Astro's Playroom is essentially a tech demo for the PS5 as it showcases what kind of power the PS5 has within the console, and the controller itself. It's a cute 3D platformer that takes you through the history of Sony's PlayStation library from the PS1 all the way to the PS4 and you go through these worlds that take place within the PS5 console, with the CPU of the PS5 being the hubworld, the GPU being a jungle, the SSD being a space level, memory being in the clouds, and the fans of the PS5 being an ice level. It was a rather genius idea for something like this, even adding in a few gimmicks into the levels, like using a frog suit, a monkey suit, or even rolling into a ball.

Very fun time sink to play through this and had so many references and easter eggs to so many games, like Ratchet & Clank, Resident Evil, Tekken, Last of Us, Horizon, Devil May Cry, The Last Guardian, Uncharted, Bloodbourne, Monster Hunter and so many more. Even having nostalgia trips at the end of the levels with the sounds and home menus in the backgrounds like the PS4's wavy blue, and the PS2's cube and neon lights, had to sit there and take it in. Highly recommend playing this, and can't wait to play Astro Bot when it comes out soon.

So, I have made it to the very last mainline Pokemon game that I have yet to play, and it is the most divisive game within the remakes. Pokemon Let's Go, Pikachu & Eevee are not only the first Switch games within the franchise, but it is also the final games within the 7th generation.

Let's Go are essentially remakes of Pokemon Yellow from the Game Boy, which means yes, this is the 2nd time Kanto has been remade, and the fifth time we ever play in the Kanto region, which is a big gripe with this game, as people were starting to feel a little burnt out with Kanto, me included. The Pokemon within Kanto are iconic of course, but I've played this region so many times now, it has gotten quite dull, but that doesn't I dislike this game unlike others within the community.

Story is pretty much the exact same as it was back in Gen 1, so I don't need to discuss anything there in that department. The only difference is that your rival is now Trace instead of Blue, a neighbouring rival who is just friendlier and wants to see you and him grow stronger. As a rival, he's kinda lame compared to others, which we'll get to much later, but he just doesn't feel like a rival to me, as he doesn't have the attitude for what Blue had...if you're are making a remake of Yellow, at least keep the attitude of what Blue had, but that's my issue there.

In terms of gameplay, this game drastically changed back when this released. Because Pokemon Go was at an all time high within 2 years of its release, Game Freak wanted to change the regular of battling wild Pokemon and catching them in poke balls, to just the catching aspect. I understand why they did this as it was to ease in new players or players who haven't played Pokemon in so many years, but it was mainly designed for people who play Go a lot, and it really shows. Firstly, you cannot use your Pokemon you catch to fight the wild Pokemon, you only use them within the trainer battles, and even legendary battles later in the game. Next, there are no items for your Pokemon to hold or use, except Mega Stones that make a return but that's not until you beat the 7th gym. The only other items you can use are candies that help boost stats of your team, and species specific candy to boost all stats of that given Pokemon, and your regular potions, ethers, all that jazz. Lastly, when catching the Pokemon, you have to throw your ball at the Pokemon to catch it, with the ring saying how difficult it will be just like in Go. There's one problem tho, and that is the game is focused on one Joy-Con only, no pro controller support. It's rather awkward at first, but it takes time to get used to it, and the catching is motion controls, which with Joy-Cons, aren't responsive unless the Pokemon is stagnant. If they move, that's when it becomes a problem.

Some changes have been made as it is a remake after all, such as the partner Pokemon. Depending on the version, your partner being Pikachu or Eevee will learn specific moves that only they can learn to compensate them being unable to evolve, while boosting their base stats to make them a little overpowered. Pikachu can't learn as many exclusive moves unlike Eevee which can learn move typings from its Eeveelutions, which makes Eevee the better partner. Alongside that, the Pokedex has actually been updated from the original by adding 2 new mythical Pokemon; Meltan and Melmetal, making the pokedex go up to 153 Pokemon. Alongside catching Pokemon, there are 3 new features that have been added in the game. The first are catch combos, where if you catch the same Pokemon over and over and over, your chances of getting rarer Pokemon increase, like for instance catching 11 Caterpie in a row will give me Bulbasaur in Viridian Forest.

The next feature that was added is co-op! Although Scarlet and Violet are marketed as the first game with online co-op, it wasn't until Let's Go where it had local co-op. Nothing is different other than the second player controls the opposite gender of the protagonist, and can only help with battles and catching Pokemon. While it makes the choice great for grinding exp in terms of catching, since you get more exp in catching rather than battling, it is also a downside if you hate having to use 2 of your balls to catch with. The final feature to be added is Pokemon Go connectivity. As this was centred for Go players, they added the GO Park in Fuchsia City to replace the Safari Zone, and it's only useful if you are wanting to transfer Pokemon from Go into Let's Go. While cool at the time, we are in an era where Pokemon Home exists for that instead, and the GO Park is essentially a wasted replacement now.

