this is probably very obvious to most people, but if you liked breath of the wild or thought that it was flawed but a good jumping off point for a sequel, you will probably enjoy tears of the kingdom. however, if you thought breath of the wild was bad as a game and/or as a direction for the series, tears of the kingdom is not going to make you a fan.

the dungeons are better, but they're still formatted like in breath of the wild. the shrines are better, but they're still shrines. the bosses are much better, but they're still fought with the same combat system. the world is technically bigger, but it's built off of the same world as before. the story is definitely better, but it's still shown and told the same way. the construction gimmick gives you and arguably encourages more avenues to experiment with the game's systems, but they're still the same systems. there's still korok seeds, there's still bad swimming, and the enemy variety still leaves a lot to be desired. it's a game that does a good amount to polish the game that came before it, but it still is adamant about being it's own type of zelda and that won't be for everyone.

for me personally, i enjoy tears of the kingdom as a sequel to breath of the wild and that's how i've chosen to view the game because that's what it was trying to be. the traditional zelda aspects, while improved somewhat, haven't been improved nearly enough for me to see it as a good zelda in the same way i see other zelda games as good zeldas but it wasn't trying to be other zeldas and to some extent that's okay with me, but it won't be for everyone.

not at all worth $70 though (no game is)

Déjà ça fait plaisir que cette suite existe vu comment le premier jeu a pas du tout eu la reconnaissance qu'il mérite , c'est une bonne suite mais elle est pas aussi bonne que le premier jeu

Le scénario a des idées intéressantes mais il traine un peu trop en longueur sur certains points et les fins alternatives contrairement au premier y'en a qu'une que tu peux vraiment considérer comme une fin le reste bah c'est juste comme si ça te coupais en plein milieu d'un gros événement, les plots twist aussi sont bons mais moins que le premier jeu , les nouveaux prota restent très cools et leur relation avec leur partenaire aussi mais encore une fois c'est un peu en dessous de celle de Date-aiba dans le premier jeu après c'était très haut niveau donc je peux comprendre c'est dur de faire aussi bien

Par contre ils ont rajouté des phases d'analyse de scène de crime clairement inspiré des ace attorney investigation et ça c'est cool , les somnium sont toujours aussi originaux et biens foutus et comme avec le premier jeu t'a 50000 ref de pop culture.
Bref c'était bien cool pas aussi bien que ce que je m'attendais mais il vaut le coup franchement

Overhated, c'est le jeu pokémon qui tente et apporte plus de nouvelles choses avant la Switch et c'est rafraîchissant.

C'est grâce à ce jeu que sont arrivés les formes régionales qui est facile le meilleur concept de la licence derrière les méga-evolutions , le tour des îles a place des arènes c'était original et sympa avec les pokémon dominants a affronter et les ultra chimères sont bien cools.

La région d'alola est superbe et a la meilleure ambiance c'est même la meilleure région elle donne le plus envie a l'exploration.

Les seuls vrais défauts du jeu c'est la difficulté il est un peu trop facile même pour un jeu pokémon et le contenu postgame est pas ouf mais a part ça ce jeu s'est juste fait cracher dessus pour rien alors que c'est l'un des meilleurs de la licence

The fact that Nintendo is carrying characters and franchises nostalgic to four generations of gamers, in addition to appealing to a current generation of children pushes them, like most longrunning broad appeal companies, to try and thread the needle between such wide ranges of different people, age demographics, and different investment in mastering video games. While there’s certainly a host of Nintendo titles that lack that appeal amongst older gamers or are too difficult to get a lasting experience out of for those more inexperienced with games, that balance between easy to comprehend design and absolutely fanatical skill curving has led to games like Super Mario 64, Super Smash Bros Melee and sure enough, Breath of the Wild to be both nostalgic and accessible for kids of their era, while having all kinds of insane potential to crack with their game systems.

The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom feels like this philosophy at its absolute apex. In equal turn I can see people make their way through with the bare necessities for strength boosts and paragliding, while you can look online and see the insane mechanical contraptions possible for optimizing combat and traversal to an incredibly efficient degree.

Once again, the ability to trade for Hearts or Stamina throughout the game can allow for a certain level of difficulty modulation, but also tying attack options to weapons, rather than grinding out Link’s character stats, puts more pressure on your ability in the action and less on accidentally outfitting yourself the wrong way. It provides enough extrinsic motivation for a plot that gets you thinking with more involved stops along that narrative, while also intrinsically offering the world as the massive playground for experimentation via a vast assortment of utilitarian approaches. Extrinsic motivators like the Shrines, (even when puzzle ones are often easier than BotW’s) further encourage the possibility to take their ideas further intrinsically using the overworld. Plus of course, elements you would expect from a sequel, like improved enemy variety and more specialized combat scenarios (a sixth of the shrines are no longer one miniboss repeated 20 times over at various difficulties).

Breath of the Wild was a game that made a statement. Its focus was on emergent gameplay and player discovery over an involved narrative and a designated route to setpieces meant to be shown in a specific way. Completing every dungeon gave you powers to make the finale easier, but every payoff was segregated. I would argue though, that Breath of the Wild was so thoroughly committed to this idea that it wasn’t worth trying to top it in this department. We already have the more minimalist take on the thinly populated world with an obvious, straightforward final confrontation but the journey being wholly devoted to what you make of it. Tears of the Kingdom opts not to push this further, and instead to respec itself while simultaneously being both more plot driven AND more free at the same time in different areas. It is absolutely worth noting that in place of the minimal storytelling which predominantly served to justify why Link exists to travel the world at all, Tears presents itself as more story-driven from the jump with the short but more guided preamble. It’s a choice that won’t be for everyone who preferred BotW’s deliberately simple approach in the name of player freedom, but I think it’s one that makes sense with where it was heading and a means to allow this game to stand out as a sequel in other ways.

