and lay it back down easily.
The only minus I have to give is the kinstone system, the game's other little gimmick. I don't like it. At first, it might seem like a novel idea, but soon it becomes clear that outside of the main questline, most of the required kinstones are randomized and the reward for getting these kinstones are just rupees and more kinstones so the payoff isn't really what I could call great. It's mostly fine enough, but really irks you if your progression in a sidequest is locked behind a random kinstone you just don't have with you at the moment. I was in a situation like that and it wasn't fun to try and look for the right thing that drops randomly to progress.
Outside of kinstones, it's a great Zelda adventure. I like it on GBA because you can just pick it up and lay it back down easily.