I've completed all the mainline 3D zelda games now so I feel confident enough to say that nothing will really top the magic of the N64 games. That's not even the nostalgia talking; I only started playing zelda games like 2 years ago. OoT and MM ran so BotW and TotK could walk, but really it feels like apples and oranges with how vastly different the games are. I think this entry is worth praising, even at it's dumbest points. I don't think I'll return to this one anytime soon though; I'm burnt out.

One of the finer incremental games you can play, as it emphasized quality over quantity. Visually appealing as you get to actually see the gnorps move around and do the things you assign them to do, instead of just numbers going up or unmoving sprites. The real appeal of this game is the approaches that are available as you work through the skill tree. The Gnorp Apologue encourages experimentation and strategizing how to effectively damage that rock and collect those shards. Endgame gets busy but it's fun to watch.

Easily completed within a week, and the best part is you can always go back to get achievements and try a new "build". The Gnorp is your oyster!

Amazing use of the newfound motion sensors that would be found in early smartphones and the iPod touch. Builds on the original concept of Labyrinth with neat little gadgets like fans, cannons, bumpers, and few others. I remember there being a level editor and custom levels you could download, but the prepacked levels were solid enough for my money. It's a shame they never ended up expanding on this concept but I'm guessing the novelty of motion-controlled smartphone games wore off pretty quick. Still worth praising for execution and polish.

Had a perfect 3-star file until the booster courses came out, and now I'm living in 200cc hell. Base game is excellent and feels like the pinnacle of what a "Mario Kart" is about, but the booster courses are just a lot of more stuff. The worst additions are the Mario Kart Tour tracks, which are difficult to follow on the fly. 200cc is so fast it often feels more like a joke than an actual difficulty increase. CPUs often bump into walls and fall off the course due to uncontrollable momentum, it leads me to believe that it's to be expected.

Otherwise, this is a very good racing game for people who do not like racing games.

Easily the worst of the mainline 3D Zelda games. While it's visually appealing and introduces some interesting gameplay ideas, Skyward Sword is utterly flawed at it's core. The combat being based around motion controls makes for a clunky and tiring experience, and much of the main questline is poorly implemented. This ultimately detracts from the game's incredible dungeons and occasionally brilliant moments (sand sea sailing was a treat that I wish got more gameplay time).

Even with quality-of-life fixes and high-res graphics, the HD edition felt like a chore to complete. Unlike the prior Zelda games, I don't see myself ever returning to this game again.

When the battle royale (BR) craze hit the games industry with the success of Fortnite, it felt like there was going to be at least something for everyone to enjoy. Even the goofy premise of Tetris 99 was a hit for people that didn't care for shooter BR games. Of course, Activision wanted a slice of that success, so Call of Duty was fit for the BR treatment.

In many ways, Call of Duty feels like a natural choice for the BR game style. From a FPS that has amassed over a decade's worth of multiplayer deathmatches, it was probably a good idea to reinvent the game mode. I'll say that Call of Duty's gunplay has always felt pretty good to me. I enjoy running and gunning, testing my reflexes in dilapidated urban environments, exploring the map. By all accounts, Warzone was a fun way to play with friends in early 2020. You know why.

Unfortunately, I had to uninstall. The poor optimization combined with the sheer size of the game on my HDD made it difficult to justify keeping it around. It fun while it lasted.

Immense potential for it to be a great game if given more depth. Obviously, this was intended to be a simple collection of games that would showcase the potential of the Wii's motion controls, and it does this quite well. Once you've played each of the 5 sports, you've pretty well seen everything there is to see. It fares better as a family game, though bowling is the only true winner for that category. Wii Sports would be improved in every way with Wii Sports Resort, but this was still worth it's praise for the time being.