This is also apparent in game design decisions like having a main central hub of named characters to converse with, and particularly the new spread of the memories.
In BotW, the memories were hidden in very small specific spots in the overworld with little indication of where without a guide, in the hope that you’d run into them while exploring, but not that they played a substantial part in the Defeat Ganon quest. In this game, they ABSOLUTELY want you to get those memories, not only by making it a main quest but also putting them in giant Geoglyphs (marked inside a chamber) that can be seen no matter how high above the ground Link is. Which is good, because the plot contained within those memories is less building your own background as much as a parallel plot involving Zelda and the choices she makes in further understanding herself and considering what’s necessary to help your journey along. For a game series entitled The Legend of Zelda, this installment really presents just how much sway Zelda has upon the entire world while you, in contrast, are the fixer guy. You are the way forward, but not the influence. There are many questlines I discovered over my 120 hours of play devoted to every which way most of the world was very carefully ruined in your absence and your ability to be a problem solver in any which place you choose to.

Back in Ocarina of Time, a seven-year timeskip allowed Ganondorf to turn the entire world on its head through a permanently blackened sky and the world’s central hub being turned abandoned, populated by zombies instead of people. In this game, in far shorter a timeframe he played things more crypto in your absence by outright ruining Hyrule’s infrastructure in numerous smaller ways less obviously noticeable even in a more populated land, but that goes further and further the more you chose to engage with the world. It’s a smart villain move on his end that has a shockingly effective payoff conveyed through story and gameplay together after pursuing the main dungeon tasks.

Reconciling with your past was a main driving force in Breath of the Wild if you chose to pursue story, but just as Link can build all kinds of crazy tech magic machines and bizarre powerful weapons, you’re actively building a more settled world up to a brighter future. In taking a cue from the second half of Wind Waker, you’re guiding partner characters through the dungeons to grow them into who they are. Their abilities are substantially less broken than those from Breath of the Wild, but that ties into the story, since the BotW Champions were experienced, top warriors employed by the castle guard, while the Sages here are being grown into them, made stronger by the concept of exploration in the world they no doubt helped you with. It’s one of several examples of the game willing to respect and not replicate elements when it feels like it would help its own vision. The Divine Beast assault sequences, while formulaic and scripted, could feel very intense in the moment and tiring if repeated too closely in this game, so instead, dungeon buildup is an extension of normal gameplay but varied by region. While one area involved a lot of high-flying platforming, another took on more of a base assault format and this, alongside more distinctive temples and boss fights, helped to make its main story tasks stand apart despite the repeated song and dance upon finishing a dungeon. The ending as well, despite similarities in form to the previous game’s, is given a more distinct function in relation to what makes this game stand out and, in my opinion, greater emotional resonance.

And all this is just in the main intended plot goals! Rarely have I played a game where it’s so easy to constantly be distracted from just HOW MUCH you are able to interact with at any one time. It’s incredibly impressive that for a map so large, almost everywhere you go has optional engagements both present, and out in the visible distance, whether they be character based, combat based, or puzzle based. This is a game where even components that would seem like copy and paste tasks in any other open world game can vary wildly in terms of how you accomplish them. Sign Guy is probably the prime example of this creative thinking on display. Everywhere you see him trying to spread the good word about his boss, trying his best to arrange signs in totally different ways. Usually, you’re given enough tools around his area, but it inspires an incredible creativity to make even tries at a repeated task stand out with your weird creative standing fused structures. Another element that greatly helps with this discovery is the delineation of quest lines, where the instant a quest is started, you’re made aware of whether or not it’s a brief more simplistic quest for a basic reward, or a multi-tiered quest with more story added to it. The repopulation of Hyrule after stopping Calamity Ganon in Breath of the Wild provides the perfect in-universe opportunity for so many more people to exist for sidequests that are more memorable than BotW’s, even if I don’t think any hit the high of the Anju/Kafei quest from Majora’s Mask.

The Depths is admittedly less curated on the whole, but it’s a meaningful venture, providing some of the easiest access to mechanical creation tools, enhancing long term use of these tools, as well as some of the strongest weapons and enemy encounters in the game. It’s a distinct take on the classic Dark World concept from A Link to the Past combined with the Nether from Minecraft. And of course, the Lightroots. These beacons deliberately standout amidst the pitch-black landscapes, but the fact that they mirror Shrine positions is incredibly intuitive for exploration. Once you find a Lightroot where you don’t have a Shrine, or vice versa, it provides another opportunity to say “there’s something on this spot, but how will I find out what it is, how will I reach it, and what on my path would provide the next distraction?”

As sentimental as it may seem saying this, Tears of the Kingdom is also an immaculate representation of gaming as a universal experience where numerous approaches can be lovingly shared. No two players will experience everything the game has to offer in the same way, and the sense of experimentation you could see from the more dedicated Breath of the Wild players is further spread to even casual players, while the insane crowd creating all kinds of mecha and war crime devices is given the opportunity to indulge with a much higher creation ceiling. From something as simple as using a rock weapon to fill a hole when finding a Korok, shield surfing as a means to avoid a rail balancing act, creating a barely held together tower of objects in place of understanding how to work a rowboat, or having fully decked flying death machines to quickly slay the indomitable Gleeoks, there’s an impressive array of possibilities Nintendo allowed for in their massive sandboxes.

