You ever sit down on a chair and gaze into the sky wondering how any other game will ever compete with how supreme Pizza Towers quality is. I think to myself so many times that this game is so good, how can other games even compare? Pizza Tower is a Wario Land inspired game where you control Peppino Spaghetti as he dashes up the titled Pizza Tower to save his pizzeria from getting blasted by a comically large laser by a pizza with a face. From starting the game you're gonna realize that this may be the most smoothest controlling game of your entire life, the animations, the music, the charming title cards, will all sync in as one and you'll have the best time playing this game. I seriously cannot believe a game like this exists, something with no flaws and even if you were to name a flaw that would be considered as a nitpick. This game is not long but it also isn't short. I value replayability in the games I consume so the fact this game encourages you and wants you to keep playing so you can get those P ranks and Achievements is something that'll keep you coming back for seconds. Once you earn your first P-rank on a level then that rush of dopamine kicks in and you'll want to P-rank every single level, learning every in and out so that you can successfully master the route to earning that rank. It's no easy feat, but with how smooth this game controls and how amazing the level design fits to accommodate it you're not gonna want to stop. I've successfully 100% this game and I can tell you I had a blast the entire way through, currently at 52 hours on steam and I'm still going back and improving my best scores and routes. This game is addicting, if all of this sounds enticing to you I highly encourage you to play this.

Fun fact, I never beat this one as a kid because when I would always play it I would be so relaxed and soothed by the music i'd always fall asleep. After actually going through the whole thing and seeing what I was missing out on all these years, yeah, it's pretty good! It's a very chill and easy 2D platformer that I think anyone of any skill level will be able to jump in and have a good time. Honestly for what this game was trying to accomplish it does it well, and the ideas presented here are really well done and fun to play with. One of the better yarn related games out there.

This game was one I had put off many, many, MANY, times. From the very beginning I knew this game was not for me and it certainly was not on the level of the previous Xenoblade Chronicles. Sure it had its faults but the first Xenoblade Chronicles is an experience I hold near and dear to my heart. When the press release footage and trailers got shown of this game I was just simply confused at everything I was seeing. What is this shift in art direction? Why is everyone look more anime than usual? Is that girls boobs bigger than her entire head? What in the actual hell is this voice acting. Questions that just formed in my head as I was watching, but you know, it's not good to judge a book by its cover. So I decided i'd pick up the game and see if maybe those thoughts of mine will change. I popped it in my switch the morning of December 25th 2017 and...
I put it down like 3 hours into the game. I just couldn't accept these changes, the protagonist literally looked like every other brown haired protag in any game and combined with the awful voice acting and character designs I just couldn't do it. I made it to the fake-out scene where Gramps "dies" and that was the end of it. Guess the Xenoblade Series isn't what I thought it was.

Fast forward to 2023, I had just finished going through Xenoblade 3, which in my opinion is still the greatest game in the series, but knowing this game had many references to 2 made me feel curious, and then I remembered I only put 3 hours into Xenoblade Chronicles 2 so maybe I should actually give it a real chance rather than passing it off as anime cringe. I told my friends about this and they proceeded to tell me if I were to ever go through it I should stream it so they can help me understand more about the game because this games tutorials flat out lie to the player and are just horrible in general, there's no way to view them again. Here we are, years later since my first playthrough, and now that I've finally gotten through the entire thing, what do I think of it? ...eh. It's ok, but let me explain myself. This review will be split into sections because with a big ass jrpg like this I have a lot to say.

Story:
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 no matter how you slice it is going for a completely different crowd in its writing and interaction. The story itself can be classified as a "Xenoblade" story but you only see that after Chapter 5 and then from there the game cuts the bullshit and actually tries to deliver a story worth telling. In my opinion the first 4 chapters are the biggest hurdles you have to go through in order to experience a semblance of interesting storytelling because those 30+ hours were miserable. Chapter 4 has to be the worst chapter in all of Xenoblade history, there's nothing of worth here and it's all pointless anime filler that amounts to nothing. You could remove this from the game and it would change nothing, that's how bad it is. Also it's stupid ass Tora focused and if you know anything about Tora, he's a huge creep who makes little girl robots in his basement like the 50 year old weirdo he is. Absolutely one of the worst characters in the game by far and every time he was on the screen I wish he wasn't. Poppi is ok tho, I feel like if she had to be in the game remove Tora and let her be her own character. But we'll get the characters soon enough.

