Alright Crash fans, you've officially lost me again. I'm not seeing what others do in this one. I guess the devs really wanted to add more variety, but instead of expanding on Crash's gameplay and levels, we get a bunch of nonsense. Underwater Crash levels? Boring. Jet ski stages? Why. Motorcycle races? Kinda annoying. A bi-plane dogfight??? I can't fuckin' stand it anymore!

There is one big addition to Crash's gameplay. Actually, it's more like five additions. Every time you beat a boss, you get a new powerup. They're a little superfluous, but I did notice that the level design going forward accounted for whatever new powerup you just earned. It's minor things, like occasional chasms that require the super tornado spin to glide across, but they're there. The game also introduces time trial relics for every stage, and I will come clean right now, I couldn't give a shit about these if I tried. The level design in this game feels weaker in general, and I have to wonder if Naughty Dog designed the stages with the expectation that you'd come back for the relic races. For me personally, gaining access to a couple more levels by earning relics isn't nearly as fun as seeking out cryptic hidden exits like in Crash 2.

Presentation's about as good as the last game. Being taunted by your enemies before stages begin is a really nice touch. Cortex sounds so dejected for most of this game, it's genuinely kind of hilarious, and a bit sad. They take full advantage of the time warp theming with the enemy and area designs too. Shoutouts to the water during the jet ski stages. I honestly have no idea how the geniuses at Naughty Dog got the water looking that good. MARIO WiiU would be proud.

Yeah I got nothing else. Cortex and his gang can keep their gems. I've had enough, personally.

An interesting take on the "kart racer" type game. Is full of a lot of interesting mechanics that work surprisingly well with each other. And although the game's difficulty is more in the head-hurtingly hard territory, it's so much fun that I will keep coming back to it the next day if I rage quit it, no matter what.

Something unique to this game that I think is interesting is the ring system. Having to use ring's that you've collected on each course to maintain your speed adds a very fun dynamic to the races and can make for some interesting track designs.

Before any of the updates, one of the main problems I had with the game is how many of the courses would require impossibly precise turns that the physics of your kart would just not allow for to pull off smoothly. But after the changes made to certain classes' handling, just getting better at the game, and certain changes to the courses (one cup specifically had all of their tracks sized up by 25% WHICH MADE ME THANK GOD FOR LETTING ME LIVE ANOTHER DAY), the issue has become kinda non-existent at this point.

One day I will become cracked at this game but for now I'm okay with just being mediocre at it skill wise lol.

Trivia Time!

Chateau Romani was not actually a euphemistic replacement for beer! In fact, the Milk Bar was included as a reference to director Eiji Aonuma, whose everyday diet largely consists of alcoholic milk!

I mean, It's not even Egg Nog or anything, it's just... whole milk that somehow has 40% ABV. He won't tell us where he keeps getting it!

Stay tuned for more Trivia Time segments in the near future!

Trivia Time!

While you may know that Pikmin began as "Super Mario 128", a tech demo created to see how many AI-driven NPCs could run concurrently on the GameCube, you may not be aware that the change to 6 different colored tiny character models was a subsidized colorblindness test funded by the Japanese government.

Growing concerns of widespread colorblindness (and its close link to リグマー Disease) caused the Japanese Secretary of Health, Labour, and Welfare to reach out to Nintendo, requesting that colors such as Quant, Hoxozo, and Blorgle be added to a game in which telling colored characters apart would be crucial. Pikmin Director Shigefumi Hino devised the plan to include those three colors alongside the three hues which they are most often mistaken for: Red, Yellow, and Blue.

After much playtesting, it became apparent that over 95% of players only saw three colors of Pikmin, so rather than leaving the game unplayable for them, the total of individual roles of Pikmin was halved from 6 to 3, combining their abilities (fireproof Quant Pikmin and attack-buffed Red, for example). However, in accordance with the Japanese Cabinet's direction, each Pikmin rendered in-game would have a 50/50 chance of being Red or Quant, Yellow or Hoxozo, and Blue or Blorgle, respectively.

Are you able to tell Quant Pikmin from Red? Let us know if the comments below!

Stay tuned for more Trivia Time segments in the near future!

Trivia Time!

WarioWare is actually canon within the Zelda timeline! After using the Sheikah Slate to activate the Divine Beasts before the Great Calamity, Princess Zelda became increasingly enamored with the device. As you may know, King Rhoam eventually banned the Princess from continuing her research of ancient technologies, commanding her to focus instead on awakening her sealing power in preparation for the conflict with Calamity Ganon. But what you may not know is that the final straw for Rhoam was when Zelda came to him and showed him something she had been working on.

On the Sheikah Slate, Zelda had discovered how to program "microgames", and created cartoonish characters based on people she knew. Dr. Crygor was based on Robbie, Purah became Penny, and the King himself (due to his gruff demeanor) was reimagined as Dribble. While upset that his daughter had drawn him as an anthropomorphic dog, Rhoam was especially incensed by the idea that his daughter was becoming a "degenerate gamer", and, between dry heaves, he immediately forbade her from using ancient tech.

Stay tuned for more Trivia Time segments in the near future!