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Sonic Adventure
1998
Before playing this game, the only 3D Sonic I ever played was Sonic Colors. And even then, a good chunk of that game was in 2D. So Adventure was my first fully 3D Sonic game ever. For years, I'd hear people say this game was broken beyond belief or just simple a "guilty pleasure" game that they enjoy despite being shit. While I did not love it like some people do, I can personally say I did not think the games were either of those things.
The game is broken up into 6 (technically 7 if you complete all other routes) character routes. You can play as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Big the cat and Gamma respectively. Each of these characters play differently from each other, whether it's for better or worse, and even tho each playthrough varies in quality, I can at least commend how ambitious this is. Because in each character's playthrough, you get different cutscenes and also context for certain scenes that may not be explained in earlier playthroughs. As my friend Lemonstrade said, it's sort of similar to what Drakennier does which again is super cool conceptually, especially for a 1998 game.
But back to the actual characters, Sonic is the clear best one here. He has his spin dash, is of course the fastest in the game and also has a super fun aerial dash. I've heard people say the controls are bad in this game and I simply don't get that at all. Sonic, at least, feels simply perfect to control. The levels on the other hand, I can see people having issues with. I disagreed with the fact this game is broken beyond belief, but it definitely can be a bit broken if you're unlucky. I only glitched through the stage like 2 or 3 times, but the first time it happened was on the very first stage. That made me think the entire game would be broken, but it wasn't. Unless I got lucky, those claims, while still credible sometimes...are massively overblown. Besides that though, Sonic's stages while still fun, can feel incredibly janky just because of how fast he goes. It's hard to explain but if you've played the game you'd know, a lot of times the animations and your movement through levels can feel very unwieldly. It can be really hard to control sonic sometimes, and it often looks super awkward when looking back at it. Like I said it's hard to explain, and while I still had a ton of fun with his levels (just because he feels so good to controls) I can't help but think thee levels feel off. Again, this is mostly when you're at full speed going through loop de loops and shit. When it's slower sections you're going through, it's not an issue.
As for the other characters, they all have significantly less stages than Sonic. Tails has you racing against sonic, and with him being able to glide, you can take some seriously crazy shortcuts. The game itself even encourages this which I thought was pretty neat. Knuckles has you searching for three master emerald shards. It's basically a treasure hunt, with the emerald icons turning different colors depending on how close you are to them. These were alright, but story-wise I wasn't really a fan. Honestly thought his story would be more different from Sonic's than it was, not to mention the final Chaos fight was barely different from Sonic's (and Tails had a unique fight for his ending). Amy was probably my least favorite character to use. Her levels consisted of getting to the end like Sonic, while running away from one of Robotnik's robots. Problem is, while her hammer bounce is kinda cool, her moveset isn't nearly as fun as Sonic's yet her levels are still long like Sonic's (which isn't much of an issue with Tails and Knuckles). That plus, besides the one Gamma scene, her cutscenes were lame. Big the cat is the most contentious character by far, and honestly I didn't hate him. Yeah his cutscenes are super dumb and don't add much to the story. However his campaign is by far the shortest, and the fishing is actually really easy (and kinda fun) once you get the hang of it. Gamma is by far the best character next to Sonic. Not only are his stages fast paced, with you having to kill enemies quickly to get more time to your total. His story is actually significantly different compared to the others, and quite touching at that. If I had to rank each character's campaigns, I'd say Sonic>Gamma>Tails>Big>Knuckles>Amy.
To go to each actual level, you have to navigate the hubworld. For a 1998 game, it's not bad but it can feel somewhat empty I felt. Though, there are things to get that aren't just apart of the main story. There are some optional collectables and even some minigames you can play. There's also the chao garden which, I tried to get to work but since I was emulating the game, I suspected there was an add on I needed or something idk. But from the little I've heard, it does sound fun.
The story in general, does have its high points, like the aforementioned Gamma campaign and the ending is really nice. It's simple but effective. However, the actual voice acting is horribly stilted a lot of the time. It's not even a so bad it's good situation, it was just mediocre a lot of the time. That is, except for Robotnik who is super over the top but hilarious. Even despite the fact they reuse fight dialogue in actual scenes (which is jarring for sure) his dialogue is super duper memorable and easily the highlight. Something else that was memorable were some of the face animations, goddamn are they awful sometimes.
I didn't like LOVE the soundtrack like some people do, but it is quite nice overall. Very experimental which I appreciate a ton. My favorite songs were probably Red Skull Mountain, Welcome to Station Square and Egg Carrier: A Song That Keeps Us on the Move.
Once you complete all 6 character routes, you unlock the 7th and final one..Super Sonic. This is essentially just the final boss and some closure on the story, but it's definitely satisfying. You become Super Sonic, defeat Chaos's final form at supersonic speed, and in turn this cleanses Chaos of his evil as we find out he wasn't ever bad from the start. The closure on the whole Chao's and the past cutscenes was really nice. That along with Gamma's scenes ofc, easily the highlights of the story.
This game is definitely flawed in some ways, and Adventure 2 might improve on everything in this game idk. But I can officially say, this game is overall good and that Sonic had a good transition to 3D. Not everything works in this game, but I can acknowledge this game is full of heart.
May drop it down to a 6 cuz I was feeling like that for a good while but for now it's a 7.
The game is broken up into 6 (technically 7 if you complete all other routes) character routes. You can play as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Big the cat and Gamma respectively. Each of these characters play differently from each other, whether it's for better or worse, and even tho each playthrough varies in quality, I can at least commend how ambitious this is. Because in each character's playthrough, you get different cutscenes and also context for certain scenes that may not be explained in earlier playthroughs. As my friend Lemonstrade said, it's sort of similar to what Drakennier does which again is super cool conceptually, especially for a 1998 game.