Gameplay:
The combat in the beginning is so slow and boring, enemies are giant hp sponges and it takes way too long for you to actually start doing interesting things in combat. Ignore what anyone tells you, gacha is and will always be required to progress throughout the story and in the combat itself, it's not simply an optional thing like I was told, its a crucial mechanic you will need to learn and take advantage of in the game. If you don't like gacha in video games then i'm sorry this game will not make you change your mind. One of its biggest flaws is having to be so reliant on it, it locks behind story progression because there are certain field skills you will need to have to bypass areas just to progress the story. Your characters without any blades are useless as they need them to stand a chance to the enemy sponges and perform blade combos. If this doesn't sound fun to you then that's perfectly ok, I just gritted my teeth and just endured the amount of RNG bullshit this game had to be at times. I would have fun during a section and then boom field skills locking out my progression. It's pointless, it's annoying, and quite honestly killed off a lot of my enjoyment of the game. However, the more you progress and the more you go through the game you start to pick up on how it plays and then from there it starts to click, for me, it started to click when I was around level 75. ...which is like at the very near end of the game. jesus christ. Yeah overall the combat is NOT better than 1's in my honest opinion, it's overly simplified and also unnecessarily complex with the gacha management. I didn't even touch upon the poppi system and I don't want to because screw Tora. I didn't find it fun to just farm enemies and rather I did it out of a necessity. If you find this combat fun good for you man, more power to you. (Xenoblade 3 clears tho)

Characters:
Rex is so lame. From the very beginning he's just the same character until the end, he doesn't go through any growth, he doesn't experience anything life changing, he's just the same cardboard cutout protag we've seen done countless times. Except everyone in this game is attracted to him for some reason even though he has no redeeming qualities only other than the fact that he's an optimist. That's it. You cannot tell me straight in the eyes that Rex cares about anyone other than Pyra and Mythra because other than maybe Gramps he's shown no appreciation over his group of comrades he earns throughout the course of the story. In Xenoblade Chronicles 1 you felt like this group know each other, are close friends, have been through a lot, some don't even like each other when they first meet like Reyn and Riki. But as a JRPG group they're believable and everyone has chemistry with each other no matter how you slice it. In this game nobody feels like they know each other and the ones that do know each other are not in the spotlight anyways. Zeke, Morag, and Nia are the definite highlights of this entire game. If you go through the game and don't like these characters then you must not like good writing because man are they the only reasons I kept going. They easily stand out of the main cast and even the antagonists Jin and Malos were just a joy from start to end. That's one thing I will give XC2 credit, it has the BEST villains in all of the series, they're just so much fun to see on screen and someone like Jin has so much personality and story that further adds to his character. Screw it lets do a lightning round on these characters.

Rex: Boring, uninteresting, completely overhyped by his defenders. Is only interesting in Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed (play that one)
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Pyra: The weakest of the female blades and has nothing going for her other than she's nice, if you remove Pyra from the game nothing would change i'm sorry to say. I wish they did more with her. Also has the worst design in the game.
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Mythra: Easily the more interesting aegis and has history with people other than Rex which makes her more nuanced. Would've liked her more if she wasn't forced to fall in love with Rex because of how the game is structured but eh, you can't win them all. Good character tho.
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Nia: Amazing character from start to finish, definitely carried the beginning half of the game. Rex really fumbled with this one, but even as i'm saying this you know he actually didn't.
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Dromarch: A solid character too, no complaints here. I like him :)
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Tora: The worst character in the series, I wish he died somewhere in the story.
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Poppi: Ok, not bad but I hate how she's Toras blade and overly relies on him, even calling him master and that weird shit.
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Morag: YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH BEST GIRL BEST DRIVER WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Amazing design, badass character, should've been the protagonist.
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Brighid: Delightful. I love how much she gasses up her girlfriend, I love them so much.
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Zeke: The REAL protagonist of Zekeblade Chronicles 2, i'm sorry but if you don't think that you're objectively wrong in every single way. He does more than Rex ever does in the story, and actually talks to his companions and isn't just somebody who sits and watches from the sidelines. He carried the show for me, he's got a silly side but he knows when to be serious and his relationship with Pandoria is adorable.
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Pandoria: Pyra done right.
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Jin: The best anti-hero of the game, was really captivated through his own story and I got attached to his character as the story went on. Phenomenal.
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Malos: BEST. VILLIAN. EVER. Malos is a joy to watch from start to finish, there is not a single time where he's on screen and i'm bored he absolutely makes every scene he's in and you can tell with how his voice actor is giving in 100% to really sell us on this character driven by hatred. Peak. Enough said.

