Un regreso bien conseguido de uno de mis juegos favoritos de GBA. Es realmente fidedigno al juego original pero añade un par de mundos y algunos niveles experto para el auténtico desafío que no están NADA mal. De hecho, creo que es el mejor punto del juego. La pena es que para entonces la mecánica se hace repetitiva y pocos niveles logran ser realmente interesantes, recurriendo muchos a un gimmick que resolver y ya.
Es un concepto interesante de juego de puzzles y plataformas que me da pena que se fuese convirtiendo progresivamente en un juego de DSiware y cuyas novedades giraban siempre en torno a los minimarios.

Realmente, el Mario vs DK que necesitamos recuperar es el de Game Boy, pero vaya...

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Reunion is a remaster of the game originally released for the PSP. It's an action RPG that tells the story before the events of Final Fantasy VII.

As a remaster, I can say it is a really well-done job. Even after 15 years, the developers took the original game and did a great job adapting it to modern days.

The visuals don't look outdated at all. It could easily be a game released today with a slightly smaller budget. It seems like they used some assets from the remake of Final Fantasy VII, although there's a significant difference between this prequel and the main title.

Regarding the gameplay, I can say that the combat is really enjoyable. The regular fights are quite easy, and you may encounter some difficulty with a few bosses, but nothing to worry about. It's almost like a 3D fighting game; you'll be walking through the stage and encounter enemies, triggering battles.

There are some RPG features that could make character development a bit more complex, but they're not necessary to progress in the game. You just need some basic knowledge about this system to enjoy the game.

As for the story, I really liked it. I never had contact with the original release or the original Final Fantasy VII. I only played the Final Fantasy VII remake before, and I can say that Crisis Core will be very important to the upcoming games of this remake era.

The characters are fun and charismatic, and the story kept me invested throughout.

I played on Nintendo Switch, and the developers did an amazing job with this version. I didn't encounter any problems during my gameplay.

In conclusion, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Reunion is a great opportunity to introduce this game to a new audience, like myself. It's a really fun game and probably an important story for the next parts of the remake era of Final Fantasy VII.

Guns, Gore & Cannoli 2 is a 2D shooter platformer that allows players to assume the role of Vinnie, an old Mafia member still grappling with the consequences of the events in the first game.

While clearly inspired by games like Contra, Guns, Gore & Cannoli 2 is not as challenging as the classics it draws inspiration from. In fact, the game is easier than its franchise predecessor.

The gameplay has seen significant improvements compared to the first game. Players must navigate through stages, simultaneously encountering zombies and Mafia members who open fire. The screen is filled with various elements, requiring players to skillfully eliminate enemies while avoiding getting hit. The gameplay surpasses that of the initial game in the franchise, which I found perfect at the time.

The story serves as a sequel to the first game, and newcomers may feel completely lost without having played it before. I highly recommend experiencing the first installment as it is genuinely humorous and entirely sarcastic. However, if you choose not to, the engaging gameplay should suffice to keep you interested until the end.

The art maintains its high quality with a cartoon design that complements the game's vibe. No significant changes have been made from the first game, and I appreciate that.

Guns, Gore & Cannoli 2 stands out as a commendable sequel—a short, incredibly enjoyable game that is worth every penny.

As with many players, my introduction to the franchise was through Persona 5. During the pandemic, I played the game, and it quickly became my favorite of all time. It was somewhat amusing because I'm not typically into JRPGs or Japanese culture, but Persona has something truly unique about it. That's why Persona 3 Reload was my most anticipated game of the year, despite being a remake of an older title.

It's nearly impossible to review Persona 3 Reload without comparing it to Persona 5. Since its announcement, Persona 3 Reload seemed like the kind of remake that the Pokémon Company used to do with its older games. And I was right: Persona 3 Reload takes everything developed for Persona 5 and creates a true and good remake.

Persona 3 Reload is a classic Persona game that divides into two parts: your normal life as a student, and a hero's journey to save the world. In the first part, you attend school to study and interact with friends, while in the second part, you face enemies called shadows.

The social aspect of the game is particularly enjoyable. In addition to your duties as a student, you'll need to socialize with various characters from the school and rest of the world. Each character has a unique story, and you'll need to meet them multiple times to complete their storylines. This mechanic is called social links. Compared to Persona 5, I found these stories even more engaging.