There will always be quibbles. I wish you could create your own favorites list when selecting materials. The dungeons, while greatly improved over BotW to the point of being slightly above Wind Waker’s now, are still well open to be made more extensive like the other past 3D Zeldas. I wish the Sage Awakening cutscenes were made distinct for each dungeon, the means to acquire Autobuild made more upfront during the main quest, Mineru’s role in the story a bit more, the cutscenes lip synced to the English dub (although you can switch to original Japanese, so mostly moot point) and it would REALLY help if this game wasn’t limited by 8-year-old hardware regarding occasional performance dips, but the overall vision that this game accomplishes is sublime. It’s rare a video game sequel can be such a monumentally meaningful iteration on what already presented an incredibly robust path forward for explorative freedom and system creation in AAA gaming, but director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, his team, and Monolith Soft managed to top themselves in ways we didn’t even know we wanted. Trying to follow this up will be an incredibly difficult venture I fear for, but I hope that with the promise of improved hardware on the horizon, this team can continue to show that next-gen is more than just graphical leaps, but using mechanics, talent and budget to let the story told from strong design ethos meet the story every player uses the game to create for themselves.

“Harmony of Dissonance”? er, more like…. “Harmony of PISSonance”!!!

is what I would have said if I hated the game, but no I really enjoyed it actually

going from Circle of the Moon to this in just a few days is….interesting. I’m not saying Circle of the Moon was bad, I quite liked it, I’m more or less stating that these two games have very different vibes, which makes sense as Koji Igarashi (AKA IGA the Metroidvania Guy) is actually directing this one unlike the former game. while Circle of the Moon has you going through a mostly normal looking Dracula’s Castle (as normal as it can be) with easy to figure out pathways, Harmony of Dissonance has you venturing to a psychedelic non-Dracula’s Castle full of crazy and inconsistent environments all within a confusing labyrinth. what I’m saying is that this game is mental

here you play as Juste Belmont, grandson of Simon Belmont and he and his friend Maxim Kischine investigate a mysterious castle where their childhood friend, Lydie Erlanger has been kidnapped inside. Maxim is quite an interesting fellow. unlike Hugh Baldwin who treated NATHAN GRAVES: RIGHTFUL PROTAGONIST OF CIRCLE OF THE MOON like absolute dirt for most of the game, Maxim here is an actual bro, as he leads you to the castle himself and splits up not to prove himself better but just to cover more ground and collect more information the next time you two meet up, he even gives you an item to access a locked door at one point. unfortunately even bros aren’t perfect. prior to the events of the game, Maxim collected the remains of Dracula to try and defeat him just like Simon did all those years ago. naturally this goes horribly wrong, and the end result leads to the creation of two incomplete castles, as well as a manifestation of Maxim’s dark side roaming about. really the moral of the story is to not collect dead body parts of a demonic being (unless the being in question inflicted a curse onto you then it’s A-OK)

it’s some more of the usual Metroidvania stuff, nothing to go wrong with here. Juste controls pretty good. he has the Vampire Killer which you can equip with upgrades later on, he can use the usual Castlevania sub-weapons as well as a new one called the Sacred Fist, and not only does he have a back dash but a forward dash as well, which makes traveling between areas much faster than in the previous games. if the wall jump from Circle of the Moon was present, we’d have Juste zipping around the castle like a Mega Man X character, unfortunately we can’t have nice things. it’s fine though, as Juste can instead use the power of Spell Books he can find, which allow him to cast various magic spells depending on what sub-weapon he currently has equipped. thankfully the Spell Books aren’t rare drop rates like the CotM’s cards as you can find them lying around in certain areas of the game so no more repeatedly defeating the same enemy over and over again! in total there’s 31 Spell Fusions, though admittedly I have not experimented with many of them in my playthrough, and that’s because some of the spells you can use are way too powerful. the two in particular I used for most of the game are the Bible + Ice Book and the Bible + Bolt Book. the Ice Book spell has you fire off two giant waves of water to the sides of the screen, which not only deals a lot of damage but gives you a long invincibility period on top of that, and the Bolt Book spell summons two hexagonal gears in front of you which can defeat every regular enemy in about 1-4 hits and takes down bosses very quickly, oh yeah it’s also a Gradius reference too so that’s pretty neat. you can get through the entire game just fine with those two combinations alone, but feel free to experiment if you don’t want to curbstomp everything so easily.

as for the castle, you have to go through two of them, A and B. unlike in Symphony where the second one was upside down, here it’s mostly the same layout outside of different backgrounds and tougher enemies, which means you don’t have to transform into a bat every thirty seconds to navigate the place. on the other hand, this does lead the two castles to being somewhat samey, which makes sense from a story standpoint of course, but I can understand why others would be bothered by this. for me I don’t really mind as having the same layout means I already know where most of the locations are so I don’t end up being confused too often. I can remember that “oh the save point in Castle A was over there so it’ll be right here in Castle B as well” or even look over to the A+B map and check the rooms that I haven’t got to in the castle I’m currently in. plus with how the bosses and enemies are laid out in Castle B, you’ll be going through the areas in a different order than you would in Castle A. I was about to go onto a brief tangent on how the Warp Rooms don’t function like they did in SotN and CotM in that they only take you from Castle A to Castle B instead of transporting you to a different section of the castle. as I was writing this review and doing more research, it turns out the Warp Rooms can do that, you just need to hold down instead of up for it to do so. now I could use the excuse that the game doesn’t explain how to do this clearly, but you’ll get a Hint Card that does just that. the Hint Card in question says “Kneel before the round gate to be taken to a different place.” so yeah I’m just a dumbass, don’t make the same mistake I did.