But back to the actual characters, Sonic is the clear best one here. He has his spin dash, is of course the fastest in the game and also has a super fun aerial dash. I've heard people say the controls are bad in this game and I simply don't get that at all. Sonic, at least, feels simply perfect to control. The levels on the other hand, I can see people having issues with. I disagreed with the fact this game is broken beyond belief, but it definitely can be a bit broken if you're unlucky. I only glitched through the stage like 2 or 3 times, but the first time it happened was on the very first stage. That made me think the entire game would be broken, but it wasn't. Unless I got lucky, those claims, while still credible sometimes...are massively overblown. Besides that though, Sonic's stages while still fun, can feel incredibly janky just because of how fast he goes. It's hard to explain but if you've played the game you'd know, a lot of times the animations and your movement through levels can feel very unwieldly. It can be really hard to control sonic sometimes, and it often looks super awkward when looking back at it. Like I said it's hard to explain, and while I still had a ton of fun with his levels (just because he feels so good to controls) I can't help but think thee levels feel off. Again, this is mostly when you're at full speed going through loop de loops and shit. When it's slower sections you're going through, it's not an issue.
As for the other characters, they all have significantly less stages than Sonic. Tails has you racing against sonic, and with him being able to glide, you can take some seriously crazy shortcuts. The game itself even encourages this which I thought was pretty neat. Knuckles has you searching for three master emerald shards. It's basically a treasure hunt, with the emerald icons turning different colors depending on how close you are to them. These were alright, but story-wise I wasn't really a fan. Honestly thought his story would be more different from Sonic's than it was, not to mention the final Chaos fight was barely different from Sonic's (and Tails had a unique fight for his ending). Amy was probably my least favorite character to use. Her levels consisted of getting to the end like Sonic, while running away from one of Robotnik's robots. Problem is, while her hammer bounce is kinda cool, her moveset isn't nearly as fun as Sonic's yet her levels are still long like Sonic's (which isn't much of an issue with Tails and Knuckles). That plus, besides the one Gamma scene, her cutscenes were lame. Big the cat is the most contentious character by far, and honestly I didn't hate him. Yeah his cutscenes are super dumb and don't add much to the story. However his campaign is by far the shortest, and the fishing is actually really easy (and kinda fun) once you get the hang of it. Gamma is by far the best character next to Sonic. Not only are his stages fast paced, with you having to kill enemies quickly to get more time to your total. His story is actually significantly different compared to the others, and quite touching at that. If I had to rank each character's campaigns, I'd say Sonic>Gamma>Tails>Big>Knuckles>Amy.
To go to each actual level, you have to navigate the hubworld. For a 1998 game, it's not bad but it can feel somewhat empty I felt. Though, there are things to get that aren't just apart of the main story. There are some optional collectables and even some minigames you can play. There's also the chao garden which, I tried to get to work but since I was emulating the game, I suspected there was an add on I needed or something idk. But from the little I've heard, it does sound fun.
The story in general, does have its high points, like the aforementioned Gamma campaign and the ending is really nice. It's simple but effective. However, the actual voice acting is horribly stilted a lot of the time. It's not even a so bad it's good situation, it was just mediocre a lot of the time. That is, except for Robotnik who is super over the top but hilarious. Even despite the fact they reuse fight dialogue in actual scenes (which is jarring for sure) his dialogue is super duper memorable and easily the highlight. Something else that was memorable were some of the face animations, goddamn are they awful sometimes.
I didn't like LOVE the soundtrack like some people do, but it is quite nice overall. Very experimental which I appreciate a ton. My favorite songs were probably Red Skull Mountain, Welcome to Station Square and Egg Carrier: A Song That Keeps Us on the Move.
Once you complete all 6 character routes, you unlock the 7th and final one..Super Sonic. This is essentially just the final boss and some closure on the story, but it's definitely satisfying. You become Super Sonic, defeat Chaos's final form at supersonic speed, and in turn this cleanses Chaos of his evil as we find out he wasn't ever bad from the start. The closure on the whole Chao's and the past cutscenes was really nice. That along with Gamma's scenes ofc, easily the highlights of the story.
This game is definitely flawed in some ways, and Adventure 2 might improve on everything in this game idk. But I can officially say, this game is overall good and that Sonic had a good transition to 3D. Not everything works in this game, but I can acknowledge this game is full of heart.
May drop it down to a 6 cuz I was feeling like that for a good while but for now it's a 7.
My Time at Portia
2019
Started because of Phyllis. She gets me acting up every single time.
It took me 10 hours to realize I actually don't like farming/life sim games. Even though it was such an 'obstacle', I enjoyed it while it lasted. After a while, everything started to feel like a 'burden' rather than an enjoyable experience. Everything feels so tedious and messy that I couldn't even finish building my first bridge during this time.
It took me 10 hours to realize I actually don't like farming/life sim games. Even though it was such an 'obstacle', I enjoyed it while it lasted. After a while, everything started to feel like a 'burden' rather than an enjoyable experience. Everything feels so tedious and messy that I couldn't even finish building my first bridge during this time.
Minit
2018
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.
You’ve already played this game
Don’t listen to dumbass game critics. This game is nothing like BOTW. It’s the same Ubisoft garbage except now you can climb walls.
Dragon's Dogma II
2024
Adventure games are an extremely popular genre, but when you really get right down to the specifics of what makes a game feel like a real adventure, I don't think any game comes nearly as close as Dragon's Dogma and its sequel. Every venture out of town is considered and planned, and those plans are subsequently broken in different ways on each excursion. For me, Dragon's Dogma II is a series of hits of the same high that Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom or even Death Stranding provides.