The "hero part" is a turn-based RPG. I know that many people don't enjoy games of this style, but Persona games offer dynamic combat. Personally, I'm not usually a fan of turn-based games, but Persona takes the genre to another level.

Despite the game being split into two parts, they converge seamlessly. The interactions you have with friends will make you stronger to face enemies. The game operates on a calendar system, allowing you to decide when to hang out with friends, study, battle against enemies, or improve your social attributes.

The main story of the game starts strong, slows down a bit in the middle, and finishes perfectly. While I still prefer Persona 5's story, it's incredible how Atlus is able to create such incredible characters that are truly charismatic and make you care deeply about them. I enjoyed learning about their lives and backgrounds while also worrying about their futures.

I do think that Persona 3 Reload has some minor issues, such as poorly placed activities in the calendar system. There are moments where you have nothing to do for a few days, followed by days where you're overwhelmed with tasks. This became a problem near the end when I had enough money and maxed out all my social attributes. Additionally, I didn't appreciate how much time it took to start social links with party members, and that it was limited to just the female characters.

Another thing that is truly incredible in this franchise, and it holds true here as well, is the soundtrack. Persona 3 Reload boasts one of the best soundtracks ever in the gaming industry.

It took me 75 hours to finish my first playthrough, and I almost completed everything that could be done.

In conclusion, Persona 3 Reload is one of the best games we've had in recent years, but I still prefer Persona 5. If you enjoy JRPGs or Japanese culture, it's a must-play game. Even if you don't, I recommend giving it a chance, as I promise you won't be disappointed.

To say Hylics isn't an interactive piece of art is an understatement. I will get more into the visuals later, but there's clear inspiration here from Earthbound. There's not much of a story, and there doesn't need to be one, because the world is a character itself. There is no possible way to make heads or tails of the world, so it makes sense that the story wouldn't. There are four characters in your party, and you do go around fighting in dungeons, beating up bosses, and collecting loot, but in a less traditional fashion.

You start out with the character Wayne. There's not much to say about Wayne. We get no backstory or epic dialog because we don't need it. You start out inside your house, and you slowly introduce yourself to gameplay mechanics. Notice I said, "Introduce yourself." There's no tutorial or even any dialog messages stating anything is happening. I highly recommend playing this the first time with a guide, as some areas can be a little cryptic for how small of a world this game is. You have your typical RPG fight mechanics. You take turns with the enemies; you can attack or cast special attacks, run away, guard, etc. That's all standard so far. You can also equip armor, weapons, accessories, etc. That's about as standard as it gets. Everything else is either similar to Earthbound or just plain weird.

The entire game is finite. Every enemy's death is permanent, as they are placed physically in the game world. There are no random encounters here. When enemies die, they are represented as a pile of flesh and bones on the ground. Most bosses are also optional. This game takes a rogue-lite approach to the RPG foundation by encouraging you to die. When you die, you go to the afterlife, which is a small building with a surrounding ocean of red. You can heal here and turn in flesh meat, which increases your hit points. This is the only way to "level up," and that's in the loosest sense of the word. Enemeis drops lots of cash, items, and meat, and this meat is needed to get further in the game. However, starting out is rough. You die a lot, and you usually can't kill a single enemy part alone. It's important to get the second party member quickly before engaging in battle.

That's where the guide is needed. That is not a conventional way to play a game. Thankfully, the game is so short that you can get your first party member in 20 minutes. There is a world map that has different locations on it. There are a few main dungeons with bosses in them, but they aren't shown or given to the player as typical bosses. They are just another enemy on screen, or you need to interact with them to start the battle. There is a single town in the whole game that has a few vendors. You can buy armor, accessories, items, and so forth. Items like frozen burritos can be microwaved from projectile weapons into warm burritos, which revive an ally. Hot dogs give full health, and other weird and alien items will do other things. 

You can learn new special moves by finding TVs. The one small issue here is that you need to revisit every TV to give each party member the ability. Some do huge attack damage, and they are pretty much required to beat the final boss, while others can be used for defensive purposes like protecting from blind status or poison. Attacks are 1:1 to your mightiness power given by weapons. It's important to seek out the most powerful weapons that are usually hidden in chests or locked behind something, such as needing to die three times or using dynamite to blow up a wall. There aren't many locations like this, but they are important. 

