First GOTM finished for February 2022. A mostly enjoyable Zelda experience. The dungeons and bosses were fun, and the items were neat and fun to use. There is a TON to do in the overworld of this game, so that was fun to spend time wandering and experiencing many things. Most of all, the game is gorgeous, especially the parts where you are mini and the world becomes big around you. Unbelievable pixel beauty with this game. The Kinstone system, while an interesting way to interact with NPCs in the world, is way overused and poorly implemented as a reward system for many challenges and hidden areas. It's a neat idea, but leaves a bad taste in the mouth when used as a chest reward at the end of a mini-dungeon.

Third GOTM finished for February 2022. An enjoyable remaster of a classic! I actually ended up playing both the SNES and DS versions, and found the DS version to be superior in every way. Better sprites, more intuitive controls, better support system, and easier to tell a platform from the background. While I enjoyed the other levels, I hated the Arena. Probably a case of just needing to "git gud", but it nearly soured the overall experience for me. There are many different styles of gameplay to enjoy here, so you're likely to find something that you enjoy. Except the Arena.

I ran through Forever With You earlier in the year with an auto translator pointed at my TV screen and still adored it. This version is definitely not as good, and I was slightly worried that it was the one being translated. The missing voice acting is a bummer, but the power of this game still shines through and I could not stop playing all day. Highly recommended to anyone with even a passing interest in Japanese games as its influence is nearly incalculable. So glad this is available in English now.

Cool game, nice story, somewhat annoying characters.

Sadly, this game is extremely bloated, I can't fathom who thought it was a good idea to release another, even bigger game, making this one completely obsolete.

Also, japanese games should abandon stupid humor and ancient JRPG tropes that only please manchildren.

The Need for Speed series has been seriously confused and hurting since Most Wanted. While Shift was a simulator, the other ones in between have been either subpar or bad. Hot Pursuit revives the classic entry with the Burnout team behind the wheels, and this feels more like Burnout than Need for Speed, however. Using the Paradise engine Criterion did a good job making the game both look pretty and giving us a Burnout feel with real-world cars. These are slick cars ranging from Mustangs to Maseratis.

As the name would suggest it’s about cops versus racers, and each opponent gets a set of four weapons. Cops get EMP, Helicopter, Spike Strip, and Road Block. Each is pretty self-explanatory, but this feels like a glorified version of Burnout’s Road Rage mode. Racers get the same, but instead of a helicopter, and roadblock, they get a Jammer and Turbo which is an extra boost of NOS. Now you can earn turbo by doing crazy stuff as well.


The world map is also classic Burnout style with each icon labeled for racer or cop and there are previews, time trials, and special events for each side. There is also the Autolog which is a social networking type setup. Your friend’s best scores will be posted, and you can post screenshots and videos of your races. If a friend beats your score you can jump right into that race and try to beat it. While the single player is fun it’s the online stuff that makes the game shine with all the weapons. The single player feels predictable and stale compared to multiplayer because it feels like this game was made with multiplayer in mind. You earn bounty and have to hit certain goals in single player, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen in racing games already.

Once you race everything feels fine, but the steering tends to suffer drastically depending on road conditions and the car. Despite awesome damage modeling, the cars all feel pretty much the same, and the sense of speed is so fast that you don’t notice speed differences. This also concludes the repetition because once you unlock all weapons it’s just the same events over and over again, and some people may never even finish the single player due to this. The game can also look pretty good at times, but in other ways, it doesn’t.


The chaos comes from the fact that in multiplayer you never known what anyone is going to do. You can see a roadblock ahead and get your shot lined up to dodge it, but just then someone deploys a spike strip right in your face and you hit both losing a crap ton of health. You can take off again and try to shake off a helicopter, but then get hit by an EMP. It’s the same with racers, but this can also feel a bit unbalanced since racers biggest weapon is the jammer so cops can’t use their weapons for a few seconds. It all depends on the players’ skills and how they race really.


Despite the repetition and lack of weapons, the game works, but also notice all the Burnout references? There’s hardly any Need for Speed in this game despite the real world cards and the Hot Pursuit title. This is just a weird mix up of game identity, but it’s probably better a Burnout feeling than an old crappy NFS game rehashed. Criterion already had the engine built for something like this, so I expect to see a sequel in the near future. I do recommend this is Burnout fans more than NFS however, but old school Hot Pursuit fans will dig this completely.