Dragon's Dogma II puts you in control once again of the Arisen, a character of your own making who is selected by the dragon to control Pawns. In addition to a Pawn who is also of your own making, you can have up to two Pawns created by other players to form your party of four. Pawns can be any of 6 vocations while the Arisen has access to a few more specialized ones, and your team composition determines your approach to battles. Combat is largely the same as the first game, where you pick your four weapon skills based on your vocation on top of a couple of other baked-in unique abilities. You can also pick up and throw smaller enemies (or friends), as well as climb all over bigger ones a la Shadow of the Colossus. There's a little something for everyone with each vocation, and I am a big fan of both the new ones (special shoutout to Mystic Spearhand) and the slight reworks to the old ones. While admittedly there isn't a great variety of smaller enemies (mostly the same as the first game with some slight variations on Harpies and Saurians) and the large monsters could be spread out a lot more evenly through the world, but I personally never got tired of fighting cyclopes' or minotaurs whether it was my first time or my tenth time. You definitely feel a good sense of getting stronger as you and your Pawns chunk through those health bars faster and faster.
For fans of the first game, you'll also find the plot structure is pretty similar. A mostly straight-forward fantasy adventure with very light political intrigue that gets a bit weird with it as you go on. Above most other games, I highly recommend playing DD2 without a guide because the plot is counting on both the player's (and their Pawn's) ability to figure out the right direction and even beyond that, make mistakes. I can't count on two hands the number of major quests I royally screwed up, and yet still stumbled my way through the story. Some quest lines will even straight up drop if you don't make your own effort to pick them up and continue them, and many side quests aren't even presented to you unless you happen to talk to the right people. Whether you are in or out of town, curiosity is at the forefront of DD2's design philosophy. While still a bit on the barebones side, the main plot does have a few cool set piece moments, and the last few hours especially were stellar.
As I mentioned in my opening paragraph, the real draw of this game for me was the moment-to-moment. The exploration, the adventure. I took the same route out of Vermund countless times as I explored the Western side of the country, and by the time I eventually reached my intended destination, something different always happened. Maybe I found a new cave I hadn't spotted before with a new Pawn's help. Maybe I was ambushed by a Minotaur and knocked across a river. Maybe a Drake landed and utterly destroyed my party. The term 'friction' has been thrown around a lot to describe this game and its become a bit of a buzzword, but it is absolutely true. Traditional fast travel is (mostly) discouraged so that the player can experience lots of moments like this. It's a constant battle of tradeoffs, is it worth picking a fight with that Cyclops while the party needs a rest? Oh no, a Gryphon just landed on us and it's time to find out if we are prepared to fight it, or lead it back to the city where a good number of people will probably perish (but can be revived if you've got the item to do so). I could go on and on about all the cool moments I encountered, and suffice to say I thoroughly explored the map as best I could in doing so. It's been so refreshing just playing an open-world game like this where I can open my map and point at a spot and think okay, I want to go there because I want to. There's no icon there (yet) so maybe I'll find something cool. It is the antithesis of guided checklist open-worlds.
To be absolutely clear, it is not a game for everyone. I am not trying to gate keep or be pretentious about it, but the focuses and game design philosophies behind Dragon's Dogma II (and Dragon's Dogma for that matter) are very specific. It is more often about the journey than the destination, and the lack of fast travel and direction will probably cause a lot of people to bounce off. But for me, this is exactly the type of game I have been craving and as a follow up to the first game, I am happy to say that Dragon's Dogma II is just more Dragon's Dogma. At least at the time of writing, it's my GOTY of 2024.
Dragon's Dogma II puts you in control once again of the Arisen, a character of your own making who is selected by the dragon to control Pawns. In addition to a Pawn who is also of your own making, you can have up to two Pawns created by other players to form your party of four. Pawns can be any of 6 vocations while the Arisen has access to a few more specialized ones, and your team composition determines your approach to battles. Combat is largely the same as the first game, where you pick your four weapon skills based on your vocation on top of a couple of other baked-in unique abilities. You can also pick up and throw smaller enemies (or friends), as well as climb all over bigger ones a la Shadow of the Colossus. There's a little something for everyone with each vocation, and I am a big fan of both the new ones (special shoutout to Mystic Spearhand) and the slight reworks to the old ones. While admittedly there isn't a great variety of smaller enemies (mostly the same as the first game with some slight variations on Harpies and Saurians) and the large monsters could be spread out a lot more evenly through the world, but I personally never got tired of fighting cyclopes' or minotaurs whether it was my first time or my tenth time. You definitely feel a good sense of getting stronger as you and your Pawns chunk through those health bars faster and faster.
For fans of the first game, you'll also find the plot structure is pretty similar. A mostly straight-forward fantasy adventure with very light political intrigue that gets a bit weird with it as you go on. Above most other games, I highly recommend playing DD2 without a guide because the plot is counting on both the player's (and their Pawn's) ability to figure out the right direction and even beyond that, make mistakes. I can't count on two hands the number of major quests I royally screwed up, and yet still stumbled my way through the story. Some quest lines will even straight up drop if you don't make your own effort to pick them up and continue them, and many side quests aren't even presented to you unless you happen to talk to the right people. Whether you are in or out of town, curiosity is at the forefront of DD2's design philosophy. While still a bit on the barebones side, the main plot does have a few cool set piece moments, and the last few hours especially were stellar.
As I mentioned in my opening paragraph, the real draw of this game for me was the moment-to-moment. The exploration, the adventure. I took the same route out of Vermund countless times as I explored the Western side of the country, and by the time I eventually reached my intended destination, something different always happened. Maybe I found a new cave I hadn't spotted before with a new Pawn's help. Maybe I was ambushed by a Minotaur and knocked across a river. Maybe a Drake landed and utterly destroyed my party. The term 'friction' has been thrown around a lot to describe this game and its become a bit of a buzzword, but it is absolutely true. Traditional fast travel is (mostly) discouraged so that the player can experience lots of moments like this. It's a constant battle of tradeoffs, is it worth picking a fight with that Cyclops while the party needs a rest? Oh no, a Gryphon just landed on us and it's time to find out if we are prepared to fight it, or lead it back to the city where a good number of people will probably perish (but can be revived if you've got the item to do so). I could go on and on about all the cool moments I encountered, and suffice to say I thoroughly explored the map as best I could in doing so. It's been so refreshing just playing an open-world game like this where I can open my map and point at a spot and think okay, I want to go there because I want to. There's no icon there (yet) so maybe I'll find something cool. It is the antithesis of guided checklist open-worlds.