There are other weird quirks that you would never know are things, such as the fact that the character Somsnosa, who is the strongest, can only equip a single weapon and can pick up bugs found in areas to increase her might. These are weird-shaped creatures that are all white and are found in dungeons or safe zones. You can also run across merchants who offer a one-time type of food that is used on a specific animal back at Wayne's house to acquire their skull for a shield. That would be completely missed without a walkthrough. These kinds of things are also present in games like Earthbound and either require you to stumble across them by accident or have a lot of abstract thinking going on. 

Outside of the gameplay, the game's most impressive feature are the visuals. They have avant-garde status in surrealism. They mesmerize, question, and barely represent anything remotely human or recognizable on our planet. The game has a Toejam & Earl vibe mixed with Earthbound. That's the sense I got, but there's not a single game in existence that looks or sounds like this one. Strange alien noises, weird haunting ambient music—none of it is scary or horror-themed. The game is so odd that it will make you feel lonely and empty just playing it. The world itself is a character, and the poetic dialog (the little there is) and Shakeperian story (if you can call it a story) don't matter. It's not that I cared, but I just didn't need it. Just seeing these characters on screen, running across the few NPCs, and fighting the bosses was enough to keep my mouth shut. I just took in the fantastic visuals and played.

This goes for animations too. The game has a very claymation look and feel to it. The first-person combat animations feature strange hand gestures, alien symbols, and an odd sense of emptiness. There is nothing typical or trope-like about this game. Your brain wants to constantly categorize, put it in a box, or rationalize with the visuals. All you can do is accept what's there and keep pushing on. The game can be finished almost 100% within 4-5 hours. Once you get three party members, the game becomes more enjoyable, and you quickly gain power where small enemies are pushovers. It's just bosses you have to focus on. I wish you didn't need to hold off on your consumable leveling up items once you have all party members. The finite supply in the world makes this a requirement. But the satisfaction of being level 63 and having 5,000 HP at the end of the game allows for getting 100% a breeze.

All in all, Hylics is an insane piece of interactive art. There is nothing like it out there, and while the cryptic RPG elements feel dated and the game is difficult to get going, you will have a blast with it and not want to put the game down.

I am a frisbee god.
Seahorse with bubble bridge?
Sorry, but you're wrong, dog;
I'm using the frisbee.

I am a frisbee god.
Spike pit spanning the ledge?
Though I should walk the dog,
I'm using the frisbee.

Chinchilla's head goes thunk,
I dance to frisbee funk.
I am a frisbee god;
I'm using the frisbee.

The secret behind Pikmin’s success was not that it somehow outclassed classic real-time strategy franchises, but rather that it was never competing with them to begin with. According to Shigeru Miyamoto, he came up with the idea for Pikmin one day when he observed a group of ants carrying leaves together into their nest. Miyamoto then imagined a game focused on cooperation rather than competition; he asked, “Why can’t everyone just move together in the same direction, carrying things as a team?” Nintendo EAD’s design philosophy went along with this line of reasoning, melding design mechanics from different genres to create an entirely new yet familiar experience. As a result, instead of competing against other players in Pikmin akin to classic RTS games, Pikmin forces players to explore and compete with the very environment itself by introducing puzzle-exploration and survival mechanics. It made sense in the end; after all, real-time strategy is concerned with minimizing time spent to get a competitive edge over opponents, and what better way to translate this than to force players to master their understanding over the terrain itself, managing and optimizing the one resource which governs them all?