Music:
It's Xenoblade man what do you expect me to say, it's peak. Monolift Soft don't miss with these games osts.

Overall Thoughts:
While i'm glad I got to see everything this game had to offer I will admit it was still a mixed bag as I thought it'd be, there were many times where I wanted to quit because the game wasn't engaging enough or the characters were being stupid and annoying. If you really want to see what this game has going for it, and you're willing to put up with more bullshit than you can count. Then go for it, there's stuff here that's actually worth going for but overall I had a mid experience and I don't think i'll ever revisit this one sadly.

This game is fun! With a guide too!
Ok but honestly I did actually slightly for real this time like what I was playing more than I was with Zelda 1, not sure how hot of a take this is but I enjoyed Zelda 2 far more than I did Zelda 1. Once you really get past that tough as nails introduction the dungeons become pretty straight forward and having this game have like a leveling system reminds me of those very old jrpgs and that aspect was great. I'd say above everything this game is just mid, like not a real spectacular game but a game I didn't mind beating this time around and didn't actually cause me any frustration unlike Zelda 1 did.

Punch Out always fascinated me, it's one of those games you hear a lot about but have never played for yourself. So I decided to dedicate my time going through and beating every single title (There's only 3 not counting the inaccessible arcade one) and after finally beating this game without doing a billy mitchell I can say definitely, i'm a fan.
This is an old NES game, which if you're well inversed with these types of games it means they're hard, unforgiving, and brutal. Meant to keep you playing constantly. And yeah, this game is really hard. If you use save states I feel like you're not getting the true punch out experience, you need to feel those highs of finally beating that tough boxer you struggled on for days. (for me it was the sand man) and it's the greatest feeling once you do conquer the challenge.
While there's still some flaws in this games core design and its not the best entry, it's still a fun and enjoyable time learning the bosses and how to counter their movements. A game where only the best can step up to the plate, you either go big or go home. And for someone with the name "Little Mac" he goes nowhere but big.

I think this is one of the most fun 3D platforming characters i've ever had the pleasure of controlling.
Penny is just momentum the game, and everything she does strings together in this kind of flow state where you just want to speed through the level. I will say though this is not a perfect game, the bosses are annoying and the overall story is just not really interesting nor the characters for that matter.
What this game excels at most is gameplay, visuals, and music. Which in all honesty is all you need.

As a fan of the original NES version going to this one felt rough, it's not structured like the NES version at all, this one is trying to replicate the arcade feel with its emphasis on high-scores and how quickly matches go. I'm personally not a fan of this style of punch-out but I'm not going to call it a bad game, for what it does, it does it right. The sprite-work is amazing and the super bar is a great mechanic that i'm glad was brought over for Little Macs move set in smash. It wasn't fun to play for me personally but I understand why other people may enjoy it.

I think easily this games strongest suit is the exploration. It's so fun to just explore this unnamed house as the size of an ant, using pikmin like creatures to solve puzzles and collect things. It's a 3D Pikmin collectathon and it does its job super well, for an indie game its extremely well polished and I had no issues with it on that front. I do have an issue with how it handles its collectibles though, for some reason there is no way to track how many things you have in a level. Sure it'll show the counters for each thing you need but in terms of like a way of finding the ones you're missing? You're out of luck. That's why if you look this game up there's multiple forums of people posting about how they can't find those 5 missing pieces of pollen or 4 tinykin they missed. A simple fix would be to add a tracker you get for completing the speedrun challenges. It would be a nice incentive other than the optional outfits you get. Having customizable options is nice but I think a tracker would make the work you go through to get it feel worth it.
But yeah that's a main thing holding this game back from true greatness. Other than that, this game is fantastic.