To be absolutely clear, it is not a game for everyone. I am not trying to gate keep or be pretentious about it, but the focuses and game design philosophies behind Dragon's Dogma II (and Dragon's Dogma for that matter) are very specific. It is more often about the journey than the destination, and the lack of fast travel and direction will probably cause a lot of people to bounce off. But for me, this is exactly the type of game I have been craving and as a follow up to the first game, I am happy to say that Dragon's Dogma II is just more Dragon's Dogma. At least at the time of writing, it's my GOTY of 2024.
Mario Kart 7
2011
I got this game along with my 3DS and Super Mario 3D Land on Christmas of 2011. I only just got into Nintendo the year prior with the wii and as such, this was my first of the DS line of systems. I remember loving both 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 back then though jumping forward to 2024, both entries seem pretty safe in each of their respective series. While I still think 3D Land is pretty meh, coming back to Mario Kart 7, I will say yeah it's pretty good! Can it be seen as one of the most forgettable entries in the series though, yeah I can totally see it.
The first thing I'll get into are the courses. This time around, the new courses are honestly, mostly forgettable I think. The new rainbow road is one of the best in the series and it does have some memorable tracks like DK Jungle, Piranha Plant Slide and Music Park (tho perhaps those are the most memorable because they're also in 8 lol) but the majority of them, idk man I just don't care for all too much. I don't think any of them are bad but compared to Wii's excellent selection, it's a major downgrade. On the plus side though, the retro selection is probably the best it's been thus far. A big reason is the addition of Wii stages. Mushroom Gorge, Coconut Mall, Maple Treeway and Koopa Cape. Literally all the fan favorites from Wii are here and they're all solid versions for the most part. Koopa Cape's ending though is not nearly as fun as before. It was changed from a current of water under you making you go super fast while dodging these electric obstacles to a way slower underwater section where you dodge cheep cheeps. Biggest downgrade from any stage which is a shame but the course is still fun overall. The rest of selection of retro courses is really good too. Fan favorites from DS return like Waluigi Pinball and Airship Fortress which are way better picks than some of the DS courses that were in Wii. GCN courses are really good here too with them picking Dino Dino Jungle and Daisy Cruiser. Even the SNES course picks are decent just cuz one of them is Rainbow Road and with the modern driving mechanics is super fun.
Speaking of modern mechanics, this game brought back the trick system from Wii and also added a couple other new additions. The trick system was awesome from Wii and thank god it's been a mainstay ever since cuz future titles would have felt a bit lacking. The other two things this game added are underwater driving and gliding. Underwater driving is definitely the worse of the two. It's cool at first but it's just driving but you're slower in accelerating and drifting. Gliding tho is pretty fun. They changed the old stages to add these two mechanics and gliding usually has new shortcuts associated with it. Are either as fun as half pipe ramps from wii though? Definitely not cuz even though gliding is fun it still slows you down compared to driving unless you're taking a big shortcut. I think both are decent additions but not really anything substantial like tricks were in Wii.
Something else this game added was customizable kart parts and the return of coins. The kart parts idea is interesting but mostly unnecessary imo as I almost 100% of the time just use the same setup each time. You can mix and match stats how you like but idk I think I prefer how past games handled karts. Coins returning also doesn't really do anything for me. Yeah it's cool seeing them again as they haven't been in a game since Super Circuit but their only purpose like in that game is to increase your top speed. That and they unlock the various kart parts so you'll need to grind a decent amount if you want em all. Both additions don't hinder the game but they also just don't do much for me.
For being the 2nd Mario Kart on a DS system, you'd think it'd be much improved from DS. In terms of graphics, hell yeah it is. The character models are more similar to Wii in quality and honestly are better in certain characters (like Bowser). This is a massive improvement from DS which frankly had pretty ugly models. This is nice and all but when it comes to the battle mode and the lack of missions, this is a downgrade from DS. The battle mode is better than Wii since you aren't forced into teams anymore but there's still no elimination mode as you have to wait until the timer ends. That plus the track selection is worse than DS makes it a decent downgrade from that game. Still better than Wii and especially vanilla 8's but not the best I think. Also, no missions? Those were so fun in DS and this game has nothing. Like, I can excuse Wii and 8 since those are console titles so something like missions which works well on a portable title wouldn't be quite as fun. But 7 has no excuse so it's somewhat disappointing.
Last thing is the character selection is quite weak. Look I love Mario galaxy but honey bee?? Metal mario, Lakitu and Wiggler aren't terrible but those over Waluigi?? When Waluigi pinball is in this game???? Just baffling tbh and a pretty big downgrade from Wii's and even DS's selection.
Also, just something random, online play still works as of now though I think it's gonna end soon. Played a couple courses and it's fun but man almost everyone that joined are pros that play this game daily or something it's crazy. But the online is actually pretty good for the most part so I recommend giving it a go while you can
I'm giving this a 7 for now cuz I do think it's pretty good and it does some things really well (like the retro selection). But besides that, and even then that's just past content, I feel like there's really no reason to go back to this one when DS, Wii and 8 just does all the other aspects so much better. Didn't think I'd be so negative on this one (sorry about that) cuz I enjoyed it a ton back in the day and it's still a good game to this day! But when people say this one just feels like another Mario Kart, I can kind of understand that tbh. Ah well, anyways vanilla 8 is next because yeah I said I'm going to play them all and I'll stand by that so stay tuned for that one!