Perhaps Nintendo’s greatest challenge was figuring out how to translate a genre considered by many to be niche and technical to an intuitive yet layered game, and even more so, translating classic actions from a mouse and keyboard allowing for such complexity to a suite of simplified controls using a gamepad. Coming from the other side as someone who played Starcraft as a kid and didn’t get into Pikmin until recently however, I’m surprised at how well EAD’s tackled this endeavor. Classic RTS games focus upon base-building and resource gathering through the micromanagement of units. Pikmin’s take upon this is to introduce a dichotomy between the player character Captain Olimar, who is incapable of doing anything by himself but can issue commands to the units only he can create by plucking out of the soil, and the Pikmin, who are essentially brainless but represent the units that must do everything. The player as Olimar must be present to figure out exactly how to best traverse and exploit the environment around him (replacing the base-building with management/prioritization puzzles) while the Pikmin provide bodies to construct, move, and attack the world around them. However, the Pikmin’s AI is fairly limited and as a result, Pikmin will sit around helplessly once they finish their actions and often get distracted by nearby objects while moving around, which is where the micromanagement kicks in. Therefore, the player has to decide how to best build up their supply of Pikmin to allocate tasks to surmount bottlenecks while exploring and opening the world, all while working against the limited thirty-day timer throughout the game’s five areas.

A part of me expected to really struggle with the gamepad while playing Pikmin, but the available actions on offer allow for a surprising degree of control despite the simplification. For instance, consider Olimar’s whistle; as a substitute for dragging and clicking to select units on PC, the whistle on the GameCube lets Olimar quickly rally groups of clustered units. Holding down B for longer allows the player to increase the size of the whistle’s AOE, which allows the player to better control and target how many Pikmin to rally in any cluster (hence, the analog of clicking and dragging to select boxes of units on mouse and keyboard). The Swarm command is another interesting translation. The obvious use is to allow Olimar to quickly move nearby Pikmin by directing them with the C-stick versus needing to aim and throw them by positioning and rotating Olimar himself. However, because it can be used to shift the position of Pikmin with respect to Olimar, it can also be used to swap the Pikmin on-deck for throwing (since Olimar will always throw the Pikmin closest to him) without needing to dismiss and re-rally separated Pikmin colors, and most importantly, it allows you to directly control the group of Pikmin following Olimar while moving Olimar himself. This second application allows the player to kite the Pikmin around telegraphed enemy attacks, and properly funnel them so the Pikmin aren’t getting as easily stuck behind walls or falling off ledges/bridges into hazards. That said, noticeable control limitations do exist. Olimar cannot pivot to move the reticle without changing his position with respect to the Pikmin around him, which can make aiming in place annoying if the Pikmin types you need to throw aren’t close enough to be moved next to Olimar with Swarm. Additionally, there is no way for Olimar to simultaneously and directly control multiple separated groups of Pikmin, which does make allocating tasks a bit slower. However, given that the tasks themselves usually don’t necessitate more than one Pikmin type at a time, this limitation is understandable, especially since the sequels would tackle this challenge with more expansive controls and multiple playable characters on the field.

Pikmin’s base model as a result is a fantastic translation of an abstract design philosophy, but I can’t help but wonder if the original could have been pushed further. Don’t misunderstand me: I absolutely take pride in mastering a game by learning all about its inner workings and pushing its mechanics to the limits simply by following a few intuitive genre principles. As such, I wish that the game was a bit harder in order to really force me to squeeze every bit of time from the game’s solid premise. For example, combat is often optional in Pikmin given how many full-grown Bulborbs are found sleeping, but given that most enemies don’t respawn within the next day after killing them and I can bring their carcasses back to base to more than replenish my Pikmin supply, combat is almost always in my favor, especially since certain enemies will spawn more mobs if they aren’t defeated. If circumstances existed where it would be unfavorable to engage (such as losing a significant number of Pikmin every time, or having so little time left that engaging would waste time), then I feel that this would add an additional layer of decision-making of deciding when to sneak past sleeping Bulborbs rather than just wiping out as many foes as I could as soon as possible. In a similar sense, I felt that certain design elements such as the Candypop Buds for switching Pikmin colors were a bit underutilized; outside of one environmental puzzle, I never had to use the Candypop Buds, mainly because I had so many remaining Pikmin and time to never justify their usage. I’ll concede here that Pikmin’s one-day Challenge Mode does at least provide a score attack sandbox where I’m forced to take my Pikmin stock and remaining time into higher consideration, but it’s missing the connectivity of the main story mode where my earlier actions would greatly affect how I planned later days in a run, particularly in making judgement calls on which days to spend at each site and which days I dedicate towards building up my Pikmin numbers versus hauling in ship parts. Regardless, I found myself completing the main game with all parts in just twenty days on my first run with minimal resets, and I’d love to try a harder difficulty mode with a stricter time limit and tougher Pikmin margins to really force me to better conserve my working force and dedicate more time to restocking my supply.