then you have the bosses, and they certainly exist. the bosses might be my least favorite aspect of this game, fighting against them is sort of a nothing burger. even if you aren’t abusing your magic spells, they’re just not that interesting as they’ll just use the same two or three attacks for the entire fight. then at a certain point the bosses are suddenly able to kill you in four hits no matter how high your health bar’s gotten, so yeah kinda wack. they’re a few good ones, namely one of the bosses right near the end, but for the most part they’re just there. real quick I want to bring up the Relics of this game. there’s not that much of them actually, and only three of them give you more movement options, one of which isn’t until near the end. the main reason I’m bringing this up is because I really think the Crushing Stone and Crush Boots should have been relics. I mean I’m not really too bothered by having to equip and unequip the two items when I need to use them it doesn’t really take that long, but it kinda baffles me how there are so few relics in this game and they never thought once that these two should been apart of them.

finally I’d like to discuss is the furniture sidequest of sorts that you can do. throughout the game you can find random furniture that you can place in an empty room in the castle. you can’t really interact with the items in the room or get anything too amazing out of completing the room, all that happens is Lydie holds onto Juste’s arm in the ending so to all you Lydie fans out there, they got you covered. I think it’s just a neat little goofy thing you can do in this otherwise dark and mysterious storyline. I love the implication that Juste has an interest in home decor to the point that he wants to decorate some random room in a castle he doesn’t own. I know we’re not getting any new Castlevania games any time soon, but it would be fun to imagine a Castlevania spinoff where Juste Belmont is going around to various buildings to decorate their interiors while Maxim and Lydie are there to help him out as assistants. hey if we’re not getting anymore mainline Castlevania then make this into an actual game hire me Konami (not really though I don’t want to work at Konami)

so the graphics are an interesting topic. before I start talking about this, I must admit that for my playthrough I used the recolor patch, so my cred is unfortunately not the greatest, nevertheless I must discuss it. in a great contrast to CotM, HoD’s graphics are much brighter and colorful, giving the castle a unique surreal vibe compared to all the ones that came before. looking back the color choices aren’t really terrible, the purple sky in The Wailing Way is neat, the green in the Room of Illusion compliments the flowing lava there, the crystal room in the Castle Treasury is awesome, and even the crazy red and blue background during the final boss, while undeniably a bit of an eyesore, is still pretty cool and trippy looking. unfortunately for every section with cool colors, there’s going to be another section that’s mostly nothing but gray. gray in the Entrance, gray in the Marble Corridor, gray in the Castle Treasury, the gray in the Luminous Cavern is especially excessive. There is a bit of exaggeration coming from me here, but man that’s a lot of gray what is this the Game Boy??? the sprite colors are mostly fine, even though Death’s purple for some reason. the purple actually looks fine in the portrait but his actual sprite looks a bit too pinkish. the biggest offender for me is Juste, his actual colors aren’t bad but he’s constantly surrounded by this blue outline. I get that it’s there so players don’t lose track of him, but for me that blue outline just looks way too distracting, to the point of it being the main reason I chose to play the recolor mod. looking back though the default colors are actually pretty nice, it’s just a mixed bag when it comes to some areas. if I ever do a second playthrough I’ll make sure to go through it normally.

as for the music….well from what I know, most people that have played this game consider this game’s music to be a low point, and to that I say: did we even listen to the same soundtrack? yeah that’s right, I enjoy this game’s music. I’m not even saying this to be special or anything, I genuinely think it slaps. now I’m not saying it’s a masterpiece in composition or anything, I just think the soundtrack is better than what a majority of people give it credit for….except for Offense and Defense that’s definitely a masterpiece my god man. but yeah I don’t really mind the quality I quite enjoy how GBC music sounds, in fact the music even takes me back to Akumajou Densetsu, and anything that reminds me of how that game sounds is cool in my book. now for my favorites, Name Entry is groovy and a nice callback to an obscure Castlevania track I didn’t know about until recently. Successor of Fate is a neat introduction to what you’ll be going through in this journey. Skeleton Den is amazing for a place full of sentient skeletons that want you dead. I absolutely love that beginning buildup with Chapel of Dissonance which speeds up the further the song goes. I’ll Sell at My Place is probably one of the hardest short looped tracks I’ve heard, it’s just a shop theme yet it sounds like something I’d hear in Wario Land. even the more moody and atmospheric tracks like Approach to Despair, To the Center of the Demonic Castle, and Aqueduct of Dragons are great, they really sell the unknown fear that embodies the entire castle. I’m sorry I can’t bring myself to hate this game’s music. I’m not expecting a grandeur cinematic score or anything, especially from the GBA, all I want is a soundtrack memorable and catchy enough to bring me back to listen when I’m done playing the game, and it did exactly that.

so Harmony of Dissonance: is it flawed? yeah very, but I still had a great time with this game. there were definitely moments where I was scratching my head on what to do at certain points, but at the end of the day it didn’t stop me from exploring every nook and cranny because I was having fun. I just have this urge to go “aaaa I need to 100% this place!!!” whenever I’m placed inside one of these castles, I like seeing what everything has to offer in these games. there are rooms for improvement which I will hopefully see in the next game, so I’m counting on that one to impress me even further.

maybe I enjoy this game more than I should but I don’t care, Juste is a professional decorator and I think that’s funny

me and the gang Soma Cruising into Dracula’s Castle

I’ve heard very great things about Aria of Sorrow in particular so I’ve had high expectations going into this game, like let’s say at least 9/10 expectations. however seeing as you can see my rating right there, I won’t beat around the bush and instead go straight into the point.