The first thing I'll get into are the courses. This time around, the new courses are honestly, mostly forgettable I think. The new rainbow road is one of the best in the series and it does have some memorable tracks like DK Jungle, Piranha Plant Slide and Music Park (tho perhaps those are the most memorable because they're also in 8 lol) but the majority of them, idk man I just don't care for all too much. I don't think any of them are bad but compared to Wii's excellent selection, it's a major downgrade. On the plus side though, the retro selection is probably the best it's been thus far. A big reason is the addition of Wii stages. Mushroom Gorge, Coconut Mall, Maple Treeway and Koopa Cape. Literally all the fan favorites from Wii are here and they're all solid versions for the most part. Koopa Cape's ending though is not nearly as fun as before. It was changed from a current of water under you making you go super fast while dodging these electric obstacles to a way slower underwater section where you dodge cheep cheeps. Biggest downgrade from any stage which is a shame but the course is still fun overall. The rest of selection of retro courses is really good too. Fan favorites from DS return like Waluigi Pinball and Airship Fortress which are way better picks than some of the DS courses that were in Wii. GCN courses are really good here too with them picking Dino Dino Jungle and Daisy Cruiser. Even the SNES course picks are decent just cuz one of them is Rainbow Road and with the modern driving mechanics is super fun.
Speaking of modern mechanics, this game brought back the trick system from Wii and also added a couple other new additions. The trick system was awesome from Wii and thank god it's been a mainstay ever since cuz future titles would have felt a bit lacking. The other two things this game added are underwater driving and gliding. Underwater driving is definitely the worse of the two. It's cool at first but it's just driving but you're slower in accelerating and drifting. Gliding tho is pretty fun. They changed the old stages to add these two mechanics and gliding usually has new shortcuts associated with it. Are either as fun as half pipe ramps from wii though? Definitely not cuz even though gliding is fun it still slows you down compared to driving unless you're taking a big shortcut. I think both are decent additions but not really anything substantial like tricks were in Wii.
Something else this game added was customizable kart parts and the return of coins. The kart parts idea is interesting but mostly unnecessary imo as I almost 100% of the time just use the same setup each time. You can mix and match stats how you like but idk I think I prefer how past games handled karts. Coins returning also doesn't really do anything for me. Yeah it's cool seeing them again as they haven't been in a game since Super Circuit but their only purpose like in that game is to increase your top speed. That and they unlock the various kart parts so you'll need to grind a decent amount if you want em all. Both additions don't hinder the game but they also just don't do much for me.
For being the 2nd Mario Kart on a DS system, you'd think it'd be much improved from DS. In terms of graphics, hell yeah it is. The character models are more similar to Wii in quality and honestly are better in certain characters (like Bowser). This is a massive improvement from DS which frankly had pretty ugly models. This is nice and all but when it comes to the battle mode and the lack of missions, this is a downgrade from DS. The battle mode is better than Wii since you aren't forced into teams anymore but there's still no elimination mode as you have to wait until the timer ends. That plus the track selection is worse than DS makes it a decent downgrade from that game. Still better than Wii and especially vanilla 8's but not the best I think. Also, no missions? Those were so fun in DS and this game has nothing. Like, I can excuse Wii and 8 since those are console titles so something like missions which works well on a portable title wouldn't be quite as fun. But 7 has no excuse so it's somewhat disappointing.
Last thing is the character selection is quite weak. Look I love Mario galaxy but honey bee?? Metal mario, Lakitu and Wiggler aren't terrible but those over Waluigi?? When Waluigi pinball is in this game???? Just baffling tbh and a pretty big downgrade from Wii's and even DS's selection.
Also, just something random, online play still works as of now though I think it's gonna end soon. Played a couple courses and it's fun but man almost everyone that joined are pros that play this game daily or something it's crazy. But the online is actually pretty good for the most part so I recommend giving it a go while you can
I'm giving this a 7 for now cuz I do think it's pretty good and it does some things really well (like the retro selection). But besides that, and even then that's just past content, I feel like there's really no reason to go back to this one when DS, Wii and 8 just does all the other aspects so much better. Didn't think I'd be so negative on this one (sorry about that) cuz I enjoyed it a ton back in the day and it's still a good game to this day! But when people say this one just feels like another Mario Kart, I can kind of understand that tbh. Ah well, anyways vanilla 8 is next because yeah I said I'm going to play them all and I'll stand by that so stay tuned for that one!
Mario Kart 8
2014
Back in the day, I was a huge fan of the Wii U. I got one for Christmas a month after it came out and for a long while, I would get every single big release. Mario 3D World, Pikmin 3, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, some great titles released early on into the consoles life cycle so I was always looking forward to the next big Wii U game. Fast forward to May of 2014, I got my hands on Mario Kart 8 the day it came out. I loved 7 back in the day and was absolutely ecstatic for 8's release. Once I finally was able to play it, I knew it would be THE game I'd be playing with friends for a long while. Though honestly in retrospect, while I still played it a decent amount with my buds, I ended up playing Smash 4 and even it's better version Mario Kart 8 Deluxe a lot more. Still, even if there's no reason to go back to this one when Deluxe is a thing, it's still great in its own right.
The initial aspect I noticed all those years ago was just how damn amazing this game looks. And yeah, it still looks amazing to this day. Idk what Nintendo was cooking but this was easily the best-looking Wii U game like ever, with Pikmin 3 coming right behind it. Not only are the new tracks all so vibrant and just super clean looking with its more realistic shading and texture work, all the retro courses got this treatment too and they're simply wonderful to look at. Like I said, this game still looks beautiful to this day, and it's almost 10 years old at this point! It's crazy really.