Gripes aside, I’m glad that my friends finally convinced me to try out Pikmin, not just to better appreciate RTS games as a whole but to also gain an appreciation of how different genre mechanics can work in tandem to intuitively convey concepts without spelling everything out to the player. It’s classic Nintendo at their core, and while I had my reservations coming in as a fan of older RTS franchises, they’ve managed to convince me once again that the best hook is not simply offering something that’s visibly better, but rather offering something that’s visibly different. I still think that there’s improvement to be had, but given how much I’ve enjoyed the first game, I can’t wait to see what they have to offer from iterating upon their memorable beginnings.

This game is currently in the Humble Choice for May 2024, and this is part of my coverage of the bundle. If you are interested in the game and it's before June 4th, 2024, consider picking up the game as part of the current monthly bundle.

A spooky puzzle game.

Amanda the Adventurer has a great spooky vibe. The game is played in an attic filled with tons of stuff, and every time I was done watching a video I quickly looked at a doll expecting that doll to move. The entire game has this dark daemonic feeling towards it, and after viewing a tape, different devices are placed on the center table for the player to use and solve puzzles to get additional tapes.

However, the puzzles here are a mixed bag. I think I had a solve rate of maybe 50 to 75 percent without assistance . There are at least a few Steam guides, but there’s very little help in the game and even a minor hint system or at least the main player talking to give the player a hint would have been appreciated. Also, I’ve heard from horror fans this is not that scary, and that’s probably why I’m ok with this.

Pick this up if you want a horror-puzzle hybrid. The entire game is based on a spoof of Dora the Explorer, but it doesn’t even try to pretend it’s normal. This gets pretty wild, though I would recommend trying to make the wrong choices because watching what happens when you make the wrong choice is the most entertaining part.

If you enjoyed this review or want to know what I think of other games in the bundle, check out the full review on or subscribe to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/jybN_eME28o

This is my personal favorite Pokemon game of the ones I've played so far. Is it the best Pokemon game out there? No. Do I have blind raging nostalgia for the original Pokemon games? Yes. I still remember feeling excited to play a remastered version of the first Pokemon game I had ever played back when I was 7 years old. I loved the fact that it wasn't just a graphical upgrade but also received bonus content in the islands as well as an updated Pokedex to catch it up to the franchise to that point. Going through it is like coming back home and I can't stop smiling. Even today I will play this from time to time to try different Nuzlocke challanges.

I still have to play a few generations, which I plan on doing this year, before I can say I've caught them all and beat every game. But I firmly believe for most people your favorite game and favorite Pokemon come from your first experience with the franchise. Im not saying I'm hard headed and wont keep an open mind because I always do especially with this medium. What I am saying is I am fully aware of my biased blinding nostalgia that I will always have for this game.

I know I said Block Ball was close to being one of the best spinoff games I played in this Kirbyathon thus far, until it kinda shit the bed a bit in the endgame, however I think Kirby's Star Stacker actually is the best Kirby spinoff up to this point (behind Dream Course at least).

It's a puzzle game, like Kirby's Avalanche, except this game is way easier in general than Puyo Puyo. Because I suck at Puyo Puyo, I found this more fun. Instead of having to set up complex combos to defeat your opponent, you just have to clear lines with stars in them to beat each stage. Combos are a thing in this game, and they also give you stars depending on how long they are, but they are way easier to perform in this game and technically aren't necessary to beat a stage. Something I do like about these combos tho is, once you start racking up combos, it throws out stars that can get you more lines if your animal buddies are in the right spots. Speaking of them, that's who you're lining up with the stars. Kine, Koo and Rick along with the stars are the main "blocks" in this game. They have a sort of chibi look and it's super cute. There are other blocks too to mix the gameplay up, like bomb blocks that clear a whole row, these blocks you must clear in a line to unlock a star inside and blocks that act like stars but don't give you stars. Use all these blocks efficiently to get the required number of stars you need. It's honestly pretty fun.