Luigi doesn't deserve this. What happened here. This is even worse than New Super Mario Bros U. Did you ever play that game and wondered "man I wish levels ended super quickly and the controls were slippery and atrocious to play with" well congratulations, you got this game. Don't get me wrong, I understand the whole point was this central gimmick and Luigi more closely controls to his Mario 2 counterpart, but that doesn't make this experience any less tiresome. I've completed every single NSMB game to this point and call it burnout but this one did NOTHING for me. It's the same world map, the same uninspired visuals, the level design is different but it doesn't make it good. I did like how there's a hidden Luigi in every level but that was kind of it. I don't know why people actually like this one but to each their own. If you want to play this pick up the Switch port of NSMBU and you'll have it available from the get-go.

This was an April Fools joke, the amount of actual love, attention to detail, effort that was placed into this is staggering. It has its own unique ost, and there's just so much here to unpack it's crazy. While it's only like 1-2 hours it makes up for it with how charming it is, I can't find any faults here other than I wish they take this concept and build upon it in a more nuanced and expansive future game. Visual novels bore me to pieces, but Sonic was able to keep me invested all the way through. That's an achievement in itself.

After the commercial flop that was Paper Jam, where does AlphaDream go from here? Well why not remake a game that isn't playable on the 3DS? Thus, we have Superstar Saga DX. It's called this in Japan and its a better name than "+ Bowsers Minions" cause lets be real it rolls off the tongue easier. Plus the new Bowsers Minions just sucks, it's too slow and uninteresting to be its own mode. I think its cool that we get some context for what was happening behind the scenes of the main plot but the mode feels tacked on and not really worth going through. Nah what were here for is the base game being remade in the modern engine, and boy is this game beautiful. I still have a bias towards the sprite based worlds the GBA/DS had but this game keeps the 2.5D map traversal but enhances it with superb lighting that makes each area feel distinct. There were some major and minor tweaks made to the combat but it still roughly plays like a Mario and Luigi game, this time more closely resembling Inside Story which is not bad. It still keeps the things that makes Superstar Saga have its own identity so that's most important. It's a pretty faithful remake and if you somehow missed out on the original Superstar Saga then this is a great alternative. It just goes a little lower because of the Bowsers Minions mode.

After recently finishing the SNES Mario RPG for the first time getting to play the Remake months after was a solid experience. As a remake this might be one of the best out there, it's perfectly faithful and the new additions are all welcome and nice to have. But it does make the already easy game more easier to play, but in its defense the game was never trying to be this difficult RPG that required mastery of the player. It still lives up to its gateway beginner RPG nature that anyone can easily pick up and become a fan. So I understand why this was chosen to be remade, it can appeal to a wider market because the skill ceiling is so low.
Perfect for newcomers, but a fun return for veterans.

This game is actually a lot of fun, once you get past how bs it is to actually complete it. If you're like me (deranged) and like to play through every Yoshi game trying to get 100%, you will drive yourself mad with how annoying this game can be do it. But, there is one option you can do, a new feature in this rerelease known as "Mellow Mode" basically what happens is you have infinite flight and infinite eggs, you still take hits though so it's not entirely braindead. If you're planning on getting 100% which i'll say right now, it's not worth it, use mellow mode, it'll make your life easier.
With that out of the way, i'll just say that this game is very creative and the music is amazing, this is a solid 3DS port of a Wii U game, and I think its my preferred way to play. Sure the visuals aren't as strong as Wii U but this game still has the charm you'd expect from a Yoshi game. Right up there with the og Yoshis Island but that's going to be hard to top.

The black sheep of the Mario and Luigi series, and arguably the most darkest Mario game in the franchise. AlphaDream really stepped up their game here with the overall ambition for the sequel to superstar saga. It's a shame that this one was skipped when it came to getting an HD remake like Superstar and Inside Story did because I think this is one that deserves it the most. Not to say that there's huge flaws with the game but imagining what a Partners in Time Remake would look like is just nothing short of a dream. Considering AlphaDreams bankruptcy who knows if we'll ever get to see this game and the series for that matter in the future.
I will admit though it is a missed opportunity this game never really delved into the future aspect and instead all we got were the Past and Present versions of each area. I think the game would maybe double in length if that were the case but I think of how Sonic CD handled its time travel feature and how much detail was put in the future and past given the criteria you had to fulfil.
Idk i'm just spit balling here, great game still. Definitely worth your time, and its really short too.