A big reason this game's tracks look so good visually is due to the game's new gimmick. While underwater driving and gliding are still in the game, Mario Kart 8 also added zero gravity. This leads to some amazing looking and feeling track design with how the track can curve all around any which way. It gives new tracks so much character and retro tracks are better than ever because of it. Like for example GBA Mario Circuit. Very boring track outside of 8 but 8's anti gravity section has a section of the track totally elevated off the ground and just makes an otherwise unmemorable track, super memorable. Same thing happens with Toad's Turnpike where you can literally drive on the walls, passing a lot of traffic if you choose to do so, and this wall driving happens in several other courses too. Underwater driving is meh, gliding is cool but anti-gravity as a gimmick is just so awesome and I'm glad it's used so well and so often in 8.
Going into more depth on the track selection, it's actually really great overall. While I still think Wii easily wins in the original track selection department, 8 just uses the anti-gravity mechanic so well it's hard not to like 8's selection too. Cloudtop Cruise was always my favorite but you have some other really good tracks like Mario Circuit, Mount Wario, Thwomp Ruins, Sunshine Airport and Toad Harbor. My favorites from Wii's selection definitely trump most of these but this is still one of the better selections of original tracks in the series. Now with the retro tracks, I know I said 7 has the best selection but thinking on it, 8 probably has the best in the series. The anti-gravity additions to many of the tracks just adds so much and the glide pads also added to a lot of them was nice too. It would've been cool if every retro stage had anti-gravity added to them but they added it to a good chunk of them so I can't complain. All this plus these retro tracks just look absolutely gorgeous.
However, there weren't just 8 cups this time around. If you got the DLC, which I did, you were able to race on 12 cups in total. It was $12 for both DLC packs and it added 4 cups, 6 new characters and 8 new vehicles. The 4 new cups have some alright tracks, some solid ones and some absolute bangers like Wario's Gold Mine, SNES Rainbow Road and Ribbon Road. It also added an excite bike course, an Animal Crossing course, a Zelda course and two F Zero Courses. It was basically a crossover pack since with the characters, it also added Link and the villagers. While it is a bit weird seeing non-Mario characters in the game, it's still really cool and is also really amazing value wise. Also with this DLC came a free update which gave players the option to race on 200cc. This is a cool addition, and more content is always nice, tho it was never my preferred way to play since it can just be so awkward going that fast on these courses. Still, it can be fun just seeing your friends rage when they fall off the track going that fast. At this point, this was the most amount of characters and courses in any Mario Kart game so you'd think it'd be hard to not call it the ultimate Mario Kart game. Well, sadly there's a couple issues I have outside of the stuff I mentioned.
The biggest issue people have and yeah, it's a pretty big one for me too, is the bad battle mode. Instead of having battle mode specific courses, they decided to pick a handful of race courses for you to play on instead and it just doesn't work. More enclosed and smaller maps works well for battle mode since players will always be in the action. But with normal race courses, a lot of the time it's hard to find players unless you deliberately stay on each other's asses the whole time. Bottom line is, it just doesn't work really and there's a reason people shat on it when the game came out.
Another, smaller issue I had, was the character selection. It's better than 8's but not only did they add another baby in baby Rosalina (which makes no sense if you know her back story), they added all 7 koopalings as separate characters and something as dumb as pink gold peach. Having something like pink gold peach but not diddy kong or birdo or boswer jr.?
Just disappointing on the new character selections even if I mained Ludwig back in the day. Still, at least this game has Waluigi and the DLC at least added Dry Bowser back as well the crossover characters.
Even with the less than great character roster and possibly the worst battle mode in the series, the other things this game does so well, it elevates it to still being great in my eyes. There may be absolutely no reason to play this version of 8 when deluxe is a thing, but I can't deny this game's immense quality when it comes to the racing. Though honestly I do think Wii is the best in the series up to this point, we'll see how Deluxe stacks up when I get to that next. So look forward to that one as it will be the finale of this Mario Kart marathon!
The initial aspect I noticed all those years ago was just how damn amazing this game looks. And yeah, it still looks amazing to this day. Idk what Nintendo was cooking but this was easily the best-looking Wii U game like ever, with Pikmin 3 coming right behind it. Not only are the new tracks all so vibrant and just super clean looking with its more realistic shading and texture work, all the retro courses got this treatment too and they're simply wonderful to look at. Like I said, this game still looks beautiful to this day, and it's almost 10 years old at this point! It's crazy really.
A big reason this game's tracks look so good visually is due to the game's new gimmick. While underwater driving and gliding are still in the game, Mario Kart 8 also added zero gravity. This leads to some amazing looking and feeling track design with how the track can curve all around any which way. It gives new tracks so much character and retro tracks are better than ever because of it. Like for example GBA Mario Circuit. Very boring track outside of 8 but 8's anti gravity section has a section of the track totally elevated off the ground and just makes an otherwise unmemorable track, super memorable. Same thing happens with Toad's Turnpike where you can literally drive on the walls, passing a lot of traffic if you choose to do so, and this wall driving happens in several other courses too. Underwater driving is meh, gliding is cool but anti-gravity as a gimmick is just so awesome and I'm glad it's used so well and so often in 8.
Going into more depth on the track selection, it's actually really great overall. While I still think Wii easily wins in the original track selection department, 8 just uses the anti-gravity mechanic so well it's hard not to like 8's selection too. Cloudtop Cruise was always my favorite but you have some other really good tracks like Mario Circuit, Mount Wario, Thwomp Ruins, Sunshine Airport and Toad Harbor. My favorites from Wii's selection definitely trump most of these but this is still one of the better selections of original tracks in the series. Now with the retro tracks, I know I said 7 has the best selection but thinking on it, 8 probably has the best in the series. The anti-gravity additions to many of the tracks just adds so much and the glide pads also added to a lot of them was nice too. It would've been cool if every retro stage had anti-gravity added to them but they added it to a good chunk of them so I can't complain. All this plus these retro tracks just look absolutely gorgeous.