Outside of this main mode, you have a VS mode you can play with a friend. Obviously, I didn't touch this, but the other two modes, I did a bit. Those are just clear as many stars as you can till you die, and clear as many stars as you can before time runs out. They're fun little time wasters and just add more content to the game.

This is yet again, another game I technically didn't beat. The game had four difficulties and I beat them all. It got pretty tough at the end of the fourth one, but I was able to complete it. Then a hidden fifth difficulty unlocked, and it had 50 levels! The other difficulties prior only had 16 levels each (besides the easy mode which had 8). I beat the first level of the "insane" difficulty and decided I had my fill, as I probably would start to dislike the game if I did all 50 levels lol.

Not much to say with this one, despite it being one of the better Kirby spinoffs. It's just a fun little time, and more fun than Puyo Puyo imo. I know there's a Super Nintendo version, so if it's just like this game but with improved graphics and music, I know I'll enjoy that too!

ISS vs FIFA was a big debate for a while, with 1998 probably being the biggest year for the argument. N64 Magazine clearly preferred ISS, but for me, I enjoyed FIFA 98 more. I do think I know the main reason why people prefer each one, as while they seem the same from a distance, they both have slightly different targets. FIFA is more about casual fun, while ISS is more geared towards providing a more tactical experience.

Which means that it isn’t a case of which one is better, but rather what kind of game you want. ISS 98 is a marginal improvement from ISS 64, focusing on the World Cup. In Japan, it had an official World Cup branding, but still not player names (other than the Japanese squad), but is the same game.

You do get a new set of scenarios, so if you liked those, these are the main new thing in this version compared to the previous year.

Minit is one of the most average games I’ve ever played but with a phenomenal gimmick. I love the idea of you have one minute to figure out what you need to do and then speed to get it done. However the game only lasts about an hour and once you know what to do it really kills the replay-ability imo. The puzzles were good enough. Nothing to ridiculous but not so easy that you can walk through the game without thinking. The minimal visuals and simplistic gameplay were a nice change of pace. Overall a solid good game, again, mostly because of its awesome gimmick. If you want something quick and easy to play I would definitely recommend it.

So I knew the next Kirby game I had to play, Kirby's Dream Course, had a two player mode. I only ever played the single player for a bit years ago but never the multiplayer. I always heard it was more fun to play it that way, so I was excited to find out the NSO version supported online multiplayer. Me and my friend wheatie decided to play together.

This is essentially Kirby golf. Okay it's not quite that simple, it's a little more complex than that. The goal is the same as golf where you have to get it in the hole, and it tracks the amount of moves you do (at least in the single player) but you can change the angle of your shot in many more ways than golf, not to mention Kirby's copy abilities from Adventure are here. In the multiplayer mode, your goal is to have the most stars by the end of all 8 courses. You get a star by killing an enemy, two by getting in the hole at the end, AND you can steal the other persons stars if you're feeling devious. Me and wheatie played all 4 courses (except we sadly could not finish the final one because we disconnected at the very end) and I'd say we were pretty much tied in terms of how good we were at the game. It was chaotic, frustrating and a lot of fun and definitely the best way to play the game.

Going into the single-player though, while fun it definitely got a bit old after a while in comparison. Some of those later courses can have some really rough stages, especially since it's a bit different compared to the two-player mode. Instead of going for the most stars, you go for low par and survival. See, every time you kill an enemy, you get a tomato. You have 4 tomatoes from the start, and each time you make a move, it uses one. If you fall off the stage, automatic death. This can get quite frustrating since if you game over, it sends you back to the beginning of that course. It can be quite annoying if you get stuck on a particular level, but it could easily have been less forgiving and send you back to very beginning. Also that final boss, there's only one boss in the entire game and it feels so undercooked lol. You just spam the A button and Dedede's done. Either way, the single player is still fun, it's just not as fun as multiplayer.

Quick thing on the visuals and ost, they're both alright? Visuals are nice for the most part but the isometric angle can really make some of the stages look awkward. Especially with your line that shows where you're going to make the shot. If you played the game you'll now what I mean. The OST has some nice remixes but I found a chunk of it kinda forgettable which is a shame.