the year is 2035, fur coats and bell-bottoms are back in style as Soma Cruz goes out to watch the solar eclipse with his definitelynotgirl-friend Mina Hakuba at her shrine. out of nowhere, the two are transported into Dracula’s Castle where they meet up with Genya Arikado (real clever name there buddy) who informs Soma that he has the ability to absorb the souls of monsters and orders him to go to the master chamber while intentionally leaving the situation vague. along the way Soma will meet many other wacky characters such as Graham Jones, a dude who’s 99% not evil or anything, Yoko Belnades, a member of the Church whose investigating the castle, Hammer, an army soldier who was sent to investigate as well but decided “nah I’m going to open up a shop in Dracula’s Castle instead”. lastly there’s J, some amnesiac dude who lost his memory back in 1999, the same exact year that Dracula was finally destroyed for good, hmmmmmmmm. If I had to describe what the vibe of this story’s like, I’d say it’s an in-between of Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night, more-so RoB outside of the art style, but it does start to hit SotN territory near the very end. I think some of it is due to how you’re not playing as a professional hardened vampire hunter like most of the games from before. Soma’s instead a pretty goofy guy. not only does he appeal to the male fantasy but he also believed that the story of Dracula was a fairytale (well he’s not wrong outside of his universe). for the most part he’s just some regular high school dude trapped in a castle until he isn’t but that’s a bit of spoiler territory so I won’t go into that whole plot twist here.

so yes you must once again traverse the Metroidvania and I have to say out of all the castles so far, this one was the least confusing to go through, and that’s good. on top of that it’s also the shortest one yet which surprised me as I was expecting another castle or just a longer one to get through, but hey that just means it doesn’t overstay its welcome. I think the reason why it’s not as long as the others is because they instead put their focus on the newly introduced Tactical Soul mechanic. Sometimes when you defeat an enemy, there’s a rare chance you can absorb the soul they have. there’s four types of Tactical Souls in the game: Bullet Souls which let you perform an enemy attack similar to how a sub-weapon would be used, Guardian Souls that let you use various abilities by pressing or holding the R button, Enchanted Souls that give you unique attributes or boost stats without draining your MP, and Ability Souls that give you active abilities to traverse areas of the castle. every regular enemy in the game has a soul you can absorb, that’s pretty impressive once you think about it. not only that, but you can also have one of each of the main types (red/blue/yellow) on at each time rather than being restricted to just one, so you can just mish-mash any combination you want and just go wild, which will net you a great amount of replayability.

that said, I do have one problem with them, and it’s that some of the souls in the game have ridiculously low drop rates, returning us back to Circle of the Moon enemy grinding. the one in particular that comes to mind is the Lightning Doll soul which I needed to stand a chance against Death. I could have sworn I took at least an hour leaving and coming back to the same room, defeating those dumb dolls, and not getting anything out of them. eventually I did get the soul and ended up becoming a bit overleveled for the Death fight and a brief portion of the game after that, but man did that take a while. eventually you get the option to buy the Soul Eater Ring from Hammer’s shop that increases the rate of soul drops, but good luck getting it without money strats since it costs a whopping 300,000G. so you either spend a bunch of time grinding money to purchase the ring, or spend a bunch of time defeating enemies over and over without it, there’s not really an easy way out. oh yeah equipable weapons are back, didn’t really have a good opportunity to bring it up back there. not much for me to really say except that the best weapon’s hiding around only halfway in the game inside a hidden wall, it’s literally just lying there, no grinding or purchasing acquired. to be honest I was hoping to see more futuristic weapons or even futuristic stuff in general in this since it takes place in 2035 but it’s not really a deal breaker, I’ll take my succubi disguising as shrine maidens as well as my handguns to shoot them with.

on a bit of a side note, there’s a bonus mode you can unlock after completing the game at least once that lets you play as Julius Belmont, a member of (surprisingly) the Belmont clan. Julius is BUSTED for real; immense attack power, high health bar, insane movement options, he’s supposed to be a Belmont but instead he ends up feeling like Goku. bro can really turn a 5-hour long game into a 5-minute long game, that’s how powerful this dude is, the only way you’re going to get a game over with this guy is if you’re intentionally going out of your way to do so. he can’t access the shop or use other weapons and healing items like Soma can but he really doesn’t need them, all he needs is his trusty Vampire Killer and a couple of sub-weapons. not too difficult honestly but you’re playing as a Chad Belmont, maybe the Chaddest of all the Belmonts so can you really complain?

for the graphics this comes to no surprise, they’re great. the Metroidvania Castlevanias are almost guaranteed to have smooth and detailed spritework, so you can expect to see more of that in this one. on the GBA brightness spectrum, I’d say it’s an in-between between the previous two games color palettes. it's not too dark, but it's not too bright….it's just right. I don’t really have much to say here, I think most of the color choices are fine. the only two I feel like could have been a bit better are some of the areas in the Underground Reservoir and the first phase of the final boss. a lot of the areas in the reservoir have this odd turquoise color scheme that makes the area look like some sort of ice cave, nothing too major but maybe a muter color palette could have helped. as for that first phase, your vision is kinda impaired during it since everything is just….gray, neat callback to Harmony of Dissonance with that one. while we’re on the topic of the final boss, can I say how crazy it is? it feels like there’s at least four different attacks going at the same time with that thing and it’s just nuts, not to mention all the tiny bullets flying everywhere that are not only a pain to avoid but can juggle you into other attacks meaning you have to heal yourself ahead of time. man what a nightmare, I was starting to get PTSD flashbacks to Scarlet Symphony during that mess.