Overall, to conclude the final game I haven't played for mainline Pokemon, this was an alright experience for me. I had heard stories that this was a really bad game, but when I actually got to play it, it wasn't that bad. There are several issues with this game, and the fact that this is yet another trip into Kanto, but it was still a fun experience.

So, after playing through the vanilla version of Sun almost a month ago, I wasn't burnt out of gen 7 yet and immediately hopped on board with Ultra Moon for the rest of the exclusives and also to see what was different since this came out in 2017...a year after the original and a time when the Switch was selling like hotcakes. So, what did I think of the Ultra games?

Well for starters, this is a much better package than what the original had to offer. Yeah, the world of Alola is the exact same as the original, with some new sections here and there, Z Moves are still okay to use with Megas clearly being better, and the pacing of the story is just as slow as ever in some aspects, but it is a much better experience. For starters, right from the get go, while the story might look to be the same, it actually diverges near the halfway mark.

While you are still going around Alola to become the Champion, and to stop Team Skull later on being the Aether Foundation, there are a mysterious duo roaming around analysing the light that Z-Power Rings contain and that Totem Pokemon hold, known as the Ultra Recon Squad. These guys are later to be revealed from another world as they wish to restore light in their home, Ultra Megalopolis, from the Blinding One also known as Necrozma...which that was a surprise. Had the same treatment as Kyurem did in gen 5 - was treated as a post game Pokemon in the OG games, and then in the expanded version, gets a bigger role.
Due to this, Lusamine's plan is different this time around. Rather than wanting to bring Ultra Beasts to our world for captivity, she wishes to aid the duo by catching Necrozma...with Guzma still for some reason. However, things don't go well and after reaching the altar on Poni Island, Necrozma arrives to absorb Lunala and become all-powerful! ...Only for an 11 year old child to beat its ass and call it quits.
This new change of plot near the end of the game was great at first, but the more I think about how vanilla S/M handled its plot between Lusamine and Lillie, I think it was much better there than what they did between the family since I didn't feel the tension that much, since it was moreso on Necrozma this time.

The gameplay is still the exact same as it was in the vanilla games in terms of battling, only for the devs to add more Z-Crystals for specific Pokemon like Eevee, Kommo-o, and the legendaries, but there are a lot more things you can do in the overworld. First off, you have Mantine Surfing, aka one of the more 'fun' ways to grind BP rather than doing the Battle Tree. It's a minigame where you...surf on a Mantine and do tricks for points, very self explanatory. Originally, when they used this to travel between the islands, I thought this was going to get old very quickly, but you have to do this for the first two islands, which wasn't all that bad, and then became obsolete once flying or story progression via boat occured.
Second, more Pokemon to complete for the dex. With more returning Pokemon being added and 5 brand new Pokemon introduced in Ultra, the dex was boosted to 400 mons this time. New Pokemon being a mythical Zeraora, and 4 Ultra Beasts: Poipole, Naganadel, Stakataka, and Blacephalon, with the last two being version exclusives.

Third, the post game is filled to the brim with content to do. After you beat the story and become champion, there is Episode RR that happens; a postgame story where Team Rainbow Rocket from another universe appears to take over the Aether Foundation in order to take over the world and rule all Pokemon, led by an alternate Giovanni. Although he isn't alone, as Team Aqua's Archie, Team Magma's Maxie, Team Galactic's Cyrus, Team Plasma's Ghetsis, AND Team Flare's Lysandre all return too to aid him, while wanting to do their plans in this world that they already succeeded with in their homeworlds, man what a twist that was. Now, I didn't mention how great the music in Sun and Moon was, but with Ultra, some of the boss themes in Episode RR were good mainly Ghetsis and the gen 3 villains, but Lysandre's and Cyrus's were just plain bad. Side note, the trainer theme itself in this game is awful, but the Pokemon battle theme is better here? Why did it have a complete 180 on itself? Either way, Episode RR was alright, but after the last few grunt fights, I wanted to get to the end already.

Other things that the post game added was the all-new Ultra Warp Ride, another minigame where you ride on Solgaleo's back in order to access other worlds and dimensions to catch Pokemon. Each coloured wormhole had their own worlds, with specific mons to catch, with white always leading to the Ultra Beasts, a change that was well handled compared to being wild encounters. This is also the area where you can catch all the pre-existing legendaries from Kanto to Kalos, but in order to get to them, it's based on the distance you have travelled and what rarity the wormhole is at. While it was a fun minigame at first, there are these electric orbs that slow you down if hit and these at high speeds were impossible to react to at times, with worst cases being hidden behind a turn or behind a wormhole you just dodged. But one thing that wasn't good were the controls. In order to control Solgaleo, you have to use the 3DS's gyroscope to move all directions which was incredibly awkward and at some points didn't respond to my inputs well. Thankfully you can turn this off and use the circle pad instead, but the game doesn't tell you this at all. With the circle pad controls, I tolerated much better and enjoyed it despite all its bullshit.

Overall, if I had to sum up gen 7's expanded release...I'd say that this is a much better game to play than the original as there are boatloads more to do in this game, the story can be much better than the OG if you see it that way, and the new minigames and postgame story were neat additions.