In the end though, I had a fun time (mostly cuz I played with wheatie), and it's definitely a better spinoff than Pinball Land. Next is the last spinoff before another mainline game, Kirby's Avalanche. Knowing it's a Puyo Puyo reskin, just like Mean Bean Machine, has me not looking forward to it because I got filtered hard by Mean Bean Machine lol. Ah well, look forward to that soon!

6.5/10

I will be upfront here and admit that my initial impression of Magic Pengel was underwhelming. The first couple of hours felt extremely plodding, thanks to the opening glut of story cutscenes with awkward voice acting, the lack of part variety to attach to your Doodles (your drawable monsters for battle), and the initial grind for more colors necessary to both draw and further develop your Doodles. This initial grind can be a nightmare because a lot of the fightable villagers will easily outclass you in terms of sheer stats and stall you out by using Charge every other turn to heal off more damage than you can inflict, so you’ll end up wasting your arena time if you happen to challenge a super tough villager since there’s also no way to forfeit a match. It also doesn’t help that there’s a half minute loading screen every time you need to move to a new area in the overworld, so you’ll end up sitting through over a minute of loading screens moving between the two main arenas alone since there’s no fast travel and you’ll have to pass through the market every time. Not a great start for a seemingly great premise!

Get past this initial roadblock by winning a few arena matches and gaining enough resources to thoroughly flesh out your Doodles with better stats, however, and the game starts to find its footing. Combat is almost entirely turn-based rock-paper-scissors (magic trumps attack, attack trumps block, block trumps magic) with some degree of mind games. This fortunately does get a bit more complex later on; landing magic spells can inflict status effects such as paralysis and sleep upon foes, as well as temporarily lock or punish types of attacks depending on the spell used. This essentially adds another layer to the mind games, aside from the aforementioned Charge for healing/powering-up the next attack/resetting neutral; thus, combat isn't just mindlessly following the advantage triangle specified above. In addition, the colors and parts used (i.e. adding limbs, wings, a held weapon, etc) drastically change both your stat and skill distribution (explained in more detail here and here ), and since your drawing capabilities and max capacity are increased with each arena win, you’ll likely be redrawing your Doodles all the time anyways to keep up with the tougher fights while tinkering with new and expanded loadouts. Simultaneously, it becomes a lot easier to farm resources since your Doodles will finally have enough attack power to deal more damage than opponents can heal off with Charge, and you’ll earn significantly more of each color (a few thousand as opposed to a few hundred in the early game) upon victories. While Magic Pengel’s combat never reaches the depth of similar monster battling systems such as Pokemon, I nevertheless found it easy enough to get into the rhythm of the progression loop once I got past the opening grind, and it served as a solid podcast game that vaguely reminded me of my days laddering on Pokemon Showdown.

A word of warning though: as much fun as it is sketching crude creatures with your Pengel and watching your crayon abominations destroy developer-drawn Doodles with much more effort put into sketching, that is unfortunately just about all that this game has to offer. Magic Pengel’s narrative touches upon some interesting lore and story beats concerning both the world of color and the supporting cast (such as your friend Zoe’s connection with her missing foster father, a renowned Doodler that once worked for the king), but the game never goes into too much detail with its sparse storytelling, and it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger as your friends decide to set off on another adventure. While you can sell spare colors for gold gems, there’s not much to purchase from shopkeepers; you can buy a few brushes to further adjust your line thickness, but the only other items on offer are Doodles, and there’s no point in buying those when you’ll get far more utility out of drawing your own (especially because you can’t delete any part of a Doodle drawn by an NPC). Finally, the game is a bit lacking in post-game content. The only unlocked features are a new arena where you can engage in 1 v 3 or 2 v 3 fights for higher rewards, as well as a hidden boss that can be fought if you somehow grind one million gold gems. As such, I have to concede that a lot of the Magic Pengel’s surrounding elements could have used some more time in the oven.

Ultimately, I prefer the game’s spiritual successor Graffiti Kingdom for its more succinct runtime and expanded drawing utensils. Even so, I mostly enjoyed my time with Magic Pengel (the quaint charm and artstyle admittingly a big reason why), and I’d say it’s worth checking out if you want a taste of one of more creative monster collecting/creating games out there. I think Taito had something really special on their hands with this formula, and it’s a shame we’ll never see a game in this vein from them again.