on the bright side let’s move onto the music, and yes I’d say it’s pretty good. the composition sounds more similar to Circle of the Moon, and on top of that the music is a lot more catchy and action-packed. a bit ironic since the game’s opening starts off with a slow and calm mysterious theme with the Prologue, great track by the way one of my favorites. then the Castle Corridor theme plays and now it’s good old Castlevania time, with an epic GBA guitar to boot! the Chapel has more of a menacing and foreboding tension going on, while Study gives the vibe of something Bach or Beethoven would have composed. Dance Hall unironically sounds like clown music I cannot take it seriously. it’s not a bad track by any means it just sounds so unintentionally goofy that I was taken back when I first heard it during my playthrough. Clock Tower sounds relatively normal when it first starts but then out of nowhere it starts bringing the DOOM guitar out of nowhere and all of a sudden it’s now a rock song. this might seem a little odd, but Floating Garden, Underground Reservoir and Forbidden Area all kinda sound like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon tracks to me. am I the only one who thinks that or does anyone else think so too? Premonition is the perfect cutscene music for Castlevania, and Dracula’s Fate is also perfect for what occurs when it plays. Confrontation is a pretty alright boss theme, but Formidable Enemy is where it really goes hard, especially when it brings out the trumpet and the song starts going DOOT DOOT DOOT DOOT. of course how could I forget Heart of Fire, the theme of Julius Belmont who we’ve already established is a Gigachad that for some reason has not gotten any women in the 55 years he’s been alive, life really done my bro Julius dirty. honestly the only thing truly holding this game’s soundtrack back is that it’s stuck on the GBA. the tracks already sound good on their own but if they had CD quality then they’d for sure be even more amazing.

I was debating on whether this game is either four stars or four and a half stars worthy. in the end I decided to go with the latter as this is a great beginner-friendly game if you want to get into the Metroidvania styled Castlevanias. I’d still say Symphony is a little better in that regard since there’s so many ways to make the game easier for you, but you can’t go wrong starting with this one instead. as for overall, this is definitely one of the best Castlevanias, only being beaten by Rondo and Symphony. Rondo is just a hella neat platformer, and Symphony’s soundtrack and sound effects are unparalleled, at least when it comes to Castlevania. Aria definitely has a better designed castle though so they’re pretty neck-to-neck really. so yes I was not disappointed, Aria of Sorrow was pretty epic and now I shall become one of many to shill this game to you. check it out, you'll have yourself a fun time.

Underground Cemetery is the best track btw

Tetris DX is very nostalgic and special to me as I actually owned a physical cartridge of this game back in my youngling days. I have a lot of memories playing this on my old GBA that for the most part I can’t seem to remember because I usually only tend to remember the stupid moments instead of the fun ones. I kinda recall getting the Space Shuttle cutscene at least once, I mean that probably could have been a false memory but I’d like to believe I was that cool back then.

if you played the Game Boy Tetris then Tetris DX is pretty much identical but there’s a few different things going on. DX’s Marathon goes out to Level 30 rather than Level 20 but rather than having the same difficulty curve, DX’s speed increases at a slower rate which means you have more time to ease into the increase of difficulty. you can also save your score in this version so you don’t have to worry about that disappearing whenever you turn the game off. DX also has an improved DAS (Delayed Auto Shift) and if you don’t know what that means, well me neither I just learned the term as I was typing this, but basically the pieces are less annoying to move around. lastly there’s a VS mode where you can compete against a CPU, though it’s pretty primitive as you don’t actually get to see how your opponent performs, your only indicator is a vertical bar to the side of your gameplay that slowly ascends and descends red. if the red reaches top then you’ve defeated them but if it drops down and you hear a warning sound, they’ve sent garbage to your screen that you’ll need to clear out. overall you’ll probably just stick to the default mode, though I’m glad these other modes are here as well.

Tetris DX introduces something special to the game: COLOR!!! okay to be fair NES Tetris has color, the DOS version has color, all the later releases have color, but hey nothing wrong with some easier visualibility. it’s not just color though, there’s a cool new checkerboard background during your gameplay that moves around the whole time, and when you get a Tetris it briefly scrolls faster and changes into a hot pink! it's very satisfying to pull off a Tetris in this game and see that background zoom with the new Tetris jingle going "DELELE WHOOP"! the ending cutscenes that you get when you finish a game have also been changed up a bit. in the original they kept things simple by having a rocket launch with its size depending on how high your score was, but here they decided to have a bit of fun. the general idea is still the same, but now they’re launching out goofier things like a tiny toothpick rocket that chases after a bird, a regular sized rocket that transforms into a parachute, a giant champagne bottle that erupts and fizzles out, they even launch the Statue of Liberty while a brief snippet of “Korobeiniki” plays. even the original space shuttle from the Game Boy game appears but they fail to launch it and have to take it back for repair. if your score’s really good though, they successfully launch the shuttle into space as it drop out items back down to Earth, making the grandiose reveal that all those Tetrominoes that you control during your gameplay are being sent from that very shuttle, thus giving the game a proper backstory, this is the Tetris lore that we needed.

there’s also this neat Fireworks scene after completing the 40 Lines mode that means a bit to me personally. it’s nothing too amazing nowadays, but back when I first saw that cutscene during a late night at the park, I felt as if I won the lottery and earned myself a kajillion dollars, it really was a special occasion. lastly there’s these cool demos that showcase the GBC’s capabilities in-between the regular Tetris gameplay demos. there’s a couple of fish swimming underwater with some neat seaweed moving in the background, a screensaver reminiscent of the DVD logo with a bunch of rainbow triangles while the Nintendo logo briefly glimmers every once in a while, and lastly a chalkboard where a piece of chalk writes out “Nintendo GAMEBOY COLOR” in various colors, all while this track is playing at the back of them all. this is easily the best track in the game and it’s what childhoods are made out of. if you disagree with my statement, well of course I respect your opinion but you heard what I said.

the music is an interesting topic and quite a controversial one as all of the gameplay tracks from GB Tetris are not in this one and have been replaced with generic 8-bit music. I gotta say, that's really disappointing, and this is coming from the guy who grew up listening to the DX tracks. they're not bad tracks they're pretty alright as a matter of fact, they just don't scream out "Tetris" like Korobeiniki or the original B and C themes do. you just gotta have that Russian influence somewhere you know? A-Type sounds a bit underwhelming when it first starts but becomes more catchy the further it goes, B-Type has a bit of a more calming and upbeat melody to it, and C-Type has a bit of a groove going on, it kinda sounds like something I'd hear in a Donkey Kong Land game (yes C-Type is the best one). interesting to note is that the music of what Type you choose is replaced with more frantic versions the higher that your stack rises, so if you ever wanted an added sense of anxiety to Tetris, they got you covered. the rest of the tracks that are in the game are pretty neat too. the File theme is actually a slower remix of the Game Boy's High Score theme except without the second half. the Menu theme is only about 10 seconds long before it loops but it does a great job during those 10 seconds. the Game Over theme pretty much goes "OOPS you messed up, but there's always a next time!", it's goofy and not too discouraging. the Name Entry has a similar vibe to the File theme and shares almost an equal amount of nostalgia to me as the Intro theme. finally the last Ending theme where the shuttle successfully launches has a snippet of the intro before playing its own peaceful and soothing theme, that combined with the cutscene goes together to create the perfect ending for this game.

both Game Boy Tetris' mean a lot to me but DX has much more memories to me in particular. while I never properly owned the original and had to rely on a defunct website to get to try it, with DX I had an actual physical cartridge that I played on all the time before I inevitably lost it. it took me a good while to recover from this tragedy but eventually I would move on, especially after learning there's other and easier ways to play this game again. as for anyone who has yet to try this version in particular, I'd definitely recommend you check it out, especially if the Game Boy version is one of your favorites. if you're feeling discouraged about not being able to listen to the iconic theme, there's a hack that reimplements the full unused track back into the game (sorry to the B and C-Type bros there's no hack for those ones). of course you could always wait for it to get added to the Switch Online service, but I wouldn't count on it. I do hope we see Tetris DX get included in an update for the Game Boy NSO as there's enough differences from GB Tetris to justify it being included, also the more Tetris the better.

take a shot every time I've said GB or Game Boy in this review

it’s more Kirby’s Adventure, can’t go wrong with that

Nightmare in Dream Land has the unique distinction of being the only Kirby game where all of the Big 3 had some sort of involvement (Masahiro Sakurai being the Chief Director, Shinchi Shimomura being the regular Director, and Shinya Kumazaki being a part of the HAL Debug Team). unfortunately this would be the last time Shimomura would be involved with Kirby before disappearing off the face of the earth, a bit poetic that his final game would be a remake of the first game he helped out with.

being a remake of Adventure, there isn’t too much new stuff to talk about. the story’s about the same with Kirby going off to restore dreams by retrieving pieces of the Star Rod that King Dedede gave to all of his buddies. the gameplay’s been smoothed up a bit from Kirby’s Adventure as all of Kirby’s movement is performed snappier to be more in line with how he controls in Super Star. before I go into stuff I enjoy about the remake I’m going to get my nitpicks about it out of the way. the iconic drawing tutorial intro got removed, running down and jumping slopes doesn’t let you perform a cool long jump anymore, the rotating towers in Butter Building’s stages got replaced with stationary foggy rooms, Meta Knight no longer appears in the middle of stages to throw you an Invincible Candy, my boy Bounder got replaced with this dumb and stupid pig head with wings, and for some reason the main antagonist Nightmare Wizard is referred to as “the Nightmares”. I’m not sure why the dude’s referred to as plural (translators think he’s Venom!) which is especially odd since Kirby’s Adventure was more accurate by calling him “the Nightmare”. lastly this may be an unpopular opinion, but I feel as if most of the tracks in this game took kind of a hit from the transition from 8-bit to GBA. don’t get me wrong the GBA tracks are still that great Kirby goodness, but I feel as if this soundtrack was made for the NES. Yogurt Yard, the Arena theme, Nightmare Orb, and most of the map themes besides Orange Ocean’s are a noticeable downgrade compared to how they sounded in Kirby’s Adventure, at least in my ears.

oh yeah the American cover sucks! they just slapped a bunch of JPGs onto a black background and called it a day. Meta Knight takes up most of the space as if he was the main antagonist when in reality all he does is throw his followers at you every once in a while before getting clapped himself. on top of that, they slapped Fighter Kirby even though Fighter Kirby isn’t even in the game, Kirby ain’t fightin’!!! I mean yeah Backdrop Kirby looks identical with the red headband but the artwork on the cover is clearly from Kirby: Right Back at Ya and Backdrop was not in that anime. actual false advertising! now compare that to the Japanese box art, which has waaaay more effort and accuracy put into it. the Kirby artwork used actually comes from Nightmare in Dream Land! not only that, but the Star Rod and the Fountain of Dreams are featured prominently on this cover, telling you exactly what this game’s going to be about without words. also Kirby’s smiling in this one which means he’s actually enjoying his time, making this the objective better box art

but those are pretty much all of my nitpicks, since this is a remake of Kirby’s Adventure, it means I still think highly of this game. the updated engine means some rooms and Copy Abilities won’t turn the game into a Powerpoint slideshow, that alone makes it a preferred experience to go through this adventure. the new Sub-Games are also a welcome improvement from the ones in Adventure. Bomb Rally is a fun hot potato type of game where you’re constantly smacking bombs back and forth with other Kirbys until you’re either the last one standing or you explode because you didn’t tap the A button in 0.001 seconds. Kirby’s Air Grind is a racing game (possibly inspired by an upcoming Kirby game?!?!) where you’re grinding through rails on the Warp Star to reach the finish line before the others, as well as maintaining your speed when going over some rigged segments. Quick Draw is like the one from the original except instead of the Wild West you’re now in Feudal Japan! all you have to do is time your A button at the right moment to best your increasingly faster opponents in battle. the new tracks included in this game are probably the best ones in the game. The Meta-Knights now uses a remix of Kirby 64’s mid-boss theme, the Mid-Boss Tower plays King Dedede’s theme, and the battle at the end of Rainbow Resort uses a slower and more menacing remix of King Dedede’s theme (yeah there’s two versions of King Dedede’s theme and no I am not complaining). lastly the sprites and graphics received a big and neat overhaul. Kirby is a lot more expressive and all the sprites have much more detail and life to them. the backgrounds were completely redrawn and damn they look gorgeous! have a quick internet search and take a look at them yourself, they’re straight up professional paintings stuffed inside a GBA screen.

that’s pretty much all I have to say about this remake, so I suppose I’ll end this review by explaining why I even like Kirby to begin with. why exactly would I spend so much time writing all these long reviews about them and give myself a Kirby profile picture and username? well, they’re just fun. there’s a lot of pretty lengthy and difficulty games out there, and there’s nothing wrong with that. however sometimes you just want to wind back and play a short and sweet game to relax and ease yourself, that’s where Kirby comes in. at my ripe old age of young adult, Kirby is that perfect medicine that you take to have a relaxing experience and immerse yourself into this colorful and dreamlike wonderland with this wonderful upbeat music playing in the background. there’s no dramatic heart-wrenching and philosophical narratives out in the world of Planet Popstar (at least for the most part). over here, you’re just Kirby: eating, sleeping, and taking care of the current situation at hand so you can continue eating and sleeping. maybe these games aren’t the most challenging games around compared to the other big boys out there where you’d be grinding and losing lives all the time to whatever new challenges are thrown, but that’s okay. Sakurai’s vision was to create an accessible and fun game to introduce others into the world of video games, and I believe he succeeded with the Kirby titles he worked on. even then, you can still find challenge in Kirby if you want to put in the effort to complete the games 100%, as you’ll have to complete various puzzles with your Copy Abilities to gain access to optional collectibles as well as unlockable bonus levels and modes that’ll provide a more difficult experience for you to take. by doing this you’re not just going from Point A to Point B, you’re getting the chance to explore everything that each stage is able to provide to you. Kirby just has this comfy vibe that you don’t really see from a lot of other games, especially nowadays. Kirby’s formula hasn’t really changed in any major ways besides the recent transition from 2D to 3D, but like the old saying goes: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. the games may end up filtering a bunch of people that are seeking something more hardcore, but to those that have the motivation and interest to stick around and take in everything these games, characters, and worlds that they have to offer, you have a pretty damn excellent franchise that the creators genuinely pour their heart and soul into. I’ve been a fan of this franchise for at least a decade now, and that’s not stopping anytime soon as I trust I’ll be given a fun time with each new entry that gets released. as cheesy as it sounds, Kirby is that one franchise that’s shaped like a friend, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

that said it’s not League of Legends so these games suck

they can put him in a World, but first they have to put him on a Land

Super Mario Land feels like a Super Mario Bros. from another timeline, a lot of the staples you’d expect from a 2D Mario are either not here or done very differently. there’s no Mushroom Kingdom, Bowser isn’t here, and Mario is rescuing the princess of Sarasaland “Daisy” for a change of pace. I’m guessing there was a brief moment in time where Mario lost interest in Peach and instead sought out to gain Daisy’s affection instead and I don’t blame him Daisy’s waaaaay better haha

did I tell you how weird this game is? the Koopas explode after you jump on them, the Flower power up lets you throw bouncing bowling balls, there’s sentient moai head enemies, the villain is some purple alien dude who you fight in a horizontal shmup, the Star theme is the god damn CAN CAN, what the HELL were R&D1 taking when they were making this game and where can I get that stuff

Sarasaland kinda kicks ass when you think about it. not only is each Kingdom based on real life locations such as Bermuda and Easter Island, but each Kingdom is also associated with the four elements. Birabuto is Fire, Muda is Water, Easton is Earth, and Chai is Air. there’s a good chance that the element thing is unintentional but I don’t care, I still think that’s pretty cool. not revisiting Sarasaland feels like one of the biggest missed opportunities this franchise has taken, I feel like it couldn’t hurt for a new 2D Mario game to do just that. not only would we be able to visit more fleshed out versions of the Kingdoms, but maybe there’s another four Kingdoms that we might not have known about, expand the world building of this place that’d be neat. I don’t know, maybe there’s some Super Mario World hack that does just that and it’s slipped past my radar.

I used to think Super Mario Land was just “Mario but he take place in the desert!!!” but nah it’s more than that. there’s only twelve levels with three for each world, but I have to say they really did their best to make sure you’re getting a memorable experience out of this. somehow this goofy ass Game Boy launch title with simplistic graphics has more soul than a majority of the Mario games that are released nowadays, how did we get to this point? oh yeah the game’s fun btw. the ladders at the bonus stages are cool; they remind me of Donkey Kong.

I like Donkey Kong