However, there weren't just 8 cups this time around. If you got the DLC, which I did, you were able to race on 12 cups in total. It was $12 for both DLC packs and it added 4 cups, 6 new characters and 8 new vehicles. The 4 new cups have some alright tracks, some solid ones and some absolute bangers like Wario's Gold Mine, SNES Rainbow Road and Ribbon Road. It also added an excite bike course, an Animal Crossing course, a Zelda course and two F Zero Courses. It was basically a crossover pack since with the characters, it also added Link and the villagers. While it is a bit weird seeing non-Mario characters in the game, it's still really cool and is also really amazing value wise. Also with this DLC came a free update which gave players the option to race on 200cc. This is a cool addition, and more content is always nice, tho it was never my preferred way to play since it can just be so awkward going that fast on these courses. Still, it can be fun just seeing your friends rage when they fall off the track going that fast. At this point, this was the most amount of characters and courses in any Mario Kart game so you'd think it'd be hard to not call it the ultimate Mario Kart game. Well, sadly there's a couple issues I have outside of the stuff I mentioned.
The biggest issue people have and yeah, it's a pretty big one for me too, is the bad battle mode. Instead of having battle mode specific courses, they decided to pick a handful of race courses for you to play on instead and it just doesn't work. More enclosed and smaller maps works well for battle mode since players will always be in the action. But with normal race courses, a lot of the time it's hard to find players unless you deliberately stay on each other's asses the whole time. Bottom line is, it just doesn't work really and there's a reason people shat on it when the game came out.
Another, smaller issue I had, was the character selection. It's better than 8's but not only did they add another baby in baby Rosalina (which makes no sense if you know her back story), they added all 7 koopalings as separate characters and something as dumb as pink gold peach. Having something like pink gold peach but not diddy kong or birdo or boswer jr.?
Just disappointing on the new character selections even if I mained Ludwig back in the day. Still, at least this game has Waluigi and the DLC at least added Dry Bowser back as well the crossover characters.
Even with the less than great character roster and possibly the worst battle mode in the series, the other things this game does so well, it elevates it to still being great in my eyes. There may be absolutely no reason to play this version of 8 when deluxe is a thing, but I can't deny this game's immense quality when it comes to the racing. Though honestly I do think Wii is the best in the series up to this point, we'll see how Deluxe stacks up when I get to that next. So look forward to that one as it will be the finale of this Mario Kart marathon!
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
2017
After getting my Switch on launch along with Breath of the Wild, I was excited to see what games the console would have in the future. I bought Master Blaster Zero and eventually The Binding of Isaac for the third time, but a month and a half later Mario Kart 8 Deluxe came out. Now look, this may be a rerelease and all but it was for a portable console. Mario Kart 8 was great but I could only play it at home and with a game like Mario Kart, its more fun to play it on the go with friends. When this came out, I was nearing the end of my Junior year in High School. Let me tell you, me and my friends played this all the time during the span of the rest of my high school experience. We played it in lunch, we played it in study hall, we even played it in class whether it was sneaking it or just when we had free time. This was THE Switch game to play when it came to my friend group alongside Jackbox Party Pack 3. It's just a ton of fun and while I said it was a rerelease, it's not just a lazy port. They not only included the DLC tracks, but they also added some new characters and revamped the battle mode.
I said the character selection was a bit lacking in the original game but the ones they added here are all good. Bowser Jr, King Boo and Dry Bones are all good additions that were in past games. The completely brand-new addition tho is Inkling Girl/Boy. Now, I was a huge Splatoon 1 fan before this so I was hyped when they were added. I mained them a lot when I first played and honestly, they're a perfect crossover addition just cuz Splatoon was originally supposed to be a Mario game which I found funny. This isn't even getting into the characters they added from the booster course pass. Most of those are also great, tho I haven't used them myself since I don't own the booster courses. If you do though, easily the best roster in the series.
The other thing they fixed of course is the battle mode. Easily the worst part of the original game and the worst battle mode I've played, it's really good here. Not as good as Mario Kart DS since there's still no option to have it be elimination rules, however you're not forced into teams like Wii and there's a whopping 5 modes this time around. Balloon battle and coin runners are classics of course. Shine thief makes a return and it's also pretty fun here. Bob-omb blast apparently originated from Double Dash and that's also fun tho definitely the most chaotic of the bunch. The brand new mode this time around is renegade roundup and its basically cops and robbers. Pretty fun mode as well but the real reason these are all actually fun is they gave us battle courses again THANK GOD. The old courses are great and some of the new courses are awesome too like Urchin Underpass. Love to see a little Splatoon representation since it didn't get a race track.
So there you go, the character selection was expanded and while not my favorite battle mode, the battle mode was made actually fun again. The only other thing they added, and they added it 5 years after deluxe came out, are the booster courses. Now I don't own them but my good friend Quent has the expansion pass so along with him and my friend wheatie, we played a bunch of online races for this review and I was able to play pretty much all the courses I wanted to. I didn't play them all but I can see the course quality varies greatly. You have some really half assed tracks and then you have really great ones like Yoshi's Island or SNES Bowser's Castle. A lot of the returning ones are Wii courses which is a plus too. Obviously most of these are just straight up ported from Tour and the visuals on a lot of them are pretty unacceptable compared to the base game but, if you don't care about then then the value of 48 tracks for $25 is great. That's basically 50 cents a track plus the added characters. Not only that but they added the ability to choose custom items, plus a music player in the main menu.
With the slightly better character roster and the MUCH better battle mode, I can say this is definitely THE definite Mario Kart. Though I may end up liking Wii a tad bit more now due to it's wacky physics. Either way, definitely a must have as a Switch owner and as a Mario Kart fan.
Well, that's the end of the Mario Kart marathon everyone unless I end up actually playing Tour lol. Been playing Persona 3 FES this whole time alongside these games and I'm in December now so I think I'm nearing the end of it, stay tuned for that review!
I said the character selection was a bit lacking in the original game but the ones they added here are all good. Bowser Jr, King Boo and Dry Bones are all good additions that were in past games. The completely brand-new addition tho is Inkling Girl/Boy. Now, I was a huge Splatoon 1 fan before this so I was hyped when they were added. I mained them a lot when I first played and honestly, they're a perfect crossover addition just cuz Splatoon was originally supposed to be a Mario game which I found funny. This isn't even getting into the characters they added from the booster course pass. Most of those are also great, tho I haven't used them myself since I don't own the booster courses. If you do though, easily the best roster in the series.
The other thing they fixed of course is the battle mode. Easily the worst part of the original game and the worst battle mode I've played, it's really good here. Not as good as Mario Kart DS since there's still no option to have it be elimination rules, however you're not forced into teams like Wii and there's a whopping 5 modes this time around. Balloon battle and coin runners are classics of course. Shine thief makes a return and it's also pretty fun here. Bob-omb blast apparently originated from Double Dash and that's also fun tho definitely the most chaotic of the bunch. The brand new mode this time around is renegade roundup and its basically cops and robbers. Pretty fun mode as well but the real reason these are all actually fun is they gave us battle courses again THANK GOD. The old courses are great and some of the new courses are awesome too like Urchin Underpass. Love to see a little Splatoon representation since it didn't get a race track.
So there you go, the character selection was expanded and while not my favorite battle mode, the battle mode was made actually fun again. The only other thing they added, and they added it 5 years after deluxe came out, are the booster courses. Now I don't own them but my good friend Quent has the expansion pass so along with him and my friend wheatie, we played a bunch of online races for this review and I was able to play pretty much all the courses I wanted to. I didn't play them all but I can see the course quality varies greatly. You have some really half assed tracks and then you have really great ones like Yoshi's Island or SNES Bowser's Castle. A lot of the returning ones are Wii courses which is a plus too. Obviously most of these are just straight up ported from Tour and the visuals on a lot of them are pretty unacceptable compared to the base game but, if you don't care about then then the value of 48 tracks for $25 is great. That's basically 50 cents a track plus the added characters. Not only that but they added the ability to choose custom items, plus a music player in the main menu.
With the slightly better character roster and the MUCH better battle mode, I can say this is definitely THE definite Mario Kart. Though I may end up liking Wii a tad bit more now due to it's wacky physics. Either way, definitely a must have as a Switch owner and as a Mario Kart fan.
Well, that's the end of the Mario Kart marathon everyone unless I end up actually playing Tour lol. Been playing Persona 3 FES this whole time alongside these games and I'm in December now so I think I'm nearing the end of it, stay tuned for that review!
Persona 3 Reload
2024
I never played the original game, probably won't do this justice so I'll keep it short.
I feel I've figured out quite some things about life, as someone in their mid twenties. Even so, sometimes one cannot help but waver about what do they truly want, what truly is important to them and many other questions that strike our minds from time to time.
This game delves into these uncertainties and much more, on what gives us purpose and what keeps us going foward, what it truly means to be alive. It tells us that to live is to suffer, to bond, to forge memories that will make us what we are and we will keep forever, to accept what we cannot change and to change what we can. Always accompanied with the fateful reminder that to live is to die.
I feel like deep down most of us know this, even if we struggle to come to terms with it which is even harder in modern society, we are constantly told that only success regarding your ambitious career path or job can lead to a truly fulfilling life, but our hearts know otherwise.
In this game, you will accompany many people on their journey to find one's purpose and meaning, and while doing so finding your own. Rushing your way through days and months with an addictive calendar system, making sure to make the best out of every afternoon and evening to max every social link and social stat so you can enjoy the wonderfull characterization that this game offers. The soundtrack is breathtaking and I cannot overstate how much I appreciate how varied it is and how it accompanies so well the state of the game you are currently in.
The gameplay is fun, played it on hard difficulty even if I was playing on easy for a while, which made it boring, so I ended up going back to hard not to regret it.
The themes are all over the place, everything fits them in the game even if some style may have been lost with the remake.
I have always struggled with the concept of death, the death of others and my own. This game resonated with me on a very personal level and I will cherish my memories of it.
"The arcana is the means by which all is revealed. Celebrate life grandeur, it's brilliance, it's magnificence."
My only regret is not having played this back when i was a teenager.This game truly is an ode to life, and it's absolutely beautiful.
I feel I've figured out quite some things about life, as someone in their mid twenties. Even so, sometimes one cannot help but waver about what do they truly want, what truly is important to them and many other questions that strike our minds from time to time.
This game delves into these uncertainties and much more, on what gives us purpose and what keeps us going foward, what it truly means to be alive. It tells us that to live is to suffer, to bond, to forge memories that will make us what we are and we will keep forever, to accept what we cannot change and to change what we can. Always accompanied with the fateful reminder that to live is to die.
I feel like deep down most of us know this, even if we struggle to come to terms with it which is even harder in modern society, we are constantly told that only success regarding your ambitious career path or job can lead to a truly fulfilling life, but our hearts know otherwise.
In this game, you will accompany many people on their journey to find one's purpose and meaning, and while doing so finding your own. Rushing your way through days and months with an addictive calendar system, making sure to make the best out of every afternoon and evening to max every social link and social stat so you can enjoy the wonderfull characterization that this game offers. The soundtrack is breathtaking and I cannot overstate how much I appreciate how varied it is and how it accompanies so well the state of the game you are currently in.
The gameplay is fun, played it on hard difficulty even if I was playing on easy for a while, which made it boring, so I ended up going back to hard not to regret it.
The themes are all over the place, everything fits them in the game even if some style may have been lost with the remake.
I have always struggled with the concept of death, the death of others and my own. This game resonated with me on a very personal level and I will cherish my memories of it.
"The arcana is the means by which all is revealed. Celebrate life grandeur, it's brilliance, it's magnificence."
My only regret is not having played this back when i was a teenager.This game truly is an ode to life, and it's absolutely beautiful.