There's not much I can say that Matthewmatosis hasn't already said in his review. In brief:

1. The art style is beautiful and expressive. A welcome change to the Zelda series.
2. Exploration/Sailing is fun, though not nearly as rewarding as it ought to be.
3. Combat feels good. Further cements that the Z/L-targeting from N64 was Nintendo's finest moment in game design.
4. Certain gameplay elements range from clunky to frustrating. Many fixes can be found in the HD version for WiiU, but playing through on the original release could occasionally feel like a chore.
5. Even at it's worst, Wind Waker is an impressive entry into the 3D mainline Zelda series.

Having played Paper Mario prior, I was under the assumption that Paper Mario was babby's first RPG. I was wrong. Miitopia is the true babby's first RPG, perhaps to a fault.

You, the player, only have true agency over one of the party members. The rest of your party will auto-battle and do stupid things like eat an HP banana instead of waiting for the cleric to use a heal. However, the game is forgiving with the use of the safe spot, the sprinkles, healing when a relationship levels up mid-battle, etc. etc. You, the player, would have to be actively making poor decisions consistently in order to get really stuck.

A lot of the charm, then, is from having many silly miis populate the world with their somewhat flat personalities and silly little animations. This could be easily overlooked if it weren't for the incredible character customization that has produced some impeccably accurate miis, ranging from undertale characters to real-life drag queens. Miitopia gives you plenty of opportunities to give new characters new faces, but beware! Your party has 10 miis total that you'll be constantly traveling and fighting alongside, so make sure your party's miis are ones that you like.

It's a pretty charming and harmless game, and it even presents a fairly decent challenge in the post-game for those who wish to explore the strategic elements of the game further, but it's slightly stunted by a few odd gameplay quirks that make it difficult fully recommend.

Such a simple yet effective game. I love to see over these diorama-like miniature worlds, placing tiles to match other tiles. While some may find it a little too simple or boring, I find this to be comforting enough that I keep coming back to play more. My biggest complaint is that the classic mode requires adopting a certain playstyle in order to effectively plan out tile placements without screwing yourself over, which can be a bit frustrating at times. Otherwise, it's a fantastic go-at-your-own-pace game while you listen to your podcasts or watch something dumb on a second monitor.

Things learned while playing Cookie Clicker:

1. Patience is a virtue

In order to level all the buildings to level 10, you require 55 sugar lumps for each building. You get about one sugar lump each day, and while you're able to expedite the process through various ways, it still requires a heavy time sink. There is an achievement for each building that reaches level 10. This is the true core of Cookie Clicker's idling mechanic.

2. Do not fear the unknown

As a simple idle game, some players may be intimidated or overwhelmed by the accompanying mini games of Cookie Clicker, particularly the garden and the stock exchange. While they may seem like a slog at first, they eventually come to be a comforting constant of the gameplay. Buy low, sell high, mutate a few plants to unlock a new plant. Your efforts are rewarded with some pocket change and 10 sugar lumps for every time you complete the seed collection. Don't spend too much time avoiding them; the sooner you start the better.

3. Success is mostly luck-based

It helps to know what you're doing and to know what to expect, but for the most part you just have to hope for the stars to align in your favor. Golden cookie chains require careful planning and keeping an eye on a few key elements, but a lot of it boils down to waiting for the right combination to grace your screen. Those buildings ain't cheap.

4. You can still make progress while running in place

Once you've unlocked all the ascension upgrades and gotten deep into regular upgrades (we're talking cookie-upgrades only. No more building upgrades to buy), it's a pretty hard wall. Sure, you can keep ascending, but that interrupts your precious garden and the drive to get all those sugar lumps. Ultimately it becomes a test of will more than a test of skill: do you still want to keep playing? Is this still fun for you? Or do you prefer to yield more agency over your video games?

5. Cheated cookies taste awful

You know you can unlock all the achievements through a simple in-game console command, right? It's not that hard, I think a few of my steam friends have all of the achievements unlocked because of this.

Sure, the destination will look the same for everyone, but the journey will always be different. Think about where you wanted to stop, and why you started it all over again. Do the achievements give it meaning, or do we assign the meaning ourselves? If I were to do it all over again, would I do anything different? There's only one way to